Chapter 28: Team RUST vs. Team TEAL
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, I only own my OCs.
Team RXDY
The Amity Colosseum fills up with people as the Vytal Tournament resumes following today's earlier announcement that the system crash has been fixed, thus allowing the matches to resume. To make up for lost time, the staff are offering souvenirs 50% off and food stands are offering meals 20% off regular price. The number of matches remain at two per day, three if need be. The first match of the day took place around 11 a.m.
The next match is Team RUST facing off against Team TEAL.
Rhia asked, "Ready, team?"
Sin cracked his knuckles with a grin, "You bet, love. It's finally our turn!" Brick nods with a small grunt.
Alena advised, "Let's not get cocky. TEAL won't be easy to beat. Although with our combined might, we'll triumph."
Sin theatrically gestured to the door, "What are we waiting for? The crowd is waiting." Team RUST walks through the entry to the arena, hearing a roaring crowd and seeing Team TEAL waiting for them.
Professor Port said, "After the unexpected system crash, we are back, folks. Today's match may prove to be one to remember. Team TEAL from our Beacon Academy will take on Team RUST representing Shade Academy from Vacuo. Who will go to the doubles round? Time to find out." The respective teams get ready as the biomes is chosen, settling with a forest and mountain biomes.
Alena twirls Silent Empress before holding it in front of her with the trident end pointed at the ground, Rhia readies Etching Tears, Brick has Bunker ready to go and Sin cracks his neck before getting into a boxing stance.
Tira combines her dual rifles to form her staff, Emmara opens Compendium, the tome unleashing a red glow, Alexia puts her demon mask on and draws her collapsible sword and Cassandra loads a magazine into Judgment.
Port counted, "Three, two, one, begin!" The buzzer sounds, starting the match prompting both teams to charge, picking targets.
Tira and Sin rush at each other with Sin evading strikes and launching counterattacks. Recovering Tira hits Sin's chin making the young man stumble back, shaking his head Sin gives the fiery redhead a grin. His semblance activates, dancing around Tira's strikes and score hits on her, his aura enhancing his attacks. However, Tira's semblance keeps up with every strike Sin dishes out, replenishing what he takes out. Sin jumps, back-peddles and deflects counters by Tira. He avoids a surprise attack from her when Tira separates her staff into its gun form, firing Phobos and Deimos at point-blank range. Nodding to himself, Sin lowers his goggles and puts his earplugs in, earning him a head tilt from Tira. She combines her weapon into its staff form again while Sin puts on the non-combative pair of his flash bang gloves.
Emmara uses ice spells to keep Rhia at bay knowing she's the weakest member of Team TEAL. She sees Rhia activate her semblance then spots two clones of Rhia standing on both sides of the original fox faunus. The three attack Emmara. The shy girl thinks quick, unleashing a lightning Dust spell that repels her attackers, the clones dissipate while Rhia recovers. After taking a moment to catch her breath she launches her second attack, this time faster than Emmara can keep up. The human girl uses ice Dust as shields to deflect shots from Etching Tears. As the spell protects Emmara, she thinks up a counterattack. She suddenly hears the gunfire stop making Emmara wonder if Rhia ran out of ammunition when her danger senses kick in, looking up ahead of her she spots Rhia leaping towards her with Final Trinity pointed at her. Acting on reflex Emmara unleashes a tornado of air Dust at Rhia. The powerful vortex drives the fox faunus back. The tornado ends and Rhia bounces off the ground, taking out a chunk of her aura. She dodges lightning spells from Emmara. Rhia runs at her evading the lightning. Time slows as she reaches striking distance of Emmara, pointing Final Trinity at her when a black steel chain Alexia keeps on her wraps around Rhia's arms and with a strong pull is removed from Emmara's field of vision.
