Aura 1-1
"There's a day when all courage collapses
And our friends turn and leave us behind
Creatures of darkness will triumph;
The sun won't rise…."
I May Fall - RWBY Soundtrack.
The first day of school always, makes or breaks a new student's viewpoint of a new school. The introductions and orientation at Arcadia though were both engaging and informative. The school was truly amazing with the way the construction was divided into the different wings and sections. The lab and practical areas were well staffed and top of the line. The gym was as large as a football field though I suppose that's to be expected when you attend a school where the wards were rumored to attend though everyone knew it was true. The schedule was extremely flexible leaving me time to myself and from what I could see the infrastructure and social economy within the school was very stable and so I assumed correctly that I would like it there.
After my arrival at the gate, I was directed along with four other transfer students to the principal's office where we collected our schedules. After I collected my schedule, I was asked to wait for one of the current students to come show me around, so I wouldn't get lost or turned around within the premises. The door to the office opened and a girl stepped into the office. In my opinion she was breathtaking. She had long blonde hair, bottle green eyes, and looked amazing in a pair of fitted jeans and a very nice shirt. I stared for about five seconds before I regained my mental faculties and was finally able to speak while she just stood there staring at me with this smile on her face.
"So, you the new kid?" she inquired.
"Yeah." I replied.
"My name is Melissa Biron, but you can call me Missy." She introduced herself.
"Drake Jackson. Nice to meet you." I responded.
"And just call me Drake."
After introductions Missy took me around the school and showed me all the locations I needed to know to have a pleasant year. Such as the locker rooms, the gym, the labs, the classrooms, even the cafeteria which was not open at the time. She then showed me all the emergency access routes and explained all the tricks and nuances of the faraday cage system in the school.
"So," Missy mused out loud. "You have Algebra One first period on Mondays. Ouch, I pity you. Just so you know, the teacher is really strict with homework and doesn't accept any of it late, at all."
We kept up the tour until I was reasonably sure I could find my way around without help and, she even made me lead us back to the office she picked me up from. Just to be safe.
"Well, that's all there is to Arcadia High. So. enjoy your stay here." She told me, before flouncing off to head toward her classes for the day. I let her go without preamble as she seemed in a hurry. On my way to my first class of the day, I made sure to familiarize myself with the school once again so, in the advent of an emergency I knew the fastest way out.
After classes for the day were over. I left school, and, on my way home decided to go through the Boat Graveyard, so I could test out what my powers could do. All I remember from after my trigger event though was that my power was both micro, and macro-scale aura manipulation, and, all that it entails. Yet, when I searched up about aura on my phone all I found was a definition that mentioned it being the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place. There was also another definition about it which said that it was a supposed emanation surrounding the body of a living creature, viewed by mystics, spiritualists, and some practitioners of complementary medicine as the essence of the individual, and allegedly discernible by people with special sensibilities. None of them really helped me in any way.
The Graveyard though abandoned, was not truly so as both the Archer's Bridge Merchants and homeless people wandered around and, squatted within the warehouses and abandoned ships. So, when I heard a noise outside. I quickly moved and took hold of my backpack afraid something untoward was about to happen. With my heartbeat pounding in my ears and while admonishing myself, I just wished I could know what was happening outside and suddenly I could. The world became bluish, glowing just like the color of moonlight, on an ocean, it was like using every sense at once, to both see sounds and hear shapes. It truly was quite a combination. From what I could tell, this was probably what my power meant by micro scale aura manipulation, but, I mused, if this was micro-scale then what possibilities would the macro-scale manipulation offer. I could see the different auras surrounding everything. In my sight though it all was color-coded. As far as I could tell the red auras indicated enemies or spilled blood, blue auras indicated allies, white auras indicated sources of information or hiding spots, and gold auras indicated targets or objects of interest.
