I mentioned in the Author's Notes at the end of Chapter 1 that I would add an extra "not-chapter, chapter, thing". This is that.
So, here's some basic statistics on Scarlet's Personal Weapons, Battle Attire, her Body and Aura Abilities, just as promised. Keep in mind that Scarlet came from a Remnant that was desperately fighting endless waves of frenzied Grimm, and as such any veteran Hunter like herself from such a version of Remnant would almost seem to be approaching the level of a Mary Sue. This is intentional, and there are going to be times where Scarlet should've been capable of doing something but found herself unable to manage it due to other conditions or situations.
Note as well, that in this extra chapter format, important items, important places or events, important organizations or companies, important people and significant enough Aura Techniques that can classify as a Semblance are surrounded in [Square Brackets], such as [Polarity], [Arthur Watts], [Anesidora], [Waypoint Academy], or [Vytal Festival].
[PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION]
[Name: Scarlet Ruby Rosenfeld]
[Birth Name: Ruby Rose]
[Preferred ID: Scarlet Rosenfeld]
[Age: 32]
[Gender: Female]
[Affiliations:]
-[Beacon Academy (Student)(Defunct)]
-[Team RWBY (Leader)(Defunct)]
-[Team RNJR (Co-Leader)(Disbanded)]
-[Team RNJOR (Leader)(Disbanded)]
-[Atlas Military (Specialist)(Defunct)]
-[Atlas Labs (Part-Time Apprentice)(Current)]
-[Solitas Alliance of Mankind (Captain)(Current)]
[Semblance: Petal Burst]
[Aura Affinities:]
-[Rose (Innate)]
-[Acceleration (Innate)]
-[Steel (Learned)(Original - Penny Polendina)]
-[Aura (Learned)(Original - Weiss Schnee)]
-[Dust (Hypnosis)(Original - Weiss Schnee)]
-[Shadow (Learned)(Original - Blake Belladonna)]
-[Clone (Hypnosis)(Original - Blake Belladonna)]
-[Absorption (Hypnosis)(Original - Yang Xiao Long)]
-[Fire (Hypnosis)(Original - Yang Xiao Long)]
[PERSONAL WEAPONS]
[Crescent-Aster Rose]
The refined version of [Crescent Rose] combined with [Myrtenaster].
The High Caliber Sniper Scythe had been given 17 years of refinement after its first version truly debuted in [Beacon Academy]. It comes equipped with several new features, some of them from [Atlas Labs] under the overview of the [Atlas Military], including MASS (Magnetically Accelerated Shooting System), a Revolving Dust Casting Chamber which came from [Myrtenaster], as well as GRAB (Gravity Return Attraction Brace). MASS is powered via a small interchangeable Power Cell clip, handling either a Dust Cell or an Aura Generator.
[Cleaver Rose]
The rebuilt version of [Gambol], the sword half of [Gambol Shroud].
The critically damaged remaining half of the weapon was recovered from the scene of [Blake Belladonna]'s nearly botched assassination by [Tyrian Callows]. Its blade was reforged with stronger metal from [Atlas Labs], the once Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe was remade and re-calibered into a Katana Scythe Dust Cannon. GRAB was implemented into its hilt the same way as with [Crescent-Aster Rose].
[Impact Rose]
The rebuilt and refined version of [Ember Celica].
The critically damaged weapon was recovered from the scene of battle against the recently escaped [Grimm Wyvern] at the [Beacon Academy Ruins]. Remade with stronger components and a smaller, low recoil caliber of narrow angle buckshot, it was designed lighter and sleeker to compliment [Scarlet Rosenfeld]'s high speed battle style. Later on, it was integrated with a GRAB Receiver paired with [Cleaver Rose] to allow its partner weapon to return to its wielder's hands.
[Floating Array, Mk1.5]
The reworked version of the original [Floating Array] wielded by [Penny Polendina] in her original chassis.
