Author's Note: This chapter has been ready for a while, don't really know why it took so long for me to post it...
Team NPSA found themselves scattered about the arena in various levels of beaten and bruised. Afterall, what was a group of students going to do head-to-head against the headmaster of their academy? So while other students were going out on missions, these four were spending their first mission at school. The days leading up to this event could never have prepared them for this.
Team NPSA mobilized at the front door of the ballroom as they pursued Headmaster Ozpin. Ever since Ignis lost access to his special research avenues, the team realized they were going to have to broach their questions with the man himself. So now seemed as good a time as any. So they walked outside addressing their plan of attack.
"So how are we gonna do this?" Prompto asked as he put his camera back in its bag.
"We want to be tactful about how we approach this. As much as we would like to believe that Ozpin will have all the answers to our questions, one must assume that he could be as in the dark about everything as we are about it," Ignis replied.
Noctis shook his head and said, "He has to have some idea. So we present it as an independent study type of thing."
"We followed the pieces and came to this conclusion and wanted to know what he thinks?" Gladiolus suggested. "Clearly something happened out on the continent because there were people out there as recently as 15 years ago."
"Oh that is good," Noctis agreed.
They all paused as they looked around and realized that they lost track of Ozpin for a brief moment before they found him staring at the shattered moon.
"Hey, headmaster?" Noctis asked aloud, getting the man's attention.
"Oh, greetings young man," Ozpin said as he turned to them, pulled away from his thoughts. "What are my wayward visitors doing away from the ballroom? Clearly some of you have been enjoying it." His knowing look falling on Noctis in particular.
"We have been," Noctis replied. "But we wanted to ask you something."
"Beacon is a place of knowledge, I will answer your questions to the best of my ability," Ozpin replied sagely.
Noctis nodded and said, "So we've been doing some independent study. We have noticed time and again that there has been record of towns out on the dragon-shaped continent. We were wondering if you knew anything about that because it hasn't really been covered in Oobleck's history lessons?"
Ozpin looked at them and said, "Really? What have you found out so far, if you don't mind my asking?"
"The little we can find is about three smaller towns that were either destroyed or evacuated, to be honest the record is rather murky," Ignis replied.
"Perhaps, I could shed some light on this subject," Ozpin commented. "If you would indulge me in another question."
"Go ahead," Prompto said.
Ozpin's smile turned ever so slightly more serious as he asked, "So how long do you plan on playing dumb about your reason for asking me?"
"How long have you known?" Gladiolus asked.
Ozpin turned from them and said, "The moment you entered my sight at the police station Gladiolus. I am the headmaster of one of the four largest academies for training huntsmen. Monster slayers, investigators, bounty hunters, and in some cases government officials. You seem to underestimate what it is that you'll eventually be able to become in this line of work."
"I'm pretty sure we haven't," Noctis replied seriously. "What do you know about the fall of the Kingdom of Insomnia?"
Ozpin looked at the four of them in turn and said, "Follow me to my office, I think it would be best to have this conversation behind closed doors." So the team followed the headmaster back to the central tower and rode it all the way up to Ozpin's office. He took a seat behind his desk and offered the boys a seat.
"So, the descendants of Insomnia have made their way to my school. I suppose the first question is… why?" Ozpin mused.
"We want to take back what's ours," Prompto said.
"I see," Ozpin said leaning on his table. "So I am privy to certain pieces of information. However, I am afraid a lot of it is of a sensitive nature. However, perhaps I give you a taste and then we discuss how we go forth from there."
"Better be good," Gladiolus commented.
Ozpin pulled up screens on his table and seemed to flip to a particular picture before he paused and said, "Perhaps an olive branch. We may have an 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' situation on our hands." He then moved away from the picture before letting his workspace return to normal. "When I was in discussion with the king of Insomnia, one Regis Lucis Caelum, I became aware of a man who's interest became aligned with an enemy of mine. I never learned his name, however I know that he was last seen among the ranks of the enemy with a large crystal."
"So what do we do to get more information?" Noctis asked.
Ozpin smiled and said, "I will offer you a challenge first and foremost. If you are successful in my challenge then all the information I have will be yours. But if you fail, then I will require your assistance in, shall we call it, a trade?"
