The Name of the Game

by literalsin

A man from Earth wakes up to find himself stuck in the body of a fictional teenage boy with an ability that turns his life into a video game and foreknowledge of events to come. What could possibly go wrong? A take on the RWBY/Gamer crossover niche with an SI twist, a focus on world and character building, and fleshing out some of the details RT missed. Rated 'M' for a reason.

22. Stray

The Name of the Game

a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.

Arc 6: Every Shade of Grey

Chapter 22: Stray

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Looking down into a frying pan filled with meat, I frowned. 'It's just not the same. I'm going to have to get a grill at some point.'

The problem with that was that I didn't know if the landlord would allow it. Oh, I was sure I could probably bully him into it, but my second concern there was that the small patio outside the apartment wasn't big enough. I'd never really taken the time to step out onto it and measure it for myself, but given my experience with outdoor cooking on Earth and the sort of setup I had in mind, it didn't look to have enough room from where I stood. Turning the meat, I rolled my eyes. 'Well, I suppose it's inevitable that I'd get settled in and start to think of this place as 'home.' Not that it's a bad thing. Though, at the rate I have 'guests' over, I may want to look into getting something larger at some point. I won't be using it much soon anyway, with Beacon coming… what, week after next? Since I'll technically be living in the dorms and only coming back by here to visit Neo, Miltia, and Melanie I could put off getting a new place at least a little while. Then again, what if I decide to come back and I've got two teams worth of tagalongs? Damnit, I liked this place. It's pretty much in the middle of the map and I've already got bounded fields set up. Oh well, it's not like I don't have the money for something bigger, and a new place could be warded from the ground up. Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look into later.'

And that reminded me of a couple of other facts I needed to deal with. Blake should be arriving some time this week or next, so I'd need to keep an eye out for that. Also, Yang had yet to sucker Hei into a fight in his bar looking for information on her mom. I didn't want her wrecking the place—the twins would get annoyed, and I'd catch an earful from Hei… 'Wait a goddamn minute,' I blinked, shooting a look at Yang—more specifically, her level, then shifting my gaze to the information over Jane's head. 'Okay, so knowing the full story now, Hei's team graduated—and had been full hunters at least a year before Sanguine died, because Jane had also graduated by then. Meaning somebody lied to me about Hei 'dropping out,' and I'm pretty sure it was Jane.'

Humming, I plated the burgers I'd finished and moved on to the next batch, moving pretty much on auto-pilot at this point as I thought the issue over. 'So, she lied. Why? Obvious answer: Hei's her dead friend's crush, her older sister's teammate and former boyfriend. On the other hand, she told me as Kuro to Shiro—when she didn't know I was Jaune. Well, I can straighten that shit out now.'

Shooting a glance at the living room, I saw Yang, Neo, and Melanie crowded together trying to decide what to watch, while Miltia had yet to return with Ruby. Jane was currently sat on the couch, having a quiet conversation with Penny. Catching her eye, I gestured towards the kitchen. She excused herself from Penny and hopped up, padding into the kitchen on bare feet, having since ditched her house shoes. "What's up?"

Observing her leaning against my counter nearby, I met her green eyes for a moment before turning back to watching the food. "You lied to me."

"You're going to have to be more specific, Jaune. I've lied to a lot of people, about a lot of things," she shrugged.

"About Hei. And you. You don't just quit being a Hunter after you graduate," I pointed out, watching her from the corner of my eye to see how she'd react.

Jane blinked, frowning as she thought back, then sighed and nodded. "Ah, that," she murmured. "I didn't lie to you." I turned to face her with a raised eyebrow and she chuckled. "'Kuro' lied to 'Shiro.' I didn't know who you were at the time and a lot of that stuff was personal. I couldn't tell entirely if you bought it or not either, but I figured you got the message that I didn't want to give specifics and were at least willing to not ask more questions than you did. What brought this on? And you look like you were expecting that answer."

I rolled my eyes. "Because it's how I would've answered," I deadpanned. Another thing in common with another Arc sister—our ability to spin a line of bullshit and justify it to ourselves. "I'm not mad, if you're wondering. I get it—we were both 'on the job' so to speak. But I'd like to know. And what brought it on was a quest." I went for my default excuse.

"If we're talking about lies," she trailed off with a small grin. "You could just say you don't want to answer and I'd be okay with that."

"I was thinking about the level difference between you, the girls, and remembered Hei seemed low," I clarified. It was truth, but not the whole truth.

Jane nodded, shifting her gaze out to the others in the living room. "Hei and I were classified Section 8—mentally unsound, leading to a medical discharge. Joan and Noire were as well, but they both fought it. They're still technically on probation, and will be until they finish out their mandatory service time. Initially, I fought it too. I took some time off to grieve, and that's when the thing with my team happened. I was too stuck in my own rut to help them when they needed it, and then that just made it worse. After that, I quit fighting it. I lied to… well, pretty much everyone, but especially the family. I mean, come on, an Arc just giving up being a Hunter because I couldn't handle my shit? It was humiliating. Still is, really. I hid myself away in Sang's old apartment until my savings started running low, then hit up Hei to see if he could get me a job when I could face coming out again. I knew he had inherited some stuff from his family and had The Club by then, so I figured I could offer to be a bouncer or something. Hei did me one better. He'd gotten involved in some pretty shady stuff by that time and he knew what my Semblance did, so he asked me to do a job for him. I couldn't really turn down the money at that point, so I agreed. It worked out well, so I did a few more. Before I knew it, it had become my work. Just as much of a thrill as Hunting at times, with less of the danger and no team depending on me. Which is why, when I got stuck with you, what you were doing with that woman pissed me off so much—I let it become personal."

She went quiet, apparently finished, and I took a moment to drain the grease from the pan and plate the last of the burgers before turning to meet her eyes. "Thank you for telling me," I quietly told her, and she shrugged. It cleared some things up and filled in some holes in the story I knew, but there were still some details I wasn't sure on and may never be—things like, who the idiot was that got Sanguine killed if it wasn't Jane, seeing as she didn't start that job until after Sanguine had been murdered. Also, whether Hei had started up his club in his spare time in between deployments with his team, or if that had come after he'd been declared Section 8. I supposed neither of those truly mattered, but my innate curiosity still left me wanting to figure it out at some point. Still, it didn't answer the most important question. "So, Hei's not just sitting on his ass in his club."

Jane shrugged. "We train every now and then and he whines about how Joan never stops by unless she wants something—or at least, that's what he was whining about last time," she shot me a deadpan look and I realized he'd told her about Joan bringing me by, probably before I'd even met her. "But no, Hei hasn't put himself out to pasture. He's still kind of a badass. I honestly think he's holding back on me some days. He could kick your ass, if you're wondering. He told me you've got a habit of running your mouth," she grinned. "One of these days, your mouth is going to write a check your ass can't cash, little brother."

"But he's level twenty-something," I denied, and she snorted, before laughing outright.

"Your Semblance told you that?" she asked, and I nodded. "It lied to you." Chuckling quietly, Jane shook her head. "That, or it was confused."

I shot her a mild glare, but conceded the point—it had been wrong before, after all. "Okay, how would it be confused?"

Jane shot me an incredulous look, then rolled her eyes. "Hei graduated with Joan and you didn't think that having a level lower than the Signal students you know was weird?"

"I thought he'd just lost a step or two," I retorted. "From what I've seen, all the man does is sit in his club, drink, and fuck girls with a passing resemblance to Joan because he can't nut up and get over it—and maybe, some days, act as an information broker and wannabe gangster."

"No, Jaune. It's aura suppression," she deadpanned. "It's fourth-year material at Beacon, and I know the other schools teach it in their final year as well. What you have to understand is that there are different levels of Aura. There's Resting Aura Level—your Aura level when you're sleeping, because it drops with your sleep cycle. After that is Default Aura Level—your Aura level when you're awake, but not doing anything. Active Aura Level is when you're actively using Aura for something—training, running, that sort of thing. Then there's Combat Aura Level, which is pretty self-explanatory—your adrenaline gets pumping, your body senses danger, it responds by naturally raising your Aura. The problem there is that Hunters have a lot of Aura, and it only grows as they age—unless you stop training entirely, that is. So, a Hunter with ten years or so under his or her belt may have a Default Aura Level higher than a first year student's Combat Aura Level. In case you didn't know, Aura attracts younger grimm that haven't figured out that Aura means death for them—so strong Hunters can't just walk around all day with their metaphorical dicks hanging out. They suppress their Aura in populated areas to keep from drawing in grimm, and in the field as a matter of necessity unless they're trying to clear an area of grimm—but only the young ones are stupid enough to jump on obvious bait like that. Well, the young ones, or the ones smart enough to know it's bait and strong enough not to care—those are trouble."

'So why was Cinder impressed I could suppress my Aura, if it's common?' I wondered, frowning. "And everyone does this?"

The redhead nodded. "Pretty much. Though, I'd never seen someone go down to zero Aura output until I saw you do it." I blinked, and she raised an eyebrow. "You can't tell me you didn't know that's what you were doing."

"No, I knew that's what I was doing. That's the entire point of Aura Suppression as a skill—to hide my Aura," I pointed out. "Zero aura output is the only way it would be hidden."

Jane snorted softly. "Yeah, no. No one can do that. Not without a Semblance geared towards stealth, and I have yet to see one. Doesn't mean they're not out there, you're living proof of that. Normal people like me have to make do with pushing it down as far as it'll go and hoping that's enough."

Well, that explained Cinder, then. It still didn't explain my Semblance. Well, no, it did—I just didn't like the answer, because that meant my Semblance could be lied to or otherwise confused, outside of mental effects. Thinking of its ability to measure level in terms of technology, if it were a device that measured energy output then the most obvious way to fool it would be to decrease energy output. 'But then, that would mean,' my thoughts skittered to a halt as I eyed Jane's level again as realization hit, followed by something I would almost classify as dread. 'Jane, Jean, and Joan—that's the level my Semblance estimates them at because that is as far as they can suppress their Aura Level. Son of a bitch. And I may as well add Cinder to that list, too. And that's not even counting people like Ozpin, Glynda, and Taiyang with the infamous triple question marks over their heads.'

A second, equally unwelcome realization came swiftly on the heels of the first. 'I've used Aura Suppression as Shiro, in Cinder's presence, to the point that she commented on it. Likewise, I've used it as the Fox in front of Ozpin and Glynda—and some mooks, but they don't count. It's not like Bob The Mook is going to connect the dots between two different guys running around with no Aura. No, I just have to worry about Cinder figuring it out, if she ever sees me using it as the Fox or Jaune. Or Ozpin, likewise for Shiro and Jaune.' Pulling up my skill window, I took a quick look at Aura Suppression and found it was level 27. 'Okay, let's get it up to 30 and see if maybe I get the option to choose what level I want to suppress my Aura to. I got advanced options when Aura itself hit 30, so maybe that's some sort of second tier point for abilities. Then again, that could have just been for Aura by itself. If it's not I'll have to think of something. Either way, I need to double-down on the training and try to bring everyone up quickly. I'd thought I could just focus on increasing skills without increasing levels to the point where I out-leveled the others at Beacon but given what I know now, it may just be better to use that level disparity—if there is one—to light a fire under their asses to get them caught up. Guess that means we're going to need to see about going as a big group into Forever Fall and clearing out some grimm.'

"You okay? You look kind of worried," Jane asked quietly, and I shook my head.

"Oh, I'm fine. Just realizing exactly how outclassed I am," my gaze shot towards the girls in the living room. "We all are."

Jane shrugged. "Kind of humbling, isn't it?" she asked, and I nodded. "Yeah, I felt that way too, the first time I saw a Huntress stop hiding her power and open up on something. It was… pants-pissingly terrifying." She shot me a grin, then, and added, "But hey, if you want to get into a pissing match with Goodwitch, by all means, be my guest. Let me know how that turns out. Jean and I have a bet running. She bet Glynda would be giving you constant drills. I bet you'd be constantly drilling Glynda by the end of the year."

"Either way, somebody's getting drilled. Wow, that was Yang-level bad, as far as puns go. But why can't it be both?" I grinned, then caught sight of my bedroom door opening and Ruby and Miltia making their way out. Ruby had hidden herself in her cloak and scarf, so I couldn't read her facial expression, but the gist I got from our link told me she was mortified and… excited? Thrilled? It was one of those emotions I couldn't quite pin down without Observe, which marked it as both. Miltia, on the other hand, looked smugly amused.

Catching my eyes, the red-clad twin strutted into the kitchen and leaned against my side, standing up on tip-toes to whisper in my ear. "I convinced her to wear that lacy red set you liked seeing on me," she breathed into my ear.

The words evoked an immediate mental image pulled straight from memory—Melanie had a matching set in white, and Neo in pink. My mental image of Miltia wearing that particular set found itself replaced by Ruby in the same pair, and I palmed my face and forced the thought away. Apparently, the Telepathy spell linking us interpreted 'away' as 'towards Ruby,' if her embarrassed cry of "Jauuune!" was any indication. "That was evil," I shot a mild glare at Miltia, who merely shrugged. "She's too young."

The girl at my side laughed quietly, while beside me Jane rolled her eyes. "Tell her that," the Arc twin countered.

Miltia nodded. "Ruby's the one that picked them out—she just need some encouragement to actually wear them. I think something her sister said or did got under her skin, because she was muttering about Yang and you seeing her as a kid right before she did it."

'Direct result of Yang flipping her skirt up, followed by subsequent teasing. Ruby does not take teasing well,' I noted, resisting the urge to again palm my face—I was doing that entirely too much lately. On the one hand, it was a bit mean. On the other hand, if it pushed Ruby into being more self-confident and potentially trying to act more mature, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Tough love on Yang's part, as it were.

"Anyway, we're getting hungry. Those things done yet?"

"Yeah," I nodded, turning to the living room and calling, "Food's ready."

Plates collected, we made our way back into the living room and Neo started the movie—some martial arts flick with some amazing visuals, as far as the scenery went. According to the ice cream themed girl, it had been filmed in Menagerie—which had made little sense to me, given what I thought I knew about the place as the supposed 'faunus dumping ground.' I put the question aside to research later and turned my attention to the movie—at least until Neo spotted that I'd finished eating and decided to relocate from the couch to my lap.

