In the grand probability of endless potential and opportunity, there exists a timeline where everything goes right, rather than wrong. A timeline where events play out as close to the current one, yet key subtle differences alter and change the fates of those touched. Within the endless reaches of time, space and opportunity, the next step opens after the first few rounds of combat at a festival vital to preserving and expanding culture, forging bonds of connection and friendship, amicable sparring. Vytal Festival, at the heart of Vale near the Beacon Campus…
Having advanced to the doubles round, the many forty eight participating huntsmen and huntresses were excited as the recap was fired off. On the large Dust powered holoscreen that was framing two teachers of Beacon, a burly gray mustache with a green haired hyper caffeinated one, gave a summary of the many fights that had happened earlier that day. As an opener, Team RWBY of Beacon had pulled off a rather impressive victory against team BRNZ of Vacuo. Intermixed with their commentary were clips of the fight, showing how May and Ruby had gone on to proof how a leader's overview was more pronounced in the youngster in red. Overlaid with the voice over was a shot of Ruby trading shots with May. As the clip zooms in to show that May's focus is purely on dealing with Ruby, the shot flips to the delicate Rose who's off eye is open and casts occasional glances from her perch to overwatch her teammates locked in battle. As the clip continues, the fearless leader's silver eye picks off a shot from May, causing her to duck for cover before quickly turning a long look to the right and blasting off another shot. The crack of fire echoes as Nolan of BRNZ gets hit in the leg, his momentum broken causing him to be wide open for a thrust from Weiss. A single thumbs up makes Ruby smile with a 'bestie' before she returns to trade shots with May, again keeping her off eye open to follow along. The clip cuts out as Port, grimm study professor of Beacon, jumps in with his own assessment. Clips of Blake and Yang tangoing together in perfect sync with the not as in sync but clearly practiced Brawnz and Roy indicating that being fine tuned with your partner can lead to magic on the battlefield. Zooming out the recap is a perfectly captured clip of the finisher: Weiss catapults Nolan into the tree where May was perched in, Blake drives Roy and Brawnz into a perfect line, Ruby gives suppressing fire to pin them down while Weiss generates an ice lane, Yang skates up the ice lane, gets the handle of Gambol thrown at her and with the aid of Ruby leaving her nest, to give Blake a boost, 'fastball special'-ing Yang into the other four who are in prime position for a team sized wipeout. The order of Ruby repeated as Oobleck iterates that 'attack names are a humorous thing': Pollination!
Second recap is to show the importance of tactical ingenuity as the highlight reel of JNPR of Beacon versus ABRN of Mistral. Praising initiative, the recap begins to show off that Arslan quickly singles out Pyrrha, isolating her from her friends and teammates. Reese, using her hoverboard to single out Jaune, thinking her mobility would help versus his slow and basic set up, Bolin's staff meets with Ren's Storm Flower blades and Nadir trying to intimidate Nora into submission. However Port smirks at the camera and adds 'off course best not to bite off more than you can chew' as the highlight reel shows in a comedic fashion that Nadir's running for dear life, while Arslan and Pyrrha are beat for beat equal. A Rope Dart flashing out and attacking Pyrrha from 'off angles' while her shield and spear combo proved a little too strong for Arslan. Advancing slowly, taking not a single drop of damage but her aura slowly drops a point at the motions of a few hands and motions, the Undefeated Girl was standing strong. Off to the side, Reese had decided that, while Jaune played in a defensive stance, she would shock him out of it! Using rubber bullets coated in Lightning Dust, she further pushes Ark to turtle up. Shrinking his frame behind his shield as his Aura begins to drop. With a smirk, he pushes the shield forwards as a few rubber bullets shot past Reese who scoffs 'nice aim'. Only for the highlight to show how Nadir and Reese both were smashed to the floor with broken Auras. 'I wasn't aiming for you', the reel shows as Jaune and Nora regroup with Nora and Ren beginning to advance on Bolin. His own battle with Ren a stalemate until the thunder thigh thunderer stomps in and breaks the deadlock of this fight. Arslan, standing alone versus a four on one, sighs and admits she's outclassed. As the summary ends, Oobleck the history teacher of Beacon, fires off a very fast past rant that generally comes down with 'that is how you squeeze by on teamwork, unlike the team of Mistral that follows', as his face fades into the highlight of team SeaSoNS and team NDGO, a quick reel, that starts off with Neptune panicking over his fear of water, and costing his team the victory. To the ire of Sun, who gets chewed out for his own…less stellar leadership skills.
