Chapter 11: Field Trip
"A field trip tomorrow?" Sebastian looked at the notice on his scroll. "Professor Peach wants us to pick up sap in the Forever Fall forest. That sounds so fun." Sebastian made sure the rest of the team knew it was sarcasm.
"Yeahhhh, that may be my fault." Damien cut in, already looking apologetic.
"Why's that Damien?"
"See we weren't on the list for the field trip at first but I guess when I was helping her out, the jars of sap she had on her broke, sooooo-" Seabstian interrupted Damien.
"Do we need to get the amount of sap she lost?
"We need to get the amount of sap she lost, yeah." Damien said, trailing Sebastian's questions.
"Doesn't seem too bad. How many jars did you break?" Axel inquired.
Damien sharply inhaled. "Yeah….."
"Damien, how many jars did you break?" Cyrus pressed harder.
"I don't know. Ten, twenty. It got kinda hard to count when the shelf got knocked over."
Cyrus checked the other teams that were on the field trip to the Forever Fall.
"Problem with going there guys." He flipped his scroll around so everyone could see the list of teams on the trip. "Team CRDL is going. Which means they might try and kick our butts, because of a certain someone." Cyrus darted a mean eye at Sebastian who raised his arms up in defense.
"He made me punch him," Sebastian quickly said in a not so good attempt at explaining the reason why he punched Russel in the face.
"Uh huh." he said, turning his attention back to his scroll. "Besides that, I guess we can always stick by Team MGAT since they'll be there as well." Damien gives a wink at Axel who's mouth dropped open.
"Oh COME ON!"
"It isn't what it looks like and all of you know that. This isn't a cartoon where the boy hooks up with his childhood friend. So it won't happen. Not in a million years."
"If you're all done chatting about Axel's love interests," Sebastian said as he got the rest of his school uniform on, "we have a class to get to."
"I DON'T HAVE A LOVE INTEREST!" Axel screamed as Sebastian opened the door to go to class, revealing Team MGAT already in the hallway, stopped in their tracks, confused.
"You don't what?" Mola asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Axel sighed, and his head drooped.
"Nothing. Let's just go."
The rest of the team looked at each other, shrugged, and two groups left for class together.
While they were walking, Mola struck up a conversation.
"So, how's school going for you guys so far?" he asked.
"I'd say it's going pretty well," Cyrus replied, shooting Sebastian a dirty look, "despite some… hiccups... along the way…" Sebastian stuck his tongue out at him, mocking the remark. "I feel like we'll be fine once we work the kinks out."
Mola nodded.
"Yeah, same here. We had a few issues during training the past few days," he said, glancing at Gemma, who was pestering Axel, leaning in way too close and babbling incoherently. "But other than that, we're doing alright."
The two teams waved goodbye and went on to their classes.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, to Axel's relief. Outside of a turned heads in the hallway, no one seemed to be treating him differently after his little outburst that morning. No one except his teammates, of course. They'd felt it necessary to press the issue, taking every available opportunity to make a snide remark and jab about his situation with Gemma. Slowly, it began to eat away at him, and soon he found himself grinding his teeth during class just to keep from shooting sparks everywhere. As the bell rang at the end of their last class, Axel grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder, refusing to make eye contact with the others.
"You guys think you're a real riot don't you?"
"Maybe." Sebastian replied, chuckling like an ass.
Of course, Axel didn't like such an answer.
"Why do I have to be the one with girl issues?!" Axel yelled out to himself, looking for an answer from anyone.
"You're not the only one, Axel." Sebastian took out several paper notes that were all crinkled in his back pocket. "Apparently girls here have a thing for 'bad boys', whatever that means. I mean, seriously. Why do they all need to give me their number?!" Sebastian scratched his hair in frustration.
"So I take it all of Beacon knows you punched a member of Team CRDL, eh?" Damien interjects.
"Yeah."
"At least things can't get worse from here right?" Cyrus hoped that the field trip would turn out swimmingly.
"You mean like Axel's love interest problems?" Sebastian laughed in Axel's direction.
"I hate you all." Axel laughed back as the team returned to the dorms.
As the team got back to their room, Axel pulled Cyrus off to the side, and they broke off from the rest of the group. The two whispered back and forth for a minute, then started walking off down the hall. Axel turned back and yelled back to the rest of the group.
"Hey guys, meet us outside in like three hours, ok?" He said, turning the corner, out of sight. Damien and Sebastian looked at each other, shrugged, and went inside.
Later that night, Damien and Sebastian left the room to go to the courtyard, confused and trying to figure out what was going on.
"Dude, do you have any idea what's up with them?" Sebastian asked.
Damien shrugged.
"I'm as clueless as you," Damien replied. "They could be waiting outside with a water hose to spray us with or something, I don't know."
Sebastian laughed.
"I know I'm a cat and all, but I don't hate water THAT much."
