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Chapter 9: Bonds
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Hey guys, just wanted to say I'm sorry I missed last week's update, but with college starting back among other things it was just really hard for me to find time to write. But, I believe I have made up for it.
Up til now, I didn't actually have a fully developed plot beyond a few scenes I really wanted to play out and a general outline of what the overarching conflict would be. So, I took some time and managed to come up with a full plot from start to finish. I can actually give you a tentative chapter count too: 52.
Unfortunately, I also have bad news. Due to my decrease in available free time, I will only be able to release chapters every other week. Maybe once I get ahead of the bell curve again I can go back to weekly, but for the immediate future that's how it's gonna be. Sorry.
Anyway, enough with the bad news, here's Chapter 9. Enjoy.
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They morning they returned, Ozpin told Delsin to come to his office as soon as possible. It was a Saturday, so one long elevator ride later, Delsin was there. He got out of the elevator.
"Ah, Mr. Rowe. Please, have a seat," the professor said.
"Thanks Oz," Delsin replied.
Ozpin looked a little miffed at Delsin's choice of nickname, but he quickly got over it.
"I read the report filed by Ms. Petrarcho. It sounds as if you had quite the fight on your hands."
Delsin looked a little downcast.
"Yeah, we did."
"And?"
Delsin reached into his pocket and pulled out two things. One was a small piece of the black crystal the team pulled from the cave. The other was the remains of the corrupted Blast Shard he found in the rubble.
"This crap here's what caused all the trouble," Delsin said.
Ozpin studied the objects in front of him.
"What are they?"
"The big one's called a Blast Shard. It's like a Blast Core only smaller and more habit forming. The little one, I've got no idea."
"I see. I'll have them sent to Atlas for testing. What about the mentions of mutated Grimm? Her report said you knew more about them."
"Yeah."
"Is there anything I should know that's not in the report?" Ozpin asked.
Delsin sighed.
"No."
Ozpin looked skeptical, but relented.
"Well, either way you did well. Tell me, how did the new powers work out?"
Delsin's previously dour mood all but vanished at that question.
"Yeah, they worked great. If I hadn't had'em I'd probably be dead."
"Then I am glad you have them. Is there anything else?"
Delsin rose from his chair.
"No, not that I can think of."
"Alright. Mr. Rowe, please enjoy your day."
Delsin got up and left the office.
When he was gone, Ozpin picked up the black crystal. He held it in his hand much like a gem expert would, looking over every single side of it. When his initial examination revealed nothing, he removed his glasses, and sent a bit of his own Aura into it.
Still nothing.
Ozpin returned his glasses and packed up the items in the same briefcase the Blast Core had been in, and called for a research transport to bring it back to Atlas.
"What are you planning Salem?" he asked to no one.
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Delsin walked back to his room, not really feeling up to using his powers at the moment. He reached the room fairly quickly anyway and walked in. Alex was there, reading what appeared to be a book on geology and mineralogy.
"You trying to find out what that rock was?" Delsin asked.
Alex tossed the book closed the book and tossed it onto his desk.
"Yeah," he sighed, "No luck."
"Figures."
Alex vaulted off his bed and knelt down. He pulled something out from under his bed and carried it over to his desk. Delsin couldn't make out what it was beyond a thick piece of rectangular metal easily two feet long, and that given how much his partner struggled with it it was obviously rather heavy.
"Uh, do I want to know what that is?" Delsin asked, sarcastically wary.
Alex turned and stuck his tongue out at him, then walked back to his bed and pulled out what appeared to be a toolbox.
"Ok, now I actually kinda want to know," he said.
Alex looked back at him as he opened his toolbox.
"Oh, really? Are you sure?" Alex asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Delsin replied.
Alex laughed.
"C'mon, I'll show you."
Delsin stood up and walked to Alex's desk.
The metal he had seen earlier was some kind of weird contraption made of four tubes and a video strip like ones you see associated with train stations or stock markets. When Delsin saw it, it reminded him of his power switcher.
