Big Issues
AN: Another long one folks so I hope you're comfortable. Also, I'd like to thank the new people who have enjoyed this fic enough to add it to their favorites along with those who continue to read along.
Vytal Tournament – Fireworks
The next day found Teams RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, and DAIT together in the floating stadium, relaxing in the plush red seats reserved for tournament participants and a few VIP's who wanted ringside seats. Of course, some of the girls had better 'seats' than others, even some of the men who got to use the red seats. The more common seats up in the stands weren't padded but were comfortable enough to sit well enough for a few matches while also encouraging to stand up and move… preferably to a concession stand within the stadium.
But after a few rounds of fairly entertaining fights, Team RWBY was chosen to fight- specifically Yang and Weiss. The two girls received a series of good lucks as they left for the locker room to prepare for the fight ahead.
That meant that they only go the chance to see the beginning of the match between Russel Thrush and Sky Lark of Team CRDL fighting the pair of Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil from Atlas. The only problem was how the fight was going for the Beacon team. Aside from the highly dynamic variants of terrain of mountain, ocean, gravity, and geyser and the strong opening from the boys, there wasn't too much to say. Russel's daggers were most often kept busy keeping Penny's Floating Array swords from hitting him too badly while Sky tried to use the reach of Feathers Edge to hit the redhead to no avail. Going after Ciel didn't do much good either, the chubby girl producing a hard light shield from the watch on her wrist to deflect the few attacks that made it to her through Penny's near seamless offence and defense.
The boys were quickly worn down trying to fight off so many blades while the one controlling them was standing back at a safe distance. Eventually they made the wise decision to retreat and catch their breaths and come up with a plan. They ran to the mountain, taking cover behind a pair of large boulders, just barely dodging the thin girls' swords that stabbed into the rocks.
Penny looked back to her teammate, as if asking for approval of her actions, only to get the girl tapping on her watch to get her to hurry things along. So, she did just that.
Penny raised her arms with a grin and the swords lifted, taking the rocks with them and carrying Russel into the air while Sky fell off his. But Penny wasn't finished, balling her hands into fists and yanking down, even taking a knee for greater range of motion with her arms, the boulders came hurtling to the ground. One carried Russel to the impact site, the other hitting Sky on its way to the ground. Both rocks shattered on impact and burying the boys in the rubble as the swords returned to Penny where they gathered behind her, folded up, and were tucked away in her small backpack.
"And the victory goes to Penny and Ciel of Atlas!" Oobleck proclaims as the buzzers go off indicating that the gravel covered boys with disqualified from aura levels dropping below the fifteen percent needed.
"Thank you for a wonderful time." Penny was far too cheerful as she thanked the boys with a bow, one could say that she was mocking them if she wasn't so innocent. The girls turned just in time to miss a large stone striking Russel in the head, apparently it had a lot of air time, and it was enough to break through his remaining aura and knock him out.
Up in the stands, Ruby fidgeted in her seat as she watched her friend wave to the crowds politely as she made her way to the Atlas tunnel leading to their locker room. But once she was out of sight, the cloaked girl ran off, leaving Blake confused as to why she was now alone from her team.
Ruby raced through the halls of the construct meant to be a show of unity between the four kingdoms as fast as the crowds would allow her plump body through. She may have used her semblance a few times to hurry along and squeeze through gaps that she would have struggled to pass normally. But she was lucky to arrive just as her target was leaving the locker room.
"Penny!" She calls out with a wide grin and her arms out to get her friends attention.
"Ruby!" Penny's face split into a smile as she ran to the cloaked girl, promptly tackling her in a hug.
"Whyyyyyy…." Ruby wheezed where she lay, still with Penny's arms wrapped around her on the cement. She had forgotten how heavy the girl was despite that she was still the same size as when they met near the docks months ago. She should have learned her lesson back when she tried to carry the synthetic girl, the resulting crash from trying to use her semblance being what led to Ruby finding out about her friends' robotic nature. And now she was reminded that things could weigh differently at roughly the same size; muscle is heavier than fat and metal is heavier than both bones and muscle. And that metal was pressing into her belly and chest with concrete at her back.
Maybe the flesh and blood girl… with a lot of flesh, was lucky that the android realized that she was sinking into her best friend and quickly got off of her, helping her stand in the process. It was also a good thing that adipose didn't hold to the shape of whatever was pressed into it like clay… Ruby didn't mind being round much but having an imprint of her friend like that…
"Ruby, this is my teammate." The redhead was being courteous to a fault, as always.
"Ciel Soleil." The caramel skinned girl introduces herself with a bow.
A friend of Penny's was good enough for her. "Hi!" Ruby raises a hand and waves to the girl in the blue beret and skirt with a white shirt and black gloves that came over her elbows. "I'm- "
"Ruby Rose. Age fifteen, hails from Patch, leader of Team RWBY, status… questionable." Ciel says as if reading from a file pulled from her school records.
The cloaked girl had no idea how to handle that 'introduction', she was socially awkward enough normally. So, she turned to the one she knew she could talk to. "So, Penny! You two were incredible out there! How do you keep control of all those swords? It's so cool!"
"Penny, I believe that it's best that we move onto our next location." Ciel 'suggests' as she points to her watch.
