The new Tuesday story "Xia" joins the rotation, and I probably should have said in that story that it won't be Xianxia but specifically Wuxia. Oops. I'll get around pto that on its next update.

Cover Art: Mystery White Flame

Chapter 6

"Roman Torchwick is a fraud and a loser."

He sat back in his seat, rubbed his chin with one hand and finally hit the "post" button, watching as the new thread took to life. It didn't take long before it had several replies, bumped to the top of the board. They were less than kind.

"Get off, loser. Torchwick sent those idiots running."

"How can you call him a fraud when he hit the docks like that and got away? Made everyone look like fools, too."

"I bet it's one of those huntresses that got creamed who is posting on a sock account."

"Stay mad. QQ. Roman 4 life."

The replies kept coming, and Roman Torchwick laughed merrily as he watched his fanclub come to his defence – and against his own comment, no less. Ah, there was nothing quite like dipping some chum in the water to stir things up. It did his ego wonders as well to know that he had such rabid fans.

Now if only he could count Neo among them. His quasi-adopted daughter was still sniffling and glaring impotently at his back like it was his fault she wasn't a good swimmer. Really, he'd told her to abandon ship. What more did she want? She'd even refused to take any of his wonderful medical cocktail and kept threatening to stab him if he tried. How very ungrateful of her. Worse yet, she considered his baiting of his own fans online to be...

Cringe...

Roman shuddered. He wasn't cringe; the world was cringe; he was incredible. Roman swept away from the computer and sat on the couch with Neo, snatched the remote and turned over from the god-awful music channel she'd been on. Her glare didn't do much when she sneezed moments later. With a pat atop her head, he quickly navigated to the local news, while Neo made an unhappy exhale of air and kicked at his feet.

"Keeping up with the news is important, Neo."

Another kick and a set of crossed arms.

"—and Roman Torchwick remains at large, taunting authorities and Beacon alike. In a comment, Headmaster Ozpin has expressed disappointment in his students for the damage caused at the docks but stresses that it was primarily the White Fang who opened fire first, placing everyone and themselves in great danger."

"Bloody fanatics," said Roman. "Look at this! They're tainting my name by association!"

Neo rolled her eyes. They'd already seen news reports like this for the last three days and nothing had changed. At least not in her mind. Alas, Neo had such a low attention span that she couldn't appreciate the simple pleasures of watching people talk about his august self over and over. Roman was much more patient and could – and had, in fact – been watching his own news reports on repeat ever since the docks.

"Viewers will know that our very own Lisa Lavender had an adventurous encounter with the master thief, and it seems like the online world has decided to run even further with that, Janet."

"They sure have, Pierce. Rumours of a secret relationship have been flying around online, and our poor colleague hasn't gotten a moment's rest. We are required to say that Lisa Lavender and Roman Torchwick are NOT in a relationship, however."

"The lawyers would have our heads otherwise!" joked the other presenter.

"But I have to say, Pierce, if a man like that swept me off my feet and carried me to safety then I might swoon a little."

"Ha. Funny joke, Janet. I hope your husband doesn't hear you say that."

"You're my husband, Pierce."

"I sure am! Ahahahahahahaha!"

"Don't hate the player," said Roman, stretching out luxuriously. "Hate your own insecurities."

Beside him, Neo rolled her eyes.

The last few days hadn't entirely been spent self-aggrandising, however. There were other reasons to lay low. The incident at the docks had the authorities out in greater numbers than ever before, primarily for the White Fang. They'd always been cautious of him, but he had a rep for flamboyant crimes without much in the way of harmed civilians so the responses had always been in proportion. They didn't want to push him too hard so huntsmen had for the most part been left out of it. After all, the Grimm were far bigger threats than he.

Now, the rules had changed. He blamed Cinder for that, of course. Saddling him with terrorists had painted a bigger target on his back and now he was wanted for questioning in the hopes they could get through him to the bigger fish. Keeping an eye on the news served to track public sentiment about that, and about everyone else involved.

