"Remind me why we're here again?" Blake asks, looking around a mostly empty stadium. A scant few people were sitting in the crowd, though few were paying you any attention.
"I keep thinking that, and my only response is, 'honor,' with a big question mark."
"This is Yang's fault."
"That is true. But like, we're dating, so I guess that makes her problem ours?"
"Briar, we're dating and believe me, the last thing I want is to make my problems yours."
"Right…" You regret accidentally bringing up Blake's endless list of problems… Then again, you haven't exactly been up front about the fact that you aren't even from this world. Wow, you've managed to not think about that for a while and oh wait yeah you're still about to engage in combat for some reason.
"Well, she convinced us I guess, but now we're here."
Why ARE you here? You're standing in the middle of Amity Arena. A few hours ago, Yang and Weiss had a thrilling tournament match against two guys from Atlas. One was a cool-looking jazz guy and the other was a mess of sugar and rainbows on roller skates.
Oh, right.
Not long ago, Yang challenged two people to a fight (and also conscripted Weiss at the same time); Stella Rosegold and Sierra Blueridge were opposite you and Blake, awaiting the start of an exhibition match. Seeing as Weiss got a heavy dose of geyser, she had a bit too much damage to fight. Yang, meanwhile, also took a lot of hits, and was set to fight in the solo rounds of the tournament, so she was also out. Both were in the stands alongside a few of your friends, but just to enjoy the show.
This left you and Blake.
For some reason.
The entire point of Yang challenging them was because Stella hated Weiss and Yang wanted to prove that she was more than a bratty heiress that looks down on everyone. Sure you and Blake defended your white-haired teammate/frie‐waitwassheevenyourfriend… Whatever. Somehow, you and Blake are fighting for someone else's honor based on someone else-else's impulsive challenge. So, really for no reason. In fact, seeing Weiss sacrifice herself to help Yang in the match caused Stella to actually acknowledge that Weiss was more than what she thought.
So yeah, no reason you're about to fight her and her 7+ft tall teammate. Like, at all.
But Yang already scheduled the arena for a practice match, so you might as well practice against some huntresses that aren't RWBY for once. And you get to do so alongside Blake, which is nice! No stakes, no grudges, just an old-fashioned exhibition match.
You look at Stella and then up to Sierra, trying to gauge how they fought. You've been actively trying to hone this skill, seeing as everyone else had years of practice already.
Stella was much more ready for a date than a fight. Her top was unbuttoned, showing off her hefty cleavage and a cheetah print bra, plus a miniskirt. And jewelry. Lots and lots of jewelry. That, plus her usual mechanical bunny ears that you've never seen her without. And as usual, she was glued to her scro‐slate. It was a SLATE. She was glued to her slate. You don't even see a weapon on her. Just a purse. And even with all the sword guns and hammer guns, a PURSE being a weapon was a bit absurd.
Sierra, on the other hand, was a lot easier to make assumptions about; she was, again, massive, and had a large rectangular weapon attached to her back. What WASN'T easy to assume was that she was wearing some kind of high-tech skin-tight bodysuit under her jacket and jeans. Lines crafted into it pulsed with blue energy, seemingly flowing into different receptors on her wrists, back, waist, and even directly into her weapon. You could guess all you want, but you can't visually see what it did. You'd never seen anything like it, even in this world of weird technology and shoving guns into things that shouldn't have guns shoved into them.
Blake actually pipes up a second before you. "I like your suit," she says as a pulse runs through Sierra`s outfit. You wonder if she's being genuine or if she's fishing for combat potential…
"Why thank you!" Sierra responds, tilting her head in the same way a mom does when her child presents her with macaroni art. "It was originally designed for space travel!"
You and Blake both cock an eyebrow. There WAS no space travel in Remnant due to Dust not working past orbit. The idea of having something like that was quite interesting, but for another time.
Seeing your confused faces, Sierra adds, "Oh, yes. Once they found out that it wouldn't work, they just had it lying around and eventually handed it to little old me since I was the only person who could operate it." You and Blake both raise the other brow at Sierra referring to herself as `little.' She misses this. "The darn thing takes so much power to operate… Oh, excuse my language." The giant covers her mouth.
"If ur done explaining things 2 the enemy, I have a date in an hour," Stella says, eyes still fixed on her slate. "U 2 done explaining pleasantries?"
