Chapter 9- Welcome party.
As of this moment, Grimm invaded the Vale, nobody knows when they came but it was for certain because of a hole that emerged into the city when a train suddenly burst out of the ground with team RWBY on it and with that Grimm began pouring out and terrorizing the citizens, destroying buildings and wreaking havoc while the few huntsmen and huntresses that were around at that point were fighting as hard as they could to minimise the damage.
And in the middle of this mess, Claus and Wave were on their way back from visiting Anabelle at the hospital till they were stopped by the Grimm and are now in the midst of fighting to keep them from spreading panic any further.
There was a civilian trapped in a building with several Beowolves surrounding it, Claus leaped through the air to land a blow on the head of one of the Beowolves, then proceeded to grab its fur and throw it into the other Grimm and shot several blasts from his Tonfa's into the crowd in which they all evapourated.
The civilian walked out of the building slowly while darting his attention around to make sure there isn't any other Grimm around till he looked at Claus with a worried look.
"I-is it safe now?"
Claus just simply nodded then he looked over to Wave who was shooting arrows at any Grimm that tried to get close.
"Wave can I leave them to you?" He yelled, spotting a clear route he could take.
"Yeah, Sky and Ray should be here any moment now." Wave knew about the GPS he had taken and just hoped the girls caught onto the situation fast enough, now he was dodging the Grimm's attacks and adopting a hit and run strategy as Grimm go down one by one.
"I'm counting on you." Claus ran through the streets with the man, keeping a sharp eye out for any other Grimm.
He never thought he would be doing something like this, saving people like this since he joined the academy, he just wanted to quietly do what he was tasked to do throughout the years but that's not an option anymore since he feels like Sky's and Gort's actions have influenced his mind to take more action now, plus if he did nothing Sky would likely chew him out for it.
After a bit of running, Claus ran into some Atlas soldiers that were taking care of some small Grimm where there was a large mech with them providing fire support.
Claus felt his heart freeze as he approached them but soon calmed down when they approached him and civilian.
"You're a student, aren't you?" One of the soldiers asked, obviously more interested in Claus than the civilians.
"Y-yes, can you help him?" Claus ran over to the soldiers with the civilian following close behind.
"We'll get him to safety, as you need to too, this place isn't for kids." The soldier ordered, turning his back on Claus and making way with the man who thanked him before leaving, it was an odd interaction but now was not the time to think about it further.
He began running back till he was stopped as 3 Creeps dug out of the ground and focused their attention on him.
"Oh, come on, really?" Claus cursed, holding his weapon steady and charging forward to go for a straight hit on one of them, the Grimm just hopped out of his way and now had him surrounded in a quick moment.
The Creep behind him went for a tail whip but Claus noticed and waltzed out of the way of it's attack and landed a solid strike on the Grimm with the tonfa, letting loose an explosion, instantly evaporating the Grimm.
The other two Creeps leaped at Claus and he thought to be clever and stick one tonfa each into their gaping mouths and send a blast through them, while destroying them, heavily damaging his aura too but he didn't care as he carried on running, looking out for any signs of trouble until he arrived back to where Wave was and well… he was struggling but he managed to pair up with another huntsman, not knowing that it was Shun, Gort's son.
He fought the Grimm with a lance decorated with red feathers with bits of decoration along the shaft, dodging then striking Grimm with a quick but lethal thrust while Wave covered his back, slicing through Grimm with his weapon and even managing to grab a Beowolf by the skull and stabbing through what would be where the heart was.
But as they fought, more and more Grimm came to surround them.
Claus marched forward, jumping in the air and stomped down on an approaching Ursa, planting his weapon onto it's neck and releasing a blast although it wasn't enough to stop it as it grabbed Claus' leg and threw him into the area where the other two were.
"One way to make an entrance!" Wave grunted, currently locked in with 2 Beowolves but breaks free and cuts them down.
"Thanks, but let's begin the killing!" Claus had a smile on his face as he rushed forward knock away a Creep and then shot a rocket at some Beowolves running towards Wave and managing to separating them, Wave quickly changed to bow form and released 3 powerful arrows that ripped through the Grimm's body like it was nothing, taking out about 4 Beowolves and the 1 Ursa that Claus failed to kill.
"I'm guessing your teammate?" Shun looked back briefly before going back to focus on the Grimm in front.
"Yeah, where's your team anyway?" Wave asked, releasing more of his power arrows.
"Not far, I just noticed you were in a little trouble, so I split to help."
