(AN: I'm looking for betas to help work on the story in the long term. If you are interested, please message me on this website for further discussion. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this chapter.)
A month and a half had passed since I woke up two weeks after the fall of Beacon. This time was spent getting Reese up to speed on everything of and not of this world, some more physical therapy for me and my arm, and some emotional therapy for Emerald - this time it wasn't me who did it, rather one of the counselors on Ironwood's ship. Adjusting to a mechanical arm was indeed very difficult, especially when it came to channeling aura into body parts. I had to remember that my robotic arm was unable to house aura the same way a normal arm might receive it.
During the preparation time, I was able to learn a few things. I managed to call Taiyang and Qrow a week before Ruby, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Liya, and Ren left on their journey to Haven Academy. I was able to explain things to Taiyang and Qrow, and Taiyang thankfully understood and apologized for what Yang did - as he was aware of Salem's existence, but not much more than that. i wasn't ready to talk about Yang, so I told Taiyang that there was nothing to forgive.
I wondered if Raven would look more favorably upon Yang for blasting my arm off at the elbow.
Qrow promised to look after the group once they left, though he asked me not to tell Taiyang that they were leaving. He mentioned that Yang had received a prosthetic arm from Ironwood a few days after I got first mine fitted, and that she was preparing to leave, having learned that Blake and Sun had run away to Menagerie, dead set on going after her partner.
I guess any rage that my girlfriend...no, my ex-girlfriend had towards me made her forget the depression she got from her missing limb. It's safe to say that Yang no longer holds any affection towards me. And I wasn't sure if I hated or still loved her. Still, I don't think I could handle being around Yang anytime soon. Sure, I understood why she was mad, but she beat the living hell out of me and blew off my arm. That kind of pain and loss wasn't very forgivable to me. Not within a couple months of it happening anyway.
I wasn't sure if I would be able to face her in the future. I'm not even sure if I hated her or not, because despite everything that happened, I was happy that she was no longer dwelling on her amputation. Whatever good that happiness did for her. Damn main character syndrome.
I was able to call up Nicholas Arc and explain that Jaune wouldn't be able to go home just yet, and asked him to spread the message to Pyrrha's parents when he told me that they were also worried sick for Pyrrha. I called Professor Goodwitch and told her that I would be seeking out Ozpin's new reincarnation as well, and she made me promise to be safe.
Ironwood had a dropship deploy us and our supplies to Anima, only being able to drop us off near the edge of the continent. We landed a few dozen miles inland from the shores, with enough compact consumables and supplies in crates and bags to last us around three to four months.
I sighed quietly as I exited the dropship at the edge of Anima, my shoulder supporting the weight of a large pack full of supplies. My outfit was completely changed from my former set of attire. I wore a dark gray barbour jacket with the zipper close to the left side of the body, similar to my first jacke. Under my jacket, I wore a blue shirt - though that wasn't visible with my jacket fully zipped. A white bandanna was neatly tied around the section of my left arm where my arm ended and my prosthetic began.
I also had black jeans and some well built steel toed boots. My new belt looked similar to my first one, but with the removal of the thigh belts for my other Dust. Instead, I now had a bandolier with all my Dust in large soda can sized containers. Other than that, I wore a black glove on my left hand, covering up any evidence of me having a prosthetic arm. The glove was pretty thick, and it went up to my wrist under my sleeve.
"Looking sick, dude." I turned to see Reese sitting on her hoverboard, smiling at my outfit as her legs swung back and forth alternatively. Her outfit had changed drastically as well. Instead of her hood up, she had on a purple beanie with her hair spilling under most of it, and a pair of sunglasses. She wore opaque tinted pantyhose leggings and black thigh high denim shorts, with three belts hanging off them. Her mauve sweater and purple hoodie was replaced with a pink collared undershirt under a crop top hoodie the same shade of purple as her older and much baggier hoodie. She wore the same black shoe laced high top sneakers and her knee and elbow pads. On her back was a smaller but still full backpack. Reese also had that black face paint markings that football players wear.
"You look geekier than your last outfit," I said playfully, nudging Reese's leg hanging from the board, which was eye level with me since the board was about two and a half feet up from the ground.
