Chapter 9: Team Names
In which Cardin learns the true meaning of friendship, Russel meets the Headmaster, and Blake finally becomes part of the team.
Today was just the worst. First, a crazy hammer chick had forced a dweeb to look at him and be his partner. Then, after he refused to let this green and pink looking guy grab him, the chick had smashed his head open. When he woke up dazed, upside down, and choking on smoke, the world around him was on fire, and this insane Grimm was staring right at him. Even now, on the bullhead, he was still trying to rub Grimm eye-spit off his pauldrons.
Nora was chattering away to her pet loser, Sky Lark. Her bubbly personality had resurfaced when the Professor piloting their bullhead received the radio message that all students were alive and accounted for. Cardin tried his best to be upset with her, but it was difficult to do so when she carried him, still barely conscious, out of the fires. Then again, she was the one who'd pounded his skull and knocked him out in the first place. His head still stung from the blow.
Fuck this stupid ginger bitch. Fuck her stupid shitty hammer. Fuck her stupid sexy thighs.
Woah. Where did that come from?
The pink-eyed gay guy who'd wanted to fondle Cardin tapped his shoulder, interrupting his thoughts on Nora.
"It's my mace! I swear, it's my mace sticking out of my pocket!" Cardin lied.
"What?"
"Nothing!"
"I was going to ask if you were still in any pain from the head wound we inflicted on you. If you'd like, I can use my semblance to dull any pain–"
"Stop trying to get handsy with me, you creep!'
The freak's emotionless face remained emotionless, but Cardin though he detected a hint of disgust. "I've no ulterior motives. I just need to make physical contact."
"I'd bet you want to, you…"
Cardin winced as his headache worsened.
"...fine. Just don't get any ideas."
As soon as the finger hand pressed against his neck, Cardin felt a weight lift off of him. The pain flew away, and it took the anger and fear he'd been feeling with it. Cardin had never felt so light, so free. His shoulders relaxed as he slumped back into his seat.
No longer distracted by the worry he'd been feeling, Cardin was free to gaze about the cabin. He recognized the heiress to the SDC, Weiss Schnee, as she wept into her knees. A broken sword hilt was in one of her bleeding hands and a relic in the other. Cardin briefly worried about his own team lacking relics, but his concerns were swept away by another wave of his teammate's calming semblance. Cardin had seen Weiss be escorted aboard the bullhead with some girl dressed in black with a bow atop her head, but the two now sat with a significant distance separating them. The heiress was all alone as she heaved out frightened sobs. How pathetic. How pitiful. How…
"Hey, uh…dude."
"My name is Lie Ren."
"Lie, thanks for–"
"I go by Ren."
Cardin's brain would've hurt if the man causing his headache weren't also relieving it. "Ren. Thank you for the semblance and all, but I think I can live with a headache. That girl – her name is Weiss – she looks like she's in need of this more than I am."
"I understand. Thank you for making me aware."
Ren's hand left Cardin as he got up. Cardin felt the pain and anxiety return, but there was something else. He felt…nice.
Russel Thrush sat before the headmaster in his office in Beacon. Ozpin had requested individual debriefs with each student who'd seen the messed up Grimm after several teams had reported its existence to him. Russel initially felt some fear about a one-on-one interview with the big bossman, but it went away quickly when Ozpin was more interested in details about the Grimm and the fire than he was about Russel personally.
"And when you exited the cavern?"
"The whole forest was on fire!"
"Did you see the strange Grimm again that night?"
"I'm not sure…maybe? We ran into two girls, and one of them had some anti-Grimm semblance that turned every Grimm she looked at into solid stone. We were all trying to escape the flames so fast that I didn't have time to even look at the dead Grimm, let alone check if they were that…that thing."
"So, the only time you saw it was when you jumped down and trapped your team in the cave?"
"My job was to…you see, Jaune said…it wasn't–"
"Fret not, Mister Thrush. I was not accusing you of cowardice. I just want to get as detailed a description of whatever it was that attacked you as I could."
"I barely saw it. I think its arms had fins or something. You should ask the others, they fought it."
"I've already spoken to them, but it's possible you caught a glimpse of something they didn't. Thank you for coming, Russel. Your courage and skill may very well have saved your team's lives."
