Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MyrtenRose]

Raven, as the second soldier into the fray, had about half a second to dodge the Nora-shaped bullet lest she be sent right back through her own portal in turn, and assuming she managed it was now left standing face to face with the final legacy of whatever she and Tai had, tresses the same shade of gold as him already staining crimson. Dragon had dropped back down on her haunches after the punch, poised like a predator with fingers tracing the floor between her legs and head lolled lazily to one side in amusement as she slowly raised her human hand to where the blood was thickest, letting it trickle over the back of her knuckles.

"Gee, ma. This sudden interest is so off-brand. What is this, some kinda punishment? You bringing the entire neighborhood through to spank me?"

Her eyes lidded, the hand fell to her lips, and she licked the blood off in one motion as her taunting tone dropped to a husky, sensuous whisper.

"Have I been that bad a girl?"

It was only with literally the narrowest of dodges that Raven managed to avoid being struck by Comet Nora, the wind that followed sweeping through her hair as she stood her ground. Her eyes narrowed as she observed her daughter acting more like beast than person, even licking the blood from her hand in a savage manner. It was...difficult to watch. But whatever she felt, the troubled storm of feelings that spiked within, was hidden behind a wall of stony composed resolve. She didn't even say a single word in response to Yang's bait, merely shifting her stance and lifting her blade into a more combat ready position. Her own head tilted slightly in turn, seemingly waiting for the Dragon to be the one to make the first move.

"Too soft."

BWOOOOOOOM

The impact of the haymaker that slammed into Nora's jaw actually matched that of Ember Celica's trademark boom in volume, and the even louder explosion of Nora breaking the sound barrier was soon to follow as she came to her senses a few seconds later, having actually blacked out from the sheer force her brain just rattled around her skull with. She was back in the inn, tangled in a pile of tables and chairs and staring up at the ceiling, and if she were to hazard a guess somewhere between a quarter and a third of her aura had been devastated by that swing alone.

One of said tables got flung roughly up at the ceiling, and another got roughly kicked away to the side as Nora pushed herself free of the pile. That had hurt. Yet, Nora hardly seemed deterred in the slightest, jumping back to her feet with an energy that was so characteristically her. She rubbed briefly at her jaw before grinning like an absolute madwoman and any chuckles at her expense completely ignored. "Oh, now it's on." She cracked her knuckles and then pulled her hammer free of that mess of tables and chairs. "Hey, Ruby?" Nora turned to look her way. "Would you still happen to have..." She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Ruby nodded, swapping out the dust ammo for Crescent. A few trigger pulls followed, shots of lightning dust slamming into the bruiser who kept herself rooted to the spot. The somewhat shaken Vernal(having barely managed to avoid the tiny Nora rocket blasting back through to this side) looked between the two, briefly confused. Then she just shrugged, raising her own weapon and firing a few lightning rounds herself. Every single one was a shot of pure power, fueling her like a hit of adrenaline. Lightning coursed through her veins as much as it sparked in the air around her.

"I'm going to enjoy this."

A mere moment after the barrage ceased, Nora was already moving in a dash for the portal and letting loose with a ferocious battle roar.​

Ah well.

She hopped through the portal and landed as gracefully as one could.

There she was standing without a care in the world.

The one who'd killed this world's Roman.

"..."​

She didn't even falter when she charged through the other side. Only quick thinking kept her from running straight into Neo's back. Nora pressed off the ground with her boots, a light hop taking her up just high enough to land on the ice cream killer's bowler hat. Which she absolutely used as a springboard for another stronger jump, one that had her sail over Raven entirely and Nora once again bringing the hammer down, intent to spike the the Dragon into the weirdly organic floor.

"YOU"LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT IF YOU WANT TO KEEP ME DOWN!"

Raven quickly seized the opportunity, hoping to take advantage of her daughter's eyes being more centered on the lightning bruiser. She took off in a blur of motion, rushing to end up behind the Dragon and lashing out with a series of slices, timed to synchronize perfectly with the strike from above.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Shes' right; how dare you imply she's cute" Watts' ever dry voice cut in before he grabbed the side of Cinder's sleeve and dragged her along as he puttered on past on his strange little hover scooter. "Come along, don't make eye contact, street vendors use the same rules as pokemon trainers."

"So not what I meant!" She passionately objected, though she didn't resist at all as she was being dragged further on. He was insufferable about it but she could hardly say his statement about street vendors was wrong. Besides, the irritation soon evaporated anyhow.​

"Huntsmen and huntresses only! Beacon Academy students only! People whose names begin with A and C only! I have so many t-shirts!!!"

"Wait wha--" She didn't manage to question that VERY ODDLY SPECIFIC bit before Arthur jump boosted her to the roof. Entirely unnecessary since she could fly, but she didn't bother to point that out. She crept along after him to the edge, a far less wary and more curious look in her eye as she peeked alongside him.​

It was empty.

Where previously there had been markets, loiterers, and loose throngs of the kind of suspect individuals who had a reason to be out this late at night (or, depending on your perspective, early in the morning), there was now nothing. The t-shirt merchant and his stall were nowhere to be seen, little to be seen in general aside from a single flickering street light that cast dancing shadows up and down the isolated brick road. There was only one other detail of note.

Their tail was now much further up the street from where they'd been, leaning up against the wall at the mouth of an alley as darkened and opaque as the one Watts had dipped into and staring right back up at him with a patient air. Their face was still concealed, but it wasn't hard to imagine the smirk under that hood as they stood fully upright, put their feet together and threw a mock military styled salute up towards the rooftop, slowly bringing the hand that had been hidden behind their back up to show off its prize.

Whether or not Watts identified the Relic of Knowledge at a distance before Cinder realized the weight dangling from her waist had, at some point, stopped being the lamp and started being a Pumpkin Pete lunchbox was for them to determine. The figure seemed content either way, sizing the artifact up where it dangled loosely from their grip, and there was little-to-no urgency in their step as they turned and sauntered casually into the alleyway, becoming swallowed up by the shadows in moments.

"Wait what." This time she managed to get it out fully, eyebrow raising in surprise at the nearly absolute nothing that was there in comparison to the more bustling of just moments ago. Yet even that level of surprise paled to the one that followed when the hooded figure revealed the relic!!! Even at this distance, in the darkness and with one eye only, she recognized it nearly immediately. The eagle eye of an archer for the win!!! Or rather, for the loss in this case!! She gasped and glanced to her side in plain worry, where she was greeted with the sight of Jaune Arc's favorite lunchbox. "What??? When...how...did--ah!" She didn't even try to form that into a coherent sentence, immediately running back to scoop up Arthur's adorable scooter and then right back to the roof's edge for her other arm to wrap around Arthur's waist.

She didn't give so much as a warning before they blasted off the roof into fire-fueled maiden flight, Cinder making a beeline right for that alleyway.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

There she was standing without a care in the world.

The one who'd killed this world's Roman.

"..."

If Dragon even recognized Neo she didn't initially show it, but that didn't stop her from reacting with a loud, strangely giddy squeal of excitement the moment she hopped through the portal.



"Whaaaaaaaaat? You invited the itty bitty titty committee too?! That's like, my favorite committee! Can I keep her, ma? Can I?! Can I???"

Presuming the Dragon to be little more than a rabid animal incapable of focus at this point wasn't the most unfair assumption, but the reality was far more sinister. An affinity for psychologically bludgeoning her enemies had been born in the rage and darkness of her youth every bit as much as her affinity for doing so physically, and it was rare anything she did or said to a foe was without purpose, however flippant and shallow her tactics may have ostensibly become given her new lease on life. Slapping Masque in the face with the knowledge that the body she was so addicted to was one she could never have again; beating Raven over the head with the reality that the two of them would never be mother and daughter. Physically and verbally diminishing her smug, preachy, happy-go-lucky otherworld counterpart to the bitch she was born to be, just so she could have the full picture before she started running her big mouth next time.

And it worked! Grimm Bait had started off treating her like some kinda joke that wasn't funny, and now her only solution every time she came around was to slap a big, fat 'do not interact' sticker over her face! She was so cute when she played hard to get. But not that hard.

Neo got her first taste of just how effectively Dragon could sniff out a psychological weak point when the stare she was pinning her with suddenly harshened, a sharp, malicious smirk of glee and smug bravado to accompany the sudden cruel aspect to her tone.



"Just lose the stupid hat. Which are you, the special kid in class or one of those cheap strippers who shows up at birthdays? Say, mom, is it my birthday?"

Her gaunt, sallow eyes, despite already being flared about as wide as seemed humanly possible, suddenly flared wider, and for the first time in the exchange a flare of genuine anger erupted in the red irises as she reared forward and slammed her fists into the floor hard enough to leave twin craters.

"No one ever did bother telling me when the FUCK that was supposed to be."

She didn't even falter when she charged through the other side. Only quick thinking kept her from running straight into Neo's back. Nora pressed off the ground with her boots, a light hop taking her up just high enough to land on the ice cream killer's bowler hat. Which she absolutely used as a springboard for another stronger jump, one that had her sail over Raven entirely and Nora once again bringing the hammer down, intent to spike the the Dragon into the weirdly organic floor.

"YOU"LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT IF YOU WANT TO KEEP ME DOWN!"

Raven quickly seized the opportunity, hoping to take advantage of her daughter's eyes being more centered on the lightning bruiser. She took off in a blur of motion, rushing to end up behind the Dragon and lashing out with a series of slices, timed to synchronize perfectly with the strike from above.

It was hard to deny Dragon much preferred eating a punch to avoiding one, the sting of sensation one of few things she lived for at this point. But she was also a born scrapper, who knew full well eating too many hits of the caliber Valkyrie swung at head-on was a one-way ticket to letting these fuckos have their way with her—whatever that might've entailed. She didn't know what that was, but she knew it wasn't an option. So as her eyes tracked the reappearing Nora and the hammerhead plunging through the air for her position again, she emptied both barrels of her gauntlets in the same moment the muscles she'd been coiling in her crouch released, giving her a swift burst of momentum.

To the side, rather than straight up to meet the warhammer with a shoryuken as she might've expected. A single boot stomped down on Magnhild's haft to make it harder for Nora to pull back overhead, and her right hand lashed out to snatch a fistful of the bruiser's hair and wrench her painfully down into a bolo punch to the temple meant to daze her.