"We're good to go. Start at Go?"
"Like, whatevs. Start at Go."
Blake pulls out her scroll and starts the countdown to the match.
"3," blares from the surrounding sound system. The arena around you shakes a little as the course sections begin swapping out. Trees, dilapidated buildings, mountains, and other biomes start rising.
"I'll leave this to you to start, Honey." Sierra calmly starts to walk away from the center of the ring towards a hilly area spawning in.
"KK," Stella responds, unmoving. While she types away on her slate, several bright lights appear from her head and begin circling around. You recognize them as some kind of Semblance.
"2."
You glance at Blake. She motions towards the city area, full of plenty of places to find cover for her hit and run style moves. You nod.
"1."
You follow Blake towards a ruined building and duck in behind a broken wall, greatsword ready in its shorter form. You notice that Stella still hasn't moved, nor even drawn a weapon. Normally, you'd wonder if she'd even noticed you were starting, but something tells you things wouldn't be that simple. If anything, her confidence in standing out in the open scared you a bit. Whatever those stars around her head were, they weren't nothing.
"GO!"
…
No movement.
...
You look at Blake.
"Well, not the start I expected," Blake says, carefully scanning the area. "Sierra's off in the distance... stretching? Man, Atlas students don't fight how I expected…"
"So what do you want to do?"
"I figure YOU figured that there's a reason Stella's out in the open and why Sierra trusted her to do that. So, yeah, best not to open ourselves up to that." She switches Gambol Shroud to its pistol form. "Still, nothing ventured…"
Blake fires a shot at Stella. Your fear is founded when, without even looking up from her slate, she casually tilts her head the minimal amount and dodges the bullet. One of her robo-bunny ears tilts in the direction of the bullet.
"She must have a warning system set up with those ears." Blake fires a few more shots Stella's way. Again, with as little movement as necessary, she dodges each one by an inch. Like last time, her mechanical ears point in the direction of the bullets.
"U done or u gonna keep wasting my time?" Stella asks, still looking at her slate. She waits a moment for an answer, then says, "Fine. My turn."
Stella pulls out a… is that a tablet? She pulls out a tablet-sized slate from her purse and fiddles with it for a moment. As she tosses it into the air, the case around it unfolds like a weapon transforming; purple energy radiates from stretched out wing areas, turning the phone into a remote flying drone that casually flew threw the air. The hardlight screen flips up, visibly scanning the area.
"Activate combat mode."
Stella's glasses light up with different screens. Meanwhile…
No.
No way.
Seriously?
Stella's cell phone shifts around, the case flipping out to include a pistol grip and trigger while the main phone converts to a barrel attached to the dust batteries. You know from your job (and Stella's numerous sales pitches) that the slates operate with both hardlight and electric dust, which you imagine can combine as bullets and taser shots. Just as well, the hardlight screen flips up, giving the gun phone advanced targeting.
She had a gun that was her *phone*.
It still had all the phone charms hanging from the handle!
Suddenly a purse gun seems slightly more plausible…
Nah, still too farfetched.
It also hits you. While you can barely see Stella's glasses, you can see an incredibly bright shade of pink with small boxes soaring upwards. You've seen this in many messages before with Stella.
It was her message app.
She was still texting while dodging bullets! Without cover!
You admire the sheer audacity of this e-girl.
You are then nicked by a bullet.
"Blegh. Seems the auto adjust is still off by a bit..." Stella whines, examining her gun phone. It takes you a moment to realize that she hadn't even been aiming at you. She was aiming at the drone flying past you, which had an angled hardlight shield! It could redirect her bullets! With near perfect accuracy!
Blake confirms with a shot that the drone is also capable of deflecting her own bullets right back at her, even if a bit inaccurate. "Not good. We gotta move!" Blake says, taking your hand. The two of you run further into the city area and find better cover inside of a partially destroyed building. "Damn, she's got the advantage…" She gazes out over the wall, noticing the drone already flying towards your hiding spot. "And it can track us!" Blake deflects a small grenade shot by the drone, which detonates surprisingly violently for its size. "And that! Get ready to run!"
Defaulting to Blake's advice, you ready yourself. Blake jumps out of cover and summons a fire clone. The copy rushes forward before exploding into a rush of flame and smoke, making, well, a smokescreen. Even if Stella's tech had heat vision, the fire clone would keep you hidden. You follow Blake as she rounds a corner and enters a small, mostly intact building.
