Author's Notes
Yo! Finally sent capstone to professor with corrections. Here's to hoping
Uploaded this a bit later than normal, since I was busy throughout the whole day. Next chapter should be out by Saturday, since it's an intermission chapter. After that, I dunno when next one will be out, since I want to increase my buffer a bit before continuing.
Chapter: 19.3: Finally, Fight!
Cardin wasted no time in covering the distance between them, a massive overhead swing threatening to crumple his defenses like tin foil. Despite having a shield, Jaune didn't dare to block the attack. Not even with an angled shield to deflect it. He dodged, hopping back and allowing Cardin's The Executioner to blast into the ground. But Cardin wasn't so much of a rookie as to leave himself open like that and quickly dragged the mace to deliver an upward swing, using the explosion mechanism to kick up dirt and leaves, as well as give the attack an extra kick. Crocea Mors' shield rose to meet the swing, throwing Jaune a couple of feet backward upon connecting.
'Too strong,' was Jaune's only unhelpful thought. His bones and muscles screamed while his ears ringed a little from the blast. The fact that he still stood on two feet was a testament to the results of Mytyl's training, repeatedly kicking his shield again and again. But this wasn't the time to rest, as Cardin once more charged forward, intending to end the fight in one single clean blow
Jaune wasn't about give Cardin that opportunity. Throwing himself to his left, he dodged Cardin's latest attack and sheathed his sword at the same time. Coming to a rolling landing, he scooped some leaves with the still open shield and threw them at Cardin's face, earning a yelp of rage from the auburn-haired boy. Taking advantage of the distraction, Jaune made a dash for the nearest tree without students close by. He could hear Cardin giving chase. Reaching the tree, he counted to two and ducked. As expected, Cardin swung The Executioner into the trunk and struggled to retrieve the mace.
Jaune took the opportunity for what it was, retracted the shield back into its sheath form, and swung Crocea Mors, sheathe and all, into Cardin's exposed ribs. That earned a scream of pain and rage from the boy. It also earned Jaune a solid hit from the mace, as Cardin ripped The Executioner from the tree's trunk, and slammed it into Jaune's forearms as the latter formed a quick and desperate defense.
'God, he hits like a truck. Come on, Mytyl, don't let me down,' Jaune thought as he landed on his back a few meters away. He was running out of ways to avoid Cardin. Or rolling away as he did to avoid getting plastered into the forest's floor, courtesy of a massive downward swing crashing where he once lied.
"Stop running away and lose like a man!" Cardin roared towards him.
"I'm… not running... away," Jaune breathing was harbored. He couldn't muster the strength to stand up, opting to kneel and use the sword as support.
The look of disgust Cardin sent him would have shriveled a lesser person. "Could have fooled me."
"I'm not running away," Jaune insisted. "I am making… continuous tactical retreats."
-o-
Ruby's leaned forward with rapt attention. They sounded silly, but there was weight behind Jaune's words, and it was not lost to her. Now the question was if Cardin was composed enough to realize it himself.
"What does he mean by that?" Weiss asked, genuine confusion in her voice.
"Running away means you lost the war. Retreating means you lost the battle. Tactically retreating means you are bidding your time," Ruby mechanically explained. Realizing people around her, minus the other team leaders, were eyeing her, she elaborated, "Professor Ozpin said that during one of our leadership classes. More of a saying than actual advice, though. Something about the power of words and morale."
Blake refocused on her partner. "Just what is your plan, Jaune?"
-o-
If Cardin's expression was anything to go by, the hidden meaning behind Jaune's words didn't go unnoticed. Goes to show Cardin is not given enough credit when it comes to his intelligence.
"What are you planning, Arc?" he growled menacingly, slowly and warily closing the distance to his prey.
"You'll just have to sit tight, wait, and see," Jaune taunted.
"As if I'll give you the chance!" Cardin picked up the pace and swung The Executioner right into Crocea Mors's shield.
For his part, Jaune clenched from his kneeling position and pushed as much aura as he could to his arm. He was still recoiling from the hit earlier and in a moment of panic opted to block rather than dodge. By the time his brain caught up, he fully expected for his defense to be destroyed along with his aura, his pride, his arms, the ground beneath him, and who knows what else after Cardin's cataclysmic attack.
Instead… nothing. Jaune opened his eyes to see the receding glow of his aura, Cardin's incredulous expression, his responsive legs still attached to him, his equally attached arms, and…
"BANZAI!"
And Lola crashing pod first into Cardin's face.
"Combat Pod Lumen, reporting for duty."
"Combat Pod Lola, doing duty!"
