Author's Notes
Since we are at one of the climaxes, here's the next chapter, sooner than expected! Enjoy. Review! Subscribe! Whatever!
Chapter 25: Vale is on Fire, Part II
Despite its soft hissing sound, to Kohaku the sharp noise of metal cutting through air persevered over the chaos of battle. The sound captivated Kohaku the first time she listened to it. Truly listened to it. Not when she witnessed Kon beat Sun into the ground during a training session; but when she asked Kon to lend her Thunderandal early in her own training. The sound was haunting, but also enthralling. And when she combined it with the whirling sound of the whip mechanism…
When she got her own sword, she would often pick an isolated place close to the village where she could just spin, twirl, and swing her weapon with reckless abandon. It was training; she didn't have the time to waste not training if she wanted to be a Huntress. But it was also soothing. Just hearing the swishing of the air parting to allow passage to her sword, while the whirling of its mechashift components contributed to the melody.
It was a silly thing. It made her sound unhinged when said out loud. It was also how she discovered that her sister's fighting style did not truly suit her. Sure, she learned the basics of Kon's style, but it never felt completely right. She would always falter over the stupidest mistakes in Kon's 'training sessions' – in her mind she would always call them beating sessions because 'holding back' just wasn't part of Kon's vocabulary.
It all changed when her frustration peaked during a spar. Not seeing any perceivable progress, she physically lashed wildly against her sister. For a moment she forgot everything about the Iaijutsu variant Kon had taught her. She forgot about the clean, single strokes. About the powerful sweeps with the whip. About the speed behind each strike.
She turned her sword into a whirlwind of blade, lashing at anything that dared to approach her. Each swing was immediately followed by a reversal that snaked the whip in front of her. Or a spin that kept the momentum going. Or a twist of her wrist either shortened or extended the area the blades assaulted. She made the whip surround her to defend, expand to zone, lash at her sister when least expected, never stopping.
And it worked. For the first time, Kon was on the defense, caught off guard by the sudden change, unsure how to breach her defense. Naturally, her sister eventually figured it out, stabbing at just the right time to force her sword to wrap around Thunderandal before being ripped away from her grasp.
Kon was not mad. She smiled. She was impressed. Asked her where she learned those moves. It was embarrassing to admit she just did what came natural after many hours spent just letting her sword sing; write an imaginary melody in the air, just to hear the swishing and whirling of it. With Kon's help, she had to rebuild her sword after that session. It wasn't meant to be used that recklessly and it paid the price for it. It took some time, but she managed to improve upon Kon's design, just enough to make her methods feasible.
She continued learning and practicing Kon's style, in addition to her own. Her sister was first and foremost a swordswoman so that was what she taught her. Without a master in using whips, she was left to figure out things on her own. She learned that against experienced Hunters, they would capitalize on her wild swings if she didn't defeat them quickly. They would figure out the pattern behind the chaos. She learned to mix in Kon's teachings into her moves. To add acrobatics into the mix. She even toyed with the idea of Dust. To create more chaos. More uncertainty. Keep herself unpredictable for longer. After all, that was her greatest strengths.
Against a Hunter, time worked against her. She would either beat her opponent or would need to fall back to a more reliable and rigid style, lest she lost to one well-placed attack.
But against a group of civilian terrorists?
The White Fang grunts had no idea how to deal with the whirlwind of blade Kohaku was. Sun had no idea how he wasn't being shredded to bits despite being well within Kohaku's range, smacked right in the middle of her assault.
Kohaku had no idea how Sun was not being shredded to bits despite being well within her range, smacked right in the middle of her assault. Sure, she was making the effort to avoid hitting him but was surprised at the immaculate success. Those days spent training were finally paying off.
A courageous, or stupid, grunt braved her sword-whip, hoping to score a hit. All it took was a slight adjustment and the grunt was dragged away by her weapon; snared at his feet and sent skidding towards a wall with great force.
Another terrorist attempted to take advantage of that move but forgot completely about her current partner. For their trouble, Sun reminded them with a solid swing of his bo staff, rendering them unconscious.
