Never Miss A Beating
Another day, another battle in the tournament. The current fight being a pair from Shade vs Penny and Ciel. Well, calling it a fight is being a bit too gracious, because Penny had them on the run. That is, until she used her floating swords to lift two rocks and slam them down on the two poor trainees. It should also be noted that Kos-Mos was not in this fight, due to the opponents not having Blades.
Though that last one probably wouldn't make much difference, seeing as Penny had curb stomped the team before her. "Thank you for the wonderful time," Penny thanked the battered pair with a smile before leaving the arena.
With that, Ruby decided to run out of her seat and to where she knew Penny would be. With Roze following his adorkable Driver. It didn't take long for the two to find Penny and Ciel with Kos-Mos.
"Penny! Kos-Mos!" Ruby shouted out to the two, earning their attention.
"Ruby!" Penny exclaimed happily before jumping on the red caped girl for a hug.
"Ruby!" Roze cried out as Penny was…quite heavy despite her stature.
"Greetings, Ruby Rose, Roze," Kos-Mos greeted in her usual monotone as she walked to the three calmly.
When Penny finally got off of her first friend, she stood back up while Roze helped mildly bruised Ruby up. "Ruby, this is my team mate," Penny said, introducing the dark-skinned girl beside her. The girl wore a plain gray button up shirt and matching leggings, a blue combat skirt and elbow length blue fingerless gloves. She also had a blue beret and what appeared to be a golden mark on her forehead.
"Ciel Soleil," Ciel introduced herself with a bow.
"Oh, I'm-" "Ruby Rose. Age fifteen. Hails from Patch. Status: questionable," Ciel interrupted Ruby, giving Ruby a suspicious look on the last one, before turning her attention to Roze, "Roze. Blade of Ruby Rose. Element: wind. Status: highly suspicious."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Roze asked, taking offense to that last one.
"Ciel is convinced that you and Ruby have a quote unquote, questionable relationship," Kos-Mos replied, still monotone.
"WHAT!?" Ruby cried out, while Roze looked curious about what that meant.
"And that means?" Roze voiced his curiosity.
"That's…" "EX-NAY, EX-NAY! We are not talking about that!" Ruby quickly interrupted Kos-Mos before this conversation entered into territory that she was not comfortable with.
"Penny, I believe it's best that we move onto our next location," Ciel then interjected while tapping her wrist watch.
"Can we have just a minute to talk?" Penny asked politely.
"I believe five minutes would be more sufficient, Master," Kos-Mos disagreed.
"Unacceptable," Ciel disagreed, glaring at Kos-Mos, "We need to be at our next location at precisely-" "The flight to our location leaves in precisely 14 minutes and 18 seconds. Walking there at our regular pace would take approximately 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Which would leave us with 11 minutes and 6 seconds. Spending 5 minutes of talking with Ruby would still leave us with an error of margin worth of 6 minutes and 6 seconds," Kos-Mos explained to a slack-jawed Ciel, who then backed away with a defeated look.
But Ciel wasn't the only one with a slack jaw. "Whoa." Ruby couldn't help saying, before quickly shaking her head. "Soo, does she know about…beep boop beep, does not compute," Ruby then asked from Penny as she made robotic motions.
"Oh no," Penny responded easily, "General Ironwood doesn't want anyone to know. There was an incident with a magnet, but I was able to play it off."
"Which would mean, wearing a hat over the magnet stuck on your head, until I was able to remove it, Master," Kos-Mos then explained.
"Kos-Mos!" Penny exclaimed, earning a laugh out of both Ruby and Roze at the mental image.
"So, is Ciel your friend or something?" Roze then decided to ask, as he glanced at the impatient looking girl in question. Ciel was tapping her foot and watching the clock, probably willing it to go faster.
"Well," Penny started unsurely, "She would be like Blake, but if she was ordered to be your friend."
"Oh, so like Weiss," Ruby summarized.
"Exactly!" Penny exclaimed happily.
As the two Drivers had their conversation, Roze decided to have one with his fellow Blade, "So, has Atlas…figured anything out about the breaches?"
"If you are referring to the dimensional tears that pull anything from their point of origin to where the tear opens in Remnant, then unfortunately Penny and I are not allowed to access that information," Kos-Mos explained. And call Roze crazy if you want, but he could swear the android Blade's lips quirked downwards for an instant.
