Mercury and Emerald had gone for a walk. Cinder had told them that she wanted them to suggest refinements to the plans. She claimed that she had learnt from Salem that listening to subordinates discussing their concerns or testing each other's ideas could be a good way of clarifying her own thoughts and refining her plans. The two of them had learnt that while she may believe this in theory, in practice she tended to take constructive suggestions as criticisms of her. If they said nothing, they were useless and if they simply flattered her saying that her plans were perfect, she responded that they were cowardly sycophants.
While they both enjoyed irritating and point scoring off each other, they had agreed that advance preparation for these sessions was mutually beneficial. Cinder had told them this morning that they would either be sharing a room together or one of them would be sharing with Neo, that her sources had confirmed that Roman's observations yesterday had been mostly accurate and that they would not be allowed to kill or maim other students unless it was clearly an accident. She had said that Roman would be available to answer questions about Haven this afternoon.
They had both agreed that they would prefer to share with each other rather than with Neo. Actually. both would prefer to have the other single room, but there was only one of those. Mercury had said two women sharing together made more sense, but this point had not been conceded by Emerald. He did not mind sharing with Emerald, they had all slept rough together at various times over the last six months and she did not snore heavily. He doubted Neo was a heavy snorer either, but sharing a room with a bored and annoyed illusionist did not seem to him a recipe for a relaxed lifestyle. She had already pulled a Cinder impersonation on him at a time when he had thought himself to be alone and had been feeling particularly irritated with Emerald's infatuation with Cinder. To believe that he had been discovered by Cinder while doing an impersonation of her and Emerald using two socks pulled over his hands had not been a fun moment for him. He suspected that a similar experience had happened to Emerald to judge from the fact that she had said that sharing with him would be an acceptable option.
He decided that Emerald would be on side with a scenario which meant that Cinder was based in Haven with them, but not necessarily on the same team. He said to her "I wonder whether it is limiting Cinder too much to require her to be based in Haven and go to classes. After all we were told about the opportunity to attack the Fall Maiden on short notice and she would hate it if Watts, Tyrian or Hazel had an opportunity to distinguish themselves if she could not get away from Haven because she had to attend a lecture."
Emerald nodded, "Indeed, it would be unfortunate if an important task had to be delegated to a less qualified person because of her need to build a legend which might not turn out to be necessary."
"That definitely sounds better. Let's rehearse that a little more, but I think that works and is true. Do you think we should point out that Neo is a good influence on Roman? It does seem to reduce his need to be a jerk and after yesterday, I doubt any of the Faunus want to take her on let alone both her and Roman. On the other hand, it may make it easier for him to run away if he decides that this is not something he wants to be involved with."
Emerald thought about it and said "Perhaps we could suggest that she introduce Roman to Tyrian. That may help concentrate his mind and Tyrian could always tell his stories of how he enjoys tracking down enemies."
Mercury thought further. "How certain are we that we can justify being selected for the Vytal festival without Cinder and Neo and do we think we can convince Cinder of that? While I have little doubt that if we went all out we could beat ninety per cent of the first year students easily, we do not want your semblance to be known at Haven and my legs are probably best kept a secret as well."
Emerald added "I think we can manage that provided that I only use my semblance for small illusions. If we want to keep the legs secret, we will need to share a room or take the two singles for ourselves. It would probably mean that you would need to fight in the trousers from the school uniform rather than change in the locker rooms. It may be noticed if you always change in a cubicle. The other concern is whether Lionheart will be able to ensure that our teammates are good enough that we do not have to win all the fights against four people effectively by ourselves."
Mercury said "The legs would have been a problem anyway. Maybe it does not matter that much if they become known, but we should mention it to Cinder. At least it gives us something uncontroversial to say. In relation to teammates, you know how scared Lionheart is of Cinder and I doubt that he wants her to be around all the time criticising him. I would be surprised if he has not already identified some potential candidates. Actually, it might help if they were flashier then we are as they could be the ones the press would concentrate on."
