Author's Note: WARNING! WARNING! If you haven't read the last two chapters... you're missing a LOT! Not like this chapter, which clearly has the term "B-Team" in it. This is pure, unadulterated, filler explaining what everyone else is up to. It's quite jarring to transition into, but this was actually a compromise for those who prefer the plot to move forward, it just didn't fit, but this needs to be told...!
Here comes the crazy train!
Disclaimer: RWBY is the property of Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. I do not claim ownership of anything pertaining to RWBY or any related properties. This is a work that began before Volume Two's release, and some details are subject to debunking. Any other references to non-related things are also not owned by me. This is a nonprofit fan work.
Rated T for: Language, suggestive themes, and just plain B-side delirium! I apologize in advance.
Original Post Date: 11/4/14
"What the hell is that?!"
From afar, off in the snow-kissed Emerald Forest, Sun and Velvet were on a mission from Blake to meet up with the advance team that the Headmaster had requisitioned, as Lord Schnee did not have plans to remain alone... A giant pillar of light shot up into the sky, visible to them both and whoever else who could look in Beacon's direction...
"An advanced spell from the times of legend...!"
Velvet couldn't help but feel entranced by such a grand display of magic from where she stood, her body quivering. "I never though I would see the day; practitioners of binding pure Dust into an extra-elemental spell are few and far between...!"
Sun nodded. "I got the gist of it, but I can't say I care all that much."
"Maybe if you would quit staring at my posterior when I take point...!"
"Hey! You got the ears here! I'm just a stowaway in this adventure we call life!"
"Whatever."
Velvet's dismissive reply only drew a grin and a shrug from her current companion as she sprinted off into the deeper woods, Sun not far behind.
"I don't want to sound defeated here, but what are the odds...?"
"Pardon?" The Faunus girl's ears perked up as she couldn't hear all that well with their running.
"You know, the odds? You, me, maybe a nice get-together in Vale? I know this one place—"
"Pass."
Sun managed to face-fault in midair, effortlessly returning to running like normal as he answered back, "Sheesh, fine. Be like that. What about one of my bros then? This guy, Neptune, he's a nice guy when you get to know—"
"Pass."
Sun grimaced. "Man..."
Before he could have a chance to truly gripe about getting shot down, the two stopped running when they heard a large rustling in the background, yet almost close enough to feel a light tremor.
"Guh...! This place just keeps getting weirder...!"
"Come on then, we must hurry!"
Velvet gave one of Sun's arms a yank in the direction they needed to go before the two made off; the tremors getting heavier and more forceful as they approached...
"Could somebody help us...?!"
"I want my mommy, dammit! AaaaAAAAH...!"
The two Faunus stopped once again to thoroughly examine just what they heard. Sun was quick to chime in. "Are they... crying for their mama?" He scratched his head, fighting back a fit of giggling.
The other half of the pair grit her teeth as her rabbit ears pointed up in alarm. "Great..., just what I needed. More boys to come and harass me." She stormed off, to Sun's bafflement, her hands glowing with an awesome might.
"Velvs...? What's going— AAAAH!" Sun stood up on one leg to avoid a bolt of lightning from singeing him something awful. Then his senses came back to him... "Oh right. Something's going down!"
As Sun ran off, he quickly found that Velvet had outpaced him, yet he was able to keep up with her by virtue of hearing her yell as she went on her way...
"HANDS OFF! You won't find warmth there, have some fire!"
...along with various explosions of magic.
"Cuddle up with this bunny, will you?! Perhaps the embrace of death will suit you better...!?"
The simian man cringed as he felt Velvet's wrath solely from her voice, and damn near pissed his pants when the bursts of magic grew more and more violent with every one!
"Daaaamn! What's got her undies in a bunch, huh...?!"
He briefly considered just letting Velvet go wild on whatever it was she was attacking, when his own enhanced senses picked up on something off. Without wording off, he dropped himself onto his legs, avoiding a dangerously close razor wire from getting laced around his body, gracefully releasing and forming the nunchaku from his multiform weapons and gathering the wire in a boastful twirl.