"Why is that?" the reaper Blade asked, ignoring the more complicated sounding stuff for now.
"I believe the scientists working on it believe us to be, in their own words, 'Dumb robots'." If Kos-Mos was offended, she wasn't showing it.
"Why would they think that?" Roze asked with a frown.
As Roze and Kos-Mos had their conversation, Ruby and Penny carried on.
"Ruby, there's something I need to tell you," Penny said mysteriously.
"What is it?" Ruby asked with a head tilt.
"I want to stay at Beacon," Penny whispered to ensure that Ciel wouldn't hear.
"Penny, they'll never let you do that," Ruby pointed out. Sure, she wanted her friend to stay too, but she was pretty sure Ironwood wouldn't want to let Penny too far out of his line of sight.
"Don't worry, I have a plan," Penny said with a proud smile.
"Calling it a plan is questionable," Kos-Mos interjected, "But I have ran several calculations on the success rate in my head, and only one variation has approximately 48.9% probability of success."
"Almost a fifty-fifty," Roze said, trying to be positive, "So maybe you could use that."
Penny didn't seem to agree with it, "But that would require blowing up the engines on one of the ships, and make my father sad."
This earned a blank look from Roze and Ruby. With the red reaper then asking carefully, "Umm…this variation…it wouldn't involve you faking your death, would it?"
"It would be the plan with the highest success rate," Kos-Mos said as if she wasn't talking about endangering lives on a ship and making Penny's father sad about losing his daughter.
"Kos-Mos we can't use that plan," Penny said firmly and with a stern glare.
"Acknowledged, Master," Kos-Mos complied surprisingly easily. The fact that her facial expression didn't change made it unnerving though. "However, I must point out that any other course of action has less than 30% probability of success," the android Blade then added.
At that moment, Ciel stepped in, "It has been precisely 5 minutes ma'am." Though the dark-skinned militant seemed to direct a victorious look towards Kos-Mos.
"So it has," Kos-Mos barely acknowledged.
Before Ciel could make any kind of retort, Penny spoke to Ruby, "I'll talk to you soon, Ruby, Roze."
"I hope to see you two again," Kos-Mos said simply to the rosy Driver and Blade.
"…Is it just me, or is Kos-Mos a little…volatile?" Roze asked his Driver.
"…Uhhh…maybe a little," Ruby replied, finding it unnerving how Kos-Mos talked about blowing ship engines and endangering the crew without even blinking. Actually, now that Ruby thought about it, she was pretty sure that the android Blade didn't blink at all the whole time.
"Our next match will begin in 10 minutes," Izuna's voice rang through the speakers.
"Oh my gosh! The fight's about to start!" Ruby exclaimed in excitement.
And sure enough, after the ten minutes expired, Yang, Weiss and their Blades entered the arena. As it turned out, their next opponents had two Blades, which also meant that Dragunov and Dahlia were able to join this fight with the former being very, very, VERY eager for a fight.
"Whelp, you're from Atlas, so what can we expect?" Yang asked as she stretched a bit.
"Well, seeing as their Kingdom, Academy and Armed Forces are merged as one, I believe we can expect strict militant fighters with advanced technology and a carefully rehearsed strategy," Weiss explained confidently, until a rainbow sped past the four and to the opposite side, revealing their opponents.
First was a dark-skinned teen wearing a black fedora with a light blue trim. He was also wearing a dark vest over untucked white dress shirt and a lose light blue tie. Complete with black dress pants and silver dress shoes. But oddly enough, he was carrying a trumpet instead of a weapon.
The other one was a girl, a faunus judging by her pink furred cat tail. She had reddish orange hair done in four pig tails with light blue streaks on her bangs. The girl's outfit was…colorful, to say the least. A light blue cropped tank top over a dark purple bra which showed some of her upper cleavage. She also wore dark purple short shorts under a pink miniskirt. Perhaps the most striking feature however was a tattoo of a shooting star with a rainbow tail. And it was probably important to note that she was the rainbow that sped past them.
"…Or…whatever they are," Weiss said, having some difficulty processing this sight. This earned her a look from both Dahlia and Dragunov. But they soon focused on the two Blades their opponents had.