That was the fifth grunt knocked out. Out of twelve. Two others had fallen earlier to Kohaku's unexpected assault, with Sun taking out another through it. Standing back to back with Sun, Kohaku recalled the whip back into sword form, retaking the two-handed stance. The remaining White Fang were weary, reluctant to approach them. Two blocked their obvious exit. Not that they had any plan to use it. The others stood between them and where GV and Blake were fighting.
"You're good with that thing," Sun complimented her as they slowly moved back to back to a slightly better position.
Sun stopped walking, causing Kohaku to lightly bump into his back. She smiled. "Pity you didn't stick around for my learning phase. Jin once described it as 'mesmerizing'. Jaws were dropped."
Sun spared her a glance. "Wait a sec… Jin has a crush on you!?"
Seeing an opening, Kohaku dashed towards an unprepared terrorist. She wasn't the fastest Huntress around. That didn't matter much when you were trained in quick drawing a sword that could extend a good couple of meters in front of you. The grunt's sides received the full blow from the sword-whip's blunt edge. He wasn't out, but he was reeling in pain. One of his comrades intercepted her, but Kohaku simply made the whip spin around her. She had no intention of transition that spin into an attack, but it had the desired effect of panicking the White Fang, who expected another onslaught. Unholstering her gun, she closed the distance and delivered a melee blow to the head with it. That did the trick in knocking the grunt down.
But now she was in the middle of the enemies. She didn't worry, as Sun made his presence known and quickly incapacitated two more grunts, sweeping them off their legs and delivering a one-two knockout, courtesy of that staff of his.
"Why are you surprised he has crush on me? I am one of the only girls close to his age he interacted with. And Huntress-trained, to boot."
"He's younger!"
"Two years younger. Just like Maria is two years younger than him. Keep your rampant gender roles in check, Sun."
She sent him a smirk and a wink. "And like a said. Mesmerizing."
The two were genuinely having a chat about home. And Kohaku could see it unnerved the remaining White Fang. Two kids, not even eighteen, were wiping the floor with them while talking about childhood crushes. Kohaku felt a pang of guilt. She didn't know what pushed these faunus into a terrorist organization, but it was clear they were way over their head. A few of them were trembling.
"Run and we will not follow," Sun offered.
It didn't work. The White Fang just steeled themselves. Kohaku sighed internally. These were not the big dangerous monsters that existed in the White Fang, but they were not green recruits either. They were the middle ground, loyal enough to die fighting the good fight, but not strong enough to die actually giving a good fight. They were lucky she and Sun had no taste for bloodshed.
-o-
It was a testament to Roman's skills that he wasn't a smoking, unconscious heap. He might not know what his win condition was, but he sure as hell identified the most prominent lose condition.
Getting hit by one of GV's darts.
GV eyes followed the battle between Blake and Roman closely. He wasn't a close-range fighter the same way Blake was, so he opted to support the cat girl from the sidelines, looking for an opening where he could tag Roman and end the fight in one hit.
But Roman was dictating the pace of the battle. He would always keep Blake between himself and GV, denying him a clear shot. And in the seconds where he didn't, he would never let GV out of his periphery. If a dart was about to hit true, he would gladly give Blake a free blow just to bat the projectile away.
It was vexing. It was bold. It was costing Blake the battle.
Another overextension from Blake netted her a swift punch to the stomach. She was quick to back away before Roman could follow up with an explosive shot. In response, Roman used the respite to send said explosive shot at GV. Or specifically, at his feet, forcing GV to dodge. His Prevasion did nothing against losing his footing, a detail Roman quickly caught on and was happy to capitalize on.
GV gritted his teeth. He was hoping supporting Blake would be enough, but the girl was pretty roughed up from her previous bout against Roman and it showed. Her ragged breath. Her slightly slumped posture. GV was willing to bet her aura was deep in the yellow, if not about to hit red. It would only take Roman one or two well placed hits to shatter it.