"Nice one! Now how about a little effort as I take you to town?"
Sun disengaged the nunchaku along with discarding the wire, bringing his twin shotguns to the forefront as he shot wantonly into where he saw the source of the implement: a far-off bush. Sparks and groans of pain confirmed the shot, bringing a cheeky grin to the monkey man.
"All right, no time for celebrating, let's see just what it is I shot. I hope it isn't Neptune again..."
Kicking aside the remains of the plant life he had mercilessly shot holes into, Sun was intrigued when he saw what took the shells.
"Some kind of... robots?"
The mangled forms of armor-clad androids littered the ground tightly; roughly enough for two adult-sized bodies clad in dark-grey knights' armor. They were so riddled with holes, it was difficult to give a better description.
To say Sun had a clue what was going on would be too much for him...
"Am I in it deep this time...?! Oh no, I don't wanna fight anything like that Penny girl, nooo way!" Turning around so he could slink away, the body of a flung knight android almost grazed his nose as it flew into a tree, exploding in a shower of circuitry and metal. He squeaked in a high pitch, almost in the same way of the mysterious voices from afar. "Holy SHIT! That was way too close...!"
"Stop flailing about and assist me, Mr. Wukong!"
It was Velvet, her snow outfit slightly damaged and torn, as she slung another busted android over her shoulder and into the previous one she had apparently threw. Her expression was eerily plain...
"I still haven't found who was yelling out. I got ambushed, but they were no trouble." Velvet sighed, stretching her back out as she continued. "And what have you been doing while I was out getting flanked by these robotic menaces, huh?"
Sun just quirked his mouth, motioning his hands toward the same pair of androids he had made Swiss cheese out of. To this, Velvet shrugged.
"Meh... I've done better," she dismissively said, before aiming a hand up to the sky and shooting down another robot from the sky with a bolt of lightning. This one had been wielding a large hammer, which landed just where its head did with a sickening thud, and pinning the body to the ground. "Anyway, the last I have heard the cries for help were somewhere around—"
Velvet was interrupted by a much larger tremor, strong enough to cause her and Sun to teeter. The foliage had the snow shaken off, along with some leaves and the... creaking of a tree going down...?!
"TIIIIM-BEEEERRRR~!"
A nearby tree had collapsed, the very same one that Velvet had laid three robots into! All pulverized into dust, thanks to Mother Nature... and a large, monstrous foot...!
With a thundering step, a massive elephant-like creature of Grimm crashed the party and obliterated the tree it had knocked over, rearing back as it loosed a deafening bellow that brought Sun and Velvet to their knees. The monstrosity looked menacing enough, staring down at the puny Faunus before it with glowing red eyes, exhaling a puff of air through its ashen-gray trunk as it laid in between its massive, curving tusks.
"Wh-Wh-What is THAT?!" For once, Velvet was the one to yell, unable to compose herself with this beast looking right at them...!
"Don't ask me! Do I look like I work at a zoo?!"
Unfortunately for Sun, Velvet took the time to quirk her head and visibly think about it, irritating him.
"Perhaps. I don't think you can hold a job, to be honest. Too busy monkeying around."
Before Sun could launch into an angry fit about his lot in life, the voice of a confident and experienced man interrupted him, apparently from atop the Grimm known as a Great Tantor.
"Hello there, my students! I see that Ellie here has taken a liking to you!"
Velvet and Sun both looked a little higher up to see a certain corpulent man with a grand mustache sitting on top of the Grimm, without a care in the world.
"W-Wait, isn't that a GOLIATH?! WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"Stop yelling, you rapscallion, I'm right here!" Velvet covered her protruding rabbit ears in discomfort. "And to answer your question, no. Goliaths are MUCH bigger than this sub-species, but let's face it, canon went down the tubes with this story some time ago..."
She shook her head a bit, before addressing the professor with worry in her voice. "Professor Port?! What are you doing up there, are you daft?!" The magic-inclined student looked at the beast, Ellie exhaling a humid mess of breath onto her. "Ugh... How can you even tell that it is a girl...?"
