"Tell me again whose idea it was to agree to having a capture the flag match with Team CBLT?" Titus asked as he stretched and stood on the green between the two dorms that had been transformed into a war zone of sorts using beds and tables that the other students had dragged out into the field. He stood on the end closest to the first year dorms with Neela, Ilia, and Eliana. He watched as CBLT prepared on the far side, loading up their Dust into their weapons. Bái and Lykos were having a side conversation, and Cobalt and Tawney appeared to be discussing a strategy for taking down Neela, or at least Titus assumed as much. He made a full three-sixty, noting that a large group had gathered around to watch their game.
"Oh shut up Titus, you know it's going to be fun," Ilia told him. "I just hope the teachers don't catch wind of this."
"I saw Jaune on our way out of the dorm," Titus said.
"Considering the fact that the entire student body had this battlefield set up before we were even out of bed this morning, it's probably safe to say that everyone on campus knows," Eliana told Ilia. She turned to Neela who cracked her knuckles before checking the Dust selector on her wrist. "Did you bring any of your trick tips?" Neela chuckled as she patted the pouch on her side.
"Specialized tips and I have a few," Neela replied. Eliana peaked into the pouch before snapping it shut again.
"Do you think that your moms are watching?" Eliana inquired.
"I hope not," Neela told her. Eliana tilted her head.
"Why not?" Eliana asked.
"Blake always worries too much when I do these kinds of things and she'll probably have to stop Yang from actually joining the game," Neela laughed to herself. "I'd say the only person that we have to worry about at this point is Glynda." Neela spotted her mothers and nodded as she walked around Eliana to stand beside Titus and examine CBLT closer.
"What's going on out here?!" Blake demanded as she came to a stop behind the mass of students that was slowly beginning to grow and surrounded two of the student housing buildings. Blake, Yang, and Shadow had only woken up about an hour ago and had prepared to go out to Vale for the morning to do some shopping before they returned to campus, they were planning on letting Shadow play with Lamar for a few hours while they discussed the events that had taken place at Mountain Glenn the day before. It had taken them a few hours for them to escape with the help of Yatsu, but Pyrrha had managed to create a barrier around herself and Yang before the cave collapsed, saving both of them. The two women were unharmed and Yang reported immediately to Ruby who let the council know.
"Hey babe, what's happening?" Yang asked as she approached, Shadow sitting on her shoulders and pointing out towards the arena.
"Sissy and Elli!" Shadow called out.
"What is it little kitty?" Yang asked.
"I see Sissy and Elli!" Shadow cheered and giggled. Blake looked back at Yang who gave a large smile and did her best to shrug as Blake prepared to push through the students.
"Blake. Don't do this," Yang told her. "It's just a game, let them have some fun. You remember the food fight, don't you?" Blake glared at her with a pair of crazed eyes.
"Nora launched you into the air for nearly a minute!" Blake scolded.
"Heh. Bad example huh?" Yang asked. Blake nodded and turned around again before she felt someone grab her by the shoulder and she glanced up at them.
"Glynda?" Blake asked.
"I'll take it from here Blake," Glynda reassured her as she gently pushed the students to each side with her telekinesis and walked down the chasm she had created.
"Speak of the devil," Ilia said. Glynda stepped into the middle of the two teams and they felt their dreams of bragging rights over the other team being crushed as she glowered at each and every one of them, ensuring that they each felt the weight of her eye contact. Her lips cracked into a slight smile, something that the kids weren't used to finding on the headmistress's face and she opened her mouth to address them.
"Capture the flag, right?" She asked. Bái hid behind Lykos at this point, nodding slowly as Neela stepped out so that she was in front of her teammates.
"Yes ma'am, and it was all my idea," Neela told her. Cobalt peered past Glynda as the woman turned back to look at Neela. What was she doing? None of this had been her idea, why was she taking the heat for him?
"Very well then," Glynda said, now raising her voice. "Capture the Flag it is! Players must stay inside of the arena at all times, the flag must be hidden in plain sight and not inside of another object, and if your aura breaks you must return to your own base and wait for it to return! Sound fair enough?!" Neela nodded slowly, slightly confused as Glynda winked at her before looking back at the student body, her face fixed once again in the same menacing and determined look as she left through the same divide she had entered through and continued back towards the campus. Yang looked at Blake with a grin on her face.
