MEEEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMSS, thanks Fox!

  Also Dante and Alex, who appear in this chapter. Are my friends characters from our RWBY DnD campaign. So thank you both for letting me use your characters.

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  Byzan stretches on the arena as Ambré stands beside him.

  "Hey, you ready?" Ambré asks as she looks over her SMG.

  "I'm always ready, Sweet Cheeks." Byzan cracks his back as Ambré raises an eyebrow as she looks at him. "...What?"

  Ambré raises a hand up. "I didn't say anything."

  Byzan narrows his eyes at her. "But you had that look."

  "I didn't have a look, I never have a look."

  Byzan puts his hands on his hips. "Yeah you did. It's the look you always give me when I do something wrong."

  Ambré looks Byzan up and down. "You mean like all the time."

  Byzan blows raspberries. "I hardly ever do anything wrong." Ambré just stares at him. "...Okay, once and a while I do good."

  Ambré just rolls her eyes.

  Suddenly Doctor Oobleck is heard over the stadium speakers. "I hope all you fine folks are ready, because this match up will be a good one!"

  "Indeed it is!" Professor Port agrees, his voice echoes over the speaks. "Today we have Ambré Bell and Byzantine Beldonna of team AMBR from Beacon, Vs. Alex Calisto and Dante Sunset of team RCAD from Shade."

  Byzan looks over to his opponents, seeing a rather short and fair skinned scorpion faunus with long purple hair, and a purple combat outfit. They look like a girl, but Byzan instincts tell him... that this girl is a trap!

  Byzan then gnces at the Fox faunus beside Alex. Short orange hair with a pair of fox ears, and sticking green eyes. They remind him of someone, but he can't think of it off the top of his head.

  This foxy fellow just stares at Byzan, with a neutral look.

  "A Sunset, eh?" Byzan smirks. "How'd you get into Shade, I thought you'd be working with your father in Menagerie."

  "No tienes que preocuparte por nada, Bele?o." Dante calls out as he readies his lever action sniper.

  "Oh, créeme, amigo mío. Tengo que preocuparme un poco por eso." Byzan calls out as he flips his flintlock into the air, and then catches it as he changes it into katana form.

  The arena starts to roll for the environments.

  Ambré looks at Alex, who's across from her. And looks the mini person up and down. She notices a bit of wind gathering around his right hand, making her raise an eyebrow.

  "My eyes are up here, cutie~" Alex calls out in a flirty tone, readying his weapon.

  Ambré raises an eyebrow. "What?"

  "How about after this, I'll treat you to some dinner. Then we can go to my dorm and get to know each other, some more~"

  Ambré takes a step back, as she starts to grow uncomfortable. "Why is this girl flirting with me?"

  "Sweet checks, that's a guy." Bzyan steps up beside her.

  "...What?" Ambré looks down at the cat. "How do you know?"

  Byzan wags his tush. "My trap senses are tingling~ Hey, if you don't mind, how about I take your pce." He gnces over at Alex, undressing him with his eyes. "He's so my type~ Meow~" He lets out a purr.

  Ambré pushes Byzan away from her as she gres at Alex. "I'm gonna break every bone in your body."

  "Ohhh, so you like it rough in bed~" Alex giggles, making the buff girl steel her gaze.

  The environments finally get chosen. Behind AMBR is a Rubble city with a rge pond beside it, making Byzan's fur stand on end. And behind RCAD is a snowy graze pin, which Byzan still doesn't exactly like.

  The cat then gnces up into the crowd where he spots Maize and Rose cheering loudly, behind them is RWBY, with Ruby holding up a sign with AMBR on it, Yang cheering loudly while Weiss cps.

  He and Bke make eye contact, she just gives a smirk and a thumbs up. Byzan's eyes light up as he nods.

  He looks beside team RWBY and spots JNPR cheering as well.

  "KICK THEIR ASS, DANTE!" A young voice reaches Byzan's ears.

  Dante loudly sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Oum dammit."

  Byzan smirks at the Fox, making the fox slightly gre back.

  Port starts to count down, the two teams get into stances.

  Baxterbro

  Byzan smirks at Dante as he just bnkly stares at him.