"I tried to argue for something with a bit more action, if you know what I mean," Neo murmured, leaning back against my chest and shifting her ass teasingly over my crotch. "I thought it might encourage the blonde to loosen up a bit."

I rolled my eyes, hands going around her waist automatically. "Behave. You and the twins," I warned, quietly. Neo turned enough to meet my eye, raising an eyebrow in question. "Ruby's too young and I'm not going to lay a hand on her sister, because that would pretty much break her at this point. If you want to talk her into your bed, by all means—but I won't be there."

"But it's no fun for me if you're not playing too," Neo pouted, and I shrugged. "And what do you mean, she's too young? She's going to Beacon, isn't she?"

"Ruby's only fifteen. And she's not a Huntress yet. And even if she were, I'd feel like a pedo," I admitted. "I figure we'll go to Beacon and I'll be the friend she needs; and if, in a few years, something happens, then it happens. If it doesn't, then it doesn't. Either way, Yang's off limits because turning down Ruby to date her sister would be a huge betrayal, given what I know of the situation."

"It's only two years." Shifting against my growing erection, the girl on my lap hummed. "You could just have them both, you know?"

"I know," I deadpanned. It probably wouldn't even be that hard, given what I thought I knew of them and what I had observed, in addition to my unfair stats. I could see at least one possible course of action to take on that front with a good chance of success—but I wasn't going to take advantage of them like that and again, Ruby's age was a sore spot with me. Between my age of 33 and Jaune's of 17, we had an average age of 25—which still left Ruby well outside the half-plus-seven rule. 'Then again, I've made exceptions for the Malachite twins and Neo,' I mused. It was an argument I'd had with myself more than once, and it always boiled down to the same answer: wait and see, and if something happened in a couple of years then I'd probably be okay with it. 'Wait, how old is Neo?' I couldn't recall asking her age, but given her looks she could pass for anywhere between 17 and 25 or so. I made a mental note to ask later.

"You realize you're just going to wind up hurting her worse if you turn her down, when she eventually asks before passing whatever age you've got in mind dividing 'pedo' and 'dateable.' And in the meantime, her older, hot, sexy as hell sister is going to get progressively more frustrated," Neo pointed out, then smirked. "Not to say that sexually frustrating blondie is a bad thing. Spend a while getting her stirred up and when she finally either snaps or you decide to pop her cork… I really want to be there for that. The fireworks should be amazing. Speaking of frustrating," she grumbled, and an illusion snapped into place around us as she reached for my fly. "Clothes are pretty frustrating right about now."

"You can't expect to do this in front of everyone," I murmured into her ear, half tempted to create an ID around us.

"They're not paying attention," Neo countered, already shifting her panties aside as she successfully extracted my shaft from my boxers. It was true—I noticed Miltia had moved to Ruby's side and was keeping the girl occupied in between little exclamations over the movie. With Yang likewise occupied by Melanie, I realized that the girls had planned this. Jane and Penny keeping each other's attention, with the gynoid asking my sister quiet questions and the redhead providing answers, was just a happy coincidence. The ice cream themed girl in my lap grinned, then lowered herself onto my shaft with a quiet sigh, and my train of thought ground to a halt.

The rest of the movie passed as an agonizingly welcome blur as Neo slowly rode me, both of us doing our best to drag it out while at the same time, keeping things as quiet as possible. When it finally ended, a few minutes after Neo and I had finished, Jane shot up out of her chair and made for the door. "Okay, it's been fun, but I've got work tomorrow," she lied, making her way quickly for the door. As she passed me, green eyes locked with mine and she shot me an annoyed look. "Remember what I told you," she hissed in warning.

"No matter what," I called after her, a blatantly teasing tone to my voice. "Have a good night."

Turning to the others, I gestured towards Ruby and Yang. "Your dad made me promise to get you home at a decent hour, so we should probably head for the airfield."

"Uh, yeah," Yang murmured, shifting in her seat.

"You okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Of course, I knew what Neo had done, and I couldn't quite decide whether I should be amused or annoyed at her intentionally exposing them to my 'sex aura,' as Jane had called it. On the one hand, Yang looked ridiculously hot with her skin flushed and a few beads of sweat visible, as she resisted the urge to squirm in her chair. On the other hand, Ruby mirrored her sister and I knew I should probably feel bad for that. 'Then again, she didn't exactly complain about the bike ride either,' I mused, and decided to ignore it and treat it as a 'no harm, no foul' situation unless she said something. I would be having words with the girls later, though.

"Ah hah haa, I'm fine, Jaune," Yang laughed quietly, so obviously fake I almost felt sorry for her.

"Jaune," Penny whimpered from nearby, drawing my attention. "Jaune, I believe I have had a malfunction!"

The room's collective gazes turned on the gynoid as I asked, "What sort of malfunction?" At the same time, I caught Yang mouthing the word with a confused look on her face.

"I," Penny began, sounding more distraught than I'd ever heard her, "I believe I have sprung a leak."

The sound of flesh smacking flesh echoed through the apartment and I briefly registered an impact against the side of my face. It took me a moment to realize that I'd actually facepalmed hard enough to do damage. "Neo," I addressed the girl, who had the decency to look sheepish. "You broke it, you fix it." Moving to Penny's side, I took her by the elbow and lead her into my bedroom, followed by the ice cream themed thief, who closed the door behind us. "Penny, I'm going to let Neo explain a few things while I run Ruby and Yang home. I promise you're not broken, but another girl might be able to explain it better than me. Is that okay?"

Penny visibly thought it over for a moment. "I would feel much better if you were here," she finally admitted.

"I know, and I understand," I nodded, easing her to sit down on the bed and dropping to a knee in front of her. "But part of being out in the real world and being a person is learning to trust other people. You can't always rely solely on me. Neo's a good person, and I trust her. She wouldn't intentionally do anything to hurt you or steer you wrong." I shot a sidelong glance at the shorter girl, who fidgeted under my gaze. "Another part of 'growing up' I suppose is taking responsibility for your actions. Neo was a bad girl earlier and, while I wouldn't necessarily say she made a mistake, she did do something that had unintended consequences for you—so it's her responsibility to explain those consequences. Do you understand?"

Penny nodded and behind me, I heard Neo grumble, "It takes two to tango."

Standing, I took her in my arms and grinned. "Yes, but I didn't initiate the dance and I distinctly recall attempting to turn off the music."

"Fair point," she acknowledged, rolling her eyes. "Fine."

"I'm not mad at you," I murmured, catching her chin and tilting her face up so her gaze met mine. "Just a bit annoyed. I get what you were planning, but it's entirely too soon for that. Okay?" The shorter girl nodded, and I planted a brief kiss on her lips. "Great. Try to use kid gloves with Penny, would you?" Casting a glance at the gynoid watching us and thinking back to her sometimes very literal interpretation of things, I shook my head and added, "But don't be afraid to be absolutely blunt if you feel the need."

I made my way back into the living room, closing the bedroom door to give Penny's conversation some privacy. "We ready to go?"

"Any time," Yang shot me a lecherous grin, and I rolled my eyes.

Ruby turned to Miltia and blushed. "I uh.. I'll return the..."

Miltia was having none of that however, as she stepped in and wrapped the little reaper in a hug. "Keep them." She leaned in and Listen caught her whisper, "Jaune likes them." Ruby gave a plaintive whine in her arms and Miltia chuckled. "Come by to visit next time you're in town."

"I suppose you're kind of fun to have around, so I guess we wouldn't mind having you here again," Melanie was addressing Yang, and the blonde chuckled.

"Don't encourage her," Ruby deadpanned, pulling away from Miltia.

"Too late for that," Yang returned, and Ruby rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, 'Years too late.'

Ushering the sisters towards the front door, I threw a wave over my shoulder towards the twins. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

"We'll be waiting," Melanie promised, a suggestive tone to her voice that I instantly recognized.

Yang and Ruby were quiet as we stepped into the elevator, but that seemed to be about as long as Yang could go without speaking. "So. They were nice."

"Yep," Ruby agreed, shifting from foot to foot.

"And you're dating them?" Yang asked, lilac eyes locking with my blue.

I nodded. "I am. I never denied that or tried to hide it," I pointed out.

"Not saying you did," Yang shrugged. "Does it bother you, Ruby?"

The little redhead snorted softly, turning an amused gaze up at her sister. "Not really. I like to think of it as… new friends that you get to share something special with." Glancing at me, she quickly added, "Even though, you know, we're not really dating or anything. Just… just friends. Right Jaune?"

Reaching out, I mussed her hair, earning a pout. "I'll be just about anything you want me to be," I admitted quietly, then followed it up with, "But I think what you need right now is a good friend."

"Friends are nice. I like friends," Ruby nodded, shifting her head slightly under my hand and encouraging me to scratch. "Ooh, scratchies. Now I know why Zwei loves this."

"You're such a kid," Yang laughed, drawing my gaze and sending me a smile, before her look turned contemplative. "So, Jaune," she began, and I raised an eyebrow in question, gesturing for her to continue when she hesitated. "Your sisters are Hunters, right?"

"Four have graduated and the other three are in school," I clarified. "Why?"

"I… kind of hit a brick wall recently and could use some help. Do you think you could maybe ask one of them to help me run down someone, or see if they know someone who's good at that sort of thing?"

I hummed, thinking it over. Odds were good she was talking about her mother, and I knew she went to Hei originally, though I had no idea who she went through to find him. I was also fairly sure he hadn't told her anything significant, which could have been because she pissed him off and wrecked his club. Well, it was worth a shot. "I know a guy. Send the info to my scroll and I'll ask him next time I see him."

"You'd do that for me?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Sure. What're friends for?"

The blonde shot me a small smile before turning away. "Thanks," she murmured, already digging out her scroll and swiping away at it and I got an email a moment later.

A quest has been created! A Favor for Yang.

Yang has asked you to ask around and see if you can dig up any information on the whereabouts of her estranged mother, Raven Branwen. Reach out to your contacts and see what you can find.

Rewards: 10000 EXP, increased closeness with Yang, increased closeness with Ruby.

Failure: decreased closeness with Yang.

The ding of the elevator hitting the parking garage and opening broke the small moment between us. Yang took out her scroll again as she made her way to her bike, using it to start Bumblebee after checking the time. "Looks like we've got a little while before the shuttles stop running. As nice as having a private Bullhead is, I think someone upstairs wants your attention more than we do at the moment. We'll take the shuttle and save you a trip out to Patch tonight. That sound good?"

"If that's okay with you," I shrugged. "What do you say to meeting in the morning and doing some training?"

"Yes!" Ruby cheered, and Yang nodded.

"It's a date," the blonde agreed, then laughed as Ruby shot her a look. "I'm up for a double date. How about you, sis?"

"Yaaaang," the little redhead whimpered. "Stop teasing me."

"But you make it so easy!" Yang protested.

I nodded. "That, and she makes the most amusing embarrassed faces."

Yang grinned, blonde hair bobbing with her nod. "Yeah, it's kind of priceless. My sister's so adorkable."

"Yang. Stop," Ruby groaned.

"Night, then," I waved, turning for the elevator.

A small pair of arms wrapped around my waist and I found myself wrapped in a hug. "We had fun tonight, Jaune. Thank you," Ruby murmured, her face buried in my back. She gave me one last squeeze and let go, hopping onto Bumblebee behind her sister, and a moment later the bike screeched tires as they left.

'Not a bad night,' I mused, a grin crossing my lips as I rode the elevator up. I took out my scroll and forwarded Yang's email to Hei, adding a quick note that I'd be willing to pay for information. I would hold off on asking my sisters or Miltia and Melanie until Hei let me know something. In the meantime, I still had things to do tonight—satisfying the twins and Neo being the top of my list, then training with Penny. At some point though, I was going to have to sit down and design a new weapon for my 'Shiro' identity. In order to support the story the video from Atlas told, I would need a dustcaster. Thankfully, I already had some ideas in mind. In order to get a Dust weapon with multiple Dust abilities, I would have to design something similar to Weiss's Myrtenaster—that is, a weapon with multiple Dust chambers that could switch between them on the fly.

'Well, there's no reason to stick to the katana style,' I admitted. Yeah, it was sort of Shiro's thing, but there were other weapons I could use that would work well as Dust weapons. For instance, I could get something longer than the base form of my swords. I had never actually used the extending feature with them, but a weapon that was longer by default could prove useful. Something with some reach would be nice. 'A polearm, maybe? I think there are zanbatou designs that are essentially 'sword on a pole' weapons.'

And with a polearm as a base, I could employ more of those previous life imported martial arts skills—I had some fairly high level training using a bo staff, after all. Not just that, but a polearm would give me more in the way to work with as far as Dust went. With a detachable weapon, I could have a naginata, a bo, a couple of short staves, and a zanbatou all in the same weapon—and each of them could, theoretically, have their own set of Dust chambers. Son's staff/lever action shotgun combo came to mind as an example, except instead of shotguns mine would be straight dustcasters, and instead of chains I'd likely use the same monofillament that was in my line launcher. In fact, with some modification, I could probably use the thing as a line launcher or grapple type weapon. Though, on further thought, I realized I shouldn't disregard adding a gun of some kind to it instead of going with only dustcasters—guns were useful for more than ranged weapons, namely for the kind of crazy shit Ruby, Yang, and others pulled off without batting an eye, like throwing themselves around using recoil. 'There's a lot of possibilities there. And Shiro could stop being a one trick pony, with Iaido and speed. Look into it later. For now, girls.'

---

"How much?" I asked, making sure not to break eye contact with the woman behind the counter—red contacts boring into her bronze eyes. She looked to be in her mid-30s, taller than me, and muscular—and a faunus of some sort, though I was having a hard time picking out what. She had a reddish skin tone and straight, black hair. She was moderately attractive, but I'd never really had a thing for overly muscular or masculine women. Not my type. My Semblance identified her name as Terra Ferrum, level 20.