One is a Common male Blade with an ether cannon. The other is a Common female Blade with a Great Axe and her helmet seemed to have kitty ears. But the odd thing about the two was on the scoreboard. Both of the two Blades were registered to Flynt Coal, the boy in fedora.
"How can one person have two Blades?" Yang asked, also taking note of it.
"What do you mean?" Dragunov asked, earning an incredulous look from the blonde Driver.
"What!? But…you can only have one Blade, right?" Yang asked, earning a quirked eyebrow from the fire Blade.
"A single Driver can awaken more than one Blade," Dahlia explained, earning a surprised look from Weiss and Yang.
"Whuh? But…why would anyone do that?" Weiss asked, not understanding why anyone would do that.
"Same reason as your weapons having more than one function, versatility," Dragunov responded.
"Why didn't you tell us this!?" Yang then asked with a furious look.
"…I honestly thought you girls knew this," Dragunov responded with a head tilt, causing the two to gape.
"It was obvious after all," Dahlia added in, further shattering their views.
Before either one could question further, Flynt spoke up, "Hey! You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress?"
Weiss quickly schooled herself for the standard greeting, "Why, yes I am."
"I take it you're good with Dust," Flynt said as he glanced at his trumpet.
"I do my best," Weiss said with a smile.
"My father was good with Dust too," Flynt spoke up, "Had his own little shop. Until your father's company drove him out of business." At the last part, Flynt glared at Weiss.
Which hit Weiss pretty hard. The sad thing is, she wouldn't be surprised if her father did that. "I'm very sorry to hear that," Weiss said, genuinely sorry for it.
"Sure," Flynt responded sarcastically.
"Weiss isn't her father," Dahlia said while putting a hand on her Driver's shoulder for support, which the heiress appreciated.
"Right," Flynt said, totally unconvinced.
"Now just you-" "Now just you!" the cat faunus, Neon Katt if the score board was to be believed, interrupted Yang. "That's what you sound like," the orange haired cat said with a bit of an irritating voice. "Say, where did you get those hair extensions?" Neon then said, before anyone else could get a word in, "And where did you get those breast implants?" That one was directed at Dahlia.
"This is my normal hair," Yang said as she stroked her prized mane. Dahlia on the other hand, chose not to comment.
"Uuh, really?" Neon asked, sounding skeptical.
"You got a problem with that?" Which Yang clearly didn't like.
"You should try rollerblading sometime," Neon then said as she twirled on her roller blades, "Though it might be a little hard for you to learn since you're, you know, top heavy."
"Excuse me!?" Yang growled as Dahlia shook her head.
"But not as difficult as she, does. I mean, her top must weigh a ton," Neon then said, referring to Dahlia.
"Hey! Leave her out of this," Weiss snapped, getting angry for her Blade.
"Weiss, don't! She's not worth it," Dahlia said, trying to calm down her Driver. Honestly, the ice Blade found Neon's insult almost laughable. "Almost" being the keyword.
"Great, just great," Dragunov groaned as he cracked his neck and knuckles, "Let's just beat them up quickly so we can get rid of them."
"We'll see about that you oversized paperweight," the female Blade said.
"Oversized WHAT!?" Dragunov roared taking great offense to that.
In the audience, both Ruby and Roze groaned. "Oh, here we go," Ruby spoke for the both of them.
"I hope Dragunov doesn't get angrier than that." Roze hoped against hope. Because they know from experience that Dragunov's temper is arguably worse than Yang's.
Just then, the four fields were decided. Fire, city ruins, desert and geyser field. Then the countdown began, with Neon looking like she was ready to dash, with Flynt's Blades taking stances. All the while Yang, Weiss, Dragunov and Dahlia prepared for battle.
"BEGIN!" Port shout boomed from the speakers at the end of the countdown. Which Flynt took as his que to blare the trumpet, which shot a powerful soundwave that actually pushed the four back. Even Dragunov had trouble staying upright. And then Neon dashed, taking Yang away from the other three.
"YANG!" Dragunov shouted as he went after his Driver.
