"Weiss! Get down!"

Emotionally exhausted and staring down the warped, exaggerated visage of a monster she'd associated herself with all her life, Weiss was amazed she even heard the frantic shout, even more that she had enough presence of mind to shove herself down against the dock's pavement, the pink and brown-haired criminal before her glancing up in surprise.

"Absolute Power Blaze!"

With a thunderous roar accompanied by the vibrant hum of a duel runner's engine, an infernal tide swept through the corridor of shipping containers. The flames flooded over Weiss's head and smashed into both the monster and criminal towering over the exhausted heiress, both beings shattering apart. The white-haired girl wondered if the pink and brown-eyed girl had been killed, only for her to appear perfectly fine several paces back, leaping up from a perfect split across the ground.

But the moment the criminal rose back to her feet, Yang's duel runner roared over Weiss's head, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend soaring behind her. The blonde hunting duelist left her dragon to defend the beleaguered Weiss and drove straight for the dichromatic woman. The pink and brown-haired imp smirked and gracefully twirled out of the way, though Hot Red Dragon Archfiend let out a startling roar that stalled her movements just a second. One second for Yang to reach out and grab at her parasol duel disk. The hunting duelist's fingers grazed its dome…

… only for the criminal to dance away. She shot Yang a playful smirk and tauntingly wagged her finger at the hunting duelist.

Yang's speed carried her forward until the blonde skidded her runner to a stop. Surrounded by the flames of her dragon's attack, she looked up at the pink and brown-haired crook… and smiled?

Both Weiss and her assailant tilted their heads at that, only for their eyes to widen when Yang raised a Blue-Eyes White Dragon card.

"I believe this belongs to my friend," she gloated.

The pink and brown-eyed woman lowered her parasol and gasped at the absence of the card she'd stolen a moment before. Weiss was amazed that Yang had managed to snatch it when she'd grazed the duel disk in her driveby.

"Now then," Yang said, tucking the Blue-Eyes card away and glaring at the criminal who'd been about to murder Weiss with her own monster. "Care to take on a duelist who's actually on her feet?"

Hot Red Dragon Archfiend roared, chorusing its mistress's taunt.

The pink and brown-haired woman raised an eyebrow at both duelist and dragon, and chuckled. She fixed them with a smile no less playful than her others, but cold. Like a vicious child ready to tear the wings off a pesky fly.

She lowered her parasol to duel. Yang drew Ember Celica from her duel runner, mindful of Weiss in the blast range if she started a hunting mode fight. The pair were ready to duel when…

BING!

Yang and Weiss blinked in surprise, amazed to hear something as mundane as a scroll notification go off in a situation like this. However, the criminal before them, just pulled out her scroll, looked at whatever message that had appeared on it, and smiled fondly.

She gifted Weiss mocking bow, and then shot Yang and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend a sadistic smirk with a clear message. 'Next time.'

With a flourish of her parasol, she vanished into thin air with a flurry of sparkling glass shards, her Toon World book disappearing with her.

"Well. That was a thing," Yang remarked, remaining on-guard but lowering out of a ready stance. "Weiss!"

Weiss hissed as her teammate rushed over to her, falling to her knees and worriedly checking her over in a manner similar to how Winter used to fuss over her training injuries. "I'm… I'm alright."

"You sure?" Yang inquired, concernedly. But when Weiss glared at her, the blonde raised her hands in acceptance. She smiled and offered the heiress's Blue-Eyes White Dragon card. "Here. I know how important these are to your family–"

"There a White Fang grunt over there," Weiss spoke up, looking away from her retrieved card, not sure how to see it now. "I knocked him out in a duel, but your attack…"

GRRR! One of the nearby shipping containers screeched as it skidded down the half-melted side of its fellow below it.

"... that," Weiss finished. "He's in danger. We can't let him get hurt."

Yang's eyes narrowed, scanning over Weiss's battered form. "Did he do this to you? Make it so that girl nearly killed you–"

"Yang, please!" Weiss begged.

Yang blinked, startled, but she immediately looked up to her dragon and nodded. Hot Red Dragon Archfiend roared and flew over to where the White Fang grunt had fallen before the flames had struck.

"How'd you find me anyway?" Weiss asked.

"You summoned your Blue-Eyes. It's hard to miss," Yang reminded her. "Where are the others?"

"I sent Sun after Blake that way," Weiss pointed, slowly rising up to her feet. "I don't know if Ruby's even here yet."

And honestly, Weiss wasn't sure if she wanted her partner to have found a way there. Ruby was a tough-as-nails duelist, but would she be able to handle the White Fang when every grunt wielded the power of Fusion?

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"You two grunts picked the wrong hunting duelist to mess with!" Ruby proclaimed, facing down two faunus terrorists in Grimm masks as they all unfurled their duel disks, a pair of duel anchors connecting the trio (Ruby had thrown hers onto one grunt just as the other one had shot an anchor out of his duel disk!). "No matter what awesome stuff is in your decks, nothing's gonna stop me from getting to my friends!"

Ruby Rose: 4000 Life Points

WF Grunt A: 4000 Life Points

WF Grunt B: 4000 Life Points

"I activate two Seed Cannon continuous spell cards!" Ruby announced, slipping her spells into her duel disk as two massive cacti sprouted on either side of her. "Then I summon Baobaboon!"

She slammed her monster onto Crescent Rose, the tree with a baboon's face howling to life in front of her (ATK 1200/DEF 1000).

