Episode 1: Chapter 9: Scattered Pieces

Chapter 9 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Ruby twirled her scythe in defense of the onslaught of the oncoming attacks. Miles leapt in from the side and started trading blows with his swords while Natalie swung around and got Ruby caught in the curve of one half of her weapon.

            “Good job Natalie” Ruby smiled. “Visualize, then attack.” As she said this, she got Crescent Rose out of the reach of Miles’ swords and launched herself skyward away from Natalie’s weapon. As she landed, Miles and Natalie regrouped.

            “Natalie, let’s try formation C this time.”

            “Didn’t we already practice that one?”

            “No, that was formation SEA.”

            “You know, it’s technically MY job to come up with the team attack names!”

            “And I told you, until we figure out which attacks work best, we have to do what we can until we come up with official team names! I mean, do you even have any ideas for team attacks?”

            “I was thinking formation C could be Sailing Sword?”

            “What? I was thinking something like Checkmate.”

            “I already gave that one to Weiss and Blake plagiarist!” Ruby yelled as she jumped forward attacking by using her scythe like a giant spinning blade. Miles and Natalie jumped backwards in opposite directions, getting ready for the red hooded girl to make her next move. But all of a sudden, a buzzer went off and the doors opened up. In walked Team several new teams, including Team JCTB and Team JNPR.

            “I guess we’ve run out of time for today. Might as well get some lunch.” Miles put his swords away and started heading for the exit. The other members of Team RWBY and NEMN started making their way down from the stands as they had worked together earlier in the hour but decided to take a break while Ruby helped the two polar opposites work on their two-man strategies. As they walked past team JCTB, Christy and Evan stopped and started chatting it up while the others continued walking.

            “Yeesh. Those two are as lovey dovey as Miles and Blake” Nathan joked.

            “Yeah, the only difference is they aren’t ashamed to admit it!” Yang and Nathan continued to laugh while everybody just simply groaned. All of a sudden, Miles had one of his swords in pistol form and pointed it right at Yang’s head.

            “Go on, give me some more reasons blondie. I’d love to see what would happen with your aura in contrast to Ty’s.”

“Party pooper. No cake for you.” Yang said smirking, calling Miles’ bluff.  Miles sighed realizing he wasn’t going to get Yang to fold and put his weapon away.

            “Yeah. Besides, there is no cake on the menu today. It’s SEAFOOD DAY!” Natalie exclaimed excitedly.

            “I thought that was tomorrow?” Blake questioned.

            “Did you change your calendar back from before when Yang switched it around to stage our little “mishap” with the parade Blake?”

            “Ah, that makes sense now. Well then, I’m going to enjoy myself.”

            “I bet I could eat ten plates easily!” Natalie pumped her fist in the air in victory as she said this.

            “Oh please. I’ve totally eaten more than that.”

            “Is that a challenge miss Belladonna?”

            “I daresay it is! Most plates finished wins?”

            “Challenge accepted!”

            “Rats!” Everybody turned to see Ruby kicking the dirt. “I mean…yay! Food rivalry!” Everybody shrugged and just continued walking towards the cafeteria, while Ruby pulled out a pie she had wrapped in foil.

            “Soon you wonderful piece of comedy, soon.”

 

 

 

 

Christy continued to spar with Ren, both trying to gain the upper hand in close quarters combat. Christy was holding her own, but it was clear that Ren was controlling the pace. As time continued to move forward, Ren did a quick spinning maneuver, used his blasters to knock her off balance, then pinned her down to the ground with one swift move.

            “Dang it!” Christy slammed her fist on the ground with anger.

            “Don’t worry about it too much." Ren said offering her a hand up.  "You are definitely improving. I think once the qualification tournament rolls around, you four will be easily making it into the qualified four.”

            “Yeah, but that’s all people keep telling me!” Christy said as she accepted Ren’s hand up. “You’re doing good, you’re getting better, like I can never reach a pinnacle at the top ever in my lifetime! Why can’t I achieve anything more than just learning?!”

            “Look, we’re always learning. No point in trying to put ourselves on a higher pedestal too early.” Ty walked over from his match with Nora, to which she was extremely annoyed.

