Ben 10 x RWBY: Of Gemstones and Watches

by Transwiththeplans

Ben Tennyson meets Ruby Rose during his summer break, and picks up both the Omnitrix and a thrill for action. Along the way, Ben discovers new alien forms, develops new techniques to use in battle, and a blossoming romance, while also forging close bonds with his new friends. But can he and his friends handle being thrust into a conflict between good and evil? (Cover by elmike)

103. Vault of the Spring Maiden

Here's the Discord invite link. Please join Discord at: /mY2QfzMjGt

Penultimate episode of the Season! This will be followed by a break for a few weeks before we launch into a 10-part Arc. Please enjoy.

---

The tesla coils jutting out from Viktor's back crackled as arcs of electricity bounced between them. Those arcs then surged down through his body, coalescing in his hands. Seeing that Ruby's Aura took a sizable hit from Cinder's opening fireball, the Frankenstein bruiser took the chance and launched the gathered lightning out from his hands while Ruby was still recovering. A flash of green caught his attention and he growled in annoyance. The lightning never reached Ruby, instead Viktor could only watch as the energy was absorbed into several golden plugs in a matter of seconds.

Ben, now in the form of Feedback, smirked as lightning crackled around his fingers and he sent the attack right back at Viktor. Zs'skayr's enforcer teleported out of the way, letting the lightning blast through the back wall. He reappeared behind Ben and grabbed hold of Feedback's two antennae, lifting the Conductoid off the ground and throwing him into one of the wooden pillars that encircled the main hall. He didn't give Ben the chance to recover, charging in with his fist reared back and ready to slam into Ben. Before he reached his target though, Viktor suddenly came to a halt, almost tripping from the sheer momentum he'd put into the charge. He looked down to see his foot encased in stone.

Another shot rang out and a stone spike pierced his shoulder, making him grunt in pain. Ruby took the chance and raced in, leaping over Viktor and taking a good few swings at him. He managed to block each one with his arms before the hooded Huntress landed in front of him. She lashed out with another flurry of blows, buying Ben the time he needed. He shook off the impact and smirked, some lightning still arcing between his fingers. Ruby looked back and fired a shot into Viktor's chest, propelling her back so she was right next to Ben.

"How many Lightning Dust rounds you got?" Ben asked.

"Plenty, just say the word," Ruby smirked.

"Good. Keep your aim on me," Ben said, as he began to run at Viktor. Ruby fired a few shots that Ben quickly absorbed as they flew past him. The Frankenstien cultist's brow furrowed as he began shooting lightning at the ceiling, cracking and destabilising it. Pieces of the ceiling gave out and began to fall, forcing Ruby to move before they crushed her.

Ben, however, responded with a powerful attack; by generating high-voltage lightning around his arm, Ben was able to send a far ranged attack, shaped like a fist. It hit Viktor square in the chest, which gave Ben time to close some more distance. His tendrils dug into his back, as Ben began to syphon energy.

"I'll be taking that energy, thank you!" Ben grinned, "I don't call this guy Feedback for nothing."

Viktor looked over his shoulder at him and growled, trying to grab the tendrils and rip them out. Every time he did, he found another bullet going through his hand, each one courtesy of Ruby.

"Get...OFF!" Viktor yelled, trying to reach Ben. Ben, willingly, had his tendrils detach from Viktor's back. Zs'skayr's brute still felt sparks in the tesla coils on his back, but the energy felt weaker than usual. Ben, meanwhile, smirked and had lightning envelop both of his fists.

"Well, would you look at that?" Ben chuckled, "I'm all charged up."

"And yet...you lack skill," Viktor said, as he teleported behind Ben, grabbing his arm. He began to pull on it, threatening to pull it out of the socket. The Frankenstein-like enforcer was ready to have history repeat itself with a different Tennyson.

Ben tried to reach back, get an angle on Viktor. He smirked when he finally managed it, lining up a shot and firing a heavy torrent of energy from his fingers into Viktor. The Frankenstein reject was knocked back and slammed into the floor, a crater forming under him. Ben pulled his arm forward, rolling his shoulder because damn that hurt. He groaned a bit as he looked back towards Viktor, who was already getting back up.

Ruby immediately swooped in, and began firing like crazy. Multiple ice Dust bullets impacted and froze Viktor's face and arms. With no "juice" to protect himself with, maybe thaw through the ice, Viktor was a sitting duck. Ice crystals started covering his arms and face, the cold setting in quickly. As fast as Ruby fired them, Viktor tried to clear the ice away, shattering the ice shortly after it appeared with brute force. Considering how fast Ruby was firing, though, Zs'skayr's enforcer wouldn't succeed. The second he shattered one layer of ice, a new layer replaced it. He huffed in anger, trying to bring more energy to the surface so he could counter. How much had Tennyson drained from him?! With no energy available to him, the ice soon entirely covered Viktor and froze him in place.

"That should hold him, right?" Ben huffed.

"Yeah. No way he's getting a second wind with how much you drained his towers," Ruby said.

"Main power source. Figured that since this dude is a hybrid, he's not gonna be as strong as a pure one," Ben explained.

That didn't stop him, though. Even when he was an ice sculpture, Viktor kept trying to summon up the energy and break out. Weak sparks of lightning arced around the towers, but it was nowhere near enough for the second wind the Frankenstein hybrid needed.

"Looks like he's down for the count," Ben smirked, "Now, what should I do with all this excess energy?"

"Save it. I think we're about to get thrown into round two," Ruby reasoned.

"You're absolutely right," a familiar voice called out.

A chill went up Ben's and Ruby's spines when they heard it. Without wasting a second, the former of the two whipped around, and fired electricity at his target. Cinder Fall boredly blocked the blast with a circular obsidian shield. The lightning arced around her, avoiding her entirely.

"You," Ben sneered, as he suddenly reverted back to human.

Cinder smirked as she lowered her shield.

"Hello, boys and girls," the Fall Maiden taunted.

---

Vernal walked towards Ceres, readying her signature semi-circular weapons. After a series of mechanical clicks, the bandit lieutenant took aim at Ceres with both of her weapons, heating up the pairs of barrels beneath the ring-like blades. With a pull of the trigger, both pairs fired off thin, yellow beams of energy.

Ceres dodged out of the way, and flickered her own gauntlets over her wrists. Ceres blasted the ground, propelling herself into the air. Ceres conjured up a small collection of blue flames in her hand, as she slashed down at the ground- the blue flames shot out like a bladed projectile.

Vernal jumped out of the way and smirked.

Where was all this the last time, damn? The bandit re-aimed, launching a volley of rapid blasts towards Ceres. None of the bursts were as powerful as a continuous beam, but they didn't have to be.

Ceres maneuvered her way past the onslaught. How did Vernal manage to employ such powerful laser beams? To be honest, that didn't seem appropriate for a Huntress. It was way beyond their pay grade in terms of technology. The Atlas military even utilized the more standard AK-47.

Ceres shook her head. Ceres ran at her opponent and slammed her fist into her face and elbow into her chest- she then unleashed a powerful bout of blue flames from both areas, causing Vernal to be blasted back.

She skidded back, using her blades to stop herself from going too far before she rushed back into the fray. She lashed out with a crossing slash aimed at Ceres' head, but the Archimedian dodged under it and landed another punch into the gut of Raven's second. The bandit growled and unleashed a flurry of slashes against her, each one sparking against Ceres' gauntlets. In the middle of the series of strikes, Vernal threw one of her knives out to the side. It flew towards one of the pillars and ricocheted off, slashing into Ceres' back, taking her by surprise. That gave the bandit an opening, forcing Ceres' arms up and slashed at her. The Archimedian staggered back from the hit, watching as Vernal effortlessly caught her weapon after it ricocheted back to her hand.

Ceres frowned. "I can see why you're her right hand." Ceres slammed her hands on the ground, and began to heat it up. Blue, beautiful explosions destroyed the ground, and smogged up the entire area. Vernal was sent flying back, but she was able to land on the ground safely.

"She's crazy..." Vernal said.

"It's kind of our thing!" Ceres shouted as she dashed in, throwing a punch at the bandit. The Archimedian's gauntlet clattered on the curving blade. Ceres applied more power as she attempted to break through. When she saw Vernal position her second weapon, she gave one final hard shove and moved out of the path. The weapon discharged a blast into the ceiling, leaving scorch marks in its wake.

"Son of a-!" Vernal mumbled as she sat up.

Ceres suddenly rushed in, and grabbed Vernal by the throat. She never really experienced it in their last fight, but those gauntlets the Archimedian was wearing had one hell of a grip! Vernal was dragged across the floor and slammed into a wall. Ceres didn't hesitate to explode her face a few dozen times, before shattering the wall entirely and tossing the bandit through it.

---

"Your reaction time's gotten better," the Fall Maiden mocked as she shattered her shield after the sparks faded, "If only you had that during our first fight, you might not have come so close to death's door."

"And you still seem as overconfident as ever," Ruby seethed, "If only you figured out how to keep that in check, you might still have both arms."

Cinder sneered at that. She instead focused her attention on Ben. He looked tense, almost afraid of her very presence, as if any sudden motion from her would trigger a reaction. She took both solace and joy in that. No matter how powerful Ben would become, he was still just a scared child behind all those "virtues" he constantly lauded. Cinder had done her damage

"How's your chest, by the way?" Cinder teased.

Ben said nothing in response. He could have made a jeer at the stupid looking mask the Maiden was trying to hide behind her bangs or another crack about the arm that Ruby had cut off, but no. He was eerily quiet.

The Omnitrix was quickly reactivated, and Ben was even faster in dialing Rath. A green light covered his body. Cinder shielded her eyes from the flash, while Ruby was totally unphased by it. By the time the light faded, Omni Drive Rath was standing in the boy's place.

He was simply standing there for a second. Cinder had to wonder if maybe the brat had mustered up a quick burst of courage before being paralyzed in fear. In answer to her question, Rath vanished and, just as quickly, materialized in front of the pyromaniac and began cutting at her at breakneck speed. Cinder couldn't avoid all of them, owing to Rath's speed. Claw marks formed on her skin and tore through her clothes, annoying Salem's ace more than anything; the dress was still technically new.

Cinder flipped back, her hand creating a glass scimitar with a fiery core. She charged at Rath, who merely stood there waiting to be attacked. Her blade should have been destroyed by Rath's armor, but she kept her aura around them to ensure they were functioning at full strength. It didn't matter, though. Rath appeared to be in no pain at all, just a slight annoyance.

Ceres turned away from the hole Vernal had been thrown through to take note of Ben- the usually theatrical Rath was quiet. Too quiet, actually. Rath would have insulted everything about Cinder right now, with no remorse of conscience.

Ceres knew Cinder was about to have her ass beaten down to the ground.

Rath jerked a muscle, withdrew his claws, and bashed Cinder in the face, shattering her mask. Cinder staggered back as electricity encircled Ben's form- Rath suddenly gained a giant scythe in his hands.