GV would not allow that. He ran towards Roman, shooting on the way to keep the thief occupied. Leaping forward the last few meters, GV cocked his fist, ready to punch Roman.
But the thief saw the telegraphed attacked and rather than blocking and following with a counter, like GV hoped, he dodged. Away from the spot where he once stood – GV's real target – as the punch called forth a thunder strike that blew it to smithereens.
"Shit. What are you?"
It wasn't the first time someone asked GV that in midst of a fight. Forgoing answering, he employed the basic hand-to-hand moves he'd been taught. Under normal circumstance, the punches and kicks would never work against a Huntsman. But coupled with the speed and reflexes his Semblance provided when stimulating his muscles, things changed. When your opponent had trouble keeping up with your speed, it mattered little if your technique left something to desire.
But Roman was not out of the battle yet. He upped the ante by weaving Dust into his defense. GV's punches were not meeting flesh and air. Ice, earth, bursts of wind, fire; if it could be generated by Dust, Roman threw it in, hoping for it to stick.
And as luck would have it, Blake jumped in at the wrong time, just as Roman happened to weave Ice Dust, encasing Gambol Shroud in it.
"Blake! Get out!"
"Hello there, Kitty Kat."
Blake eyes widened in fear as she faced the barrel of Melodic Cudgel. She didn't have the aura to tank a shot to the face or the presence of mind of let go of Gambol Shroud, which was weighing her down, and Semblance herself out of there.
GV shot a dart at Blake and sent a lightning bolt that sent her flying, out of the fight and out of Roman's shot, which ripped through the place she previously occupied. If there was any doubt about Blake's aura level, they vanished as the telltale flickering of purple aura signaled its depletion. Better than it breaking mid-attack.
"Rough, Sparky. I definitely do not want you to try a three-flavored ice cream at the same time."
If Roman was hoping his taunt to achieve anything, he would be sorely disappointed. He wasn't even entirely sure if the thief was talking about Ruby and Blake anymore. GV wasted no time engaging him again. The darts were not working, so with trained efficiency he switched out the bolt and the darts for actual bullets. He felt a small amount of satisfaction when Roman parried a bullet and was met with the deceptively powerful kick of Dullahan and Lucifer. With Roman recoiling, GV pressed the attack, netting a couple of well-placed shots, without a doubt making a number on the thief's aura.
Roman brought Melodic Cudgel up, aimed at GV. Not with the intention of scoring a hit, but to force GV to back away and break the attack's rhythm. GV would not allow that. Activating Prevasion, he pressed forward through Roman's attack.
Then screamed.
-o-
The last grunt fell as Kohaku swiped on a circular arc around her.
"Whoa! Careful there, Kohi. You're shaving years off my life here."
Kohaku head snapped towards Sun, fearing for a second her attack might had gone awry. Seeing him unharmed, she relaxed and pouted in one single smooth move. "Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry, sorry," Sun relented, "it's just that more than once that thing came too close for comfort. You fight way too differently compared to Teach."
Kohaku tilted her head. "Mesmerizing?"
Sun cheekily smiled. "Mesmerizing. So, who won?"
She did. But before she could answer, a bloodcurdling scream tore through the calm. Both Hunters-in-training zeroed in on the source. Where GV and Blake had been confronting Roman.
Dread pooled on her stomach at the sight. For once, Blake was nowhere to be seen. That worried her. But a more pressing matter pushed that away as GV laid on the floor, convulsing violently with Roman, weapon at the ready, approaching.
Before she could think, before she could even fully comprehend what was happening, Kohaku rushed forward.
-o-
Water.
Roman felt hysterical laughter bubbling inside him. The boy was weak to water. Cripplingly so.
It was so damn obvious! Pour water on an electronic and it short circuits. Let lightning strike a body of water and you'll just end up electrocuting everything it in. Was it surefire it would work? No, it wasn't. But it was worth the shot.
