The Name of the Game
a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.
Arc 3: Rogue and Thief
Chapter 11: Mages Cheat
Sitting invisibly on a building overlooking the Repository, I considered my options. The building was old—solid pre-war construction, three stories above ground and at least that many below, a shade of government-industrial gray that was common to similar buildings on Earth, and built like a bomb shelter. In fact, I was pretty sure it was a bomb shelter—or a shelter of some sort. Probably a grimm shelter, given that this was Remnant. All in all, the thing pretty much screamed 'boring government building, nothing to see here, move along citizen.'
The security had been modernized at some point, what I had been able to find on the history of the building telling me the place had been gutted a couple of years back and much of the old technology replaced—though, obviously there were no specifics on anything below ground. Going in from the top was right out—I wasn't about to try something stupid like squeezing my way through the air ducts. That never worked because, for the most part, air intakes and the ducts carrying air through the building were small enough to discourage grown adults. The fact that Jaune's slim body could maybe fit anyway I firmly put to the side. The side and rear doors were all locked, but I could breach those if it came down to it.
My new glasses, however, allowed me to zoom in on the cargo area and spot something interesting—a freight elevator, currently in use as they were accepting a shipment of some sort. Men dressed in dark blue overalls and boots were unloading crates from the back of a diesel and moving them inside. There were more than a dozen outside, either standing guard or unloading freight. While this appeared to be routine for them, I could tell they weren't the kind of group that tolerated slacking off—every man there was on alert. Still, even as guarded as it was, the way was open and I was currently under Invisibility. It would have to do.
Firing my line launcher, I swung down and into the building through the service entrance, above the heads of the men working there, and stuck to the wall opposite the door as I reeled the line back in. Once I was sure no one had noticed anything like the wind or some sound of my passage, I moved into the service elevator and got settled in on the ceiling to wait, scanning the men around me while I was at it. All of them were armed with either pistols or SMGs—which was about what I would expect from security guards at a government facility. Well, so long as no one noticed me, I'd be fine.
With nothing else to do until they finished the next load, I allowed my mind to turn back to the events of this morning. The news wasn't showing anything about Roman by the time I'd left, so I had to assume they were keeping it quiet or would release a statement later in the day. The girls hadn't noticed anything amiss and my modification of Miltia's memory of my leaving seemed to have taken with no side effects. Considering the fact that she was particularly eager and energetic the moment I 'suggested' the contents of the promise she had extracted from me before we left, I'd say she was fine. Neo, as it turned out, was more than okay with the idea of a 'banana split,' to the point I wanted to believe she may just have an anal and/or double penetration fetish. She hadn't asked the night before, but the moment the subject had come up, she had pretty much demanded it. I… was not going to complain. At all. It was even more amusing because, while she had apparently put out for Roman, he'd never really risen to her level of kink.
'Poor bastard didn't know what he was missing,' I mused, grinning at the memory of watching myself disappear into the ice cream themed shortstack from behind while she rode Miltia, who had been wearing one of her own phallic toys at the time.
I was brought out of my fond reminiscing by the guards' conversation. "That all of it?"
"Yeah, that's it," another answered, moving over to the keypad beside the door and tapping something into his scroll. "Huh. That's weird."
The first guard, who wore a hat where the others were all bare-headed and was likely their foreman—or at least the highest ranking mook present—moved up to the keypad himself. "What's up?"
"Well, the damn thing says we're about a hundred and fifty pounds over the documented weight."
I blinked. Mental math told me Jaune's body weighed about 130 or so and my gear had to add at least 20 pounds… shit. Of course this thing would have a scale on it. Concentrating, I focused on pulling up elemental mana. 'Come on, gravity,' I thought as I felt my mana respond and I grew lighter.
A skill has been created through a special action!
Manipulate Gravity: Level 1. Active. Manipulate Gravity allows the caster to manipulate his or her relative gravity at will. Effect: reduces or increases the caster's weight at will, allows the caster to focus gravity on other surfaces, objects, or other targets and either increase attraction towards or repel from those targets. Level Manipulate Gravity to reduce its mana cost and increase its range and power. Cost: 10MP/minute.
The skill description said a lot less than the information I suddenly had access to. People are innately aware of how gravity, acceleration, and so forth effect them—we just learn to tune it out, until it changes suddenly. I, on the other hand, was now suddenly aware of my own weight, the pull of gravity against my body, and how if I focused I could shift where that pull was coming from so long as I was close enough to something with enough mass—or how I could reduce my weight to a fraction of what it normally was. I was also aware of the people and objects around me, as they entered the sphere of my ability to manipulate gravity. In theory, so long as I paid attention to it, I couldn't really be snuck up on by anything with mass any more. Of course, there were other practical applications as well—such as how it would interact with my line launcher and wing suit, along with my other movement skills like Powered Leap…
Banging from the front of the elevator drew my attention back to the guards. "Damn thing's on the fritz, see? Now it reads as being fifty pounds off. Here, I'll sign off on it and we can go down and start unloading this crap. Log the fault with the building owner later."
Breathing a silent sigh of relief, I watched six of the guards march in including the one with the hat. The doors closed and we went down three floors before they opened again. The men began moving about their duties quickly, one of them going to retrieve a fork truck to lift the pallet most of the materials were on. Waiting until they were clear of the doors, I dropped down and slipped out. Looking down, I found the floor to be covered in thick, painted stripes similar to certain military installations and the walls a shade of pea soup green that I was absolutely certain someone in HR had recommended after reading a 'study' that certain shades of colors influenced behavior. Nearby, a directory on the pea-soup wall told me what went where as far as the floor markings were concerned. There were three vaults on this level, along with a few restrooms and several offices for human security and storage rooms which were labeled as 'droid storage.'
Following the work crew got me into the first vault, where I quickly found a registry of everything stored there. That registry was a hard copy which was both good and bad—good in that I wouldn't have to try hacking into a foreign computer system and bad in that I could be seen perusing the thing unless I created an Instant Dungeon over the top of it. Good news, however, was that the guy in the hat went straight for the registry and began making new entries. There had to be another option, however, I realized—there was no way that a government building would keep all their records for what was stored here in one hand-written book. Looking around, I spotted a large filing cabinet that it took a moment to recognize as the same type used by libraries for their card catalogs, back before everything went computerized. Seeing as the card catalog was facing away from them, I moved around it and into the field of view of the camera my map had told me would be there.
The camera didn't really matter, however, as I created an Illusion Barrier over the area containing myself and the card catalog and began browsing. I wasn't entirely surprised that I didn't find what I was looking for. What I did find that caught my interest, however, was a selection of old LP records from before the war—things that had been hidden away to be preserved and replaced with digital copies. Being pre-war and originals, they were more than likely very, very valuable. I just wanted them for my own personal collection. Making a note of their location, I destroyed the ID and made my way over to the shelf where they were stored before creating another ID, dropping the LPs into my inventory, and heading back to the group of guards once I'd destroyed the second Instant Dungeon.
I discovered that all of their deliveries for today were going to all three vaults on this floor, so all I had to do was sit around and wait for them to finish unloading a few packages before moving on to the next vault and then repeating the process. It was boring and seemed to take forever, but it was the safest route. Unfortunately, it was completely unproductive. I wasted two hours before I finally got into the final vault, only to discover that none of these vaults housed the plans for Beacon. It was frustrating, but I didn't have much in the way of options from this point on. I could try to sneak down through the elevator shaft or the ventilation shafts, but odds were very good I would trip some alarm. I had seen the emitters for the laser security grid myself coming in here, after all—highlighted by my new glasses and added to my map and minimap. I'd have to make it down the elevator shaft, into the hall, down the hall, and then into the vault without tripping lasers or motion sensors in the elevator shaft, the alarm that was sure to be on the elevator doors, the lasers, motion sensors, and whatever else in the hall, and then breach the vault door which would also be alarmed. No, there wasn't a chance in hell of me passing all that undetected. I had a better plan.
