Italics show when the characters are using Fox's semblance which allows him to communicate without speaking- see the EC Myers books about Team CFVY. While enjoying it as a stand-alone AU story, I will ignore the Roman and Neo book. I prefer the volume 6 photograph hint as their backstory.

Weiss had enjoyed the meal. She had a lot in common with Brede and it was amusing to listen to him describe the fortnight at Winchester Towers and the weekend at the other Great aunt's town house, Clearly the two teams had got in a lot of practice and identifying four semblances across the two teams made them both potentially more challenging opponents. Only Russel and Corkran had not had their semblances identified with sufficient certainty to be of assistance in fighting.

It was interesting to see that team LLAC were sufficiently confident to have used the second week with the huntsmen to concentrate on doubles combinations and on looking at the likely battlegrounds that would be assigned. Brede did admit that his team would be stuffed if they reached the semi-finals, but that would be a pleasant problem to have.

While Anne was the most dangerous member of their team, if the battlefield chosen did not include plenty of debris, then her impact would be blunted. Perhaps in two years' time she would have developed her semblance so that it was closer to that of Glynda, but for the moment she was a user of shrapnel rather than a woman who could drop a building on her opponents. The likelihood would be that Lydia would be the nominee if they got that far as she was dangerous at a distance and at close quarters, but Pyrrha certainly had her number and Yang was confident that her semblance worked well with Lydia's power at close quarters.

Weiss did suggest to him that he was being too open, but Brede pointed out that he was simply stating the obvious. Besides which it suited his style of fighting for their opponents to be cautious initially. It allowed him time to get to cover and use his sniping skills.

Anyway, Weiss made a note to herself to discuss doubles fighting with Yang. It made sense for them to see if they could combine her finesse and Yang's strength. It also remained to be seen what the effect of Ruby's newfound powers would be on the team dynamic. The silver eyes seemed to be purely of use against Grimm.

The other problem was whether Crescent Rose would be permitted to be used. Firing bullets which made an ancient Goliath retreat meant that the margins between someone aura's being present and broken was finer than normal. Besides which in the fight at Junior's she had cut members of the White Fang in two when using Crescent Rose as a scythe. She had seemed to accept her uncle's reassurances, but it was one thing unintentionally bisecting people who were trying to kill you and another worrying about whether you risked hurting fellow students.

Weiss also sent a message to Klein to arrange for the acquisition of tapes of the last few Mistral regionals and combat school televised fights. She told herself that she was only doing so because Ruby would be too busy to organise it and because she had the cash resources to pay for it rather than because she still had hankerings to be team leader.

Brede had declined to join in the musical entertainment at the ball as a duet partner. He had not ruled out joining in a larger group song but had firmly stated that he had not done anything heroic at Kulsa or at Junior's Club Mistralian. He laughingly said that as his family had made it quite clear that they did not think his human teammate was good enough for him, using him as a symbol of Faunus/human rapprochement would be counterproductive. He had also pointed out that Salutations would be published the day before the ball and none of them knew what the exact reaction would be to the pictures of him with the Malachite twins.

The meal had ended slightly oddly. Harriet Bree of the Ace-Ops had turned up at the restaurant and ten minutes later Leslie and Brede's uncle had left with her. Weiss had not known beforehand that the uncle was there although Brede had warned her that he was staying with him. She decided to talk to Klein on the way home about how to broach his presence with her parents. Father had contempt for Brede's parents but had some grudging respect as well as hatred for the uncle. Balancing a mild row which might result from a voluntary (but possibly unnecessary) disclosure against an unpredictable response if her father already knew about his presence and she was silent. She was minded to a voluntary disclosure stressing that the man had not actually spoken to or approached her

Still there was one last piece of public duty required of her. She checked the time, caught Coco's eyes or at least the sunglasses and nodded. Coco rose, collected Yang and the pair of them joined Brede and Weiss. There was a meeting which needed to be got out of the way at an early stage and Coco had made the arrangements. There was a stir towards the front of the restaurant and what passed for paparazzi in Atlas yelled at the newcomers to pose for them. Through the door walked Pyrrha and Jaune, hand in hand. To Weiss's surprise there was an outbreak of applause from a section of the diners and after a nod from the maître d,' the staff.

Weiss had not been entirely certain about the idea, but Yang and Coco had said that it was best not to give Jaune any time to think or get embarrassed. Anyway, it passed off as well as it could do. Pyrrha had gripped Jaune's hand tightly and the man had been polite to her, but not gushing. The theory had been that once they had got through the first meeting without acknowledging the goliath in the room it would be easier in the future to ignore it.