I could hear the heartbeats of the gangbangers as they passed by outside making a lot of noise and, could also see them through the wall though they were outlined in their aura. All my senses were extremely heightened, I could even foresee the path they would take as they moved which, could be used for combat precognition, this was so cool. I could even sense the emotions of all the people in my range as well as their general intentions. I also felt like I could do more and flipped the mental switch I felt within my mind, the world suddenly went back to normal, but I could still see the gangbanger I had 'tagged' through the wall, I could tell that this part of the ability was a tag and would be very useful for tracking. Though, I felt there was something missing which I could do though I couldn't find what. I couldn't wait to discover more, because if this was what the micro-scale control could do I wonder what the macro-scale would let me do.
On my way home, I kept switching what I had termed my "Aura Sense" on and off to get used to the transition from normal to aura senses. Though, I could have kept it on all the time it looked weird to me and, according to a good Samaritan who stopped me on the street I looked like I was out of it, when, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings. And so, after a visit to a café on the boardwalk to refill my starving stomach. I arrived home to find out that Grandma June was still at work, as her mourning leave was over though it lasted less than a week, but, that's Brockton Bay for you 'The Villain Capital of the United States of America'. Her job as a costume designer for the PRT and Protectorate East North East meant there was always a backlog of costume designs and similar things to approve, though it did pay very well allowing us to have a cushy home even after the death of Grandpa Rob.
When Grandma got back home, we had dinner and while she watched the news, I did my homework and finished it up in preparation to be turned in to my teacher the next day. I told her I was tired from all the school work and said that I was going to bed early because of a hectic and tiring day. When I knew for sure that grandma had fallen asleep, I snuck out of the house to test out my powers. Though, on my way out I had to sneak through the kitchen and out the back door. As I made my way back to the Boat Graveyard I discovered that if I didn't want people to notice me behaving oddly when I had my aura sense active that I could pulse it to give me a static bird's eye view of the area it covered in real time. It truly was the perfect power for battle, I shamelessly admitted to myself. I did notice a very curious phenomenon though, when I arrived at the Graveyard almost all the arthropods I could locate were glowing gold which meant something was happening involving them. If I had to guess, it probably was another parahuman around testing their powers within the Graveyard or something and, as I did not want whomever I met on this dark and dreary night to connect my civilian identity with my cape identity, I took out my grandpa's old black fedora and one of grandma's domino masks I picked up on my way through the kitchen and, out of the house. I once heard her say they were tinker tech and that they changed your facial profile and biometric readings somehow.
"Tinkers." I admitted to myself "Bullshit, I tell you. Absolute Bullshit!" I mused.
All thewhile remembering that article on PHO I read a while ago that admitted that all the 'T' categories with a rating of seven and above were absolute fucking bullshit. Thinker, Tinkers, and Trumps within that range though were generally considered bullshit in general.
I knew I would need a way to throw people off, as from what my grandma told me nobody really respected the unwritten rules. They were more like Guidelines than rules and could be broken if you could get away with it, she told me of the times even the PRT had broken the rules to get a cape working for them. I did leave the area where the bugs were glowing gold though. I didn't know whether the cape that was around belonged to the gangs or something. Though I did notice something which was that I was moving more fluidly, it was hard to describe but I knew I could flip and free run all over the place and started doing so when before long I arrived at a warehouse perfect for my power testing purposes as I could feel I had only reached the tip of the iceberg in what I could do.
I took a seat in the warehouse and began to meditate switching off my aura sense and pulling out my aura to see if I could do anything with it. A rat quickly ran out of the shadows and spooked me and, as I jumped I hit a wooden framework that was holding up construction beams. As the beams collapsed upon me I thought I would be hurt and have to drag myself to the hospital to beg for Panacea to fix me or something when I noticed something that absolutely flabbergasted me, which was that I was perfectly fine. Although my aura had dimmed a bit I had a feeling it had protected me. I tested this out by taking one of the sharp pieces of wood and with my eyes closed so I wouldn't chicken out I stabbed it into the section of my wrist that logically would be hurt if I had tried to defend against a gangbanger with a knife or something. I stabbed the stake shaped piece of wood down and didn't really feel anything when I opened my eyes I saw that the piece of wood had stopped a few centimeters above my skin and when I activated my aura sense I noticed my aura was stopping the piece of wood above my clothing.
