Chapter 20 – Cost and Scarcity

Sometimes the reward of a job well done isn't as large as the expenses it takes to complete it.

It was around 2pm in the afternoon, as Jaune and his friends were chowing down on the enchilada casserole that took him nearly an hour and a half to get the groceries for and make, that Benson Airship Rental gave them a call.

"We's all set. You kids are summa my most loyal customers – ya didn't jump ship after the first mishin – so I figured I'd give y'all a heads up."

"Thanks, dude," Jaune said. Since he was the boss when in public, he was the one whose scroll number was listed as their point of contact on the website. "We'll be there in a jiffy."

"Jus' bring my fee and you can be here in a krusteaz for all I care."

Jaune ended the call and told his teammates of the good news.

"Alright!" Velvet pumped her fist into the air and let it slump down. "First team mission but for real now!"

The job for Team Job was a relatively standard one from the type of client they usually got – someone too poor to afford the cost of posting a reward on hunter mission boards, which started at a minimum of 30,000 lien but typically didn't get touched unless they were 30-50% higher. The town was so young that it hadn't even been named yet (a lot of places thought naming themselves after less than three years of survival was jumping the gun), but the only way they could survive was with regular Grimm clearings. If Team Job did well here, they might actually be able to work out a regular contract with these folks, something annual or bi-annual even.

We've got a lot depending on us here – our futures and theirs. We'd best do a good job.

Like Lemuria, it was just a plain old culling, with no special tasks. Clear the woods of any Grimm they could find, as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The usual woodland variety was expected, though the nameless town also said that their locality was a hotspot for juvenile Nevermore to poke their heads up every now and again.

Velvet was practically dripping with enthusiasm as they walked down the street towards the airship agency. "I've actually been out in that area before once – it was a search and destroy mission where a particularly giant Giant Nevermore was plaguing the skies. Fox had to coordinate us using his semblance as me and the gang tried to pinpoint the exact spot of its – ah, never you guys mind that. Let's just have the most fun we can, right?"

It struck Jaune as curious that, in spite of her camaraderie with Jaune and Blake for being a Beacon dropout, she was a regular student there only a few days ago before her abrupt resignation, living the life that Jaune had once oh so desperately desired. Jaune didn't want to think of Beacon as the enemy, but in every interaction save for his brief run-in with Ruby in the park, it had at least been the adversary, and normal hunters were rivals. Was Velvet herself a primary school student with a huntsman father and a huntress mother? In another life, would it have been her and Team Coffee whose tracking scroll he'd pickpocketed instead of Team Lettuce?

But she's not, and I didn't. In another life, I might have slipped into Beacon and trained to completion as a huntsman there. Heck, in another life, I might have even had a huntsman kid and perpetuated the cycle by only telling them about primary combat schools. I can't judge people based on hypotheticals. She's renounced Beacon, and she came to us by choice.

They finally came upon the airship yard after about thirty minutes of walking. Jaune pushed open the door, ringing the little bell and summoning Benson to sit up without dropping his magazine.

He grunted noncommittally. "Hey, kids."

"Oh, hey there, hot stuff," Velvet said with a sudden smile.

Jaune had been moments away from giving a simple hello as a greeting when Velvet's unexpectedly unexpected words nearly made him bite his own tongue. "Hwguh?"

Benson, who was probably thirty-five years old, completely bald, and as human as they came, put down his magazine at that.

"Me?"

Sauntering over to the counter behind which he sat, she leaned onto it with both elbows and pressed her palms to her cheeks. "Yes, you."

"K-Kids?" Benson leaned back in the chair in which he lounged to throw a look at Jaune. "She with you?"

"Newest recruit," Blake explained. "Say hi to Velvet."

"You can just call me Vel." She winked at him. "Or Vet, if that gets you going."

"S-Sorry, but'cha ain't gon' fool me that easy, lass." He laughed nervously. "No discounts on the flight."

"Oh, I ain't lookin' for no discounts, sailor." Velvet's head leaned to the other side.

Blake's hand landed on her shoulder and yanked her backwards. "Alright, no idea what the fuck that was, but we're already two days late for our mission. Is the airship ready?"