Anyway, there was an additional reason for having Pyrrha and Jaune there. "Pyrrha, Jaune, what duet would you like to sing at the ball?"

/-/

Arslan Altan groaned to herself as she saw a hesitant Neptune approach her. It would be easier to deal with the man if he were simply an entitled over-confident rich man's son as opposed to a well-meaning geek who veered unpredictably between being totally oblivious of his advantages and over apologetic for them.

She was puzzled also by what he was doing in the library at Atlas Academy. She was there to give her team time to think over what she had told them. Actually, to be fair, Neptune was the most academic member of his team and seeing in the Haven library would have been normal. Still there were no essays to write for another fortnight.

He said, "I am sorry Sun and Emerald upset Reese earlier. They did not mean to. It's just that Sun is genuinely having a whale of a time and Emerald is finding things difficult. Arslan, I'm sorry. It is unfair that our team have been asked to go to the Adel fashion show and not yours. We both were there at Kulsa, and you spent more time on the front line."

She sighed and said, "Thanks for saying that. I really do not mind and cannot blame the Adel Corporation for making the choice they did."

"Well, I'm not convinced."

"First, we are already under an exclusive fashion contract to one of their competitors. Second, Sun and Emerald are going to be on the catwalk and speaking for myself I do not envy them that. It also makes more sense to feature your team." Arslan did not mention that what had perhaps upset her team was the differential in the payments made by their sponsors as against the payments made to Team VBES by the Adel Corporation. She had told them that they had been receiving sponsorship for three years previously since they first did well in the Combat school tournaments and that the sponsors had paid out a bonus payment.

Neptune cringed. "But me and Sun were well away from the frontline for most of the evening."

"Sun's a Faunus and you and he evacuated the young Faunus and helped apprehend Raddock. Mistral needs to signal that Faunus can become hunters and that its teams look after Faunus."

"Ok, but I did frack all that night."

"You did what you could when you could.. The truth is that an exuberant Faunus from Vacuo who saved civilian lives, helped take down Raddock and chose to go to Haven despite its reputation, ticks so many boxes that your team was always going to be the choice for a brand which likes to be right on. Remnant, if it comes to that M and Em tonguing each other after being the support act to team Juniper in the morning also helps. Be honest, you are not hard one the eyes either."

"They rather hoped that Pyrrha and Jaune would have meant their snog was ignored. Even Sun has taken the hint that Emerald would rather not talk about it."

"Rolling news requires some variety."

"I was just saying that they are no happier about it…"

"No problem as far as I am concerned. Could you imagine me or Reese on the catwalk?"

Neptune nodded, "Maybe not - Bolin or Nadir perhaps yes?"

Arslan groaned to herself. Being the one definitely straight person on a team of individuals who could not make up its mind had its disadvantages. She actually wished for their sakes that Nadir and Bolin had actually kissed each other rather than the bro handshake they had actually gone for. She stared at Neptune trying to work out if he was being deliberately insulting or accidentally perceptive.

"Look, Sun is going to have a whale of a time, Emerald will claim she loathes it while secretly enjoying it, Mercury will stand there with a cynical smile and you will stand around looking cool. I am looking forward to watching the CCT coverage and the photos in Salutations."

Arslan hid from Neptune that she had declined on behalf of the team an invitation to attend which had been passed on by Yatsuhashi. The reality was that team JNPR was for the present Mistral's team and best suited for the Stronger together theme of the ball, Team ABRN were being more or less ignored in Atlas, and Team VBES at least did have a Faunus member and, subject to Reese's views on Emerald, were self-evidently straight as far as the Mistral general public were concerned. She sighed; Mistral was a complicated society. The richer the circles you moved in, the more freedom to be yourself you had. Yet more pressure on her to drag her team into the quarter finals at least and preferably finish top of their qualifying group.

Both were distracted by a snigger. Mercury Black was apparently also in the library. She was bemused by how the man could seemingly make himself invisible.

Arslan said, "Ok, Neptune in a library is plausible, but you?"

Mercury laughed and said, "They have the full set of X-Ray and Vav here bound in leather. Besides which it is best for my health not to be in Emerald's and Coco's eye-line until after the fashion show is over."

Just then a voice sounded in Arslan's head, "You can run, but you can't hide."

Clearly Mercury and Neptune had also heard it. Both had instinctively made to hide under the library table. This seemed stupid of them. Unlike Haven where the library had been designed to resemble an old-fashioned gentleman's club with armchairs and sofas, the Atlas library was anti-septic and went in for glass tables. In addition, she had had more opportunity to get used to Team CFVY's male members sense of humour and knew that Coco Adel would be busy with the rehearsals for tomorrow's fashion show.

