I'm so confused as to what I've done to myself.
This took a month to write, though I didn't start writing this chapter until two weeks after the last chapter was finished.
Still it's the longest chapter I've written for this story, but I wanted to get all of this in this chapter for some original stuff I plan on writing.
That will be a challenge I suppose.
-x-
Grimm's New Leader – Chapter 8
What Is Leadership?
-x-
If there was one thing that Raimundo was happy about when they found their room after the initiation had finished, it was the fact that they actually had beds. At the Xiaolin Temple they barely had a bed, if Raimundo was going to be honest with himself, and Chase Young wasn't going to even given them a blanket to sleep at night. He forced them to either sleep in the trees that by the time he had taken over their world were mostly burnt away, or sleep on the floor in their feline forms he had had forced them to have after he won their loyalty for all eternity, enslaving them to his will.
So one could say that Raimundo was rather happy to see an actual bed for the first time in many years. Of course he knew that his team didn't have much unpacking to do, especially since they barely had anything in the first place. Raimundo could only imagine just how much unpacking that the other teams would have to do, especially those all-girl teams like Team RWBY. He still remember just how much Kimiko had when they first lived together at the Xiaolin Temple, though he couldn't be sure if that was a good comparison to make or not.
He turned to Kimiko was she was scrolling through some items on her scroll, something that the girl had fallen in love with when they were able to get hold of one each. Being the technology expert in the group she was quickly trying to find the ins and outs of the device, if there was any kind of weakness that could be found, then she would be able to find it. Raimundo was also pleasantly surprised to find that they could check their aura levels on the device, though it was only due to Ozpin's insistence that they even unlocked their auras in the first place.
Aura was a strange thing as far as Raimundo was concerned, being the manifestation of one's soul that could be used for numerous abilities, abilities that the Xiaolin Monks already had before they even unlocked their aura in the first place. Yet, while the power boast was nice, they couldn't help but wonder if they'll ever be able to stop Chase Young and his plans for taking over the world of Remnant. Despite not even having a soul, he still outclassed the monks quite easily, though they weren't sure if he was so powerful that even the greatest hunters were outclassed by the Heylin Warrior, but they weren't too keen to find out.
Raimundo turned his gaze to Omi, who was currently sitting on his bed, meditating as he tried to focus on his aura, something that the young monk had been trying to master since they were given the ability themselves. Raimundo trusted the young monk to tell them on any discovery that he made on the subject at hand, though they were also interested in finding out how to utilise Dust in their battles, so they had another advantage that they could use if they ever found themselves fighting Chase Young in the future.
Raimundo turned to Clay, who tinkering with some Dust vials that he managed to buy in Vale before they arrived at Beacon. He was the one that was in charge trying to see how they could use Dust with their Wudai Weapons, or if they could potentially make separate weapons to take advantage of the Dust that the Schnee Dust Company made. Clay pointed out that talking to Weiss Schnee was one of the options that they had available to them, but he was going to wait until the next day before deciding to try and go along with that idea of his.
Raimundo was in charge of finding out about the Huntsmen and Huntresses themselves, the lifestyle that they lived and how the entire system worked. He knew that he was going to have to rely on the information that the other monks managed to find, but he wasn't too bothered by that, he had learnt over the years thanks to dealing with Master Fung and Chase Young teaching them that information was key to any success that they had. Raimundo decided that he would talk to the Professors of Beacon Academy about their experiences and compare notes of what it meant to be a Huntsman or Huntress, depending on the person that he asked. Raimundo knew that he would get different answers, but it was always good to compare notes on the difference of opinions. You could always learn something new every day after all.
"Who do we have for our first lesson tomorrow?" Raimundo asked his friends, writing down some notes in a little notebook that he had purchased from Vale the day before they came to Beacon.
"Some guy called Peter Port." Kimiko replied, not looking up from her scroll. Raimundo knew better than to expect the girl to do so when she had a new piece of technology in her hands, her attention to detail could be scary at times.
"Thanks." Now Raimundo had a name, he planned on getting to class early tomorrow morning so he could get some insight of being a huntsman from their first teacher of the day. It wasn't like the guy one the type to go into longwinded stories that bored you to tears now was it?
-x-
Chase Young's eyes followed the giant Nevermore in his throne room carefully, before he suddenly leaped in the air and swatted it down to the ground easily, sending it smashing into the ground below. He frowned in annoyance at the fact that he had been forced to attack the Nevermore at all. Despite agreeing to take orders from him, the Nevermore had still decided to try and attack the White Fang members, something that Chase had been furious about when he first realised what was going on. Admittedly, he could almost claim that it had been rather fortunate that the Nevermore had been so irritated by the sight of the White Fang members that it had attacked them in his sight.
