Artemis wasn't in class today. Ruby was trying not to be very sad about that. Crystal casting was hard, it was no wonder he'd made arrangements for a private tutor. But that just meant that she didn't have any friends in most of her classes. Holly had tested up to Yang's level so fast, she must only have enrolled for a rubber stamp on training she already had. Which made sense, when she thought about it. She handled herself so professionally when they were spying on that jerk at the nightclub...

"Clayton, Red zone!" Qrow barked. "Find the wall! Rose! Down you go!"

Ruby knew better than to hesitate. She landed on top of a bookshelf and took a moment at her vantage point to look around. The Pit was different almost every day. Things that were too broken to be of use were removed and replaced with new knick knacks and furniture, piles were shoved around to make new drifts and pathways. Furniture was hastily repaired with nails and glue, or hauled away if it was too splintered. Carmine and Burgundy had complained about it at length the last time they'd hung out, having had the misfortune of doing it during a detention. At the time she was just happy they were still talking to her. Now it was intel. She took a deep breath, then hopped down into the fray before someone could get a bead on her.

'Keep moving,' she told herself as she jogged through the maze, considering her options. 'Why does this have to be so difficult? She passed over a crowbar that someone had grabbed by the hook and yanked right out of her hands. The trash can lid as a shield hadn't worked the first three times she'd tried it. The kitchen knives were right out. She wished she could just use a rifle, but Grimm didn't care about range rules. Everyone needed something for melee range. 'Think! You keep trying one-handers and shields, and it never works! Just... grab something! Anything!' Her hand darted out, snatching up the closest thing to her, and unfortunately it was well rooted in the detritus. Her shoulder popped as her momentum stopped and she crashed to the ground. The sound was far louder than the stumble should have been, and she looked at what she'd grabbed. A pushbroom. She'd levered the bookshelf it was wedged against when she'd grabbed it and it had dumped most of its contents across the floor, giving away her position.

"Okay! Okay- ow- I can do this. Polearm. Like Carmine." Ruby could hear students making her way toward her, toward an easy mark. She rolled her shoulder, then tugged and twisted at the broom until it was freed. The weight of the brush was heavier than expected. "Okay. Not a spear. Maybe a hammer? An axe?"

Before she finished adjusting her stance, she heard a sharp grunt and straining wood. The shelves behind her were leaning forward, spilling their contents. She could see one of her classmates on the other side, grinning fiercely as blue aura raced along the walls of furniture to either side, forcing them to lean in turn. 'Binding semblance?' Ruby thought before the implications caught up with her. The redhead spun on her heel and bolted a split second ahead of the first domino. She chanced a glance behind her, noting strands of cobweb-like aura pulled taut, already dragging the next one down. She spurred herself faster, straining to keep ahead of the avalanche that was chasing her down. Ruby could hear Tundra cackling, dashing ahead of her in a parallel path, tying bookshelves and dressers and cubicle walls together with her semblance.

"Not... fair..." Ruby gasped, pushing herself harder and faster still. The broom was steady in her group, more or less slung over her shoulder as she dragged it along. She couldn't drop it, she was clumsy enough that it'd tangle in her own feet and send her sprawling on the floor until the falling furniture finished her off. She pushed herself, unrelenting, turn by turn, only instants ahead of the encroaching collapse. She could hear Qrow calling people out at the edge of her hearing, but it was drowned out by her heaving lungs and pounding heart. The floor rattled with the impact as she rounded yet another gods damned corner, only to see Tundra waiting for her at the end of a straightaway wearing a cruel grin. She had a broken lawnmower readied, its single remaining wheel the business end of a warhammer. One way or another, she meant to crush her opponent.

"No..." Ruby sighed. She hadn't even gotten a chance to try. She'd just been hauling this stupid broom around for five minutes of brutal cardio. "No." She grit her teeth, nearly losing her grip on her broom as she adjusted her grip. If Tundra expected her to just accept her fate she had another thing coming. A desperate overhand grip shifted to something closer to a golf swing. 'No!' Ruby tried to shout, but it came out as a wordless shriek of defiance as she somehow pushed herself even faster. She stopped feeling her feet pounding against the tile as she saw red. Tundra's face changed, her stance shifting as she swung quite suddenly too late. The brush slammed into her jaw, the makeshift hammer falling out of her grip and off to the side as she was catapulted backward into a once-fancy wardrobe. But Ruby wasn't done. Ruby followed the momentum upward into a leap, and now she was the one with the warhammer. Tundra scrambled to recover, sending clothes hangers skittering across the floor as she scrambled for footing. That defiant scream, that roar of rage followed her arc, and it was all Tundra could do to brace for the inevitable. Ruby's broom slammed into Tundra's abs a second before her feet hit the ground. Her aura flared blue, and she curled over onto her side as she tried to contain her lunch.

A whistle sounded. "All Stop! Weapons down!" Qrow barked. Ruby looked around, chest heaving as she started to come down from the exertion and the adrenaline. There were rose petals everywhere, striking scarlet and fresh with the scent of flowers. Most of the Pit was in shambles. Or rather, more shambles than usual. Tundra had knocked over half the arena, it was barely possible to pick a path through all the fallen shelving. The loose junk and debris was ankle deep or worse, and she could see one student straining to lift a desk off of another.