Designed to read input from Aura, [Scarlet Rosenfeld] can control the weapon herself, though she leaves that to [Sylvie Polendina], [Penny Polendina]'s daughter, who powers the weapon and resides within a miniature android chassis that she docks in the top of the backpack. It's classification is [Soulbound Wired Arrayed Gunblades] (that's [Pietro Polendina]'s inside joke with it spelling SWAG, for real), though each sword is a [Laser Pulse Rifle Sword] of its own with an [Atlas Labs] technology called ICEN (Internal Continuous Emission Network) that turns the laser pulse to a focused ion-plasma jet. The swords can fire alone or collect plasma for a plasma cannon shot. The mobility weapon [Flight Unit] was merged into the design allowing the blades to combine into something resembling wings, which when combined with ICEN allows flight, though acceleration is quite low and thus it requires a long run-up. Each LPRS can act as a grappling hook, actuating the blade within the anchor surface to stay hooked inside, and the wires can be stiffened when outside the backpack to act like legs or a launch device.
[COMPANIONS]
[Sylvie Polendina]
The AI-With-a-Soul created from [Penny Polendina]'s soul, which makes her Penny's daughter.
She resides inside [Floating Array] and speaks to [Scarlet Rosenfeld] mostly via the half-headset she wears. She controls the array of blades for her, making them something of a 2-Person-Battalion. Her Semblance is [Astralization], which is how she can see all around them since she looks around via an incorporeal form only Scarlet can see due to their connected Auras from years of them wielding [Floating Array] together. Her Semblance has a limited range however, of roughly a dozen meters if Sylvie puts in maximum effort. She has [Penny Polendina]'s green eyes and white hair tipped the same orange as Penny's hair, as well as physical features mostly the same as Penny despite her tiny scale (roughly 6 inches tall). Sylvie also legally has a [Psychotherapy Certification] and has gotten very good at reading Scarlet's intentions in and out of combat via Scarlet's expressions, posture, tone and emotions (the last being due to connected Aura).
[BATTLE ATTIRE]
[Main Outfit]
Scarlet wears something akin to the [Atlesian Specialist Uniform] that was created by [Atlas Labs] called the ANBU (Armored Negation Battle Uniform). Its like an armored Specialist Uniform fitted with a passive exoskeleton to increase effective stamina, but [Scarlet Rosenfeld]'s special red and black version is more akin to a battle dress, and it comes equipped with a more powerful exoskeleton powered by [Floating Array], one that can be controlled by [Sylvie Polendina] and can boost Scarlet's strength as well. If Scarlet loses consciousness, which she has before on a mission due to sleeping gas, Sylvie can take control and get them somewhere safe, using Floating Array in a limited capacity to defend themselves. The uniform comes with limited environmental regulation that maintains a range of body temperature and maintains a certain level of hygiene.
(A/N: I can shamelessly admit that I named it ANBU solely because of the Naruto franchise)
[Hands Accessory]
Scarlet wears a pair of reinforced gloves that have a GRAB Receiver paired with [Crescent-Aster Rose]. The gloves are sleek enough to allow [Impact Rose] to smoothly layer on top of them.
[Belt Accessory]
On her utility belt rests a unique item at the forefront of [Atlas Labs]' prototyping division. Simply called APSIM, or [Artificial Pocket Space Integrated Module], it holds 250 indestructible, small, spherical storage capsules that are held inside the reinforced, armored belt pouch. Each capsule holds up to a cubic foot of matter that is suspended inside a projected box when the APSIM has a capsule selected and deployed. (Admittedly, I got this idea from a manga I read a while ago where the MC keeps getting summoned as a sort of temporary familiar and he gains the power to bring with him a few cubic feet of whatever he wishes inside a pocket space (among many other only mildly useful abilities he gets from basically a cosmic power lottery)).
[BODY ENHANCEMENTS/INJURIES/MENTAL ISSUES]
[Eyes]
Scarlet's left eye was lost to [Neopolitan Torchwick] in the battle that cost [Weiss Schnee] her life. [Atlas Labs] developed a compact optic called a [Closed Loop Cybernetic Eye] and connected it to a micro-battery inside the half-glasses HUD device she already had to speak with [Sylvie Polendina]. Its battery life is rather short due to its micro-battery and it recharges passively off of her Aura. Thus it can be turned on and off via a tiny Aura pulse behind the rubber patch over her eye. When the eye is taking in light and processing it into a signal to her optic nerve, the eye glows a very dim red which is visible through its pupil. This also gives it limited zero-light performance, a fact that hasn't come in handy just yet. Sometimes she will experience the phantom pain of [Hush]'s blade cutting open her eye, but this is usually brief and doesn't happen when the eye is turned on and processing optical data into nerve signals, thus it never happens in combat.