Ruby deflected Cass's strike in order to catch a glimpse of that devastating weapon. "...This is the worst moment to be turned on," she replied, allowing Cass's kick to go straight through her.

Rath closed the distance between the two- he began his attack by slashing Cinder repeatedly before ending it with his strongest slash. Cinder flew back into a wall, right when the armored tiger juggernaut spoke.

"My chest has NEVER felt better," Rath growled, finally answering Cinder.

Salem's prized pet lowered her head before dropping from her impromptu perch in the wall. Her hand flew up to her mask, trying to gauge the extent of the damage, before quickly recoiling. A searing pain jolted through her body when she felt the exposed skin. The scars were still...sensitive after all this time. Her one good eye narrowed in contempt and locked onto Ben as she stood back up. She planned to BURN him for this.

"What, you gonna start something?" Rath taunted. "Well, come on! Rath's nearly invincible with this stuff on!"

Cinder knew he was right. Her weapons did nothing to him, just bouncing or breaking against his armor. But then her eye shifted to another battle and she got an idea.

"You're right," the Fall Maiden smirked, "You might be 'invincible' but she's not!" Cinder formed a small storm of glass shards and launched them at the ground around Ben. The shards glowed intensely, hissed loudly and then exploded, blinding Ben with a smokescreen. That was all Cinder needed as she raced towards someone a bit less armored. A brawler still, but one who wasn't wearing an alien power-suit.

Ben leapt from the smoke cloud, noticing Cinder's shadowy form through the smoke and barely missed the Fall Maiden. He turned his head and followed the Fall Maiden's dash, thinking she was going for Ruby.

His eyes widened in fear when he realized he was wrong.

"YANG! LOOK OUT!" Rath cried out. Blake's eyes widened as well when she heard that, before her focus returned to defense, blocking a punch from Hazel.

---

Ceres' attention was brought back to the hole she threw the bandit lieutenant through when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. That hit would've been enough to down her had she been a normal person, but then Ceres saw a flicker of light green from within the dust cloud. A few seconds later, a new barrage of laser blasts raced at her from within the cloud. Ceres weaved through the blasts until one of those semi-circular knives raced towards her, slamming into her and knocking her off balance. Because of that disruption, three more blasts slammed into her chest. The knife spun back to the bandit's hand as she emerged from the hole in the wall and rolled her shoulders.

"Thought I was just some random thug, huh?" Vernal smirked.

"Kind of. Mind telling me about how you got your hands on tech like that?" Ceres asked. "Last I checked, huntresses don't use lasers."

"Most don't. Lot better than carrying around a damn blowtorch every time we need to rip open a vault," Vernal smirked, "More practical for when things get dicey too."

"Good on you for that. Now talk. How'd you get that thing?" Ceres asked.

"Why do you care?" Raven's lieutenant scoffed.

"You're right. I don't," Ceres grinned, "I'm just stalling."

Vernal became silent soon after, throwing another of her blades at the dragon-like alien. Ceres raised her gauntlet and tossed the weapon away, sparks flying as the metals collided. Vernal calmly flung her other knife right as the first returned to her. As the second weapon bounced off Ceres' gauntlet again, she prepared the barrels and took aim. As the second knife returned to Vernal's hand, Ceres began to fire back. The second-in-command of the Branwen tribe readied the laser barrels on her knives as she ran at the Archimedean. Even Ceres couldn't dodge rapid-fire lasers from close range.

Ceres grinned once Vernal was close enough. When the bandit lieutenant struck, Ceres simply caught the blades with her hands. Vernal tried to pull them free, only for the weapons to start heating up. The heat was more intense than the bandit could've predicted; Vernal swore it felt like her weapons were melting around her hands. She actually had to look just to make sure that wasn't the case. She shrugged off her concern when she made sure her weapons were still stable and simply tried to continue with her original plan. She let her Aura deal with the heat around the knives as she tried to force the barrels towards the Archimedian. In a raw contrast of strength, the bandit was woefully outmatched by Ceres. She couldn't line her weapons up properly and, no matter how much strength she put behind her struggle, it felt like she'd break her own wrists against pure Archimedian strength.

"Fuck it," Vernal cursed, kicking out at Ceres' chest to push the two away from eachother. Raven's second fired off a few more blasts that scored some hits, though a majority were blocked by the Zeta Squad leader's gauntlets. Vernal scoffed and yelled as she threw both of her deer-horn knives at her opponent.

Ceres focused on the knives and held out her hands just in time to catch them. Vernal took a step back in surprise. Zeta Squad's leader amped up the heat in her hands before she dropped the weapons to the ground. Vernal's anger only grew when she watched the blades start to melt.

"Whoops," Ceres smirked.

"...oh you bitch! Do you have any idea how long it took to make those?!" Vernal yelled.

"You made them? ...actually kind of impressive, given...well..."

"Yeah! Wasn't easy getting a good lens for the beams either!"

"You inviting me to melt that too?" Ceres teased.

Vernal didn't waste any time. As soon as she finished the insult, the bandit rushed in and caught Ceres off guard with a flurry of punches and kicks. The Archimedian was able to dodge or block each hit as they came, until Vernal pulled off a damn good feint. When it looked like she was going for a right jab, Vernal actually went for a roundhouse kick that knocked Ceres off her feet. With that, the bandit raced over and picked up what remained of her weapons, melted blades be damned. As long as the laser barrels were still intact, she was still in this fight. She only had herself to blame for what happened here; she underestimated Ceres. The last time they fought, she was a brawler just like the blondie. Granted they didn't fight for long, but still.

Ceres leapt back to her feet and got ready to trade blows again, only to be met with a barrage of laser blasts from Vernal The Archimedean smirked as she dodged shot after shot.

"Come on, now you're just stalling!" Ceres teased.

"Do you ALWAYS talk this much?!" Vernal yelled over the sounds of her own laserfire.

"Only if it works!"

---

The glass Cinder was so fond of using came together to form a massive lance in her good hand. She leapt into the air, aiming to skewer Ruby's sister from behind. Yang's reaction time was impeccable, however. After hearing Ben's callout, she immediately jumped back, boosted by two shots from Ember Celica, as Cinder's spear was thrust down and struck tile instead.

"You'll be much easier to deal with," Cinder smirked as she pulled the lance free of the ground. The shards that made up the glassy weapon reconfigured themselves back into a scimitar-like sword at Cinder's mental command.

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that," Yang said as she came to a skidding half. She quickly changed out the rounds of her gauntlets to the high yield explosive ones.

"My today's just full of Beacon nostalgia, isn't it?" the Fall Maiden smirked as she summoned an array of sharp, obsidian knives that floated around her in an arc.

"Fire against fire. Can't have two flames in the same space for too long. One'll eventually use up all the oxygen and snuff out the other," Yang said.

"And here I thought you and Levin were the dumb muscle," Cinder taunted. When she saw Yang's eyes flare red, she knew the blonde was done talking.

Perfect. So was Cinder.

With a flick of her wrist, the daggers launched at Yang like birds in flight. The blonde was about ready to open fire and shoot them all out of the air, only to be shielded at the last minute. Ben had jumped in between Yang and the attack, shocking her a bit and letting her eyes fade back to their normal lilac hue.

"W-woah, Ben! You sure you wanna-" Yang gasped.

"Rath is VERY sure!" Ben grinned.

"Fine," the Fall Maiden sighed as she began to walk towards the new duo. New daggers formed around her with each step before flinging themselves at Ben, pelting his armor.

"I should thank you, really. Both of you," Salem's ace narrowed her good eye at Ben and Yang, "Now I get to finish what I started at BEACON!" With that, Cinder went from a walk to a mad dash. The flames that seemed to be barely contained within Cinder's blade glowed brighter and extended to cover the entire edge of the blade. As she closed the distance, Cinder slashed at the air, sending out arcs of pure fire that slammed into Ben's armored body. He continued to tank the hits, but now the power behind them was actually making him stagger a bit.

It felt wrong to use Ben's body as a shield, but, when he was allowing it to happen, you knew something was brewing in that brain of his.

Well, it was Rath's brain. Maybe Yang should be a bit more worried.

Cinder glared daggers as she saw her attacks weren't really having the desired effect. Something had to give here; that damn tiger didn't become invincible because he got armor. Her first thought was that the metal itself could be heating up, considering how much heat each one of those attacks had behind it. There was still the alien element present so it might have a higher melting point or maybe there was some tech that cooled the metal off from the inside. Sometimes, alien science was just insane. With time to think of a new plan nonexistent, she simply relied on the usual plan: avoid the tiger and cut the blonde to ribbons.

Rath growled as he spun around, narrowly catching Cinder with a powerful backhand. The Fall Maiden's eye went wide as she dove under the assault, the edge of Ben's fist missing by a few simple inches. Cinder leapt back as Ben recovered, only to get blasted back again when Ben slammed both of his fists into the ground and sent a series of energy geysers at his opponent.

"You're like me!" Yang gasped. "The more blows hit you, the more powerful you get!"

"What? No!" Rath said. "When Rath gets ANGRIER, THE MORE POWERFUL HIS ATTACKS BECOME!"

Yang's face fell a bit. "That's stupid."

"I KNOW!" Rath yelled.

Cinder was getting pissed at this point. Range wasn't going to work; he was just going to block it with his own body. Close quarters was all she really had, but even that was only good for the blonde. But that's when it hit her. Rath's biggest advantages are his strength and his agility. By donning that ridiculous armor, he'd traded the latter for durability. Salem's ace grinned as she knew for certain she could outmaneuver him now. As for the blonde, she had a special plan in mind for her now. Yang couldn't use her Semblance if the hit was strong enough to bisect her, now could she?

Cinder shifted her scimitar into a large broadsword that rested on her shoulder. The tip of the blade was aglow with fire concentrated within, just waiting to be released. A jet of fire roared from the tip of the blade and launched Cinder forward, adding a bit of momentum to Cinder's next sword swing as well. Ben took a swing right when Cinder had thought. Time seemed to slow a bit for Cinder as, when she saw the bladed fist come her way, she swung down and jabbed her broadsword into the ground. With another blast of fire, she was able to maneuver herself over Ben's swing and even managed to jump off his shoulders. She grinned as she leapt off of the armored tiger alien and stared down at Yang. The broadsword was still pointed at Ben so, with one last burst of flame, she launched herself towards Ruby's sister while sending her boyfriend flying in the opposite direction. Her focus was on Yang right now.

