To imply that one can actually get tired of fireworks, one had clearly never met Ruby Rose before. The girl had been camping at the top of the balcony since the early morning, and had done everything she can to claim it, from bolting chairs to the floor, to bringing up an ice cream parlour by crane.
When anyone tried to object, they were meet by a tremendous smile, followed by a 20ft drop into a safety net.
Still, the effort was well worth it. Ruby had always heard how the Beacon fireworks show were legendary, but seeing it was another thing entirely. There were over a hundred of them, all of them different shapes, different styles and more extravagant than the last. Some sparked, some flash, while others danced for eternity.
It all ended in final big bang that lit up the sky from North to South, East to West, where not an inch was spared. Above them all, it glazed like the sun, and in a bang, it was gone. So even after the display ended and the crowd broke into deafening applause, the light from the firework still beamed from Ruby's star struck eyes.
"Oh my GOSH! That was the best show ever!" she squealed with absolute delight. "Did you see that last one? It completely beat the show at Vale central. I mean, the red and blue fireworks clashed a bit, but eeeeeeeeee, I can't for how they top this next year!"
Blake meanwhile was more or less happy to take the ear plugs out of her ears, while Weiss smiled politely, while hiding a piece of paper behind her back. Yang however had now fully geared herself up for the dance floor, though she suspected it would be easier said than done.
"Ok…" she started "so we heading to the-"
"WAIT!" halted an insistent Ruby, "there's still one more left to come!"
The elder sibling sank her head and groaned, all too familiar to her sister's obsession.
"Ruby" Blake intervened, "that last one just blinded the entire school. I doubt they're going to try and beat that."
"That's what they want you to think!" Ruby deduced. "That's how they do it, you see. Luring the audience into a false sense of security, and then when of them have left, they let it off, hogging all the lights for themselves, while cackling with laughter, while depriving children of what little joy they hand!"
"You're still mad about that missing that last firework when you were seven, aren't you?"
"It was so unfair!"
Ruby's childhood grief was quickly interrupted however, by what less experienced viewers would call a blazing Supernova in sky. Nevertheless, the sight was as spectacular, and the entire applauded once again.
"Wow…" Ruby gleamed. "Ok, lets wait for the second one that always comes after that!"
"Come along little sis" Yang said, as she grabbed her little sister by the hood, and though she tried several times to grab the railing, Ruby was dragged away crying and sobbing.
Fortunately for Ruby, the Beacon fairground was proving to be just as fun. Though the rollercoaster had a 35 main wait, the twister, the duck shot, the bumper cars, even the high striker all became very addictive. A testimony to that was Nora Valkyrie, who was now attempting her 89th try. It didn't go so well.
"THIS IS CHEATING" Nora declared, as she glared straight into the eyes of the attendant. "I hit harder than this thing. Hell, I've shot 10 tons weights into the sky this morning. YOU FRICKEN RIGGED THIS!"
"Sorry little lade" said the bald headed, middle aged, pompous man that ran the attraction, "several fine men came before, and they all achieved what you did not."
"HORSE ASS!" she raged, along with several other words that were not entire appropriate. Her teammates meanwhile stood solidly, yet cautiously behind her.
"Maybe we should calm her down" suggest Jaune, though as suggestions went, this wasn't his best.
"I wouldn't advise it," said the more experienced Ren. "Nora has habit of… sorting these things out."
"I know…" Jaune agreed, "but still, as leader of the team, I should led the best example possible!"
"Jaune, it's sweet," said the ever caring Pyrrha, "but I think this might be a little out of your league."
"Oh come on guys, it'll be fine," the blond retorted, as he dodged a flying basket that came from Nora's direction. Jaune stood himself up again, though his confidence was lee than intact.
"Well…" Ren thought out loud, "I still wish you the best of luck."
"Err, thanks…" replied the leader, and with particularly small steps, he edged towards what had now become a battlefield.
The previously confident attendant was now hiding behind a crate of rock candy, but it wasn't proving helpful in the least. Every chance he took to look over, several confectionary items came flying over his head, not to even let him speak a verb, let alone an apology.
