Lupis

Lupis' most hated time of the year was coming around, and once again, he was the only one on his team that wasn't excited about the upcoming dance.

His partner had ditched him to try and find some girl that would go with him to the dance. Garris may be a great person, but as soon as girls became involved, all sense and reason is sent flying out the door.

Nathan was slightly more like Lupis, and wasn't overly excited, but still excited nonetheless. Although he had never danced at any of the dances, he was now the DJ for the third year running. He had somehow been a crowd favourite, and everybody remembered him, instantly nominating him for DJ when the time came.

His partner Eric on the other hand...

'So Lupis!' Eric called out, startling the Team Leader. 'Who are you taking with you to the dance?'

Lupis shook his head, glancing over to the glyph user. Eric had his hands under his chin, gazing at Lupis as if he was about to tell a grand adventure story. His face quickly changed to a shocked expression when Lupis replied, 'I haven't thought about it actually.'

'Why not?!' Eric exclaimed, jumping across the room with the aid of a glyph. He landed on Lupis' bed, beside his leader.

'I know that you're a bit antisocial, and you don't like dancing anyway, but this is the ONE time that you should make an exception.'

'I'm still going Eric, I just haven't planned to go with anyone.'

Eric sighed and shook his head. 'At the rate this is going, Garris is going to find someone to take with him before you!'

'Of course he will,' Lupis snapped, standing up. 'He's actually trying to get someone to go with him. I, on the other hand, am not.'

'You know, there are heaps of girls around that would love to go with you,' Nathan piped in as he walked out of the bathroom. 'I could name quite a few of them while I'm here if you want.'

'Nathan, listen. I don't need a - '

'Abupbupbupbupbupbupbup!' Eric shouted, placing his hand over Lupis' mouth. 'I think we should have a listen just so you have some options!'

He turned back to his partner. 'Go ahead Nathan.'

Nathan stuck his tongue into the side of his mouth and rolled his eyes into the back of his head, recalling the names of the various girls that he had overheard talking about wanting to go to the dance with Lupis. He looked back down and started reciting.

'Well, I remember there was Emma and Hannah from teams MNTE and HART respectively. Some chick from Haven said she wanted to see you because she didn't know very much about you and wanted to 'get to know you better' ' Nathan performed air quotes with a smirk on his face as Lupis rolled his eyes.

'Tammy from TRAP sounded like she was interested, but she's a bit weird, so I would stay clear of her. Leila from LBTN was interested, I could tell by the way she is always eyeing you up. Now that I say that, Tris was doing the same thing too.'

'That's perfect!' Eric exclaimed, finally releasing Lupis' mouth as he thrust his hands into the air. 'Why did I never see that before? You two are the perfect pair! It so bad to happen!'

Lupis shook his head, sighing loudly. Although he could not deny that he thought Tris was good looking, he refused to do anything with any of his friends, just in case things went wrong.

This time however, Lupis was sure that he wasn't going to have a say in the matter. This was confirmed when Eric grabbed his arm and started to pull him out the door.

'Come on Lupis! We have a fox to find!'

It didn't take long for the pair to find the Fox Faunus. Lupis began to suspect that they had planned this all out once Eric led him directly to the fountain, where Tris was sitting by herself on the edge of the water attraction.

They both stopped, at the other end of the courtyard. Eric pulled on Lupis' arm so that they were facing each other.

'Alright, there she is. Now what I'm going to need you to do, is too over there and ask her to the dance, you got that?' Eric said quickly, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet like an excited puppy.

'And what if I don't and just have a normal conversation instead?' Lupis replied.

'Then you don't get your weapons back,' Eric said, shrugging his shoulders calmly.

'Wait, what?'

'Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. While we were running over here, Nathan took your weapons and hid them somewhere that only he knows where they are.'

'Are you actually serious?' Lupis asked, annoyance written across his entire face.

'Yep.'

