So to those who are unaware, the previous two chapters have been rewritten, especially chapter 32. I don't want to sound like a broken record so I'll summarise as best as I can: I was initially super-dissatisfied with them and I couldn't put a finger on why until longtime supporter and absolute chad of an author on this site Alucard45 (along with his co-writer SirDarkvid) reviewed them and pointed out a number of issues that frankly messed up the story's tone, pacing, and path of certain characters (cough-cough Jaune suddenly became the MC outta nowhere). I personally think that the chapters flow together WAY better now and are far more comprehensible, but it may not be the last time I fix them up so watch out for that. Once more, HUGE thank you to Alucard and SirDarkvid and PLEASE check out their RWBY rewrite fanfic [One Last Patch before the War] on SirDarkvid's page, while just beginning the worldbuilding is some of the best I've seen in fiction PERIOD and the story is shaping up to be awesome.
All that said, let's hop back to the show!
Fighting Rose
Chapter 34
Dance to the rhythm
"So who do you think will win this?" Penny asked the girl sitting next to her, the rather petite form dressed in frilly black and white with startling green eyes. Neo just grinned, her brow going up as if the answer was obvious. "The question is not as silly as you think," Penny giggled, "Flynt and Neon are notably powerful members of Atlas Academy. Even if you believe Ruby and Weiss will win, I doubt that it'll be so easy."
Neo hummed, unable to deny it before offering her some popcorn.
"Ooh, thank you! Popcorn has recently become a most beloved fuel of mine!"
Neo giggled silently as she watched Penny chow down on over half her bowl before turning her attention back to the arena, where Weiss and Ruby were warming up and discussing their strategy. The past few weeks for her had been… calm, fun even. It wasn't as high-octane compared to her usual occupation, but it was genuinely nice to be able to sit back and breathe for a while. Of course she missed Roman badly but she trusted Ruby's word that he was safe, not to mention that they would finally meet soon.
Still, not everything was as easy-going as anyone would've liked. With Cinder sitting not too far off to her left, she definitely felt on edge. Sure, Ruby had asked her to keep an eye on Cinder simply to observe but she wondered if she could simply walk up behind her and casually kill her. Cinder was the biggest cause of most people's problems and she was clearly focusing on Ruby's match at the moment. All it would take was a quick aura-empowered stab cut at her jugular…
No. Neo shook her head as she quickly assessed Cinder: even sitting and seemingly relaxed, Cinder could tell that her muscles were slightly taut, a trait that she herself had developed after a long, long time of getting used to people trying to kill her. Cinder's was a bit different however. It was as if she wanted someone to try and attack her. That kind of confidence either came from a fool, or from someone who had very bloody hands. Besides, people who had no part in this would die. As much as she didn't really care, she knew Roman wasn't a fan of senseless slaughter.
"Mind if I have some?"
She looked to the person on her left and was a bit startled. They were… extremely pretty. Even with the simple torn jeans and the baggy green hoodie, their startling teal eyes, adorably feminine face and twin braids ending in teal tips were immensely appealing to look at.
"Oh? Am I just that charming?" They giggled in a boyish voice, Neo snorting with a grin of her own before handing the bowl to them. Rather than reaching in, they twirled their finger, tiny gusts of wind yanking popcorn into the air one by one, twirling them in a cutesy little spin before they shot into their mouth. Neo have them a round of applause as they curtseyed rather artfully despite their seated position.
"Venti," He greeted, "And before you ask, I am a guy."
Neo giggled and bowed back, quickly whipping out her scroll and typing in her fake name 'Mint.' She flinched slightly as he raised a brow.
"Funny, took you more for another kind of ice-cream. Y'know, because of your pink and brown."
He can see through the disguise. Genuine panic spiked through her for a moment before she calmed down, admittedly curious. He'd seen through it, but if he'd known who she was then he would have most likely done something to outright intimidate her. To be fair, he wasn't exactly a fully intimidating figure.
