Chapter 17: 17
Chapter 17
Yang and Blake got into ready stances next to each other. At the same time, Pyrrha gestured and Miló and Akoúo̱ flew from where they'd been resting beside the porch into her hands. She then put them on her back, and faced Yang and Blake with her hands open.
All three girls tensed, then Yang charged at Pyrrha, immediately firing her gauntlets behind her to gain speed. Blake was only a step behind, moving at an angle to come around at Pyrrha's side.
Pyrrha brought a hand up towards each of her teammates and a black aura erupted around each hand, the Mystralian champion not holding back as she reached for the metal coming swiftly her way.
She flung her right palm's fingers open and pushed... and Yang's arms and legs spread wide as she slowed down and came to a stop, coming to a halt about five feet away from Pyrrha and hanging about two feet above the ground.
Pyrrha made a push away gesture with her left hand in Blake's direction, and Blake let out an involuntary yelp as it felt like am invisible hand grabbed her by the back of her shirt like she was an actual kitten and she was being scruffed... and then she was flying. Blake found herself falling freely and spun in the air to orient herself, creating a clone at the last moment to bleed off momentum and land on all fours in the front yard of the house.
She reached behind her back and slapped a hand on the large metal plate that was attached to her vest... that she usually hung her weapons from, and groaned in realization. "Well damn."
Yang struggled, eyes going red, but Pyrrha focused all of her attention on her and slowly lifted the blond brawler, spread-eagled in front of her.
Pyrrha switched hands so that her left hand was generating the aura keeping Yang suspended, and reached over her shoulder to pull Miló free with her right, transforming it into gun mode as she brought it to bear on Yang as her girlfriend's eyes widened in horror.
"Sorry!" Pyrrha said, then emptied her clip into Yang's stomach. Somehow, Yang's aura was still in the yellow after the full clip, so she raised Yang high in the air then brought her slamming face first into the ground at high speed. Yang's scroll chirped a warning and Pyrrha released her hold, then rushed forward to check on her.
"Yang! Yang, I'm so sorry! Are you alright...?"
Yang groaned and rolled over onto her back even as Pyrrha was reaching her, then gave her a weak thumb's up. "I'm... I'm OK, Babe." She sighed. "OK... wearing metal to a fight vs the mistress of magnetism is sounding a lot dumber than I thought it'd be..."
Pyrrha winced. "I'm sorry..."
Yang snorted. "Babe... forget that. I told you to go all out. You did. No harm done, save maybe to my ego..."
Pyrrha sighed, kneeling at her girlfriend's side, and wiped some dirt off her face gently. "I could have gone easier..."
Yang frowned. "Hell no. No kid gloves, Babe. It was a good lesson, and one I won't forget. You... won't mind if next time I come at you without all the metal?"
Pyrrha smiled. "Of course I won't. No kid gloves. Besides, with your semblance, you could easily overpower me if you manage to get in close enough, even without your gauntlets."
Yang started to nod, then froze, then tried belatedly to smooth out her expression. Without turning, Pyrrha waved her left hand behind her in an arc, and Blake hit the ground with a thump as her feet were swept out from under her as Pyrrha grabbed all the metal in her boots and thrust it all backwards at once.
Pyrrha turned, gestured, and Blake went into the air upside down, hanging from her boots. The cat faunus had apparently removed her vest at some point and had even left Gambol Shroud behind, but it hadn't been enough.
"Should have lost the boots, Kitten." Yang quipped, looking amused from the ground.
Blake growled and curled her body, reaching up to attempt to pull her boots off quickly, but Pyrrha took the opportunity to pull a couple of the metal strips Ruby had made her out of a pouch on her belt and toss them at Blake, wrapping them around each of Blake's wrists. With another motion, she forced Blake's arms and legs apart, holding her in midair above her.
"Do you yield?" Pyrrha asked with a small smile.
A second Blake poofed into existence, attempting to throw the original down towards the ground... but Pyrrha kept her grip on the metal in Blake's boots and the strips around her wrists and kept her hold, and Blake's clone vanished without accomplishing anything more. Pyrrha lifted Blake effortlessly another 20 ft into the air, keeping Blake facing upwards the whole time.
"Do... you... yield?" Pyrrha asked again, trying not to sound smug, and feeling a bit embarrassed at the emotion.
"I yield..." Blake agreed reluctantly. "Set me back down please?"
Pyrrha lowered Blake gently to earth, pulling the two metal strips she'd used to restrain her wrists back to her hands and tucking them away in her pouch with a now obviously practiced movement.
"I'm sorry..." Pyrrha apologized automatically as Blake slowly got to her feet.
"Don't worry about it." Blake said with a wry smile as she rubbed her wrists. Then she sighed. "OK... obviously we didn't think this out well enough."
Pyrrha nodded helpfully. "Would you like to get some wooden swords for our next match?"
Blake chuckled. "I'm planning on it... although that might have to wait till the next time we're on Patch. Don't want to give away your secret to the rest of the school."
Pyrrha shrugged. "Well, team Winter already knows about my semblance."
Yang chuckled. "I don't think they have any idea how powerful your semblance actually is though. And even if they do, they're not going to bring it up."
"We'll give you a better challenge next time." Blake promised, looking serious. "Although trying to fight you with wooden weapons is going to make it challenging."
Yang looked thoughtful. "I'm going to have to get Dad to give me some more pointers about fighting unarmed against weapons... I think I've been relying on Ember Celica a bit too much." She winced. "And man... remind me to NEVER pick a fight with Miss Goodwitch. She could do exactly what you just did to me... except with her it doesn't matter what I'm wearing. No wonder she's our combat instructor. Nobody could take her."
"Glynda is hell on wheels, that's for sure." Qrow commented casually from where he was sitting on the porch. "Not even Raven could take her, and that's saying something."