"Well then," Yang said. Blake's eyes searched Yang's face before giving a warm smile and turning back to the arena.
"Kick some ass, Neela!" Blake shouted.
"Yeah, kick some ass, Sissy!" Shadow exclaimed. Blake blushed and looked up at Shadow.
"Don't say that word Shadow, Mommy Blake just got a little excited," Blake told her daughter. Yang bounced the girl on her shoulders and they both giggled.
"I love it when Mommy Blake gets feisty!" Yang exclaimed.
"So what's the plan of attack?" Titus asked as he leapt on the balls of his feet, standing back to back with Ilia.
"The opening move we've been practicing nonstop for the last several weeks would make the most sense," Ilia replied. Neela took a step back, watching Cobalt, each of them waiting for the other to make a move.
"That would work great if not for Cobalt's scanner," Neela replied.
"We can still get the others," Eliana stated. Titus shrugged.
"Worth a shot?" He asked Neela. She gave Cobalt a smug grin, causing him to hesitate for a moment as his hand slowly moved for his weapon.
"Sure," Neela told him. She knelt and her eyes lit up as she activated her semblance, giving Cobalt a temporary panic and Titus quickly threw his arms out, crashing his swords off of each other. One was activated with fire and the other water, causing an enormous amount of steam to pour off of him and engulf all four of them, Ilia quickly reaching back above her head for Titus's neck and jumping into his body. "Titus, Cobalt is at 0 degrees, with Tawney roughly 12 degrees to the right. Bái is making a run back to their base to defend. Elli, fall back for now."
"Right!" She exclaimed.
"Where's Lykos?!" Titus exclaimed.
"Charge out! I'll take care of him in a moment!" Neela yelled. Titus slammed out of the steam, Cobalt had plenty of time to dodge the gravity waves that crashed through the air but they caught Tawney off guard and forced her to slide back as she attempted to block with her tonfas. Neela fired an arrow for Tawney, intentionally taking out three shurikens that were heading for Titus and allowing Titus to set the plan into motion. "Titus!"
"Yeah, I know!" He replied. He planted a sword in the ground bringing him to a halt as Tawney moved quickly to cut him off, earth Dust slamming pillars of stone up under her and throwing her off balance as she dove out of harm's way. He lifted the sword and spun the dial, changing both to gravity and placing them against each other. Ilia leapt out and he launched her over Team CBLT giving Cobalt a moment of confusion. Lykos created an illusion, forcing Neela to acknowledge it as he dashed past her, racing towards NITE's base. Neela fired an arrow at Cobalt, which he deflected, and returned the grin that he now gave her.
"Titus, take the maniac, would you?" Neela asked. Titus gave a slight nod.
"Sure."
Meanwhile, Ilia had navigated the course and made it into the opposing dorm, closing the door behind her quickly and stopping to breathe. The agreement was to hide the flag in the recreation room, it was the largest on the main floor, spacious enough for a small spat. Bái would be waiting for her, but Ilia didn't feel as though the shy, small girl would give her much of a challenge. This round was as good as theirs. Ilia took off down the hall after waiting for a long moment and rounded the corner to find that the location where the flag must have been was now encased in a block of ice. Ilia smirked.
"Is that all you can do?" Ilia asked.
"I've been training with Lykos," Bái replied as Ilia spotted her on the opposite side of the room. Bai's arms were covered with a light ice armor and she held an ice shield and short sword. Ilia had to admit that she looked formidable, but it was unlikely that the girl had become strong enough to defeat her. Ilia extended her blades.
"Let's go then!" Ilia charged in and swung, alternating her attacks as Bái let the blows glance off of her arms before placing her shield directly in front of her and pushing Ilia back. Ilia slid across a patch of ice that Bái must have created while she was attacking and she felt a slight amusement. Ilia quickly knelt, planting her blades to stop her body. She charged forward again, allowing the ice to propel her and Bái swung her blade as Ilia approached, forcing Ilia to knock it down with her weapons on her forearms, firing at Bái. Bái backflipped away, quickly throwing up a small ice barrier and giving Ilia just long enough to change out her current magazine for fire rounds.