"Oh, sorry," he said bashfully as he rubbed the back of his head, "If that's meant to be confidential then I'm sorry for starting with that. Trust me, I know."
She was curious now, moreso when he seemed to read her unspoken question.
"If you're wondering how…" He looked around dramatically as if checking for someone listening in on their conversation before beckoning Neo to lean in closer, "…Magiiic."
Neo burst into breathy laughter along with Venti. She had to admit, he was quite adorable. Adorable and fascinating.
"Ooh, it's about to get started!" Venti clapped, Neo herself zeroing in on the arena as well. Even still, she made sure to continuously check on Cinder. She may yet have to try and kill her.
}-{
"…Ruby, I find that you're placing a lot of confidence in me," Weiss said nervously, "From what we've gathered, he's got some powerful area-denial capabilities. I'm not sure if…"
"Weiss," Ruby said with a confident grin, "You've got this. You literally have the best tools and skills to deal with him: he's a one-trick pony, and you're a jack-of-all trades. Not to mention that pendant should help in a pinch of you don't have any other pieces of dust to work with."
"Jack of all trades but a master of none," Weiss snorted as she quickly checked Myrtenaster's cartridges.
"For now," Ruby agreed with a cheeky grin, Weiss' confidence shooting up at her leader's encouragement. A sudden rush of movement made Weiss yelp as Ruby's face went tense in preparation for the upcoming fight.
"Hey, girl in white," the finely dressed Flynt Coal said as his partner rolled to a stop next to him, "Weiss Schnee right? The Heiress?"
"That would be me, yes," Weiss nodded.
"Aaah, thought so," Flynt grinned, though both Ruby and Weiss could see the distain for the latter roiling from his aura, "It's funny, I'm actually trying to win the tourney so our team can get into your sister's retinue. Freedom of expression as an Inquisitor and all that."
"Oh, that's wonderful!" Wess said with a genuine smile. "Regardless of the outcome, I do hope that she takes you in."
"Sure hope so," As the smile dropped off his face, "All I gotta do is wipe the floor with the prissy little Heiress who ran away from daddy rather than face him. That bastard's the reason my father's been run out of business, forced to sell everything to fuel his damn war economy."
Weiss flinched away at that, shame roiling in her stomach.
"Oh, because all of a sudden that shit is her fault?" Ruby scoffed, scowling right back, "Grow up and stop blaming people who have no say in your problems."
Weiss smiled slightly, warmth blooming in her chest as Ruby shot a quick grin at her.
"Oooh, you're suuuper edgy!" Neon said, "It's funny, cuz I totally thought that you'd be cutesier but you're actually more like your sister!"
"Yeah, well I do look up to her," Ruby said airily, eyes narrowing slightly. 'They're trying to screw with us.'
Weiss understood the tightness of Ruby's aura directed at her and steeled herself as well. Flynt's anger was genuine, sure, but their intention was all the same.
'Now that we're on guard, there's nothing that can shake us,' Weiss thought confidently.
"That makes a lot of sense," Neon nodded almost sagely as she idly spun on the spot, until she grinned cheekily, "Y'know… since you're not as big as her where it counts."
'Oh God-Emperor no,' Weiss dreaded.
*CRK*
Sure enough, a vein popped up on Ruby's forehead, Beowulf's talons biting into the floor just hard enough to leave a few small cracks that went unnoticed.
"…Ruuuby?"
"Fine," She muttered after sighing, her grin now just a little more sinister, "I'm definitely pumped up now."
"BEGIN!" Oobleck announced, Weiss immediately activating her Trigger as Neon stood in front of Flynt.
"Now!" Ruby shouted as Weiss threw up a wall of interlocking Glyphs, Flynt's blast of sound from his trumpet-weapon slamming into the aura-constructs. Neon, having not expected any reaction at all from them smashed face-first into the wall of Glyphs, yelping in pain as Flynt's sonic attack continued to press her into the wall before he stopped in a panic. Neon breathed a sigh of relief before it was abruptly cut off by Ruby appearing in front of her in a flash of petals, leg drawn back as the latter grinned almost evilly.
