Team EMBR (RWBY oc)

Chapter 9: Primum Pugna

"The forest of forever fall wasn't too bad." Rose said, referring back to the field trip we took a little while ago.
"I mean, we didn't run into any Grimm." Maggie interjected, "not like that team of bullies they called CRDL."
"I mean that Jaune kid took care of that, surprisingly..." Bondi said.
"That's not what I didn't like about it, I would've liked a Grimm, and it was beautiful," I defended, "the allergies were terrible. It felt like I couldn't breathe through my nose for a week."
"Surprised you weren't complaining about the chilliness honestly." Bondi said with a quiet laugh.
"Please, I thought about that. I had ash bring one of his jackets." I responded.
"And one of yours wasn't good enough?" Rose asked with a laugh and a wink. That drew a blush out of me. My teammates enjoyed the blush and laughed along with Rose.
"Oh whatever," I said, desperate to change the subject, "can we just get down to the docks already? I wanna greet the other-" I paused as I saw something down the street as we passed by. I leaned back around the corner to see what it was. I started walking towards it without saying anything.
"What Em?" Rose asked as they all ran after me. They all slowed as they saw what I saw. We stared at the destroyed dust shop.
"I guess I can't stop every robbery..."
I said softly as Magnolia came up to my side. She put a hand on my shoulder to tell me that it wasn't my fault and I shouldn't kick myself. Which I knew, but it was still a downer.
Magnolia heard the police officers mention the white fang and she scoffed. "You didn't fight the white fang that one time did you Emmy?"
I clutched my rib in memory, "no I did, the leader was white fang. Trust me, my ribs remember that hit."
"Maybe they've stepped up their game? Grown a bigger operation?" Bondi suggested, "either way it's unacceptable and needs to be stopped."
"What are we gonna do?" Maggie asked, "we're just a bunch of students. The white fang are mislead murderers. How can we even compete?"
"I mean, aren't we supposed to be the best of the best?" Rose asked, getting ready for a pump up speech, "are we not the protectors of remnant?"
"Rose?" Maggie interjected, "I appreciate the attempt, but they are cold blooded criminals, some of them probably literally. We shouldn't go at this alone."
"Guys. Guys!" I said loudly, "you're all getting ahead of yourselves. It's just some dust robberies. You're overthinking it. There's not some criminal mastermind scheme going on."
"She has a point," Bondi said, staring off towards the docks, "it's probably nothing. No way a big organization would try and hit downtown vale. Too many eyes."
"And you know something about criminals do you?" Maggie asked, I sat back just in case an argument started.
      "What can I say?" She said with a shrug, "I had weird interests as a kid."
      "I don't know what interest would lead to that," Maggie started, "but I think I'll just let this one go..."
       "Anyways," rose said, trying to change the subject, "you wanna actually head down to the docks to meet people now?"
"Yeah please," I said, "this building is really bumming me out."
I turned around and bumped into a boy around our age wearing a hoodie that exposed his abs. He had his hood up so I couldn't see his face easily, but I heard him growl like a jaguar.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry," I said to him as I walked past him, but the only response I got was another growl from him, and it sounded angry, "enjoy the rest of your day." I finished as I rushed to catch up with my team.
"You get any weird vibes from that guy too?" Magnolia asked, "he was looking at us while we were looking at the shop..."
     "He seemed a little off yeah," I confirmed, "he just growled at me...he rwas rude."
     "I'm sure he's just a joy to be around..." Maggie muttered, "it's whatever though, I doubt we'll ever see him again."
     "Unless he's a haven student or something..." Bondi added, "who knows, we might have to fight his team in the tournament."
"I hope not..." I replied, "he seems like a scary guy. Everything about him did."
"It's okay Em," Rose teased, "the mean man is gone, but I can hold your hand if you're still scared."
"Oh shut up, I'll be fine," I retorted, "he didn't growl at you like a jaguar though."
"Probably just wants to seem tough," Bondi said with a shrug, "it's just what guys do. Probably nothing weird..."
I turned to look back at him as I walked away, but I quickly looked away as he snapped his glance over to me.
"Say what you will," I started, "but I've got a bad feeling about him. Call it a hunch..."
