Side Characters
Doug stood twiddling his thumbs at the center of the arena, hunters-in-training on his left and right. Glynda was taking her sweet time announcing the start of the match, if only to make him squirm and get the two teams more wound up... He decided in the back of his mind that it was definitely her office he would 'clean' for the info Khiver wanted out of him. Even if she didn't know, his spite would go fulfilled.
His aggressors were the three men and Marissa from before, each with their own getup. They were mostly dull colors and mildly armored, though Marissa had on some kind of showy eastern-style getup, showing off the legs and cleave more than was necessary. Teenagers... By the look of it, the three guys had variations of swords each; one had shortswords, another had a wavy longsword of some sort and the last had a falchion. Marissa herself had a big,funky-looking gun, staying in the back of her team.
His protectors were one huge beefcake of an asian guy with a curved orange blade, a tan kid with arm slicer things, and two girls with fashionable shoulder bags. He wasn't feeling too confident in leaving without some serious pain beforehand... He also could help but think that the leader of Velvet's team, this 'Coco' chick, was checking him up and down like he was some kind of sign with text for all five feet and ten inches of his body. When he held his gaze over her for a second, she dropped her shades slightly in order to gaze back and wink. He was now even less sure of how to compose himself.
"BEGIN!" Glynda bellowed, and an energy shockwave was fired that he just barely ducked under. Damned Marissa.
"Give me a bloody countdown, at least!" Doug shouted, which had the spectators roaring as he saw the short-sworder of Mulberry approach. Coffee's beefcake grabbed Doug's shirt, pulling him into a spot behind he and the red-headed tan kid. The boys sporting two weapons each began to clash wildly, speedy hits lighting up the air between them and sparks cast all over, while the long-sword kid was trying to dance around beefcake while the very wind pressure from the brute's swings sent this opponent almost off his feet as he dodged.
As these melee fighters were drawn elsewhere, the falchion guy came after him, the blade of his weapon lighting up and growing in length before he made to strike; Coco swung her designer bag up under the horizontal swing, knocking the blade well off course and giving a nonchalant roundhouse to the guy's head, flooring him. One of her hands were still pocketed at her side. "This is ugly even for you, Marissa."
Coco tilted her head to one side after the quip, avoiding another burst of what turned out to be green lightning all coiled up in a cylindrical beam from Marissa's gun. The girl didn't look like she was in the mood to be saying anything back, and Velvet now flanked Doug herself. Maybe he should have had more confidence in the girls, seeing as they were students here too. It was the first time he'd seen a purse outmatch anything, let alone a sword.
As the falchion guy rolled away from Coco, he made a dash for Doug, getting stopped by a swift hand-to-hand combo from Velvet that ended with the finest leg drop he'd ever seen. However, the next shot fired by Marissa was aimed at him; Coco tried to get his attention and have him move, but he was preoccupied with watching the other teammates fighting it out. As Doug turned toward Coco's insistence, he saw the brilliant projectile from Marissa hurtling toward him, shielding himself at the last moment; Doug went into the full-on stance of cowardice with a leg drawn up, arms covering his head and torso hunched.
The surge of energy struck his body, and bounced off.
Like it hit a mirror, the laser refracted and flew up to the ceiling. Doug was in the exact same position he was before, but the force of the shot hitting him sent his body crashing across the arena floor; he was somehow locked into the pose he took before getting shot even as this happened. Stiff as a statue, Doug only became limber once he stopped near the edge of the arena, blinking a few times in confusion. His aura dispersed from the coat it had taken over his form, as well.
Short-swords guy and the tan kid were both pretty close by, and they threw one last blow at each other before both sprinting at the janitor. Doug scrambled and failed to get up for a second, having to push off the ground with his hands and flop out of harm's way, the edges of his enemy's swords digging in where he was not moments ago. The guy had swung too hard, and embedded his weapons, and the tan kid used this opportunity to slam a two-palm strike into his opponent, knocking him out of the arena. One down...
Beefcake now grabbed Doug's collar, and chucked him like a sack of grain further into the arena to avoid a ring-out while his other hand grabbed his own enemy's wrist, who had also been trying to break away after Doug now, too. Once grabbing the other arm of the guy, he merely lifted the swordsman up off the ground and held him out to the tan kid, who proceeded to pummel the hell out of and defeat the second Mulberry member.
