A/N: DOUBLE UPDATE? WHAT?!
This is another one of my favourite episodes in the show. I know there's a lot of hate towards the JNPR fight since it was lacking the choreography and skill of the other fights, but honestly? This fight cracks me up immensely. I love what a joke the JNPR vs. BRNZ fight is. Also, I hope you realize how hard I worked to ensure that, early on in this dang fic, I had already set up the 'Flower Power' joke just for this chapter. And let's be real- Team SSSN is always a joy to watch. Neptune's little "hands above the waist" and Sun's retort of "Ignore him- for he… yeah he's dumb" is one of the best bro moments in anything. Fight me.
As always, let me know if you enjoyed it!
Laws of Attraction
"C'mon, guys!" Jaune cried, holding up his sword valiantly.
When the buzzer sounded, Pyrrha charged forward, a rush of adrenaline spiking through her as she felt the rest of JNPR follow her lead. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the sniper- May- bolted to the treeline behind her teammates. The remainder of BRNZ charged, their leader running square towards Pyrrha.
You're first.
Her body moved on autopilot, the reactions so smooth and effortless that she could hear Professor Port and Professor Oobleck praising her already in the distance as she blocked a kick from the built boy. The crowd cheered as Brawnz attempted to take her down with a clawed fist, but she quickly deflected the strike and knocked him aside with a blow from Akoúo. With a yelp, he fell back, allowing the girl to straighten up and look for her teammates.
Jaune was focused on blocking Roy's saws, and Nora was dancing around Nolan's cattle prod, riling the boy up with her endless giggles. Ren was watching the sniper cautiously, unsure of which opponent to go for.
Pyrrha's finger twitched upon the trigger of Miló, itching to switch into its rifle form. I should take her down right now, she thought analytically, glancing over everyone else's weapons. The other three were melee fighters – if she bolted out of close range, she'd be able to smoke May out of her cover, and then take her down with her javelin. She's the biggest threat right now.
Suddenly, a bullet flew past Jaune's cheek. Pyrrha sighed ruefully, shaking her head in amusement as she watched Jaune's expression instantaneously morph from determination to sheer terror. Eyes wide, he screeched, "R-R-Retreat!"
She bit her lip, forcing her expression to remain calm despite the mild frustration bubbling up from within. Why are we trapping ourselves and letting them take over more ground? However, there was no time to think about it. Immediately, Pyrrha ran towards the other three, raising Akoúo behind her and keeping her body low. Nora and Ren took the hint and ran ahead of them, leaving Pyrrha and Jaune to follow up with their shields. Bullets from May ran down upon them, demolishing the rock face of the mountainside.
After they had all hidden behind a rocky outcropping, they huddled low, wincing as the sniper continued to fire upon them. Pyrrha peeked over the top of a scraggly rock, a frown slipping through her mask as she saw their three other opponents racing towards them. "What do we do?" Pyrrha asked steadily. Ever since initiation, the blond specialized in tactics, after all. This was Jaune's time to shine. Although their position wasn't the best, he'd be able to figure out a way to get them out of this corner.
Seeing the incoming assailants, Jaune cried, "Spread out! Try to keep moving!" Just as he announced this, the three boys from BRNZ leapt over their hiding spot and began their attack anew.
"Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl," Brawnz called, raising his fists up in challenge as he honed in on her. "I'm looking forward to beating you."
Internally, she winced. She still hated that nickname. On the outside, however, she just raised a brow- but instead of retaliating, she simply gave him a sweet, good-natured smile. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do!"
The boy rushed her, and the sound of clashing metal rang through the battlefield, echoing through the small mountain range behind them as he threw out another punch. She blocked it easily with Miló, pushing the boy off when he attempted to overpower her with sheer strength.
As they danced around one another, Pyrrha's ears perked up when she heard Nora's horrified cry. "Ren!" she screamed, shrill and angry.
