Hey everyone, and welcome to the next chapter of a special semblance! So, two chapters until the pause, so let's make the most of both of these two chapters. So, without further a due, let's begin!
Chapter Twenty Five - The Cinder Soldier
"- AND DAVID, GOOD LUCK." Epsilon said to me. I briefly look at Epsilon, picked up Ruby's scythe and jumped down the hole to find Ruby. I fall down, keep falling, and finally land on a skyscraper rooftop. I groan in pain and slowly get up, shaking my head and rubbing my eyes. I look around the area, using my heightened vision to see in the dark, and spot a small group of white fang soldiers walking along a back alley road. I pick up the scythe and track them, listening to their conversation.
"So, man, are you still pissed at Torchwick, you know, for making us do double duty to fill the train?" One man asked.
"Hell yeah. That guy's an arsehole, a total racist. Why did Adam even convince us to work with him?" The other man asked.
"Beats me, come on, our shift is done, time to get some shut eye." The first man said, and they both started jogging in the opposite direction.
Keeping a close watch on them, I parkour across several skyscrapers, following them back to their base. After jumping onto another skyscraper, the two soldiers stopped running and went further underground. I jump own to the surface, and use my adaptive camouflage to disguise as a white fang soldier and run into the base.
Secret White Fang Base...
I stopped running and looked around the base in awe, not fully taking in what I saw. There were dozens of Atlesian Paladins, crates upon crates of dust and hundreds, if not, thousands of white fang soldiers all armed and ready equip for war. I continued scanning the vicinity and saw the train, which was ready to head to it's destination. The tunnels are sealed off, where could it go?
I walk down the road, looking at the varied faunus that simply dismissed me as one of their own, and approached where most members were congregating. I looked up to the stage and saw my nemesis: The Lieutenant. I approached a little closer and followed his speech.
"... es, I understand your distrust in Roman Torchwick at this time. But, my brothers, let this not doubt you that your hard work has paid off! This train is ready to his the rails tomorrow!" He yelled to the crowd. The crowd cheered and clapped in agreement and more members turned up. I walk off, thinking to myself in confusion. Why are they so interested in a train? It goes and hits the wall... into Vale... I am brought out of my sudden realisation when I hear the kicking and yelling of my young leader.
I hid behind one of the building walls as I watched Ruby being dragged by two soldiers to a small bunker. As they approached, one of them yelled into the bunker.
"Hey boss! Found something you might want to see!" One of the soldiers yelled.
"Is it good or bad, Perry? because let me tell ya, I have had a day." Torchwick yelled from his bunker. Torchwick...
"Uh, it's a little girl?" Perry said, wondering if it's good or bad. Roman exited the bunker and looked at Ruby.
"That would be bad." Roman determined. "Bring her here." Perry dragged Ruby over to Torchwick, as I watched in disgust.
"So, Red, how did you find this place?" He asked in a sarcastic tone. Ruby simply glared at him and stuck her tongue out, mocking him. He grunted and hit her in the face with her cane, causing her to fall to the ground. As Roman laughed maniacally, another soldier approached Torchwick.
"Sir, The Cinder Soldier has finally been stabilised, but at a cost of fourteen brothers. He is ready to board the train and control the assault." The faunus informed him. Roman sighed loudly and basically hugged the soldier in gratitude.
"Thank god! Maybe Cinder won't kill me after all. Get him on the train." Torchwick ordered. The soldier turned and headed towards another building. Who's "The Cinder Soldier"? Ruby got up and tried to tackle Torchwick, but was simply knocked over.
"Wow! You are so much more manageable without that over-sized gardening tool of yours." Roman said, laughing to himself. I run around the corner, sick of what I saw and yelled at Roman.
"Oh, yeah? What if she did have her 'over-sized gardening tool'?" I yell. Roman simply looked at me, confused.
"Well, an insubordinate? And who exactly are you?" Torchwick asked me, spinning his cane. I smiled slightly and deactivate my adaptive camouflage, slightly scaring Torchwick.
"Your worst nightmare." I say coldly. I throw Crescent Rose towards Ruby, who caught it before it hit the ground. Roman simply gave me a grim look and aimed his gun at me. He fired a shot, but I used shadow to create a duplicate, taking the hit for me.
"What the? Those aren't your semblances!" Roman yelled in confusion. The older man flipped his cane around and shot the grappling hook at me, hoping to catch me. I jump slightly to the right and pulled out my right dagger and sliced the rope. I sheath the dagger and run towards Roman, kicking him in the gut, sending him flying back.
