Metal like Roses
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Mistborn or RWBY.
Never Miss a Beat
Beta'd by: Icarus720
As always, please comment! It honestly makes my day to read your thoughts and opinions.
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"Are you sure this is safe?"
"Of course! The best way to know what they do."
"By fighting?"
"Yeah!"
Weiss sighed, when Yang offered to help Vin practice with her new metals, she wasn't expecting them to have broken into the practice arena. Vin, without her armor, pulled out a new vial of metals she made from the shopkeep's chart. There were four new vials total, and each contained one of the newer metals: nicrosil, chromium, cadmium, and bendalloy.
Swallowing the first vial, the one containing nicrosil, Vin walked in front of Yang and she closed her eyes.
"Try activating your aura," Vin asked her friend.
Yang nods, a brief shimmer of light covering her body. Vin frowns and places a hand on her shoulder, causing the blonde to gasp. Her aura flashes brightly before it vanishes completely.
Vin pulls her hand away and looks down at it.
"What was that?" Blake asks, pulling out a notebook.
"The external enhancement metal," she explains. "I increased Yang's aura for a few moments."
Blake makes a few notes on her pad. "Weiss, can you help out Vin. We need to find out if she can do that for semblances as well as aura."
Nodding, Weiss pulls out her rapier and walks to the center stage. "Ready?"
"Yes," Vin nods, swallowing another vial of nicrosil. Weiss stabs the ground and activates a glyph, white and spinning.
Focus, she thinks, remembering what Winter taught her. The glyph spins rapidly and then begins to flicker.
No, she yells mentally, not again! But before the glyph could disappear, Weiss feels Vin's hand grip her shoulder. And then she felt power like she never felt before. The glyph's shape grew larger, shining brightly and exploding into light.
When Weiss opened her eyes, standing before her was an ice-shaped Grimm. A Summoned Beowolf.
"It… Worked." Weiss gasps as she stares at her Summon.
"What… is that? Ruby asks, speaking for the first time today.
"A Summon," the white-haired princess explains. "It's a part of my semblance, to be able to summon Grimm I have defeated in battle… I've never been able to do it before."
Blake makes a few more notes, "so it can increase power to semblances as well as aura. But seemingly only through physical contact." She turns to her team leader, "you could go faster than ever before."
Vin shakes her head, "possibly. But it only works for a moment, whatever fuels our powers, Allomancy, aura, semblance, uses all of that energy in a single moment."
"So it seems," Weiss comments, her beast disappearing into snowflakes and vanishing into the light.
"What about the other two?" Yang asks, pointing at the other vials. "The time ones."
The cat-eared faunas grabs one of them and tosses it to Vin, who catches it easily. As Blake ushers her teammates backward, Vin swallows the contents.
"Ready?" Blake asks.
Vin nods. "Let's begin."
Ruby sat back and watched, not really paying attention. Last night, she couldn't help but think about what that strange man had shown her.
Mom...She thought, watching as Vin swallowed the vial. The images she saw last night showed a side of her mom she never thought possible. It showed something new and something… horrifying.
It showed her mom as a killer. An assassin for both men and Grimm alike.
Before she could continue to think about this, Vin started spasming. Her body rapidly moved about in the blink of an eye, shaking and twitching about.
"What's going on!?" Ruby asked, jumping forward. As she grabbed for her arm, something seemed to burst and Vin's movements stopped.
"What was that," Weiss asked, "it looked like you were sped up."
Vin frowns. "Cadmium… it creates a bubble of time, slowing down the outside world. It looked like you all froze from my point of view."
Yang's jaw drops, "that's… that's overpowered."
Quickly writing everything down, Blake asks, "how big is the bubble?"
"About five feet in diameter."
Blake nods, adding another note to her paper.
Ruby sighs, happy that her friend is okay. As Vin grabs the next vial, Ruby thinks back to when she told them about her time as an assassin.
Was Mom like her? A tool? If so, then who used her?
"Hey, Rubes," Yang snaps her fingers in front of Ruby's nose, "you okay?"
"Huh? Yeah," Ruby shakes her head. "Just, uh, thinking."
