Okay, here comes the fight chapter, Torchwick against BRNY and SN, big war-machine against six Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, who will win? Actually, to spoil things now, Torchwick wins and kills them, Weiss dies of amnesia, Jaune and Ruby are mauled to death by a wild Zwei, and a grief-filled Pyrrha marries Cardin and stays at home with their six kids. That's how Rearranging the Board ends.
I'm lying, obviously, so read on to see the exciting battle. Hope you enjoy it.
Roman should have expected that this would happen. He was having a nice time, made a very good speech (admittedly written by Neo, who Roman guessed had issues), and had even been close to nabbing three of the kids who had wrecked his plans at the docks. So naturally, the universe saw him having something good and decided to spreads its shithole and let loose all over him.
For all their happy little claims about being able to see in the dark, the White Fang were next to useless in actually going after the people who were going to ruin their plans. The closest anyone got to catching someone was that masked guy, Diego something, when he went after the only human in the group, and even he failed to acquire a hostage to force them into compliance. Neo was the only one on the ball, yet again, as she managed to help him get into the Palathing and do something.
As he saw the three leap out from the window, he forcefully smashed his way through the wall of the warehouse and moved to generally try and catch, crush, and/or kill the people he was chasing. He'd try to keep one as a captive, probably the cat, but it was too late at night for Roman to really do anything about caring enough to not kill the other two, so he would use the giant death machine in the way that God intended him to.
Murdering his enemies with extreme brutality.
"Okay, you little brats. Let's see you mess things up this time." He muttered to himself, seeing the three rats leap onto the roof of another warehouse.
Seeing them leap onto the roofs of the city, Roman could guess that they were hoping to try and reach a place where he couldn't get them, either trying to get back-up at the same time or just get close to the authorities. It would be a cold day in hell that some dumb cop could catch Roman Torchwick, especially when he had this giant robot, but he had little interest in fighting a growing number of weird kids.
Running down the street, feeling the force of each step that the robot made, Roman managed to quickly meet their pace. Simply reaching out an arm and grabbing one was out of the question, seeing as it'd involve having to go right into the buildings themselves, and he could guess that Cinder wouldn't be happy with hearing about the attention that he may gain from doing such a thing. He needed to sacrifice short-term for the long-term vision, however annoying it was to him.
As if they could tell, the three of them began to move further away from his reach, probably using the breather to contact their little buddies. Oh you think you're clever? Roman saw red, at that moment. He was willing to do anything to force them to move. Let's see how clever you can be, once I force you down.
He pressed a few buttons, with the picture of their function displaying on each one in a happy turn of events, and the missile launchers were activated, a flashing blue message box telling him so. Another few button-presses had them aim right at the three punks on the roof, who Roman could tell despite distance were pissing themselves in fright, with nowhere to go but the roads. It was only the appearance of Neo, on the communications channel, that stopped him from firing.
"Oh hello Neo, how are things?" He greeted, feeling in a much better mood than before. Neo rolling her eyes told him everything he needed to hear. "Yeah, they would be confused. Just make sure they know we have more of these, if things go south. Which they won't, now that I'm about to end this little issue."
Neo nodded, before she pointed at the flashing screen to her left, and thus his right, and Roman remembered that she had been the one to instruct him on how to use the thing. "Well, I need to do something, I need them off the roofs. Using the arms would only attract attention." Roman said, raising his voice at her clear disapproval of his methods.
He pretended that he didn't immediately realise what was wrong with his new method, especially when he saw her partner in crime raise her left eyebrow.
"Don't take that tone, of course I knew that it would have the same result. I was just considering it." Roman replied, not liking the tone she was taking with him.
She was right, which made it more annoying, since the Atlesian military would probably not take too kindly to his activities. Cinder was already unhappy with their presence, having them investigate the disappearance of one of their prototypes would probably make her more than a little but unhappy with Roman. He wasn't just fighting a bunch of schoolkids, he was also fighting against the high odds of him either dying for the cause, or becoming more of a cost than a benefit.
He knew what happened to those kind of factors, just ask those poor minions of Junior's or the White Fang.
Pulling the missile launchers back, Roman at least felt some relief at seeing his prey head for the seedier districts of Vale. The roofs were often far lower, less stable, and had less people giving a crap about damage, meaning that he could have greater freedom of movement. Seeing the little ragtag group leap down to the roads, Roman couldn't believe his luck, as they all but asked him to murder them.
"Gotta go, Neo. I'm going on a little pest-extermination." He said, the tiny girl waving him goodbye. After all, who was he to deny such a request?
Roman could have sworn that Junior's club was up this street, keeping it in mind to visit the place again, if he and the place survived the whole plan that he was a rook in. Either way, Roman kept his focus on closing in on the two Faunus and other guy, the last not being someone he really remembered, not like the chick who almost broke his spine, or the guy who humiliated him, or Red, and almost grabbed hold of a few.
