"'Vale Tech Expo'?" John read aloud in his room.

This was the first thing he found browsing on the CCT computers when looking for something relaxing to do. Since the encounter with the thief, bodyguard, and the mastermind, the Champion needed something to do to keep his mind occupied for the time being.

When it came up, he delved into the article: Nothing important, it seems. Just showcases of comparisons, weapons, fusions, and the like. At the bottom, however… "VIP Tour of newer technologies given to the affluent and/or the defenders of humanity," he muttered. "Apply early; have identification ready upon arrival."

Read the fine print, they say. Bad things will come if you don't, they say.

'At least they aren't wrong this time,' the Champion thought.

He prepared another outfit this time; a burgundy overcoat and black shirt, dress pants and shoes, and trilby hat for the venture. If the VIP Tour had anything good inside, he didn't want to be traced back to the Academy or the city when walking around.

The benefit of dyeing things: you'd be mistaken for someone else.

He opted to teleport out of the room, leading to the grounds instead of using the door. Keeping hidden was key here; anyone spotting the Champion in a different outfit, and one that would connect him to a heist, would be disastrous.

Unfortunately for him, he didn't count on a certain armored ginger man taking notice of his sudden appearance outside the school, and speedy escape to the airships.

He made a new identity for himself after obtaining his Hunter's License: Chara Forsaw, a wealthy individual that has invested in the Atlesian military and the SDC many years ago, and has developed numerous policies alongside Vale's Councilmen to promote equality. Though most of the policies have been demolished by the people, some of them remain to this day.

Upon reaching the Expo and confirming his identity at the gate, the Champion was given a small square tablet that would vibrate after an hour has passed; when it did, he would have to head towards the International Technologies Booth near the top left of the Expo. If he didn't make it in five minutes, the VIP Tour would go on without him, and anyone else late.

John actually arrived fifteen minutes late to the party, so he had forty-five minutes to wander around the building and see what technologies Remnant had.

Robots, scrolls, the CCT Towers demonstration and purpose – an interesting way to keep communication alive in the world – among other things. He stayed near the booth he was supposed to go to when the buzzer went off, but in a way that it didn't look suspicious.

Also known as conversing with a few other VIPs.

As he seemed to be part of a 'riveting' conversation between a few other wealthy benefactors and Huntsmen, there were a few that looked out of place: a few Faunas, for example, were fidgety for some reason. Sure, racism was quite high, but because there were Hunters here, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Until one of them twitched their head…

And showed a particular wolf tattoo on their shoulder.

The White Fang.

Honestly, it was hard to spot, because of the mass amounts of ink on their shoulder already, but the Champion had a keen eye for details: When that was spotted, it was now hard to not see it.

Why did they infiltrate a VIP Tour? Who knows; the Champion knew if he tried anything now, many more would notice, and his identity would be out in the world. Well, it already is; it'll just be more public than it should be. For now, he would do nothing, and see if the Tour guides will notice.

The tablet began buzzing. It was time.

Overall, he counted one-hundred heads. This tour would be quite large. Every person was pulled away into a room as a simple identity confirmation – the guides said they couldn't be too careful. The Champion knew it was paranoia at its finest: Who else would know besides someone else that had it?

Five minutes went by before he was let out. A headcount later said thirty-seven remained out of the previous one-hundred. He didn't want to know what happened to the rest that didn't come out of those rooms. The only difference was that a wiry man in a suit was on the opposite side of the room, a large smile on his face. The Champion knew better, though; the most inconspicuous people are the most dangerous.

"Hello everyone!" the man said cheerfully. He obviously was the tour guide. "For those that are wondering, we did that recent check-up so we can see who's honest in this group: those that weren't were asked to leave the premises peacefully!"

'Lies. I smell the blood.'

"Now, if all of you could please follow me, we'll begin the tour," the guide said, waving the group towards the doors behind him. Myself and a woman were near the front, and noticed the doors opened automatically, leading to a few rooms behind glass.