If there was one thing that Ruby was noticing, it was that Ciel sounded more robotic than Penny ever did. Enough that she had the passing thought that the darker girl may actually be an earlier model of synthetic person than her friend. She certainly was stiff enough in her speech and movements.
"Could we have just a minute to talk?" The tallest of the three asks, raising a single finger. Ciel looked surprised at the request but a glance at her watch led to her taking a few steps away to provide the two girls with some amount of privacy, and she stood there staring at the chronological device.
"So… is she your friend or?" Ruby let the question hang, not really sure how to proceed.
"Well, in a way." Penny tilts her head a little. "She's like Blake, but if Blake was ordered to spend time with you." She tries to be polite but put things in a way that Ruby would understand.
"Oh, so Weiss then." The chubby girl says with a shrug. Sometimes the heiress was just too easy to tease, even if she wasn't present to get a rise out of.
"Precisely!" Penny innocently agrees.
Ruby raises her hand to block her voice from reaching Ciel while getting quieter so that the crowd would cover her words. "Does she know about… you know, beep, boop, bop, does not compute." She wasn't as subtle as she tried to be.
Penny shakes her head vigorously, ignoring Ciel intently staring at her watch. "Oh no, General Ironwood doesn't really want anyone to know. There was an incident with a magnet, but I was able to play it off." The android recalls how she and Ciel were looking over a stand full of random memorabilia and her bow knocked a magnet loose and it stuck to her head, pressing her hair down against her 'skull'. Her teammate looked over and Penny covered to magnet with a nearby hat to ask her how it looked. She considered it a win that she was able to get the stiff girl to laugh at how silly the hat looked on her, especially with how the bow on the back of her head kept the headwear from sitting properly. She took it off once they were done with their laughs, making sure to pull the magnet off discretely at the same time.
The two friends shared a good laugh at the memory, though Ruby had to imagine what it was like.
"Ruby, there's something I've wanted to talk to you about." Penny says before checking on Ciel, who had yet to move from her spot or look away from her watch. "I want to stay at Beacon." She says quietly.
As much as Ruby would have loved for her friend to be closer, she wasn't naïve enough to believe that the General would just let Penny go. He had her under constant guard at the dance, after all. Not to mention that she was always escorted by soldiers or in this case, a teammate for the tournament who apparently was only there to allow Penny to participate by filling a slot on the roster.
"Penny, they'll never let you do that."
"I know." The ginger admits sadly. Then her mouth turned up in a smile. "But I have a plan."
"It's been precisely one minute, madam." Ciel steps up to Penny's side, tapping her watch. The girl must really be obsessed with time.
Fortunately, Penny seemed to be expecting such a thing and ended things there. "I'll talk to you again soon, Ruby." The taller and much thinner girl waves goodbye and walks off with her teammate, most likely to the small section reserved for Atlas personnel that had plenty of soldiers to set up a perimeter.
That didn't stop Penny from twisting around with a wide smile to wave again, something that Ruby responded in kind with.
"Our next match will begin in five minutes!" Port's voice was broadcasted around the stadium.
"Oh my gosh!" The young girl bounces back to extreme excitement as she claps her hand together before running back the way she came, with generous usage of her semblance to get back to her seat faster.
"Well, now it's our turn!" Yang was excited to be fighting again. She made sure to keep herself occupied with some last-minute stretches, focusing on her shoulders at the moment. She was just glad she wasn't too big that she couldn't move her arms like before the weight was loaded on her… mostly. But she knew her size well enough thanks to training most days of the week and the fact that her weight gain had slowed to a crawl for the first time since the whole Issue had started. She remembered the last time she gained so much weight was back in Signal during her last growth spurt, gaining two inches in height and her breasts practically inflated like balloons over the course of six months.
"Just remember to keep proper form." The most strait-laced of the team admonishes her from her left. Weiss was content to stand and wait for their opponents to show up, mildly irritated that they were being forced to wait. Like her teammate, she was glad that the medicine they were given was working. She'd be happy to not need to buy clothes another size up. Not only was it annoying to have to do so but now that her father had cut off her money, she didn't want to waste her limited funds for any reason.
"You're from Atlas." Yang tries to kill some time with chat, doing a double check on her gauntlets fit on her wrists to ensure that they were snug and wouldn't move. "Think they're anything like the guys from the prelims?"
"Seeing as their kingdom, military, and Huntsmen Academy are all merged as one." Weiss ignored Yang stretching her legs by pulling her foot up behind herself. "I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology, and carefully rehearsed strategies." While Team BRON from the preliminary fights certainly had advanced technology and decent strategy usage, their pride left plenty of holes for the girls to exploit.
Neither girl was expecting the flash of color looping around them, their surprise making them jump. The one producing the colors stopped a few steps away in front of them, revealing that it was a girl… on roller blades.
The girl wasn't notably tall, even with the wheels on her feet but what she was wearing showed that she wasn't one to care of the opinions of others and went with what she wanted. Her bright red hair was up in twin ponytails on either side of her head with a pair of blue streaks in her bangs. Her skates appeared to be simple pink sneakers with a bar that had a light pink wheel on either end. She wore white socks that had red stripes on her right leg and blue on the left that were pulled up to cover her calves. White shin guards and kneepads also adorned her legs with a matching set on her arms. She wore a pair of black shorts under an even shorter pink skirt. Most would barely consider her decently dressed above the waist as her purple bra could be easily seen through the arm holes of her rather small light blue shirt that only reached the bottom of her ribs. The white leather collar with a golden bell around her neck along with the star trailing a rainbow tattoo wrapping around her right arm completed her look. Though her tail waving behind her marked her as a Faunus easily.
