The Competitive Edge (8/26)

With a shower of sparks, Miló ripped through the chassis of the training robot, its armor rending like butter against Pyrrha’s furious strength. It simply couldn’t give enough resistance against the force Pyrrha was swinging at anything that stood in her way, but as she spun into a ready stance, she realized… she realized that that had been the last robot defeated- no, not defeated.

Demolished.

Surrounded by the sparking ruins of the practice bots, Pyrrha shifted Miló to spear form as she leaned on it, heavily. Catching her breath, she took a moment as she let the shaft of her spear support her. But it wasn’t that she was tired, not really. She could have torn apart another set of bots if there were still any left, even though she felt her chest heaving as she panted, her fingers gripping the haft of her weapon as she tried to just… just expunge all the… all the frustration just-

“Wow...”

Pyrrha whirled around in surprise. Not only from hearing a voice, but from hearing that particular voice, the voice of someone she didn’t want to see her in such a state.

“H-hey, Jaune...” she said, mortified that her crush could see her looking so… out of sorts. Out of sorts because of him. Because she was- was constantly thinking about him. How he invaded her thoughts, how his face consumed her dreams, how she longed… ohhhhhh, there was a lot of reasons why Jaune Arc left her in a state like this.

And she couldn’t let him know any of them.

“That’s… that was an impressive display,” he said, his voice awed, “I see why you’re-”

“It’s nothing,” she said, quickly. The last thing she wanted was to overawe him, to have Jaune put her on the pedestal, too. “Just… just had some things to work out.”

“Oh.”

Pyrrha’s eyes went wide as she heard him say that. It was only a single syllable, but he was using a tone of voice she recognized. His realization tone. The meaning-laden words traveling from his kissable lips to her ears in his voice, always so perceptive! He couldn’t- couldn’t possibly-

“It’s… Jaune, it’s not-”

“No, I… I think I understand...”

Pyrrha’s heart stopped. Was this… was he… could it… be?

She stared at him, her eyes wide, fearing to hope, disbelieving that it could even be possible. But she saw the look in his eyes, saw the warm, soft understanding that told her… that told her she should never underestimate Jaune Arc.

“You’re under a lot of pressure, and that… well, I’m not surprised it manifests in certain… ways.”

What… what the hell was he talking about?

Pyrrha could only stare at him in confusion as he continued. “I see that you’re… clearly sexually frustrated, and I understand that it’s hard, particularly for you, to alleviate that stress. I don’t think there’s any men at Beacon who’d be in your caliber, after all.”

How… how could the single most dense man alive, a man who couldn’t pick up the obvious truth that she was in love with him, could simultaneously be so perceptive? But Pyrrha’s sense of propriety went into overdrive as soon as she heard him say the words “sexually frustrated,” an urge to deny it springing right to her lips, just in time for Pyrrha to slam it back down in the hopes that she could get Jaune to understand he was the reason she was so sexually frustrated.

“It’s- I- I don’t-”

“Pyrrha! This is great!” Jaune cried, “We can channel this, turn your frustrations towards...” Suddenly, Jaune got a strange look in his eye as his mind clearly started to run through various strategic options. Pyrrha was finally able to rally her thoughts to make an objection to whatever Jaune was thinking, but before she had a chance, he shouted something—far too fast for her to track—and took off like a shot.

Leaving her standing among the ruin of her foes, but with the distinct feeling that she’d brought about much worse upon herself.

LINE BREAK JAUNE

Grinning, Jaune took a look around the room. Three women stood before him: confused, apprehensive, and anxious. Nora seemed the least aware, but also the least anxious, simply excited to learn about something new. Her partner-slash-sister Rin was clearly less enthused for a grand reveal, but she hid it well. Pyrrha was… less good at hiding her feelings. A lot of that was his fault, racing away to clarify his plan instead of looping her in it from the get go, not to mention, he, of all people, had no standing to suggest a training regimen for Pyrrha. And… and he always felt a little awkward around Pyrrha. Overawed by how… how simply incredible she was. But he knew he had something to share that was big enough to make it worth it.

