had to change the chapter name real quick

The outside of the mall was still peaceful. For a few seconds, at least. Ember came flying out of the wall with enough force to turn the brickwork into dust. People shouted and backed away, not liking where this was going. The scythe master herself stood up slowly from across the street, watching the hole. "Of all the people… in all the world… he could have recruited… he just had to bring you…" The monstrosity stepped through the hole, his one intact eye filled with unbridled fury. "Creature…"

The beast roared again. His arm had a significant upgrade with the new Atlas gear. Now, his cannon had three clawed fingers coming off the rim, apparently allowing him to grab people and throw them with enough force to shatter walls. His eye seemed to be better too. Ember didn't think he was going to be as easy to beat as he was last time.

That phrasing suggests last time was easy.

"Shut up, Reaper!" Ember shouted, dodging a glowing blue blast from Creature's arm. The building it hit instead started collapsing – right on top of the people inside. "Fuck!" Ember rushed back in, speed semblance in full throttle, trying to save everyone. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" She repeated in frustration, grabbing people and throwing them outside. She was almost too late to grab the last one. Unfortunately, she was too late to toss the last one out the window. The roof was coming down, and she shielded the old lady with her body.

Small, quick footsteps ran up to them, and Ember felt the light of Neo's teleportation. Ember looked up at the building, now a few blocks down, crumbling.

"Thank you so much young- oh! It… it's you." The old woman's voice almost became fearful.

Ember sighed and looked up to Neo. "Get her out of here, along with anyone else who can't run quickly enough on their own. I'll draw Creature away and think of something." Neo nodded reluctantly and vanished again, taking only the old woman with her.

Ember eyed down Creature, studying him as he approached. "All right, you son of a bitch… How do I kick your ass?"

Creature roared and fired again. Ember dodged gracefully and ran toward her target. She jumped past him, hooking her scythe around his neck. She swung around him like this, the blade refusing to penetrate his semblance. She used her position and momentum instead to try and throw him to the ground with a hefty swing. Creature stumbled, but didn't fall. Quick thinking on Ember's part led her to try and sweep his legs too.

Her thinking was too quick, it seemed. She had forgotten the last time she swung at Creature like this and bent her scythe. When the shaft of her scythe hit his legs, it was knocked from her hands. Creature backhanded Ember about twenty feet away.

We can't beat him without a plan, and we can't make a plan while we're fighting him. We need him to go away.

I got it, but-

Ember spotted a manhole on the ground, and had an idea. She dialed Neo on her scroll, dodging Creature's claws and reaching for Brutal Thorn at the same time. Neo picked up. "We need a map of Vale's sewer system, ASAP!" click.

Did she even hear you?

Don't have time to make sure!

Ember focused on avoiding further hits until she felt her scroll buzz. Speeding away from Creature, she checked it real quick and found what she was looking for. "Alright, Franken-fucker V.2! Come and get me." Ember sped off, slowly enough that Creature could still follow.

As she neared her mark, she sped up. Using Gravity rounds and her semblance, she got faster and faster. Then, she turned Brutal Thorn's blade down and ground herself to a halt, causing a large fracture. Creature came around the corner, running to her. She tossed her scythe aside and raised her fist, channeling heat and flame into in.

Three

Two

One

Now!

Ember brought her fist down, and shattered the pavement. Creature fell into the resulting hole before he could grab Ember, and tumbled into a deep, cylindrical storm drain. He vanished into darkness before Ember could hear him hit the bottom. The woman collapsed then and lay there until her team found her.

Weiss looked down the hole. "Do you think he's-?"

"No." Reaper answered, staring up at the sky and thinking. "He'll be back. And we need to be ready."

Back at the hotel, the girls settled in for bed. The day had been far more exciting than anyone anticipated, and they needed time to think. In room 201, Neo was finishing up a shower. Part of her was hoping Reaper would join her, and they would 'work off stress' together. When she got out, however, Reaper was still standing in the exact same position. Staring out the window, thinking. Neo frowned. In recent months as a student reinforced a lesson she learned as a criminal. Sometimes, it's better to relax, refresh the mind. Reaper needed that now.

Neo Grabbed her arm and pointed at the bed, her face stern. You are getting some sleep.

