Hey guys, just a little AN here. I was wondering if anyone was willing to be a beta for a few of my stories, nothing big but I feel like my writing can be a bit contrived at times. So, I figured having someone else will balance it out. Thanks by the way.

Love you guys so much,

XOXOXO

CoffeyJoe

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The odor at the docks was rather... unique in that it reminded me of something from the lowest rung of Hell.

I felt my features tighten in disgust and I sighed wearily, when I'm a crime boss I won't ever have to degrade myself like this ever again. I had been combing the underbelly of this godforsaken city, using my semblance for information, for over 7 hours now, say what you will about this Torchwick fellow but when he didn't want to be found, you would never find him.

Eventually, and with luck from the gods themselves, I finally came upon this warehouse. Innocuous to the naked eye, but I suppose that's why it was a den of thieves, criminals, and all other manner of unsavory folk. I crouched down behind a spare mound of debris and garbage to do a scan of the scene; nothing was really out of the ordinary, and I'm sure I could approach just fine, but I had a feeling that getting into the warehouse would prove a lot more difficult.

I crept slowly closer to one of the side doors, a thick steel-reinforced thing with a small slot for the eyes of the person behind the door.

How cliche I thought, eyes narrowing as I banged a fist onto the door. A few seconds later the latch opened to reveal a pair of mistrusting brown eyes who, in turn, narrowed themselves at me.

"Get loss kid before I fucking gut you." he growled out, apparently irritated at my... untimely approach.

"Open the door and let me inside." I said calmly, biting down the desire to tell him to go fuck himself.

Never making that mistake again...

The door opened after a cartoonishly large amount of lock openings and he lead me into the nerve center of whatever operation this was. He lead me up a small catwalk that overlooked the entire warehouse floor where men dressed it street clothes ran back and forth, arms full of crates and weapons and what appeared to be cases of dust? Speaking of which, there was a lot of dust cases in this warehouse. I mean enough that it would have made international news if the police busted this place and got this gang's full score.

I nudged my guide and he turned to look at me. "What's with all the dust?"

The gorilla faunus just kinda shrugged. "From what I hear? It's all for the overboss, apparently he's gonna need this stuff for some science project he's doing. But, I'm just a grunt so they don't tell me much."

"Well at least you know your job. But wait, what do you mean overboss?" I asked, from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of gang hierarchy I didn't think overboss was a rank used all that much.

"Hmm?" he spied me from the corner of his eye. "Yeah, the overboss. The kind've boss of bosses, y'know? Fancy guy in a suit and cane came waltzing in here a few months back and declared us all under his employ. Of course our old boss didn't take too kindly to that and naturally tried killing him, aaaannnnd the new guy who replaced him was a lot more... docile about being under the employ of someone else."

Fancy guy with a cane? Sounds like someone whose name rhymes with "Bowman Porchslick". But damn Roman if he wasn't slick, using satellite gangs to move his shit? That's ingenuity, if this operation got busted they could never get it back to the actual guy in charge, the regional manager would take the fall and I'm guessing Torchwick had more than one of these going on in the city.

But, perhaps he'd drop by and visit, especially if I orchestrated a little chaos to catch his eye. Unfortunately, the ground-level guards had started to take notice of the ragged 17 year old who was standing next to the door guard like I was on a factory tour.

"Take me to the guy who runs this place." I ordered, not taking my eyes off some of the more curious guards.

"Your the boss." He shrugged, a tad sardonically which had me cocking my head in confusion. Last time I checked my thralls did not give me much back chat, but this guy was something new.

We walked along the catwalk before we ended up near some manager's office, a blue door marking the entrance. The thug next to me sniffed and shrugged a muscled shoulder at the decrepit office.

"There it is boss, head in when you're ready." he lazily waved a hand back at me as he left leaving me to just stare perplexed at his back.

I shook my head and walked through the door, not bothering to knock, after all...

I was his new employer.