Lo and behold, it worked. However accidental it was on Roman's part, it worked. Water Dust was rarely used for combat. Anything you could do with Water Dust in the midst of a fight could be done better with another cheaper type of Dust. Roman kept a few crystals and bullets of the thing for the odd occasions he needed some instant water on a heist. Using it as ammunition was a desperate attempt to push the boy back without spending a better suited, but generally more useful, Earth or Ice Dust.
It worked beautifully and then some.
Roman approached the spasming boy. Sparky was clearly in pain, scrabbling in an attempt to stand up, his limbs refusing to stay still and support his weight. He felt a bit of pity, but quickly squashed it. Pity would get him killed.
Looming over GV, he tilted his hat. "You fought well, Sparky." He aimed Melodic Cudgel at the boy and solemnly said, "Don't take this personally."
"Step away from him!"
The shout was quite some distance away from him. Not close enough to stop him. Which was why Roman was surprised when a metallic whip struck his cane in a clumsy attempt to stop him. He switched his aim from Sparky to his assailant. The boy was not going anywhere.
The brunette girl at the business end of his weapon froze like a deer in the headlights. A novice's mistake. But she would live through it. At least at first. She seems to have the Aura to tank a hit or two.
Roman pulled the trigger. Melodic Cudgel clicked. And only clicked. That was odd. But not as odd as a metal orb smashing face first into him. Followed by a flurry of red X's kicking him out of the picture.
"Banzai!"
"If you're going to yell inane battle cries, at least do them correctly."
-o-
Now it was Kohaku's turn to laugh hysterically, her legs giving up in relief. She has never been so deliriously glad to see Copen and Lola.
Her partner knelt next to where she had dropped. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a critical look over. He also spared a look at GV, who was being brought to his feet by Jaune, the knight's Semblance already working on stabilizing their teammate. Nora and Ren stood guard over the two blonds.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"GV sent a message. We met JNBR en route and got here ASAP."
We?
"Got myself a Kitty, Doc!"
"Ugh" Blake groaned. Copen could relate.
"I'm combat ready, Dr. Copen."
"Still not a doctor…"
Kohaku saw Yang approach with a Blake crawling back into consciousness on her back. Close by, a ginger with a halo of blades floating behind her stood… well, combat ready apparently.
"Hey, Koh-wow!" Sun's approach was stopped by Lola and Lumen, Lola in her skew cross mode and Lumen in her red-hooded, Ruby-certified mode.
"He's a friend," Kohaku came to Sun's defense as Copen helped her get on her feet. Lola and Lumen backed away from Sun at Kohaku's unspoken request.
Copen spared a glance at GV, who was now sitting, but in a clearly weakened.
"Glad… you could make it… Copen."
Copen hummed. Then smirk. "Hell knows no wrath like the scorn of a woman. I rather not find out what Mytyl would have done to me if I ignored her partner's pitiful cries for help."
GV chuckled, attempting to stand up with Jaune's help.
A fire round roared towards the group, towards the still out of commission GV. Jaune was quick to protect his friend, his shield intercepting the fireball.
"If it isn't the fucking graduating class of Beacon 83 AGW!" Roman was livid, making his way towards the group. "You kids have no fucking clue who you're messing with," he growled.
"It's… over, Torchwick," Blake barely managed to say, still weakened from the fight. "You're… outnumbered. This little heist of yours… is finished."
Fate hated Blake and it made sure the cat girl remembered that. Six bullheads made their presence known. And they didn't fly Beacon's and Vale's twin axes.
"Oh, you poor, deluded kitty," Roman snarled, "there is nothing small about this. You are biting at more than you can chew. How unlucky."
Copen cursed. "Lola, disengage! Penny!" Copen commanded.
"Oops" Lola said, reverting from her Misfortune module back to her standard mode,
"On it!" Penny responded. But as she prepared to attack the bullheads, five of them opened fire at the students while the sixth descended to pick up Roman. She was forced to go on the defensive and rotate her blades rapidly around the group, a green sheen hinting to something more than simply rapidly moving metal protecting them from most of the hail of bullets. Yang used her body to protect the aura-less Blake while Jaune did the same for GV. Copen moved towards Blake, who was the most vulnerable while he possessed the biggest shield. The rest of JNBR, Kohaku, and Sun were forced into similarly defensive positions, with the occasional futile attempt of returning fire at the gunships.