"How fast you need it?" she countered, crossing her arms under a fairly unimpressive bust—though, I suppose that could have just been the unflattering coveralls and thick, leather smock. She worked as a weaponsmith after all, and those didn't exactly dress like Huntresses.

"How fast can you have it done?" I inquired, mirroring her pose.

That turned out to be a mistake, as she immediately asked, "How much you got to spend?"

Chuckling, I shook my head and conceded the game. "We're arguing in circles. If I asked for it by Monday, is that doable and what sort of price am I looking at?"

"It's doable, pricey though," Terra allowed. "Half a mil up front, the other half upon delivery." I winced, letting out a low whistle.

'God damn,' I silently cursed. That was going to take a bite out of my funds.

Before I could get a word in edgewise, she explained. "Cost of materials. Cost of labor. Priority rush fee. This ain't a simple gun-blade just anyone can pick up and use. You're asking for a multi-dustcaster on top of a dual shotgun and a sword—and for all of them to integrate. I'm the best in Vale, and I guarantee you'll be getting what you pay for. You could do it yourself, but with something like this, workmanship counts for a lot. You've done good with the designs—I can tell that at a glance. It's not often I'm forced to admit that I can't see many ways to improve on something obvious."

"Yeah, I get it," I agreed. I opened my side pouch and dug inside, willing stacks of bills to appear. Connected as it was to my Semblance and Inventory, I could just dig out stacks of whatever I needed—or set a selection of things to be available to grab in case I was in a hurry.

"Space expanded storage, nice," the woman nodded approvingly as I continued stacking wrapped bundles of bills on her counter and she counted them. "You want my suggestion?"

"What's that?" I asked, not looking up from my task.

"For an extra hundred-fifty thousand, I can make you a sheath so you don't have to have the entire assembly strapped to your armor," she gestured at my current setup as Shiro—katana at my left hip and right shoulder, and longslide pistol on my right hip. "You're right handed, and even with space expansion and weight reduction, this thing is going to take up some room. I'd recommend replacing the sword at your left hip. You could still quick-draw this one without any real loss in draw speed or maneuverability."

I frowned, shooting her a glance as I shook my head. "The sword on that doesn't give me a non-lethal option." Like my katanas, the blade was curved—but that's about where the similarities ended. Instead of being smooth, the back of the blade was sharpened from the tip up the first foot for easier stabbing penetration, then serrated the rest of the way down, to do more damage on the way out depending on how I pulled the blade. It was not made for non-lethal combat—it was a weapon designed to maim and kill. Grimm, preferably, but I knew that wouldn't always be the case. Especially not if I was using it as Shiro.

While the outer edges of the blade were steel, the core would be composed of Dust—specifically, grade 9 Colorless Dust. Clear as glass, uncut Colorless Dust—otherwise known as Neutral Dust—held the unique property of taking on the properties of whatever color Dust it came into contact with, but only so long as the other Dust remained in contact, and limited to the average grade of the two. By itself, Colorless Dust would do nothing and was entirely non-reactive—it did not possess any special affinities, nor did it even combust properly when processed into ground Dust. What it did, however, made up for that deficiency. Namely, it allowed those using Dust in things like bounded fields or enchanting for clothing to use it as a substitute for whatever color Dust was needed in larger quantities.

For instance, using it with Purity White would allow me to cover a much larger area for far less money. On the other hand, in a weapon, it could be made to turn a regular blade into a Dust-infused blade. Dust crystals didn't combust like ground Dust upon use, so I couldn't use it as a ranged dustcaster. On the other hand, I wouldn't need to, seeing as with the right element I could do things like set the blade on fire, or coat it in electricity, or frost, and so forth. In other words, I'd found a way to cover for my own Semblance's ability to manipulate elements. And with an actual dustcaster built into the hilt, it wouldn't matter if I couldn't cast with the blade anyway.

"Well," the weaponsmith murmured, drawing me from my thoughts, "that's the problem with trying to juggle multiple blades. Personally, I'd ditch the two katanas and the pistol and focus on this thing. But if you're really worried about it, I think I have an idea." She began tapping away at one of the computers behind the counter before a large telescreen mounted on the wall to my right came to life, displaying output from her computer. On it, my design for the weapon was displayed in wireframe. A moment later, a cylindrical object appeared alongside the weapon. The program was smart enough by itself to make suggestions, such as basic hilt designs, but she appeared to be ignoring those for something of her own.

"Okay. So, you want a lethal and a non-lethal blade. Instead of carrying two swords, carry two blades," Terra said. On the screen, the tube shifted to a cross-section view. "The sword itself sits in the middle, here," she moved her cursor about on the screen, indicating there the sword would be sheathed. "Slide it in and the hilt locks into place. Add an internal chamber for blade storage," the display changed again, adding a storage area. "You want the selector switch on the hilt or the sheath?"

"Sheath," I answered immediately. "Don't want to damage it or trigger it in combat."

She nodded. "So, hit the selector switch and the hilt unlocks from the blade, the current blade retracts into the tube, and the next blade cycles in. Shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds. The constituent parts of the pole are stored in the tube around the blade storage and rotate into place as you eject them. This way, you'd have a weapon that could be switched from less-lethal to full-lethal, in addition to having your secondary weapon available to draw from the same hand, or simply drawing the hilt itself to use just the dustcaster."

I recognized the design—it was similar to the weapon Yang's mom used, with the same general length and width as the tube-style sheath if I recalled correctly. "How many alternate blades could this store?"

Looking at the design, Terra shrugged. "Not many without space expansion. Four or five. You could keep spares, or go with five different designs—that's up to you."

Humming, I removed the sword off my left hip, sheath and all. "Think you can use this blade? It's an extending blade and I'd hate to waste it."

Carefully unsheathing the weapon, Terra inspected the blade and hummed. "Not bad workmanship, and I can see you've treated her well. You do know these things have one serious flaw, right?" she asked, and I shook my head. "They're great for clearing out weak grimm, don't get me wrong. But if you extend this thing and someone blocks with another blade, or something with any sort of fine edge, this thing is going to snap at the point of impact unless you're reinforcing it with Aura, and even then odds are even on it breaking depending on how long it is at the time. The longer you make it, the weaker it gets. Full extension on these is something like five meters—and I can guarantee that if you've got it out that far and someone blocks right, it's going to snap. Hitting armored grimm with it is a bad idea, for the same reason."

"Well. That's… handy to know," I sighed. I hadn't used the extension feature on the blades yet, but I could see what she said made sense, where physics was concerned. You couldn't add extra mass from nowhere, so in order to lengthen the blade you would have to expand the mass currently there—reducing its tensile strength at the same time.

"Want me to do it anyway? I'm not saying it's useless, just that you should be aware of what it is you're using."

After a moment of consideration, I nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. Will this still be done by Monday?"

"Yeah. Give me your scroll number and I'll call you when it's finished," the large woman nodded.

Fishing out my Shiro scroll, I wrote down the number and left the shop with a wave. It was early morning, but I figured Ruby and Yang should be awake by now. With that in mind, I took off for the airfield. I would be training with Ruby, Yang, and Penny for the first part of the day, then switching over to Neo and the twins while the others took a break—not that Penny needed it though, so she may just wind up doing both sessions with me, in addition to her nightly training with me and Sanguine. Speaking of Penny, I needed to find some time to sit down and design her some new weapons—three identities worth. She also needed outfits for those identities. I already had some ideas in mind, though—I just needed to run them by Penny. And I should probably ask her how her power levels were looking and whether she'd need new Dust any time soon, since I didn't want her running out.

'So, Default!Penny uses her marionette laser swords… Keeping in theme with my identities, Shiro uses swords and now the pole-sword. The Fox uses Dust casting with no real weapon, or at least that's his story if asked. Jaune uses sword, shield, and rifle—or dual swords. At least for Fox!Penny, I could go with dustcasters—or dust blades, or both. She'd need some way to manipulate them without the strings and backpack, though. Atlas has anti-grav tech. How hard would it be to rig up something she could control wirelessly? Hell, that and a couple of those lasers from the Spider-bots would make a hell of a weapon too—maybe some sort of portable shield generator to add to it. Angel can do without lasers on her birds.' I would need to talk it over with Penny, but I wasn't in a huge hurry at the moment.

---

Red eyes locked with mine as Yang descended on me wreathed in flames, looking for all the world like a meteor, with one fist cocked back and clearly intending to flatten me and everything around me when she hit. At the last instant, a hexagonal barrier sprang up separating my face and her fist, white and putting off a faint aura of steam in the warm air. The A.T. field rang like a gong as Yang threw everything she had into the punch, fire billowing out from the point of impact followed an instant later by a red dust round from Ember Celica going off. The barrier, despite being an energy construct, shattered like ice and a small hail of frost rained down around me, but it had done its job by canceling out her fire elemental attack with ice and eating the physical force behind the blow. What she had not expected was the second barrier behind it—one of the benefits of leveling shields, I'd found, was that I could now cast each in layers.

Before she could recover, I Leapt, planting a boot between her breasts and kicking her skyward. Drawing my Blazefire Saber, it lit up with a tracery of white-blue as I spun it around into saber mode and struck, drawing a trio of slices across her abdomen before she got her hands up into a crossed guard position. "Rrragh!" Her yell preceded her Aura exploding outwards, once more alight with fire that I countered by hastily shifting my own Aura to ice elemental—I couldn't really blame her for being annoyed, seeing as I'd likely bruised her tits with that kick. The force was enough to push me away and separate us and she used that to her advantage, launching into a barrage of shots from Ember Celica. My shield came up, catching the majority of the Dust rounds, save the few that went wide.

The shots were just a distraction, however, as I felt an intense heat building and looked up to see a fireball coalescing between her hands as she fed her Aura into it. With a heave and a blast from her weapon, the spell came hurling at me at a speed greater than I'd ever managed with my own—but then, Yang was the sort of intuitive fighter that would make the connection between fire spells and fire-type Dust rounds, even if it had been entirely by accident the first time.

I had picked up some tricks of my own in the past few days we'd been practicing, however. Telekinesis spun me around to build momentum and I swung my Saber wide, dumping Aura into the weapon—more specifically, into the Dust crystal powering it—I'd found out what those were good for, aside from adding on a bit of damage and elemental effects to bullets fired from it. A line of white-blue tinted Aura, razor sharp, arced out from the edge of my sword. Near as I could tell, what I'd discovered was an advanced use for Aura Strike—when using a weapon that used Dust for anything beyond ammunition, I could project Aura Strike as a ranged attack in a line along the path my blade followed, with the effect and damage of whatever Dust crystal I'd had equipped. I vaguely recalled Blake doing similarly in canon, without Dust, but also without the elemental effect. The sword skill streaked across the distance separating us faster than Yang's own fireball, catching it dead center. Instead of the explosion I had been expecting, both techniques simply fizzled—opposing elements canceling each other out entirely. 'Switch!'

A small explosion of motes of green light announced Penny's arrival, preceding a hail of laser fire leading a barrage of steel that Yang was forced to dodge away from, dropping into a roll as she landed. I didn't have time to follow that fight as my detection skills pinged. My feet touched the ground and I had an instant to turn and bring my shield up before something heavy slammed into it and the ring of steel-on-steel announced Ruby's arrival. She didn't sit still, however, as Crescent Rose went off above me and the redhead disappeared, reappearing two feet to my left, in the middle of a wind-up for a spinning slash. I Flash Stepped in, shield up and hitting the trigger, firing a low-grade round in her face to make her flinch or dodge. Instead, she disappeared again, reappearing behind me without the tell-tale explosion of roses. The back of her scythe slammed into my back and I rolled forward with the impact to mitigate the damage.

My roll out didn't help as Ruby once more Flash Stepped, this time swinging the massive weapon up into my face. I felt my nose crunch as my course abruptly reversed, sending me flipping ass-over-teakettle. I landed on the ground in a small explosion of dust kicked up around me, even as Gamer's Body un-broke my nose. "Okay," I grunted, rolling over and getting to my feet. "That's enough of that bullshit."

"Can't keep up, Jaune?" Ruby teased, beaming a smile my way before disappearing again.

I dumped mana into Haste and the world slowed to a crawl. Where I hadn't been able to track Ruby's speed a second ago, I could now clearly see her mid-Step, aiming for my left flank. Where Yang had forced me to develop a reliable method of countering elemental techniques on the fly, once I'd made the mistake of teaching Ruby Flash Step, she'd forced me to develop a counter to that as well. It turned out that I'd already had one—it just took leveling Haste up over 30 and unlocking its second tier ability, namely perception at Haste speed. Before, I'd been able to do a sort of bastardized version of it simply by dumping mana into the technique and speeding myself up, now I could directly speed my perception separate from my overall movement speed. I'd found I could alter the time-dilation effect it produced by moderating how much mana I put into the technique, but even if I could see it coming I couldn't quite react fast enough to get distance from her since the skill wasn't quite there yet. The best I could do was anticipate her moves and counter them, then wait for an opening. 'She's going to be a real terror once I teach her Haste,' I mused, a grin slipping onto my face.

Flicking my left wrist, my shield collapsed and I drew my second Saber, spinning it around and parrying Ruby's opening strike in a glowing red blur. The strike I sent in with my other Saber met its own counter as Ruby spun with the momentum of her parried blow, the staff that made up much of Crescent Rose's body catching the blade and shoving it away with raw weight of force. Crescent Rose went off and the saber was torn from my grip, spinning away to clatter to the ground nearby. Needing to make room, I hit the smaller girl with a telekinetic shove, sending her flying while at the same time, grabbing my fallen sword with the same spell and setting it into a rotating orbit around me. Sighting down my hand at her, I incanted, "AP Round."

Ruby was gone by the time the second syllable left my mouth. The technique spun up, spheres of mana streaking out, only to be caught by my active Telekinesis and set to whipping around me into a more active defense. I repeated the technique as Ruby backed off to the far edge of our training field, sending all the rounds down range, where she spared a moment to Step out of the path. Ruby crouched, flipping Crescent Rose around behind her, and I knew what was coming. I called up my A.T. Field again. With two Fields per cast, I could hold up to four of them if I cast my maximum of two simultaneous castings at the moment. Combined with Mana Barrier's own double barrier, I was effectively turtling in anticipation of her next attack.