They had bought a copy of a Mistral paper this morning as Pyrrha Nikos was on the front page with rampant speculation as to why she was not attending Haven. It looked like they had decided against calling her a traitor, but were taking it out on Lionheart as having failed to keep Haven competitive with Vale. However, there was also a half page on the new students known to be attending Haven and who they hoped would represent Haven at the Vytal Festival. These included Arslan Altan, Scarlet David and Bolin Hori who had done well in the combat school competition in the summer which had of course been won by Pyrrha Nikos. The fact that so much was known about young students who had been overshadowed for the last few years by Pyrrha suggested to them that they would need to think about keeping under the radar.
/-/
Cinder had listened to the suggestions from Emerald and Mercury. She was close to changing her mind on the plan at the lease to the extent it involved enrolling at Haven as a student herself. Emerald's point on the disadvantages of having to stay in Haven Academy for most of the next seven months was a good one and she would think further about it.
She had also been surprised at the extent of the press coverage of the new students. At the very least it would mean asking Salem to tell Watts to work on the back story for the team and to make certain that it could not easily be shown to be a fiction. While it did not sit well with her desire to be acknowledged for her talents, it clearly made sense for the team not to be seen as one of the best teams in Haven when they arrived at the festival. Still each year sent four teams so they would be one of 16 teams from Haven and provided they were third or fourth best in the year she expected that they would have little coverage before the tournament. Still this probably meant that they should delay fighting until they had gauged quite how good the other students were. This did go against the best tactic of dissuading the hazers.
In relation to Mercury's legs she had already given a little thought to the point and had decided that if he could avoid disclosing them it would be better, but not crucial. She had ordered some trousers for him which matched the colour requirements for the haven uniform but had the same strength as his normal combat trousers.
While she had shrugged it off when Emerald and Mercury had raised it, she did think that they had a point that Roman was less obnoxious when Neo was with him. On the other hand, he had shown yesterday that he could control his rudeness levels when he thought about it and Adam had agreed that he would appoint efficient NCOs. Perhaps an introduction to Tyrian would make sense to encourage him to moderate his behaviour towards the Faunus. While Adam would beat Roman in a fight and perhaps the chain saw wielding lieutenant could as well, they would not be around him in Vale. She would be surprised if any of the other Faunus could get close to defeating him individually and he did keep his aura at a state of readiness which meant a surprise attack was unlikely to be a problem for him. Surely not even Roman would irritate all of them to attack him at the same time.
It had interested her that the duo had agreed to share a room with each other and let Neo have the other single room. She had expected Mercury to argue harder for him having the single room. They have both hummed and hawed, but eventually had volunteered the thought that perhaps Roman kept Neo in check as well. They were both wary of Neo's sense of humour and pointed out that even with Roman she would push things. Yesterday they had seen her doing illusions pretending to be the girl with the scythe with Roman. They said that there were limits to the amount of payback they could inflict on Neo without endangering their cover in Haven. Cinder had thought about it and had decided that she would take a leaf from Salem's book. She would tolerate Neo teasing Mercury and Emerald in the same way Salem tolerated her, Watts and Tyrian taunting each other provided that it did not prejudice the plan. She would warn Roman to make it clear to Neo that annoying Cinder was not permissible.
While Roman had clearly been slightly exaggerating things, she was not looking forward to dealing with hormonal males for the next few months. She had decided that it would be no hardship if the team did not go to student parties and had a reputation as hard-working swots.
After Roman had answered their questions on being a student at Haven and had given a description of the quirks of the professors they would be taught by, he asked Cinder if they could have a word. She said yes and awaited with some interest what he wanted to tell her.
He started by explaining that neither he nor Neo had a copy of her birth certificate. After all she had already been aged twelve when she started to live with him, and she came from one of the more sparsely populated areas of Mistral, the circumstances in which he had recovered her had not leant themselves to collecting paperwork even if it existed. They had not needed to produce one in Mistral city or in Vale and had not bothered to create a fake. Cinder nodded and made a note to ask Watts to produce a fake.