Which was right about when she felt the flurry of Omen's edge raking across her back, and there was nothing pleasured and everything furious about the screech that pulled from her lips as she pivoted and lashed out behind her with a wild, powerful mule kick, still not letting go of Nora. Another KABLAM sent her swinging around the Valkyrie's back by her grip, and she planted one foot down hard to redirect her own momentum into pitching the ginger at her mother like a baseball, intent on clearing some space for herself with an inspired snarl of "BITCHFUCKER!".

Dirty mouth though she may have had, there was nothing fun in her mind about her nobody of a mother showing up after all this time acting like she owed her pain. Not by a longshot.

She glanced over at Magnhild, and her grimm arm stretched out to snatch it by the handle and lash out towards the duo wherever they ended up, a dark sneer of twisted amusement on her face as she whipped it around like a wrecking ball on the end of a chain.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Greki could still see the hand standing in front of her by the time the hand clasped around her throat and slammed her into the wall, the shock reverberation down through her spine as she thrashed and started to fight back before she felt Blake's hand heating up, freezing in place as the flames licked against her aura.

"It is not your place to question how Lord Ozpin disciplines those under his command. It is none of ours place. If you cannot-"

"Blake"

Bear's massive arm gripped Blake's shoulder, her voice stern.

"No matter if you accept this as Ozpin's way, it is not ours. Release your sister."

"...It is not your place to command me."

"No. But it is my place to advise you against making a mistake you could not take back. This is not you, Blake Belladonna."

Tiger hadn't said much since coming back from the particularly painful gut-punch in Weiss's office.

But leaning against the wall and spotting all that, one of Tiger's eyebrows raised.
​

"This is exactly who I am." She growled back, her head tilting to glare into Bear's somber eyes. "This is what I was made to be. This way is the only way the faunus will ever be free, to make sure humans like Carnelian are never rule over us again! We kill the monsters with the monsters. We all have known what we had agreed to the moment we did. And we cannot forget it."

Tiger listened...

​

By the end of her words, it was unclear who exactly she was talking to.

She shoved off of Greki with a growl, letting the wolf faunus slide down the wall as she stalked back the other way. "Go. You already have your orders."

"We were all meant to return together, Hand." Bear called after her as he helped Greki to her feet.

If she heard him, there was no response as she rounded the corner and disappeared

Maybe it was the willingness Tiger had to simply stand by while Blake tortured Winter.

Or just her seemingly insatiable appetite to fight no matter what it did to her body?

Nobody could really say for sure but the more she'd listened to Blake, she found herself agreeing to some degree.

Tiger had always just seen herself as what she was: muscle. To be used to destroy those who got in their way. With only key moments of indivuality like her choosing to fight Nora for a third time and so on cropping up here and there.

She didn't know much about this Ozpin and what she'd seen was quite the oddity. But it caught her interest all the same.

"Wolf, Bear."

Tiger popped her neck from side to side.

"Take care of yourselves."

Then she moved to follow after wherever Blake had gone.

It seemed if there was going to be an oppertunity for battle, The Hand-no, Blake, knew where to find it.​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Whaaaaaaaaat? You invited the itty bitty titty committee too?! That's like, my favorite committee! Can I keep her, ma? Can I?! Can I???"

Hmph.

It was like everyone in this damn world was a critc.

But Neo didn't need the cracks from her otherself or from this bitch.

Another murderer...just like her.
​

"Just lose the stupid hat. Which are you, the special kid in class or one of those cheap strippers who shows up at birthdays? Say, mom, is it my birthday?"

Her gaunt, sallow eyes, despite already being flared about as wide as seemed humanly possible, suddenly flared wider, and for the first time in the exchange a flare of genuine anger erupted in the red irises as she reared forward and slammed her fists into the floor hard enough to leave twin craters.

The hat she wore was all she had left of her Roman.

Scroll messages didn't count. They were just the words of a ghost.

The killer's eyes narrowed.
​

Dirty mouth though she may have had, there was nothing fun in her mind about her nobody of a mother showing up after all this time acting like she owed her pain. Not by a longshot.

She glanced over at Magnhild, and her grimm arm stretched out to snatch it by the handle and lash out towards the duo wherever they ended up, a dark sneer of twisted amusement on her face as she whipped it around like a wrecking ball on the end of a chain.

Neo shattered like a pane of glass dropping on the floor.

Dragon was set upon by Neo appearing and re-shattering, striking blows upon the demented blonde here and there.

Until she settled on wrapping her legs around Yang's waist and putting one arm around her neck.

The diminutive killer baring her teeth and moving to try and gouge out one of Yang's eyes with her free hand.

Take away little by little just like she'd taken this Roman from her. A chance to reconnect and mold this Roman into the one she'd known and cared for.

And lost.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Just lose the stupid hat. Which are you, the special kid in class or one of those cheap strippers who shows up at birthdays? Say, mom, is it my birthday?"

Her gaunt, sallow eyes, despite already being flared about as wide as seemed humanly possible, suddenly flared wider, and for the first time in the exchange a flare of genuine anger erupted in the red irises as she reared forward and slammed her fists into the floor hard enough to leave twin craters.

"No one ever did bother telling me when the FUCK that was supposed to be."

Continuing silence was the only answer, Raven seemingly committed to being just as untalkative as Neo.​

It was hard to deny Dragon much preferred eating a punch to avoiding one, the sting of sensation one of few things she lived for at this point. But she was also a born scrapper, who knew full well eating too many hits of the caliber Valkyrie swung at head-on was a one-way ticket to letting these fuckos have their way with her—whatever that might've entailed. She didn't know what that was, but she knew it wasn't an option. So as her eyes tracked the reappearing Nora and the hammerhead plunging through the air for her position again, she emptied both barrels of her gauntlets in the same moment the muscles she'd been coiling in her crouch released, giving her a swift burst of momentum.

To the side, rather than straight up to meet the warhammer with a shoryuken as she might've expected. A single boot stomped down on Magnhild's haft to make it harder for Nora to pull back overhead, and her right hand lashed out to snatch a fistful of the bruiser's hair and wrench her painfully down into a bolo punch to the temple meant to daze her.

Which was right about when she felt the flurry of Omen's edge raking across her back, and there was nothing pleasured and everything furious about the screech that pulled from her lips as she pivoted and lashed out behind her with a wild, powerful mule kick, still not letting go of Nora. Another KABLAM sent her swinging around the Valkyrie's back by her grip, and she planted one foot down hard to redirect her own momentum into pitching the ginger at her mother like a baseball, intent on clearing some space for herself with an inspired snarl of "BITCHFUCKER!".

Dirty mouth though she may have had, there was nothing fun in her mind about her nobody of a mother showing up after all this time acting like she owed her pain. Not by a longshot.

She glanced over at Magnhild, and her grimm arm stretched out to snatch it by the handle and lash out towards the duo wherever they ended up, a dark sneer of twisted amusement on her face as she whipped it around like a wrecking ball on the end of a chain.

Strength for strength, blow for blow, a pain-fueled Yang and lightning-juiced Nora were in the same range of power behind their blows. Neck and neck, that's how close it could be on any given day. However, between the two, it was clear whose weapon was better suited to close, tight quarters. Dragon knew it. The smash came down, but it only cracked into the floor, and before Nora could pull back a boot planted upon the weapon as Yang got into her personal space, too awkward and clumsy a distance for her to use the weapon to maximum effectiveness. She loudly grunted as she got violently dragged right into a punch to the temple, faint spots appearing in her vision. That gave Raven the opening, though, and when that flurry drew Yang's ire, the swordswoman was ready.

As the wild kick came in, it met and shattered Omen's blade with deceptive ease. The blue dust burst apart and the whole leg found itself contained temporarily from foot to thigh in an icy prison.

Nora didn't get the chance to clear her head and give as good as she got while in Yang's grip, getting flung towards Raven, but the older huntress sidestepped and spun quickly. Rather than having the hammer wielder slam into her and send them both flying into a corner of the room, Raven took hold of Nora's hand as she sailed by with her own free hand. The other was held tight around Omen's hilt as the new black blade rested embedded in the ground like the classic sword in the stone, the gravity dust within enough to keep her rooted down to the spot thanks to its heavy pull, instead of flying off in tow with Nora's momentum the moment she grabbed hold.

And her spin let her preserve Nora's momentum, swinging her around to throw the bruiser right back at Yang with all she had.

Unfortunately, that left her open, and before Raven could draw her blade out of the ground, Magnhild slammed into her side with considerable force and knocked her into and outright through one of the whale's nasty inner walls, rolling and sliding along the floor beyond.​

Neo shattered like a pane of glass dropping on the floor.

Dragon was set upon by Neo appearing and re-shattering, striking blows upon the demented blonde here and there.

Until she settled on wrapping her legs around Yang's waist and putting one arm around her neck.

The diminutive killer baring her teeth and moving to try and gouge out one of Yang's eyes with her free hand.

Take away little by little just like she'd taken this Roman from her. A chance to reconnect and mold this Roman into the one she'd known and cared for.

And lost.

The redirected right back Nora slammed into the pair right then like a cannonball, essentially tackling all of them into the floor and not really feeling too bad about it where Neo was concerned. The woman was still kind of a total bitch. However they all landed, Nora eschewed any use of her hammer to just try and deck the Dragon full power right in the middle of her face again and again.

-------------------------------------

The thunderous sounds of battle that came spilling out from beyond that portal were not exactly reassuring, especially with how quick Valkyrie had gotten thrown right back to this side, but she had never really expected them to be. Still, the work was doing what was needed. The only person the short haired Raven had sensed in Ozwen's presence had been Blake, and the faunus terrorist had taken the bait. She did not see anyone else of note in sight, and any grimm close by, well...that was up to little Rose. Raven Prime gritted her teeth, drew her blade, and swung. Her own portal opened.



The other end opened up right before Ozwen's eyes and before she could so much as even open her mouth, an absolute blur of red was upon her, grabbing hold of the dark lord and throwing her into the closest wall of this place. Ruby didn't relish hurting Weiss but keeping Oz off balance was a necessity. Silver eyes scoured the room for any grimm, and lo and behold, she found a few. But nothing she had not faced before. A Beringel and some Beowolf Alphas were about, observing from corners of the room. The former was already roaring and charging at her. It didn't get very far. The whole room lit up, illuminated by the pale light that exploded from her eyes.