"Create ID," I chanted, opening up an Instant Dungeon with a radius that I felt would encompass this room and the one above and below. "Plasma Blade."
Light and noise filled the room and I lifted the renamed spinning lightning sword and shoved it into the floor, before dumping mana into it and coaxing it to elongate. The technique cost 100MP to cast and 100MP/minute to keep it running, but in exchange it did 500% plus 10% per level of combined INT and STR damage—which came out to 6738 damage per second at my current stats, before applying Favored Enemy: Grimm or Sneak Attack. Then again, neither of those applied in this situation, being that I was 'attacking' an inanimate object. I pushed the sword to extend until I felt it breach the ceiling of the vault below, then turned a slow circle. As soon as the last of the circle beneath me was cut away, the plug of floor I was standing on fell down into the next room, bringing me with it. Alarms were blaring like mad, but I had made the Instant Dungeon too small to include the death bots. In other words, the alarm did not a damn thing at this point, since the place where those robots were stored was not included in the Illusion Barrier.
Digging through another card catalog, I failed to find what I was looking for once more. Reaching out and taking hold of the Illusion Barrier I had created, I dragged its center down to me, effectively moving the bubble through three dimensional space without changing its size. Still holding the Illusion Barrier, I moved to the vault door and shrank the barrier down to only a few feet to either side of me before calling up another Plasma Blade and cutting through the vault door.
A kick unseated the vault door and I moved out into the hall, making sure to pull the Illusion Barrier in tight around me as I moved. Searching the next two vaults the same way turned up nothing, unfortunately. Going down a floor, however, I struck gold as I found the plans listed. Making my way over to their shelf, I snagged the metal and leather tube they were contained within and dropped it into my inventory. The tube itself had a leather strap, but I'd rather keep it in inventory where it'd be safe.
Having absolutely no plans to fight murder death bots, I worked my way back to the elevator and cut it open, then stuck to the wall and followed the shaft up to the top, where I cut open the ceiling and crawled out onto the roof. Rolling over onto my back, I dropped my Illusion Barrier and breathed a sigh of relief as the damage I'd done disappeared as the small pocket of space popped like a soap bubble. "Note to self, if we have to do this again, next time just skip the stealth game option and cut our way straight down," I groaned quietly, dismissing several notices about how Create ID had leveled.
It was cheating, in the worst way possible here—then again, I was a mage and a rogue, and I had absolutely no compunctions about doing whatever it took to get me into and out of somewhere safely. If that meant going the cheapest route possible, then so be it. Considering the fact that I gained three points in WIS for that decision, I'd say my Semblance at least agreed that I'd made the wise choice. I was still worried about potential consequences of abusing IDs this way, for the same reason I had yet to simply rob a bank with one, but I'd judged the risk worth it this once. Rolling to my feet, I fired my line launcher and pulled myself off the Repository.
With the Repository successfully raided, I decided it was time to collect on Roman's liquid assets before his gang had a chance to get to them. Taking the excuse to familiarize myself with my new wing-suit and the modifications to my line launcher along with Gravity Manipulation, I swung, glided, leaped, and ran across town until I caught sight of a Bullhead heading in the direction of the Agricultural District. The airfield Roman owned was further out than the hub the local air transit used, but the Bullhead would get me close and was high enough that, once I got in the general vicinity, I could drop and glide the rest of the way there. 'I wonder if this is how Batman feels on a day to day basis?' I mused, dropping off the Bullhead at what my map told me was the optimum point and gliding towards Roman's airfield. 'Sneak into places, beat people up, use cool toys, alternately run across roofs and glide around using his grappling gun and cape…'
Dropping into a tumbling landing, I recovered back to my feet quickly and made my way towards the hangar where I knew the Duster was kept. My new glasses helpfully scanned the inside of the building and let me know no one was inside and I took a moment to cut the lock off the door with a Plasma Blade. Hitting the lights, I looked around and found several locked crates stacked at the back of the hangar. The Duster itself was equipped with two 'fuel pods' that turned out to be empty at the moment. I took the time to Claim the plane and moved on to opening up the crates. They were locked, obviously, and I didn't want to accidentally set their contents on fire with a Plasma Blade. I knew better than to try to use my real sword as a pry bar, so I shrugged and went about creating another elemental sword variant using wind—which did about three quarters of the damage as Plasma Blade, but was dead silent and invisible, with none of the telltale glow of my other magical attacks. Perfect for Iaido or sneak attacks, in other words.
"That is a lot of money," I whistled, peering into the first crate. By volume, it had to be at least five times as much cash as Roman's personal emergency stash. Dropping it into my inventory a double arm-load at a time proved that true—the one box held 500kL by itself, neatly sorted and stacked in lots of 1000L. "Roman, what the hell were you doing sitting on this much money?" I wondered aloud, opening the next box and finding it to be filled to the brim with individual bricks of what looked like cocaine. "Really? What, were you planning to take your money and drugs somewhere tropical and blow it all snorting lines off of hookers?"
Having absolutely no use for the drugs, those crates got moved outside. In addition to drugs and money, however, were also crates of individually packaged and tagged things that turned out to be grimm parts—bone, blood, hair, feathers, stingers, claws, teeth, and so on. Observe told me they were all high-grade crafting and alchemy materials, so they were also thrown into my inventory. The final crates held enough guns and heavy weapons and the Dust rounds for those weapons to equip a small army—or a gang, rather. The Dust rounds I could use at some point and confiscating those would save me from having to buy them in the future. The guns I saw no point in destroying, so those wound up in inventory as well—maybe I could sell them for something later. I should probably just go ahead and admit it—most gamers are pack-rats and will throw pretty much anything into their inventories, and if there's no weight or space limit then we don't see a point in not picking up every shiny thing that catches our eye. I was no exception to magpie syndrome.
Having emptied the hangar, I checked the second hangar just to be thorough and found nothing of value save for a few tools. Leaving those there, I went outside to the refueling station and looked it over. The thing itself used some sort of Dust reservoir and the gauges for the tanks read over 70%. I didn't really need to know how it worked, just that it did, so I didn't bother trying to figure it out. Instead, I summoned first the Bullhead and then the Duster and topped off their tanks. Securing the fuel pump, I climbed into the Duster's cockpit and had a look around. It wasn't difficult to figure out, being a much simpler model of craft than the Bullhead—throttle, stick, foot petals for flaps, wheel brakes, and things I was already familiar with after having eaten a manual on avionics. Well, I say simpler—the Bullhead was actually easier to fly by simple virtue of having a modern point-and-click interface in addition to regular controls.
