It's How You Play the Game
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Note 09.15.2021: This chapter has been edited by RSBCS
"I must say," said Cinder, "that was quite an interesting display."
Turning toward Kaito, she saw he was playing a game on a handheld device, but she could tell he had heard her.
"Without our Queen's help, the game wouldn't have begun," said Kaito without looking up, "this was but the first move on the board."
"Meh," said Roman, "That kid still beat your Bug-Grimm or whatever you called it."
"Bugster," corrected Kaito, "and the purpose wasn't to win, at least, not yet."
"Not win?" scoffed Roman, "Cinder, are you sure this kid is right in the head? Winning is kind of the point here."
"A war is not won by a single battle," said Kaito with a smile, "and a game is best when there are multiple bosses to face. I was simply gathering data for the ultimate game."
"And what is this 'Ultimate Game' you speak of?" asked Roman sarcastically.
"That is unimportant for now," said Cinder, "right now we need to continue our preparations for our main objective."
"And that is what I've been doing," sighed Roman, "the White Fang has been most helpful in procuring the Dust shipments, despite being Faunus of course."
Suddenly, Roman found the bladed end of Kaito's weapon at his throat, "Don't underestimate us because we're Faunus."
"Right right," said Roman, "I forgot that you're one of them. Now could you put that down? I'm partial to keeping my head attached."
When the feline Faunus didn't move his blade from the man's throat, the bowler hat wearing crook frowned and glanced at Cinder, who was standing there with a slightly amused look.
"Oi!" said Roman, "You gonna call off your dog here, Cinder?"
"I'm a cat, actually," said Kaito.
"Whatever!" yelled Roman, "Well, Cinder?"
"I'm considering it," said Cinder simply.
"Wait, what?!" said Roman in surprise, "You NEED me! I'm the one getting all the Dust for your grand scheme, not to mention that I've been keeping the White Fang on board with our plans."
"Well," said Cinder with a smirk, "I'm sure Kaito here could work with the White Fang, and Neo could handle the Dust gathering in your place, not to mention she lacks your disrespectful tongue…"
"Alright alright," sighed Roman, "I'll keep in line, just call him off. I'm rather attached to having my head on my shoulders."
"Let him go," said Cinder to the feline Faunus, "we do still need him."
Kaito nodded and lowered his weapon before picking up his game and sitting down again. Roman dusted off his coat and straightened his lapels before turning to the red-clad woman.
"So," he said, addressing Cinder, "What's our next move?"
"You will be continuing to collect Dust and supplies for our forces," said Cinder, "Kaito will be shadowing you to ensure that there are no interferences."
"As long as I don't have to babysit him," said Roman before holding his hands up in surrender as said Faunus pointed his weapon at the crook, "right right, I'm sorry."
"Very good," said Cinder, "I'll need to report to my Mistress. Our plans are going quite well."
"Yes," said Kaito as he glanced at the screen on his weapon and looked at the lines of code that were streaming across it, "they are."
With a laugh, the Faunus teen tossed his game pad into the air and let it vanish into a distortion that appeared in the air.
xXsceneXx
Back at the Team RWKBY, Yang, Blake, and Weiss were watching as their leader and the Kamen Rider were hard at work at their respective workstations.
Ruby was busy drawing up blueprints and ideas in a notebook as she tried to design a weapon that would fit her teammate and his fighting style. There was already a wastebasket filled with rejected ideas, but she wouldn't give up when her teammate needed something to give him an edge. Besides, weapon design was her passion, so why stop now?
As for Kazi, he was furiously typing away at the computer he had set up in his corner of the room, causing data to stream across the screen as the Faunus made modifications to his newest Gashat. He had been hard at work for the past hour, mapping code and inputting data from the previous battle that had been collected by his Driver when he fought the Bugster.
"They've been at it for a while now," said Blake as the rest of the team watched them work.
"Can you blame them?" asked Weiss, "I mean, Kazi doesn't have a weapon outside of his Kamen Rider form, and that's just asking for trouble as a Huntsman."
"I've honestly not seen her this focused on something since she was designing Crescent Rose," said Yang.
"I wonder if that means something significant," mused Blake.
"Damnit!" yelled Kazi suddenly, causing the rest of the team to rush over, "This just won't work!"
"What's wrong?" asked Yang.
"I can't get this power distribution curve to work right," said Kazi, "when I try to reduce the excess energy flow, the Gashat lacks the significant energy to power the Level Three unit. But if the flow is left as is, a discharge is built up to dangerous levels that can cause permanent damage to me and the Driver."
"That is a bit of a problem," said Blake.
"I've been trying to find a workaround, but I can't seem to find a way to safely discharge that much stored energy," said Kazi with a sigh.
"Why do you have to discharge it?" asked Ruby.
"What are you talking about?" asked Weiss, "Didn't you hear what he said?"
"Well yeah," said the scythe wielder, "but can't you put the energy to use? I mean when I built Crescent Rose, I needed to find a way to handle the recoil from the High Caliber Dust Rounds, so I designed it to be able to disperse the bulk of the recoil through the frame, leaving enough that I can either use or counter."
"You dispersed the power across the entire device?" asked Blake.
"Yeah," said Ruby, "Yang's gloves have a feature like that too to deal with excess heat from the firing mechanism."
"Disperse the flow across the unit," mused Kazi, "that…just might work."
The teenage Faunus quickly began typing into his laptop, bringing up a schematic of the Ex-Aid armor. Hitting a few keys, he added on the Gekitotsu Robots armor and watched as energy flowed out from it and was dispersed throughout the suit.
"This is brilliant," said Kazi, "instead of fighting against the energy buildup, I can channel it across the suit to boost performance and stability. Why didn't I think of this?"