Almost catching them, he could barely hear one of them crying for help to their friends, which made Roman smile of all things. Oh good, bring more people. It'll only increase the death toll, when I'm done.
Seeing all this carnage and panic, all orchestrated by him, made Roman feel nostalgic. It was like he returned to his roots, where he destroyed things and killed people for the sheer love of getting paid large sums of Lien to do so, rather than having to hide in the shadows and listen to others talk about their plan. If he had to hear Cinder talk about how every damn little thing was according to her plan one more time, he was going to eat his own cane.
Here, it was just him, some people in his way, and a machine designed solely to wipe out his enemies. Upon seeing them leap towards the highway, probably assuming that they could lose him, Roman decided to show another feature of the Atlesian DeathTron, making the giant metallic beast bend its legs and leap forth and land right on the same highway. With the three in sight, all of them standing on cars, he charged forth again.
A simple run, on a busy highway, naturally led to more than a few automobiles getting kicked around and rushing to avoid getting crushed by the strange new vehicle on the road. As one particular minivan got punted off the highway to nowhereland, Roman had to chuckle to himself. Sorry, Billy, your parents died after their car was kicked across town by a giant robot. Look on the bright side, though. You've got a great story to tell everyone else at the orphanage.
Just as he was getting into a nice mood, another call was being made to him, the face appearing being none other than the Faunus who introduced him to the crowd. "You know, there's a million and one infomercials about chatting on the phone while on the highway." Roman felt compelled to say, hopefully educating his advanced peon.
It didn't work much on the Faunus, whose name escaped him, who seemed slightly panicked. "We need to inform the Commanders of this, the authorities know that we are in the South-East of Vale, it is only a matter of time before they realise that we are at-"
"Shut up, I need to concentrate on this. Just keep the plan going, in fact, make it go quicker, now that time might be working against us." Roman commanded, guessing that only those three knew, meaning that he only needed to take them out of the picture. "Where's Neo?" He asked, knowing that the White Fang preferred her to yours truly.
"On an airship, she took a few of my men." The Faunus Roman chose to name Diego replied, still wearing the stupid mask.
"Good, she knows what to do. Just follow your instincts, that's what animals do, and it suits them well enough." Diego responded to Roman's wit with the middle finger, and then cutting off communications with him. Roman almost respected that, for the sheer lack of fucks given.
Further contemplation whilst on a chase would need to wait, if the trio on a single motorbike was anything to go by. The way to remove them was easier said than done, which was to just smash a car onto the bike and then let scientific forces do the rest. Roman made to smash into more cars, forcing them to turn and twirl towards the reinforcements for Team Give Roman A Migraine, a small cluster of flying cars heading right at them.
In a pesky turn of events, the blonde who was driving the bike was good with it, dodging each car that crashed towards them. Once they were out of the way, the ginger girl who reminded Roman of someone leapt out from the side and had used her pulled-out hammer (the pain likely being the cause of the memory) to slam onto the ground and propel herself into the sky. As she did that, and thus having caught his attention, the blue-haired guy had managed to stand up and ready his own weapon.
Aiming his gun, he fired three shots of varying success, with one enough to spark off some warning beeps about damage to the pilot container. With that, Roman using the cameras on the back, he could see the guy turn the gun into a guandao and leap into the air, aiming his weapon straight and piercing it right at the robot. It was just a few inches from fully breaking into Roman's little room, but it was too close for comfort, so Roman moved to jerk the guy of-
Shake the guy off! That's what he meant. The stress was getting to him.
"Okay, calm down, it's nothing major, just a minor cut in the defences. Just shake it off." Roman realised the shitty pun he just made, and sighed with a shake of his head. "I hate myself sometimes."
All of a sudden, as Roman tried to remove an irritant, he felt his war machine get slightly pushed back by two kamikaze golden images. Thinking nothing of it, Roman worked to finally throw off the blue-haired guy, sending hi flying right at the monkey Faunus who appeared to have been trying to hit Roman to save his friend. Roman restrained the urge to guffaw, when he saw the two kids smash right onto one another and plummet down from the highway to who the hell knew where.
And nothing of value was lost. Roman thought to himself, his standard comedy being one of the things that got him through the ordeal he was in. Still, he had one down and only needed to remove Kitty-Cat and Guy Who Was At Docks But Can't Remember Who, and then he could fall back and let damage control fall to someone else.
Only, the same girl who went flying in the sky had finally landed, right in front of a rapidly approaching giant robot. What made Roman worry was the fact that this girl was smiling in a way that brought back bad memories of plans going south, and the fact that she had a grenade launcher in her hand with who knows how much Dust in each round.
The slight glow he could have sworn seeing come from the launcher didn't help the bad feeling in his stomach, and it didn't help that the two rounds she fired were glowing as well. On the other hand, he had a military project designed to fight all sorts of Grimm, and was probably designed with pesky foreigners and their own machines in mind as well, which made the threat of two grenades seem much less in comparison.