"Here, we have a few new prototypes and possible completed projects ready for mass production," the man began. "They won't be for the public eye, of course; they're designed for military and Hunter use – like this little thing here!" He lifted his left sleeve up to show...a watch…

'Something's not right here…'

The man actually chuckled at the group's reaction. "Now, I know what you're thinking: 'Why is a simple watch like this so important for only all military units and Hunters to utilize?'" he said. "Well, it's not what's on the outside that counts; it's what it can do that makes all the difference in the world."

'Now that,' the Champion thought. 'is how you take the words right out of my mouth.'

"Allow me to demonstrate." The man ducked behind a door; seconds later, he appeared behind the glass. "Now, this right here watch is actually a miniature detonator. What does it detonate? Dust, of course!" The guide picked up a Burn Crystal and attached the watch to the crystal. His thumb pressed onto the watch's face, and waited.

*BEEP*

The moment his thumb lifted off the face, a large red ring was inside the face of the watch; it slowly shrank in size, reaching a black dot in the center of the ring.

"Now, what I just did was activate the detonator. When it activates, it sends a pulse of energy into the attached object," the guide explained. He immediately set the armed crystal onto the pedestal, and retreated towards a shielding inside the room. "With living beings, it does nothing to them; mild annoyance being the most severe side effect as of now. It also has the ability to break apart other objects in a single pulse – trees, rocks, and other nonliving objects.

"Dust, however..." he paused, and closed his eyes and plugged his ears. The room shook with the explosion; most of the next room was semi-blackened, with the guide being spared. "Dust, however, reacts slightly differently, as you all can tell," he continued. "The energy pulse actually travels throughout the Dust, and keeps bouncing inside the crystal, eventually creating the reaction needed to activate the Dust. The result is...well, as you can tell, is quite explosive."

The rest of the tour was tuned out; the Champion knew what to obtain. The watches – Chargers, as the guide called them – were fully developed, but were not to be released until testing was completed. He knew where they were, thanks to his vision, but his chances were running thin; the cause being the guide. The bastard may be wiry, but what he lacked in strength, he possibly made up for in intellect. Odds are, he was keeping a close eye on Chara, and would notify security upon lagging behind or vanishing outright.

So why not make it a goose-chase?

He stepped on his shoelace, and undid the binding it had while walking. A minute went by before he reached down and tied it back up, just as the rest of the group was rounding a corner. In one of his hands was his wire-cutters: With careful precision, he snipped each cable that the cameras were linked up to at specific points.

With the attention off him now, he drew his knife, and watched as light refracted from his body once more. It was difficult, getting used to invisibility without a middle ground to see once more. Luckily, his Aura kicked in, and he could see once more. Turning his head to the left, he found the storage room that held the Chargers, alongside...blueprints!

Perfect.

Walking slowly, he kept out of the camera's line of sight. The first two were easy to disable, as he was on a joint that connected the two to the mainframe. These ones were still active, and possibly able to detect movement and heat. Invisibility could only do so much, and disguising heat was one such thing. Movement, not so much.

It took him two minutes to reach the room. At this point, the guards were running all over the place, trying to figure out where 'Mr. Forsaw' went. He waited until the footsteps stopped echoing, and opened the door to the storage room. Wire-cutters in hand once more, he detected a few cameras on the corners of the room and a line leading towards the blueprints.

'Possibly trapped. They're still the blueprints we need, so let's grab them and leave.'

Five snips later, the Champion confidently strolled into the room, and grabbed the document off the wall, careful not to lose any of the information in the process. Unfortunately…

*CLANG*

'How did we not see that pressure plate on the floor?'

Caged by bars, he noticed the plate immediately. It blended so well with the low light, he mistaken the dark wire leading to it as a small error. Well, now the error was on him.

Now, he could easily escape; he did have three options, after all. He could easily destroy the bars, teleport out of the room, or teleport back to Beacon altogether: His phone did much more than tell the time and hold important information.

