The Iron Knight
Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
xxxx
(Six months after meeting Mako)
"Hello?"
Jaune looked up from his workbench and raised his goggles, revealing the baby blues hidden beneath the blackout lenses.
"Hey Mako, you're back from Mt. Cherno already?" Jaune asked.
Mako stepped into the room that had become Jaune's workspace, mindful of the scraps of metal, dangerous tools, sheets of paper, scattered Dust crystals and general clutter that decorated the space.
He and Molly had offered Jaune a room to stay in three months ago, and in that time the basement had gone from a storage space/Grimm shelter into a complete underground ironworks.
"Yeah, turned out there was some two-bit circus wannabe that had captured a couple of Grimm somehow and started putting on shows, nearly brought a giant nevermore down on the townspeople. Still, he's all trussed up and the Grimm are gone, so it's all good."
"Awesome, how long will you be back for?" Jaune queried while putting his goggles back on and welding something on the workbench.
"About a month, I've got a few town patrols but I'm sticking in Haddoway for now. How's your project coming on? You've been working on this power source of yours the whole time you've been here," Mako asked, taking note of the tube that ran all the way around the basement, edge to edge.
"Actually, almost done," Jaune commented, lifting his goggles and holding up a circular device with a triangular slot in the centre.
"Seriously? That's awesome! What's left to do?" Mako asked excitedly; he hadn't really understood it all when Jaune explained what he was trying to accomplish, but he had latched onto the idea of Jaune making a 'powered weapon/armour flying thing.'
"Now all I have to do is synthesise the final component, and I will have a generator in the palm of my hand that can power the armour I intend to make. Here, take this; you're stronger than me and I'll need a hand."
Jaune handed Mako a large wrench, and directed him to wedge it onto an iron handle protruding from the tube, below which was an opening with a triangular white crystal inside.
"Okay, I will need you to direct the beam towards the little triangular piece of metal on the other side of the room; don't worry if anything gets damaged, just focus on your task!" Jaune said from a large lever.
"Wait what do you mean damage?" Mako asked loudly, suddenly worried about what Jaune was going to do to his basement.
"And GO!" Jaune pulled the giant lever.
"WAIT!"
Mako felt his entire body shudder as a blue beam of light flew around the tube faster than he could follow, and suddenly the beam was shooting out from the prism of crystal below his hands about six feet away from the target, burning a noticeable hole into his wall.
Desperate to stop his house from being damaged, Mako pulled on the wrench and directed the beam onto the metal triangle, which began to glow brightly, until, with a ringing left in his ears, Jaune switched off the power.
The triangle was still glowing, and Jaune walked over to it with a pair of tongs and the device he was welding earlier. He placed the triangle in, and the thing sealed up. It flickered a few times, and then after a second glowed with a steady blue light.
"Damn Jaune, what did you do?" Mako asked while worriedly tracing the black line that had been burned into the wall of his basement.
"I," Jaune said grandly, ignorant of Mako weeping quietly at the damage, "have just created a power source that doesn't rely on Dust."
It was an earth shattering moment, a proclamation to the world that Jaune had achieved the impossible, a monument to-
"Dinner's ready!"
It could wait until Molly's cooking had been thoroughly demolished.
xxxx
"You know people are going to want what you have, what you've made, right? I'd watch out for any Atlesian Military Personnel; they would do almost anything to get their hands on that little thing right there," Mako told Jaune seriously as the two calmed down from their daily workout.
"Yeah I know, but when I go to Beacon I'm not going to not use it, despite how much stronger I've gotten, and how much stronger I'll be when I have Aura, I still don't have the years of training that the others are going to have; that's half the reason I'm building my armour."
Mako rubbed his stubbly chin in thought. "I guess you're right; just try not to announce it to all and sundry unnecessarily, Hunters need their secrets you know."
Jaune chuckled. "You say that as if anyone would understand even if I did explain it."
Mako laughed too, grinning widely. "You're not the only person on the planet that knows about all this tech Jaune, remember that."
"Will do Mako. Will do."
xxxx
Jaune had a chest piece holding the power source, which he had decided to name an Arc Reactor (he made it, even if he didn't come up with the idea, therefore it is named after him).
