Chapter 6

Roman Torchwick tapped on his glass of brandy, watching the latest news as he rested against a chiar from his latest heist, with Lisa Lavender once again reporting on the story.

"...In Vale City, Roman Torchwick has managed to strike From Dust Till Dawn once again, this time succeeding from noone appearing to interfere with his heist and doing so while the VCPD was distracted with a shootout between the police force and the Faunus supremacist movement known as the Menagerie Furies. The Furies are an organization that, while operating with a agenda to that of the White Fang, officially has no ties or known allegiances to the older Faunus Revolution-era, though most consider it to simply be a more extreme version of it, as their activities often more centered around actively murdering Humans along the east shoreline of Vale in disturbing fashions.

"An example of this can be seen when Sienna Khan herself led a bank heist in Atlas to steal some several hundred Lien reserved for the Schnee Dust Company, with this special clip of footage being captured by a tellers' body-cam."

Roman raised an eyebrow as he saw the leader of the White Fang along with several other White Fang members armed with various weapons firing off her firearm to get the attention of everyone in the lobby while the guards were beaten down and put in cuffs by her subordinates. The Tiger Faunus' face was obscured by a full mask, but her ears were unmistakable along with the stripes lining her arms and legs.

"Everyone get on the ground, we are the White Fang, here to collect what overdue for the families of Faunus workers that died working for the SDC! For everyone that is thinking of being a hero, don't. As you can see, we have already disabled the security systems and guards." she announced, watching as everyone did as she demanded while the video clip shrank to reveal Lavender commenting on it.

"Sienna would then go on to have all the hostages released while she made a quick get away, where they were all confirmed to have been unharmed. The Furies, while this was ongoing, were engaged with attacking the 8th Precinct Vale City Police station, which was yesterday being investigated of corruption charges including but not limited to accepting bribes for ignoring cases brought to them regarding an employee of Gaean Industries, one Adrian Newell, full name Adrian Cobalt Newell. Adrian is the Head of Fiances for Gaean Industries' operations in Vale, and had been taken into custody by 8th Precinct a week before on unrelated charges when the station was attacked by three Faunus women that were confirmed to be members of the Furies, but were later found dead, all shot at least twice with silver ammunition, once in the chest across the heart, once in the head.

"What surprisingly little video graphical evidence being processed by the Vale Security Bureau has led to them issuing a preliminary statement that they appeared to have been specifically targeting Adrian, who has since disappeared, and his Gaean Industries issued Scroll was also found to have been destroyed. The VSB has since taken over custody of investigating the Head of Fiances regarding why the Menagerie Furies were after him." as the news story continued on, he heard a knocking sound at the door to the room he was in.

"Huh, somebody was looking after that suit. Man got attacked by three of the vicious bitches on Remnant, and scrambled out of there." Roman remarked to himself, taking a drink when he heard a knock at the door to his room. The knock was then followed by four quick taps, and then two deeper, slower paced ones.

"Ah, just a minute!" he called out to the person who knocked, and got up from his seat. Upon opening it, he looked down. He then smiled lightly at who he saw, specifically a short woman who had dyed her hair in pink, white, and brown much in the manner of neopolitan ice cream, the iries of her eyes were also different colors, with the left being pink, and brown for the right. At the moment, she was also dressed in a light cream brown felt jacket, with darker trim along the edges of it, underwhich she wore a silk shirt and skirt.

"Hello, been awhile hasn't it Neo?" he said. The woman smiled back, then began gesturing in Inter-Kingdom Sign Language.

(How has the latest job?) she asked, to which Roman responded in kind.

(Good, though the client is getting insistent on making sure I take all the Dust I can get our hands on. I'm not sure what for, but asking questions isn't what we get paid to do.) he answered, then gestured to allow Neo in. The petite woman laid down onto his couch, then noticed the TV.

(What have I missed?)

