LXXI - Bend

~~~(LXXI)~~~

"C'mon Ren, last time was at a birthday party that had a tipsy helicopter uncle. This time, it'll be a proper night out, I can promise you that."

"It's not like I was dissatisfied with Ruby's party, it's that I think we should work on improving our skills right now, not exploring the nightlife."

Oxon was leaning against the wall around the corner, a small smile on his face at how Yang was working on their bet. As expected, the black and pink haired man was proving as stubborn as expected.

Looks like I'm winning this one, Yang.

"Oxon, what are you doing?" Weiss' appearance and question ruined his eavesdropping if the muttered curse was anything to go off of. Pushing off the wall, he turned to see the white haired girl walking along with the other two members of RWBY.

"Basking in inevitable victory." A dainty eyebrow rose in confusion. She asked what he meant, but there was no way he would tell her that. "Top secret information I'm afraid, sorry." Instead of letting it go, the girl instead became more suspicious.

"Oxon…"

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "It's just a little bet Yang and I have going. Nothing crazy, I promise." The girl looked unconvinced but let it go. But the leader did not.

"You made a bet with Yang?" The young leader had a pitying face. "You?"

Oxon's eyebrows pinched together at the odd tone.

"When will he ever learn?"

"Oooxxxxxxxxxx…"

"Poor guy…"

The comments from the three color coded girls increased his confusion. The unanimous disappointed faces. The sad head shakes. It all made zero sense to him.

"I'm… Sorry..?"

Ruby walked forward and laid a forlorn hand on his shoulder. The difference in statures made the gesture awkward. "You will be. I just hope you didn't wager anything embarrassing." Clearly the girl had a few bad experiences going head to head against her elder sister. But he knew he'd win.

"Don't worry, the odds are stacked in my favor."

She gave one, final sad pat before walking past him and into the training room. Weiss shook her head as she joined her partner. Blake was the last to leave, though she had an amused smile on her face.

"Clearly you didn't pay enough attention to her back in Beacon. You might not have walked into her trap otherwise."

"Huh?" The girl laughed lightly as she joined the rest of her team. "What's that supposed to mean? Blake? Blake!? Why are you all acting strange!?"

~~~(LXXI)~~~

With the nine world savers all gathered, the next training session was soon to begin, though they were still waiting on the final member. Penny Polendina has been invited by Ruby during their morning's breakfast, much to the girl's excitement. Oxon had been nervous the whole meal, sure the girl had been nothing but kind and excitable, but he did help kill her back in Amity. So it was just a little unnerving to have said murder victim ask questions on what the food he was eating tasted like.

How am I supposed to describe the taste of a banana? It tastes like a banana!

Thankfully they did not have to wait long.

"SALUTATIONS!" Said resurrection patient burst through the doors of their reserved room with the same fixed smile as always. At least her smile was authentic, not some charade.

"Hi Penny!" Ruby burst forward with a rush of rose petals as she raced towards her friend.

The two met in a tight hug as if it had been years between their last meeting and not three hours. "Hello, Friend Ruby!" Like the last three or five hugs, the small girl was spun around until she had to tap out.

The two disentangled themselves and Ruby shakily guided the robo-ginger to their group. After taking a moment to get her vision to stop spinning, she turned to address the group. "Weiss and I thought of having team battles, and now that Penny is here, we can do a five on five brawl!"

"Brawl is not the word we agreed on."

"Eh, it's got more character than "mele"."

The girl in white sighed but didn't respond.

"Normally Jaune and I would be the leaders, but we need to prepare for situations where one of us isn't in charge and see how others strategize. To do that, we need to make a random selection and go from there."

"And we came up with a way to make the process as fair as possible when choosing the two leaders." The dust user turned to a relaxed Jaune. "Ready?"

A thumbs up was his response to the girl and he pulled out eight pieces of wood each of various lengths. "Got em right here."

"We're drawing sticks?"

The girl in red gave Ren a thumbs up. "Yup! Easiest and fairest way to choose team leaders."

"Alright guys, pick one." The blonde held out his hand, sticks arranged in a way that had them all look even. "There are two that are the same length, whoever picks one is going to be one of the team leaders. Now, who wants to go fi-"

"I wanna be the queen!" Nora pulled a Ruby and teleported in front of her leader and began inspecting the sticks with great intensity. Everyone looked nervous at the thought of the orders the bombastic girl might issue. Ren appeared calm, but there were slight signs of worry on his face. "This one!"

