Never Miss a Beat

Amity Colosseum...

Amity Colosseum's mountain biome is being bombarded by several explosions all around the area. Russel Thrush, daggers in hand, is running from the mayhem before spinning around, ready to face his opponents, who turns out to be the familiar face of Penny Polendina and her beret-wearing teammate. With an ever-present smile and simple arm movements, she summons six floating swords from behind her and rears them back before launching them in a ring at Russel, who barely manages to duck behind a rock to protect himself.

Wasting no time, Penny does the same thing with another group of blades, homing in on the other CRDL teammate Sky Lark until he uses his own halberd to vault over another stone for defense. The two exchange a worried look at the sight of their rocks still pierced with multiple blades, and Penny grins in combat-ready fierceness as she looks to her partner, who simply taps her watch as if hurrying Penny up. Wasting no time, Penny raises her hands like a puppet master and uses the near-invisible strings attached to each hilt to lift the giant rocks up in the air, with the screaming Russel and Sky still hanging on. Bringing her arms down to her sides, the stones come crashing to the ground as well, leaving Penny's opponents in the grass. Her swords come back to her pack as the buzzer rings.

"And victory goes to Penny and Ciel of Atlas!" Oobleck said, over the broadcaster's system.

Penny is placing a fist in her palm and bowing in respect to her fallen foes, still smiling, "Thank you for a wonderful time."

The two victors turn to leave the stadium as Russel feebly reaches out, only to get hit in the head by an errant stone.

Watching from the stands, Ruby Rose sees them start to walk away and excitedly gets up from her seat with Jared and the rest of her team to meet them at one of the exits.

"Even after the Lazarus Experiment, I still love Penny." Jared said, catching up to Penny with Ruby. "She's just brilliant!"

Ruby is spreading her arms as she calls out, "Penny!"

"Ruby!" Penny said, lifting up her own arms, she tackles her friends into a hug that leaves the trueee of them on the ground. "Jared!"

"Why…" Ruby said, grunting, then she groans weakly.

"I don't…" Jared said, feeling the same as Ruby.

Penny gets up energetically and gestures to the other girl, "Ruby, Jared, this is my teammate."

"Ciel Soleil." Ciel said, bowing formally.

"Hi! I'm Ru…" Ruby said, raising her hand in greeting.

"Ruby Rose. 15. Hails from Patch. Leader of Team RWBY. Status: Questionable."

"And I'm…"

"Jared Shay. Close to 20. Hails from a parallel world where all this to him was a web series. Companion of the Doctor. Status: Questionable."

"Sooo...Penny!" Ruby said, silent for a second, before turning back to Penny. "You two were incredible out there. How do you keep control of all those swords? It's so cool!"

"It really was so cool!" Jared said, just as excited as Ruby. "You were like, whoop! Whoop! I'm showing off! With my swords!"

"Penny?" Ciela asked, looking at her watch and gestures at it. "I believe it is best if we move on to our next location."

Penny exchanges a look with Ruby and Jared before asking Ciel, "Could we have just a minute to talk?"

In response, Ciel checks the time, then takes a step back and nods, starting the countdown.

"So is she...your friend or…" Ruby said, holding Jared's hand.

"Well, in a way. She's like Blake, but if Blake was ordered to spend time with you and Jared." Penny said.

"Oh. So, Weiss."

"Precisely."

"I still can't believe I brought Weiss to spend time with you, Mami, Nagisa, and me. At that party with the Doctor and Martha, against Lazarus." Jared said, laughing a little. "Weiss was so bored to death, not getting into any of the action."

"Does she know about…" Ruby said, lowering her voice. "...y'know…" She moves her body abruptly as if imitating a robot, leaving her arm to hang with a noticeable squeaking sound. "...beep boop bop, does not compute?"

"Oh no." Penny said, shaking her head. "General Ironwood doesn't really want anyone to know. There was an incident with a magnet, but I was able to play it off."

Vytal Festival...

Ciel and Penny are walking around checking out the stalls, who's wearing a large sun hat. The wind picks up and lifts the hat from her hair, revealing the aforementioned magnet on her skull, and Penny quickly shoves the headgear back on before Ciel turns back around.

Amity Colosseum...

"Now that's hilarious." Jared said, laughing with Ruby and Penny, before he calmed down with the two girls. "You've gotten things drawn to you left, right, and center."

"I know." Penny said, still smiling, but getting serious. "Ruby, Jared, there's something I've been wanting to talk to the both of you about…" She glances over at Ciel before leaning in and whispering to Ruby. "I want to stay at Beacon."

"Penny, they'll never let you do that." Ruby said, looking troubled by the news.

Penny frowns, but then grins with mischief, "I know, but I have a plan."

"A plan?" Jared asked, taking out some onigiri to eat it. "What plan?"