Weiss managed to use two glyphs to anchor both herself and Dahlia to the ground, until Flynt stopped blowing on the trumpet. Which made the two to stumble forward when the opposing force vanished. Right past Flynt and the male Blade as the trumpeter kicked Weiss in the back, while the male Blade fired on the poor heiress.
"Hazuki, help Neon!" Flynt commanded.
"On it!" the female Blade, now named Hazuki, replied as she ran after Neon to help her beat their enemies.
As this happened, Yang was chasing Neon who was pulling her eyelid down while blowing a raspberry. All the while escaping Yang.
"Drag! A little help here!" Yang called out to her Blade as she tried to shoot the annoying cat down.
"I'm a little busy right now!" Dragunov replied from further away as she back-handed Hazuki's Great Axe before punching the female Blade. Only for the kitty eared Common Blade to get out of reach. "Stop moving so I can HIT YOU!" Dragunov roared as he slammed both fists on the ground, shaking it enough to stagger Hazuki, which then allowed the mighty Dragon to deliver a powerful punch that sent her who knows where. With Hazuki gone for the moment, Dragunov moved in to find an opening to assist Yang.
Meanwhile, Yang had just gotten hit by Neon's nunchuk, which apparently had ice Dust in it. Evidenced, by her leg being encased in ice.
"Oh, look!" Neon laughed as she skated away, "Now you're bottom heavy too." That phrase was followed by a slap on her own butt. Fortunately for Yang, she was able to free herself with a good stomp. Neon just laughed at the blonde's anger so hard that she almost didn't notice a problem that appeared ahead of her.
"Come to papa, kitty cat," Dragunov said with a very evil smile as he was about to give the speeding faunus a bone crushing hug. Quite literally. But it was not to be, as Neon, who couldn't stop or change directions in time, slid on the ground, right between Dragunov's open legs and out to freedom, all the while using her nunchuk to freeze both of the fire Blade's legs. Except there was a tiny detail Neon didn't notice when she chose to go under, namely that Dragunov had lifted his tail out of sight. Which Neon only noticed as her head passed the archway that was Dragunov's lower body, just when the said tail was slamming down on her. "Why do they always try to go under?" Dragunov mused, taking great pleasure at the pained yelp that Neon let out at being hit by his stone tail. Then as the ice rapidly melted off the fire Blades legs, he was able to turn around and reach for the disoriented cat's leg.
"Get away from her!" Was soon heard as Dragunov turned just in time to bring his talon to block Hazuki's axe.
"How did you get back here so quickly!?" Dragunov questioned, feeling angry and a tad amazed.
"Figure that out if you can, peabrain," Hazuki shot back, before swiping at Dragunov's leg, which froze. Revealing Hazuki to be ice element.
Before Dragunov, could attack again, he was peppered by multiple hits from recovered Neon. Now having his arms, legs and parts of his torso covered in ice, locking him in place.
"You should really cool down, dude," Neon said mockingly, and with just a hint of malice, "Get it? Cause you're angry."
That joke wasn't well received, as Dragunov's cracks glowed with heat as the steaming ice practically exploded off of him with his rising anger.
"HRRAAAAGH!" Yang roared as she launched herself at Neon, still wanting a shot at the darn girl. Only to be intercepted by Hazuki's axe, before the said Blade had to duck down to avoid a newly angered Dragunov.
Meanwhile, back with Weiss and Dahlia, the heiress of the Schnee company used her glyphs to fire multiple icicles, which were melted when Flynt used his trumpet to direct an eruption of fire that melted them. Meanwhile Dahlia had learned that the Ether Cannon wielding male Blade was of the lightning element evidenced by the shots of electricity he fired.
"Too bad all that money, can't buy you skill," Flynt said with a grin, earning a furious look from Weiss.
Enraged by the slander against her Driver, Dahlia threw her bitball at Flynt, but the ball was shot down by the male Blade. "Not on my watch, jiggles," the male Blade said cockily.
At last Dahlia frowned at what she was called. "…We'll see about that," Dahlia said as she prepared her bitball again despite the fire field not exactly providing her with much of an advantage.
As this happened, Weiss switched cylinders and fired wind Dust at Flynt's soundwave, the two attacks countering each other. However, as this was happening, Weiss created several glyphs around Flynt and the male Blade.