For instance, it was an absolute travesty but also a masterclass in propaganda to see that the team from Beacon were getting off with detentions at best. They'd caused the destruction of tens of millions of lien and made Vale's dust shortage ten times worse than it had been! They'd have stolen maybe two containers of dust but the rest of the SDC shipment would have gone around the city, helping to alleviate the shortages. That wasn't an option now.

The SDC had responded to assure Vale it would send more but that would take time and dust prices were rising. Not to mention there was panic buying and talks of having to ration dust in key services like hospitals to keep them running safely. All because a jumped-up teenage ex-terrorist had decided it was absolutely imperative that she get in his way.

Because, yes, he was the problem. He was the one leading the White Fang astray.

Right. Sure.

Blame the thief for corrupting the armed terrorists known for planting bombs and killing civilians. That made sense. He'd quipped that she might be unconsciously racist when she tried to take him hostage, but now he wondered if there wasn't more to it. That or a degree of rose-tinted goggles that was bordering on a disability. Really, he stole dust and broke hearts. Roughly in that order. To call him the monster at the docks was ridiculous.

Especially when those kids had killed a whole lot of faunus with their actions – not that anyone was reporting on that, or that Beacon was acknowledging it. Again, a masterclass in controlling public opinion. He genuinely did applaud it because such skill deserved to be recognised. The White Fang could have used techniques like that. Maybe their reputation wouldn't be so awful otherwise.

Roman's scroll went off.

"Hundred lien says it's the bitch," he quipped. Neo rolled her eyes and shook her head, not taking the bet. Snorting, he answered without looking at the caller ID. "Cinder. Hi."

"Roman..."

He glanced to Neo and mimed "called it".

"I can't help but notice you haven't secured me any dust in the last few days..."

"Yes. Gee. I wonder why that is. Could it be that it's because there is no dust left to steal? I mean, there was a whole fat load of dust coming into the city to refill stocks that I could have gone at, but someone lumped me with a bunch of amateurs that came with a team from Beacon trailing them, and then the entire dust supply went up in fire. Maybe you saw it. The flames were visible from across all of Vale!"

"Children, Roman. You were bested by children—"

"I was bested by combustion, Cinder. I was bested by physics. I was bested by a wall of fire reaching over three-hundred degrees, which would have burned the flesh from my bones and reduced me to ash – and, let me remind you, there was no dust left for me to bring back at that point, on account of it being a highly flammable and combustible substance."

He wasn't normally so confident with her, nor so aggressive, but this was the biggest "I told you so" that the world of Remnant had ever seen, and not even Cinder Fall could quite escape the fact. He'd warned her. He really had. Of course, he conveniently left out his part in starting the fireworks. There was no reason to give her any ammunition, was there? No one quite knew who set the dust off (other than him) and he wasn't telling. Let the White Fang take the blame. They liked that kind of attention. In fact, White Fang HQ back on their island had already claimed full responsibility, merrily piggy backing off his work like all good terrorists liked to.

Jacques Schnee could choke on a bagel and the White Fang would claim to have baked it.

"I hope you're not suggesting I am somehow at fault for this, Roman."

Neo rolled her eyes. They all knew that was what he was damn well claiming.

"What I'm claiming is that the White Fang failed everyone," he said, choosing the more diplomatic approach. "They're amateurs, Cinder. Worse, they're amateurs with a chip on their shoulder and a whole lot of baggage behind them. I'd have been better off on my own."

"Your own little adventures have seen you plastered all over the news!"

"But I've gotten away each time with what I was after."

"You lost the money on the bottom of the ocean."

"Neo lost the money..." He ducked the boot thrown at his head, then caught the second before it could hit him in the nose. "And we still acquired it in the first place. The White Fang came for containers of dust, saw the SDC logo and decided the only right thing to do was kill us all. They're liabilities."

"They're a necessary evil."

"Then can't they be necessary on your end, Cinder?"

"No. My work is too delicate."

"Dust is delicate!"

"Infiltrating Beacon is more so." Ah, so that was where she was headed. Interesting. He'd never been able to squeeze that out of her before. Cinder must have been in a far worse mood than she wanted him to know if she was letting that slip. "I'd gladly have the White Fang stay out the way, Roman, but they're going to feel unappreciated if I do that. And then they'll start causing even more trouble by acting out."

