DISCLAIR: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishnt at threads/rwby-the-gar-the-gas-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.
Clubs
I sat still even as I sensed people being to move, prompted by the entrance of the seniors. Adam returned to the table and set a trey down in front of , which I began to pick at for the sake of appearances. I wasn't hungryI never was, anymorebut I ate a few fries and chicken nuggets anyway, focused primarily on my surroundings.
The seniors kept their distance for the mont, watching. Led by Albus, Fionn, and Cinder, they found places around the hall and I noted who they sat with carefully, but though they filled up most of the remaining seats and boxed into the center, none of them spoke. I had a feeling they were all waiting for sothing and was pretty sure I knew what, but I played along for the mont and pretended I didn't know that all eyes were on .
Across the hall, Desher released a huff that was half-amused and half-disgusted. He glanced once to either side and nodded sharply, causing a pair of juniors to rise and make their way over to my table. Erald and rcury looked up when they took a seat to either side of , but Adam and I remained focused on our als.
"You're Jaune Arc?" The one on the leftShesepasked.
I swallowed another chicken nugget before sliding my gaze over to the apple Adam had put on my plate. Lifting it with a thought, I focused on the image of a blade and began skinning it. An unbroken coil began to wind down from it onto my plate, gathering in a neat little spiral as I finished removing itand then I cored it with an image of a sharpened cylinder, before splitting the remainder into six pieces by shifting the image. The pieces floated apart to let the core drop with a slight clang and then I reached for one, making it float towards my finger as I did.
The two thugs, because that was what they were to Desher, looked at each for a long, silent mont before apparently coming to an agreent.
"There's soone who wants to talk to you," Shesep continued. "Would you mind coming with us for a bit?"
At that I looked up at them and smiled.
"That's a very polite way of asking," I said, voice a touch apologetically. "But sorry; I don't talk to the help. If your boss has sothing to say, tell him to co and say it himself."
At that, I looked back down at my plate, bringing the apple slice to my lips.
Shesep swallowed and looked over at his friend, Kem. Neither seed particularly enthused about having to be the bearer of bad news and slowly, almost reluctantly, they put their hands on my shoulders.
"I don't think that's possible," Shesep replied. "Or rather, he'd consider such a thing impolite."
"You two have a sucky job, boys," I answered, not looking up. "But when you say it like thatwell, I wouldn't want to be rude."
I lowered my voice a touch, limiting it to the three of us with a touch of power.
"You know where this is going," I continued quietly. "I strongly suggest you stay down and out of the way."
Both of them flinched even before a pair of Psychokinetic blasts hurled them to opposite sides of the hall. I softened the blows until it was more like being hit by a pair of giant pillows, but it was still enough to make the hit the walls with a convincing crack and fall to the floor below.
At the sa ti that happened, my chair slide back and then flipped over the table behind it, rising in a high arc that stopped just short of colliding with Desher's table. Seated upside-down in the air opposite him, I t his eyes.
"Was there sothing you wanted to say to ?" I asked, five remaining apple slices spinning gently by my side. For a long mont, he was silent and rely returned my gaze steadily, looking over. He had dark skin and even darker hair and his almost red eyes glead slightly as he frowned. Like , he wore his armor instead of a uniform, but that didn't an he wasn't ready for a fight.
"As a matter of fact, there was," He said at last, slowly returning my smile as he stood without even bothering to scoot back his chair. Where it would have touched him, the table instead began to wither and crumble to dust, revealing the Kopis beneath. As he grasped the hilt of his weapon, his Aura rose dimly around it, tinging it with the color of coagulated blood. He took a step forward and it was enough to split the table completely in half.
I watched him approach, unflinching even as I noted the effects. It was short range, as I'd already Observed, but with each step, I could feel the effect increase. When it couldn't strike at my flesh through my Aura, it struck at my Aura instead, trying to make it unravel. I felt the upkeep increase with each step, but I allowed him to approach until he was but a step away and closed my eyes as he lifted his sword. It was only when he actually swung it at that I allowed my lips to twitch upwards.