"That old guy is a teacher here?!" Sun pointed up to Port as his face looked conflicted. "What the fuck, I don't know if I should call him awesome or crazy for riding on top of that thing!"
"I'll have you know, young man, that many people have called me both!" Professor Peter Port never failed to play up his own reputation. It was deserved, for the most part... "Anyways, now is not the time for chitchat! You two need to return to the campus immediately! No matter what kinds of trysts you had in mind when you wandered around here, it is dangerous at the moment! Now shoo!"
As Port gave a worried, if not, comical wave goodbye, his audience turned red with embarrassment.
"N-No, Professor," exclaimed the rabbit-eared girl, "I have no interest in this ruffian! Especially since I have no feelings for men at all!"
Sun was about to try joking the insinuation away, but Velvet's admission hit him like a sucker punch to the face. The earnest look in her face made it hurt that much more. He muttered to himself, defeated, "Is this how my time here is going to be like? Just the third wheel while the chicks hook up with each other? What about us guys, huh? Where's the love?"
Velvet's ears picked up on what he said, and inside her head she felt a little bad for him...
"What about that Neptune fellow, he sounds like—"
"I know where you're going with this, but no, I don't play for that team."
"But—"
"Don't push it, bunny-buns!"
Her ears drooping, the mage wanted to pursue this line of thought, but orders were orders. "Sir, we are to meet up with the contingent the Headmaster has set up for the defense operation!" She hesitated, putting two and two together in her mind. "Are you... the backup?"
Port smiled through his mustache. "Why yes! I am indeed whom the Headmaster had tapped in order to deal with these mechanical adversaries!" Without a command, the Tantor lifted up one of its front feet to reveal a fine mash of gray metal and robotic limbs hanging off it, setting it down when the younger pair looked convinced. "There were more who were supposed to be helping me, but seeing as since Peach and Oobleck are a little indisposed, I had to take a trip into town to enlist some help away from the local authorities."
On cue, a group of four teenage boys screamed out for help as they ran for their lives and bunched up by the elephant's front, just as gunfire and javelins were about to nail them. The attacks bounced off almost harmlessly off the Tantor's hindquarters..., until its dormant aggression flared up and it lifted up onto its hind feet, scaring Team CRDL off into huddling up and crouching by Velvet and Sun's feet.
"As you can see, perhaps it was ill advised to have paroled them!"
The look on Velvet's face was one of knowing as she thought, 'I knew those voices sounded familiar...!'
The team by her feet looked up to a familiar target's face, instantly going from being scared stiff to assertive and aggressive as they stood up in front of her with no good intentions.
"Well, look who it is," sneered Cardin Winchester, CRDL's leader and resident jackass, "Funny how a little lost rabbit made it here to this neck of the woods, where the big boys are playing...!"
It was to the surprise of no one that Cardin Winchester and the other boys who made up Team CRDL weren't the most endearing of individuals. Despite being able to make it to Beacon, they were hardly model students, choosing to belittle and bully those would consider to be nerds, weaklings, or Faunus. Why they were brazenly doing so in front of Academy staff is probably left to the scholars of the future to ascertain.
Sun found it appropriate to barge in between Cardin and Velvet, shoving him away with his shoulder and standing between Velvet and the instigator. "Hey, meathead! How about you show a little class around the ladies, okay?" The monkey man's bravado was in full display as he brought Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang into a quarterstaff before him. "If you know what's good for you, step off before I go all apeshit on you!"
Port looked on with an intrigued brow as he aimed his Blunderaxe behind him at another metallic assailant. Velvet on the other hand...
"Of all the comebacks, that's what you had in mind?" She was disgusted. "Going 'bananas' would have been better, but that image...! Ugh!" She was less than appreciative. In fact, she flat out insulted the help.
Sun angrily yelled out, "I'm trying to stand up for you here!" It didn't help him when the rabbit-eared girl just lolled her head to the side and began zoning out, almost looking like she was enjoying herself...
"Shut up!" The young crowd had looked to Cardin, who was pissed at this point, bringing his own mace in front of him. "I don't know why you freaks are here, but in this place, this battlefield, you have no right to—" He interrupted himself when he heard a faint snickering from his target of choice. "What's so funny, huh?"