Shoving down his worry, Roman increased his speed and prepared to crush the insane girl under the boot of his machine. A little bit of revenge for that 'batter-up' crap she pulled on the docks.
Wait, her last name isn't V-
As the grenades to his left detonated, any thoughts he had were replaced with internal and external howling of fright, as the Paladin was thrown to the right and sent flying off the highway at a worrying speed. Amid the beepings and warning symbols, Roman ignored the fact that he got the name right, and instead focused on trying to make sure that he was crushed under the wreckage if he didn't get the landing right.
Thankfully, he had enough quick thinking to activate the emergency straps and tilted the machine enough that it went from falling on its right side to spinning enough that it would land upright and without any major damage to the thing. Even if he landed it on both feet, or maybe because of it, he wasn't a physicist, the force was enough that his head almost slammed onto the roof despite the emergency straps. Still, a groggy feeling wasn't that bad, compared to broken bones.
"Urgh, highway vehicle chases. I thought I left this stuff behind at Mistral." Roman muttered to himself, removing the emergency straps that kept him on his seat, and quickly noticed the four in front of him.
With him, was a prototype machine of death, designed to assist fully-trained Huntsmen in butchering the Grimm, and a few hours of lessons on how to handle the thing. Against him, four teenagers who were in their first year of school, and half of whom he only really needed to take out, although all of them would be better. The battle sounded like a piece of cake, if he hadn't already had a few plans foiled by them already. This was going to be a challenge.
Luckily, Roman Torchwick did not get this far by running away from such things.
"Okay kids. Let's see if you're all that." He said, activating everything that the machine had to offer, ready for the fight ahead.
They needed a distraction, and fast.
Yang wasn't stupid, she could tell that that thing had been designed to fight more than your average low-level Grimm, or a few terrorists. That thing was a small army in its own right, and she wasn't going to let her or her friends get injured or worse because they let themselves get cocky around that giant doombot. They already lost Sun and Neptune to the great unknown, barely hearing them land on the ground safely, and she didn't know when they would be arriving.
Knowing her partner, however, Yang could tell that Blake already prepared for this kind of scenario.
"Nora, switch to the ice rounds." She commanded, the little destroyer of worlds nodding at the orders of their dear leader.
As they scattered from the numerous bullets being launched at them, some getting a bit too close to Yang for comfort, Nora managed to replace her normal rounds with the special Ice/Water combination grenades she purchased. Nora's weapon was different from Ruby's, especially in how their Dust worked, as Ruby firing an Ice bullet would freeze the area around it, while Nora's more blew up and fired numerous tiny ice shards into people's bodies at best.
So, when those grenades hit their target, they did something different to the standard fiery boom. The lack of destruction not being that great for BRNY, it did have the impact of creating a nice little mist to confuse Torchwick and give them some cover on the open area they were in, instead of them having to rely on the pillars holding up...you know, the road. Already, Yang could see that the robot was trying to track them down to little actual success.
The motion trackers came in for that, the little red lasers searching for any sign of their movement, so that they could be riddled with bullets. Nora was the slowest, so she moved to the back of the machine, waiting for her chance, while the rest of them entered position and waited for Blake's signal to strike. Yang had never been more thankful that Blake had been convinced to try out the Xiao Long/Rose method of naming team moves, instead of just using lame numbers, now that the chance was there for them to use it to take down Torchwick.
Blake summoned three shadows and sent them to move around the mist, close enough for the Paladin's sensors to think that they were real and to fire on them, but far enough for Torchwick to not see that the images were just that. Yang tried to guess the rate of fire between a first and second on that warmachine, estimating that it was a mere two or three second between those two, making as fighting it as hard as it looked. If only she wasn't the type to run away from a right.
"ThunderStorm!" Blake shouted, as the team moved into position. Nora fired her rounds right at the back of the Paladin, preoccupied with fighting shadows, and quickly grabbed its attention, as it prepared to fire on her.
That was when Ren fired StormFlower's bullets right at the bottom of the cockpit, causing a stream of red light to turn back into nothingness, and for attention to go back to Ren, where Nora then managed to fire her normal grenades right on the cockpit of the Paladin. Attention came back to her, despite two more ruined sensors, as rounds were fired right at her as she managed to meet them with her own explosives. The distance may have been too far for her Semblance, and she lacked the time to use it on her grenades, but the speed of her rate of fire met the power of the Paladin and created a draw.
It was a short draw, since the force of the clashing explosions were getting closer and closer to Nora, as the Paladin used one arm for Nora and one arm at the dodging Ren. Yang was ready to leap in and do some damage, when Blake already beat her to the punch, firing Gambol Shroud at the back of the cockpit and letting herself get sent flying towards her target, readying her blade as she spun elegantly towards the back of the Paladin and sliced at the sensors on the back of the shoulders, the remaining five too distracted with their focus on Nora and Ren.