The blade ca to a halt when it struck my forearmor rather, when it struck the Psychokinetic shell that hovered just above my skin. I held him off for a mont, still upside-down, and forced his blade away with my physical and ntal strength, just so everyone could see that I could. Then, I opened my eyes again to et Desher's and allowed my smile to widen.
"Is this so kind of 'speak with our fists' thing?" I asked. "Because I'm ga. Let seeah, got it."
I lifted a hand and reached out towards himand with a pushing gesture, smashed him with a blast of Psychokinetic force. Several of our classmates scread and threw themselves out of the way as he cut through tables like a buzz saw, but I hit him hard enough that he wasn't near any of them for more them a mont. He slamd through the wall of the hall, his own dissolving it to the point that it could do nothing to slow his flight, nor could the next or the one after that. Between us, he flew straight to the opposite side of Haven before he could wrangle his power back under control and smash into sothing the old fashioned wayand when he did, he ca to a halt in a decent sized crater.
Since I didn't actually need to breathe, it was pretty trivial to regulate my breathing so as to not let on that doing that had taken quite a bit of energy. Desher's power caused things to break down, even attacks directed his way, and for all that I'd turned it against him it was still a dangerous power. I'd taken it to show offand I could tell from the reactions that rippled through the room that it had workedbut just standing nearby and then hitting him back had consud several thousand MP. It was no surprise that he was one of the strongest in his year.
Luckily, regaining MP wasn't a problem for . Casting away the mostly obliterated chair, I continued to float upside-down for a mont before flipping over as I ate another apple slice. Floating above everyone with one knee bent, I glanced around the room thoughtfully before turning to look back at the hole I'd made. Giving myself several seconds to catch my proverbial breath, I darted forward, pretty sure it'd evoke a reaction.
Sure enough, as I flew past one of the chairs that had miraculously survived Desher's flight, a hand stopped .
"Hey, hey, hey," Fionn said with an easy smile, holding onto my ankle. He'd crossed the hall too fast for even to follow and taken a seat in the forrly empty chair as I passedbut then, I guess that was to be expected of a teleporter. "That's enough, yeah? I can't say I mind seeing Desher taken down a notch, but you're making a ss."
I'd stopped flying the mont I'd felt contact, so I looked down at him for a mont, making a show of mulling it over.
"It can't be helped," I decided at last, tilting my head his way.
"Oh?" He asked. "How's that?"
"We'd have fought eventually," I said. "Because he wants to be the strongest person in the school, but the position's taken."
He laughed at that, a deep, barrel-chested sound. Though he was only a few years older than , he was a big guy, well over two ters and his voice carried.
"Well, I can't say I don't like your style," He said after a mont, not letting go of my ankle. "But did you really have to do it before I got sothing to eat."
This ti, I was my turn to chuckle and I let the remaining apple slices float towards his face. He glanced at them once before gobbling up all four with a single chomp.
"Sorry for the inconvenience," I answered. "It's just, if I do it now, I won't have to waste ti doing it later, you know. You wouldn't want stuff like this to interfere with my studies or sothing, would you?"
He swallowing after several seconds of loud chewing and then sighed.
"It seems like you don't know much about Haven, huh," He mused, partially to himself.
"Oh?" I asked challengingly. "Well, I guess that's trueit is my first day, after all. Why don't you teach , then?"
"Hm," He humd, smile returning. "WellI guess if I do it now, I won't have to waste ti doing it later, right?"
"See?" I asked. "Now you're getting it."
He chuckled and smiled up at before vanishing.
I was already preparing to move the mont I felt my Danger Sense react, but with the grip he'd had on , I wasn't quite fast enough. For a disorienting mont, I felt like I was going to fly to pieces and explode in every direction, but I abruptly felt my Aura solidify in a way I'd never felt before and instead I was suddenly sent rocketing towards the ceiling. I caught myself instantly and stood with my feet on the ceiling, attention focused downwards.
