SXD: True Strength

The streets of downtown Vale were chaotic.

The stolen Atlesian Paladin stomped through the streets, its heavy metal frame rattling the pavement with every step. Roman Torchwick sat smugly in the cockpit, as his fingers danced over the controls, launching missiles in rapid bursts.

Cars were overturned, storefronts smashed, civilians scattering for cover as Roman’s stolen Paladin rampaged through the district. The massive suit of Atlas combat armor moved like a titan of steel, its fists tearing chunks of pavement with every swing, missiles streaking into the night sky before crashing down in showers of fire.

Team RWBY darted and weaved through the destruction, each girl playing her part. Ruby zipped across the battlefield in streaks of rose petals, Crescent Rose slashing at the machine’s armored legs. Yang darted forward with explosive punches, her gauntlets roaring, only to be swatted aside by the Paladin’s massive arm. Blake’s shadow clones flickered across rooftops as she tried to find an angle to get inside the cockpit. And Weiss—weaving through the debris with glyphs sparking at her heels—was keeping them all alive, her precision strikes and support glyphs keeping Roman’s monstrosity from crushing them outright.

“Focus on the joints!” Weiss barked, spinning Myrtenaster into a glyph-enhanced stab that sent sparks flying across the Paladin’s armor.

Ruby gritted her teeth. “It’s not working! We can’t get through!” Ruby shouted. “We’ve got to get him out of that cockpit!”

Easier said than done.

Weiss slid across the asphalt, boots skidding to a stop as she cast a barrier glyph, deflecting a missile that would have torn into Yang’s flank. Her rapier gleamed, rotating cartridges with a sharp click as she prepared her next strike.

And then—her scroll rang in the middle of battle.

Weiss blinked in disbelief. Now?

Another missile streaked past her head, exploding against a storefront, showering sparks and glass across the street. Still, curiosity betrayed her. Her eyes flicked to the screen as she dodged a crushing fist of metal, her glyph shoving her out of the way in the nick of time. She barely had a moment to breathe, but when she saw the name flashing across the screen, her heart skipped.

“…Issei?”

Without thinking, she swiped to answer. “Hello?”

“Weiss, are you serious?!” Yang bellowed as she uppercut the Paladin’s fist away. “You’re answering that now?!”

“Do you want to die?!” Blake snapped, slicing through an incoming rocket.

Ruby groaned. “Weiss, hang up, hang up, hang up!”

But Weiss had already answered, the scroll pressed against her ear as she ducked under the Paladin’s sweeping arm.

On the other end came his familiar, cheerful tone. “Hey, Weiss! I was looking for you. Wanted to see if you, uh, maybe wanted to catch a movie?”

Weiss’s blood pressure spiked. “A—movie? Now?!”

Around her, missiles detonated, fire plumed, and Yang yelled in exasperation as she barely dodged another strike.

“Weiss!” Ruby cried out, skidding beside her. “Now’s not the time to answer calls!”

Weiss ducked another sweeping blow from the Paladin, Myrtenaster sparking as she countered with an ice glyph. “Issei, I’m a little busy at the moment!”

There was a pause. Then his tone shifted, puzzled. “Busy? Uh… is that gunfire? Wait—what’s exploding over there?!”

Weiss lunged to the side, her glyph propelling her away from a massive steel hand that smashed down where she’d stood. She didn’t even try to hide her frustration. “I do not have time to explain this!”

“Then hang up!” Blake barked, her voice strained as she severed a cable from the Paladin’s arm.

Yang was fending off the other arm, fists blazing. “Talk to your boyfriend later, Ice Queen!”

Ruby skidded past Weiss in a burst of rose petals, glaring. “Weiss, focus!”

“…Wait. Are those explosions?”

Weiss winced as another missile detonated nearby. “Yes! Just—don’t ask! I need to go!”

“Hang up already!” Yang roared as she sprinted past, hair blazing with aura. “Before I rip that Scroll out of your hands!”

Blake’s voice joined in, sharp and urgent. “Weiss, focus! We need you!”

Ruby practically screamed, “End the call!”

“Alright, alright. I get it. You’re busy. Just tell me where you are.”

“Downtown Vale,” Weiss snapped automatically before thinking better of it. She spun, her rapier glowing with ice Dust, and stabbed forward, freezing the Paladin’s leg in place for half a second.

There was another pause. Then his tone grew oddly steady. “Got it. Be there in a second.”

Weiss froze mid-dodge. “What?!” she snapped, eyes wide. “You’re at Beacon—how on Remnant are you going to get here in—”

Her words cut off as she leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the Paladin’s crushing stomp. She grit her teeth, finally hanging up as she raised Myrtenaster again.

She didn’t have time to think about his insane claim. Didn’t have time to question how he thought he could possibly cross the city in seconds.

All she could do was shove the thought to the back of her mind as another hail of missiles locked on to her position.

But a thought lingered, buzzing faintly beneath the adrenaline.

‘He wouldn’t actually come here… Would he?’

There was no time to answer. The Paladin loomed over them, Torchwick sneering behind its glass. Weiss grit her teeth, forcing herself to focus.