He said "I am expecting you to tell me to tell Neo to obey you and be respectful to Emerald and Mercury. I should tell you that I only give her orders which I expect to be obeyed and I suggest you do the same. She will not be happy if you tell her to ignore people trying to bully her or mocking her. That Bear Faunus was lucky to be alive yesterday and it was necessary for me to repeat myself. I once in the past told her to suck it up when being bullied while I thought about another way of dealing with the problem. Eventually we dealt with it her way and she indicated to me that she would not wait so long for an alternative solution in the future."
Cinder said, "Can you tell her that she should react to bullying in a proportionate way. That she can defend herself, but not put people in hospital."
Roman said, "I can try, but if they push too many buttons, I will not guarantee that it will be successful. It may help if you are around to dissuade anyone form pushing her too hard"
Cinder argued for a bit but had some sympathy for Neo on this point and agreed to instruct Emerald and Mercury to also intervene to discourage the unknowingly suicidal. Roman had said he would speak to Neo, but warned Cinder that neo was used to being around him. The longest they had been separated in the last six years was a week.
Cinder said "We are going to try and be a good but not great team. We do not want to receive coverage in the Mistral press ahead of the tournament and have people investigating our cover stories"
Roman paused and then continued, "She does not have a second gear when fighting strong opponents. With her size it is crucial that she keeps moving and keep her opponent off balance. She also enjoys mocking her opponents as it results in them making mistakes and at the end of the fight, they know they have been beaten. Unlike the combat school students, almost all her fights have been for real and if she had lost, she faced incarceration or worse. She unlocked her own aura at age twelve and discovered her semblance at the same time when her life was threatened. It may be that if she only fights as part of a team, this will be less noticeable. She may be able to dial it down a notch with weak opponents or at least it will be less remarkable if she beats them. I would suggest that you arrange if you can for her not to be picked for solo fights with strong fighters, if you want to hide her talents"
He again paused, "By the way, if you had any doubt, she is genuinely mute. She has not said a word in the last six years. As you know we both come from Mistral originally. I am known to the police there but have never convicted of a crime. Neo was arrested once four years ago but was wearing coloured contacts and cast an illusion over the hair. However, it is not as though there are many mute criminals around."
Cinder smiled, "I had supposed that both of you had a record there and read yours before approaching you. An associate of mine has deleted the computer files of the record of her arrest and for some reason the Mistral police had already deleted details of her release."
She asked, "Where is she today?"
Roman replied "She is meeting with some friends for a long brunch. I expect she will be back soon."
/-/
Neo had met the twins at Lorenzo's. They were reasonably good at reading sign language and better at interpreting Neo's facial expressions. They normally acted in a manner they thought was cool and sophisticated. However, they were excited today. Junior had told them this morning about Goodwitch's suggestion and that their mother had said that she would not object if they wanted to pursue it next year, but recommended that they had some more training. They asked Neo to help with that and Neo indicated that she would help if she could. The offer from Goodwitch had also made the twins a little happier about losing the fight and they showed Neo some of the footage. They even agreed to send Neo an edited version of the fight when she offered to look at it and tell them what they could have done differently to win it. Neo felt that the blonde was the type of opponent who she could beat by taunting them into mistakes and using up their own energy.
She did indicate, because she thought that she was expected to, amusement at the daughters of a crime boss attending a huntsman academy. They giggled at that and then told her that there was nothing to what they had found out a few days ago. Melanie told Neo, "We heard some news about Miss Piggy."
Neo remembered her well. She had been an impressive fighter who could cause a lot of damage especially when she used her semblance and had a talent for making a weapon out of most things. She and Neo had combined in a particularly impressive way when they had broken themselves and the twins out of a juvenile detention centre in Mistral.
The twins continued "You will not believe where she is today."