The glowing blue circle on his chest was conspicuous, but hopefully he'd have the proper chest piece built soon.
He only had a year left to go before he would, with a bit of luck, attend Beacon. He had only just managed to build the boots for the suit design.
Although Jaune had made enough money to buy all of the materials he needed, especially thanks to Mako and Molly not asking for rent, it was still taking him a long time to actually build the damn armour, because whoever had designed it was a genius of the highest order.
It was taking Jaune weeks, and weeks, just to understand what exactly he was building before he could even attempt to smith, assemble, and wire the various parts, for even a single limb. Not to mention the costs involved.
He was hoping that now he'd built the boots, the rest of the armour would prove less daunting, though he had to test them to see if he'd actually gotten them right first.
The other thing, which he constantly had nagging at the back of his mind, was how he was going to control the armour. He honestly wasn't sure how anything short of an A.I. – an honest to god sentient computer – would be capable of managing the sheer functionality built into the armour.
xxxx
"Ok, this is Test-01 for Iron Knight boot iteration 1, powered by prototype arc reactor, controlled by pilot. Let's start off nice and easy at fifty percent power. In 3, 2, 1…"
Jaune hit the button on his scroll that would activate the boots' thrusters. Faster than he could think the boots pushed him up and backwards to slam face first into the wall ten feet away.
"Ow."
Uproarious laughter grated on his ears, and to his bloody nosed annoyance there stood Mako at the entrance to the basement with his scroll recording, genuine tears of laughter wetting the corners of his eyes.
Twenty minutes later and Mako had stopped laughing and Jaune was ready for his second test; though Mako standing there and blatantly recording was wholly unnecessary.
"Ok then, this is test Test-02 for Iron Knight boot iteration 1, powered by prototype arc reactor, controlled by pilot. We're gonna go with five percent power this time, in 3, 2, 1…"
He hit the button, and this time there was much less of a jolt and more of a smooth rise into the air. Jaune could feel the giddiness of success rise up into a laugh, which unfortunately unbalanced him and threw him head over heels into the floor.
"Just keep going Jaune, this is comedy gold; I can blackmail you with this for the rest of your life," Mako crowed unrepentantly.
To Jaune's consternation, it wasn't until test eleven that he realised he would need the gloves to stabilise his flight, which presented a nigh insurmountable wall unfortunately.
Control.
It was bad enough writing a program that interacted with the boots from his scroll and allowed him to manually adjust the power settings; Jaune honestly wasn't sure how he was going to do this.
Time was running out, and Jaune had no idea how to continue.
xxxx
"Professor? Hello?"
"Ah, Mr Armitage, what an unexpected surprise," commented the headmaster of Beacon Academy Professor Ozpin, staring at Mako imperiously, even through the scrolls they were talking on.
"Hey Professor, how's things?" Mako asked somewhat nervously; while he was an adult now, Ozpin used to be his teacher and was still considered one of, if not the strongest Huntsman on the planet.
"… As well as ever when it comes to corralling super powered teenagers, as I'm sure you recall. Need I mention the third year Bathroom Band Practice incident?"
Mako rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and felt a light sheen of sweat begin to develop. "I'm, uh, sure I don't know what you're talking about Professor."
"… Indeed," Ozpin commented with a masterfully raised eyebrow of disbelief. "Either way, to what do we owe this chat?"
Mako swallowed, not knowing how the old headmaster would react. "I'd like to sponsor a kid into Beacon, if I can, I'm not sure if there's any sort of procedure for this sort of thing you see so I…"
"Mr Armitage, I can assure you that if they pass a simple written exam and you vouch for their combat ability, any student would be welcome. Who is it?"
"Ah, see, now, that's where it gets tricky Professor-"
"Would I be correct in my assumption that the child in question is Jaune Arc?"
At Mako's dumbfounded, jaw dropped expression of surprise and disbelief, Ozpin nodded sagely.
"I paid close attention to the Arc scandal Mr Armitage, and even interviewed both Jade and Morrigan, so I know that Jaune created something that gave him the courage to run away. It does however, weigh on my heart that I was unaware of the cruelty Jade showed her siblings, and her team. My apologies."
