AN: Grammar issues should be fixed...

Teams RWBY and JNPR were working on the test papers in front of them. They were mostly about Remnant's history, general fighting questions to help assess their battle knowledge, and what they knew about the known Grimm types that plagued their world. It had been quite a while since the adults had left with Hedge to the training room and had left them there to work on the test.

To no one's surprise, Weiss was the first to finish the test, confident that she had got most if not all of them right. Pyrrha was the second to finish, Blake and Ren finished shortly after, Nora and Yang rounding out next, leaving Jaune and Ruby to be the last ones. Ruby was taking her time on the questions, silently thanking Weiss for helping her study back at Beacon, but she wouldn't lie that some of the questions weren't tough. As for Jaune, however, this was really putting him to the test, pun intended. He berated himself for going the route of forging his transcripts, but was also envy of his other from the story that he got help from the twins. He thought to himself he wouldn't get a lot of these right, but maybe he could make up for it in the training room.

Soon enough, the two leaders had finished the test. Since they were in casual clothes, and it sounded like they would be fighting, they went back into their rooms to change into combat clothes, since they were dressed casually from the morning. They grabbed duffle bags and placed a change of clothes to take into the training room showers once they finished, but they didn't think that they work up too much of a sweat fighting Atlesian Knights.

Boy, were they in for a much tougher fight.

Grabbing their weapons out of their cases in the viewing room and their test papers in hand, they enter through the door leading into the training room, where their professors, the General, Specialist Schnee, and Qrow were waiting. They soon came to notice that their host Hedge was nowhere to be seen, though.

Ruby: "Where's Hedge?"

Ozpin: "Mr. Badnic had to work on a few things, so he left us the Atlesian Knights here." He directed their attention to the currently deactivated bots in the middle of the arena.

The students believed that statement to be true, given that Hedge, or rather Drivver, had other things to deal with besides just to host them here in his dimension. What they didn't know, however, was that it was a little white lie that the adults and their host came to an agreement on.

The students handed in their test papers to Professor Goodwitch, whom would review them during their next break. Each of them walked to the arena with their weapons, after filling up on ammo and dust crystals (no doubt provided by Hedge), and once they all entered, a barrier appeared around the battleground, the adults just outside.

Weiss: "So what's the goal here, professors?" Myrtenaster's dust chamber spun and locked into place her selected choice.

Glynda: "Simple really. Defeat all of the Atlesian Knights before all of your auras are placed into the red."

Ironwood: "Keep in mind there will be waves of the Knights." A tablet in his hand, possibly to control the bots.

Jaune: "Is there a specific amount we will fight?"

Winter: "An excellent question, but where's the fun in that, Mr. Arc?" If they really focused in, they could see a smirk grace her lips.

Qrow: "Mainly, this is to test how durable you all are with your aura, but at the same time, it will also be to see how well you work with each other. I've heard how often both of your teams are around each other."

Ozpin: "Now, you'll be able to prove it to us."

An automated voice brought the students' attention with a countdown shown up in the air, counting down to start combat. They all got into their respective battle stances, Jaune and Pyrrha getting in front to block the dust rifles the Knights wielded, while Ironwood prepped the Knights to go into battle mode once the countdown finished.

The difficultly of the waves was simple, not to hard to deal with on the first wave, but gradually would get tougher the further they progress. The amount of Knights they would deal with would also increase too.

For the first wave, there were 8 Knights, one for each of them. Simple enough, and they were taken down like, well in Qrow's eyes, the fodder they were.

Ironwood was quick to activate the next wave to appear, this time 16 Knights, but their targeting systems were tuned up, getting the students to actively move around a lot more than before to dodge the dust rounds fired upon them. Even with the additional hurdle, the second wave was taken down.

With the activation of the third round, there were now 32 Knights, however, half of them had blades in their hands, reminiscent of their predecessors, which didn't go unnoticed by Ruby, Weiss, and Blake.