The breakout had been just before Neo and Roman had arrived in Vale. Roman had worked for the twins' mother for nearly two years and it was getting to the point where he would have to become a full member of the gang. It had become clear that Roman was not suited to be a subordinate and he was also reluctant to agree to the spider tattoo. However, understandably gangs were not willing to allow useful associates to leave and things were becoming tense. It had not helped that Neo had just changed schools and was being bullied because she could not speak. This was even though they had hidden the eyes with coloured lenses and the hair colour by a light illusion which she could carry throughout the day, although it was tiring. Roman had tried complaining to the headmaster, but the bullies included children of influential people and he had refused to believe her or Roman. They had both been deliberating how to deal with the problem when opportunity knocked.
Another crime boss in Haven was trying to muscle into Little Miss's territory. As part of his strategy he had bribed the police to arrest the twins on a mixture of genuine and trumped up charges. The idea was that it would make Little Miss look weak if she could not protect her own family and result in it being easier to detach her subordinates. This turned out to be a fatal miscalculation for him and his police contact, but, before she could launch full retribution, Little Miss had needed to get the twins out of detention.
Little Miss had asked Roman to arrange to break the girls out and in return promised to set him and Neo up in Vale and to give him an introduction to Junior. The plan had involved Neo being arrested and placed in the same detention centre. That had been easy to arrange and a pleasure to implement. Roman had told her that she could deal with the bullies in the way she had wanted to for the last few weeks and that she was also welcome to take out the headmaster as well. He had told her no fatalities and no maiming – he had however not forbidden scars or nightmarish illusions.
Within two hours she was in the detention centre and she had been put in a cell with the inmate considered the most dangerous by the staff. Roman had explained to her afterwards that the authorities had probably hoped that the two of them would deal with each other. The other prisoner was a semi-literate Faunus from Vale called Tracey Parker who was accused of attempted murder of a wealthy member of the upper classes. The Mistral press was using the story as anti-Faunus propaganda and demanding that she be tried as an adult despite being only fourteen.
The girl had been quite reasonable. She had said to Neo "I prefer a quiet life. I will not make trouble for you if do not make trouble for me. I suggest you find out from the other inmates why you should not make trouble for me." Neo had quickly met the twins who were glad to see her. They explained that they knew Tracey and that she had protected them from the previous most dangerous inmate who was now in hospital. They called her Miss Piggy and explained that provided it was used with respect she did not mind it.
Neo had unlocked their auras and had communicated to them that she was here to break them out. They had asked if they could take Tracey with them. They knew the human she had allegedly tried to kill, and he had an unsavoury reputation. Besides which she had helped them when she could easily have just left them to their fate.
The next day they had all broken out of the detention centre using a mixture of focussed violence and illusions at a time which Neo had pre agreed with Roman. The mayhem had been such that another twenty of the inmates had also broken out, although most were recaptured quickly. Roman had picked up the twins, Neo and Tracey in a car. He had been surprised to see the Faunus with them but went with the flow. Little Miss had then arranged for the Twins, Roman and Neo to be put on a flight to Vale. At the request of the twins Little Miss had arranged for Tracey to be put on a train to Argus where she said she had relatives. The escape of the Faunus had hit the Mistral headlines and the warden in charge of the detention centre was dismissed. The disappearance of the twins and Neo was given less publicity.
Little Miss had decided that placing the twins with Junior at least while she dealt with her opponent was safer for them. She had been meaning to do so anyway as she thought that they could benefit from some time away from Mistral. A problem was that junior children of crime bosses could turn out similarly to younger children of other wealthy people – they became complacent and entitled without having any real duties to keep them useful. She felt in Vale they might be able to have a more normal adolescence and they could learn how to run a club and a protection racket from Junior. It had suited the girls as well and although they went home any few months or so for a short visit, they had been content to live in Vale.
