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Chapter 30: Moving Forward
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I LIVE!
Seriously, I'm so sorry for the wait everybody. I really did try to write, but my uncle's death really threw off my groove. And then, right when I started getting back to normal, I fell into a deep fanfiction hole for the Arrowverse Fandom from which I still have found no escape. That said, anybody reading this who is interested, I now have several dozen new Fanfic recommendations for that Fandom.
Now that that's out of the way, may I present the long-awaited Chapter 30.
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Delsin stood in the center of the Thunderdome, tapping away on the tablet linked to the structure's jumbotron-esque display on the rear wall, much like the one in the training arena. He turned to his students, all of the new conduits except Jaune, who Cole had taken to training personally.
"Alright guys," he said, "Rules are simple."
He pressed one more time on his tablet. Six images, one of Delsin, and one for each of the others, Rad, Glynda, Yang, George, and Velvet, popped up on the screen, each one with their own Aura gauge.
"All six of you versus me. No weapons, just powers. First to knock out the other team's Aura wins. Once your Aura falls in the red, you can leave the arena and go sit with the peanut gallery," he said, motioning to their audience.
In the stands sat Ruby, Johnathan, Alex, Dr. Oobleck, Fox, Coco, Yatsuhashi, Nora, Ren, and Blake. After she woke, Weiss spent a few days getting back to normal and went on to do solo training for the fast Approaching Vytal Festival tournament. Pyrrha had a similar idea, though it had been noticed that she and Jaune were often gone around the same time. As for the parents of the formerly comatose kids, most of them had gone home after their kids were awake. Alex's family had decided to stick around to watch the tournament, and while he couldn't see her, Delsin was sure that Maria was somewhere close by.
"Go get him, Georgie!" Johnathan shouted.
"Kick his butt, Yang!" Ruby added.
"You got this Velvet!" team CFVY shouted in unison.
Delsin smirked.
"Any questions?"
"What do we win?" Rad asked.
"A day off from training tomorrow," Delsin said.
All of the students instantly moved into fighting stances. Delsin was surprisingly strict in his training, running them like a military Boot Camp from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM every day and always leaving them sore. Even George and Glynda, veteran Huntsman and Huntress though they were, found the regimen grueling. As he saw them shift, Delsin smiled.
"No more questions?" he said with a grin, "Alright then. Go!"
Without missing a beat, Yang and Rad charged at him as the rest spread out to surround him. To their eyes, Delsin simply stood there and let them come. But, when they got within striking distance, his form glitched and blue pixels shimmered around it. As the two girls tried to strike it, Yang with her fist and Rad with her foot, they simply passed right through it, stumbling onto the ground behind it.
The image flickered once more as it turned and smirked at them.
"Come on, you can do better than that," the image said using a hollow imitation of Delsin's voice, "Remember, think like a Conduit."
The hologram exploded into pixels, blasting the two girls back. Yang turned to Iron and managed to use the explosion's force to roll herself into a standing position. Rad did a similar maneuver and used some of her napalm to counteract the force and stop her travel short.
"Muuuch better," Delsin heckled.
The girls swiveled to find that Delsin was already outside of the formation the team had set up. Without missing a beat, Glynda stomped a foot and a wave of frozen spikes raced towards him. Delsin's smirk didn't waver as he activated Velvet's Sound Dash. He started ping-ponging off of the spikes, his body now surrounded by concussive sound-waves to propel him forward. At the end of the wave, he launched himself into the air behind her.
"Tsk tsk tsk, remember Glynda, big attacks leave you vulnerable to big counterattacks," Delsin goaded, "Let me show you!"
With that, he released a major concussive blast. The Ice behind her shattered and Glynda covered her ears as they began to bleed. The damage was nothing her Conduit Healing couldn't fix, but it hurt a lot and brought her Aura all the way down to 40. But, behind her obvious pain, Delsin missed the small grin that was forming.
"That was very educational," an accented voice said from above him.
Delsin felt the sound from his attack fading fast. He craned his neck to see Velvet floating above him, a devious smile on her face.
"Oh shit," Delsin thought.
"Allow me to thank you!" she said cheerfully.
With just one hand, the Rabbit Faunus unleashed Sonic Blast even bigger than the one Delsin had just used. The force of the attack slammed him downward. He braced himself for impact, but surprisingly, it didn't come.
Instead, he got kicked in the face.