The two fell back, as Torchwick displayed some brains by turning to the left as Gambol Shroud cut at it and managed to save the left shoulder sensors. Blake detached herself and fled back into the mist for cover, even as it began to slowly fade away, meaning that they would need to act fast to avoid losing cover. There were only three of those sensors left, and then Torchwick would likely be dependent on secondary aiming mechanics, which Yang guessed he would be worse at. It must not have been a long time for him to get acquainted with the controls, which gave them a slight advantage.
If only they could get another chance at those sensors.
From the safety of the mist, Blake turned to Ren and nodded, which made the boy grimace and Yang break out into a grin. Running forth, Ren quickly gained the attention of the sensors which focused their gleam at the Huntsman in training, Torchwick firing his cannons at him, only for Ren to not only dodge the bullets by moving to their right but by also disappearing. Not going into the mist disappearing, but vanishing from sight, leaving the sensors to twirl around in panic.
Ren didn't use his Semblence often, mostly since he hadn't even gotten the hang of it. Nora said that both of them got theirs a year before Beacon, and didn't really know how to use it, with Ren's being the ability to remove part of his presence. Normally, Yang might have told her apparent-girlfriend, which still made her giggle, that such a power was bullshit. Only, there was one big weakness to it that made it understandable for Ren to not want to use it that often.
He could nullify his presence in only one of the five senses at a time, so any trained Huntsman or Huntress could hear him coming if he became invisible, or he could be seen as always if he removed sound. He could only use sound as well, and that was apparently way harder than sight, so he focused more on training it instead of using it. Only, Yang could tell that no one in that hunk of junk could hear things like Ren using another rarely-used item of his.
Like the sword function of StormFlower.
Unable to detect him, even if they might have crossed his path, the sensors went wild and were going everywhere, Torchwick seemed to switch to the idea of just blasting wherever he guessed Team BRNY was. A few times, he was almost close to getting it right, but Yang, Nora, and Blake managed to keep away from his little tantrum. The sight of sparks flying from the left shoulder area made it all worth it for Yang, as the Paladin turned rapidly to try and throw Ren off, and try to see where he was, only to fail.
The front shoulder sensors were the next to go, with a single strike of his blade, Ren removed Torchwick's tracking ability and managed to bring him down. The multitude of sounds of metal meeting metal, and of the Paladin gaining more and more scratches on it, was music to Yang's ears. They were appearing with enough speed that she even wondered if she could keep track, if he was actually visible. It would be the next trick that gained Yang's patented seal of approval.
Amid all the chaotic firing and explosions, Ren flickered for a moment. It was long enough, however, for Yang to see Ren slam his blade right onto the roof of the Paladin, before only the sword remained visible, and the Paladin began to spin erratically to force the sword or Ren off. StormFlower, however, was stuck there stubbornly, and Ren was already in the air and was likely about to do one of his Aura-martial art things that would leave more than a little mark.
The Semblance cancelled, just as Ren's fist made contact with StormFlower and a purple circle expanded from the bottom of the hilt. StormFlower plunged down the Paladin, and struck the concrete ground hard enough to remain perfectly in place. The Paladin, on the other hand, was sparking and beginning to act out, flashing red and spinning chaotically amongst other crazy stuff, which was finally enough to throw Ren off the thing and onto the ground.
"Ren, you okay?" Nora called out, as he plucked his weapon from the ground and ran back into the mist. A good thing as well, since the Paladin was now bringing out missile launchers.
"I'm fine, but I need time. I should have gone for the legs." He replied, grimacing at how that thing was still managing to move without issue.
"No time for getting worried, you just need to get back into the game." Yang said, guessing that Torchwick was only getting madder.
The random missile launches proved her right, as the entire area at least had one missile crash down and cause a bit of wreckage. At first, Yang had hoped that they would be able to just dodge and attack in the mist, until either they got Torchwick or the police arrived, but getting tossed all over the place by the force of the explosion was making that difficult. It was less of a problem for her, Yang feeling her energy begin to rise with each blow, but Blake and Ren were not the best at endurance.
If he could beat them without eyes, then they needed to get rid of his weapons next.
Ren and Nora were the ones causing damage before, only Torchwick would probably just bring back his missile launchers if the slightest damage came to it, and Nora would only get blasted away by the barrage of missiles. The Paladin's speed was another problem, as it could just flee the area if things got too rough, so they needed to make sure that any attack on that missile launchers was the only one needed. Luckily, Yang had a thought.
Turning to her partner, she found Blake thinking the same thing.
"Ren, Nora, keep him distracted, aim for the injuries. Yang, Bumblebee!" The fearless leader of Team Burgundy commanded, the four of them moving out.
With Ren and Nora to gain his attention, Torchwick kept firing his missiles at the pair, who were fleeing and firing back with their best efforts. As they were doing that, Blake fired off the wire of Gambol Shroud and Yang used Ember Celica to throw herself back, building up momentum for when she grabbed the wire and was starting to be spun around. Blake kept twirling her around, as Yang built up more speed and the circle grew wider, until it reached its furtherest length and Blake let her launch forward.