"You look like a good boy trying to look like a bad boy," Reese remarked. Laughing, I looked back to see Roman Torchwick and Emerald Sustrai leaving the airship, Roman having his hat and Melodic Cudgel, while Emerald now had Thief's Respite. They didn't carry supplies, since - and I quote Ironwood - they wouldn't be able to last in the wild if they ran with a backpack full of supplies.
Roman also had a different outfit, a dark green pea coat jacket and black pants, as well as his normal shoes. He also had his normal gloves - though the left glove was kept under the sleeve of his jacket. Like before, he had his signature gray bandanna around his neck and his signature bowler hat. Emerald's only change in dress was the addition of a white bomber jacket over her normal clothing.
"Heh," I said as I pulled up a digital map of Anima on my scroll, including where we were. Mistral had CCT proximity sensors for Grimm all over the continent, which made for a pretty safe living environment for much of the area. And with the CCT having not been attacked directly, these sensors were still operational, making for some safe tracking via scroll."Still can't believe you're coming with us," I said as I scrolled in on our location.
"Yeah, I know. Apparently I'm a side character who didn't get a single voice line," Reese said as she stood up on the board, spinning around lazily on it. "So, where to?"
"First, you get off the damn thing," Roman said, lugging a crate off the edge of the dropship ramp, before dropping it on the hoverboard. It tipped over immediately and Reese was sent flipping off her weapon slash mode of transportation like a rock from a catapult. "I'm not carrying all this through the damn countryside and you have a convenient trolley."
"But that's my weapon!" Reese protested, hopping up to her feet and brushing herself off. "What do we do if we're attacked?"
"I dunno, protect the boxes with your life," Emerald suggested. Reese responded by sticking her tongue out at Emerald, who responded by groaning annoyingly. Roman sighed as he lugged the third crate onto the hoverboard, which was hovering less than a foot above the ground now.
"I swear, it's like I'm dealing with a bunch of childish brats," Roman grumbled as he wiped his brow.
"I thought you were used to dealing with brats," I said as I began mapping out a path through the continent. Reese decided to haul the fourth and last crate to the hoverboard.
"Oh, I don't see this little thief as often as you think I do," Roman said, jutting a thumb in Emerald's direction as he leaned on the dropship, only for it to take off and leave him lying in the dirt.
"Not talking about Emerald. Neo's playful as fuck," I said. "Only time I ever saw her being serious was when I fought her on the train. Oh, and when I saw her with Cinder before my arm got shotgun blasted to hell."
"Yeesh," Roman said. "Way to rub in your scars, huh? Anyways, yeah. Neo is a brat. But she's my brat."
"Ooh, paternal love? Or something more..." Reese teased.
Roman responded by swinging Melodic Cudgel at Reese's face, who stepped back with ease while laughing. "Partners in crime," Roman said. "Not into that whole love daddy kink you kids tend to lose your socks over."
"Hah," Reese said as she hopped up and sat on the crates, the board now hovering a literal inch over the ground. "Well, onwards noble steed!" Reese said.
Roman pushed the board forward, and the whole thing tipped over, including Reese. "Seriously?" she said.
"Hey, all I did was push it," Roman said innocently.
"Ugh!" Reese said, before I decided to step in. My neural Dust came out of my belt, pushing the crates back on the board before I used said neural Dust to form ropes and cables that kept the supplies on the board. "There. Can we get going now?" I asked, clearly exasperated. I don't know why I expected things to go smoothly.
"Touchy," Roman said as he swung the cane. And with that, we were on our way. It was almost noon when we started, which meant we would need to stop and eat lunch anyway. Ironwood had us stocked with Atlas grade MREs, which were high nutrient chewy energy bars and packets full of preserved foods, which he warned were incredibly salty. One bar and one packet was enough to get through a full meal, along with some water.
"Dunno about you, but I'm already thirsty," Reese said, prying open the topmost crate on her hoverboard as she and I pulled it along. "Just gonna have some water."
"Yo, get me some too," Roman said. "It's hot out here."
"You're wearing a coat. So's Emerald. So is Markus-why are you all decked out for winter anyway?" Reese said as she pulled out a water canteen.