Velvet was quietly chuckling to herself, her brown hair cascading over her face enough to cover her face, and her laughter only increased in volume as everyone grew unnerved.
"Mmhmhmhmh...! Hahahahaha! AH-HAHAHAHAHA~!"
Throwing her head back, her hair flew away as it exposed a crazed and an almost unbalanced look of glee as the boys around her took a step away from her. Velvet's irises were very shrunken as she peered into her formerly imposing adversaries.
"Oh, dear Mister Winchester, just how confident you looked just now...! I'm just so fed up with everything that had happened to me this day, that maybe..., maybe I've snapped...!" Shuffling towards CRDL, she succeeded in getting them to take a few more steps back. It was also known that Team CRDL were also self-serving cowards who would run in the face of serious danger. Sun wasn't looking to step between them this time.
"So that's why the Headmaster wanted me to spring them from custody...! Oh, you sly devil you," Port muttered to himself as he continued bashing in more knightly androids in the helmet with his blade from atop the Grimm.
"Now then...!" Velvet threw her arms outwards and stopped CRDL from escaping with a localized binding spell, trapping them where they stood. If they weren't scared before this, they were now. Only Cardin showed anger at having the tables turned, before Velvet closed in on them and he erased his scowl when he saw just how unbalanced she looked. "As I recall, Mister Wukong, I had asked you about finding assistance for this joyous time of year, but it seems I have received a timely present in the form of these wonderful people...!"
As Velvet brought her head back to cackle maniacally, Sun indeed recalled that moment in front of CFVY's, or rather, Velvet's dorm at the time, when he first witnessed the rabbit girl go through a similar fit of lunacy, though it was nothing compared to this moment.
"W-What the hell is going on?! Boss?!"
"That's the last time I pick on that old guy from the Dust shop...! Nothing but trouble since he conked us out and put us in the slammer...!"
As Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark hugged themselves in order to escape the reality of the situation, Russel Thrush could only struggle as he fell face-down and mohawk-up onto the dirt, silencing himself in the process.
Cardin had enough fortitude to face his captor from his prison, managing a sneer as he said, "Just what are you gonna do, huh?! You rabbit-eared bitch...!"
An insane cackle could be heard escaping from Velvet's mouth, before she quieted herself and held out a backpack filled with... clothing?
"Oh you are all so lucky I am generous this night, my dear little elves...!"Her chocolatey eyes were sparkling with a hint of madness and tinsel. "If I want to make this Christmas shine, then I will need your collaboration in doing so, and you lot are just perfect! AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA~!"
"What the hell, man...," Sun whimpered. Velvet went unchecked as she enacted a sick and deranged vengeance upon CRDL, whose faces were all whitewashed with fear. In fact, seeing the authoritative Port and his great beast trample another squad of androids did nothing to calm him down, and neither did seeing the distant Edgar-based tackles that made their foes' limbs and heads burst from their torsos. "It's a madhouse, I tell you...! What the hell happened...?!"
"It seems that the other Faunus girl is subjugating the group with a paralysis spell."
Sun yelped as he jumped out in front of him. Turning around, he wasn't glad to see just who it was who snuck up on him: a girl with orange hair and a rather plain snow outfit consisting of a beige coat and green slacks, the only things notable about her being a thin cowlick that hung upwards from her head, and an unusual hue of turquoise coloring her eyes. Her posture was also kind of stiff.
"Penny?! What...? I-I, huh...? HUH...!?" Sun's mind broke as he fainted from sensory overdose at the sight of someone unexpected. His loss of consciousness did nothing to affect the goings-on around him, except for one quip from the robotic girl...
"It seems you have whited out, Mister Wukong! I shall watch over you until you wake, or if Miss Velvet needs my assistance in dressing the boys up in those elven costumes! She looks very exuberant indeed!"
A very chaotic Christmas indeed...
"Keep vigilant, my students," yelled a now dismounted Port, aiming down the sights of his weapon, "An entire cadre of foes are looking to do battle with us at any moment!"
