Team JSON
Chapter 8
Players and Pieces
Weiss and Ruby are hanging onto a Nevermore for dear life. Ruby thought of the idea to use the Nevermore to help find the Forest Temple.
"Ruby!" Weiss yells, "I told you this was a terrible idea!"
"We're fine!" Ruby yells back, "Stop worrying!"
"I am so far beyond worrying!" Weiss calls back. "…In a good way?" Ruby said with a puzzled expression.
"In a bad way! In a very bad way!" Weiss yells back.
"Well why don't we just jump!?"
"What are you insane!?" Weiss askes when she looks back, Ruby is gone.
"Oh you insufferable little red-!"
"Guys did you hear that what should we do?" Yang says trying to get everyone's attention. "Uhhh...Yang." Jason said pointing up.
"HEEEADS UUUP!" Ruby screams as she falls towards the ground, suddenly a Jaune comes flying out of nowhere and slams into Ruby causing them both to crash into a tree.
"What the…?" Jason said.
Ruby sits up, dizzy with little dogs and stars floating above her head, "What was that?" she said, she shakes her head to clear he thoughts. "Ahem" Ruby looks up to see Jaune stuck upside down in the tree "Hey Ruby" he says in and embarrassed voice.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asks.
"I—" Yang is then interrupted by loud crashing as a Grimm crashes through the tree. A pink flash crosses its back then it falls over and dies while Nora on it's back yells "Yeehaw" as the Grimm falls over.
"Aw its broken." she says sadly as she jumps on the back of the dead Grimm to inspect it.
"Ewww." she says as Ren follows behind her out of breath.
"Nora?" Ren says as he pants heavily, "Please…" he said in between breaths, "don't ever do that again."
As he looks up Nora is no longer on top of the Grimm. He looks around and spots Nora inspecting a rook piece, "Ooooo." she says, she picks up the piece and starts to sing, "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!"
"NORA!" Ren shouts at her. She stops her goofy dance and smiles as she mock salutes Ren, "Hehehe, coming Ren!" she says as she speeds her way to him.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Jason asked.
"I—" she is interrupted again as a giant scorpion Grimm, called a Death Stalker, charges through the foliage chasing Pyrrha. It snaps its pincers at Pyrrha, she jumps just barely missing her as she runs to the group.
"Juane!" she shouts as she sees him hanging upside down on a tree.
"Pyrrha!" he shouts back.
"Woah" Ruby says
"Ruby!" he said arms outstretched trying to get her to help him.
Ruby jumps of the tree and tucks and rolls as she hits the ground.
"Ruby?" Yang and Jason both say in surprise.
"Jason, Yang!" she says as she as she prepares to high five them. She is interrupted when Nora appears out of nowhere and shouts, "Nora!"
Pyrrha runs in with a Death Stalker behind her, she jumps out of the way of a Death Stalker's pincer. She keeps running in cirlces around the group with the Death Stalker chasing her.
"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake asks as Yang twitches a bit.
Suddenly are more crashes and several trees are splintered as Samantha and Nathan come running in with a giant griffin Grimm that has the head of a eagle and the body of a lion on their tail. The Grimm is called a Griffin.
"I told you this was a bad idea!" Niko yelled at her.
"Shut up and run!" Sonya yelled as they ran in.
"Did those two just run in with a Griffin following them?" she asks no one in particular.
"Grrr!" Yang growls as her semblance flares and flames explode around her, "I can't take it anymore! Can everybody just chill for two seconds before something crazy happens again!?"
A timer ticks in the background as Nathan, Sonya, and Ren arrive out of breath. As Yang finally calms down, Ruby taps her to get her attention then points up and says, "Um…Yang?" everyone looks up to see Weiss still holding onto the Nevermore with the Griffin trying to eat her.
"How could you leave me!?" she yelled at Ruby as the Nevermore let out a screech.
"I said 'jump' Ruby said, "She's gonna fall." said Blake, "Ditto" added Olivia. "She'll be fine." Ruby reassured. "She's falling." Ren finally said as Weiss hurtled towards them.
At this moment, Jaune finally managed to get untangled from the branches and looks up to see Weiss fall. He smiles as he sees a chance to maybe get Weiss to like him. He jumps off the tree arms outstretched. He catches Weiss and says in a flirtatious voice, "Just dropping in?" he says.
Both of them then look down and sees they are still in open air. Juane looks up in a panic, "Oh God…" he says as he starts to fall again, "nooooo—".
