It was 5:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon, and Team RWBY was en route to the Oum Dome. They were only a few hours away from seeing the Achieve Men live. They were riding the airship from Beacon to the city. They all chose to stand the whole way for… reasons.
"Well that was unpleasant," Blake said, holding her backside.
"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "I'm not gonna sit right for a week."
Yang chimed in, "My ass hurts more than that one time-"
"Please don't finish that statement," Weiss interrupted.
"What? I was talking about the time I got bit by a dog and needed a rabies shot." the blonde explained. "Biggest needle I've ever seen. Well, it was the biggest."
"Does anyone know what we got vaccinated for?" Blake asked the group.
"I'm not sure," the heiress answered. "They didn't say. There must be a virus going around or something. It'd be a shame if everyone got too sick to attend class."
"I'd take being sick over another one of Professor Port's lectures," Ruby complained.
"Don't be such a baby," her partner scolded. "Think about how lucky you are. You're attending Beacon Academy. You're a huntress in training. And you're on your way to see the Achieve Men in concert. Which reminds me, I'm still angry with you!"
"Nice segue, Weiss," Yang said.
"What?!" Ruby protested. "JNPR wanted to go just as much as the rest of us. I thought
it would be fun if we all got to go together."
"You know what would have been more fun?" Weiss asked. "Meeting the band!"
"You dropped the ball, Ruby," her sister said. "You dropped the ball."
Weiss started to choke up a bit. "I could have gotten to meet Gavin."
Blake rolled her eyes at how dramatic her teammates were being. "It's okay, Ruby. I understand. And I think you did the right thing."
"Thanks, Blake."
The airship landed at a station about a mile from the stadium. Team JNPR was waiting for them. They had gotten their vaccinations earlier in the day and were able to leave sooner.
As Team RWBY stepped off of the ship, Nora sprinted over and pulled them all into a group hug. "I love you guys so much for letting me come this is gonna be great we're gonna have so much fun I can't believe this is happening…" The rest of her team held back for a second, giving RWBY exhausted looks. Nora had enough energy as it was. But put her into fangirl mode, and the average person can only take so much. They were very close to exceeding that point.
Nora let go without ceasing her constant babbling. "This is great don't you guys think this is great how could you not think this is great what could possibly be more great?!"
"Nora," Pyrrha interrupted her. "I think they understand your excitement now."
Nora took a second to realize how annoying she was probably being. "Oh. Sorry. I'm just so happy that I get to go!"
"At least one person is," the Ice Queen snarled at her leader.
Jaune chimed in, "Anyway, thanks a lot for bringing us along. I can't believe you passed up front row seats and backstage passes just for us. I mean, if it was me-" Pyrrha, realizing how Weiss and Yang felt about the situation, punched him in the arm to try and shut him up, but the damage was done.
Ruby's two displeased teammates were already glaring at her again. She tried desperately to ignore them. "Heh heh," she chuckled nervously. "No problem." She didn't dare look at her team behind her.
"I hate to interrupt," Ren finally spoke up, "but shouldn't we be going about now? Those lines are going to be very long."
And so they made their way to the Oum Dome, ready for a fun night. And Nora didn't shut up the whole way. As they were walking, though, none of them noticed the armor-clad assassin traversing the rooftops heading for the same destination. Not yet. Too many of them. Need to wait for a better opportunity.
"Well that's just great," Weiss complained. "We've been here for over an hour and still haven't even gotten to the ticket booth yet."
"Weiss, relax," Blake tried calming her down. "We still have plenty of time before the show starts. We're going to make it."
"Well the sooner the better," she continued to whine.
"I agree," Ren remarked from the back of the group. He was clearly on edge.
Everyone else was a little shocked by his out-of-character impatience. "Why? What's the big deal, Ren?" Ruby asked.
"Well," he started, "after they finish rehearsing, it's customary for some of the Achieve Men to come outside and greet the fans. You know, to get everyone excited." Weiss and Yang perked up when they heard this. "Let's just say that it's better if we get in before that happens."
"Why?" Yang questioned. "Why would we not wanna see them before the show? That would make the whole losing backstage passes thing worth it." Blake hit her in the side for being rude. "I mean, no offense."
"None taken," all of JNPR replied. They weren't kidding themselves. They understood how badly she and Weiss wanted to get backstage and that bringing them along wasn't their idea.
"Just trust me when I say: we need to get in as quickly as possible."
"Hey, look! It's the band!" a random person in line yelled, followed by a hundred high-pitched screams.
