Guest- I believe it says that I am a compelling enough writer to provoke emotions in you so you comment. Thank you!
Tomb456- I know I'm a bit jumbled, I've an end goal, but I don't know how to get there. Thanks for letting me know.
Trash yo- *Hides plot points up sleeve*
Sorry for the delay! I've been getting ready for Rosewick week and well everything else fell aside!
Neo's shoulders relaxed as she stepped into Junior's club. Even in the day, it was decadent and full of all sorts of tricks. The Torchwick and Malachite Twins spent their childhood trying to learn all of them. Each of the intricacies led back to the heart of the club, Junior. A tall, pristinely dressed man. The only thing more carefully presented were his words. The best informant in Remanent, if you asked Neo. He poured hot cocoa, freshly prepared because he knew the exact second she started to head his way.
"Is this a good visit?"
She glanced sideways, blowing on her mug of hot chocolate. There weren't many she and RoRo could trust. Junior was her half-uncle and was one of the two in her Mother's council trusted to help the Torchwicks grow. The bear nurtured Neo's natural ability to know what she saw and choose when to spill a secret. He raised her to study a situation and separate out her perspective from what happened.
Cleaning a bar glass, "And where is your brother this afternoon?"
Neo typed in her scroll, [Amethyst]
His sharp brow raised, "So I guess he isn't keeping to his little agreement with little Red"
Neo gave him a pointed look, she didn't love it, but Ruby mattered. And RoRo would have all the support from those they could trust.
Junior chuckled, "Oh I know, Ame and him are probably due for a little chat as well. Your family loves their dangerous liaisons. Such as Oscar."
Junior threw a photo onto the bar of her at the farmer's market with a colossal wheel of cheese. She looked back up at Junior sucking in her breath. No longer able to view the image of Oscar glancing at her while he was talking to the mushroom guy. Those hazel eyes lingered and filled with light as he took her in.
"Roman and I agreed he gets very focused assignments and works mostly with Roman. Oscar's training is similar to ours, but I can't get a read on how he knew just as much as he does." Junior gripped his beard, "How the fuck did he get those bank account numbers?"
[You don't want to give him a chance to see how the whole organization works. Is that why you sent him to spy on the White Fang?] Her lip curled in made her stomach curdle that they would send him on a suicide mission.
Junior, "Roman gave him the orders yesterday. After Oscar told us that Ironwood killed Cinder. We need to find her brats."
[I've already checked their old haunts.]
Junior gripped a glass too tightly, cracking it. "Now we know that we have to take a closer look at why Adam is still here."
[He has all that Dust we stole.]
"If Cinder could have done us the favor of dying a week earlier, we wouldn't have had that concern."
[Could have sold it at a high rate.]
"Like you kids did with that coffee."
Neo flushed. It was her and Roman's debut. Embarrassing, but they were 15, and their mom had just died. It was the best thing they could think of. Everyone laughed at the kids, unwilling to have bloodshed, but it ceased when that stockpile was sold ten times what it was worth.
"But it's not like our guys can navigate the woods and take it back."
[We could work with the hunters.]
Junior sighed, "Your mom and as I understood her mom were opposed to working with the authorities. Because they looked down on the likes of us."
[My family kept the streets clean, and the mayor acted as though it was them who kept crime low.] She heard the story plenty, still she wondered if it was possible to have a more harmonious relationship with the 'good guys.
"Speaking of which," He grunted, "Got some kids out there thinking they're hot stuff, pickpocketing in the nice neighborhoods."
[Gonna bring them in?]
"One, gonna scare the rest, though." He tapped his finger on the photo, "So what's with Oscar?"
Neo clapped her hands on her cheeks and tried to give Junior a confused look.
He affectionately ruffled her hair, "Come on, I walked you through scoping out his apartment. He's earned my respect, but I'm afraid of you losing your head."
[Not the first time I fucked an employee] Neo glared at him.
"I doubt you have gotten in his bed yet. If it was just sex, I wouldn't say shit." He held up the photo to her face, "You're enamored. And you see this guy, he's looking at you like you're the moon."
Neo lowered her lashes with the decency to blush.
"As a man who has changed your diapers more than your actual parents. What the fuck?"
She opened her mouth, forgetting that her voice was gone to her forever. Junior reached over and wiped a tear off her cheek. [He feels safe]
Junior nodded, "Not what I expected for you, thought your taste would run more like your brother. Adorable and sweet."
Neo jumped slightly, hearing her phone ring.
"Honestly, who thinks calling you is okay?"
Not recognizing the number, she flashed the screen to Junior. Answering it upon seeing him pull a snarl.
Gunfire, that's all she heard. Then, switching the phone to speaker, Junior answered.
"Oscar, what can we do for you."
"Who? Neo, Adam saw me!"
"Find anything useful?"
"I'll tell you after you extract me, and I'm safely in a Torchwick building!"
More gunfire, metal ringing, and Oscar swearing.
"Fuck you, kid. I'll talk with my boss and see if your life is worth it." Junior ended the call. He pulled up his phone, "well, he kept his tracker. So you could teleport above the treeline and land safely to get him out. Your call."
[Don't we need that Intel?]
"I want to capture one of Cinder's kids and see how far she got with the CCT, but that isn't a priority."