"Hiiiiii!" Rad shouted as Delsin went flying backward.
Rad didn't let him fly too far though. By the time he was about ten feet away, she latched onto him with one of her napalm-webs. With both hands, she grabbed onto the web and swung it, trying to slam Delsin into the wall.
The second his foot touched the wall, Delsin took off in a Neon Dash, the web falling limp as it no longer clung to him.
"Oh no, you aren't getting off that easy," George said.
The older Huntsman placed his hand to the arena floor, his power extending outwards to the stone walls of the arena. Of all of his trainees, George was the one Delsin worried about the most. He had definitely come the furthest with his powers, in some ways even farther than Delsin had.
As his power spread, the wall began to shift under Delsin's feet. Soon after, Delsin was doing his best to spontaneously weave between spikes of brick and mortar jutting from the newly remodeled arena walls.
"Well?" George said with a grin, "Open fire!"
At his command, Yang did just that. Metal shrapnel burst from her hands and Delsin had yet another thing to dodge.
"I got him!" Rad said.
She brought her hands together and made a ball of her napalm webs between them. She swung her arms forward, flinging the ball into Delsin's path. Delsin barely managed to come to a stop as the ball exploded, the path in front of him erupting in a violent explosion.
After a moment of silence, Rad stepped forward.
"Did I get him?" she asked giddily.
"I don't think so Ms. Arachne," Glynda said, pointing at the display, "Look."
The new Conduits looked up at the screen. Delsin's Aura had indeed taken a hit...
Of all of six points.
"Not bad," they heard a voice say, "Not bad at all."
The group slowly watched as a figure emerged from the smoke. It looked like a man made of concrete, except that where the openings in the concrete armor normally would have been, there were instead Iron reinforcements. The figure put his fist in his hand and stretched his neck, making a sound of crunching boulders.
"I might actually have to start trying," Delsin said.
O00000O00000O
On the other side of the campus, Jaune was in the school scrapyard. It wasn't very big; truthfully it didn't need to be as Vale had wonderful recycling infrastructure. However, It was where Eugene had been dumping all of the debris from the Ray-Sphere Blast. In fact, a few of his Wingmen had dropped off more not too long ago.
"Okay," Cole said, "You ready kid?"
Jaune nodded, "Yes sir."
"Kid, don't call me sir. I've said that" Cole replied.
"Sorry, si- sorry."
"Ok, now. Try again."
Jaune raised a hand. In front of him was a boulder, one he had been working towards moving for the last week. He had made good progress, actually. At first, he couldn't move anything weighing more than a few pounds, but under Cole's tutelage, he had quickly shattered that limit and all that followed. As he closed his eyes, the rock was surrounded by a succession of faded purple waves. Jaune strained as if he were physically picking up the boulder.
And slowly, it rose.
Only a few inches, but it rose all the same. Jaune held it for as long as he could before his powers gave out. The boulder dropped to the ground as Jaune doubled over in exhaustion.
"17 seconds," Cole said, "Not bad, kid."
"Thanks," Jaune said breathlessly.
"You ok?" Cole asked.
"Yeah," Jaune continued, "Just... gimme a sec."
"Here," he said, holding out a hand for his student.
Jaune looked at the offered hand.
"Are you sure?"
"Just be careful, like we practiced."
Jaune nodded and grabbed Cole's hand. As he did, he drew a picture in his mind of a small cup. Next to the cup was a pitcher of water, and very gently, Jaune focused on the pitcher of water pouring lightly into the cup. As he did, he felt his fatigue fade away and his new powers slowly return. It was a visual exercise he and Cole had worked on so Jaune could recharge his powers safely.
As his powers required the use of neuroelectricity as fuel, Jaune was a special case. If he drained too much too fast, he could kill someone. Cole, having more than double the neuroelectricity of most, was at a greatly reduced risk of that happening, hence why he was training Jaune privately.
When Jaune felt he was full, he let go.
"Very good," Cole said, "I barely felt it that time."
"You sure? I didn't take too much?"
"Nope, you did fine. Just remember to keep it light and you should be good."
Jaune sighed in relief.
"Alright. Now that that's done, I think we should try something new," Cole continued.
Jaune raised his head. "Wha-"
Before he could finish, he found himself on his back ten feet away. He looked up to see Cole standing in a combat stance, lightning sparking over his hand.
