Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5426254-20150806023625/@comment-5426254-20150822031625

''Dust, you sneaky bastard you. X/ Anyways, this is the long epilogue, and the last stretch of the fight from Carmine's POV, written by me. This means that not only will it be long, but also may have slight godmodding, conversation-wise. I apologize for any inconvenience. -GL''

Carmine noticed Asher recovered, carrying Alicia and asking for first aid from the crowd in the sidelines.

''Well, I better hand it to this guy. He's quite the lousy fighter who can't take punches well, but he's definitely a saint that gets back up from them.''

Alicia opened her eyes, while everyone wasn't looking, and saw Asher taking care of her wounds.

''This is why Heart shouldn't be mean to him. She'll lose someone like this if she keeps doing that.''

She also saw the two fighters still fighting, and the Aura display on the scoreboard. Carmine was winning, 75 percent to 27 percent.

''Keep believing in yourself. You're doing just fine,'' Alicia thought as she closed her eyes and smiled as her injuries were tended to.

As Heart altered her pose, Carmine instinctively tightented his grip on the weapons in his hands. Suddenly, she resheathed her swords, took a deep breath, and refilled her Aura.

Wait, why 30 percent?

He was suddenly caught off guard when his foe was literally in his face.

"I don't like odd numbers."

THE FUCK-

A roundhouse kick to the left temple sent him reeling, followed by another kick that sent him to the floor. As if that wasn't enough, he bounced up, now at the mercy of Heart's spin kick that sent him into a wall, creating a cloud of thick dust.

''Ugh... how ironic. She never skipped leg day, did she? How much left do I have now?''

He saw the display turn from 50 percent to 30.

For fuck's sake, what should I do?

"You should let go," he heard Alicia say to him once. "Lots of bad things happen in life. No point trying to be angsty about it."

''Who am I fucking kidding, Alicia? This is a friendly match. Why should I be worried? You're still around. All this time I've been focused on getting payback, I forgot the reason why I'm fighting right now; to give you and everyone else quality entertainment. Though I do like to win sometimes. 1st place is fun.''

He looked at his arm. It had been a part of him, a memento of the times that people cared for him...

--

"Quick, get something to stop the bleeding!"

He had heard his father, Bertram calling out to his associates for help on the day he lost his flesh-and blood arm.

"I'll pay any price, so long as my son is alright. I'll make sure he'll live a good life, and can get back up on his feet, no matter the weather."

He had heard his father finalize the deal with the specialists from the company.

"How does it feel, son?"

"It feels kinda... weird. But I guess I'm doing ... oh!"

As his arm nearly made a spastic movement, his father secured it.

"Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah ... kinda."

"How's your arm doing? Have you mastered it?"

"Barely."

"Because you've always wanted to fight the Grimm, I had the engineers upgrade your model to not only fit your measurements, but as you can tell, installed state-of the art weaponry; an edge for combat. I hope you like them."

As he hugged his father, he whispered in his ear, two simple words of gratitude, for all the times his father looked out for him and took care of him:

"Thank you."

-- ''You're awesome, Dad. From now on, I will spare no reserve of Aura, and no weapon nor round of ammo. I will even use this to its full potential, even if it means damaging this thing.''

He grabbed Gust Breaker, and fired four shots into the cloud. As she was busy shredding the bullets, he roared as he rushed in through the cloud, and unloaded every single remaining round from Gust Breaker, and three more rounds from Wonderland at Heart, damaging her clothes, before locking their blades.

As they backed off, and prepared to re-engage, they continued to land several consecutive flurries of blows towards each other. As Heart landed several slashes on his shirt and pants, Carmine blocked off the remainder, and returned the favor to Heart's dress and jacket.

When Heart disarmed Wonderland from Carmine's right arm, he instinctively swapped Gust Breaker to his right arm, locked the first blade with Gust Breaker's barbed spikes, and swatted the other blade with the cybernetic forearm, before sending a haymaker to Heart's right cheek, and a roundhouse kick to the chest that sent her reeling.

NOW!

Then Carmine did something unexpected - he transformed his arm into Howling Wind in its cannon form, attempting several follow-up shots at Heart, as she deflected and dodged the shots before re-engaging.

The crowd, for a brief glimpse, was shocked, especially Mercury.

''Wait. What!? I never seen or heard someone having a cybernetic arm! Especially one not as advanced as his!!''

''But, this could be what I've been waiting for! Something finally entertaining in this fight! I'm really interested now!!''