"So you're a speed-type as well?" Ruby said, "Haven't come across many, so let's see who's FASTER!"
Neon yelped as she just barely managed to lean back far enough to dodge Ruby's blurring sidekick, both of them suddenly disappearing in a flash of rainbow and petals respectively. Weiss grinned as she heard Ruby's laughter fade off into the distance: she knew that her leader could handle Neon, and Ruby's trust in her was enough to instil her confidence.
"So, it's just you and me for now," Weiss said as she idly spun her weapon in her hand. "Lets see if you can keep up… one-trick-pony."
"One-trick huh?" Flynt said between grinding teeth, "You've got some damn NERVE-!"
Weiss knew that simply putting up a wall of Glyphs as a shield wasn't going to help in the long-run, even with her improved control and endurance. Attempting to Trace her Ultra-Greatsword right now would certainly be flashy and could end the fight with one good shot, but then she'd barely have the mental focus left to create more than one mid-powered glyph at a time. Both options were viable but would leave her too depleted to help Ruby in the case that she was needed. Therefore… she shot off to the side as another wave of blaring sound roared through the air. She bounced off one Glyph at a time, making sure to stay just at the edge of Flynt's soundwaves before launching brittle shards of ice as she managed to leap away from his attempts to catch her, barely whittling his aura down but angering him more and more.
'Good,' Weiss thought as she saw him blow harder and harder, veins popping up on his neck and face.
"That all you got!?" He shouted as Weiss idly stood on a Glyph in the air, again casually toying with Myrtenaster's chambers.
"Not seeing anything worth giving my all really," She called down with a raised brow. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, Flynt taking in a big lungful of air. The glyph beneath Weiss' feet shifted to Time-dilation, the familiar *tick-tock* echoing through her as everything seemed to slow down before she shot straight to the floor and erased the distance between them as Flynt failed to react in time, his breathing interrupted.
Weiss almost relaxed as her body fell into a familiar rhythm, Myrtenaster singing through the air in flashes of silver. Solar-plexus, heart, shoulders and wrists, she struck all of them precisely and with far more raw power than he expected from such a small weapon. When he tried to strike back with his trumpet, she easily parried the blow and lashed out thrice against his arm before he could even draw it back.
'None of the footage showed her being this fast!' Flynt panicked as he tried to leap back and fire a tight, high-pitched burst of sound, luckily managing to hit Weiss' sword-arm and flinging Myrtenaster too far away to retrieve it without leaving herself open. He smiled victoriously as she appeared to turn to try and do just that. 'Faster but you ain't smarter!'
Having landed just past a geyser of magma, he activated his Semblance, four copies of himself lining up next to him as they blew hard for a few seconds, the sudden eruption of the geyser sending a supersized wave of sound and molten stone at the vulnerable Weiss.
"Mirror-mirror, Trace… on."
A perfect circle sliced through Flynt's attack in the form of a simple Propulsion-Glyph, the construct's colour suddenly changing from pale blue to teal as a blast of spiralling air smashed into Flynt like a truck and sent him into a rocky hillside. He recovered quickly, looking up to see icy-blue aura swirling around Weiss, patterns of glowing frost appearing on her skin once more.
'She doesn't have her weapon! How did she use dust-!?' Flynt groaned as he quickly righted himself. 'Wait… why does that look kinda like Neon's…?'
"Sword of A-Thousand Flowers, borne from my soul…"
If attempting to summon a weapon too far beyond her normal strength and understanding, why not Trace a weapon that she knew better than any other?
"Mirage Myrtenaster!"
'Thank goodness for that Dust-Core that Ruby gave me,' She thought with a grin as she quickly eyed the glowing pendant around her neck, the inlaid dust within glowing a pale teal for a moment as if winking at her. 'It's good to know that Tracing can copy the elemental effects of dust in a weapon, but using it comes at the direct cost of my aura. Not that I'll need it this time around.' Her free hand flicked, a glyph appearing under the discarded Myrtenaster and flinging it back into her other hand.