The two opened the door to go outside, and cautiously made their way to the courtyard. It was dark except for a single lamppost, and there were no signs of Cyrus or Axel. Even Sebastian, who's cat eyes were accustomed to night vision, saw nothing. They looked at each other, shrugged again, and took a few steps toward the light. Suddenly, the lamppost began to spark, then the light exploded with a blinding flash, going out entirely. The boys went back-to-back, drawing their weapons. Sebastian rubbed his eyes, still stunned from the flash. When he reopened them, a figure appeared in front of him. His vision still hazy, he couldn't make out who it was.
"Uh, guys?" Damien said, "this isn't funny."
Sebastian nodded.
"Yeah, and if this is some kind of sick retribution for me punching Russel, I'll tell you right now I'll do the same to you too!"
A shot rang out in the distance, landing between the two boys, and they both rolled opposite directions, taking cover.
"Seriously, guys, someone could get hurt!" Damien shouted, growing more agitated by the minute. Another shot rang out, and Damien grunted in frustration, igniting his sword. He started waving his flaming sword around to use it like a torch, trying to get a good look around to try and spot their assailant. The next shot clanged off of his sword, and that was where Damien had had enough. He expanded the flame from his sword to and sent it into the air like a flare, then sent a massive fireball screaming over toward where he believed the shots were coming from. However, the ball exploded, seemingly in midair.
Meanwhile, Sebastian was scanning the trees and rooftops, his night vision restored. He threw Siberia out into the trees and used his semblance to move it in a sweeping motion, flying through all the trees to drive out whoever might be in them. He brought the ball back, and threw it again, at the rooftops this time, only for it to stop in midair, just like Damien's fireball. He brought the ball back, and yelled out to Damien.
"They're on the rooftops over there!" he yelled, pointing. "They're protecting the buildings, so that's got to be where they are!"
Damien nodded, and turned his sword into a rifle.
"I'm on him." he said, taking aim. Sebastian stopped him.
"Wait," he said, "I've got an idea."
Damien sighed, transforming his gun back into a sword.
"What did you have in mind?"
"You throw two fireballs over that way, and I'll throw Siberia on a curveball arc the opposite way, and no matter what side they defend, one of them has to get through!"
"Sound's good to me," Damien said with a smile as he ignited his sword once more. As he planned, Damien conjured two fireballs, and launched them at the roof. Sebastian reached back and launched Siberia the opposite direction, and arced it around. The fireballs exploded in midair again, but this time Siberia got through. There was a loud crack, and a noise was heard from the rooftop.
"AAAAAARGHH!"
It was Axel's voice.
Sebastian retrieved Siberia and sighed.
"Ok guys, you might as well come out before I give Axel even more brain damage."
Axel's voice rang out in the distance.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't!"
Damien and Sebastian walked over by the front of their dorm, and Axel walked up, holding his head.
"You couldn't have aimed a little lower?" he asked, groaning in pain. "I don't think my ears should be ringing, especially after this long."
"I couldn't exactly see you, man. You were on the rooftop." Sebastian replied.
"Yeah, and seriously. What the hell was that?" Damien chimed in.
"It was a test." Cyrus's voice said, as the rest of the group turned to see him walking up. "Axel and I thought it would be a good opportunity to train with someone other than our partners. You guys did very well, if I do say so myself."
"You couldn't have given us a little heads up first?!" Damien said, annoyed. "I could have burned a building down!"
Cyrus laughed nervously.
"Yeah, it definitely could have been done a little bit more carefully, but we couldn't tell you. Or else, you guys wouldn't have acted the same. If you knew it was us, you would have held back."
Sebastian and Damien looked at each other one last time, shrugged, and the group walked inside and back to their dorm room for the night.
The next day, the various teams of students were being led through Forever Fall by Professor Goodwich.
"Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing it." As Glynda stopped to get everyone's attention, Sebastian looked back and couldn't help but notice Team CRDL staying all the way in the back, along with that Jaune kid from Team JNPR for some reason. "Looks like Cyrus's concerns may have been for nothing if they're gonna be picking on Jaune today." Damien piped in.
"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the Creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4:00. Have fun!"
"Well, we'd better get started." Cyrus lead the group into a clearing with several trees, giving each member a jar. "Best we get done with this as fast and as painless as possible."
"Painless?" Axel tilted his head, confused. "The only thing out here that could attack us are probably smaller Grimm. Unless you're assuming the trees are gonna start attacking us?" Damien laughs as he collects sap, but manages to drop the jar halfway through.
"I mean wouldn't that be funny? Imagine: the trees start attacking us because we're taking sap from them."
"It would be pretty hilarious." Sebastian chimed in filling the rest of his jar. He heard a distant noise from the trees and abruptly turned around. He set his jar down and stood up, peering into the view of all the trees, scanning for anyone. His eyes came across a figure standing part way behind a tree. The figure looked at Sebastian and disappeared into the shaded woods.