She enjoyed Yatsuhashi's company and was mildly attracted to him. He was a good fighter and respectful. She wondered about his relationship with Velvet, but the vibe she got was that their relationship was that of a big brother and younger sister.

Fox Alastair was less easy to deal with, but they had to some extent bonded over the fact that the Atlas press had assumed that they were both Faunus. He was assumed to be Alastair the Fox while people had decided that she was a lion of some description and that she had a mane. Neptune had explained that Arslan was close to the name of a fictional lion in a beloved Atlesian children's book which had not made her feel any better.

He had actually been quite helpful in talking through the balance between setting the record straight without appearing insulted by the assumption. Admittedly she could not have gone for his line that he thought it was quite enough going for fans' sympathy by being a blind orphan from Vacuo with a silly name and scarred arms without also being a Faunus. It helped that Velvet had been next to him during the interview and had plausibly seemed to have found the remark funny.

Yatsuhashi then sent through a follow up thought, "Unless you want to be forced to sing karaoke on live TV I suggest we spend the night on the tiles now while our friends have time to engage brain about the wisdom of the idea."

"Sorry, what the frack?"

Fox then added, "Weiss is good enough to be professional anyway and will be singing at the ball. Velvet warned us that the Atlas organisers want some of the heroes of Kulsa and Junior's to also participate and that Coco and Weiss are likely to help them strongarm people into volunteering. I have no problem singing in the Beacon college bar to people as drunk as I am. Performing in front of people who will have paid a small fortune to attend does not seem fair on them or me."

Yatsuhashi said, "We are betting on Nora being up for it and ren going along with her. Yang is staying with Weiss and has little sense of embarrassment. I have little doubt that Pyrrha will be roped in along with Jaune. Our bet is that the longer we can delay being volunteered the more we can plead no time for rehearsal and point out that there will be insufficient time for all to sing. Besides which we have planted a seed about commemorating love on the battlefield"

Arslan laughed and also using Fox's semblance said "Bad luck, Mercury"

Mercury groaned, "I did rather rub it in to Em about the catwalk. I can see that she will delight in volunteering me."

Fox added, "Velvet has suggested that we head to a music club in Mantle which her father and his boss have taken her to. A little old-fashioned n the music, but they have a mixed Faunus/human clientele."

/-/

Marrow Amin was surprised at how much involvement the Atlas military had in organising a ball. Fair enough, as it was being held in the academy and involve the SDC he expected them to be in charge of security. What he had not expected was that the Ace-Ops were being involved in chasing up invitations.

Clover in particular had been busy. He had been sent to Argus this morning to placate Colonel Cordovin and to deliver a direct order from General Ironwood overturning an undesirable alien ruling. Immediately afterward delivering the old lady, Clover had left on a long-haul flight with an unspecified destination. Marrow had his own ideas as to where but was not going to speculate publicly.

While at first glance it did look as though this may have been one where the Colonel had been goaded into losing her sense of proportion. An old lady with a walking stick of admittedly unusual design, a pair of glasses which were surely unique, and an ADA device did not seem like a threat to security. However, she did seem the type of old lady for whom the word feisty had been designed for and it had clearly been an error to leave Harriet with her for thirty minutes.

Anyway, luckily Glynda Goodwitch seemed to get along better with her. They had been closeted together for an hour and then Glynda had despite only arriving yesterday asked the General to arrange for an urgent flight to Beacon.

For some reason Harriet had then been sent to bring in Ambassador Campion and a guest of his from a restaurant. The ambassador and his guest had been taken to see the General. For some reason, Harriet's mood had not been improved by this trip and she had glared at Marrow as she told him to join the meeting.

Marrow understood her reaction better when he discovered that his mission tonight was to escort the Ambassador on a mission which involved meeting with a person who was described as being a source close to the White Fang leadership verbally and as an intelligence resource officially. The ambassador's guest was also one of Marrow's best friends from his days in Vacuo.

In addition, as the meeting apparently involved going to The Dust Club in Mantle, it explained one of his odder tasks yesterday which had to been to reserve a front row table. As his father's company were among the sponsors of the venue, that was something he could do without attracting suspicion.

He was relieved when all agreed that that Corkran would not be wearing his uniform. The Dust Club was not exactly renowned for being a haunt of those who whole heartedly supported the Atlas political set-up and while he was accepted as being one of us in Mantle, he was not certain how the Lynx Faunus would go down.

