Feedback on fight scenes is most welcome
Chapter 3: Fire meets Fire
After wondering around aimlessly for over half an hour, Ruby, Jaune, and Ben final found their way to Beacon's amphitheater, a large glass dome structure with raised bleachers arranged in a circle around a circular stage with wooden a tall backdrop with blue lights. The theater was packed with, presumably, freshman students, all of them talking to each other.
"Ruby! Ben!" called Yang from the middle of the crowd. "I saved you two a spot."
"Oh, we have to go! I'll talk to you later." Ruby said to Jaune as she grabbed Ben's arm and began pulling him.
"Ok… I guess I'll see you later Jaune." Ben said as he was being pulled away, noticing that Ruby was a lot stronger than her small size suggested.
"Hey, wait." Jaune called after them. "Great, now where am I going to find a nice quirky girl to talk to?" he ask aloud.
"So, how what's the first day been like for you two?" Yang asked as Ruby and Ben got close.
"You mean since you ditched me and I exploded?" Ruby said harshly.
"Ouch, meltdown already huh?" Yang asked.
"No I mean I literally exploded a hole in the front of the school." Ruby said.
"It's True." Was all Ben could say. Yang gave a quizzical look.
"Are you being sarcastic?" she asked.
"I wish. I tripped over some crabby girls luggage and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled again, and I felt really, REALLY bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me." Ruby explained, her voice cracking a little near the end.
"YOU!" exclaimed Weiss who had walked up behind them. Her out burst startled Ben and caused Ruby to actually jump into Yang's arms, who was now holding her little sister bridal style.
"Oh god, it's happening again." Ruby cried.
"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff." Weiss stated.
"Oh my god, you really exploded." Yang said dumbfounded.
"It was an accident, it was an accident." Ruby tried to explain as she hopped out of her sister's arms. Weiss then held up a small pamphlet with the words "Dust for Dummies" written at the top.
"What's this?" Ruby asked.
"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy-to-follow guide to Dust application and practice in the field." Weiss rattled off. Ben wondered how long it took for her to memorize that little disclaimer.
"Uh," was the only response ruby had.
"You really want to make things up to me?" Weiss asked.
"Absolutely." Ruby said.
"Not really." Ben said. Weiss just shot him a quick glare.
"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again." Weiss said shoving the pamphlet into Ruby's hands.
"Look, maybe you guys just got off on the wrong foot." Yang said, trying to play peacekeeper. "Why don't you start over and try to be friends." She suggested. While Ben didn't mind the idea, he was on the fence about it. Ruby on the other hand was completely open to it.
"Yeah great idea sis." Ruby said. She turned to Weiss and held out her hand. "Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby, wanna hang out, we can go shopping for school supplies?" she asked politely.
Weiss wasn't as kind. "Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try out clothes and talk about cute boys like tall, blond and... scraggly over there." She said in an overly sarcastic tone, hitching her thumb toward Jaune who took notice.
Ok it's official, I hate this girl. Ben thought. Ruby was now just trying to be nice, and Weiss was throwing it back in her face. However, Ruby somehow remained clueless.
"Wow really?" she asked. Weiss face just contorted into a frown.
"No." she said simply, causing Ruby to slump over. Ben would have chewed Weiss out for this had the sound of someone clearing their throat over the PA system caught his attention. He looked to see both Ozpin and Glynda standing on the stage in the front of the theater.
"I'll keep this brief," Ozpin began. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills-and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." He stopped for a moment and glanced around.
"But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose-direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." He finished, stepping away from the microphone. Glynda then stepped up and spoke.
"You will all gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins, Be ready." She announced.
"Well, I'm pumped." Ben said sarcastically. He thought that with a school that was exclusive as this the students that got in would have already proven their dedication. But apparently not as the principle basically just told the entire freshmen class that they have been wasting their time up till this point.
"He seemed kind of, off." Yang said.
"It's almost like he wasn't even there." Ruby added.
"I'm a natural blond you know." Jaune said to Weiss, causing her to face palm. Ben didn't know weather to warn Jaune of how cold Weiss could be, or allow him to continue just to annoy her.
"Well if no one else has anything to add," yang said who then proceeded to grab both Ruby and Ben by the backs of their collars and began to quickly drag them out of the amphitheater.
"OW, Yang what are you doing?" Ruby asked, struggling to walk backwards so her sister wouldn't suffocate her. Both Jaune and Weiss watched with quizzical expressions as the three walked out of the theaters main doors and disappeared from view.
"What was that about?" Jaune asked aloud.