With a deft sweep of her legs, Pyrrha threw Brawnz back to the ground momentarily, kicking one of his claws off. She took the brief respite to check in on everyone else- Jaune was clumsily going up against Roy, although he was still holding his own, and his Aura looked intact. Ren was lying on the ground, moaning and clutching his stomach. As for Nora…
"Nora, watch out!" she cried, but it was too late. Nolan had already stabbed his cattle prod straight into her stomach, and the short girl's orange hair instantly stood on end as electricity coursed through her.
Wait… electricity?
"Scared for your little friend?" Brawnz spat, crawling to his knees.
She instantly disarmed him, kicked the other claw off his hand and pinned him down, hooking Akoúo's curved detail around his neck to keep him restrained. "I'd be more scared for your teammate if I were you," she explained nonchalantly, fighting to keep the grin off of her face now.
From the commentator's booth, Professor Port laughed heartily. "Oh-ho! Looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her Semblance!"
Nolan visibly could not contain his panic as Professor Oobleck agreed, "Yes, Ms. Valkyrie's Semblance lets her produce, as well as channel, electrical energy straight to her muscles! This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!"
"You've gotta be kidding me," Brawnz huffed. With sheer force of will, the boy reached up and around Pyrrha's shield, grabbing for the ponytail which hung over her shoulder.
She grimaced and leapt backwards, freeing the boy before he could grab hold of her hair. He tottered to his feet, but it was too late- Nora discharged the stored electricity straight into the pale boy's stomach, sending Nolan flying straight through a rock, where he lay motionless under the rubble. By some miracle, his Aura didn't dip below the red, but he was still clearly out of the battle for the time being.
His Aura is going to be kept busy keeping him alive, Pyrrha thought absentmindedly.
To her right, Jaune yelled, "Nora! Get to the mountain!"
Wait, why? With a quick look backwards, Pyrrha's mask finally cracked, a wide smile blossoming forth. Even as Brawnz engaged her in battle once more, she couldn't contain the pride rising up in her.
Through the use of Dust, the battleground biomes were also able to simulate weather phenomena, and there was currently a dark thundercloud forming at the peak of the mountaintop.
He's figured out how to use our Semblances, even without unlocking his own. He's really improved.
Jaune barked out more orders to Ren, watched Nora begin her swift ascent towards the tallest peak, then turned back to face off against Roy. However, he was quickly incapacitated when the boy threw his saws as a projectile, forcing Jaune's shield to slam into his own face.
Okay. Maybe he still needs work. The pride didn't ebb, though. That sort of blow would have knocked him down cleanly a few months earlier. Running forward, Pyrrha blocked his path towards Jaune, forcing Roy to take a step back. Retrieving his circular saws, the dark-skinned boy grinned, delivering a series of quick blows against her. She simply braced herself, letting the hits bounce off against Akoúo like water, holding her Semblance up against the shield to keep it strong.
Brawnz yelled from behind her, "You're not rid of me yet, Nikos!"
Pyrrha pushed Roy away and leapt backwards, kicking Brawnz in the stomach. The boy grunted, glaring at her for seeing through his quick strike. Gold flashed out of the corner of her eye- spinning in the air, she blocked and dodged both of Roy's saws. The opposing leader kicked one of the errant sawblades right back at her, but she simply deflected the strike with Akoúo again. Although the movements were visually intricate, her body felt jittery, barely using up any of the energy she had saved up for the battle. Her enemies were far too predictable. This entire battle was growing tiresome.
Heavy footsteps resounded behind her. Flipping Miló into a javelin, she threw it back towards Roy, a grim sense of satisfaction blossoming when his alarmed yelp filled the air. Throwing her hands onto the ground, she used her momentum to somersault backwards, digging both of her pointed heels under Brawnz's chin, snapping his neck back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ren bolting towards her. The boy slid onto his knees, and instinctively, she jumped, spinning midair over him as he passed underneath her to continue his dead sprint. She landed upright, deftly summoning Miló back to her amidst the confusion and slamming the shaft into Roy's stomach, dodging his saws.
