A Novel Approach (Worm Libriomancer system- Gamer lite OC)

by MalcolmTent6730

Simon Collins hates Brockton Bay. But that's alright. Brockton Bay hates him back. It hates pretty much everyone as far as he can tell. Now he's got superpowers, and without all those pesky horrible experiences to give them to him. Brockton Bay is a cape playground, and it's playtime for Simon. Sometimes, you can believe everything you read.

8. Chapter 8

January 22nd, 2011 The Docks, Vale, Remnant, 6:00 PM EST- SP:15,200

My arrival at the docks was a bit slower than I'd expected. Not in terms of linear travel time, but rather in terms of how far things had progressed. Specifically, the big ass robot was out and about, taking potshots. I landed on a nearby rooftop to study the situation…and froze. Time stood still, the sun froze on its axis, the universe stopped expanding.

Ass. The cheeks of a goddess, the thickest, juiciest, bounciest booty in the history of badonkadonks, flexing gloriously under a pair of white spanx framed by a black waistcoat. It was magnificent, everything the manga hinted at and the fans joked about.

I was mesmerized, and I think my tongue might have rolled out of my head like a cartoon wolf. I was just shy of literal heart eyes. I had to have them, I mean it, I mean her. And then, horror of horrors, as I was scanning up that marvelous meat mountain of jiggling bootyflesh to the perfect goth porcelain of her perfect face, I glanced past her profile and saw the paladin take aim.

There was no time for thought, or planning, only action. I lunged forward, pushing off with all the strength in my ramped up body, my boost amplifying the jump to breakneck proportions as I crashed down on the ground between my dream kitty and the massive machine aiming to splatter her fat bottomed glory all over the pavement.

My fist was blurring out, and I almost crowed in satisfaction when it smashed into the EXTREMELY large cannon shell fired from the gauss cannon on the back of that thing (which I was POSITIVE hadn't existed in the manga). The shell hit my fist, and I felt the kinetic energy roll over my entire body, redirected across my full form by my badass leather coat…which is when shit started to go wrong.

The coat, a C-class item that formed a near perfect combo with my mail shirt, couldn't handle the strain of that much energy. It dumped all the force into the shirt, which held because mithril never fucking breaks, but began to heat up. I was fine with that, being that I was pumping extremis at top temps, but my SHIRT and the coat over it both had other plans.

The shirt pretty much dissolved into a cloud of smoldering scraps instantly, the coat had enough remnant enchantment in it to hold up as it literally caught fire, but I knew it wasn't long for this world. With a roar of outrage, both at the machine that dared try to clap my destined cheeks and for destroying my favorite fashion accessory, I hurled myself at the machine, flaming coat streaming behind me like a blazing cloak, shirt burning bright orange like a neon light from the heat, and my body perfectly fine because this kind of heat was my natural state.

I smashed into the front of the paladin like a fucking wrecking ball, denting but shockingly not cratering the front panel (sturdy shit, maybe a Dust alloy?) before I began raining down cavernous smashing blows on the plating, which buckled hard and started to give.

Seeing a few places where it came up, I dug my burning fingers (I was running HOT right now) under the metal and jerked it up with a roar of unstoppable fury, tearing away the shield of the cockpit. The White Fang grunt inside was screaming like a little girl and looked like he might piss himself as the half molten fire monster clad in a molten shirt and burning coat bellowed angrily in his face. I wasn't going to kill him (the cheeks would hate me if I murdered a faunus in front of them, it, her, why did I keep doing that?).

It occurred to me that I was pumping serious heat right now, and that might be why I was so fucking pissed and horny. Granted that booty was my soulmate fire or no, but I wasn't sure I was thinking clearly right now…oh well.

I hurled the cockpit hatch off to the side like a partly melted discus, and was about to do…something to the faunus that wouldn't kill him, but I was momentarily distracted when a cane smashed into the side of my head, pulping my brain and shattering my skull…and then getting stuck.

"Oh what the actual fuck?" Screamed an enraged and partly panicking voice. The can was yanked free with a disgusting slurp and the heat died down a bit, consumed by my body's roaring system to repair the damage and reform my head. I turned slowly, feeling like my eyes were burning in my head (actually there might have been literal flames shooting from my sockets at that moment) and glaring at Roman fucking Torchwick, who had just tried and failed to sucker punch me.

The faunus had scrambled over the back of the paladin and escaped, and I could see RWBY and friends all gathered around Blake (whose name I DID know, and who was very pretty, divine booty notwishtanding) watching the fight with a mix of horror and excitement that MIGHT play well for me if I stuck the landing.

