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Chapter Six: Boost
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After the fire, Delsin went back into his old habits. Whenever he was off from classes, he was either with his friends or in Vale, doing his best to help people. He did a pretty good job too. In fact, in the five days since he started, the crime rate in Vale dropped by a quarter percent. Not necessarily a big drop, but noticeable nonetheless.
The drop might have been higher, if it weren't for a sudden spike in misdemeanor vandalism. At the scene of every crime he stopped, Delsin left behind the same symbol he sprayed on the remains of the burned building. Tales of the mysterious Banner Man quickly spread, though Delsin was dumbfounded as to how the same horrible nickname showed up here.
By the morning of his seventh day at Beacon, things were going pretty well for Delsin. After getting breakfast with his friends, he was on his way to Dr. Oobleck's history class when he got a message from Ozpin.
"Mr. Rowe, could you come to my office for a moment?" the message read.
"Look I don't know what you heard, but I did not blow up that vending machine. It was like that when I got there," he replied.
It was about a minute before he got a response.
"What?"
"Is that not what you were talking about?"
"It is now."
Delsin laughed nervously to himself.
"I'll be right there."
"Good. Bring your team as well. It is time they knew about you."
"Ok."
Delsin put his scroll in his pocket with a sigh.
"Something wrong?" Alex asked.
"Nah, I just gotta go do a thing with Oz," Delsin replied, seeming downtrodden.
"Ouch. Is it about that thing with the vending machine?" Yang asked.
"I told you, it was like that when I got there!" Delsin exclaimed.
"Suuuuure," Yang drawled.
"It was! Besides, I know it's not. He wants me to bring all of you guys with me."
"Really? Why?" Ruby asked.
"Guess we'll find out when we get there," he told them
"Alright then, let's go," Yang said.
So, the group, comprised of Alex, Delsin, and Team RWBY, walked straight past the classroom door and toward the elevator. Unfortunately, Professor Oobleck was watching them.
"Students! Where are you going!?" he shouted in his usual rushed manner.
"Oh no! Run!" Ruby shouted gleefully.
The redhead took off, a burst of rose petals trailing behind her.
All of them smiled, immediately getting her intent. Delsin switched to his Neon, and Alex just sped off, more rose petals falling behind him. Weiss was initially hesitant to skip class, but as even Yang and Blake took off, she caved. She used her Glyphs to propel herself forward, and all of them sort of crashed into the open elevator one by one.
Oobleck wasn't having any of it and just as quickly gave chase. Though he was fast, Alex threw out Black Glyph traps to try and stop him, but due to his Glyphs lack of power, they only managed to slow his pursuit. The doors began to close, but Oobleck had almost caught them. Delsin however, had other plans.
As they closed, Delsin softly lobbed a Stasis Bubble grenade. As luck would have it, his timing was perfect. Just as Oobleck got to the door, the bomb went off and he began to float helplessly in the air as the Neon surrounded him. All of the assembled students giggled. Except for Weiss the resident buzzkill of course.
"See you later teach," Delsin said, waving sarcastically.
"Mr. Rowe let me down this instant!" Oobleck yelled.
"What's that?" Yang said, cupping her ear and feigning deafness, "We can't hear you, this elevator is really loud!"
As Oobleck ranted on, the doors closed and the utterly silent elevator began its ascent to the top of Beacon Tower. The students stood up and kept laughing.
"Was that really necessary?" Weiss asked.
"Oh yeah," Ruby said, trying to stifle her laughter long enough to utter a coherent thought.
"Yup!" Yang said with a smile.
"It was kind of funny," Blake admitted.
"Unbelievable," Weiss complained.
"Oh get over yourself Ice Queen," Alex moaned.
"Don't call me that!"
Her tone did nothing but strike up another bout of laughter as the six of them rose to the top.
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When they reached Ozpin's office, all of them poured out of the elevator. Clearly it wasn't made for so many occupants. As they pulled themselves to their feet, they heard something over all of their grumbling. Ozpin was on video chat with a very angry Professor Oobleck. They could only barely hear the professor since the room was so big, but it was obvious what they were talking about.
When Oz saw them, he quickly ended the conversation, cutting off Oobleck in the middle of his ranting. As he ended the call, he sighed.