[Legs]
Scarlet's legs were injured badly in a mission that went wrong many years ago when it was just [Ruby Rose] and [Weiss Schnee] left on [Team RWBY]. It was a stealth mission against the remaining Grimm that [Doctor Donovan Merlot] experimented on, and it ended poorly despite the duo succeeding in destroying his biggest mutated Grimm, a spliced [Goliath-Seer] that had rampaged and wiped out his facility before escaping. The [Goliath-Seer] used its ability to command low-Alpha level Grimm to wear the duo down, but when Ruby used her [Silver Eyes] to destroy it after her Aura ran into the red zone, the [Goliath-Seer] used its final moments of life to headbutt Ruby, breaking her Aura and causing her to fall backwards, allowing it to swing its [Seer Tendrils] towards her to kill her. Ruby managed to move backwards fast enough to avoid death, but the damage the claws on each tendril did to her legs would've left her crippled were it not for a medical procedure perfected by [Atlas Labs] in the year prior. She still experiences spikes of nearly crippling pain from the permanently damaged nerves, but the exoskeleton in her ANBU allows her to mask these episodes so long as she is not in battle. Her luck has held out so far as to not have an episode in combat, but she can't get lucky forever (and spoiler, I wouldn't say it if she doesn't).
[PTSD]
It has been mostly taken care of thanks to [Sylvie Polendina]'s expert counseling sessions, and [Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck] will likely be able to help some more, but regardless Scarlet still has a flashback-type nightmare every so often involving the deaths of her teammates, her sisters. This is due mostly to the guilt she will always carry with her, even though her team had told her that should they die on a mission, that she shouldn't blame herself since they all signed up for the job. When an episode happens, regardless of how good her sleep was up to that point (spoiler, she never sleeps that well, she's always low on sleep), she begins to toss and turn in bed, mumbling to herself in concert with her words in the nightmare, then she usually begins to sweat and then cry bitter tears of anguish before bolting upright wide awake (usually when the specters of her guilt and imagination kill her dream-self). Scarlet's conscious mind knows that she couldn't have avoided the situations that led to the deaths of her teammates, so she dives into somber but helpful memories of her teammates reassuring her, especially the one when [Weiss Schnee] sat her down after [Blake Belladonna]'s death to explain to her why Ruby was not at fault, going so far as to say that if she herself dies, she will never blame Ruby, and neither would Yang or Blake. This usually calms her down, though rarely her PTSD will hit her with a curve-ball and send her reeling (spoiler, this happens and Ruby notices), causing Scarlet to require some alone time or pleasantly distracting company.
[Disassociation]
Due to having to change her identity and appearance after the false information on [Ruby Rose] was created by [Doctor Donovan Merlot] to ruin the remaining [Team RWBY]'s reputation after their neutralization of his [Goliath-Seer], she had to change her name to [Scarlet R. Rosenfeld] and assume a permanent disguise just overt enough to dissuade her appearance from connecting her to the tarnished reputation of [Ruby Rose], thus she assumed a look bearing familial relations to her friend, the late [Pyrrha Nikos] with her scarlet hair and emerald eyes. [Weiss Schnee] was able to recover her own reputation due to her status as the CEO of the [Schnee Dust Company], but public opinion had slid downhill far too quickly for Ruby's reputation for it to be saved as well, though that's not to say Weiss didn't give her maximum effort in trying to do so. As a direct result of this, Scarlet will sometimes fail to answer to the name "Scarlet" in a natural amount of time, also experiencing short periods of depression when her mind wanders to memories with her still being called by the name [Ruby Rose], and at times she will flinch when called "Ruby", almost as if she's afraid that her new identity will be ruined if people realize that she is [Ruby Rose].
[AURA ABILITIES]
[Petal Burst]
Scarlet still has her Semblance that she was born with as [Ruby Rose], which allows her to burst into a cloud of rose petals and move at very high speed. She used to only be capable of partially transforming into rose petals, but soon learned to completely transform. With modern Aura science, she can isolate the [Acceleration Affinity] from the [Rose Affinity] and simply boost her speed, although this has the extra effect of allowing her to boost the movement speed of parts of her body separately. She can burst into multiple clouds of roses and discard all but one of them as decoys, effectively allowing short range teleportation provided she has split into clouds of petals. By integrating [Steel Affinity] from [Penny's Mindset], her rose petals become tiny blades, though this is very expensive on Aura. Scarlet developed a flight technique as well that involves dissolving her hands and feet into rose petals to use as rockets, though this too is expensive on Aura and only useful in a pinch. Combining the [Rose Rocket] technique with the [Steel Affinity] is absurdly expensive, but can work to absolutely shred armor plating, Grimm bone or hardened alloys alike, its like a wide angle plasma cutter that burns through Aura faster than a thin strip of magnesium can vanish into ashes, and she calls it [Rosen-Blast].