The grimm were obliterated utterly, fading away into nothing instantaneously. But whether the man currently inhabiting Weiss felt any pain, Ruby couldn't say. There was no outward sign that he was, at the very least, with Ruby's narrowed eyes taking the sight of him....or her(?) in with equal parts disgust and concern written across her face. "Now!" She yelled back to the rest, as if they needed any more invitation. She waited until they all crossed through. Once they had, she directed one last uneasy look at Weiss before she turned and exited the room to do her part in keeping any further Grimm littering the halls out of the way long enough for them to accomplish their part.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Pound for pound, knuckle for knuckle, and all things being equal in a contest of skill, ferocity and physical prowess, there were few more deadly under Ozma's thrall than the one called Dragon. If Blake was Ozpin's blade, Yang was his sledgehammer. That had been the case even before the mysterious Grimm feeding off her bottomless negativity had made her vessel its home. She wasn't as patient, disciplined or technically polished as her counterpart, but when it came to the art of bloodletting there was just no dismissing how effective pure, straight savagery could be when matched with natural talent and a high pain threshold.

Dragon had all three by the bucketload. She pulled hair, targeted joints, nerve clusters and sensitive spots; frankly, these twats should've been counting themselves lucky they'd kept her too off-balance to get a kick in the taint yet. Enough had been said about her tolerance for pain. And her natural talent came directly from two of the finest warriors to ever graduate from Beacon, the blood of bandits laced with the infamous Xiao Long hot streak to produce something truly volatile. Even during a childhood spent as the resident soccer ball to a tribe of murderers, her temper and feistiness had been a source of much amusement and scorn as she did everything she could to resist being indoctrinated by the Branwen way. 'Watch out!', they guffawed. 'Little dragon's opening her trap again. Careful you don't get burned.'

It was funny to them, how angry she got. How she used to shove back and roar herself hoarse and stomp her feet until she was red in the face, tears streaming down her cheeks, then refuse to come on raids or even highway stick-ups like the other youths. How she acted all scrappy and defiant to the bandits, then turned around and let a kid half her size treat her like a slave. Not a one of them thought she had what it took to make it in the world. She wasn't a survivor; she was weak. A life on a timer. Every month she lived through was a fresh miracle. 'Can't believe she made it this far. What's she even good for?'

'Ha! Well, she makes good grimm bait.'

Year after year, the same thing. Nowhere else to go. No one to turn to. Even Ruby left, in the end. Eventually she just stopped shoving back. Stopped opening her trap. She took the beatings. Weathered the abuse. All that anger, sadness, loneliness, all that infinite capacity to feel that had forged the other Yang Xiao Long into such a strong person as much as it had threatened to rule her at times, all of it retreated inward. In the depths of her despair, those emotions ripped each other to pieces; Became something dark. Then, at the bottom of a forgotten, dusty chest in the chieftain's tent, she found them. The gauntlets. The only connection she had to where she came from; the last trace of the father she never knew, kept from her for all those years she needed it most.

That was when things finally started to change. That was when she finally started to get with the program. Maybe life was a bitch. Weak, strong, whatever. Who gave a fuck about the philosophy behind it? Maybe the world was just divided into the people who were stepped on and the ones who did the stepping. Maybe the only way to stop being the former was to become the toughest, meanest bitch around. That was when she stopped being bait for monsters; That was when the Dragon finally woke up. And then?

Then Ozpin found her.

He saw the fractured, tormented youth desperately pining for a purpose and gave her one. Became her everything. She became his attack dog, loyal and relentless.

Now there were intruders in the house.

And she was gonna show them how big this dog's teeth were.

Hmph.

It was like everyone in this damn world was a critc.

But Neo didn't need the cracks from her otherself or from this bitch.

Another murderer...just like her.


The hat she wore was all she had left of her Roman.

Scroll messages didn't count. They were just the words of a ghost.

The killer's eyes narrowed.


Neo shattered like a pane of glass dropping on the floor.

Dragon was set upon by Neo appearing and re-shattering, striking blows upon the demented blonde here and there.

Until she settled on wrapping her legs around Yang's waist and putting one arm around her neck.

The diminutive killer baring her teeth and moving to try and gouge out one of Yang's eyes with her free hand.

Take away little by little just like she'd taken this Roman from her. A chance to reconnect and mold this Roman into the one she'd known and cared for.

And lost.

Strength for strength, blow for blow, a pain-fueled Yang and lightning-juiced Nora were in the same range of power behind their blows. Neck and neck, that's how close it could be on any given day. However, between the two, it was clear whose weapon was better suited to close, tight quarters. Dragon knew it. The smash came down, but it only cracked into the floor, and before Nora could pull back a boot planted upon the weapon as Yang got into her personal space, too awkward and clumsy a distance for her to use the weapon to maximum effectiveness. She loudly grunted as she got violently dragged right into a punch to the temple, faint spots appearing in her vision. That gave Raven the opening, though, and when that flurry drew Yang's ire, the swordswoman was ready.

As the wild kick came in, it met and shattered Omen's blade with deceptive ease. The blue dust burst apart and the whole leg found itself contained temporarily from foot to thigh in an icy prison.

Nora didn't get the chance to clear her head and give as good as she got while in Yang's grip, getting flung towards Raven, but the older huntress sidestepped and spun quickly. Rather than having the hammer wielder slam into her and send them both flying into a corner of the room, Raven took hold of Nora's hand as she sailed by with her own free hand. The other was held tight around Omen's hilt as the new black blade rested embedded in the ground like the classic sword in the stone, the gravity dust within enough to keep her rooted down to the spot thanks to its heavy pull, instead of flying off in tow with Nora's momentum the moment she grabbed hold.

And her spin let her preserve Nora's momentum, swinging her around to throw the bruiser right back at Yang with all she had.

Unfortunately, that left her open, and before Raven could draw her blade out of the ground, Magnhild slammed into her side with considerable force and knocked her into and outright through one of the whale's nasty inner walls, rolling and sliding along the floor beyond.

The redirected right back Nora slammed into the pair right then like a cannonball, essentially tackling all of them into the floor and not really feeling too bad about it where Neo was concerned. The woman was still kind of a total bitch. However they all landed, Nora eschewed any use of her hammer to just try and deck the Dragon full power right in the middle of her face again and again.

Terrifyingly lethal and destructive as she was, Dragon was a hammer, and there were some situations a hammer was ill-suited for. You didn't use a hammer to change a tire, or tighten a leaky faucet. An enemy like Nora, one who championed that same straightforward, bludgeon-you approach she embodied? That was her bread and butter. Yang had eaten more pain than she had dinners; it was exceedingly rare she encountered anyone who could endure as much punishment as she could in a fight, and no matter how hard they hit her semblance made sure she always hit back at least a little harder.

But god fucking damn if bitches like this Neo chick didn't make her wanna tear her own hair out in clumps.

The first false projection of the diminutive assassin that shattered under her swipe drew a snarl, but by the fourth or fifth Dragon was practically frothing at the mouth. Her mom's stupid fucking terrible birthday present—a dense layer of ice climbing so far up her leg she could practically feel it inside her—was keeping her from getting any kind of solid footing or the distance she needed to get her bearings, and while she barely felt the blows from Neo's elbows and knuckles they were starting to really piss her off accumulatively; which may have had something to do with the absolutely feral noise of rage she loosed when she felt the legs and arm wrap around her midriff and neck and the the thumb beginning to gouge her eye.

"MRRRRRRGGHHHHHH-" Her human hand snatched Neo's wrist in time with the Grimm one snaking around to wrap around her throat, and she was just about to demonstrate how she had erred in not keeping with her stick-and-move strategy when Valkyrie speared her off her feet, her bestial exclamations cut off with a wheeze as the air was driven from her lungs. She landed in a sprawl, flat on her back and pinning Neo with her weight as Nora mounted her. The first blow hit its mark unopposed—

"T-too soft."

—As did the second—

"Too soft."

—And the third—



"HIT ME HARDER!"

—Only this time, Nora was faced with the somewhat absurd sight of a face that was pushing back against her fist, having refused to budge an inch this time when her mighty blow rained down. Those red eyes were flared so wide with fury they were bloodshot, the teeth she bared dyed red with blood; but the twisted edge of a grin playing on the corners of her lips was unmistakable, as stark as her bellow's tone, which was an odd juxtaposition of a berserk screech and the kind of annoyed, pouty whine one might save for a partner who wasn't doing enough in bed. Her non-frozen leg hooked around Nora's waist, and with an explosion of one of her gauntlets against the floor she used the momentum to flip them both over and straddle the smaller bruiser instead, Neo still clinging to her neck and apparently about as much of a presence to Yang as her neckerchief currently.

"HAAA, HAHAH, YOU'RE ALL SO FUCKING SOFT!"

She didn't hit back this time. Didn't use the strength she felt erupting inside from the force of Nora's punches to start raining down blows to finish off her aura, like she probably could've. That didn't get her point across well enough.

What she did do was take all that unholy strength, lunge forward with a manic, devilish grin, wrap both hands around her throat and start squeezing.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The grimm were obliterated utterly, fading away into nothing instantaneously. But whether the man currently inhabiting Weiss felt any pain, Ruby couldn't say. There was no outward sign that he was, at the very least, with Ruby's narrowed eyes taking the sight of him....or her(?) in with equal parts disgust and concern written across her face. "Now!" She yelled back to the rest, as if they needed any more invitation. She waited until they all crossed through. Once they had, she directed one last uneasy look at Weiss before she turned and exited the room to do her part in keeping any further Grimm littering the halls out of the way long enough for them to accomplish their part.

Qrow had spent countless hours teaching Ruby to wield that monstrosity of a scythe, and the fact was that when the two of them took the field of battle they were as well-oiled a unit as there was. Oz barely had time to catch her bearings after slamming into the wall when she looked up to the sight of the huntsman himself, expression locked in a practiced glare of grim determination that lacked any of the concern his niece's had for the face in question as he followed up with a twirling slash meant to both catch Oz around the head and embed Harbinger's tip in the wall behind her. He used the momentum from his dive to wrench the weapon to the side, its curved blade hooking the neck of Oz's current form to send her stumbling forward in turn, and if all went as intended the motion leveraged the Grimm master into an awkward headlock with Qrow dashing behind her and the haft of Harbinger applying pressure across her throat, meant to hold her in place for the third member of their family with a bone to pick he knew was right behind him.

