A Cosmic Journey

A/N: Happy Easter Monday to those that celebrate it. This week is shaping up to be tougher than the last few, so hopefully everyone else out there is doing alright in this situation.

Chapter 29: Make An Omelet

Chapter Date: 04/13/2020

This was bad.

CLANG

Very bad.

THUD. "GUH!"

I was up against two master assassins, so things were going as one might expect.

TSING

I was losing…

BANG. "KAH!"

…Badly.

'Come on, keep your eyes on them!' With Chronometry going at full power, I was maximizing the amount of time I had to react to Mercury and Neo coming at me. 'Alright, decide your win condition.' I sidestepped a shot from Talaria before bringing Luna up to deflect Hush. Upon contact with the parasol, Neo's image shattered before me and I rolled to duck under Neo's real weapon. I didn't even have time to stand up before Talaria was swinging towards me, and I brought my armored arm up to block the blow. The metal leg still carried enough momentum to slam me into a wall at the edge of the backlot we were in.

'I won't be able to beat them, not as I am now. So my options are either to escape, or hold out as long as possible.' An eye over towards Neo saw her smirking as she brandished Hush. 'No, I won't be able to get away with Neo's Overactive Imagination active. I'm set to lose this fight, but it'll be up to me to decide how long that takes.' I leaned against the wall, taking in and shouldering the inevitability of it.

"What's wrong, tapping out already? And after all your trash talk on who'd be winning this fight?" Mercury was smirking as well, his expression far more self-satisfied than Neo's. "After what Roman and Neo here told us about your combat ability, I was expecting more of a challenge."

'Keep them talking, run through their weaknesses.' Despite myself, I grinned back at the two enforcers. "So the pretty girl's name is Neo. Always nice to meet a fan, and I wasn't sure about her name until now." Neo narrowed her eyes and whacked Mercury with Hush, eliciting a cry of pain from Mercury.

'Mercury; close-range specialist, with cybernetic legs and some level of Dust proficiency for his Wind Dust projectiles.' I gestured over to Mercury's pants. "Y'know, your legs pack far too much oomph to not be at least armored, not to mention that they reverberate like metal. I'd imagine that you're sweating up a storm under those sweatpants of yours." To my satisfaction and horror, Mercury's jaw tightened at my diagnosis and jab at his legs.

'Neo; acrobatics-and-agility type, capable of redirecting force and a master with her parasol.' Now I focused on the trichromatic fighter. "Unfortunate that we keep meeting in these circumstances, Neo. Normally I'd love to have a chat with one such as yourself, but it doesn't seem like now's the time for it. Speaking of which, where's Roman, anyhow? You two were the ones present during the Dust robbery last time we met." Neo grinned savagely, and I could tell there wasn't any upside to what that smile meant, beyond the fact that her attention was definitely on me now.

"Torchwick is off doing other things, and the job of beating down our little hostage fell to the more skilled fighters, like Neo and I here." Mercury nodded to Neo as he kept talking. "Though, given your lukewarm performance so far, it doesn't even look like two of us were necessary. The famed tutelage of Beacon Academy doesn't look like all it's cracked up to be."

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it," I cajoled, grasping my shades and slipping them on. "It's too bad about Torchwick though. I had a few questions on those Dust robberies that were just itching to get answered."

"You can try asking him yourself if you've got the strength for it, after we're done with you." Mercury readied his fighting stance and Neo levelled Hush at me.

I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes as I focused on my Aura. True to form, Mercury's silver Aura highlighted his form, along with the pink outline of Neo's-'WAIT!' Whirling around, I looked towards the side where a second pink form was speeding towards my side with Hush stabbing outward. Swinging my arm outward, I knocked Hush away and lashed out with Luna, slashing solidly with the knife before the illusionist managed to recover and launch herself off the wall and back towards Mercury. Opening my eyes, I watched the Neo next to Mercury shatter into glass as the real Neo backed away from me.

'Weakness 1 for Neo: Overactive Imagination entails physical illusions created through Aura. Ergo, if I can see Aura, I'll know where you really are.' Really, the ability to counter illusions was the main reason why I'd trained towards achieving Aura vision, with the ability to otherwise perceive the environment in real-time being a fringe benefit.