"What the hell ARE you?" Spat Torchwick as he shook molten Simon brains off his partially melting cane. Not that it was melting much, it must be really well made.

"Ask your mom!" I spat back, still very riled up and unwilling to bother thinking of a comeback. I reached down, grabbed one of the paladin's arms, and HAULED, using my three tons (honestly I felt like it might be more, I think I was absorbing the heat from the coat and shirt) of strength to tear it clean off the frame and swing it like a fucking baseball bat at the thief.

There was a shattering of glass as it made contact, and the bastard dissolved into shards. Neo's fucking bullshit physical illusions. I spun, glaring around as I hopped down from the very wrecked machine, the scraps of my coat finally giving up the ghost as they fluttered off me into blazing tatters.

"Torchwick!" I roared. "I loved this fucking coat! I'm going to get you for this!"

Another dissolution of glass showed him about a hundred feet away, glaring at me indignantly, Neo right beside him. The short stack (very curvy and kind of cute in an off beat way) looked wary of me, but the thief mostly just looked outraged. "I'M going to pay?" He scrambled. "You just totalled a million lien piece of equipment you fucking monster? Do you know how hard that's going to be to replace?"

"Probably easier than your head when I tear it off and kick it down the river like a soccer ball!" I bellowed back, literal smoke billowing from my mouth. Damn, this was my first real fight on extremis, and this shit REALLY amped you. Whatever I'd done with the mithril hadn't helped, but it was mostly gone now, and I was still pretty much berserk. Note to self, learn meditation.

Not wanting to bother with chatter anymore, I pushed off the ground hard, lunging into a long, low leap right at Torchwick, I hit the glass first, but slammed my hand into the ground and swung around, bringing my legs around in a spinning kick at the thief's head. His cane came up to smash into my leg, and to my shock, my fucking shin bone broke (even if it reknitted almost instantly).

Some of the heat bled off, leaving me more rational and slightly weaker, but still running at or past top form. I leapt up to my feet, fists flashing out in a series of rapid fire jabs at Roman, his cane battering them aside as he frantically retreated, flailing to try to keep my fists from actually making contact with him (which was a smart fucking call, because I was pretty sure they'd burn his skin off).

Neo, meanwhile, started manifesting blades of glass and shoving them into me where she could. A bunch broke on the mithril, but she wised up and started aiming for vital points. They sunk in and basically melted and boiled off instantly, and my wounds healed pretty much faster than she could make me, but she was slowly exhausting my firepower, and my strength was starting to ebb to normal (for me) levels.

Roman was glowing like some neon ragamuffin, and the few attacks he didn't parry fast enough glanced off the light with a sort of flash that told me I was wearing it down. Right, I'd almost forgotten about aura.

Neo's aura was lit, and she was moving a bit faster than I was, though she didn't seem to have the muscle.

Torchwick managed to get clear, blasting away at the ground with his weird kinetic cane, and I stumbled back, glaring at him. He looked ready to tear out his hair. "This isn't fucking OVER!" He spat. "Nobody makes a fool of Roman T-" His voice went muffled as Neo grabbed him from behind, covering his mouth as she pushed off the ground, through a screen of invisible glass covering a fucking Bullhead (remnant cargo planes).

They flew away, and I let them, turning around before I let myself smile. That should have them plenty flustered enough for Lucky to slip aboard. I'd needed to stall for my cat to arrive. Granted, I was also furious, but I'd calmed down enough from the repeated stabbing to think critically.

I walked back over to the group of absolutely thunderstruck hunters in training and grinned down at the only one I had eyes for, a certain gorgeous goth cat girl. "Sorry I didn't check on you sooner." I held out a hand, now cooled down as I'd quarantined my heat to me chest as I walked (I was steaming a little still). "I'm Simon, are you alright?" She hesitated and I smiled sheepishly. "I'm cool enough to touch, sorry about that."

She took my hand and I pulled her up. Her cheeks were flushed. "Thank you." She said emphatically. "I don't think my aura could have taken that shell. I'm Blake. Belladonna. It's nice to meet you." Her tone was as cool as ever, but her ears were doing this little twitchy fluttery thing that was so adorable I wanted to moan.

"Well, I'm glad I could help. I think the world has enough of a shortage of true beauty that it can't afford to lose so much at once." Her face turned red.

A blonde guy with abs almost as good as mine (extremis did the body GOOD) stepped between us forcefully, pushing me back and burning his hand on my chest. "Yeah thanks for the- OW- save. We're all super grateful you kept Blake safe. We'd prefer to show our gratitude from afar thank you very much."