Brick uses his shield Bunker to block shots from Judgment, Cassandra's SMG. When the shots end, he loads a fire Dust cannon ball into his shield and fires at her. Cassandra rolls out of the projected path of the cannon ball. A smoke bomb rolls into Brick's field of vision before detonating, covering the area in a dense cloud of smoke. The next thing the bear faunus feels is strikes from Alexia's sword and Cassandra shooting arrows at him. Brick uses Bunker to protect his front while feeling Alexia continuing her random attacks. Brick frees one hand, searching blindly through the smoke until he feels the right arm of the half-dog faunus, reeling her in and slamming her onto the ground, generating a powerful shockwave that dispels the smoke. Dazed by the impact Alexia sits up only to see Bunker entering her vision and launches her back. Danger senses go off in Brick's head when he spots Cassandra about to use her semblance Cataclysm. She shoots a fire Dust arrow glowing bright with her semblance, Brick places his shield in front of him. The arrow makes contact with Bunker, generating an explosion. Brick runs through the smoke charging at the scarred girl, Cassandra brings Penance up to block a swing from Bunker. The sheer force behind the swing causes Cassandra to reel backwards, using the momentum Brick executes another swing this one sends his opponent flying and taking a bit of her aura. Cassandra rolls across the ground before stabbing Penance to stop herself. Grunting from the hit she glares at the bear faunus, who's currently withstanding attacks from Alexia before Alena intervenes firing the trident end of Silent Empress and pulls Alexia away, the half-dog faunus teleports. Alena uses her hearing to pinpoint Alexia's location.
A tapping of a foot coming from her left makes Alena whip around, separating the bladed end of Silent Empress to intercept Alexia's short sword. The two exchange parries, Alexia ducks a horizontal swipe, Alena thwarts a jab counterattack, brings her right arm up to block a kick and retaliates with a kick of her own. Alexia stumbles backward and falls to one knee to stop her momentum. Lifting her head, she sees the fox faunus rushing toward her, both halves of Silent Empress held at her sides. Alena swings her separated weapon in a tornado of blades, Alexia deflects or avoids each strike.
As the two teams fight, Ashton works on rebuilding his mask in a workshop he rented out. He doubts he'll be able to completely repair it by the time the invasion of Vale happens but if he can repair it up to 50%, he'll be happy. As of now, the mask is by his estimation about 30% rebuilt. Ashton's spent the weekend working on the mask despite Klawdia asking him to take a break. He listens to the fight on his scroll to keep up with what's happening in the Vytal Tournament. Finding the parts for the mask wasn't easy but he found them.
Taking a moment to breathe, Ashton wipes the sweat off of his forehead. A series of footsteps gains his attention, turning his head to the right Ashton sees Klawdia entering the workshop.
She said, "Still working on the mask, I see."
Ashton told her, "I need to rebuild this. It's important."
Klawdia offered, "Why don't you take a break, Ashton? You need one."
The young human replied, "No, I don't, Klawdia. I need to get this done as soon as possible."
Klawdia said, "You need to relax from time to time otherwise you'll burn yourself out. Come on, there's a bar not too far from here we can visit."
Ashton refused, "This takes precedence." Klawdia walks to her partner, pulling hard on his ear.
Klawdia said, "As your partner and friend, I'm imploring you to take a break. The mask isn't going anywhere. Come on, we're going out!" She pulls him out of the workshop, not realizing the meaning behind those last words. Ashton locks the workshop up before he's pulled along by Klawdia.
Reaching the bar, Klawdia orders them a booth. The waiter comes and asks what they want to drink. Ashton settles for an alcoholic beverage while Klawdia chooses water. As they wait for their drinks, the duo watches the match between Team RUST and Team TEAL.
They heard Professor Port say, "This match is crazy, folks. These two are giving us a match that'll be talked about for some time."
Ooblock agreed, "They sure are. Both teams want to win the Vytal Tournament for their respective academies." Ashton and Klawdia's drinks arrive then the server asks if they are ready to order.
Sorting through the menu Ashton chooses the chicken sandwich with rice on the side and Klawdia chooses a steak cooked medium-rare. Writing down the orders, their server tells them their orders will be ready soon. The two watch the match on the TV.
Back at the Amity Colosseum, Emmara uses an ice Dust spell to deflect a barrage of bullets from Rhia's Etching Tears. She pants from the exertion, silently cursing her weak stamina. But she managed to bring the fox faunus' aura down to red. Although Rhia managed to bring Emmara's aura down to red as well.
Rhia runs full speed towards Emmara and points Final Trinity, the human girl raises her hand to launch a counter spell when Rhia pulls the trigger, taking out the remains of Emmara's aura and her out of the match. Emmara walks out of the ring and joins Team RXDY in the stands, Yumi wraps an arm around the girl, rubbing Emmara's arm.