"Uh, gee, thanks Professor, but it ain't nece-"
"That said, I would like to meet Jaune myself at some point before I accept him into Beacon next year."
"Of course Professor, thank you so much, honestly."
"Anytime Mr Armitage."
xxxx
(Six months until entrance to Beacon)
"Come on Jaune, you can do better than that!" Mako shouted at the shaking, sweating teenager before him.
At the comment Mako saw Jaune's baby blue eyes set with determination, and prepared himself for another bout of combat.
Mako watched as Jaune readied his weapons. To any regular person, the use of a sword and kite shield meant that there were plenty of different styles to absorb and learn from, however, Jaune just had to be different.
The kite shield was nearly as tall as Jaune was and very thick and heavy. Include the fact that it mecha-shifted between said shield form and a manoeuvrable armour covering his entire left arm, you have a highly diverse piece of defensive equipment considering its traditional simplicity. The point of the kite was quite sharp too.
The sword was also quite long, and thick like a claymore. This was due to the fact that it extended from Jaune's forearm and the somewhat lighter armour covering said arm than the other arm. It also was made of many segments, which could semi-detach and turn into a giant metal whip.
Of course, this meant that all normal sword styles were completely useless for the kid to learn, and Mako had to help him develop an entirely unique one that utilised his sword's odd position of extending from the wrist above his hand.
Combine this with the fact that both of Jaune's hands were nigh completely free, and had projectile weapons built in the palms, as well as his boots' ability to allow him to accelerate and change direction very quickly with quick bursts, (sustained flight of any kind was a long way away apparently), and well…
It was a marvellous piece of engineering that Mako was sure very few, if any, on Remnant were capable of replicating, let alone understanding. As it was, just the bits of the armour that Jaune had currently built would allow him to stand toe to toe with most Signal students of an equivalent age.
All without Aura.
It was almost baffling to Mako that Jaune constantly commented on how incomplete the armour was, how he had to manually activate the different functions using buttons built into his gauntlets, how he needed a computer program of some sort.
Contemplations aside, Mako dodged to the side as Jaune crashed into his position, having used a boost from his boots to launch into the air and attempt to bisect him from above.
Jaune swiped up from the ground, using the momentum of the sword to attempt a shield bash as Mako stepped back. Mako grabbed the top of the shield and pulled it further than Jaune was expecting, causing him to misstep.
Mako brought the pistol in his hand round to hit Jaune in the face with the butt, but the shield shifted and the gun rebounded off the armour now covering Jaune's arm, which he had swung up in defence.
Mako jumped back, avoiding the attempted counter stab, but found himself surprised as instead of closing in Jaune span on the spot, and had to hastily duck the sword turned whip.
Limbo-ing under the arc of the swing, Mako rushed forward and slid around Jaune's re-shifted shield, point facing where Jaune thought he was going to end up. Instead the heavily panting blond was forced to surrender thanks to the gun resting under his chin.
"You're doing much better than you were at first Jaune. I know it doesn't feel like much, but trust me, your skill with those weapons has sky-rocketed over the last few months." Mako said, seeing the way Jaune's fist was clenched.
"Yeah, I know. Thanks Mako," Jaune said quietly, brooding as he took a drink and made his way inside to a shower.
Mako sighed, knowing exactly what was bothering Jaune; good was never good enough, hell, Mako wasn't sure perfection would even be good enough for Jaune.
The kid had told him that he'd hit a roadblock on making his armour; there was apparently no point in building anymore of it if he didn't have a computer program capable of controlling it all.
Mako had suggested that Jaune begin to focus on actually learning to fight now that he had the main weapons he would be using. While at first the kid had jumped at the opportunity, the fact that Mako was always able to beat him was grating on the kid.
At that moment, Mako made a decision; he would need to find someone willing to give Jaune an exhibition fight, someone for Jaune to measure himself against that wasn't an already qualified Huntsman nearly a decade his senior.
Mako and Jaune were going to the Vale Under-17s Regional Tournament.
xxxx
"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! WELCOME TO THE VALE REGIONAL KNOCKOUT TOURNAMENT!"