With the last line said, the last grimm in the area was taken down after a few quick slashes from Shun but there was no time to rest as everyone needed to go search for more Grimm or any people in trouble.
"I'm gonna go back now, I'm Shun of team STAR, nice to meet you." Shun turned his back on the team and ran to find his team, forgetting to stop to hear the names of those he helped.
"He sure, doesn't slow down." Claus said, looking around, checking that there isn't any other Grimm.
"We'll probably see him later, come on." Wave ran off in a direction between a couple of buildings with Claus running along behind.
"Ray come on, this way!" Sky slid into an alleyway, running down with her weapon in its shorter, sword form while Ray followed on closely from behind, panting heavily for she was not used to running so much.
Since the two landed in in Vale, they had been running for at least a mile now, making their way to Claus and Wave, Sky leading the charge, being able to pierce through multiple small Grimm with her lance without a problem but whenever she went into a smaller space, she always changed her weapon into the sword form where she slices through the Grimm in her way, leaving poor Ray without any to slaughter which she silently appreciates.
The two had been running in the areas with the least Grimm while also avoiding Atlas soldiers and machines as best they could, Sky wouldn't tell Ray why she doesn't like Atlas, not for now anyway while this situation is going on.
The two came out into a large open space, stopping to see a huge pile of Grimm of various types they had not seen or bigger versions of what they had seen, Ursa's, Beowolves, even some large snake ones that were named King Taijitu and lastly a lot of Creeps as they were fighting several students from the academy or the Atlas soldiers. Sky looked down at her scroll to see where Claus and Wave were and noticed they were pretty close.
"Sky! Is that you?" Claus yelled out from atop a building, kicking down a Beowolf, Wave stood next to him and leaped down, digging his weapon into an Ursa's head, then violently yanking it out, cutting down any nearby Grimm unfortunate enough to be around him.
"Yes! We got work to do" The engineer, got her weapon into lance form and glared at the advancing Grimm with a confident smile.
"Hold on… I stil-"
"Let's go slowpoke!"
Sky didn't listen to the exhausted Ray as she charged ahead, slicing through a line of Creeps, cocking a round into her rifle chamber, stabbing into an Ursa and firing a large hole through it's body, grabbing onto it's falling body and does some athletics while swinging her weapon around, striking at the Beowolves and creeps that were surrounding her and finished on a stance to show off with her weapon across her back as she stood triumphant on the downed Ursa and looked at Ray with a smile and gave a wink to annoy her before going for the other Grimm, using her acrobatics and lance to make quick work of the Grimm.
Ray eventually got her breath back and brought out her weapon, Golden Carousel, splitting the weapon in half and took a few steps forward, allowing herself to be surrounded by Creeps and in response she begins singing, a voice that resembles angels coming down to give their aid as her semblance gives off the mirage to the Grimm of light figures of Ray flying through the air, leaving all of them nothing but confused and dazzled by the light along with them seeming to move much more slowly. Along with the singing to back it up all the while the smaller Grimm begin to evaporate away while Ray quickly finishes off the larger ones with quick and smooth slashes, showing her elegance, a form to even make the best huntsman and huntresses to take note of her as she finishes off a large number of Grimm just as her song ends, clasping her hands together at her chest with a smile, looking at the spectacle of what she made.
"Thank you for listening~"
As the Grimm are being contained and fought off in a concentration with RWBY, SCRW, JNPR (Although only Sky and Ray met Pyrrha out of the team properly during the earlier shower scene), Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were out setting the Grimm ablaze and now were getting their numbers down now that the Grimm were not coming out of the tunnels.
Now Atlas airships were closing in on the area, sending down their troops to tackle the Grimm and providing air fire support, while Sky didn't enjoy them being around, she at least appreciated them killing the Grimm.
Now a smaller airship hovered overhead and down came another team, a girl with brown rabbit ears, the other girl with a beret and a spikes case with some nice-looking sunglasses, a guy with red short but wavy hair and lastly a guy who seemed even taller than Wave with a huge sword that's only just shorter than him, they spread out swiftly dealing with more Grimm.
Wave leaped through the air with a spiked Ursa Major in his hand and smashed it into the ground taking out a few Grimm around him and came up by the large huntsman with the sword, they didn't say a word together as with their strength together, they destroyed the ground around them by slamming their weapons into the ground, creating a large shock, catching the Grimm in it.