"Was that really necessary Mr. Rowe?" he asked.
Delsin smiled.
"Absolutely," he said.
Ozpin sighed again.
"I have half a mind to give all of you detention," he said, his head hanging, "But we have more important things to discuss."
He reached below his desk and pulled out a medium sized steel briefcase.
"Are you ready?" the older man asked.
"Yeah. Alex knows already, and you were right. The rest of them need to know," Delsin replied stoically.
"Whoa there, should we give you guys need a minute alone or something?" Yang asked playfully.
Delsin turned to look at her, his expression somber and serious. Yang looked right at him, and just for a moment, the fire within her dimmed. In that moment, it was clear to all those who were present: this was no time for jokes.
"Ok. How do we begin?" Ozpin asked.
"I'll talk first. Using the Core will make me pass out for a couple hours," Delsin replied.
Ruby stepped up, a worried look on her face.
"Delsin, what's wrong? You're starting to scare me," she said.
Delsin took one of the chairs from Ozpin's desk and sat down, turning it to face them.
"Ruby, do you remember what I told you about my home?" he asked.
"Yeah, you said it was far away," she said warily.
"Yeah. Well, that's not the whole truth. There's more," he sighed.
"Like what?" Yang asked.
"Well, when I said I was from far away, I didn't mean Vale," he said.
He paused for a moment, prepping himself for what came next.
"I meant, I'm not from Remnant."
Questioning looks sprang up on Team RWBY's faces.
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.
Delsin stood up and flexed his Neon power just a tiny amount on his fingertips. Not enough to do anything major, but enough to make them shine a bit.
"You see this power here? This light?" he asked.
"Yeah," Yang said.
He closed his hand, shutting off the light.
"That power has absolutely nothing to do with my Aura," he told them.
More confusion was all that followed his statement.
"I'll have to get back to that though," he said as he began to pace around the office.
"Honestly, my world isn't that much different from yours. We've got people who live in homes, have jobs, make money, buy food, drive around in cars, and pretty much everything else. We have crime and discrimination too though, so it's not exactly a whole lot better either. There are a few differences I've picked up on though."
"Like what?" Blake asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
Before he answered, Delsin took a moment to survey the room. The confusion seemed to have died down a bit by now, replaced by curiosity and skepticism. Delsin was happy with that and continued.
"Well, for starters, we don't have Dust. Well, I mean we have dust, but not like this magic exploding crystal stuff."
"Yeah right. How else do you run those cars you mentioned, huh?" Weiss asked.
"Well princess, we use fossil fuels. On my world, millions of years ago there were several species of giant reptiles. We called them Dinosaurs. And after they died out, millions of years passed and the bones sort of melted into an explosive liquid fuel. Which is why we call them Fossil fuels."
Weiss visibly wilted a bit with his quick response, not expecting him to get the better of the exchange.
"Anyway, another thing is, we don't have Faunus," Delsin continued.
"What?!" Blake nearly shouted.
When she realized her tone, she quickly covered her mouth and recomposed herself, though a bit of rage was still visible on her face. Delsin quickly realized the conclusion she'd drawn and quickly corrected himself.
"What I mean is," Delsin began again, not really wanting to make the super ninja girl angry at him, "was that we never had Faunus in the first place. They never emerged as a species."
Blake cooled a little bit at this, and Delsin let out a sigh of relief. Then he composed himself for the final stretch, and the most important part of the story. Conduits.
"Finally, we don't have Aura. I mean we have souls and whatever, but Aura? Nope."
"But how do you fight Grimm without Aura?" Ruby asked.
"Grimm? Don't have them either."
This quieted them. To them Grimm were a fact of life, so ingrained in their very being that they couldn't even imagine a world without them. And here was Delsin telling them that it was real. That somewhere out there, there was a place with out the black creatures of hate and despair.
They stood there for a moment, trying to regain their bearings, until someone spoke up. True to her nature, Yang was the first to break the silence.
"Wait. If you don't have Aura, how do you have powers?" she asked.
Delsin took a deep breath.
"Because I am a Conduit," he told them.
"What's that?" Blake asked.
"Conduits are people who can manipulate certain unique forms of matter, like me."
"Wait, so there were other people with powers like yours?" she pressed.
"Yeah. I mean, not exactly like mine, but yeah."