Rath growled as he was knocked off his feet and slammed into the ground. "HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Rath jumped up as fast as he could, which admittedly wasn't very given his armor. He leapt from where he had hit the ground, leaving a small crater in the ground as he rushed her. He quickly realized that he wouldn't make it, though. Cinder brought the blade down, missing Yang by a few inches as the blonde had sidestepped the swing. Time seemed to slow again as Cinder saw the blonde race up to her and maneuver behind her. Yang grabbed hold of Cinder by the waist before lifting the Fall Maiden up and suplexing the Fall Maiden into the ground. Cinder's one good eye widened in agony, her mouth agape like she was trying to scream, but the shock of the attack had knocked the wind out of her. Not only did she feel her spine pop from the hit, but she also felt her Aura crack. The move didn't completely eliminate her Aura, but it did take a chunk of it away.

"DAMN, YANG!" Ben yelled. "AT LEAST LET ME GET A FEW HITS IN!"

Yang righted herself and leapt back from Cinder, wrapping Cinder's body in her tight arm coil. Once she was far enough away, the blonde brawler pulled Cinder towards her, taking advantage of the Maiden's recovery time.

"Let's see how much of your Aura's left," she grinned.

The air finally returned to her lungs just in time for Cinder to cry out as she was pulled towards Yang. Her expression of fear quickly changed to one of smug satisfaction. After all, Ben wasn't even close to them now. It didn't go the way she had planned, but this would work. Cinder's eye sparked with power as a glowing spot of energy appeared under Yang and began to roar, one of Cinder's favorite ticks.

"Not the best idea to do that when I got you all tied up," Yang grinned. Team RWBY's bruiser pulled Cinder towards her and jumped back. The Fall Maiden was swept up in what she thought was a success that she failed to realize how she'd managed to screw herself over. Cinder braced herself as Yang had pulled her right over the blast zone. Cinder yelled out in pain and took the brunt of the explosion, fire engulfing her and scorching away what remained of her Aura.

Ben and Yang grinned as they saw Cinder fall to the ground, smoke rising up from her form. The duo had managed to weaken the Maiden who'd almost killed the both of them during one of the worst nights of their lives. Ben held out a closed fist to Ruby's sister, followed by Yang bumping her own fist into it. The duo closed in on the fallen Maiden, Ben on standby as he turned back to his human form.

"Lemme finish her off," Yang said as she moved over to finish off the Fall Maiden.

"Be my guest," Ben said, standing off to the side for now, keeping an eye for any would-be saviors to Cinder. Yang stood over Cinder, eyes now crimson red as she looked down on the fallen Maiden, and reared a fist back, loading a shell into Ember Celica.

Cinder moaned as she looked up, her eye wide with astonishment, to see Yang's fist poised to strike her. The brawler then threw the punch and the sound of a shotgun blast rang out. Yang gasped as she soon realized that she missed. Cinder had immediately raised her arm and caught Yang's wrist with her unbandaged hand, moving it to where the shot destroyed some of the tile next to her.

"The hell?!" Yang yelled, surprised that Cinder even had normal strength to call on.

"Surprised? Admittedly…I am as well," the Fall Maiden chuckled a bit, "This is because of her, you know," Cinder's long sleeve moved and showed that she had a bandaged arm hidden beneath it. Ben's eyes widened when he saw it. That was impossible. Yang's eyes went from red to purple when she saw that and she felt a sense of panic.

Cinder was handicapping herself the entire time.

"Your sister," Cinder hissed, "that red-hooded bitch is responsible for this! But…I'd be lying if I said my new situation didn't come with some perks."

A mad smile spread across Cinder's lips, "And I'll gladly DEMONSTRATE!" Cinder's bandaged arm shot forward, grabbing hold of the brawler by the face. Cinder tightened her grip on Yang's head and something started to feel off; the blonde brawler started to feel weak. On the outside, yellow energy was surging up and along Cinder's arm.

"YANG!" Ben called out, racing over to her.

"Isn't this a lovely method to solve my Aura problem?" Cinder grinned, feeling her strength return to her. The Maiden then rose up and slammed Yang into the ground, her own Aura slowly replenishing.

"How in the world..." Ben mumbled as he came to stop.

Cinder exhaled in relief before turning to face Ben, her usual self restored.

"And now...Round 2."

Cinder reformed her glass scimitar, now adding a second sword for her other hand, and launched herself towards Ben, thrusting her blades in front of her to try and impale him. He only just managed to dodge, the swords getting small scrapes in on his side. She spun around, launching a renewed flurry of slashes, aiming at Ben's neck and chest.

Ben dodged the attacks, ducking back to put some space between him and Cinder. He reached into his pockets; good, he still had the ball bearings. Only question now was how effective would they be against a person of Cinder's power?

The wielder of the Omnitrix pulled out a ball bearing, letting it expand to the size of a soccer ball on the ground.

"Alright...here goes," Ben muttered, before he punted the ball right at Cinder's face.

Only for the Fall Maiden to dispel her second blade and catch the projectile with her bandaged hand. She then slightly spun in place, giving it some momentum, before tossing it right back towards Ben. When it reached him, hequickly kicked it back; how exactly he managed it, no one fucking knows. Maybe it was the fear of history repeating itself. Cinder rolled her eyes at the ridiculous display and this time, super-heated her remaining sword and sliced right through the projectile.

Ben blinked.

"...was hoping to see how long that could last, but fine." Ben took a deep breath and drew out two ball bearings, letting them expand as they hit the ground.

Okay, Ben thought to himself, so you haven't had much practice with your semblance, but NOW would be an excellent time to put it to use.

As his foot sparked a bit, Ben swiftly coiled up for a lightning struck the projectile just as his foot touched down, launching it at the Fall Maiden. Granted, it wasn't the highest voltage, but Cinder ducked out of the way, regardless, when she saw the bolts flying over the metal surface, not willing to risk her life on that. After all, the last time she did, she had to pay for it.

Ben frowned a bit when he saw the first shot miss. Damn it, he really needed it to hit her right now. Maybe it could...oh, I dunno, blind her in the other eye? That'd be cool.

"My turn," the Maiden said as she tossed her sword into the air, the glass extending out and forming into a bow. Three arrows of glass and fire appeared in the grip of her bandaged hand. She caught the bow and knocked all three arrows, pulling back an invisible bow-string.

Ben gasped, as he shielded his body, hoping to mitigate the damage as much as possible.

When, suddenly, out of nowhere, Ruby's scythe spun around, deflecting each and every one of Cinder's arrows, sending them flying into the air, accompanied by rose petals from the reaper's Semblance. Ruby eventually spun her scythe around fast enough to release an energy blade that hit Cinder dead in the chest and sent her back a bit.

"You've learned some new tricks since we last met," Cinder hissed. Ruby didn't respond, though the Maiden could see those silver eyes of hers filled with a cold determination. Just like when they fought atop Beacon Tower.

Ben grinned as he marched to stand beside Ruby.

"She isn't the only one!" he called out. He scrolled past a few familiar icons on the Omnitrix, before reaching the newest addition to the roster. He activated the faceplate, and slapped it down.

As the signature green light faded, a new alien stood in front of Ruby and Cinder. He was tall, fairly buff, sporting pale green skin and sporting a mess of black scruffy hair on his head. He had brown bolts scattered and embedded across his body, wth the two biggest ones sticking out on each side of his neck. On his inner shoulders two large metal poles with lime green tips and three light green rings beneath them jut out and sparked with power. His arms each had two bolts in them and two black lines running the length of his arms, with one bolt in the shoulder and the other on the side of the elbow. He wore silver gauntlets that went up to his fingers. Three bolts were embedded in the aliens' chest, though all of those bolts seemed natural, for lack of a better term. He was wearing black pants with three silver lines that wrapped around the thighs and calves. The bottom of the shoes were silver and at the toes of the boots there were slits that had a lime green light in them. There was a white belt like object at the top of the pants, and in the middle of it was an Omnitrix symbol.

Ben's fists sparked as he smirked. "Sweet."

Cinder scoffed, unimpressed with the new form. Her bow shattered and reformed into a new spear, which she promptly hurled at Ben's chest, hoping to reopen the wound, but Ben just deflected it with the metal in his palm. The impact smashed the weapon to bits. Ben charged at her, blocking a couple more obsidian projectiles before he broke in a flurry of heavy strikes. The first three the Maiden evaded, but the fourth almost hit her. Nearly being the key word, as she had caught it with her bare, bandaged hand.

"Big mistake," Ben chuckled as the tower-like wire coils on his back started to surge with power. Green lightning jumped from ring to ring on the coils, eventually lighting them up entirely. Cinder's eye widened as she realized how big of a mistake she'd made. Her body was quickly overwhelmed with energy, as electricity raced down Ben's body from the coils and jumped to her arm. She screamed as she was thrown against a wall near the Vault's statue.

"This...this isn't..." Cinder coughed as smoke rose up from her form. She wasn't going to get another chance. She was right there. Her eye darted around, looking for Raven and Vernal. She found them and shouted out to them.

"RAVEN! VERNAL! NOW!" She brought out Leo's pocket watch, the key to open the way to the Vault, and placed it into a small indent in the statue's base. The hands on the watch began to spin faster and faster and the statue started to descend; it was a secret elevator.

Ben frowned as he charged up more electricity. "Running away?" He grinned. "What, scared of a monster?"

"Not running away. Doing what I came here for."

"Damn it! Lucky that's my cue!" Vernal cursed and fired off two more combined lasers, one of them slamming into Ceres' shoulder and doing a good bit of damage. With that, the bandit ran to meet up with her chief and their...partner of a sort.

Shit! Ceres thought, She's making a break for the Vault! Ceres began to throw some more fireballs at Vernal, but she was faster than Zeta's leader gave her credit for. The bandit expertly wove through the barrage and made her way back to regroup with Raven and Cinder.

"So," Qrow seethed, "what are you gonna do?" He was still aiming Harbinger's shotgun barrels at his sister.

"...survive," Raven said coldly as she started to race over to the Vault's elevator.

Qrow was about to give chase, but an explosion outside caught his attention, "Ah shit..." Considering everything, he wondered which group caused that.

Raven fled with her hand still on Omen's hilt. She knew that no matter how fiercely Qrow wanted to murder her for all of this, his aching heart wouldn't let him abandon those people to their fate.

"You're fortunate that I still have a heart." Qrow grimaced as he dashed away.

One of them needs to still have one, after all. She and Vernal raced and soon met up with Cinder at the elevator. Raven's second in command fired a few shots back to cover their escape, aiming at anyone who tried getting close. The blasts forced Ben, Ruby, Ceres and anyone else who tried to chase after them to find cover as soon as they could.

Ceres frowned. "Great. Now they're one step closer to the damn Relic!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Cass pouted.

Ben and Ruby ducked for cover, as Ben growled. "Great. They got away before I could do some more cool stuff in this form..."

"I can help with that..."

Ben and Ruby looked over to see Cass, walking over. Ceres had been buried underneath a pile of rubble, and now Cass' attention was focused on the lovebirds.

"So...what are you waiting for?" Cass said.

"Shit," Ruby muttered when she saw Ceres under the rubble. She swapped out the Dust clips in Crescent Rose in preparation for this.