"How can he be afraid of the water!?", Weiss' disbelief making her voice less composed as it should be. The answer of Blake doesn't ease the stunned shock that one named after the ocean would be so terrified of a speck of water. How would he even bathe?! Smiling and talking amongst themselves are the teams mentioned above. RWBY, JNPR, SSNS and CFVY, having just utterly dominated a fight. Laughter is had and smiles galore. Pyrrha however, looks up from her meal as she notices a lone fighter across the fairgrounds. Meeting her vivid green eyes are irises that can only be described as endless oceans. She hides her shock as his face turns to a growl before vanishing from sight. A small addendum to this scene before it cuts to the next differential in timelines, is the run in that Emerald does, trying to sneakily sus out the opponents to come next, asking it out of curiosity, yet is met by a cluster of answers.
…
"You HAVE to be KIDDING ME!", a loud voice shoots from the locker room of Beacon's campus as a small girl with a frill of hair and barret looks over her Gianduja, from a snapped set of mechanical parts as well as damage to the exclusive Adele leather, her style was cramped as well as her weapon was in fast need of maintenance! She looked up at the stoic hunk of muscles that had his eyes closed and mediated with no care in the world. His voice warm but stern: "I did tell you that one of our opponents had a sabotaging Semblance"
"It's not fair! Without the appropriate bullets and the enforced hull this behemoth would hold I can't fight in the battle!", Coco says defeated as she tries to unfurl the gatling gun of her hand bag, only for it to sharply groan with a steely whine and fall to the floor, still and defeated all the super model could do was give a disgruntled groan! A small flicker of a voice enters her mind.
"Don't be disappointed, you'll just have to sit out the double rounds, no big deal right!?", Coco throws a glare at the copper haired dark skinned teammate she trusted with her life and her fashion. But he stepped out of line! "What!? How can I NOT participate and represent our team, as Leader!? Me and Yatsu would have the close and long range needed for a victory!"
Smiling, the blind Fox walks closer and rests a hand on his leader's shoulders and answers: "And now you'll be sitting here and showing support for me and Velvet"
His mention makes Coco's eyes shoot up! Velvet! She jumps up and almost rushes over towards the startled bunny girl. With her expert skills in engineering maybe she could fix it! Although, a quick look over Velvet's sad face proves enough as is. Defeated, the model groans. "alright then, but you two BETTER GRIMM win this for us…and Velvet, don't you DARE use the portfolio, you hear!"
"AND THE COMBATANTS OF THE FIRST ROUND PLEASE ENTER THE RING"; came the loud voice of Port as Fox and Velvet stood up among the elevators and were hoisted into the arena. Standing there waiting, with a look of concern, were Emerald and Mercury. As they looked on the screen, the image of Coco and Yatsu lit up. They both growling.
"Hey, what's this?! You weren't elected!", Mercury cries out as the photos don't match, a small telling look on Emerald's eyes as she realizes that this could be a slip up and expose them. Luckily before a discussion could break out, there was public unset that was stifled when the ring of a microphone echoes. "it seems the selected members of team CFVY have technical difficulties and are swapping members. As per tournament regulations, for immediate tech issues there are substitutes possible. Fight will carry out as planned"
"Well…lets get this over with then"
The floors open up and reveals the biomes of Savannah, Ruins, Geyser and Forest. Emerald's eyes dart towards the two ones she'd most comfortable fighting in and signals Mercury. They both know what and how to do it, so they step back, vanishing from sight. Uneasy, Velvet hunkers up next to Fox, which is comical given that she's taller than him. Suddenly her ears perk up as Fox pushes Velvet and himself backwards. From the sky a streak of gray descends and attacks them. The match is off!