"Wow. I bet people really looked up to you guys then huh?" Ruby said smiling.
"Actually, no. Not even remotely. Regular humans treated us as bad as humans here treat Faunus, if not worse. People like me were demonized and locked up or just plain murdered, just because of what we were. Hell, we weren't even Conduits to them, we were Bio-Terrorists. And most people didn't even care how bad or inhumane it was."
"Really?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah. Our country's government even made a whole department for 'dealing with the Bio-Terrorist threat.' I mean, until I completely obliterated the entire thing, showed the people the lies they were being fed and basically turned the whole thing on its head inside a week."
"Wait, what?" Weiss asked.
"Don't worry about it. That last part really doesn't matter. At least, it'll never affect you guys anyway."
"So what's your power Delsin?" Ruby asked.
"Well actually, I have five," he started, "My power lets me absorb the powers of any Conduit I touch, so I ended up with Smoke, Neon, Video, Concrete, and Water. It's actually really cool."
"Sounds like it," Yang said, "You'd give that Banner Man guy a run for his money."
"Heh heh," Delsin laughed nervously, "Right, run for his money."
"Who's the Banner Man?" Blake asked.
"A disgraceful vigilante who sees fit to vandalize buildings that's who," Weiss said.
"Hey, I'm no vandal! I'm an artist!" Delsin shot back on reflex.
The four of them went quiet, and then Delsin realized what he'd said and sighed.
"It's you?!" Weiss shouted.
Delsin looked at his feet and said nothing.
"OMG it is you!" Yang shouted, "You're the Banner Man!"
Delsin's head shot up at that.
"Could you please not call me that?! Gah, I hate that nickname," he responded angrily.
For a moment, the four of them were silent. Then they all burst out laughing, even Weiss.
The questioning continued on for a while after that. Delsin answered as best he could, but in reality he didn't know a lot more than he'd already said. After a half an hour long interrogation, they finally ran out of questions. Well, almost.
"So now that that's out of the way, why are you here exactly?" Weiss asked.
"Well, I mean I don't know why I'm here, I just kind of woke up here-"
"No, I mean here. In this office."
"Ooooh. I'm here to get new powers," he replied.
He walked over to the table and opened the case. The bright purple glow of the Blast Core fell upon the room.
"This, ladies and gentleman, is a Blast Core. Using one can increase a Conduit's powers super fast," he exclaimed.
"Cool!" Ruby said.
"Yeah, it is."
He picked up the rock and held it in his hands. It was a strange feeling. The strange thing pulsed in his hands, almost as if he were holding a beating heart. He was uncertain what to expect when the core amplified him. Would it just boost one power? Maybe it would boost all of them. He'd never used an actual Blast Core before.
The more he thought about it, the more confused he got, but honestly he hoped for the second. It even made a bit of sense. For Core Relays he'd used his powers to drain them, and so they flowed into his body through his active power. For this one, it might just flow through his whole system. He also had no idea how, or even if, his Aura would affect the process.
One other thing was its size. The Core in his hands was bigger than he'd thought when he'd seen the photo. It was easily twice as big as normal Cores. No matter which way it affected him, Delsin knew it would be an absolutely huge boost, but just to be safe, he switched to his Concrete.
"Are you ready?" Ozpin asked.
"Just a second," he said.
He turned around to look at his friends.
"You guys may want to take a step back," he told them.
As they stepped away, he took a deep breath.
"I'm ready. Fire away."
Ozpin pulled out a small lightning crystal and placed it on the end of his cane. Much like a wizard staff, he raised it and pointed it at the Blast Core.
"How much of a current does it need?" he asked.
"Not a lot," Delsin replied, "Maybe enough to run a light bulb."
"All right."
Ozpin flexed his Aura and sent it to the crystal. From the tip of his cane, a small jolt of electricity, no bigger than a quarter, leapt. Delsin tensed as it flew to him. As the jolt collided with the rock in his hands, Delsin could feel it start.
The purple glow of the Blast Core enveloped him. The sheer force of the oversized Core raised him up and indiscriminate power rolled off him, cracking the floor beneath his feet and many of the windows. The others in the room couldn't even look straight at him as it happened, the light was just too bright.