"Combat training."
O00000O00000O
Back in the Thunderdome, the fight continued. Glynda was the first out. Powerful and experienced Huntress though she was, she just couldn't seem to get her Conduit powers to work the way she wanted them. Delsin had a few thoughts about that, but he had to tuck them away until after the fight.
George went down next. During training, he had taken to his powers substantially better than any of the others. As such, Delsin had spent a great deal of energy into taking him down. Unfortunately, doing so left him vulnerable to attacks from the rest of his students
After about twenty minutes they had managed to get his Aura down to 70. He had to give them credit; it was way more than he'd thought they would do. With a quick glance to the monitor, he made a note of their Aura levels. Velvet was the lowest, coming in at 54. Rad was above her at 72, and Yang topped them all at 80.
As he filed that information away, he barely avoided dodging Rad's latest attack. She was getting fast with her napalm balls.
"Dammit!" she shouted, "I thought I had him that time!"
"He's too fast," Yang said as Delsin's returned volley of ice shards broke against her Iron skin.
Velvet jumped in front of them and let out a wide-angle low-power sound attack. A concrete covered Delsin had just stopped to attack them again, only to be stunned by Velvet's attack.
"Someone grab him!" she shouted.
Rad grinned widely. "On it!"
The lithe girl spread her hands behind her and filled them with napalm. With a thought, she ignited them, the explosive force propelling her forward. Delsin braced for her impact, but instead, she rolled between his legs and sprung up behind him. She jumped on his back, and snaked her limbs around him, locking him in place.
Before he could respond Yang fired. He barely managed to dodge another volley of Iron shrapnel, the metal shards grazing his shoulder as Velvet stepped up her attack.
"Finally," he thought, "They're thinking like Conduits."
Delsin shifted into his Smoke power and Dashed away, slipping free from Rad's hold. But, the girl stuck close, rushing after and bringing a low kick against Delsin's mid-section. The force was enough to stun him as both Yang and Velvet followed up with combined attacks.
The combined force threw him back as his Aura fell to 58. Rad snapped out a napalm-web and yanked him back towards her. She drew back her arm to punch him, missing the smirk on Delsin's face.
When he drew to a stop, he Smoke Dashed behind her and threw a close-range Cinder Missile at her undefended back. Her already low Aura broke under the attack and the digital announcer rang out "Dorado Arachne is unable to continue."
"Not bad," he said as she lay on the ground. He would have liked to give her more encouragement, but his final two opponents weren't giving him much choice. Having finally realized that Delsin's greatest strength was his mobility, Velvet had reoriented on attacks with a wide range. The overall power was low, but it made it almost impossible for Delsin to dodge them, as well as lowering his reaction time.
As he readied a counter-attack, he barely heard something land at his feet. Looking down, he saw it was a ball of Iron shrapnel. His eyes widened as he shifted back to his Concrete power and covered himself once again. The moment he did, the ball exploded, revealing a small crystal of Fire Dust at its heart. Evidently, Yang had come prepared.
Delsin's armor protected him for the most part, the shrapnel from the improvised Fragmentation Grenade, but his aura dropped down to 50. He had to re-prioritize.
At the moment, Yang was the bigger threat. She had more Aura left, impeccable defense from her Iron Body, and her attacks did the most damage. Despite that, she couldn't keep up with his maneuverability. Even with her Ember Celica propelling her, she only closed the gap a little bit.
However, with Velvet helping her, she could. Velvet's wide-angle attacks were distracting, and because the power was so spread out, he couldn't absorb it. Which meant, much to his internal chagrin, she was going to be his next target.
He shifted once again, this time to Neon and Water as they were the least affected by his opponents' powers. When Yang tried to attack again he simply Water Dashed through it, coming to a stop just in front of Velvet.
"Sorry about this part," he whispered, just loud enough that he knew she heard him.
With that, he fired a Stasis Blast. The Rabbit Faunus was catapulted into the air and Delsin laid on the attack with a Water Blast from his other hand. The blast itself was weak, but the force was enough to send Velvet's free-floating body careening into the far wall. Her Aura fell to 18 and the buzzer sounded, signaling her defeat.
Delsin immediately turned his attention to his final opponent.
"Well Yang, it's just you and me," he said.
"And pretty soon, it'll be just me," she replied.
And she charged in once again.
