Symbiote Knight
Chapter 23: Vale Knight Rising
Jaune and Pyrrha were far enough from the siren sounds that they started a brisk walk towards the Bullhead station. Jaune was a little thankful to avoid unnecessary complications at the moment, not to mention Glynda's wrath if she had to come down to the police station to 'pick up' several students.
Still, he was worried about the others.
~We can always call them up on their scrolls~
'Oh good idea,' He pulled out his scroll.
"What are you doing?" Pyrrha asked curious to what he was doing.
"Just checking in on the others, I'll try Ruby first, can you get Nora or Ren?" He asked her.
She nodded as she pulled out her scroll, she figured Ren would have his on and ready. Jaune didn't have to wait long before Ruby picked up.
"Jaune?"
"Hey Ruby, how are you and Yang doing?"
"Well, we ducked into an alleyway and catching our breath before we head out…" Muffled sounds of people could be heard.
This caught Jaune's attention. "Ruby? You guys okay?"
"I'm not sure some other girls just showed up and-hey! What's your problem! Ah!" Then the line cut out.
Now Jaune was worried, something seriously wrong was going on here. He shared a look with Pyrrha who had noticed something was wrong while on the scroll with Ren.
"Ruby and Yang are in trouble," he wasn't sure where they were, but they had to be close by. They wouldn't have gotten far, sure Ruby could but there was no way she was leaving Yang behind, so they had to move at Yang's top speed.
"What are you thinking?" She asked.
Jaune had no idea if Ruby and Yang were the only ones in trouble or some of the others were as well.
~We can cover more ground together unrestricted~
He didn't like the idea of leaving Pyrrha on her own, but she was the strongest person he knew as well, if anyone could take care of herself she could. "Can you make sure the others are, okay?"
"You're going to make sure they're okay aren't you." She stated knowing what was going through his mind.
"Yeah, but it's not like I'm alone either," he looked around and stepped into an alley out of view of the main street. Then his symbiote came out covering him in the white armor that she had seen him before. Only now it started to change to the cape and hood with the Arc symbol on the chest being turned sideways into a single moon shape.
"We can cover more ground this way."
She nodded her head. "Alright but call right away if you're in a lot of trouble."
"We will," his 'cape' then reached up to the sides of the buildings and pulled him up as he climbed the building like a giant insect or something.
"Good luck," Pyrrha whispered.
-Earlier-
Yang and Ruby had just ducked into a side alley as Yang needed to catch her breath. She was still not fully recovered from her fight but at least she was good enough to keep up with her little sister. The smell of the alley wasn't the most pleasant but at least it kept them out of sight. She already dodged trouble after the club thing, her dad had gotten it out of her that night what happened and the long lecture she got made her realize just how much more trouble that could have been if the police had caught her.
It also didn't help that she had thrown the first punch either.
At least this time she could claim self-defense, since it was Jaune that had thrown the first punch, not that she thought Goodwitch would see if that way.
"How far are we from the Bullhead station?" Ruby asked panting a little.
"Shouldn't be too far from here," Yang had a good grasp of the area they were in. Vale was a huge city but thankfully they were in an area she was more familiar with. "If we're lucky we'll get there with everyone soon."
"Oh, I don't think you'll be getting very far from here," a female voice came from the entrance of the alleyway they had come from. Yang and Ruby looked back, and Yang's eyes widened a bit in recognition of the two twin girls along with a shorter girl she didn't know who was dressed in a white and pink outfit and with mixed pink and brown hair and eyes.
"Oh great, you two," Yang sighed as she really didn't want to deal with this today.
"So, looks like she remembers us Miltia," The white one, Melanie spoke.
"She should, given what she did to the club Melanie." Her twin spoke up.
"Look I've already had a fight with another pair of twins today plus do you two really want me to kick your asses again?" Yang wasn't too afraid of them. Sure, she was low on aura, but she knew she could take the two. Then she looked at the shorter girl with them. "What, you think the short stack there is your backup?"
