Dragon Trailer
"I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match."
- Mia Hamm
Many say that the moonlight reflecting off of the sands of the Great Vacuoan Desert is among the most beautiful sights in all of Remnant. That said, many haven't been out in the Desert during a sandstorm. The moon was obscured by the whirling sands as a young man dressed in black trekked across the dunes, the hem of his long coat flapping in the wind. Armored boots encased his legs up to the knee, likewise his arms to the elbow. His face was obscured behind a black bandanna, a pair of tinted red goggles covering his eyes, all capped off with a black fedora pulled low.
Despite the raging winds, he hiked through the sands with little effort until he came into the shelter of a downed airship half buried in the dunes. The young man made his way to the ship's cockpit and climbed inside the access hatch. Now out of the wind, he pushed his hat back to hang off his back, revealing dark brown hair hanging past his ears. He then pulled his bandanna down to hang around his neck, along with his goggles. Squinting his purple-red eyes, he looked into the dimly lit cargo bay.
"Storm won't die down for another hour at least," he muttered to himself, before moving to a control panel on the wall, "Might as well get a bit more light in here."
He worked at the panel for several minutes to no avail, cursing under his breath. As he reached for a red wire he froze, sensing a malicious presence. Opening his mouth, a long forked tongue darted out and back in. In an instant he dropped into a backwards roll as a dark creature leaped over him. Coming back to his feet, he instantly threw a side kick into the creatures back, knocking it into the panel.
By some twist of fate, the creatures impact on the panel caused the ships lights to come on, revealing the creature to be a lizard the size of a Shetland pony. Black scales covered the beast entirely, save for its ivory claws and bone-white mask that covered its head.
"Shoulda known the trek in here was too quiet. Damn Salamanders must have taken cover from the storm in here." He muttered, inching his right hand behind his back.
The Salamander climbed to its feet, hissing and snarling. It charged again, stretching out its claws towards the man in black. In one fluid motion, the young man spun a double-barreled pistol into the Salamander's head and pulled the trigger. The Dust-powered bullet tore through the bony mask like paper, the rest of the body falling to the ground. The young man holstered his pistol at the back of his belt again as the corpse began to disintegrate.
"Alrighty then. Second order of business…" He went back over to the panel, flipping a few switches and pressing a few buttons. Over the ship wide sound system, music started to play.
*Come Get Your Love, by Redbone*
Unzipping his jacket to reveal a red scale-mail shirt, he pulled out a licorice root and placed one end into his mouth. Holding one finger to the other end, a small spark of flame jumped to ignite it. Taking a deep breath of licorice scented air, he started down the corridor with a hand on his pistol. As the music picked up, he began to hear snarls further into the ship; the unexpected noise had roused and irritated the rest of the Salamanders.
Drawing the pistol once more, he held it out to his side and spun it. As it spun, hidden mechanisms opened the casings below each barrel, allowing a blade to unfold and extend from both. As the weapon completed its spin, the barrels snapped 90 degrees upwards, forming a parallel-bladed short sword.
The young man's tongue darted out again, probing for the locations of his foes. With the speed of a scorpion, he twisted around and plunged the points of his sword through a cabin door. A surprised shriek of pain was the only response. Without missing a beat, his left leg snapped low into the cabin across the corridor and tripped a surprised Salamander. Squeezing the trigger of his weapon, the pistol-sword fired a burst of flames that propelled it from its slowly disintegrating victim to strike the second with the butt-end. An easy swipe of the blade took the beast's head off as the young man continued down the corridor.
So it continued throughout the ship, the young man occasionally slashing or shooting into doorways/compartments, humming to the tune of the music all the way. Finally, he made it into the cargo bay, the lights in which were much dimmer than the rest of he ship. Debris littered the entire hold.
"Huh, guess the cargo came loose when this bird crashed. Must have damaged the power conduits as well," he mused as he looked around the hold, his tongue waving out the corner of his mouth, "Doesn't seem to be any Scalies around, but the whole place reeks of em… Ahhhh problem for later. Now, Auntie Ruta said she needed…."
The young man holstered his weapon and started rooting around in piles of junk around the hold, occasionally pulling out mechanical parts and other odds-and-ends that he stowed in the inside pockets of his jacket. He eventually came to a particularly large pile of junk, from which he continued the trend of pulling things out until he came across a thick black cable. "Jackpot! A cable that thick'll keep the town gates shut against anything smaller than a Goliath!"