“With the Vytal Tournament coming up,” Jaune began with a dramatic flourish, “all eyes are looking to Team JNPR, to see if we have what it takes to demolish the competition… and yet, I don’t know if I’ve seen the drive, the determination, the absolute need to win, no matter the cost in any of us!”

Jaune knew he was the last person who had a right to speak to Nora and Rin, much less Pyrrha Nikos like that, but from the look in their eyes, he knew his words had hit home. He was here to lead them, to make them exceed what they thought was possible… and he knew how to do it.

“But I think I know how to rally that spirit of competition! I think I know how to make you want- no, how to make you need to win, and not just win—to leave the competition in shambles. The solution?” Jaune asked with a grin. “These.”

Raising his hand, he revealed to his teammates three bullet vibrators, dangling from his hand. One was red, one green, and one pink, a clear explanation of exactly what he was asking of them as he heard three shocked gasps just as three pairs of eyes went wide.

“You… you can’t be serious,” Rin said, a rare example of the quiet and reserved girl being the first to speak.

But Jaune just smiled. “Dead serious. As serious as I am about winning.”

“Well, uh,” Nora cut in, also uncharacteristic in her hesitation, “I get why you and Pyrrha-”

Huh? Jaune wasn’t sure what she meant by that?

“-might get something out of this, I don’t see how masturbating more helps me and Rinny bust heads better?”

Shaking his head, Jaune stretched out his hands, now that he’d been invited to explain his plan. “Ah, but Nora—it’s not masturbation. Quite the opposite, in fact,” he began to explain, “I will instead keep you on the very edge of climax until you’ve been so worn down by your need to find some relief for your arousal that I can then build you back up. Promise your long-delayed climax, something you will come to desire more than anything else in the world, in return for victory against our rival teams.”

The girls did not seem convinced. But before Jaune could further make his explanation, Pyrrha unexpectedly cut in. “I… I think we should listen to him!” she said, “I know how useful that kind of… frustration can be, and if Jaune… thinks it’s best… we should do what he says!”

“Of course you’d say that,” Nora muttered under her breath, but Jaune decided it was more important to get started with their training than figure out what was going on between the two of them—though it was worrisome that Pyrrha and Nora seemed to have some tension. But that was a later concern. Gesturing the girls over to three chairs he had set up for this, he first tied them down, using the rope skills he’d learned as a kid in the Forest Rangers—ha, to think he’d one day be using these knots on people—and then carefully pulled down his teammates’ panties to attach the vibrators.

It was actually kind of funny how smoothly this part went, though his plans were almost dislodged with how ticklish the girls were, suddenly becoming very squirmy as he got close to them and very red in the face. He didn’t want to embarrass anyone, though, so he didn’t mention it. And with that… he turned on the vibes, hearing his teammates gasp as they felt the vibrations, heard the moans and cries in each of their voices, read the way their thighs quivered and their hips bucked to see how they each inevitably rose towards their climax… and then cut them off.

It was an impressive challenge managing all three of them, seeing their individual patterns and the way they rose more quickly or slowly than each other. Especially as it went on, and the girls tried to trick him after their first few denied orgasms. Rin was particularly tricky, trying to use her skills to conceal how close she was, but if Jaune knew one thing, it was how to read his teammates’ feelings. It was no challenge to get into their minds and anticipate just when they were about to cum and move to nip it in the bud.

The first dozen hours went smoothly, leaving Jaune impressed with how resilient the girls were. It really underscored that they were real Huntresses, girls who made it into Beacon on their own merits. Completely unlike him. It was the kind of sight that lit a fire under him, that told him he had to be the best leader he could be, training the three of them into an unstoppable force. It was the kind of sight that told him to be firm with what he saw coming now, as Nora started to whimper as the ordeal of her denial became too much.

“Jaaaaaaaune...” she slurred, “Gotta- gotta… gotta c-cum...”

“Uh, uh, uh,” Jaune shook his head with a grin. “You don’t get to cum until-”

“D-do… a-anything...” Nora moaned, “A-anything! P-please, Jaune, please let me cum!”

Jaune gave Nora a disapproving look. It was hard to be so harsh towards his teammates but he knew that this was for their own good.

