Metal like Roses
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Mistborn or RWBY.
New Challengers
Beta'd by: Icarus720
"Three… Two… One..."
Jaune raises his sword in leadership. He gives a battlecry as Port calls out the last command.
"Begin!"
Vin watches as both teams rush into each other. Well, all except for one. One of the members of team BRNZ, May Zedong, Vin remembers from Mercury's scroll, runs back to the forest behind her.
Back with her teammates, they clash violently with JNPR. Brawnz and Pyrrha lead the pack, with Brawnz making the first move. He knees Pyrrha's shield, pushing her backward a few inches. She doesn't let up and pushes forward with her right leg, raising her blade to strike. Brawnz blocks with his claws, catching her sword in between the small blades.
Pyrrha doesn't let that get her down, she uses her shield to butt it into Brawnz's head. He staggers backward, but ducks as Pyrrha slices at his chest.
As much as Vin would like to continue to study Pyrrha's fighting style, she is distracted by May leaping onto a tree branch. Granted, Vin didn't see this, but with steel sight, she can follow the lines connecting from her body to May's weapon. Vin watches as the metal-line keeps upward a few more feet, then stops moving.
Across from May, Ren and Nora were working together to attack Nolan Porfirio. Whilst Nora was obviously stronger, her weapon allowed Nolan to get in multiple small hits on her backside as she swung.
Just as Ren was about to rush in and help his partner, the rocks behind him exploded. Vin recognized this as a dust round, and, as Ren turned around to see the rubble behind him, he seemed to recognize this as well.
Jaune dodged a bullet as well, doing so while he fought Roy Stallion. As one of the rounds flies past him, he looks around and notices something in the treeline. Most likely May or her gun.
Vin can barely hear Jaune sound a retreat before Ren makes a sharp turn towards the mountain biome behind him. Nora quickly follows as Jaune and Pyrrha provide cover with their shields.
Team JNPR quickly jumps behind a large cropping of boulders. A few moments later, the three footmen of BRNZ run towards them. Jaune seems to give another command before blocking an attack from Brawnz.
As JNPR pushes back, Vin sees the steel-line attached to May's rifle begin to move once more.
Bad call, Vin thinks. Never give up a good position for the one you think might be better. Vin was used to stealth, but without life-or-death instances to keep you sharp, this girl didn't know how to keep herself hidden as well as she could have.
Back with the others, Pyrrha was once again in a fight with Brawnz as Nolan walked steadily towards Ren. However, this proved to be a ploy as a few small explosions lined themselves up at Ren's feet, causing him to move to the side. The side where Nolan had prepared for a swing of his baton.
Nolan knocks Ren to the side, causing him to spin in a small twirl. Ren uses this spin to propel a kick to Nolan's head, but he misses and Nolan hits him again. This time, however, his baton presses itself against his chest and lets out a large volt of electricity.
Next to Vin, Ruby gasps. "He's so dead," she exclaims.
Vin turns to Ruby, "Ren? His aura should have kept him safe."
Yang chuckles. "Not Ren. The guy who hit him. Nora's going to kill him."
True to Yang's word, Nora screams out Ren's name in bloody murder as he falls onto his back, a large chunk of his aura levels now gone. Nora swings wildly at Nolan with her hammer. He barely avoids, and just like Ren, stabs his baton into Nora's gut.
This time, however, the baton doesn't knock it's victim to the ground. This time, Nora looks up at Nolan. This time… Nora smiles.
"Oho!" Port's voice echoes throughout the stadium. "Looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her semblance!"
Vin can't help but smile at Nolan's head-turning towards the large screen projection of Professor's Port and Oobleck.
"Yes!" Oobleck concurs, "Miss Valkyrie's semblance lets her produce, as well as channel, electrical energy straight into her muscles."
Vin frowns. Like pewter?
"This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or, in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying."
Like pewter, Vin confirms.
Nolan quickly turns back to face Nora, who is now proudly standing up and flexes her arms. Gripping her hammer tight, she attacks the one place that no woman should touch with the intent to cause pain.
The young man is tossed back over a dozen yards and crashes into a large boulder, his aura levels now deep in the yellow. Behind her, Vin could hear the sound of dozens of males in the stands groaning and clutching themselves below their belts.