Lupis sighed. 'So, if I ask her to the dance do I get them back or what?'

'After the dance, you will get them back, can't have you skipping out just to get away can we now?' Eric replied, a smirk on his face.

'No, I guess not,' Lupis sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he had no other option.

He turned away from his teammate and strode over to the faunus girl. Tris heard him coming, and turned her face to see him, her bright blue eyes meeting his. She gave him a smile and patted beside her, indicating for him to sit.

Lupis took the seat beside her, turning his head to look at her.

'What's up Pup?' Tris taunted, using the stupid nickname she had given him.

'Oh, nothing really. Just dealing with some blackmail and Garris. If only he wasn't so over the top about the dance he might actually get someone to go with him.'

Tris laughed softly, turning away from Lupis. She shook her head, a smile still on her face.

Now or never I guess, Lupis thought to himself.

'Speaking of the dance, have you found someone to go with yet?'

Turning back to him, her smile widened even more. 'No, not yet. I'm sorta just waiting for the right person to ask me.'

Yeah, this was definitely all planned out.

'Why do you ask Pup?'

'Well, I was kinda just wondering, whether you wouldliketogowithme?' Lupis said, running out of breath before he could complete his sentence.

Tris laughed. 'Sorry, I didn't catch that. Again please?'

Lupis sighed, taking a deep breath so he couldn't run out of air this time.

'Would you like to go to the dance with me Tris?'

Tris pretended to think about it.

'Hmm. I don't know,' she said sarcastically. 'I might have to think about that.'

Lupis scoffed and rolled his eyes. Tris leaned in closer.

'That was sarcasm, by the way.'

Lupis looked at her, 'I do know that. I'm not stupid.'

'Well...' Tris said, another smile on her face. 'Not entirely stupid at least. Maybe just a little bit.'

'I only act this way to make you feel smarter,' he retorted, the both of them smiling from the playful banter.

'Uh huh, sure you do.'

Lupis shook his head before turning back, 'So, are you going to answer me yet?'

Another smile. 'I would love to.'

'Alright then, I'll meet you outside your dorm room at 8, and we'll walk over from there.'

'I can't wait,' Tris said, standing up. 'Until then, it seems I need to find myself a dress. I hope you can at least find something respectable to wear, right?'

'I'll do my best.'

'Good, see you around Pup.'

Lupis watched her as she walked away, and was so focused on her, that he didn't notice Eric sneaking up on him.

'Yeah buddy!' he exclaimed loudly, making Lupis jump 10 feet into the air. 'I knew you could do it!'

Cinder

The four criminals were lying in wait in the dorm room that they had been given. There was nothing else for them to do, as they had completed all their tasks. Cinder, Emerald and Mercury had gathered all the information on the students at Beacon that they needed, and taken notes on students that showed promise.

Rowan had done odd tasks for Roman over the past two weeks, and he had sent messages back to him once he had completed tasks for him. He had recently set the hooks on the side of the cliff that would be useful during the upcoming attack. This was the last task that he had needed to perform, and so it was only a matter of time before Roman arrived with the White Fang soldiers to overrun Beacon.

They simply had to wait for the opportune moment to arrive.

'God, I hate waiting!' Mercury burst out, throwing his finished comic onto his bed. 'How can you all be so calm about just sitting here and doing nothing! It's driving me insane!'

'Patience Mercury,' Cinder said cooly. 'There is always a calm before the storm, you simply need to wait for it to hit.'

'Trust me kid,' Rowan piped in. 'You should learn to love these moments, because once we're in the thick of it, you're going to wish that you had more time in the clear weather.'

Mercury looked up at the bear faunus who was lying down on his bed, eyes closed. He had shed his black jacket due to the heat. His muscular arms and chest looked as if they were about to rip the small black undershirt of the Haven uniform any second now.

'How can you call me a kid?' Mercury inquired. 'Surely you aren't that much older than I am?'

