Symbiote Knight

Chapter 10: A Knight in Vale

As the bullhead transport landed Jaune had managed to enjoy the flight this time. He could see how Beacon was at a higher elevation, with the cliffsides that protected both the academy and was part of Vale's natural defenses against Grimm. There was a road you could take between the school and the city but it took longer than flying. Plus, from up high he could see the massive wall that was around Vale.

It was impressive to see, Jaune came from a smaller city, more of a town really. They had their own wall but nothing as impressive as this.

Taking his first steps off the transport when it landed, he took a breath. "Now that was so much better than my first flight."

The thought of how he threw up on Yang's boot made him wince. At least now with Valor he wouldn't have to worry about that ever again.

'Thanks for that by the way'

~You're welcome, it's a simple thing to correct your inner ear~

Jaune looked around as he made his way into the city. He hadn't been here since this first day before going to Beacon. He remembered how he had gotten here by train the day before and spent most of the time looking for a cheap hotel to spend the night in. He found it but sleep had been hard that night, he had been so nervous.

First step was to get something to eat. He and Valor would be working up an appetite. Given his now unique diet Jaune pretty much found a place with some fish and then a different one for some chocolate.

"There's got to be a more effective way to get you…what was it again?" Jaune asked out loud biting into a chocolate bar.

~phenethylamine~ The symbiote and Jaune had taken days to find the word that corresponded with he chemical it needed.

"Right that…I wonder if they sell them in pill form?" Jaune thought about how during his training with Yang, she went into how some people who were into supplements and protein powder to help gain muscle mass. Now that they were in the city maybe there were stores that sold it they could visit?

~Worth a shot~

Jaune checked his scroll for stores that sold supplements, to his surprised they did. It wasn't one of the usual type people buy as only a few shops seemed to sell it. It took him an hour walk from his position to find the store. He took two bottles just in case since neither of them knew just how much they could get out of one pill. After the purchase they continue looking for a place to start practicing.

While looking around Jaune decides to pop one of the small white bottles and dry swallows the pill in it.

'So how is that?'

~Oh that hits the spot~ Jaune can feel the symbiote enjoying it. ~While I enjoy it from the food there is still so little. This will help us out, I can already feel myself getting more energized~

'Good to know,' Jaune smiled putting it away. 'How many do you think you'll need?'

~Start with one a day and we'll go from there~

Jaune nodded, if this training turned out to be a bust at least they got something out of it. He would have to remember to keep a stock of the pills on hand. It was kind of like taking vitamins for having a vitamin deficiency he guessed. Walking for the next hour they came to a more business section of the city, there were still plenty of people around.

'This is no good,' Juane sighed in frustration. He wished he knew the city better.

~Try that alley~

Jaune could sense where the symbiote was pointing. It was a non-descript alley, so he walked down it. He saw that it had an larger open area, there were a few garbage bins and a couple of backdoors to whatever shops there were. But what it did off was that the larger area if he walked a few feet in he wouldn't be seen from the street.

"Guess this is as good as any." Jaune sighed. "Okay so how do we do this?"

~Let me~

Then the suit started to form around Jaune, it was strange as it morphed out of his body and around him. Although the suit covered his entire body the 'mask' part didn't feel like a mask. It was like he could see perfectly out of it, no wait. It was like he would also sense the world around him, like his entire body was linked to his senses.

He had felt a little of this before now but with the symbiote fully exposed it was like all his sense were dialed up and working together.

Jaune felt more aware than he had ever been in his life, and he felt stronger now, more powerful.

"Whoa, this is something." He looked at his hands and flexed them. He could feel the material like they were actual gloves over his hands, but he could feel the 'gloves' as if it were his skin. It was an odd sensation to say the least.

"Okay so how do we get up there?" Jaune looked up to the top of the building.

~There are a few ways~ Valor sent images of previous hosts. One would turn her fingers into claws and use those to climb along with talons on the feet. Another had made the surface of the hands have small fibers that could 'stick' to certain surfaces and another would extend the symbiote like a whip from the arm to grab and pull up.

"Okay got some options," Might as well try them all out. He looked at his hands and thought of claws. He saw the fingers slowly morph into points. He could feel the same with his feet as he looked down. "Cool, alright, let's do this."

