Chapter 2: Strategic Maneuvering
It had been nearly a week since Jack had accidentally mistook Hathaway for Marcus Black. In that time, she realized two distinct things about him. The first, he wasn't forthcoming with information unless you practically begged or dragged it out of him. And the second, was he was remarkably shy around women.
He had accidentally walked in on her changing at the last inn they stayed at, which had been located in a small village not far from where they had first met. Mistral was dotted with a plethora of small villages like this. Hathaway had completely avoided her for most of the day after seeing her completely shirtless, and it took her actually buying him dinner for him to sit and discuss things with her.
Like her, he wasn't the most keen on social graces, which she found interesting, considering what he told her about his upbringing. As he had said before, he was raised by a rather famous and prestigious Faunus Hunter named Arland Howe-one of THE most famous, in fact, as he was an undefeated duelist, after being taken in off the streets as a boy. Arland had made a name for himself in Vacuo, and even in the more affluent circles, he walked with pride and confidence. Due to him looking relatively human-save for the cat-like yellow eyes and the claws he could sprout from his fingers-most of the upper class Vacuans treated him like one of their own. Hathaway suspected it had much to do with his reputation and his deeds to protect the city of Paradise, where they lived, but regardless, it had been a good life.
His training started almost immediately, and was brutal. He had learned to channel his Semblance early on, first by trying to focus it to trip Arland in training, then to block and blast away incoming projectiles. By the time he was ten-only four years after being adopted-Hathaway was able to send unsettled people flying a few feet backwards.
She also learned of a few other events, which had not been so pleasant. One night, almost in a complete turnaround of what had happened in the inn, she caught Hathaway without his gloves. Normally, his hands were always cloaked in thick, dark blue leather gloves, but she had awoken to hear a clinking and whirring sound coming from Hathaway's bedroll.
When she had turned around, she found him, right sleeve rolled up and gloves removed, and a shiny, silver prosthetic that started from halfway between his wrist and forearm being opened and tinkered with. The look on his face was one of shock, as he desperately tried to hide the prosthetic, but by then it was too late.
He hadn't been very willing to talk about how it had happened, except that it happened "one night, during training." She caught a hint that it was a lie, but didn't press the matter further. It seemed to be a deep and personal issue, and it did set some of the progress they had made back a bit. He had been quiet since, only responding to her in small nods or grunts or as few words as possible.
Was the man who beat her ashamed that he had such an injury? The curiosity nagged at her, but she could understand. He was highly skilled with his sword. If he had been wounded in some kind of accident, or in training, something such as that might shake him, make him feel inadequate, or perhaps even inferior. Which seemed preposterous-that prosthetic could probably take one of Jack's punches no problem, and handled the recoil from his sword's rail gun with no ill effects.
So, she decided to do something different.
"Hey Hath," she said, standing alongside him. She was a little taller than he was, even if he hadn't been hunched over, lost in thought. She hadn't really noticed until now.
He shook himself awake and looked at her. "What's up?"
"How's your Semblance work, again?"
He blinked. He thought he had explained it fairly well the first time. "Um...well, I am able to fire telekinetic blasts in any direction I'm looking, or at anything I'm touching. I can use it to run faster or jump higher, slow a fall, or hit an opponent from any direction, as long as I am looking in that general area. Up, down, sideways, from behind, below, doesn't matter. I can do the same thing to projectiles that come at me, too."
"So, is it a concussive force?" She asked, intrigued. Her mind was spinning with an idea, but she needed more information.
"Yes, I suppose you'd call it that," he answered, unsure as to her interest. "Though the further away it is, the weaker but wider it gets. Like a shotgun."
"And how fast can you fire it off?"
He stopped walking, hands on the lapels of his trenchcoat and the straps of his backpack. He looked at her in the eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Why all these questions?"
"I have an idea, and it was brought on by you shooting me," she admitted, ending in a little laugh at the absurdity of the statement. "I want to know specifics, to see if maybe we can make my plan work."