I feel like I'm being dragged around a lot lately. Ben thought as Yang still had him by the collar. She continued to drag Ben and Ruby out to one of the open fields surrounding the school. The field had freshly cut, well kept grass and full grown strategically planted trees. After Yang had drug them both to the center of the field, did she finally let them go.
"Yang, what are we doing out here?" Ruby asked, straightening out her hood. Yang turned toward Ben.
"Ok green bean, no more waiting. I wanna see you shape shift." She said. Ben sighed a little.
"You know, you could have just asked me." He said. Yang shrugged.
"I wanted to make sure we wouldn't be disturbed." She responded. Ben rolled up his left sleeve and tapped the Omnitrix faceplate, which brought up the selection screen.
"Is that the thing that lets you transform?" Yang asked.
"Yep." Ben answered.
"How does that work?"
"You'll see." Ben said.
"Uh Ben, are you sure this is a good idea?" Ruby asked. Ben shrugged.
"Sooner or later everyone at this school will know, I just don't want to be swamped with questions right off the bat. Besides no one's around right now." He explained. He cycled through he selections carefully. He wanted to make sure that he didn't draw too much attention, which meant that Waybig and Humungousaur were out. He also needed one that would have a good first impression, so no Wildmutt or Rath. Ben scrolled through the selection screen until he found the appropriate form.
"You two might want to take a few steps back." Ben said. Both Ruby and Yang did so. Ben slid the Omnitrix's faceplate back and pressed the hourglass button. In a green flash Ben became a humanoid plant being. He had green "skin" with small red petals shaped like flames sticking out of his arms and shoulders. His hands were black with yellow fingers, and had holes in the palms of his hands. His head was red and yellow which resembled a flame, and he had two extensions on his neck, which resembled a high collar.
"Swampfire!" Ben cried, striking a heroic pose. Yang's jaw practically hit the ground. While she did believe Ben could shape shift, she didn't think it would be such a drastic transformation.
"Well, what do you think?" Ben asked.
"I think you look cool." Ruby said. "What do you think sis?" she asked Yang, who still had a dumbfounded look on her face. After a moment she responded.
"That is AWSOME!" Yang exclaimed. She circled around Ben, gazing up and down his form, taking note of every detail. "So what can this guy do?" She asked. Ben held up both of his hands and snapped his fingers. A medium sized fireball formed from Swampfire's hands, which he proceeded to juggle.
"You're a plant guy who shoots fire?" Yang asked, astonished.
"Yep." Ben responded.
"Uh," Ruby groaned, "What's that smell?" she asked, holding her nose. Yang sniffed the air.
"Oh god, your right. What is that?" Yang asked.
"Methane." Ben answered.
"You produce Methane?" Ruby asked.
'That's where I get my fire power." Ben said.
Yang shrugged, and them began to crack her knuckles. "Alright Mr. Stinkweed,"
"Swampfire" Ben corrected.
"Whatever, You got the look, but do you know how to move?" Yang challenged.
Ben smirked, "Oh believe me, I know how to move."
"Then I don't suppose you'll mind giving me a little demonstration." She asked, loosening up her shoulders. Ben considered for a moment. On the one hand he didn't want to hurt Yang out of fear of alienating Ruby. On the other hand Yang did look like a capable fighter, much more so than Ruby, who was awesome in her own right.
"Uh Yang, I'm not sure that this is a good idea." Ruby interjected.
"What? We're just having a little sparing match, we're not going to do too much damage. Right Ben?"
Ben contemplated for a few more seconds. "Alright, but no serious injuries, alright."
"Of course, I wouldn't want to hurt my little sisters first boyfriend." Yang said smugly. Ben just sighed, she was still on that. Ruby just hid her face under her hood and began to give Ben and her sister enough space.
Yang proceeded to take a few steps back until she was twenty feet away. "You ready Ben?" she asked.
"Sure, but where is your weapon?" Yang held up both of her arms. In a flicking motion, the two yellow bracelets on each arm expanded into gauntlets, covering her entire forearms. She struck a fighting pose and motioned for Ben to bring it on.
"Alright those are pretty cool." Ben said. "How much punch do they pack?"
Yang grinned. "Enough." With that both combatants charged at each other
Ben made the first move with a right hook which Yang blocked with her left arm and followed up with her own right hook to the left side of Ben torso. While he didn't really feel any pain as Swampfire, he could still tell that had a lot of power behind it. He swung his left fist toward Yang who ducked under and let lose a right punch to his side, and then a left to the center of his chest, just below the Omnitrix insignia. Ben was thrown a few feet backwards. He fell on his back and rolled onto his feet.
"Not bad." Ben stated.