Jaune dung his fingers into the brick wall and felt them go in. It was like putting his fingers through clay instead of brick, there was resistance but he could still push through it. He pulled himself up and put his feet into the wall as he slowly made his way up. It was a little awkward as he wasn't used to climbing, at least not like this. Climb a tree sure but a flat wall? He was about halfway up before he found his rhythm and posture that helped.

Looking down the ledge once he was up he let out a breath. "I'm going to need to be faster than that."

~You just need more practice is all~

"Yeah, but man I can't believe like this I'm strong enough to dig into brick like that."

~Yes, working like this allows me to increase your natural abilities~

"And aura already does that so I guess that means I'm double enhancing." Jaune grinned under his mask. Jaune looked over at the other buildings. "So could I make some of those jumps now?"

~Most of those, yes~

"I guess we'll try this out," Jaune faced one of the ledges as he went for a run, he got closer and closer to the edge…and then suddenly stopped at the last moment. "You're sure I can make this?"

~Yes~

"I'm just saying it's a long way down." Jaune looked over the ledge.

~Trust me~

Jaune swallowed. "Okay then."

He turned and jogged back to get some distance and took a few calming breaths. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, and he hoped this wasn't a mistake. "Okay Jaune you can do this, you can, he said you can so you can. God I hope I can."

Jaune took off at a run and when he got to the edge, this time he jumped. He screamed as he felt himself leap over the gap between buildings which turned into a laugh as he easily sailed over the gap. Which turned into a short-lived cry of surprised when he crashed into the ground of the other roof. He bounced and skidded a little before coming to a stop.

"Right," Jaune groaned out pushing himself up and dusting himself off next. "Landing strategy."

~This…might take some time for you to get used to it~

"Yeah, but that's why we're here."

For the next hour all Jaune did was run on rooftops, this was to get the hang of his new physical strengths while the symbiote was exposed around him. He would jump rooftops to get the hang of just how far he could jump around. After that Valor figured that learning a few other abilities might be helpful. So at a particularly large gap that Jaune wouldn't be able to jump it was time for an alternate way to get across.

Jaune got ready as he flung his arm and the white suit would lash out from said arm, it was like a gooey tendril or web or something came out and attached to the other ledge. The plan was for Jaune to pull himself across with it. So Jaune pulled…and a chunk of the material just came off with the tendril.

It wouldn't have been so bad, if said material wasn't moving as great speed and velocity that it slammed into his chest knocking him flat on his back in pain.

"Ow."

~Ow~

"Sorry…what happened?" Jaune asked rubbing his chest staring up at the sky.

~I said to pull yourself across~

"I did!"

~No, you pulled the building. You must think of pulling yourself from the other side. You pulled from the side you were standing on~

"I think I get what you mean," Jaune sat up, it was a strange way of thinking but the symbiote on the other side was still a part of 'him'. He had been thinking that it was more like a rope instead of a piece of himself. "Okay one more try."

He threw out his arm as the tendril attached again. "Pull yourself across, pull yourself across, pull yourself across."

Jaune then 'pulled himself' as he suddenly was pulled off his feet and he was in the air. He yelled out in surprise but then noticed he wasn't going to make it. He hit the ledge for the building and held on for dear life. He quickly pulled himself up and over the ledge panting.

"Okay…better…but needs improvement." He leaned his head back to catch his breath. He really didn't want to fall four stories onto the ground today. "Hey Valor? If I fell, would I have survived?"

~Yes, but you would be in a lot of pain~

"Good to know."

~If you break anything I can put you back together again~

"Noted but let's just experiment with that any time soon," He pushed himself up. Well, I guess it's time to get a move on.

Jaune kept up training, he was moving through the city now more confident, but he would definitely have to come back to get better. Also, once he got moving it was kind of liberating. He felt like he was on top of the world with how be moved through the city. Part of him thought of comic book heroes and how they would run across rooftops to stop crime.

He found his balance was much improved as well given the symbiote was helping him not to fall over. Jaune was starting to wonder if he should look up that parkour stuff he had seen on the Net. Being able the move around so freely without a symbiote made him wonder just how good he could be with his alien buddy.

A smash was heard in the night and some yelling.

"That can't be good," Jaune ran over a few buildings and looked down to see a dust shop with it's window smashed by some guys in dark suits.

