literature

RWBY Rising Tides Ch.3

Deviation Actions

Projekt-Z's avatar
By
Published:
453 Views

Literature Text

Chapter 3 – Make the Grade

“Um, Professor Goodwitch...?” Diana spoke weakly as she caught the full view of the area where her team's test was to take place.

The area was a virtual simulation that bordered on real in various factors, even down to simulations of broken bones and status ailments. The City below a pair of helicopters was, to be simply put, a Metropolis under siege by something other than Grimm. There was fire everywhere and a surplus of flaming buildings and crumbling ones as well as some that looked structurally unstable and would collapse at any second. The helicopters were high enough to border the usual height that a plane would be when in flight; just barely above the clouds.

The two teams, ZNDS and DGTL were in separate choppers and Team DGTL's chopper had the Professor waiting to give last minute advice and directions.

“What is it, Diana?” the professor asked. She turned her head slightly to establish eye contact with the young lady who was the leader of this particular team.

“Um... I'm afraid of heights... Can I start lower to the ground please?” Diana asked, she looked at the flaming city before turning fearful eyes to the professor who showed no visible signs of sympathy.

Glynda shook her head slowly, “I apologize Diana, but no. Think of it as another Initiation. You sure handled that situation very well.”

Diana looked up at the older woman, “How did I...?”

Glynda cut the girl off, waving her riding crop before Diana's body and tossed her out of the chopper after her team already jumped and started their assignment.

“...Just like that, Diana.” Glynda spoke plainly as she peered over the opening of the chopper, then she appeared to the opposing team, ZNDS.

“Well, I think we got the general idea of the assignment, but you said something about a special circumstance professor?” Nero asked calmly as the blonde woman appeared in their helicopter.

Glynda nodded. “That's right. While the eight of you are competing, this will be broadcast to the whole class as it happens. However, Not until you begin your part, which will begin in two minutes.”

Sapphyra chuckled and stretched his arms a bit, “Well, I can't wait to get in there. I can tell this will be fun.”

Zell stepped up and looked out the helicopter, “Well, we'd better get ourselves prepared for this.”

Dan stood up from his seat and cracked his knuckles, “Ready when you are bro-sif.”

Nero nodded placidly and rose to his feet as well, with his arms folded and he glanced out the door as well.

Glynda raised a brow slightly and stole a glance at what the boys were looking at, which was the area, but more-so the flailing female that was falling helplessly, Diana. She grinned and sighed. “You boys may begin.”

With a nod, the four boys jumped from their helicopter and the display in the auditorium of the school flickered on. Glynda then turned her attention to the class.

“Well, students, we will be having a demonstration. Please pay close attention.”

There were soft murmurs from several teams.

“So Zell, can I get that girl who called us scrubs?” Sapphyra asked as they fell from towards the fiery infernos below them.

Zell shook his head, “Fine, just don't forget that you have a team, alright? I'm going for Diana. Nero, back him up; Dan, get Griffith, alright?”

The team nodded and they landed on a building that had half of it torn away. Zell turned to the left and headed for the helpless leader of the opponent's team. Sapphyra took the front and lead the others to Gaea, Terrel and Leila.

Dan followed Zell in the direction of Diana, “Tell me when.”

Zell reached the edge of the broken building and did a back flip with his forward momentum. Seeing his cue, Dan yanked his necklace, produced a great-sword and swung it for Zell to have a platform to springboard from.

There was a pause for the two boys, which was viewed by the watching class as a twitch on the screen, Zell released a great burst of fire from the shoes he wore and flew as fast as a bullet toward Diana. After Zell launched himself away, Dan turned to join his team.

The falling leader of team DGTL was deathly afraid of heights, ever since she had an unfortunate accident with one of her father's inventions as a child. The scars from that incident were very apparent now as she cried out for her father to help her, just like when she crashed one of the experimental flying contraptions he'd designed for her.

Team DGTL stopped their progression to see what happened, only to realize that their leader was terrified of heights, and they decided to turn back, only to have a large blue shuriken stop them, followed by a rain of electric bullets.

Gaea grunted as she spotted Sapphyra, “Get outta the way scrub!”

Sapphyra narrowed his eyes and retrieved his blade, “Not until you apologize for insulting my team. We're not scrubs, little girl.”

Gaea readied her gun and fired at Sapphyra with no hesitation, to which had the blue haired boy roll to the side, and before he could get back to his feet, he was given a boot to his face. Sapphyra flipped backward and barely stayed on the unstable foundation they were currently on, and it began to crumble.

“Leila, back Ellie up, I'm going after the leader.” Terrel directed at the black haired mouse-type faunus.

Leila nodded and took two steps before she was halted by a black haired young man, Nero. His guns clicked audibly before he he stepped into her way.

