Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Alright, we've done it. We had an entertaining premise going, but we haven't been able to wrap it up as quickly as we were expecting. In the hopes that we haven't been so slow that all interest has slipped away, and on behalf of both me and the guys, I invite you all to the second part of the scenario that we cooked up last time. Here we go!

NOTE:

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

SMWK

"Alright, are you ready?"

It had only been a couple minutes since the announcement was made, but as Glynda prepared the stage for the next exercise, the room had gone quiet. Everyone's attention was pretty firmly set on the students she had selected for this exercise.

On one side, there was Ruby Rose. An adorable 15-year-old girl with a happily idealistic mindset and enough combat skills that Professor Ozpin gladly let her come to Beacon Academy ahead of time. The kind of person that could easily stand out in a crowd no matter what she did.

"Right! I'm ready!" Sure enough, she looked pretty excited. "How about you?"

And on the other side, her opponent looked a bit unsure.

He was someone whose record was not quite as impeccable as hers. His latest fight had ended up with someone else having to save him from a Grimm, and unlike Ruby, he wasn't exactly the picture of confidence right now.

"I… I guess so." He finally found it in him to answer her. "As ready as I'm ever going to be, at least."

Somehow, this got a snicker out of her. "Come on, Kale. This is going to be fun!"

Kale Midnight. 18 years old. A late entry. Someone who could blend into a crowd without even trying.

They hadn't even taken their weapons out yet, and already they were complete opposites.

"I know we haven't known each other that long, but still, we're going to be fighting each other now." Since he hadn't said anything else, Ruby spoke up again. "From what I've seen, I already respect you enough that I'm not going to hold back." Much like how Voda had done before, she then offered her hand to him. "So, let's make this a good fight. What do you say?"

He looked at it for a moment before turning to her face; he quickly noticed that there wasn't even a hint of irony anywhere in her expression. Turning his eyes away, he also noticed Glynda was looking right at him, as if she really wanted to know what he had to say to that.

"…Okay. Yeah, you're absolutely right." Unlike Dove, he returned the gesture. "So far, I respect you too, so I'll do my best."

As he shook her hand, Ruby smiled giddily.

"Great!" The second they let go of each other, she immediately reached for her weapon. "Let's do this, Crescent Rose!"

That made him tilt his head to the side. "Uh… who?"

"Huh?" It took her a moment, but she realized what he meant by that. "Oh, that's the name of my weapon. I came up with it myself." Then she actually brought it into view. "And built it… and customized it. A lot."

Kale chuckled briefly at that. "Cool."

"What about you?" Ruby suddenly asked him.

He immediately straightened himself up.

"Oh, right, uh…" Just like he did at the Emerald Forest, he brought out his blades. "Amalgam Shade."

At the sound of those words, he noticed that she was the one who was confused now.

"Oh, th-the name. That's what I called them. You know, born in Vacuo to a Faunus and a human, and I just figured that maybe…" He briefly trailed off before shaking his head. "It's kind of on-the-nose and I'm being all awkward about it now. Sorry."

Ruby asked a simple question, completely unfazed by his ramblings. "Are they also guns?"

"Well… yeah. Aren't they all?"

She grinned at that. "Cool."

As the two got back into position, their friends and teammates kept on watching from their seats.

"Hey, what do you know?" Yang looked pretty amused. "The fight hasn't even started and they're already getting along."

Set looked at her. "I take it making friends fast runs in the family, Fireball?"

"You know it!" She replied with a chuckle.

Nora suddenly started to shout. "Take him down, Ruby!"

"You've got this, Kale!" Maza was quick to follow suit.

Once again, Glynda stepped away from the area.

"Ready… set…" She punctuated the following bit with a slap from her crop. "Fight!"

Right on cue, Ruby raised her weapon and immediately aimed it at Kale. The clicking sound that came from her loading a Dust cartridge was all he needed to immediately dodge the shot she fired in his direction. This didn't stop the girl from taking a few more shots at him, doing her best to keep him at a distance.

It took a moment before he could figure this out, but as soon as he did, he began to run all around her in erratic patterns. Ruby tried to take aim again, but every time she did, he quickly moved out of sight. Had he not taken a clumsy step, he would've surprised her with a hit to the back, but that was enough warning for her to unfold her weapon and block his attempted attack.

Kale's eyes widened at the sight of Ruby's sniper rifle fully transforming into an enormous scythe, and he instinctively pushed her back and made a few attempts at hitting her with stabbing moves, all of which were just as easily blocked by a few quick spins of her weapon. She then closed the gap between the two and tried to hit him with the bottom of said weapon, followed by a few swings that he managed to deflect with his blades. As he jumped back to avoid an attempt at an overhead swing, he noticed that her scythe was planted firmly on the ground, which gave her just the kind of clean shot she was originally aiming for.