"Team Leader Mytyl, just here for the show!"
Jaune exhaled in relief. He did it. He bought enough time for the cavalry to arrive.
"ARC!" Cardin bellowed, his eyes promising bloody murder. "This is a battle between you and me! Keep your girlfriend and the in-laws out of this!"
Jaune laughed. A loud, bombastic laughs. "By the gods, Cardin, don't tell me you honestly fell for our little joke."
"And here I thought you were smarter, Cardin," Mytyl shook her head from the tree she was currently overlooking the fight, far away from the actual battle.
-o-
"Erm… ummm… hmmm," Ruby eloquently expressed.
"Unbelievable. They are admitting to screwing with all of us and I still cannot tell if they are screwing with all of us," Blake manage to be even more eloquent. Murmurs across the field, especially from the other team leaders, echoed her sentiment.
"Thank goodness," Ruby expressed with relief, a hand over her chest, "I thought I was the only one."
"This is going to haunt us for a while, isn't it?" Weiss drooped her head and said despondently.
-o-
"At any rate," Jaune stood up, deploying the shield, unsheathing Crocea Mors, and pointing it at Cardin, "this battle is still between you and me."
"And what do you call those!" Cardin accusingly raised his mace towards the two pods orbiting Jaune.
Jaune opened his mouth to answer but stopped. In a flash of inspiration, he ordered, "Lumen, Lola, state designation."
Both pods started reciting mechanically.
"Autonomous Combat Pod Custom Model 00-0001-LTM. Codename: Lumen, The Muse."
"Autonomous Combat Pod Custom Model 00-0002-LTD. Codename: Lola, The Diva."
"Permanent Assigned User: Mytyl Kamizono."
"Permanent Assigned User: Copen Kamizono."
"Temporary Assigned User: Jaune Arc." Both AI said in unison.
That phrase had Jaune smirking, Cardin paling as he realized what it meant exactly, and the audience in a mixture of awe and surprise as Arc's plan came into fruition.
"Equipped Combat Module…" everyone could have sworn Lumen paused a second for dramatic effect, "Shadow – Light Variant."
"Equipped Combat Module... Stellar Spark."
As the pods finished speaking, their appearance changed. Lumen took in a white and black color scheme, the usual holographic wings changing to resemble a string mimicking a bow on top of the pod. Lola, on the other hand, switched to a dark blue and electric blue scheme, her holographic discs switching to jagged spiral that went from yellow to blue.
-o-
Blake eyes widened in surprise and turned towards Copen.
For his part, Copen crossed his arms. "Guess Jaune will provide the test drive for the pods main functionality."
"And that is?" Blake asked with narrowed eyes.
"You'll see… and sorry in advance. Just in case."
-o-
For once Cardin opted to take the defensive, unsure of what his opponent's expanded arsenal meant. This left Jaune to take the initiative as he ran towards Cardin.
"Lola, shoot."
The P-Bits orbiting Lola, who followed Jaune closely from behind, quickly arranged themselves into a triangular-base pyramid, four P-Bits serving as the vertices, four in the center of the pyramid generating an electrical field. Soon after, four tendrils of lightning raced from the vertices towards Cardin.
-o-
"Isn't that Volt's?" One of the spectating students commented, loud enough for most of his classmates to hear.
"Oh my god, I just noticed. Lola looks like a round GV! Even his ponytail!" Ruby gushed close by.
"Hmmm," was GV's response. It was an imperfect replica, but definitely modeled after his own Azure Striker. Still, the fact that the pods could replicate something at all was a feat to admire. He always thought Lumen mimicking Copen's Semblance was a one-off thing.
"So, this is what they meant every time they mentioned collecting data…" Kohaku said out loud, to no one in particular. The pods' reports to Copen hadn't escaped GV's attention either.
"But… how?" Blake asked. "How can they copy our Semblances?"
Right. If 'Stellar Spark' refers to his own Semblance, then 'Shadow – Light Variant'…
Ruby's eyes gleamed. "And Lumen is a little, round Blake!"
-o-
Cardin weathered the electric attack. It wasn't as devastating as Volt's, but it still chipped at his aura and was a menace. Charging through it, he swung his mace to meet Arc's body heads on.
If only.
"Lumen!"
"Roger!"
The response was fast enough for someone to blink and miss it. One second, Jaune was charging directly into Cardin's attack. The next, the P-Bits reorganized themselves into an antiprism that enveloped Jaune. And upon impact, Jaune exploded.
Or to be more precisely, a clone of Jaune, apparently made out of aura, exploded. The real Jaune was ejected upwards, before gravity did its thing and Jaune descended, sword swinging, into the overextended Cardin.
