A/N: EDIT: Not much feedback for this one...ah well...we tried...T_T
Dylan helped immeasurably with this; without him this chapter wouldn't be possible.
We're back~! Holidays may be doing my head in, but the lads are helping out as we try to get things back on track.
Arcane is living rent free in my head right now, the holidays have screwed up my update schedule so BADLY -Black Friday was wild- but this story won out; because it was already half-written out and the next arc for Foxfire needs more time to cook.
I'll do my best to crank that one out earlier in the week if possible.
I have a ton of updates lined up, just need time to polish them up. Have faith. For instance! Dystopia, almost ready. Kill the Boy, nearly ready. Foxfire? Just a bit more. Long May He Reign
Case in point, I've updated SIX stories in the last three days alone. Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Today) where all double updates. I'm off tomorrow (Monday) only my SECOND day off for the first time in nearly a month, so there will be no update on that day. Additionally, no update on Christmas, though I will try for something the night before.
That said, would you prefer weekly updates to remain? Do let me know what you think in your reviews! One open slot remains!
As ever, the fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others. I own no references, quotes, memes or themes! They're all tributes to legends far greater than I. I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that. In other words...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know in the the comments~!
Once more, hopefully I captured the feeling of a proper RWBY episode from the old days.
I'll leave that to you, the reader, to determine. Do tell me what you think! It matters!
Enjoy the chapter~! Away we go~!
"You haaaaad to say it...
~Roman.
Partners in Heists
"He...respectfully declined your invitation to our little cabal. But his reasoning was sound enough to be something that wouldn't disappoint you."
Salem arched a pale brow and placed a fist against her chin as she reclined in her throne.
"Explain."
When faced with that assuredly icy tone, Watts swiftly set his scroll down atop the table and projected the beginning of a stilled image from it, one of him having a discussion with Naruto.
"My queen, please watch to the end." he implored before commencing the video. There were times when technology still baffled the woman, after all. "Only then will you come to understand him as I have."
At that, Salem scowled.
...very well. I shall refrain from judgement until then."
"...Ozpin is too obsessed with this flawed system to know how to handle an X-factor. Still, I met him and the fact is, he's proven himself to be someone who is willing to look the other way if it suits him. That mess with Winchester and how he wouldn't be investigated by police or Huntsman as long as he kept funding Beacon proved that to me."
The Watts on the recording chuckled, "Amazing what a bit of logic and common sense can help you with figuring out. An eye for an eye starts a vicious cycle that feeds off hurting someone who hurt you and then saying that since they hurt you that you're allowed to hurt them again, before turning on you and allowing the ones who hurt you again is able to harm you futher and it keeps going back and forth, again and again and again until there's nothing left. But a live and let live approach...that allows you to have those who don't want to become a problem for you in the first place have you just stay out of one another's way."
"Well, that explains a lot..." Naruto scowled.
"Pardon?" Watts asked.
"Why Ozpin needs to hold the leash of that war dog. Concept of 'live and let live' is something the Tin Soldier must hate. What's a soldier without enemies, war, and death, after all?" the blonde elaborated.
At that, the former doctor and scientist of Atlas laughed, "Oh...Oh! I see! Yes! Wonderful point! James Irornwood always was a man who was too overly self-assured of his own decisions always being the right ones! That, put together with his heavy handed approaches to things meant that even though the tinman always had a heart, he rarely listens to it, if ever!"
"Knew that would be a good way for Ironwood to get himself into trouble. You'd think a man who likes flexing his muscles that much that he doesn't care if he gets in trouble for it would remember that the heart is a muscle, too." The blonde thief rolled his eyes.
Watts laughed again, "Indeed! Hearts and minds are necessary things. James never did recall that. Personally, I blame his passive semblance giving him hyper-fixation to the point of utter tunnel vision."