Shooting forward, Yang readied herself to land a devastating punch onto the missile launchers. The cockpit was likely too well-protected, while the launchers were left exposed by the intensity of Ren's Aura attack, meaning that there was nothing to stop Yang from hitting one and then knocking out the other through sheer force. Feeling the air smash right onto her face, Yang readied her left fist and smashed it onto the side of the right missile launcher, sending it flying into the left.
A minor explosion flew Yang back a bit, but Ren and Nora leapt in to catch her, while the sight of seeing both missile launchers break down and a dent on the roof of the Paladin was a beautiful thing to behold.
Looks like his new toy is kind of fragile in places. Yang thought, a small smile gracing her face. "Great workout." She said, standing up and giving a thumbs-up to the rest of the team.
"This is probably a prototype, we're lucky in that regard." Blake didn't seem too happy, although that might have been because Torchwick seemed to recover quickly enough to ready his weapons again. "Yang, Nora, go for Bersekers. Ren and I will use Wallflower." She instructed, already rushing forward.
Ren followed their leader, and the two were now rushing forward to fight the Paladin. The mist was now barely covering them, yet it was enough to give the two of them some running distance before Torchwick saw them and began to open fire. Blake using her shadows, and Ren doing some Aura-thing with his legs, began to switch positions from left to right, and kept changing their pattern enough for Torchwick to keep missing the two.
By the time they were too close for him to do anything, Ren and Blake already readied their weapons. Even if Ren disliked the sword function, and changed StormFlower to its original form, his weapon still had enough force to do some damage to the Paladin's right leg, as did Blake's blade on the left. It wasn't enough to bring the Paladin down, but enough for it to start stumbling, and that was all they needed.
Next, Yang and Nora took the stage to begin firing everything they had the Paladin, more Yang firing rounds from Ember Celica and Nora providing cover fire against the rounds with her freshly reloaded Magnhild. With Torchwick distracted, and probably too mad to really pay attention, Blake and Ren seemed to signal one another to do something else entirely.
"Take that, you big stupid Eyeliner-Using Dummy!" Nora cried out, as the two were slowing being beaten back, which Yang had to rally to.
Blake had passed Gambol Shroud to Ren and started to move, confusing Yang a lot, until she saw that her partner was holding the wire of Gambol Shroud herself. Where Torchwick was likely looking, he couldn't see the cat Faunus wrap the wires around the legs of the Paladin three times before taking hold of it with Ren. With a slight glow of what Yang assumed what Aura, the two pulled and the Paladin began to stumble forward.
Their chance obvious, Yang and Nora bolted towards the toppling robot, Ember Celica and Magnhild at the ready. By the time it almost reached the ground, the cockpit was instead met with a powerful smash that was enough to send it back upright with a large dent where the cockpit was, probably breaking a lot of important stuff. The Paladin began rapidly firing all over the place, and Yang almost feared that one of the pillars of the highway was going to get hit by the frenzy.
Only, with the wires of Gambol Shroud back in the weapon, there was nothing stopping the Paladin from marching towards the two heavy-hitters with ill intentions. Yang and Nora charged again, ready to knock down the fracturing machine, only for a powerful left kick to send Yang flying back, only to see a right fist rush down to Nora, who barely pulled up Magnhild in time for her to have some defence against it.
Yang slammed right onto the highway pillar, feeling her whole body become electrified in agony, enough force added to that attack that she found her body attached to the pillar and slowly detaching itself over time. It didn't stop her from hearing the cries of her friends, as Ren rushed over to Nora, and Blake had to distract the Paladin with her shadows, now that the mist was all but gone.
"Nora!" Ren cried out, Nora giving a thumbs-up in reply.
The scene might have been great to watch, had it not been followed by a blast being just close enough between the two that Ren was sent flying back. Yang couldn't see any blood, from where she was struggling to free herself from, but Ren's attempt to stand up did not suggest that he was fine, especially when Nora had to drag him away from Torchwick and his Paladin.
By the time she finally freed herself, Yang found herself plummeting to the ground, landing with a crack. Her whole body screeched out in pain with each movement, her mind begging her to just lay there and let the others handle it, only getting louder when she spat out a few drops of blood and felt her vision flicker into darkness for a few seconds. She still carried down, using all of her might to stand tall and breathe normally, knowing what would come next.
Oh hell yes, Yang thought, basking in the feeling of sheer raw power flowing around her body, the warmth of her hair glowing bright as day, and her insides going from tattered ruins to a roaring engine of pure energy and force. She flexed the fingers of her hands, letting herself feel how much power she held in her fingertips, and how much she wanted to just unleash on the closest thing possible. How long has it been since I let loose like this?
"Yang!" Blake cried out, her eyes pouring with relief. From the second she saw the glowing hair, Blake probably guessed that Yang's Semblance had just kicked in hard, and that things were about to get...explosive.