"Fucking brutal, Rose," Tundra wheezed, still on the floor. "Respect."

"Tundra!" The girl flinched as Qrow landed between the two of them. "Do you remember the purpose of this exercise?" he growled.

"To beat our opponents?" Tundra guessed, dragging herself to her feet.

"Wrong," he leaned over and hauled her to her feet by the shoulder. "Try again."

"To use the Pit to our advantage?" Tundra guessed again, considerably less confident.

"To open your eyes to unusual potential weapons," Qrow sighed. "While ordinarily using the environment to your advantage is intelligent and commendable, it is not the purpose of this exercise." He waved his hand out toward the mess for emphasis. "Thanks to you, the Pit is no longer a practical practice space for this exercise."

"...Oh." Tundra swallowed audibly.

"Attention class! Thanks to your classmate here, the remainder of this class is now a free period. Hit the showers if you need to and beat it." A cheer went up, and Tundra dared to smile. "Except for you two. Tundra, you're not leaving until everything you knocked over is upright. I'll let your other teachers know why you're absent."

"Yes sir." Tundra sighed, clearly relieved that she was getting off light.

"That includes all the crap you dumped on the floor too."

"Uuuuugh..." Tundra groaned.

"You got good instincts kid, but there's a time and a place. Get to it." He turned, smiling to his niece. "That was a hell of a move, Kiddo. How long have you been using your semblance?"

"...My what?" Ruby blinked.

"No way," Qrow grinned. "Was that the first time you did it?"

"Did what?" Ruby was starting to get frustrated. "Seriously! I don't know what I did!"

"You just about doubled your speed at the end there." Qrow smiled softly, stooping down to gather up a fistful of scarlet petals. He handed them to Ruby, a wistful smile on his face. "So much like your mother..." Ruby rubbed one of them gently with her thumb in quiet awe. They were soft, like velvet. Qrow ruffled her hair. "Come on, let's go to the practice gym. I want to see if you can do that again."

~o~o~

Holly rolled from cover to cover in the dim light, trading a corner for a low wall as a burst of gunfire ripped through the space she occupied for a fraction of a second. She hadn't fired a shot yet: her ammunition was limited, a single magazine in her Fractal Classic. She took a deep breath and held it, straining her ears. She heard someone rack a slide to the left. Another on the right took a step, shoes squeaking ever so slightly on the tile floor. She exhaled quietly, waiting for the sounds of their advance. The seconds stretched on slowly. It felt like ages, but she'd been on stakeouts. This was nothing. All she had to do was wait out their patience.

Eventually, predictably, someone started rushing forward. She snapped up, sights falling on him before he could turn his gun to find her. Her pistol barked and he stumbled as a stain flared across his chest. It was joined swiftly by two others, and his pistol fell to the floor. Holly jumped her barricade and several more, her wings stretching her jump effortlessly. She watched someone peeking out of cover, the tip of a gun beginning to rotate outward as the one behind it swept the room. She came down rolling, and popping up with her back securely against a wall.

The seconds stretched on. The next opponent was careful. More patient. Using the same tactics she was. As soon as she left cover, she'd be dodging gunfire. She took stock of her situation, ears straining, breath calm. She heard a slide rack again, noting the mistake and her opponent's position as the magazine hit the ground. An idea came to her, a flash of memory. She grinned. She racked her slide, palming the round from the chamber and letting the mechanism slot a new one into place. She waited for a few moments, picking a target in her line of sight. She tossed the round in a high arc, letting it bounce across the floor. Her opponent moved.

Holly rotated out of cover, smoothly and cleanly, but far too fast to react. Her opponent was already out of cover, the sweep had already carried the barrel of his gun past her. His eyes widened. Three shots to center mass... and it was done.

A buzzer sounded as the intercom clicked on. "Flawless work, Miss Short!"

"Oh come on, she cheated!" her opponent snarled, wiping futilely at the neon pink paint marring his training armor. "Nobody said you could throw bullets!"

"Nobody said you couldn't." Holly quipped smugly as she helped the first one she'd shot to his feet.

The instructor walked back into the room, flicking on the lights and illuminating the training range for what it was: a paintball arena. Holly had gotten to know the place quickly, as she'd been doing nearly all her live fire exams and demonstrations here. The advanced marksmanship courses all trained with paint slugs, sabot rounds that held capsules of paint. It was important, after all, to master the weapons you intended to use in the field. The cover, the low walls and corner walls and columns, was all hollow and lightweight so it could be moved around easily and locked down into slots in the floor. A clever set up that prevented students from simply memorizing the layout.

"Well, Miss Short! I'm going to be sorry to see you go," the portly teacher said. "Are you sure you can't stay on as an instructor?"

"Wait, what?" Holly was confused. "That can't have been the last exam."

