***Neon***

We continue to spend pretty much the entire afternoon at the skate park, and apart from the time I remind myself of that one disaster of a mission, we have a great time. The kid Lea pointed out to us pulling off stunts way above his level does indeed end up wiping out pretty bad, even though it looks as if he's mostly okay. Poor boy, I hope the girl he was trying to woo at least knows to appreciate his bravery if nothing else. They eventually leave the park hand-in-hand, so I guess that's a happy end right there. How nice.

I myself crash at one point when Reese makes a stupid pun and I miss a beat – and the curve –, almost faceplanting against the back wall of a halfpipe and stopping myself with my arms and knees instead, but still falling on my butt from the bounce, much to Reese's amusement.

In turn she ends up messing up some stunt in a narrow fullpipe; I don't see the specifics, only the result of Reese more or less flying out of the pipe and stopping her fall with an admittedly pretty good roll. It could almost look planned, if not for her board hitting her in the back a moment later.

But still none of us gets seriously hurt and we only leave the skate park when Lea asks us to because he wants to close up for the day. I'd say we're gonna be back tomorrow, and I think so does Reese. But for today we're back to Beacon and, looking at the time, eat dinner, so I lead the way back.

On the way we chat about all sorts of things, though Reese doesn't seem to mind the short silence either when I think for a moment, formulating my words and discarding them again before finally speaking up. "Hey, Reese? ...Thank you."

"Hm?" She looks confused "For what?"

"For, you know... standing up for me against those… bullies."

"You mean that guy Jay and his gang of racist assholes? Well, natch. Why wouldn't I?"

I let out a mirthless chuckle. "That's easy for you to say. You're a Huntress and probably could've beaten him with your hands behind your back."

"Well, yeah. But so could you."

"Sure I could." Except I need my hands to fight while Reese could literally use her weapon with her legs and body weight.

"But I'm not the type for that," I continue "And even then, it wouldn't help anything. At most I'd confirm the 'stupid, violent Faunus' stereotype. But that's not my point anyways."

"Then what?"

"The point is you did defend me. Often enough people would just stand by or quickly turn away and pretend 'I seen nuthin', officer'. Heh. Guess I'm lucky nowadays they don't spontaneously join in anymore." That was far before my time, but still.

I force a laugh, but Reese isn't buying it for one second. "That's not funny. At all. If anything, it's a testament to how pathetic the situation still is!" She seems to pick up on my somber mood, but gets agitated instead. "Just because the situation is less shit than it used to, doesn't mean it isn't still shit. Any of this stuff should never have been happening in the first place."

"Totally. But, I mean, you're a trained, armed Huntress, and most people aren't, so what are they gonna do against something like this?"

"Exactly the same thing! It's not like this is a special Huntress thing, that's just a bonus, but everyone should have the moral courage to stand up against assholes like that!"

I chuckle. "Yeah. In a perfect world... But let's be real."

This sucks. Of course the one subject that actually gets under my skin just had to come up. Reese is legitimately – and rightfully – angry, and I can tell our mood is pretty much taking a nosedive. We were having such a great time before.

I take half a step in front of Reese and turn around, forcing her to look at me. "You know what? It doesn't matter, there's only so much two of us can do. You were there, at this moment, and you defended me, and that's what matters, right?"

"Of course. I'd defend anyone against shit like that, never mind a… friend."

Well, that was easy. I brightly smile at Reese. "Still, thank you." I draw her into a quick hug, pulling back before she can even register it. "I mean it." Wait, did she just blush a bit? That's adorable.

"But let's stop with that subject," I carry on to preempt any awkward silences. "See the tower?" I point towards the highest point of Beacon, easily visible over the buildings of the city. "Think you can find your way to Beacon back from here?"

"Um, yeah?" I turn around and ready myself, and Reese seems to get the idea as I see her reach behind her back from the corner of my eye and hear her board unfold and activate.

"Race you!"