[Glyphs]
Due to her familiarity with [Weiss Schnee]'s [Glyphs], as well as [Doctor Whitley Schnee]'s personal tutoring on the subject of [Aura Glyphs], Scarlet can utilize [Barrier Glyphs], [Attraction Glyphs] and [Repulsion Glyphs]. She lacks the skill to manipulate Dust with Glpyhs like the [Schnee Family] can, but she can at least use Weiss' moves relating to rapid strikes by rebounding off of [Barrier Glyphs]. By adopting [Weiss' Mindset], Scarlet can deploy dozens of Glyphs in battle at the cost of being able to use [Petal Burst], though she also gains slight control over the function of Dust.
[Shadow]
Due to her familiarity with [Blake Belladonna]'s personality and her [Shadow Clones], she has good understanding of how to use Blake's [Shadow Affinity]. She can shroud herself in shadows for stealth purposes, or by adopting [Blake's Mindset] she can draw from Blake's [Clone Affinity] as well as use basic [Shadow Clone] techniques, such as rebounding and launching, as well as decoy targets, though again this costs her the ability to use [Petal Burst].
[Burn]
Due to her high familiarity with [Yang Xiao Long] due to being her biological sister and the two growing up together, she has excellent understanding of how Yang's Semblance functions. Despite this, she has low compatibility with Yang's Affinities and thus her use of [Burn] is overall weaker. Using [Yang's Mindset], she can draw on Yang's [Absorption Affinity] to absorb either damage, Aura or potent negative emotions such as anger or her own heavy guilt to build energy, releasing it all using her Aura as a natural channeling medium to blast a target with potent and incredibly raw force as well as a fiery heat from Yang's [Fire Affinity]. Its less than half as potent as Yang's [Burn], and it also costs her the ability to use [Petal Burst] while using [Yang's Mindset].
[Artificial Affinity Assimilation]
By utilizing her understanding of the [Mindset] of another person, Scarlet can boost any Affinity they are characterized by to high enough levels to adopt their Semblance to a weaker extent. The [Character Affinity] that Scarlet can artificially boost reaches at most half of the original, and it only reaches this high due to her training from [Doctor Glynda Goodwitch].
[Auric Martial Arts]
Having studied with [Lie Ren] as her teacher, Scarlet is capable of using her raw Aura in a pinch in an offensive or highly defensive manner. She can layer up Aura to dampen and blunt out a piercing strike, or she can rapidly gather Aura and release a damaging pulse of raw force. This [Point-Reinforcement] was a technique Ren developed later on in his career to significantly boost his martial arts attack power.
[Dust Infusion]
By studying [Nora Valkyrie]'s [Lightning Affinity] and [Absorption Affinity] as a combined pair to form her [High Voltage] Semblance, [Doctor Glynda Goodwitch] was able to discover how the Aura and the body together handles Dust's energy mixing into the Aura. Scarlet herself has worked on this somewhat, allowing herself to supercharge [Petal Burst] for an incredible momentary boost in speed, a few seconds at best before she starts to get electrical burns, but it allows her to break the sound barrier without problems, a technique she calls [Bolt Burst]. [Hazel Rainart]'s Semblance of [Numbing Agent] is what allows him to extensively use Dust in such a manner, such as stabbing raw Dust crystals into his forearms.
[EXTRA INFORMATION]
(This next paragraph is mostly raw text. I'd typed it before I decided to use the headers above, and I didn't want to rewrite it.)
