Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
CHAPTER 4
The two fights happened back to back, with Sun and Neptune facing off against Mercury and Emerald in the first round of the day. It was a surprisingly close match, Neptune, when not scared pissless of the ocean, was actually a competent fighter, and could hold his own against Emerald just fine… Until she used her semblance… Neptune believed he had seen Sun approaching him from behind, only to do a double take when he saw his friend fighting off Mercury with his astral projections. What Neptune believed to be Sun was in fact Emerald playing tricks on his mind, allowing her to close in for a choke out with her weapon's chain.
Mercury had it no easier, as Sun's semblance effectively turned the 2v2 into a 2v4 with the monkey's light clones. The only saving grace Mercury had was that once the projections had taken enough damage they were erased and Sun was sapped of a small chunk of his aura, which made fighting the man himself after the slug fest with the clones all that much easier. Though a harder battle than originally planned, Team CMNE emerged victorious.
When Team SPGL caught wind they'd be fighting Coco and Yatzuhashi, the team unanimously agreed Siniy and Clayton should be the ones to face them. The arena had gone through it's randomizer. Team SPGL's side had a snow filled forest to the north, and a tree filled swamp to the east. Team CFVY's side had a grass field to the south, and to the west an icy glacier. This match was going to be brutal. Siniy was bigger and stronger than Yatzuhashi, and more to the point he covered ranged damage like Coco. But he was lacking in any sort of defensive other than the sheer amount of aura he had. Clayton inversely was an extremely tough nut to crack, and covered close range fighting quite well much like Yatzuhashi, but was not restricted to covering his teammate. The countdown timer reached 0, and immediately the fighting broke out… Though not how anyone would have expected. Siniy gave cover fire as Clayton and him backed into the swamp and taiga respectively. Concealing their movements as the two reached the back edge of the arena and switched locations, giving each other a high five in passing, as each of them was now at an environmental advantage.
Coco gave chase after Siniy heading towards the swamp, minigun deployed. She grimaced a little when she stepped into the waist high water, finding the liquid to both be warm and slimy. Keeping her eyes peeled, she followed the sound of sloshing water, and came to a small clearing in the thick trees. She expected for the giant to start shooting her by now, then she noticed a twig fall off of one of the branches and looked up to see Clayton hanging off one of them, upside down by his feet, shotgun axe pointed at her. Coco gave one resounding shout as she tried to warn her partner of the trap they had fallen into. "THEY'RE IN THE TREES!" She shouted before gunfire cut through the air.
Yatzuhashi heard his friend's minigun across the stage, but did not hear the heavy and consistent thump thump thump or ftatatatatatatatat, of Siniy's machine gun, rather he heard Clayton's shotgun making it's loud booms. But if Clayton was in the swamp then that meant Siniy was in the taiga. Spinning on the spot to block an incoming volley of fire, Yatzuhashi felt the big bullets plink off of his sword. Siniy was shooting at him from a small fighting hole he'd hastily dug into the snow with the shovel of his multi tool machine gun. Facing a rain of bullets, Yatzuhashi was forced to take cover behind a tree.
Clayton swung from tree to tree, using the thick wood as cover whenever he wasn't taking shots at Coco, the full sized rifle rounds used by fashionista not enough to cut through the branches on their own. She'd need to use her semblance and sacrifice aura to try and burn through Clayton's cover but that would leave her vulnerable. In any sense she was out of her element, and if she kept playing peek-a-boo with the gorilla faunus she would run out of ammo. She scored a few hits here and there but the damage they did was only incremental.
Yatzuhashi dove behind yet another tree, as his previous source of cover was cut down by Siniy's use of belted ammunition. Having fire dust every 5th round ment at one point or another there was always an explosive destroying something. Yatzuhashi needed to make a move, and quickly. Jumping out from cover, and using his sword to block the incoming storm of bullets, Yatzuhashi rushed down his larger opponent to engage in melee. Siniy recognized the challenge, and pushed himself up, turning Two Theaters into it's shovel form and with a roar, the two titans clashed.
Coco went and screwed the pooch. Clayton had her at about an eighth of her ammo capacity, which meant she had roughly 200 rounds left in her minigun. She needed to shred Clayton the next time he was in the open and she needed to end the fight so she could go help her teammate deal with Siniy. How fortunate that Clayton had dropped down from the tree's onto all fours into the water with her. Coco turned, and spun up Gianduja, and unleashed a literal wall of dust unto Clayton, yelling the entire time, until her gun had expended all it's ammo, the rotor still spinning the barrels for a second before winding down. The last bullet, as the previous 200 or so, had simply bounced off of Clayton. His semblance had finally built up a resistance from the stray knicks and wings that Coco had hit him with. Cracking his neck as he stood up straight, Clayton held his shotgun low, keeping it pointed at Coco. "Fuck…" Coco said out of breath from her yelling, before Clayton slammed all 6 rounds into her chest, breaking her aura. The buzzer sounded, and Coco was eliminated.