A flurry of quick kicks strike out between the two as Fox, almost smiling with confidence, blocks and parries every kick with open palm blocks and knee lifting glances to alter and disrupt Mercury's attack patterns. Surprisingly, the bunny girl blocks the blows in a similar manner, the same open arm blocks, similar knee lifting parries. Scuffing, the Son of Markus even has to admit that for a girl, she has even stronger defenses than the blind guy. Yet his admiration quickly falters as after a few more attempts, he fails to break their guards. A painful sharp memory at the back of his mind violently forces him to back off as he remembers a lesson from the dead Old Man: "if you can't break their guards, break their ground". Mercury recenters himself. Both of the fighters he's here to beat already know his presence and given the way they fight, they're probably the more dangerous members. Why did they pick the big slow turtle and the bimbo model with the huge gun? Were they planning on just using brute force? That would have been more preferable. With a shake, the assassin's son shakes from his thoughts and reingages. Throwing a roundhouse ax kick, a gust of wind also accompanying it, to gather space as he begins rapidly breakdancing with his legs out, weaving a cone of motion that generates more and more pellets for him to control with the bending of his legs. Curving the bullets. His maneuver however doesn't allow Mercury to spy how two figures expertly dodge each and every shot until his stance is done and he tries to take advantage of his distraction. Appearing behind them both he's met with a stern backhand to the midsection and a solid bladed tonfa that strikes at his face. Clattering against his fizzling Aura to absorb the blow, the assassin realizes he's in deep trouble.
With a loud roar, Mercury engages once more, putting out a quick flurry of kicks with bullets, going for midriff kicks, wide roundhouses and the occasional reverse ax kick, yet either the attacks would deflect off from the bladed tonfas or miss outright. What in the ever loving GRIMM is happening?! His shoe sparks as it slides off the tonfa blade before Fox rotates in place and lands the first solid blow. Mercury's semblance fizzles as it blocks the lethal damage, dropping a few points before falling back. This can't honestly be normal. His eyes meet with the shy browns of the bunny girl. That's it. She only feels confident fighting me because her blind chum is here. It would feel unfair for this tiny twig of a fighter to face the dangerous and unstoppable son of an Assassin but hey, what can you do? With a quick motion of his hands, hidden behind a flurry of spins, flips and kicks, Mercury signals his ally stalking in the trees. Once more, the blinding fast nightmare-born leaps in, running circles around them both. Fox tries his best to keep himself between Velvet and Mercury, a hopeless case of trying to protect the weak link. Oh well, blood's blood, even if it isn't Merc's. Locking the tonfa down, using the heel of his ax kick to restrain the weapon, the clinging of steel makes the bunny's ears twitch, before a chained sickle hooks itself around Fox' other tonfa. With a smirk, Mercury releases the hold as the copper haired huntsman is pulled towards the woods. All that's missing would be a deep "get over here" to make the scene as similar to that of the latest game that the kids would play. Mercury scoffs. "FOX!", poor thing, crying out for her friend? She is truly helpless now! Seizing the initiative, Mercury jumps up and brings his heavy boot down. Right on top of Velvet's head who was distracted and couldn't react in time. After all, another name for mercury would be quicksilver.