Her having the same size and build as Ruby really showed a lot of skin, almost making Yang feel like she was well covered in comparison… though at least the blonde was wearing a body shaper that kept her belly contained, navel window notwithstanding.
Next to the oddly and brightly dressed girl stood a much taller young man with a dark complexion who looked like he had walked right out of a band. A white collared shirt under his dark grey buttoned vest, matching pinstiped pants, and dress shoes. Around his neck hung an untied light blue tie and he wore a fedora on his head with a stripe that matched the color of his tie. His sleeves were rolled up and held above his elbows by black bands. He had a husky build, much like many of the boys as a result the Issue but he stood there confidently.
Both held their weapons at the ready, the girl twirling nunchaku in her right hand while the boy held what looked to be a modified trumpet.
"Or… whatever they are." Weiss had no idea what to think at the sudden appearance of the pair.
"Hey! You're Weiss Schnee! Right?" The boy calls out, sounding like a fan. "The Heiress." The latter part turned a bit sarcastic, complete with rolling his eyes behind his shades.
Unfortunately, Weiss missed the addition as she responded with a smile that most would consider to be cute. "I am."
"I take it you're pretty good with Dust then?" He asks, the banter sounding innocent enough.
"I do my best." The girl tries to sound humble, even as she shrugs with a smile.
"Yeah, my dad was good too." He nods his head in agreement with a smile. "Owned a little Dust shop of his own." He trailed off a little as he remembered the good memory… until his tone turned accusatory. "Until your fathers company ran him out of business." He leveled a light glare over his shades at the girl.
All of the pride that Weiss had in herself and enjoyment of the small talk left her quickly, her shoulders dropping like her smile. "I'm sorry to hear that." She was sincere as she hated to hear how her father conducted business, part of the reason she wanted to take control of the family company from him. Unfortunately, that desire was known to few.
"Sure, you are." He scoffs as he rolls his eyes, not bothering to look at Weiss as he spoke.
Yang was filled with justified anger as sisterly instincts kicked in to defend her teammate. "Hey! Why don't you- "
"Hey! Why don't you!" The faunus interrupts the blonde before she could finish her warning. "That's what you sound like."
The girls odd teasing brought a bout of confusion to the White and Yellow pair, the latter scratching the back of her head as she tried to process what was going on. These two were throwing her off her game; she had come for a fight but was having to deal with a pair that looked ready for a club instead.
"Hey! Where did you get your hair extensions?"
"Uh, this is just my normal hair."
"Oh… really?"
"Yeah, is that a problem?" Yang takes a step closer, her irritation rising. She took pride in her hair, being able to keep it so long and free flowing as it is despite her penchant for combat and high-speed bike rides.
"You should try rollerblading sometime. Its super fun!" The girl takes a moment to skate in a small circle. "It may take you a while though, 'cause you're y'know… top heavy." The girl teases as she holds her own arms tightly in front of herself with a little wiggle, trying to emphasize her own modest chest.
Yang however… knew exactly what she was referring to. The blonde had been busty since puberty to the point where she could make women twice her age jealous, and the Issue only made them bigger… with a shelf underneath to support them. She looked down at her girls before glaring at the Cheshire Cat. "Excuse me?"
Up in the stands, Ruby had dropped back down next to Blake in time to listen to the banter… or at least what could be heard over the dull roar of the crowds. But the young girl could see her sisters' actions and catch a few words, enough to understand what was said. "Oh, here we go." She rolls her eyes tiredly. She had seen the results first hand of the guys at Signal who had thought that a spar with Yang would be a good way to cover copping a feel. Needless to say, they found out why she was at the top of the combat class the hard way.
Denko and Itazura could only wonder if the girl had a death wish insulting Yang's appearance. The girl wasn't vain in the typical sense, just knew that she was a beautiful girl and had little problem flaunting it when she wanted to but also didn't go out of her way with makeup and things like that. She was too much of a tomboy for that.
"Nothing wrong with coming with your own airbags." Talon crosses her arms under her own bust, lifting them enough that most of the boys averted their eyes out of fear of Anya's glare meeting them.
"She's right!" Nora agrees, mimicking the older girl but with far more energy, Ren squeezing his eyes shut next to her… though he may have seen enough. Pyrrha blushed as she glanced at Jaune, glad that he was looking at fight about to happen.
Back in the arena, the terrain selection brought the banter to an end and the desert, lava field, urban wasteland, and geyser rose into place. The four readying their weapons as Port began the countdown. "Three! Two! One! Begin!"
It was Flynt who began the fight, opening with a blast from his trumpet that blasted the two girls with a continuous sonic blast that forced Weiss to drop to one of her heavy knees and anchor herself with a glyph. Yang was slowly being pushed back as her boots lost purchase on the stone floor. But with her arms raised to protect her face, she missed Neon slipping into Flynt's attack and using it to build up speed faster than normal to shoulder check Yang in her unprotected gut. The blow took the blonde off her feet and the combination of Neon hitting her with the still continuing sonic blast sent her tumbling into the urban area.