"Tch. Amateurs."

"Indeed. I have another job for you."

"The heat is a little high right now."

"You're a master thief. I'm sure you can handle it. The White Fang have come into possession of some stolen Atlas technology. A walking vehicle armed to the teeth. You are to take and hide it for us in Vale. While you're at it, try to make heads or tails of its instruction manual. I need a qualified pilot."

Oh, goodie! As if he didn't already have enough people on his ass, she wanted to throw in Atlas. Not just Atlas' law enforcement, but, by the sounds of it, their entire bloody military and R&D division as well, which probably meant their special forces and black-ops teams. All to reclaim some weapon of mass destruction the White Fang had stolen.

"Wait, they brought it here? To Vale!?"

"They did."

"How the hell did they smuggle it in?"

"They haven't. Not yet. That will be your job. Ideally, before they get it in their heads to try it themselves and end up causing a bloodbath in the streets." Cinder chuckled, saying, "I'll forward you the contact details. I expect success, Roman."

He snarled and tossed the scroll on the table. "She expects success, does she? I expect an absolute disaster." His own feet joined it, followed by Neo's. Though she had to really sink down onto the sofa to reach. "Can you imagine it, Neo? Those idiots with a powerful Atlas weapon in the middle of the city!"

Neo shuddered.

"Exactly! I'm going to have to take it off their hands just to rob them of the temptation to use it! Knowing them, they'll blow a hole in Vale's walls and then we'll have Grimm to deal with as well. As if life isn't hard enough!" He slapped a hand into his face. "Idiots! And I don't know if I mean the White Fang or Atlas. How did Atlas lose something to them? They're unorganised rabble! Don't tell me they were just transporting it on a train or something."

Neo made a few gestures that Roman vaguely understood meant she was cursing the stupidity of someone. It was normally him, but this time they'd found a convenient common ground in those dumb animals.

No. That was unfair.

Even domesticated animals were smarter than the White Fang.

"And if it's not me piloting the damn thing, who will it be?" he asked out loud. "Some psyched-up terrorist, no doubt. It'll still be our good names associated with them! If those idiots use Atlas tech to blow up a school, we'll be the ones blamed."

Neo pointed to herself.

"You...?"

One eyebrow rose.

"Well, no, I do trust you to show more restraint," he said. "It's just..."

Her other rose to join it.

"I'm just not sure if your feet will reach the pedals," he admitted. "And we don't need another incident of you driving a vehicle into the ocean. Less so if it's a weapon of mass destruction."

Neo gripped one of the sofa's cushions between both hands and proceeded to work on beating him to death with it. The process wasn't entirely successful, but it did provide a wonderful distraction as he disarmed and then tickled her into submission.

It was the simple things in life.

/-/

Neo didn't always agree with Roman, not with how flamboyant and egotistical he could be, but whenever she did 100% agree with him, it was usually an unhappy time. It meant that Roman had become serious, and that meant the situation was exceptionally delicate. For all that he could be a royal pain in her behind, she still preferred that to situations like this.

Where they were stuck helping dumb terrorists smuggle a superweapon into a population centre.

Honestly, Cinder needed to die.

Fast.

Neo would have taken a crack at that herself if she could be sure of the woman's strength, but Cinder was cunning and kept Emerald and Mercury around her – and something about those two had both her and Roman feeling paranoid. They weren't all that good individually. Roman had tested that out himself when he pickpocketed them, hiding the subtle test as a joke. They hadn't noticed. And yet Emerald and Mercury remained important and at Cinder's side, which practically screamed that they had value in some way, potentially as bodyguards.

Roman suspected they had powerful Semblances, and Neo happened to agree.

"You," grumbled Roman. He didn't like being outside the walls. That was where the Grimm were. Both he and Neo could, and had, fought Grimm before, but that didn't mean either of them enjoyed it. "What's your name?"

"I'm Perry!" the bespectacled nerd looked more like a "Melvin" to Neo. "A—And can I say what an honour it is to be working with you."

Oh no.

He was worse than a nerd.

He was a fan.

"Really?" Roman perked up. "Well, at least there's someone out here with some common sense. Stick close, Perry. You might just learn something today." He walked past the young man and toward a large, conspicuous looking truck.