O00000O00000O
In downtown Vale, Eugene was working tirelessly to clear the rubble.
Or, more accurately, he was sitting on a rock drinking an extra large juice-box while his thirty-something Wingmen and a team of workers moved the rubble. For the most part, the workers would break up the bigger chunks of garbage and Eugene's "friends" would pick them up and haul them to trucks so they could be taken away and recycled into fresh building materials. After a week of work, the place was mostly clear, save for a few of the bigger collapsed buildings.
"How many of those friends of yours you got floating around?" the foreman asked, he and the rest of the workers having managed to get used to Eugene's Wingmen.
"Now?" he asked. He closed his eyes briefly as he did a mental count. "37."
"Damn. How the hell do you do that?"
Eugene smiled.
"Eric, you ask me that question every day, and my answer is still the same: It's a long story," he replied.
"Well, I figure one day maybe you'll tell it to me," the older man replied, "Listen, it's about lunchtime so me and the boys were gonna go get something to eat. You wanna join us?"
"No thanks Eric, I'd like to keep working. Give my guys a chance to catch up," he said, gesturing to his 'friends.'
"Well, alright," the man said. He turned to his workers, "C'mon boys, let's get some grub!"
With that, the team of workers left as Eugene's Wingmen continued to load up the trucks. Eugene sat and watched them work. As he watched them go about their work, he began to drift off and nap peacefully as the clouds rolled by above him. A short time later he was awoken by a tap to the forehead.
He slowly blinked himself awake and looked at the source of the tap. It appeared to be a young girl, not even five feet tall. She had black hair styled with two white bows, and wore a black, sleeveless shirt with four white frills down the front, as well as a black skirt with white stripes along the seams. Her green eyes locked onto him, staring at him curiously.
Eugene stood up and faced the mystery girl.
"Ummm... Can I help you?" he asked, unsure of what to say.
The girl cocked her head sideways, then looked down at herself. She rolled her eyes in self-exasperation and Eugene watched as her clothes began to fade away.
"Oh!" he said, turning around and covering his eyes.
The girl was not impressed. She tapped his shoulder, one eyebrow raised in annoyance. Eugene turned back around, peeking between the cracks in his fingers.
"Oh," he said as he dropped his hands, "Neo, right?"
The girl nodded.
"What are you doing here?" Eugene signed, curious.
"I was checking on you. I felt the explosion while I was escaping and I wanted to make sure you were ok," she replied.
"Oh. Thanks, Neo, I appreciate it."
"It's not a big deal."
Eugene smiled.
"Thank you. It's nice to know that even though we are technically enemies you still care," he asked.
Eugene didn't notice the light blush creep onto the girl's face, but Neo certainly did. She turned her head and started signing back.
"Ok, guess I'll go now," she signed.
She turned to leave.
"Wait!" Eugene said, grabbing her hand.
Neo froze, her body, woefully unaccustomed to physical contact, becoming rigid and unmoving. When he let go, she saw him begin signing again.
"Do you want to stay?" he asked, a hint of sadness on his face.
Before she could stop herself, Neo nodded. Eugene smiled and sat back on his little rubble-chair, clearing a spot next to him for Neo. The girl sat, leaning back into her spot. As the angels flitted about in the sky above them, Eugene sat silently, a small smile on his face. Neo looked at him, still confused by what she was doing there, never having done something like this before, not even with Torchwick.
Eventually, she relaxed a bit, deciding that just this once she was going to enjoy the moment. She slowly extended her hand, lacing her fingers in Eugene's and smiled, looking up at the sky.
O00000O00000O
Delsin was confused. Yang was fighting much differently than she normally did, and it was giving him a lot of trouble. He would try and attack her with smoke, and she would dodge out of the way, even if there was no way she could have seen it coming. He tried a wide-angle attack with his Sound power to try and knock her off her feet, but she simply stood there and took it like it was nothing, not even budging.
But the strangest instance was the one happening right now. Delsin had set up a Digital Decoy, hoping to get the drop on Yang while he was invisible. Just as planned, Yang charged in to attack it. But, the moment when her Iron-clad fist would have struck the explosive decoy, it stopped short, and instead, she fired a volley of Iron shrapnel through it and landed a strike on the real Delsin standing just a few feet away.
As the metal tore into him, Delsin's Shroud of Invisibility blinked out of existence and he tumbled over from the force of his own decoy exploding a few feet away.
