Ruby sniffed the air for a while, taking in the scents she could filter out of the morning breeze before she continued on. It was important to stay aware of her surroundings, and this was just a part of it, though one she'd found she enjoyed after some getting used to.
Stalking through the forest, she soon caught the scent she had been looking for, darting through greenery and arriving to see Weiss being approached by Zwei from the opposite direction.
Barking, she hurried towards her team member.
"Ruby?" Weiss asked, blinking at how she was giving her a doggy smile. "What are you-"
Lifting herself upwards, Ruby used her paws to grab for the heiress' side, giving her the very most pouting look she could. "Seriously, Ruby, what is this about?"
Down below, Zwei was sticking his tongue out, panting up at the only humanoid in the forest, his eyes positively shining with friendliness.
"Aww, you're Zwei, right?" Weiss stretched out a hand, but Ruby pushed it to the side with her head, giving her teammate's face a lick. "Ruby!"
She was this team's leader, Weiss had better pat her head over her dog's.
"AND BEHOLD, THE UNBELIEVERS, THE FAITHLESS, FOR THEY WERE LEFT IN THE DARK WHENCE WE CAME FROM!"
Father Simon Wales was a man of faith, had been one his whole life. He too, had had his doubts from time to time, but he knew that true faith meant to persevere, and that he did, even when things were at their darkest.
"WRETCHED WERE WE, THAT CRAWLED IN THE BLOOD AND THE MUD OF OUR EQUALS, BUT YET WE WERE SAVED! OUR SALVATION WAS NOT A THING OF LABOUR, OR OF RACE, OR OF BELIEF! NO, OUR SALVATION WAS BORN OF MERCY! OF LOVE!"
And now, with his flock assembled once more in his new church in the shores of heaven itself, he continued to do the good work. Not because he believed he had to, nor to save the people's souls, for they were already saved by virtue of their presence, but because it was the right thing to do.
"AND SO WE WERE FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR SPOILED RAPTURE, FOUND WANTING BY EVERY MEASURE, AND YET! AND YET! AND YET, WE WERE VISITED BY THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL, WHO HAD MERCY ON OUR POOR SOULS AND FREED US FROM THE FALSE LAMB, GOING SO FAR AS TO OFFER A PILGRIMAGE OF REGRET TO IT, FOR NONE ARE BEYOND HIS MERCY!"
When they had first been brought to the great beyond, whisked away on the wings of the divine, Simon had needed some time after arming himself with the weapons of faith, falling to his knees and praying aloud for seven days and seven nights, proving beyond measure that the afterlife was beyond such meddlesome things as bodily needs.
"WHEN THE ARCHANGEL CAME UPON US, WE MET HIM NOT WITH REVERENCE, NOR WITH AWE, NOR WITH THE OBEISANCE OWED, BUT FAR WAS IT FROM HIM TO PUNISH US FOR OUR SHORTSIGHTED FOOLISHNESS! NO, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, NO DIVINE SCOURGE WAS CALLED UPON US, NO LIGHTNING TO STRIKE US FOR OUR SINS NOR DID THE PITS OF HELL OPEN TO BRING ETERNAL SUFFERING! TODAY, WE ARE GATHERED HERE, FOR THE LORD HATH DECREED THERE SHALL BE MERCY!"
As soon as he recovered his senses after the True Rapture came upon them in the wake of the Archangel, Simon had known what to do. Requesting permission from the divine servants keeping the true order of their ruined heaven, dirtied as it was by their very presence, he had brought benches and chairs, created an altar in the most suitable room for a True Church the believers and the foolish faithless would find a home in.
"AND IN HIS ENDLESS MERCY, HAS HE NOT SOWED THE SEEDS FOR SALVATION IN ALL? WE, ALL OF US, ARE MERE MORTALS, AND WHAT IS HUMAN, IF NOT TO ERR? WHAT IS DIVINE, IF NOT TO FORGIVE? MANY OF US THAT WITNESSED HIS GLORY DID NOT BELIEVE, FOR THEY DID NOT DARE BELIEVE THEY COULD BE SAVED, AND YET HERE WE ARE, BROUGHT TO THE SHORES BEYOND BY OUR SAVIOUR!"
It had taken a time he was ashamed of to admit, and many were the ones that spit upon him in contempt, and yet Simon had been true in his beliefs, and true in his faith, and so it was merely inevitable for the humble chapel he had envisioned to become reality. At first, only his old flock remaining from the shackles of his mortality had found their way to him, but soon enough he had attracted a great following of believers, those that had been lost even in the wondrous halls they had been guided to.
Many still held beliefs about some religion or other they had followed while alive, but the proof of their souls' salvation was all around them, and the truth of Simon's message had shown soon enough.
"EVEN NOW, THE GREAT ARCHANGEL TOILS IN ENDLESS LABOUR, TO BRING THE LIGHT OF HIS MERCY TO EVERY CORNER, TO DRIVE OUT ALL THAT WOULD BESMIRCH THE WORLD, ANY WORLD, AND ACT AGAINST HIS MESSAGE OF FORGIVENESS! AND BEHOLD THE RIGHTEOUS MAN, FOR HE WILL BE STRUCK DOWN SEVEN TIMES AND RISE AGAIN SEVEN TIMES; AND BEHOLD THE DEPRAVED FAITHLESS MAN, WHOM CALAMITY WILL STRIKE BUT ONCE AND LEAVE STRICKEN FOREVERMORE!"
Scattered throughout the room were several divine eyes, the glorious insights into His holy work letting the flock follow both his preaches and His great plan unfolding a single step at a time, and though they did not often see His true form, He had finally revealed himself to drive back the tide of darkness, its craven attempts to drag under the souls of His great flock beaten back time and time again.
"AND THOUGH WE MAY WANDER THROUGH THE VALLEY OF DOUBT, HAVE NO FEAR, FOR MERCY IS WITH US! AROUND US! IN US! AND SO AS WE MAY OBSERVE HIS MOST HOLY DEEDS, SHALL WE LEARN TO FORGIVE AND BRING MERCY IN TURN! BEHOLD HIS ANGELS, HIS LONG ARMS IN THIS LOWLY MATERIAL WORLD, AND KNOW THAT THEY SPREAD THE WORD! BEHOLD THE CHOSEN APOSTLES AMONG US, CALLED TO DO DUTY BEYOND THE CALLS OF THE MORTAL COIL, AND KNOW THAT IT IS TOO LATE FOR NONE OF US! WE ALL SERVE A PART OF HIS PLAN, AND SO AS WE GATHER IN THIS GREAT BEYOND, LET US JOIN IN PRAYER! FOR THE SOULS THAT ARE YET TO BE SAVED! THE SOULS THAT HAVE YET TO TRAVEL THEIR WAY THROUGH ALL WORLDS THERE ARE! FOR THOSE WE CAN HELP ACCEPT THEIR CALLING, AND THOSE THAT REFUSE TO SEE THE LIGHT! LET US PRAY FOR ALL OF THEM, FOR MERCY CAME TO US WHEN WE WERE AT OUR MOST UNDESERVING; AND SO AS THE GREAT PROPHET SPOKE, WE ALL ARE EQUAL IN THE END! EQUALLY UNDESERVING AND EQUALLY OFFERED MERCY REGARDLESS, FOR MERCY DOES NOT JUDGE! AMEN!"
""AMEN!""
Father Simon Wales nodded. It was a good sermon, bringing them all closer to the source of their faith, their devotion.
Turning around to the rough statue of a winged man he had created from naught but stone and time, Simon Wales prayed, joined by his flock of two hundred. None of them had been called to serve, but that was no excuse to be unthankful; though he felt nothing but forgiveness in his heart for those that wailed and cursed at their sudden salvation, it was only proper to show deferrence when faced with the divine, and the Archangel was nothing if not deserving of praise for his countless good deeds, large and small, obvious and hidden.
Lil' Miss Malachite was proud of running a tight ship all around, for a bunch of criminals anyways. The guys took care of day-to-day business, for the most part, people with the tattoo displayed somewhere on their bodies running around and gathering info, shaking people that went to the wrong places down and she just sat back in her favourite little hole in the wall, personally talking to any newcomers and... 'business partners' approaching the spider gang.
If they could prove they were talking business, anyways. She didn't have that much time in the day.
Today, though, she had a little message from her girls, having sent the twins to Vale to see how her good old friend Junior was doing (and to keep an eye on him, of course). If they actually helped out and learned a thing or two, that was on them, though she wouldn't tell them not to.
They were her daughters, and she expected them to be smart enough to take the opportunity for what it was and succeed or fail on their own merits. Sure, she coddled them whenever she could, but that's exactly why she sent them off, so she wouldn't be tempted to just spoonfeed them everything she could think of.
So when she got mail from them, sent through the CCT's systems, she naturally took a bite out of her busy morning to see how they were doing. Which... she had probably deserved the spit-take upon opening the video and seeing them with a man, that was to say, getting railed as though by a wild animal while filming it, gasps and moans all around.
Doing her best to avoid choking to death on her blueberry muffin, Lil' Miss Malachite looked at the text attached to the video, noticing it was obviously Miltia that'd sent it- bless melanie's heart, but she would never bother to be this polite in writing.
'Dear Mom,
We wanted to let you know we've been doing good in Vale, learning from uncle Hei and helping out around his club. He's been doing everything he can to make sure we've settled in well, not that we didn't expect it- you know how he can be.
Business seems to be doing good, too, with lots of traffic in the club itself and uncle Hei, or Junior as he keeps telling us to call him is busy taking care of things out in the bar a lot; he took that from you, we're pretty sure. Incidentally, we also learned a lot about mixing drinks on the side, whenever I can get Melanie to pay attention to anything other than her 'hobbies'.
Speaking of which, we recently met a very nice guy named Gabriel, and she was insistent you should know about him, too, and since we went and filmed things anyways, we sent you the video to make your own judgement on him either way. Hope you like it and to hear from you soon!
Love, Melanie & Miltia
(PS: I think Melanie is really smitten with him, not that I disagree!)'
Taking a deep, deep breath, Lil' Miss Malachite got up, tapping away at her scroll and calling a certain number regardless of the added surcharge for calling across kingdoms.
"Junior? I don't care what I have to threaten to do to your family jewels, what do you know about a certain 'Gabriel' my daughters have been seeing?"
"... Well, I fucking told him. I'll give you the cliff notes."
Running through Patch's forest, Ruby did her best not to growl, bursting through bushes and looking out for- Aha!
Finding a pack of beowolves, she threw herself into their direction, the Grimm not expecting to be attacked and soon dusting under the onslaught of her mighty fangs and imperious paws, not standing a chance against her superior caninehood.
Returning to the tree they were using as a scoreboard, Ruby grimaced, her snout twisting a little bit because that expression didn't really translate well. How was Zwei finding so many so fast?
Ozpin had done many things in his time, been many people and wore many positions. But for all that he was, technically, older than Remnant's kingdoms themselves, he still found himself surprised by the little things in life sometimes.
Such as having to assure James that the anomalous weather patterns off Vale's coasts were, contrary to appearances, not a part of Salem's attacks, and instead part of Mister Livsey's counter-offensive through unknown means.
Because Ozpin had no idea whether it was some sort of technology or he had used some kind of magic to do it, and he had decided he did not really care which it was at this point.
So long as the man continued to help against their enemy, he wasn't going to ask too many questions... though if he had to put this much effort into cleaning up after him again, he was just going to make him do it.
Reaffirming one last time that the coordinates were correct, he took a sip of fortifying chocolate, its warm taste the only thing keeping his spirit up through long nights of far too much paperwork for any sane man to deal with.
"So, are you ready?" He asked, looking at his current 'guest'. "All you need to do is drop the dust into the ocean- the only reason I am asking you to go is because your semblance would make this mission significantly easier than for anyone else."