I approached Ruby, who was panting slightly. "Hey, Ruby. You alright?" I ask the younger huntress. She nods slightly.
"Yeah, but I got hurt pretty bad by Roman. I can barely stand up." She said sadly. I look up to a shorter skyscraper and pick up Ruby. I jump up a few buildings and put her down, confusing her. "Why are we up here?"
"I'm doing something my father taught me to do." I say, plain and simply. I activate my dust infused gloves, but they glowed a bright white, instead of the usual red, blue or purple. I put one hand on Ruby's head and one on her chest, where her heart was.
I slowed my breathing, closed my eyes and concentrated all my aura into the gloves. A flash of white appeared, and just as quickly disappeared. I opened my eyes and Ruby got back up, as if nothing happened. "What did you do?" Ruby asked me in amazement.
"My father taught me how to use the combined application of all types of dust and my aura to essentially heal all wounds. I healed you, so it's like Roman never did anything in the first place. There are some down si-" I say, but am interrupted when Ruby hugs me.
"Thank you so much David!" Ruby essentially yelled, crushing me in her hug. She quickly let go and picked up her weapon. "Now let's go stop Torchwick!" She proclaimed, and jumped down to a lower building. I look at her with a slightly happy expression, but end up leaning against the wall briefly, catching my breath. I shake my head violently and jump off the building, rolling when I hit the bottom to lighten the fall, and Ruby lands next to me. Roman looked at us, shaking his head lightly, as a dozen white fang soldiers looked at us with grim faces.
"I see you've both got some tricks up your sleeves! Let me make this clear: We're not through here yet." Roman said to us, spinning his cane with a new handle. Ruby unfolded her scythe and I equip my gun, ready for battle. At that point, an explosion went off. Roman simply sighed.
"Perry, if you and the boys could take care of that? Kind of in the middle of something." Roman said politely, as Perry and a couple of soldiers nodded, about to investigate. Another explosion went off, catching my attention this time. What's doing that?
"WHAT is going on here?!" Torchwick yelled in annoyance. A third explosion went off and some white fang soldiers started running away from a tunnel, only to be taken down by several dozen AK-130's.
"What's going on is that reinforcements have arrived!" I yell in triumph. Me and Ruby run towards the AK-130's, while the soldiers and Roman shot at us. I turned around and shot at Torchwick, but he blocked it with his cane. Not paying attention, we were cut off by a dozen faunus. They were all taken down from a shotgun shell from Yang.
"Ruby!" Yang yelled, arms open ready to catch her younger sister. They quickly let go of each other and Yang shot me a thankful look, and threw my goggles towards me. I quickly caught them and put them back on my head.
"GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, MASTER DAVID!" Epsilon said in enthusiasm.
"You too Epsilon. You sent the AK-130's to take over this base as well." I state.
"YES, WELL, WITH A SMALL ARMY AT OUR DISPOSAL, I DECIDED TO USE THIS TO OUT ADVAN-" Epsilon started saying, but was cut off.
"Hey, hate to break up the reunion, but we are right in the middle of a white fang base!" Weiss almost yelled.
"Right. Torchwick's got all kinds of weapons and robots down there." Ruby told her team.
"What?!" Blake asked in surprise.
"Paladins, Dust and thousands of soldiers. They are all getting loaded onto the train." I add, confusing Oobleck.
"Ahhhh, that's incredulous. These tunnels are sealed, the tracks lead to a dead-end." Oobleck said, making a good point.
"YES, BUT IF THE TRAIN SLAMS INTO THE WALL, IT WILL BE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF DOWN TOWN VALE." Epsilon finished, shocking everyone. At that point, the PA system came on line and Roman talked over it.
"Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Roman ordered.
"That's not right, I heard the train leaves tomorrow. I guess we caused an unscheduled departure." I say, everyone nodded their heads in agreement. I looked towards one of the train carts and saw Roman board it, but accidentally dropped two scrolls.
"Ruby, try to call Jaune, I've just got to check something." I say, looking at the scrolls. She nodded and pulled out her own scroll. I ran towards the two scrolls and looked at them both. One of them displayed 'Data file of David Xiao Long' and the other one said 'The Cinder Soldier'. I widen my eyes in excitement and pocket both scrolls and rejoin my teams. "Anything?"
"I can't get through!" Ruby yelled in annoyance.
"What do we do?" Weiss asked the team.
"I believe we only have one option..." Oobleck said slowly, turning towards the train.