"Y-Yeah. All inspections're passed with flyin' colors."

Jaune imagined it was more like hovering black-and-white, given how Benson's airship sometimes seemed like it was cobbled together with spit and sticky tape. Removing the money from his pocket, he handed over the counter, taking care not to get anywhere near where Velvet had leaned on it.

I have no idea what she's sick with, but I sure as heck don't wanna catch that.

"Thanks, bucko." Benson nodded to the doors to the airship platform. "You guys buckle in while I lock the front doors, 'kay? It'll only take a sec."

"Can't wait for a ride, mister," Velvet said as Blake dragged her out the back doors. "Catch you in a hot minute!"

The ride over was no better than their initial introduction of their taxi to their newbie. Velvet kept making thinly veiled innuendo, getting to the point where Blake had to order their pilot to close the doors to the passenger's chamber. After overcoming his initial confusion, he seemed to actually be half-intent on reciprocating what Jaune assumed were Velvet's advances (he wasn't well-versed with the ways of romance), and they nearly crashed into a radio antenna when he got distracted.

"Eyes on the skies, man," Blake said.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind if he kept his eyes on –"

"That's enough out of you," Blake said, cutting her off with a tug on the nearest ear. "Where did all of that professionalism from the interview go?"

"You said you didn't mind!" yelped Velvet, pulling back the Faunus trait and rubbing it with a little frown.

"What? I…when…that was for…"

And then Blake looked directly at Jaune, blushed, and shut her mouth.

Well, I'm far too oblivious to know what they were talking about just now, and I'm pretty much 100% sure that even if I could, I wouldn't want to. Can we talk about something else? Please?

"Hey, uh, Velvet. I-Is this your first time riding in an airship?"

Jaune immediately regretted the stupid question as soon as he said it. A huntress like her had obvious flown in airships plenty of times before – heck, she would have had to in order to get to Beacon! To an Ansel boy who grew up in the same town and only occasionally rode on the train, it was normal small talk, but no Valean would have a clue what he was on about when he said stupid boke like that.

But Velvet took it good-naturedly and just shook her head. "I've flown before, but I can't really say I like it. I don't know if it's a burrowing mammal thing, but I've always felt more comfortable on the ground."

Then why were you flirting with a pilot who…ugh. I don't want to know.

"Well, as long as you can stomach your discomfort, I think we'll be okay," Jaune said instead, only to find both Velvet and Blake staring at him. "What?"

"J-Jaune, I was making a joke. Faunus don't…we're not actually animals."

"Oh, crap! N-No, I don't think…I didn't mean…s-so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Jaune bowed his upper body as best he could when strapped down by a seatbelt. "I swear, I'm not racist!"

Except that's exactly what a racist would say! Double crap!

Blake snorted. "I think she's having a go at you, Jaune."

"No, I'm completely serious," Velvet said, stone-faced. "What you've done is reprehensible, Jaune. In this crapsack world where our people are enslaved, mistreated, and sometimes outright murdered, you not recognizing the bait in a joke is what crossed the line."

Blake laughed again, and Jaune cautiously snickered. He knew from experience that he and Blake understood one another when it came to what was serious and what was sarcastic, but Velvet was uncharted territory. So far, she'd only ever been genuine in her enthusiastic sunny demeanor…and now it was back, with a full smile.

"I'm just joshin' ya, Jaune." She leaned over and nudged his knee with her own. "Just pulling your leg."

"Y-Yeah. Heh, good one."

"Sorry. Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." She rested back into her seat on the airship. "I'll ease up on the jokes."

"Yeah. I-I mean, no. I mean, s-sure."

She winked at him with a smile that was a little more…friendly…than usual, and Jaune immediately forced himself to look away. Right now, he had no idea what message he was supposed to be taking away from this interaction – from Velvet's entire first day on the job as a whole.

I…I did notice some weirdness that I was willing to brush away back when we took her to our hotel. I mean, who asks about if a Grimm puts its tentacles in your mouth?

He'd given her the benefit of the doubt before, but the way she'd just jumped right into blatantly flirting with Benson was a red flag he couldn't ignore. Jaune would have to watch her a little bit closer.