Glynda, bless his assistant's heart, nodded. "It won't take too long and the ocean currents will take care of the rest, I know. This will take a few hours at most, just make sure Beacon is still standing by the time I am back."
Another sip, another moment to think. Yes, he probably should mention it. "Seeing young Mister Livsey has done wonders for your temperament, by the way. Should I note him down as a keeper, judging by how many women he sleeps with?"
"Oh, don't you get started, too," she groused at him, yet another thing she never would have done before. "I have enough trouble sneaking in a little private time without Miss Rose mysteriously butting in."
Ah, to be young and horny all the time.
Betty had, quite simply put, enough of this shit. And she felt she could be forgiven for feeling that way, given how things had been going for her.
First, she'd set out to find her negligently absent one night stand that'd accidentally fucked aura into her, who'd mentioned he would likely be in Vale. Then, shit happened, she and her buddies (because fuck not bringing them along) ended up in the wrong place, but hey, she could work with that, just take the next airship to the big city, they came often enough.
She'd thought. At the time.
Then the storm happened, she'd ended up shipwrecked in the middle of Mistral's wilderness and had to trek through it for a week straight, all the while taking care of a buncha city-slickers completely overwhelmed with fear for some stupid reason until she kicked them into shape instead of keeping themselves together to ward off the Grimm, if nothing else.
So then they walked, all the way to Argus, because Maria (that one old woman they picked up on the way) knew they could get to Atlas that way, and try to find a way to Vale from there, passing by a town that Gabriel had been to just a few days before (somehow) and, finally, getting to Atlas.
And now there weren't any airships coming between there and Vale.
Most of the lost people Betty and Maria dragged into safety had decided to stay inside Argus or Atlas, but they'd been super mushy about saying goodbye, not that Betty minded. Now, though, the both of them were standing there talking to this doctor guy Maria knew, and things weren't looking good.
"Yes, it's a good thing you managed to arrive just in time, actually. The air currents around Vale have been changing drastically over the past few days, so much so any air traffic has been shut down until the old routes become safe again or new ones have been calculated," the man in the fancient wheelchair involving no wheels and more robotic legs explained. "The entire ocean has been affected, though the epicentre does appear to be just off Vale's coast. I've been told measures are being taken, but I'm afraid that's all I know."
"Well, looks you aren't getting at your pretty boy quite so easily, then," Maria grinned up at her, the old biddy's eyes zooming in and out visibly. "Guess we're stuck in Atlas for the time being."
Betty just did her best not to scream at this bullshit. "Stupid air currents an' stupid oceans an' stupid Grimm an' 'specially stupid Gabriel."
"Ah, come on, it's not all bad. I've been to Mantle a couple times, I can show you around! Not like I have much better to do for the time being anyways." For someone that'd been just randomly wandering around Anima, Maria sure wasn't going anywhere in particular, huh?
"Look, nah offense, but Ah've been treckin' all ovah Remnant fah months now, Ah'm not gunna stop cuz' of anythin' at this point," Betty explained, entirely done with this whole situation.
"Please, please, maybe it isn't as bad as it looks," the professor, Polendina, said, steering closer towards them. "Maria needs her eyes looked at anyways, but I can look into getting you a place to stay for a few days at least, and I'm sure my daughter would be delighted to get to know you, as well as your wooly friends out there."
"What, you had a daughter? Why didn't you ever tell me?" Ignoring the conversation for a second, Betty concentrated, her shepherd's intuition telling her someone was coming closer to her flock. Poking her head out, she saw... actually, it wasn't none too strange, by this point.
"Salutations! My name is Penny Polendina!"
"Meeeeh!" "Meeh." "Mehmeh."
"Hey guys, I... wanted to tell you something." Blake, having asked the whole team to come together in Ruby's room (it was just the place for them to hang out in the Xiaolong household, it seemed), tried to keep her voice steady.
This wasn't even supposed to be that hard, but... she'd just always dealt with things by not confronting them, she wasn't used to proactively taking them into her own hands like this.
Then again, she remembered that day when Gabriel had just joined her on her tree, bursting her bubble of self-imposed loneliness and-
"What is it, Blake? Did you want to tell us how much you agree that Gabriel is a wonderful lover?" Ruby asked, expectantly bouncing on her bed and making Blake smirk a bit.
She'd had sex with him the very first time they met, she wasn't about to argue against him being good at that kind of thing, but no. "No, Ruby, but thank you for the attempt," Blake said instead, shaking her head. "No, I just wanted to tell you all something before it became an issue."
Clearing her throat, she wished there was some way to make this less awkward, but there it went. "I actually used to be part of the White Fang." At the silence meeting her statement, she just continued trying to get it over with. "I was just always part of it back when things were peaceful, and I left when that changed and-"
Weiss stood up from where she had been sitting at Ruby's desk, walking over to Blake.
"-I never wanted to hurt people, I just wanted to make things better and please don't hate m-"
Her babbling was silenced by a hug, the girl in white patting her back. "It's alright, I don't blame you. You just didn't know how to leave, did you?"
Blake was not crying. Not even when Ruby and Yang joined the improvised team hug. And especially not when Yang called her the 'scaredy cat' she was proud of.
And particularly not when Ruby nuzzled her ears. That was just weird, actually.
Team NRVA was gathering in its dorm room, none other than Pyrrha Nikos, its leader, having called for a team meeting.
Also in attendance were the other members, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie and Jaune Arc, the concerned huntsmen and huntresses in training having gathered to discuss a deeply concerning state of affairs.
Namely, team RWBY had been called in to deal with an emergency through Gabriel Livsey, a man well known to many members of this same team, too. Now it had to be determined why, exactly, team RWBY alone had been requested by the experienced huntsman as opposed to, say, team NRVA. Or both teams, even.
As the team leader, P. Nikos took it upon herself to write the protocol and ensure no suggestions or ideas were lost, meticulously noting down the gist of any comments made even as she participated in the meeting herself, as was her duty.
Laying out the issues the meeting was calling out, P. Nikos requested the rest of team NRVA to brainstorm the exact problem whose solution was to be attempted. At J. Arc's question, she revealed she was writing the meeting's protocol for posterity before the subsequent questioning on the matter at hand began.
L. Ren suggested that team NRVA simply continue to train, trusting in G. Livsey to have had a reason to act as he did. N. Valkyrie added that perhaps the underlying rationale had been that, as J. Arc was still on the way to, quote, 'not sucking', he had wanted to avoid putting the team at large into undue danger without splitting it up.
N. Valkyrie proceeded to pat J. Arc's shoulder.
P. Nikos agreed with the possibility, but added another suggestion. Perhaps the familiarity of team RWBY with the location involved (that of the island of Patch) had been a part of the decision. Therefore, what places would team NRVA be chosen to accompany G. Livsey in case of a similar situation, if this hypothesis was indeed correct?
Furthermore, P. Nikos added that Jaune was certainly, while not at the standard team NRVA was setting as his goal, within the bounds of a genuine Beacon student and he should be proud of himself.
L. Ren wordlessly added his agreement with the statement.
When you wake up, excusing yourself from an improvised little game of chess you were playing with Amber by sending an image of a chessboard you thought up back and forth, moving pieces one at a time, you do so to Sarah sticking her tongue down your throat, the taste of blood strong on both your tongues.
"Mbwah," she makes, smiling happily at you as she pulls herself off, "you like this? I've been thinking about finding new ways to wake you up recently, you know?"
Hugging her where she sits on your lap (both you naked, naturally), you gently bump your forehead against hers. "I'd love any way you wake me up, Sarah." And just like that, you're back to making out, snuggling into each other all the while.
On casual introspection, it may seem strange just how clingy and in need to bodily contact any of your wives (as you have started to think of the women you have vamped) seem to be considering the whole undead abominations thing, but honestly, you just view it as entirely seperate from the way you deeply love each of them, and they love you back.
And really, it's obvious you'd want to snuggle with the people you love, right?
Speaking of which... "Any word on the kids' ETA?" You ask, stroking Sarah's velvety soft skin as you look deep into her eyes.
The wonderful, amazing and just great sister in your arms smiles. "Should still be a bit, why?"
Kissing her nose, you grin. "You know why."
Suffice to say, you waste no time in christening this week's freshly made bedsheets, Sarah eagerly spreading her legs to receive your hard rod and clinging to you as you make sweet love to her until the moment you have to get up, after all.
Hesitantly.
The Beacon kids do make their way to your mansion just like every week, in the end, and before long they spread out throughout the property, everyone doing their own thing after they greet the mansion's inhabitants, despite the conspicuous looks RWBY are giving you... leading to the same from team NRVA and you just send them off already with a chuckle.
Pyrrha is going into one of the gyms you had your semblance minions make, always up for self-improvement and all, Ren and Nora are visiting the kitchens for smoothies and pancakes, respectively, and Jaune is just shuffling off to collapse into his room's bed, apparently having pushed himself until the moment they all left campus for the weekend.
Yang is off to relax in her own room and listen to music until lunchtime, Blake is going to hers (to read her smutty books, you're pretty sure) and Weiss primly informs you she is looking forwards to lunch before blushing and running off when her stomach growls, while Ruby...
"I have found out the many ways in which I am lacking and humbly request your guidance, old man of the mansion Gabriel!"
... Ruby is being herself. "Where'd you even get that one from?"
"I read it in a bunch of Mistralian comics?" The red little reaper perks up from where she was prostrating on the ground before you for some reason. "But seriously, I recently realized I am far from strong enough to do what I'm dreaming of doing with my life, so if there's anything I could do to be better, please tell me?"
"Well, I dunno," you grin with a shrug, your hands going out, "if I had any momumental wisdom and secrets to the universe, I may or may not be keeping quiet about them..."
Gasping, Ruby is hugging your waist in a flash, looking up at you with shining eyes. "Tell me tell me tell me pleeeaaase?"
Chuckling, you ruffle her hair.
"Come on, Ruby, you can't just lie down the whole day." For some reason, your refusal to consider aura break as any issue in continuing your fights seems to have found no agreement with Ruby, despite her spirited attempts not to be smacked, scratched, mauled and/or thrown around by your blows as the both of you are sparring in your backyard.
Looking up from where the battered girl is lying on the ground, she pouts at you. "This isn't what this part is supposed to feel like..." Rolling around, Ruby takes her time to find her feet again. "See, my aura isn't even coming back anymore!"
Smiling, you wander over towards where you threw her, scooping the short girl up and into your arms with an adorable squeak. "Well, that sounds to me like someone's just asking for a break, hmm?"
Being carried off, Ruby's reaction to that is to snuggle up to you. "And what if it is?" She asks, her hands nestled together as she gives you a now lighter pout, her eyes growing bigger and cuddlier as you watch.
"Then that someone might just get more than they've bargained for!" Holding her tight as you get back inside through your back door, you start tickling her sides, regardless of Ruby's wiggling and protestations.
"Stop! Stooop! I give! I give!" Her voice growing louder and higher as she keeps on giggling despite her feelings on the matter, your little lover tries to get out of this, but you have no mercy, continuing on through the halls and past Yang, who is watching with a raised eyebrow. "Yang! Help meee! I am being taken against my will!"
"Yeah, I'll buy that one when you aren't clinging to him so much," her sister drily states, moving out of the way. "Have fun, I guess."
"Oh, we will, but thanks," you nod at her, soon getting to your room after a quick dash up a few stairs. "Now then, Ruby, let's see about that break, hm?"
Losing her clothes to your swift fingers in quick succession, you soon have a blushing, slender little Ruby lying on your bed. "Uhm, be gentle?"
"Oh, no, Ruby, you wanted to be stronger, remember?" You mention, looming over her and stripping down yourself. "I will be as gentle as you want, but we won't stop until you can't keep going."
"Meep."