Among her Aura abilities, she uses science developed by [Doctor Glynda Goodwitch], the leader of [Atlas Labs], to manipulate her Aura in newly discovered ways. She changes her [Aura Affinity] with a practiced form of [Self-Hypnosis] (thanks to Sylvie) to place herself into a mindset capable of using weaker versions of Yang, Blake or Weiss' Semblances. Her high familiarity with Weiss' Semblance due to being her partner, combined with private instruction by [Doctor Whitley Schnee] of [Atlas Labs], means she can use at most a single [Barrier Glyph] or [Repulsion/Attraction Glyph] even without [Self-Hypnosis]. Her Semblance has been pushed to its limits, allowing her to boost her speed without rose petals, accelerate limb movement for rapid motions with [Cleaver Rose] or [Impact Rose], or to dissolve into a cloud of petals that can further split into several clouds, and she can even accelerate constantly in any direction provided she moves parallel to the ground. Flight is possible but very Aura-expensive by ejecting very short-lived rose petals from her hands and feet after she dissolves them into petals themselves. She can integrate some of [Penny's Mindset] to add a [Steel-like Affinity] to her Semblance, allowing her petals to become sharp but fragile blades, though it costs far too much Aura to use.
Now, small note on Scarlet and a tidbit of the history of Scarlet's Remnant.
Scarlet isn't overpowered per say, I'd place her at around the battle power of [Professor Glynda Goodwitch] at the time of the [Fall of Beacon]. [Doctor Glynda Goodwitch] when she started [Atlas Labs] was a true monster in battle, having expanded her Aura arsenal vastly due to her own personal scientific discoveries and the fact she experiments with Aura using herself as a test subject. Her [Aura Affinity] for the very concept of Semblance itself, her [Semblance Affinity], makes her capable of developing new techniques akin to what people of canon Remnant know as Semblances. Its just that she discovered that Semblances are simply the base of Telekinesis restrained by [Aura Affinities], and her "Telekinesis" leaves her's much more free to interpretation and manipulation.
She discovered that Semblance is simply Telekinesis that works a specific way by default, and that everybody is capable of Telekinesis or even other Semblances with enough training and devotion. Glynda stumbled across this discovery when she tried to understand why she was capable of [Weather Manipulation], [Aura Lances], [Barrier Glyphs], [Telekinesis], [Object Restoration], [Flight], [Aura Reinforcement], the list goes on despite her having difficulty with some of the listed capabilities. Glynda basically came to the sudden realization that every Semblance can be explained using a very specific application of Telekinesis, such as [Emerald Sustrai]'s [Hallucinations] being altering the signals in the brain, or [Jaune Arc]'s [Aura Amplification] being moving his Aura to specific places to either boost the local Aura strength by mixing it in or to transfer [Aura Energy] to the target where their Aura converts and assimilates it.
The old saying on how the Semblance reflects who someone is as a person still applies somewhat, as the specific way the user manifests their Semblance via their [Aura Affinities] can differ quite a bit from person to person, even if they have identical [Aura Affinities]. This is due to their personality and character traits of course, as their Semblance is merely their specific interpretation of their [Aura Affinities], the Affinities can be likened to the foundation of a house whilst the house built atop the foundation can vary wildly despite two people having the same foundation, though it is still bound to the shape of the foundation. An example could be that if [Yang Xiao Long] developed a [Piercing Affinity], she could also develop [Adam Taurus]' Semblance of [Moonslice] as they both have the [Absorption Affinity], though her version could just as easily turn into a bunker-buster punch.
[Doctor Glynda Goodwitch] at the time of Scarlet's departure was looking into the science behind Semblances that affect things in a less defined way, a most profound example being [Qrow Branwen]'s [Misfortune]. She theorized that some [Aura Affinities] are partially conscious in some limited regard, such as the [Fortune Affinity] acting for the benefit of the one who possesses it, the prime example being the late [Clover Ebi] of the [Ace Operatives], and with the [Misfortune Affinity] working against the user. Glynda noted that Qrow has said he can use his Aura to amplify his [Misfortune], but he also said that it affects everyone around him including himself, suggesting that with enough effort and the right personality, an uncontrollable [Aura Affinity] or Semblance can be guided, coerced or even outright controlled by the user. [Clover Ebi] never tried to control his Semblance since there was no need to share the "good luck" it brought, while [Qrow Branwen] since a young age likely yearned to control or even disable his "bad luck". As a result of the latter, Qrow started to spread his "bad luck" so that it didn't focus entirely on himself and he learned to restrain its effects for extended periods of time. Understanding this, Glynda could only feel respect towards her former co-worker from [Beacon Academy].