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.

30. Tunnel Vision

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The Name of the Game

a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.

Arc 8: Trainspotting

Chapter 30: Tunnel Vision

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"You don't text, you don't call. A girl might start to wonder if she's been replaced," Joan said, and I groaned quietly.

"You haven't—"

"Jaune," she cut in before I could start covering my ass and I noticed that there was amusement in her voice—she was enjoying making me uncomfortable. "I'm teasing. Come meet me at the apartment."

The scroll disconnected and I slid my hand over my face. "Damnit, woman. Scared the shit out of me," I grumbled quietly. I didn't have links up with anyone, so I opened the scroll interface from my HUD and dialed Neo.

"What's up?" the ice cream themed girl asked by way of greeting. "Finished with what you needed to do?"

"Yeah," I agreed, before asking, "The twins with you?"

"Pretty much everyone but Ruby and Yang. Ruby's uncle called and asked her to come home and Yang went with her," Neo explained, following it up with, "Why?"

"Joan called," I began, only to be cut off as Neo snorted quietly.

"So you're going to be out at least the rest of the night."

I hesitated before answering. "I don't know."

"Wait," Neo began, sounding as though she already suspected what was wrong. "We've been stupidly busy since she left. Did you even call her?" she asked, and when I didn't answer immediately, she laughed quietly. "That's it, isn't it? You forgot to call."

I couldn't exactly deny it at this point. "I did. Now I'm going to go run damage control."

"Want help?"

I considered it for a moment before shaking my head, then remembering she wouldn't be able to see that. "No, it'll probably go over better if it's just me."

Neo laughed quietly on the other end of the scroll. "Okay. Have fun, Jaune. I'll let the others know. Should we be expecting a guest, or do you plan to stay out?"

"No idea. We'll see how it goes."

The girl hummed and said, "Bring her over later, then. I still haven't gotten to meet her yet. It's no fair if the twins get to have all the fun."

I paused for a moment as the memory of Joan 'meeting' the twins came to mind, before adding Neo to that picture. 'Yeah, going to have to make that happen. The girls have gone without since their periods started and Joan hasn't gotten laid in three weeks. Should I be worried about death by snoo-snoo? Nah.'

We said our goodbyes and I disconnected the call. Equipping the rest of my Fox set and making sure the mask was in place, I left my office and made my way up to the roof before taking off to the east—away from my apartment. Once I figured I was far enough away, I threw on Invisibility and the rest of my stealth set and changed course, heading south towards the road that lead to the Arc home. It would look much less suspicious if 'Jaune Arc' started leaving a visible trail on the city's CCTV. The Fox disappearing and appearing pretty much at-will would just about be expected at this point, considering he had demonstrated the ability before, during his fight with Shiro. If the visible trail Jaune Arc left tended to begin and end at destinations that lead off the CCTV grid—locations like the Arc family home—then it would help build up my cover should anyone actually go back and look at the footage. It would also help to not always be stepping out of blind alleys near my destinations—which meant that occasionally, I was going to have to take the long way into town.

'Well, at least I can ride in,' I mused, dropping to the ground and checking my minimap to make sure no one was around. Once I was sure the area was secure, I changed into my new Jaune armor set before pulling the badge the Arclance was compacted into off my belt, hitting the 'deploy' switch, and tossing it at the ground. The bike finished unfolding before the tires touched the ground and I slid on, starting the quiet Dust-powered engine and speeding off into the dark under the illumination of high-intensity headlights to the sound of the radio pouring out Riders on the Storm by The Doors. I would have deployed my helmet, but it was a nice night out and I wanted to feel the wind. 'Besides, Aura means I don't exactly need one for this,' I mused.

The crunch of gravel under my tires gave way to the consistent hum of rubber on asphalt as I crossed into city limits and a glance at my minimap confirmed that I was back on the CCTV network by highlighting fields of view from cameras lining the road. Something brushed against my Aura Sense and I frowned, focusing on the neglected skill and trying to sort out what I was feeling. 'Three... no, four Aura signatures. All moving towards me,' I assessed. A glance at my minimap showed that there was still no one around, so these fell into that range just outside minimap range that would require me to bring up the full map to see if it was someone my Semblance would label with an icon. 'Another reason to level up Aura Sensing—relying on visual cues is going to leave a blind spot in my detection range and I can't always be letting my vision shift off-center to check it.'

I couldn't sense any kind of Intent in the air and my danger sensing skills weren't going off, so I opted to wait and see what happened. I was rewarded a minute later by headlights coming around a curve in the road and my minimap lighting up with a cluster of icons heading my direction. The icons were initially too close together to make out individual ones—pretty much on top of each other, really—but I quickly adjusted the minimap display to allow me to get a quick look at them. When I did manage to make them out, I frowned. 'That's Jane. Who are the other three?'

The icon that most stood out of the four was familiar—it should be, since the sigil was emblazoned on my armor, bike, and several other things I owned. The only difference was that the the double-crescent on my minimap was gold. The sigil I wore was the Arc family sigil—not my personal sigil, at least according to my Semblance. I'd figured out that one when I started playing around with my map settings and turned on the setting to display my personal sigil as my map marker, rather than the arrow that had been denoting my position previously. Amusingly enough, I had two: a red-and-white fox face that mirrored the Fox's mask any time I equipped the Fox set and a white double-crescent any time I was in my 'Jaune' outfit. The system had yet to assign a sigil to my Shiro disguise, but then again, I hadn't exactly chosen one either.

'Maybe I should do something about that?' I wondered idly as I closed with the car. 'I mean, it could be interpreted as coasting on my family name or something if I leave it, and supposedly all of my sisters each have their own. On the other hand, maybe it's something that was passed down to me by Jaune's father as a family thing, similarly to how the sword and shield was. Eh, I'll figure it out later when I can ask Joan or someone. Not high on my list of priorities for things to figure out.'

The other two sigils shown were new to me. They were both flowers: a white, six petaled iris seen from the top down with what looked like four—'I think that's a stamen.'—thingsand a spindly red icon from side-on thing that looked like a... 'Spider lily?' Where the iris had four dots representing what I thought were stamens, the lily had only three.

I blew by the car at a combined speed of about 120 MPH—between the speed and the headlights, I only really caught a glimpse at the driver and the car itself. Jane, driving her mother's car. The other three in the vehicle were little more than shadowed blurs. 'Ask Joan later. She just got back into town so she might be out of the loop. Then again, maybe not. Won't hurt to ask.'

Pulling up outside the apartment building several minutes later, I killed the Arclance and compacted it back down into storage form before heading inside. A stray thought crossed my mind, leading me to wonder how long it had been since the twins had last come to visit their mother. I had only met the woman once, myself. Hell, at this point, I knew Qrow—Ruby and Yang's uncle—better than I knew two of my girlfriends' mother. I made a mental note to talk to the twins and arrange a visit at some point in the near future, before Beacon started. That settled, I refocused on the matter at hand—namely, dealing with Joan. 'Let's start with the truth,' I mused. It wasn't like I'd been intentionally neglectful, after all, and Joan had already proven herself pretty level-headed about things, in spite of her particular mental peculiarities.

Before I had time to really decide one way or another, the elevator pinged and the doors slid open. I didn't quite have that 'dead man walking' feeling as they opened, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. 'Damned teenaged body,' I mentally groaned, taking a deep breath and forcing my mind to clear. 'Ugh, the clammy hands and sweating I could have done without. Why did I ever think turning off Gamer's Mind was a good idea? Oh, right, because I hate the idea of something fucking with my mind by manipulating my emotions more than I hate the idea of dealing with them. Well, it's the price you pay, I suppose.'

Pulling up Mana, I hit myself with a blast of cool air—courtesy of some wind and ice manipulation—and stepped out, filing away the feeling of awe at being able to magic up my own personal cool breeze under 'small wonders.' 'Don't think I'll ever fully get used to this. Well, I suppose that just means that nothing about my powers will ever truly get boring.'

"I thought the elevator was going to close on you," Joan teased from where she leaned against the wall next to my apartment's door, a small smirk pulling up the left corner of her lips. My eyes took in her form leaning there, all curves and lean muscle—I found my mouth had gone suddenly dry, and I remembered why it was I had been attracted to this woman, regardless of who she was. I noticed her sharp blue eyes raking up my own form and widening slightly at what she found there. It was understandable that she was a little surprised.

All that training—and sex, because who was I kidding, that was one of the fastest ways I'd found to gain attribute points, not to mention the most enjoyable—had paid off. In the short time she was gone, I had shot up at least an inch in height, my shoulders had gotten a little broader, and my muscles had firmed up and filled out. On Earth, I'd say it looked like I had spent a hard year in the gym while going through a growth spurt. On Remnant, I knew Hunters could develop much faster thanks to Aura, but I still outpaced that by an order of magnitude thanks to my Semblance. And all of that was without ever setting foot in Beacon, which left me wondering just what I'd come out looking like when I finished there. Jaune's father, from the pictures I'd seen of him with his family in their home, was not a small man by any means—but at least he wasn't a giant bear of a man either. If that was what I had to look forward to, I could live with it. Then again, with Iris' genes mixed in there, I may end up coming out shorter or narrower. There was no way to tell but wait and see.

"Yeah, well, your call had me kind of flustered. I'm pretty sure you're enjoying that, too," I pointed out and the elder blonde shrugged. I reflexively hit her with Observe and resisted the urge to wince at what I found listed under her emotional state: worried, irritated, relieved. 'Well, as if I needed any more proof that I'm an asshole for forgetting to call.'

"What can I say? It reminds me of when we were younger. You never could hide anything from me," she mused. Jerking her head towards the door, Joan pushed off the wall. "Come on. Let's go inside and you can tell me what's been going on. I figure it must have been pretty important if it kept you busy enough not to call." Now that I knew how she felt, there was a note of worry in her voice that was almost easy to pick out—she did a good job hiding it, playing it off as annoyed teasing, but the fact that even that much had slipped showed that my thoughtlessness had likely cost her a few nights of sleep at the least. I would have to make that up to her, sooner rather than later.

Pulling out my key, I shot her an annoyed look. "I can tell already you're going to hold this over my head any time you want something or feel like guilt tripping me, aren't you?"

"Maybe," she grinned. "That's an elder sibling's privilege."

I snorted softly, opening the door and heading inside. "So, it's 'elder sibling' only when it's convenient for you?"

"Only for you," she returned, closing and locking the door behind us. "The wards are weak. Feel like they've mostly discharged," she assessed. "You haven't been here in a while. And it looks like some of your furniture is gone."

'Because the girls raided the place and moved most of it to the officers' quarters in Fox Hunt.' I would have to do something about that, at some point. A secret identity—let alone two—wouldn't hold up without somewhere to lay my head that looked lived in. If someone like Emerald managed to track me here, again—or God forbid, Cinder—then they'd likely pick up on 'little' details like the place missing furniture. And considering Cinder had been paying 'Shiro' a mint, if it didn't show up in my living arrangements, the question then arose of where the money had gone. I couldn't exactly pass it off as being frugal or enjoying spartan living arrangements, either, seeing as it was the most expensive apartment in the building and all the other details added up to the owner having some class and taste in decor. Though, to be fair, the place hadn't changed much since Sanguine stayed here, so it was really her tastes that anyone showing up would see on display.

'Note to self: dupe the furniture in Fox Hunt and bring it back. Easier than buying new shit,' I decided, then shook my head. 'No, wait. Scratch that. If someone not in the know were to see both somehow... yeah, that'd be bad. Fuck, I really am going to have to buy all new stuff.' I was thankful that the girls hadn't taken everything, at least. Dropping onto the lone remaining couch, I gestured for Joan to take a seat.

I watched as she pulled a compacted shield from the small of her back and dropped it to the floor, along with what looked like a sword and some other weapon under it. A few clicks had her armor off and dumped on the floor beside them. Blue eyes met mine as she caught me watching and I smirked faintly before subvocalizing the command to switch armor sets, changing into more comfortable civilian clothes. "Show off," she rolled her eyes, working on the rest of her armor.

"There are some benefits to my Semblance," I shrugged. "I've had you in party before, you should be able to…" I trailed off, frowning, before rolling my eyes. "Right, no, sorry. Got that update after you left. Here. Party, You'll Thank Me Later."

Plopping down on the far end of the couch from me, she began working off her boots before kicking first one, then the other halfway across the room. Yanking her socks off as well, she sighed in relief before turning an amused look on me and dropping her feet into my lap. "If you're feeling guilty, a foot rub would be a nice place to start making up." Now that she wasn't working her boots off, she reached out and touched a prompt in the middle distance, and her profile picture and name popped up on my party list, along with her level. Of course it was displayed as triple-question marks—I reminded myself that any level it had estimated for her was just that, an estimate. And more specifically, an estimate of her suppressed Aura level.

"Blackmail," I hissed, shooting her a glare for a moment before failing to hold the look and laughing. Reaching down, I began kneading her feet. "Lucky you, I'm actually good at this."

"I'll be the judge of that. Now, spill," the blonde across the couch from me demanded. Her stern look was ruined a moment later as her eyes went half-lidded and her breathing heavy as I began applying pressure to the arches of one of her feet.

"First, say 'Inventory,' then stick all your gear in there," I told her.

Joan's blue eyes shifted from my hands on her feet to the armor and weapons on the floor. "But I'm comfy."

Rolling my eyes, I levitated the gear up off the floor with Telekinesis. "I'll walk you through creating armor sets later. The short version is, you get to keep part of my Semblance now, and the Inventory system is part of that."

The blonde blinked, before frowning as she asked, "So it's infectious?"

"Say what?" I asked.

Joan shook her head. "Maybe that was the wrong word. 'Transmissible' also implies a disease, but you get my meaning. Your Semblance can spread to others. How long does it last? How many people have you shared this with and how many can you? What are the limits?"

I smirked slightly at that before answering, "No idea, haven't found an upper limit yet, and we're still testing to figure that out. It's part of what I've been doing—I made a guild."

"As in..." she prompted, shifting slightly in her seat as I found a particularly good spot on her foot.

"As in an MMO-style guild. So, recap of things that happened while you were gone: met another girl, infiltrated Atlas, stole an android girl, got shot down by missiles, killed a giant Nevermore, met a couple of girls going to Beacon, turned a former White Fang operative, met Jean, robbed a train full of Dust, eliminated or took over pretty much all the gangs in Vale, burned down a woman's house, robbed a bank, got some shiny new toys, met Jen, found out she got brainwashed by Atlas, made a guild, discovered more things about my Semblance, did a bit of training, and most recently saw a Goliath fly—and killed it," I summarized. Judging by the way her face shifted from worried, to incredulous, to annoyed I had succeeded in pulling her out of the worry she'd met me with, if only by trading it for worry over what the hell sort of things I was getting into.

"Yeah, no. Going to need a bit more information than that. Start explaining, Jaune," she demanded, digging the heel of one foot into my thigh as she did. I was pretty sure she'd aimed for the pressure point she was currently squeezing.

"Ow! Geez, alright. Damn, woman, next time just aim for my dick while you're at it," I grumbled.

Though she was clearly enjoying the attention I was giving her, she remained focused as I spoke, retelling the events of everything that had happened over the last few weeks that she had been out. She held her questions and simply let me talk, but I could tell Joan knew she was getting a very abbreviated version of events to save time—though at least not as abbreviated as what I'd first given her. And some things I was simply skipping, until I found a better time—things like telling her that her dead teammate may not be quite so dead and was sort of leeching off of my soul to keep herself that way while we waited for her to advance far enough to retake human form. When I was finished, and had since moved up from her feet to her calves, the blonde shook her head. "Well. I hate to say 'I told you so—'"

"Liar," I deadpanned.

Joan continued on as if I hadn't interrupted, "But I told you so. I told you day one—"

"Day two, actually," I corrected absently.

"That if you went that route, you'd never be able to get out," she finished, shooting me a stern look. Shaking her head, she said, "Well, at least some good may have come out of it. Your Fox Hunt could be very useful."

I rolled my eyes—it seemed I was doing that a lot, recently. "Glad you think so."

"Jaune," she sighed. "You can't help it, can you? You keep getting yourself in over your head."

"It's the only way some people learn to swim," I shrugged. "I haven't drowned yet, so I'd say I'm doing pretty well." What I didn't say was that, if I drowned now, then what good was I going to be later when things got even worse.

The blonde woman nodded, conceding the point for the moment. "How did you get Jen to open up?"

Shooting her an amused look, I deadpanned, "I talked to her." The ball of her foot dug into my thigh again and Joan's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "She couldn't actually say all that much, but I think she wanted to open up to someone."

"To you." Joan's reply was flat and quiet, and the way her mouth snapped shut after told me she hadn't intended for that to be aloud.

I blinked, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Did she say something to you?"

"No. It's nothing. Forget I said anything," she shook her head.

I wasn't buying that for a minute, and I almost let it slide for now. Even if 'nothing' was always 'something,' it wasn't always an invitation to pry. On the other hand, this concerned the sister whose brain I would be trying to fix. "Joan, if it's something that'll help me undo what Atlas did to Jen, tell me. Please."

The blonde groaned quietly, bringing a palm up to rub at her eyes. "It has nothing to do with that. It's personal." Turning an unamused look on her, I sat and waited, staring her down as she removed her hand and looked me in the eye. It quickly became a contest of wills as she figured out I wasn't going to drop it until I got an answer that satisfied me, and her blue eyes narrowed in frustration. Finally, she settled on resignation as she broke eye contact. "She wanted to open up to you."

"Okay," I began, dragging the word out. "Your point being…?"

"Dust, you are just as dense as ever," Joan groaned quietly.

'Oh for fu—' I palmed my face and winced. "You're not the only 'bro-con' in the family, then?"

Surprisingly, Joan shook her head. "No, I wouldn't say she is. Things were not great between us for a while," she admitted softly, still refusing to meet my eyes. "Dad and our mom were standoffish and never offered you any training beyond the most basic of the basics. I didn't agree with it, neither did mama Lily, but we both went along with it to a point. We all did, for stupid reasons. Dad didn't want us to train you—he said that if you unlocked your Aura on your own, you'd be stronger. We had six examples of that approach working, so we assumed he was right and it was just something you'd have to figure out for yourself. Even now, as much as I hate to admit it, you're proving him right on a daily basis."

Shifting slightly in her seat and crossing her arms under her bust, she turned and met my eyes, and I would have had to have been blind not to see the remorse there—even without my Semblance labeling it as such. "What happened?"

"They decided they wanted a break," Joan deadpanned, before adding, "From us."

"Do what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They didn't say it in so many words, but that's what it boiled down to. And I get it. Eight kids would drive anyone to distraction. Didn't make it hurt any less." A bitter smile crossed her lips as she sighed. "Jun was only a couple of years old when it started. They'd go out for a month at a time or so on long missions and leave one of us—usually me—in charge. You have no idea how hard that was to manage, with classes and everything going on. I don't resent you or the others for it, but—"

"But it shouldn't have been your responsibility," I finished for her, and she nodded.

"Even though I came back every night, I wasn't really around much and when I was I didn't exactly have enough time or energy left for much of anything. It was the same with the twins, when they started Beacon. There were a few arguments over things and we fought back and forth on occasion. You stopped bothering to even talk to me for a while."

"And spent all that time with Jen instead, since she was there and I'm guessing she was a sympathetic ear," I supplied.

Closing her eyes, the blonde nodded. "It's petty of me, I know, but I was so jealous. Still sort of am, I guess."

'So, she wasn't joking,' I mused, remembering what she'd said to me in our scroll call. "Look, that happened a while ago and I don't even remember it. You don't have to worry about being replaced." Joan looked skeptical, but didn't comment. I decided a change of subject was in order. "So, question: are our parents in town?"

Joan blinked, frowning as she asked, "Why?"

"I met Jean driving three people back towards the Arc house on the way here. Aside from Jean's, the other three icons were the Arc family emblem, an iris, and a lily," I supplied. "Which reminds me—the yellow or gold crescents, those are the family emblem, right?"

Sighing quietly, Joan closed her eyes and leaned back against the arm of the couch, going still for a long moment. I felt something brush against my Aura sense coming from her position and raised an eyebrow at that. Finally, she opened her eyes and nodded. "Yeah. They're back in town. So are the others." After a moment's pause, she added, "Yes, by the way. The family symbol is in gold or yellow."

"'Others?'" I echoed.

"Our other sisters," she clarified.

"Any idea why they're here?"

Joan made a face, looking as though she'd just bitten into a lemon. "Yeah. There's a… family thing we do every year. You don't really have to worry about it, if you don't feel up to it."

Sending her an unamused look, I said, "I think I'd like to meet them."

Joan was hesitant as she slowly shook her head. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Why? And for whom?" I asked, and the blonde groaned quietly.

"You, me, them—everyone involved. I don't know if you're ready yet. And if you meet them, you're going to try to confront them—"

"Damn right I am. I have a right to know," I growled quietly. It was something that had been bothering me for a while, but that I hadn't really been able to do anything about. With an opportunity in front of me, she could bet her ass I would be demanding answers for why they had left their son to his own devices and wound up getting him hurt—killed, for all intents and purposes—and hadn't even bothered to turn up at the hospital. We lived on a death world, covered in supernatural creatures that fed and bred on misery and every other negative emotion—I could understand if circumstances had prevented them from rushing back to Vale and they had trusted Joan with it, but I had a feeling that that wasn't what had happened.

"You do," she agreed quietly. "I'm not trying to keep that from you. I'm just wondering if you're ready for it. I doubt you're going to get the answers you want." Joan held up a hand as I opened my mouth. "I know you feel you are, and I know you're different now. I'm not blind," she admitted, the last part coming out as a whisper. "Just... be careful."

"I will," I murmured, sighing quietly. Looking down, I lifted her legs and shifted across the couch before dropping her legs again so that her knees were resting in my lap now. "How about we move onto something a little less volatile?" I suggested and she nodded. "What did they have you doing, while you were gone?"

"Oh, you know. The usual," Joan shrugged.

I shot her a deadpan look. "I don't know. What's 'the usual?'"