"Hey, boss." He growled casually in her ear. "Say cheese."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"MRRRRRRGGHHHHHH-" Her human hand snatched Neo's wrist in time with the Grimm one snaking around to wrap around her throat, and she was just about to demonstrate how she had erred in not keeping with her stick-and-move strategy when Valkyrie speared her off her feet, her bestial exclamations cut off with a wheeze as the air was driven from her lungs. She landed in a sprawl, flat on her back and pinning Neo with her weight as Nora mounted her. The first blow hit its mark unopposed—

"T-too soft."

—As did the second—

"Too soft."

—And the third—

"HIT ME HARDER!"

—Only this time, Nora was faced with the somewhat absurd sight of a face that was pushing back against her fist, having refused to budge an inch this time when her mighty blow rained down. Those red eyes were flared so wide with fury they were bloodshot, the teeth she bared dyed red with blood; but the twisted edge of a grin playing on the corners of her lips was unmistakable, as stark as her bellow's tone, which was an odd juxtaposition of a berserk screech and the kind of annoyed, pouty whine one might save for a partner who wasn't doing enough in bed. Her non-frozen leg hooked around Nora's waist, and with an explosion of one of her gauntlets against the floor she used the momentum to flip them both over and straddle the smaller bruiser instead, Neo still clinging to her neck and apparently about as much of a presence to Yang as her neckerchief currently.

"HAAA, HAHAH, YOU'RE ALL SO FUCKING SOFT!"

She didn't hit back this time. Didn't use the strength she felt erupting inside from the force of Nora's punches to start raining down blows to finish off her aura, like she probably could've. That didn't get her point across well enough.

What she did do was take all that unholy strength, lunge forward with a manic, devilish grin, wrap both hands around her throat and start squeezing.

There were not many people in the world who could eat three full-strength blows from her right to the face and demand to be hit harder, but Yang Xiao Long? She was definitely one of them. She knew Yang's semblance fed on being hit but she had hoped to break through the insane woman's aura before that became a real problem. It was looking increasingly by the second like that would not be the case, an alarmed frown emerging on her face as the Dragon pushed back against the punch with her own freaking skull. Those eyes burning with rage, teeth stained just as red with blood and the hint of a smile there despite it all made for a pretty intimidating sight. Still, she hadn't come this far to back down. She pulled a fist back to--

--to nothing. Yang flipped their positions around with a boom before any more punches could land while she was on top, and then she didn't even get the chance to think of even punching back from this spot below the Dragon before the madwoman's hands were wrapped inhumanly tight around her throat. "Hrghl...gkh." Any attempts at words were lost behind the strangled gurgling, her face already beginning to redden to match those eyes. She had fed Yang with her own strength. Trying to solely out-muscle her way out of this, pry those fingers loose with her own hands, it wouldn't work before the lack of breath got to her. So that wasn't what she did.

She had two advantages.

One, she knew one of these arms didn't have an ounce of aura protecting it. It was Grimm, and it would feel the full weight of any damage before it spread out across the rest of the Dragon. Just had to give it some. Even with her face reddening, struggling to breathe, she managed to flash a brief audacious smile. Her hand clamped around the grimm arm's as absolutely tight as she could manage. Then she repeated as she had with another bruiser, the big faunus woman. The sparks of lightning coursing through Nora's muscles, she willed them to redirect through and out her hand right into the damn monstrous limb to give it one hell of a jolt, like Nora was the world's cutest bug zapper.

Second...both of the Dragon's hands were on her throat. That meant they weren't elsewhere, holding on to anything else. The gauntlet adorning Nora's other hand glowed with purple lining, and her weapon answered her call. The hammer soared into her hand, though in a second it was no longer a hammer. She raised the grenade launcher up, used her opposite grip on the grimm arm to yank the Dragon down even closer until Magnhild's barrel was practically sticking into that madwoman's mouth and she immediately pulled the trigger. She could only hope that was enough to blast the woman off her, she could already see the darkness creeping around the edges of her vision.

If Neo caught any of that, well. She'd just have to deal.​

 

[MidwayLives]

The first false projection of the diminutive assassin that shattered under her swipe drew a snarl, but by the fourth or fifth Dragon was practically frothing at the mouth. Her mom's stupid fucking terrible birthday present—a dense layer of ice climbing so far up her leg she could practically feel it inside her—was keeping her from getting any kind of solid footing or the distance she needed to get her bearings, and while she barely felt the blows from Neo's elbows and knuckles they were starting to really piss her off accumulatively; which may have had something to do with the absolutely feral noise of rage she loosed when she felt the legs and arm wrap around her midriff and neck and the the thumb beginning to gouge her eye.

Good.

Snarl and whine like the animal you are. Just a dog that'd gotten too nasty and needed to be put down.

Neo's expression shifted to an angry grimace.

'Die!'
​

"MRRRRRRGGHHHHHH-" Her human hand snatched Neo's wrist in time with the Grimm one snaking around to wrap around her throat, and she was just about to demonstrate how she had erred in not keeping with her stick-and-move strategy

Neo grit her teeth and tried in vain to pull her neck back from the Grimm hand.

When she'd fought Cinder the maiden hadn't utlizied her own creepy limb. Probably for the better. So to feel it against her made Neo want to wretch.

...Normally. Right now she was too busy reaching out in a desperate and furious attempt to claw at the Dragon's face. The grip around her wrist was tight and cocky as she was, Neo would freely admit that she just didn't have the raw strength to muscle out of it like Nora or the dumb blonde she knew. She didn't lose any hints of deifance and her fingers reached out like a claw towards Dragon's eye even as her wrist was stuck in the vice like grip.
​

. She landed in a sprawl, flat on her back and pinning Neo with her weight as Nora mounted her. The first blow hit its mark unopposed—

Neo let out a low grunt as she was bowled over.

Couldn't really see much on account of being pinned under the psycho she and the ginger were fighting.​

—Only this time, Nora was faced with the somewhat absurd sight of a face that was pushing back against her fist, having refused to budge an inch this time when her mighty blow rained down. Those red eyes were flared so wide with fury they were bloodshot, the teeth she bared dyed red with blood; but the twisted edge of a grin playing on the corners of her lips was unmistakable, as stark as her bellow's tone, which was an odd juxtaposition of a berserk screech and the kind of annoyed, pouty whine one might save for a partner who wasn't doing enough in bed. Her non-frozen leg hooked around Nora's waist, and with an explosion of one of her gauntlets against the floor she used the momentum to flip them both over and straddle the smaller bruiser instead, Neo still clinging to her neck and apparently about as much of a presence to Yang as her neckerchief currently.

"HAAA, HAHAH, YOU'RE ALL SO FUCKING SOFT!"

It was in this position that Neo damned the loss of Hush.

Would it have done any good? At the rate this chick kept eating up hits like this, a blade to the shoulder or back might have only made the situation worse.

Pull as she might, Neo just couldn't get Yang off Nora....

The ginger was certainly annoying, Neo had no objections there. What with the dirty looks thrown her way and the fact that it'd been her that sounded the alarm on Neo back before everything went to shit at Schnee's place. Hell, it wasn't as if Neo could speak from some kind of position of moral superiority. She killed that lady in Mistral without so much as a second thought.

But....if the ginger wasn't here, Neo had her doubts she'd be able to get the result that SHE wanted.

Which was killing this grimm-infested bitch!!!
​

Second...both of the Dragon's hands were on her throat. That meant they weren't elsewhere, holding on to anything else. The gauntlet adorning Nora's other hand glowed with purple lining, and her weapon answered her call. The hammer soared into her hand, though in a second it was no longer a hammer. She raised the grenade launcher up, used her opposite grip on the grimm arm to yank the Dragon down even closer until Magnhild's barrel was practically sticking into that madwoman's mouth and she immediately pulled the trigger. She could only hope that was enough to blast the woman off her, she could already see the darkness creeping around the edges of her vision.

If the Dragon was so much as thrown back by a sudden case of grenade to face....

*shatter*

Neo took full advantage of the momentum granted by Nora's strategy. Throwing her knee forward to catch Yang in the stomach, Neo sought to leave Roman's killer flat on her back. Kneeling down so she was straddling the monster, Neo pressed both her knees down atop the flesh and Grimm arms.

She looked down upon Dragon. A face that Neo recognized all too well. Same face, same semblance, nearly the same everything as that blonde Neo had almost murdered back on that train. Still could probably try her luck at some point and win 9/10 times. But at least as far Neo knew that Yang at least wasn't like her. She wasn't a killer. But this Yang...this Yang seemed like she knew all about the life one had to embrace in order to just kill when the urge hit. Everyone who did knew that there was always the remote chance that they could very well be the ones staring up at their impending death.

Neo hoped she got a good look.

It'd be the last one she'd ever get.

Placing her hands on either sides of Yang's face, Neo moved to try and plunge her thumbs into both of her eyes.

Neo sadly didn't have the tools to make slaying the Dragon an easy task. But if she could at least do this much, it'd make killing her later all the smoother.

Plus it let Neo get her kicks.~​

 

[Gus Gungus]

There were not many people in the world who could eat three full-strength blows from her right to the face and demand to be hit harder, but Yang Xiao Long? She was definitely one of them. She knew Yang's semblance fed on being hit but she had hoped to break through the insane woman's aura before that became a real problem. It was looking increasingly by the second like that would not be the case, an alarmed frown emerging on her face as the Dragon pushed back against the punch with her own freaking skull. Those eyes burning with rage, teeth stained just as red with blood and the hint of a smile there despite it all made for a pretty intimidating sight. Still, she hadn't come this far to back down. She pulled a fist back to--

--to nothing. Yang flipped their positions around with a boom before any more punches could land while she was on top, and then she didn't even get the chance to think of even punching back from this spot below the Dragon before the madwoman's hands were wrapped inhumanly tight around her throat. "Hrghl...gkh." Any attempts at words were lost behind the strangled gurgling, her face already beginning to redden to match those eyes. She had fed Yang with her own strength. Trying to solely out-muscle her way out of this, pry those fingers loose with her own hands, it wouldn't work before the lack of breath got to her. So that wasn't what she did.

She had two advantages.

