Corridor to Beacon Bullhead Hangar, The morning after Professor Port's lesson
Blake Belladonna, Beacon Student and Ex-White Fang Operative
"Come on Blake! Our first real mission!" As she watched Ruby dashing forwards and back, like a toddler on it's first sugar rush, Blake found herself unable to reach the same level of enthusiasm the younger girl was exuding.
"Ruby, stop filling the corridor with petals. I know they disappear eventually, but we should not be creating more work for the staff!" Part of the reason her mood was subdued was Weiss' attitude, and from how Ruby cringed at the rebuke, it was clear Blake wasn't the only one affected.
Whatever progress had been made regarding Weiss' domineering attitude and bossy approach over the last few weeks seemed to have disappeared within minutes of them receiving the mission. Suddenly it was all 'prim and proper' again, which Weiss obviously saw as being professional, but everyone else just found irritating.
"Calm down Weiss-cream, the last thing you want to be showing to the other teams is an argument over something so small. Here we are!" Luckily, Blake's partner seemed to have become a little more serious as well, and this seemed to calm Weiss down a little.
The large corridor they were in served as the main conduit for all the bullhead traffic into Beacon, with both goods and people needing to pass through it on a daily basis. Therefore the corridor was wide enough to fit two forklift trucks next to each other, with some room on the side to spare.
The Hangars were spaced out on each side of the corridor, each having a large set of automatic doors for materials transport, as well as a smaller set of Oak doors for pedestrian access.
They were flying out of Hangar 7, and as Yang pushed open the doors with her usual… energy, Blake could already see team CVFY stood in front of one of the two Bullheads they were using for the three teams.
"Good to see you can stick to a schedule, you better get loaded up on th… Princess, please tell me you have a proper pair of shoes somewhere?" The woman wearing the Beret, that Blake knew from hearing her talk with Jaune of all people was called Coco, pointed rather authoritatively towards Weiss as she said this.
The fact that Weiss was wearing her usual platform heels had been something Blake had thought of mentioning whilst they were getting ready, having changed out of her own heeled boots for the pair of flats she always used for missions. But, given Weiss had already survived one trip into the Emerald forest with them and was grouchy enough as it was, she had decided to save herself the argument.
"What? These are perfectly functional shoes!" However, as Mount Weiss prepared to erupt in 'self defence', Blake wished she had pressed the point a little earlier.
To Blake's surprise though, Coco didn't press the point any further, merely raising a finger to pointedly move her tinted glasses properly into place before turning away with an amused huff.
"If you're sure Princess…" It was clear that Coco didn't approve, but as she and her team moved towards the bullhead it seemed she was going to let Weiss find out for herself how bad heels could be in rough terrain.
"Grr…" The growling noise from Weiss was quiet enough that Blake could only just make it out, but there was no way to miss the imperious glare and tensed shoulders as Weiss stalked forwards to the other Bullhead.
Given the senior team were there more as 'observers' rather than actual participants, team CVFY were going to stay in their Bullhead and stay airborne, whilst team RWBY and team JNPR spread out and cleared the Grimm on the ground. Ruby had brought up the risk of another Giant Nevermore attack, to which Coco merely patted her handbag, with the kind of self assured confidence that reminded Blake far too much of Adam when he was younger.
"Hello!" As Weiss stepped up into the Bullhead, Blake heard the polite greeting from Pyrrha before she moved round the tail of the aircraft enough to see team JNPR, who were already strapped in on one side of the aircraft.
"Oh… Good Morning." Obviously Weiss was very on edge with the mission, as she would never normally have let herself be so curt to the Mistrali girl.
The terse tone visibly shocked not just Pyrrha but her partner as well, whilst Blake hadn't interacted with Jaune as much as she had with her own team, the slight frown that crossed his face something that seemed to affect Weiss more than Pyrrha's shocked expression.
"Someone doesn't sound happy today! Which is weird, as we have a chance to go see if Mr Ursa had any friends! I can teach you all about Ursa riding!" The awkward moment was shattered as if a glass sheet hit head on by a large hammer, Nora's 'offer' drawing a few chuckles from both teams as the rest of team RWBY boarded the Bullhead.
The seat opposite Jaune was mysteriously avoided as the other three girls sat, something that Blake could tell was on purpose, just by the way Yang awkwardly looked away from her as she cast a questioning gaze in her direction.
With Yang sat on one side of the Bullhead, Blake found herself sat next to Weiss as they finished strapping in, the Beacon Pilot assigned to them stepping through from the cockpit to check they were all in place before beginning take off procedures.
As the Bullhead lifted off, it performed a slow turn before flying out of the hangar.
"That…!" Whilst the turn was standard procedure, the incensed exclamation from Weiss as they caught sight of Coco smirking at them from team CVFY's Bullhead, made Blake wish she had brought some headphones for the admittedly short trip…
[]{}#%^*+=_\
Emerald Forest, Just after 3pm.
Ren Lie, Beacon Student and member of team JNPR
"Renny. I'm tired… " The tired and whining tone of his childhood friend and partner made Ren's lips twitch up into the barest hint of a smile.
"Well, you did ignore Jaune when he said we should get the Grimm to come to us…" Despite his amusement, Ren moved over to help Nora, the normally peppy girl using Magnhild as a leaning post after dealing with the last two Beowolves that had charged into the area.
"But team RWBY were getting all the kills! We need to show our pride as team JNPR!" As part of the mission, the teams were being tracked using the camera system the staff had spread throughout the Emerald Forest, and their 'rating' at the end of the day would be based on the number of Grimm each team killed.
Ren knew that RWBY had certainly taken the lead on kills early on, the four girls spreading out from the landing zone and disappearing from sight within minutes. However, the sounds of gunfire and battle had died off significantly over the last two hours to almost nothing.