But Flynt's solo ended soon after that, allowing Weiss to rise to her feet and ready her blade. She and Flynt squared off but with Flynt having to move the least to attack the other, he was able to pressure Weiss first with another blast from his trumpet, the girl using the earlier glyph to launch herself a far as it could through the wall of sound to form another glyph to anchor herself upon landing. She pressed forward, creating glyphs to keep her grounded as she fought against the air pressure.
The jazz themed Atlesian saw her strategy and ended his attack, causing the heiress to stumble forward from the sudden lack of resistance, kicking her square in her wide backside before she could catch herself, sending the girl through a nearby Dust shard in the volcanic biome and rolling once on the ash covered ground, staining her combat skirt. Flynt seemed to be taking pleasure in humiliating the daughter of the man who ruined his fathers' business.
Things weren't much better for Yang on the other side. Neon was able to move too fast on her skates to really keep up with on foot and her constant weaving made her longer ranged explosive rounds miss. That wasn't including having to deal with the cat rolling around the rubble and disappearing from sight often. All of which was adding more frustration to the blonde who was already known for having a short temper.
Neon jumped and grinded along a rail, sticking her tongue out at Yang to provoke her further. The brawlers' shots missed as the smaller girl jumped off the rail to perform a handspring onto a somewhat intact building, keeping her distance from the close quarters combat specialist.
Yang opened fire again from ground level as Neon rolled and jumped through what looked to be an apartment building, the cat muttering a mantra of "Never miss a beat." Over and over again as she managed to dodge all of the shots fired at her, the rounds exploding in the rooms and against concrete and metal. The pattern continued as Neon slid down the edge of a concrete pillar that had fallen over before jumping to a cement slab that led to ground level, just staying ahead of the fireworks.
Yang had to pause to reload her gauntlets but, in that time, Neon weaved her way around the rubble towards her, spinning her nunchaku rapidly, striking the blonde in the face as she passed. Yang flinched but cocked the first shells into the firing chambers just before being struck in the back. Followed by Neon hitting her left leg, then the stomach, and jumping over to hit her shoulder. The onslaught continued as the faunus kept moving, hitting Yang in just the right places to force her to stumble just long enough to not be ready to mount a descent defense when the cat whipped around again. The rainbow trail didn't help either as the flashes messed with Yang's eyes too.
There was finally a break in the beating and Yang felt like a drum but still had plenty of aura left but it was doubtful that even she could tank the hits long enough to find an opening in the slippery girls' moves. The blonde prepared herself for the next attack, hoping to use the cats speed against her. But said cat smirked as she bent her nunchaku slightly, causing them to glow an icy blue before she began moving again.
Charging at the brawler and jumping over some debris, Neon was on a collision course with Yang's fist but bent backwards enough to slip under Yang's outstretched arm. But not without tagging her leg with the glowing stick, causing Yang's leg from the knee to ankle to be covered in thick ice.
The giggles of the cat got her attention. "Look! Now you're bottom heavy too!" Neon cackles as she smacks her own soft rear, ignoring that thanks to their builds, she likely had the larger of the two.
But the comment was enough to make Yang's blood boil, at least enough for her to raise her leg and stomp on the concrete hard enough to shatter the ice on her. Whatever remained on her boot began to flake off as she began moving again.
The biggest problem was that shattering the ice slowing her down had distracted her enough that Neon had vanished. The sound of wheels on concrete was her only warning as the cat came from behind swinging, catching Yang's left arm as it batted her weapon away. The result was that her arm was encrusted to the elbow in frozen water and the unexpected weight dragged her to that side.
Neon sped away until she found a good straight path back to Yang and charged back at the blonde before she could recover. Neon jumped and drove both feet into Yang's soft middle, the skates focusing the force of nearly three hundred pounds plus speed into a small area, greatly amplifying to power of the kicks that sent Yang into a concrete wall hard enough to crack it.
"You should cool off!" Neon puns at Yang. "Get it? Because you're angry."
The blonde growls before taking a breath and swinging her trapped limb into the wall behind her. The impact didn't simply shatter the ice but also the wall behind her. A silent vow was made that she was going to deck the cat at some point today.
"You know… I was wondering how your teammate gets through doors. Do you have to push her through?" Neon skates backwards away from the fuming blonde. "Hmmm… I guess there was enough butter around to lube up those hips but it looks like you ate it all!" Neon slaps her own soft belly to emphasize her own joke, causing a few ripples to be seen across the bare soft surface.
With that comment, she turned tail and bolted, forcing Yang to chase after her.
Over in the volcanic region, the Ice Queen of Beacon squared off against a man of cool jazz. They stared each other down, watching for who would make the first move and how to respond in kind. Flynt kept his lungs full and weaponized trumpet held up at the ready, almost eager to show up the rich girl. Likewise, Weiss kept her rapier pointed at him, thumb and forefinger ready to change and release the dust in the rotary chamber as needed.
It was Weiss who acted first, creating four white glyphs in front of herself and injecting a small amount of the finely powderized and extremely potent Dust crystals with her blade into them, large chunks of ice were hurled at Flynt like spears. They certainly had the sharper points to feel like one if hit.