(Apparently Gaean Industries is having problems of their own. The Menagerie Furies have tried to attack some suit by the name of Adrian Cobalt Newell, who also was apparently caught with his hand in the company's cookie jar.) Roman summarized for Neo, who let out a airy laugh. While she was mute, that didn't stop her from making some vocalisations like the wheezing sounds that now escaped her lungs, albeit faintly.

(That pencil pusher ain't got long to live for unless he is willing to risk VSB Witness Protection.)

(No, dear Neo, no he is not... want to watch a movie?) Roman replied, to which she nodded enthusiastically as they began to look through what was available. After looking around on a streaming service, Neo tapped Roman on the shoulder, pointing at one in particular. Torchwick, when he looked at the title, became flustered as he read further.

"Uh, that's a rom-com, you sure you..." he began, voice trailing off as he saw Neapolitan nodding madly. "...alright then." he says, pressing play and letting Neopolitan drape her legs across his lap as he sits back down on the couch. Around halfway through the movie, Roman heard his Scroll vibrating on the table, making both him and Neo tense up. As he looked over at it, he saw that it was the contact that that one woman Cinder... 'persuaded' him to keep for any future tasks she had for him.

"Oh for the love of..." he mumbled, then sighed as he paused the movie, making Neo glare at his Scroll as he answered it.

"What now?" the man snapped, to which Cinder could be heard chuckling.

"Oh, was I interrupting something?" she responded haughtily, making Neo frown, then signed to Torchwick.

(This your boss?) she asked, pointing at the Scroll with a clearly pissed off expression.

(Unfortunately.) Roman replied even as he said, "As a matter of fact, yes. Is there a reason you called?"

"Yes, it actually relates to one Adrian Cobalt Newell... or rather his work within Gaean Industries." the woman answered.

"Ok... go on." Roman said after taking a moment to process where this was going, while Neopolitan stared at him mouth agape, then shaking her head.

"Before I do, let me clarify that I am willing to let your snooping girlfriend come along, since her talents would be useful for this assignment." Cinder informed Roman, making both him and Neo pause and look at each other. Torchwick then got up on his two feet and looked out a window across the street to see Cinder Fall herself sitting on the rooftop of the apartment complex across the one he and his partner in crime Neopolitan were hiding in.

"Damn..." he muttered under his breath.

"Please... language. Did you really think you could sneak away from me that easily?" the dark-haired woman taunted, as Neopolitan got a look and saw Cinder for herself.

"...Fine, I'll do it, but you keep Neo out of this." Torchwick replied, resigned to accepting the job, but visibly and audibly attempting some manner of defiance while Neo stared with a frustrated look, and began signing.

(Why is this bitch here trying to order both of us around to poke Gaean Industries, and what does she plan on doing with all the nonsense she has been throwing you into?) she asked.

(I don't know, but she isn't from the SDC, that's for sure. I think she's some agent of one of the Black Eagle Mercenary Warbands trying to keep up demand for their services. The Corporate War was a profitable time for them, so they probably want to sell back the shit I having been stealing under her orders back to Gaean and the Schnees.) Torchwick answered. Cinder's laughter brought both of their attention to her.

"I am afraid that is not something I will be doing. I need someone who can function as a master of disguise, and quite frankly my... second choice isn't arriving for another week or so. If you think you have a choice in the matter, remember that I know where this safehouse is... I am sure the VSB would love to know more of the other ones you have set up are." the threat was enough to make Roman tense up, and he looked to see Neo was worried, before she looked at Roman.

(What do we do? She can't know where all of them are... right?) Neo asked. Roman looked back and forth, before he mouthed sorry to her.

"...fine." he answered. "So what is the job?"

"Good. now then, as for the assignment , it's not so much Mr. Newell himself I am interested in, but the little secrets he no doubt was in charge of moving around for Gaean Industries that has my interest. As the Head of Finances for the Vale branch of Gaean, that means he had access to almost all of the companies' monetary assets as far as banking is concerned, and I have it on good authority that there's some conflict between Gaean Industries and the Vale Security Bureau."

