Cinder Fall sat in one of the Colosseum's many seats along with the cheering crowd, her expression was that of unfiltered rage as she eyed the singular thorn that's been fucking up her plans since day one sitting next to Beacon faculty in that Announcer's box, John Courrier. She averted her eyes to the centre of the arena, where a line-up of fighters who won their previous respective battles were all standing in a row for the crowd to scream, shout, and fawn over.
Yang Xiao Long, Penny Polendina, Pyrrha Nikos, Sun Wukong, and Mercury Black, who winced ever few seconds or so as he reached a hand out to grab his side. His legs twitching ever so slightly whenever he walks, Cinder clicked her tongue, the sound drowned out by the cheering masses. She will need to accelerate her plans, lest that bastard somehow mess it up somehow. Cinder thought that she was being relatively low-key; no suspicion from staff, no mistakes that would expose her identity… yet somehow, for whatever reason, some complete unknown waltzed in and found it all out.
Cinder scanned the crowds, seeing Emerald in position as she sat on the opposite side of the arena, also twitching as she periodically rubbed her arm. Cinder's eyes widened a bit when she saw Courrier's little lapdog Lavs walking around the seats, passing by audience members as the woman merged into the crowd and out of Cinder's sight. She was making her way towards where Emerald is, not good…
Contacting Emerald with her Scroll, Cinder sent out a message warning Emerald that Courrier's protégé was moving towards her location, she watched as Emerald quickly evacuated her previous position, no doubt using her Semblance to distract the woman as she weaved and ducked through the crowd. Cinder scowled, how the hell did Courrier know? And if Courrier knows, and he's a part of faculty, then there's no doubt that Ozpin must know as well.
The plan might as well be as good as done, but Cinder, though she'd never admit it, would rather take this plan all the way until her bitter end than return to her Mistress empty-handed. She tuned out all of the words and vapid sentences that came out of Courrier's mouth, more content with glaring down at the arena, making sure that Mercury knows not to disappoint her again like last time with that 'exhibition match' incident.
She lounged on the seat, not daring to smirk as she heard the announcement, "Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black!", she narrowed her eyes at this, that was her rigged match-up, if Courrier knew to change the match-ups during the doubles bracket, what was stopping him from re-rigging the random selection roulette to give Mercury an unfair match-up? Cinder watched closely, her eyes widening significantly when she saw it. That bullet necklace that that woman Lavs wore during the 'exhibition', Xiao Long was wearing one too.
Cursing under her breath, Cinder silently made her way out of the Colosseum, eyes still on the battlefield as she watched Xiao Long and Mercury make their way onto the stage, with the other final contenders sitting in the sidelines, cheering for their friends. She quickly made her way back to her dorm room, deciding to watch the match on her Scroll instead of being out in the open. She locked her dorm room doors and set her Scroll up on the table, silently watching as the match begin.
Yang stared down Mercury from across the arena, the guy looked worse for wear, constantly twitching and wincing whenever he walked anywhere. Normally she'd make a light jab or provoke her opponent but now was not the time; Ms. Greenhorn came to meet her in the locker rooms before the match, handed her a bullet necklace, looked identical to the one that she wore, said that it was a gift from Mr. Courrier and that she needed to listen to what Ms. Greenhorn had to say.
Yang narrowed her eyes at Mercury as she got into a combat position; Ms. Greenhorn told her that Mercury was working with the infiltrator of the CCTS during the Beacon dance. She didn't believe her at first but after some persuasion from Mr. Courrier himself, who spoke through Ms. Greenhorn's Scroll, Yang was now thoroughly convinced.
"What's the point of the necklace then?" she had asked, holding the necklace up to her eyes, noticing that the bullet was covered in blood, dried blood but it was still disgusting nonetheless.
"A little advantage," Mr. Courrier said through Ms. Greenhorn's Scroll, "Fairness and sportsmanship goes out the window when we have a spy to catch, beat Mercury until he's black and blue and make sure he doesn't get up again."
"So you're asking me to cheat?"
"Do you want the infiltrators to win?"