A telefrag, huh
Fionn fell a short distance to the floor, having teleported to occupy the sa space as . He couldn't just kill soone by teleporting inside them, not with an Aura in place to protect thembut two people couldn't exist in the sa position, and it seed his power resolved that issue by forcing them violently away. And while not as instantly lethal as the alternative, I could say from experience that it hurt like a bitch.
It also wasn't sothing I'd expected. Most teleporters couldn't appear in occupied spaces at all and the fact that he could made him one of the most dangerous ones in the entire world. But then, I suppose that was why he had a level above eighty before even graduating.
Good, I thought as I crouched slightly on the ceiling. This wouldn't be any fun, otherwise.
"The na's Finn," He shouted up at . "Just tell when you've had enough, yeah?"
"Jaune," I answered. "And feel free to give up any ti."
He snorted but smiled widely as he vanished again.
By definition, teleportation was the instantaneous traversal of space. There was a lot of debate in certain circles as to how anything could be instant, much less be proven such, but it was generally accepted as true. There had been a lot of experints about it and though the nature of human error had always made things difficultespecially with the speeds in questionthere was a fair amount of evidence supporting the assumption that teleportation was, at the very least, able to cover linear distances at a speed faster than light. There was even more debate about how that worked and a bunch of theories that were essentially impossible to prove.
The leading one, however, was that teleportation was able to give the appearance of moving faster than light by covering a smaller effective distance, whether through the warping of space, high-dinsional movent, or whatever elsethat is, while moving faster than light was effectively impossible, if light has to move a thousand miles and you only have to move an inch, it might be possible to reach your destination before it. Bending the rules instead of breaking them, essentially.
As I got up to a fair amount of dinsional fuckery myself, I'd done so research into the subject while looking into Naraka and Raven's Semblance. In truth, as with all Semblances, I suspected the details variedit was rather hard to co up with anything like a unified theory with what were essentially unrepeatable miracles. So teleporters could only move themselves, so could only move other people, and while there was supporting evidence that so might have warped space, others could have used a different thod. A long ti ago, Mistral had possessed a famous teleporter that had earned the na Ophis by leaving skins filled with dust; tests on the shells he'd left behind had eventually lead to several scientists deducing that rather than teleporting in a conventional sense, he destroyed his body in one location and created a new one at his destination.
So I could honestly say I had no more of an idea of how Finn's power worked then I did Raven'sand I'd spent a lot of ti trying to figure out how Raven's power worked. In Finn's case, I might have sensed sothing, but whatever it was, it either occurred in a tifra too fast for to noticewhich was saying sothingor else transported Finn sowhere beyond my perceptions and back into conventional reality at his desired locations. Or both.
The point being that even I couldn't dodge a teleport after it occurred. He reappeared the sa mont he vanished or near enough that it didn't make a difference; it wasn't sothing I could avoid after it happened.
Which ant I'd just have to dodge beforehand instead. The mont I sensed a change in him, the mont I felt my Danger Sense alert , I was moving. Shedding a skin, I flicked a few steps back as he appeared where I'd stood, upside-down in my place. The afterimage I'd left behind with my enhanced speed was torn apart by his reappearance, but I paid it no heed, attacking before I even stopped moving. Finn reappeared only to take a focused blast of Psychokinetic force to the back, hurling him towards the nearest wall with the force of a cot.
He surprised again by vanishing a mont before he hit it and reappearing in the exact sa place as before, but facing the opposite directionfacing .. Though he'd been flying through the air monts before, teleporting seed to have erased his montum entirely. Perhaps even more than that, I was sure of it now; he could change not only his position in space when teleporting, but also the positioning of his own body.
Interesting.
