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pa tr eon.c o m (slash) MrLightbringer0
Pyrrha felt like she was on top of the world!
That was of course, until she didn't.
When she jumped off the railing of the elevated highway to follow Roman Torchwick's fall, she expected to see him lying inside a heap of metal. After all, when she launched him off the highway with her amplified Polarity, she did so with a lot of force intending to end it in one go and come straight back to Jaune..
She didn't expect to be greeted in midair by a lot of missiles launched towards her by the Atlesian Paladin.
BOOM!
It took her all just to sense and detonate all of them on time before they could reach close enough to seriously harm her. Still, she didn't come out unscathed. The force and heat from the explosions battered against her Aura and blew away the effect of Jaune's Semblance remaining within her.
The sudden change in state of having her whole being amplified into something depleted left her breathless and weakened. And so Pyrrha finds herself landing on the ground in no shape to face off against Roman Torchwick inside a Paladin.
She winces as she tries to get her breathing back. The first lesson she ever learned from her father, Gods bless his soul, after people started calling her a genius was not to be overconfident.
Then here she was forgetting that lesson and paying the price for it just because she felt invincible for having an extra boost.
Pride really does go first before the fall.
Still, it's not like she's completely defenseless. She still has a gun and she estimates she has about 50% of her Aura remaining. Cold comfort for someone about to face a giant robot. Luckily, she isn't alone.
"Pyrrha!"
She hears Blake shout her name as both her and Ren land near her. She gives both a tired smile, happy that she at least made it in time to help them.
"Where's Jaune?" Ren asks with a concerned tone as he brings his gunblades out to prepare for battle.
"He'll catch up. He's just helping the people who got hurt." Pyrrha answers, she does not see the wince Ren makes in return as she is now busy taking stock of Argent Rose and any available ammunition she has.
Two clips of normal bullets with 12 rounds each as well as six separate Dust Rounds, two of them contain Ice Dust, another two contain Fire Dust, and the last two have Lightning Dust in them.
She can't help but be thankful that Jaune insisted she keep most of it for now. If she didn't then she would have had to fight Roman unarmed. It's still too few for Pyrrha's taste but she'll just have to work with what she currently has.
"I'm sorry." Blake pipes up apologetically, breaking Pyrrha's focus on her inventory.
"What do you mean?"
"If we didn't jump in back at the meeting then we wouldn't be in this situation."
Well, yes. That situation was strange from the start and it is no exaggeration to describe it as the catalyst of it all, still they had bigger problems right now than focusing on what went wrong and whose fault is it.
Pyrrha lets out a breath to calm herself before glancing at Blake from the corner of her eyes.
"We can talk about this later for now let's focus on Roman."
Blake looked surprised at that. Pyrrha guesses she and Ren never thought who could be inside the giant robot. To be fair though they were probably busy being chased by one.
"Roman? That's Roman Torch-"
"LOOK OUT!"
Ren's warning came just in time as he saw Roman raise the Paladin's right hand, showcasing a series of barrels.
BRRRT! BRRRT!
And then the fight was on.
Pyrrha's body automatically reacts to Ren's warning, barely managing to avoid Roman's shots. That was stupid of her, taking her eyes off of an enemy. It seems today is a day for mistakes not just for Blake but also for Pyrrha herself.
Taking stock of the situation, she sees Ren and Blake have also managed to avoid getting hit without any issues. Still, seeing that Roman has a ranged option other than his missiles disheartens Pyrrha. She was hoping to at least have fire superiority at range considering she could hardly engage him in melee without Milo and Akuou.
"We need to hold him off, Yang and Nora are probably on their way!" Blake shouts as Pyrrha sees her try to charge the Paladin before it could manage to reload its guns.
"You managed to call them?!" Pyrrha asks back as she tries to flank the Paladin on its left side and divide its attention between them.
"More like they called us." Ren answers her as he tries to copy Pyrrha, taking potshots at the Paladin from its right side.