Sky stopped to look at the new teams weapons, while the swords didn't interest her, the sunglasses girl's case and the rabbit Faunus' case interested her by far the most as they seemed to be conserving it for some odd reason until the sunglasses woman approached a large Beowolf and beat it down with the case without much effort before transforming it into a large minigun and shooting the it and the deathstalker behind it into pieces, wowing Sky to where her eyes could literally shine like freshly polished diamonds, thinking after this situation unfolds, she has to go talk to this team.
Now was not the time however…
Glynda stomped through the streets, taking out the Grimm that dared to go near her with her wand and grabbed Sky by the back of her shirt and dragged her along, knowing she can use her semblance to help plug up the hole.
"You're going to assist me." She snarled, Sky tried to resist not wanting to rip the new clothes she only just got from Ray but quickly gave up.
"Hold on, how?!"
"We're going to plug up that hole."
Glynda let go and pointed her wand at the hole and the rubble around her started moving towards the hole, Sky put her hands together and analysed the hole quickly, using her semblance to illuminate any rocks that Glynda wasn't touching.
"Assemble!" She yelled out and the rocks swiftly moved with Glynda's, while they were a little heavy, it was nothing compared to what happened in the valley, now with the hole being completely plugged up so no more Grimm could get in.
Sky sat down on the floor, holding her weapon in her shoulder and let out a sigh.
"We have quite similar semblances don't you think?" The engineer cracked a smile, looking up at the professor.
"Quite… yes."
"Sky we are- when did you change?" Wave approached her and was taken away by her new outfit, not knowing where to look, trying to hide a slight blush.
"You like it?" She wore a cheeky grin, she could see his reaction and wanted to press on to see how Wave reacts.
Wave took another look and tried to calm himself down but subconsciously kept trying to look away which was just amusing to Sky.
"So?"
"Y-yeah… it looks good."
"Thank you, I'm gonna try on a few outfits for awhile so you better give me your opinions, yes?" Sky leaned forwards, trying to get a closer look at him, standing up with a curious look, noticing Wave's embarrassed face as he looks away, he clearly wasn't good when it comes to girls asking for opinions on their looks.
"y-yeah…okay."
"I'll be counting on you!"
With the incident dealt with and the teams being sent back to Beacon, Sky already ran off to find the team with the minigun user while Ray was sat with Pyrrha in the library, studying together about weapon maintenance.
"Hey, why do people with weapons with wood have to often treat them with oils and stuff?" Ray asked, curling her lip to fit her pen between her nose and top lip while looking in a book.
"It's so they don't get mould on them or absorb the aroma's that are around them, it makes them give off quite an unpleasant smell." Pyrrha didn't look up from her notes, comparing multiple books together.
"Thanks."
"So, did you watch Jaune in the fight earlier?" The spartan girl asked, reminding Ray of the conversation in the shower room where Ray was talking to Sky about JNPR and how weak Jaune was in the team.
Ray jumped upon remembering it and was reluctant to answer but slowly got there.
"He killed that Ursa… right?"
"All by himself"
"He really has improved I guess?"
"Is he still as weak as you said he is?" Pyrrha was making the situation uncomfortable now for Ray, pressing on her questions, sliding her eyes up from her books without changing her expressions.
"N-no he has improved like you said, also what's with that look?" Ray was more bothered about being looked down upon by Pyrrha, mainly because she was more popular than her and Ray felt like Pyrrha was using that to get stand above her which wasn't the case, but this was Ray's basic misunderstanding.
"It's nothing, I just don't like anyone talking down about my team members after all."
"Yeah sure it was a one-time thing, we all gossip you know? I'm learning how to be more considerate now for others for both my image and also for someone's." Ray admits, distracting herself from her notes.
"Glad to hear."
A man with green wavy hair and wore a red scarf and a blue tunic walked into the library, the one who met Ray back when the incident at the valley happened, he seemed to recognise her and walked over and sat over with her and Pyrrha, Ray looked unamused as he came over as she saw him as one of those "player" types.
"Yo, we meet again and oh my you're studying with the famous Nikos? How lucky."
"What do you want?" Ray spoke with a monotone voice, focusing back on the book and taking notes silently.
"Come on don't be harsh now, you don't even know my name." The guy persisted.
"Then say it." The Idol remaining cold.
"It's Tungsten Trifas at your service."
"I guess it will be worth listening him out." Pyrrha said, putting her books down.
Ray felt defeated, placing the book down and looked up at Tungsten to know what he's gonna say.
"I just wanted to see how your mission went considering what happened last time." He said with a cheeky grin, but he seemed actually concerned for Ray.