Ben frowned. "You'll do nicely." Ben suddenly warped away, catching Cass off guard. Ben ended up behind her, throwing a nasty right hook to her back.

Cass's eyes widened as she was sent flying from the hit. "I'm going to enjoy this…" She grinned.

---

Thanks to Oscar's announcement and Team ABRN's help, students were flocking to the training grounds or helping others get there. Reese had expressed some concern about the lack of response from the authorities. Considering everything going on, they should be here! The Ace-Op had a feeling he knew why, but he couldn't tell them, not yet. That much negativity and fear would cause more problems than it solved right now. Aside from those small caveats and Reese's instance to get outside help, the evacuation strategy was working.

That all ended when it appeared.

Rex discovered it on his latest trip to help direct students to the evac zone, leaving Arslan and, surprisingly, Cardin, in charge. After Rex had raced over to one of the main buildings, he saw this new figure blocking an escape and surrounded by (presumably) knocked-out kids. At least, Rex hoped they were just knocked out.

"So," The entity spoke with a feminine voice, "She was right. You are here."

She stood in a full suit of high-tech black armor. She had a blocky helmet with a thin rectangular fin that came out from the middle of the forehead, with a glowing light-purple 'U' shape dominating the rest of the faceplate. The armor itself had two small wing-like additions with that same purple hued light covering the ends of them jutting out from the shoulderblades. The boxy plate of armor that wrapped around the base of her neck had a small vertical slit that had the purple light slipping out of it. Two lines of that same light wrapped around her waist. Her arms were protected by several different plates of this strange armor, culminating in two glowing bracelets at her gloved hands.

Rex frowned, as he activated his Smack Hands. "Should I know you?"

"Should you?" the mockery in her voice was clear. She stepped over one of the defeated students as she walked towards Rex. Aside from the armor, she seemed to be unarmed, but then again, so did Hazel. Best not to judge someone by what's obvious, but he couldn't just let her walk around freely. Rex ran at her, sending both fists flying right at her chest. The constructs easily dwarfed her in size, but he was still holding back, just in case she had. The punches landed and sent her flying into a wall.

She shook her head a bit as she got back to her feet, seemingly only a little rattled.

"My turn," she said with an unseen grin. She rushed towards Rex and began to throw punches of her own. Metal-on-metal clanging rang out as Rex used his Smack Hands to block each strike. Despite only using her bare hands, she hit hard, hard enough to feel like the metal of his fists were being easily dented like drywall.

"Not bad for a rejected member of Daft Punk..." Rex huffed.

He shoved one of his hands forward, mimicking a shield bash to disorient his opponent. The black armored fighter staggered back a bit after the strike and Rex took the chance to turn the tables on her. He threw a punch, hoping to start his own renewed flurry, only for her to dodge out of the way of the fist, grab him by the arm, and then toss him over her shoulder. Rex's build shifted mid air into the Rex Ride. The Ace-Op landed on the ground in a not so graceful fashion, before turning around and revving the engine a bit. He was going to ram this mysterious assailant.

She looked at the new build and sighed, like she was bored.

"Try it," she taunted before she motioned with her hand for him to go for it.

Rex raised an eyebrow, before he shook his head. "Your funeral, lady!" Rex said, revving his engine. He went out at full speed and somehow, not only did this woman manage to jump over him, she managed to land BEHIND HIM on the Ride. Rex turned in shock, only to be met by her throwing a mean right hook square to his face. Rex was almost knocked unconscious from the sheer force behind the hit. Thankfully, the Ace-Op was still awake but he did lose focus on his build. It collapsed under his body, as he fell on the ground and slid across the tiles of the courtyard for a moment. The woman skidded a bit on the ground as well, metal debris of the Rex Ride scattering around her. She came to a stop and dusted herself off like nothing major happened.

Rex groaned as he got to his feet, shaking his head a bit to get his bearings back.

"Geez...alright, fine. You're good, I'll give ya that. But I've still got this!" Rex said, bringing out the Blaster Caster. He began to whip it around, trying to strike at his opponent. After dodging the first three strikes, she simply held out her arm and let the whip wrap around her arm. Her free hand grabbed hold of the construct and pulled it taught. With little ease, she then wound up to lift Rex off the ground and slam him into the stone floor.

Rex huffed. "How the hell do you know how to counter all this stuff!? Usually when I face guys, they're all 'DID THAT KID JUST TURN HIS HAND INTO A SWORD'?"

"Oh. You mean like this?" Rex couldn't see the smirk on her face as she held out her right arm. Dark grey metal encased her upper arm down to the elbow. From there, jet black metal covered the rest of her arm, stretching upward as jagged metal plates layered ontop of eachother, curving into a sick blade. Red energy ignited down the length of the weapon, stopping a good distance above the elbow.

Rex's eyes widened. "N-no way...that's...that's MY build!"

"Correction. It LOOKS like your build. Mine's better, upgraded. Everything you have, all of those machines? Just the start. Nothing more than prototypes meant to be improved on."

"P-prototypes?" Rex asked in shock, "What the hell are you talking about? Who are you!?"

"I could tell you...but it's far more entertaining to watch you try and figure it out yourself."

Rex frowned. "Screw that! I want answers! You have them, too, don't you?! The nanites! How'd we- how'd I get these things inside me!?"

"Hmmm...well, it would be rude of me to not at least give you a name," the woman said, ignoring his question, "You can consider me your very own Black Knight. Think of me as your lancer. And, because I think you don't know what that means, I'm like you, just far stronger."

She bowed to really sell the introduction, the energy flames of her blade licking the air as she brought it closer to her body.

"Far stronger? Maybe. So, we just gonna stand around, or are we gonna fight?" Rex asked before he took the chance and slashed at the Black Knight, hoping to exploit her dramatics. She was all too prepared for such a move and jumped back with perfect timing. When she landed, she forced her weapon into the ground, letting flames roar before she violently pulled the blade free and transitioned the act into a slashing motion. An arc of flame was launched at Rex, tearing through the stone as it made its way towards him.

Rex dodged out of the way of the attack, unprepared for the sudden burst of fire. Before he could go on the attack, the Black Knight was on him, having used the flame attack as a distraction so she could get close. Rex was quick enough to block her first strike, getting the duel between him and Black Knight started. Sparks flew as metal struck metal but every after hit, the metal of Rex's sword began to glow brighter, like it was heating up. Wait…Rex's eyes widened as the realization hit him. His hand was slowly warming up, like he could feel the heat from the build rising after each hit. This dark reflection of Rex's powers was trying to literally melt her way through to him.

"The harder I swing, the hotter the flames burn," the knight grinned, "Eventually, I'll hit hard enough to break through that blade, then your Aura."

Rex waited for her to wind up for another swing and, right when he saw his window, he dodged to the side, letting the Black Knight strike the ground instead. The sudden miss, with so much force put behind the strike, threw off her balance for a moment. The sword wasn't really going to work here if this latest minion of Salem's could just melt through it; he needed range. The Ace-Op quickly shifted from the BFS to the Slam Cannon, already having it tear up the courtyard's concrete to make ammo. He took aim and fired a shot at The Black Knight once he'd gotten some distance between them. She easily sliced through the projectile of balled concrete like she wasn't even thrown off to begin with. This was child's play to her, pathetic moves that could be seen from a mile away.

Rex kept loading ammo into the cannon and firing, at this point it was out of desperation. This wasn't doing damage to her as each shot was just cut apart by her blade, but it was keeping her at bay. At least, until she shifted her own build. The blade retracted into her arm, though above the elbow, the flesh was still a dark chrome. Now, instead of a blade, a large black cannon appeared, the barrel glowing a dark purple as what seemed to be an ammo chain connected her mechanical elbow to the underside of the barrel itself.

The Black Knight aimed and fired a powerful laser blast in the Ace-Op's direction. It narrowly avoided Rex's head, and blasted into the top of another nearby building, making it crumble. Rex gasped, but the sound was drowned out by the rubble falling from the collapse. It was even worse when he realized that the collapse would put it close to the evac point! Even if it didn't hit head on, the debris raining down was sure to hit some of them!

"Oh, dear…I missed." Black Knight chuckled, "Such a terrible shot."

"Shit!" Rex shouted, seeing the building start to collapse. He started to race over there but another shot rang out from the Black Knight. She was still firing at Rex, either to toy with him or she was trying to keep him here. It didn't matter either way, he had to get over there!

"Come on, you can let that problem sort itself out!" The Black Knight jeered, "Your focus is on me."

Rex tried to ignore her, forming up the Rex Ride again to try and race over to check on the people caught in the blast. The Knight sighed and took another shot, hitting the Rex Ride dead on, causing the construct to shatter apart in seconds. Rex tumbled to the ground, his orange Aura shimmering and cracking. Rex groaned, as he got back up.

"Gotta catch her off guard somehow..." Rex muttered to himself.

The Knight smirked under her helmet as she shifted her build once again. This time, both arms transformed into fully mechanical, black and silver clawed gauntlets. The gauntlets seemed to be a bit longer than a normal arm as well, giving her a longer reach. She raced towards Rex, claws low to the ground and scraping the concrete like she was sharpening them.

Rex gasped, as he formed the Block Party- two giant energy shields protected him from her mad flurry of scratches and punches. This woman was crazy!

Her style with these things was like an animal, each strike was wild and unpredictable. If she managed to break through the shields, Rex would be done for.

"Maybe...if I can overcharge these things..." Rex huffed, his nanites working to push even further beyond his usual limit.

The Black Knight struck again, slicing into the shields and almost through them. However, with the overcharge working, Rex was able to send out a pulse of energy that knocked her back. He had some breathing room now, at least.

"And time to get the fuck out of here!" Rex yelled, as he formed his ride at lightning speed and zoomed off.

Black Knight smirked under her helmet as she began to make a new build. Rex was already speeding off though, so it wouldn't matter. At least, it shouldn't have.

---

Hazel's strength was not just for show- Kylie knew this, she fought the dude before- so, she knew immediately what was happening when Hazel punched the ground. The impact caused Kylie and Blake to fly through a wall and go tumbling to the ground.

Hazel marched towards the two, the Dust crystals in his arms aglow with power. The knuckles of his right hand were wreathed with flames, ready to burn both girls to ash. Before he could bring the fist down, two echoing shots rang out and slammed into Hazel's back.

"Hey, bootleg Diamondhead!" Yang called out, "Get the fuck away from them!" Hazel turned to see the blonde and raised a brow at the sorry state she seemed to be in, huffing and bruised, with her Aura visibly recharging.

"You wish to go first then," Hazel said, backing away from the downed opponents and marching towards Yang. He raced towards her and threw a punch, but Yang easily leapt over it with a bit of help from her gauntlets. As she landed, Kylie and Blake managed to get to their feet behind her, though the cat Faunus' Aura flashed purple across her body.