Yang didn't see the girl as much of a threat given her small size, it was hard to judge the girl's age but to Yang she didn't seem to be much of a threat.
Neo only grinned, everyone other than those that knew her, always underestimated her because of her size. The twins knew firsthand what she could do and judging from the blonde she wouldn't be much of an issue for her. Neo could see from the way she carried herself the blonde was a straight up fighter, someone that most likely tried to power through her fights, Neo preferred to be more fluid and used speed and agility.
"Uh, look I don't know what's going on," Ruby asked from behind Yang. "But I don't suppose we could just go?"
"Nope," The red twin said reaching behind her and putting on her clawed weapons.
"We have a score to settle with Blondie over there," the other twin said doing the same only putting them on her boots.
"Yang, what did you do?" Ruby looked at her sister.
Yang at least had the good graces to look a little sheepish at the question. "Kind of a long story."
"That's about to have an unhappy ending," Miltia said before jumping in to attack with a side kick as Yang quickly blocked it with her own weapons on her arms. The other twin rushed in to attack the other side, but Yang was quick to deflect that one too.
Neo tilted her head seeing the girls take on the blonde as her mixed eyes turned to see the red hooded younger girl pulling out her scroll. She calmly walked over to her as she was busy on the call to notice.
"I'm not sure some other girls just showed up and-hey!" Ruby looked up from her call as Neo was now in her face. "What's your problem! Ah!"
Neo quickly grabbed the scroll and threw it onto the ground before stomping on it.
"My scroll!" Ruby was not looking forward to trying to explain why she needed to get a replacement. She glared at the silent girl in front of her. "What's your deal?!"
Neo only smirked as she quickly lashed out with a kick to Ruby's chest, the red hooded reaper wasn't expecting it as she was knocked into the hard wall behind her.
"Ruby!" Yang called out only to pay for the distraction with punch to the face from Miltia.
"Better keep focus blondie," Melanie taunted following up her sister's attack with one of her own.
"I'm fine Yang, just focus on them," Ruby pushed herself up. Neo just stood there with a smirk on her face. Suddenly Ruby dashed forward with her semblance, 'rose peddles' flowing behind her. Neo hadn't known what the girl's semblance was, so she was caught off guard, well at first. She had enough combat experience to not let that momentary surprise to be her downfall in a fight like this.
She quickly side stepped as Ruby just missed her. Neo could feel the air pressure the little girl made which impressed her a bit. A little bit faster and she could have gotten Neo with that attack and with that much force would have been a decent hit, too bad Neo now knew what to watch out for.
Ruby's feet hit the wall as she pushed off and used her semblance again, it was a tight space and she didn't' have much room to move around in here, she couldn't gain her top speed, but she felt she was moving fast enough. The girl however dodged again, this time Ruby's attack way a lot wider. She stopped herself from hitting the other wall again only to feel a kick to the back of her knee.
She cried out as her leg crumpled under the blow for a bit only to feel the sting of something large and surprisingly solid hit her head. She was thankful for aura, but the blow still left her staggered as she did her best to roll to the side to avoid what looked like an umbrella to her hitting the place where she had been. What that the thing that hit her in the head? It felt a lot more solid than something like that should have been.
Neo merely smirked pulling her parasol back and twirling it with the handle, she was confident she could take this girl easily, maybe she would take the red hood as a present for Roman?
"Ahh!" Miltia was flung into a garbage can near by as the girl shook her head and gritted her teeth before slowly getting back up.
"Stay away from my sister you little punk," Yang's eyes glowed red as the other twin was pushing herself up off a wall.
Neo raised an eyebrow, the twins weren't out of the fight yet, but Neo could see they were struggling although the blonde looked to have taken a few solid hits in. Had the twins gotten a bit soft from being bodyguards and dealing with low class criminals all this time? Or maybe it was just they weren't used to dealing with a strong opponent.
"Well? You just going to stand there?" Yang put up her fists.