Rhia doesn't get a chance to enjoy the victory because out of her peripheral vision she spots a Dust arrow screaming towards her courtesy of Cassandra. The arrow is covered with a bright light indicating the scarred girl activated her semblance just before shooting. The arrow lands at Rhia's feet and detonates seconds before Rhia can react taking out the rest of her aura and knocking the fox faunus out of the fight as well. Cassandra returns her attention to Brick, loading another arrow lacing it with her semblance and fires at Brick, the bear faunus places Bunker in front of him to deflect the arrow. A cloud of smoke is generated by the impact. When it clears Brick stands unfazed. Cassandra watches Alexia teleport next to her panting due to her fight with Alena, the said fox faunus stands by Brick wiping the sweat off her brow. Alexia tightens her grip on her sword.
Tira does her best to withstand the barrage Sin is unloading on her, ears ringing and vision blurry. Sin hits an open hand uppercut to Tira's chin causing the fiery redhead to stumble. Through her blurry vision she spots Sin coming in fast and combines her rifles into staff form and connects with the side of Sin's face, thwarting his attack.
A little frustration sets in for Sin. No matter how many hits he lands, Tira's semblance allows her aura to constantly regenerate so trying to wear it out isn't an option, so he'll try a more classic move. He needs to make it quick because his aura gauge is approaching red. Tira runs at him, lifting her bo staff to her right. Sin sidesteps the attack and knees Tira in the gut. Grunting the fiery redhead swings her bo staff against Sin's side. Ignoring the pain from the weapon hitting his ribs, Sin runs to the other end of the arena daring Tira to chase him. The fiery redhead follows him, unaware of what he's planning. Stopping at the end, Sin turns around and watches Tira close in, skidding to a stop. Sin does the come here gesture with his index finger.
Up in the stands, Team RXDY watches the fight with Yumi cheering TEAL while Draco and Xavier express their enjoyment of the match and Rena sits in her seat, her right leg crossed over her left and resting her hands on her lap, ever on alert.
Cassandra bounces off the mountain she's thrown into by Brick, her aura struggling to absorb the impact.
Professor Port winced, "Ms. Lynch will be feeling that tomorrow." Brick aims his shield at Cassandra when he hears Alexia throwing her rope dart around his neck, he grabs hold of the rope part before it can secure and with a strong pull, reels the half-dog faunus towards him. His massive hand nearly engulfs Alexia's entire face and whips around throwing her at Cassandra's location, the half-dog faunus rolls on the ground before coming to a stop at her teammate's feet. Standing up, the two think up a plan.
That's when they notice something. Alena isn't there.
They look around to pinpoint her location.
'Where is she? The ninja faunus thought.
Suddenly, Alena appears from behind Brick using him as a springboard and fires the trident end of Silent Empress at the two. Cassandra steps in front of Alexia, intercepting the trident with Penance and begins a tug-of-war with the fox faunus. Alexia teleports behind Alena drawing her short sword, the fox faunus separates the bladed end of her weapon to halt the attack. Alexia throws a smoke bomb obscuring her from view. Alena presses the trigger on Silent Empress, retracting the trident and combines both ends.
Sin pants from using his aura to enhance his physical strikes, sharing a quick glance at the monitor he notices his aura approaching the red while Tira's is full, but he has one trick up his sleeve. He sees the fiery redhead charging again. Using his semblance to slow down perception of time, Sin dances around Tira's attack. Gathering the last of his aura, he throws a punch to the middle of Tira's spine, sending the girl out of the arena and out of the match. He collapses a second later, eliminating him from the match, too.
Ooblock said, "Now we're down to the remaining two members of RUST and TEAL." Alena does her best to defend against thrown kunai and tries to locate Alexia but something in the smoke irritates her nose. Maybe that's part of Alexia's plan. Her fox ear twitches, detecting noise coming from behind she spins on her heel and twirls Silent Empress and the bladed end scores a direct hit on her opponent's waist, taking out a good chunk of the half-dog faunus' aura. Alexia teleports again. Alena needs to get out of the smoke immediately.
The ninja faunus appears on Alena's right flank, aiming a kick at her thigh. Alena jumps to evade it and upon landing strikes Alexia in the chin with Silent Empress, following up with a hard swing, launching Alexia out of the smoke and into Brick's waiting hand. The bear faunus slams Alexia on the ground, damaging her aura then throws her out of the arena, eliminating her from the match.