“Nora...” he said, softly. “You know that-”

“P-please, Jaune!” she cried, “I’ll- I’ll suck your dick! You wanna fuck my tits? Y-you can! I-I’ll do anything! Anything you want!”

Shaking his head, Jaune turned down the intensity of the vibe… making Nora buck against it harder, desperate for sensation. “There’s only one thing I want,” he said, “For us to win the-”

“JAUNE!” she wailed “Anything! You c-can use me as your personal cumdump, your whore, y-your pet, j-just PLEASE! LET ME CUM!”

“Nora.”

He did not raise his voice more than a hair, and yet, the force in his voice was enough to even make Nora cease her begging. Crouching down he looked her right in the eyes. It was hard to see the desperation behind her watery blue eyes, and yet, Jaune knew that leading JNPR demanded this of him, that the one thing he could bring to the table had to be that he had the sternness to lead them to greatness. And as he conveyed that merciless authority upon Nora, seeing even her “untameable” will… simply crumble before him, he knew that the first step to success would be breaking these three into submission.

“Girls,” he said, sternly, “Despite what Nora is suggesting, there is only one way for the three of you to receive your orgasm: victory in the Vytal Tournament. But Nora has been a good girl and has finally submitted to me. Now that I’ve broken her,” he picked up a chastity belt and held it up for their inspection, particularly so that they could see the hammer emblem on it, “I can release her from the chair and give her the condition for her climax. And for being the first to break… Nora: in our first battle, I only need you to defeat one of our opponents, and then I will allow you to cum.”

“Th-thank you, s-sir,” Nora said, her voice more of a delirious gurgle than anything sensible. As he slipped her into her belt, he untied her from the chair, letting Nora lie down on her bed, futilely attempting to get herself off. Yes, she’d make an excellent competitor now!

The other two girls, however, had quite a bit more that needed to be worn down before they could be broken. Many, many hours more. Fortunately, Jaune knew that they had a long weekend thanks to the Vytal Festival. Oh, he had to fend off a few texts from Ruby asking where he was and what was going on, but, fortunately, Ruby was a fellow team leader so she grasped that “secret training” was a high priority. And she gave him some encouragement for his success! Jaune idly debated if he should let Ruby in on it, see if training like this might be helpful for Team RWBY… but he wanted to give his approach some polish and refinement before he wanted other people taking a look at his methods.

There was a lot of maintenance needed to keep the training going past the first day, but with the now-meek and obedient Nora helping him, Jaune actually found the next few hours were even easier. Offering the bound Rin some water, which the girl greedily downed, Jaune could see that her discipline was finally starting to break. Her eyes rolled about, almost completely unfocused, as her body shuddered with need as Jaune’s fingers brushed her skin. Taking his hands, he took two fingers to Rin’s nipples and began to pinch and rub them, little bolts of pleasure rallying his teammate’s consciousness as the promise of a climax was dangled in front of her.

Alas, however, to no avail. Jaune was succeeding far too well to give up now, and seeing the way Rin’s eyes locked onto Nora, moaning and giggling as her fingers rubbed her chastity belt, Jaune saw an opportunity in this…

“Rin...” he whispered, “Don’t you want to be a good girl like Nora? To be freed from this chair so you could be with Nora, so my two good girls can be training together… can be working towards their climaxes together...”

Rin’s whimper gave Jaune the satisfaction of knowing that she, too, had succumbed, and as he grabbed Rin’s chastity belt, he whispered in her ear, “All you have to do, my good girl, is tell me that you’ve broken, that you’ll do anything I say, and I’ll tell you what you have to do to climax… for you and Nora both to climax.”

Her tongue, lolling out of her mouth, was far too inarticulate to speak, but Jaune could hear the weak, pathetic “...yeagh...” that signaled Rin’s final submission.

“Wonderful...” Jaune sighed, happy to see her finally give way to his authority. But as he was encasing Rin’s waist in her chastity belt, Jaune paused to plant a loving kiss on Rin’s tender pussy. It was important to make sure they knew he still cared for them, and this kind of loving attention did a lot to help the girls out. “All you have to do… is defeat two of the opposing team. And then you will get to cum with Nora.”