"Argh!" Cardin recoiled from the direct hit, feeling a good chunk of his aura deplete. He attempted to salvage something and trade blows, but Jaune's shield deflected his mace upward."
'Sloppy,' was the only thought Jaune spared to Cardin's counter, as he lowered himself to the floor and sent a sweeping kick to his opponent's legs. If nothing else, he had learned how to give a good, flashy kick.
"Lumen, Lock. Lola, Luck."
"Yes, sir!"
Recalling Mytyl instructions on how Lock-On works and putting all his training pushing Aura into things to use, Jaune's kick earned him a couple of things.
First, Cardin was swept of his feet with a satisfying 'thud'. Not one to allow his opponent to capitalize upon his fall, Cardin hit the floor with The Executioner and caused an eruption that forced Jaune to fall back.
Jaune expected it. Here's where the second and third earnings came into play.
"Arc…" Cardin growled.
"Give up, Cardin," Jaune said, giving a pointed look at Cardin's leg.
Following Jaune's line of sight, Cardin saw his leg was currently orbited by effectively all of Lumen's and Lola's P-Bits combined, the Arc's crescent emblem emblazoned deep in the maelstrom. Cardin scoffed, recognizing the emblem for what it meant. "You don't have any projectiles to take advantage of that."
"Your funeral," Jaune muttered to himself.
With all the P-Bits occupied, Jaune would have to defend normally. A battlefield where Cardin excelled. Recognizing this, Cardin charged, intent on ending Jaune.
And fell flat on his face as he tripped on a rock.
-o-
"What just happened?" Ruby asked.
"I think that's one of Lola's modules," GV said.
Mytyl descended to where the rest of her team had seen Cardin trip. "Congrats bro, the EX-Semblance-mirroring-system is a resounding success. And Lumen's and Lola's P-Network System too."
"We're going to have a long, detailed, and agonizing talk about this, Kamizono," Blake warned the twins. One could not overstate the displeasure in her voice.
"Looking forward to it," Copen said honestly.
-o-
Luck. Dumb, bad luck. That was how Cardin was going to lose the fight, by tripping on a stupid rock, allowing Arc to kick away his weapon and have him at sword point. Cardin gritted his teeth in frustration. This wasn't how it was meant to be. Had it been a fair fight, he would have won. But Arc had to borrow someone's else weapon and cheat.
"Need a hand?"
Cardin looked at the offending appendage, belonging to one Jaune Arc. Was he pitying him?
"Remember the deal, Cardin," Jaune sent him a warning look. "You can either start by being a good sport in front of everyone or shoot yourself on the foot for the next four years. Personally, I don't care strongly either way, but I would prefer to let bygones be bygones."
And now Arc had the audacity of taking the high road. It sickened him.
A growl close by caught his and his opponent's attention.
"I was wondering when they would should up," Arc muttered. The Grimm. It was a matter of time for them to notice the commotion. The spectating students were already closing in on a circle facing outward, ready to fight.
"Look, we can figure out the details of this deal later. For now, just play along," Arc insisted, emphasizing the offered hand.
Cardin really didn't want to take that damn hand… but he could see Arc's point. Swallowing his pride, he allowed himself to be pulled back on his feet.
"Now there's a picture worth a thousand words."
Cardin and Jaune met the owner of the voice. Mytyl, for her part, stopped in front of The Executioner and kicked it back into Cardin's hands.
"Lumen, Lola, revert ownership."
As commanded, the combat pods, that still hovered by Jaune's side, quickly made their way back to Copen and Mytyl. For her part, Mytyl sent Jaune a wink. "Good fight, Jaune. Great plan." She spared a glance at Cardin. "You fought well too, Cardin." Back to Jaune. "Want to make the upcoming one more interesting?"
"No." It was a gut reaction, really. Something just told Jaune he would regret falling into Mytyl's… Mytyl‑ness.
Mytyl nodded in understanding. "I'll take that as a yes." Wait, what?
With a shot to the air, Mytyl caught every students' attention. "This are the new rules. Whoever kills the most Grimm, wins a kiss from either me or Jaune."
Wait, what!?
-o-
Glynda finished the last of the more dangerous Grimm approaching the students. That still meant Alpha Beowolves and Ursai Major, well within the skill range of nearly forty first years. But since they had come from her direction, she figured she could give a helping hand. And just in time, as her scroll rang.
"Can I assume Mr. Arc won?"
