Arcane – Ekko vs Jinx
The cryptic statement Cosmo had said caused a spur of conversation among them all. What would the next dimension have to offer, and who would be starring in it?
"Ah, a story about a young hero." Port said with a hum of interest. He did enjoy those types of stories.
"How…bland." Salem comments.
Ozpin chuckled, "Oh come now, Salem. This is all in good fun. Why so serious?"
Salem raised an eyebrow when Ozpin stood up and faced her.
"Tell you what," Ozpin said, reaching into Qrow's pockets and pulling out a pocket knife, "Why don't we turn that frown upside down? C'mon, let's put a smile on that face!"
"Oh?" Salem asked with a smirk, her Sharingan spinning as she stood up as well, "Do you want to dance?"
"Alright chill, Ozzy. I can tell you right now with 100% certainty that you don't want any of that smoke." Qrow said, standing up as well and keeping Ozpin back.
Ozpin frowned, but then he chuckled, "Of course I know that, my boy,"
He moved over to the student's side and started patting Ruby and Jaune on the head while looking at Qrow.
"I always remember that the little details are by far," Ozpin said, tracing an S symbol on Jaune's chest, "The most important."
Salem narrowed her eyes at Ozpin while he winked at her and walked back to his seat with a low chuckle.
"Uh…what just happened?" Jaune asked with fearfully wide eyes.
"The battle lines have been drawn, Jaune. You and Ruby are on the front lines now." Blake stated.
"Ah, fuck." Ruby stated with an annoyed groan.
"My child is not a weapon Ozpin." Summer stated with a glare.
"I never said she was. Unfortunately, she will be needed if Salem's forces keep gaining abilities." Ozpin explained and many frowned, "Look I don't want war, but it is still a language I speak very well. Especially with her."
"She's still so young though. Ruby is…our Ruby is not like the ones we've seen. She shouldn't be caught up in your conflicts." Taiyang stated.
"Let's just hope these upcoming dimensions give more of us the power to keep her out of them." Ozpin stated.
"Gotta face facts guys," Qrow said and they looked at him, "Ruby is the strongest person in the room right now. If a fight breaks out, then she's gonna definitely be in it."
"Of course she is. The girl has the powers of a God for Oum's sake." Raven said with a scoff.
"Two actually." Qrow corrected and they were confused by what he said.
"What else besides Alien X is there?" Glynda asked.
Qrow smirked, "Something…liberating."
"And…send!" Cosmo exclaimed, pressing on his phone and smiling in satisfaction.
"Where you just texting the whole time?" Weiss asked with an annoyed frown.
"Just making sure the wife and kids are safe, that's all." Cosmo said, putting his phone away.
"Hey, wait a gosh darn second! I thought you only had one kid." Nora said with a questioning gaze.
"One's a literal job and the other one is responsibility." Cosmo said and his wand started to shine, "Alright, you guys ready?"
"We don't even know what this dimension will entail." Penny said.
"It's simple. It's cool. And it will leave you wanting more!" Cosmo exclaimed, poofing back to his seat.
The dimension started off with Ruby stepping forward and aiming a glare towards a saddened Yang holding onto an injured Blake.
"Already invested." Yang said, leaning forward with interest, "Why does Ruby look like I ate the last cookie in the house?"
"I remember that day. It was the first time I broke your arm." Ruby said with a reminiscent giggle.
"You what?" Pyrrha asked with wide eyes.
"It was an accident, right Ruby?" Yang asked, although Ruby stayed quiet and she looked at her, "Right?"
"Yeah. Complete accident." Ruby said with a smile and rapid nod.
"What happened to Blake though?" Ghira asked, curious and worried for his daughter.
"So many questions, so little time." Ozpin comments with a smirk.
Tyrian growled, glaring at Ozpin, "Is he stealing my shtick? I think he's stealing my shtick!"
"All the more reason to put him in a body bag." Hazel said with a slight growl of his own, and Tyrian actually agreed with him this time.
Yang turned around and started walking away with Blake while Oscar stepped forward, with a glare of his own, and covered them from view.
"Oh, dang, little buddy. Look at you being all grown up." Jaune said with a smile.
Oscar smiled as well, "I look really cool, huh?"
"You look amazing my friend." Whitley said.
"Rawr, I knew he was a catch, but damn~" Yang said with a smirk.
"Down girl." Blake said with an eye roll.
Ruby let out a vindictive laugh at the sight of Oscar.
"Oh, look who it is, the boy savior!" Ruby shouted.
"What do you mean by that?" Junior asked, rubbing his chin.
"This Ruby seems to not be a fan of you." Ren said.
"She looks dangerous." Winter said.