Heart slashed and swerved, before stunning Carmine with a side kick to the chest, and aiming Shiranami at Howling Wind. Carmine instinctively re-transformed Howling Wind into its arm form, caught the blade bare-handed, but not before a backflip kick from Heart sent him rolling on the floor.

Carmine then remembered one particular strategy he and Alicia had practiced as he charged again towards Heart...

---

The two had been watching some cartoons on their laptops at their dorm. One of the episodes they were watching was a light-hearted one where two of the protagonists had to work together to defeat an ugly giant space alien monster. [1] And their efforts paid off with a synchronized attack.

"Ooh! Carmine! We should learn that move! It's pretty cool!"

"You sure, Alicia? It looks kinda impossible."

"I'm real sure we could win tournaments with this move! Come on, let's try it!"

"If you say so."

After privately training, with plenty of bruises and sores, they had perfected the move. And on quite a few sparring matches, they won because of that technique.

Once they finished, they had a round of ice cream sundaes.

"It worked! I can't believe it!"

"Yeah, me neither."

"You know, we make a pretty great team, right Carmine?"

"Yeah."

He smiled as he could see the grin on Alicia's face as she enjoyed all the spoils of victory.

''Oh Alicia ... ''

-- ''It's a shame you couldn't be with me, side by side. But-''

He quickly transformed Howling Wind into its cannon mode, launching a barrage of Dust shots at Heart, forcing her to block them, forming a smokescreen.

What is this fucker planning next? Heart thought.

Carmine suddenly slid through, before giving Heart a leg sweep, sending her tumbling forward , then bouncing on the ground.

"This is for Alicia! Angelic-"

A punch was delivered to Heart's stomach, and then a kick sent her flying.

"HEART-"

Carmine then leaped into the air, barrel rolled, before landing a kick to her face, and then twisting his body for several consecutive kicks.

"SMASHERRR!!!"

The crowd looked with awe and then cheered with such an impressive feat, as Carmine charged at Heart's position to finish the job.

But, Heart quickly recovered, and flanked Carmine with several slashes to the back, too fast for him to block. As Carmine attempted to raise his defenses, she managed to slip another few strikes at his shirt, momentarily swat aside Gust breaker, before landing a blow to Carmine's left cheek with the flat end of Asher's blade.

When the two quickly backed off only to return, each of them only had a smirk on their face.

I'll admit, Heart thought, ''the fucker's tough. He's smart and strong. He did quite a number on me. But you see, Asher? This is what it feels like to be in a fight. This is why I brought your overweight ass here. And I can honestly say, this is the most fun that I had in a long while, feeling the rush when fighting somebody.''

''Alicia, I hope you're smiling right now. The bitch needs to stay down, all right. But, she's good, I'll give her that. I'm taking quite the beating, yet the adrenaline in my veins reminds me that I'm enjoying the thrill trying to win. I'm not going to give up, not for anybody...''

-

Vert and Carmine had bumped into each other in the halls.

"You're that Ravenholme kid, right? How does it feel to be the spawn of a filthy mobster?"

Carmine grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into a wall.

"I feel proud. You wanna know why? I'm willing to do whatever it takes for my old man, even if it means defending him to the death. And I won't give up on it."

-

Both of them yelled as they rushed in, inflicting blow after blow as their Aura meters continued to steadily deplete. While Heart continued her relentless assault with sword strikes, Carmine prepared blocks, and counterattacks, occasionally transforming his arm into Howling Wind's blade mode to gain an edge.

The crowd watched with tension, as they tried to keep up with the movements, and as the aura meters depleted by the following levels:

Heart: 7%

Carmine: 5%

Mercury was thoroughly impressed, and wanted to see what happened next.

''This battle is neck and neck. But I want to see how this ends.

The battle was drawing to a dangerous close, and despite Carmine's defenses, Heart was leading. However, as she attempted one last, exhausted charge, Carmine quickly readied himself, brought Howling Wind to bear-

-and counterattacked, impaling Howling Wind in her right forearm, and catching Heart's left arm.

Heart: 2%

Carmine: 5%

''Could it be? I've incapacitated her arms, and I'm still leading in three percent. Wait ... that means I've won! I can't believe it!''

"Looks ... like ... I ... win."

Not this time, you motherfucker.

But instead, Heart decided to land a headbutt, sending a concussion on their foreheads that knocked them unconscious.

''Shit ... sorry, Alicia ... ''

''Looks like I won't lose ... you fucking pretty boy.''

As they fell, darkness creeped into their eyes, as both their Aura meters fell to 1 percent.

"We need medical attention!"

