Symbiote Knight

Chapter 9: Coffee

Now when Jaune thought about a friendly spar with team CFVY and team JNPR, he figured it would be something lighthearted or fun. What he forgot was that Team CFVY were a year ahead and were more experienced. They had more time to work on their teamwork, on their skills and Coco was a very confident leader.

They were currently in the large combat ring with the aura sensors on, which would blare out a warming if their aura got into the yellow. They weren't going full on to the red today just because there was no teacher to watch over them.

"What was I thinking?" Jaune muttered as he had to put his shield up again to take Coco's shots. Who knew that her weapon was a purse that turned into a minigun? How was that even possible? At first Jaune thought it was just a purse until it changed. Now it made sense why Nora had been blown back when she had been hit by said 'purse' earlier.

From his own equipment, his shield turned into a scabbard, but it didn't change the weight of it. That meant that purse had weight the same as that gun. Despite her slim frame she had to be very strong to carry that around all the time like it was nothing.

Then again Ruby was stronger too given how easily she used her weapon, and it was a huge scythe.

~Focus~

"Right sorry, got to focus." Jaune took the state of things. Coco had him pinned, Fox was going at it with Ren who thankfully was keeping up, if only barely. Yatsuhashi and Nora were pretty closely matched in strength. Pyrrha was of course dominating Velvet who for some unknown reason wasn't using her weapon but sticking to hand to hand.

'Huh…that's odd,' Jaune thought as one of the many bullets ricocheted off the top of his shield. 'Seriously, how much ammo does she have in that thing!?'

Jaune needed to think, they couldn't keep this up then he thought of Pyrrha's semblance, she might have better luck against Coco if she could start altering the bullets to hit less. Maybe have Nora and Ren switch up, switch up! That's it.

He ran towards Pyrrha keeping his shield pointed at Coco. "Pyrrha, switch!"

She didn't need to be told anything more as she managed to kick Velvet away and turned to face Coco as Juane quickly took her place.

"Nora, Ren, you too!" He called out.

"On it!" Nora jumped away as she placed her hammer on the floor, stepping on it and holding onto the shaft. She fired a round as the explosive sent her flying as she hollered in joy towards Ren. Ren for his part rolled away from Fox's arm blade strike and made for a dash for Yatshuashi. Fox tried to follow but quickly had to jump away from Nora slamming her hammer down where he had just been.

"You certainly like to make an entrance," Fox commented.

"Oh yeah I like to bring the thunder." She gripped her weapon in both hands now.

Fox rolled his shoulders with a grin as he rolled his shoulders. The ADA (Accessibility Dialogue Assistant) in his ear was giving him all the information on the battlefield. So far the switching was helping Team JNPR but it was only a stop gap for now. The sonar pulses used to give him 'sight' showed him exactly where they all were.

He jumped back and tried to slash in return at the girl but she swung her hammer back up surprisingly quickly knocking back his arm blade. The impact was so much he felt it in his bones.

"I see you're the heavy hitter on your team," Fox had to shake his arm, that would have really hurt if he took it square on.

'So, any thoughts?' Jaune asked his symbiote. There was a moment of quiet as he got confused as to why he hadn't answered back. 'Valor?'

~Sorry, distracted. I'm thinking~

'You can get distracted?'

~It's the blind one, he has some kind of device and it's sending out sonic pulses. I can feel it crawling all over me and I don't like it~

'Is it painful?'

~No, if he turned it up then it would start to get painful, this is more like having an itch all over you~

Jaune winced at that thought, it reminded him of that time his Nana gave him that itchy wool sweater for winter when he was a kid.

~Yes, like that~

Well now Jaune really understood why his partner was having a harder time to focus. Velvet was a lot better at hand to hand than he thought, then again given she wasn't using a weapon he had to guess she had to do it. Still, why wasn't she using her weapon?

