Well, this was sooner than I expected.
But given that RWBY Season 2 has been announced, I figured I'd give a little gift to my readers.
Chapter 9: I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again
"OhcrapohcrapohcrapOHCRAP!"
Flying through the air, more details of initiation began to return to me. Including how students were dropped into the forest. Flying through the air, arms and legs uselessly flailing in panic, I tried to find a way to the ground that didn't involve me becoming a pasty red mess spattered on the Emerald Forest floor.
I managed to spy a tree, taller than most, and a thought began whirring in my head. Immediately, I flicked my wrist twice, forming the crossbow on my right wrist, and cocked the weapon. Aiming, I let fly at the tall tree, and a grappling barb attached to a thin wire shot out of the weapon, much like a harpoon. I prayed it would make a good anchor.
A second later, my right arm was nearly wrenched from my body, and my course of flight changed. Screaming in pain and terror, I could only watch as I circled the tree uncontrollably, once, twice, three times, drawing closer to the trunk. Right before I hit the tree, I felt a cable slip over my body, and as I slammed into the wooden monument, I found out that somehow, I had managed to tie myself to the tree, seven stories from terra firma.
"Something tells me I did not think this through..." I whispered to myself. As I futilely struggled against my own bindings, I heard gunshots reverberate through the forest, and creatures roaring. While the logical thing to do was to stay up here and wait till the danger had passed, a part of me wanted to get down to the ground and help slay monsters.
Fortunately for me, my left forearm managed to escape being entangled, and I still had the weapon ready. Flicking the blades forward, making the double edged sword, I tried to reach up to the wire that imprisoned me, and attempted to cut it. The first time, I only ended up grazing my shoulder. The second, a part of the wire had managed to fray.
"Come on, come on..." I muttered to myself. And with one final swipe, the wire snapped in two, releasing me.
"YES!" I let out a triumphant yell. But as I looked down, I realised another part I had not thought about: getting to the ground. As I fell, I impacted on a tree branch, causing it to snap. I continued to fall, slamming stomach first on another branch. It, too, broke from the tree, and I continued falling. As I angled myself upright, I managed to get another branch, this time hitting me in the... special place.
A strangled screech escaped my lips, quickly giving way to a loud roar of pain I assumed could be heard from a kilometer away. The pain burning in that region made me wonder two things: first, why I had not thought of anything beyond firing that cable. And the second thing that flashed through my mind was the most important question I had ever asked: Did Remnant offer testicle transplants?
Frozen in pain, I slid off of the branch which had robbed me of the chance to ever have kids, only to be tangled in vines, caught in them like a net. As I descended through the trees, I prayed the vines wouldn't be able to hold my weight. Unfortunately, the creepers held fast, suspending me above the ground by about double Cardin's height. I saw two people approaching: one with golden hair, and another with black hair.
"You know, that Ursa wasn't that tough. I could have taken him."
"Still, it had it's attention focused on you. I had a shot. I had to take it."
Blake and Yang. Clearly they had taken down the Ursa, and were now looking for the temple. They hadn't seen me yet, so I somehow had to get their attention.
"Hey, ladies? Little help here?" I tried to speak, but all that emerged was a muffled voice: a large vine had been caught in my mouth, too large and wedged in too deep for me to spit out. Plus my hands were also entangled in vines, so I couldn't grip the plant that had invaded that particular orifice.
"Blake, you hear something?" Yang had stopped, readying Ember Celica. She was looking around, trying to find the source of the noise. Blake also looked around, her hand wrapped around the hilt of Gambol Shroud.
"Yes. It's faint, but I think I heard..." Blake trailed off, looking around. She drew her sword, and cocked it into it's pistol mode. I grew worried: if they thought I was a Grimm, I would be dead.
Suddenly, out of the bushes in front of the pair, a Beowolf lunged at the two women. They rolled out of the way, and fired their weapons at the monster. It shrugged the rounds off like it was nothing, and continued to charge. Yang managed to nail the beast with an uppercut, then sent it flying with a right hook, into the underbrush, where it turned tail and fled, whimpering like a scared puppy.
