RWBY: Rise of the Beasts

Chapter 26: The Road Forcibly Taken

"I am going to skin Cheetor alive when this is over," Optimus all but growled as he pulled his swords out of a locker, holstering them onto his back.

"There's nothing we can do about it now," Rhinox commented, slamming his locker shut after taking out his hammer. "Let's just go out there and end this match as quickly as possible . . . and then we'll go back to the dorms and beat the slag out of Cheetor." The corners or Optimus and Rhinox's mouth twitched upward at the thought. Suddenly, a brief crackling of the speakers was heard, drawing the attention of the Maximals.

"Would the combatants please report to the arena. The next match is about to begin!" Port declared over the arena's speakers with his usual mannerism.

"That's our cue," Optimus stated.

With that, the two started making their way out of the locker room and towards the arena. Win or lose, it didn't really matter to them. If they lost they would be able to spend more time dealing with their plans for the White Fang and the Terrorcons. The Maximals would have preferred that option. They couldn't really afford any distraction, like the Vytal Tournament, with everything that was on the line. But on the other hand, they couldn't just throw the match without raising suspicions, especially from Ozpin. The man would start asking questions, and he was very hard to deceive. It was a miracle the Maximals had managed to convince him they didn't know much about the Terrorcons outside of the name and firepower. And even then, Optimus doubted that Ozpin believed them completely.

Pushing the thought aside, Rhinox and Optimus approached the arena's entrance. The duo they were going to face must have already been out there, considering the crowd roared before the two Maximals even got out there. Upon making their way into the arena, the crowd once again let out a roar of excitement, anxious to see how the next match would go down. Neither Optimus or Rhinox really acknowledged the crowd aside from occasionally glancing around at them as they made their way towards the center. Instead, most of their attention was on their two opponents who were already in the center, trying to gauge any noticeable weaknesses they could exploit to end the match as soon as possible.

Reek was a dark-skinned boy with short black dreadlocks and stubbles of facial hair starting to grow. He wore a black t-shirt with a white stripe, a gold chain-styled necklace, a padded red jacket which was most likely used as some form of armor, and a pair of dark-blue jeans and black combat boots. In one hand, the boy held what looked like a normal sledgehammer. And in the other hand he held . . . a piece of red licorice.

Dutch was slightly taller than Reek, having short blond hair and blue eyes. As for his attire, he did not look like he was ready for a fight. Rather than any kind of armored or comfortable clothing, Dutch wore a black suit with a white undershirt and a black tie. In one hand, he held a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun, and he held a black pistol in the other.

While Rhinox and Optimus walked out into the arena, both Reek and Dutch seemed to be arguing with each other.

"Dude, what are you wearing?" Reek asked his teammate in disbelief, looking up and down Dutch's outfit.

"You said to dress comfortably," Dutch replied, holding both guns in one hand while straightening his tie. His voice had a bit of a strange accent.

"Yeah, dress comfortably. Not dress like you're going to a funeral," Reek deadpanned.

"This isn't even close to what I would wear to a funeral," Dutch argued, missing the point of Reek's statement entirely.

"Do you two . . . need a minute?" Optimus asked his opponents, slightly confused by the topic of conversation. He was still struggling to grasp the concept of fashion on this planet.