-

A bright ceiling, with a sudden flash of light, greeted Carmine's eyes as he awoke.

"Ugh ... this is the infirmary, is it?"

"Mm-hmm."

Alicia, now with bandages wrapped around her forehead, nodded, replying with a smile.

"How long has it been?"

"Three hours."

He looked at his arm, still stuck in blade mode, wrapped in gauze for safety reasons.

''Good. It's still there.'' He peeled off the gauze and retracted the blade.

Nearby, they saw Asher by Heart's bed.

"I told you ... this is why you should fight more. It's good for your health, if you'd get your lazy ass to do it."

"And maybe you should tone it down more often, especially in exhibition matches. More people, especially you, are going to be on the brink of death if you keep this up."

He walked over to Carmine and Alicia.

"Well, I must say, that's pretty impressive."

"Thanks. You know, Heart's a bit of a bitch, but I gotta say, the girl's got talent. She could stand up to me, an experienced third-year student with all sorts of tricks up his sleeve!"

"But, at least you could go toe to toe with Heart," Asher replied. "I mean, not everyone who faced off against her could keep up."

"Wait... what's the score again?"

"Stalemate. Both your Auras were at 1% after that headbutt."

"Huh. Hey, Asher ... sorry about the whole taunting thing ..."

"I suppose it's alright."

The two shook hands.

"How about we spar again someday?"

"Maybe."

As Asher walked off, Carmine turned to Alicia.

"So, what's up?"

"Mmm... nothing much. Ooh! While you were in bed, I was looking around for missions, and I saw one! It was about a sunken ship off the south coast of Vale. Can I go, pretty please, with a cherry on top?"

"Uhh ... sure, why not? And how about we practice sometime, after I get better?

"That is awesome! Thanks, Carmine!" Alicia then proceeded to give Carmine a bear hug.

"Whoa! Easy, Alicia! I'm still recovering!"

"Whoopsy daisy! I'm sorry." She then patted him on the head as she went on her merry way.

Over the next few weeks, Alicia would practice with Carmine before heading off to the mission to find the Borealis. When she returned, she brought back her video log and showed it to her team. While they thought she was annoying, they nevertheless believed that Alicia did a good job on the mission, as everyone watched the footage...

- Late at night, Mercury and Emerald were in their dorm, showing Cinder the footage from the arena.

"Interesting," Cinder remarked as she saw the video. Did you see any Semblance used?"

"Unfortunately," Emerald replied, "they didn't allow Semblances in the match."

"What a pity." Cinder frowned at the revelation, but later noticed the details of the match, which piqued her interest.

"But these kids still pack a punch. Alicia's weapon reminded me of Neo's parasol, and Melodic Cudgel. Carmine ... well, you can see for yourself."

Cinder was surprised at how Carmine had a cyberntic arm capable of equipping both a blade and a cannon.

"That arm ... is interesting. I've rarely seen one so far during our time here, especially one not of this manufacture. I'm impressed that you were able to obtain this footage," Cinder said to Emerald's delight.

"Should we add them to the list?" Mercury asked.

Cinder would have to factor in a few minor changes, but it wouldn't matter much.

"Add them to the list, if you must."

Mercury and Emerald made a special indicator to Alicia and Carmine's names on the list, as Cinder continued to sew Dust into her attire, and revised her next move in her insidious plan ...

-

Professors Oobleck and Port had reacted accordingly after being shown the footage. When Ozpin watched it, he only had one question in mind.

"That arm of his provides great intrigue, Glynda. How interesting."

"Should we investigate it? Maybe bring him in for an interrogation-"

"That won't be necessary. A closer watch on him is all that will suffice."

Goodwitch sighed as she left the office. ''Mysterious as ever. But what is it that you plan to do?''

-

Several weeks later

It was 7 o'clock in the evening, as Vert headed to Team CADM's dorm. He knocked on their door.

"Hello? Oh - it's you. What do you want?"

He had seen the fight. Based on how dedicated he was, among many other factors, he felt that he was wrong to judge him, even though he was technically right.

"I've been thinking a lot lately, and I want to make up for being a douche to you by taking you to your favorite restaurant. My treat."

The two then left, as they were about to be part of larger events that very night ...

Fin

[1]: The strategy Carmine and Alicia learned comes from an episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Music:

'''Yutaka Yamada - Licht und Schatten (Tokyo Ghoul OST)

Afterword: Well, this RP has been an interesting battle of wits and positioning. I was trying to drag it out for as long as possible, and Dust was trying to speed it up instead. I hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it.

-Gundam Legilis