"Anyways, tell that Queen of yours that, as much as I appreciate she recognizes my talents for throwing a wrench into the system, I have to say no about joining up. No offense to her, but Oz is a man too attached to the current status quo and doesn't like the fact that I'm poking holes in it. Still...he's no chameleon. Can't look both ways at once to see over both shoulders at the same time. So, as long as I'm not part of whatever faction she is, Ozzie has to be forced to turn his head to pay attention to either what I'm doing or what she's doing. He can't do both at once, so he has to be forced to choose."
At that, Watts stopped the recording. "As you can see, my lady, he's more of a chaotic neutral character in the works. Pity really, delightful fellow. And no denying that he's good with getting results. I would very much have liked to work with him further..."
Salem blinked. Ozma...being forced to choose which one to focus on?
Between her and another thorn in his side...
Oh...that was indeed entertaining!
Tyrian growled as he started to twitch and rock around in his seat, "...why that petty, self-important, little...! To deny the will of our Goddess?! The insolent...!"
"No." Salem raised a hand, her head whipping to level a glare at the scorpion Faunus. "Leave him and those in his commune be." she stated as the serial killer cowered under her gaze. "I command it."
"But my Goddess...
Steepling her fingers, the immortal woman actually allowed her own bemusement to show on her face. "Vale is being made to bleed resources such as Dust with the lack of supply from other Kingdoms over this. The Huntsman Academys are being questioned about their integrity. Ironwood is disgraced...While he may not join us, there is no denying that he is proving himself useful to us indirectly. Removing him as a factor would only hinder us. As he said, Oz is being forced to choose. We can use this to our advantage."
Callows perked up. "Of course, your grace. I spoke out of turn! Forgive me!"
"Hmm...Showing the flaws in wanting to be Huntsmen and giving Ozpin problems," Hazel mused, crossing both arms before his broad chest. "He follows his own course and has no reason to work with us at present. Even so, he could still achieve get results that help us. All we have to do is steer clear of giving him a reason to be against us. In doing so, he threatens everything Ozpin's spent lifetimes shaping and building. No more children sent to their deaths for a cause he knows has no victory. In the end, everything will come crashing down around him." the large man nodded, smirking. "I can see that being someone I might like being able to work with myself, Arthur."
Salem granted him a nod of her own and rose, "Indeed. Now, if you'll excuse me. I believe it prudent for me to tip the scales in that direction in my own ways."
None of the members of her inner circle dared questioned her one whom rallied them together as she departed the room.
In hindsight, they really should have...
(.0.0.0.)
Stepping out of a dark spiraling portal, Naruto, Glynda, Satin and Sienna all found themselves at a shipping dock owned by the Schnee Dust Company.
Naruto rubbed at Sasuke's eye in its socket, grimacing at the twinge of pain that followed. He was getting better at those portals, but they still took a toll on his chakra reserves. Not a word from the Uchiha's ghost, either. He'd been quiet these past few days. Almost worryingly so.
Still, worries or not, Mountain Glenn needed dust. And since no one would give it to them..
.
..
...well, that was the point of this little joint venture.
Lowering his hand, he looked to his companions, "So we hit the docks, take a bit of SDC dust and get away clean. Are we clear?"
"Crystal." Sienna practically purred the word as she rubbed her hands together, no doubt looking forward to embarassing the infamous Atlesian family once more.
Their alliance was working rather well in that regard, come to think of it...
Satin hummed. "Sure thing, boss. What could possibly go wrong?"
Glynda rolled her eyes. "...you've jinxed us. I hate you."
Sienna scoffed. "She did not. I've lead smaller raiding parties against the SDC with less experienced people, and those worked out successfully."
"Fair point. But must you sound so proud of that?"
"Don't start, Goodwitch. I'll admit, I was one of the first to suggest violence where violence was necessary among the Faunus, but that's because I saw firsthand that a purely pacifistic method didn't work." the young woman growled in the same way as the predatory feline whose traits she bore did as she narrowed her eyes at the Huntress, "So because of that, I won't allow humans to push the Faunus down without pushing back. That said, I know where the line is. Don't do anything that would hurt the cause. Any action that does more harm than good isn't permitted."