"Sun!" Scolded the tiny girl with the red hood that was definitely the MC. "Don't be rude. Simon just helped us all. That paladin is too damaged for the White Fang to use, and we can study it to figure out where it came from. That's a huge win." She beamed at me. "You were super cool out there by the way, you were like 'boom, crash, kapow!' It was awesome!"

I chuckled ruefully, scratching the back of my head. "You weren't freaked out? I get a bit intense when I fight."

"Pfft." She laughed. "My sister goes way crazier than that in battle. You were amazing! We totally owe you one! Seriously, if you need anything, you can just ask. You saved my teammates bacon!"

Laughing again, I looked around wryly. "Well…I did just get to Vale, and I don't exactly have anywhere to sleep. Or any money. It was all in my coat." That was a lie, but luckily the book hadn't been in there, I'd gotten into the habit of having Lucky carry it. Fucking Torchwick.

"Of course!" She squealed happily. "We can show you around beacon, and I'll introduce you to all our friends. I know they'll be so happy to meet you!" Judging by Sun's glower, not all of them would be. But that was fine, I seemed to be doing fine with the one person I cared about here. Well…one of two. Now I just needed her to bring me home to meet her mom.

January 22nd, 2011 Beacon Academy, Vale, Remnant, 8:00 PM EST- SP:15,400

"So, basically I left home to travel and find myself and ended up here." I said with a shrug. "Honestly, I'd be lying if I claimed to be particularly skilled at all this violence stuff. I'm mostly more interested in reading about action than participating, but I can throw down if the occasion calls for it."

I was sitting in a cafeteria with Team RWBY waiting for their friends, though I'd managed to snag a seat next to a certain fetching feline princess. She was trying not to stare, but her eyes were flicking to me coyly once in a while, clearly interested in the dangerous new stranger.

That would wear off. Blake wasn't a bad boy kind of girl. My villain moves weren't going to drop her panties, she was gunshy after Adam (her abusive cowboy ex) and tended to shy away from overt displays. At least when they felt intentional. Blake thought she wanted an intellectual, though based on her reading preferences she probably wanted to be tied up and paddled on her perfect jiggling beach ball booty…I was getting distracted again.

"You were REALLY good at it!" Ruby squealed. "I haven't seen anyone fight like that except for Yang and Pyrrha, and they're the strongest people in Beacon!"

Yang snickered. "Appreciate the props little sis, but no, I am NOT one of the strongest in Beacon. Pyrrha definitely makes that list, but almost any of the seniors could whip my perfectly sculpted ass. What my sister means to say is you were pretty amazing out there, though I did get what you were saying about being inexperienced. You were mostly just brawling, not that I can throw stones."

"I don't know if I'd agree with that." Said Pyrrha with a blush. I'd never been HUGE into Pyrrha as a character, but she was definitely a looker. All the girls here looked like supermodels, even if they lacked the dumptruck shelf of wobbling cat rump that I'd been composing sonnets to in my head for the last few hours. "I'm not that much more skilled than you are Yang."

Frowning internally, I dragged a nail across my palm, cutting myself open and feeling the building heat in my chest lessen a bit. I was still running hot. I'd apparently taken in too much heat for my body to naturally disperse, and I was in fight or fuck mode even after plenty of downtime.

"That's crazy Pyr!" Said the blonde guy who kind of reminded me of Ron. Seriously, what was it with sculpted redheads and dopey blonde sidekicks? "You're one of the best fighters I've ever seen. I don't know how tough Simon is but once his aura recovers we should totally see who's tougher." He didn't seem to be eager to see violence as much as he was just trying to hype his teammate, which was pretty decent of him.

I just shrugged. "I don't have an aura, so that won't be a problem."

Everything stopped and all of them turned to stare at me. "That's a joke, right?" Said Weiss, who was much more delicate looking in real life than I'd expected. "No one can do something like that without aura."

I raised my hand, placing it on the table, then picked up a knife and slammed it through my palm. It barely even hurt, honestly, but they all freaked out. I just withdrew the blade, and they watched in awe as my flesh knitted back together. "Based on what I saw, aura was a thing you guys did that stopped you from getting hurt. I'm more…I guess you could call me a science experiment."

I'd considered a fake backstory to tug heartstrings, but ultimately I decided the lies might catch up if I took any of them home, so I just stuck with omission. Still they look intrigued. "You're saying you can do all that WITHOUT an activated aura or semblance?" Yang said in awe. "Can you make ME like that?"