"That's dangerous, you know," her sister jokes, earning a giggle from the hooded-huntress. Ruby turns back to her other teammates, Vin having drunk another vial and Blake clicking her pen.
"Are you ready?" Blake asked Vin.
Vin nods as Yang leans over to Weiss.
"If the last one made time slow down, won't this one make time speed up?" She asks the heiress.
Weiss nods, "most likely. Her metals seem to be opposites."
Nothing happens for a moment, silence falling on the stage.
"Are you going to start?" Blake asks, pressing her pen against her pad.
Vin frowns, "I did. The bubble appears to be as big as the stage."
"What?!" RWBY cries, looking around and noticing a slight shimmering surrounding them.
"The slow-metal creates a small bubble, but this one is large enough to fit the stage," Blake mumbles, jotting down a few notations.
"Uh guys, it's 11," Yang comments, looking at the clock near the door which was not stuck inside the bubble.
Everyone turns to look at the clock, noticing the hands on its face spinning faster than usual.
"Um Ruby," Weiss asks, "what time is our doubles match?"
"11:45," she answers, watching the clock's hands spin past 11:15.
"Ah."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"
Emerald wanted to just kill Vin right then and there. As the green-haired murderer sat in the shadows, she couldn't help but want to just pull her gun out right then and shoot Vin. Especially when she and her teammates seemed to freeze in a moment.
However, Cinder told her not to do anything. To let… her… live…
And, for once in her life, she wanted to ignore Cinder's orders.
But she was right… that is her power…
Emerald smiled before rushing back outside and to her mistress.
Vin sighed, adjusting her gauntlet. After 'popping' her temporal bubble, RWVBY had quickly rushed to Amity Colosseum. When they landed, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake gave the two contestants a quick hug before running to the bleachers.
Yang and Vin were quickly ushered to the underground locker room, where they grabbed their weapons and armor, preparing for another fight. And, almost like before, she felt excited.
As the duo pressed the button, lifting them to the stage, Vin finally got a good look at her opponents.
On the left was a tan-skinned boy with short spiky light-blonde hair and dark-gray eyes. He wears two red wrist bracers over black fingerless gloves and an open loose-collared white jacket with no shirt underneath, displaying his muscular physique. He also wears blue cargo pants tied up with a white belt. He wears white bandages on his legs and has a chain hanging from the belt loop on the right side of his pants.
The boy also sports black and yellow sneakers and wears a black cord with a round pendant bearing his monkey emblem. As a result of his Faunus lineage, he has a long prehensile monkey tail the same color as his hair.
Next to him, is a teenage boy with tan skin, dark-blue eyes, and messy light-blue hair in the form of an undercut. He wears a white dress shirt and black tie under a red jacket adorned with a wide, upturned, black collar and a silver reticle across the back. He also sports a pair of gray jeans with black padding strapped to the sides as well as black shoes fastened with straps instead of accessories within his attire include black fingerless gloves and a pair of yellow-tinted goggles typically worn on his forehead.
"Sun and Neptune of Haven!" Boomed the voice of Professor Port, "versus! Yang and Vin of Beacon!"
Vin sighed, already annoyed by the loud and pompous voice ringing in her ears. Shaking her head, she studied her opponents, Sun seemed to wield a long staff while Neptune shouldered a large gun.
What do they morph into? Vin wondered, aware of this world's fascination with weapon modes.
Next to her, Yang punches the air, elongating her gauntlets. "I'll take Sun, think you can handle Neptune?"
Vin nods, swallowing a vial as the hologram shuffle begins. Slowly, as they land on their specific images, the arena around them changes into four new biomes. The volcano icon reveals a hot rocky area. The building icon shows a small city-scape in disarray. A sandy and rocky biome matches the rock icon, and a final rocky set with white-blue crystals popping up randomly and rivers flowing about.
Sun crosses his arms, "now, now, Yang. I don't want to have to tell Blake I beat up one of her closest friends. Why don't you just surrender?"
Yang laughs, "funny. I was worried Blake would be upset if I hit you too hard, now… I don't care."
"Three!"