The man sitting behind the desk shot up, clearly not expecting any interruptions. He was wearing a normal three piece suit that must've been at least moderately expensive, but still probably cost more than I'd ever made. The man himself a mid thirty something guy with a set of claw marks going down the right side of his head, permanently shaving off some of the oiled black hair.

"And who the fuck are you?" he spat, jerking his chin in my direction.

"Don't talk to me like that." I started off before shaking my head. "Anyways I'm looking for your boss, perhaps by the name of Torchwick?"

Mr Whatever-The-Fuck blinked at me before nodding slowly and sitting down. "Y-Yeah, he runs this show around here and I stand-in for him."

"Could you contact him?" I asked, perhaps a tad hopefully.

"No, he tells me what to do and if something happens he always knows. Always." the crime boss in front of me stated with certainty.

Well, that would complicate things I suppose. C'est la vie I suppose, so it was time to go with the much lengthier and much more painstakingly annoying Plan B.

"Well I guess it's good I'm your new boss, and here's the new score pal." I said, taking a seat on the corner of the desk. "You see buddy, can I call you buddy? Anyways, what I need you to do is tell your men downstairs that I'm acting as a stand-in for Torchwick, and my word is now law."

Buddy just shrugged and got up from the fine desk to trudge outside and begin to address his men. I followed him at a slight distance just in case his loyal soldiers decided a mutiny was the next best bet as he whistled to get their attention. A few workers, already a little wary of my entry, turned their full attention to their boss who cleared his throat once before he started talking.

"There's been a small shift in management fellas. From now on, we're going to be listening to this guy as he acting on Roman Torchwick's behalf, so I want you all to follow his orders." The man said, eyes roaming over the crowd of thugs for any sign of discrepancy.

When it became apparent that the gang members had accepted their new overlord, the boss nodded and returned to me. I waved him back into the office before shutting the door and taking a seat across from him.

"What did Roman need all this dust for?" I asked, to be honest that fact just now hit me. I mean, being a criminal kingpin with a shitload of dust made sense in its own right, but this seemed like a little bit of a gamble for just getting some more firepower.

The scarred man shrugged. "Dunno, he barely told me anything other than he would need it in a business venture he was going into. He's not exactly the type of guy to go spewing information to anyone he employs."

Ok, fair enough I suppose. But a business venture? Somehow I didn't think this was a large-scale charity donation, so I could only really imagine that this "venture" was one of a criminal sort.

"Well, at least he won't miss too much of this dust then." I mused to myself before regarding my subordinate. "Get the grunts to start hauling some of the nastiest dust we have into a secure location. I think I'd like to have a bit of fireworks to celebrate the first step on my journey to criminal kingpin. You can go downstairs and join the others as well, consider yourself an honorary member of their family from now on."

He nodded and got up from his chair to start barking orders at the others. Meanwhile I took a seat at the expensive desk where he had formerly sat and just took in all the grandeur. I'm not ashamed to admit I basked in a small surge of childlike excitement, I mean come on, this was just a taste of what I could have one day! Idly I flicked through the drawers to see if there was anything worth taking until I came upon a small wooden box. Opening it up revealed its contents to be a row of fine cigars, the ones from Vacuo, which I picked out like it was a newborn.

This was it, all the times I had dreamt of myself in this position and it was finally happening. On a smaller scale of course, but nonetheless this was it! I like to think few people can achieve their childhood dream in the fullest like I did. I put the cigar in my mouth and fiddled around in my coat pocket for my lighter which flicked on with its eerie purple glow. I lit the cancerous stick and took a full puff like I saw those guys in the movies do.

And promptly coughed my lungs out.

Whatever, it was my first time smoking such a hefty thing. I think I was allowed a little trial and error, so note to self: when indulging in your first cigar, do not take a long drag on it. I regained some air into my lungs and tried again, only on a much, much smaller scale in comparison. To be honest, it was kind of nice, it's not everyday you get to enjoy one these you know. I sat there, lightly puffing on the cigar and enjoying it, it tasted almost like cinnamon with just a hint of smoke and it smelled rather nice if I was being honest.

