"Sun Wukong." Glynda announced from the randomization system. Reaper watched the monkey boy jump down from the bleachers.

"So what's this I hear about this Ember chick fighting for you?" Sun asked.

Reaper stuck her shoulder and Ember pulled the blade out, opening her red eyes. "Hey, banana brains. I'm Ember."

Sun raised an eyebrow. "Oh… Yeah, that doesn't surprise me by now."

Ember unfolded Brutal Thorn and Sun readied his semblance stance. The timer clicked down and when the match began, Sun activated his clones. The golden silhouettes ran to Ember and she cut the first one down, not expecting it to explode on contact. As she stumbled from the blast, the second one hit her. She recovered in time to see Sun come at her with his full staff. She backed up just enough to avoid the strike and brought her foot down on the staff.

Rather than allow himself to be completely disarmed, he separated his weapon and held on to one of the shotgun-nun chucks. Ember swung up, making Sun backflip away. She kicked the half of the weapon under her foot out of the arena. Sun couldn't collect it without ringing himself out. His weapons were perfect for close combat, and Ember realized she had to either try and stay long range or use her speed to guerilla fight. She elected to try the latter first, and loaded an air magazine.

Pointing the barrel behind her, Ember fired and used her speed semblance to pass by Sun, hitting him along the way. He stumbled, and she turned and went again. She struck him several times like this before he found a way to block. Using the chain of his weapon, he wrapped it around Brutal Thorn and attempted to tear the weapon away, turning and pulling.

Ember smiled and timed her pull of the trigger for when the blade serrations would be pointed at him. Now at Sun's back with her scythe around Sun's front, she began pulling toward herself, unrelenting. He raised his forearms to block and could feel the pressure from the scythe as Ember pulled. He looked to the screen and saw that with Brutal Thorn pressed against his arms like this, his aura was draining fast. He brought his hands together and spawned more clones, hoping to blow Ember off of him.

Ember jumped away the second she saw Sun's hair glow and managed to avoid the clones. Realizing he still had his clones, Sun sent one after Ember and the other to grab the weapon half that was outside of the arena. The scythe master used the air rounds to launch herself over the aggressor clone and went straight for Sun. The focus necessary for his semblance was its drawback, and Sun cursed himself as he felt Brutal Thorn propel him across the arena. His copies faded with his concentration lost.

The last half of Sun's weapon lie at Ember's feet. She lugged Brutal Thor over her shoulder, using her feet to kick the chained pistols into her free hand. Swinging the monkey's weapon in circles, Ember turned to him. "Are you going to keep fighting, Abs?"

He stood up, shrugged and shook his head. "Nah. I'm not that stupid."

The buzzer rang. "In that case, I am calling the fight." Goodwitch annouced. "Good work, both of you. Ember remains undefeated."

"Undefeated?" Sun asked. "I knew you were good against Grimm, but when the hell did you get so good at fighting people?"

"Trust me, shirtless wonder. You don't want the whole answer. Let's just saw we picked up the skills while we were… away. Fighting for your life against people willing to take it can do wonders." Ember threw Sun the half of his weapon she held. He went to retrieve the other half and Ember returned to the seats to meet up with her team and Neo as class was dismissed.

Neo was more than happy with the outcome of the match. The fact that the voice Ember used when she was in control made it sound like she was flirting with everyone kind of irked her, but she knew it was just a voice with no actual intent.

"Hey, ice cream cup." Ember whispered as they walked back, looking Neo's way and throwing in a wink.

Neo was grateful she was invisible. That time the flirty voice was definitely filled with intent.

Dear god, Ember…

Only doing you a favor.

So you think…


Reaper tossed on her cloak. Today was they day. Finally, they would start looking for Creature. Blake was well enough to fight if it came down to it. Neo wanted to go as well, but realized she was missing a vital piece, her umbrella. She had dropped it in that alley, almost two weeks ago now. Who knows where it is now. Reaper turned to the multi-colored girl. "Neo, I want you to stay behind anyway." The scythe girl told her friend.

Blake smirked and Weiss shook her head. Neo went through many different emotions in a few seconds, unsure which to settle on. "We're not going to fight him if we run into him anyway." Reaper assured her. "Not until we have a plan to beat him. I may be a bit… overeager to pound his face in, but I'm not letting anyone else get hurt because of his vendetta against me." Neo frowned and crossed her arms. Was Reaper really going to make her stay behind? Why? "You would have to stay invisible the whole time, or risk being seen with us, and that will drain too much of your energy if we end up having to fight, and you don't even have your umbrella." Reaper explained. Neo accepted the reason and reluctantly sat back on Reaper's bed.