"That's my little sis for ya," smiled Yang as she pulled Ruby into a headlock.
"If this works," said Kazi as he plugged his driver into the computer, "then this would solve my problem with creating Level Three Gashats."
"So, you won't get zapped anymore?" asked Blake.
"Only one way to find out," said Kazi as the software finished downloading from his computer into his Driver. Once the download was finished, Kazi grabbed his Driver and jumped to his feet, "so, who's up for heading to the arena to test this out?"
"Sure thing," said Yang, "if you think you're up to it?"
"Don't underestimate my Leveled-Up power," said Kazi with a smirk, "I'll show you in the arena."
"Well let's see then," said Yang as the rest of Team RWKBY grabbed their things and headed to the training arenas available to students.
xXsceneXx
"So how do you want to do this?" asked Blake as the team gathered in their battle gear.
"How about we finish where we left off?" asked Yang with a smirk as she hopped onto the platform and walked to the center of the arena, "I wouldn't mind testing my fists against your new form. I'll make sure to hold back so I don't send you to the nurse's office this time."
"Oh, there's no need for that," said Kazi as he placed his Driver on his waist and pulled out his two Gashats, "I think I've fixed that particular issue. Hit me as hard as you want."
"You sure about this?" asked Blake with a raised eyebrow.
"Perfectly," said Kazi as he pressed the buttons on both Gashats.
[Mighty Action X/Gekitotsu Robots!]
"Good luck, both of you!" said Ruby as she waved pennants with both their emblems.
"Well then," said Yang, "let's do this."
"Right," said Kazi as he slotted in his Gashats and pulled the lever on his Driver, "Henshin: Third Shift."
[Gashat! Level Up! Mighty Jump! Mighty Kick! Mighty Mighty Action X! A Gacha! Buttobase! Totsugeki! Gekitotsu Punch! Gekitotsu Robots!]
Yang smiled as Ex-Aid's suit formed before the Gekitotsu Robot unit formed into armor on his person. The Kamen Rider raised his mechanical gauntlet and got into a fighting stance while his blond opponent did the same, while an automated clock counted down.
When the timer hit zero, the blond brawler leapt forward, cocking her fist back to deliver a powerful punch to Ex-Aid's armored chest plate, but when the punch connected, it only made the Kamen Rider step back twice from the explosive force from Ember Celica's shotgun shells.
"Nice armor," said Yang as she shook her fist to alleviate the stinging.
"Nice punch," Ex-Aid returned, "want to see mine?"
"I'm game," said Yang as she cocked her fist back and channeled her Aura to give an extra boost.
The blond brawler rushed forward again and punched out with her armored gauntlet just as Ex-Aid swung his mechanical fist forward to meet the blow. There was a muffled bang and Yang was sent skidding back from the force of the impact while Ex-Aid remained in his place.
"That new level is no joke," smiled Yang as she got to her feet and cracked her joints.
"Think you've had enough?" asked Ex-Aid as pistons in his mechanical fist gave a slight whirr.
"Hardly," smirked Yang, "I haven't even begun to go all out yet."
"Holding back?" chuckled the Kamen Rider, "I thought you wanted to give me a run for my Lien?"
"I'm gonna do just that," smirked Yang as she slammed her fists together, releasing an explosive blast of Aura that made her hair seem to dance with flames while her lilac eyes turned bright red.
"Oh boy," groaned Ruby from the sidelines, "she's done it now."
"Done what?" asked Weiss, "what's going on?"
"She's using her Semblance," sighed Ruby, "this could get ugly."
"Why?" asked Blake warily, "What does her Semblance do?"
"Yang's Semblance allows her to take all the damage done to her and turn it into strength," said Ruby, "so as long as she can still fight, she can get stronger and stronger."
"That doesn't seem so bad," said Blake.
"The catch," added Ruby, "is that she gets really angry."
"YAAAAAAH!" yelled Yang as she shot forward faster than before, aiming another punch at Ex-Aid.
The Kamen Rider didn't expect much, as her previous attacks were barely able to make him stagger back, so he simply stood there and lowered his center of gravity to intercept it. That proved to be a mistake, as the punch, now enhanced by the blond's Semblance, struck him with enough power to send him skidding back several feet. The only thing keeping him from winding up on his back was the fact that he had braced himself first, but the brawler didn't let up. Yang continued to deliver powerful punches to Ex-Aid's armor, and from the readout of his Life Gauge that displayed on the inside of his helmet, he could see that her attacks were actually breaking through the Level 3 defenses and causing him damage.
"KORA!" yelled Ex-Aid as he swung his robotic fist out to knock Yang back, but he was surprised when the blond caught the punch with her new strength.
Reacting quickly, Ex-Aid brought his fist back, pulling Yang, who had been gripping the metal knuckle, into his other fist, forcing her to loosen his grip enough to pull free and kick her in the midsection.
Both fighters were about to continue when…
"TIME!" yelled Ruby as the buzzer sounded.
"What?!" both combatants cried out in surprise.
"This was only meant to be a test," said Ruby, "and we've already proven that the new Gashat works well with the adjustments."
"Besides," said Blake simply as she pointed to the Aura Gauges on the overhead screen, "you're running low on Aura Yang."
And indeed, the blond's Aura levels were in the yellow, approaching red, from the fight. Kazi breathed out and removed the Gashat's from his belt, causing his armor to vanish, before reaching out a hand to his teammate.
"Good match Yang," he said.
"Heh," chuckled the brawler, "I'll get you next time."
"Well," said Weiss, "now that that's done, maybe we should get washed up and head back to the dorm? We have that test in Ooblek class tomorrow."
The team nodded and walked off, not noticing that a crow was sitting in the rafters watching them. The avian then spread its wings and flew off, leaving a single black feather behind in the empty room.