They land with a loud crash with Jaune on the bottom and Weiss sitting on his back, "My hero." Weiss says sarcastically, "My back." Jaune groans.
"Ouch." Niko says as he watches. "At least she landed on something soft." Jason said. "No I mean 'ouch' for Jaune." Nathan replied
"Oh".
Pyrrha then lands in the midst of the group, getting thrown by the Death Stalker.
"Great the gangs all hear! Now we can all die together!" Yang says in mock enthusiasm.
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby says as she charges at the Death Stalker head on.
"Ruby wait!" Yang says trying to stop her.
Ruby charges the Death Stalker with her scythe unsheathes. Firing a shot from its barrel to propel her forward, she raises the scythe above her head and strikes at the Grimm. It bounces of the scorpions hard armor causing Ruby to stumble backwards.
"D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" she says unaware of the Death Stalker creeping up behind her.
"Ruby watch out behind you!" Jason yells. She turns around to see the Death Stalker within striking distance. She fires a ineffective shot at the Death Stalker and runs away, folding up her scythe.
"RUBY!" Yang shouts as she runs toward Ruby with Jason and Niko in pursiut. The Nevermore flaps its wings and shoots its razor sharp feathers at them. A single giant feather catches onto Ruby's cape. Niko pulls Yang back just in time before she gets impaled,
"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang yells, "Heads up!" Jason yells a few feet behind Yang. The Griffin, that was flying above with the Nevermore, swoops down and grabs Ruby by the hood and yanks her into the air.
"Crap!" Jason yells as he throws his shield at the Griffin hitting head on in the face, it lets out a roar of pain and lets go of Ruby. As she falls to the ground and tries to get back up, the Death Stalker gets ready to strikes at her
"RUBY!" Yang yells trying to reach out to her, just then a white blur passes by Yang, Jason and Nathan. Just before the stinger hits Ruby it is trapped in a bock of ice. When Ruby opens her eyes she sees Weiss standing in front of her, and the Death Stalker's tail frozen,
"You are so childish." Weiss says, "And dimwitted, and hyperactive. And don't even get me started on your fighting style." said. "And I suppose, I can be a bit…" Ruby flashes a nervous smile. "…difficult." Weiss said after a small pause, "But if we're going to do this", Weiss says as she bends down to be eye level with Ruby, "we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off I'll be…nicer." Weiss finishes.
"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know that I can do this." Ruby answers. "Your fine" Weiss says as she walks off. "Normal knees", Ruby whispers with her hands clasped together. She gets up and takes a look at Weiss's handiwork, "Woah" she says as she sees that the Grimm's entire tail was stuck in the ice as it struggled to break free.
Yang runs up to her and gives Ruby a bear hug. "So glad your okay" she says as she lets go of Ruby, Jason ruffles her hair, "Quite the scare you gave us." he said with a relieved smile, "Man, girl don't ever do that again." Niko said with a laugh.
Suddenly the Nevermore and Griffin both screech as they soars through the air, "Guys, that things circling back." Jaune says pointing a nervous finger at the two Grimm, "What are we going to do?"
"Look there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss says as she gestures to the relics with her head. "She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs." Ruby says as Weiss smiles at her partners sudden seriousness. "She's right," Jason says as he walks up behind her, "There's no point in fighting these things." he says as he gestures toward the Grimms.
"Run and live, that is an idea that I can get behind" Jaune says, Niko lets out a chuckle in response, "Come on lets get our artifacts."
The three of them approach the artifacts and grabs a random one. Ruby chose a white knight piece, Jaune chose a white Rook piece, and Nathan grabs a white Bishop piece. They all look at each other and grin.
Right at that moment, the Death Stalker let out a screech as the ice holding its tail starts to crack, "Time we left." Ren said. "Right lets go." Ruby said. Jason gives a nod and waves everyone forward. Yang lags behind and looks at Ruby "What is it?" Blake asks.
"Nothing" Yang said smiling as she watches Ruby urge the group on with her cape flapping in the wind.
Jason activates his bracer which clamps his shield to his hand and unsheathes his sword, "Come on, Let's go." he says as he runs of after Ruby with the others in tow.
The group of Huntsmen in training run up a hill covered in the remains of ancient ruins. Everyone with their weapons drawn chooses a pillar to hide behind with their partner.