"The heck is that?" the grunt to the right asked, befuddled. His own baboon ears twitched outside his mask. "Is that what my ears look like from the front? You'd tell me if it looked that bad from the front, right, man–"

"They do," the other grunt answered.

"I knew it!" the first one wailed.

"Look, can we focus? Please?" the other grunt, the one that had snagged Ruby in a duel anchor, insisted. "We're in the middle of something important."

"Oh, you mean dueling a thirteen-year-old?"

"I'm fifteen!" Ruby protested.

"That doesn't make it that much better," the baboon-eared grunt argued before turning back to his partner. "Look, all I'm saying is that I am morally uncomfortable with beating down a kid, human or not."

"She's wearing a Beacon jacket!"

"She's a Slifer Red."

"Only because of the stupid written test," Ruby grumbled, Baobaboon furiously nodding his support of her.

"You say that being able to get into Beacon at fifteen isn't insane on its own! She made a duel anchor on her own!" the second grunt shouted, only to groan in annoyance. "Look, we don't have to kill her after we beat her. We can just knock her out. But don't underestimate her!"

"Fine!" Baboon Ears scoffed, before turning to Ruby. "Kid, surrender now and you can leave without trouble. Even if you don't, we're gonna try not to hurt you too bad."

Ruby glanced at the two cards in her hand and the one she'd just drawn from Baobaboon's effect, smirking at the combo she'd gotten all the pieces for as she placed a different card from her hand on top of her deck as required by her monster's power. "Don't worry. You won't. I activate Fragrance Storm!"

Baobaboon eagerly grinned before exploding in a surge of flower petals.

"By destroying a Plant-Type monster, I draw a card," Ruby said, pulling the Evil Thorn she'd planted with Baobaboon's effect and revealing it to her opponents. "Then if I draw a Plant-Type monster, I can reveal it and draw another card."

"But you just destroyed your only monster–"

Two more Baobaboons flashed onto the field with wide smirks that were mirrored on Ruby's face, her Seed Cannons plumping up with another counter each.

Baboon Ears gulped, his previous comment left unfinished.

Ruby flipped around a spell in her hand and slid it into Crescent Rose. "I activate Seed of Deception! This spell lets me special summon a level two or lower Plant-Type from my hand. So meet Evil Thorn!"

She smacked the monster card on her duel disk and her new creature manifested in front of her, a wilted flower with a spiky black bulb weighing its stem over (ATK 100/DEF 300).

Once again, the Seed Cannons grew.

"Next, I activate Evil Thorn's effect," Ruby announced. "I tribute Evil Thorn and deal three hundred points of damage to my opponents."

Evil Thorn's spiky bulb immediately exploded, the flower incinerated as its spines spewed over both the White Fang grunts, the faunus terrorists shielding themselves with their forearms.

WF Grunt A: 3700 Life Points

WF Grunt B: 3700 Life Points

The grunt who'd cast his duel anchor around Ruby lowered his arms and quirked his head to the side. "All that for three hundred points of damage?"

"Told you," the grunt with the baboon ears said. "She's just a kid–"

Two flashes of light flashed on Ruby's side of the field, the grunts' talk cut off as two more Evil Thorns manifested to oppose them, the Seed Cannons once again plumping up behind the silver-eyed duelist's monsters.

"The other part of Evil Thorn's effect," Ruby gloated. "I can summon up to two more from my deck, though they can't use their special abilities."

"Then… then they're useless?" Baboon Ears said worriedly.

"Stay on your guard," the other grunt warned, his duel disk held high and ready. "She's got two level ones and two level threes. She could Xyz Summon any second."

"Nah. I dunno how to do that," Ruby playfully waved off, only for an eager smile to spread over her face. "Of course, I don't need to. I've summoned Plant-Type monsters four times while my Seed Cannons were on the field, which means they each have four Plant Counters on them."

"So?"

Ruby did her best Weiss impression and smugly curled her arms over her chest. "So I can send a Seed Cannon to the graveyard to deal five hundred points of damage to my opponents for each Plant Counter on it. And with two Seed Cannons with four counters each…"

Baboon Ears stumbled back. "... four thousand…"

"... points of damage!" the other grunt fearfully exclaimed.

"Sorry, guys. Really, I am," Ruby said, gazing longingly at her opponents' decks. "You have no idea how much I wanna see what your cards can do. But my friends are out there and I need to back them up. Seeds Cannons… Fire!"

The enormous cacti burst like a salvo of heavy artillery, giant spikes erupting from their green flesh and streaking across the field.

The grunt with the duel anchor on Ruby turned to his baboon-earred comrade. "I told you she wasn't just a kid–AH!"

The faunus terrorists screamed as their barrage of needles crashed into them and sent them flying across the docks, their auras shattering as both duel anchors snapped. The masked men smashed back against a wall of shipping containers and slumped to the ground, knocked unconscious.

Ruby threw them a peace sign with a bright grin. She wasn't a big fan of first-turn kills (she didn't get to see her opponents' awesome cards then), but she couldn't deny it was a rush every time she got the cards to pull it off. "And that's the game! Thanks for the duel, fellows. Maybe you can stop being terrorists and we can have a friendly match another time?"

WF Grunt A: 0 Life Points

WF Grunt B: 0 Life Points

Winner: Ruby Rose

"Sensational! What an exemplary first-turn kill!" Penny complimented, spiritedly clapping at Ruby's side.

"Hehe, why thank you. I thought it up myself–Wha?! Penny!?" Ruby screeched, leaping back as she realized the Atlas Obelisk Blue had snuck up behind her.

