Honour's Curse - A RWBY fanbook

Chapter 9 - Tinkering and Tango

My desk was covered with tools, and my gauntlet lay on it, its inner workings slayed outwards, ready to be altered. I had planned on doing this for a while before, the vibration sensor had become obsolete with the realisation of my Wolf abilities, so it was only a matter of time before it had to go. Instead I was going to replace it with a new dust mechanic that would help me develop a new technique. I was replacing the sensor with a dust powered impact explosive device, if all went well, it would allow me to create an impact zone around me when combined with a fully powered punch to the ground in my Wolf form. I had previously designed the device, and was now setting to work building the thing in.

It took a few hours, but the upgrade was finally complete. The next step was to test the device, but I needed someone to train with, just to make sure that if anything went wrong, I wouldn't be stranded on my own. Just as I was wondering, who to ask about such a task, I heard a thud coming from the roof, followed by a familiar whiny "Ow." Seemed like Jaune and Pyrrha were doing some training already, it probably wouldn't be too much of an ask to join them.

I leaned against the wall, my arms crossed, watching the two partners' fight unfold. Jaune went for a well executed, but predictable swipe at Pyrrha's top half, she easily ducked down and dodged it like nothing. Pyrrha herself countered with a quick stab towards Jaune's stomach, so which I was surprised to see him move his shield just enough to block the hit. Even Pyrrha seemed surprised at this confident move, but as he was just about to go for a downward slash towards her, he was toppled to the floor by a sweeping kick from below. I began to clap slowly with a grin on my face as I walked out of the shadows. "Quite a show." I said, as I walked.
"Ettore!" They both yelled in surprised unison.
"You guessed it." I bowed, now fully revealing myself.
"Heh heh, what's up buddy?" Jaune tried to laugh off his obvious embarrassment.
"Nothing to be embarrassed about Jaune, you did good." I tried to ease his mind, "As for what I'm here for, I needed some training time."
"You're welcome to join us." Pyrrha offered politely.
"Of course," I said, "but not here."
"What do you mean?" Jaune questioned in a worried tone.
"Grab on." I told them, flaring my red flames and spreading my wings out behind me.

Both of them hesitated, not knowing exactly what to do. I decided to take charge. I stepped back, and launched myself forward into a charge, flying slightly off of the ground. I held out my hands to both of them as I passed, both grabbed onto my wrists in a secure grip. "Don't look down." I said to Jaune.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." He replied. He was still afraid of flying.

We landed at an abandoned warehouse just outside of Vale. A large, decaying building with grey walls, some of which were punctured with claw and teeth marks. Parts of the roof had been torn open, and plant-life crawled over the place. "Woah, what is this place?" Jaune asked, looking around in wonder and some pretence of worry.
"It was a failed expansion project, Vale wanted to expand its borders on the main city, but all attempts to build outside city walls immediately fell to coordinated Grimm attacks soon after completion. Other than that, this was my home for a while." I explained.
My two companions looked at each other in worry and confusion, "What do you mean, 'your home'?" Pyrrha questioned.
"I was going through a rough patch. It was a year ago now, I was in Vale doing some work with some sort of security detail - I don't remember the details - but somewhere during that job, I got in trouble with a few local gangs. I had to find a place outside the main city at short notice, and this was the first place I came across." I told them.
"So why bring us here?" Pyrrha asked.
"Let me show you." I began, "You might want to stand back." I activated my gauntlet, flicking it into the new setting. I flared the black flames from my eyes, pulling back my left arm and summoning as much power as I possibly could into it. I slammed the full force of my punch into the ground. The ground cracked beneath me, the fire dust flew outwards into the cracks created, igniting the concrete and firing up through the cracks in the floor. The fire created a circular area around me, effectively becoming a barrier to keep out any opponent. It worked perfectly.