"What kind of conflict?" Torchwick asked.

"Simply put, the VSB has locked Adrians' bank accounts off for them so they can start tracking what project of Gaean Industries he was stealing their Lien from, but the accounts have cryptic names to them, so they went and asked to see what the company has been doing within their borders..." Cinder said, letting Roman process her words.

"...let me guess, they tried to demand the VSB hand over their money without revealing what they have been using it for."

"Correct."

"Which would mean you're interested in figuring out what kind of dirty secrets Gaean has now accidentally tipped off the existence of to the VSB." Roman continued replying, already guessing where this was going.

"Absolutely, plus I already have a few ideas for what they want to hide... ideas that will be of greater benefit to my plans in the long-term. Of course, once I learn of what they're hiding, I will pay you handsomely for your assistance as well as allow you to decide what to do with your newly acquired information on Gaean Industries." Cinder explained.

"What's the catch for this mission?"

"Simply put... you and Neopolitan aren't the only ones I am sending, and with this particular group you'll have to play nice with them because you're going to be working with a cell of the White Fang... led by one Adam Taurus."

"Uuraggh, what's going on with this thing?!" Weiss mumbled, tapping at her Scroll, while the rest of Team RWBY were eating breakfast. Blake was the first to comment on it.

"Weiss, is there any reason why you have been obsessed with your Scroll? You have been having a fit with it ever since waking up and finding you hadn't turned it off." she mentioned to her.

"Yeah, it can't really be that important." Yang added.

"I know what it looks like with the rich girl fussing over her Scroll, but I actually do need it, my geometry and physics notes were all on it, but it isn't changing from this screensaver!" Weiss whinged, showing her Scroll was indeed stuck on a particular screen.

"Well, that sucks I guess..." Blake replied.

"Um... is it alright if I help with that?" someone asked, and the entirety of Team RWBY turned to see it was Ted from Team STEL.

"How exactly do you plan on doing that?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That is an Atlasian Model-11 isn't it? I can take the battery if you brought the toolkit that comes with it." Ted replied, rubbing at the back of his head. Weiss stared blankly, to which Ruby spoke up.

"...the little metal thingies that are in the box the Scroll comes in?"

"...those had a purpose?" Weiss asked sheepishly, which made Blake facepalm while Yang covered her mouth trying not to burst out laughing. Ted sucked in a cheek, then sighed.

"Yeah... they did, they're mainly for getting the Scroll to pop open the memory card, or resetting the screen." he explained. Weiss held both of her hands to her face.

"Ooohh, this ssuuucks." she moaned into her palms.

"Can I see it regardless?" Ted asked, to which Weiss handed her Scroll without looking.

"Hmm... ah, a Lumina G-7, you're in luck!" Ted exclaimed, to which all the women of Team RWBY lucked over at him, then saw him setting down Weiss Scroll to take his own.

"I have a screwdriver that can separate the case entirely, and from there I pull out the battery. Plus, my own Scroll tools could fit into the slots for it, I use the same kind... give me a moment, there." he spake, pulling out his own Scroll to show it was indeed the type Weiss had.

"Really?!" she exclaimed loudly in hopeful excitement, then cleared her throat as she saw a number of people look over at her in confusion.

"...yeah." Ted mumbled, as he then looked over at it.

"So how long has it been like this?" he asked.

"Uh, since at least 9:12 last night. That was when I went to sleep in the team dormitory." Weiss replied, to which Ted's eyes widened, before he began sniffing the edges of her Scroll.

"What are you doing?" Yang asked.

"Making sure I can't smell any battery acid or static electricity." the boy from Team STEL said without elaboration, when he scrunched his nose. He then tapped a part of the Scroll while handing it to Weiss, saying, "Here, smell this."