Ilia opened fire, destroying Bái's defenses to reveal that Bái had surrounded herself in shards of ice that floated around her freely. Her eyes were completely glossed over and the gaze was so cold that it burned, causing Ilia to shudder. What was this feeling? Ilia emptied a few rounds, but Bái's fractals blocked every last bullet, flying around her at a rapid and uncanny speed. Ilia only had one option left, and she had to hope it worked. She planted her feet, firing a few rounds beneath her to disperse some of the ice, the room now had a considerable amount of water sitting on top of the hardwood flooring.
She sprinted, feeling Bái blasting at her with all of her might, trying to freeze her opponent before she could reach her mark. Ilia prevailed and grabbed Bái, opting for a kiss as she normally did considering the fact that most people didn't cover their faces and a kiss typically caught them off guard. She had taken control of the body, all she needed to do now was…
No! It wasn't supposed to happen this way! Get me Merlot now! Why is she the only one that survived?!
What was this voice? Who was speaking…? No… Who was shouting at her? Who was Merlot? Ilia felt an icy grip filling her even as she hid in the girl's body, as though this wasn't a semblance, but that the ice was actually a part of her. Is this what those boys back at the initiation had meant when they said that they had heard that she was a freak?
I needed an army, not a little girl who keeps crying for her parents! A sharp pain filled Ilia's mind as she sank into the abyss inside of Bái's mind. Burn everything down! This was a failure and I'm holding you responsible, Blood! Light filled Ilia's mind ever so slightly, as though she was looking through Bái's eyes, but her eyes were being clouded by some kind of pain. She couldn't see clearly, all that she could see was a fire spreading around her that she was desperately trying to put out, images of the actual room around her flickered on occasion, but Bái was panicking.
Bái, can you hear me? It's me, Ilia. I don't know what's happening or what happened in the past, but that fire that you're seeing isn't real!
"Get out of my head! It is real!" Bái screamed. Ilia strained as she tried to take control of Bái's body, but it was as if Bái and the ice itself were battling her out. Ilia couldn't hold on much longer. She strained and leapt out of the body as she had exhausted herself. She landed on the ground beside Bái, the room covered in ice as a steady barrage flew in all directions from the girl like a blizzard.
"I'm sorry," Ilia muttered. She quickly blasted Bái's feet out from under her before slamming her elbow into the girl's temple. Ilia shivered as the storm stopped and Bái lay motionless on the floor beside her. What had they done to this girl?
Titus sized up Tawney as she bounced on the balls of her feet and Neela joined him, both of them standing close to the center of the arena.
"We're wasting time," Neela told Titus. "We should try and take care of the two of them quickly."
"You don't think Elli can stop Lykos?" Titus asked. Neela chuckled.
"Oh, I'm not worried about that," Neela told him. She was cut off as Tawney charged in and threw a couple of empty punches that Neela easily dodged as she stepped backward allowing Titus to step in. He caught the tonfas as they connected on the edge of one of his blades, firing above his head. He blocked Cobalt with his other blade as he moved in for an attack with his sword. Titus grunted as he held them both back, throwing them away from him.
"Neela? Little help?" He asked.
"Stone Sentry?" Neela asked. Titus nodded in approval as she crouched and activated her semblance, waiting for Titus's move. Titus slammed his kopides into the ground and formed a rock barrier between himself and CBLT, forming a large rock pillar in front of Neela to conceal her movement. She fired an arrow directly into the air and struck it with gravity arrow a less than a second later, causing the first to explode and rain fire down on her opponents. Tawney and Cobalt pressed against the barrier for protection and Neela ran to Titus from behind her own cover and nodded. She stepped back as he slammed his kopides together and gravity Dust shattered the short wall, allowing Neela to fire a gravity arrow between the two, catching them off guard. They were both thrown away and Neela made a run for CBLT's base.
"Go!" Titus yelled.
"Cobalt!" Tawney shouted. Cobalt sprinted out from around the corner of the building, wielding his sword, forcing Neela to slide to a stop as she glanced back at the Cobalt behind her. She figured it out quickly as she formed her bow into its blade form, he must have cloned himself after she had shot the fire arrow and sent either himself or the clone as extra coverage to the base. Their weapons clashed. Tawney slammed her tonfas into the Cobalt close to her, beating the hell out of him before disappeared as her eyes lit up and she gave a devilish grin, moving quickly to Titus and firing her shotgun into his chest, throwing him back and forcing him to topple over some of the tables and mattresses that had been set up.