Untying her from her seat, he pointed for Rin to join Nora, the two girls immediately fumbling into each other’s arms. They were both too exhausted, too worn down, and most certainly too worked up to pretend they didn’t have feelings for each other. Feelings that certainly weren’t sisterly as the bonded pair immediately began to kiss each other with naked abandon. And not just kiss. Their hands began to explore each other’s bodies, fumbling through their groping, as their belts clicked together as they both struggled to grind against one another.

But all their grinding was in vain—they wouldn’t climax until they’d given Jaune what he expected of them. Which meant that Jaune had no objection to their lasciviousness, and besides, it was good to see some team bonding like this. He had a feeling that Rin and Nora’s earlier, platonic relationship wasn’t what they really wanted, and seeing them make this step towards being together-together, even if their final goals were briefly delayed by Jaune’s training tactics, was heartening. And besides, people fought best when they were alongside those they cared about, so it was really excellent for team cohesion!

Jaune really looked forward to seeing the both of them hit their goals at the Vytal. Unlatching their belts and letting the two of them get each other off… it’d simply be a wonderful sight. And now that they were utterly broken in submission towards the JNPR cause, Jaune saw no reason to deny them their happiness—he just had to be careful to manage it, to make sure they didn’t get too wrapped up in each other to the point it interfered with their training regimen. Could even be good motivation—rewarding them with dates, nights spent together in a shared bed, the opportunity to kiss? A lot of opportunities, there…

But Jaune knew he couldn’t let himself jump ahead of his work. Because the real task was still before him, the one he knew would be a challenge.

Pyrrha.

Giggling to herself, almost deliriously, she bucked her hips against her vibe as she moaned what couldn’t only be a taunt against Jaune’s best efforts to break the Invincible Girl.

“Jaaaaaaune...” she tittered, drooling on herself, “Jaune c-controls my orgasm… J-Jaune owns my… mmmm… my body...”

She was clearly a mile from broken—she was even enjoying herself, echoing his own commands back at him, practically getting off on resisting him! Despite his best efforts, it was going to take a bit more to make Pyrrha Nikos crack.

LINE BREAK JAUNE

Leading his team on wobbly legs into the ring, Jaune smiled with a serene and total confidence that, from the looks of the people he passed on the way in, was a misguided emotion. But they didn’t know Jaune’s secret strategy, didn’t know that the girls were so shaky because they each had a vibrator jammed up their pussies, vibrators that Jaune controlled. And maybe Rin almost lost her footing from the spasm of pleasure she experienced from Jaune’s touch as he took her hand to help stabilize her, but Jaune knew that Rin’s true pleasure was conditional on what happened next.

Across the arena from them was Team BRNZ, struggling to hide that they had no idea what they were looking at. But they knew not to underestimate their opponent, or, at least, they knew not to underestimate Pyrrha. Smart, but if they were really smart, they would have forfeited once they saw the looks on Rin and Nora’s faces. His good girls needed permission to cum, having been edged for days. He idly wondered for a moment if they might go too far with this much pent up lust directed towards unhinged violence, but, well, they’d gone too far to back down now.

He heard the buzzer signaling the beginning of the match. Team BRNZ shot away to take advantage of the terrain, unaware that it was already over.

“Girls,” Jaune said, casually, “you know what your reward is.”

In a flash, Jaune was standing alone, his teammates rocketing forward at a speed the announcer simply couldn’t comprehend. Team BRNZ was a strong defensive team, but while May Zedong was a skilled sniper, she couldn’t possibly hit Nora as she roared right down the middle, practically foaming at the mouth as she smashed into Brawnz. Poor guy barely had a chance before Magnhild was introducing his body to the ground. Roy attempted to back up his leader, or at least, get Nora to quit draining his aura by means of repeatedly bashing him into the dirt, but he was seized from behind by Rin, who just… pulled him into a dark corner. Jaune wasn’t really watching what happened next, but he did hear the sound of his aura hitting red. Nolan tried to make a move at Pyrrha, the girl he surely thought would be the biggest threat, as May gave him some fire support, but alas… Nora caught him in the back with Magnhild as May found the blade of Stormflower held to her neck.