"I don't blame you for the grievances you have towards me. I even agree with you…" She said as she got into a stance, blades crossed at the hilts while she crouched slightly, "But that does not mean I will lose here."
"…you've got style," Flynt said begrudgingly before recovering and preparing his trumpet, "Let's see how much of you is substance!"
"A teammate taught me that sometimes style is substance! Come at me!"
}-{
'She's technically as fast as me without my Trigger active,' Ruby realized as she and Neon were locked in a blurring battle of speed. Ruby herself was like a red pinball, rocketing off of the walls, pillars, the ground and the broken pipes of the ruined city block while Neon was a streak of literal rainbow, desperately ducking, dodging, weaving and sliding under Ruby's omni-directional assault. 'A little faster actually thanks to those wheels of hers!'
"Give me a break!" Neon squealed as she barely managed to duck under Ruby's diving dropkick, her face going pale as she watched the girl in red effortlessly pierce through three concrete walls before rebounding back at her with a flying kick without even slowing down. She yelped as she quickly slid up the side of a building, Ruby hounding her every step of the way by tearing through the walls like paper before they landed on the top of the tallest building.
"Are you trying to kill me!?"
"Uh, no?" Ruby answered as if it was the most obvious answer in the world all while bombarding Neon with more attacks from every angle, "You're probably one of the faster people I've fought so far. Not the fastest, but still way above average. Just call me curious."
Neon made a face and Ruby raised a brow: it seemed that she hit a soft-spot. Ruby's eyes widened as Neon initiated an attack this time, rocketing forward even faster than she'd expected to whack Ruby across the mouth with a pair of nunchaku, freezing her teeth together and sending her stumbling back just a bit.
'Seems like I've got a talent for taunting people,' Ruby thought idly as Neon raced around her in a dizzying circle of colour, cracking one end of her nunchaku to activate its Anemo-Dust, combining it with the other half's Cryo-Dust to infuse her blades of wind with rapidly-spreading frost and rime. Now it was Ruby who found herself at the centre of an all-encompassing attack, each wind-blade that crashing into her just hard enough to hold her in place while the solid frost began to render her immobile, freezing her feet to the floor.
"How's that for fast?" Neon said smugly, sticking her tongue out and waving her tail at Ruby.
"Pretty good actually," Ruby nodded before grinning back, "But 'pretty good' isn't enough. The rose Blooms… the petals Scatter."
The hair on the back of Neon's neck went straight up as the ice shattered like glass, Ruby standing there triumphantly and casually brushing off some leftover ice from her shoulder as the crowd cheered her on. She breathed out and let go of her Trigger, the red nimbus of light fading.
"Had it been almost anyone else in the Tournament, I think you would've had them then and there," Ruby congratulated, "But you're just unlucky… unless you've got something else." To her surprise, Neon just grinned.
"I was right, you can do that too!"
Ruby's eyebrows shot up in excitement. "Too?"
"Cool like the rain, hot like the sun…!" Her entire body lit up with strobing rainbow light, the only distinct feature visible being her teal eyes. "I'm a Neon Rainbow, let's start the fun!"
"That's more like it!" Ruby laughed as she responded with her own Trigger once more before the two blasted towards each other. If the crowd was having trouble keeping up before, there was no hope of them fully understanding what was happening as they seemed to blink in and out of existence. One moment they both landed on another roof, a razor-sharp jab and cutting nunchaku swing clashing with the sound of thunder before disappearing again, now suddenly streaking across the roads while their Ruby threw out a barrage of rapid punches and Neon responded with deft spinning blows of her own. Iron-armoured knuckles crashed into blades of wind and flung them to the side, cutting through and even bringing random buildings crashing down, massive chunks of debris launched into the air, some of them suspended thanks to the Grav-Dust within them.