She pulled the trigger twice, both shots quickly hitting their target. Despite the impacts, Kale pulled a quick recovery and managed to land on his feet. He wasted no time in running up to her again, closing the gap between them once more before taking a swing at her with his left arm. Just as he expected, she managed to block it, along with an uppercut from his right arm. However, he surprised her with a somersault kick, and as they were both propelled into the air from the inertia, he quickly retracted his blades and began to fire some rapid shots at her, which all connected successfully.

Maza was impressed with her teammate's moves. "Wow, he is fast!"

"You've seen nothing yet." Set quickly took the chance to compliment his older sibling. "I have yet to find a better training partner than my brother, cupcake."

Yang smirked at this. "If he's all about speed, then I guess he's not all that different from Ruby."

"With the difference of his fighting style being adaptive and organized, while Ruby's is clearly more spontaneous." Set gestured at Weiss with his head. "It's just like she said."

She nodded. "And he has the advantage in speed, since Ruby can't use her Semblance."

"But she has both strength and range on her side." Blake also chipped in, before turning her attention to Set. "He seems more like the type to sneak up for a close-range strike."

"Yeah, his training makes him proficient at sneak attacks, especially considering his Semblance." The Faunus boy scoffed in amusement. "When you think of all the possibilities, that just makes this fight all the more interesting. So alike and so different at the same time, those two."

Maza and Nora immediately gave the same answer. "Cool."

After their discussion, they noticed that Ruby was standing up tall, while Kale was trying to stand back up after having been thrown to the floor.

"This is fun!" She spoke to him as soon as he could look her in the eye again. "You're pretty good at this."

Kale chuckled briefly. "Yeah, well, so far, you're better."

This time, he took the initiative and dashed toward her, but she reacted quickly and jumped up before taking another shot. Even though he dodged it, the recoil made her fly away from him just as he was going to try and stab her again. Before he could process that, she pushed her scythe down to the floor, positioning it so she could decrease her speed and turn her weapon around. Kale jumped back away, but just as he did, Ruby pulled the trigger on Crescent Rose, and once again, the shot sent her flying in the opposite direction.

He brought his arms up, forming an X with his blades, just as Ruby performed a spin in midair which ended in a quick slice aimed straight for him. The girl's scythe was once again met by said blades, and then, reacting as quickly as he could, he followed this up by pushing the weapon away. He then made the best of her momentary lack of balance by quickly moving around her in a triangle pattern, striking her just as quickly with every move, and then finished it off with a leap backward, which he used to gather up some more speed and hit her with a dropkick.

As she flew away from Kale, her weapon retracted into its more portable shape, and she landed on her back at about the same time he did.

"Well, that's twice now I've ended up on my back compared to your once." Once again, the boy chuckled. "Not like I expected this to be a cakewalk, but wow, you're tough."

This time, Ruby followed along. "So are you. I feel like I'm training with Yang again."

Said comment got an amused chuckle out of her older sister.

"I'm pretty sure my Aura's still up and running, though." Kale immediately pulled a kip-up. "One more round?"

Conversely, she stood up normally and picked up her weapon. "One more round. This isn't over until it's over, and I'm not going to take it easy on you!"

As her weapon once again changed into a sniper rifle, Kale took aim at her with one of his arms.

"Good, because neither am I."

Right on cue, he began to fire at her, and Ruby pointed her rifle to the ground and fired a shot, using the recoil to propel herself into the air and avoid Kale's gunfire. He stopped and tried to take aim again, but before he could shoot her, he saw Crescent Rose unfolding into its full shape once more, and he promptly braced himself for another attack. Sure enough, Ruby began to spin as she fell back down, and her attack was met with resistance from Amalgam Shade's blades. She took a step away from him and went for a swing at his head, which was countered when Kale ducked down and hit her with a sweep kick, followed by a straight punch to her back.

This time, she recovered quickly and managed to land on her feet. The second she spotted Kale running in her direction, she once again fired a shot behind her so she could match his speed. His attempted overhead hit was deflected by her scythe, and before he could do anything, she hit him in the chest with the back of her weapon, followed by a few swings with the sharper end. The last one threw him up into the air, and Ruby wasted no time in jumping up so she could continue the assault. After a repeat of her previously attempted spinning attack, which successfully managed to hit this time around, the two combatants started to lose altitude, and she concluded her attack with a few quick swings of her weapon, capped off by a final shot just as he ended up in the right position.