The blonde partly in my lap winced. "Right, sorry. Uh, in this case, we were deployed to patrol up along our northern border. Given the terrain, it was essentially a bunch of camping out in the mountains and then near the beach when we got to the edge of our patrol zone. Killed a few Grimm, helped fend off a small incursion in one of the larger villages, nothing major. It was actually pretty relaxing."

"If you can relax in woods that are full of Grimm," I pointed out, and Joan shrugged.

"Most of the stuff you'll encounter near Vale isn't old enough or large enough to cause someone like me problems. We keep our patrols up too well this close to the city. The things you've encountered were either in Atlas or a fluke. Shit happens, sometimes. You just got luckier than most. Once you start getting outside of the primary Vale patrol zone and into the wilds, you'll start running across some of the nastier stuff." My hands on the older woman's thighs shifted upwards slightly and she squirmed, biting her lip. "How long are you going to keep torturing me like this?"

"As long as I like," I sent her a grin. Blue eyes locked with mine and Joan pouted. "Neo was interested in meeting you."

"Oh?" she asked, eyebrows raising. "Is she, now?"

Chuckling, I nodded. "I think you'll get along." Glancing at my HUD clock, I hummed. "You came here first thing after getting in, didn't you?"

"First thing after debrief, yeah," she agreed.

"It's getting late. Come to bed," I told her, and her eyes, which had gone half-lidded again, shot open and locked with mine.

"You, uh," she hesitated, her face and neck coloring slightly as her mind went pretty much exactly where I was heading with that. "So you've um... gotten over the whole sibling thing?"

"You mean does the fact that my older sister wants to ride my cock still bother me?" I asked, and she moaned quietly—either in mortification at the wording, or because she found the dirty talk exciting. Given her tone and the darkening blush, however, it was probably the first one. My grin became a teasing smirk. "You're cute when you blush."

"Shut uuuup!" Joan whined, covering her face with her hands. "You're not supposed to tease me, it's supposed to be the other way around."

Chuckling, I shifted on the couch, parting her legs and moving between them, effectively pinning her there as I leaned over her before taking her by the wrists to complete the image. "Well, if you don't want to wait on the bed," I murmured, leaning in and lightly scraping the shell of her ear with my teeth, and in so doing drew a quiet intake of breath from her lips, "the couch is fine too."

"J-Jaune," the blonde under me whimpered as I captured her lips. Our tongues danced as she 'struggled' beneath me, though given the way her lips kept wanting to twitch up into a smile I knew it was an act.

I pulled away enough to say, "I'm fine with it," in answer to her earlier question.

"Since when are you this aggressive?" she asked, before hastily adding, "Not that I'm complaining or anything, I mean, it's nice and different just—"

"Joan," I interrupted, pecking her on the lips and interrupting. "You're babbling," I pointed out. Shifting both of her wrists to my left hand, I moved my right down and quickly undid the button on her jeans before sliding my hand down the front of them, under her panties, and sinking my first two fingers into her soaking wet heat. Her panties were already a total loss at this point, and I made a mental note for later that she enjoyed the prolonged, teasing approach.

Joan's hips bucked under me as she gasped. "God Jaune, stop teasing already and put it in."

"What's that? 'Tease me more,' you say?" I grinned, kissing the side of her lips before trailing down to her neck.

"No," she whined quietly under me, before hissing softly as I found a particularly nice spot on her neck and bit down.

My fingers had not been idle, as they stroked and rubbed her sex, shifting between paying attention to her clit and slowly pumping into her vice-like sheath. I could feel her tightening around my fingers, her muscles beginning to rhythmically contract as she grew wetter, and came closer to orgasm. So it was completely understandable that she was justifiably irritated when my scroll chose that moment to chime loudly over the quiet, wet sounds of our kisses and my fingers inside of her. I paused as a text notification popped up on my HUD, my fingers slowing their action as I saw who it was from. The scroll chimed again as I got a second, and then a third text.

"Jaune," Joan began, intentionally squeezing her muscles down below to get my attention. "Don't answer that. Don't you do it."

I sighed quietly and slowly resumed fingering her, but she could tell my attention was clearly split now. "I can't ignore it. It's one of the two or so I absolutely can't ignore at this point."

Joan frowned. "Who would be sending you a text at this hour?"

"Cinder," I sighed quietly.

"That's the dangerous one, right?" she asked, and I nodded. "What's she want?"

Withdrawing my fingers from her slit, to a quiet whimper from the blonde beneath me, I pulled a set of wet wipes from Inventory—left there specifically for such incidents—and set about cleaning my hand off as I opened the first message and began scanning it.

'My contact required certain assurances that he would not be burned following the job we spoke about and only now gave me the information necessary to pull it off. Unfortunately, he waited until the last minute and your objective is already in motion. I know this was not part of the deal, and I apologize for the short notice. If you wish to decline the job, let me know ASAP. I ask that you consider taking it, however, because given the short notice I have no one on standby to complete the job should you decline and I do not know when, or even if, the next opportunity will arise.'

I rolled my eyes as I translated that in my head. 'In other words, someone wanted more money and wanted to be patted on the head and told that of course they would be looked after when Atlas inevitably starts looking for the leak, and now I have to scramble to make a move on it. God damnit.' Opening the second text, I continued reading.

'Re: our reunion with Torchwick, I will need Neo starting tomorrow morning. Neo, Emerald, and Mercury will depart in the morning and—barring any unforeseen difficulties—return within three days. We expect her by 0500 sharp. Thanks in advance. - CF.'

I rolled my eyes at that. Opening the third message showed it to be the route the train would be taking along with a note that Cinder would text me where to bring it once I'd confirmed I had it, which allowed me to feed it into my map—and in doing so, generated a quest.

A quest has been created! The Train Job.

Cinder wants you to steal a train carrying a load of plastic Lien into Vale.

Success: 50,000 EXP, 20% of the take in Lien, increased closeness with Cinder Fall.

Failure: no EXP, no Lien, suspicion and loss of trust as Cinder loses faith in your ability to deliver.

"Fuck," I groaned quietly.

"What is it?" Joan asked from below me.

Meeting her eyes, I leaned down and kissed her soundly before pulling back and standing up. "I have to go—now, if I want to have time to prepare."

"And what does she have you doing?" she asked, eyes narrowing as she sat up.

I winced slightly before answering with, "Stealing a train."

Joan sighed. "Another train robbery? Really?" She blinked, then frowned as she asked, "Wait. You said 'stealing a train.' You mean an entire train, not just its contents, don't you?"

"Maybe?" I shrugged, equipping my Shiro outfit and sending Penny a party invite. As soon as she accepted, I sent, 'Meet me at the airfield, ASAP.'

"Damnit, Jaune!" Joan growled softly. Heaving out an annoyed breath, she grabbed me by my armor's chest piece, yanked down the mask over my lower face, and pulled me into a kiss. "I can stop you, and I want to, so tell me this is necessary or I am going to."

I took a moment to think about it, despite having already weighed all the pros and cons before. In the end, gaining and keeping Cinder's trust outweighed allowing the job to fall through and avoiding any potential danger. Finally, I nodded. "It is."

"Fine," she sighed, slumping against me and planting her head on my shoulder as she wasn't remotely short enough to lean against my chest comfortably. "Telling you to be careful is asinine, because you will be," she stressed, an implied 'or else' hanging unsaid there. "Come back soon."

"I will," I nodded, tilting her chin up and giving her another kiss. Pulling back and letting her go, I winked. "Soon-ish."

"What do you mean, 'soon-ish?'" Joan asked, eyes narrowing. I dropped into Invisibility and threw on my stealth set of spells. "Jaune?" she frowned, eyes shifting as she lost track of me. "Damnit, Jaune! Don't screw with my head like that."

"But it's fun," I countered from the door, and she rolled her eyes.

"Go, before I change my mind," she huffed, dropping back down onto the couch and crossing her arms. I could tell she was disappointed and I made a note that between not calling while she was out on patrol and now having to leave on short notice, that I had a lot to make up for later.

Exiting the apartment, I sent off a text to Neo letting her know Cinder wanted her to show up in the morning, followed by one to Miltia asking her to make sure Neo got up and actually went. I knew that if left to her own devices, the ice cream themed girl might just say 'fuck it' and sleep in. I headed for the roof, changing into my Shiro gear and throwing on Invisibility and the rest of my stealth spells as I went.

A thought occurred as I remembered the state of the apartment I'd left Joan in. 'No appliances, little furniture. Unless she heads back to the Arc home, that's roughing it. Fuck.'

Opening the call interface, I speed-dialed Joan's number. It picked up on the first ring. "Forget something?"

"Very funny," I grumped. "Look, the apartment is kind of... barren right now. Do you want me to send Miltia by to get you, or did you plan to head back to our parents' house?"

Joan hummed quietly before answering, "I think I'd like to see your base. Think you can sneak me in?"

"No need to sneak, in this instance. You'd be a visitor with a valid reason to be there," I answered. "Sit tight and she should be there in a few."

Getting a confirmation from her, I hung up and called Miltia. While I had her on the phone, I figured I may as well have her take care of another problem that had been bothering me since the fight with Dumbo. I'd had my mask broken and replaced it with another Conjured copy, but they were not truly permanent and I wasn't sure I could enchant Conjured items. A real one, on the other hand—perhaps made of high-end composite ceramic to act as actual armor—would be a huge upgrade. Maybe I'd even get lucky and it would be done by the time I got back. 'While I'm at it, might as well have real versions made for all the girls. I'll have to see if Miltia can get whoever she goes to for it to defer payment until after the train job, since I know Cinder's paying me for that. Hopefully, it'll be enough.'

---

Surveying the land below as we floated invisibly in the pre-dawn sky, I hummed and checked my map again. Below, forested mountains spread out as far as the eye could see leading northward. "What do you think, Penny?"

Of all of the girls, Penny had required the most disguises, because she tended to want to accompany me as all of my alter-egos. And while Neo could get away with illusions, Penny could not—at least, not without spending time learning and leveling Genjutsu or putting points into her perk tree to get holograms. And while both of those would be handy to have later on down the line, they weren't immediately useful. So we'd had to get a little creative in that department. The girl beside me was currently in her 'criminal' disguise, modeled after my look as Shiro—soft-soled black shoes, dark gray leggings, a black and gray checkered skirt, long-sleeved black shirt with a gray vest over it, gloves, and a gray neck gaiter to cover her lower face. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and shaded a light blue-green color, while her eyes were currently copper red. On her left hip, she wore a copy of Ascalon, which looked a bit oversized on her—not that she had any problems handling the weapon, given her strength.

"Because of the time constraints, we don't have much time for preparation. If we move further up the track to scout ahead for something better, the odds of being able to set up a proper ambush before the train reaches it decrease," she pointed out, and I nodded.

"In other words, make the best of what we've got," I summarized, and she nodded. "Are you sure this'll work?"

Penny shot me an amused look. "Yes, Jaune. I've had time to study how the CCT network functions."

"Okay. Let's go," I nodded, dropping altitude and heading for the mouth of a tunnel.

The plan was sound, so long as Penny's information was correct... and so long as several other assumptions were also correct. 'So, we hope for the best and plan for the worst.'

The plan was fairly simple and required a little knowledge of geography, terrain, and how wireless networks worked. The CCT system functioned pretty much analogous to the cellular network on Earth—meaning that it also shared many of the same vulnerabilities. One such vulnerability was terrain features. Like on Earth, anything going into a tunnel would be cut off. Likewise, signal tended to be spotty in mountainous terrain. To deal with this, cellular companies—and whoever managed the CCT network—set up repeater towers in the mountains. To deal with the issue of tunnels, repeater units were stationed along the length of the tunnel and at either end, so as to allow any device relying on the CCT network to function inside tunnels.

Trains, as I'd found out after robbing the one Blake had ridden into Vale, were equipped with CCT transponders. These transponders allowed whoever was watching to not just track whatever the equipment on the train checked for—emergency alarms such as fire, or structural integrity, or intruder alarms for instance—but, as on Earth, allowed them to triangulate the trains' positions based on distance to repeater towers and the primary four CCT broadcast towers located in Vale, Mistral, Atlas, and Vacuo. These repeater towers also meant that no one nation could truly be cut off from the CCT network for long, in the event of a Grimm incursion destroying a primary tower. If both the primary and backup towers in a kingdom were toppled, someone could, theoretically, shift basic emergency functionality to one of the many repeater towers. It would take some hands-on work, but it could probably be done in a matter of days to get a nation's communications back up and running—at least for government use and coordinating an emergency response. Civilian network use would likely take a back seat until they had a better grasp of the situation. Then again, I was forgetting to account for Grimm again. How would the civilian populace react to being told to wait for service to be restored while the government got critical infrastructure back up? 'Not well,' I mused.

The moment a train entered a tunnel, however, it was cut off from the greater CCT repeater network and entirely reliant upon the repeaters in the tunnel it was traveling through. The city of Vale was surrounded on three sides by mountains, while the kingdom's territory extended out beyond the mountains over most of the eastern half of the continent, if I was reading my map correctly. That area included a whole lot of flat land near enough to the city to be ideal for farming—part of which was the reclamation zone Fox Hunt would soon be vying for the contract to guard. The mountain range to the north was especially large, dense, and difficult to traverse. This was why, similarly to Earth, the people who had constructed the rail lines had opted to simply blast tunnels through many of the mountains—they were too steep to go over and too wide and close together to go around effectively in some cases.

Our plan depended on isolating the train in question and dealing with any security riding on it before moving on—making the assumption that it would be on the CCT network. I had my doubts about that, however—after all, one train had already been hijacked by White Fang, and this one was carrying a lot of money. Odds were good that this particular train was running dark, off the CCT grid with its transponder shut down to prevent it from being tracked. So, while one part of the plan was using small explosives to destroy the repeaters in the tunnel once the train was in, the other part was to seal the tunnel itself off. I would be using Earth-aligned mana and the Wall spell to seal off the far end of the tunnel while leaving the tracks intact, before moving to the opposite end of the tunnel where the train would enter while Penny remained behind. Once the train was in, I would seal off the entrance and we would blow the explosives, effectively cutting off the tunnel and everything in it from the outside world. From there, Penny and I would work our way through the train from both ends, moving towards the middle. Penny would secure the engine and shut down the train, and hopefully all of its electrical and security systems, while I started at the opposite end.

My biggest worry here—the place where everything could go completely sideways—was in exactly who was riding that train. Cinder and I had discussed the possibility of Hunters being aboard. If I were looking to guard a train full of money, I'd have sent no less than two full teams worth. I had no delusions that I would be able to take on eight people at Qrow's level, even with Penny as backup. The only plan I had come up with for dealing with any potential Hunter teams that had even a remote chance of success was simple: cheat. Cheat my ass off. In this case, abuse the fuck out of Create ID. Once we boarded the train, we could sweep for Hunters and, if we found any, pull a disappearing act. From there, I would make the absolute largest ID I could and dupe the entire train then immediately flee a safe distance before dropping the ID. I was calling that 'Plan F' and hoping I didn't have to use it. It would cause problems all on its own, what with there being tangible evidence I hadn't stolen the train but had instead created a duplicate—so I was justifiably reluctant to go that route. Well, 'reluctant' was a bit of an understatement.

Setting up the final explosive on the far side of the tunnel, I shot a glance over to Penny, who had shifted her focus out into the mountain pass beyond, where the tracks extended out into a bridge between two mountains with a wide gorge between them. "Penny?"

"I heard someone," she answered, and I frowned before activating Listen.

I could faintly hear a train whistle echo in the distance bouncing off the mountains, along with the sound of the wind, but nothing else. 'No, wait. No birds chirping but there's a squirrel barking nearby.' A thought occurred and I frowned. 'Why are they using the whistle? Aren't they supposed to be trying not to draw attention?' The answer became obvious as I remembered what I'd seen coming in—the area was crawling with wildlife, especially herds of mountain goats. It'd make sense for them to use the whistle to drive them off if they were on the track.

"Near the squirrel?" I asked quietly, and she nodded, pointing back behind us, above and to the left of the tunnel exit. "What are they saying?"

"Replaying," she murmured, before her voice shifted to that of a man and she began repeating the conversation. "Okay, boys. When the train comes out of that tunnel, we're going to zipline down and take it over."

Penny's voice shifted again, to that of another man. "I can hear it coming. Looks like the boss's information was correct."

Another shift in her voice. "Any minute now…"

Back to the second voice. "Where the hell is it?!"

The third one again, this time asking, "Are we sure copying something you saw in a Captain Atlas movie is going to work?"

Sighing, I shook my head. "That's enough." I gestured towards the mouth of the tunnel. "Can you get eyes on them?"

"Sure, Jaune," she agreed, casting Invisibility on herself and stepping out from the dim tunnel interior into the early morning light before turning around and scanning her eyes over the mountain. Copper red eyes lit up with a bright green sheen as she turned her head and locked in on the group she was searching for. 'Five people. Four men, one woman, all hiding in the brush. The last one is using some sort of optical camouflage, but her heat signature gives her away. All faunus. All wearing masks.'

"White Fang," I muttered. "Come on, we're going to seal it up." Penny nodded and quietly hurried back inside. Once we were out of view of the opposing ambush, I began channeling Mana before casting, "Wall."

Earth sprang outwards from the top and sides of the tunnel—a foot thick of solid rock—moving inwards and down, before mating flush with the tracks as I took care not to damage them. A further bit of manipulation had the wall looking less like a wall and more like the result of a collapse—so if the train was armed, which I wasn't entirely sure of, they would hesitate to try blasting through for fear of bringing the mountain down on top of them. The tunnel gradually curved so that you couldn't see one end from the other, but they should have time to stop once they spotted the fake cave-in. "Jaune, what are we going to do about the people outside?"

"For now, ignore them. We'll figure something out once we've got the train," I instructed, and she nodded. "I'll head to the other end."

Penny nodded, moving away from the tracks and into a small alcove set off to the side—a recessed area hiding a steel door, which I assumed was some sort of tunnel maintenance storage area. I had noticed one at the other end of the tunnel as well. It was good that those were there, because it would give the train's crew a place to hole up while they waited for pickup, once we kicked them off that is. Dropping into Flash Step, I took off for the other end of the tunnel. 'My question is, if these are White Fang as Penny said, is Adam nearby? If he is, that could be bad.'

Stopping just shy of the tunnel exit, I cast a glance outside and winced at the difference in light levels. Equipping my shades, I sighed in quiet relief before casting about for our target. It wasn't terribly hard to spot, as it crossed a raised segment of track leading from a tunnel through the nearest mountain to the one we were situated on—less than a minute out. It gleamed silver in the light and even without the glasses providing telescopic zoom I could make out what looked like gun emplacements on the engine—in addition to a large, forward-facing cannon. 'Definitely loaded for bear,' I mused. 'Looks newer than the one Blake stole, too.'

Moving back into the tunnel, I cast Invisibility on myself and backed into the maintenance alcove to wait for it to pass. And then it was flying past me in a rush of noise and displaced air. 'It's in the tunnel,' I sent to Penny as I watched the cars zip by. Every now and then, hidden amongst the freight cars, I picked out a different sort of car—silvery, and bristling with weapons. I reassessed my initial opinion upwards—they weren't just loaded for bear, they had enough firepower to punch a hole through a Grimm horde and keep moving.

Finally, a second engine flew past my position and the tracks on this side were clear. 'Last car just passed me.' Moving out of the alcove, I threw a Genjutsu over the opening showing it as it currently was and sealed off my end of the tunnel—if the second engine was manned, I didn't want them to notice it. In so doing, felt a bit like Wile E. Coyote blocking up a tunnel to lock the Roadrunner in and painting over the rocks. I just hoped this worked better for me than it did for Wiley.

'Detonate the charges now?' Penny asked.

'Go for it,' I sent back, grinning under my mask as I dropped into Flash Step and chased down the train. There were some benefits to having an android girl in my party. For instance, Penny could trigger the charges to detonate herself, without any external equipment.

Muffled echoes of explosions bounced down the tunnel and, a moment later, the sound of brakes filled the air as the train must have spotted the blockage. That would be Penny's signal to begin the operation. 'Boarding the train now. One person manning the engine.' There was a brief pause, then she sent, 'Neutralized.'

'Hold off on shutting things down, since there's a second engine,' I ordered as the engine in question came in sight and I boarded it. Slipping inside, I found a woman standing up out of one of the chairs there, doing something with the controls.

"Engine 1, I say again, what's your status?" she asked.

She had only just begun to turn to see who had entered when I subvocalized, "Sleep." Catching her with Telekinesis, I eased her down into one of the chairs and moved to the controls.

'Okay, second engine crew neutralized. What am I looking at here, Penny?'

The gynoid took a moment to respond, possibly looking over her own set of controls. 'There is a button beneath a flip-up shield to the right of the throttle marked 'Emergency Shutdown.' I believe that is what we are looking for.'

'Okay. Hit it,' I sent back, flipping the panel on mine upwards and hitting the button. A moment later, the engine shut off and the lights went out before coming back on, likely running on emergency power.

Once the security was down, Penny's voice in my head told me she was moving on to the next phase of the operation. 'Actively jamming comms and moving to sweep towards the rear of the train.'

Leaving the rear engine compartment, I thumbed the selector switch on my sheath and drew out the extending straight blade. 'I know knocking someone unconscious doesn't work a damned thing like it does in the movies, and I can't always rely on casting obvious spells if I ever have to do this sort of thing around Cinder. So, I need a more believable way of doing it than simply gesturing at someone and casting. Sleep is too useful not to use, especially as it's pretty much a one-hit KO for most people, so…' Focusing on my blade, I set about trying to imbue it with a specific spell, in the same way I would with just Aura.

You have created the skill Spell-strike!

Spell-strike:Level MAX. Active. Effect: By applying a specific spell to your weapons, you can cast that spell as a physical attack. All '-strike' skills use the current level of the spell used.Spell-strike cost determined by current level of the spell being cast.

Reading the message, I grinned. 'So, Sleep-strike will roll off of my Sleep spell's level. Good to know.'