"Combat outfits. Easy to fight in, prepare for, and they're stylish as hell," Roman said, only for Reese to blow a raspberry as she chucked the canteen at him. Unfortunately for Reese, Roman caught it and began to drink.
I heard her take out another canteen before she froze. "Hey, what's this doing here?" she asked. I turned to see her pull out Long Memory from the crate. Ozpin's cane.
I immediately grabbed it from Reese at once and hooked it to my belt, looking straight ahead as we walked. "It's...something we have to deliver on the way," I said. "Something personal."
Luckily, Reese didn't ask much in terms of questions. Emerald's eyes narrowed but she said nothing at all. Roman didn't seem to notice. Sighing, I looked sun was bright, and the trees were providing some shade. There wasn't much to talk about, the four of us simply walking in silence, with the occasional bored remark from Reese.
I'd expected Roman to talk endlessly, mostly about his crime days and about how this whole world was crazy, and how much he hated Cinder. But he didn't do much. He simply smoked his cigar and hummed quietly to himself as he strolled along, swinging his cane.
So it was a nice change of pace when I pulled some remaining Dust and formed a hat similar to his, and a cane similar to his, and began mimicking his movements. "Stop it," Roman said, clearly irritated.
"Oh? And why should I?" I asked, faking a posh accent. Roman glared and I pouted. "Fine..."
I withdrew my Dust, and took out my scroll. Realizing I basically still had internet access, I got on the site where I published my story, and I sighed. I'd left it on pause for quite a while, so I published an author's note, explaining that my story was on pause due to the attack on Beacon, Academy and the city of Vale, as well as the personal injuries I'd sustained in the attack. Once I sent the author's note, I sighed and pocketed my scroll.
"Roman..." I said. "What'll you and Neo do once you reunite?"
"I dunno, probably lay low for a while," Roman said as he walked along, not having much of a problem when it came to small talk. Then again, he was quite good at it. "Start being pickpockets, maybe take on the Spiders in Mistral. Vale's too big a mess to come back to."
"Yeah..." I said. "How do you see Neo?"
"A partner, someone who has my back. I bet you have someone like that. Like that girlfriend of yours in the train. Blondie," Roman said.
"Not anymore," I said. "She's the one who blew off my arm."
Roman blinked. "Oh," he said. "Good riddance to her, then."
"Eh, I'll forgive and forget," I said. "This is naught but a little scratch."
"Hah, hilarious," Roman said before sighing, continuously twirling his cane. "I just wanna go back to doing crimes with Neo. You already know our pasts, right? You probably shouldn't be asking anyway."
He sighed as he puffed his cigar again, with the cloud going right to Emerald, who coughed and waved profusely at her face. "Heh, dimensional hopper, that shit's rich."
"Heh, I thought you were all fictional. At the hands of a team of animators who made you based off computer generated images. Made to fight, walk around, and dance in any way they want," I said. "And don't get me started on all the fanart you people get."
"Excuse me, what?" Reese asked, suddenly giddy. "You're telling me that there's lots of fanart of me out there?"
"Not too much, but it's there," I said. "Roman's a fan favorite. Too big a favorite."
"Heh, of course I am," Roman said snarkily.
"It's why the crew decided to kill you off in the first place. Eaten by a Grimm on top of a battleship," I finished.
"Of course I was," Roman said, much less boastfully this time.
"Then...Emerald," I said. Emerald looked up. "There's also a lot of fanart of you. You're the best girl in a bunch of people's eyes. Which is most of that fanart of you is porn."
Emerald paled completely. Roman broke out into laughter as the petite green haired thief stuttered and stammered for a few seconds.
"So does that mean you know what her boobs look like?" Reese asked in a stage whisper. Emerald went bright red, and I refrained from answering Reese's question.
My hesitation would've answered regardless. Roman kept laughing before I coughed. "There's also porn art of Neo. More than Emerald," I said. That silenced Roman at once, and I continued talking. "And half of it is of Neo and you doing the-"
"Shut up," Roman said briefly, suddenly feeling sick. Very, very sick. He turned greener than Emerald's hair as he leaned to the side, ready to gag. Reese snorted for a second before she paled quickly as well. "There isn't any porn art of me out there, is there?" she asked frantically.