Leila made no effort to wait, she immediately opened fire with a roundhouse kick, aimed for Nero's head. Nero ducked slightly and spun on one heel, extending his leg out and tripping the girl. Leila 's remaining leg disappeared from beneath her, but she caught herself with her arm and swung both of her legs around, connecting with the sharp-shooter's chest, before spinning herself back to her feet. Nero recoiled, stumbling onto his back, but easily regained himself, just as the building crumbled beneath him almost immediately. With a forward roll, Nero lunged at Leila and tackled her, and fired two shots at her, knocking her back with little effort. The girl hit her back and recovered with a backwards ukemi roll, and she skidded back a little before charging at Nero once again.

Sapphyra jumped over another shot from Gaea and countered with a downward slice aimed for her torso, which connected ever so slightly, as she moved back just enough. Gaea used her little backwards momentum to retract her chain and used it as a whip, waving it around, and since there was a blade on the edge of it, that was an effective tactic for a time. Each swing tore small chunks of the concrete from beneath them, and somehow sent the artificial rock hurling toward her adversary. Sapphyra was agile enough to evade the large rocks, using his gymnastics, otherwise noted as Parkour, to flip over and spin away from the boulders. Gaea ignored the crumbling beneath her as she continued to slowly approach and corner ZNDS's youngest member. Sapphyra hit a back flip before feeling a shoulder wedge into his chest and force him closer to an edge.

Gaea grinned and fully retracted the chain of her gun and pointed it at the boy. “I told you were nothing more than a scrub, didn't I?”

Sapphyra smirked and knelt, burying his shuriken a good ways into the cement beneath them. Gaea's gun released a large bang, and there was a large white shock-wave that exploded into her almost simultaneously. Both combatants, as well as Nero and Leila, were blasted away to separate buildings.

Terrell looked back to see what the noise was and spotted two black clad people reaching a higher rooftop, but when he returned his gaze to his target, she was gone and a red streak danced across several rooftops a fair distance away.

Zell saved the stunned Diana and her arms were wrapped around him as if he was the only thing keeping her alive, which wasn't too far from the truth. While the two teams were supposed to battle one another, there were already large fire monsters tearing the city apart as the two teams were supposed to get through it, and the blue haired girl stuck out like a broken leg, since her blue hair and blue outfit were a great contrast to the reds, browns and blacks of the destruction they were in.

Zell reached somewhat stable skyscraper before letting Diana onto her feet slowly. “Thank you...” She breathed out.

Zell stood up and looked down at the city, “It's no problem, but if you're scared of heights, you might want to let me take point a while longer.”

Diana looked at him innocently and pushed up her glasses as she approached, “What do you....” Her small smile dropped as she looked down at the city. She let out an audible gasp before instinctively reclining into his arm.

Zell sighed, in a somewhat agitated manner, “It's that bad, is it?”

Diana whimpered and nodded, she was shaking. Zell rolled his eyes skyward and shook his head before releasing a disappointed sigh. “Well, I made a good call by picking you, it seems.”

Diana was off-put by the comment, “What is that supposed to mean?”

The response was plain and simple, “Professor Goodwitch gave us the option to save one of you. And you were the one we, my team, agreed on.”

Before Diana could recall that part properly, there was a roar from something more than beastly, then the feeling and sound of crumbling concrete reached the two teens. Diana's survival instinct was to cling to the nearest thing with a pulse, and since she was already there, her grip tightened a little.

Zell sighed, she was obviously traumatized and hadn't gotten over whatever was bothering her. He recalled reading something about helping a person to deal with their fears. So he wrestled his arm free of her terrified grip and knelt with his back before her.

“Get on my back, close your eyes and focus on... my heartbeat, alright?” The three simple directions were given before the girl could even process what was going on, but at the sounds of monsters destroying the only foundation they had at the time she quickly did as she was told.

With an inhale Zell asked her, “Are you ready?”

She nodded with a firm grip around his neck, “M hmm...”

Zell chuckled and jumped. “Don't open your eyes until I tell you, alright?”

“...O...okay...” was the shaky reply from Diana as Zell leapt from the crumbling skyscraper.

Zell was in a nosedive as he began his descent, making sure to slow things down so he wouldn't react in a way that would harm his hostage.

He flipped frontwards to land on a large falling piece of a wall, then jumped from it and onto the face of a large snake-like creature with a deformed mouth, and ran the length of it's body and jumped off it's tail. He conducted a gymnastic series of flips, showing off his great agility and flexibility as he entered a swan dive and weaved through the air, navigating the slowed time to avoid having to do any form of back-flip, since he'd probably hurt the girl he was trying to protect. Zell landed on another broken building, and it began to crumble as soon as he stepped on it.

“Hey, Di, I'm gonna need to to relax a bit more.”

“I'll try...”

Zell flipped forward, and slipped his neck free of her grip, only for a split second, in order to toss her body to his front, for more control of the situation, but losing his ability to use any weapons as a consequence.

When Zell conducted this action, Diana yelped, and felt heat before she returned to a pair of arms. She kept her eyes closed, and the only other thing she knew was that someone told her, “You'll be okay.”