All three girls startled in his direction, shocked. "Where did you come from, old man?" Yang complained.
"I... I didn't hear a thing..." Blake stammered.
Pyrrha just looked impressed.
Qrow grinned, and nodded to Pyrrha. "Nice show, Red. You handled them like they were a couple amateurs. And you were holding back on me as well."
Pyrrha blushed and lowered her head. "I apologize..."
Qrow laughed and waved her apology off. "Don't worry about it. Keeping a trump card like that is smart. If I hadn't pressed you as hard as I did, I wouldn't have ever noticed it. And I didn't have a clue you were packing that much power. You could have disarmed me any time you wanted to, right?"
Pyrrha hesitated, then nodded. "Probably... not that I'm all that certain that would be sufficient. You did, after all, defeat me with your fists."
Qrow chuckled. "Maybe, but it'd have been interesting to see. Maybe before you head back for school we can go another round?"
Pyrrha nodded. "I would truly appreciate the instruction... Qrow."
Qrow shook his head. "Man... only people I know who wouldn't be at a major handicap against you is Tai... or Glynda... or maybe Ozpin." He nodded appreciatively. "Most people with a trump card like that would keep it close to their chest forever... and there's some sense in that, but I can see you've figured out that you want every card to play you can. That's good. It'll keep you alive in the field."
Pyrrha bowed her head. "It was at Ruby's insistence that I've started training to use my semblance more offensively. If not for her urging, I would have kept using it only in the most subtle ways except in the direst emergency."
Qrow smiled fondly. "She reminds me more and more of her mom all the time." He nodded at Pyrrha. "You won the semblance lottery, kid. Don't waste it."
Pyrrha blushed and ducked her head, looking embarrassed and a little uncomfortable.
Qrow nodded, frowning. "Right, sorry..." he shook his head. "Never mind me. You've got this covered. I've got to..." He stood, putting a couple fingers to his forehead in a mock salute. "Got some stuff to do. Errands to run for old Oz. See you girls later!"
"Got some bars to hit, you mean?" Yang snarked at him good-naturedly. "Barmaids to hit on?"
Qrow just laughed back. "Might be some of that, yeah. See you around, kiddo." With that, he strode off, going around the house and heading down the trail that lead into the nearby port town.
/-/
When Ruby returned from Signal, she brought another dozen metal strips for Pyrrha to practice with.
Hearing about their most recent sparring match, the young reaper looked disappointed. "Aw... I wanted to see that."
Yang chuckled. "Wanted to see me and Kitten getting our asses kicked?"
Ruby grinned at her sister. "Somebody needed a reality check." She looked thoughtful. "OK, team training tomorrow afternoon. Three on one verses Pyrrha."
Pyrrha blinked. "I'm not sure I can handle all of you at once, even without your weapons."
Ruby smiled at her. "Oh, we'll have weapons. I've got some ideas I want to try, and you need some proper practice against opponents who don't rely on metal. Not everyone does, you know, and you won't be able to keep your semblance a secret forever."
Pyrrha nodded. "I will look forward to it then."
/-/
The next morning, Ruby, Blake and Yang headed for Signal academy with Tai, while Pyrrha went back to practicing on training dummies, now with all sixteen metal strips Ruby had made her. While she could easily move all 16 around at once with her Polarity, targeting wrists and ankles accurately took precision, especially if she wanted to wrap the strips around her targets on contact and at speed.
She could handle two at once easily enough, as fast as she could throw a knife, and rather more accurately, but as she got into higher numbers it got tricky. Also, each strip was nearly about a pound in weight, and while four fit in a long pouch designed for ammo, all sixteen together were pretty bulky. She needed to find a way to distribute their weight across her body while still having them easy to access. She considered Ruby's suggestion of using them as pieces of armor.
"I'd need a framework..." She decided. "Perhaps some around my upper arms and wrists... and some running up my back? A few longer pieces for bigger targets? A few inside the rim of Akoúo̱? I'll have to talk to Ruby about it."
Pyrrha continued practicing, laying her sixteen strips around her feet for now and practicing combinations, tossing two strips at a time at the targets, working at increasing her speed and accuracy throughout the morning.
"I really should have been practicing this sort of thing all along." Pyrrha mused to herself. "It's really very useful, especially against human opponents. But I'm already very strong against people. I really need something to increase my effectiveness against the Grimm. How can I use my semblance more effectively against them?" Nothing immediately came to mind, although she did recall Ruby's comment about limpet mines. "I've never used explosives before... but I'm sure it's something I can learn. Still... I want something more consistent. But what?" She shook her head. "Maybe Ruby will have some ideas."
Pyrrha practiced for several hours till her exertions had dropped her own aura into the yellow, then took a break for lunch. The others returned around that time, looking pleased with themselves.
"So... I take it you have a plan of attack?" Pyrrha asked curiously.
Blake grinned. "Well, since we're planning on attacking YOU, you'll just have to find out the hard way."
Pyrrha giggled. "I'm looking forward to it. After lunch then?"
Yang grinned. "You know it Babe. Don't get mad when we beat you, OK?"
Pyrrha smiled and nodded at Yang. "Not at all. I'm quite looking forward to the challenge."
/-/
After lunch, Ruby, Yang and Blake headed upstairs to the bedroom to change clothes, and Pyrrha went outside to wait. She stored eight of the metal strips in pouches on her belt, and left the rest arrayed in a circle around her on the ground. She left Miló and Akoúo̱ on her back, as she usually did, and waited to see what her team had planned for her.
Yang came down first, wearing an orange tank top, her black bicycle shorts, and a white pair of tennis shoes. She was wrapping her hands with boxers tape as she stepped outside. Pyrrha smiled at her girlfriend. The outfit looked very good on her, and as she focused her senses outwards, she couldn't feel even an ounce of metal on the blond.
