Grimm Rider Chapter Three
The weekend was a small respite from the grind of school and Cole was grateful for it. Classes took up most of his time during the first week, so having a small resting period was very much appreciated. He tapped the last page of his assignment absentmindedly, having just finished it. Glancing at the clock showed it was just past noon. Cole stretched languidly before rising from his seat. Beacon was a good place to roam around in but he wanted to do more.
He wanted to go to Vale.
While such a big town was a curiosity, he also needed some time to think. While school sucked up a huge amount of time, he was also pretty much with team RWBY or JNPR the entire time. Some time by himself couldn't be so bad, right?
After grabbing his scroll he hesitated slightly before taking his Grimm Driver out of his bedside table. It was doubtful he would need it, but better to be safe than sorry. He was thankful for how easy it was to conceal on the inside of his jacket. Cole took his Grimm Axe in hand and briefly wondered about taking it with him before noticing a small black button hiding on the blunt end of the axe-head. Pressing caused part of it to shift out a small bit before jamming. Cole shrugged and closed it before placing the axe back.
'I'll see if I can fix it when I come back, and possibly think of a better name too.' He was all prepared to leave his room when a knock came from his door. Opening it revealed Jaune, his hands holding up a game case.
"The new Call of Atlas released today, want to come play with me and Nora?" Cole gave a small smile before shaking his head, "Thanks, but I was planning on finally visiting Vale today."
Jaune simply nodded, "Ah, fair enough. Team RWBY coming with you?"
"I wanted to go by myself. Something tells me I'd just get dragged around instead of getting to explore and experience it for myself."
Jaune chuckled, "I feel that, my sisters did it to me all the time," A look of concern crossed his face, "Just be careful down there alright? The news was talking about a string of robberies recently. Some guy who calls himself Wulf, shopkeepers kept saying how he was this wolf-man or something. He seems to only strike at night but you never know. I think it sounds crazy in all honesty."
"I wasn't planning on doing any shopping, but thanks for the heads up." Cole waved goodbye as he closed his door and jogged down the hallway towards the landing pad.
Cole inhaled the city air as he stepped off the airship, being greeted by the commercial district. Exploring around yielded vast amounts of dust shops, cafes, bakeries, and even a couple of weapons shops dotted around the area. He briefly noticed how the food places were rather packed, 'must be the lunchtime rush.' Not hungry himself he strolled into a nearby park. Taking a small glance around showed the place was deserted, causing Cole to blow a sigh of relief.
Flopping down under the shade of a tree, Cole pulled out his Grimm Driver. He had briefly entertained the idea of just tossing this thing in the trash. His current life so far was nice, he was enrolled in Beacon, friends with two teams, and while he had no aura his cybernetic enhancements should do the job just as well right? He wouldn't get hunted down by his friends and could probably live a nice life as a huntsman. Then again...
'Would I be okay with not knowing?' He was meant to find the driver, it's location was one of the few memories he had when he awoke in the Emerald Forest. How did he know about this strange transformation device? Who made it? Why let him know where it was when he was meant to be killed? Speaking of which, who tried to kill him, and just who was he before he arrived at Beacon? This situation was likely is bigger than he thinks it is, so would he be okay from just walking away from it?
An explosion broke him out of his reverie, causing him to whip his head up as he noticed black smoke billowing ahead of him. Running towards the smoke and rounding the corner showed a blown-out store entrance. Civilians littered the sidewalk and street, staring in horror at the scene. Taking a few steps further, Cole was stopped in his tracks as a figure emerged from the smoke, laughing.
If he had to describe the thing in front of him, he would say it was a mix between his transformed state and an actual Beowolf. The head was more angular and had a full Beowolf bone mask, the legs looked slightly more dog-like but the overall structure was still clearly human. The most curious part was the small green veins dotted around his body. He also lacked a belt around his waist like Cole would have.
His grip tightened on his driver. While everyone was focused on the Grimm-humanoid he slipped into a nearby alleyway. He placed the driver around his waist and inserted his syringe into it.
"DNA MUTATION. BEOWOLF."
