THE STEL STORIES Part 2: The Fall of Beacon

Chapter 6 - The Vytal Festival Begins!

The next few weeks before the festival flew past.
The first week was filled with training and classes, Gambit joined our evening sessions watching us learn and adapt our new semblance skills with a proud smile.
He never said it, but I believe he enjoyed training us and teaching us new skills.
Amber was the same, being an ex-thief she knew every skill and trick to stealth and maneuverability. Eclipse being the clumsiest in this field was most eager to learn and soon became her prized pupil, often rewarded with candy she seemed to have on her at all times.
Classes continued as normal, our new friends from Teams RWBY, JNPR, PINK, and another team called HAZL, made classes easier and more bearable.
Blake taught me the history of the old White Fang and what it used to stand for, I apologized once for my father's impact, but her words from the other night told me she had forgiven me.
She also introduced me to another Faunus student from Vacuo, known as Sun Wukong, a tall muscled guy with fuzzy yellow hair and a long monkey tail like Ying once possessed.
He was super laid back and often in a cheerful mood, though I could tell he was a sincere and caring guy too.
Scarlet and Ruby were now also close friends, the two working on their weapons together often at the blacksmith quarters often helping each other with their gear.
The following week had two major events.
Firstly was Amity Arenas' arrival, the large floating colosseum flew above the beacon, it was massive, a truly wonderful creation of man.
No one was allowed on it till the day of the tournament.
The second major event was the Beacon Ball.
It was quite the event, all four of us had gotten all dressed up in suits, and had a hell of a night.
Dancing and partying were the main events, witnessing Jaune appear in a dress to impress and fulfill a deal he made with his teammate Pyrrha, another major highlight.
Scarlet had been a little upset after trying to find Ruby and ask her for a dance, but noticing she was nowhere to be seen. I had noticed a girl alone from another academy, with long black hair in pigtails and bright green eyes, she stayed alone in a corner watching everyone.
I tried conversing with her, but she didn't speak a word in return before I realized she was mute.
So instead I offered her a drink and dance, she accepted the first offer warily but politely shook her head no to a dance. So I sat by her side and just spoke to her like a normal person.
Though she revealed no reaction, I swear appreciation shone in her green eyes, which seemed to flicker to a pink or brown color sometimes, maybe her semblance?
All of us were absolutely wrecked and barely made it into our beds to sleep that night, ready for the busy and crazy days to come.

The streets of Mantle were packed with people.
Students, citizens, and huntsmen covered every corner, the festivities everywhere to be seen.
Of course, our team was training.
Scarlet had insisted we keep going, making sure we were ready for the tournament to come.
The first fight was tomorrow and we hadn't found out who we were facing yet, Scarlet insisted that we must be ready for anything.
But being Team STEL, even a serious moment meant we were having fun.
Scarlet had brought a bag of silver balls with the Frost Weaponaries logos on them, Trillium shaking his head every time he saw it.
"Ok so wanna explain why a piece of sporting equipment has a weapon manufacturing logo on it," I asked Scarlet.
Scarlet grinned and replied, "Well I requested our Frosty friend here to make a training ball that would be hard to break".
"It's indestructible, a special type of rubber that absorbs any form of kinetic or elemental energy and releases it instantly" Trillium explained with a sigh.
With a grin, Scarlet threw the ball up and blasted a fire burst at it, the ball glowed red for a second then went back to its normal silver color.
"It's not even hot!" Eclipse said in awe as he picked it up, inspecting it.
"So then!" Scarlet said with an innocent smile, "Who wants to play a casual game of dodgeball?"

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Gambit Black sat on a bench just on the outside of the training rings, watching Team STEL train.
Or at least what they call training.
Amber wandered over from the kitchen nearby, two mugs of coffee in her hands, and passed one to him, a kiss on the cheek, and sat next to him to watch as well.
"So was this one of your ideas?" she asked a teasing grin on her face.
Gambit smiled back at her, God he was so lucky to have been blessed with a woman as beautiful as her he thought, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"Oi! stop losing focus and answer the question," Amber said with a chuckle though she had a slight blush on her face.
"No, it wasn't actually," Gambit said turning back to watch his students, "Though knowing Scarlet this was one of his practical ideas, and for once it's not a bad one".
It was true, they had split into teams of two, Lumen and Trillium on one side of the marked rectangle field and Scarlet and Eclipse on the other.
Lumen, using his semblance, was glowing with the black and white energy that gave both speed and strength buffs was dipping left and right smacking the balls that were thrown at him back full force, almost like a cannon, a large smile on his face.
Trillium was laughing loudly, something Gambit didn't see him do much, as he stood with water wrapped around his arms extending out like he was an Octopus, catching balls in water tentacles and either launching them back or slowly building a pile behind him.
Scarlet had formed a large flaming bat shape around his sword, smacking balls back, flames behind them from the impact, taunts and laughter coming out his mouth.
Eclipse had become a crystal knight, dust crystal plates covered his body as he blocked and caught the balls, launching them back like a hockey putt with his large hammer, also smiling and laughing like the rest of his team.
It was infectious, their joy, Gambit couldn't help but smile, chuckling when one of them got smacked in the head or yelled a curse at the other for a near miss.
He knew Amber watched his smile and knew that she could see how much these students meant to him.
"You know", she said quietly, wrapping a hand around his, "You would make a hell of a Dad".
He turned looking into those beautiful blue eyes, smiling at his future wife and the unspoken offer she had just given him.
"Well you would be the perfect mum", he replied, "Strict and demanding but also loving and caring".
She laughed, "Yea I would", Gambit chuckled then looked up to see two more individuals approaching the training rings.
"Oh shit, this isn't gonna end well," he said nodding in their direction, before standing up ready to step in, for Ying and Marcus had just arrived.

