Cyrus, Sebastian, Axel, and Damien walked into the auditorium, where a massive crowd had gathered to see the team-assignment ceremony. As they took their place, a voice shrieked from beside them.
"AXEL?!"
Absolutely flabbergasted, Axel turned to see who it was. His eyes widened.
"GEMMA?!" He exclaimed in confusion. "What are you doing he-" He couldn't finish his sentence as he was tackle-hugged by a short, blonde girl wearing a powder blue tee shirt under a light gray hoodie and dark jeans. The others reached for their weapons, but Axel wriggled his arm free and put a hand up to stop them.
"Hey, uh, Gemma? Would you mind getting up? I just got thrown around by a never-before-seen Grimm, and you're making my internal bleeding worse." Axel said, groaning. The girl let go, and stood up, blushing.
"Oops. Hehe. sorry. You know me, I get carried away."
Axel stood up slowly, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's fine. I'm pretty sure blood is supposed to be on the inside anyway." he motioned to his teammates. "So guys, this is my friend, Gemma. Her family runs a farmer's market store a few blocks away from my family's store. We kinda grew up together."
Gemma laughed and waved giddily, then turned back to Axel.
"It's sooooo good to see you!"
Axel chuckled nervously.
"Likewise, but you never answered my question," his nervous smile morphed into a stone-cold glare. "What in the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm training, silly!"
Axel's jaw dropped.
"You WHAT?!"
"I go here, brainiac. I got accepted just like you."
"I reiterate: YOU. WHAT?!"
"What? Is it really that hard to believe?"
"Kinda, yeah. Remember, we are talking about the same person who CRIED when her favorite bird stopped coming by your house."
"It was SAD."
"It wasn't even dead! It just started eating out of the neighbor's feeder!"
Gemma's expression turned dark for a moment.
"It chose them over me. How is that NOT sad?"
Axel put his hands to his temples and took a deep breath.
"Fine. whatever. But, how did you even pass initiation? I mean, do you have a team?"
"Of course I do." She gestured to the two other girls and a boy standing next to her.
"Hey, The name's Trucy Kirec," said the taller girl. She wore a short black dress with a lime green sash, a pointed hat tilted on her head. Used to live with my culture-heavy family, but I moved here to get more connected with modern society. My semblance basically just makes me harder to hit, but also allows me to charge my weapon, Master Spark," Trucy held up a small octagon-shaped wooden object, "and use about as many projectiles as you'd expect from your average zoner in a fighting game."
The other girl gave them all a warm smile. She had purplish-red hair tied in a ponytail and she wore a white collared shirt, the collar unbuttoned. She had a black suit jacket that was halfway buttoned worn over the shirt. Her pants were dark dress pants and she had steel-toed shoes on. She also was wearing black gloves. "My name's Ainsley Fuschia. It's a pleasure to meet all of you. My semblance works like a radar, and my weapon here is your old, run-of-the-mill sledgehammer."
Gemma took note of the final member approaching. "The old geezer here is-"
"I'm not old, Gemma! It's just my Faunus heritage!" The white haired boy with a white shirt and pants stepped up. "I'm Mola Bial. Born in Mistral, but moved to Vale with my parents when I was little. My semblance is temporary hypnosis. I can influence people for a short while as long as I can see them."
Ozpin's voice came over the loudspeaker:
"Mola Bial, Gemma Florentine, Ainsley Fuschia, Trucy Kirec."
"That's our cue," Gemma said with a nod, "See you around, Axel."
"Nice to meet you all," Axel said, "Please try to keep her out of trouble. It's no easy task, believe you me. Honestly, if you can manage that, you can handle any Grimm."
Mola nodded, and the group headed up to the stage. Axel turned back to his team, and took note of the disturbed, yet interested look Damien was giving to Mola. "What's up, Damien?"
"Mola. There's something he's not telling us."
"What makes you so sure?" Axel asked.
"When you live the way I do, or I should say used to, gotta learn to spot sketchy characters if you wanna make it as far as I did, and Mola's a walking red flag for a secret if I ever saw one."
"Really? What do you see?"
"I'll tell you later." Damien said as he noticed the team approach the front of the gymnasium.
"You retrieved the black bishop pieces." Ozpin continued, "From this day forth, you will work together as: Team Morganite (MGAT), led by: Mola Bial."