Ruby, because she had seen the older models when Ironwood did his presentation. She may not had seen them change their arms to the blades in question, but she knew they had that capability.

Weiss because she had actually seen the older models before she came to Beacon, thanks to some pictures sent to her from Winter.

Blake, on the other hand, was having PTSD seeing the blades. The last time she had seen the older models, was when she had her last mission with the White Fang. The mission she had left...Adam...behind and never looked back. She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts and rushed in to try and quickly get rid of those Knight Varients.

Yang, seeing her partner rush in blindly, ran after her to cover her, since the other half of the Knights still had dust rifles and were ready to fire upon the resident cat-ninja of their team.

Qrow took notice of how Yang had instantly jumped into action at Blake's movement. Sure it could be seen as her backing up her partner, but he had a small smirk on his face, coming to the assumption that there was more to it than just that.

Ruby and Weiss shared a look, with Ruby calling out one of their team combos. "Ice Flower!" Ruby stabbed Crescent Rose into the ground and Weiss placed glyphs in front of the barrel. Ruby fired off shots, her bullets turned into ice shots freezing the Knights in front of Blake, covering her blind spots.

Even Team JNPR were shocked at Blake's motion.

"Pyrrha!"

Said redhead was broken from her stupor as she turned to her peppy teammate. Knowing what she was wanting to do, Pyrrha got into position, shifting her weapon back into storage and on her back, then placing her shield in front of her.

Nora, with a wide grin on her face, jumped towards Pyrrha, and reminescent of their combo move on the Deathstalker from initiation, pushed Nora with all her might towards the Knights, taking down a few of them, and garnering the attention of the others that weren't focused on the Bumblebee duo.

Jaune glanced over at Ren. "Guess we should've expected her to do that," a sweat drop on his head.

Ren slightly chucked at that. "No kidding."

They ran in behind Nora to back up their tank, while Weiss ran in to help out Blake and Yang, the former using her elemental clones like she did against Roman on the train against the blade-wielding Knights, and the latter beating down the rifle-wielding ones. Pyrrha and Ruby stayed back, using their long range weaponry to pick off the stragglers.

The adults watched on, judging them on their performance throughout the waves. Ozpin and Goodwitch had tablets in their hands, jotting down the grading. The students were doing well, maybe a few points to be deducted on Miss Belladona's recklessness, but aside from that, everyone was covering each other's backs.

Soon enough, the last of the Knights were taken down. Ironwood had some ideas to upgrade the Knights thanks to Winter jotting down performance of them. Though, internally, the adults knew the real test was about to begin.

The students seemed to catch on that there was more, considering the hard-light barrier didn't go down.

Pyrrha: "Uh, professors? Why hasn't the barrier gone down yet?"

"That's because there is still one more test."

The students looked above them to see Hedge hovering in midair. He now sported a red and black trenchcoat over his normal combat gear they had come to see him in normally, Chaos and Destruction, surprisingly, not strapped to his back.

Yang: "Wait, hold on. Are we going to fight you?!" she asked as Hedge touched down. While she was itching to fight him, before he revealed the power of the Chaos Emeralds, now, she was a little hesitant to do so.

Qrow: "That's right, Firecracker. Our gracious host is your final challenge."

Hedge: "The rules are simple. All of you will fight against me, until either side has their aura broken. If any of you remain, all of you will win."

Blake: "Out of curiosity, how much is this fight weighted?"

Glynda: "Take a wild guess, Miss Belladona." A knowing smirk was on her face, making the students think this was going to be the toughest fight of their lives, even if it was just a friendly spar.

Jaune: "How exactly is that fair that we're fighting you with full aura, compared to us that don't?" While it was true they didn't get damaged all that much by the Knights, they did exert themselves to spend a bit of their aura.