Blake quickly closes the door behind you. "Okay, so now we're out of the line of fire."
"Not that that helps us too much…" You say, dejected. "She can't be hit, can track us safely, and has heavy munitions. How do we get past that?"
"Plus Sierra, too. Stella's only half the fight." Blake analyzes the surroundings. "But they've got to have a weakness. Stella must be open while she's controlling‐"
"‐Unlikely," you interrupt. "She's told me plenty about all her systems and AI. The drone is probably mostly independent. Plus she's able to multitask given she's fighting us while on a phone. Half our conversations about work she's playing a game AND texting someone else. It's like she can't NOT answer a text."
Blake peeks out of a crack in the wall. Checking her ammo, she says, "We've at least got a minute or so here. The city's our best bet since we can duck into buildings for cover and cut line of sight. Surprising her seems unlikely since she's got a warning system, so we could rush her…"
Your cat ears perk up and pick up… something. Some kind of… flowing sound?
"And then we have to think about Sie‐"
Blake is interrupted as you shove her out of the way. The area where her head was was replaced by a loud sound and then… nothing. Wait, not nothing. Light. A shaft of light? But you were indoors? An intentionally broken building with no light sources.
Oh
Oh that's bad.
The light was coming in from outside.
From the massive hole burned through the wall.
You follow the light shaft from the absence of wall to an obliterated table and desk, still smoking. Your body automatically glances through the hole and see a large shape laying on a hill.
It dawns on you.
Sierra, despite her massive size and immense physical strength, was a sniper.
With a railgun.
And her partner had the means of tracking you.
This was gonna be a hard fight.
You nod at Blake. You've spent as much time as you could working out the beginnings of a plan to combat Sierra and Stella. Stella's drones could track you, and Sierra's railgun meant that you'd constantly been dodging blasts that would instantly knock out your Aura.
Exchange an idea.
Run.
Exchange an idea.
Run.
Now, you had something rather than nothing. Though, planning and actually accomplishing things were different, plus you'd only figured out a potential way to get Stella. She had obvious weaknesses, but aside from taking a minute to charge, you don't have much on Sierra other than maybe her close combat isn't that great if she was a sniper. That wasn't exactly likely since she's 7ft tall, so charge time was all you had.
But first, Stella. You still didn't even know what the glowing satellites her Semblance created did, but as Blake put it, "nothing ventured…"
"Think they'll get it?" you ask, enjoying the few seconds of calm.
"It'll take a sec, but yeah." Blake waves.
Now, are you SURE you're okay with this? I mean, sure she's a little bitchy, but…"
"Unless you have a better idea. Plus better us now than someone else later."
"you know what thats a good point lets go"
You and Blake prepare to dodge Sierra's latest pressure. You'd slowly been ducking into alleys and buildings between blasts to get closer to Stella, who was still betting that her warning system was a sufficient enough defense. If she was sufficiently distracted, however, her antenna wouldn't do her much good; sure, she gets a warning that a bullet is coming, but if your plan worked how you'd think it would…
yeah shes still just texting in the middle of a fight thisll work
The shot fires. Sierra's railgun evaporates a perfectly circular section of wall, plus all the wall behind it encompassed in that same diameter.
You and Blake rush into action. Blake creates a fire clone and swings it towards Sierra, creating a smoke cloud to block line of sight for a moment. You hop over, find cover, and set your plan into action.
"555-8008"
"Regardless of their motivations, the Grimm have been locked in an existential war with Humanity for as long as can be Weiss Is Prettier remembered, seeking to destroy them and all of their sex creations. At first, it seemed as though they would succeed, as TUBULAR Humans did not have the strength to fight them. However, Humans discovered the power of Dust, and with it, the Grimm were penis driven back. During this time, Humans enjoyed a time thot of peace and soon formed their own Kingdoms, which grew to survive and prosper. However, this time would not last indefinitely. Today-"
" lilstarbuns"
" lilstarbuns"
"can u believe she did that"
"hes cheating on u!"
Everything.
You throw EVERYTHING at Stella, targeting her weakest point.
It was Blake's idea.