But not too close. Jauney ain't no creep.

They were mercifully spared the discomfort of having to fly much longer as the airship began its descent…and by they, Jaune meant himself. Velvet hopped right off the airship and began stretching out her arms and back like nothing was abnormal whatsoever, but a quick glance at Blake confirmed that she was just as confused by Velvet's slightly bizarre behaviors as he was.

Jaune got a little closer to his partner. "Uh…h-hate to ask, but –"

"No, it's not a Faunus thing. I think she's just…"

"Weird?"

"…I was gonna say a freak, but let's go with weird."

Okay. That was good to know.

"Okay, fun Velvet's over," said the rabbit Faunus, too far away to hear Jaune and Blake's private conversation. "Mission Velvet's back on, and that means you can expect nothing but the most compassionate huntress and ruthless force of Grimm extermination known to Remnant."

Jaune nodded. "We've got a contract written up back home, but this is more of a formality. Short of anything disastrous, I don't see us not hiring you when we get back home."

He knew he probably wasn't supposed to say that, but Jaune wanted Velvet's joining of Team Job to start with complete honesty. There was little to be gained by making her nervous or jittery.

Jaune leaned away as the airship they'd flown in on rose back up above the trees and started to move horizontally when it reached peak height. "I'll go check in with the village and let them know we're here. Do you ladies want to come with me, or would you rather start hunting the Grimm?"

"We'll go with you," Blake answered before Velvet could even part her lips. "I think Velvet might need to see you in action firsthand."

Jaune had a feeling that there might be a little more to it than that, given the knowing little glances the two Faunus kept furtively giving one another when they assumed Jaune too oblivious to notice, but he had no reason to object.

The town reminded him a lot of the Lake of Lost Voles fishing community, but more like a prototype of it. All of the buildings were constructed from wood of the same color as the trees, much of it with the bark still on, and quite a few of the homes around the edge of the village were still mid-construction. Jaune imagined that the village was probably in a perpetual state of growth, limited only by the speed at which the people within could erect the necessary structures.

It did have a mayor, though, and Jaune had been given detailed instructions on how to identify the house in which she lived. Unlike Lemuria, it was neither ostentatious nor flamboyant – the only distinguishing factor that separated it out for his identification was a painted plus-symbol on the doorframe in red.

Stepping up to it, Jaune gave the door a few good knocks and fell back.

"Coming!"

It opened a minute later to reveal a pleasant-looking woman wearing work clothes with her hair in a bun. Her hands were gloved, and there were streaks of mud along her coveralls.

"Forgive me, I was working in the garden." Her eyes roved across the team, and her lips came together ever so slightly to form a flat line. "Team Job Security, then? This is it?"

Jaune nodded. "We're here to deal with your Grimm problem. Everything's set; we just wanted to let you know we've arrived. It's quite likely that we will be involved in combat, so we'd recommend all citizens aside from town militia on patrol return to their homes for the time being."

He was parroting the words Blake had drilled into his head the night before. For villages like this one, where there was no wall, it was always good to take a few safety precautions, especially when they knew for a fact that they would be attracting every monster in town with their loud noises and aura.

"I…ahem. You three…you are our huntsmen?" the mayor asked, a slightly unhappy note in her voice. "Just you three?"

Jaune almost nodded but caught himself before he could say anything incriminating. "We're not huntsmen, ma'am, in a licensing sense. However, we can guarantee the security of a tract of land, an airspace, or a body of water from any and all threats, including those you and your town might be facing."

He wasn't legally allowed to specify that meant Grimm, or Ozpin would be on him faster than a dog on dropped chocolate. However, what he said was no lie, and Team Job would happily fight bandits, act as bodyguards, or perform whatever non-Grimm function was requested the second a mission related to it came to their doorstep.

It wasn't enough for the lady. "May I speak to…ahem, you are the leader, correct, young man? If so, may I speak to you in private, sir?"

He could tell what the problem was. Swallowing his discomfort at what he would have to say to appease her, Jaune motioned for Blake to stay put and followed the lady into her house. He shut the door behind him, to at least spare the teammates that ignominy.

The second it was closed, the mayor's smile dropped. "This isn't what I…more than half of –!"