  Alex smirks at Ambré, while she gives him the death gre.

  "AND FIGHT!" Port shouts.

  Ambré swiftly charges forward, and so does Alex. They swiftly meet each other as Alex pulls back his right fist, Ambré notices and goes to block with her sword.

  But when Alex throws the punch a massive explosion rings out when his fist collides with her sword. Ambré shouts in shock as she goes flying back into the rubble city behind her.

  Meanwhile Byzan shoots forward and fires a shot of his flintlock at Dante. The Fox jumps to the side as the round flies past him. He flips his gun around and fires several shots at the approaching cat, but with the agility of his cat self; Byzan bobs and weaves past the bullets.

  "Gotta be better then that!" Byzan reaches Dante, and swings his katana at him, but it passes through that Fox. "Huh?"

  Dante flips his gun around and sms the stock into Byzan's stomach, before bashing him in the face. But then he jumps back as Clone Byzan tries to ssh him, before the clone poofs away in purple smoke.

  Byzan coughs a couple time before wiping some saliva away. He smirks as he looks up at Dante.

  "What was it you said?" Dante falls out as he switches his rifle into a sword. "I gotta do better than that?"

  Byzan just chuckles. "You got lucky." He reloads his pistol, before changing it back into sword form. He then takes the sheath off his back.

  Dante shakes his head. "No, I'm just good." He suddenly disappears, making the cat confused.

  Over with Ambré, she grunts as she stands up. She wipes some rubble off his coat as she looks around.

  "The hell was that?" Ambré looks up to the aura board, seeing a little bit of her aura gone, a sliver of Byzan's and a fifth of Alex's already gone. "Strange...."

  Ambré senses go off and she swings her sword to the side, cutting a bullet in half. She smirks as she sees Alex running towards her, twisting a mechanism on the bottom of his sheathed katana.

  Ambré readies her weapon as Alex swiftly unsheathed his katana as he reaches her, creating a rge column of fire barrel towards her.

  Ambré ducks under the fire and stabs her sword towards the faunus, but he uses his tail to block the attack, before twisting the bottom of his katana again and swinging it at Ambré.

  She jumps back as a rge block of ice forms where she was standing. She flips her sword around and change sit into gun form, firing at the trap.

  "Crap!" Alex dives behind cover as round fly all around him.

  Over in the other area, Byzan is rapidly looking around, his ears swiveling, trying to pin point Dante's location.

  He picks up a sound, right behind him and he swiftly turns around and blocks an incoming attack from a reappearing Dante. Byzan smiles as a clone of him appears behind the Fox and sshes at him, but his attack just phases through him.

  Dante jumps back and once again goes invisible, much to the annoyance of the cat.

  Byzan and his clone go back to back as their ears swivel around. They hear a click to the side and they roll to the side as several rounds fly past them.

  Byzan looks towards the source, but sees nothing. He smiles and charges towards the direction and spots poofs of smoke coming from nothing in the middle of the air, as rounds keep flying towards him.

  Byzan and his clone reach the spot and sms their weapons into the ground. Dante reappears as he barely avoids the attack as he grits his teeth.

  He goes to disappear again, but receives a knee to the gut from both clone and real Byzan, throwing him a few meters away.

  Dante nds on the ground as he orange aura covers him. He lets out a few heavy breaths as he disappears as Byzan charges towards him.

  Back with Ambré, she flips her empty mag out of her SMG and swiftly loads a new one. She moves towards where she st saw Alex, keeping her gun raised high.

  She slides around the corner and aims where Alex should be, but he's not there. She furrows her brow, and hears a crack slightly above her, and looks up, only to get a punch to the face.

  A rge explosion rings out and Ambré is thrown through a building and sms against a wall, it cracks behind her. She grunts in pain as her sapphire aura covers her as she nds on her feet.

  In anger Ambré punches the wall behind her, making it crumble, revealing the rge shallow pond behind her.

  Alex crawls into the building on the ceiling, before dropping down, firing his rifle at her. Ambré ducks under the rounds and charges towards him.

  Alex jumps over her as she swings her sword at the trap, and he nds behind her. His tail shoots out towards her, but she grabs it and tightly squeezes.