His words of warning snapped Sun from his fainting spell, along with disrupting Velvet's crazed hold on Team CRDL as they all scrambled to their feet in various states of being dressed and half-dressed in embarrassing elf costumes.
"Just how much is a cadre exactly...?"
Sun's question was answered almost as quick as him asking, when a small army of knightly androids suddenly came into sight around them in the distance.
"From above!" Velvet's ears had picked up on a detachment that had somehow made their way through the air in order to occupy the treetops above them. There were enough assailants to darken the already blackened sky. "Th-This doesn't look good...!"
A flick of his staff, and Sun had his shotguns out. His knees were shaking audibly for everyone to hear. "Where's the crazy rabbit girl who was here a moment ago?! We kinda need her right about now!"
Before Velvet could come up with an answer, the portly Professor Port just looked off to the side and held his fingers up to his mouth, whistling out loud and causing the knights to ready their arms.
"Edgar~, come clear a path for us!"
Bidden by its master, the bizarre bovine Grimm absently charged into the crowd in front of the group, its eyes continuing to look askew in different directions as it bowled over and wrecked those in its way. Their attention split, the nearby formation of knights looked over to Edgar's charge, only for four to be grabbed by a large, ashen trunk as the elephant Grimm constricted and crushed them into pieces in its grip. A few who had tumbled over from it all tried to get back on their feet, only for the Great Tantor to bellow a disorientating noise as it leaned back and threw its weight onto the poor androids. It gored a few more with its massive tusks shortly after, tearing swaths into the waiting horde.
"Wait, why is he named Edgar when he is a cow? That's not—"
At this point, the enemy force stopped being chivalrous and charged in on everyone, ignoring Velvet's complaint as well as the carnage that the two tamed Grimm were doling out. This wasn't lost to the two newcomers, as Sun and Velvet fought on with lost looks in their faces.
"I'm not even gonna ask at this point...," Sun muttered, absently flinging his quarterstaff around his body and repelling a coordinated bum-rush from off to his side. He didn't even flinch when one grabbed his tail, as he just threw himself into a roll and reversed it into a snapping armbar.
"Professor Port is a strange man at times..." Velvet was also throwing less effort into her spells, though with less effort came lingering effects as androids that tried charging through their own comrades ended up with stationary balls of wind boring into their various body parts.
Port smiled kindly at them as he shot an explosive musket round into an android's midsection and bisecting it; its upper half then dragging itself slowly on the ground while its legs were twitching. "Well, don't just stand there, they won't be so kind as to wait for you two to stop gawking!"
The two couldn't keep their minds on the battle in front of them, especially when a certain other android girl began zooming around and sweeping up hordes of enemies in her localized set of floating blades.
"Yes, you simply must remain alive and in good shape, if we are to prevail here," she beamed as she gracefully flipped into the air and impaled a knight on every single blade that hung from her back.
Sun shook out of his stupor, realizing something. "What are you even doing here?! I thought...! I don't even...! Ah, whatever!" Splitting his staff into segments, the simian man stopped a lance or three from turning him into a pincushion.
"Mister Wukong, I have simply brought those four ruffians to the proper authorities, when my master called for me to stay at the station and then suddenly—"
"Yeah, fight now, questions later! C'mon, Velvs, we'll have to buddy up if we wanna live!"
The mention of that hated nickname did its job, Velvet now putting some effort as she slung a few incendiary spells at some more robots, causing a chain of explosions. "You...! Don't think I will let you act all cool when you're not!"
"Just point your rage at the bad guys, Velvs!"
"Aaaaargh!"
As branches, machinery, and other debris marred the landscape, Team CRDL could only look on as the world burned around them.
"C-Can we even get out of this, Cardin...," Russel asked as he tried to get his mohawk back up. "I don't think we can pick on Scarlatina anymore after this..."
"Don't ask me! I just went along with you jokers over at the city; I just wanted to go back home and— AAAAH!"