Nora, upon seeing that Torchwick's Paladin had just turned to the glowing girl, ran over to Yang's side. She herself was surrounded by a faint white glow, which only made Yang keep on smiling her special smile, one that she rarely ever showed Ruby, the smile of a predator that was about to rip apart and dismantle its prey entirely.
"Hey, Yang. I don't think we really used Berserkers, did we?" Nora asked, swinging Magnhild with a lot more speed than before.
"Nope, that's something we can correct now." Yang replied, slamming her fists together, the resultant shockwave enough to cause the Paladin to register the impact.
Torchwick's machine moved to deliver a powerful left punch, which Yang met with her own right hook, added with a firing of Ember Celica, the two fists clashing with one another. In a mere second, a once powerful tool enough to battle a Grimm was a mere collection of scrap metal of varying sizes, all from a single blow. Torchwick seemed smart enough to try and beat a hasty retreat after that, the Paladin too fast for Blake or Ren to try and catch up with enough to stop it.
Too bad his ego was too obvious.
The sight of Nora bolting after him, firing round after round ahead, the force enough to slow down the Paladin, was enough to force Torchwick to try and deal with her. Down came another punch, this one with all the force that the Paladin could likely bring to the table, backed up with by multiple rounds of its bullets, the sight enough to force Blake and Ren to look away, unlike Yang. She wasn't going to miss this for the world.
As the dust cleared, all that the three of them could see was the Paladin, the next generation of military technology, desperately trying to escape the one-handed grip of Nora Valkyrie. Yang didn't need to guess that the girl was enjoying herself, as she began to twirl in the same spot and spun the Paladin with her, the machine's grinding almost sounding like a cry of agony at how it was being manhandled now.
"I'm Queen of the Castle! You're a dirty rascal!" Nora sang, to the choir of a Paladin turning at her right hand, the left still holding a now-glowing white Magnhild in its gun mode.
Nora's Semblance came in handy here. If Ren's was removing part of his presence, Nora's was making hers louder, with the ability to up physical strength by up to tenfold, according to the measuring equipment before it broke. She could do the same with Dust reactions that she was near, turning an explosion into something that could wreck buildings, although it took time to infuse that kind of strength. Normally, she just needed to hold it, and wait for the amplifying to increase from double to ten times, and she needed to be close to really make it way stronger.
It was like the foodfight. A mere watermelon hammer, with a Semblance like that, was enough to send Yang and Jaune right into the sky. She was aiming for Pyrrha, but a well-placed dodge allowed the champion to avoid it, and instead had a clashing Yang and Jaune take the hit instead.
How that boy didn't break anything, I'll never know. If she hadn't heard him scream so much, Yang would have feared the worst, and that was just with a watermelon that Nora had. An Aura-infused strength, increased tenfold, and even something as big as that Paladin was no great challenge.
Nora simply stopped and gave a firm tug, using all of her Semblance-boosted might, and the arm was ripped out of the Paladin. The doombot spun about on the ground, barely able to stand itself up again, without the use of his arms. It wasn't as clean as Yang's strike, with the Paladin keeping half an arm attached, but it got the job done and left Roman Torchwick's Paladin armless.
Yang guffawed at her own internal pun, her mind racing at the energy she had.
Skipping back to Yang, Nora managed to reach her in time for the two of them to remind Torchwick whose town he was messing with. He got it in his head to try and punt the two with his precious Paladin's right leg, the ground smashing with each step, as Blake and Ren didn't even bother trying to help where the situation was under control. Bathed in yellow and white light, Yang and Nora met Torchwick once more, blow for blow.
Well, Nora decided to turn Magnhild into its hammer function and Yang used Ember Celica, but the principle was the same. To keep the fight going, Nora merely used the head of Magnhild and Yang used the lowest setting possible, which was still more than enough to seriously smash a hole on the right leg of the Paladin, slowing it down enough for any retreat to be difficult to pull off. If either of the two were going to let Torchwick try that crap again.
It was time for the ultimate move for Berserker formation. Using a thumbs-up to start each other off, Yang readied her hands to act as a platform for Nora, who happily leapt onto the Yang's hands and prepared Magnhild for its part, the weapon glowing brightly. With all of her might, Yang threw Nora into the sky, who promptly activated her hammer, creating enough force that Yang could hear cars screeching and turning on the highway once more.
With Torchwick trying to move his Paladin, now starting to break down under the punishment it received, Blake and Ren were about to move to strike when Yang called them over. "Guys! You need to get me to build some momentum here!" She commanded, her voice carrying enough weight that the two came over to her immediately, without question.
From the sky, it looked like Nora had just stabilised herself, and was about to drop down on Torchwick. Blake fired Gambol Shroud again, and Yang took hold of the end offered and began to build up some running distance, so that some tension on the wire could develop. Ren grabbed on as well and did some Aura trick, Yang recognising it as the one he used on StormFlower earlier to make it stronger, so that Yang could stretch the wire out as much as possible.