Neo gave a look to Miltia next to her.
"Yeah, yeah we know but she's a pain to fight," the twin sister said back reading that look. "I'd like to see you do better."
Neo rolled her eyes at the obvious bait but honestly, she wasn't above showing off her skills, maybe the two would learn to train a bit more. Neo walked up as Yang rushed in, she punched several times, but Neo was always one move ahead, she would dodge, deflect effortlessly. This only made Yang more annoyed as she tried for a lock kick only for the parasol to whack her in the shin painfully.
Yang hopped back from the pain but quickly fired a few well aimed shots, this time Neo simply opened her parasol and used it as a shield that somehow took the weapons fire. Yang knew it had to be a weapon by this point but what it had to be made of she had no idea, it looked too flimsy to tank her shots like that but there wasn't even a mark on it.
"Yang," Ruby rushed forward but her cape was quickly caught by Miltia as the woman pulled hard sending Ruby slamming onto her back, suddenly the young girl felt the red clad twin's foot slam into her sternum as the red blade on her arm was pointed at her face.
"You stay right there, we'll deal with you after Blondie is dealt with," Miltia said as Melanie came over.
"Should we deal with her now and make Blondie watch or let her watch us take Blondie apart first?" She asked her sister.
"Let's see what Neo leaves us with first," Miltia stated.
Ruby tried to get up but a painful boot of the white twin on her wrist kept her pinned.
"Leave her alone!" Yang screamed out as the glow around her intensified, she needed to get past the girl in front of her and save her little sister, but the little annoyance was proving to be a lot tougher than she looked. Yang couldn't even land a single hit on her, which was infuriating.
Not far away Jaune was running over the rooftops with Valor covering him as the two were trying to find where the sisters were. They couldn't be far, but Vale was a bit city, Jaune was getting worried as it sounded like Ruby and Yang got into trouble before the call broke off.
~We will find them~ Valor encouraged.
"I know, but I'm worried," Jaune wasn't internally talking at the moment, he was just too preoccupied with trying to find his friends to worry about it. "I know they can usually take care of themselves, but I just have a bad feeling."
~Wait, do you hear that?~
Jaune paused as he listened and heard the sound of gunshots, no wait, he knew those sounds. Those were Yang's weapons they had this distinctive boom sound when they fired, and he heard it enough times to know that sound by now. The problem was it was echoing off the buildings, so he wasn't sure where it was coming from.
~That way~
He felt a 'tug' in a certain direction, he trusted his alien partner to know how to find it though the sounds. He just chalked it up to something the alien could do that he couldn't. He rushed over and as he got closer, he could hear the sounds of fighting, he also heard Ruby's voice calling out as well. He had to hurry, they sounded like they were in real trouble.
"How far can we fall like this?"
Valor already knew what he had planned. ~We can easily fall that far~
"Good."
When he got the alley that's when he jumped.
Yang was not doing so good the previous fight had taken a lot out of her and the half pint had Yang on the ropes. Her aura was nearly gone, one more good hit and that was it, she could feel it. Ruby was still being pinned to the ground and all Yang could feel was that she let her sister down again. The immense guilt that she felt for that one day as kids after nearly getting her baby sister and herself killed by Grimm came back in full force.
She hated herself for this, worse this had been her idea to come out tonight. She should have just kept the idea to herself, she should have been stronger to defend her sister, she should have told Jaune how she felt, she should have called dad more often, she should have trained more. So many things she wished she could do over again, but she kept her guard up because she wasn't going to give up, because as long as her sister needed her, she couldn't give up.
She was about to throw herself into one last ditch effort when a white form slammed into the ground between the twins and her opponent.
Everyone looked as the crouched form in white stood, he was a tall man with a fully white suit, a cape and hood much like Ruby's but with a crescent moon symbol on his chest. The twins didn't even get a word out before the cape seemed to come alive and slammed into each twin sending them off of Ruby.