"Ugh! What is that?!" Weiss exclaimed after she sniffed it, then pinched her nose.

"That is the smell of your Scroll partly leaking acid out of the battery, and onto a part of the wiring and semi-conductors of the Scrolls' internal structure, likely why the screen display was still on as well if I had to guess. Bad news, you may as well get a new Scroll, a replacement will be cheaper then fixing a Lumina damaged by its own battery acid."

"Damn it! Is there any good news at least?"

"Yes, actually. The good news is that the memory card is up here, which means it should be recoverable." Weiss perked up at Ted telling her that her work was partially salvageable. Ted then pulled out a small case, which had a set of small metal pins and other mechanical devices that could easily fit into a finger and thumb.

"May I sit down?" he asked, to which Weiss and Ruby moved aside to give Ted space to work.

"So, uh, how do you know about the thing about the battery, and why would they use acid for it?" Weiss asked, watching as he got to work.

"It involves a bit of chemistry, but essentially acidic substances are typically a better conductor of electricity, but as you've experienced, it can lead to internal problems."

"...So Ted, why did the people who made Weiss' Scroll not just stick a thing of Electric Dust inside the battery then?" Yang asked, when Weiss' Scroll popped open sideways, and Ted pulled the screen away to reveal where the circuitry had been stowed inside it. The RWBY Cadets whinced as they saw an entire portion of one side was discolored, which began at a small silver box structure that had a hole in its seam.

"They did actually. The Electric Dust stores the primary charge of the battery, with the acid acting as a medium to transfer it. Here, let me get this bit out of the way, and I will show you." Ted responds, focusing on extracting a small chip, then inspecting it with a magnifying glass.

"Well?" Weiss asked.

"...looks good. Like I guessed, the acid hadn't gotten close enough to your memory card to start eating away at it."

"Why would Lumina make the batteries of their Scrolls so easily melted by their own battery acid?" Blake asked, examining the corroded circuits of Weiss' Scroll.

"Every Scroll manufacturer does it, that feature is actually a failsafe in case the Electric Dust built into the battery starts having issues turning off, which I suspect was why Weiss' Scroll began malfunctioning the way it did, as it began to essentially continuous release its eletric charge into the acid, making it dangerously hot. If the battery hadn't leaked out its contents, what would've happened is that the acid would eventually been heated to the point of boiling, then past that..." Ted explained, gesturing to the ruptured battery and dead circuitry. "...pop, the Scroll would then explode, not only sending pieces of it flying, but also splattering boiling acid onto everything nearby, not fun." was the explaination Ted gave, as he took a couple of pliers, and slowly pried open the battery case to show the still faintly glowing chip of Electric Dust that was put into it. Holding down the Scroll like a dissected animal with a professional expertise, he turned the now useless device around so Team RWBY could get a better look at it.

"As you can see here, the Electric Dust is unharmed by the acid, and thus is also still useful. I could also salvage the camera it looks like, along with the screen if I had a workshop to further disassemble it. As the Dust was still emitting electricity, it effectively kept everything that needed power in a perpetually powered up state, even with it being eated by its own battery acid from the inside out." he spoke with a clearly knowledgeable tone, waving his pliers around the different parts of the Scroll as he explained how it was malfunctioning.

"What would the advantage be in having a battery like that, compared to one without the Dust?" Yang asked.

"Besides the longer charge time, ED batteries are smaller, allowing for the more high-end Scrolls that incorporate them to have a lot more space internally to use like more robust camera systems and higher-quality data processors for things like file storage and memory space. Speaking of which..." Ted pulled out a plastic bag, and dropped the memory card into it before handing it to Weiss.

"Oh, uh, thank you... so I guess I am going to have to get a new Scroll." she mumbled as she put it away in her case for Myrtenaster.

"So you were into mechanics and electricity?" Ruby asked, awed by Ted, making him blush and look away.