"I'll be doing the work – the real work, that is, ma'am," Jaune interjected, preferring to get this over with sooner rather than later. "I only keep them around because I can pay them a quarter of what it'd cost a human, and some jobs require extra sets of hands. Plus, the pansies in Vale would shut me down if I didn't meet their precious quotas for 'inclusivity.'" Jaune made finger quotes at the last word and rolled his eyes for effect. "You know how they can be."

She didn't look particularly happy about it, but Jaune had a feeling that this argument would work better on someone who immediately saw the Faunus and was upset by it than the truth about how competent Blake and Velvet were.

He was proven right in short order. "Just be sure that they don't move about the village if you aren't there to supervise them. I don't want crime in my town. And I'm not paying extra for an extra 'set of hands,' even though your website advertised a team of two."

Jaune nodded and reached for the doorknob, but the woman reached over and pressed the door closed before he could.

"I mean it, huntsman. I hold you responsible for keeping those Faunus in line. If I find a single missing cache, larder, or stockpile, it'll come out of your budget."

"Don't you worry…if I find out they've been besmirching my business' good name…" Jaune just shook his head. "Mmmm – not a topic for polite company. I'll keep them on short leashes."

"Don't go into the village alone," Jaune said to the girls the very second they were all alone and in the forest. "The mayor's a bit of a racist B-word, and I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the townsfolk are probably just about the same."

"We figured," Blake said.

"You guys heard?" Jaune asked. "Or is it just that obvious?"

Blake just nodded. "The second one."

Velvet's ears leaned forward and twitched. "I kinda did hear a little. Something about leashes…?"

"Velvet, I was only telling her what she wanted to hear," Jaune immediately said, ashen-faced at her words.

"So none of us are going to be putting leashes and collars around each other? Not even a little?"

"No way," Jaune promised. "I know it would be better if I could challenge her for her archaic be…wait…wait, wha–"

Blake lifted her gun straight in the air and fired a loud string of shots, sending all of the birds in the area flapping away with loud caws. Her arm dropped back down to her hip as soon as it was done. A loud roar came from off in the distances.

"Oh dear," she deadpanned. "I seem to have accidentally given away our position to the Grimm by discharging Gambol Shroud. Innuendos will have to wait until after they've swarmed us. What a shame."

"Did I hear someone say discharge?" Velvet said.

Blake frowned. "Jaune, let's fire her."

"Oh." Velvet crossed her arms sassily. "You gonna give me the sack, Jaune?"

Blake frowned even harder. "Jaune, let's kill her."

"Can we handle the Grimm first?" Jaune asked, pointing to the pack of Beowolves that had just come from over a nearby hill and was currently charging headlong in their direction. "Please?"

"Don't'cha worry, kids," Velvet said, slinging her camera around her shoulder to rest against the small of her back. "You two just lie back and let Momma Velvet do all the work."

Blake threw her arms into the air in utter disgust. "Ugh…"

But Velvet was already moving. Her camera made some sort of clicking noise as she ran through the forest at speeds faster than what Jaune had ever seen Blake move, and a weapon appeared in her hand, but it wasn't normal. The camera's lens acted like some sort of projector, creating lines of light that created the outline of a massive war hammer with a staff as long as Crocea Mors' full length. The hammer had no faces, nor did it seem to have a solid mass, but Velvet swung it overhead and slammed where the blunt edge would be into a downed tree trunk, propelling herself forward to the hordes of Grimm.

It's Anise Dorito or whatever she called her huntress weapon – the Hard Light Dust thing. She said she could create other hunters' weapons and use them with as much skill, so this must be it.

And use the hammer with skill Velvet did. She wasted no time in slamming the brains of the Alpha Beowolf right off the second it came into range with a gorgeous underhand swipe. The other Beowolves tried to jump on her, but the lines of the hammer began to slide around one another until the entire weapon was reforged into a single long whip.

Velvet twirled it around in a full circle, slicing off the paws of the Beowolves that had gotten too close and even cutting one clean in half. The whip cracked so loudly that Jaune himself flinched in spite of being over 100 feet away from it.