Meanwhile, Velvet was knocking around the falchion guy so hard that she made it look easy, but had to lay off the schooling as another surge of energy poured out from Marissa. Coco was sauntering up to the other team's leader, as if she had all the time in the world. Marissa seemed intimidated enough, which was why she continued to shoot at the teammates of Coco's she considered distracted; Beefcake avoided another burst, and as Velvet made to attack the falchion guy again she was forced closer than she wanted to be by the last shot, at which point her adversary twisted her arm back and spun her around, dropping his weapon to pin her arms and have her face away. "Marissa!"
Coco whacked Marissa in the side of the head with her bag, but she took the hit to slide into a prone position, taking aim at Velvet and charging up one last shot from her gun. Beefcake, in the heat of the moment, jumped up and came down like a bat out of hell on the girl, but she loosed the blast just as he crashed into her with both feet. As it looked like Velvet might be scorched by the beam, Doug... didn't jump in the way, or anything of that nature.
Rather, he grabbed her and turned the pair, so Marissa's accomplice here would take the shot to his back. This was enough to have him let go of Velvet, and the Faunus gave him a pent-up boot to the face that sent the boy sprawling. Glynda's voice rose over the din of classmates, ruling the match in favor of Coffee. Immediately, Doug took two steps away from Velvet and bumped into the broad chest of the asian beefcake, and glancing straight up over his shoulder saw the muscled Huntsman hadn't really changed in expression. He set a hand firmly on Doug's shoulder with two approving pats before joining Velvet, and the Tan kid walked past him as well, though he was already just hopping down.
Then, a loud noise took place and a searing pain leapt up from the back of Doug's knees. Pitching forward as well as flipping upside-down, his legs were taken out from the blast and his head craned forward as the back of it met the floor. Coming to settle on his neck and shoulders, gravity forced the rest of him to fall.
Glynda was on Mulberry's leader in an instant, snatching the girl's weapon out of her hands as well as grabbing one of them. "Are you proud of yourself, Ms. Azalea?"
Coco was kneeling next to Doug, and not bothering to look at Ms. Goodwitch, said; "He's not hurt too bad. Just some minor burns." He hadn't even quite lost consciousness, as the groans coming from him proved.
"Be thankful for that..." Glynda muttered to the student she clutched, marching over to the janitor. She waited for a moment, seeing the damage herself and finding Coco's assessment sound. Doug sat up. "Feeling alright?"
"... You really gotta expel her, or something." He glowered up at Marissa, who looked like she wanted to take her gun and jam it into his mouth this time.
Ms. Goodwitch's presence kept the girl in check. "We'll see. The rest of the period will be free study; would you watch them while I take Ms. Azalea to see the headmaster?"
"Mhm." He agreed absently, watching the teacher vacate. He knew that these kids were intimidated by the woman, and wouldn't risk her wrath even in this moment of having a sore janitor watch over them, so found things to do or chatted quietly. Doug chose to stay right where he was, swinging his legs over the edge of the ring so he could keep the burns off the ground but still keep seated.
Velvet sat a few feet to his side, probably having realized he liked his space. "That didn't go as well as I hoped it might. If she'd really been a Grimm, you'd be dead..."
"She cheated. You had 'em outclassed, easy... hell, I hardly remember what they even look like already. Bunch of side characters." He turned to her slightly. "I'm fine. You did your job, and you'll keep doin' it."
Coco was standing below the stage, in front of Doug and just under direct eye level. They regarded each other in silence for a minute. "To be honest, I was going to let you get roughed up a little, but I guess they chose a decent guy for the janitor this time."
"I keep hearing that, but I didn't do anything special." They were giving praise to a common thug, even if they didn't realize. Were the caretakers before him really so bad?
Velvet seemed to find that entertaining. "I'm glad to hear that's nothing special, since you kept me from getting shot. Should I expect you to do that all the time?" Beefcake looked like he was annoyed, hanging out near where the stands began.
"You can always... I dunno... smack a bitch, before they shoot you. I doubt she'll have some grunt to hold you down next time." Doug replied. Coco laughed at that idea. "I don't see how those dweebs kicking you around is fine, but the second they're trying to maim someone like me you're volunteering for guard duty."
Velvet shyed out of the conversation, and Coco watched her for a second before changing the subject into a parting. "Keep up the good work, Mr. Brightsnap. And pick up some better clothes next time you go out... clean up a little, and the girls here will be all over you."
Doug watched Coco give him that wink again, and she led Velvet to their teammates among classmates. The girl's stride and attitude were almost overwhelming.
He very briefly considered her advice.
|I wanted to have at least a few of the early chapters involve CFVY, but my lack of knowledge on their characters bugs me. When volume 3 comes around, I'll be letting you guys know if I intend to come back here and tidy up the interactions a bit. Until we get some more insight, I'll be playing it a bit safe. - Aldiev|