With a better view of it now, he could see that from the top, the device was two and a half feet wide, about nine inches thick, and six inches tall. The tubes were on the front of it and each one of the four was about six inches long and each was connected to a valve that fed into the metal behind it. The video strip ran along the top, just above the tubes. It was about an inch wide. Each of the tubes, as well as the strip, had a switch next to them, that one would guess would be an on/off switch.
"Ok, I think I get the idea," Delsin said, "It's for me right?"
"It will be when it's done. For now, it's basically useless," Alex replied.
He opened his toolbox and pulled out a fire crystal. He ate it and packed the two objects into a heavy duty satchel.
"Whoa, where you going?" Delsin asked.
"To the workshop," Alex replied quizzically.
"We have a workshop here?"
Alex just started at him like he'd asked if the world was flat. Then he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Delsin, this school is the size of a small town, of course we have a workshop. Where do you think we do our weapon maintenance? Some of these things require heavy duty tools. What, do you think use blow torches in our dorm rooms?" he asked.
"Hey, I was just asking. You don't have to bite my head off."
"Relax man, I was just screwing with you," Alex said.
Delsin sighed and flopped back onto his bed.
"Whatever. Have fun building whatever that is."
"Will do," Alex called, already most of the way out the door.
The door closed behind him.
Delsin just lay there for a moment. He was considering taking a nap before going out to continue his vigilanteing. But first, he walked over to the shelves over his own desk. He didn't have much in the way of possessions, so all of the books belonged to Alex.
He surveyed the books, hoping something would catch his interest. He found several books on various sciences, mostly Physics and Dust Application, but with a surprisingly large amount of Biology. Beyond that, he found several Sci-fi and Fantasy novels, as well as a few history books. Delsin kept browsing and happened upon a book that indeed caught his interest.
Entitled The Foundations of Aura by Monty Oum, Delsin picked it up off the shelf. It was a large book, easily 400 plus pages. He sat down, cracked the book and began to read. It was an interesting read. Despite being a very complex subject, the way the book was written allowed him to grasp most of the subject matter rather quickly. Even still, after ten minutes, he got a little bored. He placed the book back on the shelf and went to take a nap.
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As Alex had said, Beacon Academy did indeed have a workshop. In fact, it was actually rather large, a necessity to accommodate all of the students who used it regularly.
Alex walked in and set his project down on the workbench he'd reserved. Delsin was right, it was for him. When Alex finished, it would be an ammo pack for Delsin to grab juice for his powers. One of the key problems Delsin faced on missions was the fact that they often took place away from his power sources, meaning when he ran out of power he wouldn't be able to recharge easily. This ammo pack would allow him to externally enhance his reserves.
It still had a way to go before it was operational, and even further before it was actually viable. Alex first had to get it running, and then he had to come up with a method of carrying it, seeing as the thing weighed more than enough to hamper the one using it.
So, setting to work on the first issue, he turned his project around so the back of the machine was facing him. He unscrewed the back and placed it beside him, revealing the devices inner workings. The fire crystal from earlier still in his system, he extended his middle and index finger on his right hand and used the crystal's power to create a highly dense flame from his fingertips, letting him be his own blowtorch.
He was about to get started when someone walked up behind him.
"Hey!" the cheery voice said.
Alex jumped and turned to face it's source, quickly shutting off the two-finger blowtorch. He turned to find a certain blonde brawler standing behind him.
"Yang," he said, exasperated, "Don't sneak up on me like that when I'm working!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I make you lose your concentration?" she asked coyly.
Alex sighed, blushing slightly. Only then, did he notice what she was wearing. Instead of her usual outfit, Yang was wearing a set of mechanic's coveralls, unzipped just enough in the front to reveal a hint of cleavage, her copious hair tied back in a ponytail.
"What are you doing here," he asked, "And what are you wearing?"
For a moment, Yang thought about teasing Ales a bit more. After all, it was so easy. But she decided against it.