Neo blinked surprised that the one person all this trouble started for had appeared. She heard the blonde rushing and twisted around and slammed the handle of her weapon into the back of her head. She saw the aura shatter as the blonde stumbled to the ground catching herself with her hands before completely falling.
As much fun as this was, Roman needed this. She pulled out her scroll and started to record everything.
"Are you okay?" Jaune said surprised by the sound of his voice, it was totally different coming out.
~I figured this would help~
Jaune mentally thanked him as he helped up Ruby.
Ruby blinked before letting him help her up, "Uh yeah, wow are you really that Vale Knight guy people have been asking about? How do you make your cape do that? Is it a weapon? It moved like it was alive, that was so cool!"
Ruby was gushing over meeting what was essentially a real-life superhero like in the comics she read. She was also very fascinated by his suit, she couldn't see any seems or anything, like it was grown on him or something, it perfectly fit him and the way the cape moved, she had no idea how he was pulling that off.
All thoughts of that stopped when Yang fell next to them. "Yang!"
She immediately went to her big sister's side. "Are you okay?"
"Could be better," She was helped up to her feet looking around. "So…now what?"
"Keep each other safe," Jaune told them. "I got this."
He looked to see the twins were getting back up as the other one was, wait, was she recording this on hers scroll!?
~I've been around but this is odd even for me~
'Agreed, well she's at least not doing anything now, keep an eye on her while we deal with the twins first since they seem to be more aggressive of the three of them.'
~On it, by the way, here they come~
Jaune's attention went back to the twins as the white one with the foot blades came in with low to medium kicks and the red one with, he claws come in high and to the side. Neither blade could get through the symbiote, as force of the blades hitting it were easily repulsed without any damage to the alien. While the symbiote could be cut, it took blades a lot better and with more force than what the twins were using.
The Malachite sisters weren't ones to give up easily as they attacked in sync, Jaune however by this point was a lot more combat experienced than when he first started. All those times training in his dreams with the symbiote, all those extra training with Pyrrha, Yang, his team, team CFVY and even the few lessons with Weiss. They all culminated in the new Jaune that had started to hone his combat knowledge.
Melanie went for a high kick to his shoulder only for Jaune to block it with his forearm as his 'cape' whipped out to her one leg still planted on the ground and wrapped around her ankle before pulling hard, making the white dressed twin slam onto her back.
Miltia tried to take advantage thinking the guy was too focused on her sister but without looking at her he spun around and as he turned grabbed her wrist with one hand and the other grabbing the back of her clothing as he tossed her across the alley into the opposite wall. She was surprised by just how strong the throw had been, he was a lot stronger than he looked as her shoulder took the blunt of the impact.
"This is so cool," Ruby was wondering how the cape kept moving like that, it looked like the thing was alive.
"He's not bad," Yang commented granted the guy was still a little rough in the hand-to-hand department, but she could tell that guy had been trained. Actually, there was something kind of familiar about this fighting style. She couldn't place her finger on it, but some moves seemed familiar to moves she had learned.
She watched as his blocked the white dressed twin's foot blades after getting up, he was blocking them with the forearm guards he had. It was like how she fought with her weapons using them to block like that. Granted that could be just because of the similar armor they had on their arms, but it nagged at her. There were a few other moves that looked familiar but then he would do something unexpected, like how that cape of his just seemed to lash out on its own.
'Got to be a semblance of some kind,' She figured. Maybe this guy was some failed huntsman? Or someone that decided to go into crime fighting instead?
Yang wanted to jump in, but her aura hadn't recovered yet and without that, those blades the girls had would cut right into her. She also cast a look at the shorter third girl who was doing nothing but recording things. She had given Yang so much trouble in the fight that Yang wasn't sure what the girl could do when she got serious. All through the fight she got the feeling the girl was just playing with her, which annoyed Yang to no end.