The gauges had the Duster's top speed at a little over 150mph and a cruise speed of 135, whereas the Bullhead's top speed was about 130, with a cruise speed of 110. What made the Duster the better choice for most of Roman's operations, however, was her smaller radar profile and greater maneuverability. The Bullhead, being a VTOL craft, could do all sorts of things the Duster could not—however, at speed, the Duster could pull rolls, turns, and loops that would have killed the Bullhead's crew and passengers. I recalled the old Air Force parlance was, "She'll turn inside a virgin swallow." That would make out-maneuvering airborne grimm easier. Now, if only it had guns…
Firing up the Duster, I taxied off the runway and went about putting her through her paces, climbing hard and fast before tilting back over and sending her into a spin towards the ground, then pulling up into a series of loops. Leveling off, I went through a right and left aileron roll, followed by a couple of barrel rolls—since knowing the difference and being able to do it can save your life. I didn't spend long in the air, however, since I didn't want to attract attention—or worse, get spotted if Roman's goons decided to come check out the airfield while I was playing around. Reigning in my fun for the time being, I brought the Duster in for a smooth landing and topped off the tank again before dismissing the summon.
To make sure Roman's leaving would have some evidence of a third party being involved, I dug through my skills menu and renamed 'Spinning Wind Sword' to simply Wind Blade before calling one up and setting about carving a calling card into the hangar doors—a simple side-on view of a fox head, teeth bared, and ears back. I made a mental note to make some stencils and get some spray paint later. Having that symbol turn up anywhere Cinder wanted to cause problems and I stopped her would drive her to distraction and set her to wasting time chasing a ghost. With Roman, however, I wanted it to look like my second alter-ego hitting his operation and causing him to screw up with Cinder had driven him out for greener pastures. With that done, I dragged the crate of drugs out away from the hangar and fuel pump. I moved well away and upwind of the crate of drugs before throwing a Fireball at it and setting it alight, then turned and ran in the direction of the Industrial District's public air traffic hub to catch a lift.
Not only do movies, television, books, and video games absolutely fail to mention things like how boring stakeouts are, or how the debonair spy occasionally needs to take a piss in between action scenes—except when they're lampshading that fact—they also fail to talk much about down time. Comic books occasionally throw in a scene of Spider-man or someone doing their laundry for laughs, and we kind of just assume Alfred sprays down the bat suit with a pressure washer from time to time, but you never really see someone sit down and waste something like two and a half hours making sure their costume is clean and doesn't smell like smoke. Because things like that tend to give away the game, if someone paying attention catches wind of it. Honestly, it was a miracle Neo hadn't noticed. Then again, maybe she had and had simply decided not to say anything.
Mostly, they gloss over this fact because it's boring—and I couldn't blame them, seeing as I was living it. The twins were out by the time I'd gotten back, making the rounds for Hei—and subsequently, me as well—to gather information on last night's Signal fire. The fire in question was, by now, all over the news—along with the arrest of one of Hei's own men. Hei himself was doing damage control, according to texts from the twins, and trying to figure out what happened. His own men were pointing the finger at a third party—me—and according to the girls, the police were quietly circulating news that my White Fox persona was wanted for questioning, though thankfully not by that nom de guerre. If they were looking for 'the White Fox' specifically, that would mean Ozpin had told someone, since he and Glynda were the only ones who knew that name. I'm sure the police or the media would put it together based on a description given by the mook that had been caught, however—or once someone found my little calling card.
My scroll buzzed and I pulled it out, finding a text message from Neopolitan waiting on me. 'Today sucks ass. Can I just come back to your place and demand a do-over?'
A quest has been updated!
Romancing Remnant: Your New Favorite Flavor has been unlocked!
Having sampled her before, you've decided you enjoy Neopolitan too much to simply let her go. Finish the job you started by 'removing' her boss and sway Neo over to your side, for good.
Success: EXP to be determined, increased closeness with Neo, +1 love interest. Failure: decreased closeness with Neo, death*. *Depending upon how badly it goes.
I snorted, idly changing the telescreen to another news station as I accepted the quest. An image of a familiar man with red hair and a bowler hat greeted me on the new station, along with video taken at an airport in Vacuo. I un-muted the telescreen and turned the volume up a bit. "…citizen of Vale, Roman Torchwick, was apprehended this morning aboard a flight bound to Vacuo from Vale by police, who were alerted by officers in Vale after review of x-ray footage of his luggage showed some anomalies. Mr. Torchwick is being held for questioning…"
Muting the telescreen again, I sent Neo a reply. 'Sure, that's fine. What's wrong?'
Not a full minute later, I received a reply. 'My boss decided today would be a good day to quit.'
Smirking, I sent, 'Isn't your boss named 'Roman?''
By the speed of her replies, Neo had to be pretty anxious at the moment. 'Yeah… why?'
Holding up my scroll, I took a picture of the telescreen, where Roman's face, the man being lead away in cuffs, and the pertinent information were all displayed. I attached the photo to a text and sent, 'Because the news says some guy named 'Roman' was arrested earlier today in Vacuo on a flight out of Vale.'
'Fuck. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Mother fucking cocksucker! I'll kill him! I will fly to Vacuo and bail him out, just so I can dangle him out the side of a Bullhead.'
I laughed. I should probably feel bad, but I didn't. It looked like Neo was livid at the moment. Now, I just had to play this right… 'Neo, calm down and come over before you get stabby with some poor random pedestrian.'
'On my way.'
Standing, I put away my scroll and went to check the laundry. What could be run through the washer and drier was done, while the armor pieces which I'd scrubbed down by hand and sprayed with a bottle of the local equivalent of Febreeze to help with the smell were hanging up in the bathroom nearest the laundry room with the window open to air out a bit before tonight. Taking the clothes out, I set about hanging them up to let them air out as well since I wanted to try and remove artificial scents—I'd even gone out of the way to buy scentless detergent for that set. I didn't want to run the chance of my laundry detergent giving me away to some Faunus with a good nose. I had pointedly ignored my Semblance telling me I'd created a new skill, Clothes Laundering, as yet another example of tasteless humor. Maybe I shouldn't, though—it may come in handy some day in the far future, if I ever have to infiltrate somewhere as a domestic servant. I chuckled, dismissing the idea as just this side of silly. "Nah."
Moving into the kitchen, I set about preparing lunch. I had no idea what Neo liked, but I kind of doubted she was picky. To be safe, I went with stir fried chicken, orange bell pepper, rice, and a few other things—along with a sweet, spicy sauce the girls had picked out that reminded me of a sweet chili sauce. I was halfway into cooking it when there came a knock at my front door. Turning the heat down I went to open the door, where I found Neo wearing a similar outfit to last night—her hair the same color and eyes currently vanilla and strawberry. Looking up, she met my eyes and blinked in confusion, before the shape of my face registered and her eyes narrowed. Grabbing the front of my shirt, she pushed me inside and kicked the door closed. "You know," she began in a low, dangerous tone, "It only now occurs to me that I never actually got your name last night. I'm also pretty sure your hair was black and your eyes were red—I wasn't quite drunk enough to get those details wrong."
She was right, of course. I had gone to the door as Jaune as opposed to my Shiro disguise. It was a calculated risk, but allowing her in on one or two of my secrets would go a long way towards gaining her trust—especially with her 'boss' having just abandoned her. "You're not wrong," I admitted, not doing anything to break her grip on my shirt—it would show I trusted her, at least. "I have a job that requires a different sort of uniform. I was actually 'in uniform' when I was at The Club last night. I'd just come off a job and thought I might be getting another some time soon."
She blew out an annoyed breath in a 'humph,' releasing my shirt and moving further into the apartment. Taking that as a good sign, I moved back into the kitchen, subsequently causing her to follow. "You still haven't told me your name."
"It's Jaune," I answered, stirring what was in the pan to make sure it didn't stick. "Jaune Arc."
Studying me critically as she took a seat at the bar surrounding the island the stove was built into, she pointed out, "I've heard of the Arcs. You look a lot younger than I thought."