"Thanks. And trust me it only gets better." Yang said. "But I hope for your sake you can do better than that."
"Oh don't worry, I can." Ben responded. He then pulled his right arm back, and shot it foreword. His arm stretched and Shot toward Yang, who jumped to the left.
"Whoa." Was all she had to say. Ben then whipped his arm to toward Yang, who grinned as she pulled her fists back, causing her gauntlets to make a sound like pumping a shotgun. Jamming her arms straight downward, red, kinetic force shot out of the gauntlets, propelling Yang over Ben's arm. As she landed she aimed her arms behind her and fired another round, propelling her straight toward Ben, who received a mean right cross to his lower left jaw, knocking him to the ground. Now it was his turn.
"Whoa."
"And there's more where that came from." Yang said, pumping her gauntlets again. Yang punched several the air several times, launching off several kinetic bullets. A few slammed into Ben.
Even at a distance, this girl knows how to hurt. Ben thought. He turned, and started to run around Yang, trying to get in close. Yang kept up her barrage, blowing small holes in the ground trying to hit the moving Methanosian. Adjusting his strategy, Ben slammed his hands into the ground, causing a wall of thorned vines to erupt out of the ground, creating a makeshift cover.
Yang, who was taken aback by this, used this time to reload her gauntlets to use her explosive rounds. She then began to unload everything into the wall of wild foliage. Yang almost had the vines cut down when she felt something wrap around her feet. She looked down to see a few smaller vines anchoring her to the ground. Ben then leapt over the vines and ran straight for Yang.
Clever, she thought. Ben let loose a right punch, which Yang caught in her left hand. Both combatants then pulled back their remaining fists, and punched, with both fists colliding with each other. The amount of force generated not only freed Yang's feet, but also sent both parties flying backwards. Yang back-flipped in mid air and landed on her feet while Ben landed on his back. As Ben, began to stand up, Yang shook her hand, as that last move hurt a little.
"Whoo, I actually felt that one. You're not half ba-," Yang stopped when she saw that last attack had actually blown off Swampfire's left arm. She was about to either scream or start rapidly making numerous apologies, when four vines shot out of the arm stump. Said vines proceeded to wrap around each other, weaving in and out until they all formed together into a new arm. Yang just stared at the new appendage for a few seconds.
"You… can regrow your body parts." She said in shock.
"Well, I am a plant." Ben said. Yang let out a sigh of relief. Crippling someone for life was a terrible first impression.
"So I guess that also means that you haven't really been feeling my punches, have you?" Yang asked.
"Not really." Ben answered.
"Well that's good to know," Yang said as she brought both of her fists up, and slammed them together. Her bright golden hair than began to shine as if it were on fire, and move of it's own accord. "Because that means that I don't have to hold back."
"Yeah, but I still have to." Ben said; fearing this had just become a one sided fight.
"Aw, what's the matter Ben, scared to hit a girl?" Yang chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Trust me, I'm tougher than I look." Ben sighed, looked like he had to bring his A-game if he wanted to survive this.
Yang propelled herself foreword, and threw a right punch, which Ben dodged sideways of. Landing, Yang used her momentum to perform a spinning backfist, which Ben caught. Using both hands, he spun Yang around in a circle a few times before throwing her. She bounced against the ground once before landing on her feet twenty feet away. Yang pumped her gauntlets again and charged. Ben who was not for getting any more body parts punched off, thickened his arms with several extra vines, creating makeshift shields.
Yang began to lay into Ben, with punch after punch. Ben dodged what he could and blocked what he couldn't, all the while attempting his best rock-em sock-em robots impression and striking back whenever he could.
Eventually, Yang whittled away his shields and broke Ben's guard. She then proceeded to deliver a powerful uppercut straight to Ben's jaw, knocking him into the air. Trying something new, Ben stretched his arms downward, he dug his hands into the ground, effectively catching himself in midair. While standing on his elongated arms, Ben let fly several kicks, which Yang guarded against.
Yang jumped backward out of Ben's range, pumped her gauntlets, and fired on Ben's arms, cutting them down to size. Yang charged at Ben who was ready for her with freshly regenerated arms. Both threw punches at the same time, which collided with each other. Yang and Ben kept up their respective assaults, letting their fists continuously slam into the others. The dual was finally broke when Yang unloaded another bullet into Ben's right arm, blowing it off. She followed that up with a jab to his lower torso, firing again, launching Ben into a nearby-planted tree.