"You look good, Yang." Pyrrha complemented honestly.
"Thanks Babe." Yang said with a grin. "You're looking sexy dangerous yourself."
"Sexy dangerous?" Pyrrha repeated with a chuckle. "Is that good or bad?"
"Oh... it's good." Yang assured her. "It's very good."
Ruby came out next, wearing a simple black tee shirt over a pair of black sweat pants and her own pair of tennis shoes. She grabbed a heavy looking quarterstaff from where it had been leaning unobtrusively near the front door, and twirled it a few times before leaning it against her shoulder. The weapon was nearly a foot taller than the girl, and was almost two inches thick. It was a massive weapon for a girl her size, but it was probably actually a bit lighter than Crescent Rose. Pyrrha nodded her approval at the choice. The techniques for wielding a staff were very similar to using a scythe, and a staff was a much less difficult weapon to master. Ruby would likely be a very dangerous opponent with it, although lacking a firearm, she'd be quite limited at range.
Blake followed their leader outside, wearing only her white crop top and white shorts and a black pair of slip on shoes. She had her ribbons wrapped around her forearms, and one length around her waist holding a wooden tonfa on either hip.
Tai Xiao-Long came out last, holding an oversized scroll. "OK, I'll judge the match. You girls all ready?"
Ruby threw her dad a thumb's up. "Yup!"
Pyrrha looked curious. "What are the rules today?"
Ruby spoke up. "Regular sparring rules. If your aura drops into the red, you're out. If you leave the cleared area around the house and don't return for longer than thirty seconds, you're out."
Pyrrha blinked at the rules change. "No ring out?"
Ruby shook her head. "We're not always going to be fighting in combat arenas, and the Grimm won't stop coming just because you launch them outside of a ring. It'll give Blake and me some options we'd normally have in a real fight that we wouldn't be able to use inside a small space as well. We both count on our maneuverability a lot."
Pyrrha nodded. "Fair enough. I understand the rules." She smiled and lifted both hands, making a come here gesture with both. "Shall we begin?"
Ruby nodded to her dad, who stepped up to the edge of the porch. "OK, on my mark. Three... two... one... MARK!"
Yang raced forward, sprinting towards Pyrrha and leaping into the air, bringing her right arm back for a powerful first strike.
Pyrrha stepped to the side and slapped a metal strip around Yang's right forearm and yanked the blond brawler into the air. "Yang, you've really got to stop telegraphing with your right..." She explained patiently as Blake and Ruby moved in toward her a little more cautiously.
Yang grabbed her own right arm with her left and began tugging on the band around her forearm. Her eyes went red and she tore it loose just as Pyrrha sent two more bands at her ankles.
Ruby and Blake rushed her from either side. Pyrrha dropped Yang to throw strips at Blake, but both strips only went through a shadow clone as Blake went high over her duplicate and came down on Pyrrha with both tonfa. Pyrrha called Miló and Akoúo̱ into her hands from her back and twirled, taking Blake's tonfa on her shield as she attempted to parry Ruby's attack with Miló, but just before Ruby reached her, the young reaper turned into a swirl of rose petals and blew past her, swirling around in a quick spiral as Ruby used her semblance to try and get a shot at Pyrrha's back.
Blake came at Pyrrha with a whirlwind of blows from her tonfa, and the Mystralian champion had to focus more and more attention on deflecting the attacks, making it harder and harder to keep track of Ruby's petal cloud as it swirled around the fight.
Yang tore the metal strips off her ankles in the meanwhile and had jumped back to her feet, and was coming in again, slower this time, her guard up, but she'd be joining Blake in the melee in only seconds.
Pyrrha was grinning, and she gave herself over to her training, spinning and striking and whirling and switching weapon mods with Miló, launching Akoúo̱ at Yang like a discus, then using her semblance to sling the shield at the back of Blake's head instead of recalling it to her arm like she usually did.
Blake went face-first into the dirt, the ringing echo of Akoúo̱ bouncing off the back of her head filling the clearing, and Yang had to duck to avoid the shield as it bounced back at her an instant later.
Pyrrha started to grin wider, skipping backwards lightly as she directed Akoúo̱ like a guided missile at the blond, Yang ducking and diving to dodge the repeated attacks as the shield continued to try and slam into her like a miniature possessed UFO.
Ruby came out of her semblance less than ten feet away from Pyrrha, swinging her quarterstaff for Pyrrha's face while flying at her at over a hundred miles an hour. Pyrrha bent backwards to dodge the blow, turning the dodge into a back flip that sent a kick Ruby's way, but the smaller girl was already past her and bursting into rose petals before Pyrrha could connect. In her distraction, Pyrrha had automatically summoned Akoúo̱ back to her left wrist, and as she got back into her ready stance, she noted Blake had shaken off her momentary stun and was back on her feet, and she and Yang were again charging her, going to either side to pince her in the middle. Their teamwork was excellent, Pyrrha noted idly as she summoned a pair of metal strips from the small ring of them she'd left on the ground, which was now behind Yang and Blake, and out of their line of sight. She caught one of Yang's ankles, throwing her girlfriend's stride off, but Blake summoned another shadow clone which took the hit for her and leaped once again high into the air to come down on Pyrrha with another flurry of tonfa strikes.
Pyrrha swept Yang's left ankle out from under her and dragged the blond into the air by it as she concentrated on keeping Blake off her with her shield. Yang yelped and tried to curl up to get a hold of her ankle and free herself, but Pyrrha was pulling her into the air with such force that it was taking all of her strength.
But Blake was pressing Pyrrha hard now, and then Ruby came around from behind, Pyrrha having lost track of the little reaper for one second too long.