Penny smiled at the Beacon girl and shot her a pleasant wave. "Salutations, Ruby Rose!"

"When did you get here?!"

"Just in time to see your duel."

"Just in time to–" Ruby quirked an eyebrow in befuddlement. "I got here on a duel runner."

"Yes. I wanted to answer your request to borrow it in the affirmative!"

"Oh, right… 'borrow' it," Ruby sheepishly said, guiltily twirling her hair. "But, how did you get here on foot if I had your duel runner?"

Penny paled, her eyes feverishly shifting from side to side. "I… do lots of cardio… like a normal meat person."

"Normal meat person?" Ruby muttered, only for her silver eyes to light up in realization. "Oh, I get it!"

Penny's eyes widened in panic. "You do?!"

"Yeah! It's your version of my whole 'normal knees' thing."

"I assure you, my knees are completely normal! There is approximately no trace of experimental polycarbonate alloy in them."

"Penny," Ruby said, gently taking the other girl's hands and shooting her a reassuring smile. "It's okay. I completely get it."

Penny blinked at the silver-eyed girl, her head tilting in confusion. "You… do?"

"You're an Obelisk Blue in your first year. You're the top first-year duelist of Atlas. Heck, you can keep up with Professor Oobleck's lectures," Ruby raved. "You're special."

"That's… not untrue," Penny muttered, looking away in depression. "I wish I wasn't."

"Yeah, I get that. I came into Beacon two years early after basically being undefeated for my last year at Signal. I was super worried about people being weirded out by me being 'the bee's knees'," Ruby explained. "But then I saw Pyrrha duel."

"The Invincible Girl?"

"Yup! And she was just as amazing as she was on TV. And after her, I saw Weiss and Blake and everyone else duel! I was special, but so was everyone else! I was terrified about being alone, but I have more friends than ever just by being 'bee's knees' me," Ruby beamed. "And you can to, Penny. You don't need to be a 'normal meat person', whatever that means to you, to fit in with friends."

"Well, I'm not sure our situations are as similar as you think–wait!" Penny gasped, suddenly pressing her face into Ruby with big green hopeful eyes. "Fit in with my friends? Does that mean… we're friends?"

Ruby chuckled. "Well, you already let me borrow your runner. I'd say that makes us friends–ompf!"

"Oh, this is truly sensational!" Penny squealed, scooping Ruby up and hugging her so tight that it made Yang's embraces feel like soft feather cuddles. "Oh, Ruby, we're going to be the best friends ever! We can stay up late having sleepovers, dueling, and talking about boys and girls we like! Won't that be incredible?"

"Why does everyone who hugs me hate my lungs?"

"Oh!" Penny exclaimed, dropping Ruby to the pavement and finally allowing her to breathe again as she panted on her hands and knees. The Obelisk Blue girl didn't seem to notice, nervously looking down at her new friend. "While you were riding the A.I. Go Forward, you didn't happen to open any files stored on it? Nothing top secret that may or may not have mentioned Cyberse?"

"Uh… no?" Ruby gasped, looking up as she recovered her breath. "I was pretty focused on… driving… here…"

She only saw him because she was looking up in that moment, focused at the end of the corridor of shipping crates that led out to the docks' waterfront. She saw a familiar man with orange hair, a hooked cane, and a bowler hat, walk through the aisle, a White Fang member with glasses over his Grimm mask scampering behind him.

"Torchwick?" Ruby muttered. What the heck was he doing here? Wasn't he human? Why would the White Fang work with him?

"Torchwick?" Penny repeated, following Ruby's gaze, her eyes spacing out for a second as if she was searching through a database. "Do you mean Roman Torchwick? The thief and gangster?"

"The very same," Ruby frowned, rising to her feet. "Penny, stay here. This could get dangerous."

"Shouldn't we contact the proper authorities then–"

Penny didn't even get to finish her suggestion before Ruby hadn't already dashed away in a blur of her semblance.

She'd dueled Torchwcik before, that night she'd failed to stop him from getting away from the dust shop because of that mysterious woman with the glowing golden eyes and the skull-headed dragon. She knew how dangerous he was. And if he was working with the White Fang, that meant he might come down on Blake, Weiss, or Sun. She had to take him out before he threatened her friends!

And, admittedly, she was also looking forward to a rematch.

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"Who the heck are you?" Ilia sneered.

She did not have the emotional bandwidth for this right now! First, Adam had suddenly transferred her back from Menagerie when he'd sent her to help the Albains experiment with the Fusion cards, then she learned that they were doing the bidding of some mysterious human woman (only Adam was allowed to actually meet with her) from the same organization as the crazy scorpion faunus who'd given them Fusion capabilities in the first place. Then she'd learned that Blake, her best friend and crush for as long as she could remember, had deserted.

Suffice to say, she'd already been internally freaking out when she'd seen the cat faunus return to fight them and she'd had to stop Torchwick from blasting the black-haired girl. This random monkey faunus that'd just thrown a duel anchor on her arm was not helping!

"Name's Sun Wukong!" the blond boy boasted with a grin. "I'm a friend of Blake."

"What are you doing?!" Blake shrieked from below in the aisle of shipping crates, her aura still sealed by the duel anchor one of the three grunts had on her arm. "Did you follow me?"

"Not exactly," Sun cheekily replied. "Weiss followed you. I just gave her a ride."

"Weiss? Weiss Schnee?" Ilia snarled, her eyes narrowing as she glared down at Blake. "You left us… for a Schnee?"