A hearty laugh made its way out of Wulf, sacks of dust vials and cash in each hand. Nighttime was his usual time to strike shops, but why should it matter when nobody stopped him in the first place? He reveled at how people feared him, even now people screamed and ran away or were frozen in fear. That feeling was intoxicating.
"HOLD IT!" A robotic voice cut off through the air. Wulf looked around for whoever dared to speak to him that way. His eyes locked onto Cole as he walked forward towards him from the crowd, the sight of the man making Wulf laugh. Civilians backed away in horror and a bit of awe as the second Grimm-looking human entered the fray.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be? Some kind of copycat?" Wulf barked at Cole. The sight of him was annoying, after finally made a name for himself someone was already riding on his coattails?
"Who I am doesn't matter. I have questions for you." Cole continued his approach, hands clenched in preparation for if Wulf attacks. The beastly man growled in response.
"Who said I ever had to answer to you? How about you just go and FUCK OFF!" With a swipe of his arms, Wulf's green veins glowed before spikes throttled forward. Cole was prepared to throw himself to the left until a scream was let loose behind him. Turning around a small boy was rooted in place staring at the flying spikes in horror, a comic in hand. Without a word he threw himself between the kid and projectiles.
The spikes impacted his back, sending sharp pains through his body. Despite what he thought, the spikes simply fell and dissolved instead of being stuck in him. Letting out a sigh, he watched a woman run forward and grab the child, then promptly running the other direction. Wulf could feel his anger boiling over as he watched his doppelganger.
'Not only is he a copy-cat, but he wants to act like some goody two shoes for some brat? Wh-' His thought was interrupted as a fist connected with his face, causing him to take a step back in recoil. While Wulf was busy with his thoughts Cole had quickly closed the distance. He quickly flicked his head away from another punch, and could just feel his copy-cat smirk under that helmet. Cole leaned his body forward before violently throwing his arm down, raking the bone spikes attached to his gauntlets across his enemy. The spikes tore a gash across the mutated human, black ichor pulsing out of the wound and dripping off the gauntlet. Not letting up, Cole landed a kick on Wulf's midsection. Sending him out into the middle of the street.
Wulf slowly picked himself up, a slight panic overtaking him as he placed a hand on his new wound. Seeing the man approaching again, he growled before turning and running away.
Cole paused as he saw the criminal running away at an incredible pace, how was he supposed to match that kind of speed? A small twinge shot through his body as he began sprinting after the wolf-man, unaware that his red eyes had lit up.
Elsewhere, A black bike roared its engine before taking off.
While Cole was able to keep up just enough to not lose Wulf, he couldn't close the distance at all. Another twist and turn down another crossroad was par for the course at this point. Other than the rare pedestrian, the streets remained barren. His legs were starting to feel heavy, he needed some kind of way to stop this game of cat and mouse.
As if the lords above heard him, the roar of an engine sounded slowly got louder behind him before slowly going ahead of him, but never fully left. Curiosity overtook him and he spared a glance away from his target. His eyes widened as a black and white sports motorcycle was riding itself beside him. It carried a similar logo on it as his driver did with the Beowolf DNA inserted.
Taking a chance, Cole jumped in the air and landed on the motorcycle. He tested the throttle, the bike speeding up even further in response. Good thing it came when it did, for when Cole focused back onto Wulf the Grimm humanoid leaped onto a car that entered into the on-ramp of Vale's highway. Blasting the throttle, he quickly pursued.
Despite the speed of his new motorcycle, his approach was hampered by having to drive around the vehicles. Wulf had little trouble as he jumped between cars, causing many of them to swerve and crash along the side rails. The Beowolf easily tore off the roof of one car before chucking it at Cole. A quick button pressed digitized the Grimm Axe and with one broad swipe easily cut the metal in half. Harmless bits of twisted metal bounced off the rider. Wulf growled before continuing to jump between cars.
Cole swerved into the left lane and slowly began to overtake a semi-truck. Scanning ahead failed to reveal the location of the humanoid Grimm. As he got to the front of the semi-truck he could barely register a blur slamming into him, wrenching him away from the bike. Both humans were sent sailing over the guard rail and plummeted down towards the town center.