"For what?" Ignis asked.
"I will require your assistance in connecting with someone from your homeland. A powerful and capable warrior by the name of Cor the Immortal," Ozpin replied.
"And if we refuse?" Gladiolus replied.
Ozpin shrugged and said, "I cannot and will not force you to do anything, young man. I simply wish to make progress with a show of good faith. If you would like, you may even take my challenge and still refuse to offer the trade should you lose."
"What challenge?" Ignis finally asked.
Ozpin nodded and said, "A show of battle prowess, instead of heading away from the academy, you will spend your first mission with me and your job would be simple. Defeat me in a battle. All you have to do is lower my Aura below acceptable levels for the Vytal Festival bouts."
"We'll think about it," Noctis replied curtly. Ozpin nodded and gestured for them to take their leave. As they left, his desk lit up as a call came in, but before he spoke, the doors had closed and the elevator descended.
The four of them were quiet as they rode down the tower until they arrived at the ground floor. Stepping outside, they found themselves passing by guards and after a moment, they saw a tall man in a professional military suit walk by with an entourage of military men. They scattered out of his way and as they closed back together as troops passed, Ignis hummed in thought.
"General Ironwood of Atlas. He must have come ahead of his students," Ignis mused out loud.
"Ironwood huh?" Gladiolus remarked. "Seems more put together than our own headmaster, that's for sure."
"Speaking of Ozpin," Noctis commented. "We're being set up right?"
"Absolutely," Prompto replied.
"But why?" Gladiolus commented.
Noctis turned to walk away and said, "You know how Cor is, Gladio. All our lives he never had you come to him, he always came to find you. If Ozpin is looking for him and can't find him, Cor doesn't want to be found."
"His instincts are paramount to how he earned his moniker, that's for certain," Ignis commented. "Then no matter what, even if we accept the challenge, our search for information will not result in us giving up Cor, clearly there is something about Ozpin he must not trust."
"How'd Ozpin even learn about him?" Prompto asked.
"Probably from his Huntsman and Huntress who were assigned to saving our people during the evac," Gladio said. "Does this mean that Qrow and Summer are 'in' on it?"
"It does speak volumes that Summer did trust the man," Ignis admitted. "She was too much of a do-gooder to let herself be brought in by an actually bad person."
Prompto shook his head and said, "Ah, why are adults so complicated?"
"They have years to practice," Gladiolus said with a rough tone. The team left the tower behind and headed back to the ballroom to socialize for the rest of the night and process their path forward. Noctis noted that he did not see Ruby for the rest of the night. While he was sure it was nothing to fret about, he could not help the slight sliver of doubt that wormed its way into the back of his mind.
Two days later, the students of Atlas followed their headmaster to Vale. While interesting, it was not particularly noteworthy at first. Today though, one day after their arrival, a student from Atlas began the day by saying that they were going to knock one of Vale's 'perfect record holding' students off their pedestal in combat training class. The class was crowded as members of all the schools were curious about who would be so brave and who was their expected victim. Pyrrha Nikos was renowned across the entire world as a champion fighter and it seemed like one would have to be a fool to declare themselves destined to win against the Invincible Girl. Otherwise, Weiss Schnee would make a great trophy for a win record, if you thought yourself good enough to face off against a wielder of a quietly legendary semblance. Even a half decent fighter could make great work happen with such a power and Weiss was more than decent. Currently she was perfect and that was intimidating.
So imagine his surprise, when Ignis found himself walking into the arena that day at an anonymous challenge from an Atlesian student. Ignis was relatively nobody in the grand scheme of things, yet here he was standing on par with the likes of Pyrrha and Weiss. Stood above promising talents like Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie. Practically out of reach of the two year skipping student Ruby or the mysteriously zen Lie Ren. Outstanding people did not just appear out of nowhere without reputation, except for Ignis Scripture. As he stepped into the arena with a stoic face he looked around to find his opponent. It seemed they had not arrived yet. So Ignis took off his coat and tossed it up to Prompto as he proceeded to finish stretching.