If it weren't for the communications checks every half an hour, as Coco had insisted upon before taking off once again, Ren would have been worried something had happened to them. Though given the haunting noises that were being played behind them, it wasn't as if team RWBY didn't know where to find them.
"Well I think Jaune has been helping even that score with his bagpipe thing, I think it's probably best if you take a break now Nora, Jaune did say he would give you the opportunity to have a go." The mention of trying to learn the rather unusual instrument seemed to inject some energy in Nora's tired form, as she hefted her hammer and jogged up the small rise team JNPR had made their 'home base'.
"Jaune-Jaune! Let me have a go with your Grimm attractor thingy! If we play it loud enough, we might even be able to get some more Ursa for me to teach you Ursa Riding with!" To his credit Jaune didn't immediately veto the idea of Ursa riding, though Ren suspected it was more that he didn't think it would become an issue rather than he thought Nora would actually be able to 'teach' them.
Whipping Stormflower round to decapitate a Millius, a Grimm centipede that was about the size of his arm, Ren took a moment to appreciate the position Jaune had picked and built up for them. He hadn't even waited for Coco to land, grabbing Nora and leaving him and Pyrrha to get the instructions.
The location he had picked was a small rise ending in an overhang, near the river canyon they had encountered in Initiation. It was only a 5-6 metre drop, but it meant that nearly all of the Grimm were moving round to attack up the hill rather than trying to climb the overhang.
Being attacked from effectively one side only made defensive fighting much easier, and there was no issue of running out of opponents once Jaune had finished setting up the half a dozen barricades he'd roughly hewn from the remnants of some fallen trees.
"Please rest Ren, I will handle things for a while…" As his 'relief' stepped forward, Ren actually got the feeling that Pyrrha and Jaune could probably have held this position indefinitely by themselves with little issue.
Unlike he and Nora, who fought in front of the barricades as they were far more mobile fighters even when fighting defensively, Pyrrha used the log piles as funnels into the whirling flurry of metal death that was her spear and shield. Given most of the Grimm they'd faced so far were weaker than Ursa Minors, when she and Jaune had been fighting they'd probably moved only a dozen or so times in the last 4 hours.
"Change of plan…" Jaune spoke up even as he showed Nora how to hold the bagpipes, waving his scroll when Ren arched an eyebrow in his direction.
"Team RWBY are running low on aura, and given how much they were using their weapons at the start I imagine they are short of ammo and dust as well. I think it's best we head out and bring them here before things get too dicey. Pyrrha and Nora should be able to hold the fort for now?" The two girls nodded, and Ren knew that even if tougher Grimm did appear the two of them would be okay, they hadn't used more than a quarter of their ammunition so far on Jaune's orders.
It made killing the smaller Grimm more annoying, but it seemed it was about to pay off, as it would allow them to work as pairs without exposing themselves to too much risk. As the two of them moved down the hill, Jaune activated the communication function on his scroll, putting in a call to Ruby.
It rang seven times and cut out without being answered, which wasn't a good sign, but the locator function still seemed to be working well enough for them to follow it. It only took a minute of jogging through the forest for Jaune to speak up in a manner that very clearly conveyed his concern for what he was seeing on his scroll.
"Her scroll location isn't moving, and she is a long way from the others…" The other members of team RWBY were spread out over the forest, clearly having split up to try and kill Grimm more efficiently.
"Should we call the rest of Team RWBY?" It was a somewhat uncertain question, Ren himself was juggling the pros & cons of such a notification, mostly revolving around a flaming blonde missile tearing apart the entire forest.
"Let's, let's check out Ruby's scroll location first. It's only been ten minutes since the last check-in and she seemed okay then." That was logical, but also quite a brave stance to take.
If something had happened to Ruby, Ren wasn't honestly sure they'd survive telling Yang about it afterwards. All the more reason to make sure they got there quickly then, as Ren moved from a jog into a steady run, Jaune falling in beside him as they moved through the quiet woodland.
It was several minutes later that Jaune indicated they should slow down, the two of them having fallen into a companionable silence as they moved and slew the occasional Grimm that had gotten in their way.
"According to her scroll, she's somewhere nearby…" Scroll location systems weren't exactly accurate, usually giving a general location within a few hundred metres rather than anything more specific.
It was clear that combat had occurred in the vicinity, the ground gouged by clawed feet and the mighty trees of the emerald forest covered in gaping cuts and scoring from weapons. It was recent too, Ren realised as he watched sap slowly drip from one of the nearby tree trunks.
"Ren!" Jaune's voice, from ahead and the right of Ren's position, had an urgent tone to it that made his neck hairs rise subconsciously even as he darted in the direction of the call.
Leaping onto the trunk of a freshly toppled tree trunk that was almost as wide as Ren was tall, he saw the reason why Jaune had sounded so concerned, buried in the knotted base of a particularly ancient tree on the opposite side of a small clearing.
Crescent Rose, in it's scythe form, was buried almost to the hilt in the trunk of the tree. And below it, screen cracked from where it had clearly been trampled more than once, was a bloodied scroll…
A/N: And scene! It's a short chapter, but given how long this one sat half finished, it's better than nothing!
If there is one thing that RWBY seems weak against, it's any kind of endurance battle. Nearly the entire team are glass cannons one way or another, and also rely A LOT on dust for their combat style. Ruby for example, is repeatedly noted to be useless without Crescent Rose.
This is exactly what I would expect to be picked up on by a combat school like Beacon, but nope, not an issue it seems…
Anyway, hopefully this has wetted my creative appetite for this story again. Will see what I can come up with!
Drop a review on the way out!
Defias Out!