"We are here to rob the place, not mess it up, now get that damn dust," An angry voice was heard inside. "I sear you're lucky that window wasn't set to an alarm or else I would have one less hired help tonight."

Jaune could see that the place was being robbed and for a moment he wasn't sure what to do. Should he call the cops? Would they get here in time? This was also the kind of thing that he was training for. He wasn't a fully licensed Huntsman so legally he had no authority to step in. Then the thought of what if something was hurt inside entered his mind.

~Listen to your heart~

Jaune calmed himself and knew that he couldn't just sit this out. He couldn't just let someone get away with this kind of thing and he had to do something.

~Where you lead, I follow~

That's right, he wasn't alone here, not ever. He wasn't the same old Jaune anymore, he was stronger now, he had more confidence and he had a friend who had his back.

"Let's do this." Jaune said.

Inside the dust shop Roman Torchwich was not having a good night. Tonight was just another simple dust store robbery, nothing fancy. Just get in and get out but of course he had to hire more of Junior's people. Honestly, he shouldn't have been surprised but it wasn't like he had a lot of choices in Vale to hire goons for simple jobs.

It wasn't like he planned to use White Fang members for these types of jobs, he knew The Plan was to get them on board but that wasn't his job. He sighed at the thought of working with his animals. And it wasn't because they were Faunus, growing up in Mantel he saw just how bad they had it as he had growing up on the streets. He meant the White Fang organization was filled with blind zealots and that was something Roman had a huge distaste for.

Lighting his cigar, he looked down at the owner on the ground nursing an injured head. Sometimes you just had to show stubborn fools a little of the stick to get them inline. "Sorry about the window these boys wouldn't know subtly if it bit them on the face. Might want to get some ice on that later, oh and next time a bunch of people come in and say, 'this is a robbery, hands up' do what they say."

The owner only glared at the white dressed criminal.

Roman ignored the man as he looked to the thugs. "Are we done here yet?"

"Almost boss." One of them stated. Roman didn't know which, it didn't care to learn their names they were just hired help anyway. Hopefully they would at least be better than the last patch Junior lent him. At least he got a discount this time given how his 'best' had been taken out by a little girl. Not the best for his reputation, especially when his club had only just how finally finished with the repairs from a different young lady.

"Children are getting so violent these days," he muttered to himself.

One of the hired goons had just finished taking all the dust that his case could fit. He closed it up and was walking out when he stopped seeing someone dressed in a nearly all white full body suit with black highlights standing there.

"I suggest you put that back." Came the deep voice. Jaune had asked Valor if he could so anything about his voice. Partly to help hide his identity but also if he was honest, he didn't exactly have a commanding voice. The symbiote easily changed the pitch of his vocal cords to make him sound older with a deep voice.

"Uh…boss?" The man called back over his shoulder. He heard stories of what happened to the last crew and while this wasn't a little kid in a red hood it was something even stranger.

Roman sighed as he walked to the entrance. "What is it? I can't tie your shoes for you and it's not…like…what am I looking at?"

Jaune placed his hands on his hips striking what he thought as a heroic pose like in his comics. "I'm the one that's going to make you put back what you just stole."

Roman didn't say anything for a long awkward minute before sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I swear to god, if it's not one thing it's another in this city. This used to be a nice and normal city."

He looked to see that the other goons were trying to see what was going on by this point. Roman walked back in and jerked his thumb at the door. "If you lot can't take this overgrown trick or treater out, I'm demanding a full refund from Junior."

They all looked at each other as Roman started to lose his patience. "Let me put it to you another way," as he slammed his cane down into the floor. "Get moving!"

That snapped the men out of it as they started to rush the doorway. The first one out quickly side stepped making sure there was a hole as the rest of the crew got out and started to encircle Jaune.

'Okay we got this, we got this right?' Jaune asked Valor getting into the same boxer stance Yang had been teaching him.

~Yes, I got your back~

'Good to know,' The first one that attacked came at Jaune with a haymaker. He was surprised how 'slow' the man seemed to be moving. Either his training was paying off or maybe it was the symbiote increases his reflexes, it could be a bit of both. The fact was that Jaune easily ducked under the blow and punched the man in the solar plexus.

Jaune wasn't used to fighting in a real life scenario. So he was surprised when the punch lifted the man off the ground an inch as he crumpled to the ground clutching his chest and groaning.