It became increasingly clear that this combination was a plan B. Apparently two days ago a coded request for a meeting had arrived. The code indicated that the subject matter could not be put in writing. Originally it had been proposed that Clover and Goodwitch would meet with the contact. Apparently the contact needed someone they knew from the past and a person senior enough in the Atlas administration to be listened to when they passed on the message.

Professor Goodwitch came close to apologising to the rest of them. She was clearly a little annoyed ay being forced to shuttle back to Beacon and returning within two days of that. She left the meeting to catch her flight and at the same time he and Corkran were dismissed with instructions to work out suitable civilian clothes, while the General continued briefing the Ambassador. Corkran's understanding was that the Ambassador while not close to the General was trusted by him to do his best for Atlas

Corkran after Professor Goodwitch left said, "I wondered why Ironwood ordered me back here and asked the horse to travel with me."

"The horse?"

"Gee-gee."

"Not even you say that to her face."

"Correct. I have encouraged others t' do so."

"Why us?"

"The contact knows me well and has met you. Ok, we are a long way below the horse and the fisherman on the pecking tree, but the Ambassador is of high enough rank and acceptable to Faunus. I anticipate that she will demonstrate some mild annoyance without calling the meeting awff."

"You do mean off?"

"You are mocking me for my accent. I am disappointed, Specialist Amin."

"Nobody but you talks like that nowadays."

"I had not thought of you as Jack Lemon previously nor of me as Tony Citrus. Still, nobody's perfect, and our contact is better casting than either of us. Anyway, we have a front of house table reserved. Actually, I wish that the Fisherman and the horse had been attending and I could have watched from the balcony."

Marrow began thinking things through and noted that the contact was a woman who knew both him and Corkran "Frack, is it the fox Faunus or the Chameleon Faunus from Vacuo?"

"I grant you the Chameleon may have the slightly better voice, but she lacks the character to sell a song on stage. It is the Fox Faunus."

The Lynx Faunus paused, "Specialist Amin, I suggest that you read the ambassador's file and ready yourself for a night of champagne and oysters. I suspect that having already had a delicious meal with wine today, he is going t' be a true method actor in ensuring that the cover story of an older gentleman having a night on the town with two young friends is believable."

He paused, "Apparently the only other official candidate apart from the Ambassador was Weiss Schnee. She has many charming qualities but dancing the light fantastic is not one of them. Apparently the General has arranged something else for her tonight."

/-/

Mercury had perhaps been drinking a little too enthusiastically and was consciously trying to slow down. In the end it had been Arslan, Reese, Fox, Yatsuhashi, Neptune and himself who had gone clubbing. They were joined by Velvet Scarlatina who had made her escape from the fashion show rehearsal on the grounds that she preferred to take pictures when the full tension of a live performance was present. She had brought along Yang Xiao-Long. Apparently she was staying with Weiss Schnee, but Weiss was joining her parents at a dinner with Winter Schnee and General Ironwood tonight and Weiss had suggested that Yang might have a more enjoyable evening with Velvet and the others.

He had asked the rabbit Faunus about the venue. First, as she had regularly spent a week of each school holiday with her father she knew Atlas better than the rest of them and secondly he and Emerald had been instructed to get to know the fighter who had cut off Tyrian's stinger better. Nothing in her known history suggested that level of proficiency and Tyrian's description had been a little incoherent.

Some ground rules had been established on the use of Fox's semblance. It was agreed that it was not to be used during actual songs although during instrumentals people were allowed some discretion. The house band which was dressed in white jackets and black ties was playing music people were intended to dance to and in some cases were doing so. It was pleasant without exactly encouraging the feet to tap. It was agreed that people could use Fox's semblance for the time being.

"The thing you always need to remember about Mantle is that until seventy years ago it was the capital. This was originally the opera house, was abandoned, became a dance hall, closed, became a cinema, again it closed, and is now a night club. It is subsidised by some Mantle businesses and because it is open to Faunus and is partly owned by Faunus receives some grants from the Atlas and Vale corporates. There are lots of tricks that they have learnt to make it seem fuller than it is."

Suddenly Fox said, "I did not know Leslie was in town."

Velvet replied, "Where?"

"About ten yards away at the front just in front of the dance floor."

"There are three men there. Oh, one of them is Marrow Amin and I know he was stationed in Vacuo."

Neptune then commented, "Oh, Elsie and Lieutenant Amin. Me and Sun knew them there. The other is the Atlesian ambassador to Vacuo."

