Volume 3

Chapter 2: Off with a bang!


=GWYN=

Gwyn dove out of the way as a beam of energy cut across the treeline. Team SHNE was better than she thought. She dove behind a rock and twirled her umbrella. Sterling, a man in a white tuxedo with a gawdy golden tie was marching her way, rapier in hand. He had wavy golden hair and was actually rather attractive. Gwyn took a moment to laugh at herself, of all the things to pop into her head during a battle. She lunged forward swinging her umbrella. He was fast, she narrowly avoided his attacks. He riposted her attack, grabbed her umbrella and tossed it from her hands. He spun around and with a swift kick, swept her off her feat. Not in the way she was hoping for. She hit the ground hard. His blade came down fast, she rolled out of the way. His blade began to glow and he swiped upwards, a beam of energy shot forth and sent her flying.

She hit the ground harder this time. Now she was nowhere near her weapon. She smirked. Time to see if those sparring practice with Kol she was neglecting might pay off. She lunged forward swing her fists, Sterling sidestepped and smacked her in the back of the head with his blade. She flipped and hit the ground. She rolled out of the way from another strike and glanced at the board. Her aura was dropping fast. She hopped back to her feet and ran. Beams of energy chased after her cutting the trees in half. She found her umbrella and dove for it. She opened and turned. The energy collided with it, shielding her from the blast.

Kol came sprinting into view, mace in hand, now freezing with long icicles forming around it. He lunged straight for Sterling, suddenly somebody appeared between them, swinging for his knees. The knives collided with his legs and he flipped. Kol hit the ground, the entire arena felt like it was shaking. A shadowy figure in a dark hooded longcoat jumped into the air, knives in hand and swung down. The icicles formed on Kol's mace exploded outwards, one hitting his would-be attacker straight in the chest. He went tumbling into the treeline and out of sight.

Natasha came in to support, she swung her spade launching a blast of ice at Sterling, glyphs forming around him. Snow sprayed out like fire hoses from each glyph burying him. The snow blast collided with the pile and sent him flying. Bullets came ripping into view, a blonde woman carrying a large machinegun came charging there way. Gwyn lunged between her and her team and blocked with her umbrella. The woman flipped her machine gun around, a massive axe blade was now swinging down hard. Kol leapt over her head and brought his mace down. A blast of fireworks exploded around them. A well dressed bald man with a thick mustache slid into view with a simple baton. With several flicks of his wrist a series of fireballs flying their way. Natasha countered it with her snow glyphs.

The man with the knives dropped behind them. He charged their way. His legs were suddenly pulled from beneath him and he hit the ground face first. A cord was wrapped around his legs. Ivory was pulling at the other end. She tossed the cord around a tree branch and pulled down hard. The man flung into the air, dangling by his legs. She whipped out her weapon, a double ended glaive and swung it around, colliding with the man's head hard, sending him realing. The buzzer announced his aura dropping out.

Sterling came diving into view, his blade launched a beam of energy that he quickly wrapped around himself, manipulating the energy into the shape of a massive winged dragon. He launched it their way. Gwyn noticed a bullet fly past her head, spin around and fly her way. She saw the girl, Helena, guiding it with her hand. Fortunately she didn't notice Kol behind her. The mace swung hard on her back, the buzzer went again. The dragon was inches away, Gwyn raised her umbrella instinctively. It was like getting hit with a truck, she was sent flying off her feet and collided with a tree. She heard a ringing in her dress and pulled out her scroll. Her aura was a point away from disqualifcation.

Dust explosions between Natasha and her assailant were getting increasingly flamboyant in their displays. A dazzling array of colours exploded against one another, the field around them starting to burn in a dozen different colours. Kol came charging into the fight, a beam of light swept his legs. Sterling created a massive sword out of energy and swung it down on Kol. The buzzer sounded. Gwyn lunged forward, she clicked a button on her umbrella and the gattling barrels emerged. She pulled the trigger and the umbrella began to spin. Bullets spat out of the raging inferno towards Sterling. Sterling tried to dive out of the way when a cord grappled his leg and yanked him back into the path of the bullets. The buzzer went and Gwyn released the trigger.

