Chapter 3
Movement and Form

Velvet felt her ear twitch again as she and Coco made the final turn towards the training room they were to meet Professor Goodwitch at. Blowing out a puff of air she wrapped her arms around herself, one hand absently rubbing on the opposite elbow. "Are you sure they asked for me, Coco?"

A nod and a slight smile was her answer. Her team leader looked at her out of the corner of her eye her grin faltering slightly at Velvet's posture. "I'm certain they asked for you Velvet," she said in her normal boisterous tone. "Why wouldn't they? You're our hand-to-hand expert and they want someone to check out the new girl's moves."

"Maybe we should have brought Fox, too," Velvet said back, her hands sliding down to grip one another. "You know, just in case. He's better than I am and..."

Velvet found herself brought up short when Coco turned into her and pushed her up against the wall. She got in close, letting her perpetual sunglasses slide down her nose slightly so she could look over them and directly into Velvet's eyes. The rabbit Faunus found herself suddenly frozen on the spot from the look her leader was giving her, her ear twitch all but forgotten.

"Velvet, stop it. You are our hand-to-hand expert. You're in the top three for hand to hand in our class and it isn't even your specialty. So I don't want to hear it anymore," Coco said resolutely, not breaking eye contact in the least. She held her gaze with Velvet for several moments before finally pulling her partner off the wall and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You'll do fine, Velvet, just like you always do. And if Professor Goodwitch decides to do some weapon sparing, you're our best for testing out various things with the new girl and you know it."

Velvet swallowed hard then nodded, leaning against Coco for a moment before straightening herself back up. She stopped fidgeting, her back relaxing as her posture straightened out. Coco's smile returned as she let her arm fall off of Velvet and Velvet let one of her own creep onto her face. "You're right, I can do this. It just feels like cheating sometimes, you know?"

"Not your fault," Coco said to her with a shrug. "So you got a stupid powerful semblance. Flaunt, use, and abuse what the Brothers gave you, I say. If anyone is jealous about it, tough. That's their issue, not yours."

Blowing out a hard breath, Velvet gave another nod in agreement. She'd dealt with jealous idiots in the past. If they weren't tormenting her over her Faunus heritage, it was her semblance. It wasn't her fault she had photographic reflexes. All she had to do is see a move or series of moves performed and she could instantly reproduce it. It meant her hand-to-hand skills had grown in leaps and bounds once her semblance had been unlocked. It also made her the ultimate generalist with weapons. She couldn't imitate another person's semblance that might be used in conjunction with their weapon, but she could learn and then use all the basic ones just by watching. It made her powerful, versatile, and called a cheat by far too many people that had their pride hurt by her ability to learn so fast.

Reaching the doors to the training room, the two partners gave each other one last look before nodding. Pushing the doors open together they paused in mild surprise. Professor Goodwitch was standing off to the side while the girl they had pulled out of a destroyed village only days ago was in one of the sparring rings.

The Faunus girl wasn't idle, either. She was moving as if she were fighting multiple people, flowing from position to position to defend or attack as easily as water flowed around a pebble. Her moves were slow and deliberate. Velvet could see the tension in her muscles, pulled tight beneath her skin where it was exposed by the pair of shorts and sports bra she wore. With each motion, her limbs moved in sync with the rest of her body. One leg would sweep out, barely lifting from the floor to change her stance. Her arms would lift in defense or push forward in offense. It was frankly beautiful.

"Huh, she must be new," Coco said softly, "if she is still doing her training katas that slow."

Velvet shot her team leader a look that caught her attention. With a quick shake of her head, Velvet whispered back, "No, she's an expert. Moving that slowly but keeping her form so perfect and balanced. That's not a rookie still getting used to it. That's a Master perfecting it."

Coco watched the Faunus girl moving through her poses for a few heartbeats longer before nodding, accepting the verdict of the hand-to-hand expert without comment.