  "Oh son of a-" Alex mutters before he gets lifted up and smmed into the wall beside Ambré, before getting punched through it.

  Alex nds on the road outside the building with a grunt as his dark purple aura covers him. He stands his sword into the ground and lifts himself up, looking to the hole he made.

  Alex sweats as he sees Ambré's pale golden and ocean blue eyes glowing as she steps through the hole. She takes off her jacket and throws it to the side.

  Ambré then sets her SMG on her back, before cracking her knuckles. "I'm gonna enjoy this."

  Alex pushes himself up, readying his weapon.

  Back in the snowy pin, Byzan ducks under invisible Dante's sword as it cuts a few strands of his hair. He then kicks the air where the attack came from, but only his air.

  He then jumps back as his clone takes an attack for him. Byzan stabs his sword into the ground and digs up a bunch of snow, painting the visible Dante with snow.

  Byzan shoots forward as the fox reappears. Byzan and his clone both ssh at him, but their attacks go through Dante, upsetting the cat.

  Dante tries to go invisible again, but Byzan shoots the snow beside him, painting the fox again.

  Byzan and his clone rapidly ssh at Dante, before he manages to duck under an attack and stab the clone, making it poof away. Then blocks Byzan's attack.

  Dante gnces up at the aura board, seeing his aura at half, Alex's just under half, Ambre's only missing a third and Byzan hasn't lost much.

  Dante huffs as he pushes back Byzan, only to csh with him again.

  "Honestly, you're fun to py with Foxy~" Byzan smirks as he applies more force behind his sword.

  "Please don't make this weird." Dante applies the same amount of force into his weapon.

  The two stare at each other for a few seconds, before they jump back and charge at each other again.

  Back in the city Alex ducks down as Ambré destroys a corner of a building with her bare hands. The building shakes and groans as cracks crawl up the side of it.

  Alex twists the bottom of his katana and jumps back, before swinging it towards Ambré. A rge gust of wind sms into her, making it difficult for her to keep standing.

  The tall girl brings up her arms to cover her face from the wind as she grunts. Alex takes this moment to fire several rounds at Ambré, whittling her aura away. Wind starts to form around his right hand.

  But suddenly the ground below them shakes as the building beside them, before it starts to fall towards them.

  "Shit!" They both yell as the wind around Ambré dissipates and the two start to run.

  The tall building falls onto the ground, kicking up dust and debris.

  Over with Byzan.

  The ground shakes heavily, nearly causing him to lose his bance, as well as the fox. Byzan smirks, taking this advantage to summon his clone above Dante.

  Dante's ears pick up a sound above him, and he swings his sword up, blocking Clone Byzan's attack. But then he realizes his mistake, and gets punched in the face by the real Byzan.

  Dante gets thrown back and grunts in pain as he rubs his face. Byzan appears above him and stabs his sword down at him, only for it to go through him.

  Dante rolls to the side and goes invisible, only for Byzan to quickly nd on his shoulders and wrap his thighs around his neck.

  Over in the rubble city, Ambré waves her hand in front of her as she coughs. She wipes some dust off her and looks around for Alex among the cloud of dust.

  She hears something beside her and turns, only to get a fist to the gut. An explosion rings out as Ambré goes flying and nds in the shallow pond on her back.

  Ambré coughs and nearly vomits as she rolls onto her side. She hears Alex nd on the other side of the pond. Ambré grunts and picks herself up, and gres at Alex on the side of the pond.

  Ambré looks up at the aura board and notices she's getting low on Aura, but so is Alex. She smirks and looks down at him as he runs towards her, with his right fist pulled back and winds surrounding it.

  Ambré also charges towards him as she yells. Alex throws his right fist forwar, and yet, Ambré catches it, without aura and a loud explosion rings out. Alex's eyes widen in worry as he notices that Ambré caught his attack without aura.

  Blood drips into the water below them as several rge wounds cover Ambré's left arm and hand. Yet she gives a battle cry as she pulls back her right fist and delivers a right hook to Alex's face as hard as she can.