With the energy she had, with no signs of stopping, Yang soon was on the other side of the area they were in and looked to the soon-to-be-destroyed Paladin that was slowly stumbling away. The thought of Torchwick being unable to escape brought an even larger smile to Yang's face, unable to wait for her and Nora's little combo to kick in, as the wire of Gambol Shroud felt as tense as it ever could be. She gave a signal, and both Blake and Ren pulled the wire back.
Using the left part of Ember Celica, Yang fired herself across, creating even more speed to go with the force of Blake and Ren's push on the tense wire. Her speed wasn't as fast as the spinning Nora, a pink circle shooting down from the sky, but her distance was shorter, meaning that the two should strike down at the same time as the other. With a burst of energy, enough that the air around her burst into flames for a brief moment, Yang readied herself for a powerful right hook right at the cockpit.
You know, when you get an Aura-infused explosion directed at one point, and then amplify that reaction by ten, there is likely going to be a large amount of destruction. The same can be said for someone who can convert damage to power, and got a hell of a lot of injuries, all focused on one punch, So the question lies in what would happen if two of those attacks were used on the same target, at the exact same moment, on two different points.
The answer is that there would be one destroyed target, along with enough force from the impact to cause the entire highway to shake as if an earthquake had just hit.
Nora and Yang made it out fine, the two being strengthened by the sheer strength of their Aura. Roman Torchwick, on the other hand, had shot out from the back of the cockpit and was lying in a field of burnt and dented scrap metal, struggling to pull himself up from the ground, using his cane as leverage to stand up tall. His suit was covered in soot and blood, his nose was bleeding heavily, his right trouser leg had a dark patch that could be seen on black from a distance, and he spat out a medicine cap's worth of blood.
"Just...got this cleaned." He said, his care-free tone undermined a bit by how he had to fight to get those words out.
Yang decided to finish the fight once and for all, unleashing a fireball the size of Torchwick right at him with a left jab, despite some call from Blake. It would have made sure that Torchwick stayed down, by the time the cops showed up, only for some chick to come falling from the sky and block the blast with her umbrella. Yang could see that the girl had a weird look, with two different iris' and three different colours for her hair, along with a smug look that Yang wanted to smack off.
Team Burgundy followed her, as the mysterious girl met their challenge. Nora swung and struck with her hammer, only for each of her blows to be dodged with casual sophistication, met with a jab on the neck with her umbrella, causing Nora to stumble back and hold her neck to regain her breath. Ren tried to gain a hit with StormFlower, only his movements were slower than usual and allowed the girl to dodge it just as easily, and reply all the same strike.
Only her jab was right at the stomach, and caused Ren to howl in agony, only for a kick from the girls with her heels on that exact same spot to follow it up. The normally stoic man fell to the floor, almost sobbing, from the sounds of what Yang was hearing, as the girl then beat a retreat, Blake too busy with trying to make sure that Ren was alright. Torchwick, even when looking fucked up beyond all belief, managed to tip his hat towards them as mockingly as a half-dead man could.
"Ladies, and gentleman, I think we've had our fun. Time for you to sort out your boo-boos. Neo, if you would." He asked, the effect of the careless man ruined by how the blood seeping down from the face stained his shirt.
Neo, if that was her real name, took three steps back and gave a stage-bow to BRNY. The way she smiled as she did was what angered Yang, the bruiser readying Ember Celica to smash the two of them down and end this damn night already. We're doing it like that? Alright then, let's see how smug you look when you're six feet under!
She ran forward, fist at the ready, and slammed it down on the girl, who didn't even try to stop her. The reason for the inaction became obvious, when both Neo and Torchwick shattered into hundreds of glass-like pieces, and an empty space took their place. Yang could guess that, despite her strength, she hadn't punched them hard enough to erase them from this plane of existence, and that it was instead some freaky thing that that Neo girl could do.
The sound of an airship flying off clued Yang as to where they actually were, Torchwick and his minion looking down on them as the ship flew off. The only comforting thing about the sight was that Torchwick was apparently laying on Neo as if he needed her to stand, which showed that Yang had at least left her mark on the plans of the enemy. Slowly, Yang's urge to hit something faded, the energy running through her veins simmered down, her body returned to a normal state (bar a few injuries) and her hair felt less like it was burning with power while her eyes were probably not red anymore.
She was calm again, just like Dad and Qrow taught her to be when using her Semblance.
"Great, he's got a new henchman, and she might be tougher than he is." Yang muttered, moving back to her team.
Moving back to help Ren, she could see that Blake and Nora were already trying to keep him upright. Nora was the first to ask the question on everyone's mind. "Ren, are you-"
"I'm fine, just a few bruises. They'll clear up in the morning, with enough Aura attention." Ren replied, forcing himself to take a few steps, before he managed to walk on his own. He looked around the wreckage that they had caused. "All in all, I'd say that went rather well." He said, raising an eyebrow at Yang and Nora, who could only giggle in response.