"Kylie, this is the guy that dislocated your arm, right?" Blake asked.

"Wouldn't recommend playing tug of war with him," Kylie nodded, before her gaze shifted to Gambol Shroud's ribbon, "Binding him is useless."

"What's with the crystals?" Yang said.

"He's got some sort of suppression semblance," Kylie frowned. "Plus, insane aura control. The man's a monster."

"Ohohoho~! How cute!" an eerily familiar voice rang out, "You think HE'S the monster." The trio's blood went cold, as they looked up- there, they saw him, perched up on the railing of the upper floor, looking down at them with that sinister smile of his. His long, wild hair that went down to his torso, eyes that stared into the soul, bloodshot eyes, and the several scars all over his body all said the same thing: whatever happened to Tyrian Callows should scare you.

"Hello, girls~" Tyrian said, leaping down from his roost. "Long time no see~ How's the Levin brat? His psyche still intact after the trip?"

"Oh, shit, the scorpion guy! I thought you'd never show your face again after Ruby cut off your tail." Yang mocked. "Save your pride and whatnot."

Tyrian laughed maniacally, "I was training, blondie. I know you were there, in the Dollhouse. She wouldn't shut up about the traitorous little mute, or Tennyson, and even you, little kitty. Breach was soooo disappointed she didn't get to play with you…"

"Breach tossed you out like a broken toy. Hilarious," Blake said, ready to draw her cleaver-like sheathe.

"Oh, be lucky you were only there for a few hours. I was stuck in that hellhole for months because I was a NAUGHTY boy! I hurt the mistress! Her words were right, and my actions were wrong..." Tyrian shook as he reflected on his mistake, "But...I found the Dollhouse quite nice...I could spend my days properly, no longer burdened by my responsibilities at base-"

"...you barely had any," Hazel said, raising an eyebrow as he walked up behind the mad Faunus.

"SILENCE!" Tyrian yelled, slashing at Hazel's chest. Salem's brute looked down at his shirt and sighed; he liked that shirt...

Tyrian cleared his throat, "Now, where was I...ah, yes, training for the day I could properly exact my revenge on that BITCH..." his voice was shaky. "And...what better way to get even...than by taking a page from our resident pyromaniac's book? Hurting someone close to her! So...I could kill the cat and skin her nine times, the sister, and drown you in poison...or the masked gunlady."

"Guess you didn't get the memo," Kylie gripped her weapon tightly.

"Oh you think I forgot? You and your fancy little 'knock out gas' trick?" Tyrian's blades popped out, "I didn't…" he said, licking his lips derangedly, "So…maybe I should take care of your annoyance first. Thanks for volunteering~"

"I really, really hate this guy," Kylie gulped.

"Ditto," Blake and Yang said in unison.

"Oh, please. Hate's such a strong word," Tyrian joked, as he pounced at the Osmosian. Kylie gasped, as she quickly faded into gas; Tyrian's blades passed right through her intangible body, as she reformed behind him. Gun shot. Gun shot. Gun shot. Kylie immediately tried to execute him.

Tyrian instead boredly deflected them with his blades, and rushed at Kylie. Kylie's Aura shimmered, as she struggled to block his slashes with her axe. Kylie frowned.

"Come now, girlie~!" Tyrian roared. "You can handle me, can't you?"

Kylie didn't answer, he was just trying to distract her. Another slash came in from Tyrian, this time giving Kylie enough room to dodge, sidestepping and trying to slice into the psychopath's side with her axe. Tyrian's eyes darted to look in her direction as his tail moved to block the strike.

Wait...his tail?

When Kylie observed her axe being stopped by the Scorpion Faunus' newly armored prosthetic tail, a single purple slit on the bottom of the stinger producing a bright, but sickening purple glow, her eyes shrank in disbelief.

"Surprise!" Tyrian cackled. He heard a single pistol shot ring out and jumped over the incoming Gambol Shroud. When the blade stabbed into the ground and Blake was about to pull it back, Tyrian landed on the ribbon and had the gun barrels emerge from under the plating. The scorpion Faunus took aim at both Kylie and Blake, firing off a barrage of shots at the both of them. Blake used the heavy sheathe of her weapon to block the shots, some getting past her but not doing too much damage to her Aura. Kylie simply turned to gas once again and let the bullets pass through her.

Blake pulled on the ribbon of her main weapon and, with some effort, threw Tyrian off the ribbon, freeing Gambol Shroud from the ground. The cat Faunus pulled the blade back to her hand and opened fire on Tyrian, each shot missing thanks to his own agility.

Blake was so focused on Salem's resident psychopath that she didn't notice Hazel racing at her from the side, fist reared back. He had already stabbed several lightning Dust crystals into his arm, so when the punch connected, there would be an added shock behind the force. Yang jumped in the way and blocked the hit, tanking the electric shock. The blonde pushed Hazel's fist back hard, making him stagger for just a moment but giving herself more than enough time to throw a good few punches into the brute's chest.

Yang's fury was very much notable, even if she could feel her mechanical arm spark a bit from the shock. She charged up her other fist, and unleashed a devastating uppercut on Hazel's jaw, but he didn't budge from the hit. Instead, the walking tank held out an open palm and shot out a beam of electricity from it. Yang leapt out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting blown into pieces by the attack.

Hazel's eyes lit up, as he stepped forward and channeled energy into his fist. He threw a punch at the air and fired a blast of electric charge that blew the blonde backward.

Blake switched targets, changing her weapon into its sword mode and rushing in at Hazel from behind. She unleashed a flurry of slashes on his back, but he didn't even flinch. Hazel spun back, hoping to swat Blake away with a backhand, but she ducked under the swing and countered with a slash from her cleaver-sheath. Yang checked the ammo in her gauntlets after she recovered from the blowback of the punch, nodding when she was satisfied. As Hazel took another swing at the cat Faunus, Yang unleashed a barrage of explosive shots into his back. Each one only seemed to annoy him as he continued his attacks. Each hit Blake had to avoid, but one of them managed to catch her off guard, sending a shock into her and knocking her back a good distance.

Tyrian had once again focused on Kylie, racing over towards her and dodging each shot she fired his way. He leaped into the air, but Kylie easily sidestepped the attack, Tyrian's stinger jabbing into the ground. He quickly freed it and turned back to Kylie, which is when she noticed something. His eyes had changed color, now an unnatural purple instead of their usual gold. He grinned and lashed out again, but oddly enough, not with his blades. He was trying to claw Kylie with his bare hands, almost like he had gone feral. She still dodged out of the way, chalking it up to just pure insanity at first.

And then she saw the glowing purple Aura around his hand and she connected the dots. His Semblance, it had to be.

"The hell is that?" Kylie asked herself, before Tyrian rushed at Kylie. Kylie phased through his attack once more, as she swung around and struck with her axe. Tyrian blocked the attack, and prepared to strike Kylie dead center in the chest. The purple Aura was still around his hand when he landed the hit. Kylie's eyes shrank in horror as she realized what his Semblance did. In one hit, she felt the Aura around her chest fade away. Just in the area he hit thankfully, as the rest of her Aura was still holding strong. She narrowly avoided another jab from the madman's tail that was aimed for her chest. Without Aura...she didn't wanna think about what would happen if that jab connected.

That semblance destroyed Auras, or bypassed it in certain areas. Kylie looked most miffed about this development.

"Couldn't keep your word now, could you?" the treacherous scorpion taunted.

"You're gonna regret that," Kylie said, praying she sounded cool.

"Oooooh, what!? You gonna tell on me~?" Tyrian mocked, "You're about as threatening as a hall monitor."

Kylie rolled her eyes at the comeback. That Semblance was going to be a problem, keeping her at long range. But considering how fast this bastard was, she'd have a hard time hitting him. Maybe she could lure him in, get at an opening when he was close.

Meanwhile, Yang fired off two more rounds, launching herself at Hazel and slamming both of her fists down into his back. He growled and spun around, unleashing a flurry of punches at her. She blocked or dodged each one, tanking the shocks to power her Semblance. Hazel was about to throw another hit when Gambol Shroud wrapped around his arm. Blake knew it wasn't the best idea to try something like this, but she also knew what Yang was planning. This was nothing more than a distraction. When Hazel reached to try and free himself from the weapon's grip, Yang took the chance and delivered her own barrage of punches. Hazel could tell how much more power was behind each hit as well. None of the pain registered still, but he could definitely feel the amount of force behind each hit. Blake quickly freed her weapon from Hazel's arm so the brute couldn't use her as a makeshift bludgeon. Hazel then reached out and grabbed the last of Yang's punches and, with a yell, tossed the blonde aside like a ragdoll.

---

With some breathing room, he decided to increase his options, opening up another pouch on his belt and bringing out a collection of fire Dust crystals. He quickly jabbed them into his arms, the veins on his arms glowing with flame energy. Hazel roared as the Dust's energy flowed through his body. He slammed both of his fists into the ground, the impact sending out a shockwave of heat and electricity started quite the fire, blocking off Kylie from the others. Tyrian looked at her gleefully.

"No backup now, kid...what's your endgame?" Tyrian teased.

"...oh, I got one." Kylie looked like she'd made an important choice. She quickly bolted off, hoping to find somewhere she could set up her plan.

"Running away? Really?" Tyrian chuckled, "Well, at least the chase can be entertaining!" The scorpion Faunus cackled madly as he raced after her, bringing out the gun barrels on his arm blades once again and firing off a few shots at her.

"I know Kylie claimed his Aura control is insane...but then there's this," Yang stated as she quickly checked her ammunition. She had plenty of rounds remaining.

"Every Semblance has to have a limit," Blake stated.

"I'm just wondering if we'll be able to push him that far on our own."

"Yeah..." Blake frowned, observing his body. Those Dust crystals...they were dangerous enough to handle, and injecting them into your skin? Asking for trouble.

"If we can't push his Semblance to the limit, why don't we just focus on the limit he's given himself?" The teenage faunus asked.

"Are...you saying instead of aiming for him, we aim for the Dust?" Yang asked, hoping she got that right. It made sense in her head. Take raw Dust crystals or powder and cause it to go off? It's not pretty.

"He's got enough Aura to handle a few hits like that," Blake rationalized. "Look at him," Blake motioned to Hazel. He didn't look like he'd be slowing down any time soon.

"You and I both know how powerful raw Dust exploding is. He takes a few hits like that, his Aura's bound to either weaken to where we can deal some damage of our own, or it breaks entirely," the cat Faunus continued.

"...fair point," Yang grimaced, "Alright…but if we blow ourselves up too, I'm haunting you."

Blake could only scoff a little at that.

Tyrian was still close on Kylie's trail if the mad cackling was any indication. The Osmosian was hoping that she was leading the madman away from any evacuating students. She rounded a corner, hearing a burst of gunfire impact the wall she just turned away from. Way too close. She already had a plan on how to deal with Salem's loyal lapdog, but she needed more space between herself and Tyrian to get it ready. She threw some lockers onto their side to try and delay the scorpion Faunus, but knowing him it'd only be a temporary inconvenience.