~I think we might have cracked a rib or something~

'I didn't mean to hit him that hard!'

~I didn't see any aura when we hit, we might want to pull our punches a bit~

'Yeah, yeah I don't want to hurt them too badly' he felt a bit bad about overduing it by accident, even if the guy was a criminal but he was crawling now on his hands and knees to the wall so he wasn't in too bad a shape.

Although while it did stun the rest of the men, they knew that as criminal they could go up against Huntsmen. They knew the stakes as they pulled out red blades from inside their jackets. Now they weren't going to pull their punches either by this point.

'Uh oh, those can't cut us, can they?'

~Doubt it, not with me protecting you~

Jaune dodged a slash as he did side kick to the man's ribs, this time pulling it so he wouldn't do too much damage. Still the man was sent back a few feet to the ground. He didn't have time to think as he had to move out of the way of another with a jab to the man's face. He was aiming for the tip of the chin, Yang explained that was a great weakness in people. You hit the tip of the chin and it can dislocate the jaw or rattle them.

Too bad he ended up hitting the jaw instead as the man swore staggering back.

There were a lot of them as he tried to defend himself but one of them got through. He felt something slam into his left shoulder from behind.

"Got him I, wait what is this stuff?" The man could see his blade sinking in slightly into the shoulder pauldron but the suit around it started to move and shift. Soon the blade was forced back out sending it and the arm holding it back from the force of the ejection. He looked and had to pull down his sunglasses to see the cut he made 'healing' itself.

"The fuck is-agh!" Jaune backhanded the thug sending him sprawling.

A few more would find that their blades just couldn't penetrate the armor, at least not deep enough to do anything. Then Jaune and Valor started to change things up a little. One man tried to attack Jaune from behind only for the suit on his back to morph into a tendril and slam into the man's surprised chest. That caught the attention of everyone there.

"The hell is this guy?"

"I don't know, did you see that!?"

"I don't think we get paid enough for this weird shit."

"You think the boss will believe us if we say a guy with a weird suit that moves beat us up?"

"I'm here and I still don't believe it."

"So uh," Jaune looked around. "You guys going to surrender or what?"

There was a pause as the men that weren't on the ground looked at each other until one of the spoke up. "If we don't put up a fight, what do you think the guy in there and his little psycho that hangs out with him will do to us?"

The mention of Neo got a shiver down the men's spines. She was not known for playing nice, hell there were all kinds of stories of her killing people with a smile on her face and a skip in her step. The fact that Roman could make good friends with her only made his reputation even more impressive. Then of course if those two didn't deal with them, Junior and the twins would have some harsh 'words' with them as well.

With a silent agreement the men charged again.

~I say we finish this, time to let loose a bit~

'Yeah, let's see what we can do together now.'

The men rushed at Jaune as two of his arms turned into large tendrils and slammed the men into the walls of the building. He then wrapped them around the legs of two others tripping them. One came at Jaune while he was busy but then Jaune's chest sprang out and slammed into the thug's face. Jaune then high kicked him in the head to follow up knocking him out.

The two he had tripped were getting up as Jaune was already on them. He elbowed one in the chin knocking him out and the last tried to slash at his back. Only for the symbiote to leap out and with one tendril catch his wrist while the other quickly went up to the man's face and paused letting the criminal wonder what was happening. Then the end morphed into a hand giving him several stinging slaps to the face before turning into a fist and knocking him out.

Jaune got up and looked around. 'What was that last bit about?'

~I blame all those memories you have of those animated shorts you liked to watch growing up~

'You got that from cartoons?'

~It's the bonding, I am you and you are me, we are one being now~

'Huh…neat, wait where's the guy in the hat and cane?'

~MOVE!~

Jaune heard the sound as he jumped out of the way as a small explosion was where he had just been.

"I swear if it isn't little red hooded girls, it's now guys dressed in all white suits." Roman came out of the shop looking very irritated. His cane was still pointing as the smoke from the fired shot was dissipating from the end of it. He took out his cigar and threw it on the ground and stomped on it.