Since I knew that I was protected by my aura I began to try to make sense of what my instincts were feeling. I understood better when I jumped across rooftops, ran across power lines and parkoured and free ran to my heart's content. Towards the end of my route though, I could feel myself being pulled somewhere during my exploration of the Graveyard and before I knew it I was standing at the bottom of the tallest wreck of the graveyard and according to what I could feel I had to climb this monstrosity. I began climbing finding handholds and foot holds using my aura sense where I thought there were none in the first place. So, I climbed, and climbed until I felt a lurch in my senses and there was nowhere else to go. I had made it to the top of the tallest point where I perched and looked. I reflexively activated my aura sense and from up there it was amazing, I could see everything for miles around it was simply breathtaking, it was like I was like synchronizing my aura sense with the aura pulse of the world for an instant and I knew how everything in my range was positioned. I could find the optimal free running routes, the best hiding spots, the best ambush positions and more. It was like my own personal mini-map of the whole area within my head.
On my way back to the warehouse, I found out just how fast I could get which was pretty fast. Though now that I had routes planned out and knew where I was going I mostly moved through roof hopping. When I got back to the warehouse though I felt there was something more my aura was telling me I could do. So, I brought out my aura and controlled it spreading it out trying to make a shield or something to protect me from ranged projectiles such as bullets and crossbow blots like I heard that one ward used, but nothing happened. Since aura reminded me so much of a liquid I felt around for mine and compressed it trying to make it into an attack weapon like a sword or spear, as all my aura sense had given me for now was a better awareness of my surroundings and a bit of combat precognition. As I compressed the aura's shape into a sword like shape I discovered it didn't want to stay in that shape and that though it remained compressed seemed like it wanted to go into another shape, so I let it flow and kept feeding it as much aura as it needed and as I discovered it needed a lot.
"Woah!" I exclaimed when the aura flashed brightly and sparked.
Out of nowhere a red and black rectangular shaped compact box appeared in my hands. And, as I held it, I immediately knew what it was and could feel the skill to wield the weapon expertly, along with how to build and maintain one if I wanted to suffuse my mind. A weapon, you must be thinking. What kind of a weapon could a box be you may wonder. But I could tell that this was just the compact form for transportation linked to the belt with magnetic clips to clip it behind my back which materialized along with it.
As far as what the schematics in my mind were telling me, I could tell the weapon was a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe (HCSS) - a hybrid between a scythe and a sniper rifle. I also knew out of nowhere that it had three different modes and knew how to use them all to maximum effectiveness. There was a "storage" mode, its most compact form convenient for transportation, to be stored with subatomic magnetic clips at the back of the belt only detachable by use of aura. Another mode was the "scythe" mode, its most expanded form, where it fully extended into the form of a scythe, allowing it to be used as a mid-to-close-range bladed melee weapon. This form also doubled as a long-barrel sniper rifle for long-range shots without giving up the melee capabilities of the scythe. If it was needed, the bottom of the shaft could unfold to add more cutting power in a close-range fight. Aura could also be used to cover the blade in the case of non-lethal fights. Dust could also be channeled along the blade to achieve different effects when the blade cut someone. The final form was a "rifle" mode, where it took the form of a medium-length, bolt-action rifle. In this form, the absence of the scythe made for more effective use of the rifle component.
'What was dust though?' I mused. 'And where could I get some.'
I could also use my aura to make rounds I could fire for the weapon with different effects depending on the type of round created only limited by effectiveness and my imagination. As far as I could tell the fighting style for the HCSS utilized harnessing the recoil to enhance mobility in combat, firing shots to propel myself short distances, simultaneously attacking and evading opponents. I could also use the weapon's recoil to launch myself into the air. In melee combat, I could fire a shot immediately before a swing, using the recoil to increase the force and speed of the attack. I could also embed the scythe's blade into the ground to prevent the weapon's recoil from throwing off my aim with the sniper rifle component, allowing for rapid, accurate shots.
The scythe also had a small, hook-like, double-pronged, jagged blade at the bottom of the shaft. I knew I could unfold the scythe, allowing for both the normal blade and the two prongs to slice enemies at the same time for more power. In that form the muzzle is also rotated 90 degrees which enables the recoil to rotate me instead of launching me forward increasing the slicing power drastically. The scythe could also be thrown in such a way that it returns to me. Though all this had to be used with a secondary ability which I was thankful to have, or I would have broken my body while using "Crescent Rose" as I learned the weapon was called.