Game over.

And Jaune hadn’t even had the chance to move a single step.

Of course, he had to take a step back as three very eager girls crashed right into him, celebrating their victory. A celebratory hug that involved a lot of grinding their desperately needy pussies against him, so close to their reward, but Jaune had to swiftly hustle them to somewhere out of sight—as much as he’d enjoy rewarding them right in the middle of the stadium, he wanted some privacy for his team’s first victory celebration.

Once he had found a side room in the Amity Stadium’s lower rooms, he turned to his teammates, all three of them looking at him with an eager desire… but only two had the look of someone who knew they had a reward coming.

“For being such a good girl in the fight, and being the first to break...” he said, looking towards Nora who was practically squealing with anticipation, “Nora, you may cum.”

Pressing the button on his remote, Jaune was immediately rewarded with the sound of Nora screaming out in joy, her legs giving out from beneath her as she bucked and squealed, indulging in finally being able to cum after days of denial. Jaune turned to Rin, who had a desperate look on her face, knowing not to look away from him, but also finding it hard to ignore her partner’s gleeful thrashing.

“Rin...” Jaune said, in a gentle and reassuring way, “You were a very good girl, and so… you, too, may cum.”

He saw the look of rapturous bliss break across her face even before Jaune activated her vibrator. Unlike Nora, who shrieked and squealed, Rin instead went cross-eyed, a shuddering, gasping moan coming to her lips as she, too, joined Nora on the floor, her body convulsing with sheer delight as she came harder than she ever imagined possible.

With half their team enjoying the rewards of their exceptional performance, he looked at Pyrrha with a critical eye, making the girl blush and look away, obviously ashamed.

“Pyrrha...” he began, reproachfully. It was hard to treat Pyrrha—Pyrrha! The girl who’d trained him up from incompetence!—with anything other than absolute respect, but the only way he could unlock her full potential was to weaponize her arousal. And she hadn’t broken for him.

“I’m- I’m sorry Jaune,” she mournfully replied.

But Jaune just shook his head. “No… It’s my fault. I’m your trainer, your leader. It’s my duty to break you, Pyrrha, to leave you as obedient and devoted as...”

He looked over, Pyrrha following his eyes as they both beheld the drooling forms of their teammates, still twitching from the aftershocks of their climaxes. Pyrrha licked her lips in jealousy, but strangely, Jaune noticed that her eyes kept drawing back to Jaune—a good move towards her developing her proper deference, but strangely, her eyes didn’t seem drawn to his remote, but rather… she was looking at his belt for some reason? Hmmm, it was strange, but it felt like, if Jaune could figure it out, something that might be the secret to success.

LINE BREAK JAUNE

Pyrrha had not broken.

It shouldn’t surprise him. She was the Invincible Girl, utterly peerless in her discipline and ability. Jaune had expected that breaking her would be like riding a Bronco, a test of his determination, willpower, and strength. Except…

Except it seems that Pyrrha was almost… almost as if she was eager to submit, to lean into his commands, to endure his punishments, as though she was somehow, from the very beginning, enjoying that Jaune was having his way with her body. Which was insane—he refused to believe that Pyrrha had a naturally servile bone in her body! She was Pyrrha Nikos! But whatever the reason…

If she was accepting these torments, or worse, enjoying them, she wasn’t liable to break like Rin and Nora had. Now that those two had been broken, he had built them up into his perfect competitors, trained them into unstoppable wrecking balls of violence who took his commands as though they were their own thoughts and were now driven by an absolute and unquestioned need to satisfy his orders. But neither Rin nor Nora could be the competitors sent into the solo round—it had to be Pyrrha! If Pyrrha had some… unexpected masochistic urges, her pleasure at being subjugated was a distraction, and while they had a bye for the doubles match, Jaune needed to find a way around that distraction, and fast.