And with that, the battle finally ended, the boy landing on his face right in front of his opponent, who stood over him with a look that could barely be put into words.

"Wow, that was awesome!" Ruby's voice was full of excitement and joy.

Most of the audience was still trying to process what had happened, though whether it was because of the speed of the fight or the sheer amazement that had come over them was up in the air.

"And that's the match." Shockingly, Glynda was completely unfazed by what she had just witnessed. "Ruby Rose wins."

As Ruby looked at her teammates and friends, she noticed that out of all of them, the only one who wasn't surprised or speechless was Yang.

"Was… w-was she still not using her Semblance?" Maza asked, visibly impressed by that last flurry of attacks.

The blonde brawler chuckled. "Yep. That was all natural."

"That was certainly… something." Even Weiss seemed stunned by what she had seen.

Jaune and Pyrrha nodded wordlessly.

"Now that was an ending!" Nora suddenly turned very enthusiastic as she turned to look at Maza and Set. "Sorry, guys. Better luck next time."

Set gazed at the battlefield, his face reflecting a mix of disbelief, intrigue and amazement at this result.

"That… was…" Ruby's attention was diverted by her opponent's voice, who was still on the ground. "…the toughest fight I've ever had in my life."

She saw him giving her a thumbs-up without even looking at her, which she found both nice and amusing on his part.

"I'm serious." As she approached him again, Kale rolled over so he was facing up now. "You might even give my father a run for his money, Ruby."

He could see her smiling as she offered him a hand, which he was quick to take. After she helped him up, both of their weapons folded back into their more portable shapes.

"Well, you're pretty strong too." Ruby also took the chance to praise him. "Maybe we can have a rematch someday, with all of our skills."

Kale nodded. "You say when. I promise I'll be ready."

As the two began to make their exit, Glynda made a few taps on her Scroll before looking at them.

"Thank you, students." She adjusted her glasses again. "Well, that's all the material we have for today. Any following classes are going to be longer, so I hope this has given you an idea of how to strategize during your fights and what our lessons are going to be like." Pleased with what seemed like a positive reaction from her students, she headed for the exit. "You're all dismissed."

While most of the others just followed suit, Ruby and Kale made their way to their friends and teammates.

"Hey, guys." She spoke up first. "What's up?"

She quickly noticed that Set was still staring at her. "Kale actually lost…" His voice also left his disbelief at the situation pretty clear. "You are full of surprises, Hoodie."

"I'd say both of them are, hotshot." Yang gave Kale a thumbs-up. "You did a pretty good job facing off against my sister, Kale. Much better than I expected."

He shrugged at this. "Yeah, but she still won. She's definitely a tough nut to crack."

"Don't worry, you were great out there too." Maza was smiling at him. "And hey, there's always going to be a rematch, right?" She pointed at the two. "Because you already agreed on it."

"Yeah, but like I said before, it'll be on Ruby's terms." He gestured in her direction with his head. "She won our fight here, so she gets to decide."

Once again, Blake seemed surprised. "That sounds… reasonable."

Nora was about to say something, but then she noticed that Maza was a little distracted.

She tapped her shoulder a couple times. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Huh? What?"

Right away, she turned to look at the others, and she saw that they were confused by her reaction.

"Oh, sorry. I got distracted." She chuckled from the embarrassment. "There was this one guy with what I could've sworn was a whip sword." She looked around for barely a second before turning to them again. "Did you guys see him?"

Most of them just shook their heads.

"We must've missed him." Nora spoke up instead.

Maza shrugged. "Oh, well. Maybe I'm just imagining things." Then she turned her attention directly to the hammer-wielding girl. "So, Nora, would you like to hang out around Vale? I know this little place where you can get pancakes with chocolate syrup and just a touch of whipped cream. It'll take your head right off! Not only that, but it's so cheap that even shopping for comics seems expensive by comparison. You know what I mean?" She giggled for a moment.

"Do I?!" Nora asked, completely ecstatic at her offer. "What are we even waiting for?! Let's go-go-go already!"

Jaune and Pyrrha had themselves a chuckle, while Ren had a knowing smile on his face.

"Okay then!" Maza turned to her teammates. "See you later?"

Set smirked at her. "Catch ya later, cupcake."

"Bye, Maza." Kale waved at her.

Likewise, Nora gave her team a very quick wave. "Later, guys!"

Before anyone could even think about… anything, really… she sprinted off the scene with Maza in tow.

