Episode 2: Chapter 4: Opening Round

Chapter 4 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Natalie was shaking in her boots. She was rising up on a platform about to enter the ring of Amity Coliseum, alongside the other thirty-one teams that were in the competition. She was a nervous wreck. She didn’t even notice that she had turned invisible.

            “Natls, it’ll be fine. We just pop up, smile and wave, and then find out who the first teams fighting will be.”

            “Easy for you to say Nathan. I mean, everybody is going to be looking right at me! I don’t think I can handle that much pressure!”

            “Relax fearless leader.” Miles said with a smirk. “It’s just like your brother said. Smile and wave. Besides, with luck we could be the first team to fight, and then you wouldn’t have to worry about anything except fighting for the next few minutes.”

            “Oh yeah, that makes me feel so much better.” As the podium rose to the surface, the crowd roared. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining brightly into the coliseum. The crowd continued to cheer, while all the fighters waved to the crowd. Then, a platform lowered down in front of all the teams, and standing on it was Professor Ozpin with a microphone. As soon as the platform landed, he began speaking to the entire world as the cameras all focused right on him.

            “Around this time last year, the peace that all Huntsmen and Huntresses fight to protect was threatened by someone who believed that the world we fought for was weak. That it was flawed, and it needed to be changed. But the heroes who wanted to stand for what they believed to be right stood against one of the greatest threats to this world with no fear and no regrets. They were only students, but they answered a call that not many professional Huntsmen answer every day. Not all of them could compete in this tournament this year, but let us take a moment to honor them and their devotion to this world we live in.” As soon as he said this, another platform rose up from the ground revealing several teams who participated in last years Vytal Festival, including, Team COCO, Team CRDL, even Team FNKI was among their number.

            “And now, there is a special message from somebody who wished they could be here, but due to certain circumstances, can’t.”

            “Salutations!” Everybody looked around and realized that now instead of Ozpin on the screens, it was Penny Polendina.

            “Hello friends!” The cheerful robot exclaimed. The crowd started applauding and gave her a standing ovation. “I wish I could be with you all today, but I still have some repairs to complete before I’m fully operational.” Penny then turned to reveal that her left arm was in fact missing, and there were still several wires sticking out of her back. “Don’t worry! Soon enough, once again I will be combat ready!” She exclaimed while giving her traditional salute. “To all my friends at Beacon, I can’t wait to see you all again! And to Ms. Nikos, I hope you win the tournament because I really want a rematch between us with no bad people around!” Pyrrha smiled and gave a thumbs up to the camera as it focused in on her.

            “I look forward to it Penny.” The crowd applauded and Penny smiled.

            “Well, I’ll see you all later then!” With that said, her feed was cut off and it focused back onto Ozpin.

            “Thank you Ms. Polendina. We wish you a speedy recovery. Now then, I officially declare the Restoration Tournament open!” As soon as these words were uttered, the crowd erupted louder than before. “Now then, I’ll leave the remainder of the events to our capable commentators in the booth, Professors Port and Oobleck.”

            “It’s doctor!” Professor Oobleck yelled over his microphone. “But yes, thank you Professor Ozpin! It brings me great joy to commentate once again on the tournaments this year! And of course it is great to be doing so alongside my colleague and good friend Professor Port!”

            “Ho ho! Thank you Bartholomew! Now then, let’s determine our first match of this year’s tournament! Would the committee please bring the wheel out to the center stage?” As soon as he said this, another platform rose out of the center of the arena revealing the giant spinner for the tournament. The wheel was spun and landed on Team AXLL. The team stepped forward and recognized the audience. Then the wheel was spun again, and this time landed on Team NEMN.

            “All right!” Nathan exclaimed. “Beats just sitting in the stands for several hours on end!”

            “Now then children,” Professor Port interjected, “all teams not fighting right now are to report to the stands immediately, while the two teams that are about to face off are to report to the locker rooms and prepare for battle!”