Low and behold, the Lads of the Achieve Men, Michael, Gavin, and Ray, were right outside the entrance saying 'Hi,' signing things, and taking pictures with a swarm of fans.
Yang and Weiss started to run over when they heard Ren behind them: "Oh no." They looked back and saw him pointing to the swarm. They turned back around and saw Nora already trampling people to get to the stars.
When the Lads noticed Nora shoving her way through the crowd with a crazy look in her eyes, their faces turned to those of pure terror. They started shouted obscenities and trying to push their way away from the mad redhead.
"Damnit! It's that crazy bitch again!" Ray yelled. "How does she keep getting into our shows?!"
"Who the f*** cares?! Let's get the f*** outta here!" Michael screamed.
"Oi! Micoo! She's got my bloody foot, Micoo!" Gavin shrieked, his voicing getting very high-pitched. Nora indeed had latched onto his foot and had zero intention of letting him go. "Don't leave me, Micoo!" The other two grabbed the Brit's hands and pulled. "She's tearing me in half!"
"Goddammit, Gavin!" Michael swore. "We need you for the show!"
"I swear to God," Ray declared, "when we're done with this tour, I'm going solo!"
Ren finally cleared his way through the crowd and attempted to pull Nora away from the celebrities. This freed up Gavin's leg enough for his boys to pull him away.
Ray ran up to a security guard, grabbed his walkie talkie and yelled into it, "We need some guys out here! The Hammer is here! I repeat! The Hammer is here! Please, for the love of God, help us!"
Before Ren could escape with Nora, the guards were on them, escorting them away from the stadium.
Ruby stopped one of the guards. "Why are you taking them away?"
"Her?" he responded. "She and her friend have been banned from any concert, panel, or hotel that the Achieve Men might be at."
"Banned?" Yang questioned.
"Yeah. She shows up to almost every show and attacks the band members. One time, she tried to chloroform and kidnap Gavin. You guys aren't with her are you?"
The remaining six looked at each other for a moment. "No." "I don't know her." "Never seen that girl before in my life."
The guard didn't think anything of it and turned back to join his fellow guards. Once he was gone, Weiss smacked Ruby upside her head.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"Never speak to me again," the Ice Queen snarled as she turned and got back in line.
"What?! How was I supposed to know that she would get kicked out?!"
And for the rest of the time that they were in the ticket line, Weiss never said a single word to her leader. They finally got to the ticket booth, where they were greeted with no words or any acknowledgement to them standing there by the middle aged woman behind the window.
Ruby had to speak up. "Hello. My name's Ruby. I won some tickets off a radio show."
"ID?" the woman in the booth ordered, still not making eye contact. Ruby handed over her Scroll and she scanned it. She looked at her monitor in the booth for a couple of seconds, tapped a few keys, and handed Ruby eight tickets.
"Thanks. Hey, we only have six people. So could we maybe trade these eight tickets for six closer ones?" Ruby tried bargaining.
"No."
Ruby thought about Weiss and Yang and how aggravated they were about not getting to go backstage. "Well, what about those backstage passes that were advertised on the radio? Could we trade two tickets for two of those?"
"No."
"What if we traded two tickets for one pass?" Maybe she could at least make Weiss happy.
"No."
"So what do we do with two extra seats?"
"Next!"
"Oh. Okay. Thanks anyway, I guess." Ruby walked off towards the stadium entrance dejectedly with her team.
The next step in the entry process was security. They walked up in time to see an older man in red being detained.
"I'm sorry, sir," one of the security guards was saying, "but firearms are strictly not allowed in the stadium."
"What?!" the man in red shouted with his southern accent. "But I never go anywhere without my shotgun!"
"Sir, there is a list of things that we don't allow here. Shotguns are literally the first thing on that list."
"But what if the Blues are in there, planning to kidnap the band and hold them for ransom to fund their dastardly schemes?! It's my solemn duty as a commanding officer of the Red Army to stop them with extreme and painful prejudice!"
"Sir, you're delusional. Whatever this 'Red vs Blue' conflict you've come up with is, it's not real. Now you can either relinquish your firearm or be escorted out with no refund."
The remaining Beacon students looked at each other, and then at their own weapons.
"Maybe we should have left our weapons at the school before coming here," Blake suggested.
"Has anyone noticed that we carry these with us literally everywhere we go?" Ruby asked the group. "And this is the first place we've been to that won't let us bring them in with us. Does anyone else find that really weird?" Everyone thought on that for a moment, shrugged it off, and continued into the line at security.