She continued to dart between the two boys, gliding through the battle. In the distance, she could hear Professor Port cheer, "And this incredible footwork could only belong to Pyrrha Nikos! Currently at the top of her class, she is demonstrating skill that is far beyond anything we've seen in the tournament thus far!"
"Strength is something that can be natural- skill is something that can be taught. What we are seeing, ladies and gentlemen, is in fact, talent," Professor Oobleck supplied.
Suddenly, a blond head popped up, throwing up his shield against Brawnz's fists. Jaune successfully dragged Brawnz's attention away from Pyrrha, leaving the redhead to focus on Roy. The one-on-one fight didn't last long, though- soon, she heard Ren's frantic voice cry, "Nora!"
Just a moment later, she heard Jaune scream, "Pyrrha! Up!"
Instantly, Pyrrha was running. Nora. Nora, where is she?
She bolted back across the center of the battlefield, rolling to avoid another saw. High on the mountain, Nora was close to reaching the peak. At the base of the mountain, Jaune was still squaring off against Brawnz- however, now the blond's eyes were trained upon Pyrrha, his shield held high for her.
They had done this so many times before, ever since initiation. She knew what to do.
Pyrrha grinned at Roy's perplexed expression as she slid right through his legs, then flipped cleanly over Brawnz's head. Landing upon Jaune's shield, she tensed her legs, then jumped as high as she could, feeling Jaune's throw adding speed to her height. A flash of light glinted out of the corner of her eye amidst the trees, so she raised her shield and tucked her body behind it as well as she could, keeping it as a solid barrier between the sniper and Nora's still-climbing figure.
The sniper shot was incredibly powerful against Akoúo. With no ground to support her, Pyrrha flew through the air upon impact, forcing her Semblance through her armor to keep it rigid. When she saw that she was nearing the force-field which would bring her out-of-bounds, she straightened herself out, extended Miló back into a javelin, and caught a nearby outcropping with the blade, spinning until she was back on her feet in the arena.
Jumping back into the center of the arena, she grinned as Nora fired off an electrically charged series of grenades which incinerated the entire forest, sending the trees up in smoke. With her vision obscured, May was now essentially useless. Nora jumped down from the mountaintop, slamming Magnhild down into the ground, sending the three BRNZ melee fighters flying back to May's feet.
"This is it, guys! Let's finish 'em with team attacks!" Jaune announced as Nora skipped back to them, the four regrouping at the base of the mountain. Jaune raised his sword triumphantly. "Ren! Nora! Flower Power!"
"Wait, what?" Nora asked.
Deflating instantly, Jaune lowered his blade, taking on the look of a kicked puppy. "F-Flower Power."
Pyrrha traded confused shrugs with Ren and Nora, completely lost.
"That's your team attack name!" Jaune insisted.
Ren frowned, mystified. "Since when?"
Jaune sighed, getting more and more riled up. "Guys, we've been over this!"
Pyrrha frowned. In the clearing haze of smoke behind them, their opponents were slowly staggering to their feet. Jaune was oblivious, however, having completely turned his back on the match to continue scolding his team. "Flower Power is Ren and Nora! Ren brings the flower, Nora brings the power!"
Ren rubbed the back of his head with the hilt of Stormflower. "How do I bring a flower?"
The redhead sighed, watching the entire exchange with an air of baffled amusement. Flower power… oh, like those t-shirts he made them for the winter solstice? No, maybe he mentioned that in class… She suddenly felt extreme guilt bearing down on her conscience- they had most definitely spoken about team attacks before, but she doubted anyone but Jaune had ever truly paid attention during those meetings.
Before she could interject and point out their opponents' advance, however, Nora laughed, "No, silly, not a flower! Flour, like in baking!"
"Why would I bring that?" Ren protested.
