I assume you have seen RWBY. Tell me, who would you put in your list of most over-powered characters? I suspect that while perhaps not the top four, Penny and Coco with their respective season finale displays, Nora with her raw strength, and Neo with her nearly unbelievable ability to not get hit will be on that list of yours. Have you ever heard the theory that there are an infinite number of universes, one for each possibility splitting at every crossroads or choice ever made? It's true. I've seen some. My favorite is the world where Penny, Neo, Nora, and Coco were all attending Beacon in the same class, and found themselves on the same team. Would you like to hear a story? I promise, it is a fun ride you will not want to miss.
I'll begin with a morning of no particular importance, a short few weeks after the teamed formed. What better way could there be to give you a taste of this quartet's typical dynamic? Let us begin in a small room, barely large enough for four beds and four desks, yet still decorated in competing sections with warm browns battling bright pinks and oranges collectively attempting to quell the overpowering white that had greeted them the first day. A streak of green sneaks through the intentionally off-center decor in a section that has every adornment most certainly level, a section adjacent to one of the two wooden doors that might allow a hostage to escape. Only one closet was capable of being shut, but at the early hour I begin this retelling it too is open in a state of access.
One occupant was knelt before a dresser, her head nearly hitting the open top drawer as she frantically searched the bottom drawer partially obstructed by the middle one, an unsurprisingly inefficient method. Coco froze and the various bustling, chatter from Nora conversing with herself, along with other such white noise seemed to vanish instantly. Her head whipped behind her and her eyes bore daggers into pink ones across the room, the source of a giggle only she had heard and would argue for days that she felt loud and clear despite never once denying that no sound had left Neo's lips.
"Where is it?" accused Coco, her legs slowly pushing her to a stand without her glare faltering.
In all fairness, the room had remained fairly loud, Nora still carrying on a discussion with herself about how to part her hair for the day and Penny in her own closet. Neo smiled, not just any smile mind you, a side-unbalanced smile with her head at a tilt. She waited long enough for her accuser to stand but not a moment longer before raising the shoulder closest to her tilted head a slight fraction upwards before dropping it down and raising her head. Innocence? A challenge? Coco spared not a thought as to its meaning having already conditioned herself to view her teammate as a foe regardless of the response.
"Where is my damn scarf‽" repeated Coco with embellishment. Not one to wait for a response from her adversary she stepped forward.
Interestingly, it seemed not one pair of ears heard that demand, except perhaps the ears for which the words were intended but Neo could have easily guessed them. It was a sudden yet familiar sense of dread that suggested Penny turn around, seemingly only brought on from Coco's first resolute step.
"Wait!" called Penny with an outstretched arm, hoping dearly for a peaceful solution. She jumped forward to block Coco's advance.
Penny hit the floor with a hard thud, perhaps a bit of a cracking sound as well. She had sprung too late, Coco not so intent upon on her target to be stopped so easily.
"Nora!" pleaded Penny, looking for their final hope. It was enough, for despite Nora's deafness to anything else she did finally turn when summoned into the rising tensions by name.
Coco was close enough for her exhales to cause Neo's fringe to flutter. "I know you took it. Give. Me. My. Scarf."
Another slight head tilt accentuating a smirk was all Neo offered in response. Not even a full second was between that reply and Coco's inevitable escalation, yet mercifully on time from Penny's perceptive, Nora emitted a battle cry that would likely awaken anyone still sleeping on this level of the dormitory building. Nora was on an arcing path down right between Coco and Neo, as though she had jumped from a high perch, with the corner of a pillow clutched with two hands wielding the small nightly headrest as a weapon of blunt destruction.
"Stop stealing my shit you fashion-blind invalid!" roared Coco as the distance between her and her opponent tripled, a result from them both jumping away from Nora's hammer replacement. This was spoken purely from anger, for Coco and Neo had a mutual, although begrudging, respect for the other's sense of style and Coco fully understood that Neo was not in the least disabled. Yet, the words had been said, they had rung through the room leaving a heavy silence. Penny was already standing, working her way between the two warring roommates; presently she stopped, out of concern as to what the next escalation might entail, and watched Neo for such an indication.