Professor Port stated, "Uh-oh, Cassandra's on her own." The scarred girl weighs her options, with teammates eliminated she has to figure out how to defeat the remaining members of Team RUST, Brick the nigh unstoppable powerhouse and Alena the more well-rounded of the group.
Alena runs at her swinging Silent Empress Cassandra blocks it with Penance and aims Judgment at her. Alena pulls away while Cassandra fires her SMG. Brick gets in front of his teammate blocking the shots with Bunker. He loads a lightning Dust cannon ball into the shield and fires, Cassandra evades. She loads an arrow, charging her semblance into it. The scarred girl runs around, Alena and Brick watching her. Reaching their left flank Cassandra fires her arrow. The RUST members split to avoid it but then Cassandra fires another arrow laced with her semblance.
Since Cassandra can't take on both Alena and Brick on at the same time, she decides to split them picking off the weaker target first, which is Alena in this case.
The scarred girl keeps Alena off-balance. She shoots one arrow that lands close to Alena's feet. The fox faunus jumps back to escape harm, Cassandra bursts through the smoke holding Penance. Alena blocks each of Cassandra's strikes. Locking eyes with the opponent, Alena sees rage and hatred behind Cassandra's that burn hotter than any flame. Pushing Alena back the scarred girl presses the attack with a rage-filled yell, the fox faunus clenches her teeth from the sudden aggression. With every passing second, Cassandra's rage builds. Pinning Judgment against Alena's stomach and unloads the entire clip, reducing the fox faunus' aura. A hard swing to the temple stuns Alena long enough for Cassandra to reload and fires again. Alena runs out of the flight path of the bullets. Cassandra hears Brick coming at her from six o'clock and changes direction, running towards him and slides underneath between his legs and emerges on his six o'clock. She readies another Dust arrow, charging her semblance and fires at the bear faunus' back. Brick stumbles forward and Cassandra shoots a second semblance-laden arrow damaging Brick's aura. She prepares a third arrow when out of the corner of her good eye spots Alena coming to her teammate's aid. Narrowing her eyes, the scarred girl supercharges the arrow, following the trajectory path and fires. The arrow screams through the air and strikes the ground near Alena's earning a gasp from the fox faunus before the arrow explodes taking out her aura.
Ooblock said, "Now it's down to Cassandra vs. Brick. Who will be the victor?" The crowd roars in cheers, enjoying the match.
Rhia shows concern but Sin has confidence in his brother figure.
Back with Cassandra, she tests her speed and durability against the raw strength and size of Brick.
The two stare down, Cassandra hears her knuckles pop when she tightens her grip on Penance. Seeing an opening Cassandra dashes forward, aiming for Brick's leg with Judgment. The bear faunus places Bunker in front of him. His opponent switches to Penance, charging an arrow with her semblance. Noticing this Brick loads a lightning Dust cannon ball and both fire at the same time. A cloud of smoke is generated. Brick tenses the arm holding his shield waiting for Cassandra to come through the smoke, which she does with her SMG pointing at him. With a roar that rings through the air, Brick thrusts his massive arm holding Bunker in a hard backhand, the metal collides with Cassandra's cheek and her aura flashes as it takes the hit. Her body rolls on the ground while Brick takes this chance to activate his semblance, fortifying his aura.
Cassandra gets up still dazed by the hit and forces herself to focus again. Her vision returns to normal mere seconds before Brick's hand engulfs Cassandra's face and runs, dragging her along the ground and breaking pieces of the terrain and throws her into the mountain, spider web-shaped cracks form in the rock while Cassandra's eyes widen as the air's knocked out of her. Peeling herself free the scarred girl falls to her knees. Every nerve in her body is laced with pain, reminding her of the Grimm's claws raking her flesh and biting off her ring and pinkie finger on her right hand when those beasts ate her family when she was a child. Clenching handfuls of dirt in her hands, Cassandra bares her teeth as the memory of that night flashes through her.
Brick shoots a fire Dust cannon ball at Cassandra before she can react. The cannon ball pushes her into the mountain then explodes, burying her under rubble. Cassandra crawls out and collapses with the last of her aura breaking and the monitor shows it depleted.
Ooblock said, "And that's it! Brick is the last one standing! The winner is Team RUST, which means they will advance to the doubles round!" Emmara rushes over to her teammate looking to help her up but Cassandra swats her hand away, refusing it.
The crowd erupts in applause and a few whistled.