"I wasn't giving you the standard exam. That was an advanced combat drill, and you handled it like a professional. I'm guessing you're only here to verify existing skills?" He asked with a wry smile. Holly nodded. "Thought so. You're not the first, you won't be the last. The fact is, Miss Short, I haven't got a damn thing to teach you. This isn't a private combat school, we don't make any more money by wasting your time."

"I'm confused," Holly said.

"I've been monitoring your drills," he smiled jovially. "You've clearly gone through police academy at the minimum, your reflexes are on par with requirements for Huntsman Academies, and you just dispatched two of my best students with less than one magazine. I'm waiving further grades for you, Miss Short. I'll have your certification filed by the end of the week."

Holly was surprised. She'd tested out of a few classes, sure, but she was sure she'd at least half to take a final at the end of the year. "Can I still come in to use the range?" she asked. "The one near my place is basically a junkyard."

"Of course, Miss Short. Go ahead and get your gun cleaned up and pack up for the day." He nodded to her. "The rest of you! Shuffle the room while group two finishes setting up!"

Holly made her way to the locker room, sitting down at a workbench to disassemble and clean her gun while a couple of other students were filling magazines with paint slugs. She worked quickly and methodically, pulling her gun apart with practiced ease and cleansing it of its brief efforts with a stiff brass brush. She'd worked with firearms back on Earth, every LEP operative at least got to fire a mud-man pistol once or twice. Unlike those guns, these didn't build up sooty grime. It was a sort of fine silicate powder, whatever remained of the Dust once its colorful energy was expended. Once clean, she traded her paint rounds for a fresh magazine and slotted it into a holster on her hip. It was a concealed holster, something Artemis had found for her, hiding the weapon under her jeans.

Lacking anything better to do, she decided to catch an early ferry back to Vale. While she walked, she wondered what she'd do with her time now. She'd apparently gone through the entire Marksmanship curriculum in less than a semester. She was already taking Advanced Pugilism for her melee class. She wasn't planning to be a Hunter, so she was skipping all the Smithing classes entirely. Even her aura control had been given a passing grade, if a reluctant one. She could always just fill the time with drills but she got the feeling she would just be gilding the lily at that point. She sighed, wishing she could go back to the LEP. She missed the camaraderie, the action, the occasional adventure... current circumstances notwithstanding. In short, Holly was bored.

Her scroll buzzed in her pocket, and she raised an eyebrow. She knew Artemis was off with Amber learning how to use Dust crystals without electrocuting himself. She flicked it open.

Red_Queen: Hey Hols! Going clubbing tonight. You want in?

She raised an eyebrow. Nightclubs weren't exactly her scene usually. She was pretty much married to her job. Which she didn't have right now. She paused. 'Do I honestly have anything better to do?'

A minute or two passed as she considered her usual evening routine. Two five-k runs, one on foot and one in the air. Her usual nightly workout. A quiet dinner with Artemis followed by watching police dramas or murder mystery shows until she went to bed.

Hotshot: I could use a change of pace. What time?
Red_Queen: Lower Elements at 8!
Hotshot: That place? Seriously?
Red_Queen: What's wrong with it?
Hotshot: Nothing, I just got punched through the decor last time I was there.
Red_Queen: OMG, that was there? You have to be swimming in free drinks.
Hotshot: I haven't exactly been back since. I'm pretty sure its under new management.
Red_Queen: Yeah they fucked with the decor but its pretty much the same place. Same staff, same DJ, same booze. I heard the bartender got arrested tho.
Hotshot: See you at 8.

After a moment's consideration, she scrolled to another contact.

Hotshot: Melanie, it's Holly. I'm coming to the club tonight. No special treatment, okay?
ThePettyTwin: new scroll, who dis
ThePrettyTwin: boss's bird
ThePettyTwin: o yea
Hotshot: Hey!
ThePrettyTwin: u sure, feathers? long lines
ThePrettyTwin: uhhh no, she skips the line but nuthin else. Like a reg, u kno
Hotshot: A what?
ThePrettyTwin: regular. let u in quik, no freebies tho
ThePettyTwin: meetin' somebody on the DL? birdy got a boytoy?
ThePrettyTwin: or girltoy
ThePrettyTwin: no judge
Hotshot: No! And enough with the bird crap!
Hotshot: She's a cop.
ThePettyTwin: should I tell boss?
Hotshot: I mean if you want. I think she's a "reg?"
ThePettyTwin: ew. no more quote marks 4 u
ThePrettyTwin: she that cop that made jr go after boss?
ThePettyTwin: started showing up a couple weeks after
ThePrettyTwin: Scarlet something?
Hotshot: Yeah, that's her.
ThePettyTwin: yeah she just comes to get turnt
ThePrettyTwin: and laid
ThePettyTwin: that 2. Shes fine. U both regs 2nite.
Hotshot: Thanks, I guess?
ThePrettyTwin: if ur tryna hit that she likes margaritas
Hotshot: No! I'm just coming to blow off some steam.
ThePettyTwin: whatevs. c u 2nite, tweety.

Holly was almost too busy indignantly glaring at her scroll to realize she had to wear the backless cocktail dress again. Almost.