Honestly it's pathetic! Look at her standing there, trembling and timid. Sure, she could probably copy her teammate, Grimm, even Mercury had a few tricks he could pull thanks to sparring with Emerald. But there's not a chance in Grimm that this little timid rabbit could race this panther. Putting emphasis on his thoughts, the assassin swipes low to try and trip the bunny, naturally as somewhat fast as she was, she leapt over it with practiced ease, right into the left to right roundhouse kick that caught Velvet mid jump. A confident smirk on his face as Velvet's hands shot to her belly, that cute frown almost made Mercury feel bad he was gonna absolutely destroy her and advance to the next round. Almost. Velvet however, had her own revelation. Her Aura was the densest out of all CFVY, even more than Yatsuhashis, how else could she shrug off something so vile as Cardin pulling her ear, a big no no for Faunus kind. Among all the sparring partners she's faced in the ring supervised by Glynda, there was only two that could give this same level of 'after sting' through her defenses, discounting Yatsu who always held back with her because he was the sweetest beefcake of Beacon. One being the full offensive Yang who's arms hit like Atlesian Paladins when she's fired up, something Vel would know a thing or two about. And number two is off course the Queen of the Castle herself. A blow from Magnhild was impossible to tank. Giving that similar sting of pain that absorbing a wall of concrete being blasted from a railgun would give. Velvet's ear perked up, given that this adversary didn't seem like the 'amp' type. So that either meant he was using a cheating tool, or using battle boosters. Both were illegal. She looked down at his legs once more. There was a faint glow from his boots. Dust…dust powered…boots? No, those wouldn't hit so hard. She thought for a split second of her father, Will, who was a bigshot in the Atlesian Military. After having constructed her Anesidora with aid from both 'best dad ever' and general Ironwood, where the infinite supply of Hard-Light Dust came from, the last project they were working on was…human enhancers! She gasped and backflipped away, he was using cybernetic legs!
"Aww come on now, don't be scared little bunny. I won't hurt you, much", his voice was coy and confident, oozing with that same 'i am better than anyone/you' that she has successfully used against others. Playing him was easier than stealing away Ruby for a slumber party from her team with cookies and milk. His goading was dumb and predictable. His advances fast and trained, alas Velvet sparred with someone equally if not faster than he was. Ruby's speed and Pyrrha's skill, mimicking the way Rose moved was easy and using Pyrrha's body control, Velvet played a perfect defense game, earning a lot of praise from onlookers, even if none aside from Coco and her team would know exactly how she's pulling off those tricks. Yet she did cast a quick glance towards the trees.
"Hey rabbit, no hightailing it away, your deadweight friend is as good as beaten over there. I mean seriously who sends a blind person to do a man's job?", Mercury performed his signature jump kick, the high jump before his leg sprang out like a bullet. He was expecting two outcomes, the rabbit gets hit and goes out cold. Or she's stupid enough to challenge him and evade into another kick shot, which would blast her in the back with a wind bullet. What he didn't expect, at all, was that Velvet turned around and anchored her feet, lowered her center of gravity and crossed her arms at the wrists blocking the strike all together. With a surprised humph of impressed shock, Mercury moved to kick with his other leg, only for him to be thrown into the floor by a quick throw that made no sense how she'd pull it off! She grasped his ankle, like a vice grip hold and bodily threw him backwards. Slamming into the geyser field, Mercury swung his breakdance legs and kicked himself up. What just happened?!
"Harsh words, for true deadweight", she shot back, the sudden change was a shock for Black. How the Grimm does a cutesy shy rabbit girl go from reserved and barely fighting back, to this level of class and power in a fight?! Mercury shrugs. Even if she did have a trick, his Aura was still holding and in this field, he'd have even more tools to break her apart. Kicking the rock into smaller chunks, several are quickly launched directly at Velvet, who…danced out of the way?! Mercury's jaw fell open as he saw the gracious motions of a ballet dancer. Where..had he seen those before? They looked familiar. Velvet thanked Weiss mentally for the evening of dance practice they shared a few weeks before the dance rehearsals. Even if CFVY didn't get the chance to go, that Away mission was way too many Grimm.