"Yeah, that's right. You'd better run!" Yang taunted. She turned to leave, and Blake followed suit. I sighed. They hadn't heard me at all. Now I was trapped, and forced to wait until the next human came along. Or a Grimm, which would presumably think of me as nothing more than a piñata, ripe for the killing.
My thoughts were interrupted, when I heard a swift slicing sound, and fell to the ground, still somewhat entangled in the vines. Immediately, I reached for the one trapped in my mouth, and yanked it out, gasping for air as I did so. Blake stood over me, retrieving her weapon from the tangle of vines that I lay in. Yang stood over her shoulder, a wide grin on her face.
"Well, this is a vine state of affairs." She snickered. Were I not nursing my balls, which still ached from the tree branch's impact, I could think of about fifty different insults to call her. But as of right now, there was only one thought that entered my head.
"God. Dammit. Yang." I growled, cupping my testicles in my right hand. Blake knelt down, and studied me closely. Finally, she stood up.
"You're fine, Darrel. You just need to walk it off." She said, with no emotion in her voice. And with those words, she walked off into the woods. Yang stayed behind, and offered a hand to help me up. I took it with my free hand, and got to my feet. That was when I noticed that my weapons had slipped off of my arms.
"Oh, come on! Could this day get any worse?" I yelled, punching the tree I had tied myself to in the first place, causing it to shake slightly. As the tree rustled, I heard a series of clinks and clonks. Looking up, I saw my weapons for a split second, as they fell from the tree right towards my head.
"Oh, son of a..."
After I had been revived from the unconsciousness inflicted by my own weapons, Yang helped me harness my weapons back on my wrists, and began to frogmarch me through the woods. Blake sliced through the undergrowth, whilst I kept a lookout for any Creatures of Grimm. Yang, in the meantime, was glancing among the bushes, as if looking for someone else. As Blake continued to hack and slash at the flora, I jogged up to her. I hadn't had a chance to interact with her personally, so I figured now was as good a time as any.
"Blake? Could I ask you a question?" I asked, cursing myself for the obvious tautology. Blake stopped slicing at the leaves and vines, and glanced at me.
"I'll ignore the fact that you just did, Darrel. As long as I get to ask you something in return." She stated bluntly. I nodded, and thought about a potential topic. Her past? I knew she had once been a member of the White Fang, but that was all. But from the implications, it sounded as if she had been one since birth. So, that was ruled out. Her weapon? No, I knew enough about that. The Faunus in general? I seriously doubt I could word it in a way where it didn't come across as if I knew her secret. As Blake continued to scrutinize me, I blurted out the one thing I was thinking.
"Do you think I have a shot with Yang?"
"And there goes the mouth moving ahead of the brain. I really need to curb that someday."
Blake just blinked, and gave me a quick answer.
"No."
Hold on, what? Did she just say no?
"But don"t you think...?"
"No."
"Could you just hear...?"
"No."
"Why are you...?"
"Your one question has turned into three. Now I have to ask you three questions." Blake smirked slightly. At this point I wasn't sure if she honestly thought I wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of dating Yang, or if she was just messing with me.
"How capable are you of fighting?"
I looked at my wrists, thinking of applications for beyond stabbing, slicing, gripping, and shooting. To be honest, now that I thought about it, there could have been a lot I didn't know about the Iridescent Basilisks. If anything, I only survived by luck alone. But in this world, I would need a hell of a lot more than luck.
"To tell the truth, I mainly just get lucky. I still don't know everything about my weapons." I shrugged. Blake shook her head.
"Here, I'll help you." She said, grabbing my arm, and with a scoff, she began to spin the circular device on the weapon, causing it to click loudly, like a ratchet.
"See these emblems? This is for explosive arrows." She pointed to a simple diagram of an explosion.
"This is for grappling barbs," her finger pointed out a barbed arrow, "and this is for gravitational control." Now she pointed to a small rune, like a glyph.
"I-I get it, Blake. Your third question?" I held up my free hand, and wrenched my hand free from her grip. Blake looked at me confusedly.
"No, second question. I've only asked you one, Darrel." She said. Then her face lit up in realization.
"Dammit, you tricked me, didn't you?" She asked, one side of her mouth turning up into a small grin. I winked slyly at her.