"I guess you could say it went fine, we solved a mystery and finally was able to activate my aura." The idol said with a confident smile like she won first prize in a competition although that statement didn't stop Tungsten from cracking a chuckle that flipped Ray's switch, now glaring at him.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing much, I just never thought there was someone who didn't know how to activate their aura was here at this academy." Tungsten chuckled a little more.
Ray, feeling mocked, stood from her seat and was about to go tell him one until Pyrrha put her hand over her mouth and spoke instead.
"Not everyone at this academy comes with the same amount of training and may not have had to rely on their aura till then so please try to keep your comments to yourself thank you."
Tungsten didn't have a comeback but instead turned his back to the girls and before he left.
"I didn't expect to get lectured again today, anyway glad you're fine, let's talk again at a better time, maybe we have dinner together." He dropped a card by the girl's tables and took his leave, leaving the library in silence.
Ray removed Pyrrha's hand and sat down on her chair, giving off one large annoyed sigh and looked at the card with Tungsten's contact info on it.
"Again?" Ray recalled the words the man said before taking his leave.
"Don't pay attention to him, there are always bound to be people like him in the academy, don't let it bother you."
"Yeah… whatever." Ray took the card anyway, thinking it may be useful later, she checked her scroll to see if anyone messaged her, noticing a message from Sky, assuming she's finished with chatting up that team until…
When she opened the message, it was a photo of Sky tied up in several pieces of rope, strapped to a chair and the message below reading.
"Come pick up your mail at your door."
Ray yelped out loud upon reading the message, almost panicking but gets scowled at by the other people in the library for being too loud and now looks down embarrassed with Pyrrha looking over at the scroll with a concerned look.
"You should… really go check on her."
"Thanks… I will… let's study later okay?"
"Sure, I'm here all afternoon."
Ray packed up her things into her bag and quickly hurried back to her dorm to find Sky in the middle of the room, still tied up in the multiple ropes with what seems to be Wave behind her, trying to undo the ropes, the Idol couldn't do much but just stare in surprise in how Sky even got into this situation.
"So…"
"Don't ask I'll explain while you help get me out of this and please… close the door." Sky said, her face was bright red.
Before Ray went to help Sky, she took out her phone with a smirk and started taking photos to remember this moment for years ago while Sky yelled at her to not take photos and to stop.
Now after a few fun photos that will never be forgotten later, Ray helped Wave with undoing the knots.
"Who tied these, they are so hard…"
"You're telling me." Wave agreed with Ray as even he struggled.
"Well Coco did them while I was held down against my will by that big guy." Sky began with the second part sounding misleading, making Ray leap up in surprise, the engineer realising what she just said and went as red as a strawberry.
"Not like that! Like-"
Sky was interrupted when the door opened with Claus walking in, currently stunned at what he is seeing and pauses for a moment before taking a quick photo without saying anything.
"Nooooo!" Sky was on the verge of tears from the humiliation she was facing, feeling like she could just die right now or if possible, erase everyone's scrolls and memories.
"Get explaining then." Claus said, stood waiting.
"At least help!" Ray called out, trying not to be too loud for Wave's sake.
"You know…" Claus pulled out a knife from his pockets and cut up the ropes, letting the captive Sky free as she leaped from her chair throwing her arms in the air, waltzing over to look at her team before finally falling back on herself, finally doing her explanation, not looking at anyone in the eye since she is embarrassed to admit.
"Sooo… I was looking at Coco's weapon as I was most interested in how such a big weapon fitted in that little case so I wanted to break it down and look inside it… she didn't like the idea of me doing that so I went onto Velvet's case cause I wanted to know how that went, I didn't really listen that well cause I was too invested in looking at how their weapons worked until I accidentally hit the Velvet, the rabbit Faunus in the face with one of my tools, Coco went wild and umm… I ended up just like this." Sky said, tilting her head to the side and smiled nervously while everyone else gave her the face of "How is that not surprising?"
"Well you got what was coming to you…" Wave broke the silence, rubbing his neck.
"Can't let you out of our sight…" Ray sat back on her bed, almost disappointed in her leader.
"Oh, come on guys, Claus?" Sky looked at him for a little something uplifting, but he just turned his head to ignore her.
"Guys…"
Sky got to her knees feeling brutally betrayed by her teammates, she could cry at this moment but managed to hold the tears back, well just barely.
I apologise for the super long delay, I moved house recently and well had no internet for the past 2 weeks so I couldn't do anything as I became a caveman, this is the second to last chapter of SCRW so let's do this at full pace and excitement!
For updates in future if anything happens, follow our page Tiger Wolf on facebook, see ya next week!