Natasha was knocking her opponent off balance when Ivory approached the bald man and started swinging. She was fast and each end of her glaive collided one after the other in a flurry of blows. It was over in seconds. She was really good. Suddenly Oobleck and Port were announcing their victory. The match was over. Gwyn let out a sigh of relief. She saw Orin trudging into the arena to greet them. He was leaning on his weapon but was beaming brightly. Gwyn ran over and hugged him. He groaned slightly.

They gathered at the fairgrounds for their victory lunch. Gwyn and Natasha ordered the most unhealthy and sugary pastries they could afford, Kol ordered a steak and Orin settled for some light salad. Ivory order a small steak cut, a little too bloody for Gwyn's personal taste.

"Ivory, you were great out there." Gwyn said. Ivory smiled and nodded. She removed her hood revealing white hair, small antlers and rosey pink skin. Her violet eyes were beaming brightly.

"You're good teammates." She said. "I haven't had that much fun in at least six years."

"You don't have a team?" Natasha asked.

"No, I don't have many people in my life." She said. "I mean, I have my boyfriend but we're going through some problems right now."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Gwyn said. She nodded.

"We're having a fight, but he'll come around. I mean he has to right?" She asked. Gwyn put her hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"I can't see why he wouldn't" She said. "Tell me about him."

"Well, he's a faunus. A cute one too." She said. "Kind of a drunk though. Kind of vulgar too but he means well. We met in Vacuo. We used to be inseperable."

"He sounds nice." Gwyn said.

"He's the best." She said with a broad smile.


=CALICO=

They were already 3v4 in their favour. It was a piece of cake. Calico lunged through the geyser field dodging bursts of steamy water and high impact sniper rounds. Behind him was a man with a wingsuit flying towards him, a pair of sniper rifles strapped to his arms were spraying lead a little too quickly for his liking. Calico dove behind a rock and reached for his weapon. Ranger, the hook/harpoon launcher was ready for work. He spun around and fired a harpoon, it clipped the man's wingsuit and he went flying out of control. More like falling out of control, Calico thought. Boom, nailed it. He turned around. A familiar and not so friendly face was staring at him. A wolf faunus, an ugly one at that.

"Rust." Calico said. "Fancy meeting you here." Calico hiccuped. Rust shook his head in revulsion.

"Ugh, are you drunk?" Rust asked.

"Slightly." Calico said. Really drunk actually. He swung his weapon down, an axe intercepted it and another one swung for his chest. He hit Calico hard in the chest, sending him leaning all the way to the ground. Calico did a flip and landed back on his feet. He stumbled as he did, nearly toppling over.

"What?" Rust asked.

Calico jumped in the air and kicked him square in the face. He flipped and launched Ranger like a grappling hook, wrapping around Rust and pulling him back in. He spun around and performed a roundhouse kick square to the side of his head. Rust went flying. Ranger retracted. Rust rolled into a shadow and disappeared.

"Great." Calico mumbled. "Just great."

"Why are you just standing around?" Rojo asked. He stepped out from behind the rock, casually deflecting gunshots with his shield. "We're in the middle of a fight?"

"Hey!" A man shouted. "Incoming!"

A tiger faunus in an expensive suit flew at them, he let out a vicious roar as he did. Calico noticed Rojo wasn't moving and was beginning to shake. He pulled out a hipflask and sipped it. He pocketed it in his coat and reached for Ranger.

"Chakor is using his semblance, he can with a single look, cause someone to shake in fear with little to know ability to resist." Oobleck said. "But wait! Calico Prince is not affected at all!"

"What?" Chakor asked right before he collided with Calico's foot. Suddenly Rust was coming up fast.

"What a remarkable display!" Oobleck said.

"A fearless warrior." Port boomed. "Why this reminds me of another skilled and very brave huntsman."

"You mean yourself?" Oobleck asked.

"No, I'm referring to the legendary huntsman Rasmatas, who is visiting Vale for this very festival." Port said. "How about an applause for Rasmatas."

The crowd went wild. Whoever this Rasmatas was, he was clearly very famous. Calico noticed the man with the wingsuit coming their way. They were outnumbered, and surrounded.