            “Don’t walk away from me big guy!” Nora quickly launched herself towards Ty in retaliation. “SMASH!” As her hammer made contact with Ty’s head, she just simply floated there as Ty gave her a look of annoyance, leading Nora to plummet a few short feet to the ground.

            “My point is Ty, is that no matter what I do, or who I defeat, people are never going to give me any credit other than ‘you’re getting stronger’. I want to be more than that. I want people to accept me as a warrior, not some constantly struggling student!” Christy said, getting more and more ticked off.

            “But, you literally just described half your job title. We are still students, and we are still learning. Heck, even when we graduate, we’ll still be learning.”

            “Ty’s right.” Jacob walked over from his sparring match with Pyrrha and Jaune. “It’s natural for us as human beings to constantly have to adapt and learn new skills in order to survive.”

            “Why did you have to make it so preachy and boring Jacob?” Brooklyn asked as she jumped down from the stands. “I mean, really, we have to teach Christy the importance of how to be willing to not always be the best, and to be quite frank, I’m preaching to the choir here.”

            “Hey look Brooklyn, I’ve always been weak.” Christy started getting defensive walking straight towards Brooklyn. “All my life, I’ve been told to give up and never pursue anything other than being ordinary. I’ve had to push myself past the limits of my own body so that I could be where I am today.”

            “Then given that, shouldn’t you be taking compliments of improvement with some optimism?!” Christy stopped advancing towards Brooklyn as soon as she said this, while Brooklyn sat down cross-legged. “Look, I’m not like all of you. At least, in a mental state of being. I don’t have a tragic backstory, I don’t have overbearing parents, I don’t have a dead family member to drive me. I’m just a normal person who wants to do good in the world, and just simply pushes forward no matter what.”

            “And I can respect that.” Jacob sat down next to her. “The truth is though, given our differences, we now need to find a way that not only makes everybody happy, but also makes sure that we can execute what we need to get done quickly and effectively without anybody getting hurt.”

            “I agree with the latter of that portion.” Ty said as he placed his sword on the ground and sat down as well. “We do need to figure out how we are going to operate as a team when in battle. But we can’t make everybody happy. We have to do what is best for the team and that means we might have to make some sacrifices.”

            “What kind of sacrifices are you suggesting we make?” Christy asked as she sat down as well.

            “Uh, what should we do then?” Nora asked in confusion as Team JCTB just simply sat down.

            “Let’s get back to training.” Jaune said. “We know what we need to get done, so let’s let them do that as well.” With that, Team JNPR headed off to the open practice floor of the dome and resumed their training.

            “Look, all I’m saying Christy is that despite the fact you want to be the big hero charging in on the front lines to save the day, that may not be your biggest strength.” Ty said leaning forward.

            “Excuse me?! Did you miss the part where I helped you and Brooklyn with defeating a small army of White Fang members?!”

            “Yes, we did do that, when we had surprise on our side. If they had time to prepare, most likely it would have been me or Brooklyn saving you from yet another onslaught of something you couldn’t handle.”

            “I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!”

            “Nobody is doubting that Christy” Jacob said as he put his hand up to try and calm her down. “Each and every one of us on this team could very well take care of ourselves in certain situations, but if our weaknesses appear before us, then alone, we fall. But together, we can make up the difference.”

            “As much as I hate it when you get preachy, you’re right.” Brooklyn stood up and morphed her weapon into shield form. “The thing that we need to figure out is who works best where and how. For me and Ty, that’s easy. We both have a Semblance that allows us to charge headlong into the front lines and barrel through our enemies. Jacob as well, is very easy to pinpoint. He is somebody who can see the entire field of battle and create a plan for everybody. He is also unparalleled in close quarters combat, so he could take down a few fighters at a time.”

            “What does that leave me?” Christy asked, clenching her fists.

            “Well, given what I noticed last week, I think you should be more of a stealth type of fighter.” Brooklyn said picking up one of Christy's axes.

            “Excuse me?”