"...I don't know," I said. "There's not too much art of you on the internet, to be honest. Just some digital drawings of you and your team doing cute or cool poses."
"My team," Reese said, falling into silence. "I wonder if they're doing alright."
"I'm sure they're alright," I said reassuringly. "They're back at Haven now. We'll see them in no time, alright?"
Reese grinned at me softly for a few seconds. Then that smile went away. I noticed as well, something felt off. I wasn't sure if Roman or Emerald noticed - they had to - but the area suddenly felt very tense. Whipping around, Reese turned towards the trees before a loud crack was heard. A bullet struck her in the head, and her aura shattered as she flew back, her body slamming hard into the crates.
I almost had a damn heart attack as Reese flew back. She'd brought her aura up just in the nick of time, but the suddenness of it, as well as the sheer power behind that shot was too much for her aura to take. "Reese!" I cried as we moved.
The four of us hit the ground, Roman ducking behind the hoverboard, and Reese landing on the ground in an unconscious heap. Emerald drew Thief's Respite, aiming at the direction of the shot. I drew my neural Dust into four large ballistic shields, one for each of us. "Who's there?!" I called.
There were no sounds for a few seconds, other than the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. The three of us looked around, awaiting anything that could come our way. Then another crack echoed through the forest. I ducked in an instant, and the shot sailed over my head, grazing my ear as I lowered my target profile immediately.
Suddenly, a shadow leapt out of the trees, landing on the path in front of us. Emerald readied to fire before I quickly held up a hand, and she ducked back behind the shields I made.
He was a tall but slim figured person, wearing black pants, boots, a white vest, and a black thin hoodie. The hood was up, and he wore a full faced white mask with red engraved markings around the eye slits. A pair of small curved horns stuck out from two holes in his hood. For weapons, he had a pair of armored vambraces with a pair of gladius type blades attached, wielding them like katars.
"White Fang," I commented. "Wasn't aware they went after travelers now."
"They do if the travelers land from an Atlas built military dropship," the man said, and he pointed at me with his right blade. He had a deep voice, almost as deep as Hazel's. "And especially when you're traveling with him."
"Oh, do you know me personally?" Roman asked haughtily. "I don't remember if I've done something to you or your family. See, I tend to do a lot of things, so you'll have to refresh my memory."
"No, you have not done anything personally to me. However, you are well known for leading many of our brothers to their deaths many months ago," the man said. "I don't know why you are traveling with scum like him, but we only want this one to pay for his crimes. If you don't mind stepping aside, we'll leave you be."
"I'd believe that if you didn't try to blow out the brains of my partner here," I said, looking down at the unconscious skater girl, who didn't look like she'd be waking up anytime soon. "So I think we'll pass, mainly because we don't trust you to not do anything stupid."
The man growled quietly under his mask. "Then we'll take who we want by force!" he said. On that statement, we were attacked by a second Faunus, a female wearing a similar outfit and mask to the horned man, but without sleeves. She didn't have horns, but her arms and forearms had reptilian scales. Over the outfit was an angled chestplate with shoulder plates.
She wielded a large black two handed hatchet with a dark gray blade and white wrappings around the handle. The gray blade had a carved reptilian face with a side perspective, with the jaw opened and unhinged from the toe of the hatchet blade, to the heel. The knob of the large hatchet was also spiked. She jumped on top of the boxes with a yell, flooring Reese's hoverboard, and swung.
Emerald dashed, and the hatchet nicked a wayward strand of her green hair before burying itself into the side of the box. The first guy with the katars started slicing at Roman, who blocked and dodged with ease. And I was busy raging at the world as they fought.
"One hour! Not one hour before things go straight to hell! I hate my life!" I roared as I deflected bullet after bullet from the mystery sniper still in the forest. I'd recalled my neural Dust shields around Roman and Emerald the moment they started fighting - the last thing I wanted was to get in their way, focusing them both on the shield around Reese. The Dust holding the boxes in place was also pulled back, letting the board and the boxes crash to the ground.