"You asked for it, I'm just giving you what you want."
"So, Gabriel... I wanted to ask you something." It isn't often you see Pyrrha being this hesitant, wringing her hands a little even after she came to talk to you.
Naked, of course, as she prefers to be while at the mansion and free from any issues public nudity would normally have.
"Sure, out with it. I won't ever promise to answer, but we can give it a try, at least," you joke to relieve the heavy mood a little. "What's on your mind?"
"I wanted to ask... You took team RWBY with you for something, last week, right? I won't ask what it was for," the redhead insists before you can interrupt, not that you were about to, "but I wanted to know why you only took them."
"What, that's all?" You smile, holding out a hand Pyrrha takes as you lead her back the way you came. "You see, there's a simple reason for that."
"Two of team RWBY's members were familiar with the area we were going to, and as every second counted at the time, I just took the first team somewhat suited to the task at hand and got right to work," you explain, bumping your shoulder into Pyrrha's. "Also, Ozpin was throwing a near fit over me just taking a single team, so I didn't want to see what he'd do if I asked for two."
"I see," Pyrrha nods, smiling. "I'm glad. Jaune was blaming himself we were 'left behind' ever since we heard about why Ruby and the others were gone for the beginning of the week. Knowing this much should ease his worries a little."
Chuckling, you shake your head. "He'll get over it in no time, I'm sure. Things like this happen all the time, you just can't let them affect you like that." Opening the door to your room, still dominated by your giant bed, you bring Pyrrha inside, the girl following you holding back her own chuckle when she sees Ruby lying further in, covered in sweat and cum and completely unconscious.
"What did you do to her, now?" She asks, lying down and lasciviously stretching.
"She asked for a break," you shrug in response, crawling after her in short order as you once again leave a trail of clothes behind.
"Oh, whatever will you do with poor liitle me, then?"
"Only one way to find out." And so you silence her with a kiss, Pyrrha opens herself up to you, and so her sweet moans soon fill the room just as Ruby's did beforehand.
When Weiss stayed behind after lunch to ask you something, you'd expected it would be something along the lines of questions about last week's improvised little mission, or maybe her propositioning for sex like usual when she has any amount of time alone with you judging by the light blush spreading along her cheeks while peering up at you, but in the end, neither of these was what happened.
Instead, she asked you to come discuss a very important and personal topic.
"So, I have the king taijitu, and I have the giant nevermore we fought on initiation day," she explains, "as well as several smaller Grimm I defeated since, from several occasions, and of course my very reliable Arma Gigas. But beyond those, I don't really... have anything noteworthy to my name."
Ah, you think you may get her issue here. Weiss, whatever else may be said about her, wants to make a name for herself, above and beyond the family name she's been working under her whole life. To her, the summons she has access to aren't just a function of her semblance, they are trophies; proof of the powerful foes she had to fight with all her might to defeat.
Perhaps them being summonable is just her way of showing the path she has walked, reaffirming the battles she fought and won. It would certainly say some interesting things about the Schnee family as a whole, considering the whole hereditary semblance thing, but you probably should get to answering her soon-ish.
"Well then, what can we do about that?" You ask, an easy smile already on your lips. "It's not like not the ones you have already weren't all impressive in their own rights, for one, though acquiring more would be as easy as going out to find yourself something strong to fight."
As it happens, while Weiss doesn't have much first-hand experience with her family semblance's summoning aspects, she does know about how it should be able to be used, having been raising herself on stories about her ancestors' feats for an indeterminate amount of time.
Or, to make it clear, she was extremely embarrassed about having liked stories about how people like her grandfather used their semblance to defeat a lot of Grimm.
Anyways, what matters is that you have a few things on hand she could work towards, from employing several weaker summons at once to improving her control over them or, ironically, how to reduce her control and let them act semi-independently, leaving her free to fight herself instead of concentrating on telling them what to do.
Unsurprisingly, Weiss has issues with the former approach; while she can enlarge or shrink her semblance minions to take up more or less aura, summoning more than one at once is quite hard for her, to the point she just can't seem to get the hang of it.
Subconscious block or a variation in the otherwise inherited semblance? Could be either, honestly.
Now, as for the other idea... It seems it isn't quite as easy as just pumping out her Arma Gigas, as she likes to call the giant suit of armor with the fuckoff sword that wouldn't look out of place in Okita's hands (incidentally, the thing she had to defeat in single combat in order to be allowed to go and attend Beacon Academy, as it was controlled by a bunch of Grimm capable of possessing objects, which is a mildly worrisome prospect in itself, but especially so as she was thrown against it before receiving proper Academy-level combat instruction) and telling it to go nuts, unsurprisingly.
As far as you can determine, while Weiss can just give it a rough set of instructions, her summons do not have any inherent intelligence to speak of, simply doing as instructed for the most part. They know how to fight, but have to be told to, say, swing a sword, rather than doing so automatically.
Luckily, it doesn't take you long to figure out a workaround. All Weiss needs to do is give them a set of instructions, such as what to do in case an enemy approaches, how to counter particular moves and so on and so forth, and they can fight decently well by simply following their programming.
Now all she needs is to figure out a set of combat instructions for all her noteworthy summons and she can simply bring them out and leave them to do their own thing and probably not screw up, in no small part thanks to you poking Sarah to get you a good set of ground rules for all of them to follow and for her to build up from. Things like not to attack non-enemies under any circumstances, to prioritize the safety of other friendlies and civilians and so on and so forth.
Weiss herself seems to be almost tearing up as she begins to effortlessly make use of her family's semblance, so a decent bit of time is just spent with you snuggling with her, stroking her hair and quietly calling her cute. Things she likes, in other words, and it seems to work just fine.
It doesn't happen often that Glynda has some time to herself, her position being what it is, but after she sent a request to come visit for a few hours due to 'an unexpected vacancy in her timetable' via telepathy, you immediately agree, the teacher teleporting over to your dediacted teleportation chamber in short order.
As it turns out, Ozpin gave everyone a free day after he got drunk off of alcoholic hot chocolate, and Glynda ran out of paperwork to ready for the coming week by lunchtime, meaning she was just looking for something to do with her time at this point. Or rather, someone.
As her reaction to your suggestion the two of you visit your pool amply shows.
"Oh my, I didn't think to bring my exceedingly tight swimsuit. Whatever shall we do?" She asks in a tone dryer than the Sahara, already walking straight towards the nearest stairs.
Once out on the rooftop, she wastes no time in stripping down, her eyes never straying from yours as she gives you a challenging look, answered by an amused snort with you following suit.
Seriously, not like you were ever not going to get naked.
"Still just as enjoyable to look at as ever," Glynda comments as you throw off your pants, currently restraining yourself to a half-boner and all so as to hide your otherwise permanent erection.
"Speak for yourself," you return, your trusty half-smirk already on your face as the two of you approach the pool itself. "There are hot teachers, and then there's 'hot for teacher on legs'."
Smiling, Glynda's naked form slowly submerges itself inside the clear water, stretching her long legs demonstratively as she adjusts her arms so her breasts acan float freely, the perky mounds freed of their usual unjust bondage (seriously, tits like that deserve to be free). "Would you believe me if I said nobody ever called me that to my face?"
"Just shows how most people lack proper manners," you sniff, sitting down next to her.
There is just something magical about having a pool like this, the simple joy of letting the heated water wash over you while watching the sun going down enough to keep you entertained for a couple of minutes, at least.
Take that, sun, you stupid cunt. Some may say that the sun always rises again as a sign of life going on, but you prefer to describe it as life being ended over and over again as night falls over the land time and again.
It's all a matter of perspective, you suppose.
Either way, you soon stretch you legs, small things like that long beyond letting you enjoy them on account of undeath always keeping you comfortable no matter your posture, and lay an arm around Glynda's shoulders. "So, what do you say about getting something to drink again?"
"Why, Gabriel, that would be lovely," she smiles at you, nudging closer. "Just do know I won't let you get up now."
"What a lovely coincidence my semblance is what it is, then," you reply, concentrating and pinching off a little of your aura to create your bartender minion, the pretty young woman standing in the water before both of you.
"Did you know I actually gave her a little extra feature?" You ask, simply sliding up the bikini your minion materialized with. "Those breasts aren't just for show, she's the literal source of drinks."
Milking said mammaries a little, you happily show off the clear amber liquid leaking out of a pair of swollen teats, smelling faintly of alcohol, its source just blushing and looking to the side embarrassedly.
"My, that's fascinating. And incredibly kinky. I suppose there is a reason you would have been the one to turn pornography into a large-scale business, isn't there?" Your companion ponders, taking hold of the breasts herself and gently pulling to bring them closer, licking the... whiskey, you think? Off lasciviously. "Oh yes, this is a very good use of your semblance. I approve."
Enduring the smoky look she throws you, you get your own dose of liquor, gently massaging Glynda's thigh with an errant hand. "Glad you like it, I'll wear the recommendation by such a respected professional as a badge of honor."
Feeling slender fingers encroach upon your crotch, massaging your dick and balls, you can't help but hear the smile in her voice, no matter how slight the one on her face is. "You'd better."
Taking the invitation of her spread legs for what it is, you return the gesture, feeling her lower lips and hard clitoris before proceeding to finger her as both of you steadily deplete your minion's aura reserves in the form of drinking from her breasts only to refill it regularly, soon straight-out fingering Glynda while she jacks you off.
It's a fairly enjoyable evening, the two of you talking about everything and nothing, and if Glynda varies it up a bit by taking a dip below the surface to repeat that one previous time at the pool, her sultry lips swallowing your load no matter how often you cum after the constant light stimulation, well, who could say?
Except your minion, who is technically a part of you, and you aren't.
One thing that has to be said, you have, in fact, kept on increasing the size of the amorphous mass of reanimated thick blood and meat supplying most of your dead meat for mass production of undead when and where appropriate, investing no small amount of the harvests derived from it into enlarging its operation itself.
Also, adding bones to the list of things created, both for your skeleton-based undead and so you don't have to transmute other dead flesh into bone for the other stuff- it just takes a lot of time and effort you can circumvent rather easily, so why wouldn't you do it?
Still, it's a good thing you kept enlarging this thing until its passive pushing out and regeneration of biomatter was a legitimate issue because your robots couldn't find the space to throw the stuff anymore in your absence (it was the size of a small mountain itself last time you looked), given you have decided to repay Salem or the Grimm at large or whoever was responsible for you having to actually put effort into that fight last week with a bit of the same coin in turn.
You also requested that your vampiric brides go on a bit of a feeding spree over the week to get you every last bit of dead meat available- this is going to be a pretty big project, where every little bit helps.
You actually even mentioned to Ozpin you were doing something underwater around the northern edge of the mountain range protecting Vale, so he should be aware of where any sudden changes in the environment are coming from. It'll have to be enough, anyways, not like you care all that much one way or another.
You have, uh, a lot of meat you're planning to use, even if it represents over a month of accumulated material with your current production in mind.
So, the theory is simple enough. A very, very large hunched main body, with muscular arms and a seemingly eyeless head, with a couple additional heads to both sides, and the lower body of an enormous octupus jutting out of its main 'tail'.
That's right, you're creating a giant underwater undead, to go around fucking up any aquatic Grimm it can.
Naturally, the simple economy of scale is making construction of this thing somewhat harder, which is why you have to change your approach to it, as a matter of course. No longer are you taking each individual body or piece of meat, morphing it into what you want and smacking it onto the rest of your creation; instead, you're assembling individual pieces into parts that you then combine into bigger parts.
It takes, like, half the night of constant work, casting and casting and doing some actual craftsmanship on the teeth- which you want to work perfectly- but in the end? In the end, you'd say you did some good work.