"I'm working on my bike," she said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder.
Alex followed the gesture and saw it. It was a fine piece of machinery, he could see that, and the color scheme was very Yang. The bike was raised just off the ground by a few jacks, both tires and the engine cover off to the side.
"Nice," he said, walking over to it, "How much was this beauty?"
Alex began inspecting the machine, his engineer's mind moving so fast he didn't notice she had followed him.
"Not as much as you'd think. I built most of it myself from a frame my dad got at a junkyard," she said.
Hearing that broke Alex most of the way out of his inspection.
"You built this?" he asked in disbelief.
"Don't sound so surprised," she said pointedly.
"Well no offense, but I didn't know your field of expertise extended beyond punching things until they turned into a red mist," he replied.
She picked up a wrench and threw it at him. His aura absorbed most of the impact, which was good, since it hit him in the head.
"Ow! Ok, sorry," he said, holding his head.
Yang simply glared at him.
After a minute, he pushed past the pain.
"What seems to be the problem?" he asked.
"It keeps pulling to the left and I can't find what's making it do that," she said, frustrated.
"Let me see what I can do."
Alex knelt down and began to inspect the steering wheel. On a hunch he reached up and turned the wheel a few times. Every time he did he felt just a tiny amount of tension when he moved the wheel to the right.
He moved in closer to where the steering wheel connected to the rest of the motorcycle. With his raptor vision, he saw a small piece of splintered and warped metal ever so slightly pulling on the shaft, causing it to drag lightly to the left.
"Think I found the problem," he said, maneuvering for a better angle.
"What is it?" she asked.
"There's a little metal tag on the inside of the steering mechanism, pulling on the steering column to make it drag," he replied.
She got down next to him.
"Where?"
He pointed to the spot.
"Right there. If you'll give me moment, and back up a bit, I think I can fix it."
Yang backed away, and Alex lit his two finger blowtorch again. With a little work and a bit of luck, he managed to make the repair rather quickly.
"There we go," he said as he stood up.
Yang walked over and tested the steering wheel. She smiled when she found it worked perfectly.
"Awesome," she said enthusiastically, "Thanks."
"Anytime."
He began to walk away as Yang started to reattach the wheels, but he stopped himself when his engineering mind crossed over with the object of his crush.
"You know, if you want, we could make some modifications to it," he said.
"Yeah," Yang asked through a grunt, "Like what?"
"Well we have a bunch of spare parts. Maybe we can add on some weapons. Or boost the engine output to insane levels. Or turn it into a rocket bike. Hell, may be all three, it's not like we have any shortage of materials. Plus it sounds like a fun project."
"Don't you have your own project to work on," she sad, pointing at his workbench.
Alex shrugged.
"It's not all that important right now. Plus it's more fun to work on a project with a friend," he said.
Yang smiled, having picked up the unintended subtext. Had anyone else asked she would have said no, but to be honest she had been wanting to modify her bike a bit. That and he was right, working with a partner was definitely more fun.
"Grab some tools partner, we've got mods to build," she said.
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An hour after he fell asleep, Delsin woke up. He did a few stretches and switched to his Neon power. With all of that done, he opened his window and Light Dashed out towards Vale. He had a very successful day, as far as the crime went, and he was able to cover a lot more ground now, since the Blast Core had also boosted his Neon speed. He'd even managed to test some of his new powers, all of which were very fun.
After three hours working as the Banner Man, he had stopped ten muggings, three burglaries, five armed robberies of various stores, including more than one Dust Shop, saved two people from getting run over by moving vehicles and stopped an attempted murder. All in all, it was a good day for Vale. So good in fact, Delsin gave himself a break and stopped for a bite to eat at a taco truck. Once he got his food, he took a walk, eating as he went. By the time he was finished, he found himself at a familiar place.