Mercury stared at the table; he could make out the dog tail on the specialist in uniform. The older human was looking quite dapper in what he presumed was a lounge suit. He recognised the wild cat ears on the other Faunus who was dressed in loose trousers, a jacket, tie, and a colourful waistcoat (or was it vest in Atlas?). Toping it off by sunglasses did seem a little over the top, He recalled he had seen the latter at Junior's in the aftermath of the fight and had gathered from Neo that he had been quite a lethal fighter. He could not resist the comment, "I did not recognise him without the blood."

Reese said, "You obviously want us to ask you for more details."

Yatsuhashi chipped in, "He was at the White Fang attack at the nightclub in Vale. He and Anne Harker were next to each other when the attack happened and were close to the door. They were unarmed. Well, he had a knife hidden on him and used it to defend himself and then they used the weapons they took off the White Fang to go on the offensive. He and Anne were covered in blood by the end of the fight. That was why they were not shown much on the news clips.

Arslan asked, "He looks a bit old to be a student."

Fox said "He is a Mustang. He is actually a first-year student."

Mercury almost felt sorry for Reese who could not hide her underlying despair "What the frack? Are any of the teams at Vale normal this year?"

Fox had replied in a deadpan way, "Another member of their team killed someone with an umbrella. They even beat team Juniper once."

Yang tried to reassure Reese and said, "They are good at improvising and being sneaky, but they are the first to say that they are not the best team. They took Nora out by tricking her into ringing herself out."

Arslan asked, "So he comes from Vacuo? How come he is at Beacon and knows a member of the Ace-ops?"

Neptune replied, "He was a local guide for the Atlas military detachment out there in Vacuo. He had a good reputation."

He paused, "Actually I had heard that he had been made an officer in the Atlas military but had then been sacked for being hit by a colonel."

Mercury deciding that there was a story here queried, "Surely he hit the colonel?"

"No. Colonel resigned on a full pension mind you rather than face disciplinary proceedings. Apparently making a colonel lose his temper by dancing with a human in public broke an unwritten rule."

Mercury was trying to deal with the latest contradiction in Neptune's character he had encountered when a waiter appeared with two bottles of champagne, "With the compliments of Ambassador Campion to some of the heroes of Kulsa."

Yatsuhashi raised a glass in the direction of the table and the older man replied in kind.

Mercury decided to push slightly and asked "Velvet, do you know specialist Amin as well?"

"First Faunus member of the Ace-Ops. Family runs businesses in Mantle and did well in the Vytal festival."

Yatsuhashi snorted, "The man has a devastating semblance. He can stop you in your tracks. For some reason he was placed on a team of engineers."

Arslan chipped in, "Still twice took his team single handed to the second round of the Vytal festival."

Mercury decided that perhaps he should do some more research. There were clearly some Faunus/human fault lines close to the surface in Atlas and Mantle. His father had always said that understanding resentments helped. If you knew which member of a bodyguard despised his charge, then there was a greater chance of them delaying covering the target with their own body, either instinctively or for cold cash.

Just then the band stopped playing and the MC came out. "It is my absolute pleasure to introduce our special guest band for tonight. From Mantle City and Atlas Academy give a warm and funky Dust Club welcome to Flynt Coal and his killer quartet."

A man with a trumpet and dark glasses wearing a waistcoat and a shirt with no tie walked on followed by a Faunus with a cat tail and wearing roller blades, a blue haired man and a man dressed in a white suit, wearing an obvious white wig and fake white eyebrows and a doubtful looking white moustache. There was enthusiastic applause from the audience. He noted with some interest that the band leader went out of his way to shake hands with the dog Faunus and the cat Faunus blew a kiss at him,

Velvet burst into actual laughter. Fox asked, "What's so funny Velvet?"

"He is dressed like Weiss's father."

Mercury again took note. The rabbit Faunus despite being the daughter of a top Atlas scientist (who even Watts praised by faint damming and was rated by Igor and Riff-Raff) found someone dressed up as Atlas's leading businessman amusing.

The Band leader introduced his band. The cat Faunus was known as Neon Katt. Velvet filled in that the surname was on her birth certificate. This probably meant that she had been left at an orphanage shortly after being born or that her ancestors had been slaves in Mistral. The cat Faunus positioned herself behind the drums and shouted out "Never miss a beat." The Schnee impersonator was a pianist called Ivori, while the blue haired man was called Kobalt and played the saxophone.

They started out with an instrumental entitled "In the Mood." Fox asked Velvet to dance and Yatsuhashi asked Arslan to join him. Mercury was amused to see that Neptune dashed towards the gents. The Lynx Faunus moved from his table and said, "Yang, are you dancing?"