Russel got up and walked to the elevator where Professor Goodwitch stood. Unlike Ozpin, she was scary, and she knew it. However, in the wake of this incident, she was behaving far more sympathetically towards her pupils.
"Wait!"
Both the teachers' eyes fell upon Russel.
"I saw its eyes for a second," Russel said. "They were – well, they oozed out some black liquid. That's all."
"I see. Goodbye, Mister Thrush."
"Would Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao-Long, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee please come forward?"
Blake, her partner, and two other girls rose and approached the stage. Schnee had been borderline catatonic when Blake found her at the ruins. Even now, hours after the incident, she kept her eyes downcast.
Headmaster Ozpin, coffee in hand like always, smiled reassuringly at the girls as they approached the stage. "The four of you retrieved the golden knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RYBW or Rainbow, led by Ruby Rose."
Blake glanced to her right. Ruby Rose bounced up and down in excitement. Her team was going to be led by a literal child. Dust, this was going to be a problem.
Her quartet walked off the stage as the next team was introduced.
"Pyrrha Nikos. Dove Bronzewing, in absentia. Russel Thrush. Jaune Arc. You were unable to collect a relic but joined forces to face a foe unlike any we've seen before. The true bonds of teamwork are those forged on the battlefield. From this day forward, you will work together as Team ADNR or Adventure, led by Jaune Arc."
"Huh? Me? Not Dove or Pyrrha?"
Blake saw the bumbling young hunter get congratulated by those around him. Ozpin shook his hand, Pyrrha gave him a kiss on the cheek, and Russel, grinning, also gave him a kiss on the cheek. Their fourth teammate, Dove Bronzewhatever, was missing.
As the crowd cheered for Team Adventure, Blake's team took their seats beside her in the auditorium. A snooty bitch who'd hate Blake if she knew of her Faunus heritage, a blonde bimbo cracking some pun about her hair being the pot of gold at the end of their rainbow, and a baby currently munching on a cookie. Things were not going the way she'd hoped, but Blake wasn't one to back down from a challenge. She could make this work.
"Nora Valkyrie. Lie Ren. Cardin Winchester. Sky Lark. As with Team Adventure, your team has been decided by the unity and bravery you showed together rather than by relics. From this day forward, you will work together as Team NRWL or Narwhal, led by–"
"Nope!"
A hush fell over the student body. Ozpin peered curiously towards his interrupter. "I beg your pardon, Miss Valkyrie?"
"I said nope. I didn't blindfold Sky for two hours or kidnap Cardin just to be the leader of Team bitch-ass unicorn fish." She stepped forward and addressed the stunned audience directly, hammer in hand. "From this day forward, we will work together as Team CVSL or Castle, led by Queen of the Castle Nora Valkyrie."
Ozpin ambled off the stage, dumping his coffee over a nearby potted plant. "Sure, why not?"
With the last team named, Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch addressed the student body. "Thank you for those… kind remarks, Miss Valkyrie. Now, as you are all aware, the initiation ceremony was interrupted by a wildfire that burned down the majority of the Emerald Forest. All students behaved courageously, but Beacon Academy would like to extend its thanks to several particular students for their assistance in controlling the situation."
"Mister Dove Bronzewing. Mister Bronzewing cannot attend this ceremony as he is still recovering from over-exhaustion of his aura from continued and strenuous application of his semblance. Thanks to Mister Bronzewing's aid with the search and rescue efforts, all students were rescued without any life-threatening injuries. Next, Miss Pyrrha Nikos."
Upon hearing her name, the champion of Mistral rose and bowed respectfully. "Miss Nikos prevented a bullhead full of students from crashing with the use of her semblance. She saved eleven lives from certain death. Third, Miss Ruby Rose."
Blake's team leader uncomfortably stood up. She looked ready to wilt like her namesake under the attention and muttered something about normal knees.
The deputy headmistress either ignored her discomfort or remained oblivious. "Miss Rose was able to destroy approximately 150 creatures of Grimm and clear out an evacuation zone for several evacuation aircrafts to land. If not for her efforts, this disaster could have escalated to a catastrophe. Fourth, Mister…"
The professor continued to rattle off names, but Blake couldn't hear them. This little girl destroyed that many Grimm? How could they even count them during the chaos? It wasn't as though the bodies could be counted when the smoke cleared – they usually were the smoke.