Roman seemed to be toying with the Faunus, deflecting both blades faster than his attacker could currently attempt to run them through his aura. However, the two smaller and more agile blades were still leagues more versatile than a single heavier cane, so blocking and evading was about all Roman could do. As long as he could avoid getting hit, it would be fine.
Emerald seemed to be struggling, the Faunus with the large hatchet still having a degree of speed and strength superior enough to wield the large and heavy chopping weapon with impressive power and agility. Emerald was dodging massive swings while dealing some of her own. The crazed reptilian hatchet wielding Faunus's aura flickered, but never a lot. Whoever this was, she had a lot of aura, maybe on par with Jaune's reserves.
I was too focused on Emerald and Roman's fights, as well as keeping up my Dust from the sniper fire that I'd forgotten about Reese. When I heard a snap, I turned to see Reese with a long smooth pink rope coiled around her waist, getting pulled into the dense trees with incredible speed, fast enough that she was there one second, and gone the next.
"Reese!" I yelled, and I made to go after her before I was smacked aside by the Faunus with the gladius blades, having jumped away from Roman to get to me. When I stumbled, the sniper landed a successful shot on me, shattering half of my aura and disorienting me.
"We have one, that's all we need!" the horned Faunus man said before dashing off, the scaled Faunus woman disengaging with Emerald and chasing him moments later. As she made to run past me, I tried to grab her jacket, only for her to swiftly kick me across the face before continuing her escape. The two vanished into the trees at once, none of us moving to follow them.
I groaned as my aura flickered, slowly before I turned it off for now. I turned to see Roman leaning on his cane as if nothing had happened, and the same with Emerald sheathing Thief's Respite. "Well that was something," she said.
I sighed. "They have her," I said. "They snagged Reese with some kind of tongue. Pretty sure they have a frog or toad Faunus with them."
"You're saying we go after them?" Roman asked. "I'd ask if you were crazy, but you're literally from another world, so..."
"No. Way," Emerald said. "I'm not gonna attack a bunch of crazy animals with aura. Not that I can't hold my own. Besides, don't tell me you have tracking abilities now."
"I don't. But I can feel my Dust when it's far from me," I said. "I managed to slip a few particles into that hatchet wielding Faunus's jacket when I pried her pocket open. Before she kicked the bejeezus out of my face."
"Bejeezus?" Roman asked.
"All I'm saying is that we need to get her back if we're to keep going safely," I said, knowing these two wouldn't respond very well to sympathy plays. "We have a way to track her by following where that Dust is trying to return. It's like...I can feel its pull or something. It'll be pretty easy to follow."
"Eh, I dunno...I feel it'll waste time," Roman said. "Plus, I'm sure they won't harm the brat."
"At least sound like you believe your own words," Emerald said.
"Eh, I tried," Roman said as he shrugged. I sighed as they argued. Or...chatted? I don't know how villains tend to talk. I decided to go with bickering as I loaded up the board with the damaged supplies. Luckily, the boxes were in good shape.
"If it were Neo who was taken, you'd go after her in a heartbeat," Emerald said. I turned to look at Emerald. Perhaps she wasn't as homicidal as Mercury or Cinder were.
"If it were Neo, she never would've been taken in the first place. Slippery little fella," Roman retorted.
"Guys, let's just focus on moving. I still have a good general sense of their direction," I said as I looked to the forest. "We've given them enough of a headstart."
"Uhh, why are you giving them a head start?" Emerald said.
If we followed them right away, they'd try and lose us first and end up tiring us out. Letting them get away first means we can get the drop on them, and get to the location without them constantly looking over their shoulder," I said.
"Smart," Roman snarked as he spun his cane. "Taking a classic lesson out of 'Hunting Down Rival Gang Members 101', a true strategist."
"It'll work. They're just dumb animals, right?" I said. Roman let out a "Hah!" before we began to move. It was a dimension hopper, a terrorist, and a gentleman thief moving a floating skateboard full of boxes through the forest.
There was plenty of tension for the three of us for hours on end. While we should've made it 20 miles or so closer to our destination, we ended up going 8 miles off course. Still deeper in Anima's forests and away from the shores, but not anywhere closer to where we needed to go.