Yang laughs loudly and cheers Nora on. "Get 'em, girl!"
A small thunderclap is heard, causing Jaune to look behind him at the mountain. At its tip, a cloud formed, flashing with lightning.
How in damnation did they do that? Vin wonders, amazed by Remnant's technology.
Jaune turns back to Nora and calls out to her. Even with tin, Vin can barely hear a word they are saying over the cheering and distance. However, Jaune points to the mountain top and Vin can easily ascertain his goal. Nora gives a quick salute before running towards the cloud.
Jaune then turns to Ren, who visibly sighs as he dodges another shot from May. Both Pyrrha and Jaune rush forward as Nora, now on the mountain, jumps from cliff to cliff making great headway.
Roy tosses his saw-bladed discs at Jaune, who raises his shield. However, to both huntsmen's surprise, the saw blades loop around Jaune and spin around Pyrrha, orbiting her. Vin feels a sense of… pride as Pyrrha uses her semblance to control the saw blades.
Roy pauses, giving Pyrrha the time to attack. She swings her shield and the small saw blades at Roy, forcing him to twirl to the side where Pyrrha brings her sword into his side.
Jaune rushes forward to help Pyrrha but stops at the sight of Brawnz attempting to sneak around her. Jaune rushes forward and swings his sword at the enemy leader, but Brawnz easily blocks, catching Jaune's blade in his claws.
"Yeah!" Ruby cheers, a fist in the air. "Go get them Jaune!"
Weiss turns to the red-hooded girl. "Well, he's certainly improved."
"Yeah, but he ain't got nothing on Pyrrha," Yang states, leaning to the side.
Vin nods. "It doesn't even look as if he's on Brawnz's level."
True to Vin's assumption, Jaune is pushed to the side and knocked down as Brawnz kicks him. Noticing how poorly Roy seems to be handling Pyrrha, Brawnz rushes forward to help his teammate.
Pyrrha seems to sense this, quickly dropping into a low stance and kicking straight up into Roy's chin. Then, as Roy begins liftoff, Pyrrha spins back around, changes her sword into a spear, and tosses it at Brawnz. Brawnz dodges to the left, right into Ren's path.
Ren kicks Brawnz, pushing him aside as he runs at the direction of May's steel-line. But as he exits the center stage and steps into the forest biome, Nolan cuts him off.
Once again, Nolan easily dodges Ren's swings and hits his gut with the side of his baton. Twirling around, Nolan raises his baton for a headshot, but Ren blocks it with the blades on his gun. Using both blades, Ren stops Nolan's movement and locks him in place. Giving a few swift kicks to his side, Ren forces the baton around Nolan's neck and turns him around.
Both Nolan and Ren look up at something, and Vin notices the steel-line moving once more. This time it points itself higher. Vin quickly notices that the gun's trajectory lines up with Nora's positioning. Ren sees this too, calling out to his team leader.
Jaune hears this, and after another block from Brawnz's claws, looks behind him. He seems to recognize what May is planning and calls out to his partner.
Pyrrha nods and leaps upward, impossibly fast and accurate, and blocks a shot that was definitely aimed at Nora.
Ruby, Yang, and Weiss all gasp. "Pyrrha can fly?!" Ruby asks.
Blake nods. "She uses her semblance to control her own armor." The Faunus then turns to Vin, "did you teach her that?"
Vin nods and Yang groans. "Great. The Invincible Girl can now fly. Did you tell her how to do anything else?"
"No," Vin shakes her head. She just learned how to do that last night. How is she this good already?
Pyrrha wasn't unaffected by the shot, however. The bullet knocked her backward, and she floats softly back to the ground.
Behind her, Nora reaches the summit. Proudly, she raises her hammer and lightning strikes. The hammer acts as a lightning rod, absorbing the electricity. With a large grin on her face, visible even without tin, Vin watches as her hammer folds itself into a large gun.
The front end of the gun's barrel drops down, and six large canisters are all shot out at once, aimed at the treeline where May is known to be.
Vin swears that the projectiles form the shape of a heart, but she was still surprised by the brutal explosive madness that resulted from them.
Everyone seems to stop and watch as the trees turn to ash and May's position is now clearly visible. A large black cloud covers the arena and May is forced to jump onto the ground.