I saw his lips twitch upwards once as gravity began to pull him back towards the floor but he vanished just in ti to avoid the blast of force I sent his way. I flickered in the sa instant, feet touching the ceiling just long enough to let flicker several steps back as he appeared in my position once more and then imdiately teleported again into the exact sa place so as to face . The ceiling shattered beneath his feet as he vanished again, but this ti he appeared to the right of instead, sword abruptly drawn and arms ready to swing. The mont he appeared, however, I aid another wave of invisible power at his face and let loose.
He was suddenly on the other side of , blade swinging from the opposite side of his body. I caught it this ti, catching it on an invisible sword of my own just to see what he'd do, and he was suddenly behind , blade swinging down at the back of my head. I hurled a wave of power at him without looking back and hit nothing as he was already in front of , the tip of his sword at my throat.
This ti, I didn't bother with a directed assault, but let my Psychokinetic shell expand into a growing sphere, blowing away everything around even as I shattered the ceiling. He flickered behind , but still caught the blast, and it flung him back hardonly for him to vanish in midair and reappear right before my eyes, blade swinging for my neck.
I'd already recreated my shell and it pulsed again, throwing him back again, but he reappeared to the right of and tried a third only to get the sa result. When that happened, he vanished again, but reappeared on the floor below, standing amidst the fallen ceiling as he looked up at . I took advantage of the brief reprieve to rotate in place and hover upright between the ruined dining hall and the floor above. He was taking a mont to think of a new angle, but in truth, such a reprieve did nothing but help as it gave a chance to do the sa. Though I'd been able to hit him with an omnidirectional assault, the truth was that such an attack was rather wasteful as only a small fraction of the force hit him and I needed to put enough MP into the attack that any such fraction was enough to bat him away.
In truth, I was a bit surprised at how elusive he waseven with a teleportation Semblance, the fact remained that all my attacks were invisible. I'd Observed him already and he didn't have any skills that would render my powers visible, which ant he was doing this with the sa Danger Sense I was using to predict his attempts to telefrag . While all Hunters had the skill to so extent by virtue of their Aura, his was shockingly precise if it was enough to let him predict my individual attacks in the brief monts he had to respond. I guess his level wasn't just because of his Semblance.
Stillwhile he may have been faster while teleporting, when it ca to moving within conventional space, I had the advantage. I could Shed to quickly evade a direct attack and if he appeared near , I was quick enough to respond. While his reaction ti was exceptional, mine was better, and in a war of attrition I had an almost unsurmountable advantage. The only part that worried were the sowhat vague descriptions of his skills and the fact that he'd yet to use several of them.
Finn cracked his neck once and looked up at .
"Not bad," He admitted. "Ready for round two?"
"Given that I won round one, I feel like I should be asking you that," I replied even as I let myself fall to the floor.
"Hmph," He snorted. "Fair enough. But how about I show you sothing cool this ti?"
"As long as you do it before I yawn myself to death," I replied, returning his smirk. "Weren't you supposed to be showing the ropes?"
"In a minute, you impatient bastard," He answered, hints of an accent coloring his words as he laughed. "You watch closely now, yeah?"
I widened my eyes dramatically.
"I'll even hold my breath, if you want," I told him. "But just to make sure, if I get tired of waiting its fine if I just kick your ass instead, right?"
He clicked his tongue once and vanished. I promptly released another pulse, catching him as he appeared above and flicking him high into the air. As appeared behind , I reversed to course of the wave, catching him in the back even as I pulsed again, swashing him as he appeared in front of . Watching his face closely, I made a guess and released a wall shaped blast to the left and then the right, smashing him away each ti. Instead of remaining stationary, however, this ti I darted forward, flying just inches above the ground and zigzagging quickly, forcing him to try and match my pace. When he appeared just a step in front of and made to clothesline with his blade, I darted right and slamd full force into him. He flickered, appearing in the space I'd just vacated, and I turned on a di to barrel into him again, going back to back with him.
