RWBY: Rise of the Beasts

Chapter 24: Lessons Learned

Rhinox was the one who chose to stay in team ORCA's dorm the next morning. Originally, Optimus wanted to stay, but Rhinox actually shoved him and the others out the door before they could say otherwise. Aside from guarding the key, Rhinox also wanted to take some time off and tinker with his creations.

But when Rhinox pulled the drawer of his desk open, he noticed that something seemed . . . off. Sure, the drawer was messy like usual, but as he shifted through some of the gadgets and scraps of broken objects, he just found it odd. Scraps of metal and broken devices practically covered all of the actual gadgets, and Rhinox didn't remember pulling out that many pieces of scrap the last time he worked on something. After a moment, Rhinox rolled his eyes in annoyance before digging through the scraps and gadgets, figuring that Cheetor probably had been digging around in the drawer again. It wasn't the first time, and Rhinox doubted it would be the last.

For the next two hours, Rhinox worked on a long-ranged communications device, trying to figure out how to get it to work without the use of the CCT tower, which proved to be a difficult challenge. The current communication systems of Remnant, while intriguing, were extremely vulnerable. All it would take is one of the main CCT towers to go down, like the one at Beacon, and then global communication would be pretty much cut off. It made Rhinox sometimes wonder how the humans and Faunus ever lasted as long as they have.

Whatever the case, Rhinox spent the whole morning tinkering with his inventions. He didn't really mind if he wasn't making any progress, it just felt nice to work on something, even if it took hours.

But because of his long building session, he failed to notice the door to their room open, and was caught off guard when Cheetor grabbed his shoulders and spun Rhinox around in his chair.

"Dude, where the frag were you?!" Cheetor exclaimed while shaking Rhinox. After a second to process this . . . strange interaction, Rhinox looked towards Airazor and Optimus, who both looked at Cheetor with equally confused expressions.

". . . I was guarding the key," Rhinox stated, gesturing his head towards where the secret drawer in his desk was.

"I figured that, but I could have done that. You should have been at the arena!" Cheetor exclaimed, making Rhinox raise a brow.

"Why would I need to be at the arena?" Rhinox asked. If he remembered correctly, it was Airazor and Cheetor that they nominated for the doubles round, so Rhinox had some free time to guard the key.

Suddenly, Cheetor's eyes widened in seeming realization before he released Rhinox, taking a step back. ". . . Nevermind," he said quickly before making his way over to his bed, plopping down on it and screaming into his pillow.

The others stared at the young Maximal for a moment before shrugging it off. Sure this was a little weirder than normal for Cheetor, but it was probably nothing important.

Rhinox turned back towards the others. "So, how did it go?"

"We didn't get called, if that's what you're asking," Airazor explained. "Odds are we'll get called out tomorrow, though."

"Anyone we know get chosen today?" Rhinox asked.

"Just a few acquaintances from other teams," Optimus recalled, not that familiar with any of the other teams besides teams RWBY and JNPR. "The matches ended about an hour ago, so we're free for the rest of the day."

"If that's the case, then I'm going to go scouting," Airazor said as she walked towards the window of their dorm room.

"You're still looking for them?" Cheetor asked, lifting his face up from his pillow, knowing what Airazor's intentions were. "I thought that general guy told the students not to interfere? Besides, I'm pretty sure Atlas already combed through all of Vale. The Terrorcons aren't here anymore."