Vin notices Nora leaping off of the mountain top, her hammer at the ready. Below her, the remaining members of BRNZ turn and look up at the falling huntress.
The ground shatters and cracks into a crater as Nora lands, tossing the enemy team members towards the forest. Right in front of May's feet.
Jaune points his sword, then calls out something. However, nothing happens. In fact, it seems that their team begins to have a conversation.
In the middle of a battle? What are they thinking?
"What's going on?" Weiss asks.
"I don't know," Blake responds.
Next to Vin, Ruby groans. "Jaune! Just beat them!"
Yang swings an imaginary hammer. "Yeah! Sic Nora on them!"
BRNZ seems to agree with Vin, as they were now standing and arguing with JNPR. It didn't take long until Nora jumped over to the enemy combatants. She swings her hammer with enough force to hit all four team members and knock them out of the arena.
Team BRNZ hits the wall of the stadium with a loud 'thud' and they fall back down to the ground.
"And with that, it appears team JNPR wins by knockout!" Port exclaims. "Literally… Can someone go make sure they are okay?"
"That was amazing!" Yang exclaims.
Back in the festival grounds, team JNPR and RWVBY were celebrating both team's success in making it to the next round. They all sat around a small pile of pancakes that Ren had made for Nora if they won.
"Heck yeah!" Nora screams through a mouthful of pancakes. "We kicked their butts!"
Ren pats Nora's back, and she sits down and chews silently.
"What happened at the end there, Jaune. It looked like you guys forgot what was going on," Ruby asks.
Weiss perks up, "yes, I would also like to know."
Jaune sighs. "I tried to be like Ruby and use a team name attack."
Ruby sighs and Yang facepalms.
"Team name attack?" Vin asks, poking at the strange food stack in front of her.
Blake nods. "They signify certain team members doing certain things."
"Yeah!" Yang agrees, her words spitting out crumbs and small pieces of pancake. Gulping, she catches her breath. "There's Bumblebee, me and Blake. There's checkmate, Blake and Weiss. And lots more!"
Vin raises an eyebrow. "And what would my attacks be?"
Everyone turns to Ruby, who tries her best to hide into her hood. "Um… I don't know? It's not like I've had enough time to think of them. I don't even know what all you can do."
Pyrrha smiles. "I think you will find that Vin can fit into most plans. She is very smart and cunning with her powers."
Jaune smiles. "Sounds like someone has a crush."
Pyrrha's face turned the color of her hair. "What?! No. I-I-I was only trying to say she is a good huntress who has taught me a lot of new things about myself."
Ren pats Pyrrha on the back and sighs. "Some guys are just too blind."
Behind him, Nora does a spit take.
"Everyone knows team names are Ruby's thing," Yang scoffs.
Jaune blushes. "I wanted to try it."
Weiss rolls her eyes and checks her scroll. "It would appear that team SSSN's (pronounced 'Sun') match is starting soon."
Blake's bow twitches and Yang smiles. "Isn't that monkey boy's team?" The blonde bombshell asks, turning to the feline Faunus.
Blake blushes slightly and looks to the side. "I have no idea who you're talking about."
Weiss smirks and pockets her scroll. "Well, I for one am going to cheer for Neptune, as thanks for taking me to the dance. Perhaps you would like to as well?"
Blake quickly jumps up. "Well, if it's to thank him for the dance… I might as well... " Blake grabs Weiss' hand and walks with (pulls) Weiss back to the stadium.
Both JNPR and the remaining members of team Ruby laugh at this exchange (well, Vin smiles, but close enough).
Ruby turns to her fellow team leader, "so who are you sending to the doubles?"
Yang points at Pyrrha, "well obviously miss Invincible Girl, right?!"
Pyrrha blushes and Jaune chuckles softly. "Well, I was… If that is okay with you, Pyrrha."
The blonde turns to Pyrrha and she smiles. "Of course. It is. I trust my leader and his judgment." Pyrrha places a hand on Jaune's shoulder and he smiles.
"Thanks, Pyrrha." Jaune turns back to Ruby. "And for our second member, I was thinking Nora."
Instantly, Nora perks up, still in the middle of finishing up the last of the pancakes. "MWE?!"