Which was conspicuous by fact of being parked in a stupid forest.

"Bloody hell, this thing is big." Roman sighed. "And I don't suppose it can be pulled apart, transported in bit by bit and then put back together again after, can it?"

"Um. It probably could," said Perry, "but then we wouldn't know how to put it back together again. We only stole it. We don't understand how it's been built. We could try, sir," he added, supportively. "I guess we could pull it apart and make notes of—"

"No, no, no. Listen, Perry. The first rule here is that the White Fang can't be trusted with any delicate work."

The young man's eyes widened behind his mask. "B—But I'm with the White Fang."

"Exactly! And who was brought in to take over, hm? Me. What does that tell you about how much faith those in control have over anything you guys do?"

"That it isn't much..." The idiot faunus seemed to shrink several inches. Neo scoffed silently.

"Precisely. So, be a good lad and listen to my instructions. Then you all might just manage to get this thing into the city without causing a bloodbath as you do it. Speaking of, where are the keys to the thing? I mean the robot, not the truck."

"Oh, they're in its ignition."

Roman stared at the faunus.

Neo slapped a hand against her own face.

Perry wilted. "Was that a bad idea? We thought it'd make it a quicker response if we needed to use it. Someone could just hop in and power the suit up."

Neo imagined it right then and there. The truck being pulled over by police, and then the back end of it exploding as a huge robot climbed out and began laying waste to people, casually tripping over as it did due to a lack of a good pilot and accidentally firing a missile that arched up to strike a tall building, bringing it down with thousands of people inside.

Judging from Roman's shudder, he had a similar image.

"No. Just no. Absolutely not. Our response if we're stopped by the police will be to lie convincingly and present fake ID. Our response if we are challenged on that will be to incapacitate them. Non-lethally. Do you know why it's a bad idea to use this big robot?"

"Because we don't know how to pilot it?"

"That's one reason, kiddo, but the main reason is that using it announces to the world that we have it. And by world, I mean Atlas. Because keep in mind this is but one prototype, and while you may not know how to build more, they sure as hell do – so show this bad boy even once and you can guarantee the next time you do, five copies of it will be air-dropped down to destroy it and anyone inside it!"

Perry wilted. "Oh. That makes sense..."

"Glad to hear it." Roman pinched the bridge of his nose. "Who else is here?"

"There's our driver, Banesaw."

"Excuse me?"

"Banesaw. He's... Well, I don't think that's his real name but it's what he calls himself."

"Deep breaths," Roman muttered to himself. "Deep breaths, Roman. And can this... gentleman be trusted to be discrete? Subtle?"

"Um." Perry pointed.

And Roman turned.

The man that had come up behind him was seven feet if nothing, with huge, corded muscle and a body littered with scars up and down his tree-trunk arms. His face snarled out from beneath a White Fang mask and he had a chainsaw hanging from one hand.

"Banesaw, I presume?" Roman's voice was that annoying mix of polite and mocking that so often got him in trouble. "Yes, Perry and I were just talking about you – and, specifically, how you'll be entering the city in a different vehicle far away from ours."

"No." The big man grunted. "Taurus' orders that I'm to stay with it at all times."

Taurus? That must have been their leader, under Cinder, perhaps serving in the same way she and Roman were forced to. Neo glanced around and couldn't see anyone else, so he – or she – must have left them.

"You're too bloody obvious to ride with us," groaned Roman. "You- No. You know what, you can ride with us, but you're riding in the back of the truck. If your boss wants you close to the machine, you can make love to the damn thing while Perry and I try to make this look like anything other than a poorly managed smuggling operation."

Thankfully, the brutish faunus let it go. "Okay."

Neo watched him go, eyes narrowed. While she was confident Roman could have beaten him, that didn't mean they wanted a fight. Things were bad enough already and this would just be more reason for Cinder to have a go at them.

"What about her, sir?" asked Perry, pointing to Neo. "Isn't she a little distinctive?"

"Hmhmhm. Not to worry. Neo has a very special trick up her sleeve."

Neo preened and began weaving her Semblance.

"—it's called being too short to be seen through the window."