-o-
Roman mood was ruined. This entire night was a shitshow and he would drink himself into a stupor even if it killed him. And wasn't that a likely outcome?
"A bit of an overkill, don't you think, boss?"
Roman scoffed at the White Fang grunt, pulling a cigar and a lighter from his coat as the bullhead started to rise up. "Welcome to the world of Hunters, Perry, where overkill is encouraged and second tapping, life insurance." The cigar helped Roman calm his nerves. He looked at where the kids were making a valiant last stand. Pity to cut down promising Huntsmen and Huntresses, but at the end of the day, if he was forced to choose, he would always look after number one and two before a bunch of brats.
-o-
Copen raised up a storm of curses that would make a sailor blush and Nori wash his mouth with soap… before suggesting better choices of curses. He had never believed Misfortune to be actual bad luck. He might need to reconsider that. He flinched as a bullet passed through Penny's defense and struck his shield. Other than Blake all of them had their Aura, with GV rapidly regaining his thanks to Jaune. They could tank a couple of stray shots. That won't be the case if they breach Penny.
"Copen! We need to do something."
Copen had to bite back a snarky retort to his partner. It wasn't Kohaku's fault they were in this mess. If anything, it was GV's and Blake's, but that pointing that out was equally unhelpful. Your average Hunter wasn't capable of grounding gunships, never mind your average first year student. Penny was not your average… anything, really. Could they tank the shots long enough for her to deal with the gunships?
When asked, a succinct "Negative" was her response. "Even if you can survive the bullets, I cannot attack while being hit by them myself."
Back to the drawing board and he was short on ideas. He voiced as much. "We need to take out those gunships and the only one of us capable of such is pinned down."
"…GV…"
Copen could see the instant Kohaku's idea started to take form in her head. The brunette wasted to time, kneeling beside the rapidly healing blond. "GV, can you take out bullheads?"
What kind of question was that?
"At… full power? I can take out two… three if I hit them just right."
'That… is disconcerting,' Copen thought. It was one thing knowing your teammate won the Semblance lottery and another to see him confirm it so blasely by suggesting he was capable of a feat only a handful of Hunters around Remnant could claim was within their skills.
"And if you have an Aura battery with you?"
Copen realized where Kohaku was going. And it was crazy enough to work.
GV didn't outright shot down the idea's feasibility. "If Jaune spends his Aura, he won't survive standing next to me."
Kohaku smirked. "He won't be next to you."
Kohaku rose and addressed Lumen. "Lumen! Assign to Jaune and lock onto GV." She turned towards him. "Copen, same thing, have Lola mimic Jaune's Semblance."
Seeing her plan, GV stood up, still a bit shaky from his previous ordeal. "I need to get up to the bullheads level."
"Nora, be ready to launch GV up to the bullheads." Jaune commanded the previously ginger, now neon blue, haired girl.
"Doctor, you might want to hurry!"
Still not a doctor. Leaving Yang with his shield, he moved towards GV. "Lola! Lumen!" That was all he needed to say for the pods to follow Kohaku's orders. Lola immediately transformed into a pure white version of herself with two golden crescents framing her optics and similar crescent hovering as part of her holographic projector. Half the P-bits hovered around her; the other half around GV as his Semblance locked onto the blond. Lumen, who was mimicking Copen, did the same with her P-bits, with Jaune pushing his own Aura into GV.
With no time to waste, GV ran towards Nora, who had Magnhild ready to catapult whoever stood on its head, and crouched on top of her hammer, ready to jump as soon as Nora launched him.
"Never thought I'll be fighting alongside a chump like you," Nora said with a wide grin.
GV didn't look at her, but nodded, nonetheless. "How about a friend?"