"It's been precisely one minute, ma'am." Ciel said, stepping back up to Penny's side and pointing to her watch.

"I'll talk to you more soon, Ruby, Jared." Penny said, happily.

"And there she goes." Jared said, with Ruby letting go of his hand. "I like her so much."

The two Atlesians leave, but Penny turns to give a wave of farewell to Ruby and Jared, who does the same.

"Our next match will begin in 15 minutes!" Port said, coming back over the stadium speakers to announce the next match.

"Oh my gosh, that's right! It's time for…" Ruby said, suddenly looking really excited as she clasps her hands together.

"Weiss and Yang against Flynt and Neon!" Jared said, just as excited as Ruby, running off with her. "Come on! I want to watch this match!"

15 minutes later…

"Well, now it's our turn!" Yang said, standing in the center of the field with Weiss Schnee at her side, stretching out her arms.

"Just remember to keep proper form." Weiss said.

"Alright." Yang said, chucking a bit, and her tone shifts to talk strategy. "You're from Atlas. What could we expect?"

Weiss is listing off the facts as Yang loosens up her legs as well, "Well, seeing as their Kingdom, academy and armed forces are all merged as one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategies."

"Here it comes…" Jared said, watching a rainbow zooms past the two surprised Huntresses-in-training, coming to a stop opposite them, revealing a pigtailed Faunus girl with roller blades and a cat tail swishing around her weapon next to a young man wearing a fedora and sunglasses, holding a trumpet in one hand. "Team F.N.K.I!"

"You're excited about this match." Ruby said, looking over at Jared. "I can tell. Why are you so excited?!"

"That's because back in my world, Jeff Williams composed an amazing song that his daughter sang to well."

"...Or whatever they are." Weiss said, recovering from her shock faster than the open-mouthed Yang.

"Hey!" Flynt said, as Weiss looks over to him as he gestures at her, smiling. "You Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress."

"I am." Weiss said, bowing her head, smiling at the recognition.

"I take it you're pretty good with Dust, then?"

"I do my best." Weiss said, shrugging humbly.

"Yeah, my dad was good too. Owned a little Dust shop of his own." Flynt said, nodding his head, eyes hidden behind his shades, until his smile turns into a scowl, tone turning hostile. "Till your father's company ran him out of business."

"Oh." Weiss said, looking ashamed now. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Sure you are." Flynt said, looking away sarcastically.

"Hey! Why don't you…" Yang said, raising her finger.

"Hey! Why don't you?" Neon asked, dropping her unflattering imitation as she points at Yang, smiling. "That's what you sound like!"

"Uh…" Yang said, not knowing how to react.

"Hey! Where'd you get your hair extensions?"

"This is just my normal hair."

"Ooh, really?"

"Yeah! Is that a prob…" Yang said, getting annoyed now.

"You should try rollerblading sometime!" Neon said, cutting Yang off. "It's super fun!" She starts spinning in place as she continues rapidly. "It'd probably take you a while, though, since you're so...you know, top-heavy."

"Excuse me!?" Yang exclaimed, looking down at herself as the holographic roulette begins.

"Oh, here we go." Ruby said, rolling her eyes from the stands.

"I remember the last time I called Yang that." Jared said, watching the field opens around the four combatants, and up rises the volcanic area, sandy desert, steaming geysers, and ruined buildings. "Had to wear a cast after Christmas 2006."

"Yeah, you had to wear one up until your adventure with her and Yui in New Earth."

"Three! Two! One! Begin!" Port said, as both teams prepare themselves for battle.

Right as it starts, Flynt raises the instrument to his lips and blows, issuing forth a sound wave that blows both Weiss and Yang back from the force. Weiss is able to create a glyph under her to stop sliding back, but doesn't see Neon spinning into the attack and using it to push herself forward so she can charge at Yang in a rainbow burst of speed and push her into the city portion.

Flynt stops blowing as Weiss readies her Myrtenaster, a second passing until the musician starts playing again. This time, Weiss uses darker glyphs to move her forward through the cone of waves, making another one to get closer and closer so she can land a blow. Suddenly, however, Flynt stops playing, and Weiss is forced to move forward, earning a kick to the back as she slides past. She crashes through a red Dust crystal, and Flynt grins when he sees her lying in the area now spouting pillars of fire.

Back in the ruined city, Neon manages to roll ahead of every blast from Ember Celica, skating on the railings and making faces at an irritated Yang. She continues to flip and slide over any terrain in her way, all the while repeating a mantra to herself.

"Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat!" Neon said, as she eventually comes down to the ground and charges at Yang, becoming a rainbow blue while hitting the blonde multiple times.

"I can't help but feel bad for Yang." Jared said, sadly. "I make fun of her enough with Kirito. Then again, I do tease other girls I'm around too."