He looked at the remains of the burned up apartment building, his first act as the Banner Man of Remnant. His emblem was still there, marking the side of the building. It had been cleaned up since he last saw it, much of the destroyed pieces removed. He could see that whoever owned it was probably going to rebuild, and that made him smile.
He spent a few minutes clearing the leftover debris then continued on his walk. After twenty minutes and a few more acts of crime stopping, his Scroll buzzed.
"Delsin?"
Delsin raised an eyebrow and responded.
"Yeah, who's this?"
"It's Jaune, I thought I gave you my number?"
"Nope, just listed as unknown."
"Oh, sorry."
"S'ok man, what'cha need?"
There was a brief pause in his response.
"You alright Jaune?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Could you come by the training arena please? I need help."
Delsin considered this for a moment, then shrugged.
"Sure, be there in a bit."
After making sure to throw his trash away, Delsin collapsed his Scroll and Light Dashed back to Beacon. It took him a minute, he was on the other side of town after all, but he quickly arrived at the indoor arena. He walked in and found himself on the observation ring.
"Yo, Vomit Boy, where are you," he called jokingly.
"Down here," Jaune replied sadly, "Please don't call me that."
Delsin looked down and found Jaune standing next to a giggling Pyrrha on the far side of the arena floor. He Light Dashed to the inner edge of the observation ring and with a Photon Jump, he landed right between the both of them.
"Sup," he said with a smirk.
"Hi," Jaune said, sounding defeated, which for him was normal.
"Hello again," Pyrrha said, having managed to quell her laughter.
Delsin leaned back onto the wall.
"So, how can I help?" he asked.
Jaune scratched the back of his head then cleared his throat.
"I was wondering if you could help me with my training," Jaune said.
"Ok, how?"
"He needs a sparring partner," Pyrrha said, switching from friendly to professional in the blink of an eye, "Up until now, that's what I've been for him, but he needs more than one partner or he'll start to form habits he shouldn't."
Delsin raised a playful and suggestively accusative eyebrow at her phrasing. He wasn't entirely sure she got it until the faintest trace of a blush crossed her face. He had to hand it to her, she di a spectacular job keeping her composure. She coughed and his expression vanished, leaving Jaune none the wiser.
"Sounds like fun," Delsin said, an evil look crossing his face, "When do we start?"
"Do you need to get anything?" Pyrrha asked.
"Nope, I'm good."
"Well then, let's begin immediately. Go to the center of the arena."
They both walked to the middle of the room. Pyrrha stood off to the side with her Scroll opened. A few taps on the screen later, the overhead display came online, showing both his and Jaune's respective Aura levels.
"We're going to do this properly. This training match end if either of your Aura's falls into the red, if either of you leave the ring, or you become unable to continue. Do you understand?" Pyrrha asked, sounding suspiciously like Glynda at the moment.
"Got it," they replied.
"Alright, I'll start the countdown."
With another tap, a three second countdown began on the overhead.
3...
Delsin's hand went to his wrist and he switched to his Video power.
2...
Jaune drew his sword and readied his shield.
1...
Delsin manifested his two Digital Longswords.
"START!" the mechanized voice of the overhead shouted.
Delsin called up his wings and surged forward, crossing the distance between them in an instant. Jaune readied himself, holding his sword and shield in a defensive posture. Just as his surge was about to end, Delsin triggered his second one and held his swords close. He crashed into the knight's shield with his shoulder, and made a small spin to throw his momentum into moving the shield. When Jaune's shield arm buckled, Delsin slashed at his now exposed chest with his swords. Or at least he would have, but it seemed Pyrrha's combat lessons had been good for Jaune. When his shield started to turn, he turned with it, and when Delsin slashed, he hit empty air. Worse, Jaune now had a clean shot to Delsin's side.
The force of the blow sent Delsin reeling. Evidently Jaune was stronger than he looked. Carrying on with the momentum, Delsin flew backwards, well outside his opponent's reach. Jaune gave chase, charging recklessly.