Rowan opened one eye to look at the grey and black fighter. 'Not all faunus are like me, but some of us have a disease where our looks take longer to age. Most animals gain seven years in one human year, but some faunus gain one year of age every three years. I am one of those faunus.'

Mercury spun around to his feet, legs crossed and staring at the faunus, interested.

'So how old are you really then? You look like you're only a couple of years older than me. So what are you, like, 57?'

'Close enough. I've been around for nearly 63 years now, but I still have the physical body and abilities of a 20 year old, a 20 year old Faunus at that.'

'Huh, well, I can only hope to look as good as you do at that age,' Mercury joked.

'Please,' Emerald said, putting her scroll on the bed next to her. 'You don't look as good as him now, let alone in 43 years time.'

Mercury looked to his friend with a sad face. 'Ouch, that really hurt Em, you should know not to hurt my feelings like that.'

'I do, I just don't really care all that much.'

Cinder's scroll started beeping on the table beside her bed. She reached over and tapped the button on the side. Roman's number appeared on the screen, and she rolled her eyes. Roman had constantly been checking in with her to make sure everything was going according to plan. She flicked the screen and put the scroll to the side of her face.

'Yes Roman, what is it now?' she snapped through the scroll.

'Woa-ho-ho! Take it easy there! I was just calling in to let you know that all of us are now in position,' Roman's voice said through the device.

'Roman, the dance isn't until tomorrow night. Why are you there so early?' Cinder questioned.

'Wait, it's tomorrow?'

'Yes, it is tomorrow night Roman, the Sunday night, just like I told you when we planned this,' Cinder sighed. 'It seems that we may need to take another look at your listening skills again Roman.'

'Nonononono, that won't be necessary,' Roman quickly shouted into scroll, making Cinder lean away from the loud noise. 'Listen, I'll just tell everyone that we're going to camp out for the night.'

'Fine, do not call me again. I will tell you when to get moving Roman,' Cinder said.

Roman hung up on her, and she closed her scroll, dropping it onto the bed beside her.

'So, the idiot made another mistake huh?' Emerald joked once the scroll had hit the sheets.

'Yes, he did. Even if this goes to plan, we may need to give him a talking to once this is over.'

'I'm down for that,' Emerald smiled.

Yang

There wasn't much left to do to prepare for the dance tomorrow night. Both her and Weiss had set up the tables (which to Yang's disgust, some of them had those horrible doilies that Weiss insisted on having), the DJ booth and speakers and decorated the entire hall with streamers, balloons and large colour-changing lights (which was Yang's idea).

The only thing left for Yang to do now was, to find somebody to go with. She just had to find the right person. But who? Both Sun and Neptune were already going with Blake and Weiss respectively, and although she was good friends with Jaune and Ren, she just couldn't see herself going with them. And anyone from Team Cardinal was completely out of the question.

But Yang needed to go with somebody. She absolutely refused to go to the dance without someone with her.

And that was when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

She turned her head to see who it was, and was met with a familiar looking face.

Although Yang didn't know him very well, she remembered him from the day when Weiss got thrown around by Lupis in the sparring arena. Lupis hadn't properly introduced his team to them, but after watching Weiss get thrashed so badly, Yang did search for as much information about their team, the limited amount that she had access to at least. From her memory, she was sure that he was Lupis' partner, Garris.

'Hey, Garris right?' she said, turning so that she was facing him.

'Yeah, I'm surprised you remember me,' Garris said, rubbing the back of his neck.

'Yeah, we only really got to meet Lupis, and man, that was an interesting introduction, ya know?'

'Normally you wouldn't meet us in that way, but your teammate kinda pissed him off.'

'Why was he so upset in the first place? I mean, I know Weiss was yelling at his teammate, but don't you think he went kinda overboard?' Yang asked.

'Well, it's more that he didn't think it was fair that Weiss treated Eric that way. He only got out of the sick ward that day.'

'Why was he in the sick ward?' Yang questioned. 'It's not often that anybody has to go there.'