Neo bit her lip, and she knew this was a test. Not the pass-fail kind. Junior loved her, and he was testing to see what kind of woman she could be. She blinked out of his sight and had no idea what this meant to her uncle. Opening her parasol to gently float into the dense foliage of the Emerald Forest. She knelt on a thick branch listening to the assortment of gunfire until her eyes landed on Oscar. His face was darkened by dirt and in his forest green outfit. Even with her eyes on him, she would lose sight due to his camouflage. Neo assumed the White Fang found him by scent or sound.
He exchanged blows with Adam Taurus. Or, more accurately, Oscar steadily gained ground as Adam's weapon came into contact with nothing. The image of the shorter man would blur for a second, and then his body would move in a way she did not expect to evade danger. Finally, Oscar gripped the Bull's collar and jerked him forward to be punched in the throat.
The cult leader sagged to his knees. A few of the White Fang soldiers swarmed in on Oscar, who leaned heavily on his cane. His voice hollowed, "Enough."
The hairs on the back of Neo's neck rose before she saw a green pulse erupt from him, knocking everyone down. She swallowed. She knew he had magic, she saw it with the rose petals. But, to witness it as combative? Just who was this man?
Oscar knelt, simply exhausted as his limbs shook to keep him upright. A bloodstain grew on the sleeve of his arm. She remembered she was here to save him. She dropped and rolled in contact on the ground. Skipping to her employee, she occasionally kicked somebody's head. Unsurprisingly Adam was nowhere to be seen. Which, of course, the coward ran at a show of true strength.
Neo gave Oscar a proper curtsey before holding out her hand. He took it, and they blipped out of the forest, leaving a faintly sweet taste in the air.
Neo brought Oscar to a simple room with a cot and a small bathroom. Most importantly, a good medical kit. She stripped him down, and he barely gave a struggle. The wound on his bicep was the worst of it, and that was closing quickly before her eyes. Her head reeled back with bewilderment.
He smirked and stood, mostly naked. "My Aura repletes faster than most. A side benefit of magic." He gestured to the bathroom, then asked. "Would you find me some spare clothes, while I clean up?" She nodded, yet she stood still, her eyes unabashedly wandering over his bloody, dirty, muscled form.
Oscar practically slammed the bathroom door closed, but Neo caught his dilated eyes.
She sighed and texted Junior letting him know which of the club's rooms she was in and asking him to bring something that might fit Oscar.
Shortly the bear stomped in and grumbled, "Neo, you should have brought him straight to the bar."
Oscar called out from the bathroom, "Mr. Xiong, um, I hope you have some clothes for me not covered in blood and muck.
"Yeah" junior politely handed the clothes blocking the sight from Neo's peeping gaze. "Knew it that you two weren't fucking"
Neo held up a scroll, [yet]
Oscar through the door, "Neo if you're writing. Yet, I am impressed at your confidence."
Junior's eyes widened, "honestly, kid, how do you know what you know."
"Maybe someday when I trust that I'm more than an asset...with a good ass-"
Neo dropped the scroll she was typing in.
Oscar gave a short laugh before continuing, "No, please don't act so shocked at your predictability."
Junior mumbled, "Been telling her that for years."
Oscar's laugh suddenly died, "Whose clothes are these for anyway? A bear?"
"Just roll up the ends kid."
"But still...yeah okay whatever." Oscar stepped, and Neo doubled over in silent laughter. Oscar hadn't bothered with Junior's pants and accepted that the t-shirt would be a long dress. As rolled up at the sleeves where you still couldn't see Oscar's fingertips. "Mr. Xiong, how attached are you to this shirt."
Junior shrugged, and Neo felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The big guy next to her stiffened. Oscar sighed and shook his head, changing his mind on whatever he had planned.
"Emerald is working with Adam, and she claimed she finished what she needed to do at the CCT."
Neo typed in her scroll, [Mercury]
Oscar abruptly seemed worried, "Didn't see him or hear him mentioned."
"Do you know Adam's play?"
Oscar bit the inside of his mouth, "Cinder wanted to use a train to ram through the walls of Vale."
Junior, "Giving the White Fang an easy entrance. She never got the blueprints from us."
"The White Fang could steal a train."
Neo, [but wouldn't know where to reroute it.]
Oscar, "there was a lot of Dust in camp, and they could use it to distract or break holes into Vale."
Junior, "You could have blown the stockpile skyhigh."
Oscar rubbed the back of his head, "I tried."
Neo huffed. He was a confusing mix of skilled and unskilled spy.
Junior, "Brothers, you need training."
Oscar scoffed, "I need to find Mercury."
Junior growled, "you are not hunting for the assassin wannabe. If you come across him Beacon, you report it to Roman. Ozpin is your priority again."
His hazel eyes narrowed, and Junior stepped between the boy and his cane, a confident smirk spread across the short man. Neo just saw what Oscar could do facing off Adam, and a small militia. She quickly held her scroll up.
[Gather your things, and I'll teleport you to your apartment]
Oscar nodded, "Mr. Xiong. Thank you for your clothes."
"Sure thing kid. Few things worse than putting on our own blood-stained clothes once we wash off." Junior tossed him a few rolls of lien "just get yourself a nicer apartment. And thanks for not smoking,"
"I left my pack behind, didn't want to deal with resisting the urge."
"Get a patch kid, it's a bad habit."
Oscar gathered his stuff in his arms, Neo gripped his shoulder, and blipped out of Junior's sight.
"Damn, I had hoped my sister's kids would have had more sense than her."