Six months later Tracey had turned up in Vale and had bumped into the twins on the street. They had recognised and greeted each other even though Tracey was dressed in a smart outfit rather than the prison clothes or the revealing clothes she had been arrested in. They had asked if it was safe for her to be out on the street and whether there was a risk of extradition. She had said that it was fine. It was a long story, but the man she had been accused of attempting to murder had gone after her and her relatives. He had arrived at her grandparents' door ten minutes before the huntsman who the Mistral authorities had hired to track her down arrived. She had successfully defended herself and her grandmother against him, but her grandfather had been killed. By the time the huntsman arrived the human was no longer going to trouble anyone.
The huntsman had investigated her original interview with the police and had investigated her story. He had already uncovered evidence that the alleged victim had been a serial killer of Faunus when he had worked out where she was heading after speaking to the Vale social services. He had warned the Argus police when he arrived that he was working on their turf and the name of the Faunus ghetto he would be searching. Unfortunately, the alleged victim was already in Argus following his own lead and had a contact in the Argus police who had passed on the information. Everyone in power just wanted to cover up the story when the huntsman made it clear that if they put her on trial he would testify for the defence. The Argus police were embarrassed by the fact that they had leaked the address of the family to the serial killer, his family was just ashamed about the revelations, the press did not want to retract their previous stories. The Mistral police had deported her out of the kingdom back to Vale and the clearing of her name in relation to the original accusations had only been reported in the Faunus papers. They had pointed out that the jail break had involved multiple crimes and so it was best for her to accept deportation.
The Twins still occasionally called her Miss Piggy although it had been made quite clear to them that only they could use that name and that as far as everyone else was concerned she should be known by her new alias. She also said that because of the publicity surrounding the original case and the lack of publicity in relation to her name being cleared, she was hiding the fact that she was a Faunus and had changed the way she dressed.
Tracey had been putting herself through school with some help from the huntsman, a contribution from Little Miss and some blood money from the family of the human who had tried to kill her and had killed her grandfather. She had asked them not to discuss any criminal activities with her, although she was happy to spar with the twins. She and Neo had agreed that they should not even spar as they had seen each other in action and knew that if they fought it would have to be for real.
The revelation from the twins was something she would have to mention to Roman as it may be useful. She had returned the twins to Junior's club and he asked her to tell Roman to get in contact with him as he had had a message from Little Miss for him.
She passed the substance of the revelation from the long brunch to Roman. He had laughed and patted her on the head. He had then gone to see Junior. He had returned gleefully and said that he was now hopeful they could avoid her having to go to Haven with Cinder.
/-/
Cinder had arrived at the cottage for the Seer conference call. The call from Roman late last night had been annoying, but she felt that she could get away with saying that the facts that he had come up with were just plain bad luck and could not reasonably have been anticipated. Indeed, she could argue that it was the result of her doing proper due diligence that they had come to light, although she would not push that too hard.
Apparently, the others had started early. Watts was still with Lionheart and Tyrian and Hazel had joined Salem. She did not like the look of the smirk on Watts' face and wondered what he had in store for her. She reported to the group on the plans with Adam Taurus. Hazel agreed to pay regular visits to Mountain Glenn and check the cost estimates for the work. She discussed the work in Vale and suggested that Tyrian should introduce himself to Roman to keep him on the straight and narrow (or perhaps more accurately the winding and crooked). She did ask Tyrian not to mention Salem by name during the interview as Roman did not need to know the name. Salem agreed with the proposal, but said some fine tuning was needed as Tyrian should probably not wander the streets of Vale unless it was essential and suggested that the meeting be held near the cottage.
Cinder took a deep breath and said "After investigating the proposal in more detail, I have decided against taking his sidekick to Haven. It turns out that one of the new students at Beacon knows her true form from a prison escape in Mistral and would recognise her. Even if the girl could hold an illusion permanently when out of the dorm the other student Tracey Parker knows her fighting style and the fact she is mute does increase the risk of a query being raised."