Ruby didn't disappoint. My eyes caught some sort of visible distortion around her as her Aura flared. Chambering a round, she launched herself in a spray of rose petals. There was another crack of her rifle firing and she dropped into Flash Step, and even my new perception lost track of her. 'This is going to suck,' I had time to think before swinging all four A.T. Fields into the path of her attack. There was an almost musical quality to it as the Fields screamed in protest before shattering one after another, Crescent Rose cutting through the first three like tissue paper, bulling through the next, before slamming into and lodging in my Mana Barrier and sending cracks scattering through both layers of it. She hung there in mid-air for a moment, cutting a pretty impressive figure I had to admit, with her cape, skirt, and scarf swirling around her as our eyes locked. That distraction cost her, as a dark form rose from where it had been crouched in the high grass nearby and slammed into her back, dragging her to the ground. One heavy paw planted itself in the middle of Ruby's back and the girl went stiff as the great cat's growl registered against the back of her neck.

"Situational awareness," I chided, allowing my barriers to drop. Sanguine shifted off the smaller girl and I helped Ruby up, in time for her to see the cat dissipate as I dismissed her. "You get tunnel vision at that speed."

"If you'd teach me Haste, it wouldn't be a problem," Ruby countered, dusting herself off.

I rolled my eyes. "I realize this. Fine, it's next on the list. After buffs."

"But Haste is a buff!" Ruby argued.

'Yeah, and if I teach you Haste now, I won't even be a challenge for you.' I shook my head, knowing I'd have to find a way to up my own speed again soon. In the two days since introducing Ruby and Yang to Neo and the twins, we had been busy. The sisters had picked up some new tricks, but both were still getting used to using them in conjunction to their normal skills. Case in point, Ruby had yet to quite adapt to the enhanced speed, which was another reason I was putting off teaching her Haste. "And if you come to over rely on your speed, something will eventually come along and catch you by surprise. Work on rounding out your skills before focusing on more speed." Ruby pouted, but nodded. "And remember—"

"I can't use them at Beacon, until after we're on teams, unless it's an emergency," the little reaper sighed. "I know, I know. But it's just that we're getting awesome skills and we can't even use them! Why?" She looked to Penny and hummed, before asking, "Is this an 'Atlas bad' thing, because of the thing with Penny? Are you worried they'll figure out you're here if we start using the same stuff you're using?"

"No, but that's a good point, and another good reason to be careful with what I'm teaching you. No, the main reason is," reaching out, I poked her forehead, drawing a cross-eyed glare in response, "what have I told you about trump cards?"

The girl nodded. It was becoming a familiar argument, but I knew she would listen. The sound of gun and laser fire had stopped by now, and I looked over to see Yang and Penny heading our way. "And you," I pointed at Yang, "Try something other than fire every once in a while."

"But fire is fun," Yang countered, and I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, yes, I get it you pyromaniac. But if you keep it up, you're going to wind up as a one-trick pony." Yang made to counter, likely with either innuendo and/or a pun, and I cut her off. "None of that. You wanted something cool, I taught you something cool, but you're wasting it as is."

The blonde huffed out a sigh and nodded. "Fine, fine. Any suggestions?"

"Wind, gravity, or electricity," I named off the top of my head. "The first two you can't really see when they're in use, the last one is a nasty surprise for anyone who gets into CQB with you. Wind will make you faster though, and gravity will let you do all sorts of neat stuff as far as maneuverability goes."

"Well, can't go wrong with more speed," Yang hummed, shooting a look at her sister, who grinned. "I'll give it a try. Flash Step next?"

"After you get buffs down and can show me at least one more element," I countered, and the blonde winced, then nodded.

'An entire team of speedsters. What was I thinking?' I wondered, before sighing. I knew damn well what I was thinking at the time—the same thing a certain someone had been thinking when he handed a little girl an anti-material rifle/scythe combo and told her to go have fun. 'It'll be awesome. I was thinking it would be awesome.'

Yang closed her eyes and I watched her Aura flare up around her, swiftly going from her normal golden glow to fire-elemental. The blonde frowned, powering down and trying it again. I set Ruby to trying to generate Reflex as a spell/skill and sat down to watch the blonde. 'She shouldn't be having this much trouble,' I decided, after several minutes. "What element are you trying?"

"Wind," Yang nearly growled, and when her eyes opened I saw they were red with anger. She blinked, her eyes shifting back to lilac and focusing on the middle distance—a sure sign she was reading something generated by my Semblance, or at least the minor version of it those in my party ran. "What does 'insufficient elemental affinity' mean?"

I blinked, then groaned quietly. "Okay. Try focusing on ice, just for shits and giggles." Yang shrugged, closing her eyes. "Eyes open."

"Ah, right," she chuckled. A look of concentration fixed itself on her face and her Aura exploded outward again, before slowly shifting once more to fire. This time, she immediately stopped. "Now it says 'incompatible Aura alignment.'"

"Motherfucker," I growled, resisting the sudden urge to destroy something. Taking a deep breath, I forcibly calmed myself before Gamer's Mind could kick in. "Okay. Okay. We can work with this. This isn't a complete train wreck." Turning towards the redhead seated several yards away, I called, "Ruby!"

"Yes, Jaune?" she asked, silver eyes shifting to meet mine.

"Call up your Aura and focus on an element. Let's say fire," I instructed. The girl nodded and, a moment later, her Aura sprang to life around her in red. A few seconds later, her eyes unfocused. "'Insufficient elemental affinity,'" she answered my unspoken question. "Want me to try something else?"

"Wind," I nodded.

It took several minutes, with Yang and I watching her Aura fluctuate up and down as the younger girl tried, but eventually I felt the change in the air around us. "It worked!"

"I don't get it," Yang muttered, crossing her arms under her bust as Ruby proceeded to play with her new technique.

"I think I do," I sighed, shifting my gaze to her for a moment before turning back to watch Ruby. "It's probably like stat points. I bet money I'll get an update tonight and a few new menus for it, in fact. So, think of it this way. A character that starts out at level one and gains levels gains points per level. Suppose that person also gains a number of points to put towards an elemental affinity. Put points in element, get the ability to use it."

"With you so far," Yang nodded. "But I didn't start at level zero."

"No, you didn't. Neither did Ruby, or the others. My best guess is that your level is just my Semblance giving an assessment of your overall potential power based on what it can detect—which doesn't necessarily include an assessment of your skill, because skill levels independently of character level. Since you never had the ability to have points for it before now, anything you have now is just an assessment of your natural ability. Meaning that naturally, you lean towards fire as an element. Ruby took way longer to get wind than you took to get fire, so odds are good she's neutrally aligned or leans towards some esoteric bullshit element I haven't run across or bothered to try to use yet, that shouldn't even qualify as a true element. Like 'speed.' Or 'swords.'" A look of annoyance crossed my face before I shook my head.

"The thing is though that if you're naturally inclined towards one element, you tend not to be able to use its opposite at all, and other unrelated elements tend to be harder—and that's all depending on source material, so your mileage may vary. In a classic RPG, it shouldn't fucking matter—which is what has me so pissed about this. By classic RPG rules, you should be able to learn whatever you try so long as you have the INT for it. Maybe it's a Remnant thing, or maybe it's a Semblance thing—I don't know. The only thing we can do is branch out your training and see what you can learn, and determine your limits from there. If all else fails, once you start leveling we can see if you get any sort of 'elemental points' or something and go from there. If not, well…" I shrugged.

"Work with what I've got," Yang grinned, and I nodded. We turned to watch Ruby, who had by now begun attempting to combine her new Aura element with her other techniques, and had managed to face-plant twice. I was going to have to teach her Haste soon, after all—because otherwise, she had more speed than she had perception to keep up with.

"One more thing," I caught Yang's attention, shooting her an annoyed look. "Stop telegraphing. Seriously. Stop. And you're particularly bad about leading with that right hand."

The blond rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. So, who's ready to kill some grimm?" Yang grinned, bashing her fists together.

"That would be most…" Penny trailed off, shifting her gaze to me as my eyes tracked into the middle distance. "Jaune?"

A quest has been created! From Shadows: Forever Fall from Grace.

Blake Belladonna has abandoned the White Fang in disgust at what they have become. Alone, cut off from all her former ties, and sitting on a train full of Dust passing through Forever Fall, she seeks to start a new life, separate from the old one full of misery and bloodshed. Find her and show her there is a future for her in Vale.

Success: Blake stays in Vale and enrolls in Beacon, quest unlock, quest continuation, 25,000 EXP.

Failure: Blake leaves Vale and will not enroll in Beacon, team RWBY will never come to be, quests exclusive to Blake will become unavailable, death*, destruction*, mayhem*. *Depending on severity of failure.

Time limit: 24 hours.

I read the details and a smirk stretched across my lips. Holding out a hand, I summoned up the unarmed Bullhead. "Penny, would you get Ruby and Yang home for me? Something just came up."

The gynoid nodded, even as the sisters shot me confused looks. "What's going on?" Yang asked, and I shook my head.

"I got a quest. I'll explain later, if it pans out. I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?" I asked, and the sisters nodded. Moving away, I summoned the armed Bullhead. Setting a waypoint, I hopped in and took off.

---

Sitting in the Bullhead's cockpit, I watched the station in the valley below as a train swiftly came to a stop while I ate lunch. While the SDC trains used the same primary tracks as every other train, there were several little rail spurs like this one that branched off from the main track, used much as they were in my old world to place train cars temporarily, or allow a train to move out of the way of another, or in this instance to provide a facility for an SDC train carrying Dust to offload its cargo for temporary secure storage. My glasses zoomed in and I took a quick count. 'Thirteen cars, though the last one looks blasted to hell. Wonder what happened there. Eh, it doesn't matter much. Twelve box cars full of Dust is more than zero. I wonder if those Atlas droids will be there. If so, I'm definitely taking those things and reprogramming them. Hell, Penny may be able to puppet them herself for all I know. Either way, my PMC just got a huge boost in equipment. Though, it'll look suspicious if we just start using those and Atlas has no record of selling a batch to us, so I'll have to see if we can put in an order to buy a few units, then use them to take up space on mission deployments. So long as we don't deploy them all at the same time and keep them in storage for when we need them, they probably won't realize just how many we have.'

I'd flown in low to stay out of sight of the station and parked the Bullhead in a clearing a few miles up the track, outside of what I believed to be the range of their droids and any other detection equipment they had. The clearing itself was situated on a rise, overlooking the valley the facility was located in, giving me an excellent view of the area below. My map had told me all the cameras in the station were pointed inward and the Bullhead hadn't alerted me to being painted by radar, so for the moment I assumed they probably weren't aware of my presence.

What I found most off about the whole thing was that there were no people at the station itself—as though no one was aware of the attempted hijacking. I supposed that if the train was automated and if the White Fang had disabled their means of communication with the CCT network, there was the possibility that the SDC really wasn't yet aware of the attempt. It could simply be the logic that having armed guards on-site would announce to anyone looking that this was where a shipment would be coming in. Or it could be that the entire facility was automated, so that trains could dump their cargo and then trucks or other vehicles could pull in and collect.

As the train pulled in and came fully to a halt, machinery began to move along the track and scan the train itself. When it passed the last car and found nothing, a light lit up on my Bullhead's dash. Frowning, I tapped the interface and watched as it displayed an alert message. It seemed that even if the facility was automated, it was smart enough to figure out if a train came in with fewer cars than was on the manifest. And, upon detecting such a discrepancy, the station immediately sent out an alert on the local Atlas Military and SDC priority CCT channel, sending up the alarm to everyone in range with the clearance or gear to pick it up. 'Well. Fuck. That just made things harder.' I had been intending to deal with Blake, then come back and dupe the Dust and droids later in the day—and now, the base would be on alert and potentially swarming with guards by the time I got back. 'Going to have to come in under stealth as Shiro and Sleep the guards. Destroy or disable the surveillance first, along with their transmitter so they can't call home with another of those emergency band messages.'

Movement drew my attention to my link with Sanguine, the spirit's gaze focused on a dark-clad form slipping through the trees and circling the Bullhead. I knew damn well that unless the White Fang had arranged for pickup—and considering I had yet to see anyone else, I was going to say no—then me sitting here with the side doors open looked very much like a trap. However, I had two things going for me there. Firstly, even if she ran, she had been in range of my map for miles and I could track her into and through Vale. My Semblance wasn't all-knowing, but it did have a rough guesstimate of certain events based on my foreknowledge and a maximum detection range. Blake crossing into that range was what had triggered the quest in the first place. Secondly, I was banking on her natural curiosity to get the better of her. Curiosity had that odd habit of occasionally overriding common sense, and if what I'd seen of her from my world was in any way accurate—something I was coming to doubt by the day, about a multitude of subjects and people—then some aspects of her personality simply couldn't be ignored. I was again reminded of the old saw about curiosity and cats. If she ignored it and kept going, good for her—it meant she wasn't a barely fleshed out cat pun. If she failed her Will Save against curiosity… well, given how similar-but-different both Ruby and Yang were to what I'd been expecting, I may be in for a surprise or two.

I watched through Sanguine's eyes as Blake slipped up along the side of the Bullhead opposite me, crossed around the back, and found the left sliding door opened. She disappeared inside and I dismissed the summon as I heard soft-bottom shoes pad up behind me softly before stopping. The scent of gun oil reached my nose a moment before I heard the sound of a weapon being leveled at the back of my head. What I did not hear, however, was the click of a safety being flipped to the 'off' position. It was fifty-fifty odds that the safety was on and she was bluffing. "Stand up slowly, hands up," a calm female voice ordered.