Tournaments were a steadily rising form of entertainment around the world, though the practice was main stream in Mistral, where tournaments had been held for years; Vale had the second biggest tournament, as Atlas' military style Hunter training facilities tended to frown upon showmanship, and Vacuo was just too disorganised for anything major, though their underground fighting scene was supposedly strong.
Vale, the city, had enough space to build a stadium; though nothing like the Amity Stadium that flew around Remnant. While not as popular or well known as the Vytal Festival, it was a regular bright spot for the citizens of Vale and a chance for the Hunters in training to show off their hard earned skills.
"Oh yeah, who's the man?! I'm the man!"
"But you're a girl."
"Still more manly than you dad."
"Gee I can feel the love for your old man. Where did I go wrong with you?"
"What do you mean wrong?"
Ruby Rose sighed as her father and sister argued about how manly Yang was, or something. The sheer number of people surrounding her was only offset in uncomfortable-ness by the fact that many of the Signal students, as well as hopefuls from other schools and continents, were walking around with their weapons in full view.
This would be her first time fighting in the Vale Regional Tournament, since the Under-17s was only open to 14-16 year olds. She fully expected Yang to win this year, sine she had only just been beaten out by a 16 year old Signal student last year that was now too old.
"Hey! Mr. Xiao-Long!" All three of the family looked up to see a large black guy walking up to them with a big smile, waving enthusiastically.
"Ah, Mr Armitage, nice to meet you." Ruby and Yang shuddered; their dad's 'adult' tone usually either meant they were in school or they were in trouble. Either way, it was generally bad.
"Just Mako, please," the man said easily, obviously uncomfortable with an adult sounding Xiao-Long too.
"Then call me Tai. So where's the kid Oz told me about?" Tai asked, looking around. From behind Mako came a guy with dark blond hair and pale blue eyes, with some stubble in a rough goatee, impressive for a guy who looked to be about Yang's age.
"This is John, I spoke to Professor Ozpin and asked if he could participate in the tournament; I've been homeschooling him and figured the tournament could give him a measuring stick that isn't, well, me."
"Hi," John said, giving a small awkward wave. Ruby noticed that he was really tall, as tall as her dad and nearly as tall as this Mako guy.
"Hi yourself buster, don't think for a minute you've got what it takes to win this thing, you hear me? There's a Xiao-Long victory waiting at the end of this, guaranteed." Yang said with her usual easy confidence.
Her smirk was apparently infectious though, as John grinned in return, obviously looking forward to the fighting. "Well, I'm good at ruining people's expectations. I'll see you in the tournament."
Yang grinned, glad to meet someone that wasn't a wimp for once. "You'd better, John; There's only room for one blond at the top."
"Cool your hormones Yang," Tai said as he gripped the back of her shirt.
"WHAT?!" Yang exploded, a light dusting of pink in her cheeks at the insinuation. A quick glance showed John was blushing too. God I'm so embarrassed.
"I don't get it, what have hormones got to do with anything?" Ruby asked innocently, sending her dad into peals of laughter.
The family moved off after a moment, leaving Jaune and Mako to stare after them as they teased and argued with each other.
"Well, that was... different," Jaune said after a moment, though Mako detected an odd note in his voice.
"You alright?" Mako asked, hoping Jaune wasn't getting nervous.
"Yeah, just, seeing Yang and Ruby made me miss Morrigan, you know?" Jaune said, smiling sadly, yet there was hidden steel in his gaze that Mako approved of. He gave Jaune a hearty slap on the back.
"One day Jaune, one day you'll stand head and shoulders above the greatest Hunters Remnant has ever seen, if only to protect those you care about. Keep that determination, and remember what you fight for, and I promise everything will turn out alright in the end."
A moment of silence passed between the two, despite standing among bustling crowds.
"That almost sounded prophetic coming from someone like you," Jaune said a second later, breaking the moment and causing Mako to turn to Jaune angrily.
"You want to go a couple of rounds before the tournament starts?" Mako asked menacingly, to which Jaune shook his frantically. "That's what I thought. Now, give 'em hell."
"Hey Mako?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"No worries kid."
xxxx