Pyrrha ducked at the last instant as Ruby swung for the back of her head but the distraction cost her and Blake tagged her in the side, then got inside her guard and grabbed onto Pyrrha's left arm with her right hand, dropping that tonfa and slamming her left handed tonfa into Pyrrha's ribs over and over.
Pyrrha dropped Miló to grab Blake by the throat and she threw the cat-girl bodily away from her, then summoned two more metal strips to try and catch Blake in mid air.
Blake AGAIN used a shadow clone to take the hits, the clone tossing Blake lightly to the ground the instant before Pyrrha hit it, causing it to vanish, and she had to bring Akoúo̱ up quickly to absorb yet another powerful blow from Ruby who had managed to come around again, using her semblance to it's fullest to give the small girl a huge amount of momentum for every hit.
Pyrrha reeled back trying to get some space, realizing that Yang had fallen back to earth in the meantime and had managed to get free while she was distracted, and whipped two more metal strips at the blond even as Yang was getting to her feet once more. She connected with both, hitting Yang's left arm and left ankle at the same time, and sent the blond spinning into the air again before she was again forced to fend off Blake.
"Damn it!" Yang yelled as she slammed into the roof of the Xiao-Long house. "Why is it always me?!"
"Sorry!" Pyrrha called back to her, her tone distracted as she went back to fending off Blake and Ruby, both of whom were consistently managing to avoid her attempts to capture any of their limbs. She went back to what she knew, using Miló and Akoúo̱, and two on one, she was able to hold her own, and even managed glancing hits on Blake and Ruby now and then.
Yang leapt from the roof, having once again freed herself, and raced in to rejoin the melee. Pyrrha back-flipped to gain space and sent two more metal strips from her circle to try and take Yang out again, but this time the blond brawler ducked and rolled, dodging the metal projectiles entirely and coming up on her feet in an instant to continue her charge.
Pyrrha threw Akoúo̱ like a discus, causing Blake to duck, then whipped it towards Ruby, then Yang in quick succession, Yang was ready though, and though the shield struck her in the stomach hard enough to send her flying, she clamped down on Akoúo̱ with both hands at the same time, her hair bursting into flames as her eyes flashed bright red.
Yang hurled the disk back at Pyrrha with incredible force, then leaped high into the air at her, once again bringing her right hand back as she came in like a flaming meteor.
Pyrrha ducked Akoúo̱ and sidestepped Yang, slashing Yang's right forearm with Miló as she passed. Yang yelped in pain and spun to the ground, holding her arm, and Tai called out, "Yang! You're out!" even as a faint ping came from the scroll he was holding.
Pyrrha was distracted for a long moment, looking at Yang in concern, and Blake took advantage of the opportunity to race up to her and engage her in close quarters once more.
"I'm fine!" Yang squeaked a bit unconvincingly as she noticed Pyrrha's distraction, waving her right hand weakly at her girlfriend. "Don't stop!"
Pyrrha nodded once to Yang, relieved that she didn't appear to have done her any serious damage, and focused on her fight with Blake. Blake was attacking intensely, and Pyrrha had to really concentrate to match her swing for swing. The faunus really was incredible with two weapons, and without any metal in them for her to deflect, Pyrrha had to really focus to keep up.
After a long series of exchanges both girls had gotten off a few hits, although Pyrrha was pretty sure she'd gotten the better end of the deal, she suddenly wondered... where had Ruby gone?
And then something hit her in the back of the head like she'd been swatted by an Ursa and Pyrrha tumbled to the ground even as she heard the unmistakable crack of a sniper rifle in the distance... the sound reaching her at just about the same time as the round had struck the back of her head.
"And that's the match!" Tai announced as his scroll buzzed again. "Pyrrha's aura is in the red!"
Pyrrha groaned and slowly looked around, finally spotting Ruby at the edge of the treeline, holding Crescent Rose.
She slowly rolled up into a sitting position, gingerly touching the back of her head as she sighed. "Ah. You hid your weapon in the woods before the fight, I assume?"
Ruby grinned. "Yup. You've always got to be on guard for snipers, you know."
Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "Snipers."
Ruby nodded seriously. "Yup. They could be anywhere."
Blake nodded along, looking somber. "Sniper awareness is crucial." She agreed importantly.
Pyrrha giggled softly. "I'll keep that in mind."
Everyone's aura was low after the fight, so they took the rest of the day off to relax, playing video games in the living room, or just hanging out. Tai cooked dinner with a little help from Yang, and during dinner, Tai gave them his impressions of the fight.
"OK, to start with, Yang... you've got to stop relying on your semblance so much." Tai warned. "You can't just take every hit. You run the risk of your aura being depleted in the middle of a fight, and sometimes you won't be able to take every hit. Some semblances, and some Grimm, can go right through your aura like it's not there." He shook his head. "And you've GOT to stop telegraphing with your right. It's practically a signature at this point, and it's way too predictable. Work on changing it up, and starting out with faster, less aggressive moves at first, at least until you've got an opening."
Yang sighed and nodded. "I was just telling Nora the same thing the other day. I guess I should listen to my own advice."
Tai smiled at his eldest daughter and turned to Blake. "Not much to say, except I notice you usually start with a leaping attack as well. It's fine against Grimm... but against anyone with a ranged option, it's just begging to get hit. Also, you need to work on your situational awareness a little. Still... overall, I'm impressed. You use your clones for distractions and to help you maneuver. Can they do anything else?"
Blake nodded. "I can combine them with dust for various effects as well... although I don't usually have much dust to use."
Ruby spoke up. "We'll get some in Vale before school starts back up. We've really got to give you the chance to practice with dust more."
Blake smiled and nodded. "That would be great." She hesitated. "Just... you don't have to spend too much on me..."
Ruby shook her head. "We'll get you as much as you need. You need dust to practice with AND for missions. The stronger you are, the safer we all are. It's worth it."