'Uhm, well, we were on a mission, and he kinda got impaled by a Deathstalker. Because it took us so long to get back, the venom just ate through all of his aura, so now it only takes a couple of punches to completely break through it.' Garris replied.

'Wow. That really sucks.' Yang said, understanding Lupis reaction a bit better now. 'What was he like before he got, well, impaled?'

Garris' eyes opened wide. 'Unstoppable. His aura was the strongest that any of the teachers have ever seen. Because of that, it was easy for him to continually use his glyphs in combat, and he would never tire. Trying to battle against him is a nightmare.'

'I can imagine. What sort of glyphs does he use? Weiss uses Ice Glyphs, so I was just wondering what he uses?'

'Well,' Garris started. 'He doesn't really have a single glyph type. Instead, he has a mastery over any type of glyph that he wants. Fire, Ice, Lightning, Energy, Time, Healing, you name it, he can use it. Well, he could use it before at least. He's really struggling right now.'

'That's a real shame. It would have been cool to see him when he was at his best.' Yang said, frowning. 'Now, I'm pretty sure that you didn't come over here to talk to me about your teammates. So, why did you come over to little old me?'

Garris stared at her blankly, as if he had no idea what she was saying, before his face changed as he remembered why he came over in the first place.

'Oh, yeah, right. Uh, I was just kinda wondering if you maybe kinda wanted to, uhhhh. Go to the dance with me tomorrow night?'

Yang was taken aback. Although she wanted to scream yes so that she wasn't going alone, Garris was also two years older than her, and it seemed, weird to her.

'Well, I can't deny that I am looking for someone to go with.'

Garris' eyes widened and a smile covered his face.

'But you're also a lot older than me. So it might be kind of strange.'

The smile left as quickly as it had come. Yang felt a bit bad. Maybe he had only come over to her because he had been rejected by all of the other third year students too. She was about to say something else, but Garris spoke first.

'Well, how about we make a deal then.'

Yang was intrigued. 'What kind of a deal?'

'A battle in the arena, you vs me. If I win, you can go with me, and if you win, then you can make your own choice. How about that?'

Yang hesitated. She had seen Lupis fight, and could only imagine that Garris was of equal, or better skill. She wasn't really afraid of the consequences of losing, she just didn't really want to lose. Call it a pride thing really.

'But what about a judge? You can't have a battle without someone overseeing the battle,' Yang said, wondering if she could somehow get out of it, and possibly a thrashing from Garris.

No such thing happened of course.

Garris looked around the courtyard for a few moments, before smiling and calling out, 'Hey Lupis!'

Lupis, who was walking back to the dorm rooms, froze in his place and turned to see his partner, who had his arms raise up as if he were going to give Lupis a huge hug. He started to walk over to the pair as Garris continued to talk.

'Lupis! Hey, my old buddy pal! How you doing?' Garris said cheerily.

Lupis paused in front of the two. He looked straight at Garris before saying, 'How much do you want now?'

Yang giggled at the comment, which made it seem as if Garris asked Lupis for lien frequently. Garris simply frowned at the comment, lowering his arms from their raised positions.

'That's harsh man. Do you really think that would be all that I would want from you?'

'Yes,' Lupis replied instantly, leaving no pause in the conversation.

Yang giggled again as Garris glared at his partner.

'Well, that isn't why I called you over actually.'

'A miracle,' Lupis said, throwing his arms into the air. 'Garris isn't asking for my money!'

'No, but I'm asking for your time instead.'

Now it was Lupis' turn to drop his arms and glare at his partner. 'For what?'

Garris reached over and put his hand on Yang's shoulder, pulling her closer so that she was in front of Lupis.

'We, are going to have a duel to decide something, and we want you to be the ref!'

Lupis sighed. 'Ok fine. I wasn't doing anything anyway.'

Yang could detect the sarcasm in his voice, but Garris obviously couldn't.