Pyrrha nods gravely at that. It doesn't really matter how but it's good that reinforcements are at least on the way because with the way things are looking? Holding out is probably the only thing they could do.
Neither Ren nor Blake have exhibited the firepower required to break through the Paladin's armor. Pyrrha could have with Milo and Akuou but without them, the point is moot.
Even her own Semblance could only affect the Paladin so much, being only able to slightly move or shift a limb at a time. Perhaps she could try to concentrate on a small part like a joint but in a fast-paced battle like this, the time it would take for her to do that could be catastrophic for her friends.
No, the only choice they have are delaying tactics. Without a melee weapon, Pyrrha was relegated to providing distraction from afar while Blake and Ren alternatingly attempted to engage Roman Torchwick in close combat.
"Switch with Blake! We'll hold him off!" She shouts towards Ren, keeping careful aim not to hit any of her friends.
She shot a round of Ice Dust just to slow Roman down so Ren could engage him safely while Blake backs off.
Pyrrha sees him acknowledge silently, charging in with his gunblades to harass the Paladin's footing just as Blake jumps back..
This is where she is really thankful to Jaune for lending her Argent Rose. Possessing the characteristics of both a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol, Argent Rose had a wide range of capabilities.
Six chambered hexagonal cylinders for Dust rounds attached to the lower barrel allowed it to launch stronger attacks compared to the higher barrel which spits out the normal bullets. Still, Argent Rose packs a punch and even a normal bullet is enough to take out the Paladin's sensors if Roman wasn't careful.
It was hard going but they were making the best of their situation. When one of them clashed with Roman in melee, Pyrrha and the other one did their best to harass and annoy the Paladin from a distance.
However, this could only go on for so long. With her limited ammunition and the stress of their battle, it was only a matter of time before the battle swung against them….
It happened when Ren tried to switch with Blake again. Two switches and two minutes of fighting, that's how many times they managed to switch and how long before Roman got smart. Only two switches and two minutes of fighting with Pyrrha using all of her Ice and Lightning Dust rounds.
On the third switch, Roman Torchwick opted to ignore Blake's attacks and decided to meet Ren head on just as he was charging in. She could see her teammate's surprise even from the other side.
Mid-charge, Ren had no opportunity to dodge the smash coming right for his face even as Blake struggles to hastily hold Roman back with Gambol Shroud's whip.
THUD!
She hears the sound of the hit even from her position and Pyrrha is horrified to see Ren go flying.
"REN!" She shouts even as her eyes widened in horror
Pyrrha rushed to help her teammate but Roman was smart. He made sure to put Blake between them and any careless shot she took would have an equal chance of hitting her friend.
She still tries however. Taking careful aim as Roman raises the Paladin's right hand with its machine gun, Pyrrha fires one of her Fire Dust rounds.
She misses and the round explodes in the distance past Ren.
Her heart stops as the world slows down even as the machine gun starts to whir to life.
Yet it doesn't get the chance to fire because the next thing she knows, Nora was crashing right on top of the Paladin's right hand.
"Here's Noraaa!"
When Nora and Yang heard from Blake that Jaune and Pyrrha were already in the White Fang, they immediately left Junior's bar in a hurry.
Taking a moment to call Ruby and Weiss to update them of the situation, they then jumped onto Yang's trusty steed, her motorcycle Bumblebee, to ride off and save their friends.
They only had to follow the trail of destruction on the highway before hearing fighting below the elevated road.
One look was all it took for the both of them to get to the same conclusion. Even behind their helmets, Nora could already see how excited Yang was. Excitement she was sure she was also showing. They were going to dive from above right into battle.
When she leaned over the railing to see what was going on however, she didn't expect to see Renny flying through the air with a big giant robot about to shoot him with its machine gun hands.
Nora couldn't have that of course. So she leapt without waiting for Yang and with Magnhild out and ready to go.