Blake winced, her amber eyes flitting away. Ilia felt a pang of guilt to see the other girl hurt by her words, but that just lit a spark of anger in the chameleon faunus's heart. She didn't get to play the victim here! She knew the reality of the world the same as the rest of them, knew what the SDC had done to their people, to Ilia's parents! And she still left them for the Schnee heiress?!

"Hey! At least Weiss doesn't try to stick people in four-on-one duels!" Sun advocated, pivoting around to step between Blake and Ilia. "We're alike like that. We prefer fair fights."

"If you're fighting fair, it's only because you don't have the luxury of fighting unfair," Ilia countered, scoffing at the monkey faunus's idealism. "Which you still don't. You're still outnumbered."

Sum smirked. "Are you sure about that?"

Ilia's eyes immediately darted about the dockyard at his confidence. Goofy he may had looked, he was still wearing a Haven Ra Yellow jacket, so he must have been competent enough to get into a hunting duelist academy, a feat that many could not claim. He wouldn't be that confident unless he had some trick up his sleeve or allies lying in wait.

Or as she realized when she spotted two soft golden glows dash out from behind the corners below with X-Sabers at the ready, both.

"Anchors! Now!" Ilia shouted to her men.

The two grunts who weren't already bound to Blake leapt into action, hitting buttons on their hi-tech Atlas duel disks to snare the two light clones of the monkey faunus with duel anchors, their manifested X-Sabers vanishing into thin air. The light clones seemed to smirk at the grunts when they were snared however, spectral duel disks with real physical cards loaded in them springing action.

Light Clone A: 4000 Life Points

WF Grunt A: 4000 Life Points

Light Clone B: 4000 Life Points

WF Grunt B: 4000 Life Points

Ilia and the masked grunt all gaped in shock at the clones. Even Blake's eyes were wide with shock as she whipped her head up to her ally.

"Your light clones can duel?!" she squawked. "How!?"

"I make'em with aura. As long as I give'em enough, they can use it to manifest monsters," Sun smugly shrugged. "I mean, they're not exactly Extra Deck capable, but they can kick ass with an X-Saber deck better than my partner can."

"You're a one-man army," Blake bluntly stated, amazed. "And you're not Haven's top first year?"

"Nope!"

Blake actually chuckled as she turned back to grunt binding her in a duel anchor. "Looks like the Vytal Festival might be interesting after all. Duel!"

"Duel, traitor!" the grunt with the duel anchor on her shouted back.

Blake Belladonna: 4000 Life Points

WF Grunt C: 4000 Life Points

"My move!" Blake yelled, inserting a card into either end of Gambol Shroud. "I set the Pendulum Scales with Scale 3 Performapal Radish Horse and Scale 8 Performapal Greatest Duelist!"

Ilia frowned and turned away as the twin pillars of light rose up on either side of the cat faunus, knowing that the grunt, no matter the Fusion cards in his possession, wouldn't stand a chance against Blake alone. Even if the cat faunus kept holding herself back with her nonsensical squeamishness about Polymerization, the Odd-Eyed Bandit could handle one power deck.

Which meant as the commander of the mission (co-commander as Torchwick would remind her), it was her job to give her men a fighting chance.

"I'm surprised those clones can still exist with your duel anchor active," Ilia remarked to Sun.

The blond monkey faunus shrugged. "Little quirk of my semblance. I can't make any more with my aura sealed, but the ones I've already made are fine unless it's broken outright."

"So I just need to beat you to take care of them?" Ilia clarified, raising her Lightning Lash duel disk. "Easy enough."

"Don't be so sure," Sun warned her, deploying his maroon and gold duel disk and whipping out a hand of five cards.

"Don't underestimate her! She went to one of the best duel prep schools in Atlas!" Blake called up in warning, her Drummerilla and Skullcrobat Joker on her field before her. "She plays Amazoness! Don't try to take her head-on! She's a master of Pendulum and X–"

"So much for a fair fight, huh?" Ilia snapped, though because Blake was giving her opponent information (albeit somewhat outdated) on her deck or because she'd brought up her past of having to pass for human to get the best education she could, the chameleon faunus did not know.

"Don't worry, Blake. Just focus on your own match," Sun reassured the cat faunus, smiling at his hand. "I've got this."

"Do you?" Ilia taunted. "Duel!"

Sun Wukong: 4000 Life Points

Ilia Amitola: 4000 Life Points

Ilia glanced down at her hand and only her training prevented her from grinning. Like Blake had said, she played Amazoness. And her deck had furnished her with a mighty troupe of animalistic warriors to win her righteous war. Princess, Spiritualist, Swords Woman…

One turn. One battle phase. That's all it would take for her to end this duel.

"I know the whole saying about ladies, but I think I'll go first if you don't mind. I play Pot of Greed!," Sun declared, pulling two more cards from his deck before smacking a monster onto his duel disk. "Then, I summon XX-Saber Boggart Knight. And his effect lets me summon another Level Four or lower X-Saber from my hand, so I'll bring out X-Saber Airbellum to join him!"

Ilia raised an eyebrow as a lizard-like knight (ATK 1900/DEF 1000) and a shaggy beast with three razor-sharp claws on each hand (ATK 1600/DEF 200) appeared in front of her opponent. "Didn't expect you to use the same bargain bin deck as your clones?"

"Eh. When you grow up on the streets, you take the cards you can get and just learn how to play them the best you can," Sun shrugged, before whipping out two more cards from his hand with a flourish. "Of course, you do get the chance to swipe a few star players on the streets too. With two X-Sabers on the field, I can special summon XX-Saber Faultroll from my hand. Both of them!"