He swiped at her but she move quickly. She had a lot of speed and was very nimble, her slim body working to her advantage. He went for a thrust as she ducked and quickly jumped up for a drop kick to his shield. Apparently her kicks were pretty strong too as he felt himself take a few steps back.

Coco however was getting a bit frustrated, her semblance Hype allowed her to increase the effects and power of dust, so having a ton of bullets, each one that she could make even more powerful was something useful for her. That is if she could actually HIT her target. Something was off here, no matter how many rounds she fired off Pyrrha wasn't getting hit and if she was, they were glancing blows off her shield. Now granted Coco knew her weapon was not geared for accuracy, she actually wasn't that great of a shot, hence why she opted for pure firepower and quantity in her weapon.

But she wasn't that bad of a shot, statistically some of her rounds should have landed. Coco had to turn off her weapon as Pyrrha had positioned herself so that if she continued firing she might hit Fox. Something Coco knew that the red head had done on purpose. She turned her weapon back into the handbag and quickly went after her. She was going to see just how good this champion was.

She cast a look to see that Fox and Yatshuashi were fighting against the other two, well she figured one good switch deserved another. "Fox!"

'Yes," he telepathically sent back to her.

'Switch back up while we're busy here with the other two, whoever beats them then helps the other to take out the other one and come here to help me.' Coco sent to him.

'Roger,' Fox kicked back Nora as he ran to Ren. 'Switch up big guy back to our original dance partners.'

Yatsuhashi nodded as he saw Nora going to Fox's exposed back as he quickly ran to take the block meant for him.

Yatsuhashi blocked the blow by Nora with his great sword. He could feel his weapon taking the blow, for someone so much smaller than him, she had a lot of power in her. The problem was she was also faster than he was, he had a huge and bulky body and while that was great for his position on the team as their heavy hitter, it meant he had to work harder to keep up with Nora.

But there was something he had that she lacked, patience. He studied her and found that she was fast and powerful she was also erratic. Her combat style was so free flowing it learned mostly self-taught. More of a brawler type than anything else, with some extra training she could be very formable one day.

He could use his semblance to gain an advantage, but Memory Wipe was…distasteful for him. The day he learned that his semblance was the erasing memories. He never went into it with his team as to why, but it wasn't just the wiping out a few seconds. He could wipe out important memories. What if he erased the memory of a family member or a lover to someone? What if he pushed it and could erase a full year of their lives?

His semblance actually scared him with how powerful it was. He was afraid of misusing it so if he was going to win this fight, he was going to use his skills. So when Nora went for a strike he used the hook end of his sword Fulcrum and hooked the staff part of her weapon and pulled it out of her grasp.

Nora was pulled forward off balance as Yatsuhashi then quickly struck her with the bottom of his hilt, followed by a kick to Nora's stomach ending with a slash to finish the combo. The ginger went down as her aura flared and a horn sounded. They both looked up to see that Nora hit the yellow.

"Aww, I'm the first one out?" Nora pouted.

He smiled reaching down to help her up. "It was still a fun match, I have a similar weakness in my combat with relying on my weapon. Coco keeps my training in hand to hand up, maybe you should think about it in case you ever lose your weapon again?"

Nora thought about it, she always had her weapon and while she could throw a punch, she wasn't like Ren or Pyrrha who have better hand to hand combat skills. She smiled and scratched the back of her head. "That makes sense."

Nora looked around as she saw her hammer off on the other side of the combat area. "Should we just wait here or…?"

"Well since you're 'out' I would suggest grabbing your hammer and wait out."

Nora sighed, "Yeah might we well, I can cheer from the side lines at least."

Jaune saw that Nora was out of the spar so he would have to take things up a notch with Velvet. This time however he had a plan, he pulled his sword back and had his shield out further. Velvet saw this and attempted to knock Jaune back again with a jump kick to his shield. Jaune planned for this as Valor made the bottoms of his feet stick to the ground so when Velvet hit the shield it was like hitting a wall.