Orientation by water pressure, massive speed due to how underwater physics work out, as Yoshi kept assuring you when you consulted him on how to best let this thing move around really fast, strong and flexible arms capable of simply grabbing and crushing any size of Grimm you've seen so far, lots of especially sensitive tentacles ensuring nothing in its wake is spared, either, and of course the three heads perfectly suited towards puncturing hard skin and bones to rip and tear parts out of larger Grimm.
Because fuck any of that shit.
Sending off your angrily swimming creation, having given it a rough set of orders to go by mostly consisting of 'kill all the Grimm' and 'avoid humans', you return back to the mansion, going shadow and back just to get any lingering biomatter off of you as a matter of course and proceed to cuddle Sarah a little, your little sister just coming home herself after having cleared up a little dispute among a few criminals now technically under your employ.
By which you mean having eaten everyone involved that didn't understand how to play nice. Really, she's just such a well-behaved younger sibling!
Anyways, time to get on with your night, none of the usual issues one would associate with hard physical labour for six concurrent hours bothering you. Because why would they? That's a living people thing.
Sitting in one of the many living rooms available for you, you await the correct moment, having a timed teleportation coming in three... two... one...
In a sudden burst of matter, team NRVA materializes before you, Pyrrha landing on her feet and getting into a fighting stance while her teammates flop around the floor, Ren pushing himself up within the second, while Nora just kind of flops around, Jaune masterfully landing on his head and, wiggling around, managing not to fall over.
Honestly, this is a better showing than you expected.
"Hello, team Nirvana!" You cheerfully announce. "You may want to gird your loins and go and grab your weapons, because this, is a surprise mission for you all!"
General groaning is your response, which means you have to be doing something right.
"Should've expected this..." Jaune laments, his hands on the ground to turn himself slightly, making sure the rest of his team is alright. "Should've expected this so much."
"Live and learn, as I always say. Speaking of which, I'm sure you're all excited what you're all going to be doing in the middle of the night!" You brilliantly smile at the students.
"Is nobody going to ask how we got here?" Pyrrha interjects, dodging a flailing leg as Nora turns, still asleep. "Nobody?"
It takes team NRVA just a little bit to gather their weapons, and before long you're off, heroically... teleporting right outside of a little town called Ansem.
Whose mention has Jaune uncharacteristically nervous. As in, moreso than usual in your presence.
"Okay, so where are we supposed to go now?" Nora asks, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
Hurray for perfect memory. "There's an old quarry out in this direction," you roughly indicate, "and we're supposed to go there and clear it out. Fairly standard, as far as these kinds of missions go; people notice something, know they can't deal with the Grimm themselves and call it in, so it gets written up for someone to take care of. Hence, here we are. And don't worry, you're getting all the pay for it, of course, I'm just here to make sure none of you screw up too badly."
"... How badly is too badly?" Ren asks for clarification, which has you just shrug in response.
"As long as it's just a limb or two, I won't interfere. Make no mistake, this is a real surprise mission, with real consequences if you don't measure up. I'm not here as a security blanket, I'm here to make sure you have what it takes to become real huntsmen and huntresses," you announce, giving everyone a stern look.
Except Jaune seems preoccupied. "Look, I- I get that, but can we get going already, please? The, uh, the anticipation is killing me!"
An obvious lie, but you'll just allow it... for the moment. Aside from him, Pyrrha seems quietly determined, Ren is doing his best not to show his slight nervousness and Nora just can't wait, judging by how she's swinging her hammer around.
"Make sure you don't knock anyone's eyes out with that, Nora. Alright, team Nirvana, let's get going!" You kind of want to see how they'll do for themselves, not gonna lie. And hey, if this helps them get over the fact you used team RWBY as aura batteries that one time, all the better.
Oh, and you're totally helping them regrow any lost body parts, so it's all a-okay, really! You'll just not mention that bit until they're through with this.
When you arrive at the location outlined in the mission description, two things become clear fairly quickly. One, the old quarry, while fairly wide, doesn't go particularly deep, aside from a few places it was excavated, most likely in search of the disgusting plague that is dust. Two, the description 'confirmed Grimm presence' doesn't do it justice.
The place is absolutely crawling with the things, beowolves heavily filling the space, with boarbatusks patrolling the surroundings, as you find out fairly easily, with several of them coming at your little group with that familiar rolling attack, whence they turn into a ball of spikes and destruction coming at anything they can see.
Jaune actually surprised you positively during this initial battle; assessing the threat, he quickly steps forwards, his shield unfolding to present a solid barrier as Pyrrha does the same, the two becoming a solid frontline while Ren and Nora prepare behind them; while neither of their shields would be able to outright block what's coming at them, they simply nod at each other, crouching and lifting them in unison, the first two boarbatusks sent flying in a smooth motion that allows Nora to, already perfectly positioned, to swing her hammer with full force, smashing the airborne enemies into each other where Ren proceeds to fill them with holes from his guns.
You'd ask if they rehearsed this shit at some point, except there's another two of the Grimm coming in, Pyrrha just shifting her weapon into lance form and spearing through hers like a giant marshmallow, consequently slamming it down again on her other side, whereas Jaune steps back, Ren and him attacking from both sides as the speedier boy swings both of his weapons around, the creature slashed at from everywhere and soon expiring with a bit of help from Nora, Pyrrha already back on the lookout.
These kids actually went and got gud while they were at Beacon, huh?
"Good work, everyone," you say, your hands clapping against each other to get their attention, "but don't let your guard down, there's a lot more where that came from."
"So, how are you going to approach this? All you know is there's a bunch of Grimm, and it's a quarry. Have at it." Your instructions for team NRVA are fairly hands-off, for the simple and obvious reason of having made this their mission at this point.
Sharing a couple looks, the kids eventually settle on Pyrrha speaking first, being the leader and all. "There are a lot of Grimm, and... it is a fairly open area, so if we just went in, we would be attacked from all sides, which is disadvantasgeous," she reasons, steadily becoming more confident in her speech. Note to self, work with her on self-confidence at some point; being in front of her peers and giving them orders still seems to take her aback for some reason.
"I say we go in and smash them anyways!" Nora exclaims, grinning widely. "We just have to keep moving and hit them harder than they can take!"
Ren, shaking his head, steps in. "I agree with Pyrrha, we need a better plan. Just because we probably can doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful."
"Oh pooh..."
"How about we try luring them towards somewhere? Even if they just come at us on flat terrain, they'd just be coming from one side," Jaune suggests, owlishly stealing a glance at your impassive face.
As does everyone else, though you aren't giving them a hint as to what to do. This is all on them.
"Right, how about this," Pyrrha concludes. "We fight the outlying Grimm, then retreat if more swarm towards us, unless we can break through and use their numbers against them. We've practiced for this, you all know what to do."
Well, now you want to see what they're planning.
"Go on then, get right to it," you shrug, checking over Last Embrace's piledrivers really quick. "Just remember, I won't interfere unless absolutely necessary, this is all on you now."
"Right."
"Of course."
"Yaay!"
"Mm."
And with that, team NRVA is right on it. Also, note to self, accuse Ozpin of being a huge dork for the whole team naming thing; you're absolutely sure he was the one to think of it.
Watching from afar, it is quite interesting to see how the whole team's combined fighting ends up working. Each of them is as different as they come in terms of style, though you would be the last to suggest that was any reason for them not to be able to work together.
Pyrrha is, as you have noted on past occasions, methodical in her fighting above all else. Each move is precise, strong and effective, with her semblance actually heavily involved despite being nigh invisible unless you know what to look for, the movement of her limbs not quite accounting for everything she's doing.
Though the way she throws her shield to cut through enemies is a rather more obvious case of that, truth be told. Either way, that's Pyrrha; the main frontliner that cuts through and into Grimm with ease, making way for the rest of her team.
In contrast, Jaune is acting more defensively on the whole, more concerned with not being thrown around like a ragdoll after that first time he tried going on the offensive and got hit by a boarbatusk from the side for his trouble. Mostly just finishing off Grimm the others didn't quite deal with, he is making himself a meatwall protecting Pyrrha's back and keeping the other two clear of interference as required, using both his sword and shield as required.
He also seems to be getting the hang of aerial maneuvering thanks to extensive experience in being thrown every which way all the time, an observation that amuses you to no end.
Something Ren doesn't need any help with himself, the boy actively darting from one Grimm to the next, cutting down any of them he can find with speed and precision, the improved blades interestingly finding more use than the ion matter guns you replaced the old dust crap with. Turns out he's actually really good at just going in, stabbing and slashing at weakspots and getting out.
As for Nora... Well, she has a huge hammer, she has improved grenades and she has dozens of targets at any one time. The loud laughter she is letting out says it all, really.
Still, their plan being what it is, it is taking them to really make any appreciable headway, taking them around the quarry as they take out the Grimm one area at a time, always keeping on the move so the additional ones from deeper inside the mined-out area can't surround them and doing their best to avoid slowing down.
And there's the crux of the issue, really. While they're defeating the Grimm, it is taking them a bit, and they are predictable in how they're doing so. While most common Grimm would be defeated just like this, as long as they can keep this up, that precludes the presence of any even slightly uncommon Grimm...
... Such as the beowolf alpha barreling up the cut-out stone blocks, having been hidden by the other dark bodies down there until now, a great amount of its subordinates accompanying it in a pincer attack.
"Watch out, big one at eight o'clock!" Pyrrha shouts, rapidly looking around.
Considering they're being surprised with a considerable amount of Grimm from an unexpected direction, the team does act fast, Pyrrha shifting to rifle mode and attempting to shoot down the biggest threat coming in, whereas Ren concentrates on any stragglers around them, Jaune off to keep the boarbatusks too busy to attack the others, all with a nod and gesture from Pyrrha.
They really did practice for just this kind of occasion, didn't they?
Now, the bulk of the approaching beowolves is, naturally, Nora's responsibility, the grinning girl launching grenade after grenade down into the quarry, her weapon's dedicated grenade launcher mode upgraded at your hands seeing use of its full capacity, over two grenades per second loaded, primed and propelled out before exploding.
They could have gone faster, in theory, but anything that needs more grenades than that is probably better served with an explosion-reinforced hammer strike, anyways. Aura goes for the win once again!
Speaking of which, though, the alpha beowolf is just now emerging onto Nirvana's playing field, several holes in it showing Pyrrha's a surprisingly good shot, moving targets being what they are. Though the size of this one probably had something to do with that, that thing's easily in the same category as a small van.
Idly smacking down the odd beowolf that mistook you for an actual target before piercing its head with a piledriver, you kind of wish you'd brought some popcorn for this.
Recognizing the danger the larger Grimm represents as it roars loudly, its underlings slavering and moving in an actually coordinated fashion in response, Pyrrha shouts something sounding like 'scattershot' at the group, all of them gathering in one place briefly.
Before dividing again, except now Nora is sitting on Jaune's shoulders and swinging Ren around on her hammer, all the while Pyrrha has begun confronting the alpha beowolf by herself, sword and shield on the ready.
Turning wildly, Jaune is essentially serving as a spinning top as Nora keeps on feeding more grenades into her weapon, firing it off through the hammer's backside and filling everything aroung the three with explosions, while Ren is just keeping his balance and adding pinpoint fire to the general mayhem surrounding them, effectively creating a killzone on demand.
Which is actually a pretty good call in this situation, you'd say.
Meanwhile, Pyrrha is delivering some grade-A dueling action, dodging and deflecting clawsipes, jumping over bodyslams and answering a roaring maw threatening to devour her whole with a spear thrust straight inside it, whittling down the most dangerous enemy all around, steadily drawing it around as she control the pace of the fight. While the alpha beowolf is smart enough to avoid being baited into the mobile killzone as Jaune sways this way or that, Nrivana's team leader can actively use it to limits its options, all the while scoring cuts and slashes one after another, trading light injuries her aura can absorb for a few amputated claws and gouging out Grimmflesh here and there.