Neo had to admit that this was good fortune to run into this 'Vale Knight' character but even she had to admit that living cape was a problem. At any rate she was thinking she might have enough footage when the twins were changing tactics. She saw the glance they shared and knew they were up to something.
Miltia ran at him to get his attention but then Melanie as she was running at him suddenly turned, she was now going for the Yang and Ruby.
Jaune's 'cape' was entangling Miltia but thanks to Valor he could 'see' the other twin going for his friends even though Jaune was facing the opposite way.
~They don't know the cape isn't the only thing that can move~ Valor smugly said as Jaune's left arm stretched out as the costume on it extended and wrapped around the girl's waist. He tossed said girl right at the feet of Neo as the other one held in the cape soon followed.
"Okay then, I think it's time we ended-" He paused as soon sirens were head. What no one had known was that Yang's gunshots were reported and the police were on the way to investigate.
"Neo?" Miltia asked.
The girl put away her scroll and gave a bow to everyone. Jaune was confused not sure what was going on, but he figured he had to catch them before the cops got here. He reached out as he felt something solid for a brief moment.
Then suddenly the world in front of them shattered like they had punched a mirror as all three girls were just gone now. The shards vanishing away as they fell leaving an empty spot in front of him.
"Huh?" Jaune looked around.
~Okay…I didn't expect that~ Valor had felt something but hadn't known what it was. Whatever that little girl did it had fooled even his senses for a moment. It was a bit embarrassing to be honest, but he would think on that later, first priority was to see to the girls.
"Are you two all right?" Jaune asked them.
"Well until the cops get here and ask why I was shotting up the place with no one else in sight with a vigilante next to us," Yang commented.
"Oh right," Jaune could see the flashing lights now, they were close. "Trust me to get you out of this?"
"I mean, he did save us," Ruby said to Yang.
"Alright, just do whatever you want to do quickly," Yang wasn't sure what story to tell the police that wouldn't get them into trouble, so anything was better than that. Suddenly he grabbed both girls by the waist telling them to hang on as his cape stretched out like long limbs, carrying them all to the rooftops.
By the time the cops searched the alley they had found signs of a fight but no one around.
On a nearby rooftop the three of them decided to catch a break.
"Okay that was both scary and kind of fun," Ruby spoke up. "Seriously, how does your suit do all that?!"
"Uh…sorry trade secret," Jaune told her not sure what else he could say.
"Oh, come on!" Ruby pouted she hated not knowing how it worked.
"Well at least we're fine now," Yang said.
"AH!" Ruby nearly jumped as she suddenly remembered. "I was on the phone with Jaune! They got to be worried about us when that nasty girl destroyed my scroll, also how am I going to explain that to the school?"
"You can just say you lost it, flew out when you were zipping around or accidentally stepped on it, no big," Yang pulled out her own scroll and tossed it to her. "Here, let him know we're okay, I want to thank 'Mr. Hero' here."
"Okay," Ruby pulled out the scroll and first tried Jaune.
Jaune panicked as he still had his scroll on him, thankfully Valor was quick to turn the device off.
"Huh, he's not picking up," She tried Pyrrha next and got her. "Hey Pyrrha? Yeah, we're fine now, man you will not believe what just happened…"
Yang let Ruby continue talking as she looked back to the man in front of her. "So, what do I call ya big guy?"
"Well, uh, everyone just calls me Vale Knight so that's good enough," he scratched the back of his head.
Yang raised an eyebrow at that but shrugged it off. "Well thanks for the save, if that little silent one wasn't there, I could have taken those two, but she had me on the ropes so thanks." She looked up at him, he was a tall boy, most likely at least six feet tall the suit really cut a fine figure though. He had this air of mystery about him being a masked vigilante and all. If it wasn't for Jaune she might have taken an interest in him.
Doesn't mean she could have a little fun.
"So," she leaned in looked up at him with a flirty expression. "Is this the part where the damsel in distress thanks the hero with a kiss?"