The two resumed their path to stand next to Professor Goodwitch who was also watching the girl move through her forms. The three stood in silence as they viewed the master class in body control and movement, the blonde cat Faunus positioning herself with perfection, each movement precise and controlled. Finally, after another 3 minutes or so the girl came back to a centered stance, bowed to an invisible opponent, then opened her eyes.

"Most interesting," Professor Goodwitch said as she stepped into the sparring ring. "And what was the name of the style, again?" She asked curiously.

"Tai Chi Chaun, Professor," the girl answered with a smile, her body flush from exertion despite how slowly Velvet had seen her move. She knew she had been right about her assessment. One's body doesn't get that overheated from a slowed down, sloppy practice. "I learned it from a friend. It's used as a form of meditation as well as exercise. Complete garbage for actual fighting, but great for staying in shape."

"Mmm," Professor Goodwitch answered as her eyes watched the blonde Faunus girl for several moments, one hand on her chin. "I may have more questions later. For now, your evaluation. I believe you briefly met your opponent for today but introductions are in order," she finally said as she turned back to Velvet, waving her into the sparring ring with one hand.

"Hi, I'm Velvet Scarlatina. I'm the one that found you in that collapsed building," Velvet said with a smile, holding out her hand to the other girl.

Taking the offered hand, the girl stepped forward and nodded to Velvet, "Um, Summer Dawn," she finally said after a pause. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to the name. Thanks for finding me and patching me up," she said to Velvet with her own smile.

"The Professor told me you were going to evaluate my hand-to-hand skills," Summer said as she stepped back and walked over to a waiting water bottle. Velvet gave a brief nod of affirmation that prompted Summer to ask, "So are we going touch sparring or full contact?"

"Full contact, if you feel up to it," Professor Goodwitch answered after a moment's hesitation by Velvet. "We're not in the habit of pulling our punches in training. The Grimm certainly won't when you are out in the field. That said, we're not looking for our students to do permanent damage to one another, either. Avoid lethal or lasting injuries to your opponent."

"Right, right," Summer said with a nod before taking a long drink from her water bottle. Setting it down, she asked, "So what is considered a lasting injury?"

The question left Velvet speechless, her mouth opening and closing for a few moments. Professor Goodwitch was similarly affected, her mouth opening slightly and hanging there. Behind them, Coco started to chuckle. "Don't even have your aura unlocked already and you're worried you'll hurt Velvet? I saw what you did to those Ursa with that fancy axe of yours, but you are not going to hurt her. She's one tough fighter," Coco said with a beaming smile towards Velvet.

Summer raised an eyebrow at Coco's boast then turned to Professor Goodwitch to get her opinion, eyebrow still raised.

"While her method of expressing herself is a bit boastful, she is essentially correct. Velvet's aura will be sufficient to protect her from your strikes. It is unlikely you will be able to do any permanent or lasting harm to her without your own aura unlocked," Professor Goodwitch answered. "That said, the moment I declare the spar over, it is over," she continued, her voice hardening slightly.

"Good enough for me," Summer said with a smile. Bouncing back across the sparring ring her tail unwound from around her waist as she started to stretch.

Velvet felt her eyes widening in surprise, bouncing her line of sight from the now swishing cat tail up to the pair of cat ears on the other girl and then back again. It took her a moment to shake off her shock but she quickly hid it behind a more serious face as she stepped forward to stand across from Summer on her own starting position, letting her body drop down into her starting stance.

"The spar will start on the count of three. Three, Two, One, Begin!"

Summer stood with her arms by her sides across from the bunny girl that was supposed to be her opponent. Her mind was already turning over the possible outcomes of this spar. Professor Ozpin had explained that they needed to know what her baseline abilities were so they knew what they needed to help her improve.

Summer had the sneaking suspicion that it was more than that as well. Old Ozzy was trying to teach her a lesson the hard way. The funny thing those lessons, they had a tendency to backfire around her. Just ask the old Council. She could remember something about a god and a hammer, the briefest flash of blue eyes and brown hair, then it was gone. Summer shook off the fragment of a thought, turning her mind to more immediate matters.

