I parked my newly acquired truck in front of the address I was given and let out a low whistle when I saw the building. "Junior really pulled through, huh?"

Yoko leaned out the window to get a closer look. "...it's just a fire station," she said, confused. "An old one at that."

She wasn't wrong. It was an old brick building with a large concrete 'yard' of sorts. It was surrounded by a brick wall with a large gate leading directly onto the street. The building itself was sort of L-shaped, with a garage with three large shutters, sized for fire trucks, and a connected multi-story building.

"Just a fire station?" I replied in mock anger. "You just trampled on every boy's dream of being a firefighter. A fire station is a place of heroism! Of adventure! Of the really big pole you can slide down!" I paused. "Which could probably double as a stripper pole, now that I think about it."

Yoko rolled her eyes and hopped out of the truck. "Come on, I see Junior's guy. Let's go talk to him."

I followed her out of the truck to talk to the man standing in front of the fire station, who was standing in front of the garage doors and had stood up straight when we had driven up.

"Yo!" I greeted him casually. "You Junior's guy?" I had to ask because he wasn't dressed like one of Junior's goons, that is to say, he wasn't wearing all black and red. But I had also specifically told Junior to tell whoever he was sending me to not wear the gang colors. I didn't want to make it obvious that the two of us were working together.

"That's me," he replied politely. "My name is Jian, and I'll be your liaison to Junior. I'm also a mechanic, as you requested."

I nodded, pleased. "Perfect." I threw him an armlet, pulled from my pocket. "Put that on, it'll let my people know you're one of us." He caught it and started putting the armlet on, not questioning it. Junior had reliable mooks, and I appreciated that about him.

"I'll introduce you to your boss in a bit," I continued. "For now, just give us a tour of the place and we'll start unloading."

He looked at me, puzzled. "You're not gonna be the boss?"

"Oh, I'm the boss," I reassured him. "And of course, any order I give will take priority. But there's someone else you'll be assisting directly most of the time." I wave away his concerns. "Later. They're not here yet. For now, the tour."

He nodded, taking it in stride. "Very well, if you'll follow me." He reached down to open one of the shutters, revealing a spacious garage. "As requested, there is plenty of room to work on vehicles. Anything short of a semi-truck should fit and there is additional parking behind the garage," he explained as he led us into the building. "The place has been cleaned and equipped with standard mechanic's tools."

I let out another whistle, which echoed in the large empty space. "How the hell did Junior get his hand on a fire station anyway?" I asked.

"The city built a new fire station that they moved into about five minutes from here," he explained. "It's in a more central location and is larger. They didn't have any particular plans for this place though so they auctioned it off. An associate of Junior's purchased it for relatively cheap, but never did anything with it and offered it to Junior for a good price."

"Let me guess, the new one is also closer to the nicer neighborhoods?" I asked. It was the only reason I could think of that they'd bother building an expensive new location.

"Exactly so," Jian said with a nod. "And further from the slums."

"That's awful," Yoko muttered.

"That's typical," I rebutted. "And I'll gladly take advantage of it. Let's see the rest of the place."

Jian nodded and led us toward the attached building. As we got near the wall of the garage though, I spotted it. The pole. Jian pointed it out as well. "We left the pole in. Every floor of the attached building has access to it, so you can reach here quickly. The door next to it is a stairwell that connects all of the floors as well."

"Good, that should come in handy," I said. Sure, there were the reasons I gave to Yoko earlier as to why I wanted it, but if we needed to get out quickly for whatever reason, it would be genuinely helpful. It wasn't likely, and if I were to build a place I wouldn't include it. But it was already here and there was no reason to get rid of it.

He led us through a different door, not the one to the stairwell, and into a large open room. "When this was a fire station, this is where the public space was as well as offices for the support staff," he explained. "Most of it was desks and cubicles though, which they took with them when they moved. We left this area alone, other than cleaning it, because we weren't sure what you wanted to do with it."