Chase didn't know just what the White Fang had done to cause the Nevermore to be so upset, but quite frankly he didn't care. He wanted this problem to be dealt with before it escalated into something that he couldn't control. The Nevermore got to its feet and shrieked at him, but Chase Young was prepared. He transformed into his other form and roared at the Nevermore, which shrieked back in protest. They charged at each other, and it was Chase Young that punched the giant Nevermore in the face, sending it flying back into the wall. He quickly made his way towards the Grimm and grabbed it by the throat and summoned up the strength to slam it into the wall several times.
He let go of the Grimm and it fell forward, looked almost concussed as it hit the ground stomach first. Chase scowled in frustration, he hadn't wanted to do this, but the Nevermore had given him no other choice in the matter unfortunately. He pulled out the Eagle Scope and pointed it at the Nevermore.
"Eagle Scope!" Chase activated the Shen Gong Wu and it shined brightly over the giant Grimm that had started to move gingerly. When the bright light had faded, the Nevermore had looked as though it had calmed down significantly and it was starting to show more intelligent in its eyes that it had done before. Chase transformed back into his human form, crossing his arms as he did so.
"So, are you going to stop attacking the White Fang members under my banner, or am I going to take you out for good?" Chase didn't looked impressed by the Nevermore, which shook its head to clear the cobwebs.
"I'm done." The Nevermore replied, in a surprisingly soft voice. Its eyes widened in surprise when it realised that it was able to talk the human language for the first time, its eyes locked onto Chase. "What did you do to me?"
"I've given you a new outlook on things." Chase smirked at the giant Grimm. "You're the second Grimm that has been given the ability to speak the human language, though you're the first one not to have it done willingly." Chase told the Nevermore, who looked surprised by what it was learning. "I can tell you more in detail if you're willing to follow my every order and no longer attack any of the White Fang members."
"I'm listening…"
-x-
Roman Torchwich wasn't sure what to expect when he had requested Jack Spicer to turn up to his hideout, the boy was now a wanted criminal to the eyes of the citizens of Remnant. The kid had surprised him when he brought his army of Jack-Bots to help him with his little heist, but the help had been appreciated, even if the robots had been destroyed by the other four kids, the 'Xiaolin Losers' as Jack called them.
It didn't change the fact that the Xiaolin kids were pretty powerful, so quite honestly, Roman didn't really want to face them in battle if he could help it. Live to fight another day as they say. Roman liked to have his escape plans secured before he got into any fight, simply so he could avoid any unwanted complications.
Suddenly, Jack Spicer rose up from the floor into the warehouse, causing the criminal mastermind to draw his cane, only to pause when he realised just who had entered the room. He gave the teenager a look over.
"So kid, have you always had that ability, or is that your semblance?" Roman asked the self-proclaimed 'Evil Boy Genius', who merely smirked back at him, waving his finger cockily.
"You must allow me to keep some secrets Roman, after all, business partners don't always reveal their secrets at the sight of money." Jack shrugged off easily, causing Roman to shake his head in amusement. The brat was cautious alright, and for a good reason. With all of the contacts that he had made in the few months that he had been in Vale, he could be linked to quite a few criminal gangs that he had provided private armies to. So if he was sent to prison, there would be more than a few people sent after the teenager in order to silence him.
Roman hoped that wouldn't happen, for the kid amused him at times. He knew that Jack was a coward through and through, and probably didn't have any fighting ability to speak of either. While watching the self-proclaimed 'Evil Boy Genius' screaming like a little girl as he attempted to get out of dodge was humorous, it did also raise some concern about what would happen if the teenager got into a situation that he couldn't get out of.
"Come on kid, let's talk more about this deal, while I discuss some of the plans that I have for the army that I'm going to be paying you for." Roman told Jack, who raised an eyebrow at the older criminal. "I need you to know so that you add the features that I'm after. Trust me you're going to like it." Roman informed the teenaged criminal, who couldn't stop an evil grin from finding its way onto his features.
As they made their way into another part of the hideout, Jack blinked when he noticed a table with a bowl of ice cream sitting there on its own. Jack turned to Roman, only to notice that the older criminal was already making his way towards the table. Jack shrugged before following him, as he attempted to sit down, he jumped and screamed when he felt something pinch his sides. He spun around quickly and spotted a young woman, who was in the seat that had been empty just moments before, smirking at him.
She had long hair that went down to her back, but it was split into two colours. The left side was brown while the right side was pink with white streaks. Her eyes mirrored her hair as her left eye was pink and the right one was brown. The woman had on a white jacket with a pink interior, brown trousers, and grey high-heeled boots. She had a corset on under her jacket along with multiple necklaces around her neck.
Roman couldn't stop himself from laughing at Jack's expense after hearing the girly scream from the teenager, who was blushing in embarrassment over his reaction. The woman looked pleased with herself as she picked up the bowl of ice cream and started to help herself. Once Roman finally calmed down, he pointed to the young woman.