The stick the girl removed was, thankfully, a longer one. Deflated by the loss of chance at leadership, she walked away with a theatrically morose face.

"I'll go next, I guess." Ren stepped forward and chose his own stick. It was shorter than Nora's, but if it was the leadership stick, they'd need to wait and see.

The rest of the group made their choices. Weiss picked a rather short stick during her selection. There were two sticks left with Oxon and Penny the last to choose.

"Go ahead Oxon, you can pick." The friendly girl gestured towards Jaune, a smile on her face.

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

Shrugging, Oxon walked up to the blonde. Since there were two choices remaining, Oxon felt like analyzing the options would be pointless. Weiss so far has the shortest stick yet the other stick to pair with it has not been found. He would either be one of the leaders in the exercise or not. No need to overthink.

Without any hesitation, Oxon chose the stick on the left.

"Huh, it's short." Oxon flinched a little at the surprisingly close voice of Penny. Glancing to his right, he saw the girl leaning over his shoulder to see his choice.

How did she sneak up on me!?

"Here you go Penny." Jaune handed over the final stick. It was a long one. "Looks like we have our leaders."

Weiss and Oxon looked at each other and then towards their selections. The lengths were identical. It seemed like he would be going head to head with the girl.

Fun…

"Alright! Time for the second part!" Ruby hopped into the middle of the group and clapped her hand together. "Time to make teams!"

"We gonna draw straws for that too?"

"No, Yang, we're gonna use kickball rules!" Oxon was unfamiliar with the game, and the rules. "Leaders will go back and forth, picking who will join them!"

"Oh gods, it's like gym class…"

"So Ox, you stand there and Weiss…" the girl trailed off as she pushed her partner a few places away so that the group of fighters was between the two. "You stand here. Who wants to go first? Or do we need to flip a lien?"

"Weiss can have first pick." Oxon shrugged. "I'll go off of her picks."

"Hmmm…" The Atlesian gave him a suspicious look before looking over the eight choices. After a moment, she pointed at the other shield user. "Arc, you're with me."

"Finally, not picked last!"

"Hah, I can see pre-Beacon you totally being last."

"Har har, Yang."

Oxon looked at the group as he thought of some plans. With his specializations, he'd need to round it out a bit. "Blake, wanna help out?"

The girl looked at him before sending a glance at her partner. There was a slight moment of hesitation before she walked over to his side. "Of course, I can't leave you to keep making foolish decisions. Someone needs to reign you in."

"I'm not that bad." The awkward chuckles from everyone besides Penny didn't give him confidence. Coughing into his hand, gestured to Weiss. "You're up."

"Yang."

The girl grinned as she gave Jaune a fist bump and offered another to Weiss. "Finally realizing blondes are the superior choices I see. Glad to know you've accepted it."

The girl looked at the limb for a moment before looking back to the others. "Don't make me regret the decision, Xiao Long."

Seeing how the teams were going, Oxon knew who he had to choose next. "Alright, Nora, I choose you."

"YEAH!"

"Ren, if you would."

"Affirmative."

"Oscar, come on over."

"Not last!"

"Penny, I would appreciate you joining me."

"Yes, Friend Weiss!"

"Red, hustle up."

"Why was I last!?" The girl walked over to his side with an adorable pout. "I came up with this whole thing!"

"Honestly? I thought Weiss'd pick ya, so I didn't actually plan on going for ya in the first place. Blame her for leaving you out to dry, Rose." Oxon sent a nod to Oscar. "'Sides, it'd be wrong to choose Pine last. Wouldn't feel right."

Her pout lessened while Oscar beamed.

"I won't let you down, Oxon!"

With that but if support, Weiss' team walked to one end to talk while his also began planning. "So, boss, what's the plan?" Nora had her hands linked behind her head as the group huddled up. They only had a few minutes to brainstorm before the fight was on.