"You asking?"

"I'm asking."

"I'm dancing."

Just before they started he said, "Remind me what happened the last two times you went clubbing?"

Mercury decided that based on the standing instructions from Cinder he should offer to dance with Reese. It amused him to see the mixture of emotions which ran across her face, but she did eventually agree to dance. He behaved like a gentleman and did his best to make her comfortable. It amused him that she instinctively tried to lead. He began to understand why his father had spent a good five hundred hours over seven years teaching Mercury ballroom dancing including how to stab your partner without her or him noticing. Apparently the tighter the dress or preferable corset they were wearing the easier it was to do so without anyone noticing.

Seemingly encouraged by the dancers, the band moved on to a series of songs with a mix of instrumentals and vocals. A song called Jumping Jive was another one which encouraged energetic dancing and resulted in the older man cutting in and dancing with Yang.

Having got the audience moving the band moved to songs with more lyrics. The pianist played and sang "Great balls of dust." The band leader did a song called Busy Line which clearly was well known to his audience. It was apparently on their latest album which was on sale in the foyer and the bar.

The last two songs were clearly intended to clear the floor while being good to listen to. The blue haired man sang a song called "Chantilly lace" in which he pretended to be on the phone, referred to himself as "The Big Kobalt" and insisted that the person on the other end of the phone "Knows what I like."

They finally tried to clear the floor with a song called Love is the Sweetest Thing. Most left the floor, but the Lynx Faunus was dancing with Velvet and Yang and the ambassador also carried on as did Yatsuhashi and Arslan. Mercury watched the ambassador closely and clearly he was more enjoying the dance than trying to cop a feel. Interestingly so long as Yatsuhashi and Arslan were on the floor, Reese felt obliged to continue. She was clearly quite tense dancing to a love song as opposed to a jive number and again Mercury did his best to put her at ease. Following the ambassador's lead in this respect helped. He had decided that in dealing with Reese he should ignore the part of his father's training which suggested that the longer you danced the more that you suggest that it was a vertical expression of a horizontal intent.

After that song, the MC stepped up to the microphone and announced "For the first time ever at the Dust Club I am honoured and ecstatic to announce the international sensation, the duchess of the blues, Miss Foxy Heart. "

There was a stamping of feet and wild applause. For the first time, Mercury appreciated that while the most expensive tables were only 80% full, the upstairs and bar area were full of a mostly Faunus audience.

The woman walked out on stage and Foxy clearly referred to her obvious Faunus feature. She waved her tail at the audience which despite having a kink in it was impressive. He started to rack his brain – he knew he had heard about a fox Faunus with a kink in her tail recently when no one present had been sober.

The woman had clearly scanned the audience and whispered to the cool dude with the hat and the glasses who nodded and then announced, "The effervescent Miss Foxy Heart will now sing "Is you is or is you ain't my baby."

The woman played up to the front row and focused on the dog Faunus "I love a man in uniform which consists of more than a mask." Laughter and applause followed although Mercury suspected some of the audience were not certain where it was going. "Still can you ever trust a man." A pause "Or indeed a woman."

She nodded and Flynt started playing his trumpet. As no one was dancing but instead was listening she approached the centre table.

"I've got a guy who's always late. Every time we have a date." She was concentrating on the Lynx Faunus and her tail was almost as flexible as Sun's in playing with his ears. There was a slight problem with the kink as though she was a fraction of an inch out with the movement. He suspected that she was still trying to learn how to adapt to the injury to the tail. He tried to recall a conversation he had had with Igor and Perry.

The main song then started, "Is you is or is you ain't my baby." Despite the initial flirt being with the Atlas officer this song seemed directed at the Faunus with the cat like ears.

Again, watching the reactions was illuminating, the dog Faunus was clearly embarrassed while the Lynx Faunus had a look which reeked of bring it on. He started to make the connections. Perry had said after a lot of drinks on that night in Vale that he was glad that Bruno was dead. Something about trying to cut off the tail of a Fox Faunus who would not put out for him and whom Adam had said was no longer off limits. The thought passed through his mind of whether the Lynx Faunus also knew Adam. Putting things together he wondered whether the B team in Vale had been after this man. It made more sense of the fact that more bodies had been in the part of the club where he, Neo, Miss Piggy, and the Malachite twins had been than in front of Weiss Schnee's table.