"Oh, no you don't, Schnee bitch," the male Blade said as he prepared to fire on Weiss, only to get hit by Dahlia's bitball.
"Calling me jiggles is one thing, but you just crossed a line," Dahlia said in an icy tone.
As soon as Dahlia finished her words, Weiss started darting around glyphs to launch herself at Flynt who took every hit with a grunt as his Aura was chipped away.
"Azai, just keep her Blade busy," Flynt found the moment to say as three more Flynts flowed out of him. They all looked exactly the same, save for the different colored rim of the fedora and tie. Then the four Flynts combined the soundwave of their trumpets and Weiss was flung away towards the desert field.
"What's this?" Port asked aloud at the spectacle in front of them.
"It appears Flynt has activated his semblance, and quite a remarkable one at that," Oobleck explained, "Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet." As Oobleck explained this, all four Flynts flipped their fedoras and put them back on.
In the audience, Sun took a look at Wu, "It's kind of like what that attack you did, Wu."
"Not quite," the monkey Blade said as he frowned at Flynt, "I used three strands of my hair to create clones, Flynt over there just had them come out of himself."
On team RWBY's side, the two remaining Drivers and Blades were worried. Ruby because Yang was getting angrier and angrier, Roze because Dragunov looked to be on the verge of going on a murdering rampage. Blake gripped the armrests of her seat in worry as she saw Dahlia dashing to where Weiss is. Except, "Dahlia! Look out!"
Unfortunately, the ice Blade couldn't hear Blake's warning as she was hit from behind by a particularly powerful ether shot from the male Blade called Azai.
Down in the arena, Flynt frowned a little at Dahlia hitting her head on a rock before stopping moving. Flynt knows that these Blades recover from any injury, but he still felt bad for the ice Blade hitting her head. "Azai, get her out of the arena before she wakes up," Flynt ordered his Blade.
"On it, boss," Azai saluted before moving to pick up the unconscious ice bunny over his shoulder before moving towards the nearest edge to drop her out of the ring.
"It looks like Dahlia is being carried off the field," Adenine commented, sounding mildly disappointed, "Although I would hurry if I was Azai, there's no telling how long Dahlia will stay out cold." But the male Blade either didn't hear or care.
Meanwhile, Neon had left the city field for the center and Yang was hot on her heels with her eyes having turned red.
"Oooh, flashy eyes," Neon said with a grin, "You know, you're actually kinda cute when you're angry."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut UP!" Yang roared as she fired at Neon.
All the while Weiss was at the edge of fire and desert field. The heiress reached for Myrtenaster, only to notice Flynt's foot landing on it. Looking up, Weiss saw the fedora wearing teen smirking down on her.
"GET BACK HERE!" Yang was heard shouting, earning the two's attention.
"I didn't say you should probably go on a diet," Neon said as she circled around the furious blonde, "I said you really need to go on a diet."
"THAT'S IT!" Yang practically screamed in pure rage.
But the only thing Weiss was wondering was, "Where is Dragunov?" Then a roar echoed through the arena, which was followed by a building in the city field collapsing.
"Ohh, someone's mad," Neon added in as she too noticed the fallen building before noticing Flynt. "Hi, Flynt," Neon said with a wave.
With that, Flynt had decided to prioritize Yang as he created more copies and prepared to attack. All the while Weiss could only look on as her friend was about to get blindsided. But then the white-haired girl saw that another eruption of fire was about to happen, right in front of Flynt. Making her decision, Weiss got up to dash towards Flynt. "Weiss! NO!" Was the shout that stopped Weiss, followed by a bitball hitting Flynt on the side, interrupting the boy and forcing his clones back into him as the eruption Weiss had planned to use happened.
Turning towards the bitball, Weiss saw it bouncing back to Dahlia who was running towards her. "Dahlia!" Weiss couldn't help shouting happily. "But how!? Where's Azai!?" the Driver of Dahlia questioned as she was slowly starting to believe in miracles.
"Oh, he should be free right about now," Dahlia said with a frosty smile, just as they heard a buzzer.
"And it looks like Azai has been taken out by a ring out," Izuna commented, as the large screen showed the Blade having hit the ground with shards of ice surrounding him.
"You didn't," Weiss said, resisting a laugh.