Delsin smirked. With a bit of effort, he activated his newly upgraded Shroud of Invisibility, though from his position, Jaune was none the wiser. A new Decoy Delsin, much like one of Blake's Shadow Clones, took his place between the two newly formed angels. Invisible, Delsin watched from ten feet away as Jaune blocked, dodged, or tanked the angels' attacks and used his sword to swipe straight through the Decoy.
As his sword cleaved through the Decoy, the image vanished, and the now visible Delsin raised his hand. With a flash of blue, Delsin unleashed a Video Torrent on Jaune's head. A few of the pixelated projectiles hit him before he could raise his shield. Shortly after he did, the Torrent ceased and Jaune got hit in the back by one of the angel's laser blasts.
Jaune recoiled from the attack, his Aura falling into the yellow range. When he caught himself, he noticed two things. The first, Delsin was grinning triumphantly, one hand held out in front of him. The second was a strange green glow coming his shield.
When the Bloodthirsty Blades emerged from Delsin's hand Jaune raised his shield to block the impact. If he could have seen Delsin's face, he would have known, that was exactly what the Conduit was hoping he'd do. The five swords shot in sequence toward the tracer light on Jaune's shield. The first two knocked the shield away, and the other three hit him square in the shoulder, not having enough time or room to redirect to the mark.
The explosive impact knocked Jaune onto his ass, and the voice from the overhead called out as his Aura fell to the red.
"Winner!" it called.
Delsin walked over to his fallen opponent and helped him stand. Pyrrha approached them both.
"You alright man?" Delsin asked.
"Yeah, it just hurts," Jaune replied, "Man, those Conduit powers are something else."
Delsin did a double take then froze. He hadn't told Jaune about his powers.
"What did you say?" he said flatly.
Jaune quickly covered his mouth after realizing what he'd said. Pyrrha sighed and shook her head.
"Jaune," she sighed.
"You know about my powers?" he asked..
"Yeah," Jaune said, downcast, "Yang butt-dialed me when you broke the news to your team in Ozpin's office. Probably happened when you guys crashed into the elevator."
"Did you tell anyone else?" he asked.
"Just us," Pyrrha interrupted, "And Jaune made us promise not to tell anyone else."
Delsin sighed.
"Well whatever. Can't exactly change that now," he said.
He looked back at them both.
"You haven't told anyone else?" he asked again.
"No," they said in unison.
Delsin shrugged.
"Then I don't care."
The two of them looked at him in confusion.
"What?" Jaune asked.
"Well it's not like it's a world ending secret or anything, and I was planning on telling you guys eventually anyway. All this does is save me the trouble of having to explain it again," Delsin answered nonchalantly.
Pyrrha and Jaune both sighed in relief.
"So, who's up for round two?" he asked.
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An hour and six training matches later, Jaune still hadn't managed a win. By this point, he was lying on the floor of the arena, exhausted. Though Delsin had to admit, he was getting a lot better. Pyrrha was standing next to him holding his water bottle.
"You gonna make it?" Delsin asked.
"Yeah," he replied in that strange way he had of mixing confused with tired, "I'm just gonna need a few minutes."
Delsin smiled.
True to his word, Jaune was on his feet a few minutes later.
"You wanna try again?" Delsin asked.
"He probably shouldn't," Pyrrha said, replying for him, "Too much training at once can be counter-productive, and we've been practicing since this morning."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Delsin said.
He turned to face Jaune.
"That's it for today. Go take a shower, you smell like low-tide."
With a sigh, Jaune headed toward the locker room for a shower.
"I don't remember him being that good. Or even remotely competent," Delsin said as Jaune was leaving.
"We've been working at it for a few days now, and he's a surprisingly quick study," Pyrrha replied.
Delsin turned to face her and noticed the smile on her face. It was different from her normal one, or the one she wore on television. This one was more happy and caring, and more profoundly so as well. Now, Delsin may have been a delinquent, but he was by no means stupid. He picked up on what it meant quickly.