Eventually, Kylie managed to find her way into the combat classroom for Haven. Several rows of stands surrounded the more traditional eastern-inspired arena, a large screen, like a scaled up version of a Scroll, hung on the back wall. Kylie closed and locked the door to the classroom behind her and made her way down to the center of the arena. She centered herself and took a deep breath. It had been a few weeks since she'd first decided to try out a new technique. She thought back to how she started using it.

Kylie walked into the gym, right towards the battling Ceres and Kevin (who was Bashmouth). Ceres threw some quick burning punches, as Kevin quickly blocked it. Kylie watched the two carefully, analyzing every move.

"...you guys are the toughest on our team, right?" she asked suddenly.

Kylie's question made Ceres and Kevin pause.

"I would say so." Ceres shrugged.

"Why, what's up?" Kevin asked.

"Teach me how to fight," Kylie's face turned serious.

"Teach you how to fight?" Kevin repeated. He looked to Ceres to see if she was just as confused at that. Maybe there was another meaning Kylie was trying to get across but he wasn't picking up on it from the words alone.

"Yeah. You heard me. Teach me how to fight," Kylie frowned, "I'm too soft."

"Nothing wrong with that," Ceres said.

"Ok, what happened?" Kevin asked, crossing his arms, "I don't believe that this came out of nowhere."

Kylie took a deep breath, "I need to just...vent emotions. It isn't enough to just look cute cursing while frustrated. I need a good outlet, a place I can let out frustrations without hurting those close to me. And...I need help in doing so."

"And you want to take some of those bottled emotions and turn them into something you can use? Ok. If we need to start you out on this..." Ceres hummed. "We start with venting out some frustrations. Who's the first person you've ever hated?"

Kylie paused at that. Ceres was really digging deep right now. She had to respect the teaching, but God, that was a loaded question. Who was the first person she ever hated?

"...my mom, I think." Kylie said, after a moment of silence.

"Wait, Anna?" Ceres asked, a bit taken aback.

"What? No! She's the best. I could never hate my current family. You guys included."

"...then...you mean, your biological mom."

Kylie nodded.

"And after her...was there...someone else you hated on that same level?" Ceres continued.

"I dunno...well, I guess Hazel...seeing as he did kinda fuck us all up...and Cinder, for almost killing Ben, Yang and Ruby..." Kylie began to slowly let some darker gas rise from her skin. "And whoever killed Max..."

"No one before them? At all?" Kevin asked.

"No..." Kylie sighed, "I lived a kind of quiet life before any of that. I haven't really needed to say 'I hate you' in a serious way in years."

"Ok, just checking. Just a big jump is all," Kevin admitted.

"It just isn't like me to lash out, you know? I'm too nice to raise my voice at people." Kylie frowned, "I'd rather die than confront someone in public about stuff."

"Well...we need you to focus on those four people you hate the most, I guess," Ceres hummed, "Think about every awful memory you've had of them, every awful experience, anything that could fuel that fire inside of you."

"How about Cinder? Focus on her first," Kevin suggested.

Kylie took a deep breath- she tried to put herself in the scene of what happened at Beacon. She hated the sounds she was imagining, and the over exaggerated sights of carnage and bloodshed. Yang and Ben lay broken and defeated, with a notable wound through Ben's chest. She was exaggerating the real wound, but God, that exaggeration could've been real if Cinder really wanted it to.

And she just…felt…angry.

Kylie began expelling a strange, black gas from her skin. The gas was starting to spread out from Kylie, flowing out of her. Kevin and Ceres were making sure to keep their distance. They had no idea what this would do. Kylie suddenly opened her eyes, to realize she was in a black, murky mist. If she were to shine a light, it'd be too dark for it to be effective.

"D-did I make this?" She asked, as she suddenly heard the floor starting to crack. Kylie looked down to see the floor was starting to rust. "W-woah..."

"Kylie, please tell me this stuff isn't toxic!" Kevin shouted out, still doing his best to avoid the mist.

"I...I don't know!" Kylie yelled. "Give me time to think! I don't even know what I-" Kylie held out her arm, before the gas cloud suddenly started to shrink and flow back inside her. Her body was absorbing the gas, like a vacuum. Kylie's eyes widened in shock.

"Okay...learned something new about myself today," Kylie said, as the black gas dissipated.

From the mist's borders, Kevin and Ceres watched the cloud shrink and recede until, eventually, Kylie was back in view, standing in the middle of a rusted and cracked floor.

Kylie blinked, as she looked down at her hand in confusion. "W-what the hell just happened?"

"I could ask the same thing. I know I said to focus on Cinder but...wasn't expecting that," Kevin admitted, walking back over to her.

"What happened?" Ceres said, rushing over to help Kylie up off the ground.

"I…got mad and...I produced that gas, I guess." Kylie said. "I couldn't identify what it was, but it sure as hell oxidized the ground..."

"You couldn't? That's new…and terrifying," Kevin said, eying the damage. If any robots were in that, the gas would've broken them down in a few minutes if the floor was any indication.

"That's...a dangerous ability, Kylie." Ceres said, astonished "...and I fuckin' love it."

"Really?"

"Listen- I'm not encouraging you to have tiny freakouts like that, but that ability shows great promise," Ceres said, "Let's try and work on this for the next few weeks, see how it affects others and what other capabilities it has. And...let's especially see if you can bring it out naturally..alright?"

Kylie nodded. "Right."

And then she came back to the present. Kylie heard something thud into the door multiple times, before Tyrian just slashed the wood apart in frustration. The scorpion Faunus smirked as he made his way down to the arena. He didn't even move up to Kylie and just began circling her like a wolf, ready to lunge at her and go in for the kill any minute.

"Thinking about what your last words are going to be?" Tyrian taunted as kept circling, his pincer-like blades at the ready.

"No..." Kylie said, "Just taking a deep breath. This is the first time I've really used this thing against someone like you. I hope you'll enjoy its effects."

Kylie put on her Plague Doctor mask, to add a little more menace, before the black mist leaked from her body, engulfing the entire room.

"Well isn't this interesting," the unhinged Faunus mused, before he lunged at Kylie, his blades quickly shooting forward, like the pincers of the animal he had the tail of, only for the now masked Kylie to dodge back into the smoke. The madman's eyes began shifting around, scanning through the mist to try and find her.

"I do hope this isn't poison. It'd be a wasted effort!" Tyrian yelled, firing off a few rounds wildly into the smoke.

"You're sadly correct- there is some toxic gas in this smog. I know how scorpion Faunus are immune to poison. But, I challenge you to identify what other gasses are in this…" Kylie's body had already blended into the smoke, so if Tyrian managed to see her mask in the smoke and fired, he'd hit nothing.

"Oooooh, what is THIS? Aren't you supposed to be the 'kind' one?"

"I've switched out the 'candy dish' for some nails you can eat. Just for you and everyone of your 'friends,'" Kylie said, "Love is strong...but hate can do so much more damage."

Tyrian started to laugh, even if he also started to sway a bit, the gas starting to take hold.

"Well, doesn't that sound familiar! Wonder how far you'll take it?" the madman smirked.

"I'll take it as far as I need to go," Kylie threatened, pulling back the hammer to her pistol. She suddenly reappeared behind Tyrian, and fired the gun. Even as disoriented as he was, Tyrian was still able to dodge out of the way and take a swing at Kylie with his tail. She quickly faded to black and reappeared behind Tyrian again.

"I can move quite freely in this mist. Dunno why- it's the only kind of mist I can do it with, but...helps with the range, I guess," Kylie swung her axe down on Tyrian, only for him to quickly block it with his scorpion Faunus growled as he pushed back Kylie's weapon, going in for a sweeping kick to knock her on her back.

Kylie purposely took the attack, as she fell on the ground. "Oh, shit!"

She pretended to panic. Tyrian then leaped into the air, blades pointed forward as he started to fall. He was ready to impale Kylie and end this. The Osmosian faded away again, as Tyrian hit the ground. He growled as he looked around for Kylie again. This mist was really hard to navigate.

...was Tyrian crying? He felt his face, around his eyes. Yes, there were tears coming out of his eyes- what the hell!?

"What...what did you..." The madman tried wiping the tears away to clear away, but they wouldn't stop. His eyes were becoming blurry, balance was getting harder and harder to keep.

"Like I said, figure it out yourself," Kylie taunted, reappearing in front of him. She loaded up her revolver, and began to hit Tyrian with some fire dust bullets. Salem's zealot staggered from the shots, the first few hits singing his clothes. After four hits like that, Tyrian dropped to his knees, like he was done. Kylie still had her gun trained on him, and she moved closer, to make sure he was truly down for the count. Of course, it was Tyrian, so he was faking it. Once she was close enough, Tyrian lunged out and landed a slash across Kylie's midsection.

Kylie stumbled back, clutching the wound. Not too deep, but still pretty painful. Kylie began to quietly panic, as Tyrian approached.

"Got too cocky, did we~?" Tyrian teased.

Kylie's look hardened; this was a fight she couldn't afford to lose. "Oh, shut up!" Kylie's wound started to vacuum up some of the black mist around it, as her skin started to heal, eventually returning to a small cut on her midsection.

"...huh. Didn't know I could do that. Neat!" Kylie grinned, as she raised her gun up again. Before she pulled the trigger, she just beamed mischievously.

"Hey, Tyrian...you got something on your tail," Kylie snickered.

"Really? That trick? I'm going to turn around, there's nothing there, and then you're going to hit me. Do I LOOK like an idiot to you?!" the scorpion Faunus growled.

"No, seriously," Kylie grinned, "Your tail's fucked."

"I'm not buying iiiiiiiiit. Even with how much your gas is messing with my head," Tyrian shook his head to keep his thoughts straight, "I'm NOT going to LOOK."

"Okay, then try attacking me with that rusty tail of yours," Kylie teased.

"Rusty? You little bi-" Tyrian growled as he started to thrust his tail forward, only to see the tip covered in rust and cracking.

"Wha...what..." the madman stuttered in shock.

"Was that new?" Kylie asked, "Could the same be said about your gauntlets?"

Tyrian looked down in shock as, sure enough, his blades had started to rust too.

"You...bitch," Tyrian muttered, "I built them as proof of my DEVOTION. TO. MY. GODDESS!" The scorpion Faunus eyes and palm lit up, the latter surrounded by purple energy. He lunged for Kylie, prepared to tear her apart with his bare hands if necessary.

Kylie's eyes focused, swung her axe, and broke through his Aura right as he reached her with the lunge, sending him flying into the screen on the back wall.

The purple Aura shattered from his form as Tyrian hit and fell from the wall, landing face first on the classroom floor, followed by the broken shards of the screen.