"Uh... yeah, as a Me... middle-class child born in the Silicon Cliffs of Mistral City, I didn't get to go outside often, despite being well to do economically my father had to struggle raising me on his own, which meant having to help him with the eletronics store we lived in." he answered, looking around as he sees the members of Team RWBY staring at him. Blake in particular narrowed her eyes, though this went unnoticed by everyone else.

"On that note, why did you become a Huntsman?" she asked. Ted stiffened up, and looked up at Blake to see her staring at him, clearly evaluating his reaction and his next words carefully. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang observed her posture, as she kept both hands under her chin as she laid her elbows on the table.

"I... well, I wanted to do something other than spend my life stuck in a room doing salvage work. It also was something I hoped would allow me to explore the Kingdoms." he answered, and then a crying out from someone drew everyone's attention see Velvet surrounded by Team CRDL, with Cardin pulling on one of her ears.

"Ow! Stop!" she cried out, as Russel and Dove jeered on. While each of the members of Team RWBY were visibly agitated, Blake outright glared ar CRDL, something noticed by Ted as he simply looked around with uncertainty about what to do.

"Hey, get your hands off her!" another female student yelled, and the group turned to see none other then the Captain of Team CFVY, Coco Adel. As much an aspiring fashion designer as she was Huntsman Cadet, she stood out from her fellow Beacon students in wearing a modified version of the female Beacon student uniform, with the brown jacket turned into a low cut vest which complimented the creme colored long-sleeve shirt she was wearing with black and gold trim lines. The skirt was kept to its standard length, but was worn over a pair of denim jeans that had a swirling design made out of light brown felt.

Cocos' eyes were hidden behind a pair of aviators, but her scowl and furrowed brow displayed her expression clearly enough. After a moment of her and Cardin staring off at each other, he released Velvet, who walked away to Coco with her head held down.

"Freak." Russel could be heard saying, which made Team RWBY and Ted cringe in various manners.

"Jeez, what absolute tools." Ruby muttered.

"Must be hard, being a Faunus." Yang agreed. After taking a moment to check Weiss' dismantled Scroll and wipe up any still active acid with a cloth, Ted growled softly and got up from his seat. The Huntsmen Cadets all looked at him as he spoke.

"Well, I am going to go dispose of this. If any of you need me to do anything else with your Scrolls, let me know." he said, then left the table to walk over to Stanton and Eleanor, who were both speaking with Coco and Velvet.

Blake scowled deeply as she watched Team CRDL walk off, then jumped when a waved in her face.

"Remnant to Blake, come in girl." she heard Yang saying, causing her to turn and look at her teammate.

"What is it?" the black-and-white clad Cadet asked.

"I was asking if you were alright, you looked like you really wanted to shoot Cardin and his goons." Yang replied. Blake sighed.

"The temptation is pretty attractive, I will admit... I'm just going to go to the library for some stuff." Blake replied, and got up to leave. She then proceeded to walk away to have some peace and quiet.

Mistral/White_Fang/Gaean_Industries she typed, allowing her Scroll to search up news stories related to all three terms she put together that would bypass any censorship blocks put up for whatever reason one could conceive of.

Immediately, she found a number of news articles that were coming up, which she began looking through. They were mainly reports of various clashes between the White Fang and Gaean Industries before the Iron Curfew was declared, particularly notable in that the mega-corporation was reportedly more violent in its responses to White Fang raids then its main rival the SDC was.

Blake scowled, but then she saw a particular article that was flagged Gaean Industries Security Measures: Disarmament Articles compliant, necessary evil for safety, or accidentally exposed rearmament conspiracy?