Hedge: "You are aware that I'm able to re-energize you, right?" a raised eyebrow on his face with his arms crossed. With a wave of one hand, they felt themselves be rejuvenated and checked their scrolls to see they were all topped off. Though they also checked their weapons, those that had used dust against the Knights, and found they had been topped off there too.

Ren: "Rules of engagement?" he asked as he prepared Stormflower.

Hedge: "Anything goes, except killing of course." A smirk graced his lips. "Though I'll admit it would be pretty tough to kill someone like me."

The professors had to agree with him on that. He had actually told them about his abilities that he would keep hidden. And that was just his natural power, not taking into consideration the Chaos Emeralds, or even the Master Emerald.

Ruby: "Where's Chaos and Destruction?" Did Hedge intend to fight them without his swords?

Nora: "Bit of a handicap if you ask me," hefting Magnihild over her shoulder.

Hedge: "Makes it all the more interesting, does it not?"

Pyrrha: "I'll admit. It actually does," a smile gracing her lips. She may have gained her title due to her utilizing her semblance during her tournaments, but that was because her opponents tended to use any form of metal on them, be it their weapon or armor. Hedge had very little in terms of metal on him, considering he wasn't using Chaos and Destruction; he did have the metal bands on his wrists and ankles, though.

Everyone had spread out around Hedge while he got into his fighting stance. He'd keep it simple for now; hand-to-hand in fighting and blocking melee attacks. As for dust fire, well, he'd improvise with that.

Ozpin moved his attention to his tablet, starting the countdown to begin the fight. Once the timer ended, Hedge disappeared from view and reappeared next to Weiss, swinging his leg in a high arc to hit her with a semblance-imbued kick.

Remembering that Hedge had explained his semblance a bit to them, Weiss knew that even if she blocked it with Myrtenaster, she'd still get the lingering effect of the lightning dust he generates inside his body, leaving her taking damage over time, so reacting quickly, she uses her knowledge of acrobatics and swiftly dodges to and fro the multiple kicks he threw her way.

After three kicks, Hedge had left an opening, something Weiss didn't hesitate to capitalize on, firing ice shards at him from a few glyphs she summoned to pelt him with.

Hedge noticing his blunder maneuvered around the shards, coating his arms in lightning dust to explode the shards that he didn't dodge into smoke clouds. Since Hedge was going hand-to-hand, Yang ran into the cloud to catch him off guard, preparing to throw a right hook.

Having sensed her approaching, Hedge brought up his arm to block the haymaker, though it wasn't coated in lighting dust. Having an understanding of everyone's semblances, he'd not give too much charge to the two heavy hitters he was fighting, especially Nora. The DoT from his semblance wouldn't charge Yang up that much, but any charge could still be detrimental in the long run.

The two traded blows back and forth, neither actually landing a hit on each other. They were blocking each other like a choreographed fight. While the others tried to find an opening to land a ranged attack on Hedge, they didn't want to accidently hit Yang in the crossfire, even it meant powering up her semblance.

Ruby: "Blake!"

Having heard her leader call out her name, the cat Faunus ran in to help her partner, and now Hedge was in a 2v1 situation, not only having to dodge Yang's punches, but also deal with Blake's slashes from Gambol Shroud.

Hedge: "Not bad. Actually putting me on the backfoot here."

Though he tried to get them to become reckless, it seemed to not have a real effect on the two.

Jaune: "Pyrrha, let's go."

Pyrrha: "Right."

The Arkos duo started to rush in, and Hedge's vision was focused on Blake and Yang's assault, so he didn't notice them running in. Because of this, Blake used a fire clone to explode on Hedge, sending him skyward, Yang jumping up and sending him back down towards Jaune and Pyrrha, who met him on the way down and sliced at him with Miló and Crocea Mors, taking a good chunk of his aura. Ren and Nora fired at him, further taking down Hedge's aura.