"This Jack Spicer, is my partner Neo." Neo waved lazily, more focused on her ice cream than Jack. "She's been working with me long before you and I ever met, if there's one person that I can trust to have my back, it's her."
"A pleasure."
"So, let's start discussing what I want you to build for me." Roman smirked as he rubbed his hands together eagerly. "I'll be sure to put your creations to good use."
-x-
Blake stared at the cat that was currently in Yang's arms, before she looked at the girl holding the feline. She knew Yang didn't even know about the fact that she was a Faunus, let alone that she was a Cat Faunus, so why did she bring a cat into their room?
"What are you doing with that cat?" Weiss wasn't going to let anything stop her from finding out the answer to the question that she too wanted to know. The Schnee Heiress wanted to know why her teammate had brought in an animal into their room, her room. She really didn't want to have to deal with an issue that having a cat brought them.
"He was trying to come inside, clawing at the door desperately in an attempt to get our attention." Yang told them, stroking the cat like she had practiced the act many times before. It was almost as if she and Ruby had a pet at home. Ruby exited the bathroom, and paused when she spotted the cat in her arms.
"Yang… why do you have a cat?" Ruby asked, uneasily. Weiss and Blake looked surprised by the look on the younger girl's face. "We already have Zwei, do you think that the cat will be able to handle that?" Yang paused, before cringing just imaging that incident.
"Probably not." Yang left the room and attempted to put the cat down outside, only for the feline to quickly rush back inside and somehow manage to lock Yang out instead. The other members of Team RWBY could only look on in disbelief that Yang managed to be outsmarted by a cat of all things.
"Who's Zwei?" Blake and Weiss were purposely ignoring Yang's attempt to unlock the door without her scroll, which she had left in their room.
"Our dog." Ruby was watching the cat make its way towards Blake, before she made her way towards the door, letting her sister back into the room. As Blake picked up the cat and held it in her arms, her nose told her something about the cat that she didn't like. This cat wasn't real, it was mechanical, a machine. So before anyone had the chance to stop her, Blake threw the cat out of the window, much to the disbelief of her roommates.
"Blake! Why did you do that?!" Understandably, Weiss was the one who demanded the answer first, but Ruby and Yang weren't far behind. All of Team RWBY froze when they heard a scream of anger, before suddenly they saw a hawk fly by their window, which transformed before their very eyes into Chameleon-Bot.
"You're the transforming robot that was with Roman Torchwich!" Ruby's announcement got Team RWBY to get into fighting stances… without their weapons.
"Killing you all right here and now would be so simple, but my creator has other plans in store for you." Chameleon-Bot spoke to them for the first time, his face transforming into Ruby's as he did so, twisting it into one of sadistic glee. "However, he doesn't have an issue with leaving a message." His face transformed into Weiss' this time, a look of pure unadulterated rage took form. "Yet I can't help but want to destroy you where you stand, despite his orders to leave the fun to him!" His face transformed into Blake's, a look of disgust taking form. "However, orders are orders, and I don't act on emotions that I don't have." His face finally transforming into Yang's, a look of insanity taking hold. "That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy the torment that I'm no doubt going to witness. So you'd better prepare yourself Team RWBY, for I'm going to enjoy what my creator does to you!" With that, Chameleon-Bot transformed into a hawk again, and proceeded to fly off away from Beacon Academy, having completed the mission that was set out for it.
Team RWBY exchanged uneasy looks, they still had no idea just who this creator was, though Ruby had an idea of who to ask in order to find out.
-x-
It was the next day that classes started and Raimundo had gotten up early in order to confront Professor Port about what should be expected from a Huntsman, but despite all of his planning, Raimundo didn't prepare for one thing.
'Perhaps… I should've been more specific about how he could tell me what I wanted to know.' Peter Port loved to tell stories about his past exploits, yet he could somehow manage to make them sound really boring. Raimundo was just thankful that he was able to have breakfast before he arrived to the classroom. Still, despite how boring it was to listen to Professor Port, he couldn't deny the benefits of getting the opinions from the more experienced Huntsman. Some of the techniques that he had used in the past were fascinating, it was just a shame that the boisterous man managed to make the story sound so boring.
"So how often should we be expecting to fight Grimm in class? Since you're going to be telling us about their weaknesses, would I be wrong in assuming that we should be fighting Grimm themselves every so often." Raimundo tried to change the subject, trying to fish for more information as he did so. It never hurt to try after all.
"Alas, I won't be able to bring in Grimm too often, but you are all in for a wonderful surprise today." Professor Port seemed pleased with himself, even as Raimundo's attention was drawn towards a shaking cage. He realised just what the professor was implying, before a small smirk found its way onto his features.
"I'm already looking forward to it."