Under his clothing Valor also encased Jaune's skin enhancing his body to absorb the impact.

To Velvet it felt like she just tried to kick the side of a support pillar, she hadn't been expecting Jaune to be able to tank her kick like he did. In fact, her own leg gave out and bent causing her to lose her balance in surprise. She had to twist to correct her landing, but it was all the opening that Jaune needed.

He sent a kick to her ribs that sent the girl flying, thanks to the enhancements with Valor the kick was a lot more powerful than a regular one. Velvet felt her aura take a huge hit from that from the blow. She landed hard from the blow but thankfully her aura was still holding up.

"Ow," She muttered staggering up and looked at her aura levels on the board. She was nearly in the yellow, one more hit and that was it for her.

"Are you okay?" Jaune paused, this was just a spar after all, so they didn't want anyone to get hurt.

"I'm fine, you kick harder than I thought," she told him and brought out her camera and took a snap shot of him. "Coco, I have to use at least one!"

"Alright but nothing you can't get again," Coco yelled back as she was busy herself dealing with Pyrrha who was pushing Coco to her limits.

Jaune was curious what they meant by that until suddenly a blue outline of a sword and shield came into view as she grabbed them. It took him a moment to realize that they were exact copies of his own weapons. "What in the world?"

Then Velvet came at him as he blocked and parried, which she parried as well. He would thrust and she could use her shield to divert it, her thrust would come at him as he dodged. Something was off as they continued to fight, and he suddenly realized this fighting style was so familiar.

~She's using your moves~

'Wait what?' He studied her movements and was shocked to see he was right. This was why this felt so familiar. She was perfectly copying him.

That's when the buzzer sounded as Juane looked to see Ren was out. Apparently, Fox and Yatsuhashi had teamed up and forced Ren out. Now both boys were heading towards Pyrrha. He had to get to her quickly.

His attention was brought back to Velvet as she had gotten back to attacking. Then she pulled back suddenly and Jaune was wondering what the girl was planning.

~Duck!~ The sensation of something coming up behind him warned Jaune as he dropped.

He noticed Velvet's shocked face right before Fox came sailing over him and accidentally kicked his own teammate. Wait, hadn't he gone to back up Coco? Or had that been a trick? It must have been, Velvet had shifted during their battle so his back was to them so he wouldn't notice Fox coming up to him. Oh, that was a good trick, he was going to have to remember that.

"Oh god, sorry Velvet!" Fox called out as the girl landed and her aura took a hit that sent off the horn as her aura which had been on the boarder of green to yellow, went deep into the yellow.

"It's fine," She sighed knowing she was out as her weapon simulation disappeared. She sat up and watched as Fox and Jaune were going at it. Fox's ability to telepathically talk to anyone was a huge tactical advantage for their team. They could coordinate better and change plans on the fly without anyone else knowing. Fox had sent her the message to get Jaune into position so he wouldn't see the attack coming.

Apparently, he had seen it coming since no one else shouted out a warning and she doubted team JNPR had someone like Fox on their team, his semblance was very unique and rare mental type, like Yatsuhashi's. Well, she would just have to remember that next time to be ready in case someone dodged the attack at the last second in the future.

Jaune was now being forced to deal with Fox, while his aura was larger than normal, fighting against Coco and Velvet was starting to tax it and even his symbiote couldn't replenish his aura supplies. Apparently, he had tried but aura was something a little hard to grasp even for it as it wasn't exactly something physical but more metaphysical.

~I really don't like being near him, that device in his ear is really annoying~

Jaune could feel the symbiote's discomfort, like something was crawling all over his skin.

"Nice dodge by the way," Fox commented in battle as he flashed a flurry of kicked before throwing in a few slashes with his arm blades making Jaune to use both sword and shield to keep up.

"Thanks, it was a good plan," Jaune had to jump back before speaking again. "Although you might want to help Coco and Yatsuhashi."