"She looks crazy." Roman corrected.
"Oh no! Does that mean I'll go coo-coo bananas after this!?" Ruby asked worriedly.
Oscar sighed and looked down, but then he smirked and raised his head with newfound bravado.
"Confidence is key." Ironwood comments.
"Let's just see how far it gets him." Ghira said.
He dropped a stopwatch from his left wrist and started swinging it from side to side. Ruby acknowledged this and chuckled in amusement, raising her gun with a reload of the clip.
"Oh, shit." Qrow said with an excited smirk.
"It's on." Sun said with a grin.
"Never thought I'd see these two actually going head to head." Yang comments.
"They're usually portrayed to be on the same side even." Pyrrha says.
"Different dimensions, different stories." Nora says with a shrug.
She twisted the knob on her gun with a dangerously amused smile while Clover stood still with the stopwatch still swinging from side to side. The perspective changed to show Ruby changing her stance and standing sideways.
"This song is really starting to hype me up guys." Ruby said with an excited smile.
"Wait until the beat drops." Cosmo says with an excited smile as well.
As the watch kept swinging, Ruby transformed into a child version of herself wearing a pan helmet.
"What the what?" Nora asked with a guffawed expression.
"Aww, my baby Ruby." Summer awed, wanting to hug the younger Ruby.
"Did she just transform?" Mercury asked with wide eyes.
"No, you idiot. It's a metaphor…I think." Emerald said, not too sure on her statement.
Child Ruby laughed and gave Oscar a peace sign while he stopped swinging the watch and caught it in his hand, him now transformed back into a child as well.
"It's either this dude has time powers or this is just a visual manifestation that we get to see." Nora said.
"That was the most logical thing I've ever heard you say Nora." Blake said with surprised eyes, but then Nora just burped in response with a dumb and dazed giggle.
Oscar clicked on the watch and the art style completely changed. Child Oscar dashed forward and Child Ruby kept changing back to her adult self and her younger self as she fired at Oscar who had a green firefly flying behind him while she had a black raven flying behind her.
"Wow." A collective amount of them let out.
Some with gasps, some with just surprised or shocked or enamored faces of awe.
"This composition is simply splendid!" Glynda exclaimed with a shocked face.
"This dimension has a beautiful style." Salem said in agreement.
"The song matches it so well too." Coco said as Ruby, Yang, Nora, Jaune, Mercury and Emerald were rocking out to the song.
"Totally!" the exclaimed in agreement.
"I'm so glad that I'm in a cool dimension like this one." Oscar said with a grin.
"The world interests me greatly." Whitley said in agreement.
"A firefly and a raven, what strange representations." Oobleck comments.
"Context would be nice Cosmo." Adam said.
"Nope!" Cosmo responded and Adam rolled his eyes.
Oscar saw the shot coming for him and he ducked under it. His child version basically dodging the shots while his adult version flipped and ducked with impressive athleticism.
"Though it does come into question just what the heck is actually going on." Taiyang said.
"This could be either a representation of their current fight through Oscar's eyes, both their eyes or Oscar does have some sort of ability to morph reality in this way. I'm leaning towards the first option really." Oscar explained.
'For the love of all that is the damned brothers! Don't give any of these brats any more reality warping!' Salem shouted within her head with a fearful eye twitch.
Child Oscar was suddenly hit with a paint bullet to the chest and child Ruby celebrated with a laugh while child Oscar stopped running just in front of her. He huffed and threw the watch to the ground, stopping the music and slowing down time.
"Oof. That's a bruise to the ego." Roman comments.
"Someone was bound to lose." Cinder said with a shrug.
"Ruby's always been a crack shot." Qrow said with a smirk, "Good to see that it's still true in other dimensions also."
"Sorry Oscar, you snooze, you lose." Ruby said with a wink and sticking her tongue out.
Oscar blushed, "W-well, I'll get you next time."
"Looking forward to it." Ruby said with a giggle and Oscar beamed.
Time reverted back to the beginning with both of them as adults once more.
"Uh-oh." Sun comments upon seeing Oscar's glare.
"So yes time powers or no time powers?" Neptune asked.
"I honestly don't know at this point." Blake said.
Oscar clicked the watch and dashed forward, Ruby drawing her pistol and firing multiple shots at Oscar, all of which were dodged easily.
"He's repeating the same moves he had done in the sequence." Velvet noticed.
"So does he have some form of precognition?" Glynda asked.
"Perhaps." Ozpin replied.
"Dude," Jaune said with a smile towards Oscar, "You might just have time precognition."
"I don't know how to feel about that." Oscar said with a confused smile.
"One word, awesome." Ruby said.