"I'm seventeen," I answered her unspoken question. "I'm actually going to be going to Beacon at the end of the month."
"Uh huh," she hummed, leaning her head on her hand and eying me over the stove. "Anything else you'd like to tell me, Jaune Arc?"
I shrugged, focusing on the food in front of me in an effort to appear reticent. "Well, up until a few days ago I was kind of a weakling, apparently. I woke up a couple of days ago in the hospital with no memory of who I was or anything else, but I'd activated my Aura and my Semblance, so I'd call it an even trade. My memory's still spotty in places—bad things, like what I told you last night, are easier to remember than the good, like time spent growing up with my family. I've been told that makes no sense, and I agree. And yet…"
"And you're still going to go to Beacon like that?" she asked, sounding incredulous. When I nodded, she shook her head. "You are an idiot, in addition to being an ass."
Chuckling, I turned off the stove and began dishing out two bowls. "Maybe," I admitted. "My sister seems to think getting out and doing Jaune-things like going to Beacon will help jog my memory. Sorry if I'm kind of a letdown, what with not being a total badass and all. But at least I can still cook. You hungry?"
Neo's stomach growling was answer enough as the girl blushed, nodding. "No one's ever really cooked for me," she admitted quietly as I moved around the island and put her bowl down along with my own, before getting a couple of bottles of tea out of the refrigerator.
"No?" I asked, sounding skeptical. Internally, however, I was grinning ear to ear. Of course Roman wouldn't have tried basic niceties with one of his 'underlings.' "Your boyfriend didn't…?"
The ice cream themed girl burst out laughing. "Roman was not my boyfriend. 'Boyfriend' implies a relationship beyond sex. No, I think Roman was honestly incapable of loving anyone other than himself." Sighing, she quietly added, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have just left me here."
"It it that bad?" I asked, digging into my stir-fry and cracking open my tea.
Following my example, Neo began eating. The girl's eyes popped open and shifted colors as she slowly chewed, humming a low sound of pleasure in the back of her throat. "This is really good," she admitted, then continued with, "And yeah, it's that bad. Roman took the money and ran, and now his crazy-dangerous new boss is calling the office and hounding me about some job Roman's hired lackeys failed to deliver on. I get to go meet the bitch tonight. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I won't wind up with third degree burns."
Shooting her a confused look, I asked, "What was it you said you did again?"
Neo's eyes tracked to the side, locking with mine. "I didn't. What was it you said you did?"
Holding up a hand in a warding gesture, I shot her a grin. "Easy there, kitten—put the claws away. I'm pretty sure we're in the same line of work. I'll show you mine if you show me yours?"
I had timed it perfectly, as she choked on her tea, bringing up a hand to her nose as her eyes began watering. "Ass! You did that on purpose," she accused and I nodded shamelessly. "Besides, I think we're well past that stage by now, don't you?"
"True," I admitted, drawing the word out. "Show and tell was nice last night… and this morning." Neopolitan rolled her eyes, but her blush and my Semblance gave her away. "I'm a runner for the black market—or as one of my acquaintances called me, a 'glorified delivery boy.' Coincidentally, I suppose now I'm also a part-time thief for her, too."
A smirk stretched across her lips as Neo asked, "Have you been a bad boy, Jaune Arc?"
"Kitten, you have no idea," I chuckled. Hopefully, she never would, either—that would be bad. Could have been worse, though—I could have killed Roman outright. I was kind of glad I hadn't, now—his blood wouldn't be on my hands and I wouldn't have to deal with that guilt while pursuing Neo.
Shooting me a curious look, she asked, "'Kitten?' That is totally not my nickname."
"You're tiny, adorable, and you've got claws," I pointed out, dodging a playful swat from the girl in question. "Unless you've got another suggestion? Would you prefer we go back to 'Lassie?'"
Shooting me a glare, she huffed out a breath in mock irritation. "You're lucky you're a good lay. And a good cook. …And there's twins."
"Yeah, that's kind of awesome," I laughed, reaching out and mussing her hair. "So, tell me, what sort of bad things are you into, kitten?"
Neo hissed quietly and I smirked. Sticking her tongue out, she went back to her bowl of stir-fry. After another few bites, she finally answered, "Roman runs… ran a gang. I was his second in command, sort of. I suppose I run things now—assuming there's anything left to run. Half the men deserted, the other half were fighting over who got to take over when I left. Once they find out he's been arrested for smuggling drugs into another country, well… Odds are good one of three things will happen. Either the gang will tear itself apart with infighting, or someone else will move in and take over, or… or I'll get things under control. Either way, he's done and I have to deal with the fallout from Roman's fuckup."
"When does this boss of his want you there?" I asked, wondering at the best way to get us both there at the same time.
Rolling her eyes, Neo pulled out her scroll and checked before answering, "Eight."
Finishing my tea, I hummed in thought before taking out my own scroll and sending Cinder a text message letting her know I'd be by tonight, then sent the twins a message letting them know where I'd be. "Well, I can drop off what I picked up for my sort-of second employer around then. I can give you a lift."
"You have a car?" Neo asked, clearly curious.
I grinned, shaking my head. "More fun than a car. Though, I probably need to get one at some point… maybe a motorcycle, too," I trailed off, a mental image of a yellow motorcycle and its owner coming to mind. If things went to schedule, Yang should show up at The Club some time later this month. Blake should, theoretically, also do her train job near the end of the month… They were things to look out for, at any rate. Bringing myself back to the present, I took our bowls up and put them in the sink to wash later. "In the meantime, how about I help you blow off some steam?"
"Oh?" the ice cream themed girl asked, a smirk crossing her lips. "Have anything in mind?"
In lieu of a verbal answer I moved around the bar, took her hips in my hands, and lifted her off her chair. Her legs went around my waist and arms around my neck by reflex as I walked us towards the couch. "I can think of a few things," I returned her smirk before our lips met. Yeah, I was going to the special hell for this one, too. Still, worth it.
I sat down, leaving Neo astride my lap, and let my hands roam, coaxing a soft moan from the normally quiet girl—I knew she was just getting started, as she tended to get loud when she got excited. After only a few minutes of petting, however, she captured my hands by locking her fingers with my own. Pulling back from our kiss, she dropped her head into the crook between my neck and shoulder. "What is it you're offering, here?" she asked, hesitantly.
Thinking it over, I asked, "What do you want?"
She shifted slightly, pulling back and looking me in the eye. "I don't want to be alone," she answered honestly, and I felt a twinge of guilty conscience as she mirrored my own feelings. "I want a friend, a confidante, someone… someone to love who will love me back. I want a partner."
"Well," I began, thinking of how to word what I wanted to say and pulling up charisma to back it up. "I can give you the first three and that last one, and I'm willing to work on the other part if you are." She nodded slowly, opening her mouth to agree before I brought up one set of our joined hands and put a finger to her lips. "It's the same deal I have with the twins. I don't exactly know how this whole 'group' thing works, but I'm pretty sure it starts with everyone being honest with each other about it. Are you going to be okay with that?"
With a quiet laugh, Neo nodded. "Yeah, I think I can deal with the twins. There anyone else I should know about in the woodwork?"
I winced, nodding. "Yep. One more," I admitted. "I think I'd rather let the twins explain that one, though."
Humming, the girl shrugged. "Is she hot?"
"Is that all you care about?" I asked, laughing. "Yes she's hot. No, I'm not playing that game where somebody plays favorites. The less hurt feelers we have over stupid shit like that, the better."