Until Nora runs out of grenades. Or rather, runs low on them. "One clip left!" At her call, Ren jumps off, using the momentum left to launch himself at the alpha and get on its back, steadying himself with his blades before opening fire. Jaune, on the other hand, looks around, seeing just a handful of beowolves left after the chaotic assault and launches himself right at them, sword raised and coming down again and again with little care for any minor retaliation, his shield only swinging out to block particularly egregrious attacks.
Nora has taken to punting the smaller Grimm into the larger one to see if she can use them as ammunition.
The situation seems to be under control for a long moment, but that just goes to show you should never underestimate any thinking opponent. Letting off another roar, the alpha decides it has enough of this shit, missing half its back as it is, and proceeds to simply roll over itself, throwing Ren around and managing to get him under it.
You idly wonder if you need to come save him for a moment, but in the end, Nora takes care of that all on her own, using her spare grenades to come rushing in and fire off for an upwards blow that lets a battered, but aura-intact Ren jump off of the growling creature, swinging out a two-handed parting slash towards the alpha's head.
That comes to lie right in front of Jaune, growling at him.
Who then, half-reflexively and half in a complete panic, sticks his sword through its eye.
Honestly, they did rather well on this one, you'd say. Bit heavy on the ammo usage, because Nora won't ever stop exploding things if she can, but it worked out this time around. Now all they have to do is the cleanup.
... Stomping a straggling boarbatusk's head on from where you're observing, you consider joining in just to make this go faster. It's just a couple of beowolves left, for fuck's sake.
"So, what would you say you've learned on this little mission?" You ask, the exhausted teenagers you ended up helping a little towards the end walking after you on the path back to Ansem.
"That we... should expect the Grimm to react to what we do?" Pyrrha asks, obviously having been thinking about this already. Good girl.
"Mhm, that's one lesson to be learned. Any other takers?" Wouldn't be fair to only make her reflect on how they did, after all.
"I need to bring more grenades next time!" Oddly enough, while aura and conditioning are taking the worst of the edge off of everyone, the lack of adrenaline pumping through their bodies is leaving all present Beacon students except Nora a little downed. You think she might just be in a constant adrenaline rush, actually. Would explain a lot.
Anyways, you give her a nod. "That's one way to make sure you can blow everything up, but maybe try spacing the explosions out a bit more next time around. You didn't need to blow them quite that quickly this time, anyways."
"... I need some way to do more damage at once," Ren concludes his own introspection. "I was on the alpha beowolf's back, but I couldn't hurt it quickly enough to matter."
"Yeah, about that, why didn't you use your aura ripple through your weapons?" You ask. "You could've fairly easily disengaged at any time with that."
"... I forgot I could use it through Stormflower now," he admits, looking away.
"Uhm," Jaune makes before you can console him, not that you're sure you should, "I think we did pretty well overall? Though we could have chosen a better approach, one that didn't give the Grimm the ability to dictate how things would go," he completes, looking surprised at his own words.
"That's true, that's true," you agree, "though it's really more a matter of ensuring that it doesn't matter what the Grimm decide to do. Be prepared to crush anything that comes at you anyways, and they can try and surround you or have a stronger one coming through all they want, it won't matter. Oh, also, anyone up for getting some local breakfast before we teleport back?"
You aren't far from the larger township that's the whole reason you're here in the first place, and immediately, you can see Jaune going chalk white as he remembers that little fact. "A-actually, hehe, how about we don't? Got a bit of queasy stomach after all of this, and we would all be best served with a bit of rest before the sun comes up, I know the lack of sleep is really just the worst, and..."
In the end, Jaune can stammer all he wants, but there is no escaping the inexorable draw of everyone being up for eating out once in a while, and with the town literally right there, team Nirvana is more than happy with paying a visit to the place they just saved from an imminent Grimm invasion.
Which is how you will call it, and nobody can stop you.
It takes a little bit, but you soon find a lovely little diner near the main street open at this time of (technically) night, dawn being right around the corner already, and despite Jaune's constant paranoid looks behind his back and carefuly placement of his seat to keep an eye on the entrance, nothing unusual happens as everyone orders, with you paying as a matter of course.
Before long, a wide array of bacon, toast, eggs both fried and scrambled and lots of fruit juices is weighing down the table on heavy plates, and so nothing in on the way of breakfast, the waitress tipped appropriately and all.
You take your time, seeing no reason to hurry things overmuch as you eat. Sure, Jaune looks like he's going queazier by the minute, but everyone else, having picked up on his changed demeanour, is just doing things at their own pace regardless, nobody willing to be hurried while eating.
They do make good eggs here. You'll have to try to replicate the recipe, mostly just some salt and pepper added, you think, with a smattering of other seasonings.
Still, no matter how much you would like to torture the poor boy, you do have to go ahead and leave at some point, and while you did plan in some extra time for this, it is far from limitless. It's a sad fact of life just how busy you are, after all.
So you just finish eating, the conversation slow, but present, the kids a tad bit tired at being torn out of bed in the middle of the night, but before you can go and gesture for the waitress, it happens. Just as you chew through the last bit of still lightly warmed crunchy toast, the door opens, Jaune seemingly petrified as two young women walk right inside, chatting amicably only to fall silent when they see him.
You know, you can make out a certain resemblance there.
"Jaune! It's our little Jaunieboy!"
"Oh, you have no idea how worried we were! We found that note, but mom didn't sleep for weeks!"
Being grabbed from both sides, you can see Pyrrha blinking blankly as she watches the two take hold of the huntsman-in-training, a defeated sigh leaving the blonde boy. "Indigo, Brass! Come on, you don't have to drag me!"
Having successfully distracted the apparent family members from dragging him off like a wet poodle despite his newfound strength, you can behold the glorious scene of them turning to actually look at everyone else at the table. "And who are you all, then?" "Thank you for taking care of our Jaunieboy!"
Yeah, this'll be good.
"Hey everyone, want to see what I got from trading blackmail?"
"Gabriel, don't! No! If- if you guys look, I'll be very, very mad!"
"WHAT IS THAT IT'S SO CUUUTE HAHAHAHA!"
One thing you did over your time in Remnant, intending to make the best use of what time you have left after deciding the vacation was nice, but you're really ready to get back into the game.
It isn't like you actually accrue stress or anything in the first place, undeath being what it is, but it's worth the trouble if it means you can get Sarah off your back about constantly keeping busy... and it isn't like you dislike spending a couple months just cuddling with her when the opportunity presents itself, and the same does go with all your other little vampire brides.
Anytime Okita is too busy cuddling, she isn't causing trouble, after all. She's a good girl, but you do worry, especially so with her having become a vampire and, as it turned out, even more physically powerful than you'd expected.
She just proceeded to punch through a wall. Sure, you could do that too, thanks to aura, but she did it suspiciously casually.
Anyways, using a bit of your additional offtime squirreled away through your inner world's time fuckery, you took a bit to try and figure out what you'd best get done inside it that would actually help. Sure, you could always just read a bunch of memories and treat them like a manual, or rather have manuals filtered out of the memories of the people you ate, but you actually do have a better idea.
One thing you have found yourself doing a lot is taking apart technology in other worlds, and also putting together massive amounts of undead. On first glance, both of those things seem completely disconnected, but you recently had a revelation about the way you approach both of those things.
Namely, that you don't have any specialized tools for doing so.
Sure, you've been making do so far through a mixture of just being that brutally good and using local tools and such, but that's no excuse to leave this poor state of affairs be forever. For once, you never actually got around to adding a dedicate design mode to your manufactories- and while you're not really specialized in programming and the like, you do have a whole bunch of people with more experience on the matter to kick into figuring out a predictive software program that can help you determine any particularly glaring issues with new designs and inventions before you go through the trouble of prototyping them.
That and a wide set of proper tools designed to manually work body parts, from a proper meat cleaver as well as tongs and pliers shaped to help you deal with different kinds and sizes of muscles, bones, cerebral matter and more.
You can just use your hands while casting the spell responsible for this crap over and over again... but why would you, when you can also do a lot of additional manual work to make everything go smoother? Also, next time you're making a fucking gigantic one like the enormous aquatic undead you have in the ocean right now, you're definitely taking a couple forklifts along, with anti-slip rubber surfaces and everything, to hold things in place.
Awkwardly juggling giant tentacles once was more than enough for your lifetime, or unlifetime or whatever. And now you'll be darting off to hide in a secret compartment you found inside the lab, you can hear the victorian chanting already.
Why, of all things, did your victims have to start a cult dedicated to you?
You actually make some decent progress, designing a basic update on the simple armor pieces you've been strapping to your more skeletal undead to actually make them a little better- some straightforward hydraulics, and all of a sudden they actually improve the expect field results by a significant margin, as soon as the clawed boney boys don't have to use most of their strength to build up some actual momentum to move with.
That wasn't the only thing you did in your little refuge, of course; Mr. X, being your mainstay undead in urban environments (not that they got a chance to shine here on remnant, but but still) got a couple reworks of their eyes, as well as their nervous system, and you really went nuts on their arms and hands, giving them the approximate manual coordination and flexibility of a twelve-year old.
Should come in handy when it comes to arming the things, especially if you ever get around to making specialized weapons, such as oversized flamethrowers for them.
Unfortunately, while you are making some good progress, you think the cultists are starting to get a sense for when you're in the lab, as you can hear one of them exult about your 'divine advancements' outside the secret passage to your little personal nook, so you'll just leave it at this for the time being.
Swimming through the water, it cast out its senses, as it always did. According to its route, it was almost at the end of its patrol, and would need to return the way it came soon.
Something brushed through the water. A casual swipe from its rear tentacles ascertained it to be a long, serpentine enemy, consequently wrapping around and crushing it.
It had no care for their kind, though it had little care in the first place, given it was a near-mindless automaton; all that mattered were its orders and the ways in which it could fulfill them.
Shifting its course, it began turning, only for its tentacles to detect another presence in the water a small distance from it. As it was ordered to eliminate all enemies, it neglected to return to patrolling, instead beginning to swim towards its enemy.
Finding it to be of appreciable size, around its own not counting the tail, it immediately begun to wrap around it, tripled maw tearing through outer covering hiding weak flesh.
It was feeling a clawed hand tear into its side, but it did not care. The enemy had to be defeated. die die die
Its tail was getting a grasp on its foe's length, circumventing the slender form to apply more pressure, even as it began eating deeper. hate hate hate
Tentacles on the arms and legs, it suddenly felt a searing beam of energy on one of its heads, simply changing its target towards the throat. suffer die suffer die
Finally, it succeeded at breaking its foe, feeling a thorough crack and the body it was touching slowly starting to dissolve. It had succeeded.
It returned to the patrol.
Elsewhere, the Queen narrowed her eyes. "So you will respond, hm? Very well, two can indeed play this game. Do try to entertain me, my poor dear Ozma has been failing to deliver as of late..."
For all that you like to run around and actively build up a persona of an actually decent person for people to sympathize with even while on vacation, there are still some things you are actually personally interested in doing that wouldn't have normal people scream and call for the nearest authority figure save them from the horrible monster.
Well, there's still the part where Sarah is your sister, but hey, nobody that values the integrity of their teeth is gonna complain about it. Or their life, in case you can arrange to meet them in a dark alleyway.
The two of you actually do make it a point to regularly set aside a little time every now and then, just talking about whatever, to discuss some minor business stuff or for a little sex on the side. But sometimes, you just make it a thing, too, with a few hours, scented candles and copious amounts of backrubs and foot massages.
And no clothes, as a matter of course. Sarah hates wearing them in your presence, it would seem.
And so it came that you're sitting there on your bed, gently rubbing Sarah's shoulders as she steadily pumps herself up and down your cock, her sweet little pussy greedily gobbling it up and squeezing down around it, the director's cut edition of Ninja Kitten Debauchery playing for both of you to watch on a holographic screen.