"Where can we start looking?" Weiss asked as they left the dorm.

"I want to go to the factory. If Creature really is Johnathon Wine, Maybe we can find something that points the way he went after the 'accident'." Reaper theorized.

The girls soon stood in front of a scene still cordoned off by police tape, although there were no police to be seen. The side of the factory was completely blown out on the lower floor. The entire area was covered in soot and ash. The fire blazed so hot that it warped and melted the metal tables, turning them to slag.

"And you think Johnathon Wine survived this?" Blake asked, disbelief in her voice.

"If anyone could, it's mister impenetrable shield. Besides, there so sign of his body and only Francis's was mentioned in the police report." Reaper answered. The others sighed and conceded, seeing as this was their only lead anyways. They began searching, seeing nothing but black soot, black ash, and the occasional gray ash. Reaper was about to give up when she something other than black and grey. A spot of red on the remaining window fragments in the wall, layered over the fire damage.

Reaper pulled out her scroll and checked the public police report again. The first reporting officer didn't even approach the fire until it burned itself out. The fire crews never even tried. It was possible Johnathon didn't move until the fire stopped and still made it out before police could see him. "Weiss, anyway we can test this blood? See who it came from?" Reaper asked.

Weiss walked over at looked at what she found and nodded. "I can talk to people in the police station. The Schnee name is very powerful." Blake was sent to retrieve plastic gloves, cotton swabs, and zip-lock baggies from a nearby convenience store so they could properly collect the evidence. They went to the police station next, and Weiss stopped the group outside. "Reaper, I think you should stay out here."

"You don't think the sight of a publicly broadcast criminal is going to make cops jumpy, do you?" Reaper replied sarcastically. "Well, I'm less than comfortable going in there myself. But what about the Schnee name? Blake can't enforce that."

"No, but Blake can watch you. I'll be as quick as I can." She kissed her girlfriend quickly and headed inside.

Could it be? Is she starting to trust us?

Looks like it…

Blake saw Reaper smile and wore one herself.

After a few minutes of just standing there, Weiss emerged with a report in her hands. "So the blood isn't Johnathon Wine's."

"Whose, then?" Reaper asked.

"A man named Dr. Verdant Stein." The leader showed the file to her team.

"He's not police." Blake mentioned.

"His blood was on top of the soot." The scythe master reminded them. "He was there after the fire for sure. Maybe he knows something?"

Weiss smiled. "That's why I got his address."

As they walked to the location, Reaper read the profile. It appears Dr. Stein was once a respected electronic scientist, but was caught performing questionable practices with… cybernetics.

'To which he was then revoked of his license.'

'Now under suspicion of performing illegal cybernetic surgeries.'

"And the plot thickens…" Reaper thought aloud. They reached the address soon after, a rather large and rather ramshackle apartment. "If I ever need cybernetic surgery, I want to be as far from this place as possible. Just looking at it is infecting wounds I don't even have yet…"

"You take what you can get, I suppose." Weiss said through a scrunched nose.

Reaper strode up the porch steps and knocked on the door. It opened to a rather frazzled looking white-haired man. "Yes, yes, what do you want!?" He asked.

"We're huntr-" Weiss was cut off by Reaper stealthily jabbing her in the ribs.

"We're hunters, like big game and stuff." Reaper told the man. "We're looking for Dr. Stein? My friend got her leg mangled in a bear trap, and what we're using now isn't cutting it."

He raised his eyebrow. "Why are hunters coming to my door?"

Reaper leaned in and whispered. "I believe you may be able to relate to a certain, ah… lack of credentials?"

"Poachers…" he whispered back. "Very well, come inside, all of you." The three 'poachers' stepped through the doorway. Instead of a living room, the den space was occupied by low-grade surgery equipment and a surprisingly clean gurney. "So, which of you is in trouble, dearies?"

"You are, actually, and if you try to run out the back passage you have hidden, I promise I'm much faster than you." Reaper smiled.

He looked between the three girls. "Huntresses! I'm so stupid… We shall see about your speed, girl." He took off. He was surprisingly spry for an old man, but couldn't outrun Reaper's speed semblance. The scythe master picked him up by the neck of his coat and threw him onto the gurney. Unfolding Brutal Thorn, she pointed the weapon straight at him.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" Reaper asked.

"Devils! What do you want!?" He shouted.

"Johnathon Wine. The Creature himself. You worked on him, didn't you?" Reaper pressed.

"Johnathon Wine? Was that his name? He wouldn't tell me. The blast, you see, scrambled his mind terribly. Kept going on about a reaper of some kind." Stein looked between the scythe and the black hood. "You wouldn't happen to be 'Reaper' would you? You did quite a number on him."