No hesitation whatsoever, Nora Valkyrie crashed with a vengeance right into the robot's offending hand.
"Here's Noraaa!" She announces with a grin, dislocating the guns in the robot's hand.
To be honest, she expected to wreck it entirely. After all, she put her all to stop what was hurting Renny. She didn't expect for the hand to hold up well enough to just be dislocated. She also didn't expect the giant robot to smash her with its other hand.
"So this is how Renny felt." She mutters to herself as she is sent flying.
Her Aura flashes bright in response as she crashes into the ground disoriented. Unbeknownst to her however, the giant robot decided to push the attack and charge her while she is done.
She barely manages to process what is going on when a streak of green color charges past her to meet the giant robot head on. Nora's eyes unwittingly follow the color before she realizes who it was and what was going to happen.
"RENNY NO!"
When Ren heard Nora enter the battlefield, he only had one thought in mind. Protect Nora. That is what it has always been about ever since that dreadful day at Kuroyuri.
Even as disoriented and breathless as he was from the hit he just took, he was aware that Nora needed help when she was launched through the air.
His body felt like it moved on its own but really, Ren was aware that he moved it because there was no other thought needed other than protecting Nora. Nevertheless, he found himself standing in between her and a charging giant robot.
Mind finally catching up with his body, he is slightly surprised to feel he isn't panicking at all. It must be thanks to his Semblance, still, it's what he needed. A moment of clarity and the next thing he knows is he is holstering his weapons and moving his body in a familiar motion even as Roman Torchwick starts to bear down on him.
Once, he taught Jaune one of his own moves. The Aura Strike. It was a complicatedly simple move which essentially breaks down into two steps. First was to concentrate his Aura in a part of his body then release it all at once at the moment of impact.
It was only complicated in the sense that you had to stop the Aura you gathered from instinctively spreading across your skin to protect you.
Jaune was able to use the move to beat Weiss Schnee by amplifying his considerable Aura reserves even as his own Aura leaked from his body.
It was a crude stopgap measure that worked for him because of his own reserves and Semblance but Ren had a more efficient way of doing things.
Aura was naturally hard to contain in a single place during combat. It always wanted to move to instinctively protect its owner instead of hurting your opponent. Lie Ren managed to develop and study a way to harness this natural tendency to move. He learned how to guide them.
His feet brace him in position while his hands move in circular motions together with his shoulders filled with Aura. He closes his eyes just as he takes a deep breath and for a moment, he hears nothing but the beating of his heart, not Nora's scream, not the stomping of a giant metal robot, only the beating of his heart and the pulsing of his Aura..
One beat, his Aura pulses with him. Two beats, he starts to be aware of his surroundings again. Three beats, Lie Ren opens his eyes.
He sees Roman Torchwick approach striking distance and Lie Ren's arms move just as the Paladin punches out with its already dislocated arm.
His Aura transfers from shoulder to palm just as metal meets open palm flesh and Ren….Ren screams his heart out, aware of what he was protecting behind him.
"URAHHHHHH!"
Bright pink light flashes from the point of contact as his Aura explosively shatters the Paladin's already dislocated arm. Shrapnels fly outward as the battlefield freezes in surprise and shock. Ren's body wavers and he takes a step just to steady himself again.
"REN!"
The voice startles him out of the fatigue that suddenly seized his body. The move always took considerable effort from him. Doing it so suddenly while still hurt must have tired his body out. Still, he musters the energy to turn around and smile wryly.
"You haven't called me just Ren for some time now." The words slipped out of his mouth before his mind could even process them.
Ridiculous, he knows. She's surely called him Ren recently but Ren doesn't care. He only cares that he misses her calling him with the nickname she had for him. Nora, however, seems to just bulldoze over him.
"You're bleeding!"
Huh, now that she mentions it, his head does feel particularly wet and light, especially above his left eye. Must have been a shrapnel that grazed him. Still, it probably just looks worse than it is and so he moves to comfort Nora.