Tai nodded. "I agree. I've got a bit saved away for replacements for Ruby and Yang's weapons, but I can help pay for some dust as well if you're a bit short."
Pyrrha spoke up. "I'll contribute as well. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing what you can do with some dust, Blake."
Blake hesitated, then slowly nodded. "Alright. I wouldn't mind being able to contribute more to the team... so... thank you. I don't know when I'll be able to pay you back, but..."
Ruby cut her off. "You don't have to pay anything back. This is for the team. If you're stronger, we're all safer. Pay us back by getting stronger." Pyrrha nodded to that, looking very serious.
Blake's smile grew tremulous, and she brought her hand up to her face to wipe at her eyes for a second, but she nodded firmly, not quite able to meet anyone's eyes. "I will. I'll get stronger, and I'll protect you all."
Ruby put a hand on her shoulder lightly. "I know you will."
/-/
The next morning, Ruby called everyone out into the yard at once. "OK, we only have two more days till we have to head back to school, so I want to help Pyrrha work on training with her semblance today, since we won't get the opportunity as easily once we're back at Beacon."
Yang counted on her fingers. "Two more days? We're due back at Beacon in four."
Ruby shook her head. "I want to get some shopping done in Vale before we go back to Beacon, and the last day before school we might as well relax, since it'll be back to classes after that."
Yang grinned. "Relax? What is this strange word? I can't seem to remember what it means!"
Ruby winced. "Ah... I guess I've been pushing us really hard. And it's supposed to be our break..."
Yang waved her off. "It's fine. It's been fun, even if we've been working our asses off..." she pouted slightly. "Although I was kind of hoping for more time with my girlfriend... you have kind of been working Pyrrha really hard."
Pyrrha smiled fondly at Yang. "I don't mind, Yang. This really has been a good opportunity for me to learn some new skills."
Yang pouted some more. "But... girlfriend time."
Pyrrha blushed slightly. "Well... I can't say I wouldn't like some... quality time myself."
Ruby bit her lip. "Well... we could make it just one more day of training then?"
Yang considered that. "One and a half. Tomorrow afternoon I want to take Pyrrha out on a date."
Pyrrha smiled and looked at Ruby curiously.
Ruby blinked at Pyrrha apparently asking permission, and quickly nodded. "Sure. That's fine. This is supposed to be our break after all."
Yang whooped happily and Pyrrha smiled at her enthusiasm.
Ruby turned to Blake. "When did I suddenly become team mom? I'm the youngest!"
Blake shrugged. "You're a good leader, Ruby. We trust your judgement. And you make us want to do our best."
Ruby blushed. "You're just saying that."
Pyrrha chipped in. "On the contrary, I find myself very comfortable following your orders, Ruby. You have never led us astray."
Yang shrugged. "Got to agree, sis. If you'd asked me right after Ozpin had picked you for team leader, I wouldn't have believed it, but you've really gotten good at this whole team leader thing." She grinned ferally. "And I'm REALLY liking our chances in the Vital Festival this year."
Tai spoke up. "I'm really proud of how you've grown up, Ruby. You remind me more and more of your mother every day." Ruby's blush grew till it came down to her neck, and Tai continued, changing the subject. "So, what's your plan for the day? You said you needed my help as well?"
Ruby did her best to control her blush as she answered. "Yeah, dad. I want Pyrrha to have lots and lots of target practice today... so today, we're not going to fight her... we're just going to try and dodge. Pyrrha will try and capture all of us, while we all play keep away."
Yang looked surprised. "That's it? We're not supposed to fight back?"
Ruby shook her head. "Pyrrha's plenty good at defending herself. What she needs is practice with her new weapons. Lots and lots of practice."
Yang rolled her shoulders. "OK... playing tag with flying metal bondage cuffs. Cool."
Pyrrha blushed scarlet. "They're not..."
Blake chuckled. "They kind of are." She nodded, getting more serious. "But Ruby's right. You were really good with flinging Akoúo̱ around yesterday, and you were pretty accurate with those metal strips Ruby made... when you were aiming at a target that wasn't evading, anyway. But if you're going to use them against huntsmen level opponents, you're going to need more practice with them." She started to do some stretches. "I'm in. I could use more practice with evasion myself. I've gotten a bit rusty." She nodded to Pyrrha. "Fighting you when you're using your semblance is like fighting a whole, well coordinated team. At least when you're in the zone. Let's get you up to the level where you can use more than just two of those things at once... accurately."
Ruby nodded. "So... everybody ready?"
They all glanced around at each other, then nodded.
Ruby grinned. "Then... ready... set... go!"
/-/
It was like a game at first. A very fast, frantic, and exhausting game. Yang got caught the most often, and before long she stopped having fun with it. The better she got at dodging, the better Pyrrha seemed to get with her accuracy. Blake and Ruby were getting caught less and less often, while Yang found herself doing worse and worse as the day went on. Tai seemed to settle into the training with aplomb, staying calm and putting in a constant amount of effort. He got increasingly good at grabbing the metal strips out of the air or parrying them away from himself, while Yang started to feel like she was just getting clumsier and clumsier throughout the day.
Yang refused to let it show on her face, forcing a grin and powering through each new session, determined not to be the one to call it quits first, and she managed to get through the day without complaint. Pyrrha WAS getting a lot better, and Ruby and Blake seemed to really be getting something out of the training as well, so she'd be damned if she was the one to spoil it for the rest of them.
The next morning was worse. Pyrrha had gotten Ruby to make her a few new strips... about twice as long as most of the others, and she had added wrapping up two limbs (usually ankles) at once, or throwing them around someones neck or eyes to choke or blind them. Yang was the one who got hit the most often with these new tricks, and it was more than just her ego stinging by the time lunch came around and Ruby called an end to their final training session.
After lunch, Yang forced a cheery smile on her face and invited Pyrrha to go for a ride with her on Bumblebee.