-x-
Kimiko sighed as she made her way towards the Professor's Port classroom with Clay and Omi, listening to their younger teammate boast about how he had figure out how to make his aura enhance his elemental attacks further than ever before. Clay was poking holes in Omi's theory, causing the young monk to get flustered when he realised that he might possibly be wrong. Kimiko paused when she heard a whistle go off somewhere, before shrugging when she realised that it wasn't for anything serious.
"Omi, could you help me out with something after class? With the progress that you've made on understanding aura, perhaps you'd like to volunteer with seeing how much aura you use when you use it." Kimiko held up her scroll. "If we can use our scroll to monitor our aura, it would be best to make sure that we understood just how much you end up using to boost your attacks. That way we can see just how much you need to improve on your aura usage. It'll be a nice little experiment to start off with." Kimiko smiled at Omi, who grinned brightly.
"Your idea is most wondrous Kimiko! I can't wait to show you just how impressive I am and to show you just superior I am to gi–" Clay quickly covered Omi's mouth before he got himself in hot water with Kimiko again. He'd rather not have to take the little guy off to get medical attention so early in his career at Beacon Academy thank you very much.
"Omi, you need to tone down on your little speeches little partner, half of the Academy is filled with women." Clay whispered quickly, causing Omi to pale at the realisation of just how many women there were at Beacon Academy. If even half of those women had bad tempers like Kimiko, then he knew that needed to avoid saying anything that he'd regret later.
"Clay's right, Omi." The tone in Kimiko's voice sent shivers down Omi's spine, he turned around nervously and gulped when he saw the smile on Kimiko's face, the sweet look that he had seen many times before she punched him in the jaw for saying something about women. "We really wouldn't want anything to happen to you simply because you forgot yourself, would we now?" Kimiko's voice turned much sterner, promising him so much pain.
"Right! Sorry! Forget I said anything!" Omi quickly apologised, nervously laughing as he did so. Clay shook his head, while Kimiko smiled sweetly at the youngest member of the team. Honestly, after so many years, you'd think that Omi would have learnt that women could be as strong as men, and not to say something like that in front of any women, especially Kimiko, who was more than happy to beat the idea out of him. Clay and Raimundo were surprised that Kimiko hadn't already done so by this point honestly.
It was for Omi's own good that he grew out of that phase, something that even Chase Young criticised the young warrior about which said something considering the experience that the Heylin Warrior had in his disposal.
After getting some food, the remaining members of Team ROCK entered the classroom, where they spotted Raimundo making himself comfortable, as he took down some of the notes that was on the board. While they knew that their Xiaolin powers probably didn't need to worry about the weaknesses as much as most people, the extra information was always useful to have at their disposal.
Who knows when they found themselves unable to use their elemental powers and extremely vulnerable without their weapons in their possessions, they weren't able to deny that they could be caught unprepared by an event that didn't expect.
"So, how was Professor Port?" Kimiko asked Raimundo, who gave her an annoyed expression.
"Insightful, but he has an amazing ability to make even the most interesting stories boring. The stories in questions are just things that he's accomplished in the past, so in a way it was like listening to somebody that we know." Most of Team ROCK stared at Omi, confusing the youngest member of the team. "You'll probably like this lesson Omi, besides the lesson where we fight the other students, this will probably be right up your alley."
"You really think so?" Omi didn't look convinced.
"Oh yeah, you love to brag about your past accomplishments and rub it into other people's faces about how superior you are to them, so you could probably relate to this guy. Only difference is, this guy has the experience and you don't." Raimundo replied innocently. Omi merely glared at the team leader in response.
"I'm not like that." Omi denied dismissively.
"I am the greatest Xiaolin Dragon! Of course I will be the first to be promoted! Who else is it going to be? Raimundo!" Raimundo imitated Omi's voice almost perfectly, causing the young Xiaolin monk to get flustered. "Face it Omi, you constantly rub it in our faces about how much better you are than us, but please do us a favour and don't do that here. There are going to be some people who will take offence to that regardless of whether or not you mean to upset them."
"But I'm simply telling the truth!" Omi looked annoyed.
"Omi, you're good, really good for your age, but while you have the edge on us in terms of experience, you're not better than us together. We all have our weak points, and we're on the same team to counter out our weaknesses." Raimundo pointed out. "I know that I was named the leader, but remember what Master Fung told us once. Together as one we are stronger than we are alone."
"I know, but I want to show everyone that I'm better than they are right now." Omi admittedly quietly. The rest of Team ROCK smiled sadly, knowing just why he wanted to show off. This whole experience of being compared to so many people was such a big jump compared to just being compared to his team. Omi would of course want to ensure that he stood out more than anyone else so he wouldn't be left behind.
It also showed just how much he missed Master Fung, his father figure growing up. What Chase Young did to their old master was unforgivable, but they knew that eventually they could figure out how to free themselves from his control.