"Hey cutie," Neptune calls out, winking to Vin, "if I win, I'll let you go on a date with me. But if you win, I'll honor you with a night you'll never forget."
Vin frowns, then smirks softly.
"Two!"
Sun twirls his staff and rests it on his shoulder while Neptune aims his gun haphazardly near Vin.
"One!"
Crouching, Yang gets ready to use her gauntlets to shoot herself forwards. Vin, on the other hand, palms one of the smaller, hidden daggers from her armor.
"Begin!"
Before Neptune could fire his weapon, or correct his aim, Vin threw her dagger at his hand. His aura reflected the attack but it was propelled into his weapon, knocking it to the side. Yang, moving almost as fast as Vin's dagger, fired her gauntlets and launched herself at Sun.
The monkey Faunus quickly swings his staff sideways, knocking her wrists to the side and dodging her attack. Yang quickly pivots on her heel, swinging another fist at Sun's face. He leaps backward, his tail wrapping around a lamppost and spinning around the pole.
While Yang chases after him, Vin uses iron to pull on Neptune's gun, which flies towards her. As Neptune reaches for his weapon, Vin quickly runs up and punches him in the stomach. Her speed and strength enhanced with pewter, causing the blue-haired boy to be sent backward into the river biome.
Neptune lands in a small river, barely a few inches deep. He groans and grabs his stomach. When he notices his surroundings, Neptune utters a loud shriek. This causes Vin to grab her ears, her tin-heightened senses causing the high-pitched noise to echo in her head.
Yang couldn't believe this was happening. Somehow, Sun was dodging all of her attacks. Every kick, punch, headbutt, and elbow she threw at him kept getting dodged and blocked.
Yelling, she throws another punch at Sun. He quickly leaps upward, jamming his staff into a windowsill and using it to hold himself into the air. A puff of smoke and powder flies up as Yang's fist collides into the cement wall. Growling, she looks up to see Yang hanging by his tail.
"You know," Sun jokes, "I really think you should have just let me win, I don't want Blake to hate me too much for beating you up."
"We'll see who beats up who!" Yang screams, shooting one of her explosives towards the monkey.
Sun's eyes go wide and he is launched upwards, his tail gripping his staff. Twirling, he grabs his staff with his hands and splits it into its dual nunchucks. Sun smiles and laughs as he falls towards Yang and swings his weapons towards her.
Yang barely has enough time to bring her arms in front of her in a defensive stance before Sun shoots a couple of quick shotgun rounds from the ends of his weapons. The ground around her explodes and Yang feels her aura take a hit as the explosives barade her.
The blast(s) knock Yang off her feet, pushing her into the next biome, the volcano-scape. As she rises to her feet, her eyes glow red.
"You… got my hair dirty!" She yells, her hair becoming yellow flames as the ground around her bubbles and burns.
Sun gulps. "Uh, oh."
Vin's head was killing her, that attack Neptune did just now was strong. Perhaps that was his semblance. She quickly rises and flares bronze, realizing he had not used his semblance.
What was that then? She wondered while walking over to Neptune, who had stopped moving aside from a few finger twitches. Placing a hand on his forehead, she grabs another flask and swallows it.
Better now than in a real fight, Vin rationalizes, mentally grabbing ahold of one of her newest metals, chromium. As she burns this new metal, Neptune's aura levels vanish completely.
"... It would seem that Neptune has been eliminated due to aura depletion, "Professor Oobleck announces after a moment, his voice stuttering slightly.
Vin removes her hand and turns to where she could now hear a loud explosion.
Yang, she thinks, iron pulling on Neptune's weapon before dropping a small coin onto the ground, steel pushing off of it and flying towards the sounds of violence.
As she lands, Vin can't help but worry about Yang or Sun's safety. Everywhere she looked was destroyed or crumbling to pieces. There were also large red-hot splotches of liquid splattered along walls and the floor.
"Stand still!" Vin hears. Looking up, she sees Yang, hair and eyes ablaze, rapidly punching at Sun, who continues to carefully avoid the attacks. However, Vin quickly notices a few small sliding against his body, chipping away at his aura slowly but surely.