Lykos stood around the corner of the doorway that would lead him into the rec room holding Team NITE's flag, taking a long moment to weigh up his options before he entered the room. He had left the door open, opening it as stealthily as he could in the hopes that Eliana wouldn't hear him coming and he'd be able to quickly grab the flag without her even taking note of him. A few well-placed shuriken throws on the far side of the room would draw her attention enough to allow him to create an illusion and grab it as she was distracted. He prepared to move.
"You think you're sneaky, huh?" Eliana asked, a slight amusement in her voice. "Just because I'm all fun and games you thought this was going to be easy? Is that what everybody thinks about me? I'm not a force to be reckoned with like the rest of my teammates?" Lykos remained motionless for a moment before deciding to reply.
"Nobody said that. Nobody thinks that either. We all heard about your match with Neo. Even the third and fourth-year students are impressed with the fact that you managed to get to her," Lykos explained. Eliana chuckled before he heard her shifting across the room.
"Oh, I know that. I just needed you to reply to me," Eliana told him. He was thrown back down the hallway by one of her force fields and managed to find his feet as she stepped out of the room, firing several shots off at him. He quickly deflected them with the shuriken running down his forearms and they stood at a standstill for a moment. It would be impossible for Lykos to move any further into the building unless he was able to overpower Eliana or disregard her bullets completely, but doing so would undoubtedly send him back to his own base until his aura had time to regenerate. His illusion wasn't going to work here either. Perhaps he needed to fall back.
Falling back wasn't a great course of action either. If he chose to leave, it was likely that Neela or one of the others had already taken their flag, and their only chance of winning was if Lykos managed to get the flag now and bring it back more quickly than NITE. Time was running out and seeing as how she didn't intend to kill him, he decided that he would chance rushing in. Lykos reformed his shurikens on his whip and charged towards Eliana who simply stopped him with a forcefield and shook her head.
"This all seems a bit silly, wouldn't you say?" Lykos asked as he found himself out of options.
"If it helps Neela win and makes her happy, I'll do whatever I have to do," Eliana explained to him. He nodded. To an extent, he understood her. He would do whatever it took to protect his teammates, especially Bái for reasons that he couldn't put into words. Lykos could respect the fact that Eliana wanted to make Neela happy, but he also knew that Bái wouldn't want him to give up so easily and so he quickly made another move. From what he had seen of Eliana fighting in the arena during class, he knew that she wasn't great at concentrating her force fields yet and that they were very generalized. Lykos threw out his projectiles again, allowing them to strike off of the forcefield repeatedly as the two stood staring at each other for a long moment. One of the shurikens broke through, and Eliana lost her focus, turning quickly to block it, but only slightly deflecting it as he attempted to tear past her, cutting her arm. She turned to fire, but he had already formed his whip and yanked both of her guns away with a quick flick.
He sprinted by and was tossed across the room as Eliana dove in the opposite direction after her weapons. He slid across the floor, managing to stay on his feet as the flag slipped through his fingers. He made a vain attempt to snatch the objective up with his whip, Eliana keeping him from achieving his goal by firing at his weapon and directing it off course. He came to a stop and scattered his throwing stars again, forcing Eliana to open fire which he was able to mostly dodge while he charged and grappled her as they struggled against each other.
"Give up Elli," he grunted.
"Yeah… Right…" She replied. His shurikens came in to reform on him but she enclosed them inside of a large spherical force field, keeping his weapons from interfering. She shoved him back a few steps, able to slam one of her pistols into the side of his head, causing him to become disoriented. She blasted him back into the hallway using gravity coated bullets. Lykos was unsure of how to proceed, it seemed Eliana wasn't about to let him go anywhere near the flag again.
Neela slid back, separating herself from Cobalt and fired her grapple hook at him, managing to entrap his left arm and allowing the tow to do the rest. She pulled hard, swinging him with a strength that surprised even Tawney and released the grip, causing him to tumble away and come to a stop beside his teammate. Before either of them could react Neela had already reformed her bow and fired an arrow that landed between the two of them. Cobalt did a combat roll out of the way, covering his face as it went off, his scanner had warned him that it was a flashbang arrow. The ringing disoriented him but not as much as the blinding light had thrown off Tawney and Titus encased her in an earth dome, looking to Neela and nodding.