"Don't worry little partner, you'll get your chance." Clay offered.
"Besides, we've still got to get back at Cardin for trying to threaten you on our first day here." Kimiko reminded him.
"We've making friends here at Beacon, Teams RWBY and JNPR are already on that list." Raimundo pointed out.
"Haven't we still got to find Velvet and her team at some point as well?"
"Yeah, we did promise to meet up at some point didn't we?"
-x-
Jack Spicer roared in anger as he looked at the screen which showed the recordings that Chameleon-Bot had made, He aggressively slammed his fists against the desk, wondering just why his greatest creation had decided to take on the form of a cat of all things and try to make its way into Team RWBY's room. The clips of the layout was good and everything, but he wanted far more than he had gotten before Blake Belladonna literally threw his creation out of the window of all things.
He knew that he had made some adjustments to Chameleon-Bot that allowed him to change its weight, something he had gained after many years of making his robot army and learning the trade of robotic engineering, but that still didn't excuse the fact that Chameleon-Bot took such a stupid risk for no reason at all. The fact that the risk backfired so dramatically was enough to make Jack want to get revenge on the girl.
"I know that it wasn't the texture of the cat that I got wrong, that much I know. I made sure to stop that little problem coming back to bite me on the backside years ago after using the Moby Morpher for the first time. So what was it that she spotted wrong with Chameleon-Bot that I didn't get right?" Jack pondered out loud. He knew that it surely couldn't be something that a human could sense normally, so what could have…
"Wait…" Jack suddenly came up with an idea. He rolled back the feedback and focused on Blake's face, looking for any sign of a Faunus in the girl. He focused on the time that the realisation appeared on her face, and realised that she had actually been able smell that Chameleon-Bot wasn't an actual cat, much to his surprise. Jack supposed that it was because of how close the shapeshifting robot had gotten to the Faunus, more than anything. He also noted that her bow twitched slightly when she realised what Chameleon-Bot actually was.
This led to problems that Jack hadn't considered before now. Now that he had established that there was a Faunus in Team RWBY, he would have to be very careful when he entered their room to activate the Shadow of Fear. If she was a Faunus, then what else did she possess outside of a good sense of smell? Did she have really good eyesight like the other Faunus, was her hearing also really good as well? With these thoughts in mind, perhaps he would need to take a different approach to getting into the room, with the Golden Tiger Claws, he knew that noise it made could sometimes be noticeable, depending on the person who used it.
It gave Jack some new things to think about when creating a robot in the future, and if he wanted to sneak on a Faunus he needed to think of countermeasures in the near future that would allow him do so. It was just unfortunate that he was going to be forced to think of these ideas sooner than he'd like, but it everything was too easy for him, then where was the fun in that? It would just be too boring after a while otherwise.
He always did like a challenge when inventing new robots and thinking of new ideas, he had managed to sneak past the Xiaolin Dragons more than a few times before they had been beaten by Chase Young in a battle to free Omi from his service, so he knew that he wasn't completely useless when it came to sneaking into places. Though he had a feeling that Beacon Academy was a lot more secure than the Xiaolin Temple ever was.
At least he had a decent idea of the layout of the Academy thanks to Chameleon-Bot, now he just needed to ensure that he laid out his plan perfectly so he could mess with the entirety of Team RWBY.
-x-
Raimundo sighed again as Professor Port continued his story, he had seen Team RWBY enter the classroom with barely any time to spare. He knew that if someone had been about to close the door, then the girls probably would have crashed into the poor soul. Raimundo did note that the entire team seemed rather tried and stressed out about something.
"We need to get hold of Team RWBY after this lesson. Something seems to be wrong." Raimundo whispered to the rest of his team.
"I was planning on getting hold of Weiss anyway to get information on Dust usage." Clay pointed out, keeping his voice down.
"Let's consider this an extra reason then." Raimundo offered quietly. He turned to Omi, who was listening to Professor Port's story with fascination, Raimundo could only hope that his somewhat naïve friend didn't pick up any bad habits while he was here.
"Weiss seems to be getting angrier at Ruby." Kimiko raised an eyebrow at the Schnee Heiress, who seemed to be getting more and more frustrated by Ruby's childish behaviour as the young leader continued to mess about in the classroom. She really did wonder if Professor Port was actually ignoring this, because there couldn't be anyway that he could miss the young girl so easily, could he?
"In conclusion, a true Huntsman must be honourable. True Huntsmen must be dependable. True Huntsmen must be strategic, well-educated and wise!"
The older members of Team ROCK watched as Omi perked up at the traits of a Huntsman, they he no doubt about what was going to happen next if Professor Port was going to ask the question that they thought he was.
"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Professor Port asked, looking around the room.
"I do!" Omi announced smugly, causing most of the class to look at the young Xiaolin Monk. Professor Port however, looked rather pleased.