And it was all the White Fang's fault.
Eventually, we were close enough that I could feel the Dust being very close. I could hear water splashing, as well as some other noises I was unable to discern from natural origins. My Dust had stopped a while ago near a relatively deep river of fresh water. When we reached the rocky mountainside where the river flowed, I asked Emerald to come with me.
"And I just stay here?" Roman asked.
"You don't have to get wet. And if anyone else comes by, you get to blow them to bits," I said. Roman stopped talking after that, grinning and waving us off as if he were in charge. Emerald and I snuck by, along the rock wall towards the sound of a waterfall. We stopped when the river turned, towards open ground.
After a few seconds of preparation, Emerald and I peeked around the corner of the rock to see a river. The jacket was less than fifty or sixty meters away, and the waterfall itself was likely around a hundred meters or so away. I looked around. The river was surrounded by trees and brush, as well as a large rock near the edge of the river. On the rock lay some armor and clothes, including the jacket my Dust had slipped into. Leaning on the rock was that two handed hatchet as well.
Then that means...
I turned to the water, just in time to see a fully nude woman surface from the river, long gray hair flowing as she swept her head to the side - water droplets flying off like they would off of some supermodel in a commercial involving water.
"Shit," I mumbled before retreating behind the rock, out of sight. "Well, I guess we just wait for her to finish."
"Or, we could grab her now, silence her and question her on Reese's whereabouts," Emerald suggested.
"Hmmm...it's risky. Might not work. Specialists in Atlas are pretty wound up tight. Maybe it's the same with the White Fang," I said.
"Hah, I know my way around them. Many of them are as dumb as a hammer. Seriously, like Adam's right hand man. Some buff guy with a chainsaw. Plus, she'll break when she sees Romn there," Emerald said. "You grab her, and I can swoop in and pretend I'm her for now."
"Smart. Though...snatching her outright is probably gonna be noisy, especially around water," I said. I quickly brought out my neural Dust, a steady stream of it snaking its way towards the rock, using the brush as cover. Emerald watched as I worked.
The way my "weapon" worked was pretty simple, and relied on one thing - imagination. As long as I knew where I was working, as well as what I wanted to do, I could make anything and everything I wanted, within limitations of the amount of neural Dust and the complexity of what I wanted to make. And forming a pair of Beowolf puppies - miniaturized adult Beowolfs - wasn't very hard.
The two little mangy Dust doggos hopped out of the forest, pretending to play and wrestle each other close to the water. The Reptilian Faunus woman turned to see the two puppies, and I had a full view of everything. Her scales went all the way up to her shoulders, and crossed to meet across her collarbone, as well as ended just at the base of her neck. More scales were on her sides, from her hips and down. Her eyes were gray and seemed to have incredibly tiny pupils.
The woman in the river stared confused at the two "Grimm" apparitions, raising an eyebrow as they rolled around by the rock with her things on it. "What the..." the White Fang woman said, clearly lost and unsure what to think as she watched this odd display.
That confusion turned into red faced anger as I "commanded" my Grimm puppy creations to stop fighting and grab her things. The first snagged all her clothes in its jaw, leaving the armor behind, while the second stole her weapon, also using its jaws to drag the large armament along at high speeds.
"What the fuck, get back here!" the woman yelled.
"Oy, Ash!" a second voice called from beyond the trees. I recognized the voice as the horned Faunus who took on Roman hours earlier. "What's going on?"
"Uhh, stay back!" Ash cried. "Some Grimm just stole my clothes!"
"Did she say her clothes got stolen?" a third smaller voice asked.
"You get over here and I'll fuckin' pummel you!" Ash roared before she clambered out of the river, running after the cheeky puppies I made. Seeing her fully out in the open revealed that her feet were reptilian in nature, not having five toes like normal humans, but instead having four larger toes and sharp talons for nails. Her feet were still around human size, so it wasn't so odd.
The puppies ran around the corner, and so did Ash. Her anger turned to shock as Emerald and I tackled her into the water, pinning her down in the relatively shallow depths closer to the shore of the river. After a few minutes, I had her tied up with several bands of Dust, having placed them wrapped around her chest and groin area to protect her modesty. Some Dust also formed a large gag around her face, her eyes enraged as she struggled to scream.