One, she knew one of these arms didn't have an ounce of aura protecting it. It was Grimm, and it would feel the full weight of any damage before it spread out across the rest of the Dragon. Just had to give it some. Even with her face reddening, struggling to breathe, she managed to flash a brief audacious smile. Her hand clamped around the grimm arm's as absolutely tight as she could manage. Then she repeated as she had with another bruiser, the big faunus woman. The sparks of lightning coursing through Nora's muscles, she willed them to redirect through and out her hand right into the damn monstrous limb to give it one hell of a jolt, like Nora was the world's cutest bug zapper.

Second...both of the Dragon's hands were on her throat. That meant they weren't elsewhere, holding on to anything else. The gauntlet adorning Nora's other hand glowed with purple lining, and her weapon answered her call. The hammer soared into her hand, though in a second it was no longer a hammer. She raised the grenade launcher up, used her opposite grip on the grimm arm to yank the Dragon down even closer until Magnhild's barrel was practically sticking into that madwoman's mouth and she immediately pulled the trigger. She could only hope that was enough to blast the woman off her, she could already see the darkness creeping around the edges of her vision.

If Neo caught any of that, well. She'd just have to deal.​

Good.

Snarl and whine like the animal you are. Just a dog that'd gotten too nasty and needed to be put down.

Neo's expression shifted to an angry grimace.

'Die!'


Neo grit her teeth and tried in vain to pull her neck back from the Grimm hand.

When she'd fought Cinder the maiden hadn't utlizied her own creepy limb. Probably for the better. So to feel it against her made Neo want to wretch.

...Normally. Right now she was too busy reaching out in a desperate and furious attempt to claw at the Dragon's face. The grip around her wrist was tight and cocky as she was, Neo would freely admit that she just didn't have the raw strength to muscle out of it like Nora or the dumb blonde she knew. She didn't lose any hints of deifance and her fingers reached out like a claw towards Dragon's eye even as her wrist was stuck in the vice like grip.


Neo let out a low grunt as she was bowled over.

Couldn't really see much on account of being pinned under the psycho she and the ginger were fighting.

It was in this position that Neo damned the loss of Hush.

Would it have done any good? At the rate this chick kept eating up hits like this, a blade to the shoulder or back might have only made the situation worse.

Pull as she might, Neo just couldn't get Yang off Nora....

The ginger was certainly annoying, Neo had no objections there. What with the dirty looks thrown her way and the fact that it'd been her that sounded the alarm on Neo back before everything went to shit at Schnee's place. Hell, it wasn't as if Neo could speak from some kind of position of moral superiority. She killed that lady in Mistral without so much as a second thought.

But....if the ginger wasn't here, Neo had her doubts she'd be able to get the result that SHE wanted.

Which was killing this grimm-infested bitch!!!


If the Dragon was so much as thrown back by a sudden case of grenade to face....

*shatter*

Neo took full advantage of the momentum granted by Nora's strategy. Throwing her knee forward to catch Yang in the stomach, Neo sought to leave Roman's killer flat on her back. Kneeling down so she was straddling the monster, Neo pressed both her knees down atop the flesh and Grimm arms.

She looked down upon Dragon. A face that Neo recognized all too well. Same face, same semblance, nearly the same everything as that blonde Neo had almost murdered back on that train. Still could probably try her luck at some point and win 9/10 times. But at least as far Neo knew that Yang at least wasn't like her. She wasn't a killer. But this Yang...this Yang seemed like she knew all about the life one had to embrace in order to just kill when the urge hit. Everyone who did knew that there was always the remote chance that they could very well be the ones staring up at their impending death.

Neo hoped she got a good look.

It'd be the last one she'd ever get.

Placing her hands on either sides of Yang's face, Neo moved to try and plunge her thumbs into both of her eyes.

Neo sadly didn't have the tools to make slaying the Dragon an easy task. But if she could at least do this much, it'd make killing her later all the smoother.

Plus it let Neo get her kicks.~

Monstrous problems required monstrous solutions, and as solutions to the inexorable, pain-swallowing Dragon went they could've done a lot worse than freezing her leg, shocking both her most dangerous weapon and most vulnerable limb into a state of temporary twitching paralysis, sticking the barrel of a grenade launcher in her mouth and pushing both thumbs into her eyes.

The Dragon was a unique storm of strength, ferocity and tenaciousness, but less than five minutes ago she had also been asleep, and the trio currently ambushing her were about the furthest one could get from also-rans. Nora could slug it out with just about anybody. Raven was one of the best huntresses in the world, and—wisely—didn't seem to be pulling any punches with her fallen daughter. And Neo? Well, Neo was a psycho who only paled in viciousness and sadistic qualities when ranked side-by-side with the worst this Remnant had to offer, and whose entire schtick practically seemed tailor-made towards pissing a straightforward animal like the Dragon off. Anyone who knew any iteration of Yang Xiao Long knew she wasn't going to stop until she was stopped, either permanently or very, very carefully, like a mongrel that had sunk its teeth in and didn't know when it was time to let go.

Whether that heedless resilience was a product of stupidity, loyalty, or the fact that there was quite simply nothing else waiting for her outside of these weird, pseudo-organic walls she was struggling so furiously to defend was anyone's guess, but with the three of them pounding her from all sides like this, fighting a battle of tactical attrition as they took her limbs away one by one, it didn't seem likely to be enough. The end result of her suddenly giving head to Magnhild was her crashing down on her back a fair distance across the room, and while she sort of just lay there with eyes glazed trying to process how that one felt she became aware of Neo sitting on her chest, knees to either side of her working in tandem with the ice and electricity immobilizing her arm and leg to keep her pinned. Her initial reaction was very much the predictable one, an approving coo and lidded, come-hither aspect settling over her eyes as she quirked her eyebrows in inviting fashion, as though daring the ice cream midget to shift her weight a little higher if she dared.

Her second response, too, was predictable, as instead of taking her up on her offer for the more fun kind of head Neo stuck her thumbs into her head. Her eyes, to be exact. Heh. Classic. Sucker for pain though she may have been, she much preferred being on the other side of this, though, and the scream her lungs belted up at the illusionist was a rabid blend of pain and fury as she started bucking like a bronco, making enough noise to wake the dead, the strength pouring from her fiery form sufficient to threaten to dislodge Neo even with two limbs temporarily down if someone didn't hold down her legs and hips.

"FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

It was okay. Any second now Oz would be here to back her up. He wouldn't let anything else bad happen to her. He cared about her.

She was a good girl.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

She didn't give so much as a warning before they blasted off the roof into fire-fueled maiden flight, Cinder making a beeline right for that alleyway.

As the human heatseeking missiles tore down the street and plunged into the darkness of the alley, bathing it in warm-but-gloomy orange hues, the whole mystifying element to this encounter pretty swiftly started to dwindle as they caught sight of their mystery thief much deeper within the alley, absolutely booking it.



"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit OH SHIT-"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Monstrous problems required monstrous solutions, and as solutions to the inexorable, pain-swallowing Dragon went they could've done a lot worse than freezing her leg, shocking both her most dangerous weapon and most vulnerable limb into a state of temporary twitching paralysis, sticking the barrel of a grenade launcher in her mouth and pushing both thumbs into her eyes.

The Dragon was a unique storm of strength, ferocity and tenaciousness, but less than five minutes ago she had also been asleep, and the trio currently ambushing her were about the furthest one could get from also-rans. Nora could slug it out with just about anybody. Raven was one of the best huntresses in the world, and—wisely—didn't seem to be pulling any punches with her fallen daughter. And Neo? Well, Neo was a psycho who only paled in viciousness and sadistic qualities when ranked side-by-side with the worst this Remnant had to offer, and whose entire schtick practically seemed tailor-made towards pissing a straightforward animal like the Dragon off. Anyone who knew any iteration of Yang Xiao Long knew she wasn't going to stop until she was stopped, either permanently or very, very carefully, like a mongrel that had sunk its teeth in and didn't know when it was time to let go.

Whether that heedless resilience was a product of stupidity, loyalty, or the fact that there was quite simply nothing else waiting for her outside of these weird, pseudo-organic walls she was struggling so furiously to defend was anyone's guess, but with the three of them pounding her from all sides like this, fighting a battle of tactical attrition as they took her limbs away one by one, it didn't seem likely to be enough. The end result of her suddenly giving head to Magnhild was her crashing down on her back a fair distance across the room, and while she sort of just lay there with eyes glazed trying to process how that one felt she became aware of Neo sitting on her chest, knees to either side of her working in tandem with the ice and electricity immobilizing her arm and leg to keep her pinned. Her initial reaction was very much the predictable one, an approving coo and lidded, come-hither aspect settling over her eyes as she quirked her eyebrows in inviting fashion, as though daring the ice cream midget to shift her weight a little higher if she dared.

Her second response, too, was predictable, as instead of taking her up on her offer for the more fun kind of head Neo stuck her thumbs into her head. Her eyes, to be exact. Heh. Classic. Sucker for pain though she may have been, she much preferred being on the other side of this, though, and the scream her lungs belted up at the illusionist was a rabid blend of pain and fury as she started bucking like a bronco, making enough noise to wake the dead, the strength pouring from her fiery form sufficient to threaten to dislodge Neo even with two limbs temporarily down if someone didn't hold down her legs and hips.

"FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

It was okay. Any second now Oz would be here to back her up. He wouldn't let anything else bad happen to her. He cared about her.

She was a good girl.​

They almost missed it; the innards of the Monstro were far from well lit, and while all of the grimm could hunt in the dark, this particular beast of Ozpin's lived and breathed in the shadows. It was the flash of white that covered its face that made it so they could track it as it suddenly exploded into the room, landed with a single step, and exploded into a pounce for its target

The Hand went straight through the portal; Right past their attack and for the relic and maiden somewhere on the other side, apparently intent on finishing the bloody work she'd started in Argus-



-A sword caught Neo's neck from the side with such violent force that it almost threatened to snap both it and the sword itself, even with aura protecting them both. The strike sent Neo flying off her prey to the other side of the room, and for a brief moment she stood clearly before them; Robes still in tatters from Atlas, covered in bandages that did more to confer her modesty than anything else, but a replacement for her broken mask hiding everything but the burning gold of her eyes that seemed to track all three of them at once as she hung over the Dragon in a protective hunch for that moment. She didn't make any violent declarations like she had with Schnee; There was nothing personal about this fight. She didn't have the former heiress' ability to twist words or give inspiration to those she was protecting, or the Dragon's skills at breaking foes down verbally and provocation. Talents such as those were never what Ozpin wanted out of his blade.