Great question, Valkyrie… Great question…

After some deliberation and a few questions, they had a solid idea.

~~~(LXXI)~~~

Oxon deflected the various blades Penny sent his way as he rushed towards his target. The girl tried to hit him in the back but was intercepted by both Ruby and Blake. He heard the girl call out a warning to her team. Though instead of running at Weiss like it looked like, he had a different girl in mind.

"Oh, you're approaching me?" His target, Yang, struck an odd pose while she watched him approach. He didn't understand, but to keep the spirit, he placed Bulls Breath on his shoulder and nodded at her. "Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?

"I'm pretty sure that's how fights work, Xiao Long. Kinda need to get close seeing as how we're mele heavy fighters." The girl deflated slightly and gave him a flat look.

"We really need to have you catch up on pop culture dude…" The girl got into a ready position.

Another easy bet. He gave a confident smile as he lowered his weapon into a ready position. "If you beat me, maybe."

Like fire dust in a furnace, her eyes lit up. "Deal! You're gonna regret that! We are so having a movie marathon!" And with that, the fight was on.

~On the other side of the arena~

"So, my role is to just stand here?" Jaune had been overjoyed to have been the first pick. Weiss was a pretty smart girl, so knowing he was the first one she needed for her plan, he had been full of pride. But after hearing why? It was dulled.

"Yes, with Oxon being on the other team, I need somebody sturdy to guard me while I summon." The girl was on one knee, rapier tip embedded in the floor. The glyph beneath her grew steadily in size and luminescence. "Now hush, I need to focus on this."

With a sigh, he turned back towards the fight, seeing an excited Nora running at them. "Sure thing, Weiss. Ugh…"

~Near the edge of the marked arena~

Oscar's swing hit air as Ren used his upgraded weapons to dart around the arena; the blades worked almost like grappling hooks to increase his movement. The Mistralians had been dueling since the start. Oxon recommended Oscar fight him based on their skillets, he wanted to help Ruby with Penny, but he had a bit longer to go before he'd be able to tangle with the girl.

A rapid twirl of The Long Memory beat away a spray of bullets fired at him. The older boy had him on speed, that was for sure, but Oscar had been sparring with Ruby for a few months. Ren wasn't nearly as quick.

Muscle memory from bodies not his own guided him. Oscar jumped forward, slammed the cane into the ground, propelling him forward into Ren. Those link eyes widened slightly before Oscar slammed his weapon into his face. Much to his credit, Ren landed on his feet and hopped back, gaining distance.

"Well done."

"Oscar spun the cane and held it like a fencer might. "Thanks."

Oscar rushed forward with a thrust at the taller teen's sternum. Some sort of martial move was used to push it aside while the other countered. As if to copy him, Ren struck Oscar in his chest with his palm. The two went back and forth each trying to outmaneuver the other.

Ren had the advantage with training and experience while Oscar had lifetimes of battles to draw upon. Ozma had fought many people in his many lives. There were more than a few assassins that moved in a similar way to Ren. Some had been successful early on, many that came after had not.

Oscar feigned an overhand swing, causing his opponent to cross his forearms above his head to block. Oscar suddenly brought The Long Memory close to him as he spun around, extending the cane horizontally and thrust into his stomach. Once the taller boy was caught off guard, the former farmhand rapidly slammed the cane into various pressure points that had no hard protection. A particularly strong blow to the wrist caused the huntsman to let go of his weapon.

Just like he would do. One final blow to the knee had Ren stagger to the left while Oscar dove right. Yes!

Oscar snatched the gun off the ground and dashed back. Rubbing his wrist for a moment, Ren looked at the missing weapon. With a strange look, Ren got back into form, a light frown on his face.

"I see your training sessions with Oxon have led to picking up a few of his habits."

Oscar spun the gun before placing it securely on the belt inside his jacket. It would be out of reach for now. "You get your weapon taken from you enough times, you figure out how it's done. I still haven't been able to steal from him yet."

"Hmmm." Instead of giving up, Ren reached over to his right arm and grabbed his knife. "I'll be sure to take back what's mine."

~Dead center of the fight~

"This is splendid, it's been too long since I've had this much fun!"

Blake bent over as far as she could to avoid the laser blast sent at her. Sure, she and Ruby were doing well at giving the girl the run around and chipping away at her, but there is a very good reason why she is the protector of Mantle. "Better chance of victory" my ass, he just didn't want to deal with her. Using a clone to take a blade, Blake rolled behind the girl and unloaded four rounds into her back.

"Yeah! This is great!" And there was the other cheery member of this violent two in one. Her leader seemed to be in a good mood today, probably because she could let loose and not worry about planning.