Ozpin had explained to her what aura was back in the Medical Ward that first night. The power of the soul, brought out to defend oneself, to make a person stronger, faster, more durable. He had said that it was most definitively not magic. Summer smelled bullshit and called him on it. If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a chicken then it's magic. No matter what Ozzy said, one does not pull your soul out and make a force field with it and not have it be magic of some type.

He had also offered to unlock her aura, quoting all the reasons to do so. Summer had been resistant to the idea. She asked him what aura could do that her Slayerness didn't already handle. Super strength, check. Reflexes and agility, check. Durability, check. Healing factor, double-check. In fact, if it didn't kill her outright, Summer would recover from almost any injury. In fact, she always ended up rebounding feeling stronger than before. The perks of Slayer Healing. From the reactions of her Doctor, her Slayer Healing while slower to deal with superficial wounds like bruising, was several orders of magnitudes more potent when it came to serious life-threatening injuries. Injuries that could kill or cripple a Huntsman would just slow her down. Summer was willing to bet her pain tolerance was higher as well. She had never had some mystic shield protecting her hide. Every blow she ever took had been to muscle and bone. There was no substitute for pain when learning to deal with pain.

Then there was the fact the whole thing stunk of magic no matter how much Ozpin denied it. Magic always had a cost, as well. Summer had learned that lesson along with her friends the hard way over and over until it stuck fast in all of their heads. The details were foggy like so much else of her memory but the lesson itself was rooted deep. There was no chance she would forget. Magic was not something to throw around casually. It was something to only be used with forethought and intent. Maybe in this case she was wrong. This was a completely different world than hers. She still chose to take the time to think about it rather than blindly accept it.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Ozpin. She did. He was putting her up, getting her all legal like. She even had a monthly stipend that the Academy was paying her. It wasn't only for school supplies but clothes, misc expenses, as well as enough money to have a social life. That her school supplies included weapons just felt natural to her. She wasn't sure why, but it felt like something normal.

What was she saying? Trust, it wasn't that she didn't trust Ozpin. She just didn't trust him further than the number of walls she could throw him through. She figured that was a good enough compromise since she could likely throw him pretty far if the walls weren't involved.

That brought her to today's spar and the lesson Summer thought Ozzy was hoping to teach her. Huntresses and Huntsman, even ones in training, had their aura unlocked. They also had some form of superpower that was unique to them. The way Summer saw it, Ozpin was hoping to show her how disadvantaged she would be unless she allowed him to unlock her aura. She'd step into the ring with one of their hand-to-hand experts, be beaten down in a few seconds, and Summer would come begging Ozzy to unlock her aura.

Fat chance of that happening.

Ozpin had never heard of the Slayer Line. He didn't know what he was getting his student into.

Summer cracked her knuckles as Professor Goodwitch counted down, letting her hands fall back to her sides. When Goodwitch called out the start of the match, Summer moved.

Coco watched from the sidelines. She had every confidence that Velvet would wrap this up quickly. She could admit to herself that the new girl had shown impressive moves when she had pulled their meat out of the fire back in the village they had found her in. She had used that axe of hers to turn the Ursa and the Ursa Major into confetti with the best of them. She had also overheard Doctor Oobleck on the ride back. That axe was sharper than anything the Doctor had seen. That raised the question of how much of her performance had been skill and how much was due to the fine weapon she had been swinging.

Coco knew it was likely the latter. There was a reason people without their aura unlocked didn't run around tangling with the Creatures of Grimm, after all. It made them faster, stronger, and just plain better in a fight. The girl had shown promise and skill and would make an excellent Huntress, but there was no way she was taking down Team CFVY's bunny-eared martial arts expert.

She expected this fight to go in a predictable pattern. Emboldened by her victory at the village, the girl would underestimate Velvet. Everyone did, human, Faunus, experienced or rookie, it didn't matter. Velvet's quiet and polite demeanor always fooled people. Then the fight would start and overconfident in their ability to win quickly, they would fall victim to Velvet's semblance. The girl knew more martial arts maneuvers than Coco would likely ever forget. In minutes, less sometimes, Coco would have them on their backs begging for it to end.