"Freeze him into a block of ice and set him up to fall over the edge? Yes, I did," Dahlia said with an evil smile that Weiss thought the Blade wasn't capable of.
"Oh no, Azai," Flynt cursed loudly, having heard that.
"That's the least of your problems," another familiar and very angry voice said. Turning to the source, the remaining fighters saw Dragunov, cracks glowing with heat and a look someone who was thirsting for blood on his face. "This time, little kitty, your kitty eared Blade buddy won't come to your rescue, because I just brought a house down on her," Dragunov said with an evil grin, knowing that Hazuki won't come unless someone goes to dig her out of the rubble.
Now Flynt was really worried, both of his Blades were apparently out and they were now outnumbered two to one. "Don't worry about those two, they're super easy, and kinda dumb," Neon said the last part in a faux whisper which both the hotheaded Driver and Blade heard.
"Wohho, looks like Yang and Dragunov are getting angry," Port commented as both Yang and Dragunov looked angry with Yang's eyes being red, and the cracks in Dragunov's body releasing wisps of flame.
"Yang," Dragunov ground out through his teeth as he handed over his talons, which Yang accepted without a word.
"And we wouldn't like them when they're…upset," Port finished just as Dragunov and Yang shared their combined rage. Then the two roared, which seemed to have make every single outlet in the fire field to release the largest gouts of flame anyone had seen during this tournament.
"Yo, Neon, go!" Flynt commanded as he turned to Dahlia and Weiss, the two having followed Yang's example and switching weapons. He would take these two down first, before helping his team mate. The two members of team FNKI still have the Aura level advantage, while Yang's aura was down to barely acceptable due to the few powerful hits Hazuki and Neon must have given her earlier.
"Launch me," Yang said and Dragunov kneeled down enough for Yang to step on his large hand before her Blade threw her into the air. The blonde bombshell then started raining bombshells off of Ember Celica to destabilize the ground Neon was skating on. This caused the cat faunus to stumble as the ground wasn't even anymore.
"FLYNT HELP!" Neon screamed as Yang was coming down on her.
But Flynt was too busy trying to deflect the Bitball that tried to reach him when Weiss launched it using a glyph. But the throwing weapon wouldn't even slow down from the soundwave as it hit Flynt in the stomach.
As this was happening, Dragunov was grasping both of his shoulders while looking at the scoreboard that displayed Yang's Aura ready to hit critical, while Neon still had around 70 percent of her aura left. "I doubt she needs this anymore, but just in case," Dragunov growled as a flaming aura was leaking out of his cracks, "Burning Spirit, activate!" With that, Dragunov brought both of his arms to his sides in fists as he was now surrounded by a flaming aura, which had also appeared on Yang. And even Weiss and Dahlia.
"What's this," Oobleck asked around as he witnessed the phenomenon.
"It appears Dragunov has activated some kind of ability," Adenine said, finding this interesting, "Unfortunately we don't know what it does, so all we can do is wait and observe." With that, the book lady watched what might happen like a hawk. As did the audience.
"Oh, crud," Neon said with tears in her eyes as Yang used Fever Rush on the poor cat faunus before following it up with another punch in Neon's gut, while Weiss had used Snowfall on Flynt, scattering him and his clones around.
"Neon, just hit her once, and she and her Blade will be out," Flynt shouted as she rolled away from another hit.
"Oh, it appears that Yang's and Weiss' Aura levels are rising," Adenine then piped up, causing both Flynt and Neon to look at the screen, and sure enough, Yang's and Weiss' respective Auras had been restored somewhat. Yang's more than Weiss'. "It seems to me that every time Yang and Weiss deal damage, their Auras replenish," Adenine continued explaining.
In the audience, there were mixed reactions at this turn of events. In team JNPR seat, Pyrrha was a little worried about Yang having an ability to restore her Aura by dealing damage. Worse yet, this would mean that with this, Yang might practically have an infinite supply of Aura to keep using her semblance.
Ruby felt a little afraid of how powerful her already strong sister can become with this kind of loop. Even if it might secure victory against Pyrrha.
Back in the arena, Dahlia had unleashed Crystal Blizzard against Flynt, the poor boy having no chance to block the Special as he was sent flying while shivering with cold. Weiss followed up with multiple stabs from her recovered Myrtenaster.