Delsin himself was in inordinate amounts of pain. As the energy of the Core flowed into him, he felt like his entire nervous system was melting. He could feel the energy pulsing within him barely, but he couldn't really form a coherent thought, much less make sense of sensory input.
The only thing clear to him were the visions. In his head, much like when he absorbed Core Relays, he saw how his powers were growing. He saw a shield of Neon, a wall of Concrete, and several other new developments.
When it was done, the light from the Core cut out abruptly. Delsin fell to the ground in the center of a series of spiraling cracks in the floor. Ruby raced over to see if he was ok since it didn't seem like he was breathing. As she reached him, she found he was just unconscious and let out a sigh of relief.
"He's ok!" she said.
Everyone else let out a sigh as well. Ozpin cleared his throat.
"Perhaps you should all return to your room. You are going to need time to process all of the information you were just given," the professor told them.
"Thank you, but we have classes," Weiss replied.
"Not anymore. I'll explain to your teachers, you have the rest of the day off."
Normally they would have been ecstatic to hear that, but after everything they had heard today, Ozpin was right. They needed time to digest that new information. So, with varying degree's of concern, they all turned to leave.
As they were about to get on the elevator, Ozpin called to them.
"Ladies, one last thing," he said.
The four turned to look back at him.
"While I understand how difficult this is, I must ask you not to reveal the truth about Delsin to anyone just yet. He may be your friend, but that is not your secret to reveal. Understood?"
"Yes sir," Ruby said.
With that, the four of them left, leaving Alex and Ozpin alone with an unconscious Delsin.
"Are you alright?" Ozpin asked.
"Yeah, I got past this almost as soon as he told me about it. I actually find it pretty cool," Alex replied.
"Well then. You have the rest of the day of as well, enjoy it."
Alex smiled.
"Will do Professor," he said, walking to one of the broken windows.
Much to Ozpin's dismay, Alex jumped out the window. Ozpin rushed over to try and help, and just as he got there, Alex unfurled his wings and pulled out of his dive. Ozpin smiled and went back to his desk. When he sat down, he pulled out his Scroll.
"Glynda, could you come here a moment? I need you to fix something."
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After leaving Ozpin's office, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang had each gone to process the information they'd just learned. Weiss went to the library to study, hoping to distract herself. Blake joined her, wanting to dive deep into the comfort of a book. Ruby went to their room, and began giving Crescent Rose a tune-up, actually having gotten over the whole thing in record time.
However, Yang wasn't much for escapism, nor was she one for staying indoors if she could help it. So instead, she went for a walk. She didn't go too far. At least, she never left the campus, but it was more than big enough to wander in.
She soon came to a statue of a Huntress and Huntsman standing on a cliff overlooking a Grimm. She looked at it and smiled, and began mulling over all of the new information. In truth, she thought it was awesome. A person from another world? It was like an adventure straight out of one of Ruby's science fiction books, and one she definitely wanted to be a part of.
By chance, she looked up in time to see Alex flying off overhead. She laughed to herself a bit at the sight of him. He was crushing on her hard, and though he was surprisingly good at hiding it, Yang knew. And, she had to admit, he was cute in that sort of brawny nerd way. Plus he made an excellent sparring partner.
Little did she know, Alex had seen her too. He'd been going nowhere in particular, so he decided to circle back. He gently turned and glided down to the statue.
Yang didn't notice him until he touched down.
"Sup." he said.
"Oh, hey," she said, utterly unfazed by his sudden appearance.
He walked up next to her, and they both stared at the statue. After a moment, he turned to her.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"Um...?" she asked, confused.
"I meant about Delsin. Are you ok?" he clarified.
"Ooooh. Yeah, I'm fine with it. It's actually pretty cool."
"I know right?"
"Yeah."
"I mean, it's weird, but it's still really cool."
"Says the guy with wings," Yang said.
Alex laughed at that. Maybe a little more than normal, but still.
"You're not wrong," he said as his laughter stopped.
"So what's it like?" Yang asked.
"What's what like?"
"Flying."
"Oh," he said.
Alex had to stop for a moment to think about that. Having lived with wings his whole life, he'd never actually thought about it before. For him, flying was as natural as breathing. He wasn't sure he could describe it. Then he smiled as an idea formed in his head.
"I can show you," he offered.
