Chapter 10
Percy figured that the Fates were still messing with him from Earth, because it definitely could get worse.
He had watched as the first of the bullheads descended. It would typically be difficult to see at a distance, but there was no mistaking Roman Torchwick's unique hair and style, nor the masks of the White Fang.
To his side, Yang looked over at him, concerned. "Y'know, I was really hoping that we wouldn't be the only ones in the way of the White Fang stealing millions of lien of dust. Ah, well. May as well have fun with it right?"
Percy nodded, already seeing the best way for them to utilize their skills. "Yep. I can probably handle Torchwick up close, and then you can use your speed and Ember Celica to take care of the grunts. Just gotta wait for the right angle…"
Percy trailed off, as both him and Yang watched as a certain missing someone attempted to take Torchwick hostage. They couldn't see what was being said, but before either of them could react Torchwick had escaped Blake, and some other blonde…did he have a tail? had jumped down to try to help, but was surrounded.
Percy jumped from the building, rolling to reduce the impact of the fall and taking Riptide out of his pocket. "Gods damnit! Blake, what are you doing?!" he muttered to himself. He heard Yang jump down behind him, preparing her gauntlets. A glance back told him that she wouldn't be ready in time to help Blake against Torchwick, and she was losing that fight, and badly.
He watched as Blake engaged Torchwick again, desperately trying to stem the tide, but he weaved in and out of her blows before stepping into her guard and body-checking her, throwing her to the ground, and putting her at the business end of his cane—the very same cane which had been firing off shots all through the bout.
Percy watched as Torchwick laughed, and was close enough to hear him speak what he no doubt intended to be the final comment of the battle. "Well, sweetheart, they always did say that curiosity killed the cat."
An enormous wave of water surged up from the side of the docks, knocking Torchwick down and sweeping him back. Percy surged forward as Blake looked around, spotting him and visibly sagging in relief.
By the time he reached Torchwick, the thief had managed to pick himself up and spot the new threat. "Ah, c'mon! How many of you are there?!"
Percy gave no response, charging in, and the two exchanged a lightning-quick series of blows, as Percy pushed an all-out attack with Riptide and Torchwick was forced into a desperate defense, having to deflect or dodge what he could and interspersing his parries by firing off dust-infused shots.
Luckily Percy was able to dodge most of the bullets, and caught the remainder on Riptide. Good thing I've gotten into that theory book, Percy thought to himself. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to block those bullets. I'd have been screwed.
The battle continued apace, with Torchwick forced to give ground repeatedly, a determined Percy taking enormous chunks of his Aura with each swing. He looked away for a moment, and saw that the monkey faunus and Yang had almost finished off the White Fang, and wouldn't be needing any help.
In that moment, Torchwick fired off several dust rounds, forcing him to dodge and block, before booking it to a nearby bullhead. Percy considered pursuing, but pulled back. Blake was safe, her newfound friend was safe, and he wasn't quite confident enough to jump into a bullhead with an unknown destination. It had been a while since he'd had any live combat, and he wasn't going to risk throwing his life away.
Working himself up to it the first time had been enough.
He watched for a moment as the bullhead took off and escaped, and then turned back to the others. Blake was struggling to her feet, facing him. She had probably watched his fight. Yang and the other faunus had also finished up their fight, and were jogging over.
Percy jogged over to Blake, helping her to her feet. "Glad to see you're okay, Blake." He was going to go on, but Yang beat him to the punch.
"What were you thinking, Blake?! Taking on Torchwick?! Oh, I'm so glad you're alright!" she wrapped an arm around Blake's shoulder.
"I-I'm sorry." Percy decided to give them a moment to reconcile, instead pulling out his scroll and sending a quick message to the group chat they had set up, placing a quick call to the police to let them know what had happened, and walking over to the other faunus.
"Hey," he started, extending a hand, "I'm Percy. Thanks for keeping an eye on Blake."
The other man smiled. "I'm Sun. No problem! Always happy to help. Nice job with Torchwick, by the way. How'd you manage that? He handled Blake pretty well, and she didn't seem like a slouch."
Percy brought up one of his arms, sweeping it to the side to mimic a wave. "Well, it helps when they start the fight on their ass and on the backfoot, eh? After that, it's just deflecting bullets and not letting him get back into it."
Sun clapped him on the shoulder, laughing. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me! That's a pretty neat semblance, man. I'm jealous. Controlling water from a distance like that, and so much of it? My buddy Neptune can do that with some water when he's touching it, but that much and at a distance… it was nuts!"