Two mechanical armored knights (ATK 2400/DEF 1800) rose up beside the monkey faunus and his other warriors.

Most duelists would be unsettled if their opponents got four monsters on the field on their first turn. Ilia couldn't claim to be completely unperturbed, but growing up among the White Fang's Pendulum users had left her used to seeing lots of monsters on the field quickly, especially from a deck that was famous for swarming like X-Sabers. Wukong certainly used his cards well, but it was nothing she couldn't handle–

"Level Three X-Saber Airbellum tunes Level Six X-Saber Faultroll!"

Ilia's eyes shot wide, her chameleon skin turning white as her opponent's monster morphed into six twinkling stars and three glowing green tuner rings. "Synchro Summon!?"

"Let silver armor shine like morning follows night and crush the enemies before you!" Sun chanted, a beam of starlight lancing through his tuner rings as the monkey faunus clapped his hands together. "Synchro Summon! Level Nine! XX-Saber Gottoms!"

The mightiest of all X-Sabers descended from the blinding glow, a titan of steel twice the size of any of its brethren with a blade as long as it was tall. The giant warrior landed on top of the shipping container wall with a resounding thud, denting the metal with its landing (ATK 3100/DEF 2600).

"Damnit!" Ilia hissed, glancing past the monkey faunus to spy his clones having also swarmed their duels with X-Sabers below, her men glancing down at their own cards in worry. That alone was cause for concern, but if the main hunting duelist himself was capable of Synchro Summoning and using the deck to its full potential…

"I underestimated you," Ilia confessed.

"Don't feel bad. A lot of people do," Sun teased. "Now I activate XX-Saber Faultroll's special ability! Once a turn, I special summon a Level Four or lower X-Saber from my graveyard. So come on back, X-Saber Airbellum!"

Ilia scowled as Faultroll raised its sword into the air and emitted a soft blue glow from its hiltguard, Airbellum reconstructing itself in the light. The two warriors then assembled behind XX-Saber Gottoms with Boggart Knight, all three standing at the ready.

"You know what happens next?" Sun smirked. "Gottoms' effect?"

"You can tribute one X-Saber to make me discard a random card from my hand," Ilia glumly stated, well aware of the X-Saber ace's power. "There's no limit on how many times a turn you can use the effect."

"Except the number of monsters I have!" Sun shouted, XX-Saber Gottoms thrusting its enormous blade towards the sky. "Faultrol! Boggart Knight! Airbellum! Let's do this!"

The three monsters let out a ferocious battle cry as they morphed into yellow light and flowed into Gottoms' giant sword. The steel blazed a furious gold and the mighty warrior swung it in a titanic slash, the arc of the movement crashing into Ilia's hand.

The chameleon faunus grit her teeth as her Amazoness Princess, Amazoness Spiritualist, and Amazoness Secret Arts were cut to ribbons, the fragments of the cards glowing gold and flowing into her graveyard to reconstitute their physical forms. Half her hand, three of her key cards, taken out before she had the chance to use them. The highest skill of an X-Saber player was to get Gottoms on the field and use it to devastate the opponent's hand before they had a chance to play. Taking out more than half Ilia's cards proved that Sun Wukong would not be the easy foe she'd hoped for.

But she was not a White Fang special operative for nothing. She'd been on par with Blake when they'd last met as friends, and that was when she'd only been able to wield Pendulum and the Xyz she'd learned during her schooling in Atlas. Now that she'd learned so much about Fusion from her experiments with the Albain twins, she only needed to get an Amazoness card on the field to turn the tide and her Swords Woman would do just fine–

"I activate the spell card Gottoms' Second Call!"

–What!?

Sun grinned as Gottoms raised his sword into the air as a sonic wave resonated out from it. "With this spell, if I control an X-Saber Synchro Monster, I can special summon two X-Sabers from my graveyard, ignoring their summoning conditions, but their attack points become zero and they're destroyed at the end of the turn. I also can't conduct my Battle Phase the turn I use the spell, but hey, first turn, so that ain't happening anyway. So come on back, Boggart Knight and Airbellum!"

"Huh?" Ilia murmured, cocking a confused eyebrow as Boggart Knight and Airbellum returned to the field. If Gottoms' Second Call ignored the summoning conditions of the monsters it brought out, then there was nothing stopping Sun from summoning his two Faultrolls. They'd be destroyed at the end of the turn, but they could use their effects to bring back Boggart Knight and Airbellum for good before they were disposed of. He couldn't have missed that possibility.

So why did he want his Gottoms to be alone at the end of his turn?

"I tribute Boggart Knight and Airbellum again!" Sun announced, his monsters blazing into XX-Saber Gottoms' blade. "Gottoms!"

With a furious golden slash, XX-Saber Gottoms let loose another furious strike, Ilia's skin flashing an alarmed pink and purple as the last two cards in her hand were obliterated.

"I set one card facedown and end my turn," Sun proclaimed, the final card in his hand manifesting before him as his smile glinted.

Ilia could only gape at her empty hand, the exuberant blond boy before her having executed the ultimate opening X-Saber turn that would leave every overexcited scrub who picked up the deck from a SDC store drooling with envy. He'd annihilated her entire hand and left her facing a monster with over three thousand attack points before she'd even had a chance to make a single move.

She had thought she'd underestimated Sun Wukong before, but she'd misjudged him even then. His bright disposition and professed love of a fair fight belied someone who really had grown up on the cutthroat, duel gang-riddled streets of Vacuo. He would make sure the duel was fair, but he wouldn't hesitate to do what it took to win once it'd begun.