"Ohh, sound and out for Flynt," Oobleck commented as Flynt's aura went below the line.
As for Neon, the poor cat tried to bounce away from Yang, only to be caught by her leg by Dragunov. "Yang, finish her," Dragunov said with a murder happy grin as he spun the girl around before throwing the source of their anger up in the air. The said source screaming all the way.
Yang smirked before unloading two more shots from Ember Celica straight to where Neon would fly to and the party girl was covered by an explosion fit for a fireworks festival.
"She soars," Dragunov said with a grin.
"She scores," Yang adds in with an equal grin as she walked towards her Blade.
"She's out with a Yang!" The two said in unison before high-fiving.
Weiss found it in herself to groan at the two as Dahlia pats her back consolingly.
"We lost!?" Was then heard from the slightly charred and battered looking Neon. "Team FNKI lost!? It's…It's AMAZING!" And then her eyes seemed to turn into rainbow stars. "You guys are awesome, we should definitely party together some time! Right Flynt?" Neon asked that from her partner who got up, still shivering with cold from Dahlia's treatment.
"That was some moves you showed there Schnee," Flynt said with a frown, which soon turned upside down, "I dig it." This earned a smile from Weiss, who nodded in acknowledgement.
"Shouldn't you go and dig your Blade from under a building," Dragunov said with a frown, not wanting to associate himself with these two anymore than he has to. As Flynt and Neon were reminded of what happened to poor Hazuki and ran off, Yang directed a glare at her Blade as their affinity link was severed.
"You. Why didn't you use that power before," Yang asked with an annoyed look, "That could've come in handy so many times."
"I couldn't," Dragunov said simply as he gave his Driver a fond look.
"What do you mean you couldn't," Yang asked with a suspicious look.
"You do know that Blades and Drivers grow stronger together," Dragunov asked, earning a nod from Yang, "It's basically that."
"That doesn't even make sense," Yang complained.
"It will one day," Dragunov said as he looked towards Blake and Ruby who had ran to the arena.
"That was AWESOME!" Ruby practically screamed as she hugged Yang, before moving to Weiss.
"Let go of me, you dolt!" Weiss resisted, despite finding herself smiling. All the while Dahlia giggled at the situation.
Later on, we see Ozpin staring outside the window of his office.
"He's making you look like a fool, you know." Said Qrow who just walked out of the elevator.
"His heart is in the right place," Ozpin said with a sigh, "He is just…misguided."
"Sometimes I wonder if he even has a heart," Qrow said as he took a sip from his flask.
"Speaking of hearts," Ozpin said as he turned his chair to face Qrow, "What is it about Kasandra you seem to dislike so much? She seems to be very kind."
Qrow let out a sigh, "Look, Oz, I don't want to talk about it."
"As you wish, but I just find it odd that you would dislike someone like that," Ozpin noted, before letting it go.
"It's not her personality I dislike," Qrow decided to cave in, before looking hesitant, "Oz…I think my semblance is gone."
This made the headmaster widen his eyes, "What do you mean?"
"Ever since I got Kasandra, accidents have happened only when that mask at the back of her head started rattling," Qrow explained as he thought back on all the major accidents that had happened ever since Kasandra was with him.
"Are you sure your semblance is, 'gone'? After all a semblance is a power unique to its user. An aspect of one's soul," Ozpin said, finding it hard to believe that something like that could be removed so easily.
"Well if it isn't gone, it's replaced by whatever Kasandra does. The worst part is, I don't think she's even aware of it," Qrow then explained as he thought back on all the incidents where Kasandra didn't realize that she was the cause.
"So why haven't you told her?" Ozpin then assumed.
"Have you seen her smile?" Qrow shot back, "You try telling that face that all the accidents are her fault." Qrow took another swig before continuing, "Besides, normally when something major happens with me around, people call out for blood, ready to blame anyone. But somehow, she manages to make them see the bright side," Qrow sounded almost happy at that part, "I mean…I can't believe I'm saying this, but if people were more like her, this world would be a lot better place."
Ozpin chuckled at Qrow almost speaking fondly of his Blade. Perhaps she is capable of making the dusty old crow happy. "And yet from what I've heard, you still tried to get rid of her," Ozpin then pointed out with a rare teasing smirk.