The Nevermore and the Griffin both land on two broken towers and lets out a loud screech. "Well that's great." Yang complains. Behind them the Death Stalker breaks through the forest and charges at them, "Aw man run!" Jaune shouts as everyone advances up the hill. "Nora distract it," Ren says,
"Sonya you, too." Jason says to Sonya she runs of to distract the Grimm. She pulls out her two Revolvers Ebony and Ivory. Her eyes get brighter as she activates her semblance and takes two well placed shots at two weak spots on the Grimm.
She jumps back behind cover as the bird Grimm shoots its feathers at her, Nora runs by jumping over the feathers. When he lands she pulls out her grenade launcher and fires heart tipped explosives at the Grimm. It screeches in pain as it gets hit in the face by the grenade and two more shots from Sonya find its mark.
Nora keeps shooting as everyone runs forward. Just then the Death Stalker crawls up behind her and is about to strike but gets slashed by Ren, and Blake. Olivia jumps from the sky then using her chain daggers slashes the Grimm across the face. Weiss pops in and pulls Nora out of there with a glyph to boost her.
Pyrrha looks behind her to see Blake and Ren running from the Death Stalker.
"Go, go!" she yells at Jaune as she crouches to fire at the approaching Grimm. Jason stops too and also gives suppressing fire. Ren jumps back and fires of as well as the Grimm gets closer they jump away from its claws and continues to run following everyone else.
The Nevermore flies back and crashes through the bridge they were on sending people flying, Ren, Pyrrha and Blake landed on the surface on the other side while Jaune was blown back on the bridge with Ruby, Yang and the others.
Jason, Sonya, Olivia, and Niko ended up on a platform under the bridge.
As the Nevermore flies off Ruby fires shots at it. Jaune looks back at the others and sees them shooting the Death Stalker. Blake gets knocked back as Ren charges to attack it.
"Man, we've gotta get over there." he says, "They need help."
"Let's do this." Nora says with a mischievous grin. Jaune looks down at the large chasm, "Yeah but, um, I can't make that jump." he said. Nora chuckles and knocks him on his butt. She shifts her grenade launcher into a giant hammer. She slams the bridge with it sending Jaune flying overhead screaming, "No, no, no, no, no!" she then flips it over puts a foot on it and pulls the trigger, the blast sending her flying across the gap.
She does a flip and smashes her hammer on the Death Stalkers head. As she sees the stinger come down she quickly fires a shot that propels her away from the Grimm.
As she dodges backwards she slides and bumps in to Blake causing her to stumble and fall of the end of the bridge. As she falls she fires a shot from her pistol, it spins through the air and lodges itself in the cliff. With a ribbon connected to it, she then swings herself up toward the Nevermore. She slashes its face then lands on its back. As she runs down its back she slashes all the way down the Nevermore with her Gambol Shroud. She then jumps of its tail and lands on a pillar then jumps away.
She lands next to Yang and says, "It's tougher than it looks!"
"Then lets hit it with everything we've got." as she activates her shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica.
As the Nevermore flies towards them they already have their weapons ready for long ranged combat. Ruby turns her gun into scythe form so she can have a more accurate shot, Blake transforms her katana into her pistol, Weiss spins the wheel on her rapier, she then creates Dust beams and shoots them at the Nevermore along with her friends shooting it as well.
A few shots hit but doing no damage. The Nevermore charges and destroys the pillars they were standing on. They run on the debris and jump from rubble to rubble; Blake then jumps and runs up a pillar to a bridge on the top.
Yang uses her gauntlets to propel her upwards; Weiss summons a glyph and jumps off of it. Ruby fires her scythe and lands on a bridge shortly followed by Weiss, Yang lands and a bridge that was farther away and runs down it.
"None of this is working," Weiss says, Ruby looks around and sees Blake swing onto a bridge with her ribbon. She then looks at Yang who was firing shot after shot at the Nevermore. "I have a plan!" Ruby says, "Cover me!" as she jumps of the bridge using her scythe to propel her as Weiss readies her rapier.
Down on the platform under the broken bridge Jason and the others are trying and failing to fend of the Griffin. Niko jumps up and charges fire Dust into his gloves as he discharges the entire thing into the Grimm's face.
Sonya fires a few well-placed rounds that do no damage, as Olivia slashes at it from afar. Nathan charges his gloves full of Dust and launches it at the Griffin. Jason looks over this and thinks, 'The damn things hide is too thick for us our weapons to penetrate, damn it why does this Griffin have to be as big as a dragon!', he then throws his shield at the Griffin then fires of a few rounds into it. He runs jumps and slashes at the Grimm.