            “Look, they may not be the most glamorous fighters, but they do get the job done rather efficiently. Plus, when we had the element of surprise on our side, once we launched into action, then we were unstoppable. We were tearing people apart left and right. I think that’s the direction this team needs to go.”

            “I’m with Brooklyn on this one” Jacob said confidently. “Christy has amazing potential, but like all of us, some glaring weaknesses.”

            “Except me.” Ty said with a grin.

            “Yeah, do you even have a weakness Ty?” Jacob asked.

            “Only that after a few solid minutes of taking blows, my aura starts working like normal and I won’t be able to use my absolute defense until my aura is completely recharged.”

            “Huh. Good to know. Anyways, I think what needs to be done is that we need to be a combination of distraction and surprise tactics. Two of the four members of our team are able to create a large enough distraction while I could be in the limelight taking on stragglers while Christy could be taking pot shots from the shadows luring them into a trap she could easily destroy them in.”

            “That’s great and all brainiac, but how do you think we could pull this off in an actual battle?” Christy asked taking her axe back from Brooklyn.

            “A good question Christy, and one that can be answered by a quick bit of training and a mock battle. I think Cardin from Team CRDL has been trying to coax people into fighting his team for the past bit of time. So I think they’ll be perfect punching bags.”

            “Honestly, I’ve wanted to beat that guy up ever since I laid eyes on him.”

            “Yeah, how did he even get past the first round of the Vytal Festival last year?” Brooklyn asked with a look of confusion on her face.

            “Easy Brooklyn. He got a bunch of chumps from Heaven to fight. I saw the tapes, and they had it easy. Once his team got to the doubles round though, they were easily defeated.” Ty said as he stood up and picked up his sword.

            “Well that makes things a bit easier to comprehend. Shall we give this new teamwork plan a whirl?” Brooklyn asked.

            “I’m down.” Ty said loading his weapon.

            “I guess I’ll give stealth a try.” Christy said as she stood up.

            “All right then. I’ll talk to Professor Goodwitch and try to set up the biomes for the match.” As Jacob turned to go, Brooklyn yelled out,

            “Wait, shouldn’t we practice first Jacob?”

            “Oh yeah, that’s probably an important piece to all of this isn’t it?”

 

 

 

 

As Team CRDL got ready for the match, the randomizer for the biomes started spinning. On Team CRDL’s side was the forest biome, while on the side of Team JCTB was the ice biome. Both teams got into ready positions, with Team CRDL all lined up, and Team JCTB in a wedge formation, Ty and Brooklyn on point with Christy and Brooklyn in the back.

            “3, 2, 1, BEGIN!” As the screens flashed to signify the start of the match, Ty and Brooklyn rushed forward, Ty with his weapon in sword form while Brooklyn had her weapon in shield form to block the incoming blasts from Russel’s dagger pistols. Meanwhile, Jacob and Christy jumped backwards into the forest, causing Dove and Sky to chase after them. Ty and Brooklyn reached Cardin and Russel, with Brooklyn quickly beginning to spar with Russel, easily dealing with his weak stance and poor form. Ty was dueling with Cardin, trading blows left and right. But the big thing was that despite Cardin being able to land blows that would destroy the aura of his opponents, Ty just took it as if Cardin had tapped him on the shoulder with a feather. He simply swung his sword around hitting Cardin several times before the buzzer sounded signifying that his aura level was depleted.

            “Well that was easy.”

            “Ugh…. lucky shot…” Cardin groaned as he collapsed to the ground unconscious. Ty then looked to make his way over to Brooklyn and Russel, but noticed that she was doing fine enough on her own. Russel was constantly backing up as Brooklyn moved forward on the offensive constantly controlling the pace of the fight. So seeing that things were under control, Ty rushed off to help deal with Dove and Sky in the forest. Meanwhile, Jacob was dueling the two of the other members of Team CRDL rather easily. He hadn’t entered his time manipulation state yet, knowing that it would only be needed if the situation demanded it. Christy had jumped into the trees and was waiting for Jacob’s signal to take them out. Dove tried to knock Jacob off-balance with a sword strike to the leg, but he ended up missing horribly giving Jacob a wide-open stab right into his chest, knocking his aura down to 8%. Having subdued his opponent, Jacob quickly struck the ground with a dagger causing a giant cloud of fog to appear on the battlefield. Sky was completely blind, so he tried twirling his weapon like a helicopter blade to clear it away, but before he could finish, Christy jumped straight at him catching him off guard, and at the same time, disarming him. She quickly used her axes to deal several blows to the body depleting his aura and defeating him. The buzzer sounded and the biomes retracted back into the floor, leaving an excited Team JCTB and a completely defeated Team CRDL in the center ring.