Ren pats Nora on the back and she swallows the food. "ME?!"
"Of course!" Jaune explains. "You're our strongest hitter. If it wasn't for you, we might have lost."
Yang coughs at nods at Pyrrha.
"Well," Jaune pauses. "Pyrrha would have made it, but the rest of us probably wouldn't."
Pyrrha smiles. "I don't think you give yourself enough credit. Nor Ren. You both were certainly handling your own."
Ren nods in thanks. "But it was, of course, thanks to you and Nora that we were able to win with such a successful victory."
"If you believe so," Pyrrha responds. "But it is also important to note that you were there and helped us win. Never forget that."
Ren smiles. "Thank you."
Vin's smile quickly vanishes as she hears a rapid thumping. Spinning around, reaching for her knives that were no longer on her person. Behind her, Ruby looks up quizzically.
"What's wrong?" The hooded huntress asks.
"Do you hear that?"
Both Ruby, Yang, and JNPR shake their heads.
Bronze pulsations, Vin realizes. Not something real. A semblance?
Vin looks around and realizes they are very much alone. The only thing she noticed was a bird landing on a tree branch.
This feels too much like magic. Vin realizes. Behind her, Ruby and Yang both stand up and fall into a loose stance.
The pulsing dulls but doesn't stop. Vin relaxes and turns to her friends.
"Are you okay?" Jaune asks.
Vin nods. "Yeah. Just a little tired. I think I'm going to take a quick walk."
Ruby grabs Vin's hand and looks at her directly in the eye. "Are you sure?"
Vin smiles and nods. "I'm fine." The young Mistborn then begins to walk around, enjoying the sights.
Kelsier would have loved to see this. Vin remembers how intently her mentor wanted to make his wife's dream come true.
Looking around at all the colors, she remembers how surprised she was when Kelsier first told her how the world was supposed to look like.
"Green," he said. "It's all supposed to be green."
Vin sighs, thinking back to her life back in the Final Empire. On Scadrial.
However, Vin's thoughts were cut off when she felt the soft thumping get closer. Leaning down, she picks up a small rock. When she mentally pinpoints the pulsation, she twirls around and tosses the rock with extreme accuracy at its source.
Vin catches the brief look of surprise on the bird's face as the pebble strikes its chest.
Can a bird even be surprised? Vin wonders as the bird is knocked backward. However, instead of a bird falling to the ground, a grown man does. The man has black, spiky hair and a decent stubble around his jaw. Along with a red, tattered cloak, he wears a gray dress shirt with a long tail, black dress pants, and black dress shoes. Behind him is a large sword.
With her steel sight, she notices he also wears a ring on his right index finger, two other rings on his right ring finger and a necklace with a crooked cross-shaped pendant. The man gets up and reaches behind him for his weapon, so Vin quickly tugs on his rings and prevents him from doing so.
The man chuckles. "Hey, hey listen. I think we got off on the wrong foot. See I-"
"Uncle Qrow?!"
Both Vin and the man (who she now assumed was named Qrow) turned to see Ruby Rose ducking under a branch. The red-hooded girl lunged at the man and gave him a large hug.
"What are you doing here?" Ruby asked as she looked up at the man's face.
"Heya squirt. I was just looking around for you and my favorite firecracker. Darn tree branches broke under me and startled this girl."
Vin frowned. She didn't hear a twig snap. But before she could question the man further, Ruby looked at her and smiled.
"Vin! What are you doing here?"
Vin looked at her team leader, then to Qrow. She recognizes something in his eyes. A plea. A secret.
Vin sighs. "I was out for my walk when this man fell down behind me. I thought he needed help so I offered to help him home."
Ruby turns to her uncle, "were you drinking again?"
With her heightened senses, Vin can definitely ascertain this to be true.
Qrow chuckles and scratches the back of his head. "Uhhhh, maybe?"
Ruby giggles. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see my favorite niece," he responds, shuffling her head.
Vin studies the man. He clearly loved his niece, and he clearly wanted to keep his secret, secret.
Ruby pulls on Qrow's sleeve, "come on! I want to introduce you to my team."
Qrow smiles and sighs, but follows her anyway. Vin remains in the back, refusing to let the man out of her sight.