"We're stopping that train!" Ruby proclaimed masterfully. At that point, the train started moving, so we ran to board the train, riding it to a dead end. I looked at the back at the train, and saw something board the train, but I was unable to see properly. We jumped onto the train and climbed along the top. As we continued walking, Epsilon spoke up.
"DAVID, I'M DETECTING SOME COMBINATIONS OF CHEMICALS BENEATH US. I BELIEVE IT'S A BOMB..." Epsilon said quickly, catching us all off guard.
"We've got baddies!" Ruby yelled and pointed further ahead to several dozen white fang soldiers, climbing out of the train carts.
"Well, I didn't expect them to go-" Oobleck said, but was interrupted when the bomb armed. "- easy on us. Time to go!"
"Epsilon, hack into the bombs control systems and deactivate it." I order my AI.
"I CAN'T. IT HAS A FIREWALL THAT I CANNOT HACK INTO." Epsilon said quickly and annoyingly. My team quickly got off the train cart, but Oobleck stopped Blake.
"Blake! Detach the caboose! It will kill us all!" Oobleck yelled at the faunus, who quickly followed the order. When Blake went to decouple the cart, it undone itself.
"Huh? It decoupled itself!" Blake yelled towards us.
"What? Why?" I ask them, they all give blank and unknown expressions. I looked at the bomb detonated, collapsing the walls surrounding the tunnels. Why did it blow up the tunnel?
"GUYS, BAD NEWS. THERE ARE SEVEN MORE BOMBS THAT JUST ARMED, AND THEY ARE ABOUT TO DETACH AND DETONATE TOO." Epsilon said with haste. We all ran along the carts, looking inside them to see more armed bombs, and ran into the white fang again.
"Get the humans!" One of them yelled.
"Oh yeah, what about humans, a faunus, a hybrid and an AI?" I taunt them, and run towards them with my daggers unsheathed. I jump into the air and drop kick a faunus, which in turn, collided into several more, knocking them all off the train. I approach a downed faunus and kick it off the train, yelling as it fell. I turned around and stabbed two faunus in the chest, kicking them both off the train. I aim at another pair and throw both daggers, which pierce their skulls, making them instantly fall to the ground.
I retrieve my daggers and look back into the tunnel, but I see bombs explode and Grimm fall into the tunnel, following the train. "Oh crap." I say to myself. I ran towards my team. "Guys, the bombs in the carts, don't you get it? They detach from the train, detonate and release the Grimm from above. This train is bait for those monsters and are going to be unleashed in Vale!" I yell at them, who's faces turn shocked to this sudden realisation.
"That's insane!" Blake yelled, not believing what she heard.
"We have to hurry!" Oobleck yelled as he looked to the end of the tunnel. He turned to all of us except Ruby and Zwei. "You five, go below and try to stop those bombs!" He ordered. We all nodded and jumped down into the train cart. We saw there was no bomb in this train cart, so we moved on to the next one.
"DAVID, THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW, YOUR TELEKINESIS AND TEMPORAL DISTORTION NOW WORK ALONG WITH ADAPTIVE CAMOUFLAGE AND SHADOW." Epsilon informed me. I nod in response and continue onwards.
"I guess this is what we trained for." Yang said to us. I gave her a knowing look and she smiled in response. Weiss handed Blake a clip of dust, and she slipped it into her Gambol Shroud. As we walked on, we were stopped when Indiana dropped from the ceiling, as if out of nowhere. He was wielding his black mask and his own assault rifle that I thought went missing.
"You three, go on ahead, I need to deal with this... alone." I warn them. They all nod and run past Indiana, who simply continues to look at me. I slowly walk towards him, and he does too. "Indiana? I know you can hear me. I know you. We're best friends. Do you even remember me?!" I say in frustration.
I get no reaction, as his face was completely obscured by his mask. He simply growled and punched me in the chest, sending me back to the wall. I groan in pain and get back up, activating the power dust in my gloves and my black gauntlets. No fractured wrists this time. I charge towards him and trade punches with Indiana, which we both avoid, until he gets a lucky shot to my jaw, sending me sliding across the floor.
Indiana equip his assault rifle and started to fire at me, but I blocked each bullet with the gauntlets. I charge towards him, skid along the floor and knock Indiana off his feet, I quickly get back up, tackle Indiana when he got up and threw him into the wall. As he moved away from the wall, I punched him in the face, smashing his skull on the wall and breaking his mask.