I could get used to this...

0-0-0-0

My loud snoring was awoken by a surly hand shaking me awake sometime in the morning. The last thing I blearily remembered was falling asleep in the cushy warehouse office last night after drinking some of the former boss's liquor. The door guard that showed me in yesterday looked less than impressed at my visage but waited for me to say something.

"W-What is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. "This had better be important."

The imposing faunus shrugged. "Yeah, well, we got the dust set up like you wanted. It's in a place on the trashier side of Vale, so it's not likely there'll be many cops around to bust us before we begin."

Oh, right, my grand plan for getting Torchwick here. In hindsight it seemed a little bit rash, I wasn't sure if lighting a bunch of explosives off in a ghetto would attract attention like I had hoped it would. In that, instead of Torchwick coming here, I'd have VCPD busting down my door with an army of SWAT and hunters. I thought about it for a moment before sighing.

"Get the dust back here, I've rethought my attack plan." I said lazily, waving a hand at him. The big thug shrugged again like it wasn't his problem, which, true, it wasn't, and turned to leave before I stopped him.

"What's your name again?" I asked, the gorilla faunus seemed mildly surprised that I asked but answered anyway.

"Hmm? It's Ignacio, boss." he responded shortly before he exited my office.

I leaned back in the chair as I watched him leave my line of site, looking back this might be trickier than I imagined. As great as it would be for Torchwick to swing by here with all his wealth and tricks and then be immediately caught under my spell while simultaneously not alerting the police would be great, my luck was kinda shit. Maybe I was thinking about this the wrong way, maybe I should take it slow and steady, build up my reserves before going in for the kill.

Torchwick might not be the strongest guy I ever knew, but the bastard was crafty and clever beyond all recognition. He knew things that could end a lot of careers if they got out, and you didn't become that kind of person overnight. Meanwhile, I was more of a novice than anything, a novice with a potent semblance to be sure but a novice none the less. If this guy found out what my semblance was, he could very well have an assassin just snipe me from a distance when my guard is down, so it would be best to play things close to my chest.

I rubbed my temples tiredly, I had just woken up and already my plans had gone to hell and been refused at the gates. Then, I got an idea, one that sprung from sheer desperation than anything else. If Torchwick had satellite gangs working underneath him so that they couldn't be traced back to him, then that means there's more than a few operations like this around the city. Information couldn't be traced back up to the top sure, but that blade could cut both ways if he wasn't careful, yes this got me thinking a bit.

Stepping outside my office I motioned for the former boss to meet me up here. Entering in he wiped his forehead, probably tired from moving dust around, and motioned for me to speak.

"Did you know about any other gangs like this one here, one's that Torchwick was using?" I asked, studying his face. He took a moment to think about it, trying to dredge up something from that empty skull of his no doubt, before he snapped his fingers.

"Yeah, he told me he had some in almost every neighborhood in Vale." He fished out his scroll and tapped on it to open up a navigation map. "There's two in Highrock, one in Saint Christi, I think four in Metro Gardens, and another one in Hillsbrad."

A total of eight gangs, huh? A good number, especially if he was just robbing dust, and conveniently spread out across almost the entirety of Vale, so pretty much he had a safehouse in every part of the city. But with all those people, why did Torchwick go through the trouble of actually putting himself at risk when he robbed these small-scale dust shops? A distraction maybe, but even so there were less dangerous ways to do it unless it was a part of his plan from the get-go.

I don't know, the whole situation felt funny in a way I didn't like, but there wasn't a whole lot else to do. I looked at the former boss, who was still standing there, and sighed tiredly again.

"Just... take me to the nearest hideout." I waved to him, slowly getting up with a grunt. "Oh, and have some guys pick up my stuff from my hotel room, it's on the west side of the..."

0-0-0-0

Man, I thought, I should've gone to this hideout. Instead of some dirty, filthy warehouse on the docks it appeared to be a spacious office building on the East side of St. Christi Boulevard. My subordinate guided me inside where a few well-dressed people were already waiting for me, the most prominent being a ginger woman in a white suit and black shirt.