"Hey, have you got them yet?!" someone's voice said, the horned Faunus's voice.
Emerald got into action, grabbing the pile of clothes and weapon before turning into that naked version of Ash. Ash's eyes widened, presumably out of shock, as she and I watched "Ash" strut out from around the rock to approach the Faunus.
"Hey boys," 'Ash' said, grinning at the two Faunus that had left the treeline. "Sorry for the trouble."
The horned Faunus didn't seem different, but the third one was new. He was smaller, around Neo's height. He had a very wide mouth, and a pair of goggles instead of a White Fang mask. He wore the basic outfit of the White Fang, but with a pauldon on his left shoulder. A sniper rifle was attached to his back - guess I know who was shooting earlier - and he had a utility belt.
"Lookin' good, Ash," the sniper said. He had a very nasally voice.
"Thanks. As long as you don't touch me, I won't pummel you. I still need to finish rinsing," Emerald said in a flirty version of Ash's voice. I could see the real Ash trembling as she watched her naked doppleganger flirt with her colleagues. "Inside and out, if you know what I mean," Emerald finished.
"Heh, yeah. I do know what you mean," the sniper said, licking his lips. I could see that his tongue was indeed very froglike - or toadlike.
"Well don't take too long. Brother Taurus will be pleased to know we have a subject for his...example to be made to High Leader Khan," the horned Faunus said. "Meet us in the throne room in ten."
I blinked.
Emerald blinked.
Roman blinked.
Ash struggled, her cries of rage muffled by my Dust gag.
We hadn't just stumbled onto some small outpost or raiding base of the White Fang. We found the main headquarters of the entire White Fang organization. And Sienna Khan was inside there.
Emerald nodded. "Got it," she said as she dropped the clothes and weapon, before hopping into the deep part of the river. A minute after the two were gone, Emerald emerged from the water, her Ash display gone. What was left behind was Emerald with soaking wet hair and clinging clothes. "Ugh," she groaned. "I despised that."
I activated my aura to copy Jaune's future semblance, my hand lighting up and allowing Emerald to replenish that small bit of her used aura. "Alright, so we need a plan," I said.
"And it starts with her," Emerald said, looking at Ash before drawing Thief's Respite. "Scream, and this goes into you. Activate your aura, and we drown you."
Ash slowly nodded, and I began to remove the Dust restraint on her mouth. Coughing, she spat out particles as they were forced back into my belt canisters. "You came to take us down? Filthy human, you're in way over your head-"
"Actually, you have someone of ours," I said. "We just need her back."
"Too bad. She'll be executed as an example to us all. And to prove to High Leader Khan that we need to take more action against humans if we're to survive," Ash said, grinning smugly.
"So Taurus is here. So is Sienna?" I said. Ash faltered, and that gave me the answer I needed. "You know Adam will just kill Sienna and take her place, right?"
"Lies and mockery," Ash scoffed.
"Not kidding. Adam's bullheaded - no offense to his Faunus traits - I know what he does. He attacked Beacon, and Sienna won't agree with that," I said.
"Yeah, we had to cut a deal with him instead of the whole White Fang. Not that it matters now," Emerald said.
"A human and a traitor," Ash said, defiant in her beliefs. "I won't talk, and I won't tell you how to get in."
Emerald sighed. "We don't have long," she said.
"Then let's try something...else," I said. "Say, who's that sniper guy? Seems like a pretty good friend of yours."
"Hah, Dave?" Ash barked. "A perverted creep."
"Well, you already saw Ash's nude body. And you saw Dave. You think it's a stretch to imagine Dave naked?" I asked. Ash froze, and Emerald grinned an evil grin so evil Cinder could get a run for her money with it.
"Oh, I imagine I know what it'll be like for you and Dave to be...very good friends," Emerald said, as her hallucinations began. Before Ash could scream, I forced my neural Dust back into her mouth as Emerald forced illusions of Ash and Dave doing...M-rated things before Ash's very eyes.
She broke within a minute.