Howling with silent rage Neo leapt up and smacked Roman in the back of the head, making it clear that short or not she could still reach him if she really wanted to! The bastard chuckled and affectionately rubbed her hair, not even noticing that she'd turned it brown and altered her appearance. Perry did, but he wasn't the one she'd been looking to impress.

Not that she cared about Roman's stupid opinion or anything.

/-/

It was a sin, in Roman's humble opinion, to have to wear a wig and hide his distinctive hair. He'd even gone so far as to dust his face up with charcoal to look older and dirtier, and all around uglier. The sacrifices he had to make. If his fans saw him now... well, they wouldn't recognise him so he supposed it wasn't all bad.

Perry, not wearing a mask and feeling very naked without it, drove the truck toward the checkpoint with tense hands, wide eyes and a pale face.

"Do try to look a little less suspicious," Roman said.

The faunus clutched the wheel tighter and began to hyperventilate.

Wonderful...

Roman wheeled the window down as an officer approached.

"Morning, sir!" said Roman, leaning an arm out the window cheerily. "You're looking a little cold out."

"It's a cold day," grumbled the man, wearing a thick and heavy coat. "What do you have here?"

"Machinery for factory work. The boss has invested in a new line since the old one is ten years out of date." Roman handed over the forged documents. "About time in my opinion, but then I'm just the poor bastard who has to operate the old machinery while the boss sits in his mansion feeling sorry for himself."

"Isn't that how it always is. Why bring this in by road? I'd have thought sea or air would be better."

"Well, we was meant to be coming in by sea fright but then your docks up and went on fire." Roman laughed, and the officer chuckled along with him. Perry whimpered from the driver's seat, while Neo, wedged between the both of them, rolled her eyes.

"Who's that?" asked the officer. "Your driver looks a little peaky."

"He saw a Grimm on the way here. First he's ever seen. Spooked him right good." Roman kicked the panicky faunus' leg. "Isn't that right, Perry?"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" howled the faunus.

"Whoah. Whoah. Calm down." Even the officer looked alarmed. "I'll radio the sighting in. See if we can't get a huntsman dispatched out to take a look. Where did you say this was?"

"About two miles back that way." Roman jerked a thumb down the road. "It didn't make a pass at us, but it could have. By the by, I heard that Roman Torchwick was responsible for the damage to the docks. Got any juicy gossip about that?"

Neo pinched his side angrily.

"Ah well, not legally allowed to comment..."

"Ah, come on." Roman leaned out the window. "I know you guys love your gossip."

"Ha. Well, you're not wrong on him being involved but what little has been seen so far is suggesting a little more than that. There were White Fang bodies found among the wreckage."

Perry whimpered.

Roman whistled. "Really now? What were they doing there, I wonder."

"Hard to say, but I heard the aircraft they used had been cut in half by some laser weapon. They're saying it was Torchwick's doing, but that sounds fishy to me. I personally reckon the White Fang were smuggling in some weapon by sea. Got caught in the crossfire between Torchwick and some huntresses, then fired it. Set the whole docks off."

"Damn. Sounds crazy. I'm kinda glad we didn't have our delivery come a few days early, then!"

"You lucked out to miss it." The officer had already forgotten it was his job to check the cargo, and handed the paperwork back, slapping the cab door. "You can head on in, then. It's just the two of you?"

Neo held her arms out wide in anger.

"Yep. Just Perry and I."

Poor Neo. It wasn't that she was actually that short. Rather, the officer was on the ground and their cabin was raised up, so the man couldn't see her over the much higher lip of the window. Not that he was going to tell her that. Roman pushed her head down, squashing her into the footrest as she scowled at him.

He had to slap Perry around the back of the head to get him driving. The faunus was about ready to scream a battle cry and pull arms, just out of panic. Little wonder Cinder needed him for this. Roman sighed as the truck pulled into the city, and wished this were it over and done with. Now he had to somehow keep this big-ass murder machine safe in the city and stop the White Fang getting any funny ideas as to what they could do with it.

Because, yet again, it was going to be his name tarnished if it got loose.

And he'd just started rebuilding his brand, too.

Next Chapter: 30th January

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