(AN: The day I am publishing this is during Finals Week for my classes, so please bear with me. I plan on finishing the events of Season 1 in a few days, but I do need some time to get started on Season 2.
Also should I make a discord server? For discussions on RWBY, fanfiction stuff, as well as other shows and fandoms as well. Leave your thoughts in the reviews.)
I woke up with a pounding head and flashing lights in my eyes. "Holy...fuck..." I groaned and sat up. Once the vision no longer had its haziness, I could see that I was lying in my bed, in my dorm room. Nearby, Liya was sitting at her desk doing homework.
"Hi..." I groaned as I rubbed my eyes and looked around. The room didn't look too bright since the curtain was drawn in halfway, but the clock was too far away from me to see the time properly. "What time is it?"
"It's almost lunch," Liya said casually as she scribbled down the next answers to her assignment. "Hell of a night?"
"Ow...yeah," I groaned in agony and awkwardly as I rubbed my head. "I remember dancing...and drinking strawberry something...uhh, fruit drinks. Where's Yang?"
"Getting yelled at by her team for being irresponsible. I oughta yell at you too," Liya said as she looked at me. I whimpered nervously, and Liya sighed. "But I won't because you're already in pain and you act weird when drunk and passed out."
"...what did I do?" I asked nervously.
"Ask Ruby. She has pictures," Liya said. "Anyways, you should go see Yang."
"Uhh, OK," I said as I got up. Immediately, I felt my balance take a corkscrew and I slammed into the floor. "Ow..."
"Ugh..." Liya grumbled as she lugged me to my feet. "Wash up first."
I didn't even feel embarrassed as she stripped me entirely from my wrinkled clothes, all I could think about was last night. My breath tasted like strawberry, and I felt my heartbeat pick up just a bit just from that. All I could remember without it being hazy was loud music, lips pressed against lips, and beautiful lilac eyes.
"Oh boy..." I hiccuped before I was shoved into the tub, luckily landing not too hard. But my relief gave way to horror as I heard the showerhead start to spurt. As freezing cold water struck me like the shower of pins and needles, I yowled and flailed for several seconds before the water eventually got warmer.
"Oh Gods, you are like an actual cat, it's so weird," Liya sighed, and I looked away nervously.
"Sorry..." I mumbled.
"Don't worry, it's entertainment for me," Liya said, smiling a bit. "You have to tell me what happened. Cuz I got a call a half hour before curfew from some gangster looking person about you and Blondie making a mess on his floors. Weiss and I had to drag you two to the landing pads before we missed it and got stranded in Vale for the night."
I felt my Faunus ears wilt in shame. "I didn't mean to cause so much trouble..." I said quietly and regretfully.
"That's why I'm paying you back now. Now get washed up and eat something before you throw up again," Liya said kindly before leaving. Getting up, I felt my strength come back to me. I wasn't sure how hangovers were supposed to feel, but everyone I talked to about it said they lasted hours. I guess having an aura helped with recovery for a bit.
I got out, changing into another set of clothes before heading out. I felt a lot clearer and I really needed to eat something. Unfortunately my trip to the cafeteria would be interrupted by Cardin who was leaving his own dorm.
"Oh, hey man," Cardin said in a mocking jovial tone. "Didn't see you at all yesterday."
"Went out," I said, not in the mood to deal with his antics right now. "Hope you've been doing alright?"
"I'm about to," Cardin said, cracking his knuckles. Was he really stupid enough to attack me in the middle of the hallway? I never got my answer when a gloved hand grabbed me and yoinked me away from Cardin.
"Yang, you get back here right now! You must carry out your punishment for causing us so much trouble!" Weiss's voice screeched from the other side of the hallway.
"Blah blah blah, I can't hear you!" Yang called, and I realized Yang had inadvertently saved me from Cardin's knuckle sandwiches. "Ugh, ice queen can't let me catch a break, nagged me while I was trying to get my head to stop screaming at me."
"Liya threw me in the tub and showered me with cold water while I screamed," I said as I finally kept pace with Yang, letting her release my grip on me.
"Oh, that was you?" Yang said, and I blushed. Laughing, Yang patted me on the shoulder before falling silent. "So..."
"About last night," I said. Yang wilted, and I sighed. "I enjoyed it."
"You did?" Yang asked.
"Yeah. I mean, that was the first date I had, but...it was pretty fun. I wouldn't mind going on another with you...if you want," I said.