"Neo, we have no idea where Creature is. No idea of his capabilities. I don't have-" Reaper faltered. She had heard something very similar to this once… when Blake nearly destroyed herself stressing over Torchwick and the White Fang. And Ruby was where Neo is now, trying to convince a stubborn team mate to rest. "Alright…" She conceded.

The quick turnover surprised Neo, but she would ask about it later. Right now, she was happy getting Reaper into bed. Well, not in that way… maybe after they dealt with Creature.

"But I'm still very wound up… you know of any 'activities' that might help me relax?" Reaper suggested.

Or maybe not. Neo smiled seductively.

Knock knock knock

"Reaper! Neo! Team meeting!"

Silence was all that was heard after her knock. The heiress frowned. "Are they asleep already…?" She knocked again. "Come on, you two!"

Finally, Reaper spoke up. "Ummm… Can you give us like… ten minutes?"

"… For wha- Oh god!" Weiss shuddered. "Now, of all times!? You two are disgusting!"

"'Oh, kitty, push it deeper!'" Reaper teased, repeating a line she heard through the wall the night before.

"FUCK YOU!" Weiss slapped her hand over her mouth, her face turning red as a tomato.

Ohhh, the princess lost her composure.

Yeah, we should probably cool it for a while.

"L-look… I just need to hear what happened when you and Creature ran off for my report to detective Black." Weiss managed. "Just… text it to me, I guess… and by god, I've seen the messes you two make, do not leave that for the hotel maids."

"By your command, fearless leader." Reaper assured through the door. "Hey, you think they have the little maid outfits? Maybe we could borrow one." She continued, likely to Neo alone, forgetting Weiss was there.

"I'm leaving. Text details. Clean up." Weiss stuttered and stormed into her and Blake's room.

Blake immediately drew Weiss into a comforting hug.

"Hello, Blake…" Weiss sighed, returning it.

"You okay?" The faunus asked her girlfriend. "You don't often lose it like that. What happened?"

"I'll tell you later… let's just say last night probably won't be happening again for a while…" Weiss confessed.

"Damn it, Reaper." Blake cursed under her breath, or so she thought.

Weiss shook her head. "I don't know who's worse, you or them. At least with you I can blame your literature. I don't know what happened to my old partner…"

"A lot, Weiss." Blake reminded her. "Not like it happened overnight."

"Yeah…" Weiss lamented, almost missing the old days with the sweet little girl she almost admitted was her best friend.

The girls went straight to the police station the first thing the next morning. The looks Reaper got were not happy looks.

It looks like everybody blames us for the shitstorm yesterday.

To be fair, this could have been avoided.

No, Ember. We did the right thing back then. We're a huntress. We're not a killer anymore.

We're still a Reaper. And perhaps it's just Creature's time…

"Shut up." Reaper told her inner voice, effectively silencing it.

"I haven't even said anything yet." Black argued, the girls having just arrived at his desk.

"Not talking to you." Reaper assured him. He didn't seem any more comfortable.

"Weiss, I looked into what you asked me about last night." Black told her.

"And?" Weiss asked.

"Wait, what did I miss?" Reaper cut in.

"Nothing you would regret missing, Ms. French Maid." Blake teased.

"Hey!" the dark woman shot back, Neo stiffening beside her. The detective stared at the two for a moment.

"Do I want to know?" Black asked the heiress.

"No, you don't. About Stein?"

Stein? Neo was visibly surprised.

"He wasn't reported as an escapee, but as far as we can tell, he got out the same day as Torchwick." Black explained. "Another team was assigned to him, and they found him dead in his old 'office' a few days ago. This was only just brought to my attention with the situation with Creature officially connecting the two."

"Torchwick used him to rebuild Creature." Blake concluded. "Then threw him away."

"So it seems." Black continued. "So now we know the how, we knew the why, now we just need the where."

"There's no sign of him?" Reaper asked.

"We're not even sure he made it out of the sewers." The detective shook his head. "And no one's going down to check."

"Good." The scythe woman nodded. "As long as he's not causing destruction, it gives us time to think."

"We can't leave him out there." Black told her. "My orders are to split priorities. Two of you need to be permanently assigned to finding and dealing with Creature."

"Reaper is the only one that really hold him in combat." Weiss pointed out. "Her and I will focus on Creature. Neo, Blake, keep looking for Torchwick."

"Got it, boss." Reaper nodded. "You keep an eye on Blake, Neo."

Neo nodded. 'Be safe, both of you.' She signed back.