Glynda wondered how he does that. The impeccable timing, that is. And quickly dashed away the wonder when 'magic' became a perfectly reasonable explanation. "He won. And I admit, Mr. Arc has earned his place in Beacon." He might not be as strong, skilled, or experienced as the others, but what he lacked in skills he more than made up for it in tenacity and wits. Faced with an opponent he couldn't defeat, he opted to lay the groundwork to out-maneuver Winchester, if he dragged the fight long enough. It was a risky strategy. One misstep and Cardin would have won handily. Cardin almost did, if it wasn't for a few strokes of luck. But in the end, Jaune's plan worked.
It also helped that, in her eyes, Mr. Arc was the student most prepared to actually tackle the, you know, actual mission they were here for.
"Still, it wouldn't be proper to allow students to think they can just stop in the middle of a mission and engage in fisticuffs. Make sure Arc, Winchester, and Volt write an essay reflecting on this. Tell them I'll be grading them personally.
'Gladly,' Glynda thought, her mood brightening a bit.
-o-
"Stay away from me, Mytyl!"
"Sho ruff!"
Jaune shook his head in amusement from where he was sitting around the campfire, next to Mytyl, who was being kept at arm's length from Ruby via hand applied to the face. Ruby had won the Grimm extermination contest and refused to claim the price. Mytyl insisted, offering to kiss Ruby if the young Huntress refused to claim her 'divine right'.
"Man, this sucks. I wanted to be there for the entire thing." Yang hadn't stopped lamenting missing on the action. All she knew was that Lola called Mytyl off to deal with something. Before she could react to even that, Jaune or Mytyl owed Ruby a kiss.
"Jaune, do something!" Ruby cried for help.
"Oh no. I might kiss cute girls. Woe is me," Jaune channeled his inner-Blake.
Ruby, bless her faux-innocent heart, made justice to her namesake and almost fainted from all the blood rushing to her face.
"Carefully, lady killer, that's my little sister you're flirting with," Yang half-teased, half-threatened her fellow blond.
"Technically, he could be referring to any girl in our year. All of us had a chance at winning." Kohaku chimed, listening to the conversation from her spot a few people down the circle.
And they did. Ruby beat a girl from Team MRBL, Rain if Kohaku remembered correctly, by like one Creep. It also made her realize how segmented their class was; that she struggled to remember a classmate's name.
"Whoa, calling every single girl in our year cute in front of all of them. Smooth as butter, Arc. Smooth as butter."
Jaune rolled his eyes at Marina's quaint attempt to tease him. Once more, he channeled his inner-Blake. "You could almost be forgiven for thinking all of them are Huntresses."
"Cardin should have lost to Jaune ages ago. I'm liking this new and improved sarcastic Jaune," Blake said from where she was sitting next to her partner. Jaune offered a fist bump that Blake reciprocated.
Several of the students, close enough to overhear the conversation, laughed at their antics. That was another thing. Apparently, his team had been the only one with enough foresight to set up camp BEFORE collecting sap. So, every other team, upon seeing the camp, invited themselves to it and also set up their tents around their campfire. Why does he even bother with watch schedules?
Still, all things considered, it was a nice change of pace. Even CRDL had decided to take a book from their leader, swallow their pride, and join them. Granted, they mostly kept to themselves, especially Cardin who was stubbornly refusing to interact with anyone in favor of, hopefully, some introspection. But most likely brooding. Vale wasn't built in one day, so it would take time to see the whole CRDL thing pay off. But so far, it seems GV's gamble was accruing dividends.
"KYAAAAAAA!"
Speaking of, that was Nora discovering GV's prank, wasn't it? A disheveled Nora, holding a jar of 'sap', stumbled upon the campfire.
"THIS IS VINEGAR!"
All the sap from their team was vinegar, but Jaune was not about to inform her of that fact or where the real sap was hidden.
"Nora, we didn't collect sap so you could eat it," Ren chided her.
"THIS. IS. VINEGAR!" Nora completely missed the point as she shook the half-emptied jar. Wait… she drank half a jar of vinegar?
"Nora… don't eat your homework. You're not a dog."
Turquoise eyes met golden ones.
"You…" Nora growled, pointing accusingly at GV. "You did this. You switched all the sap for vinegar."
"You think I did it?" GV said in surprise. He fooled no one. "Please, by all means, tell me how I did it."
That… was a very good question. When GV told Jaune of his plan – which he, Blake, and Ren were eager to agree too because they did not want all their hard work to go to Nora's stomach – Jaune had his reservations. But he had learned that GV could pull some extraordinary feats, so he gave his friend his blessings as team leader. Lo and behold…
"I don't know how you did it. I just know you did."