Pyrrha accepted with her usual sweet smile, and they'd ridden out to the far side of Patch, stopping on a cliff side viewpoint that Yang had always found particularly picturesque.
Yang sat on the edge of the cliff, gesturing for Pyrrha to join her, and the two girls sat in silence for a time, enjoying the quiet and the time together.
"Yang?" Pyrrha asked quietly. "Are you angry with me?"
Yang turned to Pyrrha in shock. "What? No! No Babe... not at all!"
Pyrrha studied Yang's face, looking pensive. "But something's bothering you. Did I... did I hurt you today?"
Yang frowned, then shook her head. "My pride, maybe... but I'm fine. Really."
Pyrrha looked mildly dubious. "Really?"
Yang sighed. "I... I just..." she shook her head. "It's stupid."
Pyrrha leaned against her, letting her bare shoulder rest against Yang's. "You're not stupid. Talk to me? Please?"
Yang took a deep breath before she answered. "You've been... kind of handing me my ass for the last few days, Babe. And I'm not getting any better. Ruby, and Blake, and Dad were giving you a run for your money, but I can't seem to get a hang of all this running and dodging."
Pyrrha looked surprised. "Yang... you were getting better and better the whole time. You were fantastic. Really."
Yang frowned at her. "Come on, Pyrrha. You kept catching me, no matter what I did. Right from when Blake and I first sparred with you... you've been playing with me like a rag doll." She put her head on top of Pyrrha's shoulder. "Its... it's not a big deal. I mean, you and Ruby and Blake are all getting a lot stronger. If all I can do is play training dummy for you... then I'm happy to do it. I love you Babe. Anything you need, you know?"
Pyrrha put an arm around Yang's back, and squeezed her tightly. "Yang... I want you to listen to me. Yes, Ruby and Blake, they've been getting much better at evading my attacks, but both of them have semblances that are practically designed for evasion. They've both got extremely good semblances for dodging."
Yang broke in wryly. "And mine is good for letting me hit things with my face really hard."
"You have been getting better." Pyrrha assured her. "I've had to push myself harder and harder to be able to catch you. Trust me, you've improved immensely in just the last two days. It's not quite fair to compare yourself to Blake or Ruby though. You can't exactly create shadow clones or turn into rose petals. I don't think there are many who could match their abilities in this particular area."
"And your semblance is a VERY powerful offensive weapon." Pyrrha corrected firmly. "It doesn't make you harder to hit, or even make you more durable. It just allows you to return the damage you take two-fold to your opponents." She shook her head. "Don't underestimate yourself just because you're not as good at dodging as our teammates. You are an incredibly powerful huntress... and I respect you far too much to ever take you anything less than completely seriously." She chuckled softly. "Yang... why do you think I always targeted you first when you and Blake and Ruby were fighting me at the same time? I can take a hit from Blake or Ruby... but if you ever closed the distance with your semblance charged up... I know quite well that you'd end the fight."
Yang blinked, then looked her girlfriend in the face. "So... you've been picking on me on purpose?"
Pyrrha winced. "Let's just say I have a great deal of respect for how dangerous you are... darling."
Yang grinned. "Darling?"
Pyrrha shrugged sheepishly. "I'm trying it out?"
Yang shrugged. "Call me whatever you like, as long as you call me yours."
"I am yours." Pyrrha corrected. "But I suppose you can be mine too, if you like."
"I am ALL yours, Babe." Yang assured her. "For as long as you want me."
Pyrrha smiled. "Good."
/-/
The two of them spent the rest of the day together, wandering around the mostly deserted coastline of Patch, walking, talking, and taking in the view till the sky started to darken.
While they'd been gone, Ruby, Tai and Blake had gone fishing down by the ferry docks, and come back with several large trout for dinner. Qrow showed up in time for dinner, and the evening had been loud, boisterous, and very cheerful, everyone conscious that this was to be their last night on Patch. They planned on spending the last day of break shopping in Vale, and to spend the last night of break back in their dorms to avoid the rush of returning students the next morning.
Ruby took the lead in Vale, taking them first to her favorite dust store... the very one she'd saved from Roman Torchwick the night she'd gotten recruited to come to Beacon, and the grateful store owner gave them a nice discount on a large supply of dust crystals and rounds for Blake... as well as reloads for Yang and Ruby's weapons.
Next, Ruby took them to her favorite weapons store, a small brick and mortar building in a slightly less reputable part of town that seemed to cater pretty exclusively to hunters. There were a startling variety of different types of weapons there, from the traditional to mechashift weapons of various types, and even a wall with various pieces of armor.
Ruby took one long look around, then grinned. "Hah! I was hoping they'd still have one! Pyrrha, come look at this!" She dragged the taller girl by the hand over to one wall, then pointed at what appeared to be a metal throwing star... although one four feet across at the points.
Pyrrha blinked. "That is... quite the large throwing star."
"It's a Fūma Shuriken." Ruby explained proudly. "Well, a replica, but all the replicas here are fully functional."
She waved to a large bald man with dark skin standing behind the counter. "Agil! Can we try the Fūma Shuriken out?"
The man grinned and waved his hand dismissively. "You break it, you buy it kid."
Ruby threw him a thumb's up and pulled it down carefully, then, moving out into an open space, spun the giant shuriken by the big circular handle in it's middle several times, showing off a little. "I was thinking... you were saying you wanted something that would be good against Grimm that you could..." she stopped spinning the weapon and stepped in to whisper. "That you could use your semblance on?"
Pyrrha nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. I believe I could use this with Polarity very effectively... much how I can use Akoúo̱ when I throw her. But... it's rather bulky, isn't it?"
Ruby grinned and, with a click, folded the weapon so that all four blades merged into one, leaving a heavy bladed short sword with a ring for a handle, only about two feet long and around six inches wide.