Hedge made to recover himself, landing a bit away from them, his clothes a bit riled up from the barrage he just took. "Alright then." He summoned up Chaos and Destruction into his hands, then a red glyph appeared underneath him. "Time to get serious." Standing up straight, suddenly, three copies of Hedge appeared on either side, two on his right, one on his left.

This was his Doppelgänger ability, a pretty handy ability to have in an outnumbered situation. Plus as an added bonus, it didn't split his aura reserves throughout the copies. Each one had their own pool of aura to draw from. The only drawback, was that the maximum aura each copy had was the amount the original Hedge had before creating the Doppelgängers, which currently was 50%. He had taken more damage than he thought he would. They also weren't controlled by the original Hedge; they were effectively their own entity, conscious and all.

Each partner duo fought against a Hedge copy. The arena changed and broke off into 4 smaller arenas. A barrier splitting each part off, leaving no assistance from any of the other duos.

WhiteRose duo

Ruby and Weiss met their Hedge copy head-on, Crescent Rose clashing with Destruction, and Myrtenaster clashing with Chaos (a reminder that Chaos is in Hedge's right hand, and Destruction is in his left. Considering Weiss is left-handed, this is why).

Hedge(1): You know, I've seen myself a bit in you, Ruby. Very shy when it comes to talking to new people. I will say you have grown as a person over time in the show, though that is because of certain events that happen."

This causes Ruby to lose focus a bit, giving Hedge the opportune time to break Destruction free from their clash and slash her away.

Ruby: "Ahh!"

Weiss: "Ruby!" She recovers quickly enough to block a double strike from her opponent.

Hedge(1): I'd say your character arc had a really big growth over the course of the show, Weiss. Some fans even consider you the "best girl."

Weiss grunts in their clash. "If you think flattery will allow you to get a one up over me, you have another thing coming."

She swaps Myrtnaster's dust chamber to ice dust, which freezes Chaos and Destruction, causing the Hedge copy to back away. One usage of his semblance later, and the swords are free again. Ruby runs back up to her partner.

Hedge(1): "Whatever floats your boat...Ice Queen."

THAT threw Weiss over the edge and she rushes in in anger, changing her dust chamber to fire. Ruby begrudgingly following her partner.

Bumblebee Duo

The Hedge copy fighting Blake and Yang batted away a fire dust blast from Yang's Ember Celica.

Yang: "I'll admit. Didn't expect an ability like this, splitting yourself up. Seems like Blakey's semblance but better."

Blake: "Gee, thanks Yang," she deadpanned to her partner.

Hedge(2): "It has its uses, I just don't like the time that I had first used it."

The two girls looked at each other, silently agreeing not to push further on that.

Hedge(2): But that doesn't mean to drop your guard!"

He had appeared right in front of Blake and kicked her in the gut, knocking her back and the wind out of her.

Yang: "Blake!"

Hedge(2): "Same goes for you!"

He swings Chaos in a wide spread, Yang barely dodging the slash, but not all of her was lucky to dodge it.

As she backed away, she noticed that a pretty decent chunk of her hair had been cut, the patch of hair seen on the floor.

Hedge(2): "What will you do now, Yang?"

He knew how she would react, but he really did hope she could move pass these anger issues, especially regarding her hair.

Yang practically exploded in anger. "YOU ARE DEAD!" and blasted forwards towards Hedge.

Arkos Duo

Jaune and Pyrrha are currently trying to dodge from their Hedge copy's attacks...or rather, it's Jaune that is trying to dodge from his attacks, and Pyrrha trying to land damage AND protect Jaune to the best of her ability.

Yes, she can use her semblance to move Hedge's sword slashes away from Jaune and/or move his shield to block the slashes like she did back during the first semster when he fought the Ursa Major and trying to protect Cardin, but Hedge could just use his semblance to create lightning spears that couldn't be effected by Pyrrha's semblance. He could even use those spears as elemental weapons too in case she managed to get Chaos and Destruction out of his hands.