The ability allowed me to shift into a state where I turned into a cloud of floating rose petals, in this state I could do a lot of things. Such as, move at speeds too fast for the eye or any cameras to see, making it appear as if I could teleport. From what I could tell the uses for this ability in combat was unprecedented allowing me to dodge attacks, disorient enemies, hastily retreat and quickly counterattack. As I also discovered that if I wanted to let physics affect me a little bit I was fast enough to create a slipstream that could pick up a lot of objects, including people. I also somehow exhibited the ability to seemingly burst into three separate clusters of rose petals which then flow around an opponent before reforming. All this and more was shown to me as if I had a manual downloaded into my head.
I stood there and processed all this while realizing that this was what my powers meant by macro scale aura manipulation and if so was there any more I could do, more weapons I could make, abilities I could unlock, because this truly allowed me to be a very effective cape. So, I psyched myself up climbed up unto the warehouse rooftop using the fire escape and unfolded Crescent Rose into its scythe form set it against my shoulder and fired. Suddenly, I moved. From my perspective time stopped as I felt myself break apart into a cloud of rose petals and then I was moving so fast that instead of me reacting to the world, the world reacted to me. My consciousness wasn't even within the rose petals so if they were harmed or stopped or if one escaped it wouldn't really affect me. I could also control the number of rose petals as I later found out testing out the ability, what this meant for me as I later found out was that I could turn into just one rose petal and look like I was just being blown around by the wind, perfect for infiltration purposes.
I ended up landing on one of the derelict ships and switched Crescent Rose from scythe to rifle mode. As I aimed down the scope I realized that I was subconsciously calculating the wind speed, angles, velocity, and even the ricochet effects I would need for the bullet to strike my target. I never until now truly realized how smart a sniper had to be to aim and shoot their rifles. While I could see for about four miles using the scope which told me that the rifle was a very powerful weapon, I aimed for one of the boats in my sights taking all the now miscellaneous yet mitigating factors into account and fired. The recoil was surprisingly manageable, and the gun was utterly silent which made sense as in the schematics I saw, I remember the barrel and rounds being a truly frictionless which allowed for the bullet to go subsonic after a mile. I remembered the schematics said for the rounds the only thing that limited me was my own imagination as the rounds were made from my aura. I remembered looking up Legend of the Triumvirate who has always been my favorite hero since I was a kid and the things his lasers were said to do. I then thought of what I wanted, I knew needed non-lethal ammunition, so I imagined that and could feel a beanbag round forming within my mind but like Legend I wanted to add some kind of effect to it, when I remembered an article I read online once about tasers and the voltage they carry.
As this was going through my mind I felt the beanbag bullet hollow out and start filling up with some kind of powdery crystalline substance. "Dust." My mental library supplied me I also knew this mixed in different and sufficient quantities was what produced whatever effect I was looking for.
'Oh, so that's what dust is.' I realized.
After I finished the design of the round I felt it appear directly within the chamber of the gun, all this lasted less than 0.1 seconds as far as I could tell time slowed down. When I ejected the round to have a look at the dust within with my aura sense, it was blinding until I adjusted, I then realized that dust was just crystalized aura although it could be turned to crystals by being heavily compressed. I put the round back into the rifle and aimed, I took a deep breath, and while letting it out, fired. The round impacted the hull of the ship and discharged its payload which I could see with my rifle.