Yang shot toward Ben, intending to end the fight, but as she got close, Ben placed one of his hands on the tree, which then fused with it. Yang was caught off guard as one of the trees branches, somehow swing low, curl into what looked like a fist, and caught her right in the face, sending her back. Yang rolled along the ground for several feet before finally coming to a stop on her back. She dizzily got to her feet and look over to Ben, who detached himself from the tree,
"Gotta say, your not half bad." Yang complemented. "This is honestly one of the better fights I've had since…" she trailed off. Ben looked at her questioningly. She was looking over his head and behind him. He followed her line of sight to the tree branch he had used to knock her for a loop. Stuck to one of the smaller twigs was what looked like a few golden threads.
It took Ben only a few seconds to realize that they were strands of Yang's golden hair. It was then that he recalled what Ruby had told him earlier.
"I'm pretty sure you two will get along just fine… as long as you don't touch her hair."
Ben turned back to Yang. "Uh," he started. Yang's gaze shifted from the tree branch to him. Her lilac eyes had shifted to a deep crimson, the cocky grin she usually wore was replaced with a look of silent anger. "Sorry."
With a yell, Yang shot toward Ben faster than she had before. Without even giving him a chance to pull his arms up to block, Yang began emptying her gauntlets into Swampfires torso, blowing several holes in him and launching him backwards.
"Yang!" Ruby called from the sidelines attempting to get in between the two. This was bad, Yang usually never lets anyone who touches her hair get away unsacred.
Ben skidded to a halt laying face down on the ground. As the holes in his chest began to heal, he sat up to see if Yang had cooled down, but the scowl she had suggested otherwise. Yang slowly began walking toward Ben with every intention to 'finish it'. Ben, worried that the Omnitrix would soon time out, and doubting Yang wold pull her punches, dug his hand into the ground and caused several vines to pop out of the ground and constrict themselves around Yang.
Yang, still in her berserker state, began thrashing around wildly, attempting to uproot the vines, but with no success. She then attempted to try blasting her way out, but unfortunately she was out of ammo, and had no way to reload. With no way of fighting back, all she could do was shoot Ben an angry look.
Ben wondered how he was going to calm Yang down when Ruby got in-between them.
"Yang, it's okay, it was only a few strands, no one will ever notice." Ruby said in a soothing voice. "Remember what dad said about keeping your temper?" she asked the fiery, golden blond. "Remember, deep breaths." Ruby began breathing to demonstrate.
Yang observed Ruby for a few seconds, before closing her eyes and attempted to fallow her little sisters example. After a few quick, rough breaths, she slowly evened it out. Her hair ceased it's glowing and returned to it's natural state. When she opened her eyes, they were their usual lilac coloration.
"Okay, I'm cool now." Yang said.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't aiming for your hair." Ben said.
"It's okay, I'm sorry to, by the way, I know I can get a little sensitive about it, but if you had hair this beautiful, you would be too." Yang said with a wave of her head to show off her golden locks.
"So… think you could let me out?" She asked Ben, wiggling a little in the vines.
"Oh, right." Ben snapped his fingers, and all the plants released their grip on Yang, who began stretching her arms out.
"So my little… episode aside, I had a lot of fun. Nice job Ben, you're definitely going to do great here." Yang said, giving Ben a thumbs up. Before Ben could respond, the Omnitrix began beeping, and a few seconds later he changed back into himself.
"Thanks, I think I will like it here. At least I'll be at a place where everyone is learning to be a hero." Ben said. Yang gave him a questioning look.
"You don't have schools like Beacon on your world?" she asked. Ben shook his head.
"No we don't, on my planet monsters and super villains have only started to show up over the last few years. Before then they were scarce enough to the point that no one noticed. And the few people who did notice were just written off as crazy." Ben answered.
"So then who protected your world before you?" Ruby asked.
"My grandfather, he was a plumber." Ben said. Yang cocked an eyebrow.
"So… he protected the world by making sure people got their hot and cold water running?" She asked confused.
"Actually no, the Plumbers are kind of like intergalactic police officers." Ben said.
"So then, where did they get the name from." Yang asked. Ben was about to answer when all three heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. They all turned to see Ms. Goodwitch stand on a nearby pathway, with her arms crossed, her foot tapping on the pavement, and a look of annoyance on her face.
"If the three of you are quite done, destroying our well-kept lawn," she started. Ben looked around and saw that the lawn had in fact, seen better days. With several smoking holes, and the plethora of vines that were forcefully grown out of the ground. "Professor Ozpin would like to see you in his office, Mr. Tennyson."
Ben glanced over to Ruby and Yang for a second and gave a shrug. He then began following Ms. Goodwitch as she led him to see Ozpin.
When they were out of earshot, yang looked over to Ruby.
"Wow he was right. She's nowhere near nice in person." Yang said. Ruby giggled.