Hedge(3): "You can tell him he's great all you want, but the truth always shows up in battle, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha: "Belittling him won't guarantee you a win, Hedge."

Hedge(3): "Neither will subtlely using your semblance to redirect your opponents' weapons, or even his weapons to help him," he shot back.

Pyrrha froze up at that. It was true, she would do that quite often during her time in the Mistral Tournaments. It was how she got her "title," despite not liking being placed on a pedestal. And that last part he mentioned, she never told Jaune that she helped him back then.

Jaune: "What do you mean 'redirect his weapons?'"

Hedge(3): "Ah, she never told you, did she?" Pyrrha was sweating now. "During the previous semester, when you were dealing with Cardin, the Ursa Major you were fighting would have heavily injured you, if not outright killed you, if Pyrrha hadn't moved your shield to block its swipe. You didn't kill it all by yourself."

Jaune was shocked at that. He practically stood up to Cardin because he put his own life on the line, all because he believed he had put down that Ursa Major all on his own. Cardin had stopped bullying him because of the display he put on in front of him, but if he learned about the truth that it wasn't just him that killed the Grimm, then he might just resume bullying him.

He looked to his partner that was practically screaming internally that her secret came to fruition, and was wondering just what Jaune would think about that.

Jaune: "Is...is that true, Pyr?"

Pyrrha sighed at that. "Yes, Jaune. It is. I didn't want to tell you because you have been getting so much better in your skills, and you were standing up to Cardin. If I had told you, you probably would've never gotten out of your funk." She paused and looked at her partner, now boyfriend, and wondered if he still even wanted anything to do with her. "Do you...hate me for that?"

Jaune: "Hate you? No way. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably not be standing here in front of you, and be your boyfriend. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I started to hate you over one small thing like that?"

Pyrrha eyes started to tear up at that statement. She quickly moved to clear them out. "Thank you, Jaune."

Jaune: "I think I should be the one thanking you." He looked over at their Hedge copy. "And I think it's time we take down this copy," as he pointed his sword at their opponent.

Pyrrha nodded at him. "Right."

Hedge(3) smiled at their determination. "You can try." Lightning sparked across his body as the Arkos duo sprinted towards him.

Renora duo

Well, you would think it would be going good for the Hedge copy here, since he just needs to use his semblance on Ren.

Yeah...

Not when Nora constantly jumps in front of him to tank the lightning spears every time and powers herself up.

Hedge(4): "Ok. Maybe not one of my smartest ideas," he said as he was getting up after getting smacked up against the barrier to the section of the arena he was set to.

Nora was currently sparking thanks to her semblance, while Ren was next to her, Stormflower in hand and watching Hedge closely in case he tried to do something.

Ren: "So do you give up?"

Nora: "Though I'd prefer it if you didn't. I'm still raring to go!"

Both Ren and the Hedge copy looked at her with a deadpanned face.

Hedge(4): "Yeah, I'd be pretty dumb to continue on in my current state. You two win this round."

The copy disappeared from their battle arena, though they did catch on to what he said.

Nora: "Call me crazy, Renny, but did he state 'in his current state?'"

Ren: "That he did. We better be on our toes for what's to come."

Nora nodded at him, not with her normal smile and cheeryness, but with a serious tone and look.

It didn't take long for the others to beat their Hedge copies, and soon enough, the remaining barriers that had originally split the arena into four areas had disappeared. Everyone regrouped into the center of the arena, the 4 copies of Hedge had regrouped as well, now converging back together into a singular Hedge, but the signature tell of aura breaking showing over him, and he collapsed to one knee.

Ruby: "We did it!" She collapsed to her knees right after, exhausted from the battling her and Weiss had done against their copy. Or rather, keeping up with Weiss considering she got all of her anger against it.

Blake: "But why hasn't the overall barrier disappeared yet?"