He’d tied the girls up as soon as they got back to their dorm. He had to make excuses with Ruby as to why he couldn’t hang out, excuses he hated having to make, because he’d really neglected their friendship for the Vytal, but this came first. The girls didn’t fight him on it: Rin and Nora were only too happy to be good girls and return to their edging routine—soon, the ropes and chastity belts wouldn’t even be necessary—and Pyrrha had always been an extremely compliant subject for this, even if she wasn’t breaking yet. He could tell that she was motivated for this, she’d seen Nora and Rin outcompete even her when driven by lustful need, and yet… yet she couldn’t bring herself to break!

Hmmm, though maybe there was a breakthrough there. Perhaps he should identify that he was the one controlling her sexual pleasure? Instead of being able to abstract it down to her own submissive fantasy, if she had to confront that it was Jaune Arc, Beacon’s lowest performing student, the partner she had been saddled with and had to train up to merely reach competence, that it was that Jaune who now had turned the tables on her… perhaps that would give her reason to resist?

Taking his place behind Pyrrha, he pressed his hands into her shoulders as he leaned forward, seeing how Pyrrha’s whole body shivered as he drew near. She moaned as she felt his breath on her ear, but Jaune knew he had to, sadly, ruin her pleasure. And he had a good idea of exactly how he could do that.

“Pyrrha,” he whispered, “Did you ever think, while training me on the roof of Beacon, that I might turn the tables on you? That I might subject you to my lusts, claim you as my woman, mold you into my personal pet? Can you even picture yourself teaching me how to simply carry a sword, now that I have you in my clutches? Imagine… imagine if I put you in a leash and collar, showing the whole world that Mistral’s Invincible Girl, the idol to millions… was Jaune Arc’s personal bitch.”

“Jaaaaaaaaune...” she moaned, deliriously, then giggled, “I’m J-Jaune’s p-pet… s-serve his- his lussssts… nnnnnggggghhhh...”

Hmmmm. Unexpected response. Jaune knew that Pyrrha had been put through a lot in his training, but Jaune wasn’t sure what, exactly, to make of it. Unless… oh no, had she started to reshape the “Jaune” in her mind to become someone attractive to her? The product of a sudden burst of unfamiliar sensation—Jaune did not get the impression that Pyrrha had a lot of sexual experience—could have resulted in her exhausted mind confusing how Jaune was the source of the stimulation of her nipples and clit, ultimately coming to conclude that she had… feelings for him.

Well…

This was awkward.

Jaune knew he wasn’t on Pyrrha’s level. There was no sensible way for her to ever have feelings for a guy like him, and using his training techniques to accidentally train her into being in love with him felt… deeply unsavory. And he cared too much for Pyrrha, for the girl who saw him as something more than a loser and took the time to train him every night, who hung out with him all the time because, of course, he wasn’t exactly burning it up on the social scene. She’d been the one who convinced the rest of the team to trust this very training regimen—hell, she’d given him so much good advice on how to respect Weiss’s no, he owed her better than training her into being his girlfriend!

But… but if there was one thing Jaune knew about Pyrrha, one thing he’d learned from being given the privilege of getting closer to her than anyone else was allowed to, it was that she wanted to win. And even if he was… even if he was taking advantage of having her tied up at his mercy, her mind being reduced to a slurry of lust and need, he’d do what it took to make Pyrrha the best she could be. She’d do the same for him, hell, she had done as much for him. He owed her as much in return.

“Pyrrha,” he whispered, his voice measured, his breath hot in her ear, “When you defeat a foe in the Tournament so utterly that the audience cannot believe what they have seen… that night, I won’t just give you your orgasm. Pyrrha. That night… I will fuck you.”

Pyrrha’s ears, hell, her whole body twitched at that. He heard the sudden hitch in her breathing as he sent a burst of pleasure with the vibe, and then… took his hands up and began to squeeze and massage her breasts, teasing her nipples through her clothes as he continued to whisper dirty promises in Pyrrha’s ear, accompanied by the lustful moans of their teammates.

“When you defeat your opponent harder than even Rin and Nora did to BRNZ, I will give you relief with more than just a toy. I will bend you over the table and slam my dick into your pussy harder than anyone else could ever give it to you, I will fuck you until you’re screaming my name. And all you have to do, Pyrrha… is win.”