"You know, it's a little weird to watch a porno that I actually took part in producing together with you," you note, enjoying Sarah's delicious tightness around your shaft as you lean forwards to kiss her shoulder.
Looking back over it, your sister grins at you. "Aww, but it's a pretty nice one! Did you know people have been asking for a continuation at some point?"
"I didn't, but I'm not surprised," you chuckle, hands wandering forwards to pinch her nipples. "Would you like me to go and pull Blake into a second part?"
"Mm, maybe," Sarah says, looking back onto the screen as the scene of you playing with a chained-up Blake comes into focus. "Right now, I'd much prefer you focus on me, though."
Plopping forwards, you move with your adorable little sister as she gets of all fours, the invitation obvious. Grasping her waist, you begin properly fucking her doggystyle, satisfied moans and mewls echoing all around you and drowning out the movie. "Yes, just like that, fuck me Gabe!"
Stroking her sleek back, you can't help but admire the wonderful creature in front of you, Sarah's plump buttocks meeting your skin as you hammer yourself in up to her womb, her full breasts hanging below and tempting you every time they sway. "You're gorgeous, did you know that?" You ask, somewhat breathlessly.
Turning her head towards you once more, you can see your sister's sly smile, her locks of golden hair strewn all over. "I may, with how often you tell me."
Hugging her, you feel her (awesomely feeling) thighs, flipping Sarah into the air in a single move as you lean back, gently nibbling on her ear suddenly right in your reach as you lift up her legs, hammering upwards now. "I can't help it, can I? You're just too beautiful. And cute. And adorable when you get embarrassed. And..."
Whispering sweet nothings in her ears, you continue serenading how wonderful she is, Sarah actually getting embarrassed despite herself, a goofy grin on her face even as she tells you to stop (which you don't). The porno forgotten, you soon end up with her lying down, both of your hands entwined and her legs wrapped around you, your rod pistoning into her glistening sex, you find yourself incapable of continuing your exultation of the greatness of Sarah, lips locked with hers as your balls slap against her in the passion of your lovemaking.
"This, is great," she eventually gasps, clearly letting her feelings show on her face, "I've always wanted this, you know? Even before we died, before you went away, I always wanted to be your bride and have your babiiieees!"
Coming in unison, you fill up her tight pussy, eagerly showing her your love as you look deeply into her love-drunk eyes.
"Then let's have babies," you whisper, knowing that your agreement seals the deal. With both of you wanting kids, there's nothing stopping you from knocking up your sweet little baby sister... and really, why wouldn't you want to?
Truth be told, you'd been playing with the thought of broaching the topic with her, but you didn't want to be pushy or anything, and so you'd decided to wait until Nora and maybe Sherrel's kids were born before seriously considering it, but if Sarah asks for it?
Then Sarah gets it, and in this case that means lots and lots of your cum.
Going back to sticking your tongue down her throat, you make out with Sarah as you come inside her, a long moment passing as you pump everything you have for her into her.
Blinking, your sister attempts to sit up, though you keep her down and she only embraces you instead, hiding her head against your chest like she always used to do back in the bad old days. "That was... Pretend you didn't hear anything."
"What, that you were always such a kinky little sister?" You ask, amusedly stroking her hair.
"Nuuh!" Playfully hitting your abs before shifting towards just feeling them but, she shakes against you, your manhood still buried inside her tight snatch. "Bad Gabey, stop bullying me!"
You just chuckle, now shifting your attention towards her back.
It takes a little bit before she speaks up again. "Holy shit, I'm... I might actually be pregnant. With our child." Disbelief, awe, doubt, they all mix inside her voice.
"Well, there's only one way to be sure," you say, your palms meeting Sarah's butt and kneading it as you slowly buck into her, her wide eyes meeting yours as she looks up in a mixture of shock and anticipation. "You aren't walking out of here unless you're as thoroughly knocked up as I can manage."
And just like that, you're back to business.
It isn't every day that the manifestation of your sweets fairies inside your mental palace goes completely nuts and shouts for you to listen until you decide to grace her with your attention, but- no, actually, that's misleading, she does that every couple days. It's just that you usually end up ignoring the nonsensical observations and complaints she inundates you with, though every now and then something interesting does come out of her miniscule little mouth.
Such as the fact that Neo is very much staring at a certain something, standing still in the middle of the street. Consequentially, it doesn't take you all that long to find her, silently joining the diminutive girl as she looks at the sign added to the storefront, projected holographically.
"I doubt I need to ask, but we're totally doing this, aren't we?" You ask, receiving a silent nod in response.
Thus, the ice cream rangers enter the fray.
These poor fools know not what awaits them.
Luckily enough, this whole contest thing seems to be fairly casual, not requiring anything more than the contestants walking in and signing up. Together with you and Neo, that makes ten, which also just so happens to be the full number they were aiming for; this seems to be aimed at promoting the shop without costing them a couple days' worth of ice cream.
Which is bound to fail with both of you in place, but whatever.
So, the preliminaries. A simple challenge, this is simply a contest of speed; all contestants need to eat a full chocolate sundae, complete with those little waffles and a generous helping of whipped cream. The first six contestants to finish proceed to the actual competition, while the four slowest have to step out, being given a consolation prize in the form of a given sundae of their choice to slowly eat while spectating, if they so wish.
Suffice to say, both you and Neo easily win this one, with you actually deliberately taking it slower and only coming in second place. The crowd (because, weirdly enough, there's actually a crowd for this kind of thing) is going wild, cheering for their chosen candidates and booing at anyone eating too slow, but you just finished up exactly two seconds after your only real competition.
And ask for more while everyone waits for the rest.
Neo's pout is legendary, but she nods and raises a hand, also requesting more ice cream. Which you get, because damn it all, you aren't going to just sit around and wait when you could eat ice cream instead.
The next contest is, as you might expect, about who can eat the most, rather than speed-eating. Endurance eating. Knowing you have literally everyone beat, the only thing you do when it's announced is grin at your companion, who already knows she is going to lose.
Not that she doesn't try, but as you go through chocolate (again), strawberry, lemon, orange, blueberry, cookie dough and, as they claim, ice cream dust flavors, she just can't seem to keep up, slowly being edged out in terms of appetite, as you do not ever actually get full. She tries to distract you, using her semblance to hide a probing hand undoing your pants' zipper and extricating your dick, but you just continue, your smug smile intensifying, if anything.
Ice cream and a hand job. This is just getting better.
You continue escalating things, going through all the dust-themed ice cream on offer and demanding to get more ice cream when they run out of new varieties to throw at you, the crowd just going bonkers over this situation and laughing their heads off at your bottomless stomach even as Neo forgoes all pretenses, having just left behind an illusionary clone as she crawled under the table to suck your dick, trying to defeat your boner if nothing else.
Fun fact, she fails, and the second place prize of a couple coupons for this place can console her. You, yourself, will be getting a few free meals, though it's not like you particularly care. You have enough money.
The ice cream ranger reigns supreme once again.
Your regular little pool parties seem to have become a thing, of sorts, whenever you have the time and effort to spend and don't have a couple of rich people's housewives or daughters lingering about the place, which also seems to have become a status symbol in their little sub-society, of sorts.
Anyways, here you are, teams RWBY and NRVA present and in swimwear. Coco and Velvet aren't in the city, sadly- something about a training mission, you didn't really pay attention beyond the fact their team was gone.
Also joining you are Neo, who is using illusions to stay invisble to anyone but you, and Ozpin. That's right, the headmaster of Beacon Academy is in attendance, wearing nothing but a speedo.
Not that you're wearing more, but still. The old man (even only counting his current body) does have some actual muscles, though you can't help but wonder if he ever actually finds the time to work out despite his position.
"You know, I haven't been to a pool in what feels like a lifetime now. Taking a break every now and then is important, as I always tell Glynda, though she sadly had to stay at Beacon today; something about a renovation in the tower, I believe," he addresses the gathered students when they just stare at him in silent shock at seeing him in this place. "Incidentally, it is my hope to put certain rumours and ghost stories to rest by the monday rolls around again, something for you all to look forwards to."
With that, he simply goes and joins you in the pool itself, leaning back against the wall with the water jets. "Hazel?" You casually ask, already having been there ahead of him.
"Hazel," Ozpin nods, looking supremely exasperated. "I believe he may have figured out how to use aura to keep up his physical stamina and keep on screaming without pause for hours at this point. The man is patently ridiculous."
Having been called to Ozpin's office, you are amused to see the serious expression on the man after how you kept feeding him shots to see if you could get him drunk while he was at the pool already.
"I am glad you could make it, Mister Livsey, even if the matter of teleportation does make attending to sudden calls like this rather more easy, I would suspect," he greets you as you scan the room, finding it to be mostly empty of any other visitors.
"I came just as soon as I finished my current project," you say, boldly defining having sex with Nora as a project. "So, what's got your speedo in a twist this time?"
Ozpin gives you a long look as he sips from his cup of hot chocolate, but you did remember to bring your own this time around, just to fuck with him, so you mirror the motion. "My current issue," he says as he holds the source of his powers before himself again, "is that the Grimm keep on growing more numerous and stronger, while these new serkevas have caused no end of painful casualties amongst huntsmen across Vale and, indeed, the world. What I would like is a way to counter this, without jeopardizing other interests you are aware of by now."
Neither of you even bother paying mind to the voice of Hazel in the background, his cry of "OOOOOZZZPIIIIINNNNN!" going ignored.
"You got some new sound dampening installed?" You distractedly ask, remarking on how he seems a bit quieter this time.
"I did, though I believe it could be better."
"Alright, if that's the issue," you say, taking a sip quickly answered by Ozpin's own, "there's two things I could think of we might want to do. One, we apply a paintjob to my robots and pretend they're the newest Atlesian model loaned out for the duration of this crisis."
"Are you sure it is reasonable to expect this ruse to succeed?" Ozpin asks diplomatically, instead of asking if you're shitting him or the like.
"Have you seen the people around? The paint is honestly more than needed more likely than not," you explain with a shrug. "Anyways, with the whole teleportation thing we can just deploy them as needed, especially in riskier situations we don't exactly want to send any less expendable people into. Same rationale behind why Atlas has been pushing robot armies, as far as I'm aware. As for the second approach..."
Lazily waving an arm, you concentrate a little, your aura rippling along your skin. "How about I just create a whole bunch of my fightier minions, then we can hand them out to huntsmen as long as they give them lots of aura?"
"... Elaborate. I am not exactly familiar with the details of your semblance."
And so you do. And then spend the next twenty fucking hours of creating a great amount of chain demons, carnages and osteas, all the while coordinating how to deploy your robots where and when.
It's actually a little weird, your aura constantly being drained to its limits, but you don't exactly mind, the mild discomfort made up for in the knowledge of all these bodies going out and reporting back to you.
Penny was spending her day, like many of her days, in her father's lab, curiously poking and prodding a few pieces of equipment to see if her own experiments may have born fruit; ever since she decided to take up an interest in what her father was doing, she had had great fun in exploring science and what it may provide for her.
Sure, she could just download knowledge through her CCTS connection, but this way provided her new ideas with far greater impact, and every now and then she even got to see things she wouldn't have by simply browsing things in the scientific journals that had already begun digitalizing as much of their text as possible.
She still kept on pursuing both theoretical and practical pursuits of knowledge, of course, as the former also provided her with a great smokescreen for the data transfers playing IronCock online required. She had to be the first to complete what she had dubbed the IronCock Rising Challenge involving collecting every optionally available blueprint for possible advancements of the main character's weaponry, after all, and so she needed to let everyone know how far she was!