'Yeah! Let's go!' he said, before he shot off in the direction of the sparring arena.

Lupis shook his head, and motioned for Yang to walk with him. They headed over at a more leisurely pace. Yang decided to strike up a conversation.

'So, what were you actually going to be doing?'

Lupis glanced over at her. 'Getting a suit for the dance tomorrow actually. I don't actually own any, so I needed to get one.'

'You could just be funny and turn up in a dress instead. I'm sure that Weiss has one that you can borrow,' Yang joked.

Lupis' face twitched at the mention of her name, but it was so quick that Yang wasn't sure that it even happened. 'I highly doubt I would fit in one of them. Ms Schnee is very small, and I doubt that it would come back in one piece if I tried.'

Yang giggled at the thought of Lupis in one of Weiss' dresses, but it was ripped all over. It took a moment for her to get control of herself and continue talking.

'Why do you keep calling her Ms Schnee? You know her name, why don't you use it?'

Lupis took a second before he replied, 'Because that's what I already knew her as.'

'Wait, where do you know Weiss from?' Yang asked, surprised at his answer. Why didn't Weiss remember him if he could remember her?

She waited for a response, but it was obvious that she wasn't going to get one, so instead, they walked the rest of the way in silence.

'Alright,' Lupis called out from the bleachers. 'Standard rules apply. Battle ends when your aura is low, no fatal intentions, but do what you can to win. You got that?'

Both of the combatants nodded, and raised their fists, their weapons unfolding.

Yang was always proud of her weapons. They were simple, and easy to use. But Garris' pair of gauntlets looked like he had taken hers and simply put them on steroids.

The plating on the back was much thicker, and as he flicked them around to make sure that they were working, the backs opened up to make small shields that would deflect damage. There was a slight glow coming from inside the gauntlets, which Yang could only guess to think were containers of dust. A single barrel stuck out of his gauntlets, above his middle two knuckles, one on each gauntlet.

Yang cocked Ember Celica, loading a shell into the chamber. She settled into her usual stance, her two feet spread wide so that she had better balance, and her fists raised before her face. Garris took a similar stance, but one arm was flat in front of him, shield raised. The other was pointing at her from above the shield.

'Begin!' Lupis called out.

Yang pushed her arms behind her and shot to propel herself forwards. She raised a fist a she got closer to her opponent and forced it forwards. Garris caught it on his shield and pushed it out of the way, following the motion with a punch of his own towards her chest.

Yang batted his fist away and narrowly ducked under his other arm. The shield whistled over her head and once she was clear, jumped upwards with an uppercut. The punch missed, and Yang spun around from her failed attack and shot at Garris with the shells in her gauntlets.

Garris flicked his other arm so that both gauntlets had shields on the backs of them and blocked the shells. The force of them was still extremely powerful, and sent him backwards slightly after each block.

After a few more shots, Yang burst forwards again, jumping into the air and raising her fist to try and drop her fist ontop of his head while he was distracted with the bullets. When her fist connected however, it was with his shield and not his head.

Once her feet hit the ground, Yang threw a left hook towards his side, which was also promptly blocked. Garris threw his right arm towards her face and let loose a blast of dust as well. The connection sent Yang flying, the force of the white dust making the punch all the more powerful.

She hit the ground rolling, but soon found her way to her feet. Bursting forwards again, Yang ran towards Garris with her right fist raised. She was surprised when he lowered his arms and smiled at her.

She kept running however and plowed her fist right through his face. Literally.

Yang felt herself fall through Garris' entire body and her momentum kept her going. Yang stumbled slightly as she tried to stay upright, but felt a leg sweep hers out from under her.

Garris hit her in the back, discharging more dust as he did, sending her into the air of the arena. She heard him shoot again and saw him jumping up towards her. Yang smiled as she came up with a plan.