She was surprised to see Lionheart react to the name and ask her to repeat the name. She said "Tracey Parker – is the name familiar to you. Leo?"
He said, "Yes. I had wondered what had happened to her. I am also amazed that Ozpin has accepted her and that Glynda did not object."
Hazel asked, "Is this a case of mutually assured destruction – after all both know the truth about the other."
Cinder replied, "I think we have to assume that her true identity and history is known at Beacon and a blackmail attempt would be counterproductive."
Leo, to her surprise, said, "I would agree with Cinder here. The girl was exonerated of the crime she had been accused of and the Mistral authorities would not welcome publicity."
She continued, "In addition, despite Arthur's undoubted skills, apparently a policeman in Mistral had kept a hard copy of Neo's criminal record and regularly checked the database to see that the original was still there. The fact that it had been erased means that he is expecting her to arrive shortly. When Roman checked with his ex- employer in Mistral about whether it was safe for him and Neo to travel, he was told that it was safe for him to come by himself, but that they would be looking out for the girl if she arrived within the next couple of months. While she may be able to hold the illusion at the borders, her height and lack of voice may give it away. In addition, the sister of a student at Haven was attacked by Neo four years ago and it seems unsafe to assume that she will not be suspicious"
She paused and then continued "I have concluded that it is better if the girl stays in Vale where she will be helpful in relation to our plans here."
Salem nodded and the rest followed suit.
Cinder started to relax- so far it was going well. "In the light of this, I was wondering whether Leo has identified an alternative teammate."
Watts intervened, "I think that it is alternative teammates that are required. When were you going to tell us that you had lost a fight to Goodwitch?" He waved a piece of paper and a drawing at the seer in Leo's office.
Cinder was horrified, but thought to herself that she should have expected this. "I doubt that picture is accurate as it was very dark, and my face was in shadow. I will also be wearing less distinctive clothing in Haven"
Watts read out the description of the fighting style and the semblance and expressed the view that it seemed unlikely that she could go seven months in Haven academy without using some of the techniques described in the memo. He expressed concern for Lionheart, especially as Goodwitch had asked him to distribute the description and picture to the rest of the staff at Haven.
Leo, who was genuinely scared of discovery, tried to pour oil on troubled waters by saying that he would be happy to recognise Cinder as an approved trainer to Emerald and Mercury and to send her to Vale as part of the support team at the Vytal festival, provided that she did not use her semblance in front of other students or staff. He also said that he had identified two students from Vacuo who wanted to be on a team with each other, who were clearly among the top quarter of the new students and had been happy to take pot luck with their teammates. He read out their resumes and the report from the professor who had assessed their application.
He said, "I think that they could work well with Mercury and Emerald. They are also photogenic and so the press are likely to concentrate on them rather than Mercury and Emerald."
Salem had then said, "I was going to suggest that you come back to the fortress in any event. I wish to train you personally in the use of your powers so that when you meet the Fall Maiden again you are fully equipped to deal with any obstructions. I also expect that there will be other places where you will be needed before the Vytal festival. I suggest that you instruct your proteges to put in a formal request after a month with Leo to recruit their trainer, that Leo declares that he is happy that they are contenders for the festival and to authorise them to recruit you."
Cinder thought to herself that if it had not been for Watts's sneering at her she would have been ecstatic. Salem had agreed with the basic plan, had offered her personal training and had ignored Watts's insinuations. She prepared herself to return to Vale and tell Roman that he could keep Neo. She would then inform Emerald and Mercury that they would have some new teammates, but that she would eventually join them as their trainer.
A week later Emerald and Mercury were introduced to their new teammates, Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias. On the plus side Emerald and Mercury had the single rooms in the dorm and Mercury thought that they would be amusing. On the negative side, Emerald wondered whether Neo would have been less irritating.
That is the end of this story. If I get to the Vytal festival the new team will appear at that time and I may even decide on a name for them. For the moment I am going with VBSS known as Vibes.