 

 

 

 

As Natalie was getting ready for the match, she looked over at her teammates.  Nathan was clutching Ember’s old necklace, Evan was talking to Christy, and Miles was just sitting there meditating.  Clasping her weapon tightly, she started to get even more nervous than earlier.  What if she messed up?  Would the crowd laugh at her?  Would this affect her grade somehow?
            “You know, sometimes you turn half invisible when you fill your head with self-doubt.”  Natalie turned to see Ruby standing right above her with a huge smile on her face.
            “Oh, hey Ruby.”  Natalie said smiling a little bit, but still clearly nervous.
            “Don’t worry about it.  As long as you guys stick together, you should be fine.”
            “I’m just afraid of messing up.  How do you overcome that fear?”
            “When I do, I’ll let you know.  I’m going up to sit with everybody else.  Good luck!”  She turned to leave.
            “Wait!”
            “Yeah?”  Natalie pointed to her lips.
            “For luck?”  Ruby smiled, walked over to the shy girl and gave her a quick kiss and then left.  Everybody’s jaws seemed to hit the floor except for Miles’.
            “Wait, since when did you have a girlfriend Natls?!” Nathan asked scratching his head.
            “For about a few weeks now bro.  It was about a week after we qualified for the tournament before I asked her out, and we’ve been dating for a short time now!”
            “Is that why you’ve been hanging out so much with her?”
            “Why wouldn’t I be?  She’s my girlfriend.”
            “I thought you said you two were training together!”
            “We were!  And maybe kissing each other while doing so…. hey I saw you and Yang do the same thing a few times before!”
            “Huh.  I never would have guessed.”
            “Really Grover?”  Miles interjected.  “I’ve noticed this for a while now.”
            “Well of course you would Watson.  But at least Natls admits to her relationship unlike you!”
            “Yeah Miles!" Natalie said excitedly noticing the opportunity to draw the focus off of her,  "Own up to the fact that you and Blake are totally dating!”
            “You know what you two….”
            “Guys, we kind of have a fight to get to?”  Evan said as he stepped onto the platform.  “Deal with your relationship drama some other time please?”

 

 

 

 

The platform rose up into the center of the arena and the crowd erupted into applause once again. Right beside them was Team AXLL, smiling and waving to the crowd. Each of them stood on their half of the battlefield and waited as the biome selector started to spin. The first one was determined on Team NEMN’s side, and was the destroyed city biome. Meanwhile, on Team AXLL’s side, the selected field was the ice biome. As soon as the two fields were added to the arena, the countdown began, and all the fighters got into their ready stances. Then, the horn sounded for the match to begin, and Team AXLL charged headlong towards their opponents. With a quick sidestep, Team NEMN dodged pretty much all of them, while Miles simply knocked Luna back into the ice biome and pursued after her. On the other hand, the rest of Team NEMN engaged their opponents in the broken landscape. Natalie quickly started trading blows with their team leader Avian and his claw weapons. Evan was busy fighting off Xen and his twin buzzsaws, while Nathan was making quick work of Lucien and his giant electric baton.

 

 

 

Miles was still trying to gain his footing in the ice biome while Luna simply pushed a button on her shoes and metal spikes popped right out. Now having her bearings, she rushed towards Miles with her reverse sword style and knocked him back into one of the giant pillars of ice. Deciding to try and buy himself more time, Miles increased the pull of gravity on his own body tenfold in order to keep himself from slipping and to keep Luna from knocking him around any further. Miles was then finally able to disarm her, and force her out of the ring by changing the direction of her gravitational pull to the edge of the ring. The buzzer sounded signifying the ring out, and Miles looked up to see that his aura had fallen down to about 30% during that little stunt. He took a deep breath, returned his gravity to normal, and rushed over to where the rest of his teammates were fighting.

 

 

 

 

Natalie kept moving backwards trying to stay out of reach of Avian’s claws. Her weapon and fighting style weren’t a good match for the close quarters nature of her opponents weapon choice. And it also didn’t help that despite constantly backing away from her opponent, he had little tiny mini pistols in each of his claws that he could fire to not give her a chance to catch her breath. However, she found an opening when they started getting closer to one of the crumbling buildings. Quickly running inside, she found one of the darker corners and turned invisible. Her opponent didn’t see her turn invisible, so when he got inside, he couldn’t find her. He started searching everywhere in the building, but then he looked back outside. There was Natalie, standing there plain as day, not even looking back at the building. Seeing his chance, he leapt from the floor he was on and prepared to slice her to ribbons. But as soon as he got close, Natalie melted away like she was wet paint, and in her place was a giant piece of metal debris. He had to change the direction of his fall to avoid getting impaled by the giant metal spike, but he still hit the wall pretty hard. And when he landed, Evan was right there to deal a punch from his gauntlet and a strong hit from his spear, knocking him into the firing line of Blue Wavecrest and an explosive fire Dust round to knock him out of the competition. The two fist bumped each other and ran over to where Nathan was wrapping up his fight with Lucien, completely draining his aura. The three of them re-grouped, and realized that Xen was still in the competition, his aura levels still really high.