Once Garris was at Yang's height, he drew back his fist, ready to hit her again. Yang quickly righted herself in the air and threw a punch of her own. Their two fists connected and the force of the dust and bullets meeting each other created a small explosion between their fists and sent them both away from each other.

In the air, Yang shot behind her and burst forwards. Garris obviously didn't do much fighting in the air, so he was still flailing about.

Yang raised her fist and hit him with enough force to do damage, but keeping it low so that he would stay in her range.

She let blow after blow rain down on Garris, who was helpless to do anything. Yang could see his aura out of the corner of her eye constantly draining as she continued to pummel him.

After a few more hits, Garris was right side up, and shot both of his gauntlets skywards, propelling him towards the ground. Shock by the sudden loss of a punching bag, Yang's next punch hit nothing but air. Garris leapt back up towards her and hit her with an uppercut.

Yang went spinning backwards, but still landed on her feet regardless. Looking up, she saw that Garris was still in the air, but falling quickly. Yang burst forwards with two blasts from her gauntlets and was before Garris as he landed.

Yang let loose another flurry of attacks, all of which Garris promptly blocked.

Yang threw a punch towards his face, which he grabbed out of the air, and twisted her arm to the side and punched her repeatedly in her ribs.

She shot her gauntlet and release her arm. The force of the shot sent her arm back and she tried to hit him in the face as her arm spun around. Garris leaned slightly out of her reach so that the blow missed, and followed up with a swing towards her head.

Yang ducked under the blow, but her eyes narrowed as a single strand of hair began to fall in front of her.

Anger filled her mind and Garris stepped backs slightly as he saw her lilac eyes had turned to a bright red. She threw a heavy punch at Garris who, even though he blocked it, went sailing across the room and hit the wall, cracks spreading around from where he landed.

Yang dashed forwards, another fist at the ready. Once she was close enough, Yang thrust her fist forwards to Garris' chest.

But once again, instead of hitting Garris, Yang's fist went straight through him. Garris fell through her and landed on the floor. Yang leapt down after him, a fist primed to drop on his head. Garris raised an arm to block it, and carried through with deflecting the blow to the side.

Yang wanted to throw another attack, but felt a heavy weight on her, and realised that Garris was rolling over her. She didn't realise his intentions until it was too late.

Garris had wrapped an arm around Yang's neck, and pulled her down so that she was bent backwards, head under his arm and completely defenseless. Garris began to mercilessly punch her in the stomach repeatedly and Yang could do nothing about it.

She could see her aura levels on the screen drain quickly, as Garris was also firing the dust from inside his gauntlets as he hit her. Once her aura reached the red zone, Lupis flicked on the lights calling out, 'Enough Garris! You win!'

Garris paused in his next attack and looked up. Realising her aura was low, he let her go and helped her to stand up. Yang rubbed her stomach which was sore from the numerous hits it had just taken.

'You're a good fighter,' Garris said, patting her on the back. 'It was close enough that if you landed another hit it would have been a tie.'

Yang looked over at the screen again and saw that Garris' aura was also low, just a sliver above the red zone. She looked back over to Garris and congratulated him, even though she was annoyed that she lost.

'Yeah, you're pretty good yourself. I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then huh?'

Garris looked stunned. 'Wait, you're actually going to go through with that?'

'Uh, yeah.'

Garris face lightened up and fist pumped the air. 'Thank you so much. I'll make sure that I'm there early!'

'Well, I need to stand at the front to accept people in for the first hour, so it isn't that big a deal if you're late,' Yang informed him.

'Then I'll get there earlier so that you won't have to be bored for the whole time!' Garris said.

Yang liked that idea. 'Alright, cool. I'll see you there then!'

'Definitely!'

I kinda enjoyed writing this one. The fighting was a bit difficult because both characters are brawlers, and I couldn't think of many things I could do to make the fight original.

But otherwise, if you can tell, things are going to go down soon, and I'm hoping that you will all enjoy it when it does.

Until then however, stay safe and adios!