"Ember, the last time you had a hunch you almost burned down forever fall..." Maggie said, laughing along with my other teammates in memory of the event.
"The rat jumped up at me okay!" I defended, "I didn't mean to shoot. It scared me and I jumped! It was a big rat!"
"Ember..." Rose stopped me before I tried to defend myself further, "you thought it was a Grimm..." I tried to defend myself further but Rose stopped me.
Bondi just laughed and kept walking towards the docks. Rose and I both turned our noses as we approached, the smell of fish hitting us in the face, but Maggie walked toward it with an eager and pleasant smile.
"And your nose isn't dying how?" Rose asked Maggie, but she only replied by hitting her with her cat tail, "right...cat...that whole thing..." Rose finished.
"Whoa there buddy..." Bondi said as she turned the corner, only to see a boy running, being chased by police officers and team RWBY. "Looks like RWBY is trying to one up us on the crime stopping." She finished.
      "It happened like 6 months ago..." I said, slightly annoyed, "I'm sure everybody has forgotten about it by now. It's been months since anyone said anything to me about it."
      "It's okay Emmy!" Rose started jokingly, "you're still a hero in my mind! I'm so grateful to be graced with your presence."
      "Oh shut up..." I said as I leaned on the railing, watching the Mistral students flow in from the ship to Vale.
"God there's so many of them..." Bondi said in slight awe, "and that's only one school. How is vale gonna fit all of them?"
"It's a big city," Rose answered, "they'll fit somewhere. Besides, there are dorms just for this reason..."
      "But still...what about the common areas and courtyards and all that?" Bondi asked, still in disbelief.
"Bondi," I chimed in, "it'll be fine. Vale's a big city. They'll fit. Trust me."
      "They better," Bondi said, "this is my city, not theirs."
       "Bondi..." I said with a pause, "you moved here...just a semester ago..."
        "So? I still live here don't I? It's still at least our city, we may as well keep it nice while we can..."
"Whoa whoa whoa Bondi," Rose said, moving her hands in a 'calm down' motion, "save the inspirational speeches for later. For now? Food."
      "Please?" I said desperately, "I didn't eat breakfast and it was a mistake and I'm starving now..."
"Yes your majesty," Bondi said sarcastically, "we can get food at your every command."
"Oh shut up," I said with a laugh as I pushed Bondi away from me jokingly.
      We went out to a restaurant not far from where we were. We sat there for awhile, eating and talking. We ran into a couple of mistral students and we talked for awhile. They said their names were Sage and Scarlet and that the rest of their team came to vale with some "unconventional" methods. We stayed in downtown vale until it got dark outside.
We went back to our dorms, but we came back the next couple of days. We all got bored of sitting at beacon so we tried to find things to do in downtown vale. On the last day we ate at another cafe by the shipping docks. We left as it was getting dark out.
          "We should probably head back to our-" I said, stopping and turning around at the sound of an explosion at the shipping docks, "or not, cmon..."
      "You sure about this? Maggie asked as we ran along towards the docks, "shouldn't we let the professionals handle this?"
        "Whatever is happening," I answered, "there may not be time for professionals..."
"I hate you for being right..." Maggie said with a sigh as we ran along.
When we got to the docks we ended up on the wrong dock, and the real action was happening on the other across the water. We watched the 3 students for a couple of seconds as they dealt with the white fang. We went to turn and run to help, only to get cut off by a group of white fang members. In the middle, the hooded figure and the man from the dust store robbery I prevented.
       "How nice of you lovely girls to join us today!" The hooded figure said with a creepily cheery voice, "however, I'm afraid you weren't invited and aren't welcome here. And I really don't like people who aren't welcome..."
"You two must really like messing up my plans don't you?" The bigger man asked, referring to me and Bondi, "so I guess we'll just have to fix that problem won't we?" The big man pulled out his club, the hooded man brought claws out from gauntlets, and the white fang members brought out their swords. After that was chaos.
The big man swung his club downward at me, and I wasn't ready. Fortunately for me, Bondi used her semblance, which was an aura projection that created barriers at the cost of her Aura, and the club seemingly bounced off air. He stepped back stunned and Bondi clubbed him back.