A glance at my minimap showed the next car to have a small group of enemies, if the five red dots were to be believed. Throwing on Invisibility, I opened the door and stepped through, to the sound of someone talking. "And I bet that's one of the engineers—"

The man speaking cut off as I dropped out of Flash Step, the flat of my blade colliding with the side of his head with a dull thump as I tagged his helmet, before falling to the ground under the effect of Sleep. There were scattered curses from the remaining four, but I was already moving. Two more were down before the first shot was even fired, and then one of the remaining two thought to try the radio while the other dove towards some panel I couldn't identify, but I had to assume was some sort of alarm or something. Picking the more immediate threat, I Stepped again, the flat of my sword slamming down hard on the guard's arm before he could reach whatever switch he was aiming for. I could feel the bone snap through the sword I held and had a moment to wince in sympathy. 'That's going to suck when he wakes up.'

A boot to the last guard's chest knocked him against the wall of the train car, before sending him sprawling to the ground before he could transmit anything over the radio. Tagging him on the head as I moved past, I took a moment to look around to figure out what it was the other guard had tried to do with that control panel. A cursory inspection turned up a squad of stored droids in storage compartments lining the walls of the train car—twenty in total on this car. 'Penny, looks like some of the cars are disguised as standard freight cars but are full of bots and guards.'

'Okay, Jaune. I'm in the third car back and haven't run into anyone yet. However, thermal sensors and passive sonar show people in the next car.'

'Proceed with caution,' I advised, before moving on to the next car up.

With my minimap pointing out threats before they became a problem, sweeping through the rest of the train went fairly smoothly. The only hiccup came when I came across one of those pillbox cars for use against Grimm. The car was locked down tight from the outside, but a quick trip through an ID got me inside—where a small crew manned the guns and a two-man security team guarded them. Apparently, word had spread by runner of intruders on the train and they had begun locking it down—but by then, it was too late, especially since they were unsure who or what exactly had managed to get in, only that some cars towards the front and back had reported hearing sporadic gunfire. I listened just long enough to hear them arguing about activating all the droids on the train before taking them out before they could come to a decision either way.

---

"All ready?" I asked Penny, as I slipped into the front engine.

"Both engines have been restarted and the rear engine's functions have been slaved to this control panel," Penny confirmed. "What about the crew? Will they be okay?"

"They should be fine. I shoved them into the maintenance supply room. Those things are essentially built like small Grimm holdout shelters. They've got food, water, and all the tools and spare parts they need to get the transceivers replaced and get back on the CCT network. They should be able to call for help within a day or so—and by then, we'll be long gone." In point of fact, the little bunkers actually had working CCT terminals. Had—past tense. I had gone out of my way to open up the back panel on each and remove something important. The removed parts had been left sitting on the top shelf of the lockers in their respective supply rooms, which housed spare uniforms—a counter intuitive hiding spot for them, but one that made sense, in a 'last place they'll look for it' way.

Moving to stand behind Penny, I eyed the wall plugging up the tunnel ahead of us. I could still feel both it and the one at the other end, connected as they were by my Mana. With a thought, I willed both constructs to retract back into the mountain—carefully, so as to not damage the tracks. I already had an idea of how I would explain this one to Cinder if word ever got back to her about a potential geomancer being on-site and in order to pull it off, I couldn't leave any physical evidence of earth manipulation behind. "Let's go get this thing delivered so we can get home."

The train quickly picked up speed as it made for the end of the tunnel. "It's later," Penny spoke up suddenly, and I shot her an inquisitive look. "You said not to worry about the White Fang boarders until later," she reminded me, her tone so guileless I wondered if she wasn't giving me sass.

Shifting to look out the window as we cleared the tunnel, I got a good view out over the coming terrain. The tracks exited the tunnel onto a bridge between two of the mountains spanning a gorge nearly a kilometer wide, before curving around the side of the far one and passing out of view. Something caught the light ahead and I spotted a set of thin wires anchored to the tracks and leading back to the mountain behind us. Moving my focus to my minimap, I found the dots there coming from the mountain towards the train and sighed. "Can you lock the engine room doors and lock down the control panels so they can't screw with them if they get past us?"

"Yep!" Penny chirped.

"Okay, do that and meet me up top. We're going to repel boarders," I told her, leaving the engine room and making the short leap up to the top of the train. I spotted the group of five moving swiftly down a pair of zip lines anchored to the side of the mountain. Dropping my hand to Ascalon's hilt, I thumbed the selector switch over to my Dust blade. As soon as I felt the blade click into place, I dumped wind elemental Mana into it and hit the assisted draw. The Iaido draw launched the Aura Strike I'd prepared, the heat and wind combining to form a near-invisible line of superheated air in a razor thin Aura/Mana envelope that passed over the train and neatly severed the lines. The zip lines went slack and the five White Fang riding them fell.

Over the sound of the wind picking up as the train accelerated, I could just make out four thumps as four bodies collided with the side of the train. A scream sounded, growing fainter as the fifth man fell below into the gorge. A moment later, three masked White Fang pulled themselves up from the side of the train to the top. 'Where is number five?' I wondered, risking a glimpse at my minimap, which showed three dots nearly on top of each other ahead of me and a single dot crossing off the edge of the map as we moved away. 'Maybe went after the one who fell? They could be close enough to show up as one dot, or simply off the map now.' Returning my attention to our boarders, I gave them a look over. My Semblance refused to identify them by their actual names but it did provide me with their levels, titles, and an actual guild name—the one on the left at 35, the one on the right at 36, with the last one being 39. When I focused on their names, the triple question marks there shifted to 'Mook 1,' 'Mook 2,' and 'Mook 3.' Their 'guild' was listed as the White Fang, while their titles were all 'White Fang Grunt.' They spotted me standing there and, for a moment, they hesitated.

'Penny?'

'Almost done,' the girl replied.

"Sorry, fellas," I called, loudly enough to carry over the sound of the wind and the rattling of the tracks as I began stalling for time. "This train was over booked. Tell Adam you'll have to catch another!"

"Adam?" the one on the left asked, confusion evident in his tone as he turned to the others, who shrugged. "We don't work for Taurus!"

I blinked at that. 'Wait. What? But didn't Blake say Adam ran the Fang? Splinter cell, maybe?' I wondered. I could work it out later, I needed to keep them distracted and buy Penny time. "Ah. My mistake. Still, I'm afraid that this train has already been stolen, and it would be a slight to my pride as a thief if I let you rob a train I'd already gone to the trouble of taking."

The one on the right opened his mouth and made to say something, but the center one—who seemed most likely to be the leader if not for his title labeling him as a mook—held out a hand. "Stop. He's stalling. He's probably got a partner somewhere. Kill him, then find whoever he's working with."

"Now, that's not nice. I was just going to boot you off the train. But if you've moved up to murder, I may just have to return the favor," I warned, slipping my sword back into its sheath in preparation to draw.

Reaching behind his back, the tallest of the three drew a large blade and leveled it at me. I had the feeling I had seen something like it before, and a moment later I was proven right when what I thought was a serrated edge blurred into motion with a sound reminiscent of a circular saw. 'So, saw-blade must be a pretty common thing with the White Fang, then. Which means they don't have unique weapons for their mooks, just a whole bunch of mass produced crap. Still, even mass produced crap can be deadly—every cheap Slav 1911 knockoff or Chinese AK can speak to that.'

To either side, the two shorter White Fang drew their own weapons—a longsword that appeared split up the middle with a glowing red Dust chamber near its base, and an SMG that looked like an MP5 clone adapted to Remnant tech. The two sword wielders charged, while the mook with the SMG strafed to the side and made to draw a bead on me. My danger senses screamed.

"Shiro!" Penny's voice called from behind me as a request—demand, really—for mental attention hit me and I found myself accepting the feed from her senses reflexively. The fourth White Fang member showed up as a blue and white blur of heat against the cooler background of the train and mountains as we passed over the gorge and the tracks began to wind around the side of another mountain, a quiet flutter of cloth creating a ghostly outline of her form, her body appearing translucent while her bones, armor, and weapons stood out brightly—all of Penny's input senses, all at once and overwhelming, but I got the idea as the invisible girl descended on me from above with a pair of what looked like kukri raised to strike. In trying to distract the three I could see so Penny could work I didn't realize that they themselves were acting as a distraction for their fourth member to take me out.

Dropping sharply into Haste, I pivoted and hit the assisted draw—there wasn't enough time to channel for an Aura strike, so I was going to have to brute-force it. Worse, I was having to deal with suddenly seeing myself in third person while at the same time still having my own normal vision. I caught sight of Penny already moving to intercept at the same time her feed shifted perspective, a copy of my polearm in her hands. Thinking quickly, I sent her a mental image of what I wanted her to do, making it an order through the party system then dropped her feed so I could concentrate. As I turned and drew, aiming high for the descending White Fang member, Penny dropped low and slipped under the arc of my blade, shifting the polearm in her hands into a wide swing to fend off the two mooks who appeared to be a whole lot faster than I had initially suspected given how quickly they'd covered the ground between us.

Glowing red Dust blade met with arcing electricity from a pair of kukri glowing with yellow tracery. I had a moment to think that those didn't look like mook weapons, before I felt my muscles spasm. Momentum kept the blade moving, however, and electricity forces muscles to contract, which is why people being electrocuted spasm. It was a bit of good luck on my part that my grip remained solid as the force of my blow caught the girl above me and flung her several yards away, sending her rolling backwards along the top of the train with several thumps. Behind me, a wave of frost blasted out from Penny's first swing, drawing the White Fang up short before the one with the longsword swung and sent a wave of fire at us. A second swing of Penny's staff neutralized the fire and returned with a wave of fire of her own from the other end as she completed the rotation.

"I'll deal with them," she told me, loud enough that we both knew they would hear and leaving me to deal with the invisible girl.

I had a moment to wonder why I was getting stuck fighting someone I couldn't necessarily see, before the girl in question rolled to her feet. She wore a skin-tight body suit of some kind, along with a cloth mask in the style of the White Fang masks, but which trailed material and seemed to actually be part of the rest of the suit.

White Fang

Mook Leader

White Fang Infiltrator

Level: 42

'That's why I'm getting her. She's the biggest threat.'

I was pretty sure I was being glared at under that mask, but I didn't much care. The girl crouched and disappeared—her suit going translucent and leaving an impression of a full expanse of naked flesh for a fraction of a second before she vanished. What I'd seen was a whole lot of pale, hairless flesh topped by a head of black hair just long enough to pull into a pony tail, small breasts, and a body covered in lithe, toned muscle. I would have enjoyed the free show more, if she wasn't trying to kill me. 'She'd have to be pretty self-confident to walk around exposed like that, too.'

Frowning and looking around to see if I could spot anything out of place, I activated Listen and focused on my surroundings while focusing on trying to detect her Aura. Results came back negative and a look at my minimap had my eyes narrowing—she had disappeared. My Semblance had stopped tracking her. My assessment of her threat level shifted drastically upwards as I got solid confirmation of something I'd feared for a while now—someone else could suppress their Aura output to zero. The pad of feet moving quickly to my left drew my attention to a faint distortion in the air. 'Even if she can fully suppress he Aura, her cloak kind of sucks. Thank fuck for that,' I mused silently, before channeling for an Aura strike and sending an arc of energy her way. I heard something hit the deck in what sounded like a roll before subvocalizing "Invisibility" and suppressing my own Aura.

"What the—?" I heard a quiet mutter.

Dropping into Flash Step, I came out immediately behind the faint distortion in the air that she was creating and slammed her hard with the side of the blade. Her camouflage dropped and she went crashing to the roof of the train, desperately patting down her clothes where they had begun to smoke just from the short contact with my blade. Dropping Invisibility, I met her gaze and smirked under my mask. "Sucks when someone uses your own tricks against you, doesn't it?" The girl's eyes narrowed and I added salt to the wound. "Especially if they can do it better." At this point I was hoping that coming up against someone who could do her own trick would rattle her nerves enough to send her into retreat.

Instead, the girl stood up straight and spread her arms out to the side. The suit around her went translucent again, and then things went a bit trippy. Her body began to pulse a quick pattern of colors up and down and even my under-leveled Aura Sense could pick out the subtle wavering pattern of Aura washing off of her as she gave up on stealth to try a different approach. 'Where have I seen something like this?' I wondered, pausing as she slowly stepped closer, weaving slightly to the left and right as she stepped. I had paused long enough to wonder what the hell she was trying to accomplish, but given that she was moving on me, I got the impression that that's the effect whatever she was doing was meant to achieve.

When she got close enough, she drew her right arm back and thrust forward, aiming for my throat. Ascalon flicked out parrying the blow at her wrist with the side of the blade as I returned the favor, stepping into her guard and bringing my return strike around to swing down diagonally from left to right. Her eyes went wide and she hastily back stepped, but not quickly enough to escape the arc of my blade. The suit was cut and the area around the strike went black as it burned, while the skin beneath it parted and cauterized on contact. The girl clutched her chest and hissed in pain. Taking in the damage and how little resistance my sword had met, I frowned. 'I didn't expect her to take any damage from that. It's like she didn't have her Aura up to shield. Does her fancy flashy skin require enough to force her to choose between shielding or cloaking?'

The clash and occasional squeal of swords on the metal of Penny's copy of Ascalon's Dustcaster stopped for a moment, only to be replaced by the sound of a gun squeezing off bursts of automatic fire. Meeting the eyes of the woman across from me, I weighed my options for a moment. On the one hand, I had killed before, but usually indirectly—either through turning the enemy against each other with spells, or feeding people to Sanguine. They were terrorists and killing them would remove them from the White Fang's arsenal—especially their little infiltrator/assassin.

On the other hand, at least one member of their little excursion was still alive and unaccounted for—the one who had fallen off the zip lines hadn't died. I would have gotten a notification or an EXP gain or something, and I had not. Even if I disappeared the bodies of these four, unless I tracked him down and made him disappear as well then he would report back and word would filter down that someone associated with Cinder was killing White Fang needlessly—assuming he got a good enough look to identify me. It was safest to assume I was made when I cut down the zip line. That they had attacked us with lethal intent first wouldn't matter, it would just be a human killing more faunus, and it would cause Cinder problems that would directly impact my standing with her. If I killed them, I would have to stop the train and Penny and I would have to track down the fifth mook, to make sure he didn't become the one that got away—which would mean delaying leaving the scene of the crime when the guards and engineers we had left alive, if unconscious, would be calling back in as soon as they woke up and got communications working. 'Let them go and they continue their terrorist ways. Kill them and I potentially lose my 'in' with Cinder, meaning everything I've done to this point to get there goes straight down the shitter. Fuck me, some days you just can't win for losing.'

A yelp of pain from behind me drew my attention to Penny. Penny—an Aura-and-Dust fueled combat android, who had tanked something that had nearly one-shot me—had somehow actually been injured by one of those mooks? 'Fuck it. Err on the side of caution.'

Priorities shifted and I reversed course, darting back across the train towards the other four combatants. I dropped into Flash Step, coming out of it mid-draw to the SMG-wielding mook's 2 o'clock—who, now that I was closer, looked to have a set of small bat-like ears atop his head. He looked like he'd already been on the receiving end of Penny's tender mercies, judging by the obvious damage and the fact that the arm not holding the SMG was handling limply at his side—if I had to guess, he was probably out of Aura or damn near it. Ascalon bit into the armor over his right arm and punched clean through, drawing down the length of the arm and coming out between his index and middle-fingers—leaving behind a bloody, cauterized mess and sending the SMG tumbling off the train as he fell to the ground screaming and tucking his maimed appendage against his chest.

Turning back to Penny, I found she had disarmed the longsword wielding mook and likely broken his leg—at least, I suspected as much, given that knees weren't supposed to bend in and backwards like that. The gynoid had been hit full on by a good burst from the SMG, but other than damaging her armor, she looked fine. 'Penny, you okay?' I asked, to make sure.

'Fine, Jaune. Electric Dust rounds really sting.'

Shifting my gaze towards where I'd left the other girl, I was unsurprised to see she had bolted.

"Hey fugly," I called to the guy holding the saw-blade, looking uncertainly between me, Penny, and his downed comrades. "Take your guys and go. You won't get a better offer. We just want the train, but if you push the issue, a little maiming is going to be the least of your worries."

The high pitched sound of the saw cut off abruptly, leaving the comparatively quiet sounds of a moving train and the wind rushing past us seeming like dead silence by comparison. "Fine," he grunted, picking up the mook with the bum knee around the waist while I hefted the one with the ruined arm and gave him a shove towards his buddies. The big one hesitated, looking off the side of the train as the ground rushed by—the terrain dropping off from the side of the tracks at an angle down the rocky side of the mountain, broken only by the occasional tree and bit of brush—before asking, "Do you think you could stop the train first?"

"Could be worse. At least we're past the gorge," I shrugged, before leveling Ascalon at him and beginning to pour Mana into the blade, causing its already glowing length to brighten. "Now, tuck and roll."

"What? N-no, I can't make that," the guy with the wounded arms whined.

He was forcibly shut up when the largest of the three picked him up in a fireman's carry and took off at a jog for the edge. As he jumped, I faintly heard him complaining, "This is going to suck."

The rough terrain off to either side of the train looked unpleasant to land on, but with Aura it wouldn't be fatal. I moved over to Penny to check her out even as a notification popped up, letting me know I had leveled. "Jaune, I am fine," the girl protested quietly as I pulled the damaged shirt under her chest piece aside and probed the places where she had been hit.

When the gynoid winced, I met her eyes with a knowing look. "'Fine,' huh?" Penny stuck her tongue out at me and I rolled my eyes. "You were holding back."

"So were you!" Penny accused.

I conceded the point with a nod. "Yes. Holding back from killing them. You could've roughed them up a lot harder than you did."

"I didn't want to break them on accident. Biologicals are fragile, even with Aura," she admitted.

I didn't really have a counter to that. Sighing, I asked, "How did those rounds even get through your Aura?"

"They didn't," Penny answered. "My Aura blocked most of it."

"So why the 'ow?'"

Penny stuck her tongue out. "Because robots are weak to electricity?"

Now I knew she was giving me sass. The best way to deal with it was to not respond. "Go back to the engine room and wait. I'm going to make sure the rest of the train is secure and that chick didn't sneak off to cause trouble while I wasn't looking." I didn't know if she had some way of hiding from my map, so I would be making a manual sweep.

"Okay," she pouted, and I shook my head. She didn't want me worrying about any potential injuries, but she pouted over being left alone for ten minutes.

As it turns out, infiltrator-girl had actually left the train when I'd taken my eyes off her. Once I'd made sure of that, and that there weren't any traps waiting for us, I set about moving back towards the front of the train, making note of everything I came across as I went so I could duplicate it once we stopped—bots, guns, Dust rounds in calibers to fit the guns, and the real prize: money. Lots and lots of money. All of it in the new, plastic Lien as opposed to paper or coin. I wondered briefly whether or not the duplicate Lien would flag as counterfeit if someone happened to use the same piece of plastic across town, but decided it wouldn't hurt to try it out regardless. If it worked, I could certainly find uses for it. Fox Hunt could always stand to have more cash, after all. On the other hand, my own personal stash of money was nearly out after having equipped myself for Beacon, so I would probably wind up sticking a bit into my own pockets regardless of where the rest went.

"Hey, Penny," I began as I entered the forward engine room again, "Do you know how Lien works?" Penny opened her mouth and I beat her to the punch by fishing out one of the little plastic cards from my Inventory. "Plastic Lien."

"Oooh," the girl mouthed, before smiling. Her eyes lit up green a moment and she hummed. "Magnetic strip on the side, RFID chip inside, and… the entire thing is one circuit board with contact points on the upper and lower left side connected to a second chip that looks like a solid state memory module."

I blinked. "That's… fucking overkill," I muttered, shaking my head. "Yeah, there's going to be no way that someone doesn't pick up on half these things being counterfeit if they ever get them side by side."

"What do we do, then?" Penny asked, and I shrugged.

"On Earth? I'd plead ignorance. Especially if you couldn't tell which was which. Here? I'm not so sure. It's something to ask the the girls when we get back, since I don't know the local laws nearly as well."

Opening up my HUD's scroll interface and selecting the number I wanted to dial from, I selected Cinder from my contacts and waited for the other end to pick up. I was moderately annoyed when, instead of picking up or allowing it to ring, I was forwarded to voicemail. The scroll beeped, waiting for a message. Smirking faintly, I said, "Hi honey! Got the eggs you wanted. They were running a special on bacon, but I decided against bringing any home with me. Got harassed by some political activists on my way out of the store, but you know how that goes—they run away when someone actually fights back. Luckily none of the eggs got broken. I kind of forgot where we were going tonight, so send me a message with that when you get the chance. See you soon."

Disconnecting the call, I made my way back into the front engine and opened up my map to look over the rail lines. "Take the next right, Penny. That'll take us into the forest. Once we're a few miles in, we can find a rail spur somewhere to park and wait since someone's not answering her phone."

"You sound upset. Has Cinder done something bad?" she asked. Before I could answer, Penny shot me a suspicious look. "Jaune, why do women you know keep doing things they know will get them spankings? If they keep doing it, I don't think you're doing them right."

Snorting quietly, I turned away to hide my smile, but I had a feeling it was entirely too late for that. "You'd have to ask them, Penny."

"I think I will," Penny chirped. "I am beginning to wonder if I am missing out on something."

"Lord give me strength," I muttered under my breath.

---

As the day neared an end, we pulled up to the end of a rail spur situated in a valley hidden in the mountains, several miles off the main path of the tracks. I had picked this location for a few reasons—being under the cover of trees was one of those, but the biggest was its proximity to a small lake. Additionally, my map showed no people or Grimm within its detection range, so that was a nice bonus. I supposed it made sense—no people around, middle of nowhere, Grimm were as likely to simply pass through the area and keep moving as they were to set up camp and stick around a while.

The center of the valley looked like it was the site of a large impact some time in the distant past—which had left a crater that collected water coming from a stream leading back up into the mountains. Considering that my Semblance labeled the lake as 'Meteor Lake,' that left the options for what had created it as either a random meteor or perhaps whatever event had shattered the moon. Oddly enough, the map showed this area sitting at less than five percent Spirit density. Either a Hunter team had passed through here recently, or some places in the wilds were safer than others.

Making sure the train was locked down and secured, I pulled down the mask over the lower half of my face and turned a smile on Penny. "How do you feel about camping?"