"Uhh, are you asking me out again?" Yang asked teasingly, and I blushed nervously. "Still, I enjoyed it too. Wouldn't mind going out again."
She looked over at me. "And besides, I wanna see those punks try to hit on me now that they know I'm attached to you by the hip." I grinned and the two of us laughed lightly before leaving the dorm, heading to the cafeteria.
We ate and talked, mostly about what to do after eating. Yang had completed her homework and I was still needing to get that done by tomorrow when the next week would start. When I asked about team JNPR, Yang's mood fell. With Jaune constantly being pulled away by Cardin, the rest of the team was suffering badly. I didn't know if Cardin was only picking on Jaune and being ignorant of the consequences, or if this was his way of bullying the entire team.
"Ren and Nora have been training with Pyrrha, but Pyrrha's performance is kinda dropping without Jaune," Yang said as she dumped her empty tray, me following her actions as we leaned on the wall. "And Pytrha said that Jaune comes back with more homework than the rest of the team combined."
"Looks like CRDL's been making Jaune their lackey," I growled. "Son of a bitch, now I'm sure we gotta do something about this." I wasn't lying either. Waiting for Jaune to stand up for himself at the Emerald Forest field trip next week was actual agony, and the date last night now seemed like a distraction in the grand scheme of things. But I wasn't sure if the rest of team JNPR could handle all this anymore.
"Me too...but what?" Yang asked. Seconds later, her eyes lit up and she grinned brightly. "We should totally spar against CRDL."
"Uhh, when?" I asked.
"Soon. I know for a fact that CRDL is gonna train later today. More or less to show off than actually train," Yang said. "Plus we haven't really seen you fight. Might as well show what you can do against other people."
I gulped. I had a powerful weapon, but I was still working on my aura. Plus my weapon was much harder to use against people. Liya proved this when she countered the creativity of my armament with the sheer speed that she had when attacking with such a large weapon.
"Think I should call Liya over?" I asked as I stretched my arms.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, bring her. She already wiped the floor with that Sky guy in combat training last week, it'll definitely help," Yang said.
I remembered that moment too. It was glorious.
"So it's a plan. Any idea when CRDL is gonna be training?" I asked. Yang was about to answer when the two of us heard laughing and jeering behind us. All of team CRDL was shoving Jaune past an open door to the cafeteria. All were in their combat gear and holding their weapons, except for Jaune.
"Guess that's our answer," Yang said, before clenching her fists. "C'mon. Let's go." She pulled me along to the door, where CRDL and Jaune were about to turn the corner. "Hey, dickheads!"
Cardin turned to see the two of us and laughed, as did the rest of his team. Jaune looked on in worry. "Hey. What do you want?" he said.
"We wanna fight," Yang said. "Two of us against the four of you."
"Hmmm...nah," Cardin said, the rest of his team watching with stupid grins on their face, and Jaune with a very panicked expression. "We have our own plans."
"Oh yeah, a 1 vs 4 is so much better than a 2 vs 4 match," Yang jeered. "Of course you'd pick the easier option."
"What's wrong?" I asked, getting confident with Yang alongside me as well. "Can't handle fighting a girl and a freak?"
Cardin growled, and Yang smirked. Jaune cleared his throat and spoke up. "Y-you don't have to-" he said before Cardin roughly shoved him in the shoulder, silencing him. "Fine! Ten minutes at the arena! Better show up!" he said before storming off, the others following behind.
"Phew!" Yang said as she dusted off her hands. "We're in business. We kick their asses, grab Jaune, and our problems are solved."
"Not sure it'll be that smooth, but yeah. Also...I forgot to mention Liya," I said.
"Oh. Eh, We'll manage. Come on, let's grab our stuff," Yang said. As we headed to the lockers to get our weapons, I immediately recalled how much of a fighter she was.
We came to the training arena a few minutes after stopping by the locker rooms, and we saw team CRDL waiting for us. Jaune sat in the sidelines, looking very nervous. "So, you actually showed up," Cardin sneered. "Nice to know you aren't wusses."
"Yeah, we've been itching for an actual fight lately," Russel said in his obnoxious voice. Flipping his daggers, I could see the rest of them grab their weapons and ready up. I only saw CRDL fight as a team once in the series, and it was all of CRDL against Pyrrha Nikos. And while Pyrrha wiped the floor with them, they were by no means incompetent. Cardin had an incredible amount of aura, not as much as Jaune but enough to take some of Pyrrha's deadly and precise strikes against him. Plus that mace of his was nasty. The flanged weapon was pretty deadly, even if it was slow. One hit would knock me out of commission, and that wasn't even dealing with the Dust he kept inside the mace. The CRDL vs. Pyrrha episode showed him creating large explosions and a path of several smaller explosions. I guess my best option is to disarm him or just stay in the air as often as I can.