"Now, let's not get too crazy," Nora laughed. "One prickly Huntsmen, coming up." With one massive, Dust-powered swing, she sent GV flying high into the air and towards the bullheads.
Noticing Kohaku with her scroll out, Copen reached for his to also monitor their Aura. GV's was ticking up while his was going down. His Semblance and Lola's mimicking Jaune's was working.
-o-
Mytyl [|||||||||||||||||||] 98%
Gun [||||||||||||||||||] 93%
Kohaku [|||||||||||||||] 78%
Copen [|||||||||] 48%
-o-
Flying pass the spot he needed to be to catch all gunships, GV positioned himself to increase wind resistance and allowed gravity to pull him back. Activating his Flashfield to better manage his descend and impair as much as possible the bullets of the gunships that wisely decided he was threat; he took a moment to prep himself. He could feel Copen's and Jaune's Aura flowing into him. The mechanics of both Jaune's Semblance and Lola's and Lumen's mimicking technology were a mystery to him, but he trusted them.
Trust. That was a funny word he hasn't given any meaning in over two years. He trusted his friends to support him. And in turn they trusted him. He was not about to squander that trust.
Flipping into an upright position, the P-bits sticking stubbornly by him. Copen might need to rebuild them after this. He brought a hand close to his chest and closed his eyes. Concentrating; calling forth his Aura and his Semblance. Strictly speaking, a needless motion, but one that always brought some self-assurance and the right state of mind.
-o-
Lightning that flickers
like a star, and purges all
that trespass its realm!
-o-
When he opened his eyes, azure light emanated from them. Lightning sparked frantically around him. Along with his hand, he brought forth as much power as he and his friends allowed him.
"ASTRASPHERE!"
-o-
Kohaku, Jaune, and Blake gaped. Copen's stared, eyes wide open. Yang made incoherent sounds. Nora laughed. A weak and hysterical laugh, wondering if there was an upper limit to her Semblance. Ren stood ramrod, not daring to move even an inch. Even Lola and Lumen reacted, calling out at their dearly departed P-bits.
Sun started verbalizing what everyone was thinking.
"Ho…"
"-ly?" Penny took a guess, eyes glued on the occurrence.
-o-
"Shit…" Roman muttered in disbelief as he watched from the retreating bullhead. His cigar forgotten as it slipped off this finger.
There really was no kill like overkill, indeed.
-o-
Six massive spheres of pure lightning violently orbited GV, with a thick sheet of electricity forming a disk that connected them and the Huntsman responsible for the chaos at the very center. The crackling sound of the attack was deafening and its strength doubtless as each sphere slammed repeatedly into the bullheads. With each rotation, the metal of the gunships was superheated, and chunks were ripped off cleanly from the machines, joining the maelstrom in its carnage.
It only lasted seconds. Not even a full twelfth of a minute. But by the time it was over, everything in the attack – the lightning spheres, the bullheads, the debris, and the excess electricity – was forcefully repelled outwards, away from the center. Bullheads, now in no condition to fly, crashed into buildings and Dust containers, in some cases starting a chain reaction as the Dust ignited and exploded.
The only thing left intact of the attack was GV, who started plummeting towards the ground.
"Sun!"
"On it!"
At Kohaku's command, Sun took a lotus pose and summoned two golden clones. One launched the other up, who caught the falling Huntsman and led him safely to the ground before dissipating.
The silence that followed was only broken by the distant blaring of sirens signaling the fast approach of Vale's law enforcement.
Copen had the presence of mind to give a quick look at the team's aura levels.
-o-
Mytyl [|||||||||||||||||||] 96%
Gun [] 0%
Kohaku [|||||||||||||||] 79%
Copen [|] 7%
Author's Notes
And it's done! Next few chapters will deal with the aftermath and wrapping up the end of the semester. Overall, more lighthearted.
Rundown!
Kohaku: I lied "Insert I-lied-rage-dot-jpg"
A deeper look into Kohaku's actual fighting style. I previously described it as Blade's. And that remains true. Just not in its totality. She does use a lot of the building blocks her sister provided. But at some point, she diverged into something that cannot be called an exact copy. Less of an evolution, and more of a "sidegrade".