Her target felt the ground rumble under his feet and used the environment to his advantage, jumping to get close to one of the gouts of flames just as it began to spew from the rocky surface. He landed in a crouch, using the impact and his position to empty his lungs through his weapon, blasting the flames into the oncoming icicles and melting them to vapor before they could reach him.
The musically inclined Huntsman rose with a small spin, twirling his trumpet. "Too bad all of that money can't buy you skill." He quips smoothly.
Weiss obviously took great offence to that, if the brief flash of surprise being overtaken by barely controlled rage was any indication. A quick breath and she spun the chambers, making her selection quickly and raising Flynt's guard in the process, bringing his trumpet to his lips.
At the same time, they launched their ranged attacks. Flynt's Dust augmented sonic blast was countered by the horizontal tornado emanating from the rapier. Neither attack could gain an advantage but Weiss' plan was only to keep him occupied as his weapon only has shown one real trick. The wide-hipped girl raised her other hand and created several glyphs around them, each of which glowed brightly as ice began to form within their centers and firing them at Flynt. They hit him randomly, knocking him around in the middle as they struck him from all sides and diminished his aura a fair amount.
But a break in the frozen onslaught allowed him to regain his focus and ready himself. In the stands, many of the Atlas students and fans proudly cheered at his recovery. At the same time, Weiss moved between her glyphs, slipping a bit more Dust to them while hoping that white on white was difficult to see enough to buy her time.
Flynt stomped the ground with his right foot and clones slipped to that side, three of them in total. They were identical in appearance to the original Flynt, complete with trumpet with their only distinguishing characteristic being the tie and band on their hats being different colors- the original blue, then yellow, green, and dark pink. With each clone mimicking the actions of their creator with a slight delay, creating a slight wave effect.
But with the four of them facing Weiss and blowing into their weapons, the attack power was quadrupled, catching the thicc girl in the sonic assault and hurtling her nearly into the desert.
In the stands, many were amazed at the use of the Semblance. Jaune was one of them as he had yet to discover his own yet. Seeing others using theirs, never failed to surprise him with the diversity and effects, along with the creativity of those who use them.
"What's this?" Port asks, turning to his colleague.
Oobleck leans forward to ensure he had a better view of the arena from his position in the announcer's box. "It appears that young Flynt has just activated his Semblance, and quite a remarkable one at that. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet!"
At that declaration, the man in question takes off his hat and flips it in the air before slipping it back on smoothly, his clones copying everything. He looks up to the holographic projection that displayed their aura levels. Neon had the highest at ninety percent as she had yet to really be hit. It was rather surprising to see that Yang still had sixty five percent of her aura remaining with how often and hard she'd been hit so far, a clear display of her aura's durability. He himself wasn't far behind at fifty-five while Weiss sat at forty at the moment.
Taking a few steps forward, he deactivated his Semblance, the clones merging back the way they came until their combination merged back into his body, leaving him solo. Yet he was confident in his abilities and his teammate was doing well keeping the brawler occupied and whittling her down. Speaking of which…
Yang chased the skating cat across the urban wasteland back to the central arena, their modes of movement clearly showing their differences. With Neon having to move far less to travel on her wheels and far faster, she was still relatively fresh. On the other hand, Yang had a sheen of sweat all over herself from having to run and dodge attacks since the match began, her frustration wasn't helping her either.
"Oh! Flashy eyes!" Neon comments upon seeing the blondes' eyes turn from lilac to red in her anger. "You know, you're kinda pretty when you're angry." The faunus teases with a spin on her skates.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Yang yells as she uses twin shots from Ember Celica to give herself a speed boost as she charged at her tormentor.
Neon raced to meet her, spinning her nunchaku and aimed to hit the top-heavy girl in the legs again to trip her up, the punch she was winding up was easy to read and account for. She didn't notice the rising leg until it was too late, effectively clotheslining her and the combination of their opposing momentum knocked the wind out of the skater almost as much as the attack blew away her aura.
Unfortunately for Yang, she wasn't able to capitalize on the opening as she had to shatter the ice on her leg once again and they both needed time to stop after the collision. By the time Yang dealt with that and took a satisfied breath that she had hit the pest, Neon had picked herself up and rolled away to keep her distance as she recovered.
Flynt casually sauntered over to the downed Weiss, the girl had to deal with her head ringing from his last attack, not to mention the bouncing across the rough terrain that added more stains to her combat skirt and leggings. She idly wondered what was up with her opponents from Atlas using music to attack her this week.
She was just starting to pick herself up when she finally noticed how close Flynt was, looking like he was about to simply stomp her into disqualification. She reached for Myrtenaster, not wanting to go down without a fight or at least without her weapon in hand but it was just out of her reach.
Flynt sneered and stepped on the blade, ensuring that she couldn't do anything with it, trusting that his own weight was more than enough to keep the tired and battered girl from retrieving her weapon. Then he looked towards the center of the arena where Neon was circling Yang, keeping her distance.
"Get back here!" Yang's angered yell caught Weiss' attention through her ringing ears.