"Of course." Reaper pulled Neo into a deep kiss. "For luck." She winked.

Blake looked to Weiss. Weiss looked back. "You sure you want to do that here?" Blake nodded, and Weiss proceeded to pet her ears.

Reaper stared on in disbelief. Weiss huffed. "What? You have your luck ritual, we have ours. Not everything we do is inspired by you two, letters or not."

Reaper blinked and shrugged. "Whatever. I'm easy."

"Where do we start with Creature?" Weiss asked as the gang parted ways.

"I want to look at Stein's notes. Maybe his new tech has weaknesses. Or advantages. Either way, we should know." Reaper planned.

"Agreed." Weiss nodded.

Weiss and Reaper entered Stein's apartment twenty minutes later. The place was a mess, even more so than the first time they were here. Reaper again felt dirty just looking at the place. The table they froze Stein to was knocked over, and a chalk outline near it pointed to where the man drew his last breath. Weiss frowned. "He was intelligent, even if he was a little mad. What a waste."

Reaper was already digging into the drawers. "Let's get to work."

"You don't waste time." Weiss pointed out.

"Not with Creature. I still can't forget what he did to Neo. I don't like him out there. Even less than I like Torchwick being free…" The scythe master told her.

"Reaper… if Torchwick wasn't hunting you, would you be chasing him?" Weiss asked.

Reaper stalled in place. She frowned. "I'm honestly not sure… maybe if we could reconcile… if I could make him understand… but for all his cold logic, Roman can be very emotional. Have I ever told you about his secretaries? A new one every couple of days, because he got bored of them. Or so he said, but half of them flirted with me and ignored him, so take that as you will. We never got to be friends, not like Neo and me. I could barely stand the man."

"You don't betray your friends… And Roman isn't your friend." Weiss concluded. "But if he was?"

"I don't betray my friends." Reaper answered. "But he's not my friend. Don't worry."

"Alright." Weiss nodded. "Let's get to work."

It only took about twenty minutes of searching through papers before Weiss saw Reaper staring at all the tech rather than the documents in her hands. "I could probably build some nifty shit from all of this."

"Reaper, you yourself said we need to focus." Weiss scolded.

"But there's nothing here." Reaper complained.

"Have you even looked?" Weiss asked.

"Yes!" Reaper shouted, her eyes briefly flashing red. "Yes I have!" She threw the papers at Weiss, all detailing Creature's upgrades. "Stein had access to better shit this time around, and he utilized it. Seriously, I'm surprised he didn't see Torchwick's betrayal coming…"

"Maybe he did." Weiss considered. "There's a lot of papers here… more than he needed. He was crazy, but he didn't hate you. If he knew he was screwed…"

She looked back up to Reaper, who was staring intently at the various parts lying around. "What…? Oh, yeah, no, yeah… maybe…"

Weiss blinked. "Also, I heard Neo is getting implants."

"Sounds good." Reaper responded emptily.

"And we're going to charge Creature riding unicorns." Weiss continued, wondering how long she could keep this going.

"Wait, what…?" Reaper did a double-take. "Are you… what?"

"Oh, that you heard." Weiss deadpanned. "What's going on?"

"I might have an idea…" Reaper told her, looking at the tech again. "What about whatever you were really saying? Not the unicorns. Or the implants. Think that would imbalance her anyway…"

"I was saying Stein may have hidden clues. These notes are way more than he would have actually needed." Weiss explained again.

"You think?" Reaper took the notes.

"But we're still focused on Creature, remember?" Weiss reminded her.

"Right…" Reaper looked back at the gear on the walls once again.

Weiss looked at the tech lying around as well, wondering what was going through the ex-criminals mind. "I'm going to text Blake about coming here and looking over the notes. I suppose, since there is still no sign of Creature, you can tinker away."

"Like I would have waited for your permission." Reaper pointed out. "I'm still thinking… even if I could make that… I might have to worry about his shield…."

Weiss recognized this from when Reaper was building Neo's whip. And from whenever she worked on Brutal Thorn. And even from Ruby when she was working on Crescent Rose. She was in full wrench-monkey mode, shutting everything out that didn't involve machinery. At least she's coming up with a plan. What a leader you're turning out to be… sometimes it still feels like Reaper leads this team. The heiress shook those thoughts out of her head and pulled out her scroll. There was still a lot of work she could do.