Chapter 27…
"You ready?"
"As I'll ever be… go!" Mauve called, crouching down into a low stance.
Sage grinned and tilted the barrel of his grenade launcher down at the ground. He fired off a shot and ricocheted the timed grenade off the floor and towards Mauve. The lynx girl reacted incredibly fast, eyes narrowing on the projectile and twisting her body to avoid it; the short-fused projectile flew behind her and exploded into a cloud of harmless white powder.
Sage repeated the process, squeezing the trigger until the rotating drum was empty. Mauve reacted to every trigger pull, using her acrobatics to avoid every projectile and finally landing into a crouch.
Sage chuckled and lowered his now empty weapon. "You're really freaking fast! How do you do that?"
"Practice," Mauve gasped, gulping for air as she took a break. "Those grenades are really hard to avoid…"
"Oh yeah," Sage grinned. "And none of the contestants are going to see them coming…"
The Vytal festival was fast approaching and Team MARS had qualified for the event. Mauve had been even more insistent on constant training sessions to squeeze out every last bit of efficiency from the team. The training hours were grueling to the point where the members of Team MARS rarely had free time.
"That's enough of that for now…" Mauve muttered, stretching her weary muscles. She looked over to Asher and Rust to see what they were up to. Asher had been kind enough to help Rust train his agility and reaction time again. He had been insistent on using a rubber knife to jab Rust everytime he made an error, much to the big man's chagrin.
"Actually," Sage began. "I don't suppose I could make a request?"
"As long as it's nothing weird…"
"Hilarious… I was wondering if you were up for a duel?"
Mauve blinked at him. "A duel?"
"Yeah… I have all these new skills… I wanna test them out…"
Mauve looked thoughtful for a moment, scratching her chin with her left hand. "Alright."
In a flourish she reached back and unsheathed her knives, a sinister grin climbing up her face. Sage gulped a little, worried that he may have made an error and deployed his shield.
"Ready?" Mauve asked
"As I'll ever be…" Sage muttered.
Mauve took off like a shot towards Sage, knowing better than to fire blindly at him lest the shots be ricocheted. Swinging her knives wildly Mauve began scratching at the paint of his riot shield. Sage panicked and tried to ricochet the blades off but Mauve was moving faster than he could focus. Dropping his grenade launcher so it hung off him by his chest strap, Sage reached down and pulled his submachine gun from his hip. He swung his arm out to reveal the gun and fired a burst of shots, but Mauve was quick to coil her body out of the way.
Seeing an opening Mauve dropped down to the floor and delivered a low kick under the shield, jabbing Sage's feet. Sage hissed in pain and tried to slam the shield down onto her ankle but Mauve proved to be faster, having yanked her foot away by the time the shield struck the ground.
Sage saw Mauve's face morph into a grin from behind the view screen and instantly knew that he just fell into a trap. Leaping off in an aura infused jump that cracked the training room floor Mauve gracefully sailed over his head. The lynx girl switched her new weapons into their gun form and began raining shots down on Sage. The faunus boy managed to get his shield up to cover his head but not before several rubber bullets impacted his aura with multiple painful stings.
Mauve landed behind him and Sage quickly whipped around but couldn't set his shield up quickly enough. Mauve punished his tardiness with a vicious roundhouse kick that sprawled him onto his back. Black spots danced in front of Sage's eyes as he laid on the ground. He would have closed his eyes and forfeited if a fearsome war cry from Mauve didn't send a fresh wave of adrenaline coursing through his body.
Mauve was picking up speed and had switched back to her blades, she leapt up in the air for a vicious downwards slash… only to be blasted back and disarmed when Sage ricocheted her off his shield, her weapons flying from her hands. Sage wasted no time in springing up and letting loose a stream of rounds in Mauve's direction. Although she had been dazed Mauve was still fast, taking two of the bullets to her aura but dodging the rest. Mauve tried to run for one of her weapons but Sage was quicker, he stored his submachine gun and hefted his grenade launcher; sending shots at the weapons to impede Mauve and blow them further away.
Mauve snarled when she realised she would have to finish this with hand-to-hand combat. The lynx girl sprinted towards Sage, ducking and sliding under a stream of bullets as she closed the distance. Sage attempted a shield bash but Mauve faltered and whipped a leg around to kick at Sage's exposed ribs. The hit caused Sage to gasp in pain and agonizing heat flared in the area.
This moment of vulnerability gave Mauve all the time she needed to dart a hand behind Sage's shield and activate the emergency release switch. With a metallic groan the shield came loose from Sage's forearm brace and clattered to the floor, leaving him without his primary defence. As Sage recovered from the blow and shock Mauve lunged away and tucked into a neat combat roll before retrieving one of her weapons. She turned it back into its gun form and spun on the spot to face her foe.
Sage regarded Mauve with a heated gaze and gripped his submachine gun with both hands, he flicked the switch on the side and the sword sprang free. With a ferocious war cry Sage rushed forwards with the blade held upwards…
Mauve responded by smirking and emptying her gun magazine into his chest, the rubber bullets knocking his aura into the red and leaving him sprawled on the floor, groaning in pain.
The fight was over… Mauve had won.
"Good work, Sage!" Mauve congratulated, walking over and offering the green haired boy a hand. Sage winced and accepted the help, rising back to his feet unsteadily. "You've gotten a lot better at holding your ground… just try not to get cocky…"
"Agreed," Sage groaned as he rubbed his chest. "I'm never gonna charge straight at a gun barrel again…"
"It looked pretty cool…" Mauve offered.
"I bet it did… but now I'm paying for my stupidity…"
The two were interrupted by a smattering of applause. They looked towards the other end of the training room and saw that they had an audience. Rust and Asher had put off their own training to sit down and watch them fight.