"And that plan would be...?"
She gave him a slightly annoyed look, but still had an amused smile on her face, as if this was fun for her. "Just answer the question, and I'll tell you."
He sighed, and looked around, noticing a tree to the side of the road. He walked to it and furrowed his brows. She watched as pieces of bark started flying from it, little by little, for about seven full seconds, before it stopped. Every second, three impacts, almost like solid impacts from an invisible fist, could be heard. Every time one sounded off, a deep thud from the change in air pressure rang through the air.
"That's fairly impressive," she noted. "Can you hit me with one?"
"The force might knock you out," he admitted. This only caused to give her a confident grin.
"If your rail gun took three shots to down me, your Semblance will need a lot more than that."
He shrugged. "Fair point. Okay, ready?"
She nodded, and he let out another pulse. exactly the same as the tree, she crossed her arms in front of her face and felt a blow, like a large fist, slam into her skin. The pain was real, and now she knew why he had warned her. That blow, even with aura up, sent her backwards. It was stronger than any punch she'd ever taken in that position.
"Impressive. And, I felt the air move when you did it," she noted as she stood up straight.
"What's all this about, Jack?"
"Well..." she said, taking several steps back. "It's about my Semblance. I just had a thought, maybe your Semblance and mine are compatible."
Again, Hathaway raised his eyebrow. "Depends. What IS your Semblance? You've never told me."
"Well, it's tricky to explain," she started. "But, in a pinch, it can be very effective, if I'm given a little time.
"Basically, I can charge myself up by drawing in all kinetic energy in the area around me. Every movement from every molecule, I suck it's energy up. It causes the air around me to drop in temperature, and become near-instant ice. If your Semblance delivers energy via kinetic blows, like forcing air pressure to hit something hard, then I could absorb it and you could supercharge me faster. It sometimes takes a while to charge up; someone pelting me with blows would definitely do it better than me just standing there."
Hathaway listened intently. The idea was sound. He was positive his Semblance could do what she was asking. But there was a problem. "Okay, but if what I felt before was any indication...your Semblance is like a field, right? if I just stand next to you, you'd affect me, too, correct?"
Her optimism soured a bit, and she crossed her arms. "Yeah...this is why I need to know how far you can hit things, too. I can't control the strength of my field, only it's size, and even that's limited. I can't just focus it completely around me. Right now, I can narrow it to maybe...three meters? But that is extremely taxing, and the smaller it is, the quicker I freeze everything and deplete the kinetic energy around me. And smaller fields need me to focus more, and I can't hold it that size for very long without using up a lot of energy."
"I can hit things up to four meters away and still inflict some damage," Hathaway explained, "unless I use my other sword. Black Thorn is just an average weapon. But Soul's Oath..."
He withdrew the sword on his hip. Unlike the black blade, this one seemed to shimmer with a silvery-blue tint. The blade was absolutely beautiful, and seemed to sparkle like a diamond.
"This blade was the main sword of my father's," he said. "I took it when I escaped from my home, after his death. It's...unique. It's core is pyrobsidian."
Jack's brow furrowed. She'd heard that word before. "My father had a lighter made of that stuff," she said. "He said once that it was insanely durable but was unusable as a weapon material because it was too heavy."
"Oh, it is," Hathaway confirmed. "This sword isn't made of it. It has a rod running from pommel to halfway up the blade; not much, but enough to affect it. The blade is also inscribed with runes. It allows me to either absorb elemental attacks and use them in the blade for counterattacks, or I can channel my aura directly into the sword, which I can do thanks to the trace amounts of pyrobsidian."
"How'd your father even get this?"
"Family heirloom," Hathaway answered. "It fought in several wars and was used by the Howe family for generations. But nobody can do with it what I can. If I channel my Aura into it, I can cleave through enemy aura fields like they are butter, but it does sap my aura to keep that ability maintained. So I need to choose when I use it. That part anyone can do, if they know about it. But, with my Semblance..."