Sky had range and unpredictability on his side, and if I recall from one of the books, his halberd also had a large gun built into it. Russel had speed and agility, and his daggers looked pretty nasty. I hadn't seen him use those Dust cylinders in the handles, but I was unsure if I wanted to find out. Dove was the most basic; a sword with a handgun mechanism built into the hilt. Dealing with him could potentially be the easiest, but I wasn't going to underestimate him, or anyone else on the team.
"Alright," Yang said, before arming Ember Celica. I don't remember how many times I watched her activate her weapons, but always seeing them unfold and lock into combat mode was always so cool.
"You get the goons, I got Cardin," Yang said, and she dashed into battle before I could even say "What". She immediately locked blows with Cardin as the other three ran for me. Immediately, I countered their charge by backing up and forming a shield with the Dust in my belt, specifically a riot shield that flew forward and slammed into Russel as Dove and Sky charged me from different directions.
Say what you want about the bullies, but they were extremely skilled. Not only was I struggling to keep up with Sky's polearm thrusts, Dove's strikes were heavy enough that he was actively breaking any barriers I tried to put up.
"C'mere!" Dove growled as he lunged, the sword aimed at my stomach. I managed to turn and dodge the sword by a millimeter before getting elbowed with the sword arm as he barreled into me. Rolling back, I countered with a massive wall that pushed Dove and Sky back.
However, Russel came flying over the wall and swinging the dagger. I could barely keep up the wall as he slashed and swung at me, pushing forward while I was forced to dodge and back up at the same time. Nearby, I could see Yang beating on Cardin, dodging mace blows and landing shotgun punches on her target. Nearby Jaune was watching intently, likely taking mental notes on what he was seeing. When he saw me watching, he quickly flashed me a nervous thumbs up.
Unfortunately Russel found his opening as I looked at Jaune, and I received the bashing of his dagger handle against my head. My aura flared and I tumbled to the ground, bringing up another wall to bear as Dove and Sky broke through my last one.
While they were fighting very well, they weren't coordinating at all. They were pushing each other out of the way to actively try and hit me. The only way I could get attacked with some sense of teamwork was if they were on opposite sides facing me.
And that was pretty simple to exploit. All that training during classes and with Liya at night began to pay off. Ducking from Dove's swing, I sent a pillar of Dust to launch a charging Russel into the ceiling as hard as I could muster. I didn't even register the sound of smashing and the new patch of sunlight in the middle of the arena as I locked blades with Sky's halberd with a kukri I formed with the Dust.
It was getting harder and harder to actually counter hit after hit, with a few blows smashing against my aura. I didn't know where Russel was but with Yang easily keeping up with Cardin's strength in the back, I could afford to not worry about ambushes for now. Jumping up, I pulled out as much Dust as I could to make a storm of spikes to rain down on Dove and Sky as a way to buy time for myself to think of another means of splitting their attacks. I didn't have time to check my scroll so I didn't know how low my aura was, but I could tell it wasn't going to be very long until I was out.
Dove and Sky shrugged off the spike storm after a minute of blocking and aura flickering left and right. I was whittling down their aura and they knew it. They seemed to be more aggressive now, more desperate. Keeping my distance was getting harder, catching up to me whenever I jumped back.
"Yang!" I called as I dodged another sword blow before throwing a Dust fist at Dove, sending him flying. A few more hits and it'll be Sky left. "What's taking so long on your end?"
"I'm taking my time!" Yang called back, and I could see Cardin was getting tired, having to move fast constantly to keep pace with Yang's speed and flurry of blows. Around them were small craters and torn up floors, likely from Cardin's mace. Sky charged at me and I nearly took the beak of his halberd to my neck. Barely stepping back, I managed to grab the weapon and lock myself in a struggle against Sky for it.
Dove was attacking me from behind, and I managed to swing around and block with Sky's weapon before dropping his sword and going for my neck. Panicking, I brought up the Dust and wrapped it around Dove's armor like a second skin; before pulling him away towards Cardin.
"Damn, I gotta be faster with that..." I mumbled as I kicked Sky across the gut and swung his weapon against his face, the butt of the pole slamming and knocking him out.