"Ladies and Gentlemen may I introduce you to…" a voice suddenly announced outrageously. Everybody looked around curiously before a tall student in a beige trench coat and a black bandana leapt up onto a bench. "Snow Villiers!" He finished his announcement as he leapt down the arena bleachers until he performed a big frontflip and landed in the arena with a slam of his fist and a big boastful battlecry. It was impressive and completely unnecessary. "Today I will work my way up the Vale eco-system by tearing down Ignis Scripture and moving up to his superiors!" This got a measured amount of applause from the Altas students and scattered responses. For the students coming from Vacuo, they were digging the vibe. For the students from Mistral, it was a bit much but interesting. But for the students from Vale this was a direct affront against their school body.
Ignis took his glasses off and began wiping them with a small cloth he fetched from his back pocket. His opponent was clearly confident and his size was noticeable, likely about as tall as Gladio if he had to hazard a guess. But his stoic expression remained as he simply observed his opponent. This Snow character seemed to not be holding any weapons, likely some kind of brawler. His outfit was flashy, so he was definitely an egotist of some kind. Ignis decided this would be a good time to begin the psychological undermining of his opponent. Step one, give him no reaction.
"You ready for this Ignis?" Snow challenged out loud while still showboating for the audience. Ignis finished wiping his glasses and placed them back on his face carefully. But his gaze afterwards immediately drifted to Glynda and her conversation partner, one James Ironwood. "Uh, hello?" Snow tried again.
Up in the audience Gladio let out a dry chuckle which earned him looks from Yang and Ruby. He looked over at them and said, "Specs has already started the fight."
"How?" Ruby asked.
Prompto leaned forward, sticking his head between the two sisters and said, "Well, his opponent loves attention, Iggy is denying him the one thing he wants most, acknowledgement. Iggy loves playing mind games when it comes to fights."
Weiss nodded as she remembered their spar. Ignis could read opponents like a book, just like he did for her. "This Snow-character singled out Iggy because he assumed he was the weakest of our top three," she commented. "If I had to be honest. I think Iggy is a strong contender for the strongest of us."
Pyrrha nodded and said, "I agree. He makes fighting look so easy when he's in the ring, especially in one-on-ones. I see him as the one person in our grade with the best chance of beating me. No offense intended, Weiss."
"Please, I did not attempt to recruit you on our first day because I thought you would be an easy fight," Weiss replied. Noctis, Gladiolus, and Prompto were all surprised by how reasonable her response was to Pyrrha's comment.
Glynda Goodwitch walked into the center of the ring where Snow was continuing to deflate as Ignis paid him no mind. As the various students became more familiar with the strict teacher, many became silent but many of the new arrivals continued talking. A sudden crack of the riding crop silenced them all.
"Welcome Atlas to combat training," Glynda announced looking at the large concentration of students. "Welcome Snow, thank you for so immediately volunteering for fighting one of our top ranked first years. Thank you Ignis for your maturity and patience. Now, I am sure you are all familiar with the rules, but just to summarize…"
Snow watched Ignis hang onto the teacher's every word, he still had not looked at him a second time since his arrival. And the teens immediately around Ignis's teammates who heard what Ignis was doing, watched as Snow seemed to become antsy. This even earned a couple of heavily stifled laughs.
Blake leaned over to Weiss and quietly said, "Do you think the bravado was Snow's attempt to demoralize Ignis?"
""I think so, the second he realized it wasn't working his confidence was shaken," Weiss replied. The two of them watched him squirm until Glynda Goodwitch's explanation was finished.
As Glynda turned to go toward the edge of the arena, Ignis finally looked at Snow again. He made no move to immediately arm himself with his daggers but instead simply stared for a hard moment, before finally giving a brief shrug and finally deigning to draw his weapons.
"Snow was it?" Ignis asked.
Snow puffed up a little at the acknowledgement and replied, "In the flesh."
"Never heard of you," Ignis replied as he took a combat ready stance. This got quite the laugh from his gallery as Snow deflated for a moment.
Snow lightly slapped the sides of his own face and bounced on his feet before he said, "I'll change that. Get ready for a beating you won't soon forget."
"So what's your plan exactly, I will be sure to look out for it," Ignis said with an even tone.