"We're aware. We need to know what you've done to him." Reaper continued.

"I have files, in that drawer." He pointed and Weiss opened it up and looked through the various subjects.

"Got it. John Doe, 'Creature' is written underneath like a side note. Good god…" Weiss looked over the sheet and handed it to Blake.

Stein eyed Weiss's hand, which still held the rest of the files. "Would you kindly put those back… and fuck off!" The heiress glared at the doctor. She drew Myrtenaster and used her ice to freeze Stein to the gurney. "What the fuck, lassie!?"

"We'll hold onto Creature's, but the rest of these files are more than enough to convict the good doctor. He's not going anywhere until police show up." Weiss stated proudly.

"Police!? You got what you wanted! Fucking huntresses, I hope you do get caught in a bear trap!" He kept shouting as the girls left the apartment. "Fuck that! I hope Creature rips your fucking head off! Those files won't be enough to prepare you! Fucking… FUCK!"

"Such a colorful personality." Weiss rolled her eyes.

"We couldn't agree more." Reaper and Ember assured.

"What was with the lie?" Blake asked. "We kinda outed ourselves once we got inside anyway."

"We wouldn't have gotten inside without that lie. He was ready to slam the door in our face, and then even our speed wouldn't have beaten him to whatever secret escape passage he has." Reaper answered.

Blake and Weiss nodded. It was interesting, and quite beneficial, to have a recently experienced criminal on the team, especially for a task that dragged them through the seedy underbelly. They dropped the files off, along with a note to bring Burn dust to melt the ice, in the Anonymous Tip box at the nearest precinct. The saw a police car leave the garage and go the direction of Stein moments later, and walked back to Beacon with smiles on their faces.

They entered the dorm and Neo visibly relaxed. Well, once she was visible. The girls set about reading through the file, hoping to find some weakness to exploit. Reaper got her first good look at the file. There were journal notes attached to the front page.

I went to investigate an explosion of a nearby drug lab. I really must shake the hand of whoever finally dealt a blow to filthy addicts that line the streets. I felt the urge, like destiny guiding my hand, to stay and watch the fire. It burned itself out, and I saw something truly miraculous. A man, on the ground, horridly burned and broken. But breathing! How, I asked myself, how!? I took him back to my lab. This man needed my help. He would be my master piece.

p.s. I noticed a tear in my shoulder. I must have nicked it pulling the man out. Good thing the Valen police force is a bunch of blind braggarts.

Masterpiece was one word for it. Reaper turned the page and saw a visual representation of all the changes, a drawing layered over a printout of a human form. They could confirm Neo's guess that his eye can track aura. Aside from that and his arm, there were also modifications all over his legs and chest. It explained his sudden boost in height. There was a side note of three broken scalpels in the early operation.

A half an hour in, Neo put down the paper she was looking at and picked back up surgery notes. She perused a few other pages before taking up a notebook and writing Reaper an observation.

'No shrapnel.'

Reaper took a moment to consider this, before racing through the various papers once again. Neo was right. In the pre-surgery notes, Stein noted there was no shrapnel. The various diagrams outlying the damage confirmed this.

He was right next to the table with all the equipment, how is there no shrapnel, glass, nothing pre-surgery?

No shrapnel, three scalpels broken…

Reaper picked back up the notes from the actual performance of the surgery. He had to resort to his laser tools to work on Creature.

Fire, lasers…

Energy, Reaper.

"We got it!" Reaper shouted.

"Got what?" Weiss asked, suddenly perked up from the cusp of sleep.

"His shield isn't so impenetrable…" Reaper smirked. "It stops all solids, but the fire and the laser tools bypassed it entirely. It only stops the physical, it doesn't stop energy!"

Weiss took up the files and double checked Reaper's assumption. She paced for a few minutes and turned back to her team. "Okay then. The evidence backs up this assumption. It would even help explain how he survived the fire, despite having to turn into this," She shook the papers, "because of it. I believe you failed to overwhelm his semblance, but he still suffered from the heat and the fire. Working off this, I have a plan. We need the right location, and a way to draw out Creature. And Neo."

"We have the perfect bait." Reaper pointed out. "But Neo can't fight, and his eye will see through her illusions. He'll notice they don't have nearly enough aura to be a living thing."

"If all goes well, she actually won't need to." The heiress assured.

Reaper looked to Neo, and the smaller girl nodded. She wanted to help.

Reaper looked back to Weiss. "Alright. Let's find our windmill and catch us a monster."