"How did you-" Mercury spluttered, looking between Neo and I before finding his composure. "It doesn't matter. It'll be just one more question that we squeeze out of you once we're through with you. Neo! Time to quit playing around."

Neo rolled her eyes but nodded, her usual smirk lost as she eyed me with an air of questioning, as if trying to put together a puzzle. Whatever she saw, it caused her eyes to light up in glee, and I sighed.

'This is gonna suck.' Both fighters charged forward, and I kept my eyes shut on as they closed in, waiting. The silver and pink outlines of their Auras gave me their exact position as Mercury slid in for a kick before his windup was interrupted by a left arm block. From the right, I managed to divert another stab from Hush as Neo appeared to be forgoing-

THWACK

I stumbled back despite myself, clutching the bridge of my nose from where Hush had smacked into it. Eyes watering, I maintained focus even as Mercury pivoted and leapt off the ground, rapidly front-kicking against my guard. As I tried counterattacking with Luna, the assassin dropped down and drove his boot into my side, knocking me sideways before I managed to recover.

'Sonofa…' I clutched my throbbing ribs and opened my eyes again, taking in Mercury and Neo regrouping. 'Figures they'd find out; I can see through Neo's illusions thanks to my Aura sensing, but it takes me having my eyes closed, which means no Chronometry. So I can either see through illusions but get summarily beaten down, or rely on Chronometry and get death by a thousand cuts…or kicks.'

This time Mercury came first, flipping over in a full axe heel kick aimed for my skull. Applying a factor of Burst, I guarded up above and crouched to cushion the blow. As I did, I reached out and grabbed Mercury's boot before he could kick off me.

'There's no competition really…if there's one thing I've relied on, it's my endurance.' Stomping down, I squeezed as hard as I could and threw Mercury at the stationary Neo across from me. Flipping backwards, the martial artist crashed through Neo's illusion and landed on his feet, smirking as I took a slash across the back from the real Neo. As I kicked outwards, Neo somersaulted away and posed with Hush across her shoulders, also pleased with herself.

'Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain.' Behind my shades, I focused in on Talaria, noting the bent heel. 'Focus.'

I knew I couldn't last long without going on the offensive, and so I charged towards Mercury, counting on the lax pose he took against me. Sliding into my southpaw stance, I knew he'd been trained for such cases, and brought up his elbow to divert my jab. As he did, I snapped my wrist and nailed his jaw from the side. Following up with a straight to the body, Mercury jumped away but I swung the punch into an uppercut to the jaw again. Lashing out with a blind kick, I caught his leg with my left arm and aimed with my right. I could feel Neo lancing out with Hush again, but I steeled myself.

'Let them cut your flesh so you may crush their bones.' Taking a stab from Hush to the shoulder, I gritted my teeth and stabbed Luna into Talaria's other boot, seeing a satisfying sparking sound as I was kicked away by Neo. Rolling over a couple times, I pulled myself up and got the satisfaction of watching Mercury's self-confident expression darken.

"Y'know, taking a knife to the foot is apparently supposed to hurt," I commented, bracing myself as Mercury kicked out to trigger Talaria's guns. A series of clicks resounded out, and Mercury examined his weapons in disbelief. 'Weakness 1 for Mercury; no long-range capabilities without Talaria. That means no storm of Dust projectiles.'

"You little shit…I might've made things easier on you, but you want a beating up close and personal? Fine." Mercury stomped his foot down, and the ground cracked from its force. The servos still seemed to be working perfectly.

I silently focused on my Aura in response. 'Down to less than a third, and only a weakened Talaria to show for it.' I gripped Luna tighter, and concentrated on the knife's effects. 'With what I have left…maybe…' Turning towards Neo, I dashed towards her as she readied Hush in amusement and beckoned with a finger.

Closing my eyes, I sped into her range as Mercury approached from behind. Punching out with my left arm, Neo opened her parasol to deflect my blow and stabbed outwards. Opening my eyes, I turned to avoid the blade and struck Hush with Luna while rotating to face Mercury. With my eyes open, I managed to guard with my arm as the force pushed me back into Neo's own kick.