"You're not even looking at them," Fox countered and for a moment wondered if Jaune was like him and could sense the area around him with his semblance. He was close, Valor did give Jaune greater battlefield awareness but while he knew Pyrrha was doing just fine there was another reason.

"I don't need to, because they're up against Pyrrha." Jaune said having total faith in his partner.

Coco had to admit, the girl lived up to the hype. She was breathing hard as the red head was taking on both her and Yatsuhashi. Honestly, Coco wasn't sure they could win, maybe with the entire team but with Velvet out and Fox dealing with Jaune it was only a matter of time before Pyrrha took both of them out and then Fox if he didn't finish off Jaune, would have two on one.

Then just before she wanted to go in an try and attack Pyrrha's blind spot, Yatsuhashi went for a vertical slash as the woman just seemed to dodge just at the perfect time and then spun kicked his hand, sending his weapon flying out of his grasp. She didn't stop there though and during the spin her shield was up and slammed into his head knocking large young man to the ground.

The horn sounded as she looked to see his aura was in the yellow from that hit.

So, it was two to two and Coco was tired and Pyrrha looked ready for more. Coco was a team leader, and a good team leader knew when the odds were against you.

'What do you say boss?' Fox asked over the telepathic link.

'Can you finish off Jaune quickly?'

'Don't think so, guy is above average for his year, but he's got way more aura than I do, I could pull off a win, but it will take time.'

'Time, we don't have,' Coco saw the other girl gearing up for a fight. Coco sighed. 'Fuck…I hate losing but I have to call it.'

Coco held up her hands. "Okay I think that's all."

Pyrrha paused as she was actually starting to enjoy herself. Team CFVY had been very challenging opponents and Coco had pushed her to use her semblance to keep all those rounds off of her had pushed her semblance in ways she had to never use them before.

Fox stopped as did Jaune as Coco took a breath. "Yeah, I don't think I can beat you one on one and then Fox might have two on one after you beat me. I think I'll call it here and safe some embarrassment. Got to say for first years, you guys are tough."

"Damn right we are!" Nora yelled out from the benches making a fist bump in the air next to Ren and Velvet.

Everyone gathered on the benches to wipe off sweat, get drinks or just take a sit down.

"Well, that was fun," Fox stated.

"Yeah, we'll want a rematch," Coco nodded although they would be using this as a learning experience to come up with some new strategies. She could see a few areas to improve upon and they would need some way of neutralizing Pyrrha. She was the one they had to really watch out for the girl was scary good.

"I think we all could learn something," Jaune nodded sitting down. Although they had 'won' he was sure if he was like he had been before meeting Valor he would have been the first one out and not Nora.

"That's the important thing," Ren nodded his head. "We are here to learn to be Huntsmen."

'I think those are the most words I've heard him say today,' Fox telepathically called out to his team.

'Fox be nice, Jaune said he's a quiet type,' Velvet chided him.

"I am impressed with your teamwork though," Pyrrha commented. "At times it was like you all were fighting as one unit instead of four."

"That's all thanks to our secret weapon here," Coco grinned jerking her thumb at Fox.

They all looked at the blind boy wondering what she meant by that. Fox only grinned as soon team JNPR heard his voice, but in their heads.

'A little trick I do to keep us all on the same page,' He sent out. Then he paused for a moment as he felt something odd. Team JNPR reacted in surprise of course, Nora asking him to do it again, but Jaune seemed strangely conflicted, and it was from Jaune that Fox felt that odd reaction from.

Normally when he sends out a telepathic message, he creates a temporary 'link' as it were, like making a communication line. There is basically a sensation that he could call getting a 'ping' back from said person. Everyone felt different, it was how he was able to differentiate between links after all. But with Jaune, with Jaune he felt a second ping coming from him. Never in his life had this happened to him.

