Disclaimer: Not mine, these characters are.
Just One Date
Volume 3
By athrunzala
Chapter 3: One Night, Part 1
Dawn brought the departure of Team JNPR from the village. As they left, they were pointed in the direction they would need to travel. They left the village behind, the buildings slowly fading away to the distance. They entered the foothills of the neighboring mountains and noticed a small shack. Inside was the remaining information that they would need to handle their target.
However, as they approached, they could tell that it would be pointless to enter. The roof on the structure had collapsed, taking the upper portion of the supporting walls with it. Despite all that, they were able to tell that this was caused by a Grim. And it seemed to be from two very familiar types. Whether both were still roaming, or only one, remained to be seen.
They ended up following a series of tracks to a rough opening in a mine, which appeared to have been abandoned long ago. Noticing a similar set of markings on the timbers at the entrance, they decided to enter, and immediately set about searching for the target Grim. Part way down one of the larger shafts, they encountered their prey: a seemingly oversized Ursa.
Having lived a long time, this one was more heavily armored than the usual ones that they had seen around Beacon. This meant that they were in for a tough fight. Unless they could get the beast to rear up, there was going to be almost no way to kill it. Sizing up the situation, they decided that using fire arms was a bad idea. So they limited themselves to melee combat.
They slowly moved forward, unnoticed until Nora managed to accidentally kick a rock with her foot, sending it skittering across the floor. The sound echoing off the walls, amplified by the lack of noise deadening objects. But it was not the sound that alerted their quarry. Instead, it was the rock, which, by some strange twist of fate, managed to end its travel with a solid thunk against the bony armor on the beast's head.
Rushed into consciousness, the colossal bear rushed at the quartet. They lept away in varying directions, and then began their assault on the behemoth. Jaune, having had experience fighting them, began to rush it, in the hopes that it would take to its hind legs, a decision that he would soon regret. Instead, the Ursa swatted him aside with one of its front legs. The blonde sailed through the air and slammed into the wall. He fell to the ground, but quickly recovered and got to his feet, just in time to see Nora make a fatal mistake.
In a total deviation from their plan, she had chosen to put Magnhild into its Grenade Launcher mode and fired a single shot. The blast did its job, sending the creature reeling on its hind legs, allowing Jaune and Pyrrha to effectively hit the vital weak spots. But it had the secondary effect of the sound triggering a fault in the ceiling, bringing it crashing down around them, splitting the team in two.
On one side, and capable of an easy exit, were Ren and Nora. On the other, with the quickly disappearing corpse of the Ursa, were Jaune and Pyrrha. Ren shot his partner a glare and she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, her hand recoiling as a stinging sensation shot across her skull.
She pulled her hand away and brought it in front of her face. On her fingers, and partially staining her gloves, was a red, sticky fluid.
"Woo…"
Nora's vocalization made Ren turn around as it was not done in a tone of curiosity, as was usual for the woman, but one of dizziness. He made it to her just as she began to stumble. Unsure as to if his voice could even reach the other half of his team, he shouted back to the wall of rubble.
"I'll be back! Nora's hurt! I'll bring help!"
He then picked his partner up and they made their way to the entrance of the mine shaft and the blinding sunlight beyond.
Back in the mine, and on the other side of the barricade, Jaune and Pyrrha were lying on the ground. As smaller pebbles skittered down from the subsiding tremors, they managed to bounce off the rocks and the heads of the two unconscious individuals. After 30 minutes, they began to wake. Jaune was slower to get up than Pyrrha, the latter's extensive combat experience allowing her to regain her senses slightly faster.
"Jaune?"
"Alright… Who hit me?"
The blonde was shaking his head to try and refocus his eyesight, as well as stem the forming headache. As he stopped, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he noticed the wall of rock in front of him. Then he remembered what had happened.
"Nora…."
His sigh was not without reason, as she had been the one that caused the situation that they were in.
"Jaune, I know that you want to talk to her, but she's not here. Neither is Ren."
The swordsman shakily took to his feet, and stumbled over to the rocks. He looked up towards the ceiling, and noticed that they went all the way up to the top. They were trapped.
"You're sure they aren't here?"
Pyrrha nodded, and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"We need to take stock of what we have."
She removed her hand and went to where their four backpacks had been placed when they had first entered the chamber. In them were four sleeping bags, a tent, several flares, basic medical supplies, and about 3 weeks of survival rations. The red-head lit one of the flares to provide better illumination, showering the room in a bright, white light that momentarily blinded both of them.
As their eyesight adjusted once more, it became abundantly clear that they were definitely trapped. The rubble wall did, indeed, extend all the way up to the top of the chamber. Mixed in with the rock were splintered and broken timbers of varying lengths. They proceeded to retrieve these carefully, as so not to cause further cave-ins.
"Looks like we're going to be here for a while."
"Yes, Jaune. It does." Pyrrha's voice wavered slightly.
Jaune noticed this, as he had become slightly less dense than he used to be.
"Pyrrha," he said, moving to where she stood, looking at the wall of rock and wood. "They're fine. I don't know how I know it, but I just do."
"I'm sure you're right, Jaune. I just worry about them as friends."
The blonde moved to his girlfriend and pulled her into a hug. A maneuver that she didn't refuse, but welcomed.
"Come on," he said, releasing her. "Let's get things situated. We don't want to be trying to do any of that while exhausted."
The two began moving around their new "residence", making sure that everything was in the right spot.
Back outside, Ren and Nora were limping towards the village. They were spotted outside the village by the local pharmacist, who rushed out to help them back in and to the local doctor.
"Son, you two are lucky. You weren't mauled by that thing, were you?"
Ren looked at their assistant.
"No. We killed it. But we are going to need to go back there. The other two who were with us are trapped."
The doctor's eyes widened as he realized where they had gone.
"Just you wait a minute. There is no way that you're going back there. Not with this young woman in the state she's in. And from your breathing, you aren't fit to fight anything. Call your main office. Have them send another group out."
"But they're our team mates!"
The pharmacist smiled. "I know. And don't you worry. I just don't want you rushing in recklessly. You'll both be fit to move by next week. For now, just take it easy and rest."
Ren reluctantly sat on the bed he was shown to, and the physician removed his shirt, having produced a tray of bandages and ointments. Nora, meanwhile, had her head bandaged and was reclining in the adjacent bed.
"Will she be alright?"
The older man chuckled slightly.
"She'll be fine. Small cut. A few bumps and bruises. She'll live. The cut bled like it did because of the lack of tissue. You, on the other hand, will need to take it easy. No high stress ANYTHING for about three days."
"Can I make the call now, though?"
"To your office? Of course."
Ren nodded, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his scroll. Immediately he dialed the number for the direct line to Ozpin's office.
On campus, Ozpin hung up the phone.
"It looks as though we are going to need to send some help. Who do we have that is free?"
Oobleck keyed in the request to the away server. Within moments, it returned two results.
"We have Team CFVY, and Team RWBY. However, I must advise against sending the members of Team CFVY out so soon after their return. I would advise actually sending…"
"Don't worry. I wasn't going to. I'll be letting the members of Team RWBY know that they are deploying first thing in the morning."
To be continued…
A.n/ - So this is chapter 3. It was longer before, but I decided to end it early as to prevent me from writing a 16 page chapter.