She shook her head, giving a thumbs up to RWBY as she glanced at Mr. Courrier in the Announcer's box, excitedly counting down the time until the match begins, Mercury dropped down to his combat position and said, "Don't go easy on me now, I can still fight."
Yang smirked, "No doubt about that, buddy."
"THREE!" Both fighters advanced towards one another, their gaze resolute, never taking their sight off the enemy.
"TWO!" Mercury winced; his leg twitched a bit as he approached Yang.
"ONE!" Their arms were raised defensively, they stopped right in front of one another, just far enough where their hands almost touched.
"FIGHT!" Yang quickly threw a jab, the motion was tight, no wind-up, no telegraphing, Mr. Courrier taught her that much during the spars before the Tournament. Mercury crossed his arms and blocked it, a shockwave rippled out as Aura met Aura, his arms shook as Yang pressed the advantage. Delivering another jab, this time accompanied with a shot from her Ember Celica, the bang from the gauntlet temporarily blinding and deafening both fighters, but Yang was more used to it than Mercury.
Mercury ducked a quick hook from Yang and spun his foot around for a side kick, Yang blocked the kick with her arm and used the other to grab onto his ankle, another lesson from Mr. Courrier, about how Aura doesn't protect the fighter from being grappled. Mercury scowled as he kicked his other leg up, spinning around, twisting his leg out of Yang's hold as he fired shots from both of his foot, knocking Yang back and launching him farther away.
With no hesitation, Yang used her Ember Celica to quickly blast herself towards Mercury while he was still recovering his balance from that impromptu dropkick. Mercury growled as he blocked jab after jab from Yang, she threw in the occasional hook here and there, disrupting the pattern of attack to psychologically mess with Mercury. She sent out a purposefully wide hook with lots of wind up, Mercury raised his arm to block it and Yang grinned, quickly retracting the hook and ducking down to uppercut him instead.
Noticing this, Mercury grit his teeth as he used the blast from both of his feet to avoid the uppercut, sending himself to the air as he spun around before firing shots out of his feet to send himself right at Yang, like a missile. She crouched down, her knees bent as she got into a more grounded stance, waiting for Mercury to come closer, which he did after rotating himself into a downwards kick.
The boy looked feral; baring his teeth at Yang as he flew down at impressive speeds, when he got close enough, Yang used both of her hands to grab his leg, preforming an excellent grapple and throw as she chucked him over her shoulder, back first onto the ground. Mercury growled as he spun around and kicked himself back upright, eyes narrowed at Yang while she smirked at him. Another lesson from Mr. Courrier came to mind, while her Semblance does require her to be hurt, that should never be her first game plan, instead of purposefully getting hurt and relying on her Semblance, Yang should try her best to avoid being damaged, only using her Semblance as a last minute surprise to, in his words, 'thoroughly fuck up her opponent'.
Mercury dashed forwards, delivering a flurry of kicks at Yang, this was the moment that Mr. Courrier had referred to, when she has no other option other than to get hit, each kick digging into her Aura by a not quite insignificant amount as she felt it powering her Semblance up. For every ten kicks that Mercury would deal out within ten seconds, Yang would dodge three, and counterattack four while letting the remaining three hit her. That way, she both dealt damage to her opponent while simultaneously powering her own Semblance up.
Yang ducked underneath a kick and punched his stomach, her Ember Celica letting out a satisfying 'thunk' as the gauntlet pushed his abdomen inwards, she quickly capitalized on this moment, uppercutting his chin before delivering a hook to his right cheek, sending him back a fair amount. Mercury lunged at Yang, sending out an incredibly obvious telegraphed jab, she sidestepped the attack and punched Mercury in the side, quickly weaving under another hit; she hooked her arms around Mercury's neck and kicked his legs out from underneath him, putting him in a chokehold.
Mercury clawed at her arms as she tightened the hold, he coughed out some spittle as he began to thrash around, legs kicking in every direction, firing shots all the while, causing Yang to loosen her hold on his neck. Mercury then slammed his head backwards, headbutting Yang in the nose as he quickly scrambled out of her grasp. Mercury's eyes burned a silent rage as Yang narrowed hers, the two descended upon one another again.