I rubbed my chin, looking at the large empty space that took up almost all of the floor, save for the space required for some storage rooms in the back and the staircase. "I don't know either," I said. "Maybe I'll open a legitimate business as a front. I'll figure it out later. I assume everything else I asked for is upstairs?"

He nodded and led us to the stairwell, which was simple and sturdy concrete. The second floor opened up to another large area, though not quite as large as the ground floor. And unlike that floor, it was furnished. The area immediately out of the stairwell was a living area, with a few TV's mounted on the wall spread out across the area, surrounded by couches and chairs. Beyond it was a series of tables and a large kitchen area.

"This is the recreational space and mess hall," he explained. "We furnished it as you asked, and it should be plenty of room for quite a few people." He pointed to two hallways, both of them on opposite sides of the room from each other and directly between the recreational area and the mess hall. "Though there are the bedrooms. Ten small bedrooms with double beds and a single larger master bedroom with the largest bed we could fit in there."

"With its own bathroom, right?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes. The master bedroom has a full size bathroom of its own. The rest share communal toilets and communal shower rooms, split into two different rooms. Each hallway has one of each."

"Perfect," I said. I'd be more than happy to share a shower with any of my girls, but that just wouldn't be practical after a certain point, especially as we got busy. As I got more girls too, the more the bathroom situation would become an issue. Hence, making sure I had my own so I didn't have to worry about it.

"Would you like to see the rooms?" Jian asked. "They're fully furnished as well."

"Nah, I'll check them out later," I said. "Let's go to the next floor."

Jian led us up the stairs again to the third, and top, floor. "This is the area we did the most extensive work on," he said. "And is largely why it took a few days before you could move in."

He opened the door to what looked like a wide hallway but was more of a long room. The opposite wall housed a massive thick window that overlooked the large room that took up most of the rest of the space. Next to that window was a set of double doors leading into that room, and past that, on the wall directly to my left, was a single door.

"Through there is the training room you requested," Jian said, indicating the room beyond the window. "It's rated for Hunter level combat, but that just means that the floor and walls are made of a material that is cheap and easy to replace. However, the structure itself is sturdy, and you won't be collapsing the floor without dedicated effort." He shook his head. "It's the best we could do on such short notice. For better results, you'll need to likely create an entirely new building, or spend ludicrous amounts of money."

"This is fine, don't worry," I reassured him, stepping up to the window so I could get a better look at the room. It wasn't very interesting. Concrete floors, walls, and ceilings with cheap but bright lights. No real decoration or anything. "What's the timeframe on repairs?"

"Depending on the extent of the damage, it would take anywhere from fifteen minutes to several hours to apply the repairs, and at least four hours to settle. Eight would be better though."

I nodded, mulling it over. That should be good enough for now. I had to train my people, and myself, but if this was rated for Hunter training, then that would be enough for now. And hopefully by the time we outgrew that, I'd be able to afford a nicer option, either through the Company or through natives in this world.

"Perfect," I said. "You know how to do that?"

"I do," he says. "I'll make it one of my priorities."

"Good man. Anything else?"

He pointed to the single door. "That door leads to a changing room. It's not very big, but it has a dozen or so lockers and a shower. There's an entrance into the training room from there as well. And you can't access it from this room, but on the other side there's a storage room. It's currently empty, but any training equipment you want can be stored there."

"Good to know. Anything else?"

"No, that should be it."

"Yoko, you have any questions?" She shook her head. "Then I think we're done here. Let's get the van into the garage and then unpack.

We didn't have much to unpack, truth be told. Well, except for the crates of Dust we had stolen. Those went into the storage room in the garage, to be used later. But as far as personal belongings went, Yoko and I barely had any. It was basically just the clothes on our back, our weapons, and the necessities we had picked up in our shopping trip shortly after arriving.

"I'm going to miss Prism," Yoko said as we brought our stuff to the master bedroom, where the bed was as big as advertised and lined with nice comfortable sheets.