            “That worked so much better than I thought it would!” Christy said with excitement.

            “Yeah, makes you realize how much we can get done once we figure out how to work together.” Ty said with a smile.

            “A bit clichéd for my taste Ty, but nonetheless, you’re not wrong.”

            “I feel like if we continue like this, we could be the champion team at the end of the Vytal Festival Re-Issue in a few months.” Jacob said with some certainty.  The all high-fived each other, then started leaving the arena. The match was the last thing that was allowed to happen before the students had to trade with the next group. Team JNPR walked down from the stands and met up with the others.

            “Great job guys! You really got that teamwork down to a science!” Jaune said with enthusiasm.

            “Yeah, you guys kicked butt out there!” Nora said punching Ty in the shoulder.

            “Thanks everybody.” Jacob smiled. “But right now, I’m in desperate need of some re-fueling. Maybe there’s a chance the others are still at lunch?”

            “It’s possible. But probably not. I bet they finished and are headed this direction now just to see how we did.” Pyrrha said as she checked the time on her scroll.

            “Pyrrha’s definitely right on this one." Jaune said as he turned to leave.  "Besides, I bet Blake has eaten all the fish already.”

            “Well it’s better than when Nora eats all the syrup.” Ren said rolling his eyes at Nora.

            “You’re not wrong…” Nora said blushing a little bit.  Everybody laughed at this and made their way to the cafeteria.

 

 

 

 

            “EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!” The chants continued as Blake and Natalie got started on another platter of food. As soon as the plates hit the table, the two of them immediately started going to town. Both JCTB and JNPR walked in to basically witness both Blake and Natalie eating food in a style similar to that of Garfield. They immediately started working their way through the crowds to where the rest of their friends were.

            “Miles, what the heck is going on?” Ty asked walking up next to him.

            “Oh, hey Ty. Well, basically, these two ladies got in a heated debate as to who could eat the most seafood, so they started going at it, but they’ve been going at it for so long I think they’re on their 20th plate now.”

            “Crying out loud. Any signs of them slowing down?”

            “No, not really. I’d strongly suggest getting some food now, because there’s no guarantee that there will be any left as these two continue.”

            “All right. Be back in a minute.”

 

 

 

            “Ready to give up Blake?”

            “Please. I’m just now barely beginning to feel like any food has entered my stomach. I could go for another 20 plates and THEN I might feel like I’ve had a small snack.”

            “Them’s fightin words!” With that said, Natlaie started digging into the plate of shrimp. As she took her first bite however, she felt like something was wrong in her stomach. She tried to shake it off, but it kept growing more and more obvious. She was getting full. As she attempted to finish off the plate, she felt like she was going to explode and pushed the plate away. Meanwhile Blake finished off the plate in record time and held her arms high in victory.

            “All too easy.”

            “Yay, great. We had a random eating competition, can we leave now?” Miles said with an annoyed tone, feeling glad this was over and done with.

            “Calm down Miles” said Weiss. “The others still have their lunch to eat, why not join them for a while?”

            “Fine. I guess I’ll go back for seconds or something.”

            “You do that. And Ruby, I see that pie, and I know what you’re planning!”

            “You gonna stop me Weiss?”

            “Yes. Yes I am.”

            “Aw, you’re no fun.”

Author's Note

Please review/enjoy!

Reviews

[Shep]

Oh please hit him with the pie, I want to see a food fight. I loved it, loved it. what a great chapter this was. Lots going on as the teams get organized and learn to compete as a team . Love the detail love the pace of the story, moving on to the next page. Please be kind and return the love.