'Godsdamnit…heels…' I hissed as I spun around, having the two opponents in my vision again. 'Well…already invested in the plan…' This time, Mercury and Neo were the ones to move, and I closed my eyes despite the fear. With both Aura's approaching fast, this time two more figures wreathed in pink were in front of Mercury and Neo, while the real Neo jumped up and launched herself off one of Mercury's kicks. Clenching my teeth, I focused on the real fighters approaching, and as the illusions lashed out and shattered on impact, I ducked under Mercury's tornado kick before spinning around him and grabbing Hush as Neo dove down.

"HIDE THIS!" I swung down with an Aura-infused Luna, and the bladed tip of Hush was sheared off the parasol.

THUD

I went sprawling as Mercury's full kick landed against my other side, and I felt my Aura shatter on hard contact with the ground. Snapping my eyes open, I hauled myself to my feet and watched Neo's incredulous expression, holding up Hush to eye its broken blade. Narrowed eyes of pink and brown swung up to glare with hate now.

"Well, seems like the game is up. You've had a good run, but you're done now." Mercury on the other hand appeared to have composed himself, especially now that my Aura had broken. That composure cracked a little as I brought my arms up, his eyebrows rising as he saw my straining arms. "Seriously? Your Aura's shattered. Whatever hit we land on you now is going to be unmitigated. You still wanna continue this? We're not even chasing after the bunny girl, and she's probably long gone by now!"

'But with every second I'm still up delaying their plans…' I chuckled, and grinned as I found the right quote. "…I can do this all day."

Mercury look towards Neo, who noncommittally shrugged before raising Hush again. Mercury rolled his eyes and planted his feet. "Suit yourself then."

Both rocketed forward, and I prioritized Mercury's crushing kicks to guard with my left arm, skidding across the ground without Aura reinforcement. As Neo eschewed using Hush like a blade, she spun around and bashed both ends of the parasol into my stomach and face. As I went reeling, Mercury's heel found my ribs once again.

CRUNCH

I doubled over, but not before forcing Mercury to do the same after I kicked up between his legs. 'Too bad that's not metal too, huh?' Another blow courtesy of Hush sent me down on all fours, and I looked up at a rageful Mercury and inquisitive Neo. One hand was planted on Hush like a cane, while the other was laid out as if to ask, "Anything else?"

"Yeah…just give me a second!" I jerked upright despite the shooting pain in my side, whipping my left arm out in a backhand that managed to catch the short acrobat in her own side. With her solid footing though, she didn't slide so much as an inch. Instead, she her gaze turned feral, and she smiled with far too many teeth.

WHAM

… … …

I wasn't sure what I became aware of first; my throbbing head, my own wheezing breaths, the piercing pain coming from my ribs, or some combination thereof. I was also bound to a chair with cord and handcuffs. After opening my eyes though, I could tell instantly though that I was in deep.

"Interesting technology…I would normally say call such items frivolous, but you don't appear to be the kind of man who engages in excess…"

An asymmetrical red dress with a one long sleeve on the left side. Black pantyhose and a gray glove adorned her right arm and legs, with gold trim decorating her dress and coverings. Two different earrings hung from her ears, one ring-shaped while the other was a black gem. Her eyes also appeared similarly mismatched, with one a vibrant amber...and the other a glowing red.

"I'm glad to see that you've awoken. After all, I have a great many questions that I would like answered, and you seem like the perfect person to help me." Cinder Fall slowly rose from her seat, and as I followed her eyes up, I caught sight of an irate Mercury in the background. I quickly defaulted to my base operating system.

"Well, I can't say that the hospitality has been great so far…or the invitation…or the messengers, but I'd be remiss if I couldn't play a game of twenty questions with one such as yourself." Back to dry humor and witty banter, then.

Cinder slowly stepped out of the shadows, sauntering over in a measured pace. A coy smile stretched across her face. "How generous of you. I suppose I'd like to start by making sure of your identity."

I very nearly flinched at her inquiry, but I knew, had to believe that she didn't know I was the Specter. "I'd be a little concerned if you had your associates kidnap people without confirming their identity first, but I am Kouzai Higure. Do I have the pleasure of asking for a name in return?"

A pleased chuckle left Cinder's mouth. "How very novel, to have an abducted be so…calm in these circumstances. I am Cinder Fall. Now, do you have an understanding as to why you are here?"