"Yeah!" he heard Ruby shout from the stands, "You get him, Yang!"
Several more shouts from the stands rose with hers, all of them cheering for Yang. But it was when Delsin checked his Aura level (a dangerously low 25) that he figured out what was happening. Because despite all of the cheering, there was one person who remained silent, in fact, the last person he expected to remain silent.
Sitting quietly at the back of the group, a black glow silhouetting his hand, was Alex.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Delsin thought, "He's helping her fight."
Delsin locked eyes with his partner and Alex sneakily smirked at him.
"What's wrong Delsin? Feeling tired?" Yang asked mockingly.
Delsin grit his teeth as his skin knit itself back together.
"Fine, you wanna play dirty? I can work with that," he said quietly.
In an instant, he switched to his Smoke power, channeled as much of it as he could into his hands, and slammed them into the ground. Yang raised her arms in front of her face as a huge plume of sulfurous smoke erupted from the floor of the arena, covering the battleground in an impenetrable cloud of darkness. As she dropped her arms, she found she was 100% blind.
"Good luck fighting what you can't see!" Delsin called.
Yang spun around, searching for the voice.
"Yeah, well you can't see either!" she said, coaxing a response.
"True," she heard somewhere to her left, "But..."
A Concrete covered fist collided with Yang's head.
"I can still hear you."
The hit was strong, but Yang had gotten used to heavy blows and recovered quickly. She swung at where the blow came from, but her fist hit empty air. Outside the cloud of smoke, Alex grimaced as he saw Yang's Aura fall to 35.
"Y'know Yang, If this were any other fight, you'd probably beat me pretty easily. And the way you were fighting just a moment ago was even better."
In front of her, Yang saw the Smoke begin to thin, as Delsin slowly walked forward.
"But when it comes to Conduit powers?" he said, Concrete growing over his body, "You still have a lot to learn."
Yang watched as Delsin charged forward. Every instinct in her body was telling her to attack him head-on, but she pushed them aside, remembering what Delsin had said a moment ago. At the last possible second, she spun out of the way and fired another blast of Iron Shrapnel.
As the Iron shards flew into it, the Decoy Delsin shimmered out of existence.
"Very nice!" Delsin's voice said, "but remember to watch your back!"
Yang spun around just in time to see Delsin launch a Cinder Missile. She tried to dodge, but there was no way she could over the short distance, so she instead readied herself for the impact.
O00000O00000O
In the stands, the crowd heard a loud "BOOM!" as they watched Yang fly out of the smoke cloud and crash into the far wall. Everyone's eyes snapped to the scoreboard.
Delsin's Aura was still at 25, while Yang's was holding on by a thread at 21, one point away from losing.
"C'mon Yang, you can do it!" Ruby shouted.
"Teach him what it means to be a Huntress!" Weiss said.
"Take him down!" George and Johnathan shouted in unison.
Alex sighed in relief as Yang stood up from the crack in the wall. Once again he reached out to help her with his Magnetism, but he found no target. As he looked closer, he saw the Iron-Coating that once covered Yang's body was fading. He grimaced, as he realized he couldn't help her anymore.
O00000O00000O
What Alex did not see, however, mostly because she was doing everything she could to hide it, was that Yang's Semblance was fully charged. She did a mental check of her abilities. Nothing. Her Conduit reserves were empty. As she stumbled back into a defensive stance, still dazed from the impact, she looked back up into the fading smoke cloud. Delsin walked out slowly, the ever-present cocky smirk on his face.
"Y'know, if the five of you together can't beat me after two weeks of almost non-stop training, I might need to step it up a bit. How's 16-hours a day instead of 12 sound, huh? 5 to 5?"
Beneath his cocky demeanor, Delsin was really proud of how well they had done. Frankly, he had only lasted this long because his powers were raising his defensive capabilities to insane levels. All kidding aside, after a few more weeks of training like they were doing now, they would be more than field ready. Well, all of them but Glynda, who just couldn't seem to get a handle on her powers.
He was taking his time moving out of his smokescreen, giving Yang a bit of extra time to get into a proper stance. He let embers trail from his fingertips as he approached; he didn't even bother to check the scoreboard.
"Well, it's just the two of us, and were both just about done."
He thumped his chest with both fists, his stance wide open.
"Gimme your best shot."