"It's like she can't NOT answer a text," you offhand mentioned a little earlier. And it was true. Even now. Stella was flipping between group chats, text logs, mobile games, and her fanService. Her antenna seemingly allowed her to dodge potshots by warning her, so she could afford to split her attention. Well, as the plan will prove, that's a bad idea.
You text Stella nonsense. You text her made up gossip. You text her stretches of your online textbooks with random eye catching words placed at random between sentences. You do the worst thing imaginable and her several times on different chats. ANYTHING to personally attack her ADHD and FORCE her to split her attention to far.
And the worst part?
Assuming everyone got the message, you won't be the only one.
You texted Stella's number to everyone you knew watching in the stands. They could all see you continuing to text, and while not all of them were morally compromised enough to capitalize on your idea, if even one person assisted you, Stella was going to go insane. You feel at the very least Yang would understand and be on your side.
Stella couldn't be dragged away from her phone. She NEEDED the endless influx of information and distraction. She couldn't possibly go without clearing all of her pings and checking all of her messages. And now she was being bombarded with things she couldn't bear to leave unread.
You glance up at Stella after sending her half of your unfinished essay with random numbers thrown in. It was exceedingly clear that it was working. With an obsessive, frantic look in her eyes, she was scouring every inch of text she could read, unable to look away. She'd even switched her slate back from its gun form, too distracted to think about how she was on a battlefield.
"can i get a pic '3'"
"need a refund"
"img23267_ "
The onslaught continues. Glancing over at the stands, you see that yes, they did understand. Yang had a gleeful look on her face as she rapidly typed on her scroll alongside Nora. Weiss was giving the blonde the stink eye, clearly feeling that doxxing might be a bit much.
Swarmed by hundreds of letters, numbers, and gifs, compiled with the several group chats and insta stories she couldn't ignore, Stella was breaking down. Before, she'd be casually chatting with several people while also flipping between texts and games. Now, she was furiously swapping chats trying to clear her notifications.
"g-gonna have 2 call u back," Stella babbles, trying to hang up on one of her gossipy girlfriends. "no no cant talk im busyyy daddys calling OMG HIIIII DADDYYYYY sry but i gotta gooo miss u bb ill send a ~pic~" Her fingers fly, but she's incapable of sorting through everything.
With all the added distractions, you start getting responses:
"who u?"
"pinggggg"
"_"
You think these are directed at what Stella thinks to be different people. Good. Luckily, you're smart enough to know when to put your phone do‐are those boobs?
"WRONG NUMBER WRONG NUMBER"
Your plan was working so well it was teaching Stella a valuable lesson as to why you shouldn't switch between 30 chats a minute. She was so distracted she started mixing up numbers and group texts since the notifications kept moving as new chaff came in.
"OMG Daddy i said I cant talk rn!"
"DADD-i mean Papa! im in the middle of‐OMG I DIDNT MEAN TO SEND THATTTTT‐NONONONO DONT GET ANGRY I DIDN'T I‐"
oh my god you think you just caused a girl to send her father a picture meant for her boyfriend
suddenly you feel pretty bad about things
too bad blake doesnt share the empathy as she runs to tackle said girl who just made a very big mistake
All of the floating satellites above Stella's head glow incredibly bright as Blake rushes in before they dim. You notice that her earpieces don't move like they had previously when you fired at her. Huh. Guess her Semblance was the warning system rather than her earpiece. Too bad you figured that out too late.
Blake twirls in the air and fires a wind-infused clone at Stella, who was too busy doing damage control to dodge or care. The copy detonates, launching Stella clear off the platform and out of the ring. Unbothered by her loss, she just keeps texting and whining as she parses between her now-marked-for-death boyfriend, unfortunate father, and supportive girlfriends.
Blake dodges a slightly closer-than-preferred railgun shot from Sierra and regroups with you. You quickly find better cover now that Stella couldn't control her drone as efficiently or share its information with Sierra.
Finally, you can breathe.
"I feel bad," you say.
"Feel bad later," Blake replies. "It IS her fault after all. Just tell her it's an exploit in a bug report."
"oh god i hope she doesnt fire me…"
"Well I hope she doesn't kill you in your sleep. I may as well have if you made me leak my nudes."
You gain a new fear: a busty shortstack shooting you with a cell phone in your sleep.
"wait does this mean you have nudes to leak…?"
"W-why is THAT your takeaway!?" Blake asks, incredulous but impressed.