I end up beating Reese by just a few seconds, but a win's a win.

"Heh. Not bad," she pants "I won't hold back next time."

Suuure. She's just out of breath as I am. "I'm always up for a rematch, you know." I grin at her, then lead the way to the dining hall. I never notice while I'm at it, but now that I'm winding down I'm actually rather parched, that bit of cake I had wasn't nearly enough lunch.

Kyle usually prepares his own food, and Iris tends to eat with him, and I only now notice Flynt messaged me half an hour ago saying he'd get dinner then, which means I'm on my own. Well, not entirely.

"Hey, what about your Team?" I ask Reese as we stop in the entrance of the hall, who gets out her Scroll to the telltale sound of new messages and checks it.

"Both Arslan and Bolin got hungry, and Nadir isn't the type to say no, so they already ate."

"Then I guess it's just the two of us?"

"Guess so. Let's find a seat."

I get some cured salmon on toast, fried tuna and a bunch of sushi. Reese has a large pork cutlet, a plate of noodles and some green salad stuff, which she adds like an afterthought. We eat in relative silence because apparently Reese is just as hungry as I am and we're both too busy, well, eating and then getting seconds to actually talk.

I wonder if the Beacon students have food fights too. Of course at Atlas those are 'highly discouraged', but a few times a year they still happen, and when they do it's no-holds-barred. The last one went down just a few weeks before the Teams left for the Vytal Festival, and it was glorious. We can thank whoever of the kitchen staff thought that cream pies were a good idea for that.

On my asking, Reese says in Haven it's similar for the most part, except time and again even some teachers join in. Apparently, her Team was on the winning side, or more like was the winning side, during the last one. As much as there is a winning side when just about everyone ends up covered in condiments and laughing. ...Now I really want to incite a food fight here at Beacon, but today the hall is already mostly empty, so it'll have to wait. But it will happen before we leave for Atlas again.

After finishing dinner and not causing any food fights, – this time – we head towards our dorms, which are situated a bit away from the main building in what the people at Atlas would call strategically disadvantageous, but the rooms are actually a little bigger than back home, so I won't complain.

We go up to the second floor and Reese walks down a hallway, counting the doors until she comes to a stop in front of one, digging for her Scroll.

"So... I guess that's it for today," I start, but Reese shakes her head.

"Unless you still have something planned for tonight, you may as well meet the rest of my Team. And besides..." she somewhat sheepishly continues "I was gonna watch a recording of your battle anyway because I was curious about your fighting style, and, um, now that you're here I was thinking you could maybe join me and... give a bit of commentary. If you don't mind of course."

Does it make me a terrible person for thinking this otherwise tough, competitive skater girl getting flustered about something like this is kind of cute? But it's not like I have anything better to do, and it sounds interesting, I don't think I ever rewatched any of my battles from an outside perspective. Or at all, really.

"Sure, why not?" I grin and Reese opens the door, entering before me.

"Guys, I'm back!"

"Welcome back." "Yo, Reese!" "Hello." Her teammates, another girl and two boys, greet her. I close the door behind me and quickly look around the room. The entire rest of Reese's Team is here, spread across their beds.

There's a dark-skinned girl with blonde hair wearing a traditional-looking yellow robe baring one shoulder and a red sash around her waist over a black top and pants as well as combat bandages on her arms, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of her bed. From her posture I guess she's meditating or something.

One of the boys is lying on his bed playing a video game on some handheld console. He has short black hair and is wearing a blue… vest, I guess, a yellow sash across his upper body and one shoulder, over-the-elbow gloves and gray trousers.

The last one is sitting on his bed leaning against the wall intently reading a book. He has pink hair except for the undercut sides, which is black, and somewhat dark skin, if lighter than the girl's, and he's wearing a cream and yellow jacket over a black shirt and gray calf-length trousers.