"Hey! Wait!" He yelled at the unknown person he saw and headed deeper into the red forest also disappearing from view. The rest of Team CSRD notices Sebastian's absence and they all try to call him, but to no avail. Inside the thick woods, Sebastian, determined to find the mystery person, calls to them again. He received no answer back. He continued searching for a few minutes only to give up and head back when he saw them again, this time getting a better look. It was a girl. She wore a short sleeved striped shirt with a jacket over it. The jacket bore an insignia that Sebastian was all too familiar with. The rest of Team CSRD emerges to find Sebastian, surprising him. He glanced around again. The girl he noticed had vanished without a trace.
"Ah! Don't scare me like that guys!"
"Don't scare you?" Cyrus gave Sebastian a worried look. "Don't scare us! You disappeared on us for almost 10 minutes!"
"Yeah dude. What gives?" Damien added.
"Look I thought I saw someone in the woods and I tried to look for them. I should have let you guys know. That's my bad." Sebastian looked down, his eyes looking sad.
"Hey man, it's alright." Axel put his arm on Sebastian's shoulder. "Just let us know these things, okay?"
"Yeah."
"And if anything is wrong, you can tell us."
"Right. I'm just not used to the whole teammate thing quite yet."
"It's all good. We're here for ya," Axel reassured him.
"Not to cut this short, but we should get back to our sap collecting duties." Cyrus pointed behind him to get the team back on track. They work their way back to the clearing they were in before, only to find Team MGAT fighting.. trees? Team CSRD just stood there, bewildered.
"Didn't we all say we would find it funny if the trees started attacking us?" Axel just stared at the big lumbering trees attacking Team MGAT.
"Well we'd better help them." Cyrus sighed as he readied his weapon, the rest of the team following suit before swooping in to help.
"Need assistance you guys?"
"Axel? You're here too?" Gemma looked back at Axel right as the tree swung at her.
"Look in front of you, genius!" Axel yells at her to get her attention. Gemma turns back around in the nick of time, using her semblance to harden herself and protect her from the branch. Axel took a deep breath and went to help her out. The rest of Team CSRD split up to help out a different team member from Team MGAT. Sebastian went to help Mola, while Damien with Ainsely, and Cyrus with Trucy. Each duo had to fight their own respective tree. Axel used his semblance in pair with Gemma's bow, lighting their tree on fire. Then, he switched his staff into sniper mode, taking shots at the Grimm face plate while the tree began to crumble and turn to ash and burnt wood. Sebastian and Mola combined their semblances to gain full control of their tree, forcing it to bash itself to pieces. Damien and Ainsley dodged the lumbering tree swings and continuously unloaded rounds of ammunition into it, until it started to bow. They each switched their weapons into sword and hammer form, slicing and bashing the tree until it broke apart. Cyrus and Trucy took turns in blocking and dodging, while getting in attacks here and there until the tree gave out. After the now dead trees lay about, rotting and decaying, Geists all jumped from the remains, flying into the sky. In sync, everyone proceeded to unload their weapons, shooting them down.
"That wasn't so bad after all." Ainsely swung her sledgehammer over her shoulder, looking confident in their combined victory.
"We could have handled it ourselves, but the help was appreciated." Mola stuck his hand out and Cyrus shook it.
"No problem. We were in the neighborhood afterall." Cyrus took a look at the ground, seeing shattered jars of sap in the grass. "But now we have to get sap all over again."
"That we do," Damien said.
Sebastian looked to Ainsley for a question.
"Ainsley can I ask for a favor?"
"What is it Sebastian?" She tilted her head in reply.
"Can you use your semblance to scan the forest over there for anyone?" He pointed in the direction he wanted scanned.
"I sure can! But it'll cost you eventually." She gave him a wink and a smile. Her eyes turned black and white and she began to concentrate on her surroundings. She took a minute, standing completely still looking where Sebastian pointed to. She stopped after a while, her eyes returning to their natural color and she gave him a shrug. "I got nothing for you Sebastian."
"I see." He looked away from her for a moment, his face displeased. "Thanks anyway."
"Not a problem! And remember you owe me a favor now!"
The teams wave goodbye to each other as they all return to the task at hand.
At night the team lay in their beds looking at the news they got on their scrolls. Damien engaged the conversation.
"Seems we got some free time because of this whole Vytal Festival going on."
"Man that's gonna be so nice," Axel replied, stretching out his arms.
Sebastian just looked at the ceiling, remembering the figure he saw in the woods earlier in the day.
"You good Sebastian?" Cyrus rolled over and looked at Sebastian worried.
"Me? Oh yeah. Just tired is all."
"Alright. We best all get some sleep for tomorrow then. 'Cause we are gonna PARTY at the festival!"