Nora had not the slightest token of fearing the next stage; her services had been requested and that was as good as a free pass to unleash her energy towards any outlet she saw fit. The pillow was swung in a violent circle by an orange and pink blur, pink instead of her school uniform on this weekend day. The arc began to waver, the circle shifting and warping as Nora found her feet not quite making the perfect steps she commanded of them. The pillow glanced off of Neo, bounced the swirling storm from a wall, and stopped only when full-side impact of the wielded pillow met the other orange-haired team member in a burst of recycled cotton scraps.
Nora giggled, having forgotten the catalyst to all of this and instead enjoying her willful destruction in its glory of floating pieces. Penny's shoulders slumped in defeat, accepting that no morning in this team would be complete without some carnage, although preferably that of an easily replaced inanimate object. Yes, an exaggeration, but for the team leader it would be a challenge to accept that there were easier days. Although Neo smiled at the show, Coco's anger had not abated. Once more she advanced, unperturbed by the attempts of the rest of the team to avoid disaster, for disaster unleashed upon Neo was currently her only goal.
Neo smiled, ducking to one side, then back, as though unaware that Coco had yet to raise an arm. Neo then weaved behind her attacker, slid between two beds and knelt to the floor. Coco spun around, not to be left behind, and quickly closed the distance. A metre separated the two, a kick would have been enough for Coco to send Neo sprawling. Nora had gotten bored and returned to her own closet, but Penny had summoned the energy for one more stand.
"Coco! It is a scarf! This response is completely unwarranted and out of proportion with the crime of which you accuse Neopolitan." stated Penny doing the best she could to be commanding in the hopes of instilling reason into her teammates.
All she got was a brief glance, enough for a black blur to pass through the room before Coco turned her attention back to her prey. This time Neo was smiling, no longer feigning fear. She moved to get up, but thought better of it when Coco threatened to lunge. Instead, she inclined her head in the direction of Coco's dresser, her eyes darting in the same direction for good measure. Why the young woman did not simply point was a matter of personal choice, she much preferred smug gestures over a banal and boorish signal; being any more forthright was outside the scope of her intentions when playing the games of her own design with her fashionista teammate.
Coco followed the directional cues, and with a parting glance at her quarry lept upon the neatly made bed covered with a green and black blanket and looked over it onto the floor where her scarf now lay.
This time the giggle was real. Neo stood behind Coco, her weight mostly stacked to one hip. "Y-you sssshould check-k mmmore c-care-care-ththoroughly bef-f-fore acc-c-cusing yur team-m-mate of theft."
Although Neo had won this round, her desire to gloat cost her. Coco's patience long since worn to nothing had not found the slightest hint of humor in this situation and was fed up with this poor attempt to make her appear incompetent. Coco turned, her folded legs pushing the bed for additional spring, one arm out spinning with her. Neo had dropped her guard upon proclamation of her victory and fell to the floor. Coco's wrist stung, but her satisfaction was fleeting when she saw the smile still gracing the architect of her frustration's face.
"ENOUGH!" shouted Penny, an act that continued to make her uncomfortable despite its necessity. "The scarf has been located. There is no further reason for the continuation of this dispute."
Nora emerged from her closet, having settled on the part her hair knew to choose on its own, bushing her skirt with her hands. She looked up with surprise at her teammates. "Are you guys still at it? Geez, I would think by now you'd be more efficient at all of this. I'm going to breakfast, you might want to stop dawdling and make yourselves presentable. They do stop serving breakfast at eleven." With that she left the room, presumably to go get breakfast.
Glares, grunts, and an unhidden willingness to walk through anyone in the way were all that remained until Neo left a few minutes later, already dressed herself. Penny tried her best to stay out of it, which led to her being the last to leave.