Now Ruby and Neon were bouncing in between the falling debris, trying to outspeed each other in a race to find the other's blind-spot. Ruby appeared at Neon's side, her shin chopping through the latter's afterimage and the car-sized rock she stood on. Neon raced through the air to swing at Ruby's ribs, hitting a handful of petals and pulverizing a smaller chunk of floating building not too far off. Ruby's axe-kick descended like a meteor, barely missing Neon and shattering another mini-planetoid, only for a wave of fire from Neon's weapons to almost engulf her from behind. Tricking straight up again, Ruby fired off three Crescent Judgements, Neon once more zipping out of the way wile Ruby's attacks ripped three other planetoids to rubble. Pinballing from rock to rock, the crowd was going wild at the lightshow as each floating stone was cut up, smashed and burnt to slag. The airborne footing would disappear rapidly, their flying sidekicks crashing into the last floating rock on opposite sides in an explosion of petals and strobing rainbow before they both began to fall.
With sweat flying from her forehead, Ruby felt nothing short of exhilarated. It was rare that she got to use her Trigger for such a prolonged period of time in a fight and enjoy it; using it under normal circumstances meant that she couldn't afford to have fun and/or she was in a fight with her life on the line. In this Tournament however, she felt her blood begin to sing and her heart beating to the wonderful rhythm of the fight, and it was glorious.
'She's starting to slow down,' Ruby realized as they hit the floor, now a massive slope of rubble that forced them into a long slide towards the centre of the arena, 'But I can keep going further!'
Neon had landed first and was racing back to Flynt, who was locked in a desperate close-range scrap with Weiss. Ruby knew Weiss could handle either Flynt of Neon by themselves, but both of them against her, even for a few seconds was a bad matchup.
'Then I'll just finish Neon first!'
Neon seemed to sense Ruby closing in, sharply turning around as she slid and pushing her body off to the side as Ruby fired off another Crescent Judgement, lashing out with a Pyro-infused windblade from her nunchaku that just barely scorched Ruby's right shoulder while she was off balance. She regained it quickly enough, hopping and firing back with a basic Crescent Rose Kick, the blade of aura shrieking through the air and just managing to clip Neon on her waist before she could get out of the way. Her Trigger vanished for a split second and Ruby shot forward with a lunging left cross, kissing her teeth as Neon switched back on and managed to swerve out of the way, the Faunus cracking her nunchaku and activating a volatile mix of Pyro and Electro-Dust, the first ball of pure energy zipping over Ruby's head as she ducked, her body already responding to the second attack racing towards her torso, something strange happening in under a second. She unleashed the Advance for a split second as she shot her arm forward, the flow of her momentum and aura perfectly lining up with her left cross, her arm feeling as if it became lighter than ever before solidifying as she tensed on impact, Beowulf smashing into the dust-sphere. Her aura continued forward, travelling into the dust-sphere and changing its colour from orange and purple to crimson red, black petals bursting into the air as the attack was returned to sender tenfold.
"Exploding Heart: BLACK FLASH!"
*BOOM*
The raw force of Ruby's punch enhanced by the Black Flash and combined with her aura's interaction with the dust-attack was a blessing in disguise, the sphere spreading like buckshot pellets rather than remaining intact as it shot back at Neon, most of them missing but a handful tearing chunks out of her aura rather than her body.
'Aaand now my arm's fractured,' Ruby laughed internally as she fought through the pain, 'But that was goddamn AWESOME! It actually felt a lot like a Perfect Crescent Judgement, just with my… arm. Huh.' Neon was basically on the ropes but was recovering quickly, preparing to launch one more dust-attack while Ruby was rapidly funnelling aura into her fractured bones, steadily knitting them together. 'If it's just like Crescent Judgement…!'
Trying to get the timing of the Black Flash to become a reliable technique was foolish, so Ruby simply focused on the basic feel of the attack. Once more her body did the work for her, arm flushed with aura as her semblance came to life. She twisted to the side at the last moment, a bolt of lightning from Neon's nunchaku barely stinging her cheek as she shot her fist straight up into the air.