When he put so distance between us, teleporting ten ters down the hall, I aid a hamr of force at him and shattered the floor beneath his feet when he vanished. Pulsing again at his approach, I was a bit surprised when he didn't vanish, but was quickly to follow it up with a more focused blast, hurling him halfway down the hall before he vanished again. When he reappeared, I pulsed and then blasted him up into the air, and when he was suddenly in front of , I raised a hand to hit him with a Psychokinetically enhanced punch. He went flying before reappearing ten ters away again, but this ti I didn't attack.
Instead, I pinned him with an amused look.
"I want to make it clear that I know you're up to sothing," I stated loud enough for him to hear. "You're trying to give the impression that you're slowing down, but I know full well that you could have dodged so of those. I don't think you're stupid enough to keep trying the sa old thing without a plan, either."
"Aw," Finn drew out. "I'm so glad to hear you think that much of . And you were even polite enough to play along, too. That gets, right here."
He pounded a fist against his chest, right over his heart, and I couldn't help but smile in response.
"I guess you could think of it that way," I replied. "But, well, since I'm so much stronger then youit's more that I'm just not worried about it, I guess? Sorry, but you haven't made much of an impression on yet."
"Well, we can't have that," He said, flashing his teeth in an honest grin. "Why don't I show you my magic trick, then?"
I was about to say sothing sarcastic when he appeared in front of and I had to release a pulse of Psychokinetic force, insteadone which he tore through like it was made of fucking paper. I raised another shield that he blasted through the exact sa way before snapping my hands up to catch the blade. With the help of my Psychokinesis, pitted my strength against his and braced myself against the floor.
It barely slowed him down. My feet slid back across the floor for a mont before it abruptly shattered beneath , but I didn't even have a chance to fall as it continued to push back. Even trying to resist, the force of the attack was enough to draw a trench across the dining hall with my body, pushing through stone like it was water. Finn overca my strength and slamd his sword straight into my chest, hitting as hard as every blow I'd landed on him combined.
Ah, I thought as understanding dawned.
When I ca to a stop, there was a chasm down the length of the dining hall and I was by the doorway. His attack had passed straight through my psychic shell and left my entire body literally ringing with the impact, vibrating as if it were more steel than flesh. I got that under control after a mont but took several more to catch my taphorical breath and allow the silence that had taken the hall to linger. Then, after healing the damage and regaining so of my power, I spoke.
"So" I asked as I lifted my head to look him in the eye, rising against the pressure of his sword with ease. "Did you do it yet?"
Before he could reply, I slamd him with an even stronger blast, flinging him straight through the now absent ceiling before he vanished and reappeared at the opposite end of the hall. As he did, I floated upwards and smiled.
"I get it," I said, putting the pieces together. "I thought it was a little odd how you seed to bleed off all your montum each ti you teleportedbut you don't get rid of it, do you? You store it."
"Energy cannot be created or etc." He replied, absently making a rotating gesture with his hand, as if wanting to get on with this.
I humd, wondering absently if that was a secondary effect of his Semblance or if it was it the reason he could telefrag an opponent in the first place. It didn't matter in this case, thoughthe impacts still hurt him, he was just able to gather up any forces acting upon him when he teleported and store them to release later. I couldn't deny that it was an interesting power; sure, there were ways around it, butI could see why he was one of the highest levels in the school.
"Well then," I chuckled as I floated his way. "I guess the only real question is which of us can take a bigger ass-kicking."
His smile beca fierce as he twirled his blade.
"Sounds like fun to ," He answered. "Shall we?"
Without another word, I darted down the hall, aiming straight for him even as I prepared an arsenal of Psychokinetic force. Finn readied his blade fearlessly and swung even as I made to attack
And then sothing punched in the heart even as I felt a shift in the room. I veered left abruptly, crashing through the wall, and saw Finn stumble as I did. Both of our HP bars took a sudden hit, his quite a bit more than mine, and I turned my attention to the source as I shook off the rubble.
"It's against the rules to fight in the cafeteria," Albus inford us, taking a seat on the edge of one of the few remaining tables.
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