Kylie reabsorbed the black gas into herself and took a deep breath. That felt...oddly rewarding. Kylie looked around, taking in the full extent of the damage she caused to the room. Atlas could probably cover the cost. Now though, she just had to regroup with the others. Who knew what was happening to Yang and Blake? Unfortunately, she'd probably need to take this psychopath with her. After all, with Tyrian behind bars, that's one less pawn Salem can call on to mess with them later. A chance like that wasn't likely to happen again soon. The Osmosian approached Tyrian, ready to drag him to the authorities…only for a crimson portal to swallow him up.

"Oh damn it!" Kylie cursed.

---

Hazel was making his way towards the duo, embers and small bolts of electricity emitting from his fists.

"Think you can keep him in one spot and I can take the shots?" Blake asked as her blade folded and Gambol Shroud shifted to its pistol mode.

"Can give it a damn good try," Yang said as she unraveled the "skin" surrounding her robotic arm. Ceres and Weller improved the cable on her arm, so she could now hold much tougher opponents.

Yang took a deep breath, as she rushed in. Hazel charged her in response, putting the two on a collision course. Salem's brute threw the first punch, but the blonde saw it coming and quickly jumped over it. As she arced over the walking tank, she lashed out with her wire and wrapped it around Hazel's neck. He grabbed the wire and grunted, trying to free himself from the stranglehold. Using the lightning Dust, he tried to send a current down the wire into Yang's arm, shock her from afar and force her to let him go. Blake raced off to the side, loading in a fresh clip of ammo and looking for the best target she could. If she hit one that could cause a change reaction, all the better.

"Go...down!" Yang said, behind grit teeth.

"I...will...not...yield!" Hazel said back, struggling to pull the wire off from his neck.

Blake got into position and lined up a shot. She steadied herself before firing off three fire Dust shots of her own in quick succession, all aimed at a first crystal that was dangerously close to a few other fire and some lightning crystals on Hazel's left arm. All three found their mark and, after the second shot hit, Yang let Salem's brute go and made a break for it. By the time Hazel could react, the third shot was already fired and it was too late.

Hazel was consumed by a massive explosion. Said burst of fire and electric dust covered his whole body, and shook the school down to the foundations. Everyone could feel it- in the main hall, the quad and courtyard, even in some of the outer buildings.

Yang covered Blake right when the Dust detonated, to ensure she wouldn't be hurt. Blake was quite blushy, but also grateful to be unscathed.

"...you can get off of me now..." Blake said.

"Just making sure," Yang smirked, wincing in pain as Blake saw her Aura flicker for a minute.

"I'm ok, before you ask," Yang said, feeling Blake's concern.

"Good..."

Both of them looked back to the site of the explosion in complete shock. Standing amid the smoke, embers and lightning arcing between the dark smog was a figure that was soon illuminated by sources of pale light.

"If that was all you had, I'd be disappointed," Hazel growled as he walked out of the crater, damaged sure, but still on his feet.

Hazel didn't hesitate for a moment- he pulled out his next two dust crystals, one white and the other brown. He stabbed them into his arms and yelled loud enough to reach the heavens. He started his next attack with a powerful gust of wind, with shards of ice mixed in to stab at his targets' Auras.

Blake grabbed hold of Yang and, to Hazel, they didn't even move as the gust slammed into them and the small bits of ice sliced into their Aura. As the two Huntresses went flying, Hazel saw both of them vanish mid-air. His eyes widened in surprise before a slash connected to the back of his legs and a fist met his mid-back, making him stagger.

He growled and turned on his heel, catching himself before he staggered too much and lashed out with both fists. Wind and ice mixed again into a blizzard that buffeted against the duo. Again the small crystals cut into their Aura, flickers of purple and gold shining through the winds as they were pushed back some. Hazel kept the storm up as he walked closer to them, more focused on Yang than Blake. Blake had the range, sure, but she wasn't the tank of the two. Yang could keep up with the damage he dished out, acting as Blake's shield more than once. Not to mention her Semblance posing a bit of a problem.

"I can't get a good shot!" Blake yelled.

"Neither can I- what the hell do we do now!?" Yang yelled.

"...something gutsy." Blake said, as she reloaded her weapon with a dust cartridge.

Yang noticed the icon on the cartridge and smirked.

"Do it," Yang muttered. Hazel could see they were trying something inside the blizzard so he upped the fury of the storm, engulfing the duo entirely in the ice and wind. The stone floor where they stood was being covered by ice crystals and, after a while Hazel let the storm stop. The winds quickly dissipated and the ice crystals had essentially made a trail of the storm leading to Yang and Blake...who appeared to be frozen solid now.

Hazel sighed seeing the two like that. He knew that he was the one who killed them...but mentally he shifted the blame to Ozpin. Two more lives that he wasted. Two more that he needed to pay for.

Hazel shook his head. "Ozpin...Salem...why must you both continue such a cycle of endless violence?" He asked nobody. "Hurt does not help win wars...it just makes them continue."

His eyes focused on Yang- he sighed. "You remind me of her..."

"Thanks."

Yang's wire suddenly yanked out the ice crystal, and Blake's ribbon yanked out the wind crystal.

The glow faded from the crystals as the duo caught them in their hands. Salem's brute sighed, almost relieved that they survived.

"Nice trick," Hazel said, turning to face them and getting out a pair of earth Dust crystals. He jabbed the crystals into his arms as patches of stone crawled up his arms and encased his fists, rocky spikes jutting out from the knuckles to make each hit worse.

Yang grinned. "Finally- I can get up close and personal." Her aura flared, as her eyes turned red and her hair darkened to jet black.

Hazel blinked, as his eyes narrowed. Another…Berserker Semblance?

Yang slammed her fists together and channeled all of the energy from this fight into her fists. Every single hit that Hazel landed on her tonight was coming back to him tenfold. She propelled herself forward with a burst of flames- the contact of the punch unleashed an explosion, one that managed to actually hurt Hazel quite a bit. Hazel was smashed through a wall, as Yang grinned.

"That felt good..."

Hazel groaned as he pushed the rubble off of him, the duo managing to catch a flicker of dark brown Aura as he did.

"Guess we found his limit," Blake smirked.

"Guess we did!" Yang grinned, "Let's see if we can keep that luck going."

"Strong strikes only. He doesn't have much over us now." Yang said, as she took Blake's ribbon. "Ready to launch yourself at him?"

"Do I have any other choice?"

"Well, I was just throwing it out there- honestly kinda expected you to say no?" Yang shrugged. "Ah, whatever."

Yang propelled herself forward again and swung Blake around.

Hazel shook his head as he got to his feet. Damn, he actually felt that. Impressive on Yang's part. Of course, by the time he got up on his feet, Yang had let go and launched Blake towards the brute. She kicked out into Hazel's chest and jumped back, landing on her feet and firing a series of ice shots into him. Ice crystals covered his arms as he tried to block the shots, but with each shot he could feel his Aura actually start to weaken more and more now.

"Impressive...not many have managed to get this far. Levin was lucky enough, but..." Hazel frowned. "His reason for retreat was understandable. I'd rather triumph over a good warrior than one suffering enough."

"How noble." Blake frowned.

Yang raced in and Blake leaped out of the way, letting Yang rush in and throw a series of punches into Hazel. The rock armor around his arms was able to tank them, though he could still hear the stone crack every so often. He dodged one of Yang's punches and threw one of his own, kicking off a series of blows traded between the two. Hazel's hits only served to give more fuel to the fire of Yang's Semblance, but Yang's hits still weren't causing any pain in Salem's brute. His Aura was still weakening though and, in time, the pain would start to register.

They felt like tiny bee stings, precise ones at that. Yang was aiming for his ribs. Hazel could easily recover them in a few days, but still- Yang's pinpoint aim was something to fear. It...honestly reminded him of...

"...Gretchen." Hazel sighed sadly.

Yang aimed a little higher, punching him in the jaw, not even hearing what he said. She was too focused on bringing him down. Hazel grabbed Yang's wrist and pulled her fist away from his face. He then slammed his head into Yang's own, letting go of her fist to let her recoil. He then swept his leg out, knocking Yang's legs out from under her and in a quick motion, went to slam her down into the ground.

He would've if it weren't for a stone projectile piercing his shoulder, courtesy of an earth shot from Blake's pistol.

Yang quickly rolled out of the way, and sprung back up. Yang cocked her weapons and grinned. "It's time we finished this."

"I couldn't agree more." Hazel frowned. Yang began to barrage Hazel with shotgun shell blasts, filled with extra firepower for a bigger kick. Hazel crossed his arms, his rocky arms being blasted apart.

As the shots impacted, Blake ran to the side and threw out Gambol Shroud again, pulling free one of the Dust crystals before firing more stone spikes into Hazel's shoulder. He actually shouted in pain from that, his Aura low enough for the hits to start registering. Yang smirked and landed a devastating uppercut to Hazel's jaw, knocking him away.

"Yang? I think I can handle it from here," Blake said.

"...you sure?" Yang asked, turning back to her. She knew Hazel wasn't down yet...

"Yeah. It's pretty fitting for you to stop her after all. I'll be fine," Blake then caught sight of someone rushing over to take Yang's place, someone who would really appreciate settling a score with Hazel.

"And it looks like I'm not on my own after all," Blake grinned as Kylie raced over to them, weapons at the ready.

"Alright, just swept the floor with Tyrian, and I'm all fired up to go!" Kylie announced, sliding in next to Blake.

"Really?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, kind of a massacre." Kylie said. "So, you go high, I go low?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah," Blake said, getting Gambol Shroud ready for another round. She gave one last nod to Yang, who's eyes and hair had shifted back to their normal hues. The blonde gave a nod as well and raced off. Hazel saw her running and got up as quickly as he could, guessing where she was going. He tried to stop her, reaching out before she could get past him, but this time, it was Blake's turn to protect Yang. The cat Faunus fired off another series of earthen spikes, each one piercing into Hazel's back and forcing him to recoil in pain.

Kylie swept her axe underneath Hazel's feet, doing heavy aura damage. She pulled out her gun, and aimed for his chest. Gunshots rang out, and Hazel's chest suddenly started to feel the slight shocks of electricity...

Blake, seeing a chance as well, joined Kylie in firing rounds into Hazel's chest. Right now, the goal was just to stop him. His Aura was getting weaker and weaker with each hit. Taking a risk, Hazel had the Earth dust still stabbed in his right arm activate and cover it with stone, forming a shield that he quickly raised in front of him to block the hail of bullets. He then raced towards the two, hoping to just trample them in a shield charge but they both dodged out of the way, taking some quick shots at his back as he passed. Kylie took the opportunity and landed a few heavy slashes into the brute's back, before stone covered up the wounds.