Seeing that the story was around seven months old, she decided to read it nonetheless to see what it was covering;

After the latest White Fang attack on a Dust Cargo Train went south, Gaean Industries spokesman Elliott Thronson has gone on record to address claims that the ambush was fought off due to them attacking a so called 'Q-Train', essentially an armored military train disguised as a civilian vessel sent ahead to lure suspected ambush parties on route into prematurely attacking it, turning their own trap against them with a quick and decisive response by whatever defensive response it is made to reply. This, of course, is inspired by the naval and aerial warfare concept of a Q-ship, which was the same thing but using merchant ships.

For those that are not familiar with military history, this was officially recognized by the Four Kingdoms as an international warcrime, as said tactic was infamously used by the Mistral Blue Water Admiralty during the Great War to take and weaponize not only merchant vessels, but also several hospital ships to attack strategic targets alongside the coast of Vale, and afterwards prompting the Vale Blue Navy to enact a policy of firing on civilian ships that were spotted and confirmed to belong to either Mistral or their allies from Atlas, as taking the time to confirm whether or not it was a Q-ship or not was often deemed too much of a risk, especially when found close to nearby Valen civilian or military naval centers, and would almost certainly require boarding the ship in question, which could also be loaded with explosives for the purpose of self-destruction to damage or destroy the boarding crew and ship.

As a result, in the Conventions of Patch, where an officially agreed of laws and edicts concerning warfare was put into place was Clause 13: 'no military vehicle of any type shall be disguised as a civilian design, nor shall a civilian one be repurposed such as to be used to wage war.' As further detailed analysis would dictate as seen in substation C-6, this extends to all non-militarized trains, and thus if proven true means that Gaean Industries has been deploying military train cars without any oversight from the Mistral Senate, and would be in direct violation of the Conventions of Patch.

Currently to this date, there have been seven reports circulating Scroll-Net, claiming similar such incidents of Gaean Industries' properties being attacked by various White Fang cells, only for them to be repelled by questionable means. If true, this of course means that Gaean Industries is operating with flagrant disregard of their demilitarization as set upon by the Articles of Corporation Disarmament signed by both Jacque Schnee and Ira Bloodstoe. More information shall be given as further updates are made.

Blake raised an eyebrow, as the story was around seven months old, yet she had never seen it before. After doing a quick check on the name of the journalist who posted it, a Flax Thomason, a Human male of unremarkable appearance, whose bio was... interesting to say the least.

Flax Thomason graduated with full honors at the Mistral City College of Education, Majoring in Journalism, Social Studies, and with a Minor in Psychology. Spending 7 years particularly well-renown for his coverage of many issues that were affecting Mistral, his works include the following:

[List of works redacted for evaluating for false or misleading misinformation]

"What?" Blake muttered under her breath, then typed up Flax's name in the search bar. The first result was all she needed to see.

'Beowulf Men' Conspiracy Theorist Journalist brought to court over falsified video recording, sentenced to seven years community service and stripped of his licence.

Beowulf Men? she thought, and continued to scroll throught, where she saw another story that made a knot form in her stomach.

"Class is in fifteen minutes, just makin' sure you were aware and not too stuck in your nose reading anything." Yang said.

Blake looked at the headline, frowning at the image of a car that had been slammed into the railing of a bridge, taken from behind. As she looked at it, she heard someone approaching her, and subtly reached for the power button on her Scroll, and palmed the thumb drive as she made a practiced removal of it to hide the fact she had it to begin with. She could tell by scent who it was before they even opened her mouth, but she pretended not to notice until they spoke.

"Class is in fifteen minutes, just makin' sure you were aware and not too stuck in your nose reading anything." Yang said.

"Oh, uh, thank you." Blake replied.

"Especially if it was... ah was that manga I caught you reading, Shinobi of Passion?"

"Wha- ho- It's Ninjas of Love!" she exclaimed, then covered her mouth as Yang burst out with a loud cackling as she walked away. She blushed furiously in embarrassment.

Author's Note: going to end this chapter here. I was originally going to throw the Forever Fall episodes in this as well, but FFN scuffed the save file, and I had rewrite part of what was already written. So, this is what y'all are getting today.