"Yeah I guess, the real Deadweight would be that immature and frankly stupid leader of yours. Seriously, why send a blind guy and a defenseless little gi-", it happened in such a flash of speed that Mercury barely realized what happened. Not even when the boot hit his face, only after his Aura took an even deeper hit than it ever did from a single blow. Yet what stung the most, as he slammed his head on the geyster behind him, was that the bunny had actually managed to use his very own jump kick to fully blind side him. And then came a horrible realization as quicksilver eyes gazed into brown pools of unhinged anger. Mercury with a gulped recalled the final lesson his father Marcus taught him, before dying in the grass of their home, slaughtered by Merc himself: "perhaps pissing off your adversary may not always be the best solution", was all Mercury could think off, as he watched a woman scorned walk at him, not with the intent to hurt him, but to destroy him. And in that second he realized one fatal flaw in his gameplan: I grimmed up…
…
"FOX!", while the world whizzed by in a haze of sounds and makeshift shapes that didn't get to render in time, Fox slammed into a tree. Clattering to his knees he took a moment to check his head, specifically his earpiece and smiled. Yep still in one piece. With a smirk he got up and arched his back: "Anyone got the license plate of that tree?"
He expected an adorable giggle, as ADA gave him a quick layout of the open clearing he was standing in, until he realized that Velvet wasn't with him. He turned his head, even trying to open a mental channel via Telepathy to get a lock on Velvet, but came up dry. With the scent of trees around him, the fact a tree hit him, while Velvet wasn't here, Fox deduces he was pulled away, leaving Velvet alone. He gives a big sigh and groan: "oh Coco is gonna have my head for this…"
The sound of gunfire, along with the nearly too late image render from ADA, Fox manages to spin is bladed tonfa to deflect the bullets. Springing to life, clicking his tongue and whispering 'Cyrano Protocol', his Aura and senses give him a 'rough' estimate of the place around him, with a quick couple dashes and cartwheels, his senses free to feel around and check for the attacker. Sickle blades, thirty degrees left, the soft voice of ADA said, as it's three dimensional 'echo location' like ability pinpointed the weapons of the adversary. Her Aura felt feminine. He dashed towards the location and smirked as he heard two heeled feet leap away from the tree as one bladed chain swung out and allowed the girl to swing like a monkey from tree to tree. As he tried to close the distance, lacking real long range weaponry, he heard a voice.
"Fox…", the warm and gentle voice of Velvet rang as he turned around. Once more trying to telepathically bond with her and coordinate better. Except he found no mind. He stopped moving, given that he had the adversary pegged and was locked on, whispering 'update' as Accessibility Dialogue Assistant gave a low humming pulse. "No additional combatants detected"
What the Grimm?! Fox slowly turned back to the location he had pegged for Emerald and noticed her attempting to strike him in his confusion. She slowly descends the tree, making less sound than a pin falling in a library. Yet Fox knew what to listen for now and had smirked. Time for a surprise. As Emerald raises her blade, Fox spins his tonfa, blocks the attack and throw a practiced set of kicks and blows, infused by his Aura that cost him a few points in Aura gauge but delivered a quick and good set of strikes that damages her to the point of near Aura Break. Terrified, she backs off again and Fox lets her. As soon as Emerald breaks eye contact and tries her trick of Illusion again, her red eyes widen in paralyzing fear. Because for the first time since Cinder saved her from the streets, she's powerless. Fox is gone! Relax, the thief thought. He's around there somewhere. Just need to sneak back to Mercury. Yeah, then we'll regroup and find a different angle. She opened her eyes as she heard a snap of a branch and turned to look into the direction, only for a massive blow of a sharp blade to bite in her back as she swung from the tree and landed in an even higher spot. She scanned the floor of the forest, behind trees, through the canopy. Yet the red and copper colours of Alaistar where not to be seen. She felt her heartbeat start to increase. A heavy pounding of pain in the back of her spine as her Aura had only barely managed to encase the blow and shrug it off. Unlike Mercury, the blond Bimbo or even the Heiress, Emerald's Aura was far weaker. The reason Mercury was now being the front liner was so she could be safe from the back. Similarly to how Ruby had fought in the first round. She scanned even more terrified, adrenaline pumping into her pupils to dilate them, hoping to catch the faintest movement as her breath begins to become frantic, deeper yet shallow. Am..am I hyperventilating?