When the team and a half got to the checkpoint, they were greeted by a young, blonde guard. "Hey. My name is Officer Wade, man." When everyone looked at the name tag on his shirt, it said 'Hey. My name is Officer Wade, man.' "I'm gonna need to like, check you for anything unusual or dangerous."
"Yeah, we know," Ruby said as she and her friends were already handing over their weapons. Well, everyone except for Yang. She was too attached to her gauntlets to give them up.
"Just, please, be careful with these," Weiss warned him. "These aren't easily replaceable."
"No problem, man. I'll take like, real good care of 'em, man," Wade assured them. Weiss didn't respond to well to being addressed as 'man.' She stormed passed the security gate.
After relinquishing all of their weapons and ammo, the other five teenagers followed the grouchy heiress through security.
As Yang walked passed, still wearing Ember Celica, she was stopped by the security guard. "Hey. Hold on a second, man." She turned to face him. Everyone turned to watch her get busted. "Like, where did you get those cool bracelets, man? I like, totally need to score me a pair!"
Yang played it off like she'd done it a hundred times before. "Sorry. They were a limited time offer. Not sold anymore." Then she turned and walked off, proud of having beat the system.
Upon entering the main part of the Oum Dome, the group had to stop in awe for a moment. It somehow looked bigger on the inside. The stage itself was located in the middle on a raised platform that could rotate. All around the stage were thousands of seats, almost all of which were filled. Those that weren't, were claimed by people still getting in, in the bathrooms, or spending a fortune on concessions.
Above the stage and seats, was an elaborate system of catwalks for stage hands to navigate through to access the seemingly overkill amount of lights and other machines for the show. This stadium was usually used for sporting events, but, with a few modifications, would be used for concerts and theatre. So it needed a lot of options for different lighting effects.
The group of huntresses plus Jaune found their seats. They weren't right up on the stage, but still close enough for that to be less of a complaint. The excitement of being here had replaced Yang's bitterness, but Weiss was still not letting it go. She chose to take advantage of the two extra seats and sat a full seat away from the closest person, who just so happened to be Ruby.
"C'mon, Weiss," Ruby said. "You're still mad?"
Weiss continued to ignore her leader.
"Don't worry, Ruby," Blake assured her. "She'll forget all about being mad once the concert starts."
"You think?" Ruby asked.
Yang chimed in. "I know I already have. By the way, sis, did I mention how much I love you for winning us these tickets?"
"Thanks for bringing us again, too, by the way" Jaune thanked her as well. Pyrrha gave her a thumbs up from behind Jaune.
At that moment, the lights dimmed. Spotlights hit the stage. One by one, the Achieve Men walked out and were introduced. Each introduction was followed by a roar from the crowd. Tonight was going to be fun.
And it was. Even Blake was standing with her arms in the air, cheering and singing along. Yang had to be stopped several times from firing her gauntlets into the air. Weiss eventually came around and joined her friends, singing and cheering louder than anyone. To say the least, everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.
And then it happened. They heard those words: "You've been a great crowd! Thank you! Good night!" The Achieve Men left the stage. The lights came back on and people started to go home. It was then that the students realized the time: 11:00. It had been three hours since taking their seats. Once the concert started, time didn't matter to them anymore.
They got up from their seats and all ran to get rid of the pee they'd all been holding for half the concert. They exited the restrooms one by one until there was only Weiss left to arrive. And she took a while. It got to the point where Yang went back in to get her herself. She walked back out to reveal that she wasn't in there.
Then, from behind them, they group heard the heiress, "Are we ready to go?" They turned and saw her wearing one Achieve Men shirt, with two more thrown over her shoulder, a hat on her head, a poster in one hand, and a Gavin bobblehead in the other. She had gotten out of the restroom first and ran over to the souvenir stand. "What? Where else could I get all of this stuff?"
"Really?" Yang questioned. "At that rate, what made you stop yourself from buying everything?"
"Hush, you," Weiss retorted. They then turned to make their way to the exit and retrieve all of their gear.
As they were walking, a glint of light crossed Jaune's vision. He looked up to find the source of the random flash on an archway ahead. The cause was the fluorescent lights reflecting on a small lense: a scope. He saw the rifle. The shooter. He followed the rifleman's aim to his right and realized the situation. He acted the only way he knew how.
A/N: And that's another chapter down. Despite all of the Rooster Teeth cameo jokes, this was my least favorite chapter to write. Don't know why. Maybe it was the lack of Deathstroke. But starting with the last paragraph here, things really get moving.