The eyes said more than enough without any words behind them; a stare of jagged, remorseless simplicty that saw their lives as something that had to end.

Prey.

In the next instant, Neo, Nora, and Raven all had a Blake exploding towards them with murderous intent, Neo's lunging to slam her blade and pin the ice cream killer to the wall, Nora's going for a low sweep to the knees, and Raven's in a flying kick to the sternum; Neo's and Nora's foes both exploded into shadowy mist, while Raven found her opponent suddenly turn into a statue, 300 pounds of rock still flying at her for a kick to the chest

--------------------------

In Vacuo, Masque and Vernal got the jumpscare of their lives as a whole ass Blake Belladonna suddenly came tearing through the portal only to run straight into the wall and explode into black nothingness.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Qrow had spent countless hours teaching Ruby to wield that monstrosity of a scythe, and the fact was that when the two of them took the field of battle they were as well-oiled a unit as there was. Oz barely had time to catch her bearings after slamming into the wall when she looked up to the sight of the huntsman himself, expression locked in a practiced glare of grim determination that lacked any of the concern his niece's had for the face in question as he followed up with a twirling slash meant to both catch Oz around the head and embed Harbinger's tip in the wall behind her. He used the momentum from his dive to wrench the weapon to the side, its curved blade hooking the neck of Oz's current form to send her stumbling forward in turn, and if all went as intended the motion leveraged the Grimm master into an awkward headlock with Qrow dashing behind her and the haft of Harbinger applying pressure across her throat, meant to hold her in place for the third member of their family with a bone to pick he knew was right behind him.

"Hey, boss." He growled casually in her ear. "Say cheese."​

Sometimes, there was a lot to be said, speeches to give, verbal beatdowns to lay out. There were also times where, in a fight, you had to do something exceedingly clever, wild, complex, the sort of bonkers nonsense that'd make Jackie Chan blush and the great animator in the sky give a stern nod of approval.

Sometimes, you didn't, though.

Sometimes when you came face to face with the god of darkness, the best thing you could say wasn't even saying anything to him.

When Ozwen found her gaze tilted upwards, she was already face to face with Yang Xiao Long mid jump, fist already raised, and wrist already twisted, ancient eyes able to watch the round in her chamber and begin to ignite in slow motion. All the dread and grief Yang had been feeling didn't even begin to show on her face; Her face was set in a determined smirk, and she had to audacity to accentuate her only two words to Ozwen before the violence began with a quick wink just before the fist impacted square in her face, softer than expected, and very clearly not for him.

"Hey Snowflake"

*BLAM*

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"So not what I meant!" She passionately objected, though she didn't resist at all as she was being dragged further on. He was insufferable about it but she could hardly say his statement about street vendors was wrong. Besides, the irritation soon evaporated anyhow.



"Wait wha--" She didn't manage to question that VERY ODDLY SPECIFIC bit before Arthur jump boosted her to the roof. Entirely unnecessary since she could fly, but she didn't bother to point that out. She crept along after him to the edge, a far less wary and more curious look in her eye as she peeked alongside him.



"Wait what." This time she managed to get it out fully, eyebrow raising in surprise at the nearly absolute nothing that was there in comparison to the more bustling of just moments ago. Yet even that level of surprise paled to the one that followed when the hooded figure revealed the relic!!! Even at this distance, in the darkness and with one eye only, she recognized it nearly immediately. The eagle eye of an archer for the win!!! Or rather, for the loss in this case!! She gasped and glanced to her side in plain worry, where she was greeted with the sight of Jaune Arc's favorite lunchbox. "What??? When...how...did--ah!" She didn't even try to form that into a coherent sentence, immediately running back to scoop up Arthur's adorable scooter and then right back to the roof's edge for her other arm to wrap around Arthur's waist.

She didn't give so much as a warning before they blasted off the roof into fire-fueled maiden flight, Cinder making a beeline right for that alleyway.​

Any more coherent thoughts Watts might've had about the sudden loss of the relic or the market completely disappearing right before their eyes was lost in the sound of "jesus fuck-" as he was suddenly whisked into the air like an unwilling Lois Lane.

 

[MyrtenRose]

As the human heatseeking missiles tore down the street and plunged into the darkness of the alley, bathing it in warm-but-gloomy orange hues, the whole mystifying element to this encounter pretty swiftly started to dwindle as they caught sight of their mystery thief much deeper within the alley, absolutely booking it.

View attachment 852083

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit OH SHIT-"​

Any more coherent thoughts Watts might've had about the sudden loss of the relic or the market completely disappearing right before their eyes was lost in the sound of "jesus fuck-" as he was suddenly whisked into the air like an unwilling Lois Lane.

Admittedly, there was a part of her really amused right then, enjoying how clearly unnerved she'd made her team leader. Perhaps one day they could share a good laugh about it. At the very least, she would. But there were more important things weighing on her mind then. Namely, the person absolutely sprinting like there was no tomorrow ahead of them. Were she not so occupied by them, she might have recorded Arthur's cursing and the look on his face. "Hey wait!" Cinder bellowed. "Buddy I think you forgot your cereal!" The flames spurting out her feet intensified, the maiden willing herself to speed up to overtake the runner.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The girl sparking with the energized power of lightning took more than a bit longer than she normally would have to get up after that. Her lungs were burning in relief at the sweet sweet air that got into her, her throat ached from where those hands had been wrapped around in a grip like a vise, and her reddened face slowly getting some color back, with a series of sputtering coughs escaping her. By the time she managed to gather enough focus on the world beyond her, Neo was doing THAT and a pained gasp got forced out, Nora taking a step forward to try and put a stop to that brutal indulging of the woman's more...sadistic tendencies. She didn't get anywhere close.​

They almost missed it; the innards of the Monstro were far from well lit, and while all of the grimm could hunt in the dark, this particular beast of Ozpin's lived and breathed in the shadows. It was the flash of white that covered its face that made it so they could track it as it suddenly exploded into the room, landed with a single step, and exploded into a pounce for its target

The Hand went straight through the portal; Right past their attack and for the relic and maiden somewhere on the other side, apparently intent on finishing the bloody work she'd started in Argus-

"What was--"​

-A sword caught Neo's neck from the side with such violent force that it almost threatened to snap both it and the sword itself, even with aura protecting them both. The strike sent Neo flying off her prey to the other side of the room, and for a brief moment she stood clearly before them; Robes still in tatters from Atlas, covered in bandages that did more to confer her modesty than anything else, but a replacement for her broken mask hiding everything but the burning gold of her eyes that seemed to track all three of them at once as she hung over the Dragon in a protective hunch for that moment. She didn't make any violent declarations like she had with Schnee; There was nothing personal about this fight. She didn't have the former heiress' ability to twist words or give inspiration to those she was protecting, or the Dragon's skills at breaking foes down verbally and provocation. Talents such as those were never what Ozpin wanted out of his blade.

The eyes said more than enough without any words behind them; a stare of jagged, remorseless simplicty that saw their lives as something that had to end.

Prey.

In the next instant, Neo, Nora, and Raven all had a Blake exploding towards them with murderous intent, Neo's lunging to slam her blade and pin the ice cream killer to the wall, Nora's going for a low sweep to the knees, and Raven's in a flying kick to the sternum; Neo's and Nora's foes both exploded into shadowy mist, while Raven found her opponent suddenly turn into a statue, 300 pounds of rock still flying at her for a kick to the chest

"Oh."

There was not much time to say anything about those vicious yellow eyes staring them down, or the person delivering that unnerving glare. Magnhild, switching back to hammer form mid-swing, caught her attacker in the chest as the small girl jumped over the low sweep. But the only thing she was rewarded with was a shadowy mist that burst apart the moment her weapon made contact, temporarily eclipsing her in darkness. "W-what?!" She stepped forward after, wildly brushing the smoke out of her way and frantically looking about for any sign of the actual new arrival.

Raven was not in any mood for games. The statue of rock that her opponent had become in one instant, was severed in two with a clean slash from Omen the next instant. The two halves split apart, falling harmlessly to either side of the swordswoman rather than striking her in the chest. She was gone from sight before they hit the ground though, the sound of the flapping wings of a bird taking flight filling the room as she moved upwards to better narrow down where the murderous shadow fang operative actually was.
​

In Vacuo, Masque and Vernal got the jumpscare of their lives as a whole ass Blake Belladonna suddenly came tearing through the portal only to run straight into the wall and explode into black nothingness.

Oh shit, her! The bandit had not forgotten any of those who had assaulted her back at Argus, though she would vehemently deny to anyone and everyone that she had jumped up at the surprise exit. Nuh uh, that had not happened. Before her system could settle on a fight or flight response though, the damn thing just smacked one of the walls and burst apart into empty blackness. "..." An eyebrow raised before she glanced to Masque. "That ain't creepy at all." She commented.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Qrow had spent countless hours teaching Ruby to wield that monstrosity of a scythe, and the fact was that when the two of them took the field of battle they were as well-oiled a unit as there was. Oz barely had time to catch her bearings after slamming into the wall when she looked up to the sight of the huntsman himself, expression locked in a practiced glare of grim determination that lacked any of the concern his niece's had for the face in question as he followed up with a twirling slash meant to both catch Oz around the head and embed Harbinger's tip in the wall behind her. He used the momentum from his dive to wrench the weapon to the side, its curved blade hooking the neck of Oz's current form to send her stumbling forward in turn, and if all went as intended the motion leveraged the Grimm master into an awkward headlock with Qrow dashing behind her and the haft of Harbinger applying pressure across her throat, meant to hold her in place for the third member of their family with a bone to pick he knew was right behind him.

"Hey, boss." He growled casually in her ear. "Say cheese."​

Sometimes, there was a lot to be said, speeches to give, verbal beatdowns to lay out. There were also times where, in a fight, you had to do something exceedingly clever, wild, complex, the sort of bonkers nonsense that'd make Jackie Chan blush and the great animator in the sky give a stern nod of approval.

Sometimes, you didn't, though.

Sometimes when you came face to face with the god of darkness, the best thing you could say wasn't even saying anything to him.