"What does it take to just commit petty crime in this city these days?" Roman looked the man over. He was tall, a little built but that's all he really got. The suit however reminded him a lot of the Atlas style for their uniforms, but this wasn't a style he was familiar with. Maybe it was some kind of new Atlas unit? If so, why would they be in Vale? Atlas couldn't know something was up here already…did they? It was too soon for Atlas to already be involved.

If so, Cinder would not like this, then again she didn't seem to like anything and just seemed to tolerate the world to a certain point.

"So, what are you? Some new Atlas attack dog?"

"Oh uh, well…you first," Jaune had no idea what to tell him, so he just quickly tried to stall for time.

Roman's head flinched back a little almost like he was hit. "Are you serious? You don't know who I am? I'm honestly insulted, I truly am. Here I am, criminal mastermind of the century and you don't know who I am?"

"Well, here's a little lesson for you, I'm one of the world's most top wanted criminals, I am the one that stole a whole train out of Mistral, yes a whole freaking train. I've stolen the Blue Rose from Vacuo and sold it to the highest bidder."

"I've smuggled and stolen more dust out of Atlas then I know what to do with, I've even been on TV several dozen times with my exploits and known far and wide. I don't know what rock you've been living under, but I would think of years of my life being the criminal genius that I am, that the name of Roman Torchwhich was known far and wide."

"Oh, so you're name's Roman Torchwhich then." Jaune stated with a nod.

Roman had a stoney face to that reaction. "I'm going to hurt you now."

"Well, you can certainl-WHOA!" He jumped out of the way as several shots came from Roman's weapon. Jaune dodged the explosives but Roman was on a whole other level as he had planned for Jaune to move that way as he rushed forward to intercept him. Slamming the handle of his cane against Jaune's head.

Jaune felt that hit, this man definitely had Huntsman training or the equivalent of it at least. He was fast and he hit hard. Jaune quickly got into a defensive form as Roman started laying blow after blow against him. Normally this would have hurt but the symbiote was taking a lot of the punishment. He was still feeling the blows, but it was like he had padding on.

Jaune knew he couldn't stay on the defensive and went for a jab, only for Roman to dodge his head just enough for it to miss, Jaune missed that he had his cane hooked around an ankle until it was too late as Roman pulled and Jaune was on his back. Roman didn't stop, the man was relentless as he kicked Jaune literally to the curb and then quickly fired another shot.

Jaune took the blow on his arms as he cried out in pain, no not just him, Valor was in pain too.

"Oh, now what is this?" Roman hadn't seen the fight as he had been trying to clean up the rest of the shop of dust when Jaune and the hired goons were fighting. So, seeing how the suit on his arms writhed like a living thing, that caught his attention.

"Just what are you?" Roman had seen a lot in his life but nothing like this. "Hmmm, so whatever you have on doesn't like my ammo huh?"

'Valor, what's wrong?' Jaune asked as he tried to get to his feet.

~It burns, whatever he's using burns hot, it hurts~

That was right, he remembered during all their talks that Valor told him that he was weak to intense heat and loud sounds. This Roman character had to be using a type of fire dust for his weapon. This was the worst type of weapon for them to go up against.

Roman took aim and fired again before Jaune could push himself up from his hands and knees. The shot hit him in the side as he cried out in pain again.

"Well, this is certainly interesting but whatever that thing is, it doesn't like that. Now is the explosive or the heat?" He fired again at Jaune making him cry out once more. "Maybe I'll take a few more shots before I find out, unless you want to tell me?"

Jaune groaned trying to get up.

"I'll take that as a no then," Roman swung his weapon at Jaune's face knocking the boy unto his back. He then pointed the weapon point plank at Jaune's face behind the mask. "I wonder what happens at point blank range?"

"No!" The voice that came from the suit was a much more other worldly voice as the symbiote took control. Tendrils smacked the weapon as it fired harmlessly to the side as two more from the shoulders fired out down the street and pulled Jaune to safety.

Jaune was now on his feet and had to shake his head to clear it. He saw Roman about to fire again and knew he couldn't keep getting hit by those.

'We can't go at him head on,' Jaune thought as he dodged the shot. 'He's too experienced. We need to catch him off guard.'

Valor was up for suggestions they nearly got hit again as the symbiote really didn't like that weapon.

'We pull,' Jaune thought as the Klyntar soon picked up what his host was up to.