"If you can't take it, don"t dish it out.' I teased, almost in a singsong. She let out a small giggle, one I had never expected to hear before.
"Touché. Okay then, here it is. You wouldn't happen to have a crush on Yang, would you?"
I breathed softly, letting my shoulders rise and fall. Blake gave me a friendly jab in the shoulder, right where I had grazed it earlier while trying to get out of the tree. A stinging pain tingled across my right arm, but I shook it off. Looking around, Yang was lagging behind, checking to see if either Ruby or the temple were in sight somewhere. I turned to Blake, and nodded. She said nothing, just smiled. As I turned to go to Yang, I felt Blake's hand grab my uninjured shoulder, spinning me around.
"By the way, you and Yang would actually make a cute couple." She smiled. I flashed Blake a thumbs-up, and dashed back to Yang, hearing Blake's boots crunching through the grass and fallen leaves. As she saw me approaching, she grinned, and walked over to me.
"What's up, Vine-boy?" She grinned. I gave a look of annoyance, before snickering. Looking back, my antics in the tree would had been pretty funny to someone watching. Were it not the little ache in my groin, I would have burst out laughing.
"You know, I have a name, Yang."
"Eh, I'm just messing with you, Darrel. So how'd you meet Ruby?" She asked. I shrugged.
"That explosive sneeze of hers kind of caught my attention. Kinda hard to miss, actually." I shrugged. Yang laughed loudly.
"Man, and here was me thinking that she'd just had a fit. Anyway, I wanted to say thanks."
I scratched the side of my head nervously.
"Well, yeah, I've dealt with that kind of thing before. My brother used to get nightmares..." Yang placed a hand on my arm.
"Not that. You and Jaune made her feel welcome." She smiled tenderly, a smile I had never seen before. Feeling nervous, I shuffled from foot to foot, not knowing what to say.
But before I could think, I heard a quiet growl, like an animal snarling. Yang pumped her arms, unfurling Ember Celica, and I flicked my wrists, the blades of my Iridescent Basilisks shooting out. Before I knew it, Blake had drawn Gambol Shroud, and stood, ready for anything.
"Get back-to-back, ladies. Less chance of an ambush." I whispered. Blake and Yang nodded, turning so that we faced outwards in a triangular perimeter. The growling grew louder, until it was almost to the point of roaring. But I had trouble trying to discern where it was coming from. It seemed to be echoing from everywhere.
Before I could blink, a Creature of Grimm, with like a body like a black panther, leaped out of the bushes towards me, maw snarling and dripping with saliva. Instinctively, I yelled out, and dropped to my knees, rolling forward underneath the Grimm. Yang had leaped out of the way with a blast from Ember Celica, and Blake had disappeared using her semblance. The panther landed, and roared to us, clearly hoping we would provide a challenge.
All of a sudden, the puma lunged towards me. I felt like panicking, but under these circumstances, I somehow felt calm. So as the panther grew closer, I held up my right arm, and the Grimm, still roaring and flying through the air, landed belly first on my blade. Raising the other arm up, I stabbed the creature through the chest, piercing the bones, and causing the creature to spasm in pain. It roared, and tried to swipe at me, but I narrowly dodged. The creature attempted to slash again, but this time, it managed to strike: a claw raked diagonally down from my temple to the top of my upper lip. The pain was immense, and blood was pouring out, but I managed to throw the beast onto it's back. The beast rolled onto it's paws, and roared, before disappearing into thin air.
Looking up, I saw Blake and Yang were looking around, weapons at the ready, as if they were about to defend themselves from an unseen threat. After a few moments, they pointed behind me, and yelled out something intelligible. As I spun around, the panther appeared, leaping down from a tree branch. With it's salivating maw, and it's blood red eyes burning in an inferno of hatred, I was frozen to the spot, utterly terrified of what was certain to be inevitable death.