She heard Professor Goodwitch count down the start of the match. And there it was, the overconfidence. The girl wasn't even taking a stance, she wasn't taking the spar seriously at all. That brought a slight growl to Coco's throat. She didn't like it when her partner was disrespected like that.

"Begin," Professor Goodwitch called out and suddenly the new girl, Summer, Coco had to remind herself, moved.

She exploded out of her non-stance with a speed that Coco had to admit was impressive. It wasn't much and all things being equal, Coco was certain that Velvet would be the faster of the two. That a non-aura user could move that quick was still a surprise. Summer had already stepped into Velvet's guard trying to break it right away, her first strike aiming at her nose.

Velvet didn't disappoint. She brushed the blow aside as she stepped back and to the side, opening up the distance between the two once again. The blonde Faunus girl was already moving back inside Velvet's guard, though, threatening to take Velvet's legs out from under her. The rabbit Faunus lept upwards, arcing backward to send both her feet at her aggressor's chin. The move was so quick the new girl didn't even have a chance to block it, flipping end over tea kettle backward to land on her face after flying a good 10 feet through the air.

Professor Goodwitch was already stepping forward to call the match only to find the new girl was already spinning to her feet. Coco was shocked to see that not only was Summer back on her feet so quickly but she was grinning.

"Okay, now it's wabbit season," the new girl said through her feral smile.

Coco groaned slightly. Her battle bunny didn't take well to teasing about her Faunus heritage, quickly folding in on herself and taking the abuse others would throw at her. It had happened before during spar's and completely threw Velvet off of her fight. As much as Velvet enjoyed being able to fight her self-confidence was shaky at the best of times. It was one of Coco's ongoing projects to get the shy gun bunny to realize how insanely brilliant and talented she really was. That another Faunus was the one now poking at that sore spot had Coco seeing red.

The unexpected laugh and rejoinder of, "Kitty season," from Velvet reasonably caught Coco off guard. A quick glance at her Faunas teammate showed her returning an equally feral smile.

Again the two closed in a burst of speed. This time, Velvet wasn't able to find an easy opening like the first exchange. As fists and feet, elbows and knees exchanged back and forth in a blur that was steadily gaining speed, Coco started to get a little concerned. She could tell that Velvet was steadily applying more and more pressure to the new girl and the new girl was keeping up. Trick for trick, power for power, speed for speed, no matter how much Velvet applied the pressure, the new girl steadily kept up with her. The only thing that kept reminding Coco that this was supposed to be a friendly spar was the periodic shouts of "Wabbit Season," and, "Kitty Season," from the participants. The two girls matching each other equally.

Eventually the moment Coco had been watching for came. Velvet's semblance had been filing away all the moves, forms, and styles that the new girl had been using against her. Usually, it didn't take long for Velvet to learn the majority of an opponent's tricks. Then she would turn up the pressure by mixing their style into hers and break them down quickly. A glance at the timer showed Coco that it had taken almost 5 minutes for Velvet's semblance to teach her enough about her opponent's style to let her turn it back on her. That was nearly double the longest time it had ever taken Velvet to turn a one-on-one match on its head against a completely unknown opponent when using only hand to hand. Coco couldn't do anything but revise her opinion of the girl. If Summer could fight like this without an unlocked aura, it was no wonder she thought she could get into the sparring ring with a Huntress-in-Training. In hand to hand, against anyone else in Team CFVY, she would have already won.

Another two minutes ticked up on the timer and the pair were still fighting but Coco could tell the fight was about to end. Velvet's Aura Meter was showing just above 30% but Summer was looking rough. Velvet had split her lip open with a rabbit punch as well as split her forehead open with a nasty-looking headbutt. She was favoring her left leg after a nasty kick to the shin as well. In the last few passes she had been guarding her ribs more closely too. The number of bruises that had to be waiting to form up in the next few hours had to be legion. She was frankly surprised that Professor Goodwitch hadn't already called the match.