Jaune was losing all the confidence he had had previously. "I- Uh- No, it's your symbol!"
Curiosity peeked its head into Pyrrha's heart, and she couldn't resist asking, "So, what are we?"
She both felt guilty and incredibly satisfied by the inevitable gasp her question drew out. "Pyrrha!"
Raising her hands innocently, she insisted, "Sorry! I just want to make sure it's clearly defined."
Jaune blew out a long breath, desperately trying to stay calm. "Pyrrha, you and I are Arkos. It's that thing, when we take our shields? Remember?"
"'Arkos'?" She remembered literally none of this conversation. When in the world did we decide all of this?
Brightly, the blond nodded. "Yeah! It's our names put together!"
Arc plus Nikos. Great. She backpedaled, "Right, no, I get it..."
"What, do you not like it?" Jaune pouted.
Oh, Jaune… The redhead shook her head quickly. "No, no! It's… good?" she finally said, but her conviction was weak.
Nora's eyes flashed wickedly as she watched the whole exchange. "Mmm, I sense hesitation."
Before Jaune could jump on that comment any further, an angry voice called out, "Hey!" from behind them. They collectively turned around, humming in confusion, only to focus on the entirety of Team BRNZ awaiting their next move.
Brawnz shouted, "What do you think you're doing!?"
Jaune rolled his eyes, tutting under his breath. "Trying to have a team meeting, thank you very little!"
Nora added indignantly, "Yeah! Team ears only!"
The other members of BRNZ shrugged, but their leader was not pleased. "We're in the middle of a fight!" he roared, a vein pulsing in his temple.
That was clearly the last straw for Jaune. The blond spun around, fuming. "And we're in the middle of a conversation, what don't you get about that!?" he shrieked, frustration oozing out of every pore.
It took everything she had not to bend over and crumble into laughter. Oh goodness. "Um, Jaune?" Pyrrha offered finally when BRNZ refused to answer, dumbstruck by Jaune's aggression.
Annoyed, Jaune replied, "Yes, Pyrrha?"
She bit her lip, trying to contain her giggles. "I think that he means that we're all in the middle of a fight."
As if a switch had turned on, the sound of the audience cheering finally filtered back into their ears. Jaune froze, the realization washing over him.
Speechless, Jaune brought his sword to his forehead and sighed. "Nora, just…" he finally mumbled out, utterly exasperated, "…hit them with the hammer."
With an evil smirk, Nora's eyes focused on the other team. "Got it."
"Wait, what?!" Brawnz stepped back, but it was too late. Nora jumped over to their opponents and spun around, swinging Magnhild with such force that it caught all four members of BRNZ on the hammerhead. With one mighty blow, she catapulted them all into the air, the bodies soaring until they all crashed painfully into the force-field. In that one move, all four of their Aura metres sank to the red, the buzzer sounding loudly for stepping out of bounds.
"That was… easier than expected," Ren commented.
"And with that," Professor Port announced, "it appears Team JNPR wins by knockout, literally!" As he spoke, no one in Team BRNZ moved a muscle, still crumpled onto the floor in a heap. After a moment of contemplation, he added, "...Can someone go make sure they're okay?"
"We did it!" Nora cheered, throwing her arms around Pyrrha's neck. "We won!"
"Oh my god, we actually did it," Jaune murmured, turning around slowly. When he saw how Nora hung off of Pyrrha's neck, his eyes widened, his face splitting into the most stunning smile. "We actually did it!" He threw his own arms around Pyrrha too, ignoring how she immediately tensed up.
With frantic eyes, Pyrrha looked for help from Ren, but the quieter boy had instantly averted his eyes when he saw her blush. Sighing, she gently extracted herself from her two excited teammates, forcibly shutting down the sensation of what just happened from her mind. Across the arena, paramedics finally emerged to check on Team BRNZ, but all four fighters were standing on their own two feet again. "We've won. Smile for the cameras, and then we'll leave since BRNZ is taken care of. It's unbecoming to linger too long," she explained through clenched teeth, her eyes betraying nothing. She waved to the two nearest cameras, satisfaction automatically coursing through her after years of tournaments when she saw her own impeccable image appearing on the holo-screens.