Hedge chuckled. "Well well. I must congratulate you all on getting this far." He rose back up to his feet, but what caught everyone's attention, was that the Chaos Emeralds started to appear around him. He also pulled out multiple jars with symbols of what looked like golden rings with an "x100" on them, crushing them in his hands. "Behold...the power...OF THE CHAOS EMERALDS!"

(Begin playing Knight of The Wind - Sonic and The Black Knight OST)

The emeralds' glow shined even brighter as they were absorbed into Hedge.

Yang: "What's going on?!" as she and everyone else covered their eyes from the bright light that encapsulated Hedge.

Ozpin: "The final stage of this test! You have 5 minutes to survive against Hedge as he is powered up!

Weiss: "What do you mean powered up?!"

Qrow: "Best to let him explain, or rather, show you!"

The glow ended, and what everyone saw shocked them to their core. What they saw was Hedge, but he was changed now. The trench coat he had on had changed color from its red and black, to now mostly gold with the red stripes still seen. But his trench coat wasn't the only thing gold, as his skin was also golden, and his eyes had changed to red. Not like how they were back when he got angry where they were bloodshot, but just the irises were red.

Hedge: "Yes." His voice was much deeper than it was previously. "Same rules apply here. If even one of you is left standing by the end of the time limit, you all win."

On the screen above them, instead of Hedge's aura being tracked, it was his...ring count?

And it was already counting down from 500, meaning Hedge was already on them in an instant, forcing them to dodge out of the way from his sword slashes.

Pyrrha: "So that's what those capsules were about."

Hedge: "In the universe the emeralds originate from, the Super forms are ran off of the user's ring count. And these forms give the user invincibility."

Everyone is shocked at that information.

Jaune blocks a strike from Destruction. "There has to be some sort of other drawback besides just the ring count."

Hedge: "Oh there is. Enough damage to disrupt the connection of the emeralds to the user. So you're welcome to fight back."

Everyone's auras were rejuvenated back to full, as they knew they wouldn't be able to do much against him at the levels they were at from the copies.

Despite them being hesitant, they all jumped in to fight Super Hedge.

With the adults, however, they were still wrapping their minds around the revelation that the Chaos Emeralds gave nigh invincibility for a time limit in the form of a ring count.

Ironwood: "We're all in agreeance those Emeralds can't come to Remnant, right? If they get into the hands of Salem..."

Glynda: "I think it's safe to say that Hedge won't be sending them to Remnant when he sends us back."

Ironwood: "But what if he comes back with us? Who's to say he wouldn't lose them?"

Qrow: "Do you really think he's stupid enough to actually lose the Emeralds, Jimmy? Look inside that arena and tell me he is someone stupid enough to lose something that powerful to petty thieves, or her followers?"

Ironwood did just that, and winced in sympathy to the students, dodging to and fro from Hedge's attacks, but getting hit hard more often than dodging.

Winter: "General, as much as I would like to disagree, Qrow is right. And this is Hedge with not even using his full natural power, or even the Emeralds' full power."

Ozpin: "He also knows a lot more of our future than what the twins in the story know. So even if Hedge did come to Remnant with us once we finished here, I'm pretty sure he has contingency plans for everything that is to come."

Ironwood wanted to rebuttal that, he really did, but he kept himself calm. "That may be true, Oz, but need I remind all of you of the potential butterfly effects that may occur once we start to learn about the future as well?"

That made them rethink about that for a bit, as he did have a point there. But they would deal with all of that when the time came.

Ozpin: "You make a fair point, my friend." They all returned their gaze back to the fight, but Ozpin felt even guiltier on the inside. He was hiding a major piece of information regarding Salem from them, and he really did wonder when that information would come to the surface, either from the story or from Hedge himself. Thankfully, Hedge gave him the opportunity to tell everyone himself, which may save him some face, but he didn't know if he really should go down that route.

He should probably talk with Hedge about that soon face to face.