"JACKPOT!" Ruby roared: in a split second, it propelled itself off thin air, rocketing off to the side before bouncing twice more in a zig-zag pattern, Neon only able to widen her eyes as it crashed into her cheek. Her aura finally shattered like glass, the light of her Trigger fading as she spun through the air almost entirely unconscious. Right before her head could hit the floor, Ruby dashed forward and caught Neon, gently coming to a stop before they reached the bottom of the slop.
"Hey, you okay?" She asked, worried as she tenderly checked Neon's cheek and jaw.
"Owwww…" She groaned, Ruby grinning a bit at her loopy eyes as she brought Neon over to the edge of the arena and handed her off to the medical team waiting for her before rushing back to Weiss in a burst of petals. Said heiress was absolutely dominating Flynt, the boy barely given time to breathe as her blistering offensive continued to pressure him further and further backwards, the twin Myrtenasters singing through the air in a display of dazzling swordsmanship and rarely missing their mark.
'Those movements…' Ruby realized as she watched Weiss for a moment, 'They're almost one-to-one with her big sister!'
Both blades seemed to have a mind of their own, sometimes moving in perfect unison while at other times lashing out at complete random, swarming Flynt with attacks which he could barely fend off with his trumpet.
'She's in the zone right now,' Ruby thought with a grin, 'Don't think I need to step in for this one.'
Again and again, Flynt tried to blast Weiss away with soundwaves large and small, the latter easily able to read his body-language and aura to determine when to dodge, deflect and counter. Two stabs threatened to pierce his shoulder before a sideways slash scraped across his arm. Before he could attack again, a straightforward thrust empowered by a Glyph crashed into his solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs and launching him skyward. A floating array of Glyphs surrounded him, turning green as gale-force winds slammed into his prone form and juggled him through the air. More regular glyphs surrounded him as Weiss shot between them, slashing away at him ten times before appearing above him and descending straight down onto his back blade-first, sending him crashing straight into the floor and whipping up a cloud of ash. Flipping backward through the air and landing smoothly on her feet, a propulsion-glyph immediately launched Weiss forward towards where she knew Flynt was as her Traced weapon vanished while she sheathed her real one, reaching up as if she was about to swing something down with both hands.
The dust suddenly cleared as four copies of Flynt stood side-by-side, their chests visibly swelled before they blew with all their might, a booming *BWAAAAAAA* shaking the arena as a tsunami of sound and fire seemed to engulf Weiss point blank, the entire crowd gasping and even Ruby twitching in shock, leaning forward and ready to dive in. She stopped though, eyes narrowing for a moment before she sat back down with a relieved grin. A blue flash of light from the centre of the firestorm caught everyone's eye before the wave of flames was suddenly parted down the middle, Weiss now revealed to be shielding herself with the flat of her Traced Ultra-Greatsword, both arms up to her shoulders armoured in the same glowing metal of her weapon. Having been in a state of complete focus, the split second of stillness was what she needed to look even deeper into the blade. She finally discovered its true name, and the purpose that her Grandfather had given it as he led the expedition into the first Dust-mines. The blade in her hands was a replica of a replica, but none could deny its power.
"Warming light of the frozen mountain's peak…" She intoned as Glyphs lined her blade, blasting her forward as she swung the flat of her blade straight up at the panicked Flynt. "BERGIPPFEL LICHT!"
The blade exploded across the entirety of Flynt's real body, all four of him shooting through the air and crashing into the shield, slowly sliding to the floor and signalling the complete defeat of the dynamic duo.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Port announced, just barely audible over the roaring crowd, "In an incredible display of pugilism and pointy swordsmanship, Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose officially advance to the Vytal Festival Tournament FINALS!"
"THAT'S WHAT I'M FREAKING TALKING ABOUT!" Ruby squealed as she tackled Weiss into a hug, the latter laughing as she embraced Ruby back. "Weiss, that was amazing! Normally trying to summon that Ultra-Greatsword takes a lot of focus and setup, but you pulled it off in the middle of a combo! How did you do it?"