Kale blinked a couple times. "Well… she seems pretty chipper."

"She's always like that." Jaune interjected. "Then again, Maza said her favorite word."

Set raised an eyebrow. "What, 'pancakes'?"

"She loves them." Ren added to the conversation. "She drank all the pancake batter I was going to use yesterday… and the syrup, too."

Kale's eyes widened at that. "Wow, that's… th-that is something else."

"Do you still want some help looking for your teammate?" Ruby suddenly offered. "With my speed, I bet we can cover more ground in no time."

Set shrugged and shook his head. "Nah, that's okay, Hoodie. He's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"Well, we'll still try to keep an eye out for him." Jaune was quick to reply. "That's a promise."

Yang nodded before turning to Set. "Hey, let's all exchange numbers. If any of us spot him, we can let you guys know." Then she looked at the others. "Good plan, right?"

"Is that what you call it?" He scoffed in amusement. "Sure, let's do that."

After a quick exchange session between all of them, they put their Scrolls away.

"Well, we should get going now." Weiss spoke up. "After a class like that, I don't think Professor Goodwitch is going to let us just stand around doing nothing."

Kale nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm just going to head back to our room and rest up for today." He cracked his neck a couple times. "I'll need as much energy as I can get before I start training for that rematch."

"I'll be ready!" Ruby smiled eagerly.

Pyrrha raised a hand. "We should probably get going too."

"Yeah, we're going to go buy more syrup and pancake mix to replace the ones that Nora ate up." Jaune waved at the other two teams. "See you around, guys. We'll pass your numbers over to her, okay?"

As the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR made their way out, the two brothers were left alone.

"Well, guess that's it for today, bro." Kale didn't let the silence last long.

Set yawned loudly. "Might as well hit the hay, eh?"

"After that thrashing? Try and stop me." The older boy had a brief chuckle.

Some time later…

The two brothers were making their way back to their room, fully prepared to just stay there and call it a day, but somewhere along the way, their conversation had circled back around to the same subject.

"I'm still pretty blown." Set was the more talkative one out of the two. "Ruby beat you, of all people."

Kale was a bit more relaxed about it. "Hey, come on, it's not that weird."

"Only Pops had ever clocked you that bad before." The Faunus boy kept going, almost like he didn't hear that. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that happened."

"Don't forget about the time Dad met up with Kai at that bar." Kale laughed for a moment. "That was a pretty tight stalemate between me and her, remember?"

His younger brother rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, she was aiming her sniper rifle at your chest and you had your fist right beneath her chin while Kai and our old man were drinking and laughing it up. I remember. I was there." Then he gave him a nudge. "A draw ain't a loss, soldier."

"Alright, okay, fair point." Kale sighed. "Still, whoever it is that Ruby learned her tricks from, they must be serious business."

Soon enough, the two reached their room… and they were greeted by a surprise: the door was ajar.

"Agreed." Then they were slightly startled when they heard a familiar voice coming from the other side. "Judging by the results of your fight, her training regime has provided some very promising results."

The brothers entered the room, and sure enough, Wyatt was sitting on his bed, with his back turned to them. They also noticed that there were some damaged metal pieces sitting right next to him, some of which even looked like they had burns on them.

"Miss Rose's sniper/scythe combo allowed her a high degree of versatility for both medium and long range attacks. It seems like her balance is quite good when wielding her super heavy class weapon, and needless to say, her aiming skills are top notch." When he finally turned to look at them, the brothers noticed that he was apparently fixing his weapon. "If you're really hoping for a rematch, my advice to you is that you should focus on close combat tactics like you did, but you should also exploit the drawbacks that come from the size and weight of her weapon." Then he brought his focus back to his work. "Also, she favors her right leg for balance."

Set was quick to speak his mind. "Well, Big Man, I'd say someone did his homework. Just one teeny tiny question…" He raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "How can you know that if you weren't even in class?" Then he sniffed the air. "Not that I'd remember anyway, but now that I think about it… I did catch a slight whiff of your stench." And then he looked at him again. "Care to explain?"

"Tanuki-gakure, sir." Wyatt wasted no time with his reply. "I was in the room the whole time. I simply stayed out of sight using the oldest trick in the book."

That got him to start snickering. "Somewhere, in the darkest corner of the back of my mind, I'm picturing you in an orange jumpsuit…"

Wyatt stopped his work in its tracks and looked at him with confusion and discomfort. "In what situation would the color orange work in a suit, sir? That would only turn you into nothing but a mobile target."

Kale looked pretty confused by his response. "Uh… i-it's a joke."