Back with the fight, things were not going well for the students, as currently Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, and Ren had all been eliminated due to their auras getting depleted, leaving Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha left in the arena against Hedge, who had about 200 rings left of his Super form.

Hedge: "I must commend you surviving till now. But I think it's about time we ended this. Eat your heart out, Sonic." With a loud yell, a new form was taken on. Not much had changed with Hedge's outer appearance, but he did have new lightning sparks shot around him, and his eyes took on a light blue color.

This was the controlled Corrupted Super form. While it may be a risk at losing the Super form quicker than the regular one, he really stepped up the difficulty in the fight.

Something Yang didn't seem to take notice on, as she rushed in with her semblance activated.

Before she could even get close to him, Hedge had turned into a blur, and blitzed through her, the two trading places with Hedge having his arms crossed, and Yang looking like she had thrown her punch.

In a matter of seconds, Yang's body was assaulted with quick strikes, depleting her aura and falling unconscious, her body being teleported out of the arena next to the others. Ruby quickly tended to her sister.

Hedge had forgone using Chaos and Destruction now and appeared in front of Pyrrha, catching the girl off-guard. She barely had enough time to bring up her shield to block a haymaker from him, but the force behind said punch was enough to wittle her aura down just enough that the collision with the barrier afterwards depleted her aura, leaving only Nora left.

Now, you would think Nora would understand the severity of the situation, but she wasn't one to give up so easily, and she was willing to take a gamble. So she ran forward to land a strike on Hedge, whom merely took the attack head-on like it was nothing.

This, however, was part of Nora's plan.

The lightning surrounding Hedge worked in Nora's favor, as being in close proximity to him allowed her to be struck by the multiple sparks that spewed off of him. This allowed her to power herself up with her semblance at an alarming rate, something that Hedge caught on quickly too, evident by his eyes bulging.

Quickly he jumped back away from Nora to not have a similar situation to her Volume 8 self. He didn't even know if he could heal her scars if that did happen; Jaune most certainly couldn't.

Feeling like she could really do some damage to Hedge, she smirked and, with her enhanced speed, blitzed towards Hedge, going for a feint, hoping he would fall for it.

To the shock of those watching, he did fall for it. Hedge had teleported from his spot to behind Nora, but he had already fallen for her trap. With a quick spin, she spun with full force behind Magnihild, catching Hedge in the gut, some rings spewing from his body, but that wasn't all, as when he collided with the barrier, more rings spewed out, which had left him on small reserves. It seemed to have done him in, because while he was trying to catch his breath, his ring count had depleted, evident by the meter on the screen blinking red and a "0" in front of it.

(End song)

Hedge fell to his knees as he dropped out of his Super form, while Nora too had dropped to a knee as well after her semblance had wore off, but her aura didn't break. Looking up at the aura reader, she was one tick away from it doing so.

But that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. She had done it! She survived against Hedge in his Super form, heck, even his supped up Super form!

The barrier disappeared around the arena, signalling it was safe to enter, though everyone, minus Yang who was still unconscious, was flabbergasted at what had happened.

Jaune: "Did that just...?"

Weiss: "Happen? I think so."

Ruby: "Who cares?! That was awesome!! Also, we won!!"

Blake: "But what was the form Hedge took on? That didn't seem like it was the standard Super form."

Hedge: "It wasn't." Having heard them. "It was the Super form, but it was enhanced with cyber corruption, in its controlled state." He took note of all of their confused faces. "Trust me, it would take awhile to explain it all. The continuity it is from, while I haven't fully looked into detail of, I have viewed it."

Qrow: "You seemed pretty winded from using it though."

Hedge: "That's because I haven't fully gotten used to the drain of it, but I have used it more than the first person that had."

Ozpin: "And how did they fare using it?"

Hedge: "They were able to beat the entity they were facing with it, but they took the form even further, at the cost of not being able to use it anymore. They didn't die if that was your worry." A smile came across his face as he healed himself and everyone else, Yang waking up. "Though I'll admit that I could've gone an even different route that would've made the fight even more impossible."