Yang held deathly still. She knew it was a trap. It had to be. And even if it wasn't, over the distance, Delsin had a clear advantage. So what was he angling for?
She internally sighed. Whether it was a trap or not, she didn't have a choice. It was either stand there and wait for him to attack, or take the initiative and maybe grasp victory. She triggered her Semblance, letting herself change. But as she did, she decided something. If she was going to walk into his trap, she was going to make him work for it
Without saying a word, Yang burst forward, using her strength to spring her close to him. Delsin smirked at her, thinking he had read her move. He pivoted his foot, and the floor beneath them cracked and splintered, forming a ring of spikes to protect him. But, to both his amazement and his pride, she did something he truly didn't expect.
He had expected her to power through them, breaking each one down and, eventually, leaving herself open to his close range counter attack. But in actuality, it was Yang who had read his move. Instead of barreling through the obstacles as he expected, she simply jumped on top of them, using each one as a step to get closer and closer to her target.
It was then Delsin realized his mistake. He couldn't get a shot on her from behind his own spikes, and at the moment he didn't have enough raw power to break them all down. He couldn't even use his Masonry power to put them back since he'd used up all of it creating them. And the worst part of it was, he was so taken aback from her choice of action, he had let Yang do the one thing that anyone who had ever fought her knew to never let her do: he let her get close.
Yang landed in front of him and wasted no time throwing a straight jab at Delsin's torso. Delsin spun out of the way, twirling to his right, then Smoke Dashing behind her. As soon as he re-materialized, Yang ducked under the attack she had already seen coming, in this case, a Phosphor Beam. The blonde whipped around and aimed an uppercut right to Delsin's jaw, but the Prime Conduit took a half step back and picked up a Light Dash around the perimeter small circle he had made.
In his head, Delsin knew his best option was to leave the spike ring and pick Yang off from a distance. But, he just couldn't. Perhaps it was the way she stood, calmly waiting for him to make his move, or perhaps it was simply a case of tunnel vision, his mind focusing too intently on the problem right in front of him.
He came to a complete stop just behind her and swapped his now drained Smoke power out for his slightly less drained Concrete. With a furious roar, he charged her, covering himself in Concrete along the way. Yang didn't turn, instead slamming her elbow into Delsin's chest, splintering his armor. Delsin rolled with the blow once again and got in right behind his opponent. He snaked his arms under hers and wrapped them around the back of her head, putting her in a very effective hold.
"You ready to give up, or do I need to finish you off?" he asked mockingly.
Yang smirked.
"Quick question D," she said.
"What?" he said, rolling his eyes at the nickname.
"What's this on your wrist?"
Delsin's eyes snapped open and locked onto the iron chain that was now disappearing from his right arm. Before he could even think, Delsin fired two point-blank Neon Beams from his hands, straight into Yang's head.
He was too late.
The bolts ricocheted off Yang's once again Iron encased body, the impact breaking Delsin's hold. As they slid apart, Yang pivoted to face her attacker once again. She raised a hand back behind her head.
"Eat THIS!" Yang shouted, snapping her hand forward as a huge Iron Wave launched forward, nearly identically to one of Delsin's Cinder Blasts. Delsin, with no time to react, simply smiled as the attack ripped through his Aura, dragging it all the way down to 0.
As he fell over, the buzzer sounded, signaling his defeat.
O00000O00000O
Yang walked over to her opponent, feeling supremely confident.
"Need a hand," she asked, holding one out to him.
Delsin smiled.
"Thanks," he said.
He took it, and she hauled him to his feet.
"So, did I earn my day off boss?" she asked smugly.
Delsin let out a half-hearted sigh.
"I guess," he said with mock reluctance.
Yang lightly punched him in the shoulder, smiling warmly.
"George? Can you come down here and fix this? I'm kinda tapped out," Delsin called.
"On it," the man replied, jumping from his seat to put the arena back together.
As he did, Delsin turned to the rest of the assembled spectators.
"Well, congratulations. In a Five on One match, you managed to just barely beat me," he said, earning a few pointed stares from his audience, as well as a few sarcastic eye-rolls, "And I'd say you earned your day off. Or maybe two."
A round of cheers went up from his students. Even Glynda was smiling, though it seemed half-hearted.
"Now, that said, you still have a ways to go, but we'll get to that in a couple of days. In the meantime, take a break and have some fun. Go wash up, recharge, and go home."