Hazel turned on a dime and fired the armor off of his arm, condensing it into a massive boulder. Kylie turned to gas and let the projectile pass right through her. Blake swapped out her current ammo clip for another with another, one with mixed rounds. She pulled the trigger twice and instead of firing off rounds, her blade gained a purple glow to it. As the boulder raced towards her, Blake swung at the air and sent out a massive energy crescent that cleaved the boulder in two.

Air and electric Dust. An uncommon combo, but not useless.

"Combinations…impressive, but…" Hazel grunted as he reached for a few more red crystals…before stumbling forward. He groaned, before falling to the ground.

When handled properly, anger may be a constructive feeling that encourages you to make great changes. On the other hand, it is a strong feeling that, if not well handled, may be destructive to you and people around you. Emotions may have an impact on your aura, causing it to vary drastically.

Berserker Semblances are an aura method in which a character acquires uncontrollable rage as a result of psychological or physical harm. It will dramatically improve offensive moves and the potency of a semblance.

Berserker Semblances are 'born from trauma,' which means that your spirit manifests the thing you want to be at the time of the occurrence. Hazel's trauma stems from being unable to ignore Gretchen's death, and thus, he suppressed it.

For the first time in a while…he had reached his limit.

Kylie and Blake huffed and puffed, as they stood over his body.

"He's…down." Blake grunted, before she fell back.

"I…I am honestly kind of lightheaded…" Kylie coughed. "C-can we take five?"

"Yeah." Blake nodded.

…the two both collapsed on the ground.

---

Rex was zooming off towards the evacuation center. When he got there, he found Cardin and members of team ABRN helping people after the building began to collapse.

"What's the situation?" Rex said. "How many people got hurt?"

"No one, thankfully," Cardin said. "This is fucking insane- this Salem lady's got some nerve!"

"Ok, look, we gotta get everyone out NOW. I don't know who that was, but-," Rex didn't even get to finish the sentence as everyone in the building felt the ground shaking.

"What the hell was that?" Reese asked, pulling out her hoverboard.

Cardin readied his weapon. "If it just battled the robot kid-"

"I'm human, dipshit."

"Whatever. If it fought him...it ain't done."

Without warning, the group suddenly saw a tank sized iron sphere barreling towards them, crushing and tearing up the courtyard as it went.

"The hell is that?!" Bolin yelled.

"From the looks of it, Ben's gonna sue." Rex stated as he formed another Slam Cannon.

The sphere came charging at them before it began to unfurl and retract. In no short order, standing where the sphere once was, now walking towards them all with her sword-build ready...was the Black Knight.

"Uh oh. Listen, last time I faced a knight, it turned out to be an old dude who wrecked the lot of us." Cardin frowned.

"Ben and Ruby fought him before- said the dude was impossible. Maybe this lady is like his apprentice or whatever." Rex surmised.

"Good to know." Arslan frowned. "That means we don't have to hold back."

Reese steadied herself and had her hoverboard disconnected, turning the halves into their revolver forms. Nadir loaded a fresh clip into his submachine and stepped up to join the others. Cardin gripped the handle of Executioner tightly.

"If we win...this is gonna give me catharsis." Cardin muttered.

"Tell me about it." Rex said, as he launched another piece of concrete at the Knight. Her hand formed into a whip-like construct, as she whipped the projectile in two.

Whip might have been a poor description, actually. It was more akin to a glowing purple hook.

"So, I have to face the extras now..." Black Knight said as she approached. "Pathetic line up, Salazar."

"Your hubris is observed," Arslan said, frowning. "I feel compelled to correct you."

"Well then...prove me wrong."

Arslan immediately threw her rope dart at the Black Knight's legs- it was so fast, the woman barely had time to process. "Formation Gamma!" She yelled, pulling back on the rope. It tightened around the woman's foot, as she fell to the ground.

The armor clanked when she hit the floor, jabbing her hook into the stone just in case Arslan tried to pull her closer. Reese swapped her revolvers back into hoverboard mode and she took a running start, jumping onto it and riding towards the knight.

Reese hovered over the knight, leaving a nice layer of ice on top of her. She added a few more layers of ice on the knight, as her opponent slowly started to get free.

The Knight huffed in frustration as she cracked off the layers of ice. As she did, Cardin reached into a pouch on his belt and held up a yellow lightning Dust crystal.

Rex grinned. "Alright, get ready! She's gonna break out!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it..." Nadir said, aiming his gun.

Black Knight cracked away the last of the ice, only for Nadir to open fire on her.

"If you're just trying to keep me at range..." Black Knight, shifting her hook into her cannon.

"NOW!" Nadir yelled, as Cardin struck the ground. Rex loaded up a piece of concrete into his weapon, and fired.

The concrete hit Black Knight and ELECTROCUTED her. Lightning coursed through her armor and body as she cried out in pain.

"YEAH!" Cardin cheered.

Rex grinned. "Alright, we got an opening- TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!" Rex yelled, morphing his hands into the Funchucks.

Bolin smirked and extended the blades from his staff while Reese hopped off her board behind Black Knight and changed the board back into revolvers. She opened fire on Black Knight with more Lightning Dust, keeping the window open for as long as possible. Bolin went first, rushing in and slashing across the Black Knight's chest, followed by Cardin who slammed The Executioner into the armored assailant's stomach.

Rex rushed in, shrinking down his giant metal fists for a fast, powerful barrage of attacks. Rex was moving faster than the Black Knight could keep up, and that paralysis was very, VERY annoying...

Metal clanged against metal as Rex started to wear her down...only then she decided to break out a bit of the big guns. That glow in her visor shifted from purple to a dark crimson. With all the lightning coursing through her body, she was STILL able to grab Rex's fist on one of his swings and hold it in her clawed gauntlet build.

"Now look at what you've made me do," Black Knight mocked.

"Yeah. Lucky me." Rex said, as he shifted his weapons into battle axes. He began rushing the Knight with a flurry of insane attacks.

And she managed to dodge each strike, leaving behind a red energy trail. She smirked under her helmet as she suddenly superheated her blade and sliced through one of Rex's axes. Rex's eyes widened in shock before his expression turned to pain as the Black Knight forced her knee into his stomach, making him stagger. Reese tried to soar in and give Rex and some back up, but Black Knight, without turning, quickly shifted her clawed gauntlet into her cannon mode.

With a quick charge-up, the armored warrior fired a massive energy sphere into the air. The sphere exploded into smaller spheres that rained down on the area, exploding when they made contact with the ground. Reese was barely able to swerve between the explosions until she got unlucky. One of the blasts hit her and threw her from her hoverboard.

Cardin rushed in, smashing her face in with a powerful blow, infused with ice dust. Freezing her would be enough, right? They could still win here!

She staggered a bit, ice encasing her head. Not even a few seconds passed before the ice started to glow red and crack. Soon, the ice shattered off of Black Knight's mask and locked onto Cardin.

"Same trick won't work twice," Black Knight smirked.

"Well, shit." Cardin frowned. "Guess that's it for me."

A giant projectile of concrete suddenly sent the Knight flying into a wall. "Good thing I'm just a distraction."

She growled as she tossed the concrete off of her, freeing herself from the wall and looking to see who had a death wish.

"Heya," Rex waved. "Forget about me so quickly?"

"As if I'd ever. But...I suppose it's a shame you don't recognize me." The woman chuckled.

"Huh?"

"Don't you think it's odd that my powers mimic your own?" The Knight asked.

"Well, yeah! I thought-" Rex began.

"You thought, what, you were special? You're not wrong...you're just not special for the reasons you think," Black Knight chuckled.

"What the hell do you mean?" Rex yelled.

Rex could feel the mocking grin of the Black Knight, underneath that mask. A rift opened up behind her. "Drat...being called back so soon..." The Black Knight sighed. "By the way, kid. Word of advice."

"And what's that?"

"Don't trust everything your general says."

Arslan saw the portal and leapt into action. She raced in closer and threw out her rope-dart to try and snare Black Knight. The armored fighter simply deflected the weapon as she jumped through, the crimson portal closing behind her.

"Damn it!" Reese yelled. "She got away!"

"It's fine, it's fine. She's not around to harm anyone else...let's just get everyone evacuated!" Arslan yelled.

"...yeah." Rex said, racing over to the others to help...but his train of thought was running at 100 MPH.

Who WAS she? How come she had powers like this? What the hell did she mean by...almost everything she said?! He could focus on those questions later, though.

Right now, he had an evacuation to help with.

---

Vernal, Cinder, and Raven returned to the vault and proceeded to the Relic room. Suddenly, a sign on the ground, as well as the circle that surrounded it, flashed brightly. Similar symbols-filled circles lighted up as well, heading up to the Relic chamber's door. As the petals of the tree softly dropped and floated around the vault, the blossoms on the tree began to sparkle even brighter. Vernal picked up one of the petals.

Cinder smirked. "Having fun?"

Vernal glared back at Cinder as the petal in her hand dissolved into particles.

"Vernal," Raven beckoned. "Stay focused."

Cinder scoffed. "Oh, come now, Raven, let her enjoy this. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Vernal ignored her. "How does this work?"

"Once the Spring Maiden places her hand on the door, it will open." Cinder explained. "For you - and only you. Then I will walk into the vault, and retrieve the Relic. No one else. Is that clear?"

Vernal nodded in affirmation.

Raven sighed. "It doesn't matter to us. Let's get this over with."

Cinder grinned. "Alright then. Vernal, when you're ready." Vernal approached the door. Raven slowly reached for the hilt of Omen, but stopped when Cinder suddenly spoke up.

"You know," Cinder said. "I've heard so many stories about you, Raven. They say you're a cunning leader, that you're strong, that you're clever."

Vernal hovered her fingertips close to the door-

"It's a shame that they're wrong..." Cinder then let out a blue, frost-like projectile from her hand.

"VERNAL!" Raven reached out, but she was too late- she was frozen in place from Cinder's attack. Vernal took her hand away from the door and whipped her weapons out on Cinder, but she was suddenly stabbed by something in her stomach. She looked down and noticed…Cinder's arm. Small shreds of bandage still clung to the very inhuman limb. Elongated over a considerable distance to reach her, a Grimm hand emerged from Cinder's left arm, the one always covered by a long sleeve.

"It's nothing personal, dear." Cinder smiled sinisterly as she approached Vernal. "You're just not worthy of such power. But I am..."

Vernal was then pushed to the ground, and she screamed out in pain as she struggled to get the Grimm hand out of her stomach.

"So I will take... what is mine..." Cinder said.

Eventually, Vernal stopped struggling and went motionless and quiet. Cinder smirked as she looked down on Vernal's body, but then realized that something was horribly wrong...

"Wha- what is this?" Cinder sputtered. "Where's the power?!"

Cinder heard ice crack from behind her and saw Raven break free from her frozen prison.

"You won't find it," Raven said, taking off her mask. "Because Vernal isn't the Spring Maiden... I am." Her eyes were glowing an array of colors, and they were filled with nothing but hate and loathing towards Cinder.

This wasn't going to end well.

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