With far less grace than she, her team followed suit, waving at the cameras before stalking back to the exit. Nora continued to giggle and fist pump as she skipped away, Ren simply sighed and stretched his arms tiredly- distracting the sniper had taken a lot out of him, after all- and Jaune quietly basked in the feeling of victory.
When the doors finally shut behind them, effectively cutting out the sounds of cheers from the spectators, Jaune murmured, "Pyrrha, you really are a champion. You were so ready for the end of that fight!"
She frowned, following him up the stairs to the waiting room. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you have this whole perfect wave for the cameras and that little bow- you're really used to this, huh?"
She cringed at the thought. Those actions truly were nothing but rehearsed, automatic movements by that point. However, she didn't feel uncomfortable at the end of this battle, as she had at the end of the last Mistralian tournament in which she competed. In fact, she felt light and airy, as if nothing could go wrong.
Looking back at Nora and Ren climbing up the stairs behind them, her heart warmed. It's because I didn't win for me- I won for us.
Yet, now that the battle was won, a tiny part of her mind still niggled annoyingly. I wonder if she saw the fight.
She sighed. There truly was no point in fretting about it.
"I've just had to do a lot of PR stuff," she finally replied, slipping on a cheery smile. "It's always better to play nice. That way, the fans will cheer for you, too!"
Rather than calling her out for her past wins, Jaune stuck his tongue out at her playfully. "I'll keep that in mind for our next win," he teased. And with that, the discomfort was gone, she blew a raspberry childishly back at him, and they reached the waiting room for competitors to travel through, giggling the whole way.
As they finally slipped out of the waiting room and back into the audience, they were immediately assailed by Ruby. "Oh my gosh, that was awesome!" the younger girl cried, throwing her arms around Jaune's waist. "You guys were amazing!"
Yang ushered the four of them to join their row in the VIP seating. "Seriously though. Pyrrha, you kicked butt! I can't believe you held both of those guys off like that, no sweat!"
Pyrrha waved her hand dismissively. "I wouldn't say it was anything special," she insisted shyly, taking a seat between Jaune and Nora.
"Well, either way," Weiss interrupted, "it's SSSN's match next. They'll clean up the field and be good to go soon."
As the technicians lowered the biomes from the previous fight back into the floor of the battlefield, a jingle played on the intercom. For a brief moment, they showed the brackets once more to situate the audience. To Pyrrha's joy, the line going up from their match into the next round carried the name of Team JNPR.
The screen shifted back to the sportcaster's station, where Professor Oobleck said emphatically, "Ah, well, Vacuo fans are sure to be hurting after that one, but this next round will have them on the edge of their seats!"
A picture of Team NGDO, the opponents of Team SSSN, appeared onscreen. The team was a rare group of all young women, each looking demure and sweet, despite their sharp weapons and armour.
Professor Port explained, "Team NDGO of Shade is certainly a crowd favorite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far! I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN!" The screen shifted to a camera in the audience, the live feed capturing some fans holding up posters of the boys with hearts drawn all over them. Pyrrha snorted, seeing how majority of the pictures of Sun only showed his abs.
The portly Huntsman continued, "Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!" With this, the two teams finally stepped forward into the battle arena, lining up across the centerline to face off.
Neptune waved up to where they were seated. Pyrrha smiled as Weiss blushed and called out, "Good luck, Neptune!"
When Neptune immediately began to flirt with the ladies of Shade, however, the blush instantly faded away. Standing up, vindicated, the girl pointed an accusatory finger at the stage. "Break his stupid face, NDGO!"
"You know they can't really hear you, right?" Yang poked glibly, but Weiss simply crossed her arms and pouted as she watched the two teams exchange silent banter.