"Well then, let's see how you fair against your opponent." Professor Port pointed to the cage that rattled ominously. Omi looked towards the rest of his team questionably, before getting a nod of approval from Raimundo, causing the youngest member of the team to smile brightly. He proceeded to jump to the front of the classroom from the desk furthest back from the classroom, in an attempt to show off to the class.
"This should be interesting." Raimundo turned to his girlfriend. "So, should we expect Omi to go ahead and say something that will upset a lot of people?"
"If he says anything that I think he might, then it's a guarantee." Kimiko sighed as she looked down at Team RWBY, where Weiss was doing her best to try and not snap at her young leader in front of the rest of the team. Kimiko sadly enough could understand why she would snap at Ruby, there was a time and a place to be childish, but the classroom was not one of them. It reminded her of Raimundo before he betrayed the rest of the team for Wuya's promise of everything that he ever wanted, though he had been getting frustrated by the lifestyle of the Xiaolin Temple, which wasn't too his liking.
"Clay, be prepared for Weiss to let out her frustrations on verbally." The Texan looked down at the Schnee heiress with a raise eyebrow.
"Like I do with you and Kimiko when you're upset with each other and/or Omi?" Clay couldn't keep the amused looked off of his face when Raimundo and Kimiko looked at each other in surprise.
"You do that too?" Clay snorted in amusement as they started interrogating each other about what they had said to him about the other, before he interrupted them.
"Sure, I'll do that." Clay looked amused, just as Omi returned to the classroom. Omi was bad in his Xiaolin uniform and looked prepared for what could potentially be an irritating battle, though the rest of Team ROCK had no reason to worry about their younger teammate, they knew his strengths and weaknesses by this point.
Still, they were hoping that Omi wouldn't show his other weakness that would get half of the class livid at him. Kimiko was almost expecting it, though she was more than willing to beat him up if he made the mistake of actually saying it in front of so many people.
Yet when Professor Port smashed the lock to the cage with his blunderbuss-axe, unveiling the Boarbatusk within, Omi stayed calm and patiently waited for the boar-like Grimm to attack him first. If there was one thing that he had learnt over the years under the tutelage of both Master Fung and Chase Young, it was the ability to patiently study his enemy.
"This shouldn't take long." Raimundo allowed his head to rest in his hands, looking disinterested by the fight before it had even started. "Considering that he could killed a Deathstalker by himself if he needed to, he'll have no trouble with something as weak as this."
"That is if he doesn't get complacent." Kimiko pointed out, just as Omi leaped above the charging Boarbatusk, changing his Shimo Staff into Twin Axes as he did so. Omi taunted the Grimm into charging at him again, and proceeded to dodge the charge at the last second, slicing into the side of the Grimm as it passed by. Omi frowned when the Grimm didn't go down however.
"Shimo Staff!" He shifted his weapon into a pole that extended towards the Grimm easily, sweeping the Grimm's legs out from underneath it, causing the Boarbatusk to squeal in distress as it was flipped in midair multiple times. Omi changed the Shimo Staff into a bow and arrow and took aim at the Boarbatusk as it started to stop spinning in midair. Just as the Grimm started to slow down and descend, Omi opened fire at the Boarbatusk, which squealed in pain when it was hit by the numerous arrows.
"The little partner's having fun." Clay mused as Omi changed his Shimo Staff into twin wheel blades, which he threw at the Boarbatusk just as the Grimm was slammed into the wall by the impact that the ice arrows had made. The boar-like Grimm was promptly sliced in half by Omi's weapons, disintegrating as Omi made his way towards the Grimm to collect his weapon.
"Bravo!" Professor Port said as a few members of the class applauded Omi's fight with the Grimm. "It seems that we are in the presence of a true Huntsman." Omi smiled at the experience Huntsman. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings and, stay vigilant. Class dismissed."
"Let's hope that Omi doesn't let that praise get to his head, that's the last thing we need to deal with right now." Raimundo sighed as he stood up, his eyes staying on Team RWBY, though Weiss stormed out of the classroom angrily, leaving the rest of her team behind. Omi however, was giving the rest of his team a delighted look, while the remainder of Team RWBY gave each other looks.
-x-
"I was most magnificent!" Omi declared cheerfully as they walked with Jaune to meet up with the rest of his team. Jaune seemed a little nervous, but Raimundo felt that it was only due to a lack of confident in his own fighting ability.
"So, how did you guys get to be so strong anyway?" Jaune asked Team ROCK, who looked at the leader of Team JNPR curiously. "I mean, you seem to be so strong that you almost leave us behind in your shadow. If we don't start getting stronger soon, then we'd never catch up to you guys."
"It's simple really." Raimundo told his fellow leader. "We train. We train and push ourselves to our very limits so that one day we might be able to claim that we can be the very best." Raimundo created a ball of wind in his hand. "Of course, we also have some pretty cool semblances as well, but we've also been training since we were kids, I can't say for Omi, but for Clay, Kimiko and I, we're been training for at least seven years."