  The attack connects and a crunch echoes as Alex is sent flying far, sending him off the edge of the arena.

  "And Alex Calisto is out by aura and out of bounds!" Port announces.

  "Can someone check on Miss Bell?" Doctor Oobleck calls out.

  Ambré falls to a knee as she holds her bleeding left arm in pain. But she chuckles a few times with a smile.

  Over with Byzan.

  Dante phases through Byzan and jumps back, trying to catch his breath. Byzan nds on his feet and spins towards Dante.

  "Come on, Foxy~" Byzan licks his lips as he stands up.

  "Oum, you're just like Alex." Dante readies his sword.

  Dante goes invisible and Byzan summons his clone and the two ready for combat again. They spin back to back, only for a bullet to fly through Clone Byzan's head, making him poof away.

  Byzan fires a round towards the invisible Dante, which manages to hit its target. Dante falls to the ground as his invisibility cancels.

  Dante goes to get up, but a foot is smmed into his gut, making him spit up saliva.

  Dante gres up at Byzan as the cat smirks down at him.

  "You know, you could just give up now, Foxy." Byzan winks. "Cause we all know we'll just be gong around in circles, well until Sweet Cheeks gets over her."

  Dante gres at Byzan for a few seconds, before he rests his head back.

  "I... I surrender." Dante breathes out.

  "And that's the match!" Doctor Oobleck shouts. "Team AMBR wins!"

  Byzan holds his hand down to Dante. "I must say, you did put up a good fight."

  Dante grabs Byzan's hand and the cat helps him up.

  "You're not half bad either." Dante turns and walks away, before turning invisible.

  Byzan wipes some snow off him as he meets up with Ambré in the middle of the arena. He notices her bleeding arm and a look of worry fshes over his face.

  "You okay, Ambré?" Byzan asks.

  Ambré raises an eyebrow at Byzan. "Yeah... I'm fine." She grunts slightly. "I don't think I'll be heading to the singles."

  Byzan smirks. "Well, I can treat you to a good night for winning~"

  Ambré gres at Byzan as he clenches her good fist, making the cat hold up his hands.

  "Kidding~" Byzan wags his ass a little.

  "Byzz, Ambré!" Maize and Rose run over, as a few medics also.

  Maize and Rose worry over the two as the medics begin treating Ambré's arm.

  Byzan looks up to the crowd as he talks to Rose and Maize, he spots his sister. Bke is cpping with a proud look on her face, she gives him a thumbs up and a smile. Byzan's mood skyrockets.

  .

  .

  .

  Pink is holding upon her scroll as she sits on the roof of a building. She gres heavily at the scroll, before closing her eyes and smiling with dark intent.

  "Oh dear sister, we'll be meeting soon. Then you'll have to answer for yourself."

  Maize is dispyed on Pink's scroll as the girl talks to Byzan.

  .

  .

  .

  Professor Ash watches the sunset from a window in his office. A metallic finger is rapidly tapping the window sill, that is until a hand is pced onto his shoulder.

  "Glynda?" Ash looks back and sees his wife smiling at him.

  "Hey." Glynda sits on the window sill, she puts a hand on his cheek. "What's got you so lost in thought for?"

  Ash looks at the Ats fleet hanging over Vale, Glynda follows his gaze. She then smiles and grabs his good hand and puts it on her cheek.

  "It'll be fine, they'll be gone soon."

  Ash sighs. "I know, but... I have this sense of dread hanging over me. Like... something bad's about to happen."

  "Your just stressed, you've been doing a lot of overtime this past week." Glynda rubs the back of his hand. "I think after the festival you should go on vacation."

  "But the kids-"

  "We have substitutes." Glynda releases Ash's hand and hops off the window. "You need a break, and it's showing. Please, just put in some time off and take Cardinal to the movies."

  Ash lets out a long sigh, before nodding. "Okay, I'll talk to Opzin."

  Glynda kisses Ash on the lips for a few seconds before separation. "Thank you." She pats his cheek. "Now, finish up here and lets head home."

  Ash chuckles. "Yes, ma'am."

  Glynda rolls her eyes and walks away. Ash lets out a good ugh.

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  11-23-2024

  3230 words