Lifting Neptune's gun, she aims it towards the duo, remembering the small amount of training Ruby had given her with Crescent Rose.
'You need to try using guns. Not every bad guy is going to get close enough for you to resort to hand-to-hand', she told her.
Vin sighs, lining up the shot. When she thinks her shot is good, she pulls the trigger.
This better work, she thinks as a spear of light shouts out from the tip.
Crap, crap, crap! Sun yelled mentally, spinning his nunchucks around to defend himself from Yang's onslaught. He was seriously regretting his comments now, especially when Yang activated her semblance.
Right as he was blocking another attack, he heard the familiar sound of Neptune's gun firing.
Yes! He thought, somehow, Neptune was able to ditch Vin and help him out. Dropping to his knees, he feels the familiar buzz of the rail gun's energy pass over him and hit Yang directly in the stomach.
"Great job, Nep-", Sun starts, turning to his friend, only to realize it was Vin holding the gun. When did- before Sun could think on this more, Port's voice booms over the intercom.
"It would seem that Vin has missed her shot! So close!"
"Actually," argues the voice of Professor Oobleck, "I think her shot hit its intended target!"
Sun, eyes going wide, turns back to Yang, only to have her fist smash directly into his face, launching him out of the zone and crashing into the barrier.
"It would seem you were right," Port chuckles, "Sun has been eliminated! Team RWVBY is victorious!"
The last thing Sun hears before passing out is the roar of the stadium as Yang and Vin bask in another win.
Boom. Another one! Still not as big as some of my chapters but I think it does pretty well. This might be the new size for a bit, as I am still working 2 jobs as well as college.
This was a chapter I really looked forward to. I couldn't wait to get Vin practicing with the other metals and I thought it would be a lot of fun to pit RWVBY vs SSSN (Yes, team Sun is their name).
Before some of you get upset, I think I should clarify something. Sun was able to hold his own against Torchwick, who easily beat Blake in that same skirmish. Granted, that was a year+ ago, so Sun would have had even more training. I'm not saying he is stronger, just that Sun could probably deflect or block more punches from Yang than she would land. Granted that is my personal opinion. I'm not a huge 'pro-Sun' guy, just want to give respect where it is due.
On the other hand, I'm sorry I made Neptune lose so quickly. I have a very specific reason for something that happened that fight while most of the other things were just how unskilled he was compared to Vin.
I mean, seriously, she could probably hold her own against Batman in a Batarang fight (which is similar to what she did with her knife at the beginning of the battle).
For the metals, I really am trying to make it so that the enhancement ones are not too overpowered. There will be pros/cons to both but I think they help Vin learn to lean on her teammates more. (Imagine Qrow with his semblance leeched. Or Pyrrha with hers nicroboosted.)
I want to say thank you for all the views this story has received. We've almost reached 4k! Last Ii checked it was about 3,898. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Outside of this story, I wanted to mention Ultimate10. He recently decided to give up writing because his personal life couldn't give him the time. Please go over to his page, read his story, and thank him. It's a great Fic and, honestly, it was one of the ones to get me into writing in the first place.
Thanks again, everyone!
Naufalrakha0104: Thank you! I'm glad I made a story that intrigues you. Might I ask what you are most excited about?
xFel: Yes, I'm sorry. I really used Hoid as a plot device, and it was pretty out of character. But I hope him being here was funny enough to make you smile. Also, thank you for sticking around for so long!
Toonlink111: Thank you very much! What's been your favorite part thus far? Also, most likely I will not be bringing anyone from Scadrial to Remnant (sorry). The events that led to Vin being sent here were extraordinary so it would be unlikely that it would happen again. However, I do have an idea for the fun 'RWBY Chibi' crossover I have planned. Maybe Vin shows off Scadrial or some of her old friends come to visit due to Harmony.
Please, feel free to follow and comment on predictions, thoughts, etc. I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft. Tell your friends!
Also, if you have the money, please think about supporting me. Maybe one day I won't have to juggle 2 jobs and can spend more time writing.
Pa tre on . co m
(slash)
readerwarrior