Eventually, frustration overcame his judgement and he stood up high, ready to give out the yelling of a lifetime, only for Nora to hit him right between the eyes with a candy cane.
As the unfortunate attendant fell backwards into the dirt, Jaune moved closer and closer to his devilishly grinning compatriot. It seemed like an eternity when he start moving towards her, and yet he still couldn't think of anything to say. In the end, he decided to go with his gut, and ask as honestly as he can.
"Err," he murmured behind his teammate, "hey Nora…"
Immediately, the wide-eyed, and somewhat frightening ginger girl turned towards him.
"Oh hey Jaune!" Nora said reasonably enough, "want to help me hang him up by his shoe laces over there?"
"Well, about that…" Jaune started, carefully aware of the growing sense of impending dooming that stared right back at him. "I mean, we all know you're right, and he was in the wrong, and you could… break his legs several times over."
"Yeahuh" Nora nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, and that's great and all, but, is there, you know, another way you could win?"
A long and particularly tense silence soon followed. Not a word was spoken, not a gasp inhaled, but to the trained eye, Nora was definitely thinking about it. Her eyes went above, left, right, and back again, before looking straight back at Jaune.
"One second" she spoke, and in flash, she raced off to the droms.
Jaune gave an instant sigh of relief, but even to him, something about that escape didn't sit right.
The attendant meanwhile had gotten back on his feat, and despite the pounding bulge in the middle of his forehead, decided to pretend like nothing happened.
"Err, right!" he said, as he pulled on a top hat to hide his embarrassing wound, "Anyone else like to take a shot? How about you fine sir?"
"Well," grinned Cardin as he emerged from the background, "if anyone else can't do it, guess I'll have to."
"Err, Cardin," Jaune interrupted, "I don't think you should do that."
"Oh why?" he asked, as he walked towards the high striker, "You want to try and fail first?"
"No, I really think you should move away."
"How about you shut the hell up and- why are you lot looking up at the sky?"
Cardin finally got round to looking at his accusers, and in the process noticed the distinct lack of one of their teammates. Realising what was about to occur, he too looked upwards to the sky, and confronted by a flash of ginger, which was followed by a very large explosion.
Splitters and metal flew in all directions, while the bell itself was shot straight up into the stratosphere. From the dust cloud emerged a dark eyed and deadly Nora, Magnhild in one hand, and a threatening gesture in the other. The attendant final saw sense, and handover the largest stuffed bear he had.
As Nora skipped happily back to her teammates, Cardin emerged from the rubble. He tried to object but not before the bell crashed on his head, and knocked him back into unconsciousness yet again.
"I GOT A GIANT BEAR!" Nora sang as she jumped around Team JNPR. "I GOT A GIANT BEAR! I GOT A GIANT BEAR! I GOT A GIANT BEAR…"
It went on for quite awhile, in which that time, Jaune got a not so subtle nudge for the red head standing by him.
"So… You try to try the dance floor?" said smiled.
"Err, sure Ok." Jaune stuttered in return. "Hey Ren, are you and Nora…?"
"Oh yeah. Nora's going to be like this for an hour or so. You love birds have fun."
"Well, we're not technically…"
"Oh shut up and come dance with me," and with that, Jaune was whisked away by an always caring but also determined Pyrrha.
Team RWBY meanwhile was still crawling through a maze of stores and rides, much to Yangs' frustration, but nevertheless, the gang still enjoyed the fun, all except for Weiss. She had been trailing behind her friends for some time now, hoping not to be noticed as she contemplated the letter that was scrunched up in her hand.
"What I am going do?" she panicked inside her head. "I can't not respond. Could I say I have a test? No, he wouldn't care. I could say that I'm sick, but how long will that last? Will he even believe it? I can't just go, I-" WEISS!
The white haired girl was shot back into reality, with all three of her teammates starring right back at her.