The claw man moved towards Maggie, and she was playing the defensive game, with her weapon in staff form. He also swung downwards onto Maggie, but she held her staff up and blocked it, but he was still pushing down. She suddenly detached her weapons into Kamas form, splitting the staff in half, stepping back to not get cut. The hooded man went down to the ground and Maggie slashed him twice in the arm.
The 3 other white fang members went towards Rose, and she knocked two lightning dust arrows and hit two of the men square in the chest, taking care of those two. She ran at the third, flipped over him, and wrapped the curved part of her bow around his neck. She bent over and threw him over her back straight into the ground. After that it was just the two strange men.
"Oh you're gonna pay for that!" The hooded man hissed at Maggie, but Rose came to her defense and locked the claw in her bow as he swung at her. He swung the other claw at Rose and hit her along the stomach, slightly draining her aura.
Me and Bondi approached the big guy as he swung at us, we both ducked. He was ready for that and kicked Bondi back towards the ledge over the water. She lost her weapon and it slid down into the water. That left only me to deal with him. I did some quick forearm strikes and spun backwards as he swung, pulling the trigger and shooting, but it just bounced off his
Aura and only angered him.
He swung at me and hit me, stunning me, opening up for another hit, which he took advantage of. He swung up at me and hit me again, sending me back and knocking me down. Rose must've seen me getting manhandled cause she hit me in the calf with a fire arrow. I felt my muscles and body get stronger from the heat and fill with adrenaline. I got up and hit him hard with the long side of Ignis on the right, and then again with Aestus on the left. I spun Ignis out and jabbed it at him with the pointy end and staggered him back to where he tripped over himself. He quickly kicked up and used his momentum to land on his feet.
I turned and saw Rose and Maggie both getting up from the ground, they didn't look like it was going well. Their Aura numbers on my scroll confirmed that. They both hung around 30. At this point Bondi was using her Aura barriers to protect them. "Flower!" I called out to them, which was their duo name for the "play" in our "playbook". They nodded and turned to him.
Rose did the fire and ice arrow thing to create the mist in front of claw man. Maggie stood just on the other side with her staff, swinging and jabbing sporadically. It seemed to be working, I didn't have time to keep looking cause of the club being swung at my head. I ducked it but got met with a foot to the ribs, again. I fell backwards and sat with my Aura at 32. I looked up as the man loomed over me. He had his foot on my chest, but Bondi was too distracted with the Rose and Maggie.
Out of the corner of my eyes I saw the telltale sign of an Aura fading on the man with the claws. He got cut in the arm by Maggie and he let out a cry of agony. "Boss!" He shouted, "We need to go!"
He sighed and smacked me back further, further dropping my Aura. The two regrouped back away from us, and my team and I met back up over by the edge of the dock. The man transformed his club into a long rifle and aimed it at us, clearly he was only going to shoot if we made a move.
The big man let out a laugh and tossed a fire dust crystal towards us. "Bye," he said with a very sinister tone. He shot the crystal and it exploded. I threw my hands up, knowing it wouldn't help, but it was a reaction.
        I slowly lowered my hands after I heard the explosion, my ears were ringing, but we were all fine. Bondi had used the last of her Aura on a barrier to protect us all. The crystal destroyed all of the dock on the side we weren't on, so we were stuck on an island in the middle of the water. Bondi passed out but Maggie caught her and set her down.
      "I completely forgot about the other fight..." Rose said as she turned over to the other dock. We all turned just in time to see a big green laser cut an airship in two. We watched in awe as one of the airships made it out.
"Well that was certainly more impressive than our fight," I said with a soft laugh as we watched the other students come together. It was weird cause none of the 4 students were on a team together, and one of them was the boy we saw running from the police earlier. They waved over at us, and we waved back. At least the ones of us who could did.
"Say what you want," Mag said, "it was still tough and stressful. Thanks for the flower call too, it was a good idea."
"I was just doing my job as team leader," I said as I heard police sirens in the distance, "looks like our saviors are on their way. We can get off this island soon..."
"Not soon enough..." Rose said as she sat down with her legs crossed, "can't wait to explain this..."