Multiple blades spun around Penny, forcing Blake back while also deflecting blows from Ruby. The girl was strong, and they would need to pull out a good trick to deal with her. A few ideas ran through her mind as she danced through blade slashes. Changing clips, she signaled to Ruby to distract Penny.

In a burst of petals, Ruby formed in front of Penny, Crescent Rose spinning. The two friends each used their speed to deflect and lash out with their weapons. Ruby and Penny would even shout some lines from shows they watched back in Beacon at each other. Her leader was doing a splendid job, now it was her turn.

With a deep breath, Blake waited for Penny to throw her arsenal at the red reaper. After a few moments, Penny swept her arms around and thrust her blade forward. With a quick dash and use of a clone, Blake jumped forward and into the path of the weapons. The girl looked confused at the sudden self sacrifice, and then Blake activated her semblance while holding ice dust rounds.

With a burst of ice, the attacking weapons became frozen in a faunus ice sculpture. The temporary confusion was enough time for Ruby to dash forward and shaved off the ice not holding a weapon. It was admittedly disconcerting to watch her spin around the girl while holding the limbless, headless icey imitation of herself. With the frozen torso full of blades, Ruby began tying up the girl who had tried to take flight. After a few passes, the ginger girl became tangled in her own weapon, and out of the fight.

"Well done! I will add that move to my records for future fights!"

"Well, that's one down, now we should go back up the others." Blake dusted herself off and looked at the field. I'll go help Oxon, you go help-"

"Aaaaaand there goes Oscar." Blake whipped her head to the side in time to see a triumphant Ren reaching into Oscar's clothes and pulling out one of his guns. Why it was there, she'd ask later, but now it was back to an even fight.

"Okay, there goes the advantage."

"Wanna gang up on him before he can catch his breath?" The girl took aim with her rifle and gave Blake a grin. "Ox said to leave Yang for last anyways."

"Sounds good, let's avenge Oscar." With covering fire from Ruby, Blake dashed forward to finish up Ren.

"Have fun, friends Ruby and Blake!"

~Back with Oxon~

"Just fight already!" A far cry from the cheeky attitude that she had at the start of the fight, Yang was red eyed and out for blood. Oxon's strategy was working perfectly.

Oxon used a split deployment of Virginiana to make her haymaker glance to the side and ducked under her arm. Bulls Breath went low, hooking her ankle and then pulled up. The girl toppled over with a very non-Ruby-safe phrase. Oxon jumped back and activated his shield to absorb the blasts from her shotguns.

"Pretty sure I've been doing that the whole time. Not my fault my defense is too good." A quick draw of New Leaf and a dust creating blast slowed her advance enough for him to dodge to the side, her gauntlet only clipping his shoulder. "Oh wait, it probably is."

"Raaahhh!" With a furious bellow, the blonde rushed forward. Ember Celica crashed into Virginiana, it was a heavy blow, but the blow wasn't semblance enhanced. The reason her blows did not have enough force to move him was why she was so angry. He had been focused entirely on defense instead of fighting back.

"I thought this was a fight, Ox!?" A kick meant for his jaw was caught by his hand; the follow up blow hit him in the hip. The only downside to his plan, was that he too, was not charging his semblance.

Just a little bit longer, and the others should hopefully be following through.

While he was staggered her steel fist crashed into the bottom of his jaw. He took the hit as best he could and met her next punch with a hit from his armored limb; the armored fist sparked against her own, hers had more force and pushed him back slightly. She continued to wail on his forearms as Oxon blocked her blows. His armor mitigated the damage, but his aura was draining nonetheless.

From his point of view, he saw Ren in the process of being tied up. Oscar was down and out, but the kid was unfortunately not meant to win, but he'd hoped the guy might have pulled something out. Nora was doing her job to a tee, keeping Weiss from summoning by launching grenades over Jaune's defenses and into her.

He grinned that his last minute idea seemed to work. That grin met an ugly death when his distracted vision was replaced by a metal fist.

"I called dibs on fighting Jaune today to test out how I'd break his defense, but that didn't happen." She slammed her fists together and gave him a harsh glare. "That was ruined when Rubes came up with this whole thing and Weiss picked us both for her team. But at least you were on the other side, so it wasn't a total wash."

"Then why are you so upset?" From what she was saying, she got what she wanted? Why was she so peeved?

"Cause this is boring!" Oxon hopped back to avoid a downward fist. He raised his knee to avoid a kick to the unmentionables. "You're just dodging and blocking! Hit me!"

"And cause my own ass kicking?" A shot from Fratris to Ember Celica knocked the fist off its path. "I'm good."

Her red eyes were unnerving, but he just had to hold out. Just long enough for it all to come together. Thinking back to before the fight, many things fell right into his lap.