"Let's go!" He told her. She agreed and the two of them moved quickly to the dorm and entered in.
"Ilia!" Neela called out as they closed the door behind them and Titus propped himself against it. There was no way that they could get in and as soon as the flag was in their possession, all that they would have to do is have Ilia take the flag and ride Titus out. He would tank through the enemy as Neela laid suppressive fire long enough for them to return to their own base. They had won. "Ilia, where are you?! You know that this fight was supposed to stay on the first floor, right? If you guys went up to the rooms Glynda is going to kill us!"
"She knows that we were supposed to stay down here, she's the one that informed me," Titus told Neela. Neela slowly crept to the rec room, where she could see a fairly decent amount of steam rolling out into the hallway. Someone slammed against the door behind Titus, and he guessed from the force of it that it was Tawney. "Neela! Come on! We have to hurry!" Neela's jaw dropped and she turned back to Titus who took a step away from the door. It swung open behind him, Cobalt and Tawney slamming through as they both came to a stop, confusing by what was going on.
"What's up Neela?" Cobalt asked. Neela ran into the room as the other three exchanged glances and quickly followed her to find Bái and Ilia lying on the floor, both of them passed out.
"What the hell happened?" Tawney asked. Neela looked back at them.
"Tawney, go get Elli and Lykos! Cobalt, go get Ren!" Neela demanded. They nodded and took off running without a moment's hesitation as Titus knelt down beside Ilia who moaned slightly.
"Ilia," he spoke. "What did the two of you do to each other?" She groaned as she squinted at him, grunting as she tried to sit up but he denied her the act as he pushed her gently back down to the ground, taking off his cape and balling it up to prop up beneath her head. She pulled out her scroll and handed it to Titus who looked at it for a long moment before taking it. Was there something on it she wanted him to see? "What's this for?"
"Just wanted to make sure it wasn't broken," she said chuckling lightly before groaning from the pain. "Hold on to it for a bit, would you?"
"Yeah," he replied. He looked at Neela who was checking Bái over and nodded to him.
"She'll be alright," Neela said. "Looks like we'll have to end this game a little short." Ilia tried sitting again but Titus refused to let her.
"I demand a rematch," Ilia said. Neela smirked and shook her head. Why had they gone at each other so hard? Tawney returned a moment later with Eliana and Lykos, Lykos shoving past Neela so that he could get to Bái.
"What happened?" Lykos asked as he gently lifted Bái up into his arms and stood with her. She grunted slightly, seething as he shushed her and pulled her close to his body.
"Isn't it a little obvious?" Ilia managed. They looked around the room, too distracted by the state of their teammates at first to notice that the entire room was more or less a block of ice. Now Lykos knew, he had seen it a few times before, that crazed look in Bái's eyes as her power took control of her body and lashed out at anything and everything. Ilia had no choice but to knock her out, a decision that was apparent by the slight bruising that was taking place close to Bái's forehead. He carried her out as Tawney followed him, Titus helped Ilia up and she wrapped an arm around Eliana who helped her leave. Moments later Ren arrived while Nora dispersed the crowd.
"I'll take her from here," Ren said as he took Bái from Lykos. "Eliana, you can follow me with Ilia." Eliana nodded and they left Titus, Neela, and the rest of Team CBLT beside, watching on as their friends headed for the campus and the crowd split up.
"We totally won," Tawney said. They all looked at her.
"Really?" Lykos asked. He shook his head and walked away. Tawney looked at them and shrugged.
"What?" She asked.
"Is that all you think about?" Cobalt asked. "Is winning all that matters to you?" Tawney dragged her foot in the grass and turned away looking at the tables and mattresses behind them.
"Guess we should probably clean this up," Tawney said deflecting the question. Neela continued to watch Eliana as she walked away with Ilia. Something told her that things were only going to get more interesting from here.
It looks like CBLT pulled off a default stalemate due to their teammate's injuries... Next time, Chapter 23 - Brass Tacks and Misunderstandings!
A big thank you to Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.
Until next week, stay classy!