"I'm not saying that you should go on a diet, I'm saying that you NEED to go on a diet!" Neon was once again ignoring her own girth to jab at her opponent. Antagonizing her enemies was a specialty of hers, almost to the point that her teammates thought that causing frustration was her real Semblance and the rainbow trail was just a trick of the light from the bright colors she like to wear.
"That's it!" Yang's rage was starting to peak as she threw her hands up in the air.
"You're fat." Neon teases, creating the general consensus in those watching who could hear her about pots calling the kettle black.
Flynt looks down at the prone Weiss before turning away to face Yang, stomping on the ground to activate his Killer Quartet to the left. Weiss saw that Yang was about to be blindsided by a powerful attack while being distracted by Neon, who had seen what her teammate was about to do and rolled out of range.
Wasting no time with thoughts other than to protect her friend, Weiss got her thick legs under herself and surged at the trumpeter, ironically blindsiding him with a tackle. Her adrenaline-fueled strength combined with her weight crashing into her surprised opponent into his clones and dispelling them as they passed through each clone.
If Weiss had done more than simply react, she may have noticed that they were heading for a crater. One that they tripped over the edges and fell into just in time for the gout of flames to erupt and engulf both combatants. The pyrotechnic display along with the disqualification buzzed sounding off caught the attention of the girls from their stand-off.
"Weiss!" Yang calls out, hoping the girl was okay, frustrated that the faunus had kept her too distracted to help her teammate in any way since the match began.
The sentiment of concern was echoed by the group of friends in the stands, loudest by Blake and Ruby.
"It seems we have a double knockout on our hands!" Port declares before he could get a clear line of sight on the pair of Atlesians.
"In fact, it looks like Miss Schnee's aura has been completely depleted!" Oobleck adds his commentary. "She sacrificed herself to take out Flynt." He turns to look at the results in the arena. "Wait a minute... what's this?"
Down in the volcanic biome, Flynt came stumbling out of the smoke, looking more than a little charred and crispy, but otherwise intact.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Flynt Coal remains standing!" Port declares proudly. The aura meter board revealed that he just barely avoided disqualification by one percent of his aura. At the same, Weiss had nothing left of her own aura, while Yang was down to thirty-five and the one solid hit on Neon had dropped her down to fifty percent.
The cat faunus rolled over to her teammate who was walking away from the clearly smoldering and unconscious form of Weiss laying near the crater, having been pushed out by Flynt as he was under her and needed to get out before it erupted again. Her clothes were ruined by the flames with parts burned away and her skin was red under the black soot that covered her from head to toe. Smoke trailed off of her dress as it continued to burn like a candle wick.
"You did it Flynt!" Neon chirps happily as she rolls by and gets close to Weiss. She licks her fingers before pinching the small flame burning on her hem. "Wow, she's so cold that she didn't melt!"
The tailed girl rolled back to her friend, circling him as walked out to meet Yang in the middle, his stride and confidence growing in strength as he did so, ignoring his teammates antics with practiced ease. "Don't worry about her though, she's easy." Neon offers her 'advice'. "But kind of annoying." Flynt rolled his eyes at that comment, holding his tongue about how that was how she is normally.
"Oh, it looks like Yang's angry." Port tells the world, having plenty of experience with the short-tempered girl over the course of the year, somewhat impressed that she had kept her cool… relatively… during the match so far. But now… it appeared that the shackles were being released and the full might of Yang Xiao Long was to be unleashed. "You wouldn't like her when she's… upset."
"That's an understatement." Denko scoffs with Ruby and Blake nodding in agreement. Most of Team JNPR were too polite to say anything, same with SSSN. The rest of DAIT simply smirked that Denko had said what they were thinking.
"Kick their butts Yang!" Nora shouts with a raised fist.
Yang roars in rage at seeing Weiss hurt so badly after circling around to put herself between the enemy team and her friend. The roar also activated her Semblance, Burn, while some of the jets of flames erupted coincidentally at the same time behind her. It made for an impressive display with her long blonde locks glowing with golden flames and her eyes flashing red, an embodiment of fire promising pain to those who defy her.
The dragon punched twice; explosive rounds fired with each with a little touch of her aura in them to boost their power. It was a little trick she had learned while training to have her aura cover her weapons and clothes rather than solely her body back in Signal.
The results were fantastic, the pair may have dodged the explosions but they ripped up the stone floor of the arena with their power. The small display of power convinced the Atlas team to end this quickly as they didn't want to risk a direct hit.
"Yo Neon! Go!" Flynt orders as the girl circles around the destruction, letting herself to be carried on the soundwaves towards Yang.
The blonde had tried jumping at them but was pushed back by the pressure of the trumpet blast, only to begin controlling her flight with shots from her gauntlets. Once back on the ground, she had to deal with Neon getting in her face. The faunus tried to jab with her nunchaku but the attacks were deftly dodged but the same could be said about Yang's punches, neither girl able to land a hit. Yang jumped to create some distance, allowing Flynt to give her some airtime that she wouldn't have normally.
She used the time to discharge some more explosive rounds, further destroying the arena floor around Neon as she skated towards her with Flynt's boost. Craters were blasted all over the place, with one coming far too close to the musician for comfort, disturbing his playing at the same time as the craters and rubble produced hindered Neon's progress. The cat was nearly at a crawl trying to avoid the stones that could trip her up and wound up being forced by a slab acting like a ramp to entering the even more hazardous terrain of the geyser fields.