One thing really caught with Percy in that entire sequence. A friend named Neptune who can control water? Huh. He would have to meet this friend, and told Sun as much.
The monkey faunus elbowed him. "Yeah, man, two people with water semblances? Imagine what you could get up to!"
They would've kept talking, but at that moment Ruby and Weiss came rushing down the docks towards Yang and Blake. Percy and Sun turned and watched the reunion for a moment, whatever issues Team RWBY had with one another quickly being quashed, before walking over.
He quickly became the focal point of the shifting conversation, with Ruby especially eager to deflect from the former conflict. "Hey, Percy! Blake and Yang say you fought Roman Torchwick!"
He smiled. "It was the least I could do to help Blake, although it wasn't what I expected when we decided to search for her." Truth be told, it was a bit odd. He knew there were Grimm in the world—monsters similar to those he had been fighting all his life—but being drawn into fighting against a terrorist group?
Percy had hoped that when he woke up as a relatively normal person in Mistral that he would be able to live a relaxed life compared to what he'd had on Earth. The near-continuous five years of war made him wish for better times, and even being a huntsman was a large improvement. After all, his talents would be wasted if he just lived in a city, and he could carve through Grimm like nobody else thanks to his unique abilities.
Hopefully this organized fighting would be a one-off for him, and he'd be able to focus on fighting monsters rather than people.
He was drawn out of his thoughts by Blake. "You didn't just fight Torchwick, you demolished him. I got to see a bit, and it wasn't even close. He had to book it, and if you'd wanted to you could've stopped him getting on that Bullhead! Why didn't you?"
He shook his head. "I had no idea who could've been on that Bullhead, Blake, and my priority was making sure that you were safe. I wasn't going to risk it."
Yang clapped him on the shoulder. "Fair enough. Neat semblance, though. Water? Torchwick had no idea what hit him! Did you see the look on his face?"
He smiled. "Yeah, I was trying to keep that one under wraps. Always a good surprise, and I don't like to use it if I don't have to."
"Well, I at least feel better for not being able to stand up to you in a fight if an alleged 'master thief' can't either," Weiss said, air quoting 'master thief'. That was true, he hadn't held back against Torchwick at all.
As Weiss finished her sentence, Jaune and Pyrrha came jogging down to the docks, shortly followed by Ren and Nora, all looking relieved. After some greetings, and reassurances that this wouldn't happen again, they began talking about what would happen later in the night.
Gesturing to his scroll, Percy said, "Well, I called the police, so they should be able to take over here and clean up this mess. They should be here soon, I hope, so we can leave."
Sun looked around and then began jogging back into the city. "Welp, that's my cue! Gotta go!" he shouted back at them as he ran off.
"Hm. What's up with that?" Jaune asked.
Yang spoke up. "Before all of this, he was being chased by the police. Probably doesn't want to risk another run in with them today."
Sure enough, the police soon arrived and took over the situation. They asked a few questions—could they confirm Torchwick was here, White Fang, did they get away with any dust—before letting them go, and putting an end to an undoubtedly late night.
In Ozpin's office, the headmaster was displaying a recording of the previous night's events. "That's nuts for a first-year student. I'm not sure what you two have been seeing from him in classes and such, but he might've still beat me even if I did go all out against him, not including that water semblance, Oz." Qrow took a sip from his flask.
Ozpin inclined her head towards Professor Goodwitch.
"Percy Jackson is an exemplary student," she said. "I knew the skill of Miss Nikos coming in, and was prepared to match her up with entire teams if necessary given her reputation—and it may well be. Mr. Jackson is, surprisingly enough, her better. He took down your niece, Miss Xiao Long, with ease. Not only does Team PPRJ have potential in the upcoming Vytal Tournament, but I daresay I would place them as the favorites."
Qrow whistled. "Damn, okay. Not that I didn't know it already, but he's no joke."
Ozpin took a sip of coffee before speaking. "Indeed. I would have asked you to try to dig even deeper on his background, but with Amber having been attacked recently…"
The room seemed to chill for a moment before he continued.
"We have bigger priorities, unfortunately. While Amber lives, the Maiden's power is insecure, and we'll need to quickly search for a new candidate." Ozpin let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "Suffice to say I have one in mind given recent events. Qrow, continue to be vigilant and coordinate against her forces. Glynda, encourage Team PPRJ to train as hard as possible. See if you can get that team as good as possible."