The monkey was dangerous.

So was Ilia. But with one card? One card against a monster with over three thousand attack points and an unknown facedown?

The chameleon pressed her fingers atop her deck. It was gonna be close.

"I draw!"

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"Torchwick!"

"Oh, for crying out loud," Roman muttered, roused from checking on the shipping crates of dust being latched to the White Fang's bullheads (say what will about Lizard Lips's relationship drama, she made her crew as competent as was possible with these animals) by a familiar squeaky shout. The wayward Odd-Eyed Bandit was one thing, but why in the world would she be here?

The bandit didn't waste the warning the squirk's childish call provided him, ducking behind Perry just as the familiar crimson duel anchor streaked towards him. The scarlet energy binding snagged the glasses-wearing faunus's wrist, the terrorist hopping back in startled surprise.

"What the–sir?!" Perry gasped, shocked and betrayed.

"Good job, Perry. Taking one for the team is important," Torchwick nonchalantly brushed off, really wishing the message he'd sent to Neo would make his partner manifest to aid him in her trademark glimmer of glass shard. No such luck however, and Roman was forced to turn and confront the returning thorn in his side. "Hello, Red. How wonderful to see you again."

The silver-eyed girl in the red hood glared at the thief, her customized ruby duel disk raised and ready for a fight. "You're not getting away this time."

"Am I?" Torchwick mocked, expanding Melodic Cudgel into its duel disk mode as he leered at the infuriating child. "Because, if your duel anchor is around Perry, that means your aura is sealed while mine isn't. So, there's nothing stopping me from frying you, is there?"

Red's lips puckered as her eyes widened. "Uh… honor?"

"Hahahaha!" Torchwick broke out in rampant cackles, as the girl with the red hood wilted.

Even Perry looked at her with pity. "You didn't think this through very much, did you, kid?"

"No, she did not," Torchwick declared, slapping down Twin-Barrel Dragon and manifesting the mechanical creature at his side. The machine wyvern aimed its double-barreled head at the defenseless hunting duelist, it maw glowing as it built its shot. "This is the real world, Red, not your hero fantasy. And this time, there's no one here to save you."

"Incorrect!"

Roman, Red, and Perry all turned to a bright-eyed redhead in an Obelisk Blue uniform with the Atlas emblem stitched into it. Six swords on strings attached to her backpack curled around the girl and formed an elaborate duel disk right in front of her, conjuring a strange dark blue and purple knight that gallantly strode between Twin-Barrel Dragon and its mistress's friend, brandishing a strange, wiry sword.

"These kids just keep getting weirder," Torchwick groaned. "And you are?"

"Penny Polendina!" the Atlas girl announced. "Friend of Ruby Rose!"

"... lovely," Torchwick remarked, warily eyeing the girl's monster.

Roman was more than familiar with machine monsters. He'd played a deck of them for half his life. But while Ms. Polendina's warrior shared similarities with such mechanical creatures, it was somehow… different. Even just visibly, it was streamlined, sleeker, than even Atlas's most advanced Cyber Dragon. Torchwick had robbed from Mistral to Mantle to Vacuo and back again, and he'd never seen anything like the Obelisk Blue's knight.

"Penny, I told you to stay back. This guy is dangerous," Ruby worriedly said.

"I know," the other girl cheerily replied. "That is why I followed you."

Red glanced at the Twin-Barrel Dragon that'd been about to vaporize her and smirked. "Can't argue with that. Let's take these guys!"

Roman groaned, both him and the Atlas girl stowing their monsters away and joining the duel, all four duel disks commencing battle royal mode. Better to limit the chaos to a duel and let the other animals keep loading the dust. And hope that Neo got here in time to save him from these endless wide-eyed kids.

Perry: 4000 Life Points

Ruby Rose: 4000 Life Points

Roman Torchwick: 4000 Life Points

Penny Polendina: 4000 Life Points

"Duel!"

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH

Blake hadn't wanted anyone else to get dragged into her drama with the White Fang, and she was especially scared for Weiss given that all her old comrades would want the heiress's head on a spike. But she had to admit, Sun's arrival had saved her from an exceptionally bad situation.

With her pendulum scales set up, Drummerilla and Skullcrobat Joker on her field, and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Performapal Trump Witch in her hand, she was in a strong position to deal with the grunt before her. In her previous outnumbered state, the grunts could have overwhelmed her with their power decks, but with Sun's light clones handling two of them, she could handle her opponent with ease. Power decks, even those boosts by fusion monsters, were her specialty.

Honestly, she'd been most worried about Sun, who'd easily picked the most dangerous of the present opponents for himself. But with XX-Saber Gottoms in front of him and Ilia without a single card in her starting hand, she had to admit the Haven student had an impressive turn. Her old chameleon faunus friend relied on building board presence to manipulate the attack points of every monster on the field and open her enemy up to her Amazonesses and her Number. The one card she pulled for her draw couldn't win her the duel on its own.

"I draw!" Ilia proclaimed, pulling the top card of her deck. The White Fang operative's eyes narrowed at her draw, though Blake admittedly couldn't tell what the guarded girl was thinking from the slim twitch. Ilia had always been guarded since parents' death, seemingly cold but with an explosive anger simmering just beneath the surface. "I set Amazoness Silver Sword Master in the pendulum zone."