Indiana yelled in fury and kicked me against another wall, which knocked me to the ground. I got up and pulled out my gun and shot at Indiana, but deflected each bullet with his cybernetic arm. When he reached me, he slapped the side of my face and kneed me in the stomach, taking me down. He lifted me by the neck and threw me to the other train cart, crashing through the door.
Indiana walked into the cart, still holding me gun. He looked at it and clenched his fist, crushing the weapon with his bare cybernetic hand. Fuck sake, that's two guns now... I slowly got up, unsheathing both daggers, and threw them both at Indiana. He moved his right arm so the daggers simply bounced off his arm, and he knocked me down again with a roundhouse. In full anger, I speed up to my feet, skid under Indiana, grab his left arm, and pull it over my shoulder, breaking it. Indiana screamed in pain, temporarily buying me time to grab my daggers. "WATCH OUT!" Epsilon yelled, but he was too late. Without warning, Indiana screamed in pain and pure hatred and punched me right in the gauntlets, sending me crashing through a cart wall and obliterating the gauntlets.
Indiana fell to his knees, groaned and yelled in pain as his aura kicked in, and miraculously healed his arm. He got up, looked at the hole and started to leave, but stopped when he saw something on the floor. He reached down and picked up the walkie talkie that was previously in my pocket. He examined it closely, raised an eyebrow in confusion, and widened his eyes in realisation. "This is my walkie talkie..." Indiana said to himself and looked again to the hole in the wall and approached it.
I was barely holding onto my dagger, which was dug deep into the side of the train cart, as a King Taijitu attempted to claw at my feet to drag me off. As it's claw approached, a yelled and kicked it back, cracking the outer plating. A Beowolf took this open opportunity and lunged for me, ready to end my life. I didn't expect it to end like this... But out of nowhere, Indiana's cybernetic arm punched the Beowolf away and dragged me back into the cart, with me still gripping my dagger in my right hand. As I fall to the ground inside the train card, I ready myself for another attack, but Indiana simply looks at me with a determined face, arms lowered.
"Listen to me. I don't remember you, but I remember this." Indiana said, pulling out the walkie talkie. "This belonged to me, and I would only give it to someone I trust. Therefore, we trust each other." He finished, pocketing the walkie talkie. I look at him in disbelief. "This train is going to ram into the road of down town Vale, and an army of Grimm is going to tear it apart. You need to stop this train." Indiana said to me. I nod in agreement, gesturing him to come with me, but he declines. "The Grimm cannot get on this train. Go, I'll hold them back." He finished, and drew his assault rifle. I give him one last look and enter the next train cart.
Neo was thrown into the air by Yang, who was frustrated due to being unable to land a punch. Neo landed perfectly, grappled onto Yang and threw her into the ceiling, sending the blonde back to the ground, knocked out. Neo steadily approached he downed huntress, unsheathed a hidden blade and prepared to stab Yang.
"Neo, stop." I say quietly, causing Neo to suddenly stop in her tracks. She slowly looked at me, with a frightened expression, looked down at Yang with a horrified face and dropped her umbrella and blade in shock. She looked at me again and walked towards me. She quickly grabbed onto me and hugged me. She looked at me confused.
"Oh, right, my telepathy isn't working at the moment, so we can't talk..." I say awkwardly.
"I CAN SENSE HER BRAIN FUNCTIONS TO GET A SORT OF TRANSLATION OF WHAT SHE IS SAYING. IT'S JUST REPEATING 'HELP ME'." Epsilon informed me. I looked at Neo, and she nodded, telling me Epsilon is right.
"It's alright Neo, we're stopping this train and I'm getting you out of here. It will be alr-" I say, but get cut of by my AI.
"WARNING! UNREGISTERED PORTAL OPENING!" Epsilon said urgently. I looked behind Neo and saw a red and black portal open, and a masked woman exit the portal with weapon in hand. Before I could say anything, I pushed Neo to the side and the woman struck me, slicing my chest. I grab my chest and yell in pain, and look at the woman, then at Neo, who's eyes had turned white in fear.
I looked back at the woman, who re-sheathed her weapon and unsheathed with a different blade. I turn to Neo quickly. "Neo, get out of here." I say quickly. Neo gave me a pleading look, not wanting to leave me, I shrug off the thought and get back up onto my feet. "Neo, she's here to kill you, get out of here now!" I say in anger. Quickly, Neo grabbed her umbrella and teleported away, leaving me alone with the woman.