"Yes…you are", there was a voice in her mind! She spun around and gave a startled scream! Her freaked out motion, giving her just enough of a chance to see a copper flash behind her as she leapt away and broke out in a panicked sprint. She fires blindly behind her at the spot she had last seen the monster she was fighting before that voice crept into her mind once more. "Clever tactic. Sadly out of all whom you could be fighting, I think I'm the only person who you have no chance with it", while his confidence isn't initially condescending, the panic induced hyper awareness of Emerald interprets the stated fact as a mental taunt. She screams mentally at him to back off as she tries to flee. So terrified and scared that she doesn't even notice the flat end of the tonfa, which she runs straight into and gets knocked out. As she falls backwards with a soft thud, Fox kneels at her side, carefully checks if she's ok, before he looks up at no one in particular and whispers "was it something I said?", as he respectfully lifts Emerald up and walks towards the geyser field, a heavy buzzer going off as the board updates that Emerald's Aura was drained to zero.
…
Mercury's arms and legs ache. Well, as much as prosthetic Dust powered limbs could feel such things as pain. His arms crossed before his face as the crowd behind him chants and roars. A blur of legs and feet circling around him. Kickstart his beatdown with a slender and impossibly strong boot, how could I've been so stupid. As his Aura is bombarded by a barrage of hits, kicks and strikes that are a perfect blend of martial skill. She's not a mimic fighter, as he theorized before. No, she's more dangerous. She's a copy fighter. And not the 'I copy you until you're fighting a mirror match' fighter. That Mercury could deal with. After all, Marcus' style was similar to Mercury's and despite having been robbed of his Semblance because Marcus wanted all for him, the Son had surpassed the Father. No perhaps copy was also the wrong thing to say. She's a chameleon fighter. She blends styles that she copies down to the motion and blends them together in a 'jack of all trades', normally that also would mean she'd have no strong suit. But how long has she been fighting? This girl was able to take his explosive assassination fighting style, mix it with the defensive acrobatic style she herself would have naturally, as her body is probably spry and flexible, dextrous enough to pull off these motions, with the defensive style of the copper haired brat from before. But there's more. Her kicks she took from me but she also takes the bimbo's punches. As he staggers back, his Aura still holding, he smirks. But her power isn't as intense as the others. Sure he's a little off balanced, but he'd turn this around easy enough. Now that I know what you do. Her tempo is intense, her focus is on making him fall. He didn't just insult her, As if Velvet hadn't 'noticed' or 'guessed' that he called her weak because she was a girl, a thin lithe one at that. But that matters little. SHe could tank those blows. She cared little for the opinions of those who are mean and dumb. But he both insulted Fox and then went for Coco? Nope, he would not recover from the beatdown. Ok that's not right. It's not a beatdown. As she kicks, swinging into a dance that she picked up from watching Sun dance with his staff, forcing Mercury even further back, Velvet's plan came to fruition as he stepped feet first into a hole. His gaze taken down to the drop in soil before the realization also hit him. She hadn't just been driving him back for the sake of inflicting damage. No, she had pushed him deliberately into an open geyser that now blasted him with boiling water! As his world was rinsed and his eyes finally opened, barely holding on to the remainder of his Aura, the form of Fox carrying Emerald from the woods hitting Mercury, the final and very salty nail in his defeat coffin was when Velvet once more copied his jump piston kick and instantly both knocked him out through the last fleeting Aura defenses, as well as blast him into the barrier of the arena. As he slumps to the floor and Velvet's anger subsidies, she smiles as mentally Fox congratulates her and she skips over to him, smiling that her friend also won!
"Fox Alaistar and Velvet Scarlatina of Beacon WIN!"