"Olivia, throw me!" he shouts. She nods then launches on of her chained blades at Jason. He grabs on and Olivia swings him into the air. As he soars upward he catches his shield then bashes the griffin in the face. As he falls he activates his semblance and lands on the platform cracking the rock around him.
He looks up, Damn it how do we take that thing down!?, he looks around at the people he is fighting with, he sees Sonya rush up to the Griffin he revolvers now were short swords, she slashes the Grimm causing it to real back in pain. Olivia launches her chain daggers at the Grimm, it lodges itself into the Grimm's torso. Olivia starts to retract her chains the chain straightens and tenses. She starts to reel in the Griffin. the Grimm screeches and flaps its wings. it starts to take off higher into the air.
It starts to drag Olivia across the ground.
The Death Stalker yanks out its stinger causing the bridge to crumble. "We gotta move." Jaune says to his Pyrrha, Ren and Nora as they take of running.
They charge the Grimm. It strikes down with its stingers. Pyrrha raises he shield just in time to block the attack, as she transforms her rifle back to her sword and takes a swipe at the Death Stalker. She hits it in the face causing it to roar in pain.
It turns to strike with its other claw Jaune blocks it. Pyrrha jumps over Jaune and knocks the blow away with her sword, behind them Ren runs up firing his guns. The Death Stalker strikes at him. He grabs on to the stinger as it reels back up. He clings to it and fires his gun into joint connecting the stinger to the tail loosening it.
Jaune and Pyrrha block another strike from the Grimm that causes then to slide back just in time for Nora to nail a few shots on the Grimm.
As they slide back Jaune falls over with a grunt, Pyrrha remains standing and turns her sword into her spear. She then uses one of Nora's launched grenades to propel her spear forward, embedding it in the eye on the Grimm.
It lets out a pain filled shriek. As it shakes around it throws Ren, who was still on the tail, into a pillar. "Ren!" Nora shouts as he hits the wall.
Jaune gets up with a moan, he looks up and sees the stinger hang loosely on the tail. "Pyrrha!" he says.
"Done." She answers as she hurls her shield at the stinger, slicing it of and causing it to impale itself in the Grimm's head, though not to deep. Her shield flies back on to her arm. "Nora, nail it!" he yells to her.
"Head up!" she tells Pyrrha as she lands on Pyrrha's shield who was raising it above her head. She then fires a grenade on to the shield to propel herself high into the air. As she flies up she lets out a small laugh. Then as she falls back down she fires a shot to make her go faster then slams the hammer onto the stinger causing it to impale the Grimm more killing it.
The impact send Jaune and Pyrrha flying with Jaune screaming on the way, and Pyrrha's sword flying back into her hand. She looks up with a wide smile then fires another shot to propelher onto the other side.
Jaune lands on his back, Nora lands on her butt, Pyrrha lands in a crouch, and a dazed Ren walks up to them panting then falls over in exhaustion.
As they got back up the, they look up to see the Nevermore still flying.
It approaches Yang who fires shot after shot at it. Yang then cocks the pump on her gauntlet then fires a shot that hits it directly in the face. The Nevermore screeches in pain, as it flies in around then charges Yang with its mouth open. Yang cocks her pump again then jumps onto the mouth of the Grimm with a loud yell.
She uses on hand to hold its mouth open and the other to fire shot after shot into it while yelling, "I! Hope! You're! Hung-ry!"She looks down and jumps onto a platform as the Grimm crashes into a cliff roaring.
Yang looks up and sees all of her friends in position and smiles. Weiss charges forward as Yang runs back to the group. As the Nevermore tries to fly of again she freezes its tail onto the ground. She then jumps back as the Grimm struggles to break free, but doesn't succeed.
She uses a glyph to jump back to the group. Blake launches her pistol which is tied to her ribbon to Yang who catches it and attaches it to a pillar and hanging on to give it support, as Blake wraps her end on the other pillar parallel to the one Yang is on, creating a giant slingshot.
Ruby jumps back using her scythe for a boost. She lands in the center of the ribbon. Weiss uses her glyphs to hold the makeshift slingshot string in place with Ruby on it.
"Of course only you would come up with this idea." Weiss says. "Think you can make the shot." Ruby asks.
"Hmph, can I?"
"Can y—?"
"Of course I can!"