Letting her background processes take over the controls of the game again, Penny took a moment to peruse the recent changes of the CCTS. Ever since that advertizing campaign, a lot of changes had been enacted on it, to make it both safer against malicious intrusions and easier to use. Penny welcomed these changes, and if anything, wondered why they had not been enacted earlier.
Still, there it was again: An unknown signal, something she had pinpointed to an old dust mine not too far from Mantle. A military operation of some kind, though she had not yet asked, preferring to investigate and find her own answers, due to the nature of what she had perceived when it had first been declared a classified operation.
PendingPenny: [Salutations! I see you are still hard at work!]
[...]
PendingPenny: [A good talk! See you again later!]
They were very shy, but she was sure she had found a fellow machine-based intelligence! Penny could hardly wait to get to know them better, whenever they felt comfortable answering to her.
"What if it gets hurt? You know we don't really need to care about literally most wounds, but it could be crushed if my belly is struck, or-"
Taking Sarah's hand, Nora gave it a few calming pats. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. You have aura, you have all the time and calm you need and you have a very doting husband brother that will literally destroy the souls of any that would threaten any of your children. No need to panic."
"I'm not panicking, I am considering legitimate threats to our family!"
Nora sighed. "You're just as bad as your brother about this kind of stuff sometimes, you know?"
"Excuse me?" Appalled, Sarah crossed her arms, immediately pouting. "I am not as bad as Gabe! He regularly goes into hysterics about this stuff!"
Nora sighed, neglecting to argue that going into hysterics was exactly what Sarah was doing. Instead, she stood up from where she was sitting, embracing her fellow wife and angling her head in her own sitting position so she could press her ear against Nora's stomach. "There, there. Do you hear that? No heartbeat, but the child's doing just fine."
Yeah, the old trick. It worked for Gabriel, and it worked just fine for his sister, too. Good thing she was already showing.
"You know, I wouldn't have thought you, of people, would want to be drawn like this," you say, checking over your colors and deciding to mix a little more blue into what will become part of Glynda's clothes.
"What, I thought you usually draw young women like this? Don't I fit into your usual... clientele?" Glynda half-pouts before returning to her preferred posture for you.
"Oh, no, I definitely would have asked you to strip down either way... I just didn't expect you to even own clothes like this," you admit. Though you do certainly not complain as Glynda stands with one foot upon one of the stone blocks you had lying around your little atelier for artistic purposes, posing in her very own clothes brought along specifically for this.
"Almost makes me want to keep the picture for myself after this..." You joke, but you do have to admit the vice-headmistress looks positively ravishable.
"Why, if you like it so much, perhaps you should do something about it," Glynda posits, licking her lips as she looks at you. "Besides, I do believe you should strip down a little yourself, to make this... session... a little more fun, no?"
There is a reason you like Glynda.
Some might argue that hanging around your secret conspirator, emphasis on secret, would be quite counter-productive for obvious reasons. All you have to say to that is that you can damn well do as you please, and screw any concerns to the contrary; you're just very damn good at staying unseen as is, and nobody's going to notice either way anyways.
"So, Roman," you ask from where you're reclining on a crate of dust stacked high in the warehouse you're haunting whenever the mood strikes you, "how were things going for you before all this Cinder-y business started, anyways? Business been going well?"
Sighing, Roman sets aside his cigar from where he was pouring over plans and maps until now. "If you have to know, things were going just fine. Vale's always full of people with more money than sense if they're lucky, and few things can really stop me or Neo when we're on a job. Proper planning and timing, and all that."
"Huh, I'd have thought it'd have been more exciting," you ponder on your perch. "What with being the 'greatest thief of Vale' and all. No big, daring heists you had going on?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, but the life of a thief isn't about doing things on the fly, at least if they're a good one," Roman snoots at you. "You have to actually plan out any heists you want to pull, gather information, know what you are doing and, most of all, always have a way out. You won't stay a thief for long otherwise, though I don't know why I'm even bothering to explain this to you, given your approach would likely be to just bust in in a mask."
"Hey, still better than you busting into stores without even wearing one," you protest, acutely remembering what you know about how Roman has been conducting his dust robberies.
"All part of a calculated effort to make my actual disguises more effective," he claims. "Not to mention Neo is usually good about those kinds of things when she bothers."
You just shrug. "Sure, whatever. And for your information, I am perfectly capable of actual subtlety, it's just that the situation so very rarely demands for it, so I usually just do some minimal sneaking before murdering everything in sight. Or, preferrably, just have someone else do the heists and daring thefts."
"Now if only everyone actually bothered with that over treating me like some henchman they can just throw busywork at," Roman grumbles, pulling a map towards himself and comparing it to his big map of Vale.
"Hey, look at the bright side, that's what betrayal is for," you cheer him up. "I completely understand how you ended up with that, by the way. If you're going to have minions, you have to let them work the way they want to. Workplace positivity, Roman, is the key to any successful organization that needs its employees to be an active part of itself."
"I'm sure you would know, given the massive secret organization you control that doesn't exist," the ginger thief scoffs.
You just give him a smug smile.
"That I am very sure doesn't exist."
You smug harder.
"Okay, you know what, I don't care anymore."
Mission accomplished.
"There's only a couple assholes left in the city that don't want to get with the program," Sarah explains the situation to you as she gesticulates all over a map of Vale, the requisite buildings of interest to you clearly marked out. "All it takes before we have complete control of the economic sector, as well as the criminal one through Junior, is to take these people out, then we're golden."
"You've been golden all along, but I get what you mean," you offhandedly mention just how precious Sarah is. "Just three places to hit overall, huh?"
Nodding, your amazingly wonderful little sister swipes across a holoscreen, by now emitted from a device installed at the wall, or one of the walls, bordering your bed. "We have a couple targets to choose from, yeah. One is a small compund filled with what's left of the criminal underworld we didn't get to yet. Crooks calling themselves the 'Dockside Rippers' for some reason despite actually being on the opposite side of the city from the docks. Small fry, a couple of aura activated, nothing that big of an issue."
"Mhm, mostly a milk run, unless they have any surprises," you remark.
"Next on the chopping block is a bunch of idiots near the actual docks, several factory owners and shareholders of the bigger media here in Vale, most notably the newspapers and Vale News. They have been united in their opposition of this terribly undemocratic power grab my little power trip has been, and completely coincidentally have gathered for a meeting in this little location they think we are unaware of, to try and discuss how to oppose this faceless group they're opposing," Sarah explains, the smugness in her adorable face nearly palpable.
You pat her head. "Looks like you've been busy, huh?"
Closing her eyes to enjoy your touch as she leans towards you, she nevertheless continues. "Last location on the list is just a couple assholes I didn't feel like leaving alive. Decently sized business serving as the front for a few less legal dealings by the criminal underworld sometimes, but the guys that run it are morons that think having enough people in their pocket means they can afford to be prissy at me."
"Even more of a milk run, then," you conclude.
"Only question is how we deal with everything, I've already set up some nice opportunities for all of these little meatballs to be eaten," Sarah agrees.
"You know, I'm kind of partial to those business owners, myself," you say after some consideration, languidly stretching yourself. "I kind of just keep on eating the very worst people I could find, might be nice to get a couple souls from a little less scummy assholes."
Sarah gives you a look. "Gabe, these are rich people. They are, by definition, assholes."
"Yeah, but these ones at least pretend to be decent people, which means they're a step up from my usual food," you argue. "It's just a slight change of overall taste, I'm hoping."
"Sure, whatever," your sister shrugs. "I guess me and Nora will pay a visit to those brokers and we can send Okita to have a talk with the Rippers. Oh, and would you mind capturing as many as you can instead of eating straight away? We wanted to have another family dinner with Okita eating people too, this time, remember?"
"Of course I do," you smile, mussing up Sarah's hair. "So I'm guessing Nora and you will do the same? ... And Okita will maybe try, I suppose."
"Yeah... I'm not exactly expecting that much to be left when she's done. Not that it matters, so long as she eats well on the spot," she agrees, clearly displaying one of the many reasons she is so damn loveable.
You just give her a hug for a bit before getting started.
The building you're looking at doesn't have all that much secruity, presumably on account of the whole 'secrecy' thing Sarah somehow indirectly sold the people awaiting their deaths inside. Sneaking around the area, you can easily see a couple of security guards standing by the entrances, as well as several cameras all around, but getting inside should be child's play for you.
Inside, of course, there also are people, more blood signatures obviously standing guard, a couple of them moving about, though you believe you have found the actual targets of this little exercise gathering in a single soom somewhere on the second floor, trickling in one at a time.
Only question now is, how should you approach this whole thing? You could sneak in, you could just start eating and disabling people left and right, or you could get creative about how you're doing this...
Shadowing through the nearest window up on the second floor as you keep an eye out for any guards or other employees, you swiftly make your way through a couple of hallways, actually adhering to the roof in general just to make sure absolutely nobody can actually see you.
You even test it out, but none of the few people guarding this place seem to ever look up, allowing you to just glide around without a care in the world.
This actually reminds you a little of the good old days, when you were sneaking around Merchant places to ambush and eat them one at a time, rather than just having a bunch of people chained up inside your basement for easy feeding purposes at all times.
A not insignificant amount of the souls you took in those earlier days came from that, actually; the Merchants were just too great an easy food source not to abuse at every opportunity, not to mention the low-key gangwar you mostly started with them just to eat more.
As opposed to the more or less open gang war you then powered through with the ABB for a couple days, and the following one you're tehcnically still in against the E88. Good times, really, just the best.
Nothing to be said against Remnant, but you kind of miss the Crypts. And what pretty much amounts to conquering Brockton Bay to mould it in your image.
Anyways, there you go, just slidin' right past a pair of guards and through a door, aaand you're in.
"So are we all here?" A gruff voice asks, an equally gruff-looking man in a black suit asking it sitting at a long table in the middle of the room. "Would've hoped there'd be more of us left, but it looks like Vale is severely lacking in spine these days."
"Oh, don't get into that rant again, old man," a younger woman exasperatedly requests, folding her hands. "We've all heard how it was in your time, and it doesn't impress anyone."
Yeah, this looks like the right address.
Creeping around the ceiling, you slowly take your time to decide where to position yourself once you start, what with the unfortunate fact you can't really use soul powers while transformed as you are. Which you still resent, by the way.
"Bah, if you don't want to hear it, why don't you tell me why everyone is singing to the same tune all of a sudden, eh?" The older man in the room asks, leaning back and letting you see his walking cane. "Right after they all got bought up around the same time?"
"Please, we all know why we are here," a slimy-sounding fella that actually kind of reminds you of Coil says, conciliatory. "The issue is that whoever has been setting up major roadblocks for Vale's economy is completely unknown to us, though whatever organization is behind this is almost guaranteed to have sinister intentions."
"That much was obvious from the start," the woman you have mentally dubbed the brat of the group states. "Nobody goes and spends this much money if they don't have a reason to. Anyone have any idea who it even is, though? Didn't think so."
"Current theories are a group from Atlas, though how they would stay hidden like this is a mystery," a nerdy man mentions, sitting a couple seats down the table among the participants that have been keeping quiet until now. "Atlas is not known for its criminal underworld."
By this point, you have decided to just appear under a table off to the side bearing refreshments, completely untouched of course. Because some people just can't seem to make a point to actually eat their food. Note to self, you're stealing this shit, too, you think Okita would like some of those glazed donuts.
"Doesn't much matter where they're from, what matters is how we fight back," the gruffly gruffing gentleman from earlier grumps. "Which puts us in a bind, because we're literally the only business owners in Vale of any appreciable influence not already compromised."
Three, two, one aaand action! Turning back to your normal form, you stay perfectly still, while simultaneously generating a sleeping gas Nolan learned about while secretly reading up on everything Yoshi and Indigo know about anything somewhat related to his field of expertise, though the stuff isn't anything particularly special; it is taking a bit to actually suffuse the room at the rate you are producing it.