"Don't worry. Tis but a scratch-"
SLAM!
He just about finished that sentence when Roman Torchwick swiped him with the Paladin's other arm.
Tired and still gathering his wits, Ren felt his Aura fail just as he felt something break inside his body. Huh, must've been a rib, he thinks to himself before his body does something familiar.
He flies through the air.
In hindsight, that was really stupid of him. Thinking the battle was won just because he managed to blow up one damaged arm. Just to show that Lie Ren falls short when it counts. Still, as he sees his friends begin to swarm the Paladin even as Nora rushes towards him, Lie Ren has one last thought.
At least he managed to protect Nora.
As Ren went flying, Blake resumed internally scolding herself even as she lashed out with her ribbon, trying to stop the Paladin even as it continued forward towards Ren and Nora.
Damnit, none of this would have happened if she didn't rush in to interrupt the meeting. Yang might have called to warn them that it was a trap but nothing actually outwardly showed something bad was happening inside the warehouse.
She only realized her mistake when she and Ren barged in only to find the whole White Fang listening to the end of Roman's speech. Jaune and Pyrrha might have been able to leave unscathed if Blake just waited a few minutes more to wait for backup.
Now, she had to live with the fact that not only did she put civilians in danger by escaping through a busy highway but she also needlessly put her friends' lives in danger again. It felt like watching Jaune get beaten up at the docks again.
Frustrated and already berating herself, she couldn't stop the scathing tone that comes out of her when Yang lands near her.
"Where were you?!" She hisses harshly even as she winces right after.
Yang for her part, only focuses her glare at Roman inside the Paladin even as she replies to Blake.
"I was busy parking Bumblebee. Couldn't find any access roads near here and I didn't really want to wreck my ride by launching it off the highway."
Blake could have snapped at her even more for that but it wasn't really Yang's fault. It was hers for letting it get here in the first place. It was hers for letting Roman surprise her and attack Ren.
With Ren out of commission and Nora running towards him, it was now up to Blake, Yang, and Pyrrha to stop Roman Torchwick.
"Just help me with this." She settles with a sigh, handing her ribbon holding the Paladin out towards Yang.
"With pleasure." Yang replies with a grin, pulling hard with Blake and finally manages to stop the Paladin, allowing Nora to reach Ren safely.
Metal groans and creaks as Blake sees one of the Paladin's feet glow black. She is surprised for a moment before breathing a sigh of relief as she sees Pyrrha approach their position with her hand out. It seems they finally managed to hold down the Paladin enough for Pyrrha to use her Semblance on it.
"Go, I'll hold him in place." Pyrrha states with obvious strain in her voice.
It seems she can only hold the Paladin so much with her Semblance despite the power Blake remembers her displaying on top of the highway.
Blake and Yang needed no further prompting than that as both of them looked at each other before nodding at the same time. Blake disentangles her ribbon and they charge together as the Paladin turns to face them.
Blake goes low, focusing at the legs even as Yang leaps high. She manages to slash at the legs twice before the Paladin finally tries to stomp on her even as the Paladin tries to ward off Yang from above.
Blake jumps back on time just as Yang manages to avoid the Paladin's remaining arm by maneuvering herself midair with bursts from Ember Celica.
Seeing her partner latch onto the cockpit, Blake uses her ribbon to at least tie the arm down to let Yang do her damage unimpeded. She gets off three explosive punches before Roman employs an unconventional tactic.
He faceplants the Paladin and embeds Yang into the ground with all his weight at the same time he pulls Blake forward off of her feet with her own ribbon.
Flying through the air, Blake has a moment to see the Paladin already deftly trying to stand up.
For a robot of that weight and size, the Paladin sure could move quickly . She gasps in pain just as she hits the ground chest first.
Before she could properly put her feet however, a voice called out to her.
"Get down!"