"Give up." The man in the wingsuit said, he steadied his sniper rifles and had one smug looking grin.

"Yeah, you are outnumbered." Rust said, axes at the ready.

"You'll make a fool of yourself." Chakor added, hands at the ready. He never really used a weapon.

A small shape rolled under Chakor's legs and swung up. A metal ball collided with a something not so disimilar, and Chakor dropped to the ground. The buzzer went and his aura was depleted. Another shape dove from the sky and landed on Rust's shoulders. A pair of claws swung downward and hit Rust in the chest, the shape kicked off his shoulders and sent him flying. The buzzer sounded.

"Cheng, Leon." Calico said. "Nice of you to drop in."

"Woah. We can talk about this." The man in the wingsuit said.

"What's your name?" Calico asked.

"Edward, Edward Auburn." He said.

"Well Edward, you're out of luck." Rojo said. He raised his shield and two submachineguns popped out.

Edward raised his rifles and fired. The rounds were highly explosive and sent Cheng flying. Leon's skin turned into a diamond-like substance. He barely moved an inch. Edward ran, his sniper rifles flipped around and turned into tonfa swords. He swung, Rojo deflected with his shield and drew his chainsaw macuahuitl and intercepted. Calico launched Ranger and grappled it around his leg. He meant to pull and send him toppling to the ground but instead Edward jumped. Suddenly he was soaring to the roof of the arena and Calico was dangling drunk by the end of a rope.

"Woah, hold on. I didn't sign up for this." Calico mumbled. He watched the arena get smaller.

Edward stretched out the wingsuit and began to soar, swinging Calico around behind him. Think Calico, he thought to himself. Think. He pulled out his hipflask and took another sip, spilling most of his drink on himself. His hipflask slipped out of his hand and went soaring out of sight. He grabbed onto the rope and began to climb. Hair of the dog, always sobers the mind right up. What an oxymoron, he thought. He grabbed onto the man's leg and began climbing him. Edward kicked him feebly but Calico was holding on tight. He was soon riding on top of Edward, who struggled but could do anything to stop him. Calico reached into his coat and pulled out a pen. He began stabbing holes in Edwards wingsuit.

"Hey, stop that!" He shouted. "You'll kill us both!"

"Nah, we'll be fine." Calico said, stabbing more holes.

"You're insane!" He shouted.

"No, I'm just really tipsy right now." He said. "It's fine, just hold still and let me ruin everything for you."

"I'm not going to let you do that." He said. He rotated his rifles and began firing over his shoulders. Calico leaned out of the way.

"Come on, be gentle with me, this is my first time doing this." Calico said. He stabbed another hole.

"Okay this is getting way too weird for me." Edward said as his wingsuit began to fail and he soon found himself soaring straight down.

"Don't worry, everything is going to be a-okay." Calico said.

They flew directly into a geyser and Calico leapt off, he hung onto Ranger and swung down to the ground. Hot water splashed everywhere. He skidded onlong the dirt and spun around swinging Edward by the leg and sending him flying into a rock. The buzzer went.

"And Team ECRW is down!" Port boomed.

"What an extraordinary performance, what is the man's secret! Some sort of miracle elixer in that flask?" Oobleck shouted.

"Well, no." Port said. "I'll tell you later."

A hipflask landed in Calico's hands. Rojo stepped over and patted him on the shoulder. "Hold onto that thing better next time." He said. "You almost screwed up."

"I'll try." Calico said. He took another sip. He glanced up into the crowd. He spotted Pearl and gave her a finger gun. She raised an eyebrow back. Rojo gave him a funny look. "She gets me."

"Sure she does." Rojo said. "Where did you find her again?"

"At a park bench." Calico said. "What, you mad you aren't so lucky? How ironic, you got all the luck in the world and you can't score with the ladies."

"Yeah, keep talking Mister Liquor." Rojo said. "We'll see who's laughing when I pry you out of a dumpster again."

"Hey, there are cool things in dumpsters. Some times." Calico muttered.

"We beat them four nothing." Leon said dusting himself off. "Cheng didn't get disqualified for that hit."

"That was a low blow dude." Rojo said.

"Legitimate strategy." Cheng replied.

"Right." Calico retorted.