No sooner had the words left Ozpin's lips than Mola was enveloped by a patented "Gemma hug," in which the recipient gets hugged and subsequently gets jumped on, forcing them to either hold her up and accept the hug, or let the momentum throw both participants to the ground. Mola chose the latter. The rest of the group laughed as they picked him up and walked off the stage.
Ozpin cleared his throat and approached the center of the stage once again.
"Cyrus Platin, Sebastian Skobeloff, Axel Royal, and Damien Pyros…"
The boys walked off in formation, approaching Professor Ozpin on the stage.
"You retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forth you will work together as: Team Custard (CSRD), led by: Cyrus Platin."
The boys high-fived, and Axel looked off into the crowd. Sure enough, his father was right there, front row, with the camera. He smiled and waved, before turning back to celebrate with his team. Maybe things are starting to look up, he thought, as they walked offstage. He glanced at his new partners-in-crime. We're not the most prototypical bunch, but we just might make it.
At the same time, Sebastian gave some thought to his newfound position in life as well. We may just be a ragtag bunch of misfits, but I feel we'll all get along. Besides, we already have teamwork skills. I think. It's a new chapter here for you, Sebastian. Just as long as that one biatch doesn't show her face around Beacon, you should be fine.
Damien's thoughts were similar. You know, people kept telling me that I can only go so far alone. Maybe it's time I took the next step with these three together.
Cyrus was filled with hope and excitement as he looked at his new comrades. Having to constantly be ordered around back at Atlas was a pain. But now that I have my own life and my own teammates to lead, maybe things will start looking up for me.
The boys walked to the ballroom to pick up their belongings, and brought them to their assigned dorm room. When they got there, Cryus turned to the rest of his team.
"Alright guys. First thing we gotta do is unpack our stuff."
Sebastian laughed.
"Shouldn't be a problem for me," he said. "I only brought what I could carry with me. A few personal items, a couple snacks, a book… That's about it."
"Easy for you to say." Cyrus butted in. "I brought almost everything with me. Unpacking is gonna take all night!" he exclaimed as he tossed his multiple bags on the floor like a ton of bricks. Two of the suitcases opened up when they dropped to the floor, opening up and spewing out clothes and essential items. "Oh you have got to be shitting me!" Cyrus yelled as he collapsed to the ground, scrambling to pick up the fallen items.
It took a moment, but Sebastian noticed what exactly he was scrounging to pick up.
"Dude. Are those… drawings of Pyrrha Nikos? The girl from the cereal box?" he asked, holding back laughter.
"NO… Okay maybe…?" Cyrus replied sheepishly.
"Bro, you might want to take some art classes if they offer them." Damien said as he burst out laughing.
"THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" Cyrus bellowed. "SHUT UP!"
"The more you deny it, the more it looks like the truth, bud." Axel said with a snicker.
Cyrus finally managed to shove his "collection" back into the box from whence it came. Then, he turned back to his team with a maniacal glare. He points at all of them.
"You asshats are telling NO ONE about this," he said, "Unless you want to wake up with a few appendages missing!"
The team put their hands up in surrender and started to unpack their own belongings.
Damien just hopped onto his bed, as he didn't have any belongings. He sat there, watching everyone else with a smug little smirk on his face. Suddenly, he is pelted in the head by a rubber ball. He turned to see it land back in Axel's hand.
"Ow! What was that for?" Damien asked, rubbing his head where the ball hit him.
"Look, man," Axel responded, "I get that you're homeless and stuff, but you could at least help organize the room or something."
Damien gave a reluctant grunt and got up to help Cyrus sort through his belongings.
Sebastian looked at his teammates, smiling.
"It's gonna be nice to have roommates," he said, "I finally get to talk to people that aren't myself." He sat upright on his bed, tossing Siberia between his hands in excitement. "So what should we all do first? A game of rock-paper-scissors?" He took a moment to reflect on his poor choice of words. "Nevermind. I would win. Hmmm. How about a duel? You guys play?" he asked as he pulled out a deck of cards.
Axel's eyes lit up and he smiled deviously as he pulled his own deck from his suitcase.
"Only if you wanna lose." he sneered.
"Oh, you wanna freakin' RAZZLE DAZZLE?!"
"BRING IT."
The boys laughed and played cards until the early morning, until they finally decided to go to bed. They had class in the morning, after all.