Back at the bar Ashton and Klawdia finish the last of their drinks and Ashton pays the check. Leaving a pair of 20 lien the duo exits the bar, seeing the sun beginning to set. They stop by a cookie shop on the way back to hotel.
Later that evening Team RUST enjoys their victory, Sin grins like a kid who got the Christmas present he always wanted.
He said, "We're going to the doubles round, folks. This tournament is as good as ours!"
Alena told him, "There's the still the doubles round then the single round to get past, Sin."
The young hunter-in-training looked at the older fox faunus, "Speaking of which, who among us should advance to the doubles round?"
Alena said, "I say Rhia and myself represent RUST."
Sin offered, "Let's put it to a vote. Anyone in favor of Rhia and Alena be in the doubles round, say aye." There's a collective aye.
He said, "Okay. Anyone in favor of Rhia and me, say aye." He got two ayes, so he next offered, "Alena and I?" Brick raises a large arm up.
Alena grinned, "Not happening."
Sin said, "And Brick and I?" He gets two ayes.
Rhia declared, "By majority decision, it'll be my sister and I representing RUST in the doubles round."
Sin slumped his shoulders, "Oh, man, I wanted to go to the doubles round." He quickly recovered, "Oh well, you can't win them all." They next hear a knocking on their dorm's door.
Alena stood up, "I'll get it." She walks over to the door and opens it, seeing Team RXDY standing there.
Yumi greeted with a smile, "Hi, Alena. We stopped by to congratulate you on your win against Team TEAL."
Alena nodded, "Thank you, Yumi. How are they taking the loss?"
Draco replied, "It varies. Tira was kind of bummed but shrugged it off, Emmara was apologetic over her being the weakest member, but Yumi cheered her up, Alexia was nonchalant about it and Cassandra seemed the same but likely fuming on the inside."
Rhia asked, "Has Cassandra always been like that?"
Xavier spoke up, "No, she wasn't. I'd know because my parents were close friends with the Lynch family, and I'd play with Cassandra when I was a kid. Her parents and siblings were eaten by Grimm and scarring her, both physically and mentally. Now she only seeks the complete eradication of the Grimm. I think had the Grimm not kill her family, Cassandra would've turned out a completely different person. More friendly and open. The old Cassandra is somewhere beneath that burning hatred. There has to be." A brief look of sadness appears in Xavier's eyes, receiving a comforting hug from Yumi.
Alena asked, "Do you wanna stay for a while?"
Draco shrugged, "If it's not trouble for you four."
Alena shook her head, stepping to the side, "Not at all. Please, come in." They step inside as Alena closes the door, removing their footwear.
Sin glances at Rena and whenever the one-eyed faunus feels his staring he'd look away with a blush on his face. Rhia sees the interaction between them with confusion.
It's not long before Team RUST bids RXDY good night as they return to their guest dorm.
Meanwhile, at their Haven guest dorm, Cinder looks over the profiles of Team RXDY.
Emerald asked, "What are you doing, Cinder?"
The black-haired woman replied, "Oh just looking over the information regarding these four."
Emerald said, "But they don't attend any of the schools."
Cinder smirked, "True but that doesn't we don't have information about them."
Mercury asked while flipping a page to a comic book, "Do you think they may cause a problem? They have taken down that Ishtar, survived an assassination attempt by the Black Star terrorist organization and survived their battle with the Minotaur, Onryo, Wraith and Ruugon."
Cinder said, "You are correct, Mercury. Rena Schwartz is the leader and ex-White Fang member thanks to Adam Taurus telling me. She's also the infamous One-Eyed Devil and aggressive fighter. Not much is known about her past besides being a former White Fang member. Xavier Stone is the powerhouse of the group who enjoys drawing in his downtime. Draco is a dragon faunus and is hellbent on exacting revenge for what the Queen did to his kind. Lastly is Yumi Asuma, the cheerful one. She suffers memory lapses due to a head injury."
Emerald stated, "Since they don't attend any of the academies, they can't participate in the Vytal Tournament."
Cinder replied, "When there's a will, there's a way."
The mint-haired girl queried, "What do you mean?" Cinder doesn't answer, her eyes glow as the smirk turning into a plotting grin.
A/N: Chapter 28 done.
Team RUST and Team TEAL did battle. Though TEAL fought hard, RUST emerged victorious.
What could Cinder be plotting?
Read and review.
Stay tuned for chapter 29.
Vader 23A