But, the Champion decided to wait it out, and see if the guards can make it to him. Give them five minutes, and if they didn't arrive, he'd leave. Simple as that.

They didn't disappoint; exactly a minute later, around fifty men, geared up with riot-based armor and automatic weapons surrounded his cage, their fingers ready to fire when needed. And, on cue, the wiry guide showed up.

"You idiot," he began. "Did you really think that I wouldn't notice your disappearance? The moment we rounded the corner, I knew you were gone from the lack of your hat amongst the group." He took a moment to notice that the hat was gone, and no extra appendages were visible. "So you aren't Faunas, or with the White Fang, for that matter. That being said, the question is, who are you, and whom do you work for?"

The guide was smart, the Champion gave him credit for that. That's where the compliments stopped, however. Teleporting out of the room was a big no-no, as the facility was possibly locked down, and the guards waiting at every corner. As much as he was experienced at killing other people, he didn't want to make a terrifying name of himself on the first five days of his arrival.

Option three it was, then.

"I'll do you one better, Mr. …?" the Champion said, drawing out the last word for a name.

"Keleton. Lance Keleton, at your dis-pleasurable service," the man named Lance said.

'Wow, even his name screams asshole.' "Mr. Keleton, I'll do you one better," the caged man resumed. "I'll call my boss right now, and hand you the Scroll when he picks up. Do you mind if I…?"

Lance's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in glee. "By all means!" he encouraged, waving a hand in the Champion's direction.

"Thank you." He pulled out his phone, and pressed a single button at the bottom, activating it's teleport function.

*WIIIIIII*

"That's the dial tone!" he said as a blue light enveloped him, whisking him back to Beacon Academy – specifically, his bedroom – but Lance didn't know this.

"What the-?! How did he?!" he snapped his head back and forth, trying to look for his missing captive in the room. "FIND HIM! HE HAS THE BLUEPRINTS!"

That was fun.

He not only knew more about how the different Kingdoms functioned on Remnant thanks to a select few booths, but John now had the ability to create Chargers under the radar. With that in mind, he stowed the document in his personal storage known as his Safe. Thanks to Ozpin and Glynda giving him a Money Trough, he could access his materials once more, and his secondary storage within. And, because of the magic held within both, no one could ever access his items without him obtaining them first.

Speaking of items…

He equipped his armor once more, and destroyed the outfit in his personal disposal unit. Somehow, that was even more bottomless than the Underworld was. John never figured out why that was the case, but he rolled with it in the end. It saved him more times than he could count.

Now, he needed Dust…sure, he could always buy it, but with how the prices were so high, even he would eventually run out of money. Which meant he had to steal it.

And who better to steal it from than the ones that stole it first?

Note: This may seem a little late on uploading. If you don't recall, I actually livestream on Twitch every Tuesday, and that took up all of my time today. If you don't see this as late on your end, just ignore this little thing outright!

Admission time!

The house frame came in today, so I'm excited to start building it up in a few days from now. Tomorrow, I might post up a few pictures of it on my DA account – the account is the same name as my FFN account, so there's no confusion – so you guys can see what it looks like.

For three people, it's the perfect size, especially when two of them sleep together. I am not one of those two, for your information.

Another short chapter, but honestly, it's development and setup for future chapters. Because of how quickly I completed this one, I think I can easily get through the arc with the schedule I set up for myself on limited time.

And for the future! If I am somehow still writing this fic, February will be only one chapter release on the 28th/29th, because of how screwed up the month is.

Expect review answers next chapter, as usual, and the Dust Thieves Heist right after!

Side note: Lance Keleton was actually a fan-based character I was able to come up with on the spot. The actual form was there to begin with, the name was improvisation with the unintended help of a Tumblr user going by the name of CrashBoomBanger. Lance Keleton is actually Lance the Skeleton, who is a complete asshole that likes to be punny. I wonder what other skeleton likes being a punny guy as well…

This is TehUnoman, with another chapter release, and I'll see you in the next one and/or on the weekly livestreams!