"OK, where's...Dove..." I muttered before seeing Dove lying in a small crater between Yang and Cardin. Cardin's mace lay on his stomach as the swordsman groaned, and I immediately put together what I'd unintentionally done. "Uhh...sorry?" I said.
Yang took the time to swing, slamming her fists against Cardin's arm and another punch straight to Cardin's noggin, sending him sprawling back as the last of his aura finally shattered. "Phew!" Yang said, seeing Sky on the ground. "You didn't do too bad."
"Uhh, I barely got out with my aura intact. I still have a lot to learn," I admitted awkwardly before seeing a dumbstruck Jaune in the sidelines. "Yo, Vomit Boy, you OK?" Yang called as we walked towards him.
"I'm OK...I was just...Yang, look out!" Jaune cried, and I turned around before Yang could. Cardin was about to swing at Yang's exposed back like the sore loser he was. And despite that, it was evident that Yang wasn't going to raise her aura in time. "Yang!" I called.
Before Yang could move, Cardin suddenly swung the other way. His mace flew out of his hands as Cardin was yanked back and onto the floor. "Did he hit some invisible wall?" I thought before seeing the tired Dove, and a barely waking up Sky looking behind me. Turning around, I could see Liya in her school uniform with her hand outstretched.
"You OK?" my partner called. Yang nodded as Cardin slowly got up. He was promptly sent sprawling back on the ground as he received a relatively violent kick to the face, knocking him out cold.
"Take him and get the fuck out," Yang growled, and the two bullies grabbed their team leader and left, not bothering to pick him up and promptly dragging him across the floor. "Yo, what was that?" Yang asked Liya as she walked up.
"My semblance. Momentum Redirection," Liya explained. "It's pretty self explanatory, I can change the direction of something I see as long as it's moving. I can't decrease or increase speed or force, and I can't use it on living things so..."
"You used it on his mace," I finished, and Liya nodded. That was quite the handy ability, I was almost jealous. Then again, my semblance hadn't come in yet so maybe I could get something even cooler.
"Hey, Jaune," Yang said. "You OK?"
"Why did you come after me? What if Cardin and his team beat you up?" Jaune asked quietly. He didn't seem very upset in any way, just confused.
"Because we got sick of seeing you getting picked on," Yang said. "Not lying, it hurt a lot when we had to keep holding back when you asked. Plus don't worry about Cardin and his team. He was good, but not as good as me. Or Markus."
"But, he'll-" Jaune said before I finally spoke up, deciding to half-ass my reply. "That secret? Yeah, I heard it. Cardin wasn't exactly quiet about rubbing your secret in your face and around his team."
"Secret? Wait, he was blackmailing you?" Yang asked a panicked Jaune. "Huh, now that explains a lot now, Vomit Boy."
"Well, I should definitely hope so," I said. "And I doubt Ozpin would let you go so easily because of it."
Liya and Yang looked at me, confused. Jaune just frowned and looked down. "I'm not telling. But Jaune, you need to tell the others," I said. "It'll only get worse if you keep it to yourself."
Jaune sighed as he scratched his head. "I guess you all deserve to know..." he said reluctantly. "I'll tell team RWBY and you all tonight."
I smiled. "And after that, we could start training together. You have a lot to catch up on," I said, Yang next to me shaking her head at being left out of the conversation. "As for Cardin...I'm not sure he'll let this go so easily. But you have us."
"Yeah. We're all friends here," Yang said, grinning. "You got that? You can come to us for help anytime."
Jaune smiled awkwardly, but genuinely as he shifted on his feet. "Thanks, you guys..." he said. Luckily for me, he didn't sound close to tears; just relieved. The last thing I wanted was to cause someone's crying.
"Now that this is all done," a voice said. "Can someone please explain to me what exactly happened?"
The four of us turned to see Professor Goodwitch standing at the door. "I was on my way to a very important faculty meeting when I saw Mister Thrush fly out of this building and into a tree nearby a few minutes ago. I would like to know what the reason for all this is."
Liya awkwardly coughed. "Yeah, that's how I knew to get over here as well," she added.
"Well?" Goodwitch asked as Yang and I sweated nervously, knowing the torn up arena and ceiling would likely not do us any favors no matter what we said.
As I thought all about the upcoming detentions Goodwitch was about to hit us with, I wondered what I should draw next for my story. Soldier armor, or city backgrounds?