He grabbed the cable with both hands and started pulling to no avail. Cursing under his breath, he gathered his strength for a massive yank. But before he could do so, he stopped and let his tongue flick out. The smell of Salamander had gotten stronger, but he hadn't heard any come into the hold. Looking back to the cable in his hands, he noted that the cable tapered down to a point at his feet. Almost like a…
"Aw, son of a…" he groaned as he turned around to face an elephant-sized Salamander that was slumbering below the junk. Keyword being: was. This one was very much awake, and none too pleased at having its tail pulled, effectively or not. Its scales were much thicker, the size of dinner plates in places. Unlike its smaller siblings, whose bony mask structures only covered their faces to their mouths, this one's formed enormous fangs on either side of its snout with a large horn on the nose. "…bitch…"
The Salamander flicked its tail out of his hands, then smacked him into the wall with it. Recovering from the impact, he drew his weapon and fired a few burning rounds at his adversary. Unfortunately its scales were too thick for the bullets to do anything but smolder on the surface. As it swiped at him with its wicked claws, he unfolded the parallel blades to parry the attack.
The Salamander moved back and swung its tail at him again. The young man knew that the whip-like tail could wrap around the weapon and potentially disarm him. So he quickly thumbed a switch on the back of his weapon's grips, allowing the two barrels and their blades to separate into two separate swords. Using his dual blades, he blocked the incoming tail so that it couldn't fully wrap around either one. While it recovered from that last attempt, he darted in with a series of blows. They weren't particularly strong blows; more of an attempt to probe the Salamander's hide for weaknesses.
As the Salamander recovered its wits, it kicked the man into the massive cargo hold loading door. Before he could respond it snapped open its jaws, unleashing a compressed burst of flames upon him. The unexpected attack blew the man through the already compromised door into the desert night. The storm that had plagued the young man on his way in had abated, leaving a clear view of the shattered moon.
Unfortunately for the young hero, crashing through a ships hull and bouncing off of the dunes had caused him to lose his grip on his weapons. Rolling to his feet, he looked up to see the oversized Salamander following him out into the night. It's mouth was once more open, white-hot flames dancing at the back of its throat. Even knowing exactly what was coming, the young man stood his ground.
"Well alright then. If that's how it's going to be, HIT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!" He roared, spreading his arms wide.
His foe was more than happy, if such a word could be applied to a Grimm, to oblige. A thicker torrent of flames bore down upon the young man. Not even aura could have protected the average Huntsman from such a fierce fire. Yet after a few moments the flames moved, neither fading nor dying. Instead they congregated around the young man's outstretched hand.
"Thanks for the boost!" He called out, as his eyes changed from their natural purple-red to the orange of a beautiful sunset. The concentrated sphere of flames in his hand moved to engulf both of his fists, his boots igniting flames of their own. "Now, let's blaze!"
He punched both fists downwards, propelling him like a rocket towards the Salamander. Twisting in midair, he slugged it in the jaw with a fire-powered punch. The man didn't slow down, dropping down to the ground and unleashing a flurry of blows with both hands and feet upon the Salamander's underbelly. Finally he knocked it up into the air with a vicious uppercut, only use his flames to propel himself above it to knock it back down with an axe kick.
The Salamander hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Looking up out of the crater it landed in, it saw its foe backlit against the moon. His flames had moved to engulf his right arm, as well as form a sphere of compressed fire in the palm of his hand. As he landed, he slammed the sphere into the open jaws of his opponent. It clamped its mouth shut, but its fangs couldn't pierce the armored plates nor the flames surrounding them. "Now… BURN!"
With that final cry he allowed the compressed flames to rapidly expand, causing the giant Salamander to explode from the inside.
The only thing more beautiful than moonlight reflecting off of the Vacuoan sands, is the reflected light of a glorious inferno.
"… And that's the last of it, Auntie! Sorry I couldn't find anything to help reinforce the gates…"
The young man had returned to the small port town from which he had departed, and found himself in a small hut near the pier. All of the materials he had salvaged from the cargo hold were laid out on a table in front of a portly middle-aged woman in a green blouse, long reddish hair streaked with grey. From beneath her calf-length blue skirt, a slender mouse tail hung to the floor.
"That's quite alright Durian, those old gates have held for years without them and they'll hold long after I'm dead and buried." Auntie Ruta Baga said, closely examining the various parts from behind her thick spectacles. "Although, these parts are quite banged up… I do hope you didn't run into any trouble…"
Durian just laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Nothing I can't handle Auntie! So, is it good enough to pay for passage on the Styx?"
The mousy lady chuckled and picked up a ticket from the table. "Captain Vongole is an old friend, my boy. Even if you came back empty-handed he'd have been more than happy to let you catch a ride if it meant staying in my good graces, let alone your grandfather's."
"Haha, you do know Gramps hates it when anyone implies that he's old, right?"
"And that is why we do it, isn't that right lad?"
Both shared a laugh over that as a ships horn sounded. Durian picked up a duffle bag from beneath the table, and pulled his hat onto his head from where it hung on his back. "Sounds like I better get going, don't wanna keep the Cap waiting. I'll write or call whenever I get the chance, Auntie Ruta!"