Yatzuhashi's battle with Siniy had only gotten more intense. Both of them had traded staggering blows, and Siniy felled a tree with his shovel, though neither had come any closer to gaining an upper hand. That was until Siniy had accidentally dug his shovel head into a thicker pine, immobilizing the giant. Trying desperately to pull his weapon from the tree, Siniy took an overhead swing from Yatzuhashi's blade right onto one of the many scars on his back, which incited a shout of pain from the polar bear faunus. Now enraged, Siniy rather than pull his weapon from the tree, decided to pull the tree from the ground. Grabbing around the trunk, Siniy heaved, and uprooted the 40 foot 2,000 pound pine. Rounding on Yatzuhashi with the massive log, Siniy slammed the tree into his adversary, causing the 12 inch diameter conifer to splinter, freeing his weapon from the thick wood. Taking up his shovel, Siniy rushed toward his opponent to secure a victory. With a single overhead swing, Siniy let out what little amount of thermal energy he had absorbed from his gun while in the snow, directing the heat into an explosive force. The shovel broke ground, and knocked Yatzuhashi off his feet, sending him over the edge of the arena, winning the Match for team SPGL.
In a pavilion down at Beacon, the Schnee sisters were catching up over tea, and though their conversation had devolved into a tense discussion about Weiss's inability to create summons, the sisters came to an agreement to practice a little. It was a strenuous evening. Weiss always had trouble with summoning. It was like there was some sort of mental block, always some big issue at the forefront of her mind that prevented her from breaking the confines that limited the use of her semblance. Winter knew the issues Weiss faced that prevented her from going past her limits. Of course she did, she was Weiss's sister. When Weiss was younger it had been her inability to attain a perfect pitch as a part of her "Singing career" their father had set up for her. After that it was her laughably passable grades in school, of which needed to be rectified by several private tutors, as Weiss's methodologies to learning originally did not cater well to the classroom environment. Then came her skill with a blade, of which she'd only mastered a year ago. Now it seemed she'd perfected all but two things, her relationship with their father, and her feelings.
Winter sighed as Weiss failed to summon the first "thing" she had "killed," being the arma gigas her father forced her to fight. "What is wrong?" Winter asked, only for Weiss to break her concentration.
"Nothing." Weiss said shortly.
Winter shook her head. "Something clearly troubles you… Is it father's most recent lockdown of your bank account?" Winter asked. Weiss tensed up at the mention of her current money problem but sighed as she gave her answer.
"No, not really. I figured he'd cut me off financially at some point after I stopped calling and writing to him, but… Look, Winter after that incident with Blake and Pale at the beginning of the year, I've… Sort of realized that father isn't exactly a good influence when a team member and many of my friends are faunus." Weiss said. Winter rolled her eyes at that.
"Believe me, I know… And he did the same to me after I joined the military." Winter said, a small smirk growing on her face. "If not your allowance being cut, then perhaps it is a relationship with one of your friends that troubles you?" She asked knowingly.
Weiss felt the beginnings of a blush on her face, and worked her hardest to suppress her embarrassment. "Uhhh, Yang's bad jokes. Father's moustache. Dead cats… Aww, well now I'm thinking of Blake being dead and that's just not where I need to go right now." Weiss thought.
"Weiss, I know that look, and I have a sneaking suspicion I know what's going on with you and Siniy." Winter said, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"Nonono, it's not like that." Weiss said, waving her hands quickly trying to deny any notion that she and the bear faunus were dating. "Siniy and I are just friends." Weiss lied through her teeth.
"Friends don't nearly cripple a man for touching their friends… Honestly Siniy couldn't hide being defensive of you if he tried." Winter said, causing Weiss's blush to return in full force.
"I… That's not definitive proof we're dating or anything… He's defensive of all his friends." Weiss said. Winter sighed once more. Honestly Weiss could be more stubborn than she was at times.
"Weiss… I'm your sister. You can tell me if there is something between you two. I won't pass judgment on him simply because he is a faunus." Winter said. Weiss clenched her hand tighter around Myrtenaster. She'd been caught, but she could trust Winter.
"Nobody was supposed to know." Weiss said. Winter raised an eyebrow at that. "It's… Siniy and I were trying to keep it a secret after the dance. If it wasn't public, nobody could ridicule us and father couldn't hold it over me, but… Gods, I hate how blunt he is sometimes… Not even a week and Siniy's already acting like the rest of the world knows…" Weiss said, before she relaxed the grip on her weapon. Winter had to take a second to process that. It was true that Weiss and Siniy were dating, but she'd gathered that much already. Winter just didn't think Weiss would attempting to hide it. Quite the contrary, Winter fully expected Weiss to be flaunting her relationship with a faunus… It's what Winter had done right after she joined the military.
Leave home and give up her father's money, be a "dumb grunt," briefly get married to a fox faunus and inviting her father to the wedding out of spite, knowing damn well he'd hate it… Divorce said fox faunus when Winter turned out not to be as much of a lesbian as she thought she was… Yeah, Winter's rebellious phase was sort of a perpetual state of being. Snapping back to reality, Winter looked down at her sister, and then knelt to be at eye level with her. "Weiss, it's ok. I won't tell father about this." Winter said.
"That hardly matters. If you figured it out in less than a day, I can't imagine how quickly the rumor mill will churn out something pertaining to Siniy and I, and all the sooner father will find out." Weiss said, crossing her arms. Winter frowned for a second.
"Then… So be it." Weiss looked at her sister incredulously. "No amount of ridicule or badmouthing should deter you from loving who you love. And if father attempts to use a relationship against you as a reason for why you should not inherit the company… Well, it's not like he was born a Schnee." Winter said with a smirk, drawing a chuckle from her little sister.
"Yeah… Thank you Winter… I think I needed to hear that."
Authors note. Ah, sisterly bonding, Weiss denying everything, and good old fashioned Vietnam war memes.