Cardin swung his mace down and onto an android who had taken notice of the seemingly-forgotten group. It whined and whirred under the weapon until it shut down from sustaining too much damage. Turns out that it had already sustained plenty of damage from the melee around them, but for Cardin it was somewhat comforting for his self-image.
"Th-There! You got your answer, now get to work, guys...!"
"Sure..." "All right..." "Mommy...!"
The members of CRDL halfheartedly raised their weapons and... walked over to the battle. It wasn't going to be a great night for them after this...
As for Professor Peter Port himself, he and his companions were mopping every enemy up in sight, when he noticed something off in the distance.
"Oh~, I definitely see a reason as to these knights' presence!"
As he got off of the elephant and patted it away to do battle, he witnessed a bunch of androids who had just managed to skillfully exterminate an approaching horde of Grimm... At least, there was a horde; trails of wispy, shadowy smoke could be seen rising up into the trees, barely able to be caught in the dark night.
"Although I still question their antagonism here, I would agree that the recent concentration of negativity would attract those loathsome creatures! No matter, I am confident in everyone's abilities to make it out all right, especially that polite girl of metal! Isn't that right, Edgar?"
Edgar only made a mooing sound as he absently munched on what looked to be one of the androids' arms.
"Very good! What say we finish up here and return with good cheer? Sic 'em, Edgar!"
"Moo."
...
I have no words, I am so sorry...
"This is stupid... This is really stupid..."
"I know~, isn't it great?!"
Nora was standing on her tippy-toes, bouncing up and down as she swung her Magnhild like one of those foam swords you buy anywhere. By her side was a listless Ren, who resorted to fiddling with his phone as he and his partner were stationed somewhere less than exciting.
"I understand if Blake wanted to cover all the bases, but to leave us on patrol by the scrapyard?"
By the fringes of Beacon's grounds was a peculiar facility that served few purposes, but was found to be an incredible help for those who liked to construct and build... The yard itself was very low-key, with only one building to its name which housed... the scrap. Mechanical refuse of all kinds were dumped here very frequently; spent shells, broken pieces, and random gears and gadgets, all here for the sake of students who love to tinker and recycle. The building itself was very empty at this time, as few people would ever want to be so far out of Beacon during bad weather...
Nora and Ren were currently on the roof, near an outdoor worker's bench.
"If anything, I guess this is as close to the signal that Lord Schnee sent out without treading into the forest, but..."
"This one looks like a bunny!"
Nora held up a big light bulb, burnt out and broken on the top. She referred to the filament inside...
"That's great. Keep an eye out for anything bad though, we don't want get dropped in on out here."
The exuberant girl merely saluted before she dove back into a nearby pile of junk.
Ren, in the meantime, stayed focused on his assignment, and peered out into the dark wilderness that was just barely visible...
"This one looks like a sludgy pancake! EWWW!"
The quiet gunner remained just that: quiet.
"And this one looks like—"
WHACK!
A large, sickening crunch could be heard, Ren none too affected by the sudden noise.
"This one looks like death! Ren, sound the alarms!"
That line of words indeed alarmed his senses, as Ren turned around to find that Nora had flattened a poor soul's head with Magnhild. However...
"That can't be human or Faunus... It's making all sorts of sounds, and making sparks...!"
"Robot!"
As soon as Nora shouted that damning word, a squadron of seven androids were already surrounding her, two restraining her arms behind her while four others held her at various points around her body.
"Wh-What?! Bad touch, hands off!"
"Nora!"
Ren tried to run in and save his partner, but the sole android who hadn't been occupied with handling her jumped in front to intercept him. While the knights who captured Nora were pretty simplistic in detail, being dark-grey all-around with no real frills, the one before him was substantially more decorated; sporting a few tall plumes of Nevermore feathers atop its helmet, a bulkier and taller physique complemented with softly gilded pauldrons that served more for displaying its status, and deep-crimson skirt mail, lightly contrasting the deep-blue armor that made up most of it.
"Cease your hostilities," it droned in a low, robotic voice, before hefting a black double-sided axe with a short shaft in Ren's direction. "Any and all interlopers will be swiftly subdued. Do not interfere."