"Yeah, I thought I could finally live without being a bad luck charm, but then she always seems to find me somehow," Qrow explained, actually feeling a little bad for deceiving her all those times, "Speaking of, do you know how she does that?"
Ozpin wasn't sure if Qrow would like this but since the man asked directly, "Every Blade can use what they call Resonance. Using it, a Blade can track their Driver's location no matter the distance."
"So, you're saying that she's practically a locator with an infinite range, and I'm the homing beacon," Qrow said with an incredulous look.
"Essentially, yes," Ozpin said, finding more amusement in the defeated look on Qrow's face than was probably appropriate.
"So, have you chosen your guardian yet," Qrow then asked, deciding to change the subject.
"Maidens choose themselves," Ozpin replied taking a more serious expression, "I simply believe I have found the right candidate. Ever since the day I met her I knew she would be the right one. She's strong, kind, intelligent, and most importantly she's ready."
Just as Ozpin finished that sentence, the elevator opened up again. "You wanted to see me, headmaster," Pyrrha said as she stepped out of the elevator.
As this was happening, Cinder was in her and her cronies' dorm room, browsing through Atlas files on Blades, but so far, she hasn't found anything. Other than information about project P.E.N.N.Y, that was welcome news as it would make the next part of their plan easier.
"Find anything about those Blades, yet?" Mercury asked as he finished doing push-ups and was now lazing around.
"No," Cinder said, though she had just a hint of frustration in her voice. She had gone through every schematic she could find, but none of them were about Blades. Deciding to take a break and check other information. There was however one file that caught her eye labeled, "Alrest". Cinder decided to open the file to see what was in it, and it started with a brief summary. "Oh!" Cinder exclaimed in surprise.
"Did you find something?" Mercury asked, sounding interested, before looking a little freaked out as Cinder's face morphed into shock. Which soon turned into chuckling, and from there full on laughter.
"Uhh…Cinder?" Emerald asked in concern.
"It seems we have been looking at this from the wrong angle all along," Cinder said, calming down from her mad laughter.
"What do you mean?" Mercury asked.
"These Blades are not of this world," Cinder said with a malicious grin.
"What are you talking about?" Emerald asked, feeling concerned too.
"I suppose this could pass as a bedtime story," Cinder mused as she began to read all the information Atlas had about Alrest. With Emerald and Mercury listening with rapt interest, including Neo who was staring wide eyed.
AN: Whelp. To a certain someone I might have said that I won't let Cinder find out the truth about Blades. I changed my mind, because I realized a little something with access to Atlas military files, she would no doubt find the notes about Alrest from there somewhere. How much information is that? Who knows, Blades don't know much beyond the basics. Even Adenine's knowledge is limited.
As for Qrow's semblance being gone. It's not, just under Kasandra's "control".
I'm sure everyone is wondering if Penny and Pyrrha will be saved in this fic, whelp, that's for me to know, and you to find out in the coming chapters.
Now, to those who have encouraged me to give a full list of the Blade abilities on my OC Blades. The list I have been making since I started this isn't complete yet. Partly due to having to translate video game system into a cartoon. Which means that I can't use most of the passives as they are. For example, with Dahlia I can't list her Spotlight as it is, because I decided not to incorporate Elemental Orb system. I simply couldn't figure out how to translate it from a game mechanic in a way that makes sense. Too many variables.
Others such as Electra are easy to translate, Remember when Dragunov hit Electra's shield and got a slight zap from it? That was Electra's Sparky Girl ability, it counters attacks with ether. Or as I understand it, with electric ether.
Then there are the Special Arts. There are still some I haven't fully locked in, like with most of Team JNPR Blades. I have already locked in their level ones, and Otohime's level two, but I haven't locked in the rest just yet. Others like Team RWBY RWBY Blades only their level fours are still a little open, though I had already decided what Dragunov's will be. And before anyone points out, yes, Nox's level three special's name hasn't been revealed yet. I just... haven't found a moment to even mention that.
So yeah, I still have some issues with truly finalizing my Oc Blade's abilities, even though I have a general idea of what they are. And, as I have found myself, fleshing out a character's abilities become easier as I write more about them.