Whatever Issei meant, whatever absurdity he was about to attempt, she’d just have to deal with it when (and if) he arrived.

—---------------------------------

From Beacon’s cliffside, far above the chaos, Issei Hyoudou stood silently, gazing down at the city. The usual goofy grin that so often colored his face was gone. Instead, there was a rare sharpness in his expression, his brown eyes narrowed in focus.

His usual laid-back grin was absent, replaced by something far sharper and focused. His brown eyes narrowed as he inhaled slowly, letting the night air fill his lungs. He wasn’t looking at the city so much as feeling it.

Weiss.

 Even across miles, through the noise of the city and the chaos below, her presence stood out to him like a candle in the dark. That familiar presence. That warmth he had come to recognize like the beat of his own heart. She was down there, fighting—struggling.

“Got you,” Issei muttered.

With a flash of crimson light, the Boosted Gear materialized around his arm, its emerald gem gleaming like a burning star.

[BOOST!]

The gauntlet’s voice echoed, and power surged through him. He crouched low, muscles coiled like springs. Then, with a grin, he launched himself from the cliff.

The sound reverberated through the night, echoing across the cliffside. Issei bent his knees, his body coiling like a spring. Then, with a grin tugging back onto his face, he launched himself into the sky.

The ground beneath him cratered violently, a shockwave rolling outward from the sheer force of his takeoff. 

In a single bound, he crossed the gulf of land and forest, the Beacon cliff shrinking behind him as Vale’s edge rushed up to meet him. He was soaring high before crashing down on the outskirts of Vale. The rooftops of the city stretched before him, a jagged landscape of stone and glass.

Issei landed hard, his boots cracking the edge of a rooftop before he pushed off again, moving like a crimson blur.

Roof to roof, he sprinted, each leap clearing entire blocks at a time. The wind howled in his ears, his coat snapping wildly, the city lights blurred below him. His focus never wavered.

It didn’t take long before he saw it.

The stolen Atlesian Paladin loomed over the street, its mechanical frame towering above buildings as it swung its massive fists and fired missiles into the air. 

Team RWBY darted and weaved around the towering Paladin. Ruby’s scythe flashed in streaks of red petals, Blake’s shadow clones flickered in and out of the machine’s heavy swings, Yang’s gauntlets blasted fire as she punched against steel, and Weiss—her glyphs illuminated in white-blue brilliance—stood her ground, sword flashing as she parried a missile head-on.

A smirk tugged at Issei’s lips.

“Guess it’s my turn.”

[BOOST!]

Energy surged through his body, crackling in his veins. He crouched low on the rooftop, every muscle tense. The Paladin’s attention was locked on the girls, its massive arms swinging down in sweeping arcs, missile bays primed.

Roman Torchwick smirked from within the cockpit, cigar glowing in his teeth. “Let’s wrap this up, girls—”

He never finished.

Issei launched himself off the rooftop with impressive speed.

A red comet streaked through the night sky, closing the gap faster than Roman could process. In the blink of an eye, Issei was there—at the Paladin’s flank, fist cocked back, Boosted Gear gleaming.

“Yo.” His grin was wolfish. “Hands off my friends.”

He drove his fist forward.

The impact was like thunder splitting the earth. His fist collided with the Paladin’s chest plate, the sheer power of the strike shaking the air itself. The machine groaned, metal screeching as the entire frame buckled. 

The Paladin didn’t just stumble—it flew. The sheer force of the blow sent the towering machine reeling backward, its metal shrieking as it tore up the asphalt. It tumbled down the length of the street, smashing through lamp posts, skidding into storefronts, and collapsing in a heap of shattered steel. Sparks showered the night like fireworks as the Paladin lay broken, its limbs twitching uselessly.

Silence followed.

Team RWBY froze mid-motion, weapons raised, eyes wide.

They had spent the last twenty minutes struggling—dodging missiles, striking joints, desperately trying to get to Torchwick. They had barely scratched the armor.

And Issei had leveled it in a single punch.

Weiss’s rapier lowered an inch as her jaw went slack. Ruby gaped, her eyes sparkling with awe. Yang blinked once, then twice. Blake’s ears twitched as she struggled to believe what she’d just witnessed.

Standing in the middle of the ruined street, Issei straightened, rolling his shoulder as if the attack had been nothing more than a warm-up. Dust and smoke swirled around him, the crimson glow of the Boosted Gear casting him in an almost otherworldly light.

Then he turned back to them, his grin wide and unbothered, like he hadn’t just dismantled an advanced war machine.

“Finally found you,” He said, waving casually as if this were a casual stroll through town.

Weiss stared at him, her heart skipping in a way she refused to acknowledge.

“…Idiot,” She breathed under her voice.

But her relief was undeniable.

Ruby was the first to recover, hopping forward with stars in her eyes. “That was so cool!”

Yang laughed, punching her gauntlets together. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

Blake just shook her head, lips twitching upward. “Show-off.”

Issei grinned wider, scratching the back of his head. “Heh. So… about that movie?”

Weiss groaned aloud this time, hand smacking against her forehead. But she was smiling, even if she refused to admit it.