"Why?" I asked. "She's only a few blocks away and will probably spend most of her nights here." I had offered to let her sell her shop and move in here full time, but our crew wasn't big enough yet to keep a tattoo artist busy full time and she enjoyed her work too much to just ditch it.

"Yeah, I know," Yoko said. "It's just different, I guess. It's a big space."

"We'll fill it up in no time," I said. "Prism's place was always temporary, just to have a roof over our heads. This? This is a place we can grow into, can actually operate out and train in. And store the stuff we steal without filling up the entire dining room with volatile crates of Dust."

"Wait, volatile?" Yoko asked, eyes widening. "We were using them as chairs!"

"Not important," I said, dismissing her concerns.

"I disagree!" she rebutted, but I just laughed.

"Anyway. You'll get used to it soon enough, and I bet it'll be cramped soon enough."

Yoko glared at me, but nodded. "You're probably right. We're getting the mechanic today, right?"

I closed the drawer I just finished stuffing my clothes into and nodded. "Right now, in fact, if you're done unpacking."

"Yep, I'm ready to go," she said. The two of us headed out to the recreational area, just to have a bit more space, and I pulled out my Scroll.

I had spent the time since my meeting with Junior thinking about what I needed first, and one of the things I had decided on was getting a good mechanic. Sure, I could find someone locally, and I had asked Junior for one even, but I didn't want a decent mechanic for this world. I wanted someone who could really pimp out my rides and create some useful gadgets and weapons.

So I navigated the Catalog part of the Company's app and purchased Mei Hatsume, from My Hero Academia.

There were better mechanics available, and even some that I could afford. But Mei had an enthusiasm and motivation that I liked, and above all, she was creative. I was confident that if I gave her access to Dust and a budget to tinker with, she'd come up with some cool stuff.

Also, she was cheap, and rather than getting an expensive mechanic, getting a cheap one who would grow as the crew did, using any Talents I shared and resources I stole, sounded like a better idea. I didn't need anything crazy in the short term anyway, and I wanted to use those credits on other purchases.

After I hit the buy button, a portal appeared and out of it stepped Mei Hatsume. She was wearing black pants, a black tank top that barely contained her decently large bust, black gloves, and a set of goggles on her head. She had pink hair styled in thick dreadlocks and golden eyes that had what looked like a crosshair design on them.

She looked around before spotting Yoko and I and smiled. "Heya! Are you the new boss?" I noticed she already had an armlet on her upper arm already, courtesy of the Company. It was golden, the same color as her eyes, with a pink gem on it.

"That's me," I said with a nod. "I'm Kamina, your captain. This is Yoko, our sniper. And you've been hired as our mechanic. We don't have much yet, but I wanted to get you started early."

She beamed at me. "Sounds good to me!" She looked around. "Where will I be working?"

"Let me show you," I say, turning towards the staircase. "I've prepared an assistant for you as well."

"Oh good, I need someone to make sure I eat," she admitted flippantly.

"He'll do that, and whatever errands, shopping, or grunt work you need," I explained as we headed down the stairs. "He's also a mechanic. Not as good as you, but you can leave some simple stuff to him."

"I'll have to test him first," she said, tone still cheerful.

We entered the garage, where Jian was still moving crates of Dust. I ignored him for a moment. "I have a few project ideas, but for now?" I pulled a scroll out of my pocket and handed it to her. "That's a smartphone, they call it a scroll here. I loaded it with a bunch of info on the local tech. Catch up to speed and then focus on souping up the truck. Nothing too crazy, it needs to look like a normal truck still. But whatever you can fit that doesn't stand out. And make sure you or Jian can drive it."

"Jian?" she asked. "Is that my assistant?"

I nodded, and then called over Jian, who was just coming out of the storage room. "Jian!" I said. "Come meet your boss!"

He walked over, brow furrowed as he spotted Mei. "Jian, this is Mei. Mei, this is Jian. Jian, you'll be helping Mei with whatever she needs, big or small. Parts, resources, grunt work, errands, whatever, got it?" Jian nodded. "Mei, rely on him, lemme know if there's something he can't get you. Oh, and you have access to as much Dust as you need to use."

She tilted her head. "Dust?"

"Read the stuff," I said, pointing at her scroll. She nodded and started tapping away at the scroll. I turned back to Jian. "She's… a little eccentric. But trust me, her skills are the real deal. Support her however you can. Junior set aside a budget for this, right?"

Jian nodded. "He did."

"Make sure she knows what the budget is and warn her if she asks for something that will use up a huge part of it," I instructed him. As much as I would have liked to just throw infinite resources at Mei, that wasn't possible, not yet.

"So… babysit her," he replied, not sounding enthused.

"Yep!" I replied with a grin. "But she's worth it man. Oh, and Junior should have told you already… but keep things professional, yeah? No matter how defenseless she seems. She's mine, understood?"

He nodded vigorously. "No worries about that, boss. I got a wife, you won't have any problems from me."

I smiled. "I'm glad we understand each other," I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder in a way that definitely wasn't threatening. "Now, I'll leave you two to get started. Yoko and I need to break in the training room."

"Huh?" Mei looked up from the scroll, not having noticed our conversation. "Oh, sure, I'll see you later, boss!" She turned to Jian. "Come on, show me this Dust stuff."

Jian sighed but led her over to the storage room, and I turned to Yoko.

"Time to go back upstairs," I said. "You get used to your Aura yet?"

I had unlocked it for her a few days ago. A purchase of Soul Talent to improve how quickly I could learn how to manipulate my Aura and an explanation from the twins had been enough for me to figure it out.

"I'm getting there," she said. "It's hard to keep it up consistently. I'll need more time before I can do that. Or you could share that Talent with me."

"Soon, soon, I promise," I told her. "Those Credits are earmarked for something else though."

"What? Another girl?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I'm going to get a Template Stack for myself."

"Aren't you still learning to use Aura? I don't know that it's a good idea to split your focus like that."

I waved my hand in a so-so motion. "Maybe. Talents will help, of course. But I think it's worth getting it early, before we start facing enemies that are actually dangerous. I've done alright so far, but now that we have Aura, we'll be fighting other people with Aura. And more importantly, we'll be fighting people who have actually trained most of their life to fight."

We reached the top floor and I pushed the double doors open, entering the training area. "So, I'm going to need more than just my own Aura to match them. I'm going to need some actual skill. The Martial Talent that came with the Pirate perk will let me develop that skill, but a Template Stack would give it direction, and give me an edge. And doing it now means I don't have to relearn or change my fighting style later."

I came to a stop in the middle of the room and turned to face her. She had a contemplative look on her face as she mulled over my argument. Then she sighed, her shoulders slumping. "I guess that makes sense. I'll keep struggling with my own Aura then."

"Sorry babe, I'll get Talent Sharing soon, I promise."

She shook her head. "No, no, you're right, this is a good idea. You'll be in the thick of the fighting, but I'll be a few blocks away most of the time. Improving your survivability takes priority." She looked up at me, a smile on her face. "So, what are you getting?"

I grinned and pulled out my Scroll, navigating the Company app again. "The abilities of a pirate captain that was so great they called him an Emperor. Red-Haired Shanks."

A Template Stack of Shanks came with two main benefits. For one, he was damn good with a sword, one of the best in the setting and a former rival of the actual best swordsman of the setting, Mihawk. He lost some of that skill when he lost his arm, but that wouldn't be an issue for me.

But more important than his swordsmanship was his Haki. Haki was a nifty little power that came in three different types. Observation Haki allowed you to sense others. You could sense them from afar, predict their attacks when fighting them, or even glimpse the future to predict their actions. It was honestly one of the main reasons I wanted Haki, as it would give me the edge I wanted over other fighters that didn't have it.

Armament Haki was the second type, and it was simpler. It was basically the same thing as Aura, acting as armor when used on yourself, or a weapon enhancer when infused on a weapon. But it was a little more effective than Aura, at the cost of being more difficult to train. Armament Haki was 'denser', for lack of a better word. More unwieldy and harder to manipulate, but it had more weight and effect. It was still the least useful of the three types of Haki for me, since I did have Aura, but redundant defenses were never a bad thing, and it could save my life if my Aura broke.

Finally, there was Conqueror's Haki, the golden prize. Not every person could use it, which is another reason why I chose Shanks, since he could. Its basic usage was extremely simple. You simply exuded an aura of pressure, one that pitted your willpower against every person around you. And those that had their willpower outmatched had no choice but to succumb to you. This could range from being tamed, as was usually the case with animals, being frozen in place, or even passing out.

In short, it was the ultimate tool for clearing out mooks without having to actually bother fighting them. Sadly, it was also by far the hardest of the three to train. But I'd get there, eventually.

Pretty much all three forms of Haki had more advanced techniques as well, but I wasn't quite as familiar with them and honestly I was more than satisfied with the basic uses. So I happily spent the rest of my Credits getting a Template Stack of Shanks for myself.

I expected to feel some change, maybe something like when I had my Aura unlocked, but as far as I could tell, nothing had happened. No sudden insights into the world, no change in my senses, nothing at all.

Then again, Template Stack did reduce the scope of the abilities I was copying to an extremely low level, forcing me to train them up, and Shank's abilities weren't exactly flashy, so perhaps I had been expecting too much.

I shrugged and put away my phone. "Alright, purchased. Now, let's do some sparring."

Yoko nodded and started stretching. "I'm not really one for hand to hand stuff," she said.

"That's fine, just concentrate on using your aura in the fight," I say. "I've got another sparring partner in mind for actually polishing my skills."

She nodded before suddenly pulling the string of her bikini top up, causing her boobs to drop out of the fabric and bounce enticingly. I froze, eyes pulled by an irresistible force to her exposed chest. And then suddenly she was lunging at me, her fist burying itself in my gut.

I grunted and jumped back. My aura had absorbed most of the blow, but I had still felt it. Yoko grinned at me, not bothering to fix her bikini top. "What's the matter, Kamina?" she said smugly. "Got distracted? That's not good, we're meant to be fighting."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "So that's how it's gonna be, huh?"

"That's right," she replied. "You got a problem with that?"

I grinned and shook my head. "Nah, no problem. But there will be consequences."

I pounced at her, causing her to dodge away, and the game was afoot.

And even though our sparring eventually turned into passionate sex right there in the training hall, Yoko did get a lot better at using her Aura, so it was time well spent.

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AN: Mostly a setup chapter, I know. But we'll be able to hop straight back into the actual plot next chapter.

I picked Mei as the mechanic because I've been dying to use her in something, and her chaotic energy works well here. Sure, she's relatively small scale, but one of the next Pirate perks I plan on getting will share Engineering Talent with her, so she'll be able grow pretty quickly. She's better than any non-Atlas mechanic I'm likely to find in RWBY though, and she could surpass even them with some time and resources. Especially once Kamina steals some of their tech for her to study.

I didn't get much of a chance in this chapter to explore her as a character, but that'll come in future chapters, don't worry.

As for his Template Stack… I feel like some people are going to see it as a waste. But I have my reasons. I don't want to give him a bunch of diverse and complicated power sets, and adding a Devil Fruit on top of his aura(and eventual Semblance), Spiral Power, Haki, and other things I have planned? It's too much. Instead I wanted a solid set of powers that worked in tandem with what he had/will get and could scale up for any situation he could face. Shanks was chosen for being a skilled user of Haki that had Conqueror's Haki, and his fighting style of a sword(and even a shotgun in one of the games) matches what I had planned for Kamina already. It's not flashy, but it's very solid, and I'll stand by that choice.

Tried to explain more about the Perks and the powers he's getting. Not everything though. Mei was left largely unexplained, but a) most of you probably know her, and b) we'll get a better look at what she's capable of once she actually makes some stuff and we spend some time with her.