"I wasn't going to ask you to," Neo denied, rolling her eyes. "Is there anything you want out of this?"
Nodding, I answered as I had with the twins. "All of the above, plus loyalty. If we do this, I need to have yours. All of it. If Roman comes back, I need to know you'll have my back, not go running back with a few platitudes and apologies."
"Give me what I want and I can agree to that, so long as I have yours. Roman can fuck off for all I care," Neo agreed quickly, clearly liking the idea of someone who wouldn't betray or abandon her.
Pulling her back to me, I kissed her lips quickly before adding, "I have secrets."
She returned the kiss with one of her own. "So do I. Is it okay if they stay that way?"
"So long as you're okay with mine staying secret," I agreed and she nodded against my lips.
She pulled back enough to grab her blouse and pull it over her head. "Shall we seal the deal?" she asked, an impish smile playing across her lips as she reached back and unhooked her bra and dropped it on the floor before unzipping her pants.
I was momentarily captivated by the view, before an idea occurred and a smirk crossed my lips unbidden. Taking her hips, I pulled her off of me and planted her on the couch. "Stay there. I'll be right back."
Neo shot me a mock-annoyed glare. "This had better be good…"
Rolling my eyes, I made my way back into the kitchen. "Have I disappointed yet?" I asked, shooting her an amused look over my shoulder.
"Not yet, but you're getting real close if you don't get back here soon," she pouted.
"O ye of little faith." Opening the refrigerator, I dug out what I'd come for before hiding it out of the girl's view as I walked back. I grinned as she tried to peer around me and see what I was carrying. Dropping back onto the couch, I held out my prize. "How about this?"
Neo's eyes tracked to the light brown bottle in my hand and began color cycling. "You have caramel syrup."
"Yes, yes I do," I agreed. "You like?"
Instead of answering, she shifted her mismatched, slowly cycling eyes up to meet my own blue. "You have caramel syrup. Does this mean you have ice cream?"
There was a hopeful, almost desperate tone in her voice—like an addict going through withdrawal suddenly presented with a fix. Placing the bottle on the table, I stood and made my way back into the kitchen. "The twins have a sweet tooth," I confessed, moving to a cabinet and taking out a large bowl, then digging out a spoon. How they kept their tiny figures with the amount of sugar they consumed on a daily basis was beyond me—I blamed Aura. "My dear Neo, I do not simply have ice cream. I have six different kinds of ice cream." Casting a glance towards the couch, I saw the ice cream themed girl's eyes had gone slightly glazed. Smirking, I began listing them off. "Mint chocolate chip, which I refuse to touch because it is an unholy abomination from the creamery of hell itself. Cookie dough, though the twins would sooner gnaw my arm off for trying to get into it than share… Rocky road, which has remained untouched as of yet. Plain old vanilla, for me. And, of course…"
I stopped, having scooped a large serving from the pint in question before replacing it in the freezer. Moving back to the couch, I offered the girl the spoon, then sat down and held the bowl out. "Neopolitan."
Reaching out to take the bowl from my hands, Neo sent me a betrayed look the moment I pulled it back. "Bu-but why…? Please don't tease me like this. That's cruel and unusual punishment!"
"Use your spoon, dear," I countered, shooting her a patronizing look that earned a raspberry in response.
Darting the spoon out, the ice cream addict snagged a mixed spoonful off the top, which quickly disappeared past her lips with a groan that sounded almost orgasmic. "Mmm…"
"Now, where were we?" I murmured, seemingly thoughtful as I eyed the distracted and delightfully topless girl—once more reminded that while she may be tiny, Neo's proportions were amazing. I put the bowl down long enough to reach over and pull her into my lap, eliciting a startled 'Eep!' before taking the bowl up again in my left hand. Once she was settled and had resumed getting her fix, I waited for the perfect moment to strike. Her spoon went back to the bowl, drew another morsel of frozen deliciousness, and brought it to her lips. As soon as she had it in her mouth, yet another little sigh of pleasure escaping her as she did, I slipped my hand past her unzipped fly and quickly beneath her pink panties. Neo had barely a moment to register the sensation before my seeking fingers found their target.
"Ah!" Squirming in my lap, she panted as I began demonstrating how a high DEX mod applied in real life, my fingers parting her warm lips, already moist with arousal, and circling her clit. "That… that is not fair," she whimpered.
"What's that, kitten? You'd like me to stop?" I teased, pausing for a moment to illustrate my point. Neo shook her head hard and fast enough to smack me in the face with her hair. "Well? I'm waiting."
"Waiting for…?" she wondered for a moment, before catching on. The spoon made another return trip between the bowl and her lips and I resumed my ministrations, fingers slowly circling the bundle of nerves, broken by the occasional stroke across it. "I-ah!-I could… I could get used to this."
Humming thoughtfully, I gestured with the bowl. "Hold this, would you?" Quick to comply lest I stop, she took the bowl up, leaving my other hand free. I brought it up and pushed her hair out of the way, exposing the right side of her face and neck. Leaning a bit closer, I began working over her neck and ear with my lips, teeth, and tongue. My free hand, meanwhile, went back around her and found one of the now-erect buds of her nipples and began alternately gently pulling, pinching, and rolling it between my fingers.
"Cold!" she hissed, drawing a quiet laugh from me as I sought out my other target. A sharp intake of breath cued me in and I repeated the light bite I'd made against the side of her neck, behind her ear, getting similar results. Erogenous zones vary from woman to woman for some things and it's occasionally hit and miss… but when they hit, they tend to hit big. Between personal experience and my utterly unfair stats, I'd gotten very good at finding them on my various partners on Remnant. The thing about them is that you don't have to find them all, just a few good ones. After that, things start getting fun…
The door to the apartment opened at the same time Neo began to shudder and mewl around a spoonful of her namesake in my lap, two of my fingers pumping slowly in and out of her tight sheath. The twins stood in the doorway, taking the sight in for a moment before moving inside and closing the door. "Miltia," Melanie began, an annoyed tone creeping into her voice, "It seems as though we've been left out. Neglected, even."
Miltia's eyes darted between the caramel syrup on the table, Neo, her bowl of ice cream, and finally locked onto my own eyes. "And food play, at that. What ever shall we do, dear sister?"
Rolling my eyes, I shot the twins an amused look. "Like we'd leave you two out intentionally. No, Neo here decided she wanted in and we were sealing the deal. You are more than welcome to join in. Unless, of course, you'd like to exercise those veto rights?"
The twins shared a brief look before locking the door and making for the couch, doffing clothes along the way, their approval pretty much implicit at that point. I caught Miltia's eyes again and released the nipple I'd been teasing to stick my finger in Neo's now partly melted bowl of her namesake. "Hey! Don't waste it!" the addict whined.
That whine became a sharp intake of breath a moment later as I smeared what I'd taken on the nipple I'd just released. "Oops," I deadpanned, shooting Miltia a smirk.
Catching on, the twin dove for the couch and got comfortable before going to work cleaning up the mess I'd made with her mouth, drawing a quiet whimper from Neo. Melanie, on the other hand, confiscated the bottle of caramel syrup and made her way into the kitchen. I heard her take a bowl out of the cabinet, and then the microwave running for a few seconds. She came back a moment later with a bowl of warm caramel. Testing its temperature with a finger and apparently finding it satisfactory, she licked the finger clean before turning a wicked grin on the thoroughly trapped Neopolitan. "You know," she began, sitting on my right, opposite her sister. "I've always preferred eating my ice cream with some kind of syrup on top… I've always wondered how it would taste on neopolitan. Let's find out."