The adults knew what he was talking about, but mere confusion was on the students' faces.

Ren: "I find that hard to believe, but then again, from what you just showed us, I'm inclined to agree."

Hedge: "It's something even higher than the last form I just took on." The Chaos Emeralds appeared around him again, but the Master Emerald appeared too.

Yang: "Wait, it involves the big Emerald too?"

Weiss: "Don't you need the rings too in order to sustain the form?"

Hedge chuckled. "Actually...no. I simply used the rings to fall in line with the universe these Emeralds are derived from. I'm able to sustain the forms granted from them without the need of rings, but I wanted to make the challenge as fair as possible."

While the students were shocked that he was able to sustain both the regular and corrupted super forms, they were glad that he followed the regular rules set for the Emeralds for the challenge, otherwise, they probably wouldn't have been able to beat him.

Hedge: "You might want to step back." As it is they had walked up to him to check on Nora, but they obliged. Hedge closed his eyes. "The Servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is Power. Power enriched by the Heart. The Controller is the One that Unifies the Chaos." The Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald started to glow, the smaller Emeralds' enclipsing the Master Emerald, and soon, they transformed, growing in size, nearly matching the size of the giant green emerald.

Envigorated by the power he was feeling from them, Hedge underwent a new transforming, a bright white light shining over him, different from the golden light that had done so when he went to the Super form. After the glow finished, this new form was breathtaking. Hedge hadn't changed much, but the color of his skin was mostly stark white, same with his trenchcoat, and the red stripes were still evident in his hair and on the coat. If the Remnant crew could sense the power coming off of him, it would be godly.

Hedge: "This is known as the Hyper form. Acquired by the Super Emeralds, having been imbued with the power of the Master Emerald. To put it lightly, this form effectively turns you into a God."

Jaune: "A...God?"

Blake: "That's insane."

Weiss: "I would say highly impossible, but like Ren, I'm more inclined to agree as well."

Winter: "Trust me, sister, I thought the same way."

Ironwood: "On that note, I think it's best for you all to freshen up and we have some lunch before we resume watching."

Glynda: "Indeed, you heard the General."

The eight students grabbed their duffle bags and rushed into the connecting locker rooms, while Hedge detransformed and teleported to his room, which had his own shower. The adults left to head off to the dining room, still coming to terms with Hedge's power.

AN: And done! Another one bites the dust.

This was a fun one to work on, simply because it allows me to go into fight scene mode and truly test myself if I'm capable of writing a good fight scene. The AK fight I didn't fully go into detail because that wasn't the main focus of the chapter.

As for Hedge's transformations, I worked along with Swift on what Hedge would use regarding the Chaos/Master Emeralds. We agreed on the Super form at the very least, with the Hyper form being shown to them after the challenge concluded, essentially telling them that if Hedge had busted that form out from the get go, or used that form instead of the Corrupted Super Form from Sonic Frontiers (my idea btw), then the fight would've gone in his favor.

As for explaining the backstory of the Corrupted Super Form, personally, I have not played Frontiers, but I have seen gameplay, and I really do like the boss themes, and seeing the new form in the DLC is really awesome because outside of the storybook transformations (Darkspine and Excalibur) or Werehog from Unleashed, there aren't really any other transformations that Sonic goes through outside of Super and the rare Hyper transformation (yes I am aware of Shadow's Doom powers in the new game too).

Anyways, I really did want the fight to be as even as it could be, without either downplaying Hedge's power, or power-creeping the students, and really, the only one that could keep up was Nora thanks to her semblance.

Let me know what you all thought about this chapter, as now I'll be returning to work on Hedge's story for a bit before I return to here. If you haven't already, give me a follow on that as well to keep up to date. The holidays are coming up soon, so it is possible that updates may be slow.

Until next time, peace out.