            “What should we do Natalie?” Evan asked.

            “We can just overwhelm him, right?” Natalie said reloading her weapon.

            “Well, I’ve got a bit left in the tank for a deus-ex-machina. How about it fearless leader?” They all turned to see Miles standing there with a big grin on his face.

            “By all means Mr. Watson. Go right ahead.” Miles nodded at the command from his leader, raised his hand, and sent Xen flying towards the outside of the arena. Suddenly, the buzzer sounded signifying his aura levels had dropped too low.

            “Miles Watson! Cease your actions immediately or your team will be disqualified!” A voice yelled over the loudspeakers. Miles raised his hands in defense, and let Xen drop to the ground, outside the ring. The buzzer sounded for the ring out, and the crowd roared in excitement.

            “And that’s the match!” Professor Oobleck said excitedly. “The first victor of the tournament is Team NEMN of Vale!” The crowd gave them a standing ovation, and Team NEMN gave each other high fives and hugs.

            “We did it!” Natalie exclaimed.

            “See? Was that so hard fearless leader?”

            “Oh ha ha. Let’s just get back upstairs please? I’m getting a bit uncomfortable down here just doing nothing.”

 

 

 

 

As soon as they got back to their seats, Yang got up to give Nathan a huge hug. Miles and Blake shared a fist bump, Ruby and Natalie high-fived, while Evan and Christy gave each other a quick kiss.

            “Good win you guys!” Christy stated as she sat down next to Evan.

            “Thanks, but in all honesty, that wasn’t a very difficult match.” Miles said as he sat down next to Blake.

            “Those guys were true first years. Not that much experience outside of the classroom.” Weiss said. “Given the fact that all of you have pretty much gone above and beyond what’s expected of students in their first year, I honestly am surprised that the match wasn’t over quicker.”

            “Yeah. What she said.” Everybody on Team NEMN looked over at the new blue-haired youth sitting next to Weiss who had just randomly cut in on the conversation.

            “Oh, I’m sorry. You guys haven’t met Neptune yet. Neptune, these are my friends, Natalie, Evan, Miles and Nathan. Friends this is Neptune, my boyfriend.”

            “Is it just me or does almost everybody in our group of friends have a romantic relationship with somebody?” Blake said looking at all the different couples.

            “I think you, me, Ruby, Natalie, Jacob, Brooklyn and Ty are the only people who aren’t in an active relationship right now.” Miles said.

            “Ugh! Stop trying to deny it!” Nathan said as he punched Miles in the shoulder.

            “Deny what?” Everybody turned to see a blond haired faunus with a monkey tail waking over to the group and sitting down next to Blake as well.

            “Ah. Sun. You’re back. Guys, this is Sun.” Blake said standing up and moving away from Sun a little bit.  “He and the rest of his team were here last year and helped us fight back against Cinder and her forces.”

“So, are you and Neptune on separate teams?” Miles asked Sun.

“No, me and him are both members of Team SSSN.”

“Wow. And I thought Team RWBY was a lazy name.” Brooklyn joked.

“Hey! It makes ironic sense!” Ruby interjected.

“Guys shut up!” Yang yelled. “They’re about to announce the next match!”

 

 

 

 

 

After an exciting fight between Team RIFL and Team IRN, the wheel was spun once again. When it stopped, the team selected was Team JCTB.

            “All right! Finally I can do something other than sit around!” Ty said in excitement. The wheel was spun yet again, this time landing on Team SSSN.

            “Well at least we got introductions out of the way. See you guys on the battlefield.” Neptune said getting up, but not before giving Weiss a quick peck on the cheek. As they headed off to the locker rooms, Ruby ran off and them came back about a second later with popcorn and two drinks. One for her and one for Natalie, which she happily accepted.

            “This is going to be good.” Natalie said as she put a handful of popcorn in her mouth. 

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Shep]

Awesome, pretty much sums it up as the competition gathers on the battlefield. love the detail love the banter between the characters. Nicely done moving on to the next chapter Please be kind and return the love.