Opting to follow the order, Blake keeps her head down even as a red hot streak flies past her head. The object makes contact with the Paladin and explodes, burning Blake's ribbon part way even as the Paladin is covered in smoke.
Behind her, Blake sees Pyrrha tiredly aiming down the sights of Jaune's new gun. It seems to have shot out Fire Dust going by what just happened and its smoking barrel.
Blake breathes a sigh of relief after everything stills for a moment. Finally, she thinks to herself. Moving to stand up so she can check on Yang however, Blake's heart skips a beat when she hears the sound of metal creaking and groaning.
"What does it take to take you down?" She groans even as she brandishes Gambol Shroud towards the Paladin.
Say what you will but Atlas really does build its stuff differently. But built differently or not, it could only take so much punishment before it has to give up. Roman must have thought the same thing because the next thing Blake knew, he was running away.
Blake blinks for a moment, but only for a moment before fury fills her body. The worst part is, she can't even do anything about it.
"Hey! Where are you going?! We're not done yet, you coward!" She shouts even as the Paladin limps away with unsteady steps as metal scraps fall off from it.
With Yang down and Pyrrha tired, there was no one to back her up if she ever decided to chase him. Not with Nora also busy tending Ren in the distance.
Indignation at Roman and concern for Yang war with each other inside her for a moment before Blake's concern for her teammate eventually wins out.
Her shoulders slump as she resigns herself to watching the giant robot steadily gain distance from her. Shaking her head to rid herself of the gloom, she resolves to just catch Roman Torchwick next time even as she begins to make her way towards Yang.
"Throw me."
Blake pauses at the unexpected voice.
Rising out of the small crater Roman Torchwick embedded her in, Yang Xiao Long stands up with unsteady feet.
"Throw me." She repeats as she smiles at Blake with glowing red eyes and bright flaming hair.
"With pleasure." Blake smiles back.
Wasting no time at all, Blake hands her one end of her ribbon.
Damn, Yang really did have a great partner if she's thinking what she's thinking.
She grabs one end and lets out a grin when she starts running around her partner.
Part of it might have been burnt out when Pyrrha shot the Paladin with Fire Dust while Blake's ribbon was still tied to it, it was still very much a functional tool.
She makes it easier for her partner by jumping with Aura enhanced muscles and using Ember Cilica's bursts behind her to speed her up. Eventually, they gain enough momentum and Blake slings her like an ancient man slinging a stone assisted by Aura towards the fleeing Paladin.
Now, this was the life. Yang thinks to herself as she shoots forwards with a grin on her face. Powered by her Semblance, she felt like she was on top of the world. Until of course, she wasn't.
Flying through the air with her fist cocked back, Yang's blood begins to go cold as she sees the giant robot begin to juke her. All their effort would be for nothing if she misses Roman now.
She could see it now. Her world slows down as she begins to imagine the next series of events. The giant robot would avoid her attack. She'd try to chase but even damaged, the robot still had bigger and faster steps than her and would be able to escape. Yang would probably need her ride just to catch up.
"Ice Flower!"
Luckily for her, her team has her back and what she just envisioned doesn't need to happen. She smiles as ice begins to slow down the robot from above.
Glancing upwards, she sees Ruby shooting with Crescent Rose while white glyphs float in front of her courtesy of Weiss.
"Thanks sis, you came right on time." Yang mutters even as she takes note of the other two standing beside Ruby and Weiss.
Unable to move, the robot finally meets its end under her fists filled with explosive speed and power.
BOOM!
Yang cries out a victorious roar just as the robot breaks down into hundreds of tiny little pieces and a defeated criminal.
—-
When Roman made this plan, he didn't expect to get his shit rocked.
Oh he expected the Paladin to be damaged, of course. Probably even lose some parts or a limb. What he didn't expect was for it to get outright destroyed by a group of brats!