Weaving through the crowded market, Durian made it to the dock where The Lady Styx, a massive steamship bound for Vale, was moored. He moved to board when he heard a small voice call out, "Duri! Duri!"
He suddenly felt a small body collide with his stomach. Looking down at his "assailant" , he found the face of Ruta's youngest son Felix. Like his mother he had a thin mouse tail, though his had a thick tuft of golden fur on the end. He was dressed in a shirt and shorts, all his favorite shade of blue, with a pair of sandals on his little feet. His head was covered in golden-blonde hair, with the most adorable baby-blue eyes, all above a child-like pout.
"Ha, wondered where you were Squirt! … You know, you're going to have to let go sooner or late, right?"
"I don't wanna…" the kids's grip around Durian's midsection tightened. "Do you really have to go? Who's going to help me when the bullies come back? What if Grimm attack while you're gone? Who's gonna protect Momma? What if-"
Felix cut off as he felt the Durian's arms wrap around him, one hand rubbing the top of his head. "Hey, Gramps worked real hard to get me an invite to go to Beacon so I've gotta go. If the bullies come after you, fight back. As much as I wanna stick around and keep looking out for you, sometimes we need to grow up and fight our own battles. So here's the deal, pipsqueak: you stay here and grow up strong. If you need help, call Gramps; he'll train you up nice and strong. Then when I come back from Beacon, you'll take your turn to go and train at one of the academies while I look after the town. After that, we'll see how strong we've both become. Okay?"
The little fellow's eyes teared up, as he finally let go of Durian. He sniffled as Durian hauled his duffle over his shoulder and climbed aboard the ship. As the ship started to sail away, Felix looked at Durian, standing at the rail of the stern. Then he cried out, "Duri! You better not come back until you're stronger than Grandpa… Not until you're the strongest there is! YOU GOT THAT?!"
Durian smiled back at the lightly sobbing boy as the ship sailed out of the harbour. He gave a little salute to Felix, "Loud and clear little buddy. Loud and clear…."
Name: Durian Grimmson
Age: 17
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 185lbs (unarmored)
Eye-color: purple-red (sunset-orange when using semblance)
Hair color: Dark brown
Dominant colors: black and crimson-red
Weapon: "Purgatory" - a semi-automatic handgun with two barrels. Below each barrel is a housing for a folding blade. Applying aura to the weapon allows the blade to unfold from under each barrel to a length of about eighteen inches, forming a short sword with two parallel blades. Further, a switch at the back of the grip allows the two barrels to separate into two identical swords/pistols, although the firepower of the separated pistols are much weaker than the combined form.
Semblance: "Inferno Force" - Durian has control over the element of fire, within his immediate vicinity. While he is capable of willing his own flames into existence, it is substantially easier to seize control of existing flames. As such he is near-invulnerable to fire based attacks, insofar as flames of any kind cannot harm him. For example, a firebomb cannot fully harm him; while the concussive force of the explosion would be felt, any flames created by that explosion would only be turned against the bomber. Durian's mastery over his particular brand of pyrokinesis is not so great as to finely control the flames, but forming basic shapes (fireballs for example), condensing/expanding them (the difference between a flamethrower and a blowtorch), or simply releasing streams of fire is well within his current skill. Using his flames, it is possible to generate high-speed propulsion, though not guided flight (while this may become possible later, it is not currently feasible).
DoteJiEndo: Surprise! Apparently I had a good enough internet connection in the woods that I managed to get a copy of this out to my beta-reader without paying a fortune. But not good enough for me to post anything from the my phone on the app…
Nonetheless: I have successfully posted the first of four trailers to come and, by the time you are reading this, am busily working at the next trailer. I hope that the profile card at the end helps clarify a few things about my main OC, mainly regarding his semblance and how it works. Speaking of which, if this seems too OP, I remind you that this trailer is meant to showcase ONE character's skills and abilities against mostly harmless grunt enemies (a la the Red Trailer).
Also, by now you've noticed that I've changed his name to Durian. Originally I had planned to have this be his birth name, but he would primarily go by Dante (even after learning his true name). Looking back, I've decided to change it for a few different reasons: 1) Considering how I want his story to progress, there's no real reason not to use his proper name from the get-go, 2)Durian is more in line with the Color Naming Rule (Durian is also know as "dragon-fruit" because of its spiny appearance), and 3) I've since realized that it'd be a COLOSSAL pain in the ass to go through all of the trouble I've planned out to learn his proper name just for him to not use it.
I have already updated the description of this fic on the site to better reflect some of the changes I've made. The next chapter should be good to go in less than a week. Until then however, this is DoteJiEndo blazing out.
Next time: Demon Trailer