Hi guys. Wilted's first chapter has a quick note about the sudden updates, and I'm planning to update my profile. :)

Chapter Six

the Strategy

The wind whipped at her face as the boys on either side of her screamed. Her grin didn't drop.

It was a brilliant strategy, and an interesting one to execute. Never had she considered how to land with her claws, especially since her parasol did the most of the work for her, and as she aimed for a particularly thick tree she wondered, briefly, if Sun and Scarlet had a strategy on the fly.

With surprising ease, she typed into her scroll and managed to reign the boys in to read it.

{Show me your strategies, boys? Don't disappoint ;)}

"Are you seri- Nyx Peridot!"

Scarlet's choked reply had to do, partly, with her sudden kick to his back. It wasn't really a kick though. She merely used his body as leverage to push herself up, and therefore give her the perfect vantage point to watch the boys land first. Was it a bit cruel? Yes. Did she care? Absolutely not. He signed up for this the moment he tried to appease her insanity, she concluded with a wide grin.

Without further prompt, Sun enacted his strategy first. He slammed his hands together, and from his body emerged two sunlight clones of himself. The clones then proceeded to juggle Sun until, eventually, he backflipped and landed safely on the grass. The clones dissipated not long after he brought his hands apart.

Neo hummed. Maybe a bit boring, but hey, it was a fantastic use of his semblance. Also, it's not every day she gets to see two clones juggle around their source.

Her eyes flicked over to Scarlet. He just… spread his arms out? Okay. He placed his cutlass into his belt with no intent of using it, and weirdly enough, it seemed to be working? His arms glowed and left red streaks behind him that faded away after a few seconds, and his legs stayed stuck together from thigh to ankle. Neo realized with a disbelieving expression that Scarlet was falling a lot slower than she was suddenly, and as his sudden glide whipped him around to be heading straight for her, her perplexed expression morphed to full on dumbfoundedness.

"Nyx! Grab on as I go past!" Scarlet called.

With narrowed eyes and an eventual careless shrug, Neo flipped in the air and, just as Scarlet was gliding his merry way past, she latched onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck. The sudden weight she added, as well as the fact she practically slammed into him caused them to dip quite a bit, but Scarlet, while making nervous bird noises, wobbled his arms and eventually straightened them out.

"Okay okay! We should be good now, love!" Scarlet shouted back, already tilting again so they could descend further. Neo, still very confused as to why Scarlet was suddenly acting like a squirrel suit, merely held on and waited for the landing.

As they neared the ground, Scarlet suddenly shifted so his feet where pointing down and his arms, while still by his sides like a gliding bird, began to bend. The sudden gliding feeling dropped as gravity took them and Scarlet hit the ground with a solid clunk as his boots took most of the impact. Neo blinked at the back of his head as his chest heaved with deep breaths.

{Doing okay, Mister Airplane?}

Scarlet stopped. "I… what?!"

Neo hopped off his back, a little disappointed she couldn't experiment in landing with her cestus claws, but shoved it down to type out another message.

{You just glided around like one of those paper airplanes Mercury makes in class. So. Mister Airplane}

Her response, to her amusement, was a choked sound that made a very strangled and very confused noise.

"You good, buddy?" Sun questioned as he jogged up to the two. He made a face at Scarlet's bug eyes and wide mouth, and placed his hands on the top of Scarlet's head and under his chin. He then forced Scarlet's mouth to close. The faunus looked at Neo. "How did he break this time?"

Neo showed him her last message.

"Pfft, that's pretty good," Sun laughed as he clapped a hand on Scarlet's shoulder. "But nah, that's his semblance. When he's falling he can just stick out his arms and control where he's going."

{So he's like a squirrel suit}

"I am not-"

{Would you prefer to be just a flying squirrel?}

Scarlet blanched. "None of the above!"

Neo cocked her head and frowned. She then typed up another note and held it out to him. {When you call people birds is that just you projecting?}

Sun, at this point, was cackling on the grass as he held onto his very muscular stomach, and Scarlet's expression rivaled Roman's when he discovered Mercury and Emerald replaced his cane with an oversized and edible candy cane. Neo's smirk was malicious.

"Hey, hey, Scar, I - hah - I think she's onto something," Sun wheezed as he pat persistently at Scarlet's leg. "Oh my God, I'm crying…"

Scarlet sighed. "Introducing you two was the worst idea I ever had."

"Too late now! I want to keep her." Sun stood up and brushed the grass from his pants. "Nyx, I'm serious, you have to hang out with us more often."

Neo pretended to consider it. She tapped her finger to her chin, jade eyes off to the side, before a wide grin spread across her face and she nodded.

{I demand ice cream trips}

"Of course." Sun's smile was equally as sinister as hers. "The Cheery Cherry it is."

Scarlet sighed, tried to glare at them, but a smile twitched at his lips. "You two are horrible."

"Guys!"

The group of three paused to look down the paved path. A ball of red approached them, petals scattering away in the wind, before a panting Ruby Rose stood in front of them.

"Rose! Enjoy the show from Ozpin's office?" Sun asked with a grin.

Ruby giggled. "You all are so lucky that I was in there, or I'm not so sure Ozpin would have laughed as much as he did."

Neo tapped her shoulder. {Come now, he wouldn't punish me. I'm too cute}

Little Red rolled her eyes. "Right."

Sun must have saw something she and Scarlet didn't though, because he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Rose, what's got you twisted up?"

"H-Huh? Oh, um, it's… I-" Ruby stuttered. "I-I wanted to tell someone, b-but I didn't know who, and, well, I guess I can tell you guys, um…"

Scarlet grasped her shoulder and shook her gently. "You sure you don't want to tell your team?"

"No! Oh, Gods, no, they would freak!" Ruby blurted. Then, realizing what she said, she froze.

Neo raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Ruby attempted to laugh it off, but it just sounded awkward, and Neo tapped her foot.

"I- um, I visited Roman Torchwick on General Ironwood's flagship!"

And just like that, Neo's happy mood was sucked right out of her like a punch to the gut.