Her eyes rolled in her head as Pyrrha was assaulted with visions of what would come to pass, but as her lips curled upward into a mad grin… Jaune hefted the chastity belt emblazoned with a spear, knowing that he was three for three, his team now an unstoppable force in the arena.

LINE BREAK EMERALD

The mission was almost over. All their work, all their months of deception, infiltration, theft, attempted murder, one actual murder, all of it was building to this one moment of strategically placed disruption: the first pebble in the avalanche of of unprecedented violence.

It was a day for the history books, and Emerald, whose world had once never been much more than a few dusty city blocks back in Vacuo, couldn’t deny that she felt the jitters of what was coming. There was a shakiness inside her soul that made her struggle to keep her focus together.

Glancing around the stadium, she felt even more like she was under a microscope. A sea of people were all joined in excitement and anticipation, emphasizing that Emerald alone knew that the nationalist chants and wild applause would soon be replaced with silent horror, and then… the screams. But she had to focus. She had to pull this off. For Cinder… for Cinder, she could do this.

She could feel the rumble of the crowd building to a crescendo. The champions were coming.

The announcer was almost inaudible over the roar. This was the match, and Cinder had hacked the seeding just for this to happen. The Invincible Girl versus the mysterious star of Atlas… who no one knew was an android, the kind particularly vulnerable to Pyrrha’s real power. As the girls entered the ring, Emerald scanned them carefully. Illusion work could be tricky, and she needed to-

Hold on, what is- what was going on with Pyrrha?

Emerald was supposed to be scanning Penny, looking for little details that’d help make sure the illusion struck home, but just one glance at Pyrrha knocked her off her rhythm. Emerald had… she’d seen the kind of cold ruthlessness of those with no mercy, but this was some psycho shit. She remembered the shock in round one, where the other members of her team, two pieces of Mistralian wilderness trash, went feral or something, but had it spread to Pyrrha? Were they literally rabid?

She’d been so startled by the look on Pyrrha’s face, she almost missed the announcer signaling the match was about to begin. Emerald readied herself to put Pyrrha in a state of panic, an illusory attack she needed to use her secret Semblance against as hard as she could, something to get her to-

Wait, what?

Emerald blinked, wondering if she’d- she’d missed something, but no. Pyrrha was standing over Penny Polendina triumphantly, the girl’s aura reduced to red in an instant. Did she- had they misjudged her Semblance? What, did she actually have a teleportation Semblance? Speed? What had-

Oh, shit!

Without Pyrrha dismembering the girl, there wouldn’t be the negativity to-

“Abort!” she hissed into her scroll, “Abort, abort, abort!”

And then, in the tinny effect of her scroll speaker, Emerald heard something she didn’t think was possible.

Cinder Fall’s voice… was panicked.

“What happened?” she asked, clearly too thrown to even begin making them pay for their failures.

“Penny… Pyrrha took her down in seconds. I didn’t have time to use my Semblance, she just- she just got flattened!”

“Can confirm,” Mercury’s voice cut in, also too startled to make a jab at Emerald’s failure. “Ma’am, we… that came out of nowhere, we have to back off, now!”

Emerald leaned back in her seat as she saw the Invincible Girl, announced the winner by a stunned announcer to an even more stunned crowd, trot over to her leader like… like a show pony. It didn’t look like the look Pyrrha usually gave her doltish leader. Not the simpering puppy dog look of a lovestruck girl desperate to be noticed by her crush, but rather… there was pleading in her eyes. Desperation, utter, desperate need, the kind Emerald had seen in the eyes of the lackeys of crime bosses who knew their lives were on the line… but he just smiled at her, beaming with pride and affection.

Arc had been a write off, an ignorable element to the strategy on account of basically being a joke, but in Pyrrha’s eyes… Emerald began to wonder what the hell kind of training he was putting her through? Or hell, what kind of torture? Pyrrha’s eyes were so desperate, so wild with a need to appease him for… for what, Emerald didn’t know because they didn’t know anything about Arc!

What kind of… what kind of sick fuck were they dealing with?