Pyrrha smiled. "Well... I should have anticipated that, I suppose."
Ruby shrugged. "Want to try it out?"
Pyrrha chuckled. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try. And conceptually, I can see how it could be very effective against Grimm." She nodded, taking the giant shuriken from Ruby. "I believe I will buy this for myself, yes. Although I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to properly practice with it."
Ruby grinned. "I'm sure we'll have an opportunity sooner or later. You can keep it in your weapon's locker till then."
Pyrrha nodded agreeably. "I can't see the harm."
They proceeded to the counter, where Pyrrha purchased her new weapon. Pyrrha decided to walk around a bit and look at the selection a bit more, while Ruby leaned over the counter to speak quietly with the owner.
The big dark-skinned man laughed after a while. "Hah. Sorry kid. Can't do it. Can't sell you that kind of ordinance till you've got your full Hunter's license. Come see me in a few years, OK?"
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "What if..."
Agil shook his head. "And don't you send your Uncle in here pretending they're for him. I know your ways, kid."
Ruby pouted. "What if I got a note from Ozpin?"
Agil raised an eyebrow. "Ozpin clears it, I'll make an exception, but I wouldn't hold my breath kid."
Ruby shrugged. "Well, you never know till you try." She smiled at the big man and turned away, whistling to herself.
Blake and Pyrrha, overhearing the end of the conversation, turned to Yang in confusion, but the blond brawler only shrugged helplessly, as clueless as them.
As they started out of the store, Blake moved up to walk at Ruby's side. "So... what was that all about? What were you trying to buy?"
Ruby grinned. "It'll be a surprise."
Blake blinked. "What kind of surprise?"
Ruby grinned wider. "A really cool one. You'll see."
Blake looked dubious. "Assuming you get professor Ozpin to sign off on it, anyway... whatever it is."
Ruby shrugged, looking non-nonchalant. "If he doesn't, I'll just build them myself."
Yang broke in. "Build what?"
Ruby just shook her head and grinned. "You'll see."
/-/
They got back to Beacon early in the afternoon, so Ruby announced she'd be heading to the Beacon's crafting area to work on some ideas she had, and Blake decided to head for Beacon's library for some reading material, leaving Yang and Pyrrha alone in their dorm.
Ruby took several of the metal strips she'd made for Pyrrha along with her, and spent some time making a bandolier for them. Pyrrha just didn't have room to store them all on her current combat outfit, and Ruby meant to fix that. She talked with the head of the smithy for awhile, and after bouncing ideas back and forth, she started working on a design. Creating weapons wasn't all about metal forging, after all, and Ruby had designed her own combat outfit herself. She was no stranger to working with softer materials.
After she'd gotten a design she liked, she decided to find Blake in the library, and found the cat-faunus in a comfortable chair back on the second floor of the library where Ruby often recalled finding her in the previous timeline. Blake greeted her with a cheerful smile, and got up so they could head back to the dorm together.
Ruby opened the door, turning to say something to Blake as she started entering their shared dorm room backwards... but the wide-eyed look on Blake's face had her swivel around to see what had the faunus girl so startled.
Yang and Pyrrha were frozen in mid action, Ruby's sister was straddling the Mistralian girl on top of her bed... and neither one seemed to be wearing much in the way of clothing.
Ruby yelped and whipped back around a second later, and almost frantically pushed Blake back outside, closing the door behind her.
Both she and Blake were blushing furiously, and when they caught each other's eyes, they only blushed harder.
"Oh boy..." Ruby said with a grimace. "I did not need to see that."
Blake licked her lips and nodded faintly, and somehow Ruby suspected that Blake didn't quite agree with the sentiment.
After another twenty seconds or so of awkward silence, Ruby sighed and gestured towards the door, keeping her back towards it. "Blake... could you, um... check to see if Pyrrha and... my SISTER, are decent yet?"
Blake nodded silently and moved past Ruby to open the door a crack, peeking inside. She sighed after a moment, sounding almost disappointed as she turned to Ruby. "They're fine."
Yang and Pyrrha were sitting on opposite sides of the room, wearing their pajamas and looking sheepish.
"Er... sorry sis." Yang began. "You usually are busy for hours whenever you start a new project, and Blakey is the same with a new book, we kind of thought we'd have some time..."
Ruby sighed. "It's fine..." She said grudgingly. "It was an accident." She wrinkled her nose. "Next time though... just... let us know to stay away ahead of time?"
Yang groaned. "Yeah, that'll be awkward." She adopted a falsely cheerful tone. "Hey sis! Could you clear out for a couple hours so I can bang my girlfriend? Thanks!"
"Yang!" Pyrrha gasped reprovingly, then blushed. "Bang? Really?"
Yang chuckled, blushing slightly as well. "Make love to my girlfriend?" She corrected.
Ruby palmed her face. "You could just tell me you'd like some private time with Pyrrha. You don't have to... go into details."
Yang shrugged easily. "Sure, sure." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Same goes for you then, sis. Just give us a head's up when you want some... private time with Blakey."
Blake smiled appreciatively. "We'll do that, Yang."
Ruby tried not to burst into flames. She mostly succeeded, although she could swear her face was approaching the temperature necessary for combustion.
Blake watched her girlfriend's face redden, and tried not to show how much she was enjoying Ruby's embarrassment. "Tomorrow night, perhaps?" She asked Ruby sweetly.
Ruby swallowed hard, then slowly nodded.
Yang's eyes were wide, and her mouth opened and closed several times before she recovered. "Right!" She said with forced calm. "We'll give you two some privacy tomorrow night, right Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha nodded calmly. "Of course." She looked thoughtful. "That said... Ruby, Blake... would you mind terribly if we had the room for... a little while longer?"
Yang turned to her girlfriend in astonishment. "Babe?"