Your answer is thankfully interrupted by another railgun blast. Talk of sexy photos could come later; first, you had a giant to fell. Now that Stella was out of the picture, dodging was that much easier. You and Blake start hauling ass towards the forest area of the arena, ready to double team Sierra. As one would expect, she didn't just continue firing telegraphed lasts and switched to a less accurate but more dangerous rapid fire strategy.
As for your plan, you have exactly one. There was no doubt a 7ft monster like Sierra was a powerhouse that could easily send you or Blake flying, even if there were two of you. But after some heavy training and a few tips from Pr. Peach, there was at least one ace you could feasibly pull off.
Again, planning and executing…
You get close enough to the clearing Sierra's in that she stands up and adjusts her massive club. It compacts slightly, making a more regular club shape while the business side of it glows blue with the energy from a pack on her hip. As she moved, more power seemed to ebb from the glowing lines on her suit directly to a battery of sorts, then into her weapon.
Electricity! She generates electricity when she moves! She said she was the only on capable of operating her fancy suit because she was the only one who could feasibly power it! And that explains how she can fire massive railgun shots so consistently…
Good. You're learning to analyze things mid fight.
Now to apply what you've learned.
You and Blake narrowly dodge a massive swing that would have instantly beheaded a normal person and step back.
"I'm not sure what you did," Sierra starts. "But it seems you upset my precious little angel. Please forgive me for what I'm going to do to you." Even as she threatens you, she maintains the gentlest tone and expression, her intent betrayed only by the veins on her weapon hand.
Blake ducks behind a tree. "We taught her a lesson. A battlefield is no place for a group chat." She fires some pot shots.
"I'll have to agree with you there, but there are BETTER-" the tree Blake was hiding behind snapped in half, "-ways to teach impressionable young girls!"
"Aren't you like 18?" you ask between swings of your sword. While normally you feel like you'd be terrified, something about Sierra`s demeanor and incredulous commitment to sounding like a milf relaxes you. It's like ASMR with the threat of bodily injury and the same unnerving tingle.
"She's still my little angel." Sierra goes for a massive downward swing that you only manage to parry by slamming it away with the arc of your sword transforming to its greatsword form. "And it's my job as her teammate to be supportive."
Sierra lifts her club and points it down, barrel-first, which you can't let happen. Any burst attack ruins the setup you've been doing. Using one of your non-finisher tricks, you quickly run your Aura through a thorny whip you've grown and repeat the same move you used to trip up Yang; the improvised whip slips around Sierra's ankle and knocks her to the ground, ruining her attack. Instead, she does a massive swipe with an energy slash shot towards you.
You dodge easily. You're fully focused on dodging right now. There's exactly zero chance you'll survive if you try to best someone who had over a foot on you and years more combat experience. Your plan relied on moving as much as possible, circling around Sierra and avoiding her attacks.
Dodge.
Set up.
Dodge.
Set up.
Dodge.
Set‐
You take a heavy hit that sends you flying backwards. Yeah, the years Sierra had on you show. One swing, even guarded, sends you hurtling into a tree. Your lower-than-average Aura falters.
Doesn't matter.
All that's left is insurance
With the last of your strength, you push your Semblance as much as you can. Channeling your Aura through the tree behind you, you force a root to break through the ground right under Sierra just as she rises to her feet. The thick wooden tendril wraps around the giant's leg, preventing her from moving for just a split second longer…
"Briar!" Blake shouts, giving you all the warning you need. With one last push of strength, you jump behind a tree and brace.
All that dodging.
All that Aura.
All that set up.
Blake launches a fire clone at the general area around Sierra.
And it works.
With what you can do with your Semblance, this was the peak.
Pollen.
An innocuous little irritant at best.
But enhanced with Dust and distributed around a small area while you dodged around?
Once a spark from the flame clone hit the cloud, everything changed color to autumn reds, oranges, and yellows for a brief, powerful moment. In an instant, all of the pollen you spread from your bag of plants ignited and burned, bolstered the clones explosion. Sierra's scream rang out from the ball of fire as it dissipated just as quickly as it appeared. With how little it stuck around and how strong she was, you knew she'd be alright after blowing up…
Just weak enough for her Aura to drop to red levels.
You won.
It wasn't pretty. Or even morally correct…
But and Blake won.