The conversation last night played a huge role in his planning. No matter who was the other leader, they would need a heavy hitter. It was a gamble on who would be picked first, but since it was Weiss, Yang was the likely choice. The fact Weiss also chose Jaune made great sense. She wanted to summon and have security while doing so.

He knew Nora's weapon had the perfect characteristics to, well, arc over Arc. No matter how sturdy he was, he can't block what he can't reach. Nora had jumped at the chance to go wild. Weiss can't summon if she's getting hit by high explosives.

Penny was the biggest worry, he had no idea if the girl had any changes from Beacon, so putting both Blake and Ruby on her was the only option. And Yang was his only option as well. Others could fight Ren, he refused to go against Polendina, and Jaune would be better at halting his advance on Weiss. That and he was the best at taking hits among his group.

And it seemed like he didn't have to wear the kitty gloves any more.

"Hyaah!" A black ribbon attached itself an arm that was mere inches from slamming into his skull.

"Whelp, playtime's over."

"Huh?" The blonde turned just in time for a black and white form to impact her spine.

"Just in the nick of time. Again." Yang got up from the ground, unwrapping herself of Gambol Shroud's fabric. "Must I aways need to save your skin."

"Need I bring up Brunswick?" The girl shivered. "Thought not."

"Wait, you guys beat Penny?"

"Ruby had a plan and it worked out. Probably won't a second time." The three looked over to see said reaper in red crash through a glyph created by her partner. The two continued to fight each other while Oxon and Blake let Yang look at her other teammates.

Penny was tied up in the strands of wire that connected her to her swords. The girl seemed surprisingly cheery for one tied up like a birthday present. There was even a bow tied into the restraints.

Ren was nursing his head while Oscar was rotating his shoulder. The two were walking to the benches to recover.

All the way at the other end of the fight, Nora launched Jaune halfway to the ceiling with an electricity fueled blow. The knight was out of the fight, and Weiss was unable to defend against both Ruby's speed and Nora's strength. The Atlesian realized the situation was unideal and wisely surrendered.

All that was left was Yang.

"I guess we're going to have to put that marathon on hold." Victory felt good, especially now that Nora and Ruby were making their way over. Letting out a pleased sigh, he gave Yang a smug smile.

"You said, "If you can beat me."" The girl looked at the approaching Nora with interest. "Not that the team has to win. If I just knock you out..."

His eyes narrowed in concern at her wording. "That's semantics at best, you know darn well what I meant." His heart rate picked up as the blonde's frown morphed into a vicious smirk.

"What's going on? Yangy surrendered too?" Nora had a disappointed look on her face.

"I wouldn't go that far. Nora, you're all charged up, right?"

"Yeah! We put a battery in the handle!" There was a click followed by the visible crackle of power lancing up and down the haft of the hammer. "Instant semblance charge!"

No.

"Mind hitting me real quick?"

No…

"Huh?" Nora tilted her head to the side in confusion.

Oxon understood clearly. He stepped forward to put a stop to whatever was about to happen. "Now now, we've done it, we won. Go team and all that. No need for more violence. Peace on Remnant and, uh, stuff."

Nora held up her hand in a shushing manner. "Now now, let's hear the girl out."

"Just a little wager ol' Ox and I agreed to. One involving a duel between us with a night of entertainment on the line."

"Which I have already won."

"Which Oxon said that if I beat him, he will submit himself to a movie marathon in order to catch up on all my glorious pop culture based jokes."

"Which, again, I already won. C'mon guys, she can't beat us all. Let's get this over with."

"I promise to surrender the second I beat Ox down like he deserves so we can have a popcorn fueled movie night."

"Now now, there's no way Nora is going to do that, I'm the leader here." He turned to said girl with a nervous look. "No need to put your, albeit temporary, boss in danger. Right, Nora?"

"Is Spruce Wills on the table?"

"Duh?"

"Whelp, good enough for me!" The ginger terror turned and slammed her powerful hammer into a waiting Yang. Mere moments later, there was a great fiery explosion as Yang slammed her fists together. Her eyes were red and gleeful as she looked at him.

After a check of her scroll, her grin winded. "Well well well, would you look at that, three percent left in the tank." The girl strode forward towards him and his team.

"Uh, friends, a little help?"

Yang strolled past Ruby who was busy whistling while looking elsewhere.

Blake gave him a thumbs up; while also giving a wink to Yang. One which the girl responded to in kind.

Nora gave a theatrical salute as she and Yang shared a high five.

Traitors, the lot of them. He'd remember this.

"Ah hell…"

"Bad boy Oxon. That's a lien for the swear jar."

Oxon deployed Virginiana and prepared to counter the coming blow. "This is bullsh-"

Oxon was saved from having to put another lien in a jar when he was sent flying into the nearby wall.