When Ozwen found her gaze tilted upwards, she was already face to face with Yang Xiao Long mid jump, fist already raised, and wrist already twisted, ancient eyes able to watch the round in her chamber and begin to ignite in slow motion. All the dread and grief Yang had been feeling didn't even begin to show on her face; Her face was set in a determined smirk, and she had to audacity to accentuate her only two words to Ozwen before the violence began with a quick wink just before the fist impacted square in her face, softer than expected, and very clearly not for him.

"Hey Snowflake"

*BLAM*

Between the unexpected portal that opened up right before her, the speed at which the young Rose had emerged and thrown her into the wall, and the practically flawless metaphorical baton exchange as Qrow stepped in while Ruby hung back, and her currently more vulnerable state, there was not enough time to properly respond before this ended with her held up against a not so metaphorical wall and a blade brushing her neck. Immediately following that, the level of teamwork among families became even more apparent as the blow struck full on in the face and the shot exploded, throwing up a miniature burst of smoke. When the dust cleared, however, there was no obvious sign upon that face that indicated it had been hurt, and the expression seemed unconcerned with the current state of things. Almost bored looking, even. Whether that was truth or simply an elaborate bluff, a nonchalant attitude meant to cover for her actually vulnerable state was unclear.

Yet in either case, Ozwen made no attempt to free herself from the pinned headlock Qrow had her in. The dark lord merely opened her mouth in a smile that was honestly not all that comforting, those familiar but also not familiar eyes flickering from Qrow to Yang to the fourth member of their family to emerge from the portal, the other world's Raven hanging back with arms crossed. "Hmm." Her eyes shifted back to the blonde after taking that all in.

"Well, hello to you too." She replied cordially enough, all things considered. "Tell me, what exactly is it you all think you will be accomplishing here?"​

 

[MidwayLives]

. Her initial reaction was very much the predictable one, an approving coo and lidded, come-hither aspect settling over her eyes as she quirked her eyebrows in inviting fashion, as though daring the ice cream midget to shift her weight a little higher if she dared.

Neo grinned.

It wasn't any kind of grin full of lust.

This was one full of the intent to maim, to kill.
​

Her second response, too, was predictable, as instead of taking her up on her offer for the more fun kind of head Neo stuck her thumbs into her head. Her eyes, to be exact. Heh. Classic. Sucker for pain though she may have been, she much preferred being on the other side of this, though, and the scream her lungs belted up at the illusionist was a rabid blend of pain and fury as she started bucking like a bronco, making enough noise to wake the dead, the strength pouring from her fiery form enough that she threatened to dislodge Neo even with two limbs temporarily down if someone didn't hold down her legs and hips.

"FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

It was okay. Any second now Oz would be here to back her up. He wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. He cared about her.

She was a good girl.

It may have felt inconceivable to others. Which was fine, Neo didn't expect them to understand.

But she felt just right at home with stuff like this.

She could still vividly remember the cries of mercy followed by the gurgling of blood as Neo tore holes into Malachite's flesh.

She leaned closer, her crotch against Yang's stomach/midrif.

All while carrying that same grin upon her face.

Scream! Writhe! DIE!

​

-A sword caught Neo's neck from the side with such violent force that it almost threatened to snap both it and the sword itself, even with aura protecting them both. The strike sent Neo flying off her prey to the other side of the room, and for a brief moment she stood clearly before them;

Just as Neo would have liked nothing more than driving her thumbs through Yang's eyelids, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. She pulled her hands back and raised her left arm but it was too slow. The blow caused her to sputter as she was thrown off Yang and flung back. Skidding across the floor on her back, Neo winced and rubbed at her neck. Ragged breaths leaving her lips as her pink-tinted aura flared around her person.

Well, that'd certainly hurt.
​

Robes still in tatters from Atlas, covered in bandages that did more to confer her modesty than anything else, but a replacement for her broken mask hiding everything but the burning gold of her eyes that seemed to track all three of them at once as she hung over the Dragon in a protective hunch for that moment. She didn't make any violent declarations like she had with Schnee; There was nothing personal about this fight. She didn't have the former heiress' ability to twist words or give inspiration to those she was protecting, or the Dragon's skills at breaking foes down verbally and provocation. Talents such as those were never what Ozpin wanted out of his blade.

Hmph.

Neo wasn't impressed by what to her? Just looked like a mangy cat in rags.

Still rubbing at her neck, Neo hopped back onto her feet.

Back when she'd been given no real choice but to aid Ozpin's side, Neo had been stopped from attempting to murder Base!Qrow. By none other than the very same person that Neo had been trying to horribly maim just seconds ago! Now, here stood Belladonna continuing to stick her nose where it wasn't needed. Neo balled her hands up and huffed. She'd been in the zone! Ready to do what needed to be done! To satisfy the urge that rested within her! To get revenge on Roman's killer!

That wasn't going to be taken from her.
​

Neo's lunging to slam her blade and pin the ice cream killer to the wall

Neo jumped back and tried to sidestep the incoming blade.

*SWISH*

Well, she'd managed to avoid being stuck like a pig.

But it hadn't been the graceful dodge Neo had been hoping for. Clutching at her side, her aura flared.

She threw a punch with her free hand only to hit nothing but smoke.

"...!!!"

Where the hell were you, Belladonna?!
​

 

[MidwayLives]

Masque absolutely hated this.

With every fiber of her being.

Sitting in some chair like an idiot.

She sat facing the portals, her chest heaving up and down. Her hood pulled back up.

All while scratching at her bandaged up stump. For one reason or another...it'd started to itch...
​

"FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

With how Masque had practically begged Cinder that her group would spare her Yang, one might think Masque had meant it.

Oh, she had meant every word of it. She loved her sister with all her heart. No matter what walls came up between the two of them, Masque would always want to see her in the end.

Because what they had wasn't anything that anyone else could understand. Masque did her best to hide it away. To not let the Yang from another world ever know of it. The urges she had. To express the love she held for Yang. When they'd played together growing up, Masque hadn't seen it as torture or tormenting.

It was a show of love.

With her hood pulled up and her face turned away from Vernal's, she smiled.
​

In Vacuo, Masque and Vernal got the jumpscare of their lives as a whole ass Blake Belladonna suddenly came tearing through the portal

Shaken from whatever inappropriate thoughts lurking in her head, Masque jumped to her feet and knocked the chair over again.

There was no mistaking it! That was Blake who'd come through!

Eager for a fight, Masque bared her teeth and-
​

only to run straight into the wall and explode into black nothingness.

Watched as that happened.

Hm.

Whatever enjoyment she got out of what she saw as 'loving' her Yang aside, Masque looked over her shoulder at the portal.

When others did it to her Yang....That wasn't love.

That was downright pain.

....The itching in her stump was growing worse.
​

 

[Gus Gungus]

They almost missed it; the innards of the Monstro were far from well lit, and while all of the grimm could hunt in the dark, this particular beast of Ozpin's lived and breathed in the shadows. It was the flash of white that covered its face that made it so they could track it as it suddenly exploded into the room, landed with a single step, and exploded into a pounce for its target

The Hand went straight through the portal; Right past their attack and for the relic and maiden somewhere on the other side, apparently intent on finishing the bloody work she'd started in Argus-



-A sword caught Neo's neck from the side with such violent force that it almost threatened to snap both it and the sword itself, even with aura protecting them both. The strike sent Neo flying off her prey to the other side of the room, and for a brief moment she stood clearly before them; Robes still in tatters from Atlas, covered in bandages that did more to confer her modesty than anything else, but a replacement for her broken mask hiding everything but the burning gold of her eyes that seemed to track all three of them at once as she hung over the Dragon in a protective hunch for that moment. She didn't make any violent declarations like she had with Schnee; There was nothing personal about this fight. She didn't have the former heiress' ability to twist words or give inspiration to those she was protecting, or the Dragon's skills at breaking foes down verbally and provocation. Talents such as those were never what Ozpin wanted out of his blade.

The eyes said more than enough without any words behind them; a stare of jagged, remorseless simplicty that saw their lives as something that had to end.

Prey.

In the next instant, Neo, Nora, and Raven all had a Blake exploding towards them with murderous intent, Neo's lunging to slam her blade and pin the ice cream killer to the wall, Nora's going for a low sweep to the knees, and Raven's in a flying kick to the sternum; Neo's and Nora's foes both exploded into shadowy mist, while Raven found her opponent suddenly turn into a statue, 300 pounds of rock still flying at her for a kick to the chest

--------------------------

In Vacuo, Masque and Vernal got the jumpscare of their lives as a whole ass Blake Belladonna suddenly came tearing through the portal only to run straight into the wall and explode into black nothingness.

"Oh."

There was not much time to say anything about those vicious yellow eyes staring them down, or the person delivering that unnerving glare. Magnhild, switching back to hammer form mid-swing, caught her attacker in the chest as the small girl jumped over the low sweep. But the only thing she was rewarded with was a shadowy mist that burst apart the moment her weapon made contact, temporarily eclipsing her in darkness. "W-what?!" She stepped forward after, wildly brushing the smoke out of her way and frantically looking about for any sign of the actual new arrival.

Raven was not in any mood for games. The statue of rock that her opponent had become in one instant, was severed in two with a clean slash from Omen the next instant. The two halves split apart, falling harmlessly to either side of the swordswoman rather than striking her in the chest. She was gone from sight before they hit the ground though, the sound of the flapping wings of a bird taking flight filling the room as she moved upwards to better narrow down where the murderous shadow fang operative actually was.

There were very few people walking the face of Remnant who would've been capable of getting up at that point, and of those fewer still would've been of any mind to. Their dismantling of her had been brutally efficient, she didn't think she was ever gonna get the taste of exploding Dust out of her mouth, and the auraless Grimm appendage dangling from her stump was only just starting to regain sensation, digits still flexing and twitching erratically as it shook off the electrical current. Judging from the state of things when she arrived, it would've been fair of Blake to expect the Dragon to be down and out of this fight; Even among the lethal upper echelon of the Shadow Fang (other than herself), she had known precious few with the capacity to endure punishment the way Ozpin's first enforcer of her generation did, whose formative years had already provided such a full breadth of what physical agony had to offer that the concept simply held little sway over them by this point. Who had a way of absorbing all the unjust, torturous pain the world had dealt their soul, and, rather than let it grind them down to dust the way most would, redirecting it right back at those who dared inflict it on them.

She could think of only one other who fit those exact parameters, actually. And that oblivious tenacity had been what killed her.