My lips twitched into a smile as I slowly set my lunch on the console, raising my hands and standing. As my hands came up, I grabbed the bottom of my neck gaiter and pulled it up. I was actually doing this meeting as the Fox, as opposed to Shiro, for a couple of reasons. On the top of that list though was the fact that if anyone happened to see us together, or if I screwed up terribly, no one could point the finger at Shiro for betraying Cinder. To that end, I had taken the time to flesh out my Fox costume by conjuring up a mask in the proper colors—a mask which was currently sitting on the seat off to my side, though unlike the original illusory mask this one was in white, with red highlights, simply because I'd decided I hadn't liked the inverted color look using black and blue. Also unlike the original, this one was far more detailed, having actual contours and textures to it that I hadn't been able to pull off with the original illusion. Not wearing the mask was a calculated risk on my part—subconsciously giving the impression that she'd caught me with my pants down, so to speak, and then later if I didn't put it on again implying some level of trust or desire to be trusted. Which was true—I wanted to trust her, and I wanted her to trust me… I just had no compunctions against using a little psychological warfare to make it happen.

There was a rustle of cloth and, in the reflection of the cockpit window, I caught Blake raising her gun hand for a butt stroke—that is, a strike with the butt of the weapon. Even with the safety on and her going for a non-lethal strike, I couldn't take the risk that she'd actually manage to knock me out. I fell back on old training, instead: disarm, disable, subdue. Turning swiftly, I caught her arm and pulled her hard against me, locking her hands to her sides. She attempted to knee me in the groin and I trapped her knee with my legs. "Let go!" she growled, pulling back and trying to head butt me.

"Damnit, that shit hurts," I hissed in pain as I caught the blow on the nose, my eyes watering momentarily before Gamer's Body kicked in and un-broke my nose.

"Good!" she growled, throwing her weight around before trying again—unsuccessfully this time. In spite of real life martial arts training, or perhaps because of it, I hadn't been expecting the first one—no one with sense uses a head butt. The move has as much of a chance of damaging the user as the target, if they get unlucky and hit teeth or something. Then again, desperation causes people to do dumb things at times. Dumb things sometimes work.

The struggling was not entirely to my favor, as we both fell in a heap to the floor of the Bullhead and rolled, Blake working her hands free enough to strike my chest and stomach—both of which were armored, so her strikes did no good, but she hadn't gone for more damaging areas either, like my ears, eyes, or throat. Using superior mass and weight, I rolled her onto her back, straddled her waist, and grabbed her hands by the wrists, yanking them up above her head and going still. Despite how short the struggle had been, we were both panting for breath at the exertion. Golden eyes glared into my green contacts, and for a moment I was reminded of another woman with similar features. Of course, around this time, Cinder would have been spreading her legs and encouraging me to continue whereas Blake looked like she couldn't decide if it was worth it to try and bite me. After a moment to regain my breath, I said, "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Let go," she demanded, and I shook my head.

"Not until you hear me out," I denied. In response, she flexed beneath me and attempted to grab my neck with her legs.

At the unexpected shift to potential lethality, my eyes went wide and I reflexively dumped mana into Haste, the world slowing down around me momentarily. I shifted from straddling her to laying on top of her, pinning her legs with my own and applying a bit of Gravity Manipulation to cheat before dropping Haste. "Listen, damnit!" I snapped, my voice rising to a yell as I pulled up Charisma and Intent. She had actually managed to piss me off, and I took a moment to calm down while the woman below me froze, pupils dilating as she flushed and her breath caught in her throat, the small black ears I could see atop her head flattening against her hair. Apparently, she wasn't wearing her iconic bow—and likely wouldn't until she decided to try to blend in at Beacon. 'Well, she did just leave what amounts to a 'mutant and proud' terrorist cell. Then again, it could very well have gotten lost in the fight on the train, or dirty before that. Doesn't really matter either way.'

God damn but I suddenly wished I was a Marvel fanboy—the entire 'faunus' situation smacked of the Marvel Universe's mutant thing and I could have used the inspiration for dealing with this shit. Instead, I'd just have to wing it and hope I could convince her I really was on her side. It wasn't going to be easy though, I knew that—not the least of which was because I held my own opinions on the subject. "Your name is Blake," I told her, and her golden eyes went momentarily wide as she started to struggle again, until I hit her with another slap from Intent and instinct kicked in again, causing her to once more freeze in place with the same sudden sharp intake of breath and pupillary response. "Blake Belladonna. White Fang."

"Not any more," she quietly denied.

I nodded. "I know. Tell me about Cinder Fall." The woman below me sent me a confused look and I clarified. "Black hair, gold eyes, scary as hell, and traveling with a boy and a girl." It was an assumption on my part, that Cinder had already made one approach on the Fang, and Blake confirmed it for me.

"Her," Blake grunted, and I nodded. "She came into our—into the White Fang's camp last night. She tried to recruit the leader for something."

"Adam Taurus," I named him, and her eyes narrowed in a glare before she nodded.

"How do you know that? He's only officially been the leader for a few weeks—even most of the White Fang doesn't know," she asked, and I grinned under my mask.

"The same way I knew you'd be here. So, what did she say she wanted them for?"

"Revolution," Blake whispered.

"Which the White Fang was already plotting," I deadpanned. "Be more specific."

Eying me suspiciously, she added, "She offered Adam the train, in exchange for his services." Chuckling quietly, a smirk crept up the faunus girl's lips as she added, "Adam already knew about the shipment, so it didn't go as she'd expected. Then again," she looked just slightly smug, "It didn't go as he expected, either."

Frowning, I asked, "How did he know about the shipment? He shouldn't have known."

Golden eyes shifted away, and a look of shame crossed her features. "I shouldn't—"

I shifted my grip on her wrists, transferring both of them to my left hand before reaching down with my right and taking hold of her chin, tilting her head back to meet my gaze. "Tell me."

Blake glared for a moment before wilting under my stare. "There was a job, a day ago, to the north of Forever Fall. He wouldn't say where he got it from, but when she showed up this Cinder woman made it pretty clear it came from her. It was supposed to be a simple in and out thing—break in, steal the weapons, get out. They were SDC, so Adam didn't hold back—he slaughtered those people and the others helped. Some of them were taken prisoner and the White Fang interrogated them. That's how Adam knew about the train—the facility we were stealing from was set to load a shipment of Atlas robots onto the train with the Dust, for transport to Vale and distribution. When he was done, he forced the SDC employees to send whatever confirmation was needed to convince them to continue the shipment on schedule. Then we made camp last night and Cinder walked into our camp and offered Adam the train job."

I closed my eyes, thinking back to what I knew. So, Cinder had made her offer and failed, and that was after she had already extended him a freebie job as a show of trust—was that because I had taken too long getting her the information? Or was it her own fault, for giving him a source of information leading to taking the train out of the equation as a bargaining chip? I knew I'd been well within her time limit, but then she had given me that limit, not the quest system—so if anyone was mistaken there, it was her. Did this change anything? Would she be without the White Fang now, or did she still have another move left to play there—some other way to leverage Adam onto her side?

I knew enough of Cinder's mind and personality to assume that yes, she likely would try again with some contingency plan. She had tried the carrot—she would move on to the stick, next. Which likely meant using those ridiculously powerful fire attacks I had seen neither hide nor hair of yet. 'Wait. Was that part of her Semblance, or granted by the Dust in her clothes? Or did her clothes amplify her Semblance's ability to do them? Actually, yeah, it's probably that second one.'

If Adam were lucky, there would be a carrot tied to the stick when she beat him over the head with it—money, Dust, or something else of value to him. If he refused her a second time, well, odds were good she'd kill him and move on to the next person down in his chain of command, until she found someone more cooperative. And on the other side of the coin, was the freebie job only made possible because I gave Cinder the data? Was I indirectly responsible for those deaths? 'Magic 8-ball says 'all signs point to yes,'' I mused. 'I suspected something like this when I gave it to her.'

"Who are you?" Blake asked below me, drawing me from my thoughts. "A Hunter? No. In order to know about the meeting, about the train, you would have to be close to one side or the other. You're not White Fang and you asked about Cinder, so you're after her."

"That is some fine deductive reasoning," I complimented, grinning as I blatantly ignored her question in favor of asking, "But what if I'm with a third side? I could be with the government, for all you know."

Blake snorted, softly. "Not likely. They can't find their ass with both hands and a map when it comes to faunus—any of them."

I shrugged. "Tell me, Blake. Why did you leave the White Fang?"

Her answer was a moment in coming, her gaze sliding away from mine when she finally did. "I didn't like what they were becoming. People speak of 'revolution' while ignoring every history book ever written on the subject. There is no such thing as a bloodless revolution. People will die, on both sides… And I don't want to be part of it." There was something unspoken in her tone there, an almost audible 'not anymore' hanging in the air.

"So you're just going to what, quit?" I asked, and the girl under me fixed me with a glare. "Or, as an alternative plan, you could join a school for Hunters, like Beacon. Become a Huntress, rise through the ranks, gain renown as a faunus Huntress and set an example for your people to look up to as an alternative to the Fang, and maybe even one day become Headmistress. In a world where personal strength matters as much as political, showing you can stand as equals with humans on the battlefield would go a long way towards convincing other faunus that there are options."

"It's not that easy," she denied, and I shot her an unamused look.

"How do you know it's not, if you haven't even tried yet?" She broke eye contact again and I knew I'd made my point. She would at least be seriously considering Beacon now, if she hadn't been before. "You want peace?" I asked, and she nodded. "You want to save the most lives possible, right?"

"Yes."

I nodded, meeting her eyes again. "Cinder would see Vale burn to the ground with a smile on her face with all of us in it—human, faunus, doesn't matter—and her little pets will go right along with. The White Fang are just a means to an end, to her. Whatever she's got planned, it obviously isn't good." I did not share my suspicions that she wasn't the one pulling the strings. I had met Cinder—she didn't strike me as a 'watch the world burn' sort of person. Maybe it was one of the other kingdoms, trying to attack Atlas through Vale—it's the best guess I had, given the tech I'd seen and the buildup of troops and materials. Cinder potentially being an agent of Mistral or Vacuo was the most logical conclusion available with the information I had. Either way, cut off from her backer, Cinder would be… well, she'd still be immensely dangerous and personally powerful, ruthless, cunning, intelligent, and drop dead sexy but at least I wouldn't have to worry about someone else directing her.

Pulling myself out of that thought, I admitted, "The problem is, I can't do this alone and I can't turn to Ozpin and his network for help."

The woman below me blinked, slowly, before one dark eyebrow went towards her hairline and her upper set of ears flicked. "You're asking for my help?" She turned her head to look up to where I held her arms pinned, then shifted her gaze down along our bodies. "You have an interesting way of doing it."

"You attacked me first," I pointed out, and she frowned before nodding assent to the point. Releasing her hands, I stood and offered her a hand up.

Blake took a moment to rub her wrists before accepting the hand and allowing herself to be hauled to her feet. "Why should I work with you?"

I gestured towards the co-pilot's seat of the Bullhead and she eyed me warily before taking up my mask and dropping into the seat, while I dropped into the pilot's seat. A growl from beside me drew my attention to where the girl had spotted my lunch, her eyes locked on the box as she sniffed the air—her stomach having betrayed her. Realizing what she'd done, she blushed and turned her head away to look out the window, offering me the mask. Smirking, I took up the small box and offered it to her. Her eyes cut sideways, meeting mine momentarily before she accepted the box, trading me for the mask, and took up the chopsticks sitting on top of it. She ignored the rice and instead went straight for the sushi, popping a bit into her mouth and chewing slowly. If she was bothered at all that I'd been eating from it before she got there, it didn't show. A sigh escaped her lips and her eyes rolled back ever so slightly and I swear she shuddered from head to toe. "Good?" I asked, and she nodded, an affirmative noise escaping her lips.

I started the Bullhead and got us airborne. "You should work with me for three reasons. Firstly, we can help each other. Secondly, because our goals are aligned. Thirdly, because I can pay."

"Hmph," the girl huffed quietly, swallowing another morsel before countering with, "You'll have to do better than that."

"You left the White Fang because you didn't want to be a killer any more," I pointed out, and her chopsticks froze in place an inch from her mouth.

"H-how—" she began, eying me in something akin to panic.

I rolled my eyes and pointed at her chopsticks. "You're going to lose your sushi." The girl's eyes narrowed and she calmed somewhat, popping the fish into her mouth and waiting. "I'll tell you how if you agree. Suffice it to say, I know more than I should—about you, your past, you get the idea. Same way I knew to be here, same way I knew about Adam."

"This is not how one typically goes about asking for a favor," Blake deadpanned, and I shrugged. "You'll tell me and I'll withhold judgment on whether to help you until after I've heard."

"I'm not asking for a favor. I'm asking for," I sought out the right word for a moment, then smiled. "An alliance."

"You have a funny way of showing it."

I frowned, then shook my head. "Table that for now. We both want something approaching the same thing."

"So, you want equality between humans and faunus as well?" she asked, shooting me an amused look.

I shrugged. "That is an entirely different kettle of fish unrelated to the current mess, and won't be solved in a few months or even years, and certainly not by the likes of you and I."

Her eyes narrowing, she jabbed the chopsticks at me. "That did not answer the question."

"No," I agreed. "It did not."

She nodded. "Then I'll be more direct. What are your thoughts on faunus?"

I met her eyes for a long moment, before the Bullhead bumped as it hit a rough patch of air and I turned my attention back to flying. "I've only met three. One of them is decent enough. One of them is dead. The last of them is currently being obstinate."

There was a soft noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh. "Is that so?"

"Very obstinate," I confirmed, and her lips twitched up into something that could have been a smile.

"I won't work with you until you answer," she finally decided, and I sighed.

"Fine. You want this argument now? Okay, then," I agreed, some of my annoyance at her forcing the issue slipping into my tone. "I did some digging. Census data, crime stats, and so forth. People lie, numbers don't. Taken as a subset of the general population, when lumped in with caucasians, asians, and other races faunus are responsible for a larger percentage of crime than the others individually, despite their being a lower percentage of the population than any other group—"

"That's only because we're treated like second class citizens and forced to live in squalor most of the time! Most Faunus need to steal to eat," she interrupted, and I shot her an annoyed look.