"I'm not disagreeing with you about how that Jacques is a horrible person who only values himself, his position, and his own profitably, or that he doesn't deserve things like this happening to him; Khan." Glynda admitted. "I merely have reservations about these... illicit activities."
"What's illicit about them?" Naruto craned his neck back. "We need dust for the Glenn, so we're taking it. The SDC has heaps more. No one's getting hurt here."
Glynda adjusted the mask concealing half her face and fiddled with her temporarily dyed hair. "I'm technically still on leave. I shouldn't be here."
A blond brow rose. "Does Ozpin know you're here?"
She winced. "Not yet...
"Then you're good. I'll help you wash the dye out when we get back. Bit of a shame though, you look good with red hair...
Green eyes locked onto him. Wait...why was she staring at him like that?
Sasuke finally dared to speak up. "You really are dense."
"Says the man obsessed with revenge...
"Shhh!" Satin hissed suddenly, her ears twitching, "Security incoming! Hide!" she said, making use of her animalistic traits; apparently rabbits could hear between the ranges of 96 and 49,000 Hertz, and they could detect the sounds from up to 1.8 miles away as she did now. They could also swivel each ear independent of each other, again, which she did so now.
Nodding quickly, his fellow blond reached into a holster at the top of her right boot and whipped out an extendable, thin, black riding crop with a simple black and purple design on the handle. As it went to it's full length, she flourished it about and lifted everyone-herself included-with her telekinesis semblance before depositing the group of four atop one of the shipping containers.
Peaking over the edge as they all pressed themselves to it army crawl style, they watched as the security that Satin had picked up on arrived.
Looking at it, Naruto was almost reminded of the puppets from Sunagakure. The thing clearly wasn't a person, but it had a humanoid shape and was a metallic dark-gray in color, with red highlights on certain parts of its body, particularly its "face" and chestplate. A retractable visor-mask covered its face. The "face" had a lower jaw but was otherwise completely blank, with a smooth, bright-red surface and no facial features.
"Atlesian Knight-130, otherwise known as the AK-130. Line of Atlesian android foot soldiers." Glynda whispered distastefully. "Ironwood was always boasting about Atlas' military achievements like these things..."
Hearing that, the Bengal tiger-based Faunus with the group nodded, not at all surprised by the fact that Atlas' now-former general was a windbag too assured of his own kingdom's ability to make war while she narrowed her amber eyes on the automaton. "I know...scrapped more than a few myself. Things are able to change their hands into revolving automatic weapons or alternatively, into large curved, wrist-mounted blades, fighting with both in a dual-wielding style, and upgraded versions of the robots have added durability by way of an arm-mounted riot shield..."
"Intruder, identify yourself." The Atlesian Knight suddenly said, spinning around.
The quartet tensed, alarmed. They'd been found out?!
But those worries ended as a shot rang out and the machine fell down, a hole in its head.
"Yeah...no." a new voice said as someone walked out of the fog, spinning a gun on their finger.
Surprisingly, it turned out to be a girl somewhere in her teens to just starting her twenties, from the looks of her.
Whomever she was, the newcomer was below average height with a slender, wiry figure that implied she was underweight or very close to it; though she had an hourglass figure with a slim waist and wider hips and shoulders. Her skin was is rather pale, with slightly sharp, sickly facial features. There were dark circles under her eyes, noticeable tear burn veins, and her lips were a dull purple. Her eyes were a pink/red violet hue.
In seeming contrast to her pale, sickly features; she had bright blue hair with a sharp side bang styled on her left. She also had a widow's peak and a few short strands of hair hanging loosely around her face. Another notable feature about her was she had tattoos on the right side of her body, depicting clouds drawn in pale blue, with darker blue outlines, and covered her arm, shoulder, and stomach on the right-hand side, although they seemed faded and scarred. Not only that, but she had a metal, prosthetic middle finger that had a smiley face drawn onto the top where her nail would have been on one hand.