"I-!"
"Wait! No! Lemme guess! You reacted on instinct because of that last big attack? Or was it how focused you were that you were able to improve your Tracing?"
"Breathe Ruby," Weiss chuckled, "…I think both? Honestly, I've always been at my best when I focus my mind, especially in the heat of a fight. I didn't even mean to summon Bergippfel at the end, I just… knew it was the best thing in my arsenal that could outright finish someone off without using dust. Still, not sure that was the right response, summoning it drained a good chunk of aura."
"Doesn't matter if you can kill ten Grimm if the eleventh gets you," Ruby agreed, using a common saying among Hunters. "But damn that was still cool!"
"Thank you," Weiss tittered.
"We… we lost…?" Ruby and Weiss turned to see a Neon literally drained of all colour, a tinge of sadness worming its way into Ruby's chest until colour exploded back onto Neon, her eyes shining with joy. "That was totally AWESOME! You guys were like super-crazy-awesome, I didn't even think that there was someone who could beat me out in speed! We should toootally party together some time. I wish you didn't have to rough up my man so much."
The adorable pout on her face made them giggle a bit as Flynt walked up, cradling a bruised jaw while Neon fussed over him.
"That was one hell of a gutsy move Schnee…" He said, respect found in a simple nod, "…I dig it."
Weiss lightly bowed back before her eyes widened, seemingly at Neon who froze in confusion at the look she gave her.
"…Wei-?" Ruby started before her head also snapped up, shooting forward towards Neon while Weiss held a glowing hand out. Neon didn't have time to yelp as Ruby snatched a broken bottle out of the air as a Glyph prevented an entire brick from hitting Neon on the back of the neck. Grunting as she landed, Ruby ignored the tiny stings of pain running up her back and legs while everyone else in the arena seemed to freeze.
"WHO LET AN ANIMAL REPRESENT ATLAS!?"
"GOD-EMPEROR DAMN YOU, AB-HUMAN!"
Flynt looked like he was about to explode into a tirade of curses while Neon seemed to shrink away for just a split second before exploding at the perpetrators, even as they too were dragged away by security.
"COPE SEETHE AND MALD!" She shouted before turning back to Weiss and Ruby and glomping them with a massive hug, "Thank you so much! You like, seriously saved me a trip to the hospital."
"Was the least we could do," Ruby chuckled, "Besides, thank Weiss."
As Neon turned her attention to Weiss and received a grateful nod from Flynt, she silently observed the crowd. Again, the reaction to the incident was mixed. She didn't have to focus hard to feel the swirl of emotions from the crowd, none of them positive. Even then, it felt wrong, forced. No… not forced: encouraged. She grit her teeth and knew that Cinder was in the crowd somewhere, thankful for Pyrrha bringing it up to her before the match.
'But why so constantly in such small amounts? Sure, a lot of people are watching but it's not like smaller incidences like this are gonna start a big panic, much less draw in a Grimm invasion.' She rolled her tongue in her mouth, trying to ignore the sudden itch behind her eyes. '…okay, enough is enough. We have to take this to Ozpin now. He's got to owe me two questions as least.'
The itch got more irritating before she calmed down.
'…no, I gotta put that aside. I've kept Neo from Torchwick for too long now, and it's the least I can do for the help she's given me. Now let's get this over with.'
(TWBY Continued...)
Important note! I've heard rumours that Fanfiction-dot-net is creeping its way towards a full shutddown. Sure they're just rumours, but if that's true... then that'll be a LOT of amazing stories lost to the void. Personally I don't want to lose all this work, so I'm planning on making an AO3 (archiveofourown) account just in case! Hell, I've been thinking of cross-posting for a WHILE now, so what do you guys think? That said hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know it's shorter than others, but... there's damn good reason for it. For those who don't remember, Mercury's up next, and I think we all know who he'll be fighting.
See you sooon~!