Snow gave a big, toothy grin as he readied his fists and said, "Heroes don't need plans!"
Ruby nearly jumped up from her seat in outrage as the word, "What?" escaped her lips. Blake looked over at her leader and with a sign placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"Calm down, Ruby," Blake said gently. "I'm sure Ignis will change his mind." Ruby crossed her arms defiantly. Blake really took in how much Snow's remark had bugged her leader, so she decided to file the note away for later.
"In 3," Glynda began. "2, 1… Begin!"
"Steelguard!" Snow suddenly shouted and Ignis watched his opponent's aura flare up. Snow charged head on and swung his fist. Ignis noted how strangely slow Snow's swing was and leaned out of the way. Ignis shifted to a new position as Snow tried to perform a follow-up with his other hand. A similar level of strangely slow. Deciding to investigate, Ignis let Libra trace the power back to its owner and Ignis began to feel his arms become more dense. Ignis let the power go as Snow began an immediate follow-up. Why would he use such a power? Ignis ducked under another slow punch. Ignis lashed out with his dagger and Snow's free arm intercepted it. At first, Ignis was certain that he had been simply repelled by his opponent's aura, until he realized that he had instead made contact with his opponent's arm and had simply stopped.
Ignis noted that this must have been a result of the increased density of his opponent's arms from his semblance. By making them denser, he could simply store his aura within and save himself some aura loss and then just ignore that damage that should have otherwise been incoming. It was a sound strategy in theory, but it didn't mean anything if he could not realistically fight back. Ignis leapt back from a slightly faster swing. His opponent pursued him and his fists began flying faster. Ignis reached out with Libra again as he struggled to keep up with the sudden increase in speed of his opponents attacks. His arms felt lighter and Ignis realized that his opponent could adjust the density of his arms at will. What was the trick to this?
Ignis failed to get out of the way of a particularly fast haymaker and felt himself fall backwards, barely keeping his feet under himself. If his opponent could still hit him this hard with his arms in a less dense state, then the speed must be a side effect of the change. Ignis put his arms up to block another attack he could not dodge and came to realize his opponent's game. His semblance did not change force, this was Snow's natural strength and hitting power. When he increased the density of his arms, he moved slower, but the increased density could protect him. When his arms were less dense, his movement would become faster in order to keep the same force. Which meant that Ignis's arms would also hold the same power if he did the same. So he let his arms decrease in density and decided that if he could not dodge his opponent anymore, he would simply have to meet him blow for blow.
Snow's surprised look that Ignis was suddenly deflecting his blows with relative ease while forcing him to shield himself from knife blades was not missed by the more observant members of the crowd. Ignis suddenly dipped down and performed a sweeping kick with his leg catching Snow off guard. He rocked on his foot and pushed with his arms to bring the leg back around again and planted it into Snow's body just before it hit the ground. Snow slid across the ground and before he could slide completely out of the appointed arena, he slammed his fist against the ground and rolled over getting his feet beneath him and stopped his momentum.
"How did you kick me twice from that low?" Snow asked as he stood back up.
Ignis maintained a battle ready pose and replied, "A proper focus on my balance and momentum." The two of them charged each other and the back and forth exchange of attacks and block continued, Snow suddenly taking this fight a lot more seriously.
"How did Specs pull that off anyway?" Prompto asked.
"Likely has something to do with his opponents abilities," Noctis replied. "You know he has always been one to adjust to the enemy."
"True, but it just doesn't feel possible," Prompto said.
Pyrrha's gaze was glued to Ignis as she tried to memorize every move he made and kept finding herself surprised when she found him using a new move she had not seen before. He had a deep repertoire. She wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that she had heard that Noctis had learned how to fight with basically every melee weapon.
Ignis finally sidestepped a particularly careless swing from Snow and planted his dagger by Snow's neck. The two of them stayed still until finally Glynda announced that the match was decided.
"Perhaps next time, you start a bit lower on the food chain," Ignis remarked with a serious expression. Anyone else might have used this as a remark to make a jab. But from Ignis it was simply a critiquing suggestion.
Snow gulped and said, "Man you don't mess around do you?"