Finally, her attire consisted of a dark brown leather crop top with a piece of thin off-white cloth running through four eyelets to form an X in the center of her chest. The front and back of the crop top were connected at the base with a thin belt and at the top with a circular neckline that split into a choker. She wore a pair of low-waisted, vertically striped pants in shades of purple/pink, torn unevenly at the bottom and shorter on the right side. She also wore arm warmers, one black and the other black on the upper half, while the lower half matched the pink/purple of her pants. Additionally, she had a studded belt of three individual sections: the one around her waist, the two that loop from the back to connect to the belt on the right side, and the hem of her pants on the left. She also had a pocket on her right hip for explosives and a gun holster on her left. Finally, she wore a pair of loose, worn combat boots with magenta laces and extra metal elements on the toes and heels, both silver and gold.
Her weapons looked homemade out of junkyard parts. Crude looking, but they undoubtedly worked.
"...Who the heck is that?" Naruto asked.
"Well..." Sienna smirked, seeming to realize what brought the newcomer here fastest, "seems we're not the only ones out to be a pain in Jacques Gelé Schnee's ass!"
As they watched, the girl went over to the downed robot and examined it before she nodded and dragged said mech off to another part of the docks. From there, she began taking it apart and using it as components for something.
"Voilà!" she cackled suddenly, confusing them further."One homemade chemical bomb. There's enough of this guy's literal paydirt here for one helluva chain reaction. Hope he likes fireworks...thanks for your contribution, Scrappy." she said to the remains of the Atlesian Knight once she was done building it. "Your sacrifice will be remembered!"
"What?!" Glynda's gaze widened, "She want to set off all the Dust here using a chemical bomb?! Is she insane?!"
Having seen enough, Naruto got off the container and back to the ground, as did Glynda, Sienna, and Satin.
"Oi! Hey, blue!" Naruto called to her.
The unknown girl instantly whipped out her gun and fired at them. Pulling out his weapon and activating it, Naruto blocked it, the beam of red plasma evaporated the bullet the instant it made contact.
"...As I was about to say," he hummed, waving the blade her way, "Ya mind not blowing the place up until we get what we need from here?"
At that, she turned to face them with a raised brow, then shrugged unconcerned, "Raid, eh? Whatcha want?"
"Most of the dust."
...meh, that works fine by me."
"Yeah," Naruto admitted, "so...away from the bomb?"
She shrugged and moved towards them, away from her invention at that.
"Thanks." Naruto told her once she was away from the explosive, deactivating the lightsaber he carried as she did. "We gotta get resources to shore up where we live. So, not out to kill your buzz, but we need this stuff before you light these docks up."
"Eh...no need for thanks." she twirled her pistol around her fingers and stowed it at her hip. "I'm just someone who came from the Undercity out to stick it to the pricks up top. Sometimes, you gotta steal the secret of fire from self-proclaimed gods and use it to burn them to remind them that they're mortal too. Know what I mean? Problem is, some of them are so full of it that you gotta keep burning them til they get it. And how long until they're ashes and you've just made them a martyr because they won't accept they're not untouchable?"
Sienna stared at the girl, then laughed. "Someone gets it! Oh, you, I can work with. Perfect description of the likes of the Schnee Dust Company!" she finished gleefully. "Let me guess, you're from Mantle?"
"Where I'm...? I...don't wanna talk about it..." the girl said softly, her tone hoarse and warbling in a way close to breaking.
"Getting a bit ahead of yourself, Sienna." Naruto said to the would-be White Fang leader, then turned to the new person among them. "Sorry about that, uhmm...?" he said while trying to figure out how to get her mind off of what was distressing her.
"Jinx. The name's Jinx." she said, perking up a bit, then eyed the group. "So...here to mess with this chump, too, huh?"
"Aiming to light a fire under Moneybags' ass to hide burning a hole in his pockets, eh?" Naruto snickered.
