//------------------------------// // Chapter 56: Tournament Preparations // Story: Fillies and Monsters // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// Team RWBY sat in their dorms, watching Amity slowly fly closer and closer, eventually taking its spot over the fairgrounds. “I can’t believe the tournament is only a few days away!” Ruby was bouncing off the walls with joy. “Settle down there little sis’ we got to visit home first,” Yang said, “Dad wants to see us off before he goes on his first mission in years…” “Yeah, but imagine, us winning the tournament, getting a load of money, and best of all, showing how awesome we are!” Ruby continued bouncing. “Honestly, Ruby, you should really be training,” Weiss continued. “Well, I think that Grimm attack last week was training enough,” Blake continued, “Can’t believe the White Fang would do something like that…” She muttered under her breath. “Well, put all that behind you, and look forward to how fun the tournament is going to be!” Yang said. Jaune was sharpening his sword, “Jaune,” Pyrrha began, “I don’t think-” “Are you ready for the big fight!” Nora shouted, standing atop the bed, holding her hammer high, “Here comes Team JNPR! Winners of the Vytal Festival Tournament!” She leapt from the bed. “Nora, no!” Pyrrha began, and caught Nora’s hammer mid-air before she smashed another hole in the floor. Ren was smiling, simply watching the antics. “You know, I can’t believe I managed to take down five beowolves during that grimm attack,” Jaune said. “We know, you won’t shut up about it, this is the fifth time today you’ve told us… A beowolf, isn’t that scary…” Ren muttered. “Hey, I once saw you get beaten up by one!” “That was an Alpha… There’s a difference…” Coco made sure the ammo feed on her minigun wasn’t jammed and oiled her primary and auxiliary motors. “Do you think I should take a few more pics of those faunus girl’s weapons, that Apple Bloom has quite the cannon…” Velvet said. “Just don’t draw attention to yourself,” Yatsu said. “I know!” Velvet’s ears perked. “Velvet, could you hand me that six-sided bolt wrench…” Coco said. “Oh, sure…” Fox was downcast, sharpening his blades, “That grimm attack has me worried,” he began, “Would the White Fang dare to attack during the tournament itself?” “No need to worry, the Kingdom’s Defenses have been reinforced since then, and we have Atlas providing support, there is nothing we need to fear,” Yatsu said. “Those Atlas ships are a bit worrying though… Is that much security really necessary?” Velvet muttered under her breath. Cardin sat, watching Dove and Sky fight in the dorm, “Come on, we need to win this!” Cardin shouted, “Keep fighting, if I’m going to get my reputation back, we’re going to need to win this tournament!” “Cardin, we’ve been practising constantly, every day, all day, for weeks!” Dove shouted. “Oh, you’re tired… Come here, I’ll show you how to fight!” Cardin shouted, getting out of his chair and raising his mace, Dove raised his sword to block but was smashed to the ground. “Now come on, I need to see you fight, if we’re going to win the tournament, I need you all to be as strong, as tough, as ready as possible, now fight!” “Ready, blank flanks?” Diamond was staring at them… This tournament was intriguing, she would need to win it if she was to cement her reputation here… That would show that bitter mare she called a mother… “Could ya’ stop callin’ us that, we’ve been friends for, like, what, three or four months now…” Apple Bloom said, lifting Applebuck to her shoulder, “And yeah, I’m ready…” “Almost,” Sweetie said, slamming her spellbook closed with a thump, “I’ve just finished the Lightning Storm spell, but I still need to test it, make sure there aren’t any faults in my matrix…” “I’m good to go!” Scootaloo said a bandolier of dust-potions on her chest, “I got five fire flasks, two acid flasks, two hard-light flasks, eight lightning flasks, three wind flasks, two water flasks, two ice flasks, one rock flask, one-” “We get it, I already gave Diamond the list of potions I put together, it was expensive…” Apple muttered. “Oh, you did?” “Enough!” Diamond shouted, “Let’s just get to the training yard… Sweetie, you can practice your unicorn stuff when we get there…” “Alright… Still can’t believe you’re out leader…” Sweetie muttered under her breath. “Come on Neptune, hit me already!” “But… The water…” Sun was standing on the pier, the smell of fish wafting through the Vale Fishery, Neptune was standing in front of him, at the very end of the wooden scaffold, the smallest gust of wind could push him off and into the water. “Come on Neptune…” Sun shouted, marching forward, both his nunchucks twirling around, “If you don’t get past me, I’ll just smack you off the edge,” “No! Please!” “Hit me already!” On another pier, far enough away that they wouldn’t get hit if some fighting broke out, Sage and Scarlet watching in mounting disappointment… All the way to the point where Neptune was smacked in the gut and fell off, screaming, as he fell into the water. “You want to get him?” Asked Scarlet. “It’s funnier just to watch…” Replied Sage. The airship shook, its engines warming up for takeoff, Silver Spoon led her group of fillies, spear in hand, as she triumphantly marched into the airship… “Why are we going to some stupid game again?” Rumble muttered. “I doubt Diamond and those blank-flank idiots will be able to resist the chance to fight in a big tournament like this, it’s where we’re most likely to find them…” Silver replied. “Yeah, plus, it’ll be tons of fun, like hoof-fighters, back home!” Button said. “You have a strange idea of fun…” Dinky replied. “Still, let us try our best,” She said, scrolling through her spellbook. “Look, Bolin, Vale!” Reese said, standing on the deck of the ship, “Been a while, huh?” “It has certainly changed since I was last here,” Bolin replied, “Anyway, I’ve come to get you, Nadir and Arslan have prepared a breakfast for us, we’ll need our strength for the coming