Jaune kept dodging, it looked like he didn't know what to do but what he actually was, was putting Roman's back to a wall. When he was in position, he threw out a tendril at the criminal. Roman of course easily dodged it giving him a smug look.

"Seriously? You really should learn to not telegraph your attacks, such a shame you won't live long enough to learn from this." He mocked him.

"Good advice and already way ahead." Jaune pulled.

The sounds of bricks being pulled from the side of the building caught Roman off guard as the loud sound behind him was something unexpected. On instinct he turned only to catch about a dozen bricks slamming into him. He cried out as he was knocked to the ground stunned.

Jaune didn't let up as he used that same tendril to wrap around Roman and slam him into the ground several times. The man had aura so he could take this but then on the last slam, he saw the aura of the man break. He pulled back the tendril ready to finish this fight.

"Now we got you!" Jaune jumped forward with a fist cocked back. His fist had just hit Roman when he just…shattered.

That was the only way to describe it, it was like the man was made out of glass. "Did…did we kill him?"

~I don't think so, was that a semblance?~

"It has to be," Jaune didn't know what kind of semblance the man had used but looking around he didn't see any sign of him or of his weapon. "Did he run off?"

"Is it over yet?" A voice from the doorway spoke up.

"Uh, oh, uh yes…citizen," Jaune spoke up trying to act confident. "Although one of them got away."

"I already called the cops when the fancy one left," The owner looked at the beaten-up group on the ground. "Well, you certainly did a number on them."

"Well they came at me with blades and stuff," Jaune scratched the back of his head worried they might have gone overboard.

"Naw, serves them right. They roughed up me and my store and they got roughed up in return." Then the man noticed the hole in the side of the building with one layer of the bricks now scattered on the street. "Don't think my insurance will cover that though."

Jaune was about to apologize when he heard sirens that would be the police coming and he didn't feel like sticking around and answering a lot of questions he wasn't prepared to answer. "Well, I think I better get going."

"What's your name boy?" The man asked.

"Uh…" He didn't come up with a name while Roman asked, so he just went with the first thing in his head. "Valor…you can call me Valor."

With that Jaune whipped himself up to the side of the building quickly climbing up it and soon disappeared into the night. He ran for several blocks before coming to a rest. He caught his breath behind a billboard sign and slide down it his back resting against it as the symbiote pulled away from his face.

Jaune reached up to feel the start of a bruise where he had been hit in the face by that cane. "Great, how am I going to explain this?"

~I can try and fix it before we get back~

"Speaking of, we better hurry before the last flights take off. Tomorrow is Monday and we have a busy school day."

~That fight could have gone better~

"Yeah, I got that too, didn't know getting hit with fire dust would hurt that badly." He thought of how Cardin liked to use fire with his mace weapon. "We're going to need to get in more training to deal with something like that."

~There are a couple of things we could try but let's save that for later~

"Agreed," Jaune pushed himself up as the mask reformed. "Let's get back to the docks."

On a totally different rooftop many blocked away, Roman took out one of his cigars in his coat. "I had it under control."

Next to him was a short slim woman with ice cream hair and miss matched eyes. Given her petit size and youthful looks people often would think she was a teenager than a woman actually in her early twenties. Neo only smirked at him with her hands on her hips. She had been coming to see how the dust robberies were going only to find Roman fighting some strange guy in white and all of Junior's men laying on the ground.

"I did, I totally had that fight," He lit his cigar. "He just caught me off guard with, well whatever he did."

Neo pulled out her scroll and then showed it to him as he saw that Neo had taken the time to actually record the final moments of the fight. Starting with him being slammed into the ground.

"I can't believe you recorded that," then he paused looking at her. "Okay actually yes I can believe it, but come on Neo, that's embarrassing."

He went to reach for it as she nimbly skipped out of reach wagging her finger at him.

"I'll get you a tub of your favorite ice cream."

Neo sauntered off, while tempting she could always get her own. This was too good of a video to delete anytime soon as she nearly laughed at how confident he had been just before the tables had turned.

"Damn it, you're going to hold that over me, aren't you?" It was a rhetorical question of course, he had taught her the value of blackmail material, maybe he taught her too well. Still his mind couldn't get over just what in the hell he had fought. It looked like a combat suit of some kind but whatever it was made of, it was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

He had a feeling this wouldn't be the end of things.

TBC…