Yang perked up a lot at that.
"How?" she asked.
"Do you want to find out?"
Yang groaned sarcastically and nodded.
"Ok. One second."
Alex fished around in his pocket for a Fire Crystal. When he found one, he ate it and his hair turned to its usual shade of red. He was gonna need the strength for what he had planned.
"Now what?" Yang asked.
Alex turned around and squatted.
"Climb on," he said with a smile.
Surprisingly hesitantly, Yang climbed onto his back piggyback style.
"Hold on tight!" he said, a white Glyph opening at his feet.
With a jump, the Glyph propelled him upwards, and he opened his wings. The two of them careened into the sky, Yang clinging to him, but still with her eyes open as she smiled.
After he rose a significant amount, he leveled off, allowing Yang to sit upright.
"This is awesome!" she yelled, the wind dulling her voice.
Alex smiled and looked over his shoulder at her.
"You want me to turn up the power?!" he shouted back.
Yang nodded enthusiastically.
"Alright then, here we go!" he yelled.
And with that, they burst off into the open sky.
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About an hour after he first passed out, Delsin woke up, his head pounding. He'd read some of the reports of Blast Core aftereffects, but this was his first time experiencing them, and they were not pleasant.
He opened his eyes to find himself still in the now newly repaired office of Professor Ozpin. He was seated in a chair, and Ozpin and Glynda were watching him as he woke.
"You're awake," Ozpin said.
"Yeah, but I feel like I have the world's worst hangover," Delsin groaned.
Ozpin smirked.
"Well you certainly did a number on my office. Glynda only just finished fixing it."
"Sorry."
"No need to apologize Mr. Rowe," Glynda said, uncharacteristically kind.
"Thanks," he replied, the pain in his head lessening a bit.
As his head started to clear, he looked around the room. He'd seen flashes of what he'd been doing to the office through the Core fluctuations, and he was amazed by the fact that there was absolutely no structural damage anywhere. In fact, the whole room looked better than it did before. Apparently Glynda was an excellent housekeeper.
"So, how do you feel Mr. Rowe?" Ozpin asked.
"Hm?"
"The Blast Core, your powers, how do you feel?"
"Oh. Gimme a second to check."
Delsin stood up and tested his powers. He'd created a system for it, much like calisthenics. He flexed each power in his repertoire individually and based his strength on how much of each power he could generate without using his reserves. This time, he was happy to see he'd gotten very lucky.
"Oh yeah," he cheered.
"What is it?" Ozpin asked.
"Powered up across the board! All five of my powers got boosted!"
Ozpin raised his eyebrows.
"Really? That is good news. How exactly have they developed?"
"I dunno. I'd have to test 'em out."
Ozpin pulled up his Scroll and smirked.
"That can be arranged."
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As the Fire Crystal in his system started to die down, Alex came in for a landing. Yang hopped off his back enthusiastically, and admittedly he was surprised she hadn't thrown up. He'd never given someone a ride before, but he imagined that was a distinct possibility.
"That. Was. Awesome!" she shouted.
"I'm glad you had fun," Alex replied, desperately trying to hide his blushing face.
Yang carried on a bit about how awesome flying was, and Alex was more than happy to let her. By the time she did, it was time for lunch. The two of them walked to the cafeteria in conversation to find Delsin and the rest of Team RWBY already waiting for them. What struck them as odd was the fact that Ruby was bouncing giddily.
When she saw them, Ruby raced over, rose petals fluttering behind her.
"Sis guess what!" Ruby cried joyfully, still bouncing.
"Ruby, calm down. What's up?" Yang asked.
"We're going on a mission!" she almost screamed.
"Wait what? I thought students couldn't do Hntsman work." Alex asked.
"Ozpin made an exception! We're headed out to deal with the Grimm in a village down south!"
"Awesome!" Yang said.
While he was definitely excited to have a mission so early in his training, Alex wondered why Ozpin made the exception in the first place. Then an idea came to him, and he looked over by the lunch table where his friends were and saw Delsin. He seemed happy, and much more full of energy, and with a quick exchange of glances he got it.
This wasn't a training mission.
It was a test mission.
Alex was conflicted over that, but after a minute, he decided he'd worry about it later, and went to have lunch with his friends.
CHAPTER END