tournament…” With that, Reese followed her friend down into the galley, where a few other teams from Mistral were gathered, Reese and Bolin came to sit with the rest of team ABRN. Nadir walked in, carrying plates of curry and some rice balls, but Reese noticed them getting looks from team RUJA. “Ignore them,” Arslan muttered, “Raj is just being a creep, like always, and the others aren’t that better either.” “I mean, Judy is kinda cute,” Nadir said between a bite of a rice ball. “Judy’s mean, you should see her in our sparring sessions,” Reese replied. “Did you see the look on Arlost’s face when she got her ass beat by the Silver Spoon girl, priceless…” Bolin laughed. “Seems like Lionheart has it in for SBRD, no clue why…” “I guess that’s why they chose to take an airship over getting stuck in this piece of driftwood with us…” Arslan continued. “Come on Kobalt! Don’t lag behind!” Neon was bubblier than normal, zipping and darting around the airship gantry. “It would help if you didn’t unload all your luggage one me!” Kobalt whined. Flint continued his slow strut to the airship, “Come on, Ko, it will serve as a nice bit of exercise before the tournament…” “Yeah, plus, Ivori is being lazy, like normal…” Neon muttered. “Hey!” The voice of Ivori echoed from the other end of the gantry. The sun was just starting to rise above Atlas’ spires, illuminating the gantries in the ruddy pale light of dawn, and so FNKI boarded the ship bound for Vale. Penny sat, calmly enjoying a sandwich as she watched the airships flying in from Atlas… Team NIGT arrived, and she waved, then Team GEMN, then Team FNKI, who were the only ones actually waved back, then Team ZINC, who Penny did not wave to, as she found them rather mean to her and her teammates… Finally, one landed on the pad she was sitting on. “Hey guys!” She smiled and waved joyfully. “Penny, I hope you’ve not been in too much trouble without us…” Ciel replied as she led Igor and Niagara out of the airship. “Not at all miss Ciel!  I’ve been on my best behaviour.” “I find that extremely difficult to believe,” Igor said. “Agreed…” Niagara continued. “But, look at us now! Team PINC is back together and ready for this tournament! I cannot wait to show you all the strange things I’ve seen in Vale! It’s all so amazing!” “Hey! Sun! Is that you! Man has it been ages!” Brawnz shouted from the side of the ship as it came to port, “Hey, you still owe me a drink!” “Oh, hey, Brawnz! How’s team BRNZ doing, I hear May-” Sun said, stopping as he was trying to fish Neptune out of the water, Neptune swore as he fell back into the salty blue he hated so much. “May what?” May said as she walked out and stared down Sun.” “Oh… Uh… Nothing, I said nothing, I didn’t say anything, I just-” Sun continued, then tripped as he was backing away and fell right into the water, right on top of Neptune. Brawnz chuckled as she ship finally came to a stop, “Hey, Onyx, it’s Sun!” “No way, dude!” Onyx replied as he marched out, “Hey Sun, it’s been ages, how’s Mistral treating you… Hey, Yan, Curie, Nalar, it’s your old Team Leader! Back when you were Team SYNC” Onyx shouted as he lead the rest of Team ONYC out to meet their old friend. NDGO sat quietly as they watched out the windows of the airship, bound for Vale, “I hear it’s a whole lot cooler than Vacuo,” Gwen began. “Yeah, but I don’t much like the lack of sand, going to be hard for me to kick up a nice storm with ol’ Salkila,” Dew said, polishing her spear. “I just hope Sun ain’t there…” Octavia muttered. Cozy stood on the balcony, overlooking Vale, “Remember the plan?” Cinder said as she walked up behind the young fanuns. “Absolutely,” She smiled, “Although, I don’t see how this will help, if the goal is just mass panic, wouldn’t have the big ol’ attack last week been enough?” “No, that was just the start of the panic I intend to spread, you’ll see little girl, you’ll see… Now, I need to go fabricate some fake IDs for Neo and Mercury, do not screw up your part…” “Trust me, I won’t.” “Good…” With that, Cinder walked off, and Cozy was left alone… She opened her aura, feeling power building around her, wrapping around her, she shimmered red before disappearing completely… Suddenly, the world turned dark, twisted, and alien. Vale, down below, was a misty and hazy mess of ruins intertwined with shadowy forests… Small flickers of light shone below, the active minds of those walking through the streets… Up above her, Beacon stood, a shadowy mess of castles, spires, keeps, and towers, intertwined together… There was a strange power glittering below that dark fortress, but Cozy turned her mind from it, she had already inspected that when messing around with her new power, but it seemed whatever that source of energy was, it was currently beyond her reach. She spread her wings and dove from Beacon’s docks, flying down into Vale, she could hear the thoughts of the ghosts of people she passed but paid them no heed, it was fun hearing the internal thoughts of others, but she didn’t need these rabble’s secrets just yet… She flew through buildings, solid matter meaning nothing to her in this state, those who she hit as she flew felt nothing, just a cool breeze and a chill down their spine like a ghost had just passed through them. Cozy flew up toward Amity, passing through the walls as if they didn’t exist… If someone saw her in this form, they would simply she a mass of inky blackness dotted with crimson stars bent into the vague shape of a pony faunus. She heard the thoughts of the workers and maintenance crew, and used them to navigate… She was looking for the central control room, she quickly found it, passing through the walls and into the room… It was fortunately empty, and so she pulled herself out of that shadow-reality, shimmering once again into the real world, rather than the universe of the mind, and placed a scroll into a slot inside the control room, it’s screen briefly lit up red, showing the image of a black queen chess piece, before turning off again.