Oscar managed to reach Ruby and he leaped up in the air, raising his pipe and time slowed for a moment.
"Oh, that looks like its gonna hurt." Ruby said, cringing from the expected hit that was to come.
He hit her directly in the face with the pipe and she got knocked to the ground. She tried to recover by aiming her gun up at him, but he knocked her hand away and pinned her neck down with the pipe. He landed a powerful punch on her and another, pinning her back down as she tried to fight back.
"Well damn! Tell us how you really feel!" Emerald exclaimed.
"Oscar really hands rated E for everyone." Neptune says and Sun held in a laugh.
"Don't cross Oscar guys." Cardin said with an impressed smirk.
"You gotta be so brutal though?" Ruby asked, looking at Oscar.
"I think this version of me is just angrier." Oscar said with a nervous shrug.
"Angrier about what?" Weiss asked.
"Isn't that the question." Blake states.
"Let's just hope that anger doesn't transfer over to our Oscar." Yang said.
"I'm surprised you're not pissed off at seeing your sister getting beat up." Blake said.
"Me? Getting pissed? Psshh! Nah, what makes you think that?" Yang asked, gripping her seat tightly and looking over at Blake with red eyes and glowing hair.
"Right…" Blake said with a slow nod.
"If I get my hands on that boy, I'll… I'll…" Taiyang said with a growl.
"You won't be doing anything." Raven said with an eye roll, "She lost a fight, get over it."
Oscar stopped his assault with a fist raised upon looking into Ruby's bleeding face. She looked up at him in fear and he looked down at her with a range of emotions, the both of them sharing a moment.
Some were enamored by this moment as well, they could feel the connection the both of them had and even though it seemed to be severed, it was still lingering.
"Why is he stopping!? Finish her, dumbass!" Cinder shouted.
"He can't…" Ironwood said.
"And why the hell not!?" Cinder exclaimed.
"C'mon Cinder, you can see it too, right?" Roman asked, "Those two kids don't really want to do this. They just took a strong dose of life and now this is how they ended up. No matter how bad you think you are, you're still going to have a hard time fighting against those you care about."
Salem scoffed, "Speak for yourself, you wannabe gangster. Detaching from your emotions is quite easy."
"If it was then this game you play with Ozpin would've been over by now." Summer states and she glares at her.
Ruby smiled softly at him and pulled out one of her grenades, pulling the pin and rolling it out to the side.
Many gasped and were shocked by this sudden action and they started to panic for both their safety.
"Ah, crap!" Qrow exclaimed.
"No, no, no, no!" Jaune exclaimed.
"Fucking told you so!" Cinder shouted.
Oscar looked down at the grenade and he widened his eyes, pulling away from Ruby just as it exploded in a pink cloud.
Everyone looked on with their eyes wide and jaws dropped at the sudden conclusion just as Cosmo poofed to the front.
"Ended with a bang huh?" Cosmo asked and he dodged a slew of popcorn thrown at him, "Hey! That's a waste of corn!"
"That's it!? I wanna see more! What happened to them!?" Nora exclaimed and many nodded in agreement.
"Sorry, can't tell you." Cosmo stated.
"Then show. You don't have to tell us anything." Ren suggested and many more nodded in agreement.
"Can't do that either. We might come back here someday, but now we gotta move on." Cosmo states.
"I so told all of you! Instead of wasting time, just go in for the kill!" Cinder states.
"My point still stands. Not my fault she was a crazy bitch." Roman said and Cinder growled with a glare.
"The choreography and cinematography were utilized so well in this one." Glynda comments.
"It truly showed us that words are not needed for communication." Ozpin says.
"That's what I've been saying! Sometimes you just gotta punch people in the face!" Yang says and Glynda sighed while Ozpin held in a boisterous laugh.
"Well, that was something huh?" Oscar asked Ruby.
Ruby chuckled awkwardly, "Yeah. Sorry for uh…blowing you up."
"No, no, I'm sorry for knocking the daylights out of you with my pipe." Oscar apologized.
"Ha! Insert sexual innuendo!" Cardin exclaimed, but the Velvet slapped the back of his head, "Ow!"
"We're gonna go through a lot with these things, huh?" Ruby asked.
Oscar sighed, "Yup."
"Promise to stay friends?" Ruby asked with her hand held out to him.
Oscar widened his eyes at her, "I-I'm your friend?"
"No duh, dummy." Ruby responded with a smile.
Oscar grinned and shook her hand, "Promise!"
"Alright, Cosmo! What's next?" Jaune asked excitedly.
"We're gonna slow things down a bit by watching someone fight through the odds with faith as his only weapon." Cosmo said with a smile.