"Oh…" Wyatt looked away for a moment, somewhat embarrassed, but soon decided to explain further. "Anyway, what I meant to say is that I simply stayed hidden in the second floor while the class was imparted, and you simply didn't detect me with all the students in the room at the time. It seemed like a safe way to avoid any further confrontations with Miss Xiao Long." He then grabbed a small notebook, which sat on his bed, and passed it over to Set. "I also took some notes concerning the two battles that could be of use to you. Tell me, sir, how comfortable are you with cracking jokes and using psychological warfare tactics during combat?"

Kale raised a hand. "Oh, well, that's his forte."

"Funny, I thought you'd pick up on that." Set went straight for his hammock. "After all, it was you who called me 'Snark Cub' no more than a day or two ago, Mastermind."

Wyatt bowed his head down. "My apologies. I was under the impression that it was just pre-fight banter, but after today, I've come to understand that psychological warfare can be a great asset. Keeping your opponent off-balance, conquering their minds first before seeking victory…" He thought his next words over for a bit before continuing. "What do you think, sir? If it interests you, I could go ask Miss Priepast for some tips or training methods that may have helped her come up with her clever remarks." He brought a hand to his chin. "I wonder… must they all be good? Can some of them be bad?"

"Uhh…" That was the only response that Kale could come up with.

Conversely, Set had no trouble speaking his mind. "Keep it in your pants, Titan."

"Fair enough." Wyatt pointed at the book. "Anyway, you will find some fighting techniques and ideas I got from previous battles in that notebook over there, just in case you want to take a look at it." Then he quickly stood up. "If you'll excuse me…"

He grabbed his weapons and marched towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kale asked his teammate.

"To the city." Wyatt showed the two his damaged weapon. "The roulette in my weapon was damaged beyond repair due to the Dust explosion and I need to replace it. I also need to buy some special metal for my drills, so they can't be damaged by a sword projectile."

The older boy's eyes widened. "O-Oh… right, because…" He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly feeling uncomfortable. "…y-y'know—"

"Yeah, 'cause you needed discipline after your little tantrum." Once again, Set's retort came quickly.

Unlike his leader's other remarks, that comment got a clear reaction out of Wyatt.

"It was a constantly escalating conflict!" He quickly defended himself, but then hung his head in shame. "But in a way, I suppose you're right. By breaking the roulette, you probably saved the school from having… an unnecessary snow day, let's say." He raised his head back up. "Plus, it helped me find a fatal flaw in my weapon, so it was a learning experience." He looked back at his drills. "A mistake I do not plan on repeating."

Kale turned his head away. "Y-You're not… angry, are you?"

"I'm a Huntsman, Kale. I don't get angry. I simply…" He sighed and looked back at them. "Look, maybe I am angry, but it is not at you."

Both Kale and Set were taken by surprise at this comment.

"I'm angry at myself. I was stupid and I injured a lot of people because I couldn't ignore the banters of a hotheaded girl that still has her ears wet. I made a mistake, but it's going to be the last one." Wyatt turned back towards the door. "I will not let this happen again… ever." He mumbled the last bit to himself before opening the door. "I will be back in the evening."

Once he had left the room, the two brothers were left alone again.

With a heavy sigh, Kale fell right on top of his bed. "Jeez… that conversation seriously made me forget how beat I was."

"I'm just amused by how humanly he acted for once." Set had himself a chuckle. "Didn't think he had it in him."

Kale cracked his neck a couple times. "Yeah, well, between that and Ruby wiping the floor with me, I guess today's just full of surprises for you, eh, fearless leader?"

"To say the least, soldier."

The two laughed for a bit.

"By the way…" Kale sat up on his bed. "…I do think Yang likes you."

Set swiftly turned bright red. "Sh-Shut up!"

"O-Okay, okay!" His brother raised his arms defensively. "Shutting up."

After yet another awkward silence, the two just sighed.

"Seriously, how did you get to be the oldest?"

"I have no idea."

Well, there you have it. This is one that I've personally been hoping to do since even before we started doing this whole thing, and even though it took a lot of tweaking here and there, I'm really happy with how it came out.

This would've come out sooner, but the past few months were a bit of a rough time for all of us, and we didn't get to finish this until just recently. We really hope that you guys feel it was worth the wait.

No names to exposit on this time, so we can just close this off by saying that after this fun little situation, we really hope to keep the train rolling with entertaining scenarios, and we especially hope that anyone who has bothered to keep reading all the way up to this point is going to stick around. What's coming up next? Keep an eye out on things and you'll find out in good time.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.