Yang grits her teeth, unloading the spent shells in her gauntlets, as Neon smirks and cracks her glow sticks, turning them blue. She comes forward again, dashing past Yang before she even realizes that her right leg is now encased in ice.

"Hm-hmm!" Neon said, giggling. "Look!" She smacks her butt for emphasis. "Now you're bottom-heavy, too!"

"It's hard to not make Kyoko or Yang angry." Jared said, looking back at Ruby.

"Tell me about it." Ruby said, agreeing with Jared.

Getting quite irate now, Yang slams her foot down and frees her entire leg, but is unable to stop Neon from freezing her left arm now. She sees Neon rollerblading on rails and through archways, gaining distance until she speeds forth and kicks Yang back into a wall, cracking it behind her.

"You should cool off! Get it? Because you're angry." Neon said, looking straight at Yang.

Not appreciating the pun one bit, Yang smashes her arm against the wall, once again shattering the ice and the structure itself.

"I love Kyoko and Yang, but sometimes they need to take chill pills." Jared said, letting out a sigh.

Meanwhile, Weiss and Flynt are facing each other in the burning section, Weiss gesturing all around her with the blade and spinning wildly to summon four glyphs that shoot out an equal number of large ice chunks headed straight for her enemy. Flynt looks down and smiles, leaping forward onto his knees and blowing his horn just as a column of flame erupts right in front of him, diverting the fire to melt each of Weiss' frozen projectiles.

"Too bad all that money can't buy you skill." Flynt said, getting back up as he twirls his trumpet.

Weiss grimaces at him before revolving her hilt to use a white type of Dust. She aims a stream of wind at Flynt, who matches her power with his own blowing, creating a standstill until Weiss uses a mere gesture to form several more glyphs around the field. She quickly bounces off each one, striking Flynt with each attack, until she puts his foot down and starts playing once more. Weiss is still propelling herself around, but nothing prepares her for a second Flynt appearing next to the first, and then another, and another after that, each color-coordinated musician joining their waves of noise together to send Weiss flying back.

"Whoa!" Jayne said, amazed from his spot watching the fight.

Port is turning to Oobleck in the announcer's box, both equally shocked, "What's this?"

"It appears young Flynt has just activated his Semblance! And quite a remarkable one at that. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet!" Oobleck said, happily.

The Flynts flip their hats around to the audience, then look up at the scoreboard to see Weiss and Yang down to half their Aura levels, but still in the game. He steps forward, absorbing each of his duplicates as he prepares to finish this.

His teammate is still giving trouble to Yang, using a ramp to outrun her now red-eyed opponent.

"Ooh! Flashy eyes! Y'know, you're actually kinda pretty when you're angry." Neon siad, slowing down to admire the change in Yang.

Yang is shaking her head, eyes going back down to purple. She propels herself forward using her shotgun blasts, "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"

"Oh boy." Jared said, while Weiss is getting back up and sees her sword, reaching out to it only for Flynt to step on the blade. "This is one day I won't forget for sure."

Weiss looks up at Flynt before their attention is drawn to their partners.

"Get back here!" Yang said, angrily.

"I wasn't trying to say that you should go on a diet, I was saying you really need to go on a diet!" Neon said, rolling around Yang in a lazy circle.

"THAT'S IT!"

"You're fat." Neon said, making one more quick clarification for good measure.

Flynt looks back at Weiss before deciding to focus his attention on Yang, once more becoming four fighters and ready to blow her away. Weiss looks through the clones and sees Yang completely distracted, as well as a pool of lava bubbling away right in front of him/them. Without pause, Weiss jumps up and knocks the original into the magma just as it erupts several feet in the air.

"What?" Yang asked, noticing what just happened.

"Weiss!" Ruby, Blake, and Jared said, at the same time, the three simultaneously panicked.

"It appears we have a double knockout on our hands!" Port said.

"In fact, it looks as though Miss Schnee's Aura has been completely depleted! She sacrificed herself to take out Flynt! Wait a minute. What's this!?" Oobleck exclaimed.

"Crap." Jared said, looking at Flynt, wobbly and almost at his limit, but standing back up from the smoke. "I forgot that he's not out yet."

"Ladies and gentlemen, Flynt Coal remains standing!" Port said.

Flynt begins walking toward Yang, a look of pure anger on his face.

"You did it, Flynt! Don't worry about her, she's easy! But kind of annoying." Neon said, skating back over to her leader as he marches forward.

"Ooh, looks like Yang's angry! And you wouldn't like her when she's...upset." Port said, as Yang finally reaches her breaking point, fists clenching and ground trembling.