Yang landed on the ground, tucking and rolling her already round body until she got her feet under herself and ran full speed at Flynt. With a small jump, Yang landed with her fists on the ground before firing both gauntlets as she pushed off with her legs, allowing her to launch herself surprisingly high into the air as her semblance helped to boost her strength to do so.
Flynt responded by taking aim at the blonde missile coming at him with his trumpet and used his Killer Quartet again, not caring that the aura used to do so put him into disqualifying levels. It also happened to be a grey area in the rules. The four trumpets sounded off, blasting Dust amplified sound at Yang to blow her away.
Yang's response was to fire off her gauntlets behind her for extra speed before curling into a ball to reduce her reduce her area being hit by the attack, spinning from the motion of doing so. The blonde unfurling herself only once she got close enough to reach out and clap her hands over the bell of the trumpet, crushing it with her raw strength tight enough that the only way for the power created within the weapon to be released was from the other end, blasting Flynt straight in the face with his own attack. The jazz man was hurled by the soundwaves into the edge of the desert biome, the sand mixing into his charred clothes.
"Oh! Sour note for Flynt!" Oobleck proclaims as the buzzer officially announces his disqualification.
Yang landed on the ground with a jiggle, tossing the heavily damaged weapon to the side as she looked around for the faunus that had irritated her since before the match had begun.
Over in the geyser field, Neon was so occupied with simply trying not to trip in the rough and highly volatile terrain that she wasn't really watching where she was going. Twice since she'd been in the biome, she'd nearly been blasted by the hot water erupting from the craters around her. The entire time she repeated her mantra. "Never miss a beat. Never miss a beat. Never miss a beat."
Then some of the ground gave way under her weight as she rolled over it, setting her even further off balance that her tail and arms couldn't account for, especially when her skate hit a small ledge and tripping her near the top of a small rise. The rotund faunus hit the ground rolling, only this time without her skates doing the rolling, right until she hit one of the geysers as it erupted, blasting the poor girl high into the air from the pressure with her screaming from the hot water on her legs and wide rear.
Yang smirked from the central arena that looked like it was the target of a bombing run -which was close enough to reality- as she watched the pain in her softened rear flying high. She took careful aim and fired an explosive round that hit Neon at the peak of her unexpected flight. The blast had an interesting effect on her rainbow trail, making it look more like the fireworks used in the opening ceremony. The result was the same as expected though, with Neon's aura dropping to disqualification levels and being pushed out of bounds where she hit low on the hard light barriers and rolled to the ground.
Yang pumped her fist in celebration for the long-range shot hitting right where she wanted it to combined with satisfaction of shutting the annoying Katt up, and winning the fight. She took a few calming breaths before she blinked the red from her eyes back to their normal lilac, remembering her teammate now that the danger had passed. "Weiss!" She shouts before running over to the burnt girl.
Kneeling down next to the fallen heiress, she found that she was coming to her senses slowly. "Weiss! Are you okay?" It probably wasn't the best question to ask but for Yang, it was like the first time Ruby had caused a Dust explosion in the family shed trying to make her own Dust rounds without supervision.
The ash covered girl was able to sit up a little with Yang's assistance, though she coughed hoarsely, some of the smoke being expelled from her lungs in the process. Laying next to the large flamethrower that did the damage to her wasn't the best for her health, nor did she have any say in the matter. She was glad that the arena crew turned off the hazards now that the match was over.
"I may not be singing for a while." She manages to get out of her dry throat before coughing again.
Yang sighed in relief that the girl was able to make a joke about the situation. "You know, I don't think that was proper form." The blonde throws her comment back at her from the beginning of the match.
"Oh ha-ha." Weiss mocks briefly before falling into a coughing fit.
The two were broken from their friendly banter by a squeal from the other side of the arena. Looking over, they saw the plump form of a still slightly steaming Neon with a few ashen streaks on her face and arms slowly rolling to the middle of the arena near Flynt as she tiredly picked himself up.
"We lost? We lost? Team FNKI lost?" The redhead could be heard sounding a bit freaked out over the shock of it all. "That was… amazing!" The last part confused the winning team with how quickly the girl changed her attitude.
"Oh my gosh! You guys were super crazy awesome! We should definitely party together sometime!" The praise and invitation were completely unexpected as most teams would at best be respectful and thank the other for a good fight, others would leave cursing. This was something else entirely. "Right Flynt?" Neon turns to ask her teammate as he staggered closer to her.
"That was a gutsy move, Schnee." The boy says. She was far from what he had expected. Sure, she wore expensive clothes and used the most expensive Dust in her weapon. She obviously had the best education and training that she could have gotten thanks to her family being among the richest, if not THE richest on Remnant. But her actions spoke of someone who was willing to get her hands dirty, not the typical rich folk act of paying a goon to fight for them. Then the fact that she had been willing to throw away her chance of winning the match herself for the safety of her teammate… "I dig it." He completes his compliment with a tip of his hat.
The two girls looked at him, shocked once again by the team that had been antagonistic to them from the beginning. They glanced at each other before looking back to their former opponents, giving them a smile and nod of acceptance.