Another Alpha leapt her way, but Velvet flicked her wrist to wrap the whip around its neck and yanked back. The Grimm was dragged off its paws and pulled face first into the dirt, but she wasn't done with it there. Grabbing hold of her noncorporeal weapon with both hands, she began to swing the Hard Light whip above her head, using the still snarling body of the large Alpha as a wrecking ball to smash apart the bodies of its smaller companions. Within seconds, the entire pack was disintegrating. Flicking her wrists once more, she tightened the whip just enough to decapitate the beast, and then the weapon was no more.

"Damn," Blake said to Jaune, both of them watching the spectacle in awe. "She makes it look easy."

More Grimm were crawling out of the forest and the skies and converging on Velvet, most of them unaware that the rest of Team Job was even there, but Velvet was nonplussed. Her camera's shutter clicked once more, and this time a pair of chunky gloves materialized on her fists. Jaune had no idea how that constituted a weapon, but he had a feeling that he was about to find out.

The gloves had some sort of propulsion system worked into them, and Velvet was able to masterfully use it to throw herself about the forest and increase in speed as she punches through the terrestrial Grimm. Nevermores began to dive out of the sky to divebomb her, and the camera clicked again to put a translucent sky-blue outline of a boomerang in her hands. Still punching out the Grimm, she chucked the new armament and let it carve Nevermore out of the sky.

"She's showing off," Jaune said. "For us."

"Yeah." Blake shook her head. "She really doesn't need to."

Jaune nodded without looking at Blake, because it was impossible to take his eyes off of Velvet as she summoned another Hard Light Dust weapon from her camera, this time Ruby's own scythe, and began to slice and dice some of the few remaining Grimm into bits and pieces. A rampant war-cry escaped her lips as she brought down the weapon into a roaring Ursa.

"It's not just that we don't care to be blown away by her talent," Blake said. "All that Dust being spent like it's nothing…our swords could have cut down half of those Grimm if she just let us, and we don't have to buy reloads to merely operate them."

Blake stepped forward in Velvet's direction, but Jaune put an arm in front of her.

"It's her first mission," he supplied, watching the last of the Grimm be slaughtered by the laughing huntress. "She's probably used to a Beacon team hogging all the fun and a leader bossing her around. She can have her fun, just this once. We'll tell her later – maybe it'll give us something to talk about on the airship other than whatever sex jokes she keeps making."

Blake bit her tongue. "I'm not entirely sure how much they're just jokes…"

Jaune waited for her to elaborate on that vague supposition, but she never did. The Grimm were now all dead, and Velvet's weapons slowly simmered away into glimmers of the residue that the Hard Light seemed to leave behind. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she waved back to her bosses.

"How'd I do?" she shouted across the forest, waving at them with a broad smile.

The mission was pretty much over at that point, but the trio continued to walk through the forests, combing it for any Grimm stragglers that might not have gotten Blake's bullet-shaped memo. Once they'd walked a perimeter around the town and double-checked any particularly tall trees for fledgling Nevermores, they would call it.

Velvet herself was soaked with sweat from the fight, but her breathing wasn't as ragged as Jaune's would have been had he been forced to jump and bounce around that much. The horde of Grimm that they'd…well, that she'd faced here was probably around twice the size of what Jaune had faced in Lemuria, and that had been too many for Blake to retreat.

I guess that's the difference between a real huntress and us. Team Job has had to use our wits to pull us out of the crazy situations we get ourselves into, but she can just resort to the massive skill and brute force she'd cultivated over the years.

To be fair to him and Blake, Velvet was supposed to be among Beacon's best, and she had pretty much used up all of her Dust.

"I still have a little," she said bashfully. "I know how to ration – I really do!"

"It's not a problem," Blake calmly explained. "We're not upset with you, it's just a business choice given the cost of Dust."

"Gods, this is so embarrassing. Coco would usually act as my handler, telling me when to jump in or when to leave it to her, but…oh, I ruined it."

"You didn't ruin it." Blake gave her a friendly pat on the back as she put her face into her hands. "The mission was a success, and it was a great chance for us to see your weapon in action."

"Y-You sure?" Velvet asked warily, lifting her face up a little.