"Oh yeah! Did you see that?! Did you see that?!" He hears that blonde bomber crow out and Roman has to shake his head to get over the disorientation.
Still, it's not like he didn't plan contingencies for this type of situation.
"Ladies…" He greets them while patting the dust off of his clothes.
His heart gets stuck on his throat for a moment though when he finally sees who jumped down to join them.
"Surrender, Roman! We've got you cornered!" Red shouts at him but that isn't the one that got him to react.
The ones who did were standing behind Red. Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai stare at him with unreadable expressions.
Damn it, who knows what they'd think of his actions now. Still, there's nothing else for it. They're already here.
"Always a pleasure seeing you, Red. But you see, I've got to go. Neo, if you would…" Roman answers back, keeping his attention towards Red so as to at least not explicitly blow someone else's cover.
He could have exposed the two of them here and now but who knows what the fire bitch will do if he outs them. He couldn't ignore the chance that they won't just kill him now if he does. Better to pretend they're all on the same side right now before making a clean break when he's guaranteed their safety.
Still, his real objective in all this mess seems to be at least partially fulfilled.
He hoped he would be able to show how dangerous the White Fang were becoming by taking the Paladin on a test ride and he thinks he at least succeeded at that with how much damage he just caused.
At least now the authorities would start to crack down on them even more. It would be easier for him and Neo to lay low than it is for the White Fang and that was mainly the crux of it. Weaken Cinder's assets as much as he can before leaving her to the wolves while they sit back in safety somewhere far far away.
Still, that doesn't solve the problem of Cinder's colleagues (if she is to be believed) that would go looking for him but ah well, that's a problem for another time.
Besides, all this thinking had him thinking…..Where the hell is Neo?
"Uhhh, Neo? Anytime now" Roman calls out again nervously.
The surroundings are silent for a moment before a snicker goes off from behind the group facing him.
"It seems like your partner left you, Roman." The black-haired cat he thinks the mutt called Belladonna calls out toward him.
Seems like the group is gathering now that Blake Belladonna and another black-haired cat joins the fray.
His eyes harden as he takes in the situation. Whatever reason Neo was delayed, he had to get out of here. While Cinder's plan had him getting arrested, it was still too soon without the Atlas Flagship here. He had to escape lest he get caught and Cinder decides he's better off dead than a liability.
After all, bitch a Cinder might be, she's also paranoid enough to cover her bases. If she thinks he'll tell the authorities of her plans then he has no doubt she'd get him killed no matter what.
"It's over, Roman. Surrender. Just make this ea-" Red tries again, brandishing her scythe towards him but is interrupted by a sound that lifts his spirit up.
VROOOOM!
The sound of a bullhead engine roars as Roman sees one with White Fang signs painted on the side of it. Hovering above all of them, the door opens before anyone could even think to shoot it.
He hears gasps from the brats' side but Roman only laughs.
"Neo! Where have you been?!" He laughs out in a loud manner, waving his arms outwards and looking at his partner.
In response, Neo only smiles at him and pulls someone to look over the edge of the bullhead towards him.
"""JAUNE!"""
AN: Thanks for reading my chapters folks! Congratulations btw to those who guessed where I got my inspiration for Pyrrha's use of her amped up Semblance! I remember reading the Mistborn books about a decade ago and really got me hook to long epic stories.
Anyways just wanted to highlight something in this note if you haven't noticed it in this chapter. If you don't want to read it then I warn you to stop reading now and enjoy your day, if you want to read however then continue and let me know what you think: So in this chapter, Pyrrha lost a major advantage early on. She might have labeled it as due to her pride but it's actually deeper than that. She, in her haste to get back to Jaune while riding the high of her amped up Semblance, decided to just buldoze through the problem instead of focusing on it. This made her sloppy. It might be a bit ooc but I wanted to highlight that despite being an amazing person, Pyrrha is still flawed. This won't come up all the time but it's something that's going to have to be fixed in the next arc.