"I've been training since I was five." Omi declared proudly, causing Raimundo to roll his eyes.
"What I'm trying to tell you, is that while you should train as much as you can to get stronger, you should also train with others. I've trained with Kimiko, Clay and Omi ever since I started training. With my teammates I knew if I was becoming the weaker of the team and when I had to improve." Raimundo told Jaune, who frowned in thought.
"So, I should train with my teammates if I want to get stronger?"
"Of course." Kimiko answered this time. "It's also really fun when you have someone training with you, it never hurts to have different opinions on your fighting style in order to become stronger. I set these guys on fire all the time." Kimiko smiled innocently as she told Jaune the last part, causing him to pale slightly.
"That only happens when she either gets upset with us or we weren't good enough to dodge her attacks." Raimundo attempted to ease Jaune's fears, but the blond nodded nervously.
"I'm going to find Weiss, I'll see you later partners." Clay tilted his hat before he left in the direction that he had spotted Weiss storming off in. Raimundo watched the Texan leave, before he sighed.
"I better make sure that Ruby is alright, I have a bad feeling that she be on the receiving end of a tongue lashing that'll no doubt upset her." Raimundo told the group. Kimiko nodded.
"You best get a move on then." She pulled Raimundo in a kiss before she let him go. "Catch you later?"
"Yeah." Raimundo waved as he left the group, but he wasn't able to stop himself from snickering when he heard Omi's question.
"Why would you need to catch him? Will he be falling?" It was times like this that he found amusement in Omi's confusion.
-x-
"Ozpin made a mistake." Clay frowned when he heard the final parts of Weiss lecturing of Ruby, though if he had to be honest, it sounded more like that Weiss was jealous of the fact that Ruby was made the leader of their team instead of her. He felt Raimundo arrive just as Weiss stormed off, though he gave his leader a questioning glance.
"You go talk to Weiss, I'll talk to Ruby." Raimundo offered to Clay, who frowned before nodding. Perhaps he could part on some wisdom over to the Schnee Heiress if she did use him to get rid of any pent up anger that she was still no doubt holding back, because despite everything, even she wasn't to just let everything out on her partner.
"Weiss, wait up." Clay called out to the heiress, who frowned when she realised who was calling for him.
"Great, what do you want?" She didn't sound pleased to see him, though that could just be because she was still in a bad mood. "I had wanted to prove myself to Professor Port and show that I was the person that should be the leader of Team RWBY, but your partner, Omi stopped me from doing that."
"I merely wanted to talk to you." Clay replied, Weiss simply rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Great, you've talked to me, now can you just leave me alone?" The Schnee Heiress started to walk off.
"You want acknowledgement that you feel you deserve, yet you're upset that you're not getting it." Weiss stopped in her tracks. "Have you ever thought that you need to act differently from a company heiress when you're with your team? That you need to –"
"Will you just stop talking?!" Weiss snapped angrily, glaring viciously at Clay, who remained unfazed. "What gives you the right to talk to me like that? You don't know anything about me! How could you possible know how I feel?!" Clay frowned at her words, true he wasn't the company heiress like Weiss was, but that didn't change the fact that her attitude wasn't the greatest example in the world.
"You seem like you're used to getting everything you wanted, but is that really something that you can be prove of? Yes you didn't become the leader of your team, but surely you can benefit from this setback. I was overlooked as the team leader of Team ROCK, not once, but twice. Raimundo was always picked as the leader of our group over the last three years." Clay told Weiss, who looked surprised by how much he was telling her. "Yet we all accepted this setback and worked harder than ever to improve ourselves and become better overall, despite having setbacks, we didn't let that stop ourselves from supporting Raimundo and ensuring that our team became the best that it could become.
"You didn't get upset about being overlooked?" Weiss asked him, looking curious by what his response might have been.
"The only person who might have been upset at first was Omi, but he's long accepted the fact that he won't be the leader of the group. When the four of us trained together, Raimundo was the last person of our group to get promoted at first, but he grew from the experience, even if he needed a helping hand along the way." Clay answered, before he sighed. "So tell me, what's stopping you from flourishing as a member of Team RWBY, if you're not the leader, then work on being the best teammate, so your teammates know that they can rely on you when they might struggle."
Weiss frowned thoughtfully, taking in his words. Sure she might have been upset at first, but after hearing Clay tell her his own experiences, it gave her some ideas for what she could do to help make Team RWBY the best team in Beacon.
"I see…" Weiss looked at the Texan. "Was there anything else that you were after?"
"Now that you mention it, I was going to ask you about Dust and how it works. I was hoping to get the opinion of an expert on the subject."