During the mid-air struggle, they both managed to vertically correct themselves. Cole bent his legs and kicked off Wulf's chest, the former's foot kicked out as he tumbled and slammed against Cole's head. They recoiled away from each other before slamming hard into the ground. Several clinking sounds were heard as several dust vials bounced off the ground, having been set free from Wulf's grasp during the freefall. The Grimm Axe hit the ground blade side up, landing only inches away from Cole. He jumped to his feet and grabbed his axe before noticing something peculiar. While the axe head seemed intact, a compartment opened up on the backside. The fall had seemingly unjammed it from what he could tell. There was a hole inside, it almost looked like it could hold a...
Cole glanced down at the dust vials littering the ground before picking one up, red in appearance. He inserted the vial into the axe's compartment and closed it.
"DUST VIAL CONFIRMED. READY TO FLARE." The axe spoke robotically before a faint shimmer emanated from the blade and slightly glowed. Cole turned his gaze to the still-recovering Wulf before he sprinted towards him. Wulf had barely any time to get up before the Grimm Axe was lodged into his shoulder. Flames erupted from the wound, making the pain excruciating. Wulf lashed out with his fist in panic, slamming into Cole's hip and forcing him to step back. Wulf pathetically tried to pat out the flames on his shoulders as Cole grabbed a light blue dust vial. The empty vial was ejected as the compartment opened.
"DUST VIAL CONFIRMED. READY TO FREEZE" Remembering something Weiss used against him, Cole slammed the axe down onto the ground. An ice trail shot towards Wulf before it climbed up his legs and immobilized him. Wulf could only look at him in shock and horror.
"I-is there any way we can talk about this?" Cole paused at the question, now he wanted to talk? 'This wolf barks harder than he bites.'
"No." Wulf's green veins glowed as he desperately threw more spikes. They were slower than before, and easily blocked by his axe. Cole opened the vial compartment before taking his syringe from the driver without pulling the plunger. He copied what he did with the dust vials.
"DNA CONFIRMED. GRIMM SLASH." Black ichor flowed across and coated the blade. As Cole slashed the air, the black liquid solidified as it flew at Wolf taking the shape of a crescent. It cut into the trapped person, causing an explosion. As the smoke faded a rather ordinary man fell to the ground, a red syringe broken in half at his feet. Cole briefly wondered why the man's syringe was a different color from his white one. Placing his syringe back into his driver, Cole strode over to Wulf.
"Who gave you that syringe?" Cole grabbed a handful of the man's shirt and brought him to his face. Wulf simply whimpered and tried to turn his head. Cole simply shook him, "answer me!"
"I-I don't know! I didn't ask him any questions!" Cole narrowed his eyes before shaking the man harder. "Who is HIM?!"
A bullet impacted against Cole's hand, causing him to drop the man. The sight upon turning around caused him to freeze. Team RWBY and JNPR slowly approached with their weapons drawn. Ruby was looking down her scope as she pulled the bolt back.
"I guess we didn't destroy him after all." Yang glared at the person she punched through several trees before standing in front of her now. Cole didn't speak, but instead focused as he sent a familiar twinge through his body.
"Step away from th-" Ruby began before noticing what was in his hand. "Hey! That's Cole's Axe!"
Jaune growled, "What did you do with him?" Thinking on his feet, and not having many other choices, Cole lobbed the axe towards the group. Jaune simply walked forward with his shield extended and blocked it. It was a momentary distraction at best, but one that allowed his motorcycle to burst in from behind the group. Cole quickly grabbed the pieces of the red syringe as the motorcycle sped towards him. Leaping up, he landed on the bike and sped off in a random direction. it didn't matter as long as he got away.
He sighed, things were going to be hectic when he went back to Beacon.
A small boy and his mother were standing outside of their house.
"What were you thinking getting so close to those dangerous people!" His mother scolded, "If it wasn't for that one person taking the shot..."
She sighed deeply before turning to the door. As she fumbled around with the door lock, the boy's attention was drawn to the sound of a motorcycle getting closer. The boy watched in awe as the same man who saved him was riding a motorcycle down the street. The motorcycle looked like it was modeled after the person currently riding it.
The boy looked down at the comic in hand. A green and black colored masked hero posed with his motorcycle, both with a grasshopper theme.