"We need to find Sun and Neptune," Blake said, looking back at the direction where they fell with concern. "Who knows what could have happened to them."
"I heard them land, I don't think they'll be that badly wounded." Yang said, putting a hand to her chin, trying to look like those TV detectives from the old people days. "Still, I don't want to think about what might have happened to them."
Sun and Neptune were cool guys, even if the latter was a baby when it came to going fast. They didn't deserve to get hurt, or become vulnerable, because they helped them try to do the right thing. Sure, they could take care of themselves, and Yang did hear them not scream out in pain when landing and their Aura was strong enough that they weren't badly hurt, but it would be better safe than sorry.
Whatever trouble they could be in, they were going to get help.
"They're probably fine, right?" Neptune asked, probably feeling a little bad about how they gave up.
"Yeah, probably." Sun replied, his sort-of confidence matched by the sound of sirens. Of course, they could mean anything, but he chose to think that they were there to arrest a caught Torchwick.
After their...defeat at the highway, they had landed right in front of a nice little place called 'A Simple Wok' and chose to quit while they were ahead and enjoy the hard-earned meal of potential victory, or weep in sorrow over their failure. Sun and Neptune did think about arriving to help the others out, but the sight of Nora high in the sky and laughing maniacally gave them enough comfort to judge better.
That, and the sheer shockwave that sent the sign of the wok flying off, only reattached as of a few minutes ago.
"Rough day?" The owner said, both Haven students nodding in affirmation. "I can understand the feeling. These days, if you run a store, you get robbed, and if you drive a truck, you smash into girls with the strength of ten bears. What happened with you two?" He asked, motioning at the rugged hair and clothing the two had. Sun was actually surprised that the old man hadn't said anything before.
Maybe Vale was just a crazy kind of place.
"Giant robot of death piloted by a known criminal, he probably robbed your shop too." Neptune replied, managing to appear as if he hadn't screamed in horror with Sun, as they were thrown off the highway.
"Hope your friends manage to catch him." The wok-owner said. He probably wanted to make sure that none of his other businesses got robbed again, apparently running like seven of them. Sun could barely keep up with the assignments giving to him, let alone run seven things at the same time.
"Well, we could have, were it not for you two giving up." Yang's voice replied, sounding very angry. For a brief moment, Sun wondered if that was his conscience telling him off, only for him to turn and see four recognisable and very upset people, looking like they just came out of a warzone.
"Oh hey guys. Did it go well?" Sun asked, trying to lighten the mood. They didn't seem to appreciate his comments, Blake's glare being the worst of it all. "I'm guessing he got away."
"We're not forgiving you for this, you just left us. Like a bunch of...leaving-behinders!" Nora said, crossing her arms and scowling at them. It looked like Ren had some kind of injury, from the way he was standing, only that seemed to be the only injury, which was a great relief to Sun. He cared about these guys, even if he kept a cool front, and he knew Neptune did as well.
"Guys, could we really have done anything? Whatever made him escape you guys, who can beat down giant robots, and we weren't going to do much." People unsure. "Look, we were going to buy Sage and Scarlet some stuff from here, let's get you guys some stuff too. As an apology."
"Don't worry about paying, anyone who beat up that Torchwick person is a friend of mine." The old man said. His eyes almost opened in recognition of Blake, pointing right at her. "Oh, I remember you from the book store. Your copy of Forbidden Samurai Lu-"
"That'll be fine." Blake replied with a blush, cutting him off before he could talk about her porn. She then turned on Sun and Neptune, her lack of happiness kind of obvious. "Just because you're getting us food, doesn't mean we-"
"What about chicken dumplings?" Neptune asked.
"Are the types to hold grudges!" Yang declared, wrapping her arms around the two of them. "Come here, besties."
"Do you have Roast Duck Soup?" Ren asked, already breaking down the unity of Team BRNY, as a mere nod from Sun had the quiet guy breaking ranks. "Yeah sure, I forgive you."
"Guys." Blake mewled, before she smiled in relief at Nora's crossed arms and pout. "Thank you, Nor-"
"He also does desserts in another shop, like pancakes." Sun said, almost enjoying how quickly the little bruiser (or destroyer, to be more accurate) changed moods.
"Let the bromance continue!" She cried out, leaping over to them and standing next to Ren, the old man grabbing some other chairs for them to sit together on. Blake, seeing her team mutiny against her, looked at a smiling Sun and looked to be conceding defeat to her fellow Faunus.
"Sweet and Sour?" She asked, sounding like she wanted to salvage something from the failed confrontation.
As the six of them enjoyed their meal, Nora explaining about how she already ate before, and then ordering a Pork Stir Fry, Sun felt good about himself. Sure, the bad guy got away, but now they knew where he was going to set up his plans, no one was dead or wounded, and they were having a nice time at this conveniently placed wok. All in all, it seemed like a pretty good night-out for Sun.
Next time, however, he'd prefer a trip to Vale that didn't involve so much explosions and fighting.