He turned and slashed at a tree about six meters away. The wind seemed to split as he did, and Jack had to hold her hand up to guard her eyes from debris as she watched the air visibly ripple, passing her and hitting the tree in seconds. The wave grew larger as it traveled, until the tree was cleaved in half.
"When I confine my telekinetic blasts into the edge of Soul's Oath, I can double their range and potential lethality. I usually only use Soul's Oath in a pinch, because it's a literal double-edged sword. It could sap me of aura as fast as I can sap them of theirs. Assuming I don't outright kill them. My father said that people with different Semblances would do different things if they channel their Aura into the blade, but not every Semblance works with it."
Jack whistled. "Well...I'm willing to try with just the blows first. Maybe, if I'm feeling risky, we can try with the sword later."
Hathaway nodded and put the sword away. Jack then thought of something. "Your pressure wave doesn't have to come from you directly, right?"
"No, but the closer it originates to me, the stronger it is. The further away I produce it, the weaker it is. The exception to that is the slice with Soul's Oath-that HAS to come from my blade, or else it's not razor thin. It's just an arching pressure wave, instead of one that can cut."
"Then let's try with my Semblance." She grinned and got into a lower stance. Hathaway still wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but she was going for it, regardless. He could feel the air around him getting colder, but saw visible ice crystals start to form around her feet. He knew she wasn't going to take no for an answer, at this point.
"Okay, I'm firing," he announced. She nodded and he focused his mind, and began rapidly pummeling her with blasts. He could tell that with each wave, the air rippled as it entered her field, before disappearing entirely. As it slowed, ice began to fall from its location, tiny crystals raining from the sky.
He kept it up for nearly twelve seconds before she told him to stop. She grinned happily. "It worked! Even if you didn't hit me, just moving the air made it go faster!"
Hathaway smiled. "Well, that's handy," he said, excited for the first time since they had met. He had hoped this would work, secretly thinking that it would be something she could count on him for.
"Now, though..." she said, the smile on her face growing wider, "I need to release this energy." The field around her dropped, which he could feel almost instantly with a sudden change in both air pressure and temperature. "Care to try and stop me again, like before?"
It took Hathaway a second to realize what she meant. Like before...like when they met. He didn't get a chance to answer, already moving into a defensive stance as she suddenly seemed to blink out of existence and return in his line of sight directly in front of him. He'd been pushing down in his immediate vicinity for less than a second before she moved, beginning to get prepared, but she was much stronger this time than she was last-she powered through the slowing effects with enough force behind her blow that his right arm jerked behind him. He heard the shock absorbers and recoil dampeners inside his right arm clang as they were pushed to their limit and his arm were forced backwards. The blow was lessened, but he still winced from the pain in his elbow.
She pulled back and slammed the ground, knocking him off his feet. He caught himself as he fell, blinking. "Why'd you do that?"
She huffed a bit before standing up. "Sorry. That punch didn't expend all of it. It's not healthy to let it build up, and I can't activate another field if I still have some left over."
He noticed the ground at the point of impact was caved in, similar to what he had done last time. She offered him a hand, and he took it, standing up. He winced again as his elbow screamed in protest.
"Hmmm..." He said, cradling his arm. "My prosthetic's built in stoppers kept you from ripping my arm off, but you still did a number on my elbow."
Jack's face went from joy to concern as she looked at him holding his elbow. "Sorry...I thought your prosthetic could take it."
"The prosthetic, sure, but only a third of my arm is prosthetic," he said with a pained smile, trying to reassure her. "I still have two critical flesh and blood joints. So careful, next time."
She nodded. She would keep that in mind, if they ever sparred for real.
Still, even with that...it worked. He could be like her battery, charging her up with kinetic energy. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was one that she seemed satisfied with. And as they went on their way, she noticed he did, too, with a greater spring in his step, despite still holding his arm.