Blake let out a sigh of relief as the woman warrior lifted up above Ilia in a pillar of light. Though a single pendulum scale was not as useless as some thought depending on the monster that filled it, she knew the effects of Ilia's Pendulum Monsters. Alone, only one of them could not defeat Sun's ace–

"I then return one Amazoness card from my field to my hand to activate the effect of Amazoness Spiritualist in my graveyard!" Ilia shouted, her Silver Sword Master flashing back into her hand. "It special summons itself from the hand or the graveyard!"

"Guessing it was one of the cards Gottoms made you discard?" Sun queried with a worried frown.

"That is was," Ilia confirmed, a woman in tribalistic garb with an elaborate staff and headdress manifesting before her. "I can't summon monsters from the Extra Deck this turn except for Amazoness monsters. However, when Spiritualist is special summoned, I can add one Polymerization from my deck to my hand."

"Polymeri-what?" Sun remarked, his face twisted in confusion even as Blake's paled in terror.

"Ilia!" the cat faunus called up. "Don't–"

"Don't try to win?! You really have changed if you've forgotten that the point of a duel is to defeat our enemies!" Ilia sarcastically parroted, reaching into Lightning Lash's graveyard slot. "I activate the effect of Amazoness Secret Arts in my graveyard! By banishing it, if I Fusion Summon an Amazoness monster this turn, I'm allowed to use an Amazoness monster in my Extra Deck as material!"

"No!" Blake yelled.

Sun could only tilt his head in befuddlement. "Okay, I get from your tone that I should probably be terrified, but I'm missing a bit of context here. What the heck's a Fusion Summon?"

"This," Ilia growled, slotting her spell card into her duel disk, manifesting its swirling vortex to warp the air before her. "I activate Polymerization and fuse my Amazoness Spiritualist with the Amazoness Empress in my Extra Deck!"

The Spiritualist rose up into the vortex, while another muscular woman with an animal skull headdress was sucked into the warping spiral immediately afterward.

"Queen of the jungle and voice of on high! Take the strength you need from the gods above and leave the oppressors of your people to bleed!" Ilia chanted, smashing her palms together with a focused, furious glare. "Show them how you smile. Fusion Summon! Amazoness Augusta!"

From the swirling vortex emerged a towering bronze warrior woman, her muscles bulging as she stood nearly as tall as XX-Saber Gottoms. She wore a battle skirt of fine cloth and leopard hide, an elaborate headdress of bleached white bone, and brandished a massive cleaver (ATK 3200/DEF2800).

"Woah," Sun gaped, her sky blue eyes wide as Gottoms readied its sword at the sight of a worthy foe, the Amazoness steely meeting its gaze in turn. "Uh, Blake? I've seen a few Amazonness decks before, but this is… new. Have you seen this one before?"

Blake gulped. "Nope."

She'd known Ilia had learned Fusion Summoning, but she'd thought Amazoness Empress and Pet Liger were the apexes of her friend's forgework with the new style. When had she made this behemoth and that specialized fusion spell she'd used to help break it out?

"When Amazoness Augusta is fusion summoned, I can special summon any Amazoness monster from my deck," Ilia revealed, her chosen card popping from the rest of her cards for her to whip onto Lightning Lash. "Take the throne, my Amazoness Queen!"

A simple but austere stone throne rose behind Amazoness Augusta. Another warrior woman emerged to sit upon it, smaller than her champion but oozing strength and confidence as he gazed across the shipping container wall (ATK 2400/DEF 1800).

"Once again, you're outnumbered," Ilia reminded Sun. "Surrender and walk away. Forget everything you saw here. And you won't get hurt."

"Let me think about it… no. Points for a genuine offer though," the monkey faunus irreverently countered. "I've been outnumbered before. Like I said, streets of Vacuo and all. Looking out for yourself is the first rule there."

Ilia scowled. "So I take it we have a deal?"

"Oh, heck no," Sun flippantly replied. "First rule is look out for yourself. And that means what you want to do. And I want to help my friend."

"Why?" Blake found herself asking. "This isn't exactly part of being a student teacher."

Sun glanced down and shot her a reassuring grin. "Why not? You need help."

Blake clenched her fists, touched, but also terrified. This was her battle. If her friends got dragged into it because they were trying to help her, she'd never forgive herself.

"Would you say that if you didn't have At One With The Sword facedown there?" Ilia demanded.

Sun's cheeks puckered, for once noticeably off-guard. "Huh?"

"You've seen Amazoness decks before, I've seen X-Sabers before. And that trap of theirs boosts your monster's power but only if it's your only monster," Ilia explained, outlining her thought process. "Took me a second to figure it out, but I knew there had to be a reason you didn't bring back Boggart Knight and Airbellum back for good when you had the chance. It was a smart move. Unfortunately, you underestimated me this time. I place Amazoness Silver Sword Master in the pendulum zone again. And as long as it's there every one of my Amazoness monsters gain one hundred attack points for each level they have."

Sun paled. "They do?"

" They do," Blake whispered in fear, familiar with the pendulum monsters she'd helped Ilia forge. And with Amazon Augusta a Level Ten and Amazoness Queen a Level Six…

Each of the Amazoness monsters were surrounded in a shimmering silver aura, the queen (ATK 3000) preening back in her throne while the divine champion flourished her saber (ATK 4200).

"Last chance," Ilia warned. "Walk. Away."

Sun gulped. "No. I activate At One With the Sword! It equips onto Gottoms and raises its attack by eight hundred."

XX-Saber Gottoms's gigantic sword was replaced with a gleaming pearly blade, glimmering as sunlight reflected off its sheen and its master flourished the weapon like the noblest of knights (ATK 3900).