"W-what!? N-no, I mean it would be nice, not that you're not pretty-you really are-but I don't want to force anything or make you feel you need to, you know, I'm just here, well that's to say-" He stopped fumbling over his words when she started laughing.
"You're messing with me, aren't you?" Jaune said in a deadpan voice.
"Sorry, had to try it," She smirked at him. "Nice to know you're a good guy to the core, although if I didn't already like someone, I would be tempted."
"Oh? Sounds like a lucky guy." Jaune had no idea that Yang had feelings for someone. He was starting to wonder who it could even be she didn't hang out with any guys that he knew of other than himself and Ren. Maybe it was a crush on a boy she hadn't talked to? No way, she wasn't the type to be shy around this, she would just go up to the guy, right? She always seemed so confident to him that way.
Yang paused seeing Ruby still on the phone.
"I'm seriously Weiss, we ran into him!"
Apparently, she was calling everyone to catch the up on things. She looked away off in the distance as this was a bit of an awkward subject. The only person she really had talked to about this was Pyrrha, but there was just something about this Knight guy, something familiar, something welcoming.
"Yeah, well the guy is a good guy but he's kind of dense when it comes to women," Yang sighed crossing her arms. "Plus, it's complicated."
Jaune remembered another saying his mother used to say. "Well sometimes you can only tell a stranger what you can't tell a friend."
Yang paused to look at him mentally debating but in the end who was he going to tell?
"Well okay then, see I like him, but he likes a member of my team," she started to explain.
"That does sound complicated," Jaune was wondering who it was this person had a crush on.
~Seriously Jaune?~
'What?' he mentally asked.
"Although he also doesn't know that I like him, but also his partner also has feelings for him."
Jaune got quiet as suddenly felt some creeping revelation was coming up no matter how much his brain was in denial about it.
"So…he likes a member of your team but both you and his partner like him…how about the girl he likes?" Jaune got a sinking feeling in his stomach now.
"Weiss is kind of, well at first she couldn't stand him but now I'm thinking she's warming up to him, which makes it even more complicated." Yang let out a frustrated sigh. "I know she's the one he's got his eyes on but come on, there are two other options right in front of him and he doesn't see it? It gets a little frustrating."
~I think she's talking about you~
'I mean…it could be just, you know…coincidence?' Even as he thought about it, he knew it sounded lame. He just couldn't wrap his mind around it, he was hoping that he was just misunderstanding things.
"Even sang a love song duet with him and he still didn't get the message," Yang grumbled a little.
~Well no denying it now~
'Oh god you're right, wait when did Yang start liking me?'
~Maybe ask her?~
'How am I supposed to do that without sounding creepy or odd?'
~There's also the Pyrrha thing too~
'Oh god Pyrrha!' The sudden realization that Yang had basically said that Pyrrha liked him was another bombshell of a revelation. How in the world was he supposed to deal with that? His own partner had feelings for him, and he hadn't even noticed? Just how in the world had he gotten into this kind of situation?
"You okay there?" Yang asked seeing him all still and silent.
"Oh, uh sorry, that's just a lot of information," He replied trying to shake out of the shock of it all.
A flash caught their attention as they looked to see Ruby taking a picture and then doing something with the scroll. "See! I told you we met him Weiss."
"What are you doing?" Yang asked finally.
"Weiss wanted proof," Ruby shrugged as she continued to talk.
"Well, I better go now, there's a fire escape over there you can use to get down, I got, like, patrolling the city stuff to do." Jaune told her.
"Okay well thanks again for the save," Yang told him.
Jaune nodded as he jumped off as Valor stretched out one of his limbs to allow them to swing off.
"Seriously, how does that suit work like that?" Ruby muttered watching him leave.
TBC…
So, there you have it, sorry for the lateness of this dealing with some stuff. My PC at home just died so I got to get it taken in today, thankfully I have other ways to type but this might slow me down.
Also yeah, wanted to have a bit of a twist there at the end with Jaune accidentally finding out about his situation, now the ball is in his court.