The young gunner held his ground as he stared down the Knight Captain.
"And if I refuse...?"
Without a command, two of the Soldier Knights held electrified batons up to Nora's torso.
"Do not interfere. This is your last warning."
Despite the danger that the Knight Captain held in its unfeeling voice, Nora pouted.
"What a shocker... I can do better than that!"
Ignoring his partner's casual take on the situation, Ren noticed something unusual...
'Wait a minute... Why would they put those non-lethal things up to Nora like that, when they have bladed weapons with them...?'
A quick glance revealed that the two Soldiers that were threatening his partner also had daggers holstered, they all did, along with the various armaments that they all held. This baffled Ren for a second, before he decided to shut his eyes in contemplation...
"I'm done. Do whatever you want."
...or in giving up...?
"Suit yourself. It is your deci—"
Several bullets promptly found themselves lodged in the arms of the knights restraining Nora, causing their limbs to spasm out of control. Various bullet-points were marked in the surroundings, showing that his shots had ricocheted to reach their targets.
Ren had his StormFlower guns smoking at the barrel, with his eyes shut...!
"I don't need my sight to tell me the big picture. You aren't out to kill us."
He opened his eyes, and for a second, one could see a spark coming from his... pink eyes.
"Likewise, I don't need my sight to target what matters. Nora, if you could finish escaping now...?"
"You betcha!"
Nora wrested her arms free from the Soldiers, clearing a small space around her, save for the two who still had their stun batons out at her.
"Here's how I can do better!"
She reached out and grabbed the batons, holding them up by the electrified portion, giving off lightning of her own as she brought them right down through the androids' visors, frying the circuitry and downing them for good.
The Knight Captain was quick on the draw as soon as the trouble started up, bringing its axe down on Ren, who guarded with the blades on his guns.
"Interlopers have demonstrated abilities beyond the parameters specified...! Threat level increased."
"Tch, no kidding. I haven't had the chance to bust out my Semblance since Beacon started!"
Ren's vision sparked once again, shooting off some decisive shots meant for taking the Captain down, only for each and every shot to bounce harmlessly off the more ornate armor.
"A little help here?!"
"I'm on it like butter on syrup on pancakes! Yum~!"
Nora brought her Magnhild to her side once more, having dispatched all the Soldiers with ease. She twirled her hammer like one would flourish a cane, before swinging it down on the armored foe. It made a deep reverberating noise as it glanced off the knight's arm, leaving a small dent.
"Requesting reinforcements. Releasing Inhibitor A, sub-lethal force authorized."
Bringing its axe up to its torso, the upper half mechanically shunted further up the shaft, revealing an emitter and calling forth a curved boomerang-like beam that extended the capable range. Bringing both hands around the base, the Knight Captain hurled it in a dangerous trajectory, spinning with great force towards the gunner in front of him.
"Whoa!"
Dropping completely flat on the floor, the axe sailed above Ren's prone form. Nora saw fit to have winded up her swing...
"Batter up!"
She made a clean hit with an electrified swing, sending the axe far off its intended path...
...only for the Knight Captain to speedily catch it in mid-air, descending along with a few newcomers in the form of more Knight Soldiers.
"Okay...," Ren huffed, patting his body for the dirt and grime from taking to the floor, "It seems like we're a bit boned here. What do, Nora?"
His partner responded with a maniacal smirk as she held a crackling hammerhead by her person, and loading a grenade into Magnhild as the androids started in on them.
"We make lemonade, Ren! Lots and LOTS of robot lemonade...!"
A/N: What did I say? :)
For the record, I had ALL OF THIS typed into the main story, but it proved too difficult to keep the pace going, and I'm afraid that just putting this up may have ruined the flow anyway. But this needed to be done. Also..., I have more B-side coming up next. The next chapter will reach the end of the extent I have written things up, before I have to return to my notes and finish the story proper.
That means no more quick updates for a bit, but do not despair! I am already working hard!
I hope you enjoyed this though. Take care, everyone! We will return to your regularly scheduled Christmas soon!
God, I really am gonna finish on Christmas, aren't I...?