"You like him don't you?" he said with a smirk.
Pyrrha turned red.
"W-w-what?" she stammered.
"You like him. And not as a friend."
Contrary to her usual demeanor, Pyrrha turned away, her face red in embarrassment. She didn't say a word, but Delsin knew from that alone that he was right.
"Well, here's a bit of unsolicited advice," he started.
Pyrrha managed to get her face under control and looked at him questioningly.
"Go for it. You don't know when your chance might disappear, and believe me, if anyone knows about losing chances to say something, it's me," Delsin finished.
Pyrrha stared at him, but he said nothing. After a moment or two of silence, he changed the subject and continued on as if nothing had happened. A few minutes later, Jaune returned to his friends telling their equivalent of war stories and having a good time.
Jaune listened intently, and all of them laughed more than a few times at Delsin's stories.
"Hey, you guys hungry?" Delsin asked after several minutes.
"Starving," Jaune replied.
"Yes," Pyrrha said, stifling a laugh.
"Well then how about this. How about I get everybody on the phone and we all go out for dinner. My treat," Delsin said.
"Sounds awesome!" Jaune exclaimed.
"That sounds lovely!" Pyrrha said.
"Great. Gimme five minutes."
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In the workshop, Yang and Alex were still working on her bike. In the six hours they'd spent working on it, they had managed to increase her engine performance by thirty-two percent and they had just finished installing a booster system allowing for near instantaneous acceleration to top speed. By this point they were covered in sweat and engine grease, but they were having a blast.
Alex stood up and stretched.
"Man, remind me to get Pyrrha's Semblance the next time I see her. Hers and Glynda's both, it'll make this so much easier," Alex said.
"I thought you liked working with your hands," Yang said.
"I still do, but I'm allowed to be lazy about it."
Yang smiled. Both of their Scrolls buzzed.
"Hey, who's hungry?" the message read.
It was a message from Delsin to both teams RWBY and JNPR.
"Me!" Ruby replied, less than a second later.
"Me too!" said Nora.
"I could eat," Blake answered.
Ren sent a thumbs up emoji as opposed to an actual response.
Alex opened his Scroll.
"What's this about?" he asked.
"Well I'm hungry and you guys are my friends, so I wanted to take you guys out for dinner. I found a cool restaurant in Vale when I was out and about, so I figured I'd ask," Delsin replied.
"Thank you for the invitation. I would be happy to attend," Weiss said.
Alex was tempted to say no now that he knew Weiss would be there. He had a laundry list of serious problems with her father, and though he tried to be fair and not judge her for his actions, but damn if her attitude didn't help. He was about to type back a "no thank you" but Yang took the decision out of his hands.
"Me and Alex have been working in the garage all day and I'm hungry. Give us a minute to get cleaned up and we'll go," she said.
Alex glanced over at her, but she was picking up her tools. He sighed.
"Great! I'll send you all the address and meet you there," Delsin said.
With that, Alex hung his head and quickly packed his tools to get ready to go.
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All ten of them arrived at the restaurant Delsin picked out within the next hour. Once they'd gotten situated and ordered their food, Delsin stood and raised a glass. He was the only one old enough to drink, but he'd been nice and chosen to avoid alcohol for the evening.
"Everyone? Can I have your attention please?" he said.
The conversation quieted and everyone looked at him.
"Ever since I came to Remnant and met you guys, you have been awesome. You helped me figure out a few things, and helped me adjust to my literally new reality."
A few scattered laughs emerged at his joke.
"You guys have been some of the best friends I've ever had, and I just wanted to say I appreciate it. So remember, this is my treat, and don't hold back, get whatever you want. I got five thousand Lien from that mission we went on yesterday, and I intend to spend it. Cheers!" he said.
They all clinked glasses, and continued having a great time.
CHAPTER END
Ok, there it is. Hope you enjoy.
Also, I know I'm a little late on this but I think it still needs saying. RIP Monty. We miss you.