"I hadn't given it too much thought yet, on account of the whole 'fighting for my life' situation. But if I had to guess…is it for information on Beacon Academy? Your 'associate' over there was quite verbal about it."

Mercury glared in my direction, but quickly quailed as Cinder's heterochromatic eyes swung around to him, before slowly returning to me. "Chatter from my associates aside, I would say that your answer is slightly off the mark. You see, we're not seeking to use you for information, but rather as a…bargaining chip."

'Then how would I only be…' My eyes widened and my pulse jumped as I caught on, before realizing that Cinder was still watching my every reaction. Working fast, I gasped, "You're after Weiss? Or is it the twins? Because if you're goal is Weiss, I'm sorry to inform you that we're on less than positive terms."

Mercury coughed something that sounded distinctly like 'Idiot!' under his breath, but Cinder appeared more amused than anything else, bringing her hand to her chin. "Again, not quite, but your thought process is interesting. However, we are not seeking the Schnee heiress, nor are we interested in Hei Xiong's wards at the moment. Hmm…I could see that you gave Mercury and Neo some difficulty in acquiring you, despite being outnumbered, outmatched, and at one point having no Aura. Do they instill such determination in the curriculum at Beacon?"

"Nope." My quick answer seemed to surprise Cinder for once. "That's just the will to survive after having grown up outside the kingdoms. That, and a strong memory of what life was like before Aura made things convenient."

"How…interesting. I suppose the lack of such security does lead to stronger mental fortitude. And did such an upbringing allow you to learn techniques like sensing Auras?"

It seemed like that trick was out of the bag. "Let's just say that the Grimm weren't the only danger to my life outside of the walls."

"Quite. With such inclinations, however…such a shame that you chose such a path." Cinder's gaze fell back upon my shades, before coming up to my eyes. "I see that your eyes are silver in color. Tell me, is that a physical trait that you have had since birth?"

'Going for the big ones now, huh?' I gulped despite myself, and Cinder easily noted that. "No, they changed to silver a couple years back after an accident involving too much strain with my Aura, which is silver…is my eye color really so important? Professor Ozpin has asked about it too."

Cinder appeared to jump on my 'slip-up', smiling broadly in response. "Having silver eyes is known to be a…rare, trait to possess. I suppose you may count yourself fortunate that such a trait was unnatural and an accident. Otherwise, we might be having a very different conversation…"

"Oh…one last thing…" Cinder's arm shifted, and as she passed my shades over to her other hand, the long red sleeve of her dress fell back to reveal a darkened, clawed hand wrapped in shadows. Said Grimm hand began reaching outwards. "Thanks to some…recently acquired abilities, I can sense the emotions that individuals around me are feeling. And you, while not outright lying, appear to have something that you're hiding."

I flinched as her arm came close, before her hand gently placed my shades back on my face. "Oh, don't worry, I won't be hurting you. I'll just depart for now, and let you understand the situation a little further. Once I get back, I think I might have some more questions for you, and I do so very hope that you'll be honest with your answers." A thin smile struck fear into me, as her glowing red orb of a left eye seemed to brighten on command. As Cinder stood up and turned to leave, Mercury took her spot across from me as I was left to my thoughts.

'They're using me for Amber…gods, this is bad. Forget the cavalry, I need to find my way out before something irreversible happens…'

… … …

DING

Roman paused in his actions, reaching into his pocket to pull out his scroll. "For crying out loud, I told her…huh…oh, that's just rich…"

"Care to share?" The gentleman thief turned to view his mint-haired temporary companion.

"A 'please' always helps," Roman commented cheekily. After receiving a glare from Emerald for a few seconds, Roman sighed. "Gods, no sense of humor these days…they found a potential bait, and caught him. Only, it seems like that bait was a little more than either of them bargained for. Both Talaria and Hush are gonna need repairs."

"Are you serious?" Emerald looked like Christmas had come early. "You're telling me that Mercury got his ass handed to him in a two-on-one, and got his legs broken?"

"The blackmail material isn't that good, unfortunately. Their target just happened to be just ballsy enough to go for their weapons, and just tenacious enough to manage the job."

"Still though, you had better believe that Mercury will not be living this one down."

"Oh, I believe it." Roman looked down at his scroll again, noting the picture of the beaten Beacon student along with some of Neo's more colorful language. "I also believe that Neo's got another target on her 'fight' list…eh, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. In the meantime, let's pick up the pace here!"