Halfway through the song an instrumental segment hit in, and Mercury understood that the killer quartet reference had a double meaning as the leader of the band presumably used his semblance to create four versions of himself playing the trumpet. The audience went wild at this display, but Mercury kept his eyes on the centre table and tried to lipread. He caught nothing of significance.

Anyway, the crowd obviously loved the song and seemed to regard the front row Faunus as being a good sport for playing up to her.

After the song had finished the fox Faunus turned round and looked at the pianist. "Man. That is the worst wig I have ever seen. What are you trying to do, convince your girlfriend you are a legal version of her father?"

He heard the gasp of disbelief followed by a tsunami of laughter. He saw that Neptune and Velvet applauded heartily while the Mistral students were mystified. Yang was pretending to cough but was fairly obviously in hysterics.

The band started playing a new tune with the pianist and the Fox Faunus sharing the vocal duties. The first line of "Hit the road, Jacques, and don't you come back no more, no more." caused a huge ripple of laughter and applause. It took him a second or two to realise that she had exaggerated the pronunciation to make it clear that the name was Jacques and not Jack.

The pianist did his best to keep up with the fox Faunus or at least doing enough to make her victory more satisfying to the audience. He would bleat about what he had done for her and what he had meant to say and do for her. Still the applause which greeted the line "You've got all the money but you're still no good." had Mercury remembering the lessons his father had imparted to him and watched the audience,

Velvet, Fox, and Neptune were enjoying themselves. Arslan and Yatsuhashi were hard to read. Reese was watching Arslan to determine her response. The dog Faunus was another person trying to avoid revealing his feelings while the Lynx Faunus was obviously enjoying himself and the ambassador was another person pretending to have a coughing fit. Yang had headed for the toilets without actually reaching them.

The woman even got away with turning the mike to the audience who sang with wild enthusiasm, "Hit the road Jacques."

At the end of the song the pianist removed the wig, the fake moustache and the fake eyebrows and took off the jacket. The Faunus did her best to ensure that the audience appreciated his contribution to the duet. It was definitely more of a Hazel than a Cinder performance in sharing credit.

Certainly, it had won over most of the audience. The next few songs in the set were more standard crowd pleasers. There was a song which she called Foxy Hart which he suspected was an old tune which simply scanned for her stage name. She mixed in jive numbers with slower songs and indeed sometimes the latter got the most applause. Summertime which had some references which clearly placed it in the hotter parts of Mistral in particular brought the house down despite being more of a ballad.

The Cat Faunus had an extended drum solo during another song which showed she indeed had an excellent sense of rhythm. It was called Drum Boogie and the Fox Faunus did her best to make the audience join with her in appreciating the virtuosity.

The penultimate song of the set had the fox Faunus under a single spotlight with a guitar in her hand. She started to sing, "I knew a mine in Vacuo, they called the Rising Sun." There were gasps from Neptune, Fox and Velvet which suggested to him that this had Faunus and Vacuoan ramifications which were lost on him. However, they were not lost on most of the audience and the Mistralian students also reacted to it. Frack, he needed to listen to the history and politics lectures more closely.

The woman paused and repeated the guitar chords until the applause and gasps had died down, "Where many poor Faunus to death have gone, and you, oh gods, were one."

The next lyric which really stuck a chord started with, "Now the only thing a miner needs is a pickaxe and a scar and the only time he's satisfied is when he's all drunk." The scar refence caused a gasp of disbelief from the audience followed by applause.

He sat there and realised that while his father had taught him the intellectual theory, he had not been able to teach him the emotional truth behind it. Atlas was the most dominant military power in Remnant. Yet he was sitting here in Mantle where still a majority of Atlas citizens lived, and moderately well-off people were cheering on a Faunus singer who had made fun of their richest businessman and reacted viscerally to reminders of how the Faunus had been treated and to hints of inequality.

He wondered, not for the first time, why his ultimate employer wanted to take down Vale rather than Atlas or Mistral. He knew that Cinder and Watts really hated Atlas and Lionheart loathed the set-up in Mistral. Rainart despised Professor Ozpin for reasons Mercury had not yet understood and did not feel it necessary to understand. Salem was in the limited exposure he had had to her was obsessed about Ozpin and Vale. Still, compared to Atlas and Mistral, Vale seemed OK. Certainly, if he were a Faunus he would choose to live in Vale and the Vale aristocrats paid some lip service to providing opportunities for all.

The final song was of the set left him wondering whether there would be a second set, The woman stepped up to the microphone and said, "I Know I have been taking the piss out of then earlier, but the three people in front of me are an important part of the reason you know the truth about the Rising Sun Mine." She then pointed to the table he was on and said, "You may not instantly recognise them, but they were all at Kulsa or at Junior's Cafe Mistralian and many were at both. No matter what you may think about how Faunus are treated in Remnant a night club in Vale is not a legitimate target and fighting the Grimm is a task all of us leave to heroes."