"This is why in a death battle, Yang beat Tifa." Jared said, watching Yang's scream of rage combining with the group of lava bursts from the rocks, he watches the blonde punch out several shots at the two opponents, who manage to dodge the blasts. "And she killed her good."

"Yo, Neon, go!" Flynt said, angrily.

He blows again and helps Neon rush forward, and Yang meets her in the waves of sound, using her shots to keep her from being pushed away as she attempts to get a hit on the girl. Failing that, she leaps out of the noise and blasts the ground where Neon is, then launching herself back to create some space. Her blasts almost gets Flynt, who's forced to change the direction of his tune and direct Neon elsewhere, still avoiding the blasts and even rolling on the debris being formed, though with a noticeably more shaky stance than usual. She rolls up on a ramp made from the debris into the geyser biome. Yang lands on the ground away from her and runs right at Flynt, rocketing forward even as he uses his Semblance once more to deliver a fourfold attack. Shooting behind her, however, provides the necessary boost to finally get close and clap her hands over the mouth of the trumpet. Less than a second of silence is broken by the musical backfire right in Flynt's face, becoming one person for the final time as he's knocked on his back and the buzzer rings.

"Oh, sour note for Flynt!" Oobleck said.

Yang slides back from the blast, searching for her remaining opponent as Neon tries avoiding the geyser spouts.

"Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a…" Neon said, and at that moment, her front wheels catch on a crack in the ground, losing her balance and causing her to shed a few quick tears. "...beat?"

Time catches up as she pitches forward, trying to roll up in a ball only to get caught in the blast of a geyser. She's helpless to do anything as Yang smirks, fires off a single shot, and hits her screaming target in an explosion of sparks and smoke, as well as a third buzzing sound.

Yang continues to look enraged until she blinks her eyes back to purple and realizes something, "Weiss!"

"Yang went way too far this time." Jared said, watching Yang run back into the fire section and kneels next to her ash-covered teammate.

"Weiss! Are you okay?" Yang asked.

Weiss gets up and coughs some smoke before weakly responding, "I may not be singing for a while."

"You know, I'm not sure that was proper form." Yang said, looking both worried and relieved until she breaks out into a jokingly smile.

"Oh, ha ha." Weiss said, suffering another coughing fit.

"WHAT!? We lost? We lost?" Neon asked, as Yang and Weiss' attention are drawn to her, now devoid of color, as she freaks out. "Team FNKI lost? That was...that was…" Color returns to the suddenly-overjoyed redhead as her eyes turn into rainbow sparkles for a moment. "...amazing! Oh my gosh, you guys were super crazy awesome! We should definitely party together sometime, right Flynt?"

"That was a gutsy move, Schnee." Flynt said, getting back to his feet, and he pauses to think of the right response. "I dig it."

Yang and Weiss smile at the good losers and see the rest of their team and Jared coming to the injured heiress' side.

"Good job, you two!" Blake said, happily.

"Yeah!" Ruby said, smiling.

"I'm down for a party. Or a break after watching this fight. And Weiss, sorry about pitting you and Penny up against Lazarus." Jared said, looking down at Weiss.

"It's okay." Weiss said, looking up at Jared. "I forgive you."

The team and the fanboy stays like that, cradling Weiss in their arms and soaking in the cheers of the crowd.

Dorm room...

Later on that evening in a certain Beacon dorm room, Cinder Fall is sitting on her bed looking through files on her Scroll. Emerald Sustrai is lying on the floor also playing with her own device, and Mercury Black is doing push-ups beside her.

"Oh." Cinder said, eyes widening in surprise, followed by a smile.

"What?" Emerald asked, looking over with Mercury.

"Oh nothing. We're just going to be making a slight, hmm...alternation in the plan." Cinder said, as she access a document regarding the blueprints of 'P.E.N.N.Y.'

"What does that mean?" Mercury asked, as he and Emerald share a somewhat concerned look.

"It means that this will be even easier than we thought." Cinder said, while continuing to look at the familiar image of a robotic redhead.

Ozpin's office…

It's twilight outside, and Professor Ozpin is facing the window, his back to the elevators when the doors open and Qrow Branwen steps inside, approaching his desk with coffee mug in hand.

"You know, he's making you look like a fool." Qrow said.

"His heart is in the right place. He's just...misguided." Ozpin said.

"Sometimes, I'm not even sure he has a heart." Qrow said, taking a drink from his cup and shifts his weight before asking. "So, have you chosen your guardian yet?"

"Maidens choose themselves. I simply believe I've found the right candidate." Ozpin said, twirling his chair around to face Qrow. "Ever since the day I met her, I had the feeling she would be the one. She's strong, intelligent, caring...but most importantly, she's ready."

As he lists these qualities off, Pyrrha Nikos is seen entering the elevator of the Cross Continental Transmit System tower. She turns just when the doors close on her ominous smile.