"So, I heard Torchwick wanted to arrange a little meeting?" she asked, gazing at my sharply. She probably wasn't too happy to being dealing with what she thought was the hired help, but I didn't care.

"Shut it, I'm your new boss now and what I say goes, understand?" I ordered, some of the suited apes around me shifting slightly. The ginger woman blinked once, twice, before nodding her head slowly.

"Ok, what did you need?" She asked professionally, hands crossed behind her back.

"What was Torchwick having you all do while you were under him?" I needed to make sure this was a common theme before I implemented my plan.

"He was having us steal and import large shipping crates of dust, just like the other branches." she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He'd swing by every few weeks to make sure we were on schedule before leaving."

"I don't suppose you know where his main base is?" I asked just a tad hopefully. She shrugged and shook her head which sent a small wave of aching pain through my skull as I took a deep breath.

"So be it. Keep things on the down low here for now." I ordered, turning to the gang boss that drove me here. "Take me to the other branches, now."

He nodded and we walked off, bouncing around Vale and meeting with the other gang bosses. I thanked the heavens above for my semblance, I could only imagine the hell it would be to try and pull this off without it. I had to word things carefully, enough so that I wouldn't have to come back everyday to remind them that I'm their boss, but instead implanting a general concept of who they were working for. As long as they didn't pay it much thought, we wouldn't have any problems.

As we finished our rounds, I caught myself thinking, in the car, that this whole "criminal kingpin" thing was a lot of boring and tedious work. I get that one has to start from the ground up, but this was awful. It felt like I was filing paperwork; paperwork that walked around and asked annoying, stupid questions. Perhaps I was making light of things, I was 17 and had already found myself in the clutches of a deeply rooted criminal empire.

As we passed by the scenic view of Beacon Academy another stray thought flung into my brain. What if I had just opted to become a hunter like my family did? It's not like my family really tainted the idea of being a hunter, they were just pricks about everything. But I though the better of it, how on Remnant was I going to infiltrate Beacon Academy with no real credentials? What, do I just waltz up to some forger and tell him to make me some documents to get me into the academy? What was I going to use for that, my semblance?

...

Well, fuck. Oh well, no use crying over spilled future now I guess. And who knows, maybe one day I'd just decide to become a huntsman, with my power my job opportunities were fairly nebulous. I'd order someone to train me in fighting (note to self) and then I'd just act like I had actually gone to an academy before traveling the world slaying monsters. By that time I should be rich off my ass from all my criminal endeavors so what was it to buy or make some hunter weapons, right?

I leaned back into the cozy leather seat, absently watching the sun fall over the glistening city. It was times like this that reminded me we were all still human, you know? We all got that red goo of life called blood running through us, no matter what I did it would never be personal. I thought about my family back home, did dad sit there some nights in his recliner idly wondering where his son went?

Did Bruna look out of the her dorm in Shade Academy to imagine herself meeting her long-lost brother one day? Maybe, maybe not, but I can't say the thought didn't fill me with just a tad of heartache. I knew I wasn't normal, not really, I didn't process emotions and the needs and wants of others like most normal folk do. I didn't really care if someone got sad after I stole their lunch, I was hungy and that's all that mattered.

My mind slowly drifted back to a place where these thoughts didn't pester me so much.

0-0-0-0

Hey guys, Joe here. Happy New Years to everyone who reads and I hope you had some good holidays and I hope you have an even better new year. I love you guys a lot, and I hope you're enjoying my writing. Sometimes it feels rushed, childish, a little boring or contrived, but it does my heart some good to see reviews that tell me they love my stories.

Seriously, I can't thank you all enough for this. "The Family Business" is really taking off so let me know if you want that to be my new main story, meanwhile this little diddy is going to be more for my own fun than anything else. What will Jaune do? Who will he side with? The mysteries are intense I know.

I might be holding another poll for the next "An Arc's Mad World" chapter so stay tuned for that.

XOXOXO

CoffeyJoe