"And who are you?" The other girl asks somewhat brusquely as soon as she notices me, and both she and the guy with the video game look at me quizzically, while the other one just continues his book unperturbed. I'm just about to say something when Reese steps in. "Everyone, that's Neon Katt from Atlas. Neon, meet the rest of Team ABRN. Our leader Arslan..."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you," the other girl greets me in a more neutral tone.

"...Bolin..."

"Hey. What's up?" The black-haired boy sounds a bit more boisterous and nonchalant.

"...and Nadir."

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance." The pink-haired one looks up for a moment before returning to his book. Compared to his teammates, his voice is more low and measured and his choice of words seems kinda overly mannerly.

"Um... Hi. Nice to meet you all." I smile and hesitantly wave, and Bolin turns back to his game, but Arslan keeps eyeing me.

"What's she doing here at a time like this, though?"

"Well, that's easy," I say "Reese and I met in the city and went skating like the whole day, and then she was gonna watch the recording of my Team's battle from today, we won by the way, and so she asked me to tag along and provide a bit commentary, and here we are."

"...Yeah, pretty much." Reese just confirms while taking off her protectors and her hoodie, tossing them onto a chair, then dropping onto her bed.

"I see," Arslan says "Very well." And closes her eyes, returning to her meditation or whatever she's doing.

"Neon, you don't have to stand around like that." Reese notices I'm still standing next to the door all dressed up and nowhere to go, and pats her bed besides her, sitting up. "Make yourself at home."

I walk over and sit next to her as she fiddles with her Scroll and activates the wall-mounted flatscreen, bringing up the Team BRGD vs. Team FNKI battle.

Nadir puts his book down and Arslan also directs her attention to the screen, so I guess we actually have a bit of an audience, only Bolin doesn't seem to care and keeps playing.

Their Team got kicked out already, so I guess there's no harm if I actually go into detail. If there were still a chance we'd end up fighting, I'd hold something back, but this is gonna be good. I grin as Reese presses the play button and do a sweeping gesture towards the screen. "And now, ladies and gentleman, enjoy the show!"

Reviewing it, the fight actually was much shorter than it felt at the time, not much more than five minutes. I guess time really flies when you're having fun. There were multiple cameras around, but at times I'm still completely out of the picture thanks to the trees I was running around in, so those moments I just retell from memory, though it's not like too much except me running circles around at my opponent, taking potshots and taunting her actually happened there.

As the recording finishes, I look around to see the others' reactions. Bolin is still playing and Nadir's expression is hard to read, but Reese looks impressed by my skating skills – as she should be –, and Arslan seems curious about something. Before she can ask, though, Reese preempts her with exactly the inconsequential sort of detail I would've picked up on first too.

"Neon, how are you creating those rainbows behind you? ...Why are you creating those rainbows behind you?"

"'Cause I can."

"But they have no use whatsoever," Arslan adds "so why bother?"

"Why not? It looks cool. Just consider it part of my personal style, or something."

"...I think it suits you," Reese says after a second of deliberation. "You even look loud. But that doesn't explain how you do it."

"That's a secret." I grin "Maybe I'll tell you if you manage to beat me one day."

"Hey, I caught you twice this afternoon!"

"Yeah, and so did I. And I beat you racing back to Beacon. So that's 3-2 for me."

Reese raises to protest but she can't really argue that. "Fair enough. So that just means I have to beat you twice in whatever, right?"

"Pretty much." I nod, and Reese grins.

"Well, that's easy enough. You're going down, kitty-cat."

"Oh yeah? You're on. Bring it!"

Reese seems about to jump up and challenge me to a… whatever, and I'd take her on of course, but Arslan's voice makes us stop in our tracks. "Girls, not in here. Also not today anymore, 'kay?" She still sounds totally pleasant, but it's also clear that wasn't really a question.

Reese drops back on her bed, putting up a halfhearted protest. "But-"

"It's getting late, and I'm pretty sure there's a curfew here. And besides, in the dark Neon would have a clear advantage thanks to her eyesight, so it would be unfair. Just postpone it until tomorrow."