"What can we do? How about founding a union, of sorts?" The Coil impressionist suggests. "The Free Vale Business Union, maybe."
"And how would we keep it from being infiltrated by the next sucker that wants to spy on us? You know we can't just arbitrarily forbid anyone but us from joining," Bratty complains, beginning a longer dispute on what these people even can do against your little takeover.
Complete foolishness, of course, as opposing your Sarah is a fool's errand at the best of times, but you don't bother doing much. You just hold out your hand and wait.
That's all that's left to do here, really.
Well, this is one of the last times you really have with everyone you brought to in this dimension before you get back to Earth Bet and rejoin everyone you left there together, so there's no reason not to go all out, honestly.
With that in mind, you carefully go through the steps as you properly prepare the over fifty bloodbags being teleported into your kitchen one by one. Now, you do need them to be alive to retain their full nutritional value, but that doesn't mean you can't get creative about making their meat taste better after they're drained!
And so you try out a couple of things. First off, Okita just chopping off limbs does mean you go ahead and remove the arms and legs of her victims wholesale, their screams not really phasing either you or your slime maids in the slightest.
With that done, you proceed to bake, roast, marinade and chop up their remaining limbs, really just trying everything you can think of out. While making them watch, of course; if anything, you're amused at the suffering you're causing.
Similar scenes play out several more times for the other victims you're working through, as well; from you glazing them with sauce you're whipping up on the fly and putting them into the oven at such a temperature they just barely survive the experience and become nice and crispy, to roasting your fresh meat over an open flame, nothing is left out.
You actually consult a couple memories from the people you ate in Rapture; splicers aren't picky eaters, when they're still sane enough to understand the need to eat.
All said and done, you're actually having a productive night, and when the girls finally join you in your little dining hall, where you're having the maids bring one fresh bloodbag after another, they're quite amazed at your kitchen wizardry.
Taking their first couple bites, not even bothering to kill the still slightly struggling captives by way of draining their blood first, you're happy to see three ecstatic faces, Nora congratulating you on what you've done, Okita just keeping on eating with a miniscule smile on her face (the corners of her mouth are raised, even if the human eye can't quite see it) and Sarah...
Sarah spontaneously pops out her fox ears, immediately tempting you to go and scratch them, though you resist.
Bon appetit!
The little feast you prepared is, you have to say, quite a hit, one meatbag after the other first drained of blood whole, then treated as additional cuisine, juicy limbs and organs torn into with gusto. The only thing you are currently thinking of, however, are ways to keep this whole thing looking a bit more civil; sure, they're tasty, but to you it seems you may need to figure out some cutlery specifically for eating human beings.
Wouldn't do for your kids to lack table manners once they're born, after all.
Anyways, aside from that, you're just having a lot of fun eating together with this little splinter of your own little fucked up family before you return home to everyone else. Because fuck you, dad, you just proved the detestable man wrong; you actually did find yourself a better family, along with Sarah, so him and your mother can go choke on a dick.
In fact, time to give everyone an extra smooch before you leave for one last thing to take care of before you fuck off and come back to this particular dimension along the way.
"So, Roman, Neo... Thanks for showing up, first of all," you begin, having considered and decided against bringing some rather literal fingerfood to casually munch on during this conversation.
"Yeah, normally you just show up out of the blue and become a worse Neo until you get what you want," Roman drawls, the little traitor sitting to the side nodding along, "so forgive me if I get quite to the point and ask what exactly the problem is this time- and also, this is literally our hideout, you didn't ask us to come, you just showed up while we were sleeping!"
Waving off such unimportant details with a move of a hand, you continue unimpeded. "You see, it has recently come to my attention that you are missing some critical information relevant to your future prospects, and so it would be remiss of me not to inform you of such ahead of time."
"Can we stop beating around the bush and get to the point? I've had a very long night, just so you know."
"Magic is real and I'm actually an interdimensional vampire wizard."
Letting the ashes of his cigar fall to the ground, Roman gives you an unimpressed look, Neo just grinning at this conversation.
"Also, I do, in fact, head a secret organization that just finished taking over Vale."
"Oh, I actually heard about a couple of people dying earlier, I just didn't care at the time," Roman replies, raising an eyebrow. "You're saying that was you?"
"And a couple of my people. Okita needs her exercise before she gets bored and tears down buildings I want to keep standing," you admit, remembering the pictures you saw of what she left by the time she was finished slamming her sword against anything she could see.
The mention of Okita actually seems to have Roman think a moment, giving a reluctant nod. And with that...
"But seriously, you should probably listen to this one properly."
Ultimately, you can thankfully convince Roman that yes, you actually do have magic and the like, a prospect he quickly gets over the implications of, not being the sort that assumes to know everything and to be able to categorize things into 'dust' and 'aura' and be able to explain the world just like that.
Surprisingly, Neo needs a bit more talking to, but a couple of spells cast to prove that yes, this isn't you fibbing with your semblance to trick her, she seems to have gotten the message. Especially as she then proceeds to beg you to do more magic with her eyes.
You just pull the one ion laser rifle you keep inside your shadow out to let her play with it in response, the fact that you kept it there somehow seeming to enhance its value in her (shining) eyes.
Also, you heavily suspect the minions' beds will be sabotaged rather thoroughly as she plays with the settings and strolls off into the direction of their room.
Anyways, although Roman agrees that perhaps getting out of Remnant would be a good idea, upon asking for details on exactly how interdimensional travel works, immediately begins to try and figure out ways to munchkin it, as well as finding issues. "But wait, if we were to skedaddle, which would get me and Neo out of Cinder's reach, so good for us, but if we wanted to backstab Cinder like we were planning, it might be better to just stay right where we are, make sure she doesn't notice any differences due to the way time works, if you aren't shitting me... Not to mention coming back again would take up two slots of your capacity, though I'm assuming that wouldn't be too much of an issue, considering just how useful we are," he smirks at you, batting his exaggerated eyelashes.
"But seriously, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying no... just asking you to consider these things. For once."
You aren't sure whether you should pout at his tone.
Ultimately, you bow to his superior experience with your powers, aka you tell Neo that because Roman doesn't want to, she has to give you the disintegration rifle back.
You are, in fact, most amused by the results.
Anyways, you just leave the crime duo to their beauty sleep, noting you need to keep things chugging along in a timely manner, soon returned to the mansion by way of a quick teleport. Making sure everyone is aware it's about time to go, you go over the current state of your holdings here on Remnant one last time, unwilling to let anything unduly surprise you the next time you come here.
Uyehara Yoshiaki had to admit, despite the many, many grievances he had about this whole situation, the working environment he was dropped into was actually quite decent, at least as long as none of those idiots with their bloodletting fetish began screaming inside the labs.
And even then, he could just steer his workstation away and disappear into the labyrinthian series of rooms containing everything one could wish for in terms of research, from endless supplies of almost all chemicals he could imagine to advanced devices allowing for DNA analysis and similar tasks on par with what he'd used back in Academy City.
Not to mention the company, though he couldn't help but question certain parts of Nakason- of Indigo's behaviour. Specifically, every time he, now she, moved just so in a way that emphasized just how female she was, now.
They were working together on re-establishing some of the groundwork that Academy City had already tread, something he was on two minds about itself (one the one hand, that man would have access to more technology, but on the other hand, it was a giant middle finger to everyone that'd blocked his cancer cure from going out and saving millions right then and there). There was nothing he could do about it at the moment, however, so instead he decided to start on the elephant that'd been standing in the room for months now.
"So, uh, Indigo," as he had awkwardly asked about how she'd prefer to be called right when she'd come to see him, having read up on everything she could in the library, "doesn't it bother you?"
Tilting her head, the young woman looked up from where she was laboring over a spreadsheet with of thousands of entries, their previous experiments with quickly and easily sourced human DNA carefully noted in excruciating detail (one, there weren't any safety regulations and they didn't need them, being dead already anyways, and two, just because they had to do his bidding didn't mean they had to be quick with it instead of somewhat unnecessarily thorough). "Whatever do you mean, Yoshi?"
Ignoring the excruciating nickname inflicted upon him and spreading through the palace, he cleared his throat, trying to come up with a way not to make this sound extremely awkward, creepy or otherwise unpleasant. "The whole... being reborn female thing, I mean. I got lucky and hit the same gender twice, but..."
There was a reason he never liked to talk to people about personal details, he always got like this.
Indigo, though, didn't seem bothered, just giggling for some reason. "Oh, don't worry, I got over that pretty quickly. Turns out adjusting to a new body is actually fairly easy, in hindsight. Why, are you bothered by it?"
"No, not at all," Yoshi replied, turning away so she wouldn't see the slight blush at the way she was crossing her arms and lifting her bust. "I just wondered how you were dealing with it, or if you needed help."
Then he stiffened, a pair of slender arms wrapping around him even as something incredibly soft began to press against his back. Two incredibly soft things, in fact. "What kind of help might you mean, Yoshi~?"
He would forever keep his reaction in mind as direct proof of how surprisingly quick he could be when threatended, his hands blurring into motion as he rearranged a few numbers and closed his eyes tightly. "Oh, look, I think we found the formula and the primary consciousness patterns, looks like we're done here!"
Behind himself, he could hear more giggling, slowly growing into full-blown laughter and he had absolutely no idea what was going on anymore except Indigo was still clinging to him and he was just standing there and letting her.
... Actually, if their genders were reversed, this would be extremely much worse, he thought, his mind rapidly spiraling out of control as he realized he was getting a boner. But dammit, he hadn't had any bodily contact with anyone for over a year by this point, not to mention a woman he honestly had to admit was really beautiful. Even if he had refused to think that way about an old coworker, except he didn't think she minded anymore?
Just go away, penis, I don't have time for you! Not now, not ever!
It takes a bit of squeezing, and leaving a couple of things you had inside your shadow so far in this dimension (you can easily get more back on Earth Bet, after all), but finally, you have everyone's weapons stored inside the silhouette cast by your frame in any amount of light, just so you can bring them across.
Nora's very variable rifle, sniper rifle, scissors, sword and dual sword abomination of weaponry, Sarah's rapier and pistol with alternate modes as whip and knife, respectively, and even Okita's giant sword, all are resting at your feet, ready and waiting to be brought out again to be reunited with their owners. As, truth be told, does Last Embrace, your trusty bracers out of your reach only for as long as they need to be.
Even though Okita's greatsword really is straining your limits in terms of weight, but you didn't want to leave it, or her, out.
Also in your luggage are a few probes of dust you (reluctantly) added, mostly to try and science at them with more parahuman powers available, and though you considered taking everyone's scrolls with you, Sarah talked you out of it, reasoning that they are essentially just smartphones with hardlight dust and therefore pointless to port into Earth Bet.
Your wonderful sister undertsands your plight!
"I still don't get what your issue with dust is, it's just another form of technology, but hey, you're the expert." Aww, you didn't need to pretend, Sarah!
"It should be obvious," you playfully sniff. "In order to get the kind of technology I can throw around right now, I had to steal, rob and snatch it from lots of different dimensions, and I ate a lot of people to become this good with it by abusing what is essential slave labour of dead people and directly leeching their memories. What I'm trying to say here is, I put a lot of effort into this shit, whereas dust means you just whack something with the correctly colored crystal until it works and just like that you have robot armies. It offends me on a fundamental level."
Sighing, Sarah shakes her head. "Let's just get going, you big goof. Goofy Gabe."
"Hey, I resent that," you bump her shoulder as the both of you move towards the appointed room. "And I totally will take revenge by covering you in kisses you from top to bottom until you're too bothered to say anything."
"That's what I'm counting on, Big Gabey, but let's get going already. Time's a-wasting and I haven't eaten any nazi thugs in months now."