Then, as Coco predicted, the match ended. Just not in the way she had expected. The pair had separated once more as they had repeatedly through the spar. Only this time, Summer called out, "Kitty Season!"

Velvet, without thinking about it quickly said, "Wabbit Season," in a knee-jerk response and rushed back in, pushing herself to move as fast as she could. Coco could see the knockout blow coming. Velvet neatly sidestepped a sloppy punch from Summer, then let loose with a right hook that would have sent the other Faunus spinning to the ground.

Summer ducked under a strike from Velvet and slid alongside her. Hooking one leg in front of Velvet's, she grabbed her extended arm with one hand and slammed the other in between Velvet's shoulder blades. Summer drove her to the ground, Velvet's head bouncing off the hardwood of the training floor. Then in the blink of an eye, Summer was standing, Velvet's arm held up and behind the now prone Faunas, The blonde cat Faunus had one foot squarely on Velvet's back, holding her on the ground while she twisted and pulled the arm that was bending the wrong way. Velvet could only let out a scream of pain as she tried to get away.

Professor Goodwitch instantly shouted out, "Match end!" Coco was already rushing to her teammate and the person that had hurt her.

Coco realized that Summer saw her rushing towards her when the girl stepped back from Velvet and brought her hands up in a defensive stance. Completely ignoring the new girl, Coco dropped to her knees and slide up alongside her teammate. "Velvet, are you okay? Where are you hurt?"

Silence. Then slowly, Coco heard Velvet start to chuckle as she rolled over onto her back, carefully cradling the arm that Summer had hyper-extended against her chest. "Best. Spar. Ever."

That was when Summer had the good decency to fall over and start laughing herself. Coco heard her choke out, "You said wabbit season," between laughing and gasping for air.

Coco felt a headache coming on.

Summer had ended up in the infirmary alongside Velvet. It turned out in the heat of the moment she had put far more force into her submission hold than she meant to, accidentally dislocating the bunny girl's shoulder. Summer had to keep reminding herself that it could have been worse. She had two broken ribs and a fracture in her left leg. As she remembered the scolding Professor Goodwitch had given her for continuing with such injuries caused her to wince. There was nothing for it, though. She figured that once she showed up the next day and was completely healed, the Professor would learn to trust her estimates of what was acceptable in training.

"I can't believe you were able to keep up with me like that," Velvet said from her bed where the Doctor was finishing up. Her accent reminded Summer of tweed and tea and the soft but excited voice of power and magic. "No one has ever kept me guessing for so long! You kept flowing from one style to another over and over again!"

Summer couldn't help but giggle at the other girl's excitement. "Well," she said, drawing out the L sound for a few beats. "I wanted to make sure we learned as much from each other as possible once we got going. You've got quite a few moves I hadn't seen before today," she said matter of factly with a smile of her own.

"I know, I picked up so many new techniques and tricks. And that hold at the end! I still had aura but by the Brothers, it hurt!" Velvet stopped talking then did a double-take at Summer. "Wait, what do you mean by we learned?"

Summer couldn't help but giggle then gave Velvet a smile. "Well, about 30 seconds into things after you sent me flying, I figured out you were learning everything I threw at you. It was subtle, but I'm familiar enough with something similar to figure it out. So I started mixing in every style I knew trying to throw as much at you as I could to see if there was some limit. Could I overwhelm your photographic reflexes? But you were mixing everything I was doing right back into your form without dropping anything you were using originally."

"Okay, that explains me," Velvet said perplexed. "What about you? You don't even have your aura unlocked so you can't have a semblance like mine."

"Nope," Summer said, popping the P with a smirk. "Just part of the Slayer package."

"The what now?" Velvet asked sounding even more confused.

Summer paused, suddenly getting the distinct feeling she wasn't supposed to share this. She had done so with Ozpin, but this felt like something she wasn't supposed to do. Velvet just kept looking at her expectantly an honestly curious expression.

Making up her mind, Summer blew out her breath and pushed herself up into a more upright sitting position. "The world is older than you know," she began with a smile.