"Well, okay."

"She's right," I add "I want to beat you fair and square after all so you can't bitch about the fight being stacked after you spectacularly lose."

"We're gonna see about that!"

"Tomorrow," Arslan cuts in and Reese sighs.

"...Tomorrow. You better be ready."

Looks like my first assessment was right. Exactly my kind of girl.

"So, what now?" I continue after a short break signifying the matter is settled, for now.

"Oh, right," Arslan says "Before we got sidetracked I wanted to ask about your fighting style, Neon."

"Sure, what is it?"

"We saw how effective your provoking and separating one enemy from the group was, but what if it doesn't work? What if the opponent just fails to react to your taunts?"

"Like you think you would?" Reese beats me to the question, and the small shift in Arslan's expression tells me she was thinking just that.

"Sis, please." I give her a smug grin. "You're underestimating me. But let's just posit somehow not a single opponent falls for me." I'm pretty sure I could get even Arslan if I figure out what buttons to push. "Which I've never had happen, by the way. I bet out of the four of you, I could at the very least get Bolin and Reese to chase my tail within 20 seconds."

Bolin looks up when he hears his name, but doesn't care enough to ask, while Reese just grins. "Guilty as charged. But I'd be your downfall."

"You wish. There's no way-"

"Wanna test it, kitty?"

"Anytime, greenie. You wouldn't even catch me." She's actually pretty good at this too, even if it's not as much the taunting as the very real challenge beneath it.

"Be real. I'd-"

"Again. Tomorrow." Arslan shuts us down before we really can get going. "Neon, mind getting back to my question?"

"'Kay. I guess if somehow my usual tactic really doesn't work there's always plan B."

"For us normally plan B means twice as much explosive Dust as plan A." Reese interjects and Arslan chides her "No, it's not. ...That's plan C at the earliest."

"Right," Bolin adds from the side "'Strategy' and such."

"Well, my plan B doesn't always have more Dust, but it has more annoyance," I continue "My Team leader always says it's my best and worst quality at the same time. I'm told I can be incredibly aggravating. So if I don't get one target, I'll just harass them all. Sure you can ignore me making fun of you, but try ignoring nunchucks to the face. I still don't do that much damage, but I'm fast enough to avoid getting hit too much, and I can be a great distraction to take heat off my teammates or create an opening for them to attack."

Arslan studies me for a moment before nodding. "Yes, I can imagine that. But your strategy applies to fights with Hunters, or generally intelligent opponents. How do you deal with Grimm?"

"Just like that, actually. If anything it's easier. Grimm are pretty stupid, so I don't even have to make fun of them, I just need to be loud and bright and run around them, and they'll come for me. And besides it's not like I can't mop up the weaker stuff on my own too, there's almost no Grimm who can even catch up with me. It only gets dangerous when I don't have any room to skate. Fortunately that only really happened once, and that mission was… not fun."

And there's that familiar ache in my arm again. Is it ever gonna go away?

"Missions are not supposed to be for fun," Nadir says, the first thing I hear from him besides the greeting. "They are to do good, are they not?"

"Yeah, sure." I shrug "But that doesn't mean you can't still have fun on the way, right?"

"Exactly." Reese agrees "That's why I became a Huntress, really. The helping people and stuff is just a bonus."

I guess for me it's the other way around, sort of. I want to fight for those who can't fight for themselves, but I don't think I could keep it up if I couldn't also find a way to make it fun, with all the things that happen out there.

"I know we're here for the Festival and all," Reese goes on "but I wonder if we could still take on a mission here, I'd really want to fight alongside you, Neon." So would I.

"You'd end up turning it into a kill count competition, though, am I right?" I say and Reese nods.

"You bet. And you bet I'd win."