A flash of fire. A streak of shadow. Both careened forwards, sending the panther flying into the air. Yang and Blake appeared beside me, and had their weapons ready, looks of rage on their faces. Yang fired herself forwards, her fist slamming into the panther, catapulting it into a tree, and launching herself into a back handspring, landing beside me. Blake dashed forwards, and threw her ribbon towards the dazed beast. Rather than impacting into the soft flesh, it flew past the tree, only to be caught by it's wielder, as she proceeded to pin the beast to the tree. As it struggled against it's bindings, Yang wrapped her hands around my ankles, and began to spin around, as if preparing for a hammer throw. Finally, at a dizzying speed, she let go, causing me to go flying through the air, towards the thrashing monster.
Bringing my fists up, I saw that my blades had, at some point, been forced to crossbow mode. As adrenaline flooded my system, time seemed to slow to a crawl. I fired an arrow at the creatures limbs, stopping his thrashes, and pinning it's paws to the tree. Then before it could free itself, I had landed, impaling the beast through the brain, and heart, killing it in an instant. As I attempted to remove my swords from the beast, Yang walked up, whilst Blake untangled the ribbon from the tree.
"Good moves, Darrel. I still can't believe that we just killed a Nightmare Maw." She smiled. I nodded, feeling a little lightheaded.
I finally dislodged my blades, panting and covered in a crimson coat of blood, mine and the Grimm's. Looking over the corpse, which had already begun to smoke and evaporate, I couldn't believe what I had just done. I, a meek teenager completely out of his element, had managed to kill a monster. Kneeling down, I grasped a canine from the dead beast, and after some tugging, I managed to wrench it free, the rock hard tooth as long as a dagger. Wiping it clean, I stuffed it into my rucksack. It would make a good trophy. I attempted to stand, but fell to on all fours near a tree. Yang helped me by hoisting me to a nearby tree, and laying me in it's shade.
Blake had rejoined us, and was dabbing away at my injury with a leaf, wiping away any stray blood. I fingered the injury, digits unconsciously rubbing the crevice that the Nightmare Maw had gifted me. Yang looked at curiously, not trying to glance at the wound.
"How's it look?" I asked. Yang inhaled sharply.
"It's... going to show." She shrugged, a half-hearted smile threatening to weave through her lips. Blake looked at me.
"Why didn't you use Aura?" She asked. I shrugged, feeling more and more lightheaded.
"I-I can't. I wasn't taught how to." I slurred. Yang knelt down in front of me, and placed her hand on my chest.
"Close your eyes." She ordered. I complied. Then she began to recite an incantation.
For it is in victory everlasting, that we may protect those who cannot protect themselves,
We become paragons of honor and duty to rise above all,
Unafraid of death, and unrelenting to the cruel and wicked,
I unleash your soul, and empower thy spirit with the strength of my will.
I opened my eyes, to find my skin glowing a darkish blue, the same shade as my jacket and bandana. Yang was kneeling on all fours, panting heavily. I looked at Blake, who was still dressing my wound. But as she dabbed at it, a prickling sensation washed over, and the wound was gone. Instinctively, my hand flew up to the wound, only to find it was no longer there. Looking back at Yang, she looked up, smiling.
"Whelp, you won't have to worry anymore. Your Aura is now available for use. No need to thank me." She grinned. I flashed a smile back, and threw myself up.
"We should get moving. Right now, those artifacts aren't going to retrieve themselves." I said to the two girls. Offering Yang a hand, she took it, and stood up, eyes locking with mine. For a moment, I could have sworn I saw some colour enter Yang's cheeks. But then she let go, turned away, and sprinted into the trees. I looked at Blake, and was met with a simple shrug. Then we both high tailed it after Yang, the Nightmare Maw's tooth clunking against my back serving as a constant reminder that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't so helpless after all.
Whelp, the first fight scene. I'm not really the best at this sort of thing, so if it's not up to the same caliber as previous chapters, you'll have to excuse that.
Also, you may notice a few things: Aura healing Darrel's injury, the Nightmare Maw, and Yang's incantation.
* For the healing Aura, I'm figuring that since it can lessen impacts, it could also heal them. Until it's stated otherwise, that's my idea of it.
* The Nightmare Maw is one of two fan-made Grimm that I've created. Check it out on the RWBYFanon Wiki.
* And Yang's incantation... I was kind of pressed for time, so I just changed the general gist of the one Pyrrha recounted in The Emerald Forest from immortality to protection.
So there you go.