She nodded to Flynt and the band started off the music to the song "I need a hero" to wild applause.

He waited until the end of the song and then passed a note to Yatsuhashi. He wrote "Can you explain the significance of the previous song? I'm sorry but I don't know enough."

Curiously Yatsuhashi passed the note to Velvet who looked at it, nodded and said, "It's my round. Will you help me carry the bottles and glasses, Mercury?"

He took the hint and went with her to the bar. He said, "Sorry, but I have reached that stage when I know when I do not know things and that is better to ask."

She nodded at him, "No problem. It is just that at best the SDC's Mistralian employees decided off their own bat that dealing with strikes by blinding Faunus in one eye by branding them with the SDC initials was appropriate."

Mercury did not have to fake the wince. "Understood. You say that is the best interpretation."

"The local manager covered his butt, blamed things on the head of security who allegedly tried to kill him when challenged,"

"Was it that impossible?"

"They came from the same town in Mistral and were known to be close friends"

"What happened to the manager?"

"Was about to join the main board in Atlas when the White Fang kidnapped and killed him. His niece was the weirdo in Kulsa."

"I'm sorry. I should have known that. It's just that politics was never for the likes of us when I was growing up."

He clearly had guessed right at the formula to make her trust him. Again, his father's advice was useful.

Just then a hand clapped him on the back. "Mr Black, you are an excellent dancer and a keen observer. I think we should get t' know each other better. Miss Scarlatina, the ambassador is covering your round."

Frack, he had spent too much time around amateurs and had drunk too much. He had not expected to be dealing with a professional this evening and he must have been spotted trying to lipread. He needed to improvise

He turned round and said, "Mr Corkran, it is a pleasure to meet you again. I would be happy to spend more time with you this evening. I am afraid that you fascinate me. I would like to learn from your example how to succeed from an unconventional background. I am sorry if my curiosity irritated you."

"Perhaps I can join your table and satisfy your insatiable curiosity. I will need t' keep an eye on the Ambassador and Specialist Amin as I am responsible for their safety, so I trust you understand the need for you t' sit with your back t' them. Unfortunately, there are insufficient mirrors in this club to allow me to observe them indirectly."

Originally had intended to have another section here dealing with Hazel's POV at the team Salem meeting. Next chapter instead.

In relation to the songs, Hit the Road Jack was a Ray Charles standard and after having checked the WIKI thought Ivori from team FNKI was a plausible Jacques impersonator. An English singer called Joe Jackson did covers of various 1940s songs including "Is You is or is you ain't my baby" which is worth checking out on You Tube. Love is the sweetest thing is an excellent song from the 30's and was featured in the UK series Pennies From Heaven. Peter Skellern did an excellent cover of it. The House of the Rising Sun may perhaps be known from The Last of Us and the cover by Ashley Johnson while a UK band from the 60's called the Animals recorded what is probably the best-known version. It refers back to the plot of Winter In Vacuo.

Drum boogie was performed by Gene Krupka in the film Ball of Fire from the early forties and the persona portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck in that film partly inspired the character of Foxy in this set of stories.

"I need a hero" is a song I first heard being sung by Bonnie Tyler although the Jennifer Saunders version in Shrek 2 is well worth listening too.

I would like to thank Maderfole for his reviews which encouraged me to investigate Mantle and Team FNKI and the likelihood that other parts of society are resistant to the reinvention of the SDC as a caring equal opportunities company.

Mercury Black is arguably the most damaged character in the RWBY universe. Abused by his father, having his semblance taken from him and crippled and then taken up by Cinder, he fundamentally knows and accepts that the world is cruel, and his proudest achievement is to have killed his father. Yet he has a sense of humour, and it is easy to believe that he cares for Emerald. My take on him is that he has been trained to be a sociopath but knows that he has to understand selfless emotions to be effective. I have not yet decided whether my version is capable of becoming a real human.

Similarly, Arslan was someone who we had intriguing glances of in volume 3. Clearly the best fighter on her team, she worked well with Yatsuhashi and was treated as worthy in the second EC Myers book about Vacuo. She fought on equal terms with Yang in what was otherwise a kerb stomp in the first part of Volume 3 and saved the butts of her male teammates. When you add in that she had been clearly playing second fiddle at best to Pyrrha for years, she is to my mind an interesting character.