"No point," Ignis replied as he put his weapons away. "It would simply waste time and none of us have time to waste. Not even you, I assume. Afterall, one doesn't show up at a school for warriors and look for their best on a whim."
A new voice from the edge of the audience suddenly said, "I'm afraid a whim is exactly what this request was Ignis Scripture." Ignis tracked down the voice to see a serious looking woman with pink hair gathered over one of her shoulders. An ankle-length red cape attached to the left side of her back and a light burgundy leather detachable pocket on her left leg, suggested leadership. The green metallic pauldron over her left shoulder and the long black gloves suggested ranking, which reinforced that these were students of Atlas. "My name is Lightning Farron, and Snow is one of my teammates."
Ignis observed her for a moment before he said, "Well I am glad to see he has such an impressive role model, I can only assume what he was like before ending up under your leadership."
"Hey, I'm still right here," Snow commented.
Lightning looked at Ignis for a long moment and said, "I like this one, knows how to keep you in check, Snow. We'll meet again, Ignis."
Ignis simply nodded his head and made his way back out of the arena.
Meanwhile back in the arena, Yang could feel Weiss's temperature raise. Since the dance, Weiss had become rather talkative about her time with Ignis, so seeing this other student compliment him, especially one that Yang could only call 'drop dead gorgeous,' the spike of jealousy raised the temperature in their part of the gallery by a solid few degrees. Yang's thoughts then rotated over to her sister who had sat down on the far side of their team from Noctis. She was avoiding him for some reason and it was beginning to harsh Noctis's calm, even if he was good at hiding it. Just after she finished getting Blake's head back in the game, now she has two new problems to fix.
But for now class would go on.
Ignis felt himself impact against the arena wall and tried desperately to keep his body from becoming completely winded. While Ignis was not one to use expletives, he could not help the words that bubbled up in his throat as he realized that not only were all four of them coming dangerously close to being without Aura, but that even with their combined effort, Headmaster Ozpin had not yet moved from his spot in the middle of the battlefield. So when Ignis watched Gladiolus charge the teacher just to be repelled, he could not help the flinch that accompanied the simultaneous landing of Gladiolus on the ground and the signal that he was to be eliminated from the fight.
Ignis's trick dagger extended out into a spear, and he charged forward. Ozpin deflected the charge and then immediately lifted his cane up to block an incoming shot from Prompto. Ignis felt the weapon impact against his side before he could recover, and then it swung around knocking his legs out from under him. Ozpin's free hand caught Ignis and with a mighty throw, while simultaneously deflecting an attack from Noctis, sent Ignis at Prompto and two chimes signified that both of them were eliminated from the fight.
Noctis stood up and looked at the headmaster's aura level, it was only a sliver under full, according to the arena.
"Do you intend to continue fighting me, alone?" Ozpin asked with a near imperceptible upwards twitch of the corners of his mouth. He was suppressing a smile.
Noctis let his sword disappear and soon a sheathed katana appeared in its place. "That's the challenge isn't it?" Noctis whipped the blade forward and warped to Ozpin's position. Drawing the blade, Noctis attempted many attacks from different approaches but none seemed to find the teacher who simply deflected or dodged the incoming attacks. Ozpin gave a half-hearted attempt at a counter attack and Noctis suddenly warped sideways out of the path of the attack. Ozpin made a follow-up immediately and Noctis displaced himself above the attack, swinging his own weapon in midair. A physical impact suddenly hit the airborne prince and he felt himself fall backwards and his blade just barely managed to swipe the Headmaster's arm.
"Where was this energy before?" Ozpin asked. Noctis however did not listen to the question as he replayed the last volley of attacks in his mind. Ozpin did not physically move to connect that last attack. Which meant that something unseen hit him during the fight, which is why his Semblance did not displace him from the area of the attack. It caught him completely unaware. Noctis summoned the light copies of his weapons and as he considered his options, Ozpin suddenly left his spot and charged him. Noctis quickly flipped through his weapons to a shield but before he could grab it to manifest it, his teacher thrust his weapon forward.
"Noct!" Prompto called out.