For visual reference... this is hard. I'm not that well versed in battle anime. Sienna's single fight is not really what I'm looking for and Ilia's Lightning Lash is not exactly the same kind of whip I'm thinking of. Also, Ilia's fought at a time where the animation left something to desire. Looking outside RWBY, some of Trevor's moves in the Castlevania Netflix anime are closer. But eventually we run into the clear difference between an actual whip and Kohaku's whip-sword hybrid. Namely the freedom of movement of the whip and the fact that it is not a bladed weapon.
There is Byleth from Fire Emblem, but most of Fire Emblem's animations, especially in the most recent games, lack the flair present in RWBY. That said, Byleth's Ruptured Heaven makes a very good approximation of what I imagine Kohaku's could do provided the enemy was sufficiently scared to perceive the attack differently. Add some Dust for visual flair.
So yeah, I'll go with Trevor as the winner. Add more spin-to-win and less using second arm to redirect whip.
The only other anime I am familiar with that might have someone who uses a whip-like weapon is Naruto, but I cannot think of any character that does, which means they either don't exists or they're buried somewhere in the fillers. I know there's that one student of Gaara, Matsuri. She's a recurrent background character, not sure if only in the anime, and have like two filler arcs dedicated to her. She uses a dart in a rope and her only purpose is to not to end up with Gaara. It's a shame. I like her, but I'm not betting on Naruto doing anything special with her animation-wise.
Do you know of any cool whip fighting animation?
Water: Yep. Water. Mytyl was wrong. GV is actually a summa cum laude graduate from the Roy Mustang's Institute for Gifted Heroes.
In game, mechanically this means that whenever GV is either submerged in water or hit by a water Septima, he'll automatically overheats if he is using Flashfield. Rainwater does not trigger this, so it is not ALL water. So, the question remains: how we translate this into a written narrative.
I decided on the following rule: if the source of water is strong and/or big enough to overcome GV's Flashfield, it will short circuit GV IF AND ONLY IF he uses his Semblance (Flashfield, Prevasion, Crashbolt, etc.).
Errant droplets of water, your average rain, or a glass of water thrown at his face will simply evaporate upon activating his Semblance. Being dunked into a body of water, pressurized attacks from Water Dust or sufficiently strong water semblances, and very heavy rain will Overheat him, violently, if he uses Azure Striker. For reference, the storm GV experiences in the Eridu stage in ASG1 is towards the upper limit of what he can endure and still be able to use his Semblance safely.
The Overheat from water is nastier than it is in the game (which obviously cannot make it very nasty for rating and gameplay reasons). While Overheat from overuse simply results in GV unable to use his Semblance for a short period – with the addendum that Overheat by Prevasion will send either the invading object or GV flying – Overheat by water will cripple GV for an extended amount of time, including draining his Aura to zero, unless he receives medical attention (or a Semblance like Jaune's).
Scientifically speaking, GV will not Overheat in water if the water is absolutely pure. In other words, the water consists exclusively of hydrogens atoms bonded with oxygen atoms in a 2:1 ratio and NOTHING else. Dihydrogen monoxide has low electric conductivity. Water is only highly conductive because of everything else, especially everything else that is ionic, floating in it.
Number of gunships: I added more gunships than in canon. Was it artistic liberty? Lola's Misfortune? Shoddy fanfiction writing? The world may never know.
Astrasphere: The show stealer of the chapter. I hope I made it justice. Astrasphere is the first offensive skill Gunvolt starts with in the games. It's normally three spheres of lightning, but with both Copen and Jaune on battery duty, I figured I could cheat a bit.
But yeah, under normal circumstances, like GV explained, it could take on two bullheads if GV is at full Aura. Just like Aura (Septimal) Surge all the way back in Initiation, it consumes all of GV's aura. And in this case, also nearly all of Copen's and Jaune's.
Also, haiku. Nothing like smiting the fear of the gods with ominous poetry.