Just what was it? Maybe he imagined it, but that didn't feel right. Jaune and him locked eyes and the blonde boy quickly averted his eyes. Fox tilted his head, well that is interesting. Maybe it was nothing, but it could also be something. It was something to keep his eyes on to say the least since it could mean he might be on to something new about his own semblance for all he knew.

Jaune however was trying to keep both himself and Valor from panicking. The symbiote had felt the telepathic touch and it came as a surprise to the Klyntar. Granted his people were used to a hive mind mentality when they merged but this had been unexpected. He was sure the boy had sensed something, and the alien was worried their secret might be in jeopardy.

'Can you hide your presence if he tries again?' Jaune mentally asked worriedly.

~Maybe? I'd know for sure if I knew how it worked with him. I can try a few things but…we'll have to be careful of that one in the future.~

Jaune had to concede to his alien friend, if Fox found out he had two minds in the same body there was no real way to explain it away. Thankfully it seemed he reserved it for his teammates. Jaune tried to relax as the two teams started talking more as he got back to paying attention to what was being said.

-Later-

Jaune was walking the halls of Beacon wondering what to do for the rest of the day. He could hang out with everyone but something about the match today really started to make him wonder. Sure, he did very well but he knew he could do better. Not just in skills but also with working with Valor. While bonded they were better in sync with the other, but he needed to know more of what they could do together.

He remembered seeing that suit in the bathroom and decided that maybe it was time to really see what they do without restrictions. It had been on his mind since he made the choice to keep him, there was just one issue. What would people think of him suddenly forming a suit around himself?

Would they just accept it as a semblance? During their research time to help both of them understand the world more, they had read up on semblances. They found one that had a record of many of them. The problem being in that book there wasn't one semblance that acted like a suit.

Oh, sure you get things like energy constructs, to enhancing your body, controlling the environment, mind powers, elemental control, even effecting probability and a lot more. Hell, there were references to even types of teleportation. But forming a living suit around you didn't seem to be something recorded. At least in the one book he found, there could be some super rare forms not listed in that book. But then what if he actually did unlock his semblance? No one to his knowledge had two semblances.

Jaune needed somewhere he could practice, somewhere not at Beacon, there were just too many people around and not really large spaces he could use without someone seeing him. He couldn't use the training rooms as someone could just walk in, he couldn't use the classrooms even on the weekend for the same reason.

~Why not try the city?~

Jaune paused, there might be something there. Maybe they could find some kind of abandoned building or junkyard? He thought about how in comic books new heroes would sometimes go to places like that or rooftops to train, out of the way places so random people can't see them. It was either that or go into the forest but that had a lot of Grimm and he wanted to get more used to Valor before trying to face some random Grimm while still learning all his abilities.

Sure, people might see them but in the suit, no one would know who he was. They could easily just hide and change out if it quickly and he would be just another person on the street. It would be a lot harder to hide in Beacon.

So, without any other options, it looked like he was heading off to Vale for the rest of the day.

"That might work." He muttered kind of eager to try something he saw only in comic books before now. In fact, it was like they had a secret identity, a thought that thrilled his inner child. It was almost noon so the transports that ran from school to Vale would still be going. He could catch the next one, get a bite to eat and look around for somewhere private.

"Well, I haven't been to Vale since I got to Beacon, might as well." Jaune made his way to the launching pad hoping to catch the next one. Good thing they ran on a tight schedule. Then he suddenly paused. "Oh wait…I get air sick."

~I can fix that~

Jaune sighed. "Best alien buddy ever."

He pulled out his scroll and he got back to quickly making his way to text his team he was heading into the city so they wouldn't worry about him. He made a general excuse of looking for a few shops for some future purchases. He figured that was believable enough of an excuse.

His team messaged him back in their group App as they acknowledged it. Pyrrha was asking if he wanted company, but he said next time. It would be nice to hang out with his team in Vale, but they could do that next weekend. It was Sunday and he wanted to get in some training time with his suit in before Monday.

Besides it was just a small trip to the city, what's the worst that could happen?

TBC…