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"HEY COUS!"
The voice called out to me and distracted me enough for a flaming ball to slam into my face full force.
I was sent flying back, heading straight for the wall behind me.
Only for Ying to appear behind me, hair glowing bright white, a white aura around him, and catch me stopping the momentum. "I'm Sorry!" he stammered, "I didn't mean to distract you".
I stood and looked at him again, it was a similar semblance to mine, a power-up variation. He was faster and stronger in this glowing form, his hair seemed longer and his body more muscled and....
An energy-based tail, pure white trailed out his body, right where his old one use to be.
"Your tail shows in this form," I said quietly.
Ying nodded looking over at it and replied: "Yeah in all my forms, guess my aura still registers it".
"Wait all your forms?" I asked curiously.
Before he could answer Marcus yelled out "YING STOP FEEDING OUR OPPONENTS INFORMATION!".
Ying sighed and nodded walking back to his leader, I followed as the rest of my team gathered nearby.
"C'mon Marcus, have some heart," Scarlet said with a smile as he walked up, I knew he was resisting the urge to start taunting him, "He was just showing his semblance, and we have seen yours too so why so serious?".
Marcus glared at Scarlet and answered roughly "Because, unlike your hothead, we don't parade ourselves around, we are smarter and wiser"
"You're a bit uptight you know?" Scarlet said hands casually in his pockets, he was losing his grip so I nudged him and gave him a look.
"No, we are proper and formal like a huntsman or huntress should be, not mucking about and having 'fun' like you lot are" Marcus declared, a look of superiority on his face.
"Why can't you have fun," Scarlet asked, he now looked annoyed at what Marcus had just said.
"Fun isn't part of the job" Marcus countered, "We are doing serious work".
Scarlet laughed mockingly, and said, "Just because we are doing serious work, doesn't mean we can't enjoy it and have fun".
Marcus and Scarlet stared each other down, both of their eyes spewing anger and hate at one another, the tension thicker than ever.
Before anyone could say or do anything, a subtle cough came from our right.
We all turned to see Gambit casually standing near a bench twirling his weapon, a friendly reminder of the last attempted scuffle.
Marcus grunted his annoyance and turned to walk away, but over his shoulder to us said "I look forward to proving you wrong in front of everyone during the tournament".
Ying nodded his apology again to me before following his teammate, a heated discussion starting between the two as they walked off.
"Do you have to start a fight every time you talk to someone new?" I said to Scarlet.
He was gazing after Marcus, a look of annoyance but also some sadness in his eyes as he watched them.
"Only when I know I'm gonna win" he replied simply.

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The next day we finally took our first steps into the Amity arena.
It was huge, seats filled the whole outer edges of the arena like a sporting stadium, and large screens lit each side filmed the center of the arena.
The center was massive, a perfectly flat landscape ready to be changed and used for the tournament fights.
All the students gathered in the center as staff, huntsmen and civilians filled the stands around cheering and celebrating the start of the event.
The rules were explained; teams would fight in a 4v4 situation, and the winner was the team that either knocked all members out of the arenas marked zones or knocked the aura levels of their opponents to a critical state and broke their shield.
Teams would progress to the next round which the same rules would apply except it would become a 3v3 fight instead.
This would continue to 1v1 and the final person standing would win the tournament for their team and kingdom.
After declaring the rules, the screens flashed displaying the first fight matchups.
I scoured the board looking for our opponents, Team STEL vs Team Team VLET, a team of students from Vacuo.
"Oh no Pinkus..."
Scarlet's words made me reread the board before I saw it.
Team PINK vs Team MNKY.