Noctis's eyes took on a red glow and the shield seemed to manifest even without Noctis interacting with it as Ozpin's attack was blocked mid-air. This earned a small congratulatory smile from his headmaster, before he pushed past the weapon and landed three decisive blows against Noctis, eliminating him from the fight.
"Young men, you all show much promise. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching you all grow through this ordeal. Unfortunately it does not seem that you have earned my knowledge through combat. I will await any information you have for me in regards to Cor if you decide that it serves you," Ozpin announced. The four boys stayed quiet as Ozpin turned to the door to leave. Almost as if on cue, he opened the door and greeted a student as he left. Soon Velvet walked into the room and was surprised to see the four boys all looking soundly defeated.
"Whoa, you all did a number on each other," Velvet said out loud. This immediately caught Prompto's attention and his energy seemed to return to him as he walked over to her as fast as his tired legs could carry him. "Hey, Prompto, sorry for leaving you hanging at the dance."
"It's fine," Prompto said. "Are you ok? You guys were due back days ago."
Velvet suddenly seemed to look through him as the memories returned. She held it together in front of Team RWBY the day before, but with Prompto her resolve to remain strong was already beginning to crack.
"Velvet?" Ignis asked as he managed to get back on his feet.
"Oh," Velvet said and she could feel the emotions begin welling up in her chest. "There were so many of them. Bodies. We went to Lower Cairn because the kingdom lost contact with them. When we arrived it looked like the town had been abandoned until we got closer and saw all of the remains. It looked like the village had been completely wiped out before we got there when we found a family of six. They had gone into hiding and when we tried to save them, we were attacked by a large wave of Grimm that had been in the area attempting to find them. First the father fell, then the mother ran with her children into a nearby cave. It was collapsed by a Goliath. W-We… We…" she choked on the words as the tears began to flow. "We couldn't even get enough reprieve to check for survivors. Professor Port ordered our retreat. We failed."
The four boys were all completely quiet. How did anyone respond to that? All Prompto thought to do was wrap his arms around her and let her cry it out. Soon, an alarm suddenly rang out. Gladiolus took out his scroll and read the alarm.
"Vale's under attack by Grimm," he announced. He started moving toward the door when Velvet tried to pull herself together as she stepped in front of Gladiolus.
"Wait, you guys are all low on Aura, if you go down there you could be seriously hurt," she said through her tears. This got a slight pause from Gladiolus who looked back at his brothers. But the resolute looks on their faces told him everything he needed to know.
"If we don't," Noctis said as he straightened up, "then civilians are going to get hurt. I'll risk an injury to protect them."
"Me too," Prompto said as he finished reloading his gun.
Ignis straightened out his clothes and said, "We accepted this risk when we became Huntsmen."
"Then at least let us go with you," Coco's voice announced from the entryway. The rest of her team stood armed and ready. The two teams came to a silent agreement and they all rushed out of the school to get to the air dock, board a bullhead and rush down to the city. The eight students leapt down into the streets to see the most Grimm they had ever witnessed in one place, let alone within the walls of a major kingdom city. The battle was tense, and the students put all of their effort into keeping the monsters away from the people. They weren't all completely successful.
Gladiolus attempted to hold a choke-off point to the city where he was overwhelmed by a pack of Beowolves and a particularly aggressive Ursa ended up knocking him down and left a deep gash in his chest. While he managed to get his shield back in front of himself, it took Jaune going in swinging his blade like a mad man to strike down the large Grimm.
Prompto found himself fighting alongside Coco, who benched Velvet, and the two of them began blasting down enemies. Where Coco's sheer power was great at tearing down large enemies, Prompto's smaller, more precise weapon made protecting their position easier by picking off enemies that slipped through her offense.
Ignis quickly made his way into the fray of Grimm when he spotted Team RWBY caught in the middle of the hoard desperately protecting their position near the massive hole in the floor of the city. Ignis however could feel his muscles ache from the previous activities that day. Weiss must have noticed because she began to move close to him to help him out.
Noctis bounced between two heads of a King Taijitu as he kept himself as safe as he could, distracting the large Grimm from the terrified masses running from this neighborhood. A stray attack launched him backwards, but before he could hit the ground he was caught by another student.