~~~(LXXI)~~~

After rolling just about every joint on his body until he felt human again, Oxon trudged over to the group. They were just about all smiles, Yang's was of course the biggest of all. The opposite was true for the polar opposite of the sunny girl.

"Since when were you so good at strategy?" Her foot tapped in a frustrated manner while crossing her arms. Clearly she was upset her plan had not worked out quite as well. There was a good explanation, but not exactly a great one.

"Well, I did spy on y'all… For like a good amount of time." Oxon awkwardly shrugged. "Cinder told me to get information on Blake, Ruby, Sun, and Pyrrha since you were people of interest. Naturally, I got information on both teams as well. We had a few plans in case we needed to fight in the tournament; or in other scenarios..."

"Is that so?"

"Uhhhhh…" Damn him putting his foot in his mouth…

"Don't worry about her, Ox." Yang came up and wrapped an arm around the pale girl. "She's just salty that she wasn't able to win. That and the fact Nora kept her from summoning must have been a real pain." Her smile died momentarily. "I can relate to the fight being a pain."

"Uhhhhh… Sorry..?"

"Now who's the salty one?" A cheshire Nora gave a taunting wave at the two.

"Now now," Jaune walked past his teammate, giving her a light flick to the forehead. The girl faked being mortally wounded, much to his amusement. "I for one thought the exercise was a good experience. I realized that it's not exactly easy to fight while guarding someone. I'll be working on that."

"I could try and not fixate on summoning, I suppose."

"I could choose my words better… in and out of combat."

"So we all learned some things today, that's good! We can put that knowledge towards getting even better!" Ruby seemed happier than the rest at a job well done. Winning likely played a decent role in her mood as well. "We never did ask about what tactics Cinder created, knowing that could be useful to counter anything Emerald card Mercury still have up their sleeves."

Her sister interrupted the congratulations with a wave of her hand. "Enough about all that, we need to plan the upcoming movie night! And yes Nora, I remember we agreed on Spruce Wills."

"Booyah!"

"I still stand by the belief that I won."

"All of those with the opinion that we should ignore his "belief"?" To his disappointment and complete lack of surprise, he watched everyone raise their hands.

"You too Weiss?"

"I wouldn't mind watching Vitanic. It's a wonderful film."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Yang came over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's for your own good, Ox. It's basically criminal negligence to deprive anyone of the glory that is classics like Little Shop of Grimm."

"Oh! You can't go wrong with Dust Wars!"

"I will riot if we don't watch The Sandwich Club."

Seeing everyone excitedly chat about what they wanted to watch. He knew his point was moot. "I don't have a choice, do I?"

Yang gave him a consoling trio of pats on his back. "I'm glad you understand, Ox."

At least we won the exercise…

~~~(LXXI)~~~

Thanks for the read!

It's a bit depressing working at a place where the customers wear more on them than I make in a year. I'd love it if one of these rich people would give me a tip entirely made of Benjamins. Imagine the fishing gear I could get!

Caught my biggest freshwater fish ever the other day. 25 inches and thicc af. Took nearly 10 minutes to bring in!