"I don't know, Jaune. I have never been camping," Penny answered, likewise removing her mask for the moment.

"Well, I suppose we'll see then," I told her, moving down towards the lake while looking for a nice place to set up for the night. Picking a good spot, I opened my Inventory and dug out a tent and the other things I'd need. "I'll set this up if you'll go look for firewood. Don't cut anything down if you can help it—try to get only stuff that's already fallen off trees. Green stuff makes more smoke and you can see that for miles."

"Alrighty then," she chirped, turning on her heel and marching towards the woodline to look for wood.

Once I had the ground cleared and tent tied down, I pulled a couple of rolled up sleeping bags and pillows from Inventory before tossing those inside the tent. The map said it would probably rain later tonight, so if I wanted to get fish caught and cooked, I was going to have to hurry. Another look into my Inventory, however, came up empty on either bait or tackle. Making a mental note to fill those holes in my Inventory later, I set about abusing magic to get what I needed. Some Earth manipulation left us with a shallow depression in the ground in front of the tent for the fire—and while I was at it, I went ahead and softened the earth under where our sleeping bags would be so I wouldn't wake up sore.

Humming in thought, I produced my Bounded Field creation kit from Inventory and checked to make sure the 'pen' was full of Colorless Dust before dropping it to float in the grasp of Telekinesis. Then, I pulled up more Mana and walked a circle several yards out from the tent and camp fire, solidifying the earth beneath my feet into stone and raising it up an inch above the surface as I did—the pen moving along between my feet and leaving a line on the newly raised stone. Making a short spiral inwards once I had the outer circle up, I raised a small, round section of stone in the middle of the camp and set about tracing a Sanctification seal atop it, using just enough Purity White to light up the whole pattern. It wouldn't last forever, and it wouldn't have the power the one back in my apartment or at Fox Hunt did—especially since I was going to power it strictly with Mana and wouldn't be using the ritual empowerment method—but it would be good enough for tonight. Thankfully, with Spirit density so low, I wouldn't actually have to make an ID and clear the last few percent.

With that done and the seal powered up, I moved closer to the base of a nearby tree. I looked around for a good bed of dead leaves and, kicking those aside, churned the soil up with more Earth manipulation—pushing a writhing mass of earthworms to the surface. Conjuration gave me a small coffee can—complete with red paint and a familiar label—while Telekinesis got a handful of bait and dirt into the can. Cleaning up the mess I'd made, I headed for the shore. Penny's voice halted me before I was halfway there as she called, "Is this enough?"

Turning to see what she had collected, I laughed quietly at the sight of her hauling a pair of logs bigger around than she was wide and longer than she was tall, one under each arm. "Penny, it's overkill. Here, let me," I said, grabbing both logs with Telekinesis and dropping them beside the fire pit I'd dug. A Wind blade had the end of one of them cut off and sectioned into something useful—but a glance at the Map and no real idea when Cinder would call and tell us to meet her convinced me to section up that log and make firewood of the entire thing. Stowing the excess in Inventory in case we wound up staying longer than tonight, I arranged the firewood how I wanted it in the pit and Conjured a metal grate over it to cook on later. "That should take care of just about everything except food. Come on," I nodded towards the lake and took off.

"But Jaune, don't you have food in your Inventory?" Penny asked, hurrying to catch up and turning copper-colored eyes up at my red contacts.

"I do," I agreed. "But part of the fun of camping is that you're supposed to get your own food and not haul food in."

Nodding in acceptance of that logic, Penny asked, "What are we going to be eating?" Holding the coffee can out, I let her see its contents and had to hide a grin at her disgusted look. "I… I do not believe I am hungry tonight, Jaune."

"Not the worms, silly. Most people don't eat worms," I told her, and the ancula gave a quiet sigh of relief at that information. "They're bait, for fish."

Penny blinked, her head tilting sideways a few degrees as she pointed out the obvious. "But couldn't you just use magic to get fish?"

I nodded. "Sure. I could walk out on top of the water and use any one of half a dozen different spells to just pull fish straight out of the water. If we were in pressing need of a lot of fish or in any particular hurry, I would. We don't need much though, and the only rush I need to put on this is to get it done before the rain gets in. I kind of need to get some practice in anyway, for when Beacon starts and we start going on overnight missions and the like." A smirk crossed my lips as I added, "Besides, doing it that way would take all the fun out of it."

Frowning, Penny looked highly skeptical as she said, "If you say so."

Rolling my eyes, I came to a stop at the lake shore and Conjured a bucket, which I filled part of the way with water. The lake water was nearly crystal clear, and even in the red-orange light of the setting sun I could still make out fish of all sizes swimming in its depths. Putting my makeshift livewell and bait can to the side, I Conjured up a couple of metal folding chairs. I followed that up with a pair of fishing rods, reels, along with the necessary lines, hooks, corks, and sinkers to use them. Leaning mine against my chair, I handed Penny the rod I'd made for her. "Here, hold it like this," I instructed, showing her where to put her hands.

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

Admittedly, the reels didn't look like much. I wasn't sure I had a high enough level of Conjuration to make a proper spinning reel like I really wanted so I had settled for the simplest reel I knew: a set of metal discs and a handle to turn them. I hadn't used one of these since I was a kid, but I figured it was like riding a bicycle. "Yes, I'm sure. Now, bait your hook."

Walking Penny through harpooning a defenseless worm on a hook was as much an exercise in frustration as it was good for laughs. She was oddly squeamish about it—though, considering how she reacted to me telling her to wash and reuse her clothes, I suppose I shouldn't be too terribly surprised. Once she was set, I showed her how to cast and nearly got myself impaled for my trouble. "Sorry, Jaune," she apologized. Somehow, she didn't sound one hundred percent sincere, and I suspected it may have been payback for making her handle a worm.

"It's fine," I waved her apology off. "Try again. Not as hard this time."

Once she had her line cast, I set about baiting my own hook. "Jaune?" Penny asked, and when I hummed in acknowledgement, she asked, "Now what do I do?"

I shot her an amused look as I pulled back and cast my own line out several yards from where hers was. "Isn't it obvious?" I asked, and when she shook her head, I grinned and dropped into my chair. "Sit and wait."

"That doesn't seem very fun, or very efficient," she protested, but dropped into the chair I'd made for her anyway. The chair sank an inch into the sand under her weight, but when it didn't protest further I turned my attention back to the view of the sunset over the lake, keeping my eye on the corks as a matter of habit.

"Penny, if it were efficient, it would be called 'catching,' not 'fishing.' And it is fun, but it's also supposed to be relaxing." Gesturing towards the lake, the sun, and the mountains I asked, "Isn't this pleasing to look at?"

"The sun is a ball of gas exploding in nuclear fusion—"

"Penny," I interrupted gently. "You're overthinking it."

"Yes, Jaune. It's very pretty, when I… don't overthink it," she agreed, and I snorted softly. I had the distinct impression she had wanted to say something else there, likely along the lines of 'dumb myself down.'

I shrugged. "Get used to it. Having an appreciation for the world around us is part of what sets humans apart from animals. Sometimes, it really is nice to just sit and take a while to take it in." Of course, there were entire swathes of people who didn't agree, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

Penny was silent for a time, and from the glow of her eyes and her sudden sitting up in her chair, I guessed she was watching the fish a little more directly than I was. Her cork dropped below the surface a moment later and she turned wide eyes on me. "Jaune, it has my hook! What do I do?"

"Pull the rod up to set the hook. No more than a couple of pounds of force—you don't want to yank the hook out of the fish," I instructed.

The temporarily green haired girl gave the rod a swift jerk upwards before reporting, "It's still on!"

"Good. Now, reel it in. Not too fast, and if it starts moving to one side or the other, move the rod with it. And since I know you can see the bottom, try not to let it run up under something and snag the line."

Feeling my own line twitch against my finger, I jerked reflexively and started reeling slowly, keeping my attention focused on Penny. Finally, her fish came up out of the water and the girl shot me a wide-eyed look that brought to mind the idea of the dog that's finally caught the car: 'now what do I do with it?' "It's big enough that you can lip it. Stick your thumb in its mouth," her nose wrinkled and I laughed. "Don't give me that look, little lady. Now, stick your thumb in that fish's mouth and push the hook out, then drop him in the bucket."

"It's slimy!" Penny complained, as she worked the hook out. "How does Blake eat these?!"

"Prepared," I deadpanned. "You don't usually eat them with the scales and slime still on. Bucket."

Sticking out her tongue at me, the gynoid dropped the fish in the livewell and turned to watch as I pulled in my own. While Penny's had the look of a medium sized bass, mine looked more like a perch or something similar—smaller, but just as tasty. "So," Penny began, drawing out the word, "Do we eat now?"

I snorted softly and shook my head, dropping my own fish in the bucket. Floating the bait up to eye level, I focused on trying to bait my hook using only gravity-elemental Telekinesis. My first try was a resounding failure, but at least the poor worm I crushed to death wasn't harpooned, drowned, and used as a last meal for a predator. I grabbed another out of the can, carefully this time. It splattered the moment I tried to stick it on the hook and I growled quietly in frustration. "Nope. Two fish aren't going to cut it. For one person? Sure, if they've got enough meat on them. And while these look like they do," I admitted. I passed Penny the can so she could grab her own as I crushed my third worm, before returning to trying to bait my hook as soon as she handed it back. "I'd still prefer at least six. Maybe eight. Enough to last tonight and for breakfast tomorrow, figuring two for each of us."

Penny pouted, but set about baiting her hook again. Slowly, a small smile stole over her lips and she admitted quietly, "Getting the fish in was kind of fun."

"Told you so," I smirked, finally getting a worm onto the hook without crushing it into paste. I settled back into my seat before casting an orb of light above us since the sun had finally gone down behind the tree line.

If Penny had been squeamish about baiting the hook and touching fish, she looked positively rebellious when I handed her a conjured knife and told her to help me clean them. Once they started cooking and the smell of them hit her nose, however, she couldn't get her fork into one fast enough. 'Another thing I need to add to my list for Beacon: travel-safe spices. If I have to actually make and use a backpack and not just carry shit in my Inventory, then I'm going to need some basics for food prep. Salt and pepper at least, preferably red pepper too. Those shouldn't smell overpowering if they're closed up properly or when we cook with them. And having a good stock of spices in Inventory for when I'm not confined to a backpack would be nice. We seriously need to get space expanded bags tested and made safe, ASAP.'

With the meal finished, leftovers stored, and Conjured dishes and flatware dismissed, we made one more patrol of the train and surrounding area to make sure everything was secured and nothing had moved in while we were distracted before coming back to camp. "Brush your teeth," I handed Penny a conjured toothbrush and dug a tube of toothpaste and a bottle of water out of my Inventory, before conjuring up my own toothbrush.

Once we were finished with that, I went to relieve myself a bit deeper in the woods before coming back and finding Penny had already made her way into the tent and slipped into the sleeping bag. I frowned as I noticed that the pair of sleeping bags I'd laid out had been zipped up together down the middle. "The others are a bad influence on you," I sighed, unequipping enough gear to leave me in my pants and a shirt. "Did you take off your boots?"

"Mhmm!" Penny chirped, beaming up a smile at me before holding her hands out for a hug.

Rolling my eyes, and earning a raspberry in return, I slipped into the sleeping bag and let her cuddle. "So, any progress decrypting those memories?" I asked, and the girl in my arms shook her head.

"Some, but it's slow going," she admitted. "I guess I went through a lot of effort to make sure no one else could open them."

"Well, keep at it. If you went to that much trouble to hide them, they're probably important." I left it unsaid that it could be that they were just that bad.

"Will…" Penny hesitated before looking up to meet my eyes. "Will you watch them with me, when I finish decrypting them? I don't want to be alone when I do."

Pulling her into a hug, which she eagerly returned, I nodded. "Yeah. Can you hold them once they're unlocked?"

"I can keep them isolated indefinitely," Penny answered quietly, her voice partly muffled against my chest.

That would help. It would mean I wouldn't have to rush over every time she got close to decrypting one and we could set aside time to go over them. "Okay, just let me know when you need me." Reaching down to ruffle her hair, I said, "Bed time."

"We're not in a bed, Jaune," Penny protested.

"You know what I meant," I deadpanned, closing my eyes and shifting to get comfortable. It wasn't long before rain began to patter softly against the roof above us, before picking up in intensity as wind began to shake the tent and intermittent flashes of blue lightning lit up the area even through the walls.

"Are you sure lightning won't hit the tent?" Penny asked quietly, a hint of worry in her voice.

I snorted softly at that. "It'll be fine, Penny." A particularly close strike caused the girl in my arms to jump. "Probably."

---

The system was unable to update! Would you like to view the Error Log?

Error Log: The Gamer Semblance v. 1.7.4

Rolling sleep-filled eyes around, I took in my surroundings before yesterday's events came back to me. A glance down showed Penny curled up in my arms, with her face pressed into my chest. "Good morning, Jaune," she greeted softly.

"Morning," I grunted, stretching in place to pop my neck and back. Glancing back at the update notification, I hummed before opening the error log and reading over its contents. 'Hrm. 'Unable to update, insufficient spirit reserve?'' I glanced at the SP bar under my HP and MP and frowned, finding it sitting in the bottom tenth but not draining. 'Wonder what happened there.'

Checking myself for negative status effects and finding none, I resigned myself to being unable to investigate it for the moment. Sighing, I unwrapped my arms from around Penny and sat up. "Mind checking the train while I get breakfast going?"

Pouting, Penny stood and equipped her boots and the rest of her armor, along with her copy of Ascalon as she stepped off the sleeping bag. "Okay, Jaune."

Rolling my eyes at her behavior, I rolled out of bed and equipped my boots before moving outside. Rain left the fire pit an ashy, muddy hole, but everything else was intact. Some earth manipulation had the ash and mud slurry buried and fresh earth pulled to the surface, where I dropped a stack of cut firewood from Inventory. Dropping onto the log we'd left in front of the fire last night, I Conjured up a grate to cook on and lit the fire, waiting for it to burn down before I put food on it.

Yawning, I sat staring at the fire as it burned before finally deciding to have a look through my settings again. At times like these, I almost regretted not being a coffee drinker—and then I remembered exactly how foul the stuff was and promptly killed that train of thought. Soda would have to do for my morning caffeine fix. Today's can was labeled as 'Schnee Cola' and tasted like some imported Coca Cola knockoff on Earth. Not terrible, but not what I was looking for. 'Could be worse. Could taste like Mountain Dew,' I mused. Judging the fire to be low enough, I pulled cleaned and prepared fish from Inventory and lifted them onto the grate with Telekinesis before settling in to wait.

"The train's systems report everything is secure and still locked down," Penny reported, dropping down onto the log to my left a little while later.

"Thanks, Penny," I murmured, reaching out with Telekinesis to pull the fish off of the grate. Watching her from the corner of my eye, I teased, "Have fun last night?"

As I began conjuring up plates and cutlery, Penny tilted her head up and pouted at me. "I'm scared of lightning. And you're a meanie."

"Yep," I agreed with a nod.

The redhead turned greenette frowned, tilting her head to the side for a moment in contemplation before asking, "Are you teasing me?"

My lips twitched as I fought down a smirk. "No," I drew the word out.

"Jaune, why did that set off my sarcasm detection algorithm?" she asked, and I blinked.

"Didn't know you had one of those." Penny stuck her tongue out and I raised an eyebrow at that. "Did you make a joke?"

"No," she returned, drawing the word out as I had.

Reaching over, I mussed her hair and turned my attention to finishing my breakfast. "You're going to have to tell me which of the girls taught you how to sass, so I can have a talk with them when I get back."

Penny turned a suspicious look on me, asking, "Jaune, will this talk lead to spanking?"

"Probably," I admitted. Gesturing at her plate, I asked, "Now, finish your breakfast so we can head out. I figure we can range out of here a few miles until we hit Grimm, then work on skills and such and maybe get a few levels."

"That sounds fun," she answered, before digging into her food with machine-like efficiency as I watched.

Once she was finished, I released the mana holding our plates and cutlery together. Pushing myself up off the log, I walked away from the fire. "Come on, we've got until Cinder calls before we have to move again—no point wasting time sitting around."

Picking a direction at random, we set off at a brisk pace. Opening up my map, I kept an eye on it as we moved—looking for both enemies and increased Spirit density. A little over a mile away from the southern edge of the lake, I noticed something odd—a line of light red encircling the area around the lake. 'It's almost like looking at a sanctify effect,' I mused. The area around the lake had a higher Spirit density, sitting at around 15% as opposed to the lake's 5%, with the boundary a rough circle centered roughly on the middle of the lake according to my map. 'Naturally occurring safe zone, or something leftover from the meteor that made the lake?'

I could probably go poking around in the middle of the lake and find out, but if my growing suspicions were correct and there was a large deposit of Dust there, I was going to leave it be. I marked the lake on my map for later, in case I ever passed through the area again in the future, and made a mental note to keep an eye out for similar areas while in the field. If there were other natural sanctuaries out there, it would be nice to have a list of them in case I needed one—or to bring my team here if we passed through.

Slowing our pace through the trees, I frowned as I realized that even outside the field or whatever it was around the lake, Grimm seemed to be avoiding the place. 'Good to know.'

Once the map read 20% Spirit density, I opened up an ID with the default settings. "Ready, Penny?"

"Ready, Jaune!" she chirped, and I chuckled at her enthusiasm.

Swapping into my new 'Jaune' armor and the weapons that came with it while Penny kept her 'Verdi' outfit on to get some more practice in with Ascalon, we started looking for trouble. Scouting around the ID, we found an encampment of goblins and I grinned. "This should be fun," I murmured, reaching up to tap the button and unfold my helmet from its storage form around my neck. The display booted immediately and began highlighting everything in the area with IFF markers. A look at Penny showed her with a green circle around her head as it identified her as a friendly. I frowned at that—I hadn't had a chance to set up the software or enter anyone onto my list of 'friendly targets,' so it should identify everyone with the yellow circles of potential hostiles. 'Semblance integrated it fully, then,' I guessed. It made sense, seeing as it painted every goblin there—numbering at 60, according to my modified HUD—Kill-on-Sight red.

Shrugging it off, I targeted the group. They were clustered around a low camp fire, eating what looked like roasted deer. The Dustcaster pattern in my coat lit up Mass Effect blue as I channeled mana, magnifying the effect as I gestured in their direction with a wave of raw gravity and intent. Six green-skinned barbarians splattered into paste as the ground cratered slightly under where they had been. Penny took off from my side, Stepping into the flank of a group of three and hitting the assisted draw. Her copy of Ascalon whipped out, describing a perfect green arc through their position and cleaving bodies in its wake.

'Wind Dust?' I wondered, observing the blade for a second as she pivoted and rammed it into another goblin's skull. Instead of pulling the sword out, she pushed it deeper as she stepped forward, then yanked it out length-wise through the goblin's skull, the serrated back side of that blade taking bits and pieces of meat and bone with it and leaving behind a ruined mess as she moved on to the next target. I knew the sword could hold up to eight different d8 sized Dust crystals to power the Colorless blade—it had been one of the big reasons why I'd opted for that type of Dust for the blade, since it would mean I wouldn't have to lug around a single blade of each different type of Dust and it could be swapped on the fly. I just preferred to use red or yellow for the heat or electrical effects. I needed to branch out in my experimentation with it, it seemed.

'Speaking of experimentation,' I mused, focusing and channeling gravity around me. Flash Step combined with gravity elemental mana got me a bastardized version of the biotic Charge, sending me flying into a group of three more gobs, slamming into the one in the middle and coming to a dead stop as I dumped momentum into it. What was left looked like a truck had hit it as it went flying away. Leading shield first, I tried out another skill backed up with gravity—Shield Bash—and was rewarded with a skill creation notification for a short range AoE named Nova. The remaining two level 30 goblins flew away from me in bits and pieces, floating around the area where they would stay until the gravity effect wore off. A look at the popup showed that I didn't actually need to use Shield Bash to initiate it, for which I was thankful, but that combining the two gave a significant boost to damage.

A roar from behind me drew my attention to a group of six charging my position with spears raised. A gesture sent a Shockwave into the middle of them, scattering them and sending them flying. Dropping a Singularity on them while they were still airborne yanked them violently back into a cluster, while tossing a Warp on top of the mess promptly ended their lives as a fine mist. Thankful I was far enough to avoid blood spray, I looked around for more targets. Spotting a lone gob running away from my position, I picked it up with a Pull and targeted a group nearby for a Throw combo. The goblin spun through the air, its neck and spine snapping audibly as it impacted with its comrades and sent the middle of their group of ten falling to the ground. Penny was there an instant later, dropping out of Flash Step above them to send Aura Strikes flying down into their ranks, leaving behind a bloody mess in her wake.

An arrow hit Penny's lower back and bounced off. Turning and catching sight of the ranged attacker—and two of his buddies—I focused Mana and gravity in my hand. I needed an accurate ranged attack faster and cheaper to cast than Gravity Round, even if it didn't do as much damage—hell, preferably if it didn't do as much damage, since I needed to be able to use some skills on friendlies during training without accidentally killing them. Throwing the attack like I would a baseball, a Lance streaked out in a deformed sphere, speeding across the distance and catching the goblin I'd targeted in the head. Its head rocked back as the attack detonated, sending it flying into the air for a few feet before crashing back down on the ground. I finished them off with a Singularity and Warp combo and turned in time to get my shield up as something large smashed into it.

Reacting instinctively, I squeezed the trigger in my left hand twice, letting the semi-auto shotgun built into the shield speak for me as I jumped back to clear space. Hitting the ground, I shifted around to see just what it was I'd aggro'd, finding a massive goblin—easily twice my height and thrice that in width—standing there holding a burning club.

Goblin King

Level: 40

I was a bit annoyed that it had managed to block the shotgun blasts with the club, especially since I had inadvertently made its weapon a bit more dangerous in doing so. 'Can't be running around without my Shield spells,' I mused, casting a Shield using gravity elemental Mana. The bubbles formed around me and I frowned as I felt lighter. King Gob rolled forward, pulling back for a grand slam with that flaming club and I brought my physical shield up again. The club caught my Shield spell and, instead of breaking through or stopping dead, sent me flying back.

Striking a tree, I was sent pinballing away at an angle. A glance down showed my feet hovering an inch or so off the ground while the shield spell rolled around me. Reaching out to grab the Mana inside it, I focused on making it move how I wanted. A moment later, my path curved to the left, bringing me back towards King Gob. He swung at me again and this time I was ready, allowing the shields to drop as I dropped into a slide under the massive club. Rolling to my feet, I drew one of my Blazefire Sabers, shifting it into sword form as I moved to stab his protruding gut. 'Really need to figure out how keep impacts to gravity elemental shields from pinballing me. Potentially useful for making space away from something, and my shields didn't take nearly as much damage since most of the force was converted into motion, but if it happens all the time I'll be flying all over the place. Maybe increase my specific gravity and anchor it to the ground or something. Note to self: get Penny to help experiment later.'

The second Saber flew out of its holster, shifting under the direction of Telekinesis as I flipped the laser sight on and targeted his legs. Opening up a burst, I grinned when his thigh and knee froze over. The Saber in my right hand buried itself in his gut, a wave of stinking smoke spewing out as the sword punched through its leather armor and began burning everything it touched. Pulling the sword out as he dropped his club to grab at his wounded gut, I whipped it down and struck the frozen knee. Ice hissed and shattered and my blade neatly sliced through the area just below the knee joint. King Gob toppled like a felled tree.

The goblin king's agonized squealing came to a wet, squelching end as I crushed its head with gravity. A look up showed Penny ramming Ascalon, now in full pole-sword form, through a trio of gobs and lifting them over her head. The impaled goblins writhed as she brought the weapon down and I winced as it crushed and cut its way free of two of them. The third, however, had been shoved far enough up the blade to actually slip onto the shaft it was attached to. Penny spent a moment shaking the pole-sword, trying to get the thing off before finally rearing back and slinging the weapon horizontally, sending the goblin impaled on it sliding off and splattering against a nearby tree. Seeing she had my attention, she beamed a smile my direction. "I think that's all of them!"

"I think so too," I agreed. "Let's loot them and move on to the next area." I planned to circle the lake, so we wouldn't stray too far from the train.

Potions and paper Lien in Inventory and my Shiro gear back on, I closed the ID and we began circling eastward. "So," I began, casting a look at Penny, "how are you getting along with the others? Are they treating you well?" Not that I didn't trust Neo and the twins to do exactly that, but I'd noticed our ideas of treating Penny well may differ in significant ways.

"I think we're getting along well," Penny answered, smiling up at me. "Everyone has been so nice. It's like… having a family."

With a quiet chuckle, I nodded. "That it is."

"I think Miltia, Melanie, and especially Neo are up to something, though," she said, and I nodded.

"Knowing those three? Definitely." They were doing their best to corrupt Penny in subtle ways. Thankfully, it didn't seem to have borne much fruit yet. Not that I was going to try too hard to stop them, so long as it remained harmless fun. I would have to keep an eye on it just to be sure they didn't go too far, though.

"And Ruby is the bestest friend ever! She lets me sleep over at her house."

I raised an eyebrow at the wording. "'Bestest?' Where did you pick that word up?"

"Ruby used it!" the gynoid happily sold out her 'bestest' friend.

"Of course she would corrupt your vocabulary," I murmured, shaking my head. "Do you have fun?"

"Mhmm!" Penny chirped. "She gives the best hugs! They last all night."

'So Ruby's a really grabby sleeper,' I assessed. Not that I would complain over much if it helped her sleep.

Before I could say anything, Penny tilted her head to the side and continued with, "Except when she has a nightmare. Then she goes to Yang's room."

Frowning under my mask, I asked, "How often does that happen?"

"I'm not sure," Penny shrugged. "A few times when I've slept over, though." Pausing, she turned worried eyes on me and asked, "You do not think I am the reason—"

"I doubt it, Penny. Otherwise she wouldn't hug you all night, let alone let you sleep over," I denied. "I'll ask her when I find a good time."

"I am glad I don't have nightmares," Penny sighed. "I don't see how you do it. You close your eyes and sleep for eight hours and your brain does weird things and you dream. It sounds an awful lot like going temporarily insane."

Snorting softly, I reached out and scratched the top of her head. "It kind of is," I deadpanned. "For most people, dreams are either random or subconscious things rearing their heads."

"Most people?" Penny asked, moving closer to lean against my side as we walked.

"Some people can direct their dreams," I clarified.

Penny hummed, looking up at me from the corner of her eye. "Can you?"

I shrugged. "Not with any reliability. Mine are usually pretty normal, unless I'm bored or reading a good book or something. Occasionally, I'll go to bed with a story in mind and dream that, but it doesn't happen often. Very rarely, I'll actually realize I'm dreaming and be able to change things."

"Do you have nightmares?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Very rarely, but they do happen." Once every few years or so, really. I hadn't actually had one since coming to Remnant, for which I was grateful. "But those are easy to deal with. They're just nightmares. You shake them off and keep going. No, the ones I hate are—were—the ones where I was happy."

Penny blinked, turning to look up at me as she asked, "Why would you hate dreaming about being happy?"

"Because you wake up," I answered softly. Wanting to move away from that line of questioning, I asked, "You don't dream?"

The gynoid hummed before shrugging. "You could call it dreaming. My mind reviews the day and looks for lessons I can learn from it, then correlates that data with what I already know."

'Is that how a learning AI works?' I wondered. I could see it, but I had to wonder if it was a need to sleep or if it just made things easier. "Penny, do you need to sleep?"

"Nope!" she chirped. "I like to, though. It's nice to spend time with everyone. Even if you are all unconscious and temporarily insane. Sleeping helps, but I could perform those functions awake in the background for a few hours a day. Even doing them at night while everyone sleeps, I'm fully aware of my surroundings."

"Lucky you," I shook my head. "I still need to test the limits of my Semblance and see how long I can go without. Somehow, that plan always seems to get foiled…"

Penny snorted softly. "Neo, Melanie, and Miltia enjoy cuddles too much to let you stay out all night."

"Point," I acknowledged. Checking my map, I found we'd gone far enough to make it to another pocket of denser Spirit. "Ready for round two?"

"Yep!"

Making an ID, I swapped armor again and set about practicing the skills I would be using for Beacon. I would need to check on those soon, along with the rest of my skills, to see where everything stood but it could wait for a while. Idly, I wondered when Cinder was planning to text me to let me know when and where to move the train.

---

Looking at my map, I frowned. We were in the middle of BFE on a lonely stretch of track in the woods, deep in Grimm-infested territory. Between the two of us, we likely didn't make much of a target for the creatures, but the danger was still present. With the sun setting, shadows stretched long and every time the wind blew I swore I saw Grimm between the trees. My Semblance told me it was my mind playing tricks on me, seeing as it wasn't actually picking up anything in the immediate vicinity. I had lived around and grown up playing in deep woods my entire life on Earth—not nice, open forests with clear lines of sight and lots of visibility, but dense, dark woods. I was comfortable in them. This, on the other hand, set my teeth on edge.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Penny asked, and from her tone, I could tell I wasn't the only one feeling a bit put off.

I nodded. "Yeah. No one here, so I guess we wait. While we're here, Penny, would you mind going ahead and summoning the Bullhead?"

"Sure, Jaune. Where do you want me to put it?" she asked, and I frowned, looking over the terrain.

"Think you can put it on that service road next to the tracks?" I asked, pointing off to our left. The road in question was more of a trail, really—two parallel ruts worn into the ground beside the tracks and partly covered in gravel to keep them from washing out, likely used by ground vehicles to service the tracks without actually traveling on the tracks.

"Maybe," she hemmed. "It's kind of small, but I'll try."

Sending her a smile and a nod, I jumped up to take a seat on the roof of the engine where I could keep a better eye on our surroundings, and because I didn't particularly feel comfortable standing around at ground level. "If Cinder comes along, I don't want her wondering how we got here in the first place," I explained, before settling in to wait.

'More fucking waiting,' I grumbled at the thought. I had spent most of yesterday killing things while waiting for Cinder to finally text me, and when she did the answer she'd sent had simply been coordinates and a time. We had made camp on the train last night and spent most of today getting here. Being made to wait again—especially somewhere that set me on edge like this place did—was beginning to wear my patience thin. It was nothing like the relaxing little valley we'd spent the first night in. 'At least I can go back if I ever get the chance.'

Eventually, lights moving in the distance caught my eye and I frowned. "Well, if that's not her, someone's about to lose a few minutes of time," I mused aloud.

Presently, the quiet hum of a Dust engine and the crunch of tires rolling over gravel reached my ears and I stood, hopping down from the top of the engine to meet our guest as the vehicle slowed—Penny dropping down silently beside me. Headlights shut off and I got my first good look at the vehicle. In all honesty, it reminded me of an old-fashioned Willys Jeep, with its narrow body, high ground clearance, and rugged all-terrain tires—the only difference being, this was clearly designed with Grimm in mind, as the vehicle was sealed on all sides and all the windows were backed with what looked like some sort of wire mesh. Idly, I wondered how effective that would be against a determined Grimm. 'Probably not very, against anything bigger than a Beowolf. Even then, probably not much good against a particularly determined Beowolf, either. Likely, its advantage is speed and being able to navigate rough terrain. The enclosure may just be to prevent things from reaching in to snag the driver and passengers.'

The driver's door opened and Cinder slid out, all long legs and smiles. "Shiro. You came through for me."

"That's what you pay me for," I shrugged. "Though there were some complications."

The dark haired woman frowned. "Oh? What sort of complications?"

"The White Fang sort," I deadpanned. "They jumped on the train after I'd already stolen it."

Cinder's face lost all expression and she calmly asked, "You killed them?"

"No, I spanked them and sent them to bed without supper," I rolled my eyes. "Considering I knew you were looking to use this to buy their services, I figured it would look bad if we delivered it to them after killing their people to keep it."

"Thank you for the consideration, but I do not think most White Fang leaders value their subordinates the way you or I do," she sighed.

"Probably not," I shrugged. "Funny thing, though—they said they weren't working for Taurus."

Cinder blinked, before her eyes narrowed. "Filthy animals can't even coordinate between cells properly," she muttered, shaking her head. When she saw my raised eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. "I don't hate faunus individually—some of them are useful. As a group, however... there are two kinds of faunus."

"White Fang and everyone else?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"Those who try and those who try not. The first group is responsible for things like Menagerie being the leading producer of media for Remnant." I blinked at that, but refrained from commenting. I'd have to ask the girls later, though. It didn't mesh with what Blake had told me about Menagerie, at all—meaning somebody was mistaken, somewhere. Things could have changed since she'd left, certainly, but this sounded more like a well-established industry—meaning more than the five or so years since Blake had been on her own.

"The second group complains about what they've been given and demands more. They were given their own island nation at the end of the Great War, in order to make peace and ensure they wouldn't revolt. Certainly, it was couched in terms of being a reward—somewhere, in the words of their own leaders, easily defensible for them to make a utopia free from oppression and with as much, or as little, human influence as they wanted… but the truth of the matter was, with the faunus as a racially united force composed entirely of active-Aura fighters and every human nation strained near to the breaking point by the war, they could have crippled or destroyed either Vale or Vacuo and there wouldn't have been much the other could do about it. And it's not like Mantle or Mistral would've lifted a finger to help people who had just defeated them."

All of this was new to me—and again made the point that I desperately needed to crack open a history book, soon. I had hopes that Beacon would give me the chance. Cinder had not stopped talking, however, so I didn't have time to think too long on it. "What is now known as Menagerie was once home to a great civilization which was wiped out after an undersea quake created a series of tsunamis that destroyed their coastal cities a few years before the Great War. Everything inland fell to the Grimm and the survivors scattered. After the war, the first generation of immigrants to Menagerie looked on their new land and saw a lush, fertile island covered in usable housing—even if it would require a little repair and maintenance. Later generations saw only a tomb. It's generated a victim complex amongst those younger generations, making many of them absolutely useless—for themselves and to their race as a whole."

"I've seen it," I nodded. "So, what do you want to do about it?"

"Well, we can't kill them all, some of them are actually useful," she deadpanned, before a faint smile twitched her lips upwards. "As to the train, however—short them on the money I offered. Charge them for failing to keep their organization under control." Molten gold eyes cut to my right, where Penny stood observing her. "Who's your friend?"

I glanced down at Penny. We had spent a while talking about it before I'd finally found something Penny agreed with. "Verdigris," the color copper turned when it tarnished—the same color as her hair, at the moment.

Raising an eyebrow, Cinder hummed but didn't comment. "Do you have the manifest?"

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I dug into my side pouch and pulled out the document in question. I had been surprised that they had gone to such great lengths to keep this shipment secret that they had even resorted to paper for indexing the train's contents as opposed to using a scroll with network functionality disabled. Taking the manifest, Cinder pulled out her own scroll and began tapping in things. "Let's have a look at what we got," she said, gesturing towards the train.

We walked through the cars as Cinder visually inspected everything and this time, I did roll my eyes. "Checking to make sure I didn't pilfer anything?"

"Well," she murmured, sending me a teasing smirk, "you are a thief."

"Point taken," I shrugged.

"But no, I want to make sure the manifest matches the cargo before I hand this off to the White Fang. This way, there can be no confusion as to just how much I've paid for their services," the woman answered.

Nearly two hours later, Cinder announced we were done. "Take the contents of cars… twenty-six through thirty-five as payment. Car thirty carries only attack drones, however, so take care not to activate those. In fact, I'd appreciate it if you made sure those found their way to me," she said, and I hummed as I took the manifest back and looked it over.

I did some mental math and frowned. "Assuming it's evenly distributed, that's a bit more than my cut," I pointed out, and Cinder shrugged.

"You've earned it, with this job."

Remembering something that had been lurking at the back of my thoughts since the mission began, I said, "I should charge for more for this job, but it's not polite or professional to try to change a deal you've already agreed to."

"Oh?" Cinder hummed, raising one fine eyebrow. "And thank you for that. Acknowledging that you made a mistake in negotiations can be… difficult," she said, and I had the feeling she was speaking from experience, "but sticking to a deal, even if you've shorted yourself, tends to go over better than making demands later—which tends to get one killed. Your mistake was in leading with the figure you wanted when haggling over the pay—it could only go down from there."

"That's what I get for playing straight with you as a courtesy to a business partner," I shrugged. A flicker of surprise crossed her face before she quickly smothered it. Deciding to let that one pass, I asked, " So, why weren't there Hunters on guard duty? I was kind of expecting there to be."

Molten gold eyes met my red and a sardonic smile crossed her lips. "Please. You think the fools at the bank trust anyone they haven't bought and paid for to ship their money? No, they are far less trusting than even you or I."

"So you weren't actually expecting Hunters," I deadpanned.

The red-clad woman smirked. "I said the possibility existed. It's why I agreed to twenty percent—for the risk of dealing with Hunters, under the assumption that you wouldn't have to. Factoring in the certainty that you would see combat with at least one non-Hunter security detail and possibly droids, I came out ahead."

Throwing her an unamused look, mostly lost under my mask, I said, "Definitely charging more next time, now that I know what sort of margins you're looking at."

"The up side is, you're still walking away with enough for most people to retire comfortably on." Pausing a moment, she frowned before adding, "As for your payment, you might want to just decouple them and take the cars. I imagine you wouldn't want to hang around and attempt to claim your cut with the Fang on site. There is every chance that someone could get greedy."

"I see," I murmured. "Verdi, let's see about getting these things uncoupled and getting one of ours ready for air transport. I think we've got some ratchet straps in the Bullhead. We can make a few trips to move them one at a time if we have to." We wouldn't. I'd be loading them into Inventory, but Cinder didn't need to know that.

Penny, or Verdigris rather, nodded and answered with a quiet, "Understood."

Thinking on it, Cinder quickly added, "And could you do me the favor of decoupling them at car twenty-five? You'll leave one through twenty-five here with the engine and leave the rest for the White Fang, minus your cut. I can come back for them when we're done."

"I couldn't get you to haul mine for me, could I?" I asked.

Cinder considered the question for a moment before answering, "They aren't going to Vale."

"Ah. Yeah, no, don't want my share running off across the country somewhere. I'll back it up onto a spur and use a Bullhead when I get a chance."

Once we'd disconnected the cars at the proper locations, we set about visibly preparing the first cargo container for transport under Cinder's occasional watchful gaze when she wasn't absorbed in her scroll. Digging around in the Bullhead, we quickly found a set of nylon and steel weave ratchet straps rated for heavy loads. Once we had those, I guided Penny over the first cargo container, where she touched down without so much as a bump. Thankfully, the train was using a type of modular cargo container, meant to be easily fitted to a base structure such as a truck or rail transport bed and locked into place, then unlocked and lifted off once on site. Like their Earth counterparts, those containers were meant to be stacked on top of one another—meaning the weight of the Bullhead was far less than the loads they were rated for. Once we had moved the car full of droids around and re-linked it to the part of the train Cinder was claiming, I tracked her down to where she had gone to wait in her Jeep clone—which, once I got closer, I could see was marked as a Crawler.

She shut off her scroll as I approached and I raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything. "What next?"

"With the cars disconnected, the White Fang are to be given the remainder." Her eyes lost their usual smoldering look, in place of calculation as she asked, "You don't suppose I could trouble you for delivery, do you?"

Blinking, I pointed at the train. "It's not delivered now?"

"No," Cinder shook her head. "I made sure you would be several miles away from the Fang to keep them from stumbling across you and simply taking the train. And while I have no doubt you and your little accomplice could handle their rank and file, I am unsure how you would match up against Adam Taurus in a sword fight." Pulling out a paper map of the area, she pointed to a circled spot to the north. "They are camped here." She moved her finger an inch or so over eastward, "And the nearest tracks are here."

"So, how were you planning to convince them to take the train as payment and not simply kill us and take it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

The dark haired woman twitched a smirk at me before reaching down and turning the key in the Crawler's ignition. "Leave that to me. Go ahead and get the train moving. Stop a mile or so from that point and wait for my signal to begin moving, then approach slowly." 'That point' turned out to be marked on the map as a destroyed town the rail line passed through, whose name was long since forgotten. That was fine with me, however, since my Map interface would be able to spot it.

Frowning I asked, "You're aiming to make a spectacle of this, aren't you?"

"Why Shiro, I have no idea what you mean," she demurred, but I caught the look in her eyes that said otherwise.

"Fine, I'll help you put on this dog and pony show, but you owe me. Shifting some cargo around is a favor, but theater is outside the scope of our original agreement," I deadpanned.

Red lips curved up into a sinfully sexy smirk and molten gold eyes locked with my red. "I'm sure we can negotiate something. I'll text you when I'm ready for you."

"What about the other section?" I asked.

Shrugging, Cinder answered, "It can be programmed to follow a specific route, correct?" I cast a glance at Penny, who nodded. Cinder followed the exchange with her eyes, smirking when I turned my gaze back on her. "I'll deal with it later."

Once the Crawler had pulled away, I turned to Penny. "Come on, let's go. We need to move our cars to a rail spur nearby, then I need you to bring our Bullhead with one of those cars so we can avoid questions."

"Jaune, is it my imagination, or is your Semblance starting to create more work for you in trying to disguise it?" Penny asked, and I shrugged.

"Not any more than usual. Situations like this, where we have to visually move something, are the exception still—not the rule."

I slipped back into the forward engine, then set the train moving while Penny moved into the Bullhead to follow. Really, there wasn't much to the controls on these things—throttle, brakes, controls for remote-operated switching stations ahead of the train so the driver could move to other tracks, speed readout, map, and a variety of sensors for the operation and maintenance of the engines themselves. The only thing I had to really keep in mind was that this much mass would never be able to stop on a dime, so I had to brake early if I needed to stop for anything. Settling into the driver's chair, I sighed quietly and glanced at the map. "More waiting."

It was well and truly dark by the time my scroll finally chimed with a message from Cinder to move the train up the tracks from where I'd parked it the second time. Penny stood beside me, having left the Bullhead behind a ways so we could come back to it once we were done with the drop off. As the train slowed to a stop for what would hopefully be the last time for us, I shifted my gaze out the window and caught sight of a crowd of faunus as the light from the engine passed over them. Many of them were looking somewhat worse for wear, but there were a few who were not. Of those, one in particular stood out.

Adam Taurus

The Beast

Level: 50

The title was about what I had expected. His level, however, was surprising. Even if it was just an estimate of his suppressed level, it wasn't astronomically out of my reach. While he could probably stomp my ass in a fair fight, I had made it a habit not to fight fair. In my mind, I ranked him as around Mercury or Emerald on the threat rating scale—potentially dangerous, but not immediately lethal.

Cutting off the engine completely and casting the area into darkness, I realized that was a potential tactical mistake in the making and flipped my glasses on—their built-in night vision evening the playing field between me and the faunus there and doing more to hide my face than just using my normal face mask. Leading the way out of the forward engine, I dropped to the ground and held out a hand to help Penny down. Not that it was really needed, but it was the polite thing to do and I was not above sending subtle messages—namely that I treated my people well. The sound of a Bullhead approaching drew my eyes skyward for a moment, before shifting to my minimap. The three icons there told me all I needed to know about who had shown up—a green diamond, a winged boot in black, and a circular three tomoe pattern in black with a white center. I knew there was a name for the specific symbol, but I had never bothered looking it up. It didn't matter either way, since I intimately knew who it belonged to. 'Not seeing Roman's jack o' lantern though, so either he didn't come with them or something went wrong.'

I would get the story out of Neo soon enough. For now, it could wait—we had more important matters to take care of. Namely, the White Fang eyeing the Bullhead—along with Cinder, Penny, and I—suspiciously as it touched down several yards up from the train. Emerald was the first off the Bullhead as the engines spun down, followed a moment later by Mercury. Finally, Neo came strolling down the ramp and sent me a grin as she sauntered over twirling her opened parasol. Leaning into my side, she slapped the weapon shut and placed it tip-down on the ground. The message there was clear—Neo was with me. I did not fail to notice her finger hovering over the trigger to deploy the blade I knew was hidden in the end of it. I sent her a party request and set up a link as she settled in.

'I'm glad you're back safe. Where's Roman?' I asked.

The shorter girl shook her head minutely. 'The entire situation was a cluster fuck. Grimm swarmed the prison before Roman was set to be transferred. We went in to look but he was gone—as were most of the prisoners.'

I frowned under my mask, but I couldn't really find it in me to be annoyed over losing Roman. I was more upset that Neo had wandered into a prison under attack by Grimm than I was that that clown Roman may have been eaten. 'Cinder is going to be annoyed, but to be honest, this is probably a win for us. He's out of the way for good and I didn't have to kill him myself so there's nothing pointing back to us on this.' I kept that to myself, however—I didn't know if Neo would understand the lengths I went to to get her, or the lengths I was willing to go to keep her.

Shifting my attention to Cinder, I saw an emotion I couldn't place flash across her face where she had been watching Neo and I, there and gone before I could get a read on it. Hitting her with Observe showed only 'irritation, impatience, expectation.' Whatever it was, it was gone now. She turned her eyes on Mercury and Emerald before looking back to the Bullhead. I saw a brief look of irritation from her as she realized Roman wasn't there, before she schooled her expression into something more neutral and moved to stand before the train, Emerald and Mercury moving to flank her. Emerald looked as though she wanted to say something, but a look from Cinder silenced her. "As you can see, I make good on my promises."

Adam snorted softly and I got the feeling there was more to that than a simple promise to deliver resources in exchange for their services. Knowing Cinder, it was probably also a threat, along the lines of a promise to kill them if they betrayed her. Or maybe that was my own ideals coloring my assessment. Then again, this was a woman who had gone out of her way to orchestrate our groups showing up at the same time for the visual effect and implications. It was an obvious message of 'This is just some of what I can call on,' along with the train itself standing as evidence as to what we—because she was attempting to include myself, Neo, and now Penny in that—were capable of. It was pretty much textbook psychological warfare—presenting a strong, united front to a potential ally will make them more likely to align themselves to your goals. The reasoning being, if you can get someone else to follow you, then you were someone worth following.

Adam moved away from the main body of his group of White Fang, two of the least injured breaking off to follow. "We'll see. Show me the cargo."

'Too bad you don't get to keep it, fuck face.' I'd had plenty of time to think about it and come up with a solution to giving the White Fang a large stockpile of cash over the last few days. I had created and leveled up a tracking spell, Homing Beacon, to stick on the train. Since I hadn't known how Cinder would divvy up the cars and could only cast the spell on one target at the moment, I had held off until the last possible minute. Now, the spell was anchored to the floor of the engine and anywhere the train went, it would show up on my map for the next thirty days.

I didn't think anyone in the White Fang could detect magic, but I didn't want to try it with Cinder nearby—I didn't know what sort of benefits being partly a Maiden would give her. Ozpin had warned me that it was magic, so if she could detect magic being cast nearby I was boned if I tried—which was why I had cast it as soon as she'd left in the Crawler to go meet up with Adam.'Problem is, they practice decent OpSec, so infiltrating to steal or destroy it without having the finger pointed at me will be hard. Sure, the Fox could get away with destroying it, but I'd like to avoid the attention for the moment if at all possible,' I mused as our little group followed behind the other six, joining Adam and his two selected White Fang in the train car.

Ahead, Adam had begun inspecting the contents of the first car. "Where's the manifest?" he demanded, shifting his masked gaze between myself and Cinder.

"Lost while taking the train," Cinder shrugged.

"Those things are kept in a fireproof safe," the red-haired faunus deadpanned.

"Yes, they are," I agreed. I'd been very careful in cutting into that safe, to prevent the contents from being destroyed. "Why don't you ask your people? Five of them boarded the train while we were in transit. We lost track of two of them for a while when we were dealing with the other three. They were gone when we got rid of the others, so I assume they bolted."

"'My people?'" Adam parroted, and I could hear a growing undercurrent of frustration and anger in his voice. Of course, I should have expected the indignant attitude towards any variation of the phrase 'you people,' but I didn't give a rat's ass about people whose feelings would be hurt by referring to their group—be it an organization, gender, or race. On the other hand, this wasn't Earth, where leftists screamed and raised a stink. Where the worst they would usually do was try to get someone fired by tossing around slap-words like 'racism' or 'sexism.' This was Remnant, where if I didn't watch my mouth, odds were good that Adam's butthurt would lead to him trying to bury his sword in my guts—and then Penny and Neo would kill him before I could do it myself, and Cinder would be upset. Best to avoid it altogether.

"They were White Fang. They were in the area. They were not under your control, then?" I asked, hoping that tweaking his pride would redirect his anger. Redirection was much easier than diffusing it, and backing down or apologizing would make me look weak, which was something I didn't need here.

The man's grip tightened on the sheath of Wilt and Blush. My own thumb slid up to the button for assisted draw, but I kept my free hand off Ascalon's hilt. Signals over our links from Penny and Neo let me know they were both prepared to act. After a moment, Adam growled and turned away, his coat flaring outwards as he stalked into the next train car and Cinder followed, Mercury and Emerald trailing her, with myself, Neo, and Penny trailing behind them. Three human shields between us and Adam would give us a second to get away should he actually snap, but I doubted he would. 'Better safe than sorry. Besides, pretty sure Cinder could spank him at this point, and he'd have to get through her to get to us.'

Adam dug out his scroll before turning to one of his people. "Go gather the men. I want this done tonight."

"Yes, boss," the smaller of the two lieutenants nodded, scurrying off to go relay the order.

"In addition to the train is a large stockpile of Dust, stored outside of Vale. I will send you the coordinates later," Cinder began. Looking up from his scroll, Adam turned to shoot us a glare and cut off whatever else Cinder was going to say.

"We'll deal with it later. For now, I think you should leave."

Power filled the suddenly small-seeming train car, the air growing warmer as a breeze kicked up out of nowhere. I noticed that the ambient light in the room had gone up as well, with Cinder apparently as its source given how Adam and his remaining lieutenant were lit in an eerie orange light. I couldn't see its source since I was behind her, but I remembered her left eye had glowed the same color when she had stolen Amber's power—so I was pretty sure she was pulling on her Maiden powers to put on a show. Then, just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. "You would do well to remember who it is you're working with, Adam. My patience is a finite resource and it is running dangerously low at the moment." Under his mask, I caught Taurus's eyes narrowing, but he nodded slowly. Once she was sure he was sufficiently cowed, Cinder turned away and strode towards the car's exit, glass heels clicking loudly against the metal flooring in the near silence. "We'll leave you to it, then." As she left, she turned a piercing stare on him before adding, "I'll be in touch."

Following Cinder's lead, I urged my own group out after her. I was leery of turning my back to Adam, but it seemed he had enough sense not to try to backstab us—at least, not literally and not yet. Betrayal would come eventually with that one, though. 'Assuming he lives that long. Cinder may have just signed his death warrant,' I gave a mental shrug at the thought. The world would be a better place without scum like that floating around, so if he pissed her off enough to kill him, I wouldn't have any fucks to give on the matter.

We followed Cinder in silence as we moved away from the train, towards the Bullhead Neo, Mercury, and Emerald had arrived on. Looking around, I wondered where she had left the Crawler. Opening the Map, I zoomed in and looked for nearby vehicles, finding it parked at what I supposed was the White Fang camp—meaning they had cut through the woods to get here instead of taking the road. Humming in thought, I made a mental note to come claim it later. If she didn't want it, I'd take it myself. Once the hatch was sealed and we were in the air, I turned to the woman sitting in the pilot's seat. "He was pleasant."

"Quite," Cinder replied. "But dealing with Taurus is a necessary evil. We need the manpower the White Fang brings with it. Regardless of how irritating they are to deal with."

I shrugged. "If you say so. Personally, I don't think the guy's stable and if there are other White Fang operatives running around the area outside of his chain of command, then he's obviously failing as a leader."

"As a cell leader, he is a blunt instrument. Every problem is a nail needing to be hammered down." The woman beside me shot me an amused look. "Unless you meant to imply that Adam Taurus is the leader of the White Fang?"

Frowning at that, I shrugged and rolled for bullshit. "No, but I know at least one former White Fang member who does."

Cinder hummed at that. "I might like to meet them, at some point. But no, only the White Fang under Adam would believe he is their leader." She paused long enough to shoot me a knowing look. If only someone under Adam would believe he was their leader, then I'd just narrowed down the list of suspects as to who it could be. Shit. "He broke off his group into a splinter cell and is aiming to kill and replace the current leader of the White Fang who is what you would call a moderate—at least on the surface. I don't think anyone knows what her true goals and motivations are. Her actions and stance to date have portrayed her as someone willing to work with humans, but who is unwilling to back down when it comes to getting what she wants for faunus. She claims every group performing violent acts is a splinter cell, outside the control of the majority of the White Fang—so called 'radicalized faunus' who have strayed from the path and gone too far. In reality, there is no way she is not aware of their movements. My theory is, she is using them as her militant arm and every one of those cells knows that once they go active, she will disavow them."

"Makes sense," I agreed, though I was annoyed that Cinder had not provided me a name. That she hadn't implied that she expected me to know it, which was irritating—more common knowledge that I didn't have. And if I asked, I'd just be confirming that I didn't know. More research I needed to do, and fast. "It gives her plausible deniability."

"Quite," Cinder agreed. "As to Taurus, he's a terrorist. Of course he isn't stable," she said, a bit of disdain coloring her tone. It seemed even other criminals disliked working with terrorists—probably because they were bad for business. Not to mention there was that whole 'zealot' thing most terror groups had—a 'with us or against us' mentality, where everyone but their own was an enemy.

The Bullhead slowed as it neared the spot where Penny had parked our own transport out of here. "We'll take care of the other train and move the cargo to a secure location. Expect to reconvene for debriefing over what exactly happened in the attempt to free Roman later tonight. I'll send you a text when I'm ready."

"We'll be there," I agreed, pushing up out of the copilot's seat and moving to the back, where Neo had already hit the door controls. Penny, Neo, and I dropped out of the hovering Bullhead and hit the ground below as Cinder pulled off and headed to deal with the train. As soon as she departed, my Semblance chimed and I grinned at the quest completion notification and the level up the experience provided. That made three levels gained during this little sojourn—once on the train, once killing mobs with Penny while leveling my skills, and just now for quest completion.

Turning to Neo and Penny, I shot the pair a grin. "It'll take them a few minutes to get those things secured, so we've got some time."

"Oh? Time for what, Shiro?" Neo asked, slipping into my arms and reaching up to pull my glasses off and yank my mask down, before standing on her tiptoes and kissing me.

Reluctantly breaking the kiss a few moments later, I shook my head. "Not that, sadly."

"Aww, I wanted a kiss too," Penny pouted.

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I planted a peck on her forehead, earning a beaming smile as I did. "So," Neo caught my attention, a grin on her face as she asked, "How much did we get?"

Resisting the urge to smirk I said, in my most innocent voice, "Oh, not much. About two hundred million."

"Two hun—" Neo echoed, stopping mid-word. "Your part of the take was twenty percent…"

"Give or take," I nodded. "Cinder gave me a bit of a bonus for not fucking up and taking care of some White Fang."

"Jaune," she began, leaning on me as she suddenly grew weak in the knees. Holding her against me, I felt her quivering faintly. "Jaune, you… you duped it, didn't you?"

My smirk threatened to split my mask open. "Oh yes. Every. Last. Lien. A billion of them."

"Oh sweet Dust, I just came," she whispered. "I don't think I can make it back to Vale, my love. We might need to make a detour."

"Nah, you'll be fine," I chuckled.

Neo shot me an annoyed look before sighing. "I can't even be annoyed with you being an ass with numbers like that floating around. Speaking of numbers, you left before we could find out what Dumbo dropped."

I hummed, opening up my Inventory. "Mats, obviously. Four tusks and eight bolts of hide, all of them with huge defense and strength bonuses, and large WIS bonuses. Money, but who's counting? Sadly, a lot of it burned up at some point," I sighed. Apparently, drops weren't invulnerable to damage.

"Ha ha," Neo muttered.

"Potions and an Elixir. No mask, though. I was kind of surprised."

"Well, that's too bad. I was kind of hoping to get one soon," Neo said, and I shook my head.

"Even if one had dropped, it wouldn't fit your theme, I think," I pointed out.

Neo shrugged, not looking particularly upset. "I've never had a thing for Goliaths anyway. What now? Vale?"

Turning back to Neo, I teased, "Someone's eager to get home." She stuck her tongue out in response and I gestured back towards where the White Fang were. "I'm going to go make some friends among the White Fang."

"What are you planning?" Neo asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Nothing," I lied, grinning under my mask.

"Uh huh," Neo deadpanned. "I want pictures of this 'nothing.' Video if at all possible. In fact, just send me the feed from your senses."

"I'd rather there not be photographic evidence," I denied.

Neo's face took on a look of realization. "Ahh, that kind of nothing."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Well, tie me into your senses anyway," Neo insisted, and I nodded agreement.

"I'll meet you two at the rail spur where we parked the other cars. I'll stuff them into Inventory when I return. Be back in a few." Turning for where we'd left the White Fang, I cast Wings on myself, followed by every stealth spell I knew and went to go change some minds.

I had some ideas in mind for that. I couldn't have them calling or texting me, as it would leave a trail. I also couldn't have them keeping the money or getting their hands on the Dust. Both would have to be destroyed. If they did it while Adam was around, however, he was going to kill whoever I turned and then would suspect foul play—so I needed a way to make it look like either infighting due to greed, or an accident. But without the ability to directly control them, or send them messages via scroll, I was going to have to set up some pre-programmed commands and directives. Things like: 'destroy the Dust and the money.' And 'avoid drawing Adam's suspicion when you do this.' The wording was going to be tricky, but I would figure it out. If all else failed, the tracking spell I had placed on the train would let me get it myself.

---

Emerald's surly face and mistrusting red eyes glared at me from the crack of the door to Cinder's current hideout. After a moment, she turned away, leaving the door open behind her. 'She's always so welcoming,' Neo sent over our link, and I nodded.

Neo and I entered and headed upstairs, having sent Penny back to Fox Hunt because I didn't really feel the need to have her in on this meeting. The less exposure Cinder had to people I knew, the better. We found Mercury and Cinder already upstairs and seated, and Emerald dropping into her own seat as we entered the room. Dropping into the last remaining loveseat beside Neo, I waited for Cinder to begin. It didn't take long, as molten gold eyes shifted between Emerald, Mercury, and Neo. "What happened, and where is Roman?"

"It's not our fault," Mercury began, at the same time Emerald said, "We failed." I shook my head at the pair as they began trying to talk over each other.

"Quiet!" Cinder ordered, her voice rising to almost a shout.

"Neo," I cut into the sudden silence, drawing four sets of eyes my way. "What do you have to report?"

Neo straightened up beside me, cleared her throat softly, and began. "We reached the area where we had planned to intercept the transport vehicle carrying Roman back into the city for his hearing. Smoke from the direction of the prison alerted us to a potential problem and we brought the Bullhead close enough to get a look. Grimm had overrun the prison complex—the outer walls and fences were breached, along with one of the interior walls leading into the building itself. The guards had already evacuated per standard procedure in the event of a Grimm attack, so we met no resistance other than Grimm when we fought our way inside to the main office, then from there to the cell block where Roman was being housed. There were bodies everywhere, but many of the cells were just empty. Roman's was one of the empty ones. We fought our way back out and came back here."

'Wait, SOP for those places is to just abandon the prisoners?' I wondered. That went entirely contrary to what I knew from Earth. In a natural disaster situation, the guards were obligated to evacuate and transport the prisoners to safety, not leave them to die. 'I'll have to ask Neo later if this is normal for Remnant or just something specific to Vacuo.'

"And there was no sign of Roman?" Cinder asked, and Neo shook her head. Turning to Emerald and Mercury, she asked, "Is there anything you'd like to add?"

"We would have called ahead, but you had said you wanted radio silence for the duration," Emerald quickly answered.

Mercury added, "The place was a fucking mess and it looked like half the inmates were dragged out for snacks later."

I rolled my eyes. "Grimm don't eat."

Mercury shrugged. "Yeah, well, for something that doesn't need to eat they really seem to enjoy chewing on people."

I wasn't willing to argue the point further, but I felt that ascribing drive and reason to these things that they didn't have was wrong. They weren't biological beings, and as such any instincts they had along the lines of the things they mimicked were nothing more than a mockery. If they were taking people to 'chew on,' then it wasn't because they were hungry or understood the concept of saving food for later. The fact that I didn't know why they would do it bothered me.

"What's the plan, ma'am?" Emerald asked, and Cinder frowned.

"Having Roman was on my wish list, but not absolutely necessary. He can be replaced." Turning to me, she asked, "Are you sure I can't tempt you into turning down this other job you have lined up?"

I shook my head. "Sorry. I've had this planned for a while and if I back out now, I'll take some serious losses in more than just money."

The woman in red sighed softly and nodded her understanding. "Emerald, Mercury, go into the city and quietly scout out the local talent. Get back to me with a list of names." When neither made a move to leave, she narrowed her eyes. "Now."

Emerald jumped up and headed for the exit, while Mercury took a more sedate pace. "Man, I was hoping to catch some sleep," the boy grumbled as he thumped his way downstairs.

Cinder shifted her head and eyed Neo for a moment, before shifting her gaze to me. "Tonight wasn't a complete disaster, and it seems I have you to thank for that—and your young friend. Or is that protege?"

"Verdi is undecided at the moment. She likes the excitement, and the money, but like me she knows how to weigh danger against payoff. She probably won't do anything more than help me out on occasion for jobs I've screened as being safe for her until she gets trained up enough to stand on her own if shit hits the fan," I supplied. "She's not ready to be thrown into the deep end quite yet, which is why she's not sitting at the adults' table tonight."

The woman across from us chuckled softly before nodding. "Fair enough."

"Well," Neo spoke up, popping up from her seat beside me. "I am beat and ready to get home." Spinning around, and in so doing sending her skirt twirling at just the right speed and angle to flash her panties at me—and Cinder, now that I thought about the angles involved—she bent down and took both my hands before hauling me to my feet.

"I guess that's my cue," I shrugged to Cinder as Neo proceeded to drag me towards the exit.

Molten eyes narrowed in irritation and red lips pouted. "I had hoped you would stay a while."

Neo turned around and eyed the other woman before snorting softly. "Nuh-uh. It's been over a week since I've gotten laid. I don't mind sharing, but unless you're offering the same," Neo's eyes roamed up Cinder's body and the half-Maiden's glare became smoldering—less in the bedroom sense and more in the sense of taking on a temperature and intensity to melt lead, "then the line starts behind me."

I gave the red-clad woman a 'what can you do' shrug. "I'll call you tomorrow."

Neo shook her head. "Try the day after."

Sighing, I corrected myself. "Well, looks like my schedule is full for the next day or so, then. I'll find some time soon." I was still a bit annoyed at being left in the woods with no contact, but I wisely refrained from comment before my brain to mouth filter finally sprung a leak—even as I took perhaps a little too much enjoyment in making her wait.

"Make time," Cinder growled softly, before turning away.

"Come on, you, before you step on any more toes," I sighed at Neo, before hefting her up onto my shoulder and hauling her out, much to her enjoyment. Then again, that could have had something to do with the fact that the way I'd grabbed her had left my hand full of one of her firm ass cheeks.

Throwing on Invisibility and one of Neo's illusions as we left, I set her down and winced a moment later when the sound of something breaking reached our ears from inside. "Someone's jealous," Neo smirked. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Oh? What for?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her as we took off deeper into Vale on a circuitous route to somewhere public to change outfits, before heading back to Fox Hunt.

Shooting me an amused look, Neo said, "Two things. Firstly, I got you out of there when she was clearly angling to get you to stay. It's kind of funny, really. Other than asking about the prison, she seemed all too keen on getting her underlings out and keeping you in. Almost like she planned it."

"Yes, thank you for cockblocking me. And I'm sure Cinder's not going to bear a grudge over that," I deadpanned.

"Only so you can come home and screw the rest of us silly," the shorter girl returned.

I hummed, putting on a thoughtful look. "Well, I suppose it's a fair tradeoff."

"Ass," Neo rolled her eyes, reaching over and swatting my arm. "Secondly, the sex the next time you do come over is going to be great. Jealous women always try harder."

"Neo," I began slowly, worry creeping into my tone, "I believe you may have miscalculated in your manipulations." Seeing I had her attention, I continued. "She was strong before she stole half the Maiden's power. I don't need her more enthusiastic. I already have to worry about Joan slipping and crushing my pelvis into paste. I don't need any more opportunities for 'death by snoo-snoo.'"

Neo snorted quietly. "'Snoo-snoo?' Really? What the fuck?"

Rolling my eyes, I pushed the memory of that particular scene from Futurama over our link and she nodded a moment later. "It's a thing."

"You'll be fine, you big baby," the girl laughed. "The sort of casual power someone like that can pull off while suppressing their Aura is still impressive, yeah, but I doubt you're going to die from it. You heal too fast for there to be any lasting damage."

"You're not the one who has to worry about it."

Neo shrugged. "And isn't that a shame. Cinder is hot. I would not mind sharing you with her, at all. Even the 'evil' thing is just more sexy on top of a pleasing package."

"Opportunist," I accused, and the girl nodded shamelessly. "I see now why you and the twins encouraged bringing in other girls. It's so you can have kinky fun with lots of different women, all of whom are supermodel hot."

"Oh no, you caught us. Curses, our plans are foiled," Neo deadpanned, before shifting slightly and bumping her hip into mine. "Now, take me home. You're holding up my kinky fun with lots of supermodel hot women."

Putting my hand over my heart and adopting a wounded look, I said, "I-I'm just a toy to you."

"No," Neo denied, dragging out the word. Her eyes dragged down my form and stopped at my crotch. "I promise, you're not just a toy."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Says the woman addressing my penis."

The shorter girl shrugged before stepping in and standing on her tiptoes, her lips locking with mine. "Home. Now."

"Okay then," I agreed, hefting her up into a bridal carry and dropping us into an empty ID, heading for the mall and the crowds there, and from there back to base.

A short trip and an outfit change later we were into the base, through security and had stepped through the final checkpoint to the officers' quarters. The salle port closed behind us and I sighed, stretching my arms over my head and feeling a couple of vertebra pop. "It's good to be home," I mused aloud before switching from my Fox outfit to my normal clothes while beside me, Neo swapped out illusions over herself along with her gear, changing from her Yin disguise to the ones she usually wore over her eyes and hair.

The sound of conversation spilled from the living area as we approached and I found the twins, Joan, and Blake sitting around listening as Penny recounted the events of the last couple of days. At least, they had been before the girls spotted Neo and I coming in. "Jaune!" the twins echoed in stereo, bounding up from their seats and moving quickly across the living room to latch arms around me in tight hugs.

"Hey there," I greeted. A closer look at Miltia caused my eyebrows to go up. "You cut your hair."

The red-clad twin nodded. "You like?"

I was so used to the twins emphasizing the 'twin' thing with nearly identical looks aside from clothing that it was a bit jarring to see one of them so different from her sister. On the other hand, it looked good on her. I recognized the hair style as the one she'd worn in the Yellow trailer, which left me wondering for a moment if my showing up in their lives hadn't convinced her to put off getting it cut for a while. The other possibility was that, canonically, the Yellow trailer wouldn't have happened yet and the bar fight with Yang was coincidental. There was no way to tell and no sense worrying about it. Reaching out, I brushed back one of the long bangs framing her face and ran my fingers through the shorter hair at the back of her head. Green eyes closed and the girl practically melted under my touch. Gently grabbing a fistful of her hair, I pulled her head in and kissed her lips, drawing a quiet whimper from her throat in the process. "It looks good."

Not wanting Melanie to feel neglected, I pulled her into a kiss as well before releasing her and pushing them gently towards the couch. Making a trip around to the other couch, I caught Joan's chin and angled her face up to kiss her as well, just so no one felt left out. Well, almost no one. I wasn't sure Blake would appreciate the same treatment. She'd probably enjoy it, given that animal magnetism between us, but I wasn't in the habit of kissing girls who were just friends. "So, anything interesting happen while we were gone? Aside from Miltia getting a haircut, that is."

A look at where Blake and Joan were seated showed Blake a bit red in the face and looking suddenly antsy—at least what I could see of her around her book. Joan's hands twitched in her lap and she was eyeing me like a slab of meat. After a moment, it was Blake who broke the short silence. "Yang came by to hang out. She's apparently getting bored sitting at home with Ruby and their uncle gone."

"I imagine," I nodded, dropping into my preferred chair and letting out a quiet groan of contentment. Then the words actually registered and I focused on the faunus girl. "Gone where?" Qrow hadn't said anything about taking Ruby anywhere, just that he'd be working with her on the Silver Eyes thing.

"She didn't say," Blake shook her head. "Just that they'd left town for a few days and wouldn't be back until just before time for Beacon to start."

"Fuck," I grunted. I did not like being left in the dark, especially where my friends were concerned. 'Well, it's not like she's in any danger with Qrow around, either. Drunkard though he may be, he would kill anything that so much as looked at his niece funny.' Noticing the lack of blonde in my lap, I asked, "Where's Jen?"

"Shortly after Miltia left to go pick up Joan, she got a scroll call. She left after that and said to let you know that she wouldn't be back for a few days due to family business," Melanie supplied.

Frowning, I shifted my gaze to Joan. "This have anything to do with our parents being back in town?"

"Yeah, probably," Joan admitted quietly. "Can we not talk about them?"

"Wait," Miltia began.

Melanie asked, "Your parents are in town?"

"So does that mean we get to meet them?" Neo asked, a small grin tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Dust, no," Joan denied. At my curious look, and the twins and Neo looking somewhere just this side of murderous, she winced. "I mean, uh… Fuck. I didn't mean that how it sounded."

The sound of a book closing from the other couch preceded Blake standing and padding softly out of the room. "I'll give you some privacy," she murmured as she passed my chair, heading for her bedroom.

Turning to Penny, I smiled at the girl. "Penny, sweetie, we need to ask my sister some questions and we're probably going to be a while. Why don't you run along to bed?"

"But I'm not tired—I don't get tired! And I can help," Penny argued.

"Not with this," I denied. "Please?"

Giving me the most pitiful looking pout I'd ever seen, Penny nodded. "Fine. But I don't like it one bit. It's not fair that everyone else gets to stay up."

Sighing in exasperation, I dragged the smaller girl into a hug, getting quiet giggles from the girls. "Good night, Penny."

The girl answered with a muffled, "Good night, Jaune," against my side before waving to the others and padding off for her own room.

Waiting until I heard Penny's door close, I cast a look at the twins and Neo before we turned our collective gazes on Joan. "Spill," all four of us demanded as one, though there may have been more of an edge to the girls' voices than my own.

"I don't want to," Joan denied, shaking her head. The twins shared a glance before moving to sit to either side of the blonde and molding themselves against her sides, whose eyes went slightly wide. "W-what are you doing?"

"Convincing," murmured Melanie at Joan's left side as her hand trailed along the inside of the elder woman's upper left thigh, just shy of the juncture of her legs. Small lips found the side of Joan's neck and began trailing their way along the flesh there.

On her right, Miltia's hand rested gently against Joan's taut stomach while her lips brushed the blonde's ear. "Enticing," the red-clad twin whispered, before her lips took in the lobe of the older girl's ear.

At Joan's sharp intake of breath, Neo smirked and sidled over to the couch where the twins were molesting my sister before straddling the taller woman's waist and draping her arms over the blonde's shoulders. Meeting Joan's eyes, she murmured, "We can be very persuasive." Closing the distance between them, she captured Joan's lips with her own, drawing out a muffled 'mmf!'

While the girls began their assault, I slipped up out of my chair and moved around behind the couch, pulling up my Aura and slowly flooding the room with the same slow-buildup technique I had used against the girls a few days ago. Leaning against the back of the couch, I reached down and dropped my hands onto Joan's shoulders, shifting Neo's arms aside enough for what I had in mind. Squeezing gently, I began kneading the elder blonde's shoulders before leaning my head down to a stop beside Joan's left ear, just above where Melanie was slowly giving her a hickey. "Tell us," I said, allowing my voice to shift into the deeper register typically reserved for the bedroom—something I knew from experience tended to go straight from the girls' ears to their sex. Neo pulled back enough for her to talk.

Joan folded like a cheap suit. "They—ahn! Not there!" she jerked slightly as Melanie apparently found a particularly sensitive spot further up on her neck. Instead of stopping however, the twin latched on like a leech, drawing a low moan from the blonde's throat. "They have an evaluation every year to see where everyone stands."

I frowned "What, a series of tests?"

Joan shook her head. "More like a tournament."

"When? And you don't think I should go?" When she shook her head, I asked, "Why not?"

Sighing quietly, Joan said, "The middle of next week—around Wednesday. It was supposed to take place after you were already in Beacon, but school getting delayed put the kibosh on that. And do you really want them finding out about you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Not particularly," I admitted. "But it's something that'll need to happen. And for that, I'm going to need your help." Then there was the timing to consider. Had they rescheduled it intentionally? If they didn't know I would be in Beacon, then it could be interpreted as them wanting to rub that in. If they did know, then it could be seen as intentionally excluding me. 'Add it to the list of grievances I need to air with them.'

"Not happening," Joan denied.

Shrugging, I allowed a grin to creep across my face. "Well then, we'll just have to convince you."

"Why shouldn't we meet them?" Neo asked as I shifted to take the tip of Joan's ear between my lips, softly sucking it in before gently scraping it with my teeth.

"Because you'll get dragged in," Joan got out, her breathing coming raggedly now. "Stop teasing me already."

Melanie removed her lips from Joan's neck long enough to ask, "What do you say, Jaune?"

Miltia chuckled quietly, following her sister up with, "Should we reward her for being cooperative?"

"Well, it would encourage further good behavior," I murmured against the elder blonde's ear. I allowed the slowly building Aura I'd been flooding the room with to ramp up, drawing a quiet pant and a shudder from the elder blonde, while the twins and Neo both looked similarly affected.

"Dibs!" Neo called, and I rolled my eyes. Shifting back slightly on Joan's lap, she reached down and undid the button and zipper on the taller girl's jeans before slipping her hand down the front of Joan's panties.

"No dibs," Melanie denied, slipping her free hand down the back of Joan's pants.

Across from her, Miltia did likewise. "It's not fair for you to get all the fun," she smirked at Neo.

Joan's eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she shuddered as the trio went to work. Seeing an opportunity, I pulled her head back slightly and kissed her open, panting mouth. Our tongues danced as breathy little panting moans threatened to escape her lips. The twins went back to work, hot lips and tongues playing across the flesh of the elder blonde's neck and ears. I felt Neo move close, her lips brushing my ear as she breathed, "She's about to come for us."

Joan's entire body went stiff as she shuddered, and for a moment even her breathing came to a halt. I broke the kiss and she gulped down air, blue eyes rolling wildly in her head before settling on mine. "No more teasing. Bed, here, I don't care but I want you inside me, now."

"I think I heard 'tease me more,'" I grinned.

"No, I'm with her on this," Neo disagreed and I turned an amused look on her. "What? We haven't gotten laid in over a week, Jaune. A week!"

I rolled my eyes, even as the twins pulled away from Joan and nodded their agreement. "Well, fuck me. I'm out voted."

"We intend to," Melanie deadpanned, hopping up from the couch and helping Neo up off Joan's lap.

Reaching down, I slipped my arms around Miltia and hefted her over the couch, eliciting an 'eep!' from the red-clad twin as I hauled her towards the bedroom. Joan popped up from the couch and followed quickly behind Melanie and Neo. "You're going to need a bigger bed," she pointed out on getting a look at our bedroom.

"It's king-sized and we don't normally have everyone sharing the same bed," I pointed out.

"This is the first time more than four of us have shared a bed for sex," Melanie admitted. "Not quite certain how this is going to work out."

I pushed open the bedroom door and dropped Miltia on the bed, earning a giggling, "Jaune!" for the action.

From behind me, Neo said, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I was kind of hoping to be the meat in the middle of an Arc sandwich."

Joan snorted softly. "I've been out on patrol three weeks while you've had him to yourselves—and had to suffer through the last two days after he got me wound up."

Melanie rolled her eyes and slipped onto the bed beside her sister, where the pair turned a twin sultry look on the rest of us. Neo's mismatched eyes shifted between the twins, me, and Joan before she hummed. "How about double twins?" she murmured, moving over towards her dresser and opening drawers in search of something.

Joan turned a curious look on me. "'Double twins?'" she echoed, and I shrugged.

"You'll see in a minute," I answered, though I was wondering that myself. If she wasn't going to mimic one of the twins for triplets, then it would have to be Joan. 'Though why she's digging through the toy drawer…'

"Ah ha!" Neo called, drawing our eyes as she turned her back to us and shifted around adjusting her clothes for a moment before they disappeared—unequipped as she got tired of fighting with them. A quiet gasp escaped her lips before she chuckled and turned towards us, her form shimmering as she did into…

"What?" Joan asked at the same time the sound of flesh striking flesh sounded across the room as I facepalmed hard enough to do damage.

"No," I deadpanned, looking at the copy of myself standing across from us, complete with bulging erection jutting from his—her!—crotch. Logically, I knew it was just Neo using an illusion to copy my form while wearing a so-called 'strapless strap-on,' but gut reactions rarely have anything to do with logic. "Just… no, Neo."

"Come on, it'll be fun," she teased, in my voice but with her mischievous tone.

It was uncanny valley level weird on my part. Joan, on the other hand, turned and leveled a pleading look at me. A glance at the twins showed they were interested, but not particularly thrilled by the notion. "Please?" Joan asked, drawing my eyes back to her.

"No. Too weird," I denied. "Not happening unless it's a clone of me under my direct control."

The girls all blinked, turning their gazes on me as Neo asked, in my voice, "You can do that?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Not yet. I don't meet the requirements, but I'm getting there." Last time I had tried, my Semblance had told me that my INT, WIS, and CON were too low to pull it off. Theoretically, I could just dump all my points into those three areas, but I didn't know how many it would require and my Semblance wouldn't tell me. Unlike many other spells, a clone spell was apparently going to be difficult enough that my Semblance didn't know what the requirements were yet—just that I didn't meet them. I could try dumping my points in ten at a time, but it would be a waste—especially when I had been sitting on them for so long specifically so I could build them up at Beacon with training before dumping them.

"So, it's a hard no for you?" Neo asked, this time in her own voice, and I sighed.

Thinking it over, I shook my head. "For today. Maybe some time in the future," I hedged, and she nodded.

"I can live with that," the girl-turned-me agreed. Leering at me—and did that ever ratchet up the 'weird' factor—she asked, "How about this, then?" The illusion shifted, replacing my body with her own. There were still some very close resemblances, however. Her long hair, which had appeared shorter while she was illusioned as me, was blonde still and her eyes the same shade of blue as my own. Her face looked like a feminine version of mine. "Is a female twin good?" Neo looked down at the cock still jutting from between her legs. "Well, mostly female."

I hummed, turning the idea over in my head. On the one hand, futa was filth, meant to appeal to people who didn't know any better by wrapping a poisonous idea in an appealing form. Down that path lay traps and unironic use of the phrase 'feminine penis.' 'On the other hand, it's just a fucking dildo. And it's Neo,' I mused. One of the many reasons Neo hadn't enjoyed her time with Roman was the man's inability to keep up with her level of kink.

Decision made, I smirked. "Well, twincest is wincest."

"Hey!" the twins complained, but I could see amusement dancing in their eyes as they did.

"Are we done talking yet?" Joan asked, sending us an amused but clearly impatient look.

"Sure," I agreed, quickly unequipping my clothes.

"Well just take all the fun out of it," Melanie pouted.

"We were hoping for a show," Miltia agreed.

Joan rolled her eyes and, an instant later, her own clothes vanished in the same way. In the next moment, I found my arm grabbed and Joan half dragged, half threw me onto the bed as easily as I'd manhandled Miltia earlier, reminding me again of the difference in strength between us. I landed mostly on the bed, though my legs still hung off enough for my feet to comfortably rest flat on the floor. I sat up, only for Joan to straddle me, her thighs moving to either side of my own as she shifted her lips, lined us up by feel, and impaled herself on my cock with a sigh of contentment. "That's better," she breathed, wrapping her arms around my neck as she shifted her legs enough to wrap them around my waist.

Looking down, I chuckled softly as I pointed out, "You know neither of us has much leverage in this position."

"Don't care. Comfortable," Joan denied. "And I can still do this." 'This' turned out to be shifting her hips back and forth just enough to work up a pleasant friction between us, and I fell into rhythm to match her slow grinding pace.

The twins—now also nude—moved to either side of us, Melanie on my right and Miltia on my left, before sending the blonde riding me an annoyed look. "I am feeling kind of left out," Miltia pointed out.

Melanie nodded. "Ditto."

Standing on the floor behind Joan, Neo wore a smirk. "Well, there's a way to fix that. Grab her legs."

"Don't you dare," Joan warned, but the twins were having none of it as they unlocked her legs from around my waist and forced her to fold them under herself so she was kneeling in a proper cowgirl position. Her arms were a little harder to unwrap from around my back, but the twins managed. The fact that they could at all meant that Joan was allowing it—meaning she likely wanted to see what they had in mind. We weren't disappointed as, a moment later, Miltia urged me to lean back a bit and I watched as she and her twin resumed their attack on my sister. This time, Melanie focused on Joan's throat and neck while Miltia's mouth sought out the blonde's breasts. I watched as Miltia sucked Joan's nipple into her mouth while her hand drifted down and began rubbing the blonde's clit where our hips joined.

Joan's arms pulled the twins flush against her as she used the better leverage from the new position to pick up the pace of her grinding. Not wanting to leave Melanie and Miltia out of the action, I reached out to stroke both of them. Miltia felt my hand brush her ass and shifted her hips, spreading her legs slightly and giving me better access as I slid my hand between her thighs and ran my fingers up and down her damp sex. Melanie had a slightly harder time adjusting, but eventually managed to find a comfortable position where she could work over her targets while still getting attention herself. After that, the twins were all happy little breathless sighs and moans as I slowly alternated between pumping my fingers in and out of their slits and stroking their lips, with the occasional brush against their clits mixed in.

Neo had, by now, been conspicuously—suspiciously—absent as I had lost track of her. Motion from the other side of the bed drew my attention to where she had dug into the girls' shared toy box again and come out with a bottle of lube. Catching her eye, I raised an eyebrow and she grinned before spreading a few drops on the tip of her dildo—currently illusioned to look like my cock. Moving around behind the blonde slowly riding me, Neo ran her hands over Joan's shoulders before pulling herself flush against the older woman's back. Joan suddenly froze as her eyes went from half lidded to fully open and she turned her head to look back at Neo—clearly feeling the bulge that must have now been resting between her ass cheeks. "Forget about me?" Neo smirked, before turning blue eyes on me. "Hey Jaune, do you think we'll both fit?"

Despite having a larger frame and wider hips than the other girls—childbearing hips, at that—Joan was still ridiculously tight. It was not the reluctant, nervous tightness of a virgin but the kind of grip that came with muscle strength from practice along with simply not stretching herself out like so many women made the mistake of doing with oversized toys. "Probably not," I admitted. While my dick wasn't exactly forearm width and length, it was above average in both length and girth. Joan was a very snug fit around me, as it was.

Neo did not seem upset at that. If anything, the mischievous look on her face only increased in intensity. "What a shame. Then there's nowhere else for this to go," she began, shifting her head beside Joan's so her lips brushed the older woman's ear as she spoke, while below she moved her hand to shift the dildo up and down between Joan's cheeks. "Except here," Neo finished, and with a push forward and a grunt from Joan, the toy parted Joan's ass.

"Oh Dust," Joan groaned, her eyes rolling up as Neo slowly worked her hips back and forth to sink the dildo in deeper. Joan's hips shifted against mine as she worked herself back against Neo, unconsciously urging her on. I let Joan set the pace as she and Neo worked out a groove, before joining in and matching their rhythm on the next back stroke of Joan's hips. The blonde above me jerked at the unexpected motion and I felt myself bottom out—behind her, Neo gasped as the toy connecting her with Joan moved in a way she must have approved of. Apparently wanting to try that again, Joan shifted hard again on the next stroke back and my eyes went half-lidded as she clenched around me.

Melanie moved from the blonde's neck and throat to her lips, her small tongue dancing with Joan's as she grabbed a handful of the older woman's hair and crushed their lips together. Below her sister, Miltia drew both of Joan's large breasts together as her tongue flicked over the painfully erect nipples there before sucking them both into her mouth—licking, sucking, and occasionally drawing her teeth across them as Joan's fingers fisted into her short hair and nearly crushed the smaller girl to her breasts. Miltia didn't seem to mind, going by her muffled chuckle at the action. Both of the twins were starting to clench around my fingers, getting closer to their first orgasm of the night while I could tell Joan wasn't going to be too far behind.

It wasn't long before I felt both the twins clench, their hips jerking in time as they latched onto the elder blonde for a moment while they shook in shared ecstasy. Pulling away from Joan, they collapsed against the bed to either side of me and wrapped their arms around my chest, panting slightly as they recovered. Moving my hands up to Joan's hips, I urged her into a faster pace as I began to thrust harder. The blonde came down, her breasts pressed firmly into my chest as Neo grabbed a fistful of her hair and pushed her down, her other hand over mine as we timed our thrusts to match. A lewd, wet flesh-on-flesh slapping resounded through the bedroom as Joan grit her teeth and buried her face in my shoulder to keep from screaming—her fists clenching the sheets above my head hard enough I thought they may rip.

"Jaune, Jaune I'm going to—" she gasped out, interrupted as I caught her lips with my own. She groaned into my mouth as she clamped down hard around my cock, her already tight cunt becoming vice-like as she attempted to milk my cock dry. She pulled back long enough to demand, "Inside! Come inside!" My eyes rolled back in my head momentarily as I did just that, burying myself in her to the hilt.

Joan collapsed against my chest, and I admit I was feeling a bit boneless myself at the moment. "That's really hot," Neo commented from over Joan's shoulder, leaning around the blonde to peck my lips. "Me next?" she asked, before looking down at where she was still buried in Joan's ass. "Well, after I get this cleaned up."

"Shouldn't be much cleanup," Joan sighed softly, turning her head and planting a kiss on my neck before shifting her head enough to eye Neo. "I took care of things before you got here, when Penny showed up."

"So were you expecting to get fucked in the ass tonight, or just hoping?" Neo grinned down at the blonde atop me, her hands softly stroking the older woman's flanks.

"A bit of both," Joan admitted. Reluctantly, she signaled Neo to back up, shuddering around me as the smaller girl pulled out before she lifted herself off of me and stood. She gave a full-body stretch, putting her well-toned body on display as she did, before taking Neo by the hand and dragging her towards the bathroom. "Come on, you. Jaune, take care of your girls while we get cleaned up."

I glanced down at the twins, catching green eyes following the sway of Joan's and Neo's asses as they made for the bathroom. "So," I began, drawing their eyes back to me and grinning down at them, "I guess you two are all tuckered out now, huh?"

"Jaune, shut up," Melanie ordered as she propped herself up on an elbow.

Miltia mirrored her sister as both leaned in, finishing the command Melanie had begun. "And make love to us."

"Can't argue with that," I agreed. Melanie's lips met mine, her tongue slipping out and flicking against my own. A moment later, it became a three-way kiss as Miltia joined in—the twins' tongues dancing with mine and each other. It was wet, sloppy, and by the end of it the pair were giggling as I laughed.

"So, cross that off our list of things to try," Miltia said, wiping the drool off her lips and chin.

Beside her, Melanie ran her hand across her mouth and nodded. "Yeah, that doesn't really work like it does in the books."

"I could've told you that," I deadpanned, rolling my eyes before licking my lips and wiping up stray drool. "Those are always awkward and messy."

"Fun, though," Miltia argued.

Chuckling, I nodded in agreement as I pushed myself up from between them. "True. Let's try something that might actually work. Come here," I ordered. With a bit of maneuvering, I directed Melanie onto her back and Miltia atop her sister, their svelte bodies flush against one another. At my urging, Melanie's legs wrapped around Miltia's hips, while Miltia brought her knees up along the outside of her sister's thighs. It looked uncomfortable to me, but the twins were ridiculously flexible since their dancing and fighting style pretty much demanded it. It didn't bother them, however, and it succeeded at what I'd been going for—getting both their bare pussies lined up one atop the other. Leaning down, I ran my tongue from the bottom of Melanie's slit all the way up to the other side of Miltia's, drawing a shared gasp from the twins. I brought my hands and fingers into play in addition to my mouth, tongue, and teeth as I got the pair worked up again from where they'd come down off their last shared orgasm.

Once they were ready—in this case, literally begging for me to stop teasing already—I took hold of Melanie's hips and pulled her and Miltia down until they were nearly hanging off the bed. There was a slight problem with height—namely, the twins were small enough, and the bed low enough, that the position would be awkward—but I remedied that with a quick Conjuration of a couple of pillows. The new pillows under Melanie's ass got them to the proper height and I lined up, running my cock up and down their slits once before sliding into Melanie's tight, hot cunt. The twins didn't have the vice-like muscle grip Joan did, but they were naturally tight and tiny besides.

Melanie's lips gripped my cock, trailing along it and reluctant to let go as I pulled out, shifted up, and pressed into Miltia's wet heat, earning a quiet pant as I bottomed out. Like her sister, Miltia's snatch grasped around me as I slowly withdrew and slipped back into Melanie. Below me, the twins had locked lips, burying their hands in each others' hair as they began grinding their hips together. I took a slow pace, intent on taking my time and working the two up before I finally picked things up.

The bathroom door opened and Neo came out, trailed by Joan. Seeing the pink toy between Joan's legs, I raised an eyebrow. Neo, seeing me alternating between Melanie and Miltia, leered. "That looks fun."

Joan rolled her eyes and snagged Neo about the hips, lifting the smaller girl up with a startled yelp before moving around the bed to the side opposite me and the twins. Planting Neo face down on the bed, Joan met my eyes and smiled before lining Neo's hips up and slamming home inside the petite girl. A high pitched, muffled squeal escaped from where Neo's face was buried in the covers as Joan pulled back and set a pace to match mine with the twins. "You can't just jam it in like that," I warned.

The blonde across from me snorted softly. "Please, she's so wet she looks like she pissed herself. She'll be fine. Besides," reaching down, she grabbed the hair at the back of Neo's head and pulled her up onto her elbows, pulling the smaller girl's head around until her eyes locked with mine. Once she got her eyes to focus, Neo beamed a grin my way. "You're enjoying it, aren't you?"

"More please," Neo groaned quietly. "It's not Jaune's cock, but it'll do for now. And I really like watching you fuck the twins."

"See?" Joan smiled, before reaching down and giving Neo's ass a swat, causing the girl to jump and let out an 'eep!' "So, want to see if we can make them come at the same time?"

"Probably not possible," I denied, nodding at Neo. "She's on a hair trigger right now. How about trying to fuck one or more of them unconscious?"

"We like that one," Melanie agreed, while Neo nodded.

"Harder, Jaune. We won't break," Miltia said, shaking her ass as she did.

I rolled my eyes at Joan. "Now look what you've started." I made sure my next thrust into Miltia sent a slap echoing across the room, drawing a muffled squeal from her as Melanie recaptured her sister's lips. At the same time, I redoubled my push outwards with the 'lust Aura.' I wasn't above cheating to win, in this instance. The twins rocked beneath me as I picked up the pace and force of my thrusts. I couldn't go too fast, or I'd risk missing—the likely outcomes of which would be, best case, a 'wrong hole' scenario. Not that I thought the twins would mind. No, it was the potential worst case outcome of bending my dick that kept me from just hammering away.

Across from me, Neo's eyes, pupils having gone slightly wide and her breath starting to come in quick gasps, drank in the sight of me screwing the twins silly—their bodies writhing under me as they kissed, their hands wandering over each others' bodies. Breaking their lip lock, the girls began licking, sucking, and biting at places I knew each enjoyed along their throats, necks, shoulders, and ears—and everything else they could reasonably reach without maneuvering around much. Joan likewise watched, though her eyes were more drawn to my form, or the occasional glimpse of my dick slipping in and out of Melanie or Miltia that she got, since the angle was poor for that. Joan's entire upper body was flushed and her nipples looked painfully erect, and I noticed she had bitten her bottom lip and looked to be trying not to come on the spot. For my part, watching the busty blonde pound away at Neo's pussy, their breasts swaying in time with their motions, was almost hypnotic—not that I could really be blamed, swinging breasts was a sight every straight man enjoys seeing.

Neo's face and upper body were turning red and her hips began twitching as she reached under her body with one hand and began desperately rubbing at her clit. "Jaune! Jaune, I'm coming," she gasped across from me. Surprising the illusionist, Melanie reached out with both hands and grasped her head, pulling her down into a lingering kiss before Miltia pulled Neo up and took her turn. Neo's eyes closed and she whimpered quietly as she came, breaking her kiss with Miltia when she finally had to come up for air.

"Forget how to breathe through your nose?" I teased, to which the smaller girl merely raised her middle finger as she collapsed face down on the bed, still twitching as Joan slowed her pumping of Neo's cunt but didn't stop.

"Ass," Neo grunted softly. "Dust damned cheating Aura."

I raised an eyebrow and shot her a grin. "Was that a request?"

"Absolutely," the ice-cream themed girl huffed as she caught her breath.

Feeling Melanie tightening around my cock, I changed things up a bit. Breaking my alternating pace, I grabbed the long-haired twin by the ankles and lifted them up, forcing her legs to bend at the knees and changing the angle I was penetrating her at, in addition to causing her to tighten further around me thanks to the position. Picking up a hard, fast pace I slammed home inside her. Above Melanie, Miltia got the idea and redoubled her efforts to make her twin come, grabbing Melanie by the wrists and lifting her arms up over her head. Switching Melanie's wrists to one hand, I caught a faint smirk on her face as she brought her right hand down and gently wrapped it around her sister's throat. Melanie's eyes went wide and she thrashed under me, her face turning red as wordless cries escaped her lips, her body beginning to quake as tears escaped the corners of her eyes and I worried for a moment she really was approaching overstimulation. The long-haired twin clamped down hard around my cock as she came, at the same moment Miltia leaned in and stole her sister's lips again. Miltia released her hold and Melanie gasped in great heaving breaths as I slowed, before finally pulling out of the girl entirely.

Releasing Melanie's legs, which collapsed limply to the bed to either side of her sister, I took Miltia's hips in hand and lined up before sliding inside her again. Wanting to see just how far I could push her, I opened up the lust Aura all the way. Once I had a good, hard pace set I reached forward and ran my fingers through her short hair, before grabbing a handful and pulling her head back. Apparently looking to get back at her sister, Melanie shifted under Miltia, sliding down the short-haired twin's body enough to suck one of Miltia's nipples into her mouth. A strangled cry escaped Miltia's lips and I thrust harder, bringing one hand down and slapping her ass.

Across from me, Joan watched with avid interest as she maneuvered Neo around onto her side. Joan pushed the upper leg up to the smaller girl's chest as she straddled Neo's lower leg and slowly pumped into her. Neo's eyes were likewise locked on us as Melanie and I brought Miltia closer to the edge. Just as she was tightening up around me and about to come, I heard the bedroom door open behind me. Two sets of eyes—Joan and Neo—shifted to track whoever was at the door. At the same time, I pushed Miltia's face down into the covers to muffle her scream as she came around my cock.

The door closed behind me, but whoever it was had yet to make a move. Not wanting to look and dreading the answer, I asked, "That's Penny, isn't it?" Just the thought of her walking in and the awkward conversation that would follow left me tempted to throw on Invisibility and flee to somewhere safer—like Cinder's hideout. At least there, I'd only have to worry about dirty looks from Emerald, jealousy from Mercury, and Cinder trying to pulverize my hips if Neo was right about her being more enthusiastic since she'd pushed Cinder's buttons.

An understanding look crossed Joan's face as she winced and shook her head, while Neo smirked. "Try again," Neo giggled.

"Jen?" asked, and Neo shook her head this time as Joan rolled her eyes.

"Oh god, Yang?" I asked quietly. If it was the blonde bombshell, I was going to be damned disappointed to turn her away. Sure, there was always the remote possibility that Raven—who I noticed was spying straight through my wards even now—had said 'fuck it' and decided to become an active participant, but it was a near-zero possibility and she would have used a portal besides.

"Nope," Melanie answered, popping the 'p' as she sat up to get a look. Miltia was too busy gasping and half-laughing half-crying in post-orgasmic hysterics to care. Seeing the state of the short-haired, I released the handful of hair I had and made a point of rubbing her scalp while shifting my other hand down along her back. Melanie tilted her head back to regard Neo for a moment, then shifted back around to regard our visitor. "In or out."

"Ha ha, very funny," a quiet, familiar voice snarked as bare feet padded quietly across the wood floor. The weight of a new body pressed the mattress down to my left and I risked a look at the newcomer. Gold eyes stared back, framed by black hair and set under a set of black cat ears. A glance down showed the smoke gray short kimono style robe she wore was open, draped in such a way that it hid her nipples from view but left much of her breasts exposed. In addition to teasing with the view of her breasts, it displayed her sex as she sat down—wet and glistening, with a neat patch of short, straight hair set on her pubis but nowhere else.

The other girls had gone silent—even Miltia managed to get herself under control enough to turn and regard Blake, though she still shook all over—as they waited to see what would happen. Finally, I said, "Well. This is a surprise. What brings you here, Blake? Not that I'm complaining about the view, mind you, but we're a little occupied."

"Jaune, if your mouth runs her off, I will maim you," Neo threatened as Melanie groaned quietly in agreement.

"I can see that," Blake returned fire, golden eyes drifting up and down my form, stopping at the point where my hips were still flush against Miltia's ass, before moving across the twin and from there the others in the room. Finally, they completed their circuit and her gaze locked with mine. "I blame you for this."

I blinked. "For… what?"

There was a quiet undertone of a growl as Blake answered. "I have been masturbating for the last hour. I've gotten off more times than I care to count and it's only gotten worse. I blame you."

'It's Jane all over again,' I mused, catching Neo's eyes as she hid a knowing smirk. 'Oh. Oooh. Clever girls. You planned this.'

I had to hand it to them, if this had been their intention, then it was a master stroke. They had even gone without for a week when, if they had asked, I wouldn't have minded period sex so long as it was in the shower. And now that we were all back in the same room, after a long enough time without—barring the little strip show a few days back—the effect on Blake was probably along the lines of dragging an alcoholic forced to go cold turkey into a bar. Well, perhaps not that bad—she wasn't Jane, after all. Finally, I asked, "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Take responsibility," Blake deadpanned.

Snorting softly, I shook my head. "Firstly, it's not my choice alone. Secondly, I don't do 'casual' sex." The one time I had even bothered to try in Remnant, it had gone over poorly—though, I suppose I was naive to think the 'friendship' I had with Candice was based on anything other than sex and shared kinks. "If you want in, we'll put it to a vote—but there has to be something there."

Blake broke eye contact for a moment before nodding. "There is," she whispered.

"Same here. Good enough for me." Turning to the others, I asked, "Well?"

The girls shared a look for a long moment before Melanie said, "Yes."

Miltia nodded. "Sure."

Joan shook her head. "I don't know her well enough to say one way or another, if I even get a say."

"You do," I assured her. "Abstain?"

The blonde nodded. "Sure."

"Neo?" I asked.

The ice cream themed girl hummed, regarding Blake for a moment. Finally, she said, "A catgirl is fine too."

I resisted the urge to facepalm. Blake groaned quietly before admitting, "Well, it beats Yang's puns."

"That would be a cat-tastrophe," Melanie agreed, her tone entirely too innocent to be believed.

"Cat-aclysmic," Miltia agreed.

Neo's lips twitched into a smirk as she added, "Yang's puns should be a feline-ious offense."

"I hate you all," Blake glared, crossing her arms over her breasts as her ears twitched, but I caught the hints of a smile tugging the corners of her lips up.

"How about we make it up to you?" Joan suggested, turning a look on the twins and Neo. "Girls, why don't you show her what you showed me, earlier?"

"I think I can move now," Miltia murmured, pulling away from me with a wet squelch as my dick slipped out from between her greedily sucking lower lips. While my erection had flagged when Blake entered, it had swiftly come back to attention now that I knew she would be sticking around.

Blake's nose twitched as her eyes tracked down to my cock, her pupils dilating slightly as she stared. While she was distracted, the twins each took a hand and hauled her further onto the bed. Neo quickly divested the faunus girl of her gown, tossing the garment off the side of the bed and leaving Blake completely nude—a veritable feast for our hungry eyes. I noticed I wasn't the only one eyeing the catgirl—the twins, Neo, and to a lesser extent even Joan were drinking her in. Blake's body was lithe and muscular, more towards the nimble side of the scale like Neo or the twins than the brute force side of the scale like Joan. On the other hand, Joan had enough body fat that she didn't look grotesquely over-muscled like you get with most female bodybuilders, whereas much of Blake's was absent—in other words, she looked leaner than she was really supposed to be.

I was pulled from my thoughts as the faunus girl gasped. "W-what are you do...ing," she trailed off as Melanie and Miltia each took an arm, flipped it over, and applied their mouths and teeth to her wrists. I had used that particular move on them before and it never failed to get them going.

Neo settled in behind Blake and brushed the faunus girl's hair back from one of her human ears before settling her arms around Blake's shoulders. "Making up for the cat puns. What's it look like?" Neo asked, her lips brushing against Blake's ear before her tongue flicked out and ran over it. Blake shuddered slightly in Neo's arms and the ice-cream themed girl smirked, before moving away from Blake's human ear and moving up to the cat ears atop Blake's head. "Or do you prefer these? I wonder how sensitive they are," Neo murmured, before taking the tip of one of the triangular ears between her lips.

Golden eyes rolled up in her head as Blake whimpered, and from my position settling between her legs, I could plainly see she was having a small orgasm just from that. Pulling her thighs over my shoulders while she was otherwise insensate, I dove in and went to work on her folds with my lips, tongue, and teeth. My first impression of her taste was tart, green apples—and the smell wasn't too far off—which meant it was definitely an Aura thing since I knew her diet was heavy on fish. Her thighs immediately clamped down around my head and an almost pitiful-sounding mewl escaped her lips as I pushed her into a second orgasm on the back of the first. 'She's overstimulated. Probably not going to last long at this rate,' I assessed. 'And I haven't slacked off on the Aura, either—so I might just knock her out and win that little wager with Joan.' A glance upwards showed the twins had abandoned Blake's wrists and moved on to her neck, throat, and human ears while above them, Neo molested the other set. Her hands quickly found their way into my hair and I chuckled faintly as she tried her best to grind my face into her crotch, but I was the one in control here and I refused to budge.

I kept licking, sucking, and occasionally nibbling at the folds of her lips and the bud of her clit until she came again, then decided I'd had enough foreplay. Gently forcing her legs to unlock from their death grip around my head, I pulled away and wiped off the leftovers of my impromptu 'meal.' I took a moment to take in the sight of Blake being teased by Neo and the twins before catching sight of Joan, laying off to the side and watching as she slowly fingered herself. I caught her eye and she shrugged. "What? We've got plenty of time and I'm not going anywhere for a while. Besides, I like watching you work."

"I thought Jane was the voyeur," I snarked, and the elder blonde rolled her eyes. Joan stuck her tongue out at me and I smirked. "Careful, I might take that as an invitation."

"I'm not scared," she countered.

Turning my attention back to the sexy catgirl spread out before me, I shot Neo a look and gestured for her to move. Getting the idea, but deciding to take her own interpretation, she shifted around behind Blake. Leaning back and taking the taller girl with her, Neo took Miltia's place trying to leave hickeys on Blake's neck while wrapping her arms around Blake's chest, just under her breasts—incidentally, lifting those already fairly large breasts up and giving the impression they were a bit larger than they looked. The twins each shifted their assault downwards, trailing kisses, licks, and the occasional bite down from the catgirl's neck to her chest, then breasts—their hands playing over her stomach and occasionally running through the short crop of soft hair above her crotch. Taking hold of Blake's thighs, I put her where I wanted her and lined up, before slowly parting her lips with my cock. Gold eyes snapped open, focusing on my blue as I pushed into her to the hilt. Her eyes went half-lidded and she panted softly, biting her bottom lip and nodding, urging me on.

Blake was not nearly as tight as the others, but she was still pleasantly snug and wetter by far than any of the girls had been. Thrusting into her produced a nice, lewd wet sound that I was quickly growing to love hearing. Her legs wrapped around my hips, pulling against my ass and urging me to take her faster and harder, but I was determined to drag this out and enjoy it as I had with the others instead of just jackhammering away. Her hands went up to my shoulders and pulled me down into a kiss—and in so doing, forcing the twins to move—before going over my back. A moment later, I felt nails digging into my back as I thrust into her—short though Blake's nails may have been, they were still sharp. Melanie and Miltia didn't go far, however, as I felt them mold themselves against my sides and back—hot lips trailing kisses up my arms and shoulders to my neck.

Miltia's lips brushed my left ear as she breathed, "She wants it so bad. Fuck her harder, Jaune."

On the other side, Melanie's teeth scraped the other ear for a moment before she added, "Make her scream for us, Jaune."

'Well, how can I resist that?' I grinned at their egging me on and took hold of Blake's hips, shifting my knees forward a bit for a better angle, and pounded into her hard enough to force Neo below her deeper into the mattress. Neo responded by grasping Blake's breasts and squeezing tightly, pinching both her nipples and drawing out a keening moan from the catgirl. Not satisfied with that result, Neo left her right hand in place to torment Blake's tit while the left slipped down between them. Her eyes fluttered for a moment as she fingered herself, and over the connection I'd left up between us, I got the mental image of her gathering her moisture onto her fingers. Sending her a curious look, Neo smirked in answer before pulling her hand away from herself and moving towards her intended target.

Blake's eyes went slightly wild as she felt Neo's probing fingers and she jerked beneath me. "N-not theeere oooh Dust," she got out, entirely too late to stop Neo from slipping a finger into her ass. Pulling my head down, she leaned forward and I felt sharp teeth sink into the flesh where my neck and shoulder joined as she screamed against me, her legs and arms going almost painfully tight around me as her cunt fluttered around my cock. An instant later, I felt a flood of fluid against my cock and balls as she let go, which sent me boiling over as I emptied myself into her with a deep growl. Blake's grip slackened and she unclamped her jaw from where she'd bit me as she collapsed backwards, panting quickly, and with a small trail of blood dribbling from the corner of her mouth. Propping myself up a bit, I looked down at her as Melanie giggled.

Miltia, however, was carefully inspecting the ring of blood left over from where Blake had sank her teeth in. Feeling her fingers brush it away, I shot her a questioning look and she smiled. "It looked worse than it was," she supplied. I wouldn't be surprised that in her worry, she'd forgotten that Gamer's Body worked better than even flash healing by most other Hunters.

"Good job, Jaune. You fucked her unconscious," Melanie said, gently prodding Blake's face.

"Not. Unconscious," the catgirl huffed out, reaching one hand up to shakily swat at Melanie's prodding finger and then wipe at her bloody lips.

"Damn. There goes my win," I grumbled, a small smile crossing my lips as I looked down on her.

Below Blake, Neo shot me an amused look. "A little help? I'm stuck."

"Can't move," Blake deadpanned.

"We should leave you like that," Miltia teased.

Neo shrugged. "If you're going to, at least help roll her onto her side."

Carefully extricating myself from Blake's sopping snatch, I looked down to take stock of the bed and the huge wet spot the catgirl had left. "Not it," I called.

One golden eye cracked open and regarded me with a glare. "Ass."

Joan laughed off to the side. "She made it, she can sleep in it." The twins turned their eyes on the blonde before trading a look with each other. When they turned back to her with hungry looks on their faces, Joan shook her head. "I think that's enough for tonight, girls. We've got all of tomorrow."

"Kind of disappointed that I didn't get dicked," Neo pouted, and I laughed quietly at the wording. "But like she said, no need to rush. Sleep time."

"Sleep sounds good," Blake agreed quietly, rolling slowly onto her side, and curling her legs up nearly into her chest as she shifted about to get comfortable. "I can sleep here, right?"

"You don't have to go," Melanie agreed, reaching out and stroking one hand through the catgirl's dark hair.

"Shower for me," I denied, pushing up off the bed and heading for the shower.

Neo popped up off the bed and hurried after me. "I changed my mind. Shower, then sleep."

"I figured you would," I chuckled, turning to the bed and calling up water elemental Mana. Pulling the moisture from the sheets as best I could, I floated it with me towards the bathroom. "Suppose I can't just let Blake sleep in her own wet spot."

"Aww," Melanie and Miltia pouted as Neo and I crossed the room.

"Let her have him. He'll probably finish her off in the shower," Joan said, standing and pulling the twins to their feet. "Speaking of a shower, where can I get one around here?"

Closing the door behind me cut off the rest of their conversation and I turned to Neo in time to catch her taking a flying leap at me. I made sure to dump the moisture I'd collected from the bed into the sink before she distracted me enough to lose control over it. "Hello, lover," she practically purred in my arms as she wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms over my shoulders.

"Well," I dragged the word out, a grin twitching my lips upwards, "I suppose I could go for one more round. And shower sex is always fun."

"Woohoo!" Neo cheered, before pointing towards the shower in question. "Let's go. Less talking, more grunting, moaning, groaning, and splitting my greedy pussy wide open."

Raising an eyebrow at her, I shrugged and carried her to the shower. "You say the most romantic things," I snarked as I turned the water on and waited for it to warm up.

"You know you love it." Shifting her hips, Neo teased her slit side-to-side across the top of my cock.

"The things I do for you," I sighed, attempting and failing a put-upon look, as it was ruined by the grin on my face. Further conversation was curtailed as I stepped into the shower with Neo in my arms and nailed her to the wall, much to her delight.