I then knew that if I was going to go out as a cape I needed to find out what I could make now I had time to test it before I ran afoul of capes like Lung, the leader of the Azn Bad Boyz (ABB) who had the power to transform into his namesake a gigantic tall pyrokinetic dragon while the longer he fought the bigger he got or Kaiser, the leader of the neo-Nazi movement supportive gang the Empire-88 (E-88) whom had the power to control metal in a wide radius around him as was commonly known. There was also Skidmark the leader of the Archer's Bridge Merchants (The Merchants) whom were druggies, and nobody really took seriously but controlled the drug trade for a lot of the West Coast U.S. those were most of the heavy hitters in town
For Lung, I fabricated a round that when shot froze whatever it was shot at, the round was filled with ice dust but, as I later realized that that wasn't enough and so I thought, what if I made the whole round out of ice dust and shot that. So, I aimed at the nearest rat I could find and after fabricating the ice dust crystal shot at it. When I left the roof to go retrieve the rat I found out it was flash frozen both inside and out and was dead as when I picked it up it began to crack and shattered into a million fine tiny pieces. But, as I knew would get in trouble if I killed Lung when he didn't have a kill order on his head, I fabricated the next crystal round inputting into the parameters that I wanted the target to survive the shot. Another dust crystal appeared but this time I could tell that this one was made up of two different types of dust. Ice dust along with traces of another kind of dust. So, I took aim, fired, and hit another rat with what I called the freeze crystal and saw it flash freeze the rat. Thinking I had failed, I retrieved the second rat, I found that after using a fire dust crystal to thaw it that it was still alive, so I now knew I had a way to capture whomever I would fight non-lethally.
I did want to know just how far I could take the fabrication of the different types of dust rounds though. So, I entered that zone again and formed an ice dust crystal, then condensed it while forming another, by the time one full second had passed a far cry from the nearly instant formation of my normal rounds. I had four full sized ice dust crystals condensed into just one round, with which I then aimed for the farthest wreck located within the Bay which was about three hundred and eighty feet long, yet only about 40 feet showed up above the waterline. I took aim, inhaled, held the breath for four seconds, and exhaled, while pulling the trigger. The round achieved hypersonic flight after a mile of travel I both felt and heard the sonic boom along with most of the people in the docks at the time, and as the round accelerated past Mach 1 and struck the wreck I waited for something to happen while putting my rifle away.
When nothing happened after five seconds, I switched Crescent Rose from rifle to storage mode clipped it to the magnets and was about to dash away, when a sudden flash of light appeared where the wreck was located and as I watched I saw the wreck and the ocean for half a mile around it freeze to absolute zero in less than four seconds. I honestly thought that was it and it was over but, that was before everyone who saw the wreck freeze, heard the cracks as the frozen area shattered and roar of water as the ocean rushed to fill it back up. That shot frightened me because I knew that that was not even the strongest compression effect I had, that, was about sixteen full sized crystals combined into one bullet. But if that was what four crystals combined did I seriously didn't think I would be trying any more than that any time soon.
When I left the Boat Graveyard behind I took to the rooftops there were many reasons for this choice of action such as to avoid being accosted by the denizens of the night of this infamous city, as well as for some unknown reason if you ignore the people below you when roof hopping they ignore you in turn. As I was on my way home in quite a hurry with Crescent Rose on my back dashing as a cloud of rose petals through a world of frozen time, up, down, left, right, under that pipe, over that vent, I really was having fun just zipping through the town. I then heard what sounded like a few people screaming and running away from somewhere and though I really wanted to leave and go home, I remembered what my grandpa had said the night before he died.
"Drake, my boy." Grandpa Rob told me. "Even though you do not want me working with the PRT anymore, I will tell you what my papa told me, and his papa told him. Listen well for this piece of advice has always been passed down amongst the men of the famiglia."
"Drake," he spoke. "I tell you now that dark times lie ahead of us, you have heard of it but you may not know how bad it is right now, civilization is crumbling, projections say we have between twenty five to fifty years, but, it is still crumbling so now I tell you and expect you to understand if you are to survive the world you will grow up to live in that there will be a time when you must choose between what is right and what is easy."
"So," he asked me. "When dark times come as all humans know they will, yet you find yourself in a dilemma, ask yourself this question. What do I want to do in this moment? Do I do what is right? or, what is easy?"
So, I stood there at that intersection, yet, I knew at the time that the answer to that question would change my life for better, or for worse.
I thought of how I was brought up, thought of how I was raised, thought of Grandma and Grandpa, and Mama in a daze. But, when I thought of Papa and back to the old clan days. I knew the choice I chose, and I truly felt Grandpa's praise even with how far he was beyond the grave.