-x-
When Clay left to confront Weiss, Raimundo made his way to Ruby, who he could say was his junior in both experience and age when it came to team leadership. Still, he wasn't going to just let the young leader suffer in silence, what Weiss had told her would have no doubt dented her confidence considerably and would continue to plague her if it was left unchecked. He trusted Clay to sort Weiss out, it was only right that he helped Ruby out.
"You want to talk?" Raimundo asked Ruby, who looked slightly ashamed at the fact that he had probably seen her being told off by her partner, but she nodded anyway. "You know, when I first became the leader of Team ROCK, I was a terrible leader. I didn't know what to do, what to expect or how to prepare myself for the role. One moment I was training with my team as usual, the next I suddenly had this massive burden thrust upon my shoulders, and no idea what to do with it.
"How have you been a leader before?" Ruby sounded confused by the declaration, to which Raimundo merely smiled.
"I've had two masters before I came to Beacon Academy, one of them was stern but fair, he treated us equally even though we came from different backgrounds. He pointed out our flaws and told us how to improve ourselves, for we were just children back then, we had no idea what to expect." Raimundo sighed as he remembered Master Fung, his favourite teacher, the man who opened his eyes to the possibility of what he could do. "Our second master though, he was a different story. At first, in his eyes we were insignificant, not even worth his time. However, when he finally met us, he took interest in us and eventually after our first master died, he took us under his wing, training us so we could become the stronger warriors in order to spread his name across the world, to help with his ambitions."
Raimundo sighed when he realised what he was doing. "However, it was our second master that made me the leader, and at first Omi resented me for it, claiming that he should have been the leader instead, but it was over time that I gained his respect when I learnt how to be a leader myself. I learnt that it takes time to become a good leader, if we're not given the chance to grow as a leader and to improve then we will never truly improve."
They sat in silence, Ruby processing his words and Raimundo pondering on the past and what he could have done differently. Sure if it wasn't for Chase Young and his ambition for conquering numerous worlds, then Team ROCK wouldn't have met and befriended Teams RWBY and JNPR, but at the same he didn't want his new friends to get hurt, both physically and mentally by what was to come. Raimundo knew that Chase Young wouldn't just sit around and do nothing in his day, he knew that the man who belonged to the side of evil was planning around and building ahead for his schemes.
Raimundo knew that eventually Chase would either have all of the pieces of the puzzle for his plans, and would one day make his presence known. It was only a matter of time.
"Raimundo… I need to tell you something that happened last night."
-x-
"Wait, Chameleon-Bot came into your room disguised as a cat?" Kimiko asked Yang, who looked away rather sheepishly. Blake merely glared at the blond. This told Kimiko that Yang might have been the one that allowed the robot access into their room. "What did Chameleon-Bot say to you?"
"The robot said something about its' creator having plans for us, though I have no idea who it was that made it in the first place." Blake looked irritated by the lack of knowledge she had on the subject.
"The creator is Chameleon-Bot is none other than Jack Spicer. Your leader Ruby Rose would have seen him on the night that my team met her for the first time, but if you need knowledge on Jack Spicer, then I'll let you know anything you need to know. If only so you can prepare yourself for whenever he does attempt one of his numerous schemes."
-x-
It was late at night, all of Team RWBY were asleep in their beds when suddenly a tear in space opened up and out stepped Jack Spicer, who had the Golden Tiger Claws on his wrist thanks to a wooden sleeve attached to the Shen Gong Wu. He looked around the room with curiosity as the tear in space closed itself.
"Huh, this room looks different. They didn't have poorly made bunk beds last time Chameleon-Bot was here." Jack inspected the room. "All I need to do is cut the ropes and we'd have one crushed Schnee, but that would be far too easy." Jack took out the Shadow of Fear. "Well now, let's see what you're all afraid of. Shadow of Fear." Jack Spicer grinned evilly as he entered Weiss Schnee's dreams.
-x-
So that's another chapter finished.
Personally, I feel that I could have done better with this, but honestly after this chapter, I plan on doing something original.
Jack Spicer and the Shadow of Fear was just the beginning of it.
I've got the whole idea planned out, but it's just a matter of actually implementing it.
Hell, Blake discovering Chameleon-Bot was a bit earlier than planned, as is Jack using the Shadow of Fear, but there you go.
Here's a question though, do you want me to show you the dreams where their fears are shown, or should I draw it out like Xiaolin Showdown did?
Honestly, I've got the fears for Blake and Yang sorted out, but it's Ruby and Weiss that I'm completely sure about just yet.
Though there is one thing I will say, expect an actual Xiaolin Showdown to happen soon.
Still, I know how I plan on ending the first season, but it's just a matter of actually writing it out and making sure that it works.
I just hope that you like it honestly.
Let me know what you think about this chapter, it'll be nice to get some feedback.
Until next time goodbye and goodnight.