Warm caramel dripped from the bowl in Melanie's hand and onto the girl in my lap. On my other side, Miltia claimed the bowl of ice cream and mirrored her sister's actions. Neo let out a pitiful whimper that sounded vaguely like, "Wasting my ice cream." A pair of hot mouths on her flesh seemed to change her mind, however, as she followed it with, "Totally worth it though."
The twins' hands were not idle, as they made short work of getting Neo's pants the rest of the way open and, seeing what they were going for, I took Neo's hips in both hands and lifted her enough for the twins to pull off her pants and the panties under them. "You too," Miltia murmured, meeting my eyes and grinning before reaching around and under Neo and undoing my own pants. It took a bit of juggling, but soon I was nude from the waist down with Neo's tiny form equally exposed on my lap.
"Hold her and lean back a bit," Melanie directed and took the ice cream themed girl's hands and I shifted enough to recline some while the twins lifted her a bit and repositioned us, before bringing her down on my shaft and drawing a long moan from her strawberry lips as she was slowly impaled. Miltia spread Neo's legs and the bowl of caramel made a return as Melanie allowed some to drip from the bowl and onto Neo's bare lips, drawing a whimper of anticipation from her as she gazed down on the twin moving in towards her lap with mismatched eyes.
"Oh, damn," Neo whimpered as Melanie's tongue teased her lips and occasionally the underside of my cock buried between them, lapping up a bit of warm caramel.
The twin in question looked up and met Neo's eyes a moment, a wicked grin stretching across her lips before Melanie dove in and started eating her with abandon. Miltia, not to be left out, took Neo's hips and guided her into a slow back and forth rhythm on my shaft, enough to cause pleasant friction for the both of us but not enough to disturb her sister's snack. When Neo found her own rhythm, Miltia released her and molded herself against my side, her lips meeting my own as I released one of Neo's hands to pull her closer and begin stroking her wet slit. Of course, Neo's free hand immediately went to Melanie's head, fisting into the hair at the back of her head and pulling her in harder.
Melanie stopped long enough to shoot Miltia and I an annoyed look, eyes shifting between us and the stray hand twice before we got the idea. While I could attest that Melanie enjoyed having her hair pulled—all of the girls did, really—that wasn't what the game was about this time. Miltia took Neo's hand and quickly removed it from her sister's hair, instead bringing it up and latching onto the ice cream themed girl's wrist in what I recognized as a vampire bite where I was from, though I had no idea what it was called on Remnant and didn't particularly care at the moment.
It wasn't long after that, Neo started squirming in my lap and attempting to free her hands as her breathing picked up its pace and I felt her muscles involuntarily clenching around me. "Please! Please let me..." she begged as Melanie held her thighs in place where they'd tried to clamp around her head and redoubled her efforts. Lewd slurping sounds joined Neo's moans and whimpers. Beside me, watching her sister eat out the ice cream themed girl while said girl rode my cock, I could tell Miltia was getting close herself as I felt her tightening on my fingers.
It seemed Neo could take no more, however, as she tipped over the precipice Melanie and I had brought her to—her whimper quickly transitioning into something just short of a scream. Melanie slowed and finally stopped her ministrations, parting from Neo's slit with one last long lick. Her gaze shifted over to her sister, where Miltia looked to be on the verge of coming herself, before turning to the table where the two bowls sat discarded. Taking Neo's hands from us, she pulled the wobbly girl up and off me before pushing her to her knees in front of the couch. Taking up the bowl of Neo's namesake, she sat in front of the ice cream fiend and spread her legs. Neo was still momentarily dazed, but Melanie got her attention quickly enough, waving the bowl of partially melted ice cream under her nose. "Ah?" Neo mouthed eyes tracking the bowl as Melanie brought it to her lap. Dipping a finger in, she brought the digit out covered in neopolitan, smirking as Neo's eyes tracked the mess on her finger. The finger in question drifted down before smearing a swath of ice cream on Melanie's inner thigh. Neo's eyes went wide as she lunged in. "Don't waste it!"
Meanwhile, I had pulled Miltia to her feet, leading her around to the side of the couch before pushing her over the arm of the piece of furniture, putting her pert ass and nether lips on full display. "Tired of teasing?" I asked her, doing just that as I played with her slit, running the tip of my cock slowly up and down between her lips.
"Yes," she groaned, trying and failing to push her ass back enough to force me to penetrate her—the angle and my hand on her back wouldn't allow it, even if I hadn't been expecting it and pulled my hips back enough to prevent it.
Bringing my open palm down in a slap on her ass cheek, I grinned as she squeaked, jerking at the sharp contact. "Tell me what you want."
Something I had learned quickly was that Miltia liked to get mouthy from time to time—she loved dirty talk, either doing it herself or having it directed at her. Being ordered to do it—to describe, in detail, what she wanted—was even more of a turn-on for the submissive girl. She also enjoyed role-play, especially of the master/slave variety—and, while I may have started that accidentally, she had taken off running with it. She had resisted the urge when we had been tending to Neo, but now… "Fuck me," she whispered.
That earned her another slap on the ass—which is why she had done it, specifically to bait me into spanking her. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Please," she began, looking over her shoulder meeting my eyes. When she said nothing more, I gave her a look that clearly told her I was losing patience and began raising my hand for another swat. She blushed a deep red and turned away as the words came gushing from her mouth. "Please, master, please fuck your slave's cunt! Split me open with your thick cock and fuck me as hard as you like. Spank my ass if it pleases you, master. Use my pussy as your personal fuck-hole and fill my womb with your come."
And on that note, I equipped a condom from inventory while Neo was otherwise too distracted to notice. Once it was in place, I lined up and pushed into Miltia's tight, slick heat. Grabbing the hair at the back of her head, I pulled her head back—incidentally forcing her to watch Neo eating and fingering her sister—and gave her what she wanted. I brought my hips forward and slammed into her hard before pulling back and doing it again, working into a steady rhythm of hard thrusts that set her small tits to bouncing and gave off a nice flesh-on-flesh slap every time I slammed home, guaranteeing her ass would be red after this—and I swore I could feel the head of my dick hitting her cervix every time she pushed back to meet my thrusts.
Watching me pound her sister, Melanie spared a moment to rearrange herself and Neo, so that she could lay out on the couch—which put her almost directly under Miltia. Seeing what she wanted, I released my grip on her twin's hair and pushed her down. Miltia was surprised to find a pair of lips meeting her own in an upside down kiss, but she was more surprised when a pair of familiar hands came up to fondle her swaying breasts, experienced fingers capturing her nipples in order to pull, roll, and gently twist them while Neo continued eating her namesake off of Melanie's snatch. Miltia began to tense under our combined efforts and eventually broke her sister's lip lock. "I'm going to come! Come with me—come inside me, master," she pleaded.
Her sheath clamped down like a vice and I buried myself inside her as her cunt milked my cock, my eyes nearly rolling up in the back of my head momentarily as I groaned in release. A moment later, she collapsed in a boneless heap atop her twin, spent for the moment. Slowly easing out of her drew a mutual sigh from us both and I disposed of the spent condom. I was far from spent, however—Marital Arts and a high stamina meant I could immediately get to work on Melanie or Neo. Since I had started with Neo, I decided to tackle Melanie first. Reequipping a condom, I tapped Neo's shoulder and eased her out from between Melanie's legs after letting her get the last of the ice cream. Shifting to look down and see what had stopped Neo's snack from under her sister, Melanie met my eyes for a moment before her eyes drifted to where I was already positioning my cock. Throwing me a grin, she went back to fondling/cuddling her twin, who was still shaking in post-coital aftershocks.