"Ugh, why is he always like that?" Pyrrha heard Jaune mutter from her other side. Shifting around, she watched quietly as Jaune fumed in his seat. "He knows how she feels."
She frowned, but soon turned her attention back to the match. The roulette wheel assigned them their environmental hazards, Professor Port gave them their countdown, and the two teams began their match.
It was certainly an interesting one. Competing on a desert and ocean biome proved to be dangerous for SSSN, as Neptune was- as Blake explained, with much exasperation- terrified of water, so he steered clear of half of the arena for most of the fight. Team NDGO was very well-versed in using their Semblances in combat, so their battle tactics were far more dynamic than most of SSSN's brute strength. Unfortunately, Sage was lost fairly early due to his slower combat speed.
The battle played out over the desert dunes, but quickly began incorporating more of the water. There was an old ship wrecked upon a shoal on the far side of the arena, and Scarlet was able to have a final stand against a few of the girls there. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, and after a comedic takedown, it was only Sun and Neptune left on the battlefield.
"You can do it!" Pyrrha cheered when Sun managed to knock back one of the ladies of NDGO.
"Aw, Pyrrha, even you're cheering for them?" Jaune moaned.
She raised a brow skeptically. "Well, of course," she countered. "They're our friends, right?"
She watched as Jaune's eyes ran between a frustrated Weiss, seated farther down the row, and Neptune, who was still stubbornly hiding away from the main fight which had migrated to the ocean side of the arena. Finally, he sighed, leaning back against his seat. "You're totally right," he murmured, giving her a tired grin. "Why are you always right?"
She rolled her eyes, but her true thoughts remained hidden. Sun and Neptune were her friends. They were kind people, and they made Blake and Weiss happy. That was enough.
The little black box mumbled in her heart, And if Neptune ends up with Weiss, Jaune will have no choice but to pay more attention to you.
She squashed down the thought, but as much as it pained her to say it, she knew it was true. No matter how much Jaune said that he would get over Weiss, it was hard to forget romantic feelings towards anyone in such a short amount of time. Of course he still had feelings for the beautiful girl.
Suddenly, Jaune stood up at his seat, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Go get them, Neptune! You can do it!"
She giggled. "Well, you don't need to be that excited if you don't feel that way," she laughed.
Neptune and Sun were yelling at each other about something whilst their three opponents regrouped, but their words were drowned out by the audience. Jaune laughed brightly. "Well, I just realized. There's not really a reason to be so upset by it all, right? After all, Neptune is a good guy. Who am I to interfere?" His smile was wide, but there was something hidden underneath it- an edge that said that there was something else on his mind, the look in his eyes meaningful.
Pyrrha immediately turned her face away to the other side, only to be face-to-face with a sniggering Nora. "Nice," the orange-haired girl gave her a sly wink and a thumbs-up.
Great. I'm not safe here, either. Exhaling a deep breath, Pyrrha lifted her gaze. Neptune had finally left his hiding spot in the sand dunes, and the energy in the air felt like the fight was about to wrap up soon. Lifting her gaze to the spectator seats across the way, she flinched as she saw the flash of golden eyes in the VIP seats across the stadium.
She shivered.
"And with that, Team SSSN moves on to the doubles round!" Professor Port called, drawing her attention back. Somehow during that brief distraction, the two boys had managed to achieve victory by electrocuting NDGO in the water. "You know what I call that victory?"
After a pause, Professor Oobleck tried, straight-faced, "Shocking?"
Professor Port stared at his partner impassively. "No, well-earned. What you said is stupid."
The audience roared in laughter and congratulations for the excited boys from Haven, who continued to dance and cheer for their victory on the battlefield. Beside her, Jaune and Nora giggled along with the ridiculous exchange between the two Huntsmen.
Pyrrha didn't laugh, eyes too focused on golden eyes, on the sinking feeling in her gut. The storm was coming.