Pyrrha smiled sweetly. "I would very much like to continue where we left off, if that's alright with you two?"
Ruby and Blake both nodded slowly, and Ruby turned to the cat faunus with a forced smile. "I'm pretty sure the cafeteria is still open. Want to get some dinner?"
Blake relaxed visibly with a nod. "Yes, dinner sounds good." She nodded to Yang and Pyrrha with a grin. "Have fun you two."
Yang blushed softly, and Pyrrha beamed warmly at her. "We'll do our best to do so."
/-/
The next morning, at breakfast, the dining hall was once again packed with students, although not quite to capacity. Team WJNR was sitting a few tables away. Ruby was going on about plans for a double date in the city for their last free time before the semester started, going on about the arcade, and the movies, and various restaurants she either liked or wanted to try.
Yang was only half paying attention, playing a game with Nora where each of them tossed grapes or cherries at the other, catching the thrown fruit in their mouths. Pyrrha was watching the game with a fond smile, almost giggling at her girlfriend's antics, but quite content to let her have her fun.
Ruby was giving one of her now almost traditional pep speeches. "What I'm talking about is kicking off the semester with a BANG!"
Yang just couldn't help herself. "I always kick my semesters off with a YANG..." she said. The entire area around them went silent, as Yang looked around for support. "Guys? Eh? Eh?"
Nora expressed herself by chucking an apple at Yang's head. "Boo!"
Ruby tried to get the conversation back on track, but Yang fired back at Nora with a pear, accidentally hitting Ren, who cried out in protest.
Nora picked up a pie covered with whip cream, and chucked it as hard as she could. Pyrrha's hand zipped out and caught the pie, spinning around once and tossing it back to sender, but the unfamiliar aerodynamics of the pie caused her to miss her target, the pie going whip cream first into Weiss's surprised face.
Pyrrha winced and waved nervously at Weiss as the astonished heiress wiped whip cream off her face, and Nora laughed hysterically.
Weiss jumped up on the table. "Just so you know, Pyrrha Nikos... THIS MEANS WAR!"
And the cafeteria descended into utter chaos.
Pyrrha couldn't believe how much fun this was... dueling Weiss with bread stick and cafeteria tray verses Weiss's... swordfish? Why was there an uncooked swordfish in the cafeteria? But regardless, it was amazingly entertaining. Everything was a weapon when you could infuse it with Aura, and while most of the students fled from the combined wrath of teams RPBY and WJNR, and the tables were formed into barricades and small fortresses... although food littered every surface, often making the footing treacherous... she couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun.
Pyrrha blushed remembering that she'd actually had quite a bit of fun the very last evening with Yang, although not of the same sort, certainly... and her distraction caused her to drop her guard just long enough for Nora to get in a good hit with her flagpole/watermelon variation on a giant hammer, causing Pyrrha to go flying, crashing into a soda machine, which fell and knocked over two others, all of which spilled dozens if not hundreds of cans of soda all around her.
Pyrrha got an evil look on her face, and slapped a hand on the floor, sending her polarity out to collect every can in range... and there were a LOT of them. She visualized what she would do, gathering the cans up and sending them in waves... using them as carbonated bombs to scatter team WJNR and drive them off balance so Yang or Blake or Ruby could finish them off... and the cans had just started to lift from the floor when she blinked, and stopped. The cans fell back to the floor before they could move more than a centimeter or so. But something Ruby had said only a few days before was ringing in her ears now.
"How many objects can you move at once?" Blake had asked.
"Like, hundreds and hundreds!" Ruby had enthused.
Pyrrha had interrupted, quite confused. "How did you know that?"
Ruby had looked like she didn't understand the question. "You levitated all those soda cans during that awesome food fight..." she'd said, then gone pale, looking almost... frightened. As if she'd said something she shouldn't.
For some reason, the strange expression on Ruby's face came strongly to her mind. It was the expression Ruby had when she was... when she was lying about something.
It didn't happen often, of course. Ruby lied poorly. It was one of her more charming qualities. And Yang always seemed to know when Ruby was keeping something from them. It was always harmless, of course, Ruby was the sweetest girl... she only wanted the best for them. Didn't she?
Pyrrha rose slowly to her feet as the fight carried on around her, but Yang called things to a halt. "Hey! Pyrrha, are you alright? Guys, quit it, I think Pyrrha's hurt!" Pyrrha raised a hand to wave off Yang's concern but... she had lost all desire to continue the conflict. The fun had vanished, leaving a chill worry in it's place.
"I believe I may have... hit my head rather hard there. I believe I will bow out, if you don't mind." Pyrrha said quietly. The fighting had stopped, however, and everyone could hear her fine.
"Oh gosh, Pyrrha! I'm sorry! Sometimes I don't know my own strength!" Nora apologized quickly and sincerely, rushing up to peer into the Mistralian champion's face in concern. "Does your head hurt? How many fingers am I holding up?"
Even as the others crowded around, looking concerned, the doors burst open to reveal Miss Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin. With a snarl, Glynda waved her riding crop, causing tables and benches, soda machines and food of all sorts to fly into place all over the cafeteria, turning what had been a terrible mess into something organized back in pretty much the way they had been when the morning began. It was an amazing show of power, and yet Pyrrha barely paid attention to it.
Glynda looked like she wanted to march over and reprimand them all severely, but Professor Ozpin just smiled and calmed his assistant with a few kind words. "They'll not be children for much longer..." he reminded her gently, and Glynda sighed, pushed her glasses up on her nose and nodded.
"Children..." She remonstrated with only a hint of ire. "Do not play with your food."
Pyrrha nodded obediently as the two teams remaining in the hall headed back for their dorm rooms, but her mind was troubled with Ruby's words. How? Pyrrha wondered loudly in the privacy of her own head. How did Ruby know?
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone