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Cardin Winchester woke up to a beautiful morning that shone on him, at least according to himself. Stretching, he got out of bed before starting through his morning routine. Looking into the mirror, he struck a pose before frowning a little. His muscular structure seemed to be sagging a little, thanks to his current lifestyle.

"Gonna need to head to the gym if I wanna keep this bod up," hummed Cardin before finishing his routine.

Cardin lived with his parents in a mansion, though significantly smaller than the Schnee mansion, it was enough to have plenty of room. More than 7,000 acres with five bedrooms and five bathrooms as well as other rooms.

Strutting out of his bathroom and going down the stairs, Cardin walked into the kitchen where a maid had already prepared breakfast for him. Cardin took a good look at the maid's bottom for a minute before she left. He was tempted to touch, but knew it would be a bad idea. The maid's family had been a long-time employee of the Winchester family, and so had the trust of the head of the Winchester family.

"Still, I shouldn't bother with such a person," hummed Cardin as he attacked his eggs and bacon.

He began imagining all the things he could do with his power, including making Pyrrha and Glynda his personal playthings. Such power of imagination… and delusion…. during breakfast was quite a feat indeed.

Taking a sip of his freshly squeezed orange juice, Cardin looked out the window with a smile.

"Today will be an excellent day," said Cardin to himself, "Maybe I'll go see that masseur again, just to rub it in his face."

With that, Cardin laughed out loudly. What could ruin his day?

"CARDDDINNN!" roared a voice right after that comment

A few minutes later

Cardin was standing stock still in his father's office. The reason for that is his father, an esteemed member of the council, was fuming as he was rapidly typing on the computer while a maid poured tea on the side. Cardin wasn't even allowed to so much as twitch, otherwise, a threatening glare would be sent his way from his father.

"Do you know why I called you here?" said Henry Winchester, father of Cardin and current patriarch of the Winchester family.

"I-" began Cardin, only to receive a glare from Henry.

"Did I say you could talk?" said Henry coldly, causing Cardin to snap silent.

Henry took the tea from the maid, taking a deep breath to in hopes the scent of the tea would relax him. It barely did anything as he took a sip from it.

"It looks like being kicked out of Beacon with a black mark wasn't enough for you, was it?" snorted Henry as he pulled out his Scroll, "Tell me, do you remember what you might've said, oh say a few days ago?"

Cardin's mind began racing through what he could've possibly said that would endanger the Winchester family. The only reason his father could be so mad was because it had to be related to that.

'I didn't do anything that could cause such a scandal!' thought Cardin long and hard for a bit before remembering bragging to Jaune about his position.

"Is it that pathetic masseur?" scoffed Cardin, "Did he report to the news with some desperate plead? We can easily bury him! Seems like he needs to learn his place!"

Splash

Cardin could only blink as he felt hot tea smash into his face. Looking at his dad, he saw Henry had actually thrown his teacup at him, only for the maid to grab the teacup in midflight. However, she let the tea continue its flight path into Cardin's face.

"You stupi-" began Cardin, only to get another glare from his father.

"Please don't waste cups like this. Even if you can replace it, it's not worth breaking," sighed the maid, "Least the tea is easily replaceable."

Henry sighed as he leaned back onto his chair as the maid poured some more tea for him.

"Have you even seen the news this morning?" asked Henry.

"No, but if it's about that masseur complaining, surely it's on like the back page in small font," sneered Cardin.

"Try plastered on the front page!" roared Henry as he grabbed a newspaper on his desk and hurled it at Cardin.

Cardin took a look at it and paled when he saw the newspaper titled Winchester Corruption!

"Every little detail about the family has been exposed," growled Henry.

Every councilmember had skeletons in the closet, especially for one whose family had been councilmember for countless generations.

Usually, any sort of information that could harm them would have to go through some extensive screening. The Winchesters had people in the news sector to help ease or discredit such things when necessary. This time, however, it came out of nowhere, and quite metaphorically and literally, kicked them in the balls and heart.

"How does a freaking masseur do this?" gaped Cardin, "No way that little shit has such powers."

"He may not have, but his connections do," barked Henry, "Did you even investigate just where he was working at? Not to mention you didn't even bother screening yourself when you were bragging!"

Henry opened up a video and sent it to a holo screen, revealing a full video of Cardin bragging in front of Jaune and Aureville.

"I can't believe you were stupid enough to basically admit that you were embezzling funds meant for citizens!" roared Henry, "Do you know just how much the public will eat you for even saying that?! And not to mention the threats. Threatening a civilian. Blackmailing him to accede to your demands. And to top it off, threatening two public figures with overwhelming influence and the blatant display of racism!"

"We can fix this, right?" gulped Cardin, "Just find Jaune and make him fess up that he was making it up! Get our teams to say that the video was faked by our rivals, no the White Fang!"

"Still you resort to such crude tactics," sighed Henry in disappointment, "The problem is whom you decided to provoke. If you did the proper research, then you'd know just whom the boy under the protection of, and just whom you tried to screw over."

"What, some popular idol and staff at Beacon whose bodies would be better suited for other things?" sneered Cardin.

Henry had to facepalm at Cardin's thought process. He really had to clarify that Glynda Goodwitch was more than just a beautiful and sexy lady, more than a pretty face. She was the incarnation of disaster and destruction in the political field if unleashed. The only reason the council had 'threatened' Ozpin with his seat was to send a warning. It was an empty bluff, and everyone in that conversation knew it. Well everyone except his own son, apparently.

Henry shivered as he remembered the 'Great Coffee Budget Meeting', a proposal to cut Beacon's coffee budget. They thought they had been prepared. Ozpin merely looked at them before leaving the room to let Glynda handle it. The result…. spectacularly backfired on them as they ended up tripling the budget. The only concession they got was that Glynda was banned from being the primary negotiator for Beacon, though that wasn't much. The figurative axe of Glynda, or crop in her case, still hung in the air.

And now his own son was going to cause it to drop on his head. Along with a lot of other things.

"You also pissed off Junior Xiong," said Henry.

"Who?" blinked Cardin, "He doesn't sound like anyone important."

"Not important my ass!" shouted Henry, "He's Vale's number one underground crime lord and information broker!"

"What!?" blinked Cardin, "Then why haven't we arrested him!?"

"Because he's good at what he does," replied Henry, "He's made sure he has a clean record that makes it impossible to track anything to him. And you just pissed him off when you decided to put your sticky hands on someone who's under his protection. He's the one that released all this information, bypassing our people in the media who are supposed to alert us about this."

"I can fix this," said Cardin, breathing heavily as he began to read through the newspaper, paling at the implications he just caused, "I…. I just need to find Jaune and this Junior! That's right, pay them a visit and make sure that they confess that it was a lie!"

With that desperate hope, Cardin rushed out of the room to grab his armor and mace.

"The stupid boy doesn't even realize the consequences of the others he has made mad," sighed Henry as he pulled up a quote from Pyrrha Nikos. It was a simple statement, but in it contained a lot of vitriol thrown at Cardin. It was subtle, but it was enough to get the message across.

"As expected from the reputation and behavior of the 'Invincible Girl'," sighed Henry. Pyrrha was always known to be polite at almost all times. The fact her message could be seen as both polite and insulting was something to be admired if it wasn't for the fact it was pointed at them.

"Her fan base is going to go rabid over this," breathed out Henry, "And then there's Glynda's own fan base."

Though not active on any social media, Glynda was an inspiration to many Huntsmen and Huntresses, especially the latter. Having publicly disrespected her and making insinuations about her was sure to get the Huntsmen and Huntresses population against them. Only a few idiots in that population would agree with Cardin's point of view.

Not only that, but it seems his comments had attracted the White Fang's ire, too, as their own warehouse had been raided instead of the SDC.

"This is going to be a rough month," groaned Henry before looking at his maid, "Feel free to quit if you feel like it's getting too hot for you."

"My family has served yours for generations. It'll take more than that to leave," said the maid politely, "Though if your son does become the one to inherit your position, that may be up for consideration."

Henry winced at that statement but chose not to comment. Though slightly worried for his son, he doubted that he would be able to find Junior. The man was elusive when he wanted to be.

Jaune looked around the room he was given to set up with a rather generous budget. Jaune tried to argue about that, but Ozpin was insistent on it. That, and he promised Jaune that the claims that had been rejected would soon be amended, and the Lien owed to him would arrive soon. If Jaune wanted to, he could use the Lien to pay Beacon back for the supplies. Though thanks to Ozpin's connections, Jaune was getting a lot of discounts on supplies, if not wholesale pricing.

Jaune looked around the room, taking in the view. It was smaller than his original setup, but it still worked. The room was separated into four, with curtains to help separate them. There was a small path in the middle that would allow people to walk to the respective 'rooms' without having to go through others. In front of the door was a Scroll attached to the door. Students would use it to check in to their appointment before entering.

His own personal room, of course, wasn't in that room. He had his own office/room just a few minutes away.

Jaune was busy the entire day preparing the room, so he had no idea nor the time to check the news about the Winchester family nor Pyrrha's statement.

As he oversaw spices being delivered to the room, he began to wonder what his friends' reaction would be like when they discovered he had finally entered Beacon, albeit in a rather different way. He was also eager to gain access to Beacon's facilities to jumpstart his training to becoming a Huntsman.

"Guess everyone will be surprised when I'm finally open again," mumbled Jaune as he went through his blueprint once more.

Splat

Cardin was subjected to another tomato to the face as he tried to run through the streets. In his rush to put on his armor and weapon, he didn't bother to look at the statement Pyrrha had made.

He had quickly rushed out of the mansion to confront Jaune and threaten him to submission. Though his two bodyguards followed him, Cardin soon realized that Jaune wasn't at the clinic anymore. He asked around, but all he got were cold shoulders. Jaune's fellow neighbors had not been amused at Cardin's tactics, and so chose to ignore him whenever possible. When Cardin began to threaten, the business owners merely pointed to the security camera currently aimed at the confrontation.

With that threat, Cardin could only growl and leave to find information about Junior. However, just as he passed by a road, a rotten apple flew at him, one that was intercepted by one of his bodyguards.

"It's him! He's the jerk that threatened our goddess!" shouted a random civilian.

Cardin turned to the source of the voice, ready to threaten him when a barrage of fruits came flying at him. The bodyguards, although fully-fledged Huntsmen, were unable to block everything. Especially when some of them were loaded with Aura that forced them to prioritize which ones to block. For it wasn't only the Pyrrha fans in the crowd. A few Huntsmen and Huntresses in the crowd that had a bone to pick with Cardin for insulting Glynda took the chance to snipe him with some 'harmless' fruits.

"Fresh fruits! Got some fresh fruits here!" shouted a man, who suddenly set up a fruit stall out of nowhere, "Got some rotten fruits here too! Fresh ones ten Lien, rotten ones twenty!"

While using a unique business model, it somehow worked as more and more people rushed to buy the rotten fruits.

"It's worth every Lien," said a woman as she paid for five rotten fruits.

Cardin wanted to pull out his Scroll to call the police, but he was too busy trying to block the fruits from hitting his face. Months of slacking off on his training made him slower to react, and so failed to block all the fruits aimed at him.

"We have to get out of here!" warned one of the bodyguards as he blocked another Aura-infused fruit.

Cardin growled in frustration but chose to obey as the bodyguards managed to rush Cardin out into a safer street, though they were still followed by a mob. It was only by hiding in some dumpsters that they managed to escape. Though the reason they had escaped was that it was only civilians that had tried to follow them. The Huntsmen and Huntresses hidden in the crowd chose not to do so…. For now.

"Shit, why are they mobbing me? No way that masseur is that popular!" raged Cardin.

"Umm, did you not see the newsfeed and the statement made by Pyrrha?" asked bodyguard A.

When it was clear that Cardin had not, bodyguard B pulled out a scroll and pulled up the statement Pyrrha had made.

As soon as Cardin read it, he felt his blood pressure skyrocket. How dare that bitch write this about him!

"I'll show her what it means to mess with me," hissed Cardin, "I'll break her body and spirit until she's just a toy for me to play with. Her and that vice bitch!"

The bodyguards glanced at each other, slightly nervous now. While he had boasted that before, they took it as hot air. Now that Cardin seemed to be serious about this warpath, they began to make some backup plans. They were fully aware that Cardin would never be able to achieve that. He far overestimated his own power.

"Why don't we go find Junior?" suggested bodyguard A, "I know which club he's usually in."

"Why didn't you say that earlier!?" roared Cardin, "Let's go 'persuade' him!"

"Why don't we first get cleaned up?" suggested bodyguard B, "Not really threatening if we stink like hell. Plus the club won't be open until night."

Cardin looked at his body, noticing all the stains from the rotten fruit before reluctantly agreeing to that.

Later that night

Cardin had managed to get the stench of rotten fruit after taking a two-hour bath with lots of soap and special scent balls. After washing up and changing clothes, Cardin prepared to go out once more, though this time taking a vehicle. His father was still busy working overtime on managing the fallout.

"Alright, let's go," ordered Cardin.

Had Henry known that Cardin had finally found where Junior was, and was currently on his way to threaten the underground crime lord of Vale, he would've stopped him.

Cardin soon arrived at the nightclub Junior was running, making sure his armor was in good condition. Waltzing up towards the entrance while ignoring the line, Cardin came up to the bouncer.

"I'm here to see Junior for important business," puffed up Cardin, ignoring everyone's complaint in the line.

The bouncer raised his eyebrow at Cardin, ready to 'bounce' him out when his earpiece began to buzz. Quickly putting his finger to the earpiece, he answered the call. A second later, a smile began to appear on the bouncer's face.

"Right this way! We've been expecting you," grinned the bouncer maliciously as he opened the door, "Just go right up to the second floor. The boss is eager to meet you."

The smile on the bouncer's face was very malicious, and his statement should have sent alarm bells ringing, but due to Cardin's ego, he took it as someone finally respecting his authority.

The bouncer stopped bodyguards A and B from entering after Cardin.

"We're with him. We're his bodyguards," explained bodyguard A.

The bouncer glanced at them, pulling his sunglasses down for a second before recognizing the deadpan facial expressions coming from the bodyguards. It was clear they were only there because it was their job. It was plain to see they did not want to be here right now.

"Tell you what, I'll let you in, but you can only stay on the first floor, as the second floor is VIP. If you can play this right, you can shift everything off to him," said the bouncer.

The bodyguards looked at each other for a second before nodding.

"I think we can do that," said bodyguard B as the bouncer let them in.

While the bouncer was taking pity on the two, he also didn't want them protecting Cardin when Junior would enact his ploy.

Cardin looked around the club, enjoying the vibe of it.

'Maybe I can bully the owner into giving me this shop once I'm done with him,' thought Cardin, 'Make him pay for trying to knock my family off its rightful pedestal and put him down where he belongs.'

Cardin was already imagining the Lien that would flow into his pockets with this club. Not only that, he imagined this could be his new base to …. reeducate a few people.

As soon as Cardin reached the stairs, he was immediately stopped by two of Junior's men wearing red shades.

"Your boss is looking for me. Perhaps you heard of me, Cardin Winchester?" said Cardin arrogantly.

The men didn't respond, but rather looked behind him. Cardin followed their gazes to see his bodyguards behind him.

"We need to fo-" began bodyguard A, only for Cardin to interrupt.

"I'll be fine by myself. I'm dealing a measly information broker," declared Cardin before turning back around, and walking up the stairs. Junior's men didn't stop him, nor try to confiscate his mace.

"Welp, that makes everything easier," said bodyguard A as both bodyguards immediately turned towards the bar to get themselves drunk.

As Cardin went up the stairs, the two men looked at each other before snickering.

"Think he's overestimating himself if he thinks Junior is 'just' an information broker," snickered the first one.

"He is so not prepared, not with the twins and the silent one waiting to pounce on him," replied the other, "RIP the spoiled brat… literally."

Cardin soon reached the room where Junior was expecting him, not realizing just how much he had just doomed himself.

Trying to save himself, Cardin decides to walk right into the dragon's mouth. Well that's going to be fun muhaha.