Ruby looks back at her target with and narrows her eyes. She cocks her sniper then fires a shot as a boost just as the slingshot propels her forward. As she flies toward the Grimm she fires shot after shot as boosts. As she approaches the Grimm she hooks the blade part around the Grimms neck as she lands on the ledge near the cliff.
She looks up to see Weiss's glyphs on the side of the cliff. Using her speed she runs up the cliff with help from the glyphs. As she charges up she lets out a yell as she reaches the top and slices the Grimm's head clean of.
She then turns around and looks over the cliff at the others. "Wow." Jaune sighs quietly in awe.
"Niko help her!" Jason shouts.
"On it!"
Niko activates his semblance then he increases the size of his armor until he can manage to grab the Griffin and help Olivia.
"Sonya, lets go!"
Jason and Sonya dash towards Niko's giant armor. They scramble up him and onto the Grimm. "Niko, Olivia, let go!" Jason called
Niko let go of the Grimm, and Olivia unlodged her daggers from the Grimm. It took off into the air, Sonya stumble, "Whoa!" Her foot slipped and she tumbled off the Grimm.
"Sonya!" Jason yells as he looks over the edge, he sees Sonya fall, Niko, still in his giant form catches her before she hits the ground. "Don't worry got her!" Niko said. Jason breaths a sigh of relief. The Griffin takes off into the air Jason clung to the Grimm. it kept soaring higher and higher. Jason struggled to pull out his sword. he shimmied down next to the wing then swung down with all his might.
The wing went limp and the Griffin let out a screech of pain. Jason and the Grimm began to tumble to the ground he let go and activated his semblance. A giant green hand caught him before he could hit the ground. The Grimm tumbled past him and fell onto the platform. "Gotcha buddy." Niko said his giant armor smiled down at Jason. In his other hand was Olivia and Sonya. Niko jumped up, while still in giant form. He landed on the side of the cliff he placed down his teammates then he shrank back down to normal size and shut of his semblance.
"Nice catch." Sonya said, "Sorry about being a jerk earlier."
"Its fine." Niko said. "We make a good team." Olivia said.
Then they hear crumbling, they look over the cliff and sees the platform the Griffin is on start to crack and crumble. It collapsed and the Grimm tumbled down after the debris. it let out one final shriek before crashing into the bottom and being crushed by all the rocks.
"Well... that was that." Jason commented.
Beacon Auditorium
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark," Ozpin says as the boys he called walk on the stage. One has long, blue hair; the other has a Mohawk, a plump short one with orange hair, and a armored fellow with orange hair. "They four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forth you shall work together as… Team CRDNL (Cardinal)"
The crowd claps and cheers for the newly formed team.
"Lead by… Cardin Winchester." Ozpin says as he looks at the buff armored boy.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, the four of you retrieve the white rook pieces. From this day forth you shall work together as… Team JNPR (Juniper)." Ozpin says. Nora hugs Ren laughing happily. "Lead by…" Ozpin continues, "Jaune Arc!"
"Huh?" Jaune says in surprise, "L-Lead by?" he says in disbelief. "Congratulations, young man." Ozpin says to Jaune. Jaune gets a playful punch from Pyrrha which knocks him off balanced. He falls over onto his butt. Pyrrha looks on with an apologetic smile.
"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long, the four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forth you shall work together as… Team RWBY (Ruby). Lead by…Ruby Rose."
Ruby opens her mouth speechless, her sister pulls her into a bear hug and says, "I'm so proud of you!"
"And finally, Jason Gladius, Sonya Valdez, Olivia Qi, and Niko Kane, the four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day forth you shall work together as… Team JSON (Jason) lead by… Jason Gladius!"
"Wha- me?" Jason says in awe. "Hahaha! Yeah man!" Niko says as he ruffles Jason's spike hair, Olivia gives him a small smile, Samantha rolls her eyes and looks away also with a smile.
"Looks like things are shaping up to be and…interesting year." Ozpin says as the shattered moon on Remnant shines on in the sky.
Abandoned Warehouse
Roman Torchwick stands in front of a map of Remnant listening to his radio. He slams it down and groans. He lights a cigar as a masked man in a hood rolls a cart with a briefcase up to him. He turns around to face the man. The Roman pulls out some Lien and shows it to the man so he can see it isn't a fake. Roman tells the man, "Open it." The man opens the box to reveal a box full of Dust crystals, he picks one up and inspects it, "We're gonna need more men" he says. Then he turns back to the map with labels on it and a big red circle around Beacon Academy.