"I got ya," a familiar male voice said. Noctis was set down by a bandana wearing blond man in a trench coat. The large snake Grimm charged after its quarry and Snow Villiers stepped forward and raised his hands. "Steelguard!" The dark serpentine head collided with Snow's raised arms and crashed into it heavily, only slightly pushing him back. Grabbing the bottom jaw and the top of the head, Snow broke the creature's jaw and proceeded to whip it to the side, sending a wave down the creature to its other head, also rendered upside down. A shadow crossed over the creature's now exposed underbelly as a dark skinned young man with an afro, in a green jacket with twin pistols rained fire down on the Grimm. As he landed, he ran down the creature's form and as the white serpent head lashed forward, he fired one shot into its underbelly causing it to slow and then stuck his other pistol up into the underside of the Grimm's mouth and fired a shot through its head.
"Am I too late?" the pistol wielding teen quipped as he turned back to Snow.
"Nah, you're right on time, Sahz. You rest here Noctis, Team SSCK (Seasick) will take it from here." Snow declared. Noctis paused at the name and then pictured blue and green colors and then stopped as it made him lightly gag.
"Serah! You're up, girl!" Sahz called out.
Several shafts of dust arrows whizzed through the air and impacted groups of Grimm exploding them in expansions of elemental energy. Noctis looked back to see a girl who looked a lot like a younger and brighter Lightning, the leader of their Team. She was clad in a red plaid-pleated skirt lined with black lace, a white sleeveless dress shirt, a semi-transparent pink sweeper vest, black thigh-high stockings and ivory ankle boots. As he thought about it, he realized it was a rare occurrence that the leader was not the head of the name, but not unheard of or so he had been led to believe.
Gladiolus struggled back to his feet, ignoring the blood that was running down his torso, when a nearby woman screamed and Gladio ran to her. A particularly large Beowolf leapt at her and Gladio slid to a stop with his shield up. At the point of impact, his tired body barely held the large Grimm back.
A battle cry rang out to Gladiolus's right and a long spear pointed halberd pierced the hide of the beast. With the weight relieved, Gladiolus looked at his ally to see a faunus. Heavily tanned, blue hair, a long blue fur covered tail with small white wisp at the end. The Grimm faded and the Faunus nodded at Gladiolus and then with a quick spin of his weapon, charged further into the fray.
"Khimari, wait up!" a lithe young blonde woman called out as she chased after the faunus from before. She slid to a stop and looked at Gladiolus. "Oh boy, that doesn't look good." Her hair was loose and braided, tied atop her head, adorned with colorful beads, and held by a blue bandana. She wore a pair of flared green dolphin shorts with an orange belt and an orange sleeveless tank-top with side straps and two long blue ribbons hanging from the back. It was a look that screamed Vacuo. "Tidus! Yunie! I'm gonna need cover!"
"Yuna, cover Rikku," a male voice commanded. "I'll go help Khimari." Running quickly by was a young man with center parted and fluffy hair. He wore what looked like a pair of overalls of different leg lengths, a very short yellow jacket with blue short sleeves. In his hands was a near transparent blue blade that looked like water as the light refracted through it.
"Take care Tidus," the one presumably named Yuna called back to him. She stopped on the far side of the one called Rikku. A side swept bob cut, nearly disguised the very long tied back brown hair of the young woman wielding a short staff and a handgun. Her top was that of a backless haori that was connected to a long half skirt that traveled all the way down to her knee high boots. 'Formal adventurer' would be the best way to describe the look of the slender woman.
Rikku got to work on Gladiolus's wound as she sheathed her curved blades and set her metal knuckles on the ground, so she could dig through her things. She produced a first aid kit and began dressing his wound.
"What's your name, big guy?" Rikku asked.
Gladiolus winced at a particularly painful sting and replied, "Gladiolus."
"Well good you answered, means your lungs are intact. I'm Rikku and that's Yuna. We're members of Team TYRK (Turk), from Vacuo," Rikku replied.
"I could have guessed based on the clothes," Gladiolus replied as his eyes were drawn to the battle taking place down the street. The one called Khimari was shirtless, he wore a loin cloth covered by a brightly colored sash and ankle guards with bare feet. He was a beast of battle.