"Fascinating logic," GV challenged Nora. "I would love for you to expand upon it. In the meantime, don't eat your homework. You'll get a stomachache."
Several "ooohs" erupted across the campfire. This was prime entertainment.
Nora frowned. "You should know better than to poke the sleeping giant, Volt."
Jaune idly wondered if Nora learned the idiom from Ren or Ren learned it from Nora.
"The sleeping giant has already awoken, Valkyrie. And it's a dragon that's going to swallow you whole."
Silence descended over the campfire. Jaune couldn't help but feel that they were about to witness what happens when those giants rose up to fight. He just hoped they had enough consideration not to step over the bystanders.
Author's Notes
This wraps up the Forever Fall arc. With this done. The next arc is… the docks! The next arc are the docks! That means the plot move onwards!
Not quite. I probably will do some more character/world building. Maybe. I do want to do a neat little (a.k.a. famous) Star Trek reference.
Anyways, rundown!
LTM/LTD: The monikers "The Muse" and "The Diva" should be familiar to Gunvolt fans. I decided to use them in Lumen's and Lola's serial number (and even went back to Chapter 6 to retroactively add them at the time of writing this months ago). Just a nice easter eggs. Don't think too hard about them. As for why Copen added them: he didn't. That was Mytyl. And Copen just cannot say no to his sweet, little sister.
As a side note, when writing this (before fic was published) I realized I've been using "battle pod" instead of "combat pod", which is the proper terminology, throughout the entire fic. Needed to go back and change it. Except when Fox use the term since I thought it was a nice touch to make a third party get it wrong.
Lola's GV appearance: I changed it from how it looks in-game. I wanted the different looks of the pods to reflect the original owners of the Semblances. "Stellar Spark" Lola doesn't resembles GV. It's a bit of story-gameplay segregation, and a bit of fridge brilliance. Since Stellar Spark is Lola's "default" power, she retains her original appearance when it is equipped. And since she didn't copy it from GV but rather Copen recreated it from studying Azure Striker, there is no reason for her to change forms.
Luminous Avenger Arc!: Lol. My original plan went along the lines of having a chapter covering a combat class were Copen and/or Mytyl revealed the true ace of the Combat Pods, the ability to mimic Semblances. However, when I decided this fight was happening, I gave Jaune the pods instead. I did this for a couple of reasons:
A) Emphasizes Jaune's wits and strategy. That's his schtick in this fic. He's not the most skilled, but he is good coming up with plans.
B) Makes the explicit reveal sooner. Ignoring the fact that it's a game mechanic in Gunvolt, in this fic it was established implicitly, with Lumen having "Lock-on" and Lola having "Misfortune". Now I don't need to have the combat class fight and I can start integrating it more consistently into the twins' repertoire.
C) Puts Jaune's and Mytyl's friendship into perspective. I normally have them bouncing off one another, mostly as a gag. But I do believe they get along very well. They are both team leaders (misery likes company). Jaune's stunt when they first met marked him as someone willing to play along with Mytyl's… Mytyl-ness. And he does. Having a partner in crime thrills Mytyl. With GV's stoic personality, Copen being her brother, and Kohaku's relative normalness, it's not an interaction Mytyl can get from her team. And while others could fill that role (Nora, Ruby, or Yang. Maybe even Pyrrha), Jaune just had first-mover advantage.
Also, I just pictured Jaune as someone used to dealing with sister figures. There's just something about him that screams he's good at that.
D) Pretty minor but provides some insight on how fast the pods can learn Semblances via casual observation. I would say we are around two to three months into the semester. Team RWPY has not been actively training with KVKC, so their Semblances are, for the most part, unknowns to the pods. However, the same is not true for JNBR and the rest of KVKC. With Jaune's and Kohaku's Semblance's being undiscovered, Ren's not having much use in combat, and Nora's requiring a very specific setup she has been actively avoiding, that leaves Blake's and GV's as the two Semblances they are able to copy, since they already have Copen's, and Mytyl's… yeah.
CRDL: And with that, we are done with CRDL being pricks… kind of. More like their first step to not antagonizing everyone. I'm of the personal belief that people deserve second chances (within reason) and frankly, CRDL's villainy feels too cartoony in canon.
OCs: Name drop one OC team, Team MRBL. Again, it's mostly to make the world seem more alive rather than having the same twelve characters ignore everyone else. Fun fact: The B in MRBL was the first OC I created for another fic. His name is Blitz and was inspired by Wakka from Final Fantasy X.
Prank war: I'm gonna have some good ol' crack-y fun with this.