"You're on. I'll be sure to remind you when you lose." I'm actually not so sure about this one, guess we really need to find a bunch of Grimm somewhere to settle that one. I wonder if Beacon has something similar to Atlas' Caves of Ordeal, and if we can get in there.

Reese, I, and to an extent Arslan and Bolin spend a while just chatting about all kinds of stuff, and along the way after some prodding I get to see the recording of Team ABRN's battle, which I missed the majority of because I was getting ready for our own match, as well, much to Reese's embarrassment. And after seeing her get knocked out I can see why, not really the smartest move she made there. Then again, this afternoon at the skate park Reese did something similar, trying to catch me and totally missing that box until she fell over it, so maybe it's just her being very… focused. Or, y'know, a hothead through and through.

The rest of the battle it gets relatively clear Team ABRN was simply outmatched pretty badly by their opponents of Team RWBY, those girls definitely look like material for the finals. Also I'm pretty sure that Blake girl is a cat Faunus too, that bow isn't fooling me.

Apart from their opponents just being better – because there's always someone better somewhere – Team ABRN looked pretty good in their fight. I wonder how they'd do against Team FNKI. Because, let's be real, Reese and I will end up having a battle somewhere down the line, so might as well get the others in on the fun. I can't really tell how that'd turn out, though. My intuition tells me it'd be pretty close for either of us, but we won't know for sure until we try.

We keep talking pretty much the entire evening until at some point, as we're winding down anyways and even I'm starting to get a bit tired, Nadir cuts in after being practically silent the entire time. "I... really don't want to be rude, Neon, but it's getting rather late, so, um, please could you leave us for today? I want to go to sleep soon."

I check the time on my Scroll and, yes, it is rather late already, I probably should get to bed myself if I want to catch the first fight tomorrow. "Yeah, you're probably right." I stand up and stretch my back with a groan. "Guess I'm off for today, then."

"Thank you," Nadir says and Reese just nods.

"All right. See you tomorrow, Neon. Looking forward to our next duel."

"See you tomorrow. But I'm still not gonna lose to you."

"You keep believing that, as long as you can!"

With a grin I open the door and step through, waving over my shoulder. "So, quite a while longer. We're gonna settle this tomorrow. Good night."

"Good night, Neon."

AN: A bit of a sweet friendship moment. Racism sucks a big, fat one. But don't worry, this isn't gonna be a recurring subject, the scene was needed for other reasons.

Also there is a little bit more foreshadowing, I wonder if anyone figured it out already (though I hope not, at least not yet).

The Cat Faunus liking fish is a bit cliché, but what can you do? Fear not, there *will* be a food fight in time, and Neon is gonna make sure the entirety of FNKI as well as ABRN are present for it.

We saw some large TV game console, so I'm just assuming there is handheld ones too. And if not, Bolin's just playing Angry Nevermores on his Scroll.

In the last chapter I had shielding Aura as something possible to turn on and off. I believe I saw the idea somewhere else before, and regardless, it only makes sense to me, seeing as permanently projecting a forcefield around the body has to drain some sort of energy (calories, or vaguely-defined life force, or the Aura itself just slowly depleting and only recharging when properly resting), so if they don't need the protection, people can just will it to turn off, just as (with training), they can will it to focus its healing on a specific area or injury. I may go into more detail on this in the story at some point, but for now, just chalk it up to artistic license. (And me needing a way to give people scrapes and bruises without them running down all their Aura first.)

This marks the end of the actual first "chapter". I originally had put all of this as one, but as was pointed out to me, that was way too long for one chapter, so I took it apart at the changes of perspective I had in there anyways.

Sadly that also means I'll have to disappoint anyone expecting uploads of this size to continue at this pace, because this entire batch was already mostly done before I started uploading. However seeing as there are some people who enjoyed it so far (thanks for giving me feedback, by the way), I will do my best to finish the next chapter(s) quickly.

[I feel I should come up with some sort of signature goodbye, so insert one here]