Prompto and Coco slowly felt themselves being pushed back to Velvet's position when a four pointed shuriken arced around them and laid out three of the beasts. A tiny figure in a white hooded poncho descended from the sky and caught the weapon as she landed. Prompto had heard this description from his teammates shortly before the dance. Her name was Yuffie.
A man with blond spikes and a giant slab of metal descended shortly after and swung the weapon around with seemingly little effort as the sheer mass proceeded to destroy every Grimm in his path. This was Cloud and the weapon was every bit as over-the-top as it had been described. He rested the blade on his shoulder and soon two other young women joined their allies. These must have been Aerith and Tifa.
Tifa turned to the two gunslingers and said, "Team ACTY at your service."
"Bout time," Prompto said with a relieved sigh.
"Thanks for the assist, Mistral students," Coco said with a smirk under her stylish glasses. The six teens all focused on the battle before them.
Soon the battle for Vale would be over. Other students showed up, teachers from active missions, and even Glynda who sealed the hole in the city's street made an appearance. The boys from Hammerhead all reunited and were just quietly thankful that their depleted aura did not lead to any serious injuries, though Gladiolus would likely earn a wicked chest scar. The news would soon get to the students on the scene that 30 people had died, but that their prompt arrival helped prevent a far worse event that could have taken place.
After a while, everyone went their separate ways to process what exactly just happened. As Noctis and his team were the last to leave, he witnessed a darkly angry General Ironwood take out a scroll and have a very serious conversation out of earshot. Teams NPSA and RWBY would soon be reunited at the school docks.
"Gladio, are you ok?" Yang asked, looking at his bandages.
"I'll live," he replied. "We were low on Aura when we arrived, so chances were at least one of us was going to get hurt."
"Did you guys see those weapons?" Ruby asked excitedly, now that she knew Gladiolus was going to be fine.
Weiss shook her head and said, "I was a little too busy protecting my and Iggy's lives. Speaking of which, why were you four so low on Aura when you arrived?"
"Worn down by our mission," Noctis replied glumly. "Don't ask, it kinda sucked."
"O-o-oh," Ruby said. "Sorry to hear that." She seemed to shrink as she spoke.
Blake looked at her and asked, "You feeling ok Ruby?"
"I'm fine," Ruby replied with a half-hearted smile. After a brief moment, even the fake smile faded.
After a brief moment, Prompto suddenly shot up to his feet, "Crap! I have to give Velvet her gift!"
Ignis watched as Gladiolus was about to follow him and said, "You should head back to the room, Gladio. I will help him carry the collage to Velvet."
"I will supervise," Weiss announced as she moved to follow Ignis.
"Blake help me get Gladio to his room, wouldja?" Yang asked.
"Do I have to?" Blake asked.
"Don't be so catty," Yang replied. This earned her a sigh as she stood up and followed Yang and Gladio away from the dock. This just left Noctis and Ruby alone.
"So," Noctis started casually. "I didn't see you at the dance again."
"Yeah, I didn't mean for it to happen," Ruby replied. "I was the one who interrupted the attack on the CCT that night."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" Noctis asked.
Ruby shook her head. "I don't know. How are you supposed to tell someone you accidentally bailed on them on the biggest night of the school year?" she asked. "I've never had a night like that before."
"I guess that makes sense," Noctis commented idly.
The two were quiet as they watched the sun slowly dip further towards the horizon. They could still see the activity down in the city below them even as the sky began to go dark.
"Noctis," Ruby said with the hesitation clear in her voice. "Could we… get away from Beacon for a little while?"
"Huh?" Noctis asked. "What did you have in mind?"
"I need to go to Patch and see my parents. I was hoping that maybe we could also take a quick trip over to Hammerhead so I could see where you grew up. You guys have talked about it, but I really don't know much about it," Ruby continued, her face threatened to match the color of her cape.
"O-oh," Noctis replied as he scratched the back of his head casually. "S-sure, if you want to."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'll introduce you to the woman who raised me," Noctis said. "Make it fair, I guess."
Ruby and Noctis finally looked at each other. The two of them walked back to the dorm together. Neither one was willing to bring attention to the fact that the back of their hands would brush against each other.