Pain was your body's way of trying to save itself, after all. The kind of warning siren that wasn't supposed to be ignored. It became perfectly apparent, not for the first time, that Dragon was either too much of a hothead or just too plum stupid to take heed of any such warnings as she pounded her human fist into the floor with a frustrated (though relieved) gasp the moment the thumbs left her eyes, the explosion echoing from the end of her gauntlet propelling her to her feet in a flurry of motion. She landed with enough spinning momentum to stomp her boot into the floor and shatter the ice immobilizing her leg all in one go, eyes still blinking rapidly in an effort to clear the blurry spots dominating them as she pivoted towards where she had seen the real Blake land. Thought she'd seen the real Blake land. It wasn't the easiest thing to determine at the best of times, and between Neo's efforts and the blood seeping into her eyes from the cut on her forehead as it mixed with her sweat it was still gonna be kind of hard to see anything for a few seconds.



"F-fuckers caught me with my pants down!"

Her voice was slightly hoarse from all the screaming, but there was a far goofier, more flustered tone than the one she would've used to try and justify her failure had it been Ozpin who came to her rescue, as though she was more concerned with the embarrassment of looking weak in front of the indomitable Hand than anything. It was grateful, though, if slightly marred by how hard it was to look adorable with blood drenching half her face and matting her scruffy mop of hair, and more than a little unsure of how to react to anyone demonstrating even the vaguest shred of a protective instinct towards her without the sort of sinister expectations Masque used to have that made hers lean more towards the possessive end of the scale. She dropped her fists to cock both gauntlets and swiveled to face their lord's enemies, the way her hair still burned a furious gold along with her aura her method of showing she still had plenty left in the tank as she flexed her restored Grimm palm in satisfaction and raised it in Blake's direction, as if primed to catch something.

"I'm all juiced up, but the ol' vision's still kinda boned. Couldn't give a gal a swing in the right direction, couldja? I'll pretend you're the boss of me this one time. Oooor... all the time starting right now if that's your thing. Y'know, to say thanks."

Casually offering her own body in return for basic kindness like it was the only thing of value she had may have been new, but the Dragon still remembered the tactics they'd developed side by side before she changed, and she figured the kitty'd catch her meaning. This was assuming the Blake she was talking to wasn't a clone, or had been the real one but had already moved onto other things, in which case she'd just have to figure it out for herself. Can't have shit in Monstro.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Sometimes, there was a lot to be said, speeches to give, verbal beatdowns to lay out. There were also times where, in a fight, you had to do something exceedingly clever, wild, complex, the sort of bonkers nonsense that'd make Jackie Chan blush and the great animator in the sky give a stern nod of approval.

Sometimes, you didn't, though.

Sometimes when you came face to face with the god of darkness, the best thing you could say wasn't even saying anything to him.

When Ozwen found her gaze tilted upwards, she was already face to face with Yang Xiao Long mid jump, fist already raised, and wrist already twisted, ancient eyes able to watch the round in her chamber and begin to ignite in slow motion. All the dread and grief Yang had been feeling didn't even begin to show on her face; Her face was set in a determined smirk, and she had to audacity to accentuate her only two words to Ozwen before the violence began with a quick wink just before the fist impacted square in her face, softer than expected, and very clearly not for him.

"Hey Snowflake"

*BLAM*

Between the unexpected portal that opened up right before her, the speed at which the young Rose had emerged and thrown her into the wall, and the practically flawless metaphorical baton exchange as Qrow stepped in while Ruby hung back, and her currently more vulnerable state, there was not enough time to properly respond before this ended with her held up against a not so metaphorical wall and a blade brushing her neck. Immediately following that, the level of teamwork among families became even more apparent as the blow struck full on in the face and the shot exploded, throwing up a miniature burst of smoke. When the dust cleared, however, there was no obvious sign upon that face that indicated it had been hurt, and the expression seemed unconcerned with the current state of things. Almost bored looking, even. Whether that was truth or simply an elaborate bluff, a nonchalant attitude meant to cover for her actually vulnerable state was unclear.

Yet in either case, Ozwen made no attempt to free herself from the pinned headlock Qrow had her in. The dark lord merely opened her mouth in a smile that was honestly not all that comforting, those familiar but also not familiar eyes flickering from Qrow to Yang to the fourth member of their family to emerge from the portal, the other world's Raven hanging back with arms crossed. "Hmm." Her eyes shifted back to the blonde after taking that all in.

"Well, hello to you too." She replied cordially enough, all things considered. "Tell me, what exactly is it you all think you will be accomplishing here?"

Of all the stupid, unbecoming reactions for a host vessel of his to dare have while he was in control, Ozma felt a stab of intense mortification well up from somewhere deep inside him at that particular choice of nickname, a multitude of other chemical responses including but not limited to incredulity, exasperation and sudden, overpowering concern threatening to tinge their shared cheeks red and have the voice her lips parted with far shriller than it was intended to be before he managed to reign it in.

"Well. Since you asked, we were hopin' to get an hour of your time to sit ya down, air our personal grievances and hash out our differences in a mature, sophisticated way like adults."

Qrow's grip was steadfast, his eyes shooting Yang and Raven an unseen signal where he stood behind the surprisingly tiny dark lord of the Grimm that was a clear cue to stay wary for as flippant a tone as he seemed to be brooking, and there was an indulgently contemplative tone to the rasp he came back with. His next words were much flatter, though.

"Oh, wait. Nah."

Harbinger's gears spun, it collapsed to its midway point between scythe and sword, and both its barrels were left sticking up flush under Ozwen's chin at an awkward angle, Qrow still leveraging her in a rough headlock as held them to her porcelain skin.

"We're pretty much just gonna whoop your ass."

BANG

Both barrels fired at point-blank range, and rather than waiting to see how that panned out Qrow spun her around roughly as Harbinger collapsed the rest of the way into its gunblade state, the veteran huntsman swinging low enough that its tip nearly dug a groove in the floor as he sought to sweep her legs and leave her open for another dose of Xiao Long percussive maintenance to the brainpan.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Admittedly, there was a part of her really amused right then, enjoying how clearly unnerved she'd made her team leader. Perhaps one day they could share a good laugh about it. At the very least, she would. But there were more important things weighing on her mind then. Namely, the person absolutely sprinting like there was no tomorrow ahead of them. Were she not so occupied by them, she might have recorded Arthur's cursing and the look on his face. "Hey wait!" Cinder bellowed. "Buddy I think you forgot your cereal!" The flames spurting out her feet intensified, the maiden willing herself to speed up to overtake the runner.

Right at what seemed like the very last second before a burst of speed propelled her to overtake him, the less-enigmatic-by-the-second purse Relic-snatcher grunted and pitched the faintly pulsating lamp straight up into the night sky, where a receiving hand appeared over the rooftop's edge with damn near flawless synchronicity to snatch it by the handle and yank it out of sight. The thief in the alley pumped his fist, and right as Cinder lapped him halted his momentum with a sudden explosion from both heels that overpowered the faint sound of mechanical servos they both emitted while he ran, propelling him backwards into a graceful flip halfway up between alley and roof. Tiny, individualized hardlight platforms appeared under each boot to work as a springpad, and another explosion sought to fire him the whole rest of the way up like a bullet so he could disappear over the roof edge in turn, the distant sound of metal boots beating against the brickwork already audible again as the chase continued.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Right at what seemed like the very last second before a burst of speed propelled her to overtake him, the less-enigmatic-by-the-second purse Relic-snatcher grunted and pitched the faintly pulsating lamp straight up into the night sky, where a receiving hand appeared over the rooftop's edge with damn near flawless synchronicity to snatch it by the handle and yank it out of sight. The thief in the alley pumped his fist, and right as Cinder lapped him halted his momentum with a sudden explosion from both heels that overpowered the faint sound of mechanical servos they both emitted while he ran, propelling him backwards into a graceful flip halfway up between alley and roof. Tiny, individualized hardlight platforms appeared under each boot to work as a springpad, and another explosion sought to fire him the whole rest of the way up like a bullet so he could disappear over the roof edge in turn, the distant sound of metal boots beating against the brickwork already audible again as the chase continued.​

".........."

The relic getting flung out of reach and snatched out of sight by someone else, the first thief likewise disappearing over that same roof...it got a different response than might have been expected, given that one of the most important items in the world was getting taken away from them. The flames shooting out of her boots sputtered and died, and without them keeping her up, the flight ended with her and Arthur dropping and rolling across the sandy ground. Her grip faltered and both Arthur and his cute scooter thing slipped from her grasp. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable of stops(and she could taste the bits of sand that managed to get into her mouth) but right now that comfort was not what she thought about. It wasn't what dominated her mind.

A second thief. That graceful flip. Gunboots that blasted the first one up over the roof. How that shopkeeper had accosted them with gifts specifically tailored to them. Ridiculously so! The messages on the shirts, it was too uncanny how...and he'd called them Beacon students! Even used their initials...and then, the just...complete disappearance of it all. Like it had never been there in the first place. Cinder wasn't as smart as Arthur, that was true but now that the impulsive worry about the relic wasn't driving her into immediate pursuit, now that she just took a moment to think about it...it was so obvious. Too obvious! Frustratingly so. It made her feel like such an idiot, further justifying that choice of shirt.

There was no running after. There was no fiery glow signifying pursuit, or the sound of those flames surging behind them, or the heat warming up the cooler night that would have came with. The maiden just pushed herself up into a kneeling position and lifted her head up, looking with her one good eye at that rooftop, and there was just the sound of her voice.

"Mercury! Emerald! Come back!"

She had no idea if that would even work, if that would get them to do so...or if that would even get them to stop in their fleeing. But she made no move to stand up regardless. "Please...wait..." ​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Watched as that happened.

Hm.

Whatever enjoyment she got out of what she saw as 'loving' her Yang aside, Masque looked over her shoulder at the portal.

When others did it to her Yang....That wasn't love.

That was downright pain.

....The itching in her stump was growing worse.

"So...that was a thing." Vernal awkwardly remarked. It was weird, just listening to the sounds that streamed out from the portal to this side. There was a lot happening clearly and while there was some desire to see it too, that was greatly overshadowed by self preservation and fear about the monstrosities that could be waiting on the other side, the kinds that could just turn up at any moment and...she shook her head, clearing those thoughts away. The less she thought about them, imagined them, the better.​