He sent out a high kick aimed at her neck, Yang ducked underneath the leg and opened her palms, realizing that every punch that she sent out has hit Mercury in some way or another, she deducted that the boy was probably too fatigued to have quick reaction times like before in the exhibition match. Instead of punching Mercury in the nose, she took a page from Ms. Greenhorn and grabbed his face with her hand instead, Yang tightened her hold on the boy's face as she aimed her other hand behind her, firing off a shot, using the recoil and blast to… heh, blast herself and Mercury to the other side of the arena, she quickly kicked his feet out from underneath him, causing him to trip and about to fall on his back, his face still in Yang's palm all the while.
She pointed her other arm behind her one last time, using Ember Celica to blast her and Mercury to the ground as she slammed the boy's head into the arena floor, creating a large shockwave and creating a crater at the centre of it, the sound of Aura shattering reached her ear as she let go of Mercury's face. Yang stepped away from the scene, staring down at her palm as she remembered Ms. Greenhorn's move of grabbing onto the opponent's head and slamming them to the ground.
She grabbed the weird bullet necklace that Mr. Courrier and Ms. Greenhorn gave her, holding it tightly in her palm as she raised her other arm above her head, loud cheering surrounded her, the Announcers, including Mr. Courrier, went wild as they pronounced her the winner of this match. She turned around and looked down at Mercury, who slowly pushed himself up, his eyes met her as he snarled, and she smirked, "Better luck next time… if there is a next time."
She started to walk away from the arena towards the exit, but something from her peripheral vision caught her eye, Mercury got up and ran at her, "THERE FUCKING WILL BE!" the boy screamed as he jumped at Yang, trying to hit a fast one on his unsuspecting victim. Yang scowled, she sidestepped the kick and grabbed his leg, about to swing him around and slam him into the ground again until…
The sound of something breaking reached her ear as she saw that she had ripped Mercury's leg right out of his body as he was flung towards the direction that she had tried to slam him down in. Yang quickly let go of the leg, staring down at it to see that it was bionic. But still! That doesn't make it any less gross! Or terrifying!
"HOLY SHIT MERCURY JUST TRIED TO ATTACK YANG!"
Emerald gasped in surprise, why didn't her Semblance work? How did they notice Mercury attack Yang when he was supposed to be obscured by her hallucinations? She glanced at the Announcer's box and felt a chill go down her spine as she noticed Courrier staring directly at her while still talking into the microphone, his shades never once leaving hers, "What a situation huh?" he said to the microphone, Emerald felt someone grab the back of her head. She knows that grab.
"You're done." The voice of Lavs Greenhorn sounded from behind her as Emerald grabbed and subsequently dragged into the crowd. Emerald struggled to force Greenhorn's hand off of her head, thrashing around in a panic before she realized what to do. Taking out her Thief's Respite, she slammed the sickle's blade onto the woman's hand, causing her to drop Emerald. She quickly activated her Semblance and ran off, presence hidden by the crowd.
"Take this as a warning, folks!" Courrier's overly cheery voice sounded through the speakers, she ran across the arena and hid in the middle of the Haven crowd, all of whom were silent, not outraged like Emerald had hoped, "Poor sportsmanship like this is not tolerated! If he wasn't out before then he's certainly out now! Mercury Black, you are disqualified from this competition from here onwards!"
Emerald cursed under her breath as she realized that the amount of negative emotion that would come from this incident was miniscule, barely enough to send a single Beowolf running to Vale. Cinder would be pissed, she sighed, this entire plan now hinges on the rigged fight including Pyrrha and the White Fang.
It's really fun writing the Courier, for his allies, he's just a goofball drug addict, for the enemy, he's fucking terrifying!
As for why the Courier's eye implants hasn't been noticed by anyone yet is because of the Lucky Shades. He wears them all the time, in the shower, in bed, indoors, and at night.
Thanks for reading! Time for me to spread my agenda!
Ahem, Need For Speed 2015 wasn't that bad.