The young woman shrugged, "Mr. Tighty Whitie needs to learn that when you're so high up, you gotta fear the fall. Aiming to do just that. What can I say? You ever need to curse a sibling or a family or a society?" She sketched a shallow bow towards her bombs. "My card~!"
Naruto nodded. If that was her motive, then he could say nobody deserved a curse like that more than Jacques Schnee.
No wonder Jinx was here to make trouble for him.
That said, the group were still here to shore up on supplies they would need if that attack Arthur Watts had warned about did happen...no point in dallying.
Naruto made a cross with his fingers.
"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
At the words and a flare of his chakra, a mind-numbing number of clones of the blonde appeared, each armed and ready.
"You know what to do, fellas." Naruto instructed his duplicates.
They nodded and, pulling out sealing scrolls, started sealing the shipping containers into the hammer space within the papers.
"Neat trick." The new addition gawked.
"You don't know the half of it...
Within at least thirty minutes, the docks were fully cleared of all the dust. Then the clones vanished from the area using the transport jutsu that the group had arrived with by means of their own of the transplanted eye from Sasuke that their original possessed. Something that made the original wince, seeing as he got the feedback of the clone's exhaustion.
But as the docks were emptied...
""Intruder, identify yourself." Atlesian Knights all echoed, surrounding the group as they all prepared for confrontation.
"...I so hate this Jutsu..." Naruto complained, bringing his hands together before a small black orb formed between them and he threw it into the air as high as he could and it suddenly expanded. As it did, he was forced to quickly form the initial, skeletal version of the Susanoo and had it anchore the group. Naruto winced at the strain on his chakra pulsed through every cell in his body.
Still, inferior though it was to the Tailed Beast Mode chakra shroud that allowed him to form Kurama's full appearance, the Susanoo did what it was needed for as it shielded both him and the four females from both the Atlas robots and the Chibaku Tensei as the floating gravity well ripped up everything in the vicinity that wasn't securred to it. Before long a mass of floating scrap metal hovered in the air as it kept pulling things toward itself.
One of those things being Jinx's bomb, which had been snatched up by the sphere, and the pressure of the gravity spike tore the bomb apart and caused it to go off in the process.
The sky above them erupted into a fireball; the bomb's payload enveloping the satellite.
As the scrap and chemicals finally stopped raining down, Naruto dispelled the amethyst avatar.
"Ugh..." Naruto groaned before he blacked out, the and Satin caught him as he fell over.
The portal to get them all here...
All those clones to clear out the docks...
Chibaku Tensei...
Susanno...
"What in the-?! Is he alright?!" Glynda asked.
"He's worn out. My guess is too many big moves in too quick a succession." Satin said, feeling thankful for her hearing.
"I get it: Just because he's got power to spare, he's not infinite. No wonder he needed the backup. More of a plan B for the getaway in case he had to do that. Still..." Jinx nodded. "Can respect a good Ka-boomer. Mind if I go with?"
The ladies looked at her, then one another before nodding. Looks like their team has one more member. With Naruto out of it, an extra set of hands didn't sound unwelcome.
"Ever hijacked a bulkhead before?" Sienna asked her.
Jinx smirked.
(.0.0.0.)
"I REALLY don't like this..." Roman said for the umpteen time as the three made their way through some of the old preexisting underground caverns of Mountain Glenn.
"Ain't a matter of what you like, boy. This is our job."
"You think I don't know that?!"
To think, this was happening because Rex had managed to get the systems of the now–defunct Merlot Industries headquarters operating again and found out that the old research and development corporation had something of a Grimm tracker among it's inventions.
While that had been all well and good initially —Mountain Glenn did not boast the natural barriers Vale did, after all, so they would have to actively keep an eye on the numbers of the Grimm—there had also been hidden files and rooms in the building that exposed that the place had been experimenting on live Grimm, of all things!