"Weiss, you ok? You kind of spaced out there, like lost in space kind of way, like forbidden planet kind of way, like you were being attacked by horrible space pirate-"
"Ruby, I'm fine!" she declared, and at the snap of her fingers, transformed herself into the ice-queen.
"It's quite simple, if you lot ever bother to read the map. Where we should have gone left, we took a right by the banana stand, which sent us to the stores maze instead. To get to the dance floor, we need to head to the whack-a-mole, past the slide, under the que for the dodgems, which we will proceed to…"
It was at this point that she realised that none of them had heard a word she said.
"It's that way," she sighed and pointed, and a blur of red, black and yellow flashed past her. With that, she turned her attention back to the letter, which had suddenly disappeared into thin air.
Panicking, Weiss looked high and low, even crawling on her hands and knees in the vein hope that she simply dropped it, but to no avail. When she looked back up however, she saw the letter in front of her, clutched in the hands of Blake Belladonna.
"Looking for this?" she asked.
Weiss snatched it back immediately, with a snarl and a glare.
"Did you read this?!"
"No" Blake shrugged, "I just thought it was a bit silly to carry what's making you miserable right behind your back."
Admitting defeat, Weiss sank back into her depression, preferring to hide from reality.
"Please don't tell Ruby" she asked, "I don't want her to worry."
"Oh I won't, but you can't hide this forever."
"I can try. I'll lock it into safe and throw it into the ocean if I have to!"
"Maybe, or maybe you can let your friends help you out, like when you helped me to track down Cinder."
"Don't you trick me with your logic, and your facts!"
Blake chuckled in response, but gave her comrade on pat on the back anyway.
"Just don't keep it too long, ok? Ruby will notice eventually."
"Notice what?" asked a suspicious Red Riding Hood from behind. Weiss and Blake twisted to their leader in instant, completely failing to wear any convincing faces whatsoever.
"Oh, err… We were talking the lack of…" Weiss tried explain, only now realising that quick thinking wasn't one of her strong suits.
"FIREWORKS!" Blake shouted, "Yeah, we were wondering why there were only just a hundred and fifty of them, not a hundred and fifty six like they promised. Did you notice at all?"
"Don't remind me" Ruby immediately sulked, a great big cloud hovering over her head.
"No wait NO!" Weiss tried to save. "It was the lack of rides. That's what we meant" but it was too late. Ruby was now firmly stuck in the foetal position, recounting the names of all hundred and fifty six fireworks were at the last festival.
Yang finally walked into frame, giving a very unimpressed look at Blake and Weiss. She then crouched down to Ruby, and realising she had no choice; she had to use her triumph card.
"Okay then Ruby, if you want to stay on the floor then, I guess you won't be interested in our new international sanctioned mission then…"
Though past experiences had taught Ruby about being weary of Yang's persuasions, she nevertheless looked up anyway, and though behold, the magic white envelope lay straight in front her.
"The mission!" she squealed with glee as she snatched from Yang's hand. "Oh my gosh, our first international national mission! We aren't suppose to get this tomorrow!"
"Yeah…" wondered Blake, "how did you get a hold of it?"
"Oh," replied the grinning blond, "a women has her ways."
"OH MY GOD!" someone yelled from afar, "SOMEONE BROKE INTO THE ENVELOPE VAULT!"
"But that's the past. I say bring on the mission!"
Ruby had already beaten Yang to punch however, having ripped the envelope to shreds and was now reading its contents.
"Team RWBY, it is my honour to inform you and comrades have been approved for Beacon sponsored Grimm hunts in the four other Kingdoms. Your first mission, with the assistance of Team JNPR, will be to investigate Grimm attacks at the Dust mining plants in the Everden forest, AND hunt down any Grimm monsters you may find! AH, THIS IS AMAZING!"
"Yeah, Everden's all the way in Atlas too. I'm surprised that they'd send us that far."
"Wait, isn't the mine there owned by the Schnee…" Blake started to say, but as she turned to her right, she found Weiss completely and utterly petrified. Her hands were shaking, her forehead covered in sweat, and her eyes stared into nothing, with absolute fear.
"No…" she whispered. "No…"