Lifting Melanie's legs and squeezing them together, I turned her onto her side so she lay with her legs dangling off the couch before entering her, the position doing nice things for the both of us as it left her exposed to my fingers and allowed me to get deeper penetration—and considering the twins were small and, while not hung like a horse, Jaune's body had a good above-average length of eight inches I was damn near bottoming out at this point and stretching her lips tight around the girth of my cock. It had happened more than once the night before with Neo, as she was even smaller than the twins, but she hadn't complained at all.
A sudden gasp from Miltia drew my attention to the submissive twin, who was writhing in her sister's arms. Looking down, I found a head of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla hair buried between her legs. Seeing Melanie was distracted by her sister's breathy whimpering, I decided to bring her attention back to me. Reaching down, I cupped her throat and picked up the force of my thrusts to what I'd used on Miltia. There's a trick to the whole choking thing I'd learned from one of those exes whose name I didn't care to remember at the moment—if ever. Putting most of the pressure on a woman's sternum just below the throat will let you find that nice, happy medium of fulfilling someone's strangulation fetish without any actual danger of strangulating them. And you would be surprised just how many of them enjoy a little rough treatment in that way—though most, at least those from Earth, won't admit it outright. And while I couldn't say she had a strangulating fetish, Melanie did enjoy the occasional rough treatment.
Melanie reacted as I'd hoped, tightening around me and growing even wetter, the sound of my hips slamming into hers accompanied by a wet undertone of over-lubrication. My thoughts turned idly to the fact that the couch was leather and would be a bitch to clean, but I couldn't bring myself to care considering the circumstances. Dismissing the thought, I released her long enough to take one of Miltia's hands that had been otherwise occupied holding onto her sister for dear life in between another orgasm. The submissive met my eyes for a moment and a moved her hand down over her sister's thigh to play with Melanie's clit. Getting the idea, Miltia went to work, eliciting a whimper from her twin and I resumed my hold on Melanie's throat with one hand while fisting her hair with the other hand. Having already come to orgasm at least once from Neo's mouth and tongue, it was not long at all before Melanie was screaming my name and clutching her sister for dear life, mirroring Miltia's earlier response to Neo's handiwork. At the same time, Miltia ceased her work with her hands and mirrored her sister, Neo's name slipping past her lips in a quiet cry as the shorter girl got her off again.
Easing Melanie down slowly, I waited a moment for the girls to catch their breath before smirking as an idea occurred. I helped Neo back to her feet and together, we got the twins arranged side by side on the couch, with a bit of space between them—a space which I quickly filled by pushing Neo down onto her back on the leather of the couch. The twins latched on to either side of the shorter girl immediately, mouths going to work on her lips, ears, neck, and breasts as I hefted Neo's short legs up and draped them to either side of my head as I entered her.
Neo tried to return the twins' affection, but apparently the girls had decided to make a game of seeing who could distract her the most. Melanie found the spot on Neo's neck I'd been playing with earlier, drawing a quiet sound from the ice cream themed girl and pulling her attention that direction, where their lips met in a kiss. On the other side, Miltia shifted up a bit and sucked Neo's ear lobe between her lips, teeth gently coming down on it, and followed it by running her tongue along the shell of the other girl's ear. Neo turned her head and met the other twin in another kiss. I watched her bounce back and forth between the twins as they teased her, taking my time with a stroke that was about half as forceful or fast as what I'd used on the twins, but which seemed to be driving the girl under me mad in between the twins.
The twins shared a look across the writhing girl beneath them before a pair of hands slipped down Neo's thighs. Melanie's hand went down to play with Neo's clit while Miltia's joined it for a moment, collecting moisture from where my cock split Neo's lips, before running down under the ice cream themed girl. A moment later, Neo's eyes flew open and she jerked upward, immediately going tighter around my cock—a feat in and of itself, considering she was even tighter than the twins to begin with. "Oh, fuck!" she breathed. "Keep doing that!"
The twins shared a smirk before they both moved down and a pair of hot mouths began working over Neo's breasts before latching onto her nipples. Neo's hands went to the back of the twins' heads, grabbing two fistfuls of hair and pulling at them desperately, already beginning to shake in the first tremors of orgasm. "Gonna come! Harder! Fuck me harder!"
I obliged, grabbing her hips and giving her the same treatment I had the twins, feeling my cock bottom out inside her on every thrust. I felt something press against the bottom of my cock at the same time Neo's mouth opened in a silent scream, and I realized Miltia had inserted a second finger and pressed them both up, to the point where she was essentially stroking the bottom of my cock through Neo. The girl under me clamped down damn near hard enough to push me out, eyes rolling up in the back of her head as her back lifted off the couch. The twins only intensified their assault, Melanie pinching Neo's clit and Miltia shifting from slowly stroking her fingers inside Neo's ass to pumping in and out in a rhythm to match my own thrusts—and if I wasn't mistaken, both of the twins had chosen that moment to bite down on the nipples in their mouths. Neo gave one last whimper and went limp.
Slowing my pace to a stop, I prodded the girl a moment before hitting her with a quick Observe and promptly snorting at the results. "Congratulations, girls. We fucked her unconscious."
"Oops," the twins synced, sharing a sheepish look. Their eyes wandered to where I was extricating myself from the unconscious Neo before sharing another look. "You didn't finish, did you?" Melanie asked, eying my erection.
"Nope," I admitted. Game mechanics backing me up or no, biology still had a major say in how my body responded to things and behaved. For instance, like any other man, after the first orgasm it always takes longer to hit the ones following it—the only real difference was that my Semblance negated the refractory and recovery period the vast majority of men went through. Back on Earth, it took between two and five minutes before I would have been ready again, and that was with coaxing on the part of whatever woman I was with. Now? I could keep going pretty much indefinitely. And while that was great for dealing with multiple women, I was still subject to certain facts of biology—blue balls, for one. For another, there actually is such a thing as too much sex. I hadn't hit the limit yet, but I knew it was possible.
Sharing a look between themselves, the twins rolled off the couch and took me by the hands, maneuvering us to they could both kneel in front of me. The condom was quickly yanked off and tossed at the nearby trash basket as the pair went to work, alternately kissing, licking, and sucking on my cock. I'd yet to get the twin-blowjob treatment, and I have to say, it lived up to everything I'd thought it would. I was surprised when, as I was nearing completion, Neo groaned and sat up, took in the scene, and joined the twins. Strawberry lips wrapped around the head of my cock before going down to the point that no more would fit in her mouth. Looking up, mint green eyes met my sky blue and she winked, before relaxing her throat and taking the rest of my length in—and then she began to hum. Grabbing a double handful of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla hair, I groaned as Melanie fondled my balls and Miltia stood and kissed me, her body pressing flush against mine. I lost any shred of control I'd had, emptying myself down Neo's throat and feeling the smaller girl swallow around my cock.
When I had finished, Neo slowly pulled herself off my cock, lips tight around my shaft and her tongue swiping along the underside before it came out clean. "So," she began, looking up and trading looks with the twins. "Am I in?"
The Malachite twins shared a look between themselves for a moment before turning to me and nodding. "She's got our vote," they synced in approval.
Looking down, I grinned at the girl still on her knees. "I'd say that's a 'yes,'" I chuckled.
"Great!" Neo beamed. "Now, could someone help me up? I can't feel my legs."
Neo trembled and I had to catch her by the elbow to steady her and keep her from falling as her knees and thighs threatened to give out. "You okay?" I laughed, a soapy loofah belonging to the twins in hand going to work on her back. Unfortunately, the master bathroom wasn't big enough for all four of us to squeeze in, so the twins were using the other shower.
"Aside from being raw in places and occasionally still going through aftershocks hard enough to put me on my ass? Peachy," she deadpanned.
Handing her the loofah, I took up a wash cloth and began scrubbing myself—I honestly preferred the rougher texture to scrub with. "So," I began, watching her from the corner of my eye and a smile making its way across my lips, "you've got complaints?"
"Pfft yeah," Neo nodded, an annoyed look crossing her face. "You did this to me before I have to meet someone who will likely try to kill me—and didn't continue doing it long enough to make me too late to go."
Reaching out, I mussed her hair, eliciting a quiet growl in response. "And here I thought I was being considerate."
"Considerate would have been making sure I was unconscious when we were done," she snarked.
"You were," I deadpanned.
Sighing, she leaned back flush against me and shook her head. "I don't mean to be a bitch, I promise. I'm just nervous."
Wrapping my arms around her and pulling her closer, I brought my head down to brush my face against the side of hers. "I know."
"Still, I'm sorry," she apologized, and I nodded.
"Well, if we're on the subject of apologies, I should probably start," I began, drawing a curious hum from her throat. "You're right to be worried about meeting with Cinder."
I felt her tense slightly in my arms before relaxing a moment later. "Why am I not surprised you know that name?"
I gave a quiet, mirthless chuckle and hugged her tighter for a moment. "I met her the other night—my first delivery, actually. She's… dangerous, as I'm sure you know." Neo nodded and I continued. "Dangerous to the point that I… kind of had the twins dig up info on her. On what she's doing, her operations, who she's working with…"
"I don't like where this is going, but continue," Neo sighed, her tone reluctant.
Nodding, I planted a small kiss on the side of her lips and continued. "The twins found out that Junior had hired out some men to Roman, who they knew worked with Cinder. They didn't tell me you worked for Roman, in case you're wondering. They did tell me there was a job—at Signal. If she had just had them knocking over a Dust shop or something, I likely wouldn't have bothered. Except… there's nothing of value there, because it's a school. So, you can see why that stands out as weird, right?"
Neo turned around in my arms, looking up into my eyes as she considered. After a moment, she nodded. "You're right. It is suspicious. It's not a typical Roman job, and I didn't know anything about it until after it went sideways. He doesn't tell me everything, though, so that's not too out of place."
"So, I followed them. Turns out, they were after the list of students—specifically the new graduates, going on to other Hunter academies. Most specifically, the ones applying to Beacon." I gave her a moment to digest that before adding, "Nothing good could come from someone like Cinder having a list of names of children, future Hunters or no."
With a sigh, Neo planted her face against my chest and nodded agreement. "No, it couldn't. So, you're the one that fucked up the Signal job."
"Yes," I admitted quietly. "I set fire to the servers on Signal. …And stole Roman's Bullhead, and his Duster, and everything not nailed down on the airfield. Except the drugs—those I burned. Then I went to the bar to have a drink and figure out what to do with the information I'd stolen. And then I met a beautiful, angry girl and we had a few drinks…"
Laughing, the beautiful girl in my arms pulled back and stood on her tiptoes to brush her lips against mine momentarily. "I knew I wasn't drunk enough to imagine smelling smoke on you. You know what's funny? If you hadn't been a goody-two-shoes and interfered in Roman's job, I'd still… I'd still be miserable, lying to myself that he actually cared."
"Neo," I sighed, shaking my head. "You're wrong. I'm not a good man. There is absolutely nothing I wouldn't do to keep the people I care about safe. Cinder is the threat here—Roman's operation was just collateral damage. I didn't count on him running, but that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore the advantage it gives me, either. I'm going to tear apart everything she's trying to build that I can get to, and then I'll give her a chance—one—to turn back from whatever it is she has planned. I'm going to make her tell me who's pulling her strings—because there's no way she's the end of it, whatever this is. The alternative… the alternative is leaving her alone and letting her do whatever it is she wants, which is going to put me, my sisters, the twins, and you in danger."
"And you're not just using me to get to her?" Neo asked, justifiable worry in her voice.
I shook my head, pulling her close again. "No, Neo. I'm not just using you to get at Cinder. I can't say I'm not going to use you to get to her, however, if you'll let me. It's dangerous, but I know you're a dangerous kind of girl, so I'm going to ask: will you help me take her down? You don't have to and I would understand if you didn't want to. Honestly, I'm surprised you're even hearing me out."
Reaching backwards, Neo turned off the shower but made no move to get out yet as she looked into my eyes, searching for something. After a moment, she apparently found whatever it was she was looking for as she smiled. "Why wouldn't I? We just made a promise, didn't we? Partners, right?"
"Right," I nodded in agreement, allowing some of the relief I felt into my voice.
"So, yeah, I'll help you take her down. How are we going to play this?" she asked, and I noticed she no longer seemed worried or conflicted. She had made up her mind to follow me. I had her loyalty now, and her trust—and one day, I might just earn it. It was something to work towards, at any rate.
Reaching out, I smacked her ass lightly, causing her to jump, and pulled the shower curtains back. "How about we start with getting dried off and dressed? We can't exactly go visit the wicked witch like this, now can we?"
Stepping out, Neo hummed in thought as she took a towel and began drying off. "Why not?" she finally asked, drawing my attention. "Get in her good graces, earn her trust, then get close to her… and then divide her loyalties and force her to choose. It could work, maybe. If you're looking for options that don't involve killing her and everyone around her when she shit hits the fan, that's your best bet—because that is the only thing that is going to end everything if she won't listen to reason."
"Firstly, I don't like the idea of emotionally manipulating someone like that," I denied, drawing a roll of the eyes from the girl as I took up my own towel. It was true, I absolutely hated lying to Neo—even if she had admitted the outcome was better than if she'd stayed with Roman. "Secondly, that doesn't mean I won't do it if it becomes necessary." Which is exactly what I'd done with Neo… "Honestly, you're right, it should be my first choice for soft options there—for solving this without bloodshed." Well, without more bloodshed than necessary. I knew there would be some to come, one way or another.
"So, let's try that, then. Double-team her," Neo suggested, and I shook my head.
"I don't think that will work—at least, not at first. She didn't strike me as the type. You're not bothered by the idea of trying to seduce the crazy-dangerous witch?" I asked, wondering why this idea was less bothersome for Neo than simply talking to the fire witch.
Neo snorted. "Crazy-dangerous she may be, she's also really sexy. You don't think she'd go for both of us if we set things up right?"
"Probably not. She seems like the kind of girl who has to warm up to the idea. I have some ideas, though… It'll require stopping by Hei's before we go, however." I'd need to pick up a bottle of bourbon, for starters. There was something else I recalled seeing that seemed out of place in Cinder's base—an old record player. It was part of what had convinced me to grab the LPs from the Repository.
Cinder was a vain creature and liked having her ego stroked. More than that, she enjoyed success. After Roman's supposed abandonment and arrest, she was likely looking for a way to regain her perceived edge—after all, she couldn't be seen to look weak in front of her subordinates. A successful job pulled off in a timely manner by competent help, some of her alcohol of choice, and an excuse to abuse my charisma modifier by using Dance and maybe… A plan began to take shape. I'd just have to play things by ear and see how they went. I had no delusions of being James Bond, but then I didn't have to be that good.
I just had to be good enough.