"That's not enough," Blake worriedly whimpered.

"Not enough to win," Sun admitted. "But enough to survive."

"No. Not even that," Ilia coldly revealed.

"What do you mean? With Gottoms' power boost, Amazoness Queen can't deal enough damage to finish–"

"If Amazoness Augusta is fusion summoned using either Amazoness Queen or Amazoness Empress, it can attack twice each Battle Phase."

Sun and Blake's eyes widened, horror staining their faces.

"If it means anything, you fought well," Ilia sincerely offered, only to ruthlessly point at her opponent with daggers in eyes. "Amazoness Augusta, attack! Jungle Blitzkrieg!"

Amazoness Augusta roared like one of the countless beasts she'd slain and charged across the shipping crate, each step indenting the steel until she reached XX-Saber Gottoms. With a brutal, sweeping slash, the warrior woman carved the steel titan apart, only to charge through his broken remains and immediately smash into Sun with her cleaver.

Sun Wukong: 0 Life Points

Winner: Ilia Amitola

The Haven Ra Yellow student's aura shattered instantly, his Light Clones dying with it. The White Fang grunts dueling the fakes reeled back as their duel anchors suddenly came free, the onslaught of X-Sabers massing against each of them thankfully no longer a threat.

"Sun!" Blake cried, heedless of the two new enemies now on her exposed flanks as she watched the unconscious monkey faunus fly back through the air.

The wall of shipping crates was over twenty-five feet tall. If Sun fell from that height, hit the pavement without aura or being able to land properly, he could crack his skull open! She had to catch him!

"Skullcrobat! Drummerilla!" Blake shouted, only for her monsters' path to be suddenly blocked by Green Baboons summoned by the now freed grunts. She couldn't get to him!

"Augusta!"

Amazoness Augusta rushed to the edge of the shipping container and stuck out her enormous sword, its massive flat catching Sun's unconscious body.

Blake let out a sigh of relief, but the fear in her gut did not abate. She looked up at Ilia, her old friend striding to the edge of the shipping crates with Amazoness Queen at her side and gazing icily down at the cat faunus.

"Yeah!" one of the grunts cheered. "That's right, Commander Ilia!"

"Kill that race traitor!" another shouted.

"No!" Blake yelled, pleading with her old friend.

Fortunately, even before she'd begged, the cat faunus had been able to spot the slight signs of hesitation in Ilia's face and body language. The chameleon faunus had no issue doing what she felt she had to for her people, but she hadn't grown as bloodthirsty as Adam had. She took no pleasure in the slaughter of the innocent. But… did that mean she wouldn't? Blake hadn't seen her for so long, and she'd plainly grown stronger with Fusion since they'd last been together.

And even if she hadn't, the grunts were already eyeing Sun with body language reeking of murderous fury. Ilia might not have had the option to spare him if she didn't want her own men turning on her to see the deed done. The White Fang was more akin to the Branwen Tribe than the Atlas Military in that way. Sienna appointed cell leaders based on who could, like her, combine charisma and fear to make up for the lack of hierarchical discipline. Adam could, but Ilia? She had the strength, but she'd never really had the desire for leadership, preferring to stick to the shadows as an operative.

"I… I have no desire to spill any faunus blood tonight," Ilia declared, though her eyes flicked around to gauge her men's clear irritation. "But, I suppose you all deserve the chance to prove your capability. To show the strength of the White Fang that Adam has granted you with fusion."

"Yeah!" the grunts screamed, all three of them turning on Blake. Sparks crackled over the two who had been part of the duel from the start, the Intrusion Penalty of Battle Royale Mode striking them for forcing their way into an already started duel.

WF Grunt A: 4000 - 2000 (Intrusion Penalty) = 2000 Life Points

WF Grunt B: 4000 - 2000 (Intrusion Penalty) = 2000 Life Points

WF Grunt C: 4000 Life Points

Blake Belladonna: 4000 Life Points

"You want to save your friend, Blake?" Ilia said. "Win."

Blake clenched her teeth, eying her filled pendulum scales and her two standing monsters. Then, the three masked grunts, the one binding her with a duel anchor drawing for his turn. Since the duel had begun as a standard match, all three of her opponents would be able to attack her before her next turn. She could handle one fusion power deck, but three at once?

… maybe. If she was willing to dip into that same power. Which she really, really didn't want to do.

But could she? For a friend?

Ah, Yang coming in to save Weiss and get back her Blue-Eyes. I'm sure earning Neo's interest won't result in anything notable occurring in her character arc.

Meanwhile, Ruby shows off just what she's capable of if she draws the right cards and draws a commonality connection with Penny, that, while not incorrect, is certainly missing a few details. And also, gets another dose of her fatal flaw of rushing ahead to help without fully thinking about what she's going to do. But, it also leads to Penny's first moment of not acting as a puppet, ironically by refusing to follow Ruby's orders. Hooray for characters playing off each other!

And of course, the centerpiece of the chapter, Sun vs. Ilia! I've been teasing X-Sabers so much that I wanted to make sure I got to show them off at least once, and I like the in-universe lore that they're so cheap but effective that Sun, who grew up on the streets, has been able to scramble together enough for both him and his clones. And if he was facing anyone who wasn't as powerful as Ilia, who very much gets to show off how much of a threat she is here, his stellar first turn probably would have won him the duel.

But, even in defeat, he's bought Blake a bit of breathing room. Now all that's left is to see if she can gather the will and the card to make use of it.

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Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Go Forth and Conquer!