They both nodded, concluding the meeting and leaving Ozpin to his thoughts. Even with Amber down, the appearance of Jackson had yielded a tolerable plan to him. He'd seen that Pyrrha Nikos was honorable and well-meaning, although she'd need to be tested more, as would her team.
With her team, though? Jackson was an excellent fighter, he could tell that Arc had enormous potential, and Ren was good for stealth and had a very good friend in Miss Valkyrie. Combine that with their friendships with Team RWBY, and it seemed as if the blundering of half a maiden may yet be rectified.
Monday's Combat Class had come, and with it Professor Goodwitch would finally be explaining for what reason they'd have to suffer through having it doubled. Ruby thought it was a load of crap—she loved the free time! Who was Professor Goodwitch to take it away?
As the class filed in, packed to its limits, the class chattered loudly in anticipation of her announcement. She was not excluded.
Once the final stragglers had arrived, Professor Goodwitch stepped to the front of the class and began to speak.
"As we all know, the Vytal Festival, and with it the Vytal Tournament, is approaching. Vale will be hosting it for the first time in eight years, and the headmaster believes it crucial that Beacon puts on a strong showing. As a result, I have decided to combine first and second year, and third and fourth year, and hold an in-class tournament. To encourage everyone to have experience fighting with their teams, each partner pair will compete against all others in a tournament bracket."
Professor Goodwitch paused for a moment, with people looking at their partners. Ruby glanced at Weiss, who nodded. They'd get to practice fighting together in class! That would be so cool. Maybe not as cool as free time, but cool nonetheless.
After the pause, Professor Goodwitch continued. "The winners of each group, underclassmen and upperclassmen, will have a showmatch as well at the end of the tournaments. You will all find the bracket on your scroll, and we'll be starting in ten minutes in the order described. Good luck!"
The class immediately erupted into discussion. Team RWBY huddled together to discuss strategy.
Yang opened. "Alright, Ruby, Weiss, you guys aren't really built to take hits. Make sure to dance around and not get hit, or you're screwed."
Weiss scoffed. "Obviously. But with my glyphs and Ruby's speed, we'll be competitive regardless. I assume you're going to be a frontliner and let Blake be an assassin?"
Yang nodded. "We're set, then."
Ruby smiled. "Go Team RWBY!" The rest of her team smiled with her, and they all took the opportunity to examine the bracket and see how screwed they were. Luckily they all got winnable matchups.
Percy knew that Pyrrha had fought in quite a few tournaments before—with people back in Mistral christening her the 'Invincible Girl'. It came as no surprise, therefore, when she turned to him to begin planning how they'd fight immediately.
"Alright," she began, "I'm pretty sure we can go all the way and win this. You've only used Riptide and Reflection, and I've got Milo and Akouo, so you should frontline and I'll take care of whichever of them stays back."
He nodded. "Sounds good to me. How good do you think the second years are? I'm pretty sure we'll be fine with our own year."
She turned her head a bit, thinking. "Well, I guess we'll have to find out. I know that at the lower schools people got a lot better every year, but it's hard to quantify."
Ah, well. No use in thinking about it too much, they had a mini-tournament to fight!
Cinder was displeased. Roman Torchwick had bungled the latest dust heist, getting stopped by a group of students, no less. That despite her leveraging the unique talents of Arthur Watts to ensure an entire Schnee Dust Company shipment was unguarded for multiple hours.
Ah, well. He had been sufficiently chewed out, and she had seen him fight before. What really amazed her, though, was this Percy Jackson. Some first year at Beacon with the ability to effortlessly take down Torchwick? Someone worth looking into further than the security footage she had obtained.
And it wasn't like Torchwick was a slouch, either, because she had watched him dispatch another student with no issue.
And that wasn't even taking into account his semblance…
She'd have to keep a close eye on him when she went to Beacon. If she could turn him, or use one of the physical flaws of men to take advantage of him, he'd be a very valuable tool.
If she couldn't, though? With him being that good of a fighter and having a water-based semblance?
She'd have to keep him out of the way.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the extra chapter for Christmas! There'll be another chapter coming tomorrow as usual on Tuesday. Also, while it may seem like I've underpowered Percy before this chapter, it's mostly because the fighting style of Remnant is just so different compared to Earth. Percy has raw talent and physical strength, but isn't used to Aura, bullets in combat, mechashift, or the agility most people display. He's getting better very quickly, though, as you can see, with the blocking bullets and Aura.