I knew that not many people did what was right and would take the easy path but thanks to the way my clan members behaved around the inheritance. And in this situation, I now truly understood what he meant, I think Grandpa Rob assumed I would trigger and wanted to prepare me for this kind of situation where I had to make a choice. The choice was between going home to Grandma or going to see if anybody needed help somewhere where screams were coming from. I knew what I had to do and, I had made my choice. I adjusted my domino mask and my fedora and took off towards the sound of danger. If I had remained there for the eternity that was a second to me at the time I would have seen a group of fireflies join together into Grandpa Rob's face which smiled when he saw that I turned away from home to go react to the emergency.
I arrived at my destination, to find out that the screams had come from an alley-way in an out of the way neighborhood. What I found as I touched down on the roof was horrible. There was a woman on the floor with her top ripped off, while she was screaming as she was surrounded by four gangbangers dressed in red and green, which were the known colors of the ABB and they were about to rape this woman well not on my watch. I dropped down from the rooftop to the ground in between the woman and the gang members trusting in my aura to waive away any negative landing effects. I unsheathed Crescent Rose and unlocked it from storage into scythe mode, standing in front of four gang members with guns that could have killed me you would have thought I would have been scared but I was just calm. One of the ABB thugs took a step forward while saying something in Japanese, I think, I wasn't really paying attention to anything, except the weapon he was waving around to threatening me and the victim with, the other thugs also went for their weapons that was, until they noticed Crescent Rose glinting in the moonlight. One of them screamed something, cape I think in their language, but I wasn't really listening as by that time, I was already moving.
I fired a beanbag round into one of the goon's forehead, he collapsed unconscious, that's one down for the count. I then filled up the rest of the magazine with blanks and let the recoil as I fired propel me towards the goons. From a normal viewpoint it looked like all I did was transform myself into three clouds of rose petals and reform behind the gangsters with my back facing them. That couldn't be further from the truth what actually happened was that halfway there in the slowed time perception of my dash, I turned myself into three separate clouds of rose petals and let the blade of the scythe, set to non-lethal of course hit the gangsters four times in total, I struck the back of each leg, the neck and the crotch nearly simultaneously to each of the gangsters even if I felt the pain via the genetically programmed human wide sympathetic response. This was done to each of the gangsters before they could blink, and they were stuck frozen until I shifted Crescent Rose into storage mode and sheathed it when the click of the magnets activating sounded that, was when the effects hit them, it was like a movie. They all groaned and fell into fetal positions at the exact same time.
I turned back to the victim to help her to her feet from where she lay, her back against a dumpster.
"You alright, Miss?" I inquired.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you very much. Thanks honestly for stopping them I don't know what I would have done." She sobbed
"All in a night's work Miss though, I do think you should call the police." I replied as I was about to leave. As I prepared to turn back into my breaker state I heard her call me.
"Wait," she spoke. Then she inquired curiously "What's your name?"
"Well, far be it from me to behoove a fair maiden, a chance at my soon to be famous name." I spoke slipping into the persona I was planning to build my cape identity. I responded
"Madam," I said with a bit of an accent and a tip of my fedora "I'm just a passing Rogue." And I took off into the night.
As I made my way home, I reflected on what I wanted my persona in costume to portray which was a after I thought about if for a while; handsome yet charismatic, dashing and daring, flirting but a deadly if necessary persona of a man. As I thought on this more, I arrived at my neighborhood whence I dropped into an out of the way alleyway where I removed both the mask and fedora. When I came to Crescent Rose though, I wasn't really sure what to do about it until it disintegrated all on its own. I honestly panicked, for a while there I thought I had lost it forever until, I tried summoning it back and it worked. It was at that moment I discovered that within my mind I had a mental weapon library and Crescent Rose was the only one available at the moment though I knew I could unlock more as the other slots I could see were greyed out. At that moment I swore to unlock every weapon available, so I would never feel powerless again. As I climbed into my room by way of the window, I crashed down on my bed and within fifteen seconds drifted off to sleep dreaming of what costumes would fit my idea of the persona of
"THE ROGUE".