"Nope." I said bluntly. "It'd kill you. I don't have a semblance or aura, but I do have a unique constitution that let me survive the process. The serum I was injected with is incomplete and highly fatal." I didn't mention the UDW. They COULD take that, and it might work well, but it might kill them too, and the survivors would probably get all butthurt about it.

They all looked upset, faces hard and gazes cold at the thought of me being experimented on. It was kind of nice. I let my Nightfall mindset surface, smiling reassuringly. "It was my call guys, I knew the risks. I'm fine."

That calmed them down a bit. In my head, I felt a triumphant surge from my bond with Lucky, and I knew he'd found one of the Dust warehouses. I indicated he should stay put. He sulked, but obeyed. He was such a good kitty.

Speaking of good kitties, Blake had been paying more attention to me the longer I talked. They grilled me (nicely) about where I was from, my friends, my family, and anything I'd share. I was vague, but informative, and I threw in a few comments about my love of literature and the occasional heroic exploit to appeal to the pretty activist.

Finally, the night ended, and everyone retreated to their rooms. I asked Blake to stay back, and she did, seeming more curious than anything. Despite that, I could tell she was on guard, and probably wouldn't be receptive to anything sexual or romantic so soon after meeting.

Which was fine, because I'd picked the least datelike date of all time for my first attempt to tame the pretty kitty. "Did you need something?" She said blandly.

"I wanted to check on you." I admitted. "I…I wasn't sure I got there to help in time. You seem fine but that must have been a freaky thing to see, both the attack and me…losing it." I gave her a self-deprecating smile. "I don't want you to think that's who I am."

She shook her head seriously. "You didn't go that overboard, Simon. Like yeah, you seemed angry, but you calmed down after. And…" Her cheeks pinked. "I'm grateful. Really. You came out of nowhere to save me. And that thing you said-" She hesitated. "Do you really think that? That I'm beautiful?" She hastily added. "Not that I need like…validation. But I don't have a body like Yang, and I'm not as delicate as Weiss, and even Ruby has that cute girl next door thing going on."

I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't expected that. In the manga, Blake was incredibly confident, even when she objectively shouldn't be. Sure, she had insecurities about her past, but she wasn't the 'tell me I'm pretty' type.

"I think you're one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen." I said truthfully. Bombastic backside not withstanding, Blake LOOKED like a catgirl princess. She was objectively gorgeous, with full, pink lips and an aquiline nose. Weiss was delicate, but Blake looked regal. Those amber eyes could stare into your soul…I wanted to make them roll up in her head so fucking bad.

Nope, that was a Vagabond though. Nightfall mindset. Be patient like you are with Kim. Blake, meanwhile, looked embarrassed but pleased. "Hey, I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine." I said with a smile. "He was out scouting, but he just got back. He's kind of shy so don't mention him to the others unless you think it's important ok?"

She shot me a quizzical look. I raised an arm, and Lucky manifested from the air, floating next to me. He looked as splendid as ever, the gold swirls in his coat a bit more pronounced. He meowed at her, and I swear her eyes became spotlights. "He's…he's beautiful." She whispered. "Is he a machine?"

"Not really." I laughed. "He's my friend. My best friend probably. He's the best. Always has my back. Plus he's sneaky as hell. That's where he was actually. He was looking for Roman's hideout." She stilled, eyes snapping up.

"He knows where Roman is?" She asked quietly.

I nodded. "He does. Or at least where he went after the docks. One of his stash houses. I was thinking about going. I have a way to store stuff, it's one of my abilities. I was planning to snatch all the Dust you guys mentioned him stealing. I don't know what he wants it for but it can't be good." I snickered. "It might not be the most honest thing, but my boy here needs rocks and metal to grow up big and strong." I nudged lucky. "I could use some premium catfood."

To my surprise, she giggled at that. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth like she'd just burped. "I…sorry, I don't know where that came from. I don't really mind if you don't give the Dust back. The trade culture here is pretty toxic. The SDC is a faunus rights nightmare, and their sales practices aren't much better. It's all insured anyway."

"You're a little revolutionary aren't you?" I laughed. "That's kind of badass. I like a woman with the guts to stand up for herself."

She snorted. "I noticed how much you like me standing up." At my unrepentant grin, she just rolled her eyes. "It's whatever. My rear is much more substantial than average. Men look. At least you were polite about it. You wouldn't believe some of the things the guys at Beacon say when they think I can't hear." Her bow twitched, and it occurred to me that having a second set of ears might make things kind of rough.

I felt for her, but I was also excited. I'd made the mistake of thinking that Blake was this bastion of moral superiority. In reality she was just a girl with a pet cