The Name of the Game
a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.
Arc 5: Bent Penny
Chapter 17: By Any Other Name
"That is complete bullshit," Melanie grumbled, looking over the identical pair of weapons in my hands.
Beside her, Miltia hummed, tilting her head thoughtfully as she leaned forward on the couch, looking over the objects scattered across my coffee table. "Not really. There's logic behind it."
Melanie turned an unamused look on her twin. "Well, please do explain."
While they bickered, I opened up my Inventory and re-equipped my Blazefire Saber, followed by equipping the copy thereof—one of the joys of a system that allowed one to use multiple weapon slots. Both disappeared, before reappearing holstered to my left and right at my hips, as opposed to my lower back—though, I saw there were options for the weapon slots for placement for various types of weapons. The Sabers were a bit on the large size, so there were only three positions open to them—upper back with access over shoulders, lower back with access to the sides, or hips in a classic twin-blade configuration—or any combination of those three. Other slots it seemed were mostly dependent on weapon size and rigging. For instance, I had belt holsters for pistols, but thigh or shoulder rigs would open up those slots—which meant I would be buying every different type of carry rig I could find to feed to my Semblance.
The way the original Saber was created, it was intended to be opened and used one-handed, at least in saber mode… Humming, I grabbed both sheathed weapons, spun them once and hit the button/trigger combo to switch them into saber mode. I took a couple of test swings before converting them back to their storage mode and stowing them, then testing how they fit, range of motion, and ease of draw from the other positions available to me. Eventually, I settled with having them stored at my lower back, mostly due to ease of drawing them and the fact that it was easier to sit down that way, as opposed to having them ride at my hips. It didn't matter too terribly much, considering I could save armor sets with them in each position, in the event I needed to move them for whatever reason.
Satisfied, I drew them again and spun them directly to rifle mode. There, I ran into a small problem—namely, that while I could probably use both rifles at the same time for some full-auto spray-and-pray action they were pretty much useless at their primary task as precision weapons. Any sort of precision rifle required both hands to operate properly, after all, and these were not small caliber rifles or SMGs either—.338 was a large round, with a good deal of recoil. With Aura, yeah, I probably could reliably one-hand one or both of the rifles on full-auto but… well, there were other options available to me that would likely work better. 'Besides, it's not like I absolutely have to go that route. Note to self though: buy a couple of laser sights, for that fast draw accuracy issue.'
Another twist of my wrists had both weapons closed up and I stowed the original. Examining the clone, I found the compartment that held the Dust crystal powering most of its features and giving it its distinctive red glow. Instead of opening it physically, however, I focused on the weapon itself and watched as a menu popped up giving me options for slots, stats, and so forth. Before I changed anything else, however, I selected the option to rename the sword, rechristening it as Blazefire Saber Beta—the original, when I got finished, would be renamed to Blazefire Saber Alpha—that way, there would be no confusing them in my menus. Next, I selected the slot for Dust Crystal. Currently, it had a grade 7 Burning Crimson crystal equipped—or as most everyone else would call it, 'Burn, uncut, grade 7.' Burning Crimson was one of the most common and cheapest types of Dust, but super effective at what it did.
Tapping the slot brought up a list of available replacements by color and grade. Humming, I memorized its damage stats and swapped the grade 7 crystal for a grade 8 of the same color. 'Okay, so crystal grade for the crystal powering the weapon changes damage and increases effect for both saber and rifle mode. Good to know, since I'd figure that the thing powering it wouldn't effect the Dust rounds coming out of it, but I guess that just shows what I know. So, things that modify weapon damage: the weapon itself, its attachments, Dust crystals powering it if any, ammunition, skills either passive or active.'
That in mind, I immediately swapped the grade 8 Burning Crimson for a grade 9 Ice Blue. The bright red glow immediately died, replaced by a cool blue. Under the weapon's stats, I grinned as it listed a change to status effects applied per round or strike—where before, on top of whatever my ammo was applying, the grade 7 Burning Crimson would apply a burn effect of that grade, the grade 9 Ice Blue would apply a grade 9 freeze/chill effect. The effect applied to sword strikes and Dust rounds on top of whatever element I happened to be using at the moment—so if I were to channel electricity-elemental Aura into my weapon, I couple apply both freeze and shock effects.
Once I swapped out the grade 7 crystal in my original Saber, I would have a good fire and ice combo going—which would likely be one of those nice physics combos that tended to screw up armor and certain enemies. After all, it worked for two of the AOE skills I already had, so I didn't see why I shouldn't use it here. I really needed to dig up some reference materials for a list of known Dust types, combinations, and their effects. While I was steady leveling my Use Dust skill, that sort of information would be a great shortcut for figuring out the best combinations and effects without having to use my stock of Dust to test each variation myself—as fun as that sounded, it would cut into my already tight schedule.
In addition to my Blazefire Saber, I had also duplicated the rest of my gear—my normal armor, line launcher, stealth armor and katana, and so forth. It never hurt to have backups, for one—for another, I could always use a spare change of gear in case something got damaged. Mostly, though, I was attempting to test the extent of my ability to duplicate items. The twins had argued that if we were going to be stealing large quantities of Dust, we may as well duplicate as much of it as we could—which, of course, lead to questions as to the limits of that particular hidden skill. Well, I insisted it was a hidden skill and functioning as intended while Melanie argued that it had to be a bug and my Semblance was, as she so delicately put it, 'complete bullshit.' Miltia had finally given things enough thought, apparently, as she grinned at her sister.
"There are rules, based on what we've observed. Rule 1: living beings cannot be duplicated. Opening an Illusion Barrier around us doesn't create clones of us. At least, yet—that rule is possibly subject to change depending how that skill levels, right?" she asked turning bright green eyes on me. I hummed, opening my menu and reading over my options there. Create ID was nearly level 30, so if it followed the same pattern as my other skills odds were good I'd get some sort of upgrade to it then, in addition to more types of dungeons available. Maybe I'd finally get some sort of time-dilation dungeon. That would be useful as hell—and not just for squeezing in more training. A dungeon with a 2:1 time dilation rate—where time passed twice as fast inside as outside, or time outside passed half as fast as it did inside depending on how you looked at it—would effectively double the speed of anything crossing it, and I'd already determined that most IDs correlated space inside them with real space outside. Miltia was waiting for an answer, though, so I could drool over the potential abuses for that ability later, if it ever came up.
"I wouldn't rule it out. That, or possibly creating something like artificial people." On their raised eyebrows, I sighed, realizing I'd worded that poorly. "You have a favorite book or TV series. The main character of that series is kind of a badass. Some games have challenge modes where you fight against replicas of popular characters from other genres, games, series, and so forth. So, one possible evolution for the ability to create Illusion Barriers on the fly would be challenge arenas to test myself against powerful foes. Or against copies of real people that I could go all out against without worrying about killing them." Though, I couldn't really see how that would work other than game mechanics bullshit—because if it created real people and forced them to fight me, how fucked up would that be? 'Automatons with a reasonable facsimile of life, maybe? Hopefully. Eh, may not even get that ability. Worry about it if it comes up.'
"Makes sense," Miltia agreed. "So, Rule 1 subject to change, maybe. Rule 2: an object may only be duplicated once. So, you can't infinitely duplicate Dust, unfortunately. Still, two is better than one in this instance. Rule 3: something that came from an Illusion Barrier originally is considered a 'duplicate' for all intents and purposes and cannot be copied—potions, for instance. Annoying, because we could use copies of that one Elixer. Rule 4: all duplicates are perfect copies of the original. This is good and bad. Good, in that there's no degradation between copies. Bad in that things like money all still bear identical serial numbers. Eventually, if you duped enough money, someone might take notice. Of course, due to rule 3, you can't dupe money that drops from mobs anyway. Rule 5: some objects are treated differently from others. I think it's based on either mass or function, but I don't have enough data to decide that one conclusively. I do know you can't dupe some things, while you can dupe others. Small vehicles appear to be easy, so far, even if you're not claiming them to use with Summon Vehicle. A building, on the other hand, can't be duped—even in parts."
Melanie frowned, holding up a hand to stop her sister. "Wait. All the other rules make at least some sense, but how'd you figure out that last one?"
"The horde zombie," Neo guessed, drawing an amused look from Miltia, followed by a nod. "It collapsed part of a building, throwing debris everywhere. What, did you pick some up by accident?"
The red-clad twin shook her head. "Not by accident. I wanted to see if it could be done. I dropped a brick in Jaune's Inventory and carried another small piece out with me in my pocket. I felt the weight disappear the moment the barrier was brought down and when I checked it was gone. And since he hasn't said anything, I assume the piece I shoved into his Inventory never actually showed up. Right, Jaune?"
I shook my head. "I'd have remembered something like that. But just in case I didn't," I trailed off, opening my Inventory and sorting its contents before scrolling through them. "Nope."
Miltia nodded. "So, in game terms, things like buildings probably register as terrain, or static as opposed to mobile." She took on a thoughtful look, eyes flitting over me before she smirked. "I wonder if an airship would qualify as an airship or as terrain."
I blinked. "There's no way I could claim one as a vehicle. It'd take way too much mana, depending on how big it is. Then again… flying, floating fortress of doom. Damnit. Now I have to find one and try it."
The red-clad twin smirked. "You're welcome."
"All that Dust," Melanie's eyes went slightly glazed for a moment, before she came out of it when I shot her a questioning look. "Do you have any idea how much Dust it takes to power military aircraft?" I shook my head and rolled her eyes. "A lot of very high quality Dust goes into the power plants on those things. Pretty much anything larger than a Bullhead keeps at least a ton or more of Dust on hand as fuel."
"That's a lot of Dust," I admitted, thinking it over. "Do you know how to shut down whatever reactor or power plant they use?"
"Uh… no," the white-clad twin denied. Beside her, Miltia shook her head, and a look towards Neo confirmed she had no idea either.
Shrugging, I grabbed up everything from the top of the coffee table with telekinesis and yanked it into my Inventory. "Well, in that case, we should probably hold off on trying it until we know. I don't want to see what a ton of Dust looks like if it goes critical. Well, no, I take that back. I really, really do. I just don't want to be standing in front of it when it does."
"Fair enough," Melanie conceded, wincing at the thought.
Across from her, Neo shifted her gaze to meet mine and asked, "Have the Red Hand reported in yet?"
I checked my HUD and, upon seeing no notifications for my scroll, shook my head. "No new messages." Fishing out my scroll, I fired off a text message to Howling Palm, asking for a sitrep on the men and equipment we'd be borrowing for the night. The response came quickly, telling me that she and Akamaru were likely still taking my messages as word of God.
'Alpha Squad in the air, Bullhead carrying Bravo Squad fueling now. Move Alpha to primary target now or wait for Bravo?'
"They've got one bird in the air, the other one's fueling now. Go now, or wait?" I asked the ice-cream themed girl.
She hummed in thought before her lips turned up into a grin. "Let's go ahead and move on the first shop. We can go in and start while they're getting into position."
"Works for me," I agreed, relaying the instructions and putting my scroll away before turning to the twins. "Sure you two don't want to take off work and come with us?"
The twins shared an amused glance before shaking their heads. "Nah. We're good. Besides, it's not like you need the extra help," Miltia pointed out.
"Go have fun. See you when we get off work?" Melanie asked, and Neo and I nodded.
Neo made her way towards the door, but I took a moment to dig through my Inventory. "Oh, by the way, I picked these up this morning while you were sleeping," I grinned, digging out three small packages and tossing them to the girls, who swiftly tore into them. Neo squealed and I felt her latch onto my back in a hug that probably should have broken something, considering the fact that Physical Resistance leveled. Twice.
The twins' reactions were more subdued, but no less grateful as they looked over the new line launchers I'd gotten them. That wasn't all I'd done that morning—I'd taken the time to seal off the apartment, too, before Jane got back and kicked in my door to beat me if I'd forgotten it… well, beat me or demand sex, depending on the situation and/or her mood. She wasn't due back from keeping Jun while the youngest Arc did her summer-school advanced placement thing until the coming weekend, but I'd figured if I didn't take care of it while I was thinking about it I'd get sidetracked and forget. "They're already loaded with Dust and replacement tips, so you should be good for a while."
The twins hopped up and gave me their own hugs and thanks and I managed to pry Neo's arms out from around me and get us moving again.
"There's something here," I warned aloud, drawing the attention of my erstwhile sidekick in our current endeavor. Nearby, the short, corset-clad form of Neopolitan stood in front of a powdered Dust dispenser, filling tubes and throwing them unerringly into my Inventory. The rest of the store had already been cleaned out, courtesy of my Telekinesis spell. Neither I nor Neo trusted the skill not to accidentally set off the powdered Dust if I tried to just grab it, and being in a Dust shop at the time… Well, that had seemed a whole lot like a smoker deciding to light up while pumping gas—maybe nothing would happen, or maybe the whole place would go up in a fireball. Some risks just weren't worth taking.
Raising one pink eyebrow, she asked, "What makes you say that?"
Something had caught my attention, but inside an Illusion Barrier as we were, my Perception and detection skills were muddled past the perimeter. It was near the border somewhere and getting closer. "I can sort of feel it brushing up against my senses."
Neo blinked, shooting me a worried look. "But we're inside a barrier, right? No one can see us, or get in."
"For the most part," I agreed. "Grimm can sense them, and I'm pretty sure high-level hunters can as well, but normal people—even people of our own level shouldn't be able to perceive them. I think."
That feeling of something brushing against my senses came again and suddenly it felt as though my Illusion Barrier had… budged, somehow—like being inside a giant soap bubble and having someone decide to stick a finger in. A moment later, the bell over the door chimed as the door opened and someone came inside. I realized what had set off my senses the moment I heard the BGM change, but the voice confirmed it—what I had been feeling outside was a familiar Aura. "Hello? Is anyone here?"
Ruby Rose had stumbled into my Illusion Barrier, somehow. I suppose I shouldn't be too terribly surprised—if my suspicions were correct, she had summoned one on Patch, after all. No, what I had forgotten was a bit of simple cause and effect, which my Semblance seemed to take particular pleasure in pointing out with a new quest: Plucking the Rose. I didn't give it the satisfaction of doing more than skimming it as my mind turned to how badly I'd fucked up. Originally, in what could be called canon as viewed from another world, Ruby had gotten into Beacon by attracting the attention of Glynda, and thus Ozpin, by sticking her nose into a robbery in progress and fighting off Roman and his goons—or maybe some men on loan from Hei, given that I knew Roman had rented muscle from Junior before. I had removed Roman. No Roman, no fight. No fight, no Glynda, no Ozpin, no early invite to Beacon for Ruby Rose—and Team RWBY would never be a thing. Considering a lot of my future knowledge and plans revolved around that particular team, and their little leader specifically, that oversight couldn't be allowed to stand. However, it was only a symptom of a larger problem…
'Fuck me. If I got sidetracked from something as important as that, it's time to admit I have a problem,' I mused. It was true though, I was overwhelmed at this point. Between the girls, the gang, grinding, and everything else going on I had neglected something important. This couldn't happen again. I would have to take the time and write things down, make a rough time-line for everything I knew as opposed to relying on memory. If I had lost track of Ruby of all people—or at least, neglected to account for the situation and circumstances that lead to her getting into Beacon early—what else was I forgetting? I didn't even have the excuse of being mistaken over what got her in in the first place—unlike Weiss, Blake, and Yang, Ruby's entry exam for Beacon had taken place directly as an episode, as opposed to a trailer. Well, at least I had an opportunity to correct that oversight now.
Whispering a quick Invisibility, I grabbed Neo and dragged her down out of sight. We were already in a party, so using Telepathy between us took only a second to pass on a message. 'Throw on a veil and head outside. I've got a plan.'
The ice cream themed girl shot me an incredulous look as I sent her the details of said plan, before shrugging and slipping around behind our surprise guest and disappearing into a veil. Outside, the Red Hand men I'd ordered Akamaru to send for the second part of this job would be waiting for our signal. As soon as she was outside, Neo would be having them move in and begin phase two of the operation—the visible smash-and-grab job that would leave behind evidence, should Cinder bother to look. At this point, I might as well plan on her checking up behind me—it wouldn't cost me anything but some time and effort. So, the first part of my plan for dealing with Ruby would, by necessity, involve buying Neo a moment to get outside and set the mooks in motion, then give them time to complete the robbery.
"This is really freaky. What is this place?" the red-clad reaper whispered.
Standing, I quickly moved over to the Dust dispenser and dragged a cannister of grade 9 powdered Burning Crimson from Inventory, along with a crystal of the same grade and color. Pocketing the crystal, I took the tube in both hands and leaned back against the counter, calling up Charisma and putting up an air of nonchalance. "Well," I began, allowing Invisibility to drop away in a shimmer, immediately drawing the future Huntress's silver eyes to me as, behind her, Neo took that as her signal to make a quiet exit—not even the bell over the door rang as she left. "That depends on who you ask, really," I answered softly, eyes on the tube of Dust I was playing with but making sure to keep her in the upper edge of my peripheral vision. As I'd expected to, I found myself facing down the business end of Crescent Rose for the second time since I'd met her. Looking up, red contacts met silver eyes and I grinned under my mask before visibly turning my eyes to look at the weapon in question. "Why, is that a cannon in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
The girl winced, a quiet groan slipping past pink lips. "That was worse than Yang," she quietly lamented, probably for her own ears only, before shaking her head and flipping the rifle up into its more compact assault rifle form. She didn't stow it, however. Instead, she kept it pointed down and to her left, away from me but not so far that she couldn't respond quickly if I did anything fishy, causing my respect for her to tick upwards a notch—she had at least a little common sense, it seemed. "That was a bad pun and you should feel bad," she deadpanned, an expression between amusement and exasperation crossing her face. Given who her sister was, and her supposed propensity for being punny, I wouldn't be surprised if that was her default reaction by now.
"And yet, I don't. Because it was so bad it looped back around to good," I countered, earning an eyeroll for the attempt—she'd heard that excuse before, it seemed. Still, as much as I enjoyed silly banter, I had a point to make and some questions of my own. "To answer your question, it's an Illusion Barrier. How did you get in?"
Ruby shot me an incredulous look, asking, "What do you mean, 'how did I get in?' It was kinda hard to miss the big bubble thingie over my favorite Dust store." She gestured around us, seemingly indicating the perimeter of my ID.
I blinked, parsing that twice to make sure I'd heard correctly before asking, "You can see the barrier?"
"Yup," she nodded emphatically, rocking back on her heels slightly before tilting her head and asking, "Is that weird?"
"Huh. Maybe," I muttered, shifting my eyes to the focus icons above her head and idly noting her level as 36—five levels higher than I'd first seen her and twelve levels higher than me. Shrugging off the level growth, I triggered Observe and found something new: a section labeled Special Traits, followed by something called Silver Eyes. There was no description when I selected the trait, but under the 'effects' section was listed the ability to perceive and enter Illusion Barriers. 'What the hell?' I wondered. "Silver Eyes?"
"What? What about them?" Ruby asked, suddenly self-conscious, and I shook my head.
"Don't worry about it," I waved her off, dismissing the window for Observe at the same time. "Getting back on topic… think of this place as a bubble in reality—shouldn't be too hard, really, given that you can see it. Everything here, except us and the things we brought in with us, is a copy of something out there in the real world. Take this, for instance," I said, flipping her the Dust cannister in a slow underhand pitch.
"Ack!" Ruby squawked, clearly realizing the potential for disaster should that cannister hit the ground. Somehow, she managed to catch the cannister while still holding onto Crescent Rose. "Don't do that! Someone could have gotten hurt!"
"I had confidence you would catch it," I countered. And while that was entirely true, she had no way of knowing that I'd had the thing locked with Telekinesis the entire throw and, even if she missed it, I'd have stopped it before it hit the ground—even with the shop mostly cleared out, I wasn't dumb enough to risk carelessly throwing those things around. "That right there is grade 9 Burn, in powdered form. Ready for use in ammunition production or whatever else you set your mind to."
"So, you're stealing it?" she asked, sounding confused.
"Am I?" Pushing myself off the counter, I grinned when she stowed the cannister in the pouch at her side—space expanded, apparently—and brought her weapon up slightly. "Say you have an item… your weapon, for instance. I like your weapon and decide I want one for myself. Well, taking yours would be impolite—you're using it, after all. Instead, I supply my own time, effort, and materials and produce an exact duplicate. The only thing I've really 'stolen' there is the idea behind that specific weapon, and even then, anyone could have reverse engineered it with time and effort—all I did was cut out the time factor. You get to keep your weapon and I get to have a copy that works just as well. Have I really stolen anything?"
Ruby gave the question a moment of thought before shaking her head. "But you're not making a copy of my weapon, you're copying Dust. The man who owns this shop loses money if you just copy his Dust."
I shook my head, not entirely surprised that she would take some convincing. Ruby was, in canon, pretty much the definition of Lawful Good. I had a feeling she wasn't quite that naively innocent here in Bizzaro Remnant, given who she was related to. Something of Yang, Qrow, and Taiyang—maybe even Raven, depending on when she bailed—must have rubbed off on her in addition to whatever influence her mother had had on her before her death. Still, convincing someone to do something that may bend the rules of their alignment is what Charisma was all about—and I was not afraid to do exactly that. "Nope. I buy Dust here like everyone else. I just make a copy before I buy it. It's like a two-for-one special."
"But if everyone just made copies—"
"Everyone can't do what I do," I chuckled, digging into my pouch and tossing her the crystal. "Have a look."
"Is… is this…?" Ruby asked, eyes going a little wide.
I nodded. "Grade 9 Burn crystal. Just as good as the original. You couldn't tell it was a copy if you put them side by side. Keep it, and the other."
"I," she began, clearly hesitant. "I really shouldn't…"
Rolling my eyes, I gestured around the store. "Why not? Even if I didn't duplicate everything here, I'd still dupe it all when I got home anyway and no one would be the wiser. The only people who know are me and you. And let me guess, you're using ammo supplied by your school, right?"
Biting her lip, Ruby nodded. "Only in school. I mean, I have an allowance to buy practice rounds and ammunition for dealing with Grimm, but…"
"But Dust is expensive. Especially the good stuff," I finished for her, earning another nod. "Keep it. Make some nice ammo out of it and stick it back for an emergency. You're probably going to need it, sooner or later."
'Just about done here, Jaune, but there's a Huntress posted up on a nearby roof. She showed up about a minute into the alarm going off,' Neo warned, and I face-palmed.
"Shit," I grunted, drawing a confused look from Ruby. "Sorry, just got word that we've got an uninvited guest." I went over my options for a moment before I came up with something I thought might just work. "You're… not in Beacon yet, are you?"
"Uhh, no," Ruby admitted, rubbing at the back of her head sheepishly. "Only two more years!"
"I see," I hummed, taking on a thoughtful pose and stroking my chin. I sent to Neo, 'Are they finished?'
The response was quick in coming, tinged with anger. 'Not even close. They've got maybe half the stock. They're dragging ass. We're going to have to talk to Howling Palm about this later.'
'It's fine. It suits my purposes here. Get into position. We're coming out now,' I warned my ice cream themed accomplice. Locking eyes with Ruby, I sent her a grin under my mask, bringing my hands together in a loud clap. 'Time to roll for bullshit,' I mused, hoping she bought it. "Well, as luck would have it, for today only one of the higher-ups at Beacon is conducting a field test for potential Hunters and Huntresses—open to anyone. Now, the problem here is that this test is meant to be a secret—if she finds out you know it's a test, you automatically fail and will lose your shot at Beacon this year. Around us, this shop is being robbed by eight armed men intent on stealing the Dust from the store. I assure you, the robbery is real and the woman in question is waiting to see if any prospective young future Hunters just happen to intervene before she decides to pull the plug and stop them herself. Defeat them with style and panache and you might just catch her attention. Have fun!"
"Wait, what?! Now?! I'm not ready!" she yelped, silver eyes going wide in alarm.
"A Huntress must be prepared for combat at all times," I countered. I focused on the ID I had created and dismissed it, causing the bubble around us to shatter like mirrors as I dropped into Invisibility and ducked into cover. A moment later, all hell broke loose as the Red Hand men opened fire and I heard the sound of Crescent Rose unfolding and returning fire.
In the front of the store, the windows exploded outwards as four men were hurled out by one wide swing of Ruby's weapon, followed by three more as she flew between one and the next inside the store alternately smashing them with the pole of her scythe or slamming tiny little booted feet into their faces, then made for the street herself. I watched as she began making short work of the Red Hand men I'd borrowed, dancing between them too fast for them to line up for a shot with any real accuracy, which lead to more than one instance of friendly fire on their part. Sighing, I sent to Neo, 'The Bullhead ready yet?'
I received what looked like a view through her eyes of the vehicle in question and the pilot giving a thumbs up. 'Good to go, Jaune. I'm moving into position now. Let me know when you're ready.'
'As soon as I drop Invisibility, get the men out and loaded up. I'll keep her occupied long enough for you to get into the air,' I sent, focusing on the girl's movements as she weaved through the last two men standing. 'Now.'
Stepping out of the store, I was forced to shift to one side as the small girl twisted and brought her rifle-scythe around and fired blind, a bright red Dust round streaking through the area my head had been a moment ago. Her eyes narrowed, shifting down to the broken glass on the ground and I realized what it was that had given me away. Smirking under my mask, I allowed Invisibility to drop and clapped slowly. "My, but you are good, Red."
I wasn't just talking out of my ass, either. She'd heard the crunch of glass under the sounds of her own movement, that of the men around her, and gunfire and had reacted instinctively—and that was the only thing that could have given me away, seeing as at the time I'd not only been invisible but had Aura Suppression up and running, and still did. Still, I had a part to play here... I had to give the Red Hand men time to get to the Bullhead with what they'd stolen, and I had to provide enough of a challenge to be interesting to the figure watching at the edge of my Aura sense—and a glance at my minimap confirmed that Glynda was indeed posted up on a roof nearby, watching this little drama unfold, right where Neo said she'd be. 'Sorry, Ruby. You'll thank me later.'
"You ready for phase two?" I asked quietly, giving the girl a wink before speaking up so my voice would carry to our observer. "Still, good or not, I can't really let you just beat up those clowns like that—it's not really fair to them, after all. So, sorry it had to come to this, but..."
The redhead shot me a confused look. "Wait, wha—?"
Neo sent me confirmation that the men were out and loaded into the Bullhead, which meant that all the men on the ground were simply illusions and I could now move freely. "Let's you and me fight."
The men on the ground vanished, shattering like glass as Neo's illusion dissolved. At the same time, I dug deep into Haste and Flash Stepped forward, flipping my sword over so the bladed edge faced away from her and drawing, the weapon's arc about Ruby's chest height. Crescent Rose flashed up into a block, but instead of pressing forward, she used the momentum imparted by my high-impact strike to spin backwards and level the business end of the rifle at my torso. My mind automatically drew a line down the length of the barrel, plotting out where the round would go as she pulled the trigger, and I stepped out of the line of fire, Stepping forward again to close the distance, only to find Ruby opening more distance herself by using the recoil from the rifle to throw herself backwards and spin around.
'Shit,' I grunted, intuiting what she intended to do a moment before she slam-fired the weapon and sent herself spinning forward in a pinwheel of bladed death. She was better than me, in terms of both skill and level. I needed to put her on the defensive, otherwise this battle would quickly become very one-sided. Unfortunately, as Shiro, I couldn't be seen throwing around the skills I would be using later on as Jaune—nor could I really use the same stuff the Fox used either.
So, what did I have available? Stealth and speed, primarily—Invisibility, Flash Step, Iaido, and maybe some not-so-obvious uses of magic or elemental manipulation. Wind and Gravity, for instance, had no visible tells for their use. I could likewise use mental spells, but... it was Ruby, and while the mental branch of spells was really good for stopping a fight entirely, that wasn't really what was needed here. After all, if I just put her to sleep—assuming I could, which I felt pretty confident of—then that wouldn't be much of a show for Glynda. 'Hit and run tactics it is.'
Unfortunately, in order to make it look good, I knew I would at least need to take some damage and let her get a few good hits in. I could have evaded her attack entirely, using a combination of wind and gravity, but that would defeat the purpose of picking this fight. Instead, I began to pull out at the last second, hoping that it merely looked as though she'd caught me by surprise. The blade of Crescent Rose scored a good hit across my chest, scarring the armor there deeply but not managing to penetrate my armor. What I hadn't been expecting was the sheer force behind the blow, and I found myself tumbling to land face first on the road hard enough to bounce. Ruby took ruthless advantage, closing in for a follow-up swing, which missed as I rolled out, bringing my own blade up into the same defensive recovery spin Jun had once tried against me.
Ruby didn't fall for it, however—apparently coming to a conclusion I'd already made: our weapon skills were similar enough to cancel each other out, for the most part. She had longer reach and more power behind her swings, while I had speed and the advantage of not being restricted to mostly sweeping blows. Still, that didn't stop her from making the attempt anyway. Crescent Rose spun through the space I'd been occupying a second before as I faded backwards and went invisible, pulling up wind elemental mana and Gravity Manipulation. A Flash Step had me on the opposite side of her and I swung, dropping Invisibility at the last second. I didn't have to, but nothing either Ruby or Glynda had seen so far indicated otherwise, meaning I could both create an artificial weakness in my technique to later exploit to my advantage if someone saw this later and fought me expecting to find it there, and at the same time give Ruby a fair chance of defeating it without having her absolutely kick my ass up one side of the street and down the other.
Silver eyes locked with my red contacts for a moment before Ruby rolled out from under the arc of my swing, pulling her weapon up and putting it between us before giving it a spin to send the bladed crescent hooking at my feet. I hopped over the blade, but apparently she had been hoping for that and the initial swing was a feint and a setup for her next move, flipping the blade over to plant it in the ground, followed by hauling herself atop the shaft of the weapon like a gymnast on a balance beam, flipping once to close distance between us, and planting her booted feet in my face. It hurt a bit, but nothing was broken and my Aura tanked the damage—really, it was more shocking than painful, as I hadn't been expecting it. She followed it up by completing the motion and hauling the weapon out of its anchored position for another swipe at my airborne form. With most opponents, that would have been a perfect one-two combo, ending with someone stunned and on the ground, as I had been earlier. I wasn't most opponents, and I wasn't afraid to cheat.
Gravity and wind spun around me and I pulled back into a roll, outside of the range of Crescent Rose's blade, to land on my feet and resume my hit-and-run tactics. The next hit came from her flank, just inside her blind spot to her left, the back of my blade slapping against her ass cheek as I ran past without stopping, rolling under the retaliatory swing of her scythe and going invisible again. I was able to play out three more exchanges like that, landing solid hits to her legs and arms, before she appeared to have had enough and disappeared in a flash of red cape and a spray of rose petals. She reappeared some distance down the street, reoriented herself on me, and chambered another round.
Her battle cry echoed down the street as Crescent Rose fired, launching her back towards me in a burst of speed. 'Get ready,' I sent, firing my line launcher and pulling myself up and out of the line of her attack as she drew near, suddenly thankful for Jane's suggestion for Dust types in my launcher—anything else wouldn't have deployed fast enough. I was up and on the roof a second later, rolling to my feet and turning to face where I figured Ruby would be coming from. She did not disappoint, launching herself up over the roof and leading with a hail of gunfire from the weapon's assault rifle mode, which I dodged away from in a series of Flash Steps as she readjusted her aim every time I reappeared. She landed on the roof with me, spinning her weapon back through its scythe transformation and sending a mild glare my way. "Stand still so I can hit you!"
"Let me think about that," I hummed, reaching up and stroking my chin though my mask. The sound of the Bullhead's engines picked up and I grinned as Neo let me know she was ready. "Nah."
"Haa!" Ruby yelled, launching herself at me again with another sweeping swing.
'Jesus, and I thought Yang was the one with anger issues. Get the girl riled up and she gets downright bloodthirsty!' I dropped to the deck, rolling under her swing and coming up on the other side to push away and gain distance, putting her between me and the Bullhead. "What's the matter, Red? Can't hit what you can't see?" I taunted.
'Now!' Muttering a quick "Invisibility," I disappeared, and a moment later, an illusion of me reappeared to one side of the red-clad reaper, appearing to have just come out of a Flash Step and swinging his sword. I Leapt away, bouncing across a few rooftops and out of Glynda's range and line of sight, dropping into an alleyway and switching into my 'Jaune' outfit. Dropping Aura Suppression, I hauled ass down the street, coming into where I knew Glynda's field of view would cover and looking around as though I was hunting for the source of the disturbance still ongoing. Ruby gave me an excuse with more gunfire and I ran up the side of the nearest building.
Spotting the fight on the roof across the street, I grinned. 'Okay. Final phase. Everyone ready?'
'Ready,' Neo sent, along with a view of the inside of the Bullhead, where two men with automatic rifles were on standby.
'Go. And remember, please aim at the shield. Not my face. Or my balls. I need both of those.' Neo's laughter rang in my mind and, on the roof across from me, illusion-Shiro pulled another disappearing act, reappearing in the Bullhead and moving out of sight, as the two Red Hand mooks moved into view, followed by Neo herself—sporting black hair, mint green eyes, a black version of her current outfit and with a grenade launcher in hand. I Leapt across the gap between buildings as she sent me a view down the sights of her launcher, letting me know where the round was going. I got there just in time to nearly get knocked on my ass, as I hadn't engaged any of my magical shields aside from Aura and Reinforcement. 'That actually kind of hurt,' I mused, my arm feeling a bit numb from the hit as my shield rang like a struck gong.
I glanced behind me and found myself looking into a pair of silver eyes. I grinned. "Hello."
"Hi," she murmured, apparently not quite sure what to say, herself. "Thanks for that."
"Talk later," a new voice interrupted, and I looked over to see Glynda Goodwitch had joined us, a purple magical shield springing up as red Dust rounds began pouring out of the Bullhead on our position in two streams of full-auto fire, interspersed with the occasional grenade.
Whipping out my Blazefire Saber Alpha, I flipped it open into rifle mode, thumbing the fire selector up to burst and taking aim at the cockpit while beside me, Ruby had planted Crescent Rose's blade in the roof and opened fire on the men in the Bullhead. 'Time to go, before she swats you out of the air. See you back at the apartment.'
'Right, we're going,' Neo confirmed, emptying the last of her grenade rounds at us before moving towards the cockpit. The whine from the engines picked up a moment later and they shifted forward a bit, the aircraft beginning to gain altitude. The magical shield disappeared and Glynda flicked her riding crop, summoning up an ice storm above the craft, but it was entirely too late for that as the vehicle accelerated up and away.
"Well, that was a thing," I mused, flipping my weapon around into its compact form and stowing it.
Beside me, Ruby did likewise. She looked to be about to say something, but the smack of leather on flesh from nearby drew our attention to where Glynda had slapped her riding crop into her palm. "You two are coming with me."
Around us, sirens were beginning to wail and red and blue light reflected up from the street below as the police arrived, finally. "Where?" I asked, for Ruby's benefit.
"The police station," Glynda answered curtly. "Come along."
We made our way to the roof edge and Ruby let out a startled squeak as I hefted her up into a bridal carry and hopped down—force of habit from constantly hauling around the twins and Neo when they were feeling lazy or I was taking jumps they couldn't make. Setting the red-clad reaper back down on her feet, I rubbed at the back of my head in a true show of momentary embarrassment. "Sorry, force of habit," I apologized quietly.
"I… I didn't mind," Ruby whispered, face tomato red in a blush I pretended not to notice, but felt was absolutely adorable.
Ruby and I were lead to a patrol car and ushered into the back, where we were driven to the police station. Along the way, Ruby attempted to strike up a conversation. Turning those silver eyes on my blue, she asked, "Sooo… I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. What's your name?"
"Well, Ruby Ruby Rose, my name is Jaune Jaune Arc. It's nice to meet you," I chuckled, extending my hand for her to shake.
She did, but only after shooting a pout my way at the teasing. "That's mean," she whined. After a moment, her pout fell away and she turned a nervous look towards the front of the car and our two police escorts, silent up 'till now. "So, do you think we're in any trouble?"
"Probably not," I denied, shaking my head. "Otherwise, they'd have confiscated our weapons and put us in cuffs. They're probably just going to take our statements about the incident. Right, officers?"
The officer in the passenger seat turned enough to look me in the eye and smile—blonde, light blue eyes, mid-to-late 20s, with an athletic but still feminine figure. "That's right, Mr. Arc."
Turning to Ruby, I sent her an I-told-you-so look, before adding. "Also, much as I'd love to, I don't think this is really the place to get to know each other. We're being recorded. Right?" I asked, shifting my eyes back to the blonde, who answered with a nod.
"I'm sorry, but all squad cars come equipped with recording equipment throughout the vehicle. Anything you say can and will be recorded, and we don't really delete the records… Sure, no one's likely to go over a couple of kids talking about things unrelated to the case, but if you say anything embarrassing it could, theoretically, show up in court later. I say theoretically because, with no one apprehended, this case will likely be put on a back burner until we do catch someone, or shelved if we do not," she clarified. "By the way, my name is Officer Hvit and this surly example of the silent treatment personified is Officer Svart," she grinned, gesturing towards her companion—a large, tan man with black hair in a crew cut and dark eyes who looked to be in his mid-to-late 30s, with an entirely too serious expression on his clean-shaven face as he navigated traffic.
"It's nice to meet you," Ruby beamed at the older woman, while I nodded beside her.
"So, much as it pains me Ruby, how about we save the conversation for later? I'm sure getting a statement won't take long at all. Ten, twenty minutes tops," I guesstimated, earning another nod from Office Hvit.
"Awe, okay," the younger girl sighed, turning and looking out the window at the passing scenery.
When we arrived at the station, I was mildly surprised to find myself separated from Ruby—only mildly, though, as I supposed taking statements separately made sense in that we wouldn't influence each other's story. What I was entirely surprised over, and equally unamused about, was to find myself dumped into a classic interrogation room as opposed to a simple office, where the officer that had lead me there—neither Hvit nor Svart—demanded my scroll. Frowning, I asked, "Do you have the legal right to confiscate my scroll?"
The man, an Officer Green as his name tag called him, nodded and sent me a friendly smile. "Of course. It's just standard procedure and it will be returned to you when you leave."
Observe put lie to that, however, and I called him on it. "It's not nice to lie like that. Tell me, why are we being kept in interrogation rooms if we're just here to give statements? Surely we're not being held under suspicion of something, right?"
"No, no. Just standard operating procedure," Green waved me off, once more burying the needle on my Semblance's built-in bullshit detector.
"Uh huh. Sure. Hey, listen, my companion is technically still a minor unless she became a Huntress or apprentice to a Hunter on the car ride over—and I'm pretty sure she didn't. Have you allowed her to contact her family?"
"We have," Green once more fibbed, and I frowned. Pushing my chair back, I stood and turned towards the door. Before I made it two steps, I found Green's hand circling most of my upper arm in an iron grip. "Mr. Arc, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to sit down and wait here. Someone will be with you shortly."
For a moment, I considered removing his hand from my arm, then thought better of it—criminal I may be, he had no way of knowing that, and at the moment I was nothing more than a teenaged hunter-in-training in his mind. I wasn't one of those idiots who made a scene resisting arrest and screeching as officers were forced to hit or taze them into submission. That was a damn good way to get oneself hurt or potentially killed where I was from—because some idiot thought fighting an armed police officer was a good idea. I was raised with more decorum than to pitch a hissy fit because I wasn't getting my way, thankfully.
Besides, it was an all around bad idea, given where I was—even using my usual methods, as opposed to resorting to fisticuffs. Suppose I did put Green out with the usual Sleep/Forget combo—what then? There were bound to be people monitoring the CCTV feeds from these rooms who would surely raise the alarm before I could get to them. I could use Dominate, but it wouldn't take long for someone to figure out that something wasn't right and likewise sound an alarm. Likewise, if I were to disappear into either Invisibility or an Illusion Barrier, alarm. Either way, I had no doubt that if the police couldn't stop someone like me themselves, they wouldn't hesitate to call in Hunters, and then I'd be really screwed.
Still, that didn't mean I'd just meekly roll over. As Green made his way to the door, I shot him a flat look, pulling up Charisma and Killing Intent. He jerked, paling slightly and yanking open the door. "Sure," I grunted, sitting back down as the door slammed behind Green. 'This shit isn't going to fly. I need to get to Ruby, before she cracks under pressure and spills something she shouldn't.'
A brush against my Aura Sense let me know Glynda was approaching. Turning things over in my head for a moment, I decided on how best to deal with her. Adopting a patiently bored expression, I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. The door to the room was behind me and that classic interrogation room staple, a one-way mirror, directly in front of me. The door opened behind me and I caught her reflection. She made to say something, but I cut her off, forcing myself to keep a straight face as I did. "About time. Do me a favor and get me a couple of those donuts I saw in the break room on the way here, and a drink out of the machine."
I saw the blonde blink in the mirror, so taken aback was she that she actually half turned and took a step back towards the hall before her brain caught up to her body and a flat, unamused look settled on her features. I triggered Observe and read over the pertinent information, specifically her mood: off-balance, confused, flustered, irritated. So, she had come in expecting to intimidate a green teenager, but I had robbed her of the initiative. The question is, what would she need to intimidate me for? 'Does she suspect something?' I wondered, before discarding the notion. If she did, I'd probably be occupying a holding cell as opposed to an interrogation room. Still, it didn't matter. I had taken the initiative, now I needed to keep it. I pulled up Charisma and met her eyes in the mirror. "A woman with such a pretty face shouldn't frown like that," I warned, before dropping Charisma and the smile and following it with, "You'll get wrinkles, at your age."
There was a brief flicker against my Aura Sense, nearby and monumentally powerful—but it lasted only an instant. Still, it had come from the other side of the glass… 'Ozpin is already here?' I mused, grinning. He was undoubtedly listening in. Maybe I'd gotten a chuckle, and that was why he'd slipped in his suppression of his own Aura. Calling up Listen and filtering through the background noise, I faintly caught the sound of a quiet coughing chuckle from the next room. 'Even better. Nearly drowned him on his coffee. Still, that he can hide like that tells me Aura Suppression isn't unique to me, at all. Meaning Cinder was overestimating my skill level based on the fact that I could. …Well, I suppose it's better to be either underestimated or overestimated, than estimated accurately or something like that.'
The sharp clack clack! of Glynda's heels as she closed the door and made her way over to the chair across from me caused me to wince at the sudden volume and drop Listen, pulling my eyes away from where I figured the headmaster was lurking to settle on the woman herself, my blue eyes meeting her bright green briefly. Joan had warned me not to antagonize her, but at the moment I didn't particularly care—she was being a bully. Glynda sat down, straightening her blouse and retrieving a folded down tablet that looked like a larger version of a scroll. On it, the battle progressed on fast forward from Ruby smashing the Red Hand mooks out of From Dust 'till Dawn, through her fight with Shiro, until the video paused on the moment I took a grenade round to the shield.
The frozen video shifted to one corner of the tablet as the focus was taken up by what appeared to be a generic school photo, along with notes and other text too small for me to read. "Jaune Arc, of those Arcs. Age 17. Failed the final tests to progress past intermediate to advanced academy level due to a complete lack of ability to use Aura. And yet, tonight you demonstrated sufficient knowledge and use of Aura to pass those very exams. Of more interest, we received transcripts from your academy recently that, upon review, do not match your school records. Would you care to explain that inconsistency, Mr. Arc?"
"You have CCTV footage, taken from the city's camera network. You also have my official school records. How did you get those, I wonder? I suppose you could have asked the police for access to their surveillance gear. Likewise, you could also have simply put in a request for verification of my records… but if you had, it would follow that I would have been contacted regarding those inconsistencies shortly after they were discovered, as opposed to just now. This would imply that you did not know before now and you have a method of penetrating the networks and servers of both the police and my school remotely," I stated, suppressing a smirk as her eyes widened fractionally in shock that I'd put that together so quickly, before narrowing in annoyance. "To answer your question, I couldn't really say how it happened. I don't remember much of anything before a week or two ago. Got into a fight with some Grimm and lost," I began, and her fingers flew across the tablet as new information sprang up.
"Admitted for severe head trauma, lacerations, broken bones… You should have been crippled for life. On top of that, diagnosed with a case of… retrograde amnesia?" She looked up from her tablet, sending an unamused look my way. "You don't behave like an amnesiac."
"Everyone keeps saying that," I shrugged, grinning, then pointed to her tablet. "You also have access to my medical records when you really, really shouldn't. Pretty sure that violates more than one law about hospital records. And again, you pulled them on the fly—which, unless you already had prior access, is impossibly fast for a human," I needled. 'Maybe Ozpin reverse engineered that hacking tool? I mean, the other option is an AI under Ozpin's control… and while it's not entirely out of the question, I don't remember there being but one true AI in the series—Penny. There were supposedly something like VI from Mass Effect, dumb and limited pseudo-AI being used as interface points in places, but VI don't have the creativity to hack things.'
Glynda put down the tablet, clasping her hands together and regarding me with a stern expression I suppose she reserved for students—particularly stubborn, irritating students. "What were you doing downtown tonight, Mr. Arc?"
Simple answers worked best, so I answered with, "Well, I was going to buy some Dust to make myself some more ammunition. I heard fighting, so I came running. By the time I showed up, well, you were there."
"And so you, a young man who claims to have little to no memory of his life before a couple of weeks ago," she layered the sarcasm on thick there, "decided to intervene in a robbery in progress. Do you have any idea the danger you were in? You could have been hurt, if not killed outright—"
"I wasn't, though," I interrupted, drawing a look of irritation from her as I continued. "The fact of the matter is, someone was in very real danger of exactly that, and I had both the power and ability to step in and do something about it, so I did. It's a risk Hunters take on every day they're in the field, and if I'm going to be one—and I am—then I can't hesitate because there may be a risk to myself. In addition, I may not remember much, but sure as hell I know right from wrong. I know that standing by with my thumbs up my ass while someone else is in danger and I have the power to do something about it falls squarely in the 'wrong' category. So, no. You can chew my ass all you like about it, but I regret nothing. And on that note, aren't you being just a little hypocritical? You clearly waited until the very last minute to step in yourself, when you could likely saved putting both myself and Ruby in danger by doing something from the start. You're a Huntress, and a damn strong one at that. You could have handled that entire situation yourself with a few waves of your little riding crop. Instead, you let a couple of untested kids take care of it. Which means one of two things. Either you're grossly incompetent at your job or you were told to stand down... likely because you knew Ruby was there and wanted to see what she could do. So, tell me, which is it Ms. Goodwitch? Incompetent or willfully negligent?"
The woman's eyes narrowed and Observe pegged her mood as furious, with a tinge of grudging respect and guilt. I'd struck closer to home with that than she'd like, I guessed. "Now, since you're clearly not taking our statements, was there a reason you brought us here, separated us, stuck us in interrogation rooms, and attempted cheap intimidation tactics? Do you have the legal authority to detain us, or have us detained—and if so, do you have probable cause? Because if you fail to meet any of those requirements, I'm walking and I'm taking my friend with me."
Before the woman could answer, there came a knock at the door—two quick knocks followed a moment later by a third. Glynda stood and moved to the door, opening it a crack and having a brief conversation with someone on the other side—Ozpin, if I had to guess. With a resigned sigh, she turned away from the door and locked eyes with me in the mirror. For a moment, there was a brief contest of wills between us. When neither of us conceded, she turned and opened the door fully. "Please come with me."
I stood and followed her, the clacking of her heels loud even over the murmur of a police station at work—apparently, her frustration was bleeding into her steps a bit. Opening a door several rooms down, she gestured me inside, where I found Ruby Rose waiting in a seat, in a room identical to the one I had just recently vacated. "Oh, hi Jaune!" she greeted, beaming a smile for a moment before a look of apprehension crossed her features. "Umm… what's going on? I thought we were just going to give statements?"
Moving over to the table, I took the only other chair and moved it around to put it beside Ruby and took a seat on it backwards, turning my head to regard her. "Someone's playing games," I said by way of explanation. "Have you called your parents? Did they try to confiscate your scroll?"
"Noo, and they did," Ruby frowned, before her silver eyes went wide. "Oh no! Quick, I have to get to a scroll! If I don't call my sister, there's going to be so much trouble!"
"I am sure it can wait until we are finished, Ms. Rose," Glynda denied, but she did produce a scroll and pass it to Ruby. "Now, if you would, please explain what you were doing—"
"No," I cut her off, pointing at her for emphasis. "Ms. Goodwitch, you are on very thin ice right now. Make your pitch but there will be no dressing down, or we leave."
The door opened behind the Huntress, admitting the silver haired form of Ozpin, carrying a tray of cookies and a cup of what smelled like coffee. I have to admit, I hated the stuff, but it smelled good. "Ruby Rose," he greeted the girl beside me, golden eyes focusing on her silver in scrutiny for a moment as he leaned in to get a closer look. "You have silver eyes."
Ruby blinked, a confused expression crossing her face. "Uh… You're the second person to point it out today. Is that important?"
"Perhaps," Ozpin murmured, setting the plate of cookies in front of her and pulling back, shifting his gaze to regard me. "And Jaune Arc. You shouldn't bully my staff, Mr. Arc—it's not polite for a future student to give one of his teachers a hard time. One would think it especially unwise to give the combat instructor in particular a hard time."
"I calls 'em as I sees 'em," I deadpanned. "So, is that an offer?"
The older man raised one silver eyebrow in amusement before taking a sip from his cup. "It is."
"I accept," I acknowledged quickly, before he could change his mind. Not that he would. No, if he was making the offer himself then he'd heard or seen something he liked that would cause him to ignore the forged transcripts—and my general attitude towards one of his staff members. But oh damn was that warning foreboding—I'd gone out of my way to piss off Glynda and odds were good she'd take some satisfaction making my classes with her miserable, all in the name of improving a student's skills.
Beside me, I noticed Ruby's attention had shifted focus to the tray of chocolate chip cookies on the table. Slowly, she reached out a hand to take one. Before it got there, however, I reached out and lightly slapped the back of her hand, causing her to jump and let out a squeak of surprise as she yanked her hand back before turning to pout at me. "You're a meanie."
"Talk first, cookies later," I countered.
Across from us, Ozpin chuckled quietly before shifting his gaze to where Glynda had brought up the security footage again, this time focusing on Ruby's portion of the battle. "I've only seen one scythe wielder of that caliber before—a dusty old crow."
"That's my uncle Qrow!" Ruby grinned. "He teaches at Signal, and he taught me. I'm kinda, sorta his apprentice. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, but now I'm all like—"
She made to stand up and I gently tugged her back down. "I think he gets the idea, Ruby."
"Indeed," the headmaster smiled. "Tell me, what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"
Ruby made to open her mouth and answer, but I quickly covered her mouth with my hand, earning a mild glare from the girl in question. "Ten words or less, no gushing."
"You're no fun. You're like the anti-fun," she grumbled, and I shrugged.
Shooting a look between Ozpin and Glynda, I explained, "There's a time for fun and a time for serious talk. This is the latter. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to act accordingly."
Ruby sighed, nodding. "I get it," she agreed, before looking up and meeting Ozpin's eyes. Even with my admonition not to gush, her words were no less impassioned as she told him her dream. "I want to become a Huntress, like my parents." She shot me a glance and I nodded, motioning for her to continue, as I hadn't been entirely serious about the word count. "I have two years of training left at Signal and then I'm going to apply to Beacon. My sister is starting there this year."
Ozpin hummed, before asking, "Do you know who I am?"
Ruby nodded. "Professor Ozpin. Headmaster at Beacon Academy."
The older man allowed a small grin to cross his features as he asked, "Would you like to come to my school?"
The red-clad reaper's eyes went a bit wide. "This year?" she asked, and he nodded. "More than anything."
Ozpin and Glynda traded a look and the woman shot a glance at me, earning her a small smirk from her boss. She rolled her eyes and Ozpin took that as all the confirmation he needed. "Okay. If you'll leave your contact information with her, Glynda will contact you within the week with a list of required materials." Turning his gaze on me, he smirked. "Oh, and Mr. Arc? I'll handle the paperwork, if you don't mind."
"I assure you, I have no idea what you're talking about, sir," I shrugged, putting on my best innocent expression as I pushed my way up out of the chair and offered a hand to Ruby beside me. The shorter girl shot a longing look towards the platter of cookies on the table and I rolled my eyes, giving her a 'go ahead' gesture. The little reaper's face split into a grin as she snagged the cookies off the plate and stacked them in her hands—all of them—before heading out the door ahead of me, already munching away happily. Still, I couldn't resist getting in the last word. Turning to Ozpin, I grinned. "Oh, and Headmaster? While not illegal, ephebophilia for potential female students is a bit tasteless."
Ozpin shot me a wry look, clearly amused. "Mr. Arc, you have nothing to worry about in regards to miss Rose. I assure you, my interest is purely professional, in my capacity as the Headmaster of one of the four leading Hunter schools in Remnant. Any scrutiny Ms. Rose or any other student receives is not of a sexual nature." He paused a beat, eyes sliding over to Glynda before adding, "I don't believe Professor Goodwitch would tolerate such behavior, especially from the faculty and staff of Beacon—myself included."
"If you say so, Headmaster," I agreed. "Still. I'll be watching you." Last word in, I decided to get while the getting was good.
The door closed behind me and on a hunch, I slowed my pace, activating Listen. "Sir, are you sure this is wise?" Glynda asked, worry obvious in her tone. "Ms. Rose is barely above the minimum age for acceptance of gifted students, and while her skill is not in question, I do not believe she is ready on a psychological level. The psych profile data Signal had is gone with the destruction of their servers, minus that of the graduating class which was on the drive the Fox retrieved, and Mr. Arc did not give me a chance to glean anything from her. Though, given her home life... Taiyang is a broken man. Qrow is a lush and a misanthrope with a hair trigger. Her mother is dead and Raven is... Raven. Her sister is the most well-balanced of the bunch, and that's saying something for someone with a berserker-class Semblance. Are you sure we shouldn't wait a year or two more?"
"You worry too much, Glynda. If she weren't ready, she wouldn't have pushed as hard as she has to date. However, if you're that concerned, feel free to call the staff at Signal. I'm sure her uncle or father would be willing to allow you to speak to the other staff, even if their own opinions may be biased," Ozpin countered, before quietly adding, "And you know as well as I do, we don't necessarily have time to wait."
"I thought trial by fire went out of style years ago, sir," she admonished, and I could tell it was a long standing matter of contention between them. "I should call them, to be thorough, so we at least know what we're getting… but nothing they say is going to change your mind, is it?" Glynda ashed, and a moment later sighed as she got a silent answer, and I heard a scrape of metal against the floor and what I assumed was her dropping into a chair. "Is this the 'smaller soul' you've been looking for?"
There was a hint of a smile in his voice as Ozpin answered, "Perhaps."
Glynda apparently decided to drop it and move on to a topic of more pressing concern, at least to me. "Fine. And what of Mr. Arc?"
Humming quietly, the Headmaster asked, "What is your opinion of him?"
"He's lying," Glynda deadpanned. "I don't buy that nonsense in his medical records, for starters. That aside… regardless of whatever his school records say, he's clearly capable of using Aura and has also likely unlocked his Semblance, though I saw no evidence of its usage during the brief time he fought. He didn't hesitate to jump in. I didn't get to see much of what he's capable of, but he has powered movement down better than some second or third year Beacon students and he handles his rifle like he's been doing it for years. He's had training, recently if there's any truth to his medical records, most likely from his sisters… but again, to go from absolutely nothing to potentially in the neighborhood of a Signal graduate within a couple of weeks strains belief. So I return to my original point: either he's lying, or he's some sort of idiot savant, in the classical sense. It's much more likely he's simply lying, though to what end, I couldn't say. Maybe he's always been this good, and he's just been hiding it. Or, perhaps his siblings have been teaching him on the side recently and the events leading to his hospital visit merely provided the impetus to awaken his Aura and Semblance—but if so, why the claim of amnesia? He's a puzzle, Headmaster, and I don't have all the pieces yet."
'And of course she couldn't just let it lie. No, it's going to eat at her until she has me figured out. Great, just what I needed, more scrutiny,' I rolled my eyes.
"However," she added, voice turning speculative. "His willingness to come to the defense of a friend seemingly in need of it, even with the relatively short time they've known each other, against someone in a position of authority is… commendable. He is intuitive, cunning, and manipulative—and despite all of that, his actions speak of someone who highly values his comrades. Also, he knew who we were on sight, which, while not unprecedented is another point against his official medical records. Which, by the way, he suspects we have some method of breaching digital security at 'inhuman' speed. The moment he saw me, he moved to seize the initiative and put me on the back foot. He won't blindly follow orders like the other students."
Ozpin chuckled and went quiet a moment, before I heard the sound of ceramic on metal—his coffee cup, I guessed. "If what you're saying is true, we won't need him to. He'll do what he feels is right."
Catching sight of Ruby turning around to figure out where I'd gotten off to, I dropped Listen and jogged to catch up. "Were you snooping?" she asked, shooting me a suspicious look.
"Of course," I admitted, grinning. "Want to know what they said about you?"
"Nooo, I couldn't do that. Eavesdropping is rude," Ruby denied slowly, shaking her head. Several steps later, silver eyes turned to peek up at me before turning back towards our surroundings. "But, you know, I couldn't really stop you if you just started talking…"
Chuckling, I resisted the urge to reach over and muss her hair as I would the twins or Neo, had they said the same. "Well, Glynda's worried you're a bit young—"
"What is it with everyone commenting on my age, lately?! First that weird fox guy and now one of the teachers at Beacon!" she grumbled, eyes narrowing in irritation, crossing her arms and allowing her cloak to mostly cover them. Under her breath, I caught her continue, mumbling, "'Not dating material' my ass. I'll show him dating material. Lousy, no good, stupid fox…"
As we walked through the station towards the exit, I snagged a sheet of paper and a pen off a desk as we passed them, quickly jotting down my name and scroll number and tossing the pen back before the officer at the desk I'd borrowed it from could complain. Folding the paper, I pocketed it, deciding to give her the rest of what Glynda had said about her. "Also," I interrupted her quiet rant, despite how amusing it was hearing her complain about one of my alter egos under her breath, drawing her eyes back to me, "she wondered if you were ready psychologically—in other words, whether you were mature enough, in addition to age. Apparently, her plan was to bully you a bit and put you under some pressure to see how you'd react, followed by fishing for information as to your character by asking pointed questions about why you stuck your nose where it didn't necessarily belong. I kind of screwed that up for her though, so she was talking about getting in contact with your teachers. Sorry about that, but honestly, I didn't think you deserved getting the third degree like I did just because you were in the wrong place at the right time. You saw something fishy and you acted on your instincts—that sort of thing shouldn't be discouraged, just… Well, I suppose the gist of what she told me applies to you as well: be more careful next time and don't go rushing in without looking."
"But I didn't just rush in blind," Ruby sighed, shaking her head.
Raising an eyebrow, I shot her a curious look. "Oh? I wasn't there for most of that, remember? What started all of it? I was under the impression you were in the store when it was being robbed. That's how it looked from Glynda's security footage."
"I," Ruby began, then hesitated, looking around for eavesdroppers. Finally, she shook her head. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't say."
I shrugged. "Suit yourself."
We made it outside just in time for the squeal of tires to reach us across the parking lot as a yellow and black motorcycle slammed on its rear brake and slid from the street into a parking spot. Its rider slid off, yanking off a similarly colored helmet to reveal a head of long, faintly glowing blond hair framing a pretty face, set with a pair of blood red eyes.
Burning Heart
Blonde Bombshell, Berserker Brawler
Yang Xiao Long
Level: 34
Nearby, an officer stepped out of a patrol car, eying the girl cautiously. "Ma'am, you can't park there—"
The sound of a pair of weapons chambering rounds echoed across the parking lot as the blonde's yellow and black gauntlets unfolded and she turned irate red eyes on the first person to draw her attention. "I'm going to ask this once and I had better get an answer I like, or I'm going to start busting heads. Where is my sister? Ruby Rose, 5'2", red and black hair, silver eyes, wears a red cloak. I know she's here because I tracked her scroll here. Take me to her."
'Apparently she's either never heard that you shouldn't threaten cops or she's beyond the point of caring where her sister's concerned. …Exploitable weakness. She's going to need to do something about that,' I mused, observing the blonde stalk towards the officer.
Beside me, Ruby winced momentarily before shaking her head, a smile spreading across her lips. "Yang!"
"Ruby?" Yang's focus shifted, red eyes locking onto her sister standing beside me. A second later, she seemed to sag with relief and almost visibly deflate, her hair losing its faint glow and her eyes shifting to lilac. There was a noise at my side, along with a burst of rose petals, and the two sisters met in a hug. "Ruby! You're okay!"
"Pff, I'm fine Yang," Ruby sighed, burying her face in her sister's chest and I turned away to give them a moment and make sure the officer Yang had threatened wasn't about to call for backup.
"Hey," I caught the woman's attention, gesturing towards the bike. "Sorry about that. I'll get her to move it in a minute, okay?"
The officer in question shifted her gaze between the sisters and me twice before giving in with a sigh and a nod. "Fine. I suppose I can understand how she feels. No harm, no foul."
"Thanks," I murmured as she climbed back into her patrol car and eased out onto the road.
"Sooo," Yang called from behind me, and I immediately recognized the teasing tone to her voice. "Who's this?"
I turned around, raising an eyebrow at the blonde before turning my gaze to Ruby. To her credit, the younger sister only hesitated a moment before answering—and while outwardly she looked fine, Observe told me she was worried. Considering I remembered the contents of our first conversation—even if she didn't know it was me at the time—I could see why. She was worried I would ignore her for her sister. I'll admit, Yang was a beauty—given a few years, she could give Joan or Cinder a run for their money in the looks department. Still, I knew how much having a friend of her own would mean to Ruby. "Yang, this is Jaune, Jaune Arc. He, uh, kinda sorta ate a grenade that would've hit me in the face. Jaune, this is my sister, Yang Xiao Long."
"Nice to meet you, Jaune Jaune Arc," Yang grinned, holding out one hand for me to shake. "And thanks for not letting my sister eat explosives." She cast a glance at her sister, grin spreading as she added sotto voce, "They give her upset tummy."
"Yaaaang!" Ruby whined in that tone most younger siblings took on, that screamed for an older sibling to 'stop embarrassing me.'
I rolled my eyes, taking her hand. "Sorry to leave your face Xiao Long, but that one's been done. It is Yang nice to meet you, though."
Yang's eyes went slightly wide before she turned a grin on her sister. "He speaks my language!"
"'Bad puns' is not a language," Ruby countered, rolling her eyes.
"Well," I spoke up, interrupting what looked to be an argument the pair had had often, "I don't know about you two, but it's late and I, for one, would like to get away from this cop shop and into my nice, warm bed."
"That sounds like a plan," Yang agreed, a mischievous look crossing her face.
Having a good idea where she was going, I decided to shut her down before she could get there. "Yang, it was nice meeting you. If I ever want to ride something in yellow and black, I'll give you a call… and see about borrowing your bike." Yang's mouth clicked closed as she adopted a poleaxed look. Turning a grin on Ruby, I handed her the folded up paper with my scroll contact information. "Call me if you're ever in town and you want to hang out or something. Goodnight, you two."
As I made my way across the parking lot, I heard Yang ask, "Did… did he just…?"
Ruby's answer was lost in a fit of giggles and a covert glance back showed she was doubled over, holding her sides. Beside her, Yang had lost the confused look in exchange for one a bit more thoughtful than her antics would imply she was capable of. Our eyes met for a moment and she smiled before turning away to tease her sister by mussing her hair. "Yaaaang! Stooop!"
I pulled out my scroll and fired off a message to Neo, checking to see if they had managed to hit any other Dust shops. If they had, I would see about duping it in the morning. Until then, I needed to check up on a few projects and spend some quality time with the girls. Unbidden, the image of Yang joining us came to mind, and I nearly groaned. 'Of course she put the thought in my head intentionally. Haven't even spent five minutes with her and she's already screwing with my head. Damn tease.'