Smiles on their faces, the students all filed out. With one exception.
"Delsin?" a small voice asked.
Delsin turned around to see Rad standing behind him.
"Yeah, Rad? What's up?"
"Well... my apartment was kinda blown up in the Blast..." she explained, "I've been staying in a cheap motel for the last couple days, but-"
"Rad, why didn't you say something?" Delsin asked.
She shrugged.
"Didn't know how to bring it up. I know it's not fair to ask, but-"
"Rad, stop," Delsin said, "You need a place to stay? We have a bed open in the Team CNDT dorm. You are more than welcome to it. In fact, I would appreciate it. Alex and Eugene have been fighting over it for forever."
As he spoke, Delsin noticed a mix of emotions cross the girl's face. She opened her mouth to speak more than once, but no words came. Delsin didn't know the reason behind her hesitation but it was obvious his suggestion was causing her a bit of trouble.
"Hey, don't worry. I'm not saying you have to join the team, and if that's not something you're comfortable with, we can work something out. Just let me know, ok?" he added, his tone carrying a subtle gentleness.
The nervous tension in Rad's form slowly faded away.
"Thanks, Delsin. Sorry, it's just... I've gotten used to being on my own, and now, with these powers," she said, shaking her head, "Even after all that training- thanks for that, by the way- It's just so much to take in. But, if you'll have me, I think I'll take you up on that dorm room."
Delsin smiled.
"Well then. Let's get you set up," He said. He looked over her shoulder, seeing Velvet laugh at something Coco had said and spoke again. "Just... let me take care of something first, ok?"
With her peripheral vision, Rad followed Delsin's gaze. She smirked.
"Yeah, I'll leave you to it, big guy. Knock 'em dead," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she walked away.
Delsin swallowed and made his way towards his target. She was giggling, no doubt at one of Yang's terrible puns. When she saw him, her face brightened even further.
"She's so beautiful when she smiles," he thought.
Yang followed her gaze and, only barely managing to hide her smirk, motioned for the rest of the gang to walk away. Neither Delsin nor Velvet noticed them leave as he finally approached her.
"Hey," he said.
She smiled at him.
"Hey."
O00000O00000O
As the new Conduits made their way from the arena, each one tired and ready to take a nap, Yang stopped at the gate. She turned just in time to see Alex land behind her.
"Hey, birdbrain. How ya feeling?" she asked.
Alex smiled, not surprised she saw him coming.
"Well, it'll be a minute before I'm back to normal. And it'll be even longer before I can fly, but I am cleared to get out of bed, so that's cool," Alex told her.
"So you can finally get off your butt and back to work, huh?"
Alex chuckled.
"Darn right. There are only so many days of doing nothing while lying in a horribly uncomfortable bed that someone like me can take."
"Oh, getting tiredof sleeping all day?"
Alex smirked.
"Well, I guess when I woke up this morning, it was an eye-opening experience."
Yang's eyes widened. No one had ever counter-attacked before. No one.
"Did you just-"
"Yes, I did. And it is only because of years of training that I managed not to cringe while doing it."
"Well, I appreciate it. Too bad though. That was really... punny."
Alex raised an eyebrow at her.
"Really?"
"Couldn't help myself," she said with a shrug.
"Uh-huh," Alex replied, his doubt apparent from his tone.
"Well then, what brought you here? Surely you didn't come just to help me win."
"True, that's not the only reason I came. And please," he started, looking her in the eyes, "don't call me Shirley."
Yang couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.
"Seriously?!" she wheezed, "Where did that one come from?"
"An old movie my dad made us watch. Had us in stitches for hours."
"You have got to show me that movie. Like, as soon as physically possible."
"Really?" he said, just a hint of nervousness in his voice, "How about tonight?"
Yang froze. Did he-?
"Alex. Are you asking me out?"
Alex gulped but nodded.
"Yes. Yes, I am."
Yang shook her head and smiled.
"Well. It's about time."
Alex couldn't help but smile.
CHAPTER END
Again, I am so sorry about the wait. However, that said, my extremely long hiatus did give me time to go back and edit some of my earlier chapters. Those should be up in a few days, I hope, and I will find a way to let you guys know which ones have changed. It won't be too different, but it will add in a few scenes I forgot to put in that explain more of the story as it has happened in my head.
See you again soon.
I promise.
Merry Christmas.