And later, the company went as far as attracting Grimm to Mountain Glenn in order to acquire additional specimens because the crackpot who founded the place, Doctor Merlot, believed that, according to him "The Grimm are a superior species, fascinating in their biology, their unbridled, raw aggression and lack of sentience make them the perfect vessel to make the world better for humanity" and even believed that nature and evolution had failed to perfect the Grimm and that his science could fix its failures...
Roman shuddered, all in all, it was safe to say that the gentleman thief considered the old scientist a total psychopath. Torchwick, like the rest of Remnant, did NOT like Grimm. It was to the point that he was very afraid of the big ones...hearing that someone was insane enough to want to make the Grimm MORE dangerous...the thief desperately tried to shake off that idea.
Despite his considering Semblances overrated, instead preferring to use his wits and charm, Roman was very much wishing he had developed one right now...
"Suck it up." Cad Bane groaned, seeing as it was just him, Roman, and Neo on this Grimm hunt. The gunslinger was getting annoyed with the man's whining. He took a level of satisfaction in Torchwick gulping.
For his part, Cad Bane found Naruto was someone to work for and he was tolerable. It didn't hurt that the blonde also paid well and on time. Better than most did really. Wasn't to say Cad didn't find him a bit reckless, but since it was because his current employer wasn't afraid of getting his own hands dirty, the gunslinger supposed that wasn't all that bad.
But more than profits, while most just wrote him off as some one-and-done use haired gun, he had to admit that the de facto leader of Mountain Glenn respected people for skill. And Bane was plenty skilled.
Respect, good pay, plenty of targets to keep his skills sharp, and a place he could settle down and hang his hat at whenever he wanted...All things considered, the kid may have been young, bit as far as investing in a client went, Bane had to admit that his current one was a good investment. So here he was.
Roman swallowed his complaints and concerns. Cad was the one bounty hunter who actually scared him. And the criminal knew better than to put himself in between a rock and a hard place by making the fast gun want to kill him while they were exploring a Grimm's lare.
Alright...just go to some cave and kill a few grimm. Easy...totally easy...it helped Torchwick's nerves that they hadn't encountered any Grimm thus far.
As the trio continued to move, Roman's foot caught on something as the ground suddenly dipped away from him, causing the man to fall face first into mud.
"Goddamned...! That's it! I'm giving the boss the bill for my laundry!" he swore.
Cad Bane whistled.
"Hoo boy, that's gone be a right bitch to kill, even for me...thing must be able to fly too, no other way something this huge was able to get around without anyone seeing..."
"What?!" Torchwick demanded as Neapolitan helped him up.
"Take a look what you landed in." Bane instructed.
Grumbling as he got out of the hole, Roman did so and saw what he had fallen into, his knees gave out instantly.
It wasn't just a hole...it was a giant claw mark!
Roman's heart sank. Whatever this Grimm was! It was BIG! So much so that, due to it's clearly immense size and power, it's moving had caused it to inadvertently dig it's claws into the earth, leaving visible marks on the terrain.
It didn't help his mood that the make he'd just gotten pulled out of was big enough to function as a perfectly sized grave!
Someone was speaking to him but he couldn't hear them through the ringing of his ears, the pounding of his own heart. It was massive; its tracks were huge, and he had no idea where it was. Anything that big might even give the boss trouble, especially if it had wings.
Neo seized his shoulder and shook him. It was enough.
He recovered with a lurch and pushed himself up off his knees, trying not to look at the massive indentation in the mud where the beast's claws had dug into the ground.
"We gotta go. NOW!"
A Grimm that massive and the bloody thing was nowhere to be seen!
This was bad! The boss had to be warned about this!
Where the hell had it gone...?!
A/N: And there we go. Next time: Partners in...?
As ever, the Embers rule folks don't like this story...well, it won't be continued. Strange as it might sound, live for reviews and feedback; without them, I simply can't write a single word. So by all means! Speak up! Really, that's no joke. Your feedback is the reason this story continues. Ever bit helps. It keeps me going in these crazy times. So by all means! Speak up! No review is too short or too small!
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So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review, Would You Kindly?
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Spoilers await~!