"I'll get to that in a minute," I sighed, having heard the same argument before, parroted endlessly in a different world, because it was all some people knew. 'Socioeconomics my ass. Then again, Remnant. At least some of the faunus really may have had to steal to eat. As opposed to stealing to pay for Jordans.' I shook my head—it wasn't pertinent to the current thread of conversation and I hated being interrupted in the middle of a train of thought. "As I was saying, however, faunus aren't a race of humans—you're a sub-species, with its own races mirroring humanity, and present in about the same percentages."

The girl beside me blinked, frowning as she said, "So, you're saying we should be judged separately because we're different?"

"Yes," I nodded. "Unless you're going to tell me that biological differences aren't real and race is," I rolled my eyes, "a 'social construct?'"

One eyebrow went up towards her hairline. "I'm not so delusional as to deny basic biology. Still, we know what we are. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything. On the whole, you're no better or worse than humanity, in terms of propensity for doing evil," I clarified, and she nodded assent. I went silent, wondering if she'd leave it at that.

Unfortunately, no, she did not seem inclined to let it lie. Now that she'd gotten started, it seemed like she didn't want to stop. My Semblance told me she was feeling worried, frustrated, and defensive—but beyond that, it couldn't tell me anything. "You were going somewhere with that, other than, 'because we're different we should be judged by our own standards?'"

'Oh for fuck sake,' I nearly groaned. "It's when you get into biology that we have a problem."

"Oh?" she hummed, putting the empty lunch box away and leaning forward. "How so?"

I shot her an amused look. "Simply put, your species and mine are in competition. You are a threat, biologically speaking."

"We're not," she denied. "We just want to be allowed to live in peace—to work and live our lives as something other than second class citizens."

Shaking my head, I said, "Take people out of it and look at it from a purely animal standpoint. You have a native animal population. Someone introduces a new, foreign species—or in this case, modifies part of the original species into its own, distinct sub-species. For the sake of keeping with the animal comparison, we'll say it's selective breeding. The invasive species competes for resources with the native species and one of three outcomes occurs: A.) they both die off because they use all the resources because there was no population control, or from disease or other natural selection pressure, B.) if capable of interbreeding a cross-breed species comes about and typically ousts one or both or we go back to option A, or C.) if not capable of interbreeding, one species kills or drives out the other. There is no magical fourth option where both of these species live in peace, together—and that's just cold, hard fact of nature. There is no such thing as 'equality' in nature—it's a man-made concept."

She frowned. "You're saying there is only survival of the fittest."

"You're putting words in my mouth," I denied. "But I won't deny the thought hasn't crossed my mind."

By now, the city of Vale stretched out below us as I put us on a course for the airfield as a matter of habit. Sighing, Blake nodded. "I see." In a blur of movement, her Semblance engaged and there were two of her, one in the co-pilot's seat and one streaking towards the rear of the Bullhead even as the one she'd left behind dissolved into smoke. Rolling my eyes, I flipped the door control before she got there and the door slid open. There was no point chasing her now and if she felt trapped, she wouldn't listen. So, I let her go, diving out of a moving aircraft, the sound of Gambol Shroud firing echoing up into the Bullhead momentarily.

Pulling up my map, I watched her icon and moved the Bullhead out of sight from her position. I was not entirely surprised by her destination—I knew Tukson was former White Fang or would be soon, so it made sense that she'd get into contact with him. Still, I needed to give her time to cool off before I tried again. Glancing at my HUD's clock, I wondered what I was going to do. I couldn't, and wouldn't lie to her. 'Seems like we could both use some time to think,' I mused, turning the Bullhead back onto a return path for the automated depot. There was a train full of Dust back there, unguarded until Atlas could scramble some troops to respond to that alert, and I wasn't going to let it go to waste.

A little more than two hours had passed by the time I made it back into Vale City, finding Blake's icon on my map where I'd last seen it. I came to a stop on the ground outside Tukson's Book Trade, looking around to make sure I wasn't being observed before dropping Invisibility and slipping inside. "Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under… the sun. That is an interesting mask. How may I help you?" the man himself greeted from behind the counter. Nearby, Blake's gold eyes locked onto mine under the fox mask and her posture abruptly went stiff as her eyes narrowed. Sensing the latent hostility there, the large man asked, "Is there a problem?"

Before Blake could speak, I shook my head. "Nope. Why don't you take a nap?" I asked, subvocalizing a Sleep/Forget combo and catching him with Telekinesis as he fell, dropping him into a comfortable-looking chair situated behind the counter, beside a small table with a small mountain of books, a single glass, and a bottle of something a dark amber color.

"What did you do?!" Blake asked, eyes going wide as she drew Gambol Shroud.

"Tukson is sleeping. When he wakes up, he won't remember I was here and as far as he's concerned, everything will be right as rain. What I did not do is kill him or otherwise harm him," I answered, taking off my fox mask again so she could see at least part of my face. "You didn't let me finish, earlier."

"What, sit and listen to the same rhetoric that convinced me to leave the Fang, just from the other side? No, thank you," she hissed.

Nodding, I slowly stepped out from between her and the door, giving her clear line of sight on the easiest line of escape. "I was going to say, before you left, that survival of the fittest works for animals—but you and I, we're thinking, reasoning, sentient beings. We are still animals, no doubt about that, and the same rules still apply—biology is what it is. But we can think for ourselves—that's what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom: that we can, if we so choose, rise above our baser natures. However, equality, rights—these aren't things others give to you. You have to take them and, once you have them, defend them—with force, if need be. Adam's revolution is inevitable, if left unchecked. If not today, with him and Cinder, then tomorrow with someone else. At least if we shut down Cinder and Adam, odds are good that the next revolution won't end in one side trying to genocide the other. Yes, either way, there will be casualties on both sides until the situation is resolved permanently, one way or another—but that's almost unavoidable, so at this point the goal is to aim for the least number of deaths. Cinder and Adam together are the greater of two evils there. I'm trying to shut her down before she gets people killed. Before she helps Adam make an honest attempt at wiping out and/or enslaving humanity. But I can't do it alone, and sure as shit I'll have a harder time of it if she ties her cause to the White Fang. You know the Fang, inside and out—and you know Adam. You know how they operate and how he thinks. If you're looking for redemption, this is your chance. You could make a difference."

"Choose a side or die once the fighting breaks out?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"There's nothing wrong with living for something you believe in. Dying for it is stupid. It's smarter to make the other guy die for his cause. That, or keep running. Running is, in a lot of situations, the best thing you could do. I'm not above running from trouble when I can, myself. The problem with running is, eventually you run out of places to run to. Eventually, you have to stop running and stand up for what you believe in—even if it means going against the flow. Question is, when you do decide to stop running and make a stand, will there be anyone left willing to stand with you, or will you have left them all behind?"

Gold eyes met the green of my contacts for a long moment before she asked, "And how do you know those so-called comrades won't leave you, when you make your stand? Or stab you in the back?"

"Trust and mutual self- and group-interest," I shrugged. "So, how would you go about achieving your goal of equality for everyone? What would you accept as a good first step?"

She was silent for a long moment as she thought it over, before answering, "Equal pay for faunus."

"Okay," I nodded. "Thing is, most places already have equal pay laws on the books—Vale being one of them, as you likely already know," I pointed out.

"And yet, the SDC is taking advantage of faunus workers in their quarries in every kingdom, paying them cents on the Lien compared to human workers," Blake countered.

Tired of standing, I gestured and conjured up a pair of chairs and dropped into one. Across from me, Blake shot a look between me and the chair beside her and raised an eyebrow before taking a seat, right on the edge. The barrel of her weapon never tracked away from me as she laid Gambol across her lap, though I did notice the safety was still on. "Okay," I acknowledged, "that's a good starting point. How would you go about fixing that? The Schnee Dust Company is pretty much an entity unto itself, producing an annual profit that looks more like what you'd expect of the GPD of a kingdom unto itself. They set their own wages. I'm not entirely clear on the details, but weren't the current wages for faunus set under arbitration after a series of strikes, a few years back?" I asked, and Blake nodded in answer. "Historically, strikes don't work. The SDC still needs living hands to handle Dust, because their automatons don't quite have the fine motor control required. They're getting there, though—I'd say they're probably five years off of mass production, ten at most." Penny was testament enough to that. "What then? The faunus working for the SDC strike, and instead of being replaced by scabs, their jobs will be automated."

"I don't know," Blake admitted, and I nodded.

"Looking at it another way, I could argue that faunus willing to work for those low wages are stealing jobs from humans who would otherwise work them for a fair wage, if those faunus would refuse to accept working for that set wage. Many of them would lose their jobs, yes, but in the end things would be better off for a few members of both groups. So, which is better—a hundred faunus workers making one Lien an hour, or ten overworked human and faunus workers making ten Lien an hour? You're not going to get an outcome better than that, because that's how most companies do math. Set X value as the total amount of money you want to put into paying for a task, divide it by Y workers, then divide that by the maximum legal amount of hours they can demand an employee work a day, Z."

Shifting in her seat, the woman across from me shook her head. "That's just blaming the victim! Don't you think that if they had other options, that if they could look elsewhere for work, that they would? You said yourself strikes don't work. Most of those people are living hand-to-mouth—if they don't work, they don't eat."

"It's not victim blaming,"I denied. "Did you think convincing people to change would be easy? Change requires sacrifice. If they won't sacrifice for the change they want to see, then at that point they're only victims of their own inability to commit to a cause and unwillingness to stand up for themselves. It's waiting on someone to come and fix their problems instead of doing something to fix them themselves."

"A commitment like joining the White Fang?" Blake deadpanned, and I shrugged.

"I'm not saying I disagree with their initial goals. It's their current shift from the goal of equality to superiority and the subjugation or eradication of humans that I disagree with—the very reason you left," I pointed out, and Blake nodded. "Alright. What about Dust? You buy Dust, you use it—"

"I've heard that argument before," Blake cut me off. "Pay the workers more, the price of Dust goes up. Hunters and the various armed services, being the primary consumers of Dust, are strained that much further in their services protecting us all from grimm. Hunters have to demand more money to cover expenses. Governments tax the people more to cover the cost of Dust for their armed forces and to pay for Hunter contracts. Farmers use a lot of Dust based equipment to farm what little land we've recovered from the grimm, so the price of food goes up. Price of fuel for vehicles goes up—for personal vehicles, transport for food, transport for Dust, and so forth. Even basic services like electricity go up. Wages do not go up to meet the rate of inflation, because people like the SDC are looking out for their bottom line. Those workers that got those raises now can no longer afford food, fuel, and taxes and wind up in worse straits financially than they were before. Everyone suffers. I get economics. I understand that money doesn't just appear in a vacuum. I also understand that communalism—communism, socialism, and so forth—have been tried before and do not work, so I won't suggest just having the government fix all of our problems by throwing money at them. Governments don't fix problems, they tend to make other, larger problems and call them solutions. Things like rounding up all the faunus and dumping them onto an island whose former inhabitants were mostly eradicated by grimm and telling them to fend for themselves, back when all of this first started."

'Money doesn't appear in a vacuum for most people,' I corrected silently, resisting the urge to smirk. Still, it was good that she understood the pitfalls involved—I'd hate to have to explain why free money is a bad idea to someone who desperately wants free money for everyone. An entire generation on Earth was poisoned with that bullshit about how only those who want to work should do so, creating an entire group of overly entitled underachievers who didn't understand basic economics and outright ignored every single historical failure of the economic model they wanted by claiming that 'it had never been tried,' because it didn't fit their world-view. In other words, every failure was a non-attempt, as opposed to a failed attempt. In reality, that phrase should have been: 'it's never been tried and worked,' because it could not work. Not to say that capitalism was the be-all-end-all of economic systems—it just worked better than all the others.

Humming in thought, I asked, "So, seems to me like you need both more knowledge on the SDC's inner workings and, if possible, some sort of contact within the company—right?"

Blake blinked, thinking it over and nodding a moment later. "In the short term, that could be useful. Don't tell me you have a contact within the SDC?"

This time, I did smirk. "Better, even."

Rolling her eyes, she sighed. "How?"

"Same way I knew about you," I grinned, and she shot me a mild glare. "Would that convince you to help me? And that I want to help you?"

Shaking her head, she met my eyes and said, "No. It would help, but I won't work with someone I can't trust. I don't know you."

"Is that just an excuse to run away again?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and earning another glare in answer. "You can't work with someone you don't know, and that's fine. I can't work with someone whose loyalty is constantly in question and who will bolt at the first sign of trouble. Is that who you are, Blake Belladonna? Too afraid to commit, too afraid of being trapped, too afraid of being hurt again to allow anyone close enough to call friend—let alone stand up for what you believe in?"

Her jaws and knuckles flexed as she ground her teeth, fingers popping around her weapon. Despite her anger, her voice was calm as she asked, "And what about you? I don't even know your name. All you've done is point out my flaws and make empty promises."

I closed my eyes, biting back my first response and nodded. She was right, words were meaningless in some instances. Space warped in a three meter sphere centered around us as I created an ID, an extra layer of security to keep us from being overheard. Across from me, Blake's eyes immediately tracked to where Tukson had seemingly disappeared. "What just happened?" she asked, standing and looking outside the front window. "Where did the pedestrians go?"

"They didn't go anywhere, we did. I created an Illusion Barrier. Think of it as a bubble in space. We're in here, they can't see or hear us, we can't see or hear them." I pulled down my neck gaiter. "My name is Jaune Arc. Though, I go by 'the White Fox' when I'm dressed for work like I am now. Or just 'Fox,' for short."

"How do you know the things you do, Jaune Arc?" she asked, testing my name on her lips.

"My Semblance," and I wasn't even lying, at least by technicality, if one included myself and my knowledge as part of my Semblance.

The woman across from me raised an eyebrow, before turning her gaze pointedly towards where Tukson would be sleeping away behind his counter on the other side of my ID and back. "Uh huh."

Rolling my eyes, I grumbled, "Party, just click yes."

The faunus girl's eyes went wide, tracking into the middle distance. "That… huh," she hummed, losing the wide-eyed look and clicking yes. She went silent and I watched as she began digging through menus. "I rarely ever had a chance to play games as a child, but this sort of reminds me of parts of the older-style RPGs, when you get down to its core elements."

"Pretty much," I admitted. "There's a mixed bag of elements pulled from more sources than I'm bothering to count at the moment, but yeah, at its core it's an RPG."

Looking up, she met my eyes and asked, "Do you get quests?" On my nod of confirmation, she shifted her gaze back to her menus. "That's how you knew where to find me, isn't it?"

There was no point in lying about it, now. "Yes. I was actually nearby and the quest to meet you popped when you got into range."

Humming in thought, she didn't look up as she asked, "Is that all this is to you? A game?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "What do you think?"

"I don't know what to think," Blake admitted. "On the one hand, you sound sincere. On the other hand, you're an opinionated ass."

"I've heard that before. You get used to it," I deadpanned, and this time I did roll my eyes. "I did try to warn you that I didn't want to have that argument. You solicited this ass's opinion. If you don't like hearing it, that sounds like a personal problem. Not every opposing opinion or viewpoint is a personal attack. Aside from that, I'd rather be labeled an asshole than have to change my opinion to suit what others think it should be." Despite not having any particular fondness for him, Churchill said it best: 'You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.' "And, most importantly, talking about this stuff doesn't bother me—I don't get butthurt about it, as you can see. I enjoy a good debate, or a good argument."

She humphed, closing the menu and meeting my eyes with an unamused look. "I realize that," she allowed, before adding, "And yet, while you've filled the air with a great many words, you have still failed to give your own opinion on the matter. You talk a lot, you even manage to say a lot, but it's a smoke screen you hide behind."

'Clever girl,' I mused, debating where to proceed from here. Truth would cause fewer problems down the line. "Individually, I don't particularly care. Faunus, human, doesn't really matter—if they're not friends, family, or loved ones then I'm not going to waste time worrying about them. Oh, as a Hunter I'll do my duty and help those in need, and I'm not going to screw over people just because I don't know them—but beyond that, their lives aren't any concern of mine, just as mine should be no concern of theirs."

"Live and let live?" she asked, and I nodded.

"On the other hand, as a group, as I said before—faunus are an existential threat to humanity unless both groups can come together and work something out. That something isn't going to be holding hands and singing until the problem goes away. Whatever it is, it's likely going to suck for both sides—but then, that's how negotiations are supposed to end: with both sides equally unhappy, but willing to agree that they've found the best solution each can agree on. I don't have a case of pathological altruism forcing me to put the needs of another group before that of my own—if something's going to be done about it, it can't all be to the benefit of one side. I want humanity to survive—not be wiped out or subjugated for revenge as Adam wants, or bred out. I'm sure you want pretty much the same thing. I'm sure you find the idea of humanity being eradicated just as distasteful as I find the idea of genociding the faunus. Peace and a mutually beneficial working relationship is in both our best interests. It's a starting point. If you want to talk about it more later, we can, but it's not exactly germane to the current situation." Seeing as she wasn't attempting to flee, I asked. "So. In or out?"

Blake snorted, quietly. "So, to sum it up: stop the bitch, save Vale, and put down an armed uprising to prevent a war. That's about what you want my help for?"

"Pretty much," I admitted. "Simple, right?"

"Sure. So, what's your plan for that? How exactly were you planning to do all of that without leaving a lot of bodies piled up?" she asked, crossing her arms and looking somewhat amused.

I shrugged. "I'll deal with Cinder my own way. Putting down the Fang without killing them, that is a problem—the one I need your help with, actually." Humming, I quietly added, "Well, there is one way. Cut the head off the snake and the body will follow."

"Kill Adam, you mean," she deadpanned, and I shrugged.

"Kill him and have a viable replacement step in. It's not my first choice, but at this point? It's on the table," I admitted. "Does that bother you?"

Golden eyes shifted away and she nodded. "I would prefer it if there were another way."

"I see," I murmured. "Well. It's not something that we'll have to deal with today, at any rate. We may think of something before it comes to that." Sending her a smile, I asked, "So. Is it a 'we,' or is it a 'me?'"

She frowned, meeting my eyes again as she asked, "Why me?"

"Other than my Semblance pointing out that having you in on this would be really, really helpful?" I deadpanned, and she rolled her eyes. "You were considering enrolling in Beacon, right?"

"Another detail your Semblance gave you?" On my nod, she shrugged. "I had considered it. What you said earlier, about rising up through the ranks… I think I like that idea."

"I'll be there," I told her, and one fine black eyebrow went up. "If I had someone else on the inside in the know on most of the details, it would help things. I already have one, but she's not part of this world. Not like you and I are," I allowed a small smile to cross my lips. Ruby was not ready for the things Shiro or the Fox needed to do.

Blake stood, put away Gambol Shroud, and made her way towards the back of the store. "I'll think about it."

"Fair enough," I allowed, making my way towards the door. "I'll come find you later."

The dark haired girl snorted softly. "Assuming you can find me."

Turning back to her, I met her eyes and smirked. "I can. There is nowhere you can hide from me."

"That's very reassuring," she snarked, and I shrugged, pulling on my masks and dropping the ID. Throwing on Invisibility and Aura Suppression, I took a look at the minimap to check for watchers before exiting the store via the back door.

Pulling up my map, I went over my options. The twins were in the Industrial District, in the building that was to become the headquarters of my new PMC. Penny was off the map of the city of Vale. Zooming out, I found her icon on Patch. Humming, I focused on my connection to her and asked, 'Penny? Are you still with Ruby and Yang?'

'Yes, Jaune,' she returned a moment later. 'Ruby would like me to stay for a 'sleep over' tonight. Is that okay?'

I smiled, shaking my head. 'It's fine, Penny. I'm glad you're making friends. Let me know if you need anything.'

'Okay, Jaune,' she chirped, and I chuckled. It was good to see her being sociable with someone other than myself.

Neo's icon I found at her apartment, and I recalled she had been elusive as to what she was doing there for a while now. It seemed like half the time she was trying to subtly invite me over, while at others—such as with the twins the other day—it seemed like they were trying to keep me away. My mind made up, I closed my map and Leapt, making my way through the city towards the Residential District under Invisibility. Finding her building, I made my way inside and upstairs, stopping in front of her door and knocking. I spared a look around to check for cameras and, seeing none, switched gear and dropped Invisibility. I heard the sound of footsteps from the other side of the door before it cracked open and one strawberry colored eye peeked out.

"Jaune?" Neo blinked, "What are you doing here?" she asked, sliding the chain lock off and opening the door fully, waving me inside.

"Thought I'd come by and see what you're up to," I grinned, stepping inside and locking the door behind me before snatching her up. Neo squealed, laughing as her legs went around my waist. "You've been acting kind of funny, lately."

"Have I?" she murmured, draping her arms over my shoulders and leaning in to nip at my lips as I nodded. "You really want to know?"

"Well, if you don't want to tell me," I trailed off with a shrug.

Neo sighed, taking on a solemn look. "Okay," she whispered, tilting her head downward so her bangs hid her eyes. "I'm pregnant."

"Bullshit," I deadpanned.

The girl in my arms snorted. "Your Semblance is a real killjoy at times, you know that right?" she chuckled. "Fine. Put me down." I did so and she turned, taking my arm and leading me towards the back of the apartment. There were two bedrooms there and, as she opened one, I saw it had been converted into a workshop of sorts—a sewing room, really. Gesturing towards the room, she grinned. "Here it is."

Stepping inside, I took a look around and hummed. A table to one side caught my eye, where a bundle of white cloth lay folded up. Neo followed me inside, moving to the table and taking up the bundle. With a flick of her wrists, she unfolded it revealing what looked to my eyes to be a coat of some sort. "What is it?"

Neo rolled her eyes. "A surprise, or at least it was supposed to be, until we realized we couldn't finish it without your help on some things anyway—namely, bounded field stuff. It's a coat. I was going to make this for you anyway, but after the Atlas thing the twins and I talked it over, and we decided it'd be a good idea to add a few things. We're going to add plate carriers around the torso, then attach some straps on the outside to strap on an outer layer of armor over it."

"Won't that be heavy?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"That was something we'd wondered about, actually. The twins looked all over the apartment for that book of yours because we were trying not to have to ask you for help, but they couldn't find it," Neo admitted, and I frowned a minute before realizing what book they meant. Opening my Inventory, I dug out the book of Sanguine's notes. "I told them you had it."

"You're looking for a pattern in here?" I asked, and she nodded. "The patterns aren't actually in the book any more—just notes referencing them and a few half-drawn ones. I ate the patterns."

"Oh," she blinked, chuckling and looking sheepish. "Damn. Well, uh, shit. In that case, think you can dig me out a few?"

"What do you need?" I asked, and Neo grinned.

"Weight reduction, for starters. Temperature control, for another. Also, space expansion."

Frowning in thought, I looked around the room and found a notebook and pen. Taking them both, I took a seat at the work table before opening up my Skills menu and digging through my patterns. Neo folded the unfinished coat and dropped it on the table, before hopping up and planting her small ass on the table's surface beside me. Finding what I was looking for, I began drawing the first pattern out. "So, weight reduction so you can add armor plates without it adding a hundred extra pounds."

"Internal and external plates," she corrected. "More like two hundred. By the time I'm finished, you should be able to shrug off shots like the one that punched through your armor—without your shields."

"I doubt it," I denied, not looking up. "It went through two layers of shielding, my Aura, and Reinforcement. Without all of that, it would have been through-and-through—and given its size, that would have cut me in half." There was a quiet breath above me, and I looked up to find Neo quickly smothering a worried gaze.

"We didn't realize," she murmured, looking away. "You lied to us."

I gave her an embarrassed smile. "I didn't lie. I downplayed it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry. I'll take whatever armor I can get, but I'd rather not test it like that again."

Green eyes turned back to lock with my blue, slowly shifting through colors before settling on bloody red—a shade I hadn't ever seen on her before. "Please don't. But I realize it's probably going to happen anyway, so we're going to do what we can to help."

"I appreciate it," I admitted quietly, looking back to my drawing and adding, "Everything you do, really. You and the twins. So, at some point in the near future, I was thinking about doing something nice for you."

"Let me tell you a secret, Jaune," the girl murmured, drawing my eyes back up to hers. "We're all pretty easy to please. Pay us attention, take us somewhere nice, do something fun with us—we don't care what, really, so long as it's with you. I'm sure Miltia and Melanie would love a night out dancing or something. Me? Well, if having a threesome with Yang is off the table for now, then I suppose I could settle for something else. Surprise me."

"Surprise you, huh? Okay." I decided a slight change in topic was in order. "Won't adding internal plates make it bulky, in addition to heavy?"

"Space expansion," Neo countered. "I've heard it's a trick some Hunters use to cheat on that. Sew in plate carriers, add space expansion to the pockets, drop in your plates and only the surface of the plate sits in 'real' space. You need a pretty strong power source, but you've got Dust for days now so that won't be an issue. As for weight, that's what weight reduction is for. By the time I'm finished, it should weigh no more than a couple of pounds. There are a few other things you could add—durability, for one. What that does is, when it detects an impact, it causes the force around the area of impact to spread over the whole surface of whatever it's attached to."

"So, it converts piercing damage to bludgeoning," I surmised, eyes still on my work, but making a note to add that to the list. 'Well, it worked for Harry Dresden.'

"If you wanted to get really crazy, there are people who sew in patterns to allow them to use Dust offensively with it. You've met one, actually," she mused, and I looked up to see her frowning. "That pretty little red number Cinder wears is so full of Dust it glows, and it lets her Dust-cast like a weapon. I know you've got your Semblance to do the same thing, but there are probably other ways you could use it."

I nodded, thinking it over. I was sure if I put my mind to it I could think of a few effects I could use with it—gravity, for instance, to help with my own gravity manipulation. Though, what she had said about Cinder's outfit brought up an interesting point. "Speaking of glowing, won't this?"

Neo's smirk returned and she shook her head. "Not if I sew the patterns in on the under side, then sew in a liner. Of course, I'll probably double up some of the patterns on the liner, too…" She hummed in thought and asked, "See if you've got a water resistance pattern in there somewhere. I know there's about a dozen ways to get that effect, but using Dust would be the most effective—you wouldn't even get wet at that point. On that note, hood? No hood? Detachable hood?"

I looked up at the folded coat for a moment, remembering how it had looked when she'd held it out for me to inspect. It was a white duster, mid-shin length, split up the back to about the waist, that looked to be made of the same material all the rest of the combat specific clothing I'd seen here was made of. There was something odd about the way it was cut in front, and I would have to try it on to be sure, but if I had to guess, knowing Neo she had made sure I would be able to move and fight in it so it was probably cut to allow more freedom of leg movement—possibly at the sacrifice of protection there, but I would rather be mobile and partly protected than fully protected but unable to move. There was a folded down collar that looked like it would come up to about the middle of my ears if I unfolded it, and so should provide some protection from the elements—or an added layer of physical protection around my neck, face, and ears. I tried imagining a hood attached to it in various ways, then shook my head—the image looked ridiculous, unless I went full Assassin's Creed with it. I recalled Kenway had a decent looking one in Black Flag. Debating it, I shrugged. "Detachable hood," I finally decided. Holding out a hand, I summoned up an image from memory using Genjutsu to cycle through the various assassin outfits I could remember. "Something like that."

"I'll talk to the twins and we'll see what we can do," Neo nodded, quickly constructing a copy of the Kenway illusion just to make sure she'd gotten the image right and dismissing it when I nodded, after confirming its accuracy.

I finished the second drawing and moved on to the third. "Why white?"

The girl above me chuckled, one bare foot stretching out to trail up and down my arm not occupied with a pen. "It's your color. Whoever decided on that hoodie and jeans combo as your Hunter outfit was an imbecile," she laughed. "I mean, seriously. It was a bad idea. Sure, it looks okay for civilian clothing but it's not supposed to be civvie clothes. And what good is only a chest piece, as far as armor goes?"

"It'll protect my chest?" I snarked, and the foot trailing my arm snapped up to my chin, pushing my face up to meet her gaze, and at the same time providing me with an amazing view up her toned leg and thigh.

"Smartass," she chastised, eyes half-lidded.

I shot her a completely deadpan look, my voice flat as I said, "Gee, it's almost like you're just figuring this out." She rolled her eyes, her foot moving down to rest on my chest. "I was thinking about replacing the pants anyway. Any suggestions?"

"Black," she answered immediately. "It will contrast nicely with the coat. Get something that already has loops on it for armor and add some armor at your shins—maybe also thighs, if you want. You'll probably want something to replace the hoodie, if you're leaving the duster open. I'd suggest a long sleeved shirt and a vest of some kind—you can keep the chest piece on top of that, but move the shoulder and upper arm armor pieces to the outside of the duster. Or wear the chest piece over the duster and keep it closed—your choice. It would look sort of like those outfits you showed me, that way. As for colors… dark blue, not quite navy for the shirt. Either black or charcoal for the vest."

"The under side is starting to look like my Shiro outfit," I warned.

Neo shrugged. "Yeah, but the duster throws that entire image out the window. You could wear the entire Shiro outfit under that thing and you'd wind up looking like you just shop at the same store. Your blond hair and the white from the duster makes that big a difference. Add to that the fact that Shiro is a stealth sort of guy, and that the duster screams 'here I am,' and no one who didn't already know would suspect you were the same person."

I nodded, then grinned as I countered, "Yeah, but then it starts looking like my Fox outfit."

Neo rolled her eyes. "Show me."

I shrugged, focusing on Genjutsu, and cast a life-sized illusion of myself in that outfit standing to my side. "See?"

Neo hummed, walking around the illusion and taking in the details. "No, it's fine. The Fox wears red. You wear blue. Shiro wears gray. People notice little details like that and get hung up on them—it's part of the whole 'Hunter' thing. By wearing something distinctive, you actually wind up blending in. In this case, the little differences set you apart. Red hair, verses black or blond—all in different styles. Red as a secondary color, verses gray or blue. Full mask, verses half mask, verses no mask. Hooded cloak, no hood or cloak, duster. Green eyes, red eyes, blue eyes. People notice these things. As far as looks go, you're three different people as far as anyone else is concerned. I should know," she smirked, giving a short twirl as her hair shifted to black, eyes to green, and her outfit changed entirely to something that looked like a full-body catsuit. A moment later, she made the same motion, only to be replaced by a redhead with white eyes and a skirt. She shifted through a few other changes—her takes on Ruby, Yang, the Malachite twins, even Joan.

"Okay, miss master of disguise, I get it," I chuckled, and she hopped back up on the table, closer this time. "I concede that you know what you're talking about."

"Good. Now, please hurry with that. I'm about tired of foreplay," she smirked, and I rolled my eyes.

"You call this foreplay?" I asked, and she nodded.

"I don't know, something about us working together on something like this just turns me on—and I mean, beyond the damn sex aura. Maybe I just enjoy the attention," Neo shrugged. "Either way, you'd better be done with that soon."

"Well," I drew the word out, a teasing grin crossing my lips, "I should really take my time and make sure I'm doing this right. Who knows what might happen if I mess up?"

One of her dainty feet planted itself on my chest again, before trailing lower, towards my crotch. "You've got five minutes. After that, I'm going to my bedroom, and if you're not right behind me when I go I will be very annoyed."

Blinking, I looked up from the drawing to meet her eyes, once more shifting colors. "So, what you're saying is that you want me to take my time, so you have an excuse for angry sex."

"Who said I needed an excuse?" she smirked. "Four minutes."

I looked down at the paper, comparing it to the model displayed by my Semblance, then shrugged and tossed it on the table. "It can wait."

"I knew you'd see things my way," the tiny girl beamed.

---

'It's a nice night,' I mused, a small grin tugging at the corners of my lips as I held Neo's small, warm body against me. The apartment briefly lit for a moment, imprinting a flash of unfamiliar surroundings on my eyes, before going dark again as thunder rumbled overhead. Neo shifted in her sleep, snorting quietly and burying her face deeper in my chest as rain continued to beat against the window in a sound that had nearly lulled me to sleep.

Leaning down, I kissed her lips before hitting her with Sleep to make sure I wouldn't wake her, then slipped out of bed. I still had things to do tonight. Top of my list was Blake. Opening my map, I looked for her icon and frowned when I found it. I'd assumed she would be staying with Tukson, or he would set her up with a place. Instead, I found her icon in an 'abandoned' building in the Industrial District—one of Roman's, coincidentally enough.

'Actually,' I mused, glancing at the sleeping Neo, 'I still have something to do here, too.'

Padding on bare feet into Neo's sewing room, I took up the drawing tablet and dropped into the chair I'd used earlier. Taking up the pen, I set about completing the drawing I'd been working on before we got distracted. When it was finished, I flipped through the completed drawings to make sure they were accurate. 'Weight reduction, damage conversion, temperature control… Oh right, need to add waterproofing. Is there anything else I want with this?' I wondered, humming and digging through my list of patterns. 'Gravity manipulation outside of weight reduction could be useful and might boost my own skill at it to something outstanding. And I did say I needed to settle on a 'public' Semblance for school. Using gravity and telekinesis, I could have a pretty nice combo going to back up my sword, shield, and rifle style. I'm a little sad I can't just go full caster mode in Beacon, but that's the Fox's shtick and I can't have us connected. Likewise, I'm not going to be able to use Shiro's Iaido and Invisibility, or full Aura Suppression. Well, I know Joan was supposed to have ordered a third weapon to cover dustcasting and it hasn't come in yet, so at least we'll have that gap in our team covered. Yeah, fuck it, I'll help enchant the coat into a dustcaster like Cinder's dress. As a gravity-based dustcaster, I may even be able to do some sort of gravity lensing thing and bend light to get invisibility another way. I wonder how hard it would be to add another element, though. With Ice, I could have a ready counter for Cinder's fire-based techniques. No, that's getting on into territory that looks too advanced for a student with some money to spend on gear.'

That decided, I finished up the last few sketches before changing into my Fox outfit, then I left Neo's apartment and locked up before heading out under stealth. I was not sure if I would be back that night by the time she woke up, though, depending on how things went with Blake. Lightning flashed and thunder popped around me, and I took a moment to find a high perch and simply appreciate the view. I'd always loved storms, ever since I could remember. Still, I was getting distracted—even if I wasn't getting wet or cold, using my Mana Shield and telekinesis to keep the rain off. Shaking my head, I resumed my trip across town and touched down lightly on the roof of the building my Semblance told me Blake had occupied. Creating an ID, I cut open the roof access door and raised an eyebrow under my mask as I heard glass clatter to the floor. Stepping inside, I dropped the ID and looked back at the door—where a glass bottle sat perched on top of the door knob, taped in place just enough that it wouldn't fall unless someone turned the knob.

'Clever,' I chuckled, equipping my glasses before I moved downstairs. Even realizing what sort of level of paranoia I was dealing with—namely, one to rival my own—I was still impressed at the number of tripwires she had managed to string up. Most were attached to things like empty beer or coke cans with rocks in the bottom, or glass bottles, though I counted at least three attached to live flashbang grenades. Broken glass filled an entire hallway on the level where my glasses highlighted Blake's heat signature, and I shook my head before taking to walking up and then along the wall. I made it five feet before I felt the drywall sag and I had to rely on gravity and wind to lighten my weight enough to keep from breaking it—along with Telekinesis to distribute my weight against the opposite wall.

Finally, I made my way into the room she had claimed as her own—this one trapped with another bottle in addition to what looked like a smoke grenade, once I'd ID'd my way through the door. The room was bare and relatively clean, if you didn't mind the lingering stench of piss, body odor, cigarettes, and mildew that pervaded the entire building. I didn't see Blake. I did see a lump under a blanket, on top of some cardboard boxes. 'This… this is goddamn ridiculous.'

Stepping quietly, I crossed the room and crouched down in front of her. Her nose twitched, followed by her upper set of ears, before her eyes opened. Gold eyes focused on my mask and her body went still, before relaxing slightly as she recognized me. "You."

"Me," I agreed.

"This is…" she sat up, looked around, and refused to meet my gaze. "Exactly what it looks like, I suppose."

"Really?" I asked, a teasing tone slipping into my voice causing her to shoot a mild glare my way. "Because it looks like you could use a friend."

This time, the glare was replaced by an amused but knowing look. "I'm not going to say yes because you tracked me down and found me sleeping in an abandoned building."

"I never said you had to," I countered. "Regardless of what you decide, I really do want to help you. It's not because you look like you deserve help, or because I'm a decent guy or anything. No, it's for my own selfish reasons. Namely, you're hot."

Blake snorted softly. "You're full of shit."

"See? You've barely known me a day and already you understand me so well," I chuckled. Standing, I offered her a hand up. "I have a spare bedroom, and a shower, and food if you're interested."

"No strings?" Blake asked, and I shrugged.

"There are always strings. In this case, I want to get to know you better—and let you get to know me. In that way, we'll grow to trust one another and you may just decide I'm a human worth being friends with." Seeing she was still debating it, I rolled my eyes, bent down, and scooped her into my arms.

"What are you doing?" she asked cautiously.

"Carrying you," I answered, heading for the door. "What are you doing?"

"Wondering how a woman could put up with you, let alone more than one," she snarked, and I grinned under my masks.

"Well, I've been told my amazing skill in the bedroom makes up for my personality deficiency." I blinked, shifting my gaze back down to meet her eyes. "How did you know there was more than one."

Blake rolled her eyes, then apparently decided she liked where she was as she shifted until she was comfortable and relaxed. "Lucky guess," she dismissed, and my built-in bullshit detector red-lined.

Thinking about it though, it was fairly obvious what had happened. I had worried before about faunus picking up my scent if I used specific detergents to wash my clothes, or wore cologne or any kind of other scent. I hadn't showered before leaving Neo's home, I'd slept with the twins last night, and I'd been around Yang, Ruby, and Penny most of the day. I smelled like at least two different women up close, three considering the twins smelled just slightly different if you knew what to look for. 'Note to self: develop a damn scent removal spell of some sort to add to my stealth set. I got lucky this time.'

Her next question pulled me out of my thoughts, however. "You said you had a shower?"

"And food," I agreed, nodding as we made it onto the roof and my shields snapped into place.

She hummed, thinking it over as I launched us across to the next rooftop and plotted a course that would take us to the apartment unseen. "I suppose one night wouldn't hurt. But very soon, you and I will have to sit down and talk about the things you know, the things you can do, and how we can help each other."

The rest of the run was spent in companionable silence, neither of us particularly feeling the need to break it as I moved us across the city. Coming in for a landing on the door, I ID'd the door and let us in before heading for my front door. "You can put me down now," Blake pointed out, and I grinned.

"Are you sure? Not going to run the moment I do?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Putting her on her feet, I opened the door and gestured her inside, then followed. Once the door was locked, I switched over to my Jaune outfit and headed for the kitchen. "Hungry?"

"Starving," she admitted, quietly.

Digging through the cabinet, I found a can of tuna—likely belonging to the twins, since I wouldn't touch the stuff. I was just finishing toasting bread when the twins came out of our bedroom in matching, nearly see-through night gowns. "Did we wake you?"

"No, it's fine," Melanie yawned.

"Who's this?" Miltia asked, turning green eyes to my guest.

"Melanie, Miltia, this is Blake. She's going to be borrowing the guest bedroom for the night." Finished assembling the sandwich, I set it down on a plate in front of the cat-girl, along with a glass of water. "Blake, these are Miltia and Melanie."

"Two of the girlfriends?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. I caught her golden gaze trailing over the twins for a long moment before she bit into her sandwich, a quiet moan escaping her lips as she did. "Mm, tuna."

The twins shot me a questioning look and I nodded, barely resisting the urge to roll my eyes. "Apparently, I smell like you and Neo," I deadpanned. That, and I realized what it was she was doing now—pointing out that she knew more about me than I'd intentionally revealed, likely in a not-so-subtle dig for coming at her with what I knew of her. Oh, it had cost her one of her own secrets—that she had a pretty sharp nose—but the information she'd gained, and the point she was making, were worth more than what she'd traded for it. I shifted my gaze to meet her eyes and shot her an unamused look, and she simply smirked around her sandwich.

"We are," they synced, not missing the byplay but choosing to keep silent for the moment—likely to ask me later, knowing them. "Do you need anything?" Miltia continued.

Blake shook her head. "Just a shower, then sleep."

I pointed to the guest bedroom. "There's an attached bathroom. Should be fresh towels and a couple of bath robes if you need one. If you want to do your laundry, the laundry room is over there," I gestured across to the room in question. "If you need anything, let us know."

"Okay," the girl nodded, finishing up her sandwich and putting her dishes in the kitchen sink, before slinking off towards the guest bedroom. Pausing just inside the doorway, she turned gold eyes on me for a moment before smiling, faintly. "Thank you, Jaune."

"Any time, Blake," I nodded as she shut the door. I gestured the twins towards my own bedroom.

By mutual agreement, we waited until we heard the water running before anyone spoke. "Good find," Melanie complimented, a smirk stretching across her lips. "With a little cleaning up, she should be a magnificent addition."

I snorted, rolling my eyes, and Miltia giggled. "What my sister meant to say was, we think she's hot and won't mind if she sticks around for a while."

"And as a reward for such a good find," Melanie began, and I laughed out loud at that.

"'Reward,' huh?" I asked, only to get a smack on the arm for my sarcasm. Sarcasm or no, I couldn't deny that I wouldn't mind adding Blake to the group—she was very easy on the eyes, after all.

"You spent the evening with Neo. We want attention before we send you back to her," Miltia admitted, and I nodded.

"And I'll be happy to give it." Humming, I asked, "What do you think about going out somewhere nice soon? Dinner, dancing, you know. Something fun." The twins shot me an amused and expectant look, and I rolled my eyes and admitted, "I wanted to do something nice for you and convince you I'm not just using you for your connections, brains, and sex."

The twins shared a look before Melanie began, "We don't feel that way, Jaune."

Melanie grinned, her sister mirroring the look, and added, "But by all means, please, do continue doing nice things for us. We enjoy the attention."

"And on that note," Melanie interrupted, dropping her robe. "Tell us about the stray cat-girl using our other shower."