Blake snapped back to reality as the names and honors concluded. "You all have demonstrated the spirit of true hunters. Now, rumors have circulated among the student body about the cause of this disaster, and I shall put them to rest here. The fire began during a confrontation between a huntsman team and a creature of Grimm with mutated body parts. Information around this Grimm is limited, but rest assured that the Beacon staff and local huntsmen and huntresses are tracking it down to destroy it."
Several mutters could be heard throughout the auditorium, but Goodwitch silenced them with a stern glare. "Please pay attention, children. Until we have confirmation of a kill, teams will not be permitted to visit the following areas without supervision: the Emerald Forest, Forever Falls, the Sky Island–"
"That's not fair!"
"We need to go out to train!"
"It's just a Grimm. We could help kill it!"
Of course, Blake thought. Arrogant humans so confident in their own superiority that they can't even–
"IT'S NOT JUST A GRIMM!"
It was Weiss who screamed this revelation over the clamors of outraged students. Blake realized it was the first time the heiress had spoken since they were rescued together.
"It's not just a Grimm. It could speak."
A human two rows back laughed dismissively. "Grimm can't speak."
That castle girl, Nora, shouted back, "She's right, it wasn't a Grimm. It had an aura." Two of her teammates nodded in approval.
"It understood what my teammates and I were saying. It reacted when we spoke," said the dumb blonde – not her teammate, the other one. What was his name…oh yeah, John.
The naysayers stopped protesting as multiple students backed up the heiress' claims. Professor Goodwitch spoke, "Ahem. Regardless of its intelligence level, we know for sure that it is dangerous. Many of you survived this incident by the aid of your numerous peers or by sheer luck alone. That luck may not hold a second time. Now, please return to your dormitories. I'm sure that some time to unwind and acquaint yourselves with your new partners will be beneficial."
Blake followed her new team out of the amphitheater. One student may have mistakenly anthropomorphized a Grimm that showed above average intelligence, but three independent eyewitnesses ascribing such traits to it could not be ignored. She herself hadn't seen the Grimm, but rumors described it as some sort of enhanced Beowolf. An evolved Grimm, and it was hunting students like her and her team. Blake tried not to think about that as she accepted a cookie from her new team leader. The little girl acted kindly to her new friends, and Blake felt sympathy for such a poor soul that had to live in a world as cruel as theirs.
I apologize, my Queen. I have failed.
It is my own fault. You are new to your sapience and should not have been received such a complicated assignment without time to adjust. Besides, I do not believe you to have failed. The girl lives?
Weiss Schnee survived. She was in danger, but I protected her.
Danger?
Without her blade, she could not fight off some lower Grimm. She had been cornered by the fires…the fires that I lit.
Feel no shame, my child. You found her and protected her. That is all I asked of you. Did you return her weapon?
What was left of it. Part was lodged within a stone lower Grimm, and I had to break the remainder off to recover it.
Stone Grimm… a silver eyed one.
My Queen?
Fall back for now. Remain within the woodlands and await further instructions.
Shall I continue to follow the girl?
No. She is safe within the school. After your assault, Ozma will not doubt retreat to the walls of his castle and take his students with him. It would appear that the fires you lit have aided our cause.
I am pleased to have served you, Queen Salem.
Omake
Glynda: We'd like to give a special thanks to Cardin Winchester. Cardin, please stand.
Cardin: I can't stand up. I'm sitting next to Nora.
Nora: *nudges Cardin* You're supposed to rise for applause, silly!
Cardin: Something is definitely rising.
Omake 2
Glynda: Headmaster, Adventure and Castle aren't colors, nor do they remind you of them.
Ozpin: Glynda, I literally used up every color in the spectrum on Team Rainbow.
Omake 3
Ruby: Professor Ozpin, why is Team RYBW called Rainbow when the word rainbow doesn't have a Y?
Ozpin: Trwst me, it cowld have been mwch worse. *sips cup of CVFY*
Next Chapter: When Pigs Fly – In which Yang and Sky meet the teacher's pet, and Dove reaches the breaking point.
Author's Note: That's as far as we go today. Next update on Sunday. I apologize for the multiple re-uploads. It should all be set from now on.