"Again, I'm the one holding the illusion here," Emerald snapped, bending down to grab entire displays of Dust from her position behind the counter. Beside her, the blissfully unaware owner was conversing with what he believed to be a wealthy patron.

"Yeah, and I'm the one who did the planning, told you what to create, and did the leg work here." Roman gestured to the pile of unconscious employees in a corner of the store. "But it appears that my talents go unappreciated yet again."

"That's my line!"

… … …

"He's still not back yet."

Ilia glanced up at the clock, then back between a concerned Miltia and an unconcerned Melanie.

"He's fine, he said he just needed to take a walk in someplace a little bigger than Beacon." Melanie was sharpening the blades on her boots. "Besides, he just kicked Cardin's ass; I think he's capable of taking care of himself."

"Normally, yes, but he hasn't exactly been acting normal lately. Ilia, what do you think?" The chameleon Faunus turned to look at an expectant Miltia.

"He has been behaving differently lately, with getting less sleep and writing more in those journals he keeps." Miltia looked triumphant as Melanie scoffed. "At the same time though, we all know that people that have lived the sort of double life that this team has tend to act strangely at times. Maybe this is just proof that Kouzai can't be flexible in all circumstances."

Ilia heard a slight commotion going on down the hall, but shrugged it off when she realized it was coming from team RWBY's room. Meanwhile, Miltia was speaking again. "But if he's acting so weird, doesn't that mean what he's doing something that none of us know about?"

"-slow down, Velvet-"

"We may be teammates, but we don't need to know everything that happens with each other." Melanie pointed out. "We're twins and I don't know everything about you."

"-need Qrow and Zwei?"

"Look, we'll just give it a couple more hours and then we can-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, KIDNAPPED?!"

The room fell silent as Ruby's voice rang out. A second passed. Two. Thr-

BANG

Team KMMI's door nearly fell off it's hinges as Ruby blurred into the room, appearing before Ilia in a burst of rose petals to vigorously shake the Faunus. A glance towards the door revealed a disgruntled and confused Yang, an understanding Weiss, a fearful Blake, a terrified Velvet, and a grim Fox.

"Ruby, what's-"

"It's Kouzai! He's been kidnapped by some crazy people!"

Ilia's heart seized, and she glanced over at an equally worried Miltia and Melanie. The fear threatened to overwhelm her, but she clamped down on it and focused on the task at hand.

She had a call to put in. Her partner's life was on the line.

A/N: Kind of expected that Kouzai wouldn't be able to beat Mercury and Neo, especially without weapons and full Aura. Still, each loss comes with its own unique sting. At the very least, he accomplished what he set out to do, so there's that at least. We'll see if it was enough. Now for reviews.

The Keeper of Worlds: You know, fightmare actually has an interesting ring to it, and definitely fits the description of this fight.

Oblivious IJ: Glad you approved of the curb stompage, and this fight could likely qualify too.

Kuriboh1233: Well, Velvet did mention that she was conflicted about the betting. As to what exactly that means, that'll have to wait.

AlexFalTon: Hopefully I portrayed that realistically, but there have been others commenting on the lowballing I've done with regards to Kouzai's combat ability. In terms of the twins, there have been a few interactions in the writing here and there, but nothing too substantive yet. Things will come back around though once the action returns to less back-breaking levels. As for Mercury being a rooster, there is very little chance that Mercury can get his hair to stay in layers like it is without obscene levels of hair product or having it grow out like that, kind of like a rooster.

Blueassassin996: Yup, and it went about as well as you might expect. This is one of the reasons why direct confrontation has not been high on his list of priorities in the planning.

Gizmo Gear: Increasing his Aura is technically possible, but according to statements by the powers that be (ex. RWBY's creators), such a training method is noted as impractical, with most instead training to use it more efficiently.

HappyHulk: I've got penchants for certain shades of most colors, but if I had to order them it'd likely be silver, followed by blue in most shades, and then green.

R26: Thanks for the well wishes, and I'm definitely taking my time on the whole shipping business. What's been laid out is more of a foundation than anything, but I'll assuredly be trying to build them up to do them justice.

-SE

Next Chapter Date: 04/20/2020