Qrow. As in the bird? Is that his semblance? Vin flares bronze and there's a dramatically different pulse. Vin frowns. Who is this man?
A few moments later, back at the picnic, Ruby was happily showing off her 'cool and awesome uncle' to her friends.
Yang gave Qrow a huge hug. "Hey there firecracker, blow anything up yet?" He asked.
Yang chuckled, "no one that wasn't asking for it."
Ruby turns to JNPR, where she starts introducing her friends to her uncle. Vin pulls Yang's arm and brings over to the side.
"What is he?" The young Mistborn asks.
Yang looks at Qrow, who had somehow tripped over a leaf. "He's a teacher at Signal. Uncle Qrow was the one who taught Ruby how to use a scythe. He's always been there for us. He's my… He's family."
Vin frowns. "Do you trust him?"
"Well, yeah," Yang laughs. "He's our Uncle Qrow."
Looking back at the man, Vin sighs. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.
"Why?" Yang asks.
"It was nothing. I just thought I saw something."
Yang looks back to Vin and places an arm on her shoulder. "Not everyone's out to get ya, okay?"
Vin nods and smiles. "All right."
Yang smiles and pulls Vin back over to the small gathering. "Hey, Uncle Qrow! I don't think you've been introduced."
Qrow turns around and chuckles. "I guess not, huh." He then shuffles over, wobbling a bit to the side, and stops in front of the two huntresses-in-training.
"This," Yang states, showing off her friend," is Vin Venture. We saved her from a Grimm attack. She lost her memories but decided to stay with us until she can find out where to go."
Vin nods to the drunken man. "It's a pleasure sir, I apologize for my rudeness."
Yang raises an eyebrow, surprised by Vin's words.
"Well, it's not like it wasn't all my fault," he laughs. Qrow pats Vin on the shoulder, "Thanks for looking after my girls. I know they can be a real handful at times."
"Hey!" Ruby interjects, a slight blush on her face.
"Yeah!" Yang agrees. "I'm a handful at all times!"
Qrow laughs. "That you are, firecracker."
Suddenly, Team RWVBY's scrolls light up. Pulling her scroll out, Vin reads a message from Blake.
'The round just ended. Sun's team won' stated the little cat icon.
Below it, a fist icon pops up. 'Good for them!'
'She's here!' a snowflake icon interjects.
'Who?' asks the cat.
'Who?' asks the fist.
'Who?' asks the scythe.
Vin looks up and notices a large flying ship. She points up and the others look as well,
"Atlas," Qrow growls, before running off.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cries before chasing after him.
Vin shakes her head but runs after her team leader, still not willing to let the strange bird-man out of her sight.
Okay. Sooooo, I know it's smaller than last week's. But last week was 15 pages instead of the normal 10. I didn't really know what to do in this chapter. Yes, JNPR's math, but I honestly didn't feel that SSSN's was necessary.
So let's see. JNPR moves on. Oh, Vin met fan-favorite Qrow. Guess we shall see how that goes.
But summer classes are over so I should have more time to focus on this.
Hopefully, next week's chapter is better.
Also, I seem to have made a typo in the last chapter. Unbeknownst to me, I stated that this story had reached 1k views. IN FACT, it was reached over 2,000! Wow! I never thought this story would get this popular. (Maybe they'll invite me on for a segment of Shardcast if I'm lucky. Seriously, PM me me, I'm open).
As such, I will be releasing the first chapter of my newest story NEXT. Check my profile if you want to check it out. I should probably get it out by Saturday but who knows. I think a lot of you will enjoy it, especially those of a 'cultured' taste.
Special thanks to my Beta, who has already reminded me of loose threads I need to re-tangle back into the main story.
Jerry12344321: Thanks, man! I realize that, but I don't want to leave y'all hanging either.
Darkvampirekisses: Thank you very much. To be honest, my next story will be something similar, yet different. Also: RAFO.
SirBobthe1st: Will do! And sadly, there is not. A lot of Cosmere fanfiction writers get scared when they try to implement the full scope of the cosmere into this.
Please, feel free to follow and comment on predictions, thoughts, etc. I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft. Tell your friends!
Pa tr eon (slash) readerwarrior