"Heck yeah," Jaune admitted truthfully. "That was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Can you do me?"

Velvet's head moved back up to being fully straight, and she blinked twice at Jaune. "Pardon?"

"My weapon." Jaune lifted Crocea Mors from its scabbard and showed it to her. "Can you duplicate it and go hog wild on the Grimm? It'd be so awesome to see."

"Oh, you want…b-but, I mean, I sort of can't. Wait, no, I can…I can copy it with Anesidora and create a Hard Light sword, but for some reason my semblance isn't working when I try to copy your movepool. If I copied it, I'd be useless."

That would probably be because Jaune had no movepool. At the moment, he had no idea how to wield his own blade, and if her semblance was to copy other people's given attacks, neither did she. If she could only be as good as he was, then she was right; she would be useless.

Crap. I guess that means I can't have her copy it and train me. But I guess that would be a weird thing for a boss to ask of his employee. I guess it's back to training with Blake for now.

They continued to trek through the forest, and Blake actually did come across some Nevermore chicks that they had to destroy. The tree in which they'd hidden was too high for Jaune to climb, so he just stayed on the ground with Velvet. Both of them had to crane their necks to even see the treetops that their cat Faunus partner was scaling.

"Hey, uh, Jaune." Velvet cleared her throat. "Would it be alright if I asked you something?"

"Go right ahead, anytime."

"So…just making sure, you and Blake are a thing, right?"

Jaune took his eyes off the skies to look down at Velvet. "A thing? As in, romantically involved? No, we aren't. Why do you ask?"

"Just doub…just checking."

Jaune gave her an uncertain nod and went back to Blake-watching.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Of course, Velvet," Jaune said. "You don't need to ask if you can ask – it's not like I have anything to hide."

Velvet made a minor noise of discomfort. "It's, uh…it's about Beacon. And you guys."

Wait, I forgot – I do have something to hide.

Patting his palms against his jeans to wipe off any sweat before it could even pool up, Jaune forced a smile. "Yeah?"

"Uhhh…Blake said that Ozpin doesn't like Team Job Security, and Ruby mentioned you guys applied to Beacon but didn't get in because of some error. It sounds like there's some bad blood between you two. What…what's the deal?"

Uh-oh. She didn't take long to figure us out.

Jaune found himself struggling to keep up his neutral composure as Velvet directly asked him the one question he wasn't prepared to answer. Not only was his own trustworthiness on the line here, for admitting the truth would be telling this former huntress that he had tried to cheat his way into her alma mater, but he would also potentially be compromising Blake's own secret, her past with the White Fang.

A little white lie won't hurt. We told Ruby that we didn't meet Beacon's qualifications and that the headmaster only noticed after the fact. Unless Velvet goes snooping through Beacon's confidential records, she won't ever figure out that that's not the case.

Jaune began to feed the Faunus his made-up story, his fears abating as she gradually grew more and more relaxed at the reasonable explanation.

It's not like I actually snuck in – I just tried to, and then I got caught and turned around. This isn't a harmful lie. I'm just sparing us all the discomfort that the truth would bring us.

This will be fine.

Mission Complete: Grimm Clearing

Client Review: A different team than the one advertised was sent, but all of the Grimm these huntsmen were asked to destroy were slain. No visible damage was caused by the Faunus laborers the huntsman brought. [5/5 stars]

Current Holdings (lien): Ⱡ 27,800

Current Holdings (assets): Benson Airship Rental punchcard (six punches)

Current Holdings (realty): none

Employees: 3

Coming Soon: A New Deal

Now that Velvet's a member of the team, Jaune and Blake decide to rework their vague arrangement into a sensible one.

Author's Notes

Blake didn't use as much Dust, but Velvet did. Velvet's Dust consumption will vary between 100 and 2000 lien depending on how much she uses. Since she left a little this time, it only cost her 1900. I promised I'd keep the numbers consistent, and I keep my promises.

We finally get some of that personality I promised, but oh no! She's freaky AF! Tragedy!

Jaune also has to lie to the clients yet again, but it ain't as pretty as usual. Not all of his deceits get to be triumphant victories - some have to be reluctant concessions.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!