I looked at the woman, past her Grimm mask and looked her straight in the eyes. Those burning red eyes. She looked away from me and down to Yang, who was still knocked out, and looked back at me with a knowing look. "Don't worry, I'll protect her Raven." I reassure her. She waved her sword and another red and black portal opened. As she stepped into it, Yang awoke to see her disappear in a flash. The blonde rubbed her head and looked at me.
"Who was that?" She asked me. I continue to look where Raven was and blinked a couple of times. I turned to her with a blank expression.
"I don't know." I lied. Best she find out for herself. "Come on, we have to stop this train. I'll go into the next train cart and disarm that bomb, you run along the top and get to he front." I order. She nodded and climbed through the roof panel. I opened the door and walked into the next train cart.
Weiss slammed her rapier into the ground, attempting to stab the lieutenant as he lay on the ground, but he rolled backwards and got back up. The heiress jumped into the air, ready to attack again. "C'mere, princess!" He yelled, and grabbed Weiss' face and smashed her into the ground. He threw her up into the air and swung his chainsaw at her, ready to slice her in half.
Unexpectedly, Weiss was sent flying away from the lieutenant before his chainsaw hit her. She skidded along the ground and lightly hit the wall, still unconscious by the lieutenant. The faunus angrily tuned around and saw me, my right arm outstretched, still glowing yellow. He growled at me. "David!"
"Good to see you again." I say sarcastically, as I unsheathed my daggers. "Don't hurt my friends though." He growled again and charged at me, raised his chainsaw above his head and slammed it down onto me. I back-flipped and avoided the hit, dashed forwards and kicked his chest. He slid backwards and used momentum in his chainsaw to flip back to his feet.
I ran towards him and dropped kicked him, put a leg on his chest and punched him in his face. Before he got up, I kicked him away from his chainsaw and picked up said saw. I jumped up and charged down, but miss and stab the chainsaw into the ground. He kicked me back and pulled the chainsaw out of the ground. I threw the two daggers at the lieutenant, which he batted away with his chainsaw, he ran towards me and kicked me straight into the next train cart.
I crashed against the door and hit the ground, watching the lieutenant slowly walk through the doorway. I turned around and saw Blake with Roman pinned to the ground. I look back to the door as the lieutenant slowly approached, and Weiss jumped onto him, trying to bring him down. He grunted and grabbed her by the neck, and threw her into the ground again.
The lieutenant steadily approached me, and raised his chainsaw to me. So, it this how it ends? At that point, a woman jumped down from the vents and kicked the lieutenant back into the previous train cart. I looked at her in awe, not seeing her before. She had long black hair, a medium sized figure in a black skin tight suit, with a pair of skin tight brown shorts and a black belt, with a brown jacket, cut off from below the stomach, and a selection of necklaces around her neck. She looked at me with her brown eyes and helped me up.
"David, you need to stop this train. Any minute now, it will pass the point of no return, and we can't stop the Grimm. Good luck." She said quickly, and walked into the previous train cart where the lieutenant lay. I looked at her again briefly and climbed onto the roof, along with Weiss and Blake, and meet Yang and Ruby on the train cart roof as well.
"DAVID, THE TRAIN IS GOING TO CRASH IN TEN SECONDS. IT'S TOO LATE!" Epsilon warned in an alert voice. I looked down the tunnel and widened my eyes: The tunnel was right there. Not close enough to my team, I use my telekinesis to force Weiss' rapier into the ground, creating an ice barrier around them and brace myself for the imminent crash.
CRASH...
I slowly woke up, my vision still blurry, and held my ear as Epsilon was yelling in panic.
"-VID! WAKE UP! THE GRIMM ARE SWARMING THE CITY, ALL THE AK-130'S ARE OFFLINE AND DESTROYED, THE GROUND IS SMASHED ALL OVER THE PLACE, WE'RE BEING SURROUNDED! GET UP!" Epsilon yelled, finally getting me up. I looked at the ground and found my two daggers, I picked them up and activated the power dust in my gloves, glowing the gloves and daggers in purple. I looked to my right and saw my team getting to the high ground.
"David! Come on, we need to hold our ground!" Ruby yelled towards me, unfolding her scythe. I ran towards my team and readied myself for the impossible odds of survival. Finally, a challenge...
End of Chapter Twenty Five
Alright, so we have the new longest chapter. Over 4500 words! This may not seem a lot for some fanfictions, but for this it is unbelievable how many words I reached. So, next chapter is the finale, so get ready for the temporary end of 'A Special Semblance'. As always, follow, favourite and remember to review and thanks for reading, and have a good day!