"The unstoppable force meets the immovable object!" Rust called cheerfully. "Good work Sage!"
"I'll admit…" Asher called. "You getting unceremoniously shot down was kinda funny… but good work!"
Mauve smiled and rolled her eyes at their antics. "Get back to work! Or you'll be getting the same treatment!"
Asher and Rust quickly sprang back to what they were doing.
"So… what's next?" asked Asher. Mauve and Sage had moved onto their next practice session on the other side of the room.
"You're going to practice using that new shotgun," Rust answered.
"Why? I already know how to shoot it…"
"But your reloading is still sluggish… you're not fast enough with it yet… so yes… you need to practice."
Rust turned away and pulled his scroll out. He connected to the training room app and requested that an AK-130 be deposited. Within minutes a clanking droid stopped into view and stood still, awaiting further instruction. But all Rust needed it to do was stay there and take some punishment.
"Alright!" Rust called. "I'll stand back here… let off a shot then show me how fast you can reload it!" He took a few steps back and behind Asher so he wouldn't be in any danger.
"Easy!" the helmeted boy responded. He took a few steps forward so he was less than five feet away from the droid. In a single lightning quick motion Asher drew his sawn off from the back of his hips and held it at arm's length. In one quick trigger pull a storm of bird shot erupted from the barrel and peppered the droid, blasting the robot off its feet. Asher had been careful to load only bird shot during the training sessions, just like all the guns were to be loaded with rubber bullets.
"Reload!" Rust yelled. Asher quickly got to work breaking the barrel and using his free hand to nab two shells off his ammo pouch… but he was taking far too long. Rust watched in growing aggravation as Asher fumbled the shells, trying to desperately jam them into the gun.
Something had to be done… so Rust did something.
Asher yelped in surprise when Rust tackled him off his feet. His helmeted head struck against the training room floor and Asher's vision danced. Rust was straddling him and holding down his arms, the shotgun had been thrown away from his grasp. Rust stared directly into the dark red visor of his friend's headgear.
"What the hell, Rust?" Asher gasped out, voice muffled.
Rust stood up and offered him a hand. "You took too long to reload and now you're dead… try again."
Asher stood up with a grumble and retrieved his shotgun. Rust stopped him just before he grabbed some fresh shells off his belt.
"Remember what I told you?"
"Quick fingers… soft hands…"
"Precisely."
Asher tried reloading again and was more successful, managing to almost close the shotgun before Rust tackled him again.
"Faster!" Rust chastised, helping Asher back up.
On the third attempt Asher had the gun loaded and primed before Rust had the chance to lunge. It could have been him learning from his mistakes… or from the fear of being tackled again… either way, Rust was satisfied.
"Better!" Rust congratulated. He moved his head to look past Asher and his eyes widened when he observed Mauve and Sage dueling again. "Gimme a sec…"
"Wha-" Asher was cut off when Sage's terrified yelp rang through the air.
Once the duel between Sage and Mauve had finished Team MARS regrouped in the center of the training room. Rust brought up that it was getting fairly late and that they should clean up and turn in. Mauve tried to get her team to stay longer but not even Asher was willing to indulge her pleas, she resolved herself to helping them clean up the training room.
Once the training room had been cleaned up Team MARS trudged off into the cool night to return to their dormitory. Mauve claimed her first turn in the shower and Asher took the second turn. Once the two partners had finished up they crawled under the covers of Asher's bed and disappeared under the duvet. Rust was just entering the bathroom for his turn when Sage's scroll buzzed, indicating that a message had been received. Sage fished around on his belt for the device and unfolded the machine, there was a single message from Honey.
"You free tonight? Meet on the roof of my dorm?"
Sage smiled and replied "yes" before closing his scroll. He turned to Rust to tell him that he would be back soon and jogged out of the dorm room. Sage broke into a brisk pace as he jogged across campus to Honey's dorm. Letting himself into the building he took the elevator to the top floor and then the stairs to access the roof.
Honey was waiting there under a blanket of stars, a cool night breeze wafting across the rafters.
"Hey," Sage said softly, a little breathless from his night of hard exertion.
"Hey!" Honey responded, patting the ground next to her as an indication for him to sit down.
Sage sat beside her in a heap and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry about not spending as much time with you recently… Mauve's put our team on the warpath for Vytal."
Honey chuckled. "I'm just as guilty… Vermillion's been pretty adamant about getting us into shape as well."
The two sat in comfortable silence for a while before Honey sniffed at the air.
"I don't want to be rude… but you kind of smell…" Honey muttered.
Sage laughed nervously. "Sorry… my team had a training session tonight and I had to rush over here…"
"You could have said no… we can always meet later if you're really tired…" Honey said with a concerned tone and a spark of worry in her big green eyes.
"Don't feel bad… I want to be here." Sage reassured her, grasping her hand with his and squeezing, Honey reacted by smiling and leaning forwards. Sage accepted a quick kiss on the lips from her and sighed. The faunus boy shifted his weight and wrapped his arms around her, letting the kiss linger for longer than he normally did. Honey hummed into his mouth and finally pulled away after some time. She lifted her chin up and planted a kiss on his forehead, making Sage blush.
"You tired?" Honey asked.
"A little…"
"C'mere…"
The blonde haired girl gently grabbed Sage and pulled his head onto her lap. Sage was very surprised at the motion but went along with it, finding her legs to be fairly comfortable. Sage was about to speak but was interrupted when Honey began to scratch his ears, sending pleasant tingling sensations down his spine. Sage groaned quietly in satisfaction and forgot what he wanted to ask her, instead settling in and letting her continue her ministrations.
Eventually, the cool breeze, nighttime air and ear scratches lured the faunus boy into a light sleep... Honey followed soon after….