From the tunnels medics ran out with their bags of equipment and a stretcher, beginning their treatment of Weiss for her burns and smoke inhalation. Another checked out the other three but pronounced them fit to leave on their own and to get some rest after they clean up. Weiss was carried away to be taken care of with better equipment. After the teams left, the maintenance crews came out to begin to repair the damage to the central arena, already estimating that the damage done would take a while to fix.
Yang sat outside the small medical clinic that Amity had for cases like this. She had only stopped in the locker room long enough to clean some of the sweat off with a wet cloth and put their weapons in their lockers. She hadn't been told of anything going on inside with Weiss, but she could hear that everyone inside was calm. The occasional coughing from the heiress meant that she was still in there, but in the short time Yang had been listening, they have become clearer.
"Is she okay?" Ruby asks as she runs up to her sister.
"Dunno, they're still working on her." Yang responds with a shrug.
"She'll pull through." Blake consoles her leader. "She's too stubborn to stay in there long." The comment got a snort of laughter out of the sisters.
Team DAIT, JNPR, CFVY, and SN showed up soon after and the conversation repeated itself. The group of friends waited, listening to Port and Oobleck making some comments on the next fight of a team from Vacuo against Vale, which eventually ended in a double knockout. Both teams had injuries that would prevent them from moving on so both were disqualified from the running. The boys of the Vale team were brought into the clinic to be patched up.
A few minutes later, Weiss emerged on her own. She was much cleaner than when she was brought in, though still had some soot in her hair, looking like only the worst was cleaned out along with trimming the burnt tips. Her skin was red, like that from a sunburn but it varied in how bright it was. If one looked closely, it depended on where she had bare skin versus cloth covered. Her hands were wrapped in white bandages, likely as a result of them getting burnt the worst and hands needed to be protected. Aside from the redness, her skin was slightly glossy. Judging from the smell of aloe, her burns were treated with a healthy dose of medicine.
But she certainly wasn't wearing the same clothes as when she went in. Now she wore a pair of loose hospital gowns in place of her dress and jacket, one for her top half and the other like a skirt to wrap around her wide hips. That left her legs bare until her scorched boots.
"Weiss! You're okay!" Ruby dove at her partner to hug her, only to be stopped short by a hand on her hood.
"She'll be in a lot of pain if you try to hug her like that." Denko warns, not letting go of her hood. He remembered the burns he got from the desert sun in his first weeks in Vacuo, Itazura's too. The natives laughed and told them they really got their first test of survival that Vacuo offers to those who cross its borders. That was… fun.
"Sorry." Ruby apologizes in a soft voice. Silver eyes moved to see blue eyes staring back at her. Weiss' orbs were bloodshot from the heat and smoke irritating them, but her expression softened to see how much concern there was for her with those gathered, even with Neptune hiding in the back behind Team CFVY.
"I'll be fine with some rest. Even better when my aura replenishes and using this lotion." Weiss stiffly holds a small bottle in her bandaged hand.
"Do you need to go to bed?" Ruby asks.
"I could use some rest." Weiss croaks, obviously needing something to drink.
A scroll rang, turning out to be Sun's indicating that his team was due to fight once the current match was over. A team from Vale was going against Mistral right now.
"Hey, we gotta go get ready for our turn. You guys staying to watch?" The golden monkey asks.
"We could use some entertainment." Coco admits as she was still sore about losing yesterday. The rest of her team nodding or shrugging to say they were staying with their leader.
"We'll be staying." Jaune speaks for his team. Nora wanted to see the fights as much as possible, though currently concern for a friend was overriding her love of a fight. Ren didn't mind watching and Pyrrha was watching for her possible opponents.
"Same." Denko shrugs. He hadn't mentioned to the younger team that his was here for security, but they were friendly enough.
"I'll help Weiss back to our room." Ruby volunteers, stepping up to stand next to the injured girl.
"I'll stick around to watch. Gotta see the competition besides Pyrrha." Yang rolls her shoulders, feeling some of the strain from her fight. It wasn't anything she couldn't deal with but some rest here in the stands would get her energy back up.
"Get some rest while we're out. We'll bring you something for dinner on our way back." Blake tells the burnt girl.
"Thank you. Good luck in your fight, Sun…Neptune." Weiss says before she turns away to find the airbus to take them back down to campus.
"I hope you get better soon!" Neptune calls out before the girls are out of sight, the girl in question stopping momentarily before moving on with Ruby doing her best to open a path in the light crowd for Weiss.
The blue haired boy knew he had messed up and everyone was letting him know it, even if they didn't say anything directly. Honestly, it was making things uncomfortable for him. But that reaction to his support… he at least knew she heard him; it was probably the best he was going to get. They hadn't been actually dating, more about getting to know each other and he ruined what little friendship they had.
"C'mon Neptune." Sun claps a hand on his shoulder. It was a combination of getting him ready for the fight head of them and a slight congrats for trying to make up things with Weiss.
AN: Next up will be rather relaxing after Sun and Neptune get to fight. I'm hoping that since it should be a shorter chapter, I should have it ready before Xmas for you all. But I've been kinda bad at estimating how long my chapters will be. I definitely wasn't the main body of this chapter to be 9k+.
Still, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and revies are welcome to help me deliver quality content.