It was Terrel, and when the leader opened her eyes there was a large three headed monster before her.

The monster spit out a black substance and disintegrated the rooftop completely, forcing the three, Zell included, to enter a free fall, and opening them up to an aerial attack from some pterodactyl type monsters.

“Zell, you've chosen to save our leader, right?” Terrel asked as he hoisted his large gold sword to a makeshift ready position.

“Well, yeah, why else would I be holding her like this?” Zell replied plainly, before entering a corkscrew spin, drilling his way through the air a bit faster.

Terrel smirked and took a deep breath, “Glorious. Make sure to keep her safe.”

Zell shook his head, “Then you'd better have my back.”

Terrel imitated Zell's spin, using his sword as a propeller before two pterodactyl type monsters crashed into where they once were.

Zell exited his spin and landed on another rooftop, but by now the monsters all had a lock on him. Terrel landed beside him and readied his blade.

Zell shook his head, “No need to fight them. They are our platforms. We'll need them to navigate this area. If you fall, there's nothing but magma down there.”

Terrel looked over the edge and furrowed his brows, he sighed and mumbled, “Glorious...”

“Well, we got a little ways to go, but I’m sure one of us will make it. And I doubt, just a little, that we both will survive...”

Terrel had a confused look now, “What? Are you kidding?”

Zell shook his head, “Nope. I know what to do, but these monsters aren't stupid. You can use them as platforms, and I'll try to get to some ground with her. The goal post is that small bit of land on the end of the city, if you can get your team to stop trying to fight my team then we can work together and make it. I've already got my course planned out, and so does my team. It's up to you if you wanna make the grade for this.”

Before Terrel could respond, there was yet another screech and then the monsters descended upon them.

“Di, I need you to relax your body as much as possible, but keep your arms around my neck. I don't want you to become bird food, you got it?”

Diana nodded into Zell's shirt and took a deep breath. After she released the breath, most of the nervous tension left her body and she relaxed. “Let me handle this, don't tense up, at all.”

Zell jumped backwards, and Terrel followed suit. Both young men were sent into the air and were pecked at, like they were fresh bread on the street for starving birds, but thanks in no small part to their seemingly similar tactical mindsets, both boys used the force from the blocked peck attacks to push them toward the goal; however there were moments where they had to weave and move to avoid lethal hits, Zell most of all, since he did have a terrified girl in his arms.

On a rooftop, much closer to the goal post, Gaea was cornered by both Dan and Sapphyra. All three were injured to some degree; Dan had blood coming from one corner of his mouth, Sapphyra had a thin cut on his left cheek and Gaea was battered and had a few bruises and cuts everywhere. All three were breathing heavily, but Dan and Sapphyra held their swords pointed at the girl.

Not too far away from this trio, Nero pointed both of his semi empty handguns at Leila. She was in a corner as well, and she was out of Dust. She even managed to use Nero's own Dust supply against him, which never happened before.

Before either group could call it a tie, the collective screeches of the bird monsters that attacked Zell and Terrel got the attention of the other members of the teams, and then they all received the same message, “Time to get moving.”

However, Zell's team had an extra bit of information, “You guys have to lead the way, you got it?”

Nero and Leila nodded to their commands, while Dan, Sapphyra and Gaea groaned in complaint.

Zell's voice came and went, “You guys don't have to wait for her, you just have to make it out, you hear? Its up to her whether or not she survives this. Move out. You don't have much time.”

Dan re-attached his necklace and Sapphyra returned his shuriken to his side. They gathered their surroundings and mapped out their route.

“You ready?” Dan asked.

Sapphyra nodded, “Yeah, lets get out of here.”

Before the two boys prepared to take off, Gaea sighed audibly, “I'm gonna... follow you guys... so, you know, don't move too fast? I need to be able to keep up, right?”

Dan and Sapphyra nodded, “Yep, true.”

The trio jumped from where they were and began to make their route to the exit. Gaea whispered, or mumbled, something similar to an apology to the two boys; granted Dan was the only one to hear it. Both teams made it out of the pop up exam and passed, while ZNDS's grade was cumulative, DGTL's grade was given individually. Diana was exempt since she was the rescued member, Gaea received a C-, Leila and Terrel received A's for working so well together.
Team RWBY © montyoum and RoosterTeeth

Team VOID ©  Zombie-scarecrow

Zell Natsumoto, Sapphyra Takeuchi ©  Projekt-Z

Masamune Nero ©  Legendaryzero4

Daniel Kusonagi ©  IX-universe

Team DEGE/DGTL ©  21as

:bulletred: Chapter 1 – projekt-z.deviantart.com/art/R…
:bulletblack: Chapter 2 – projekt-z.deviantart.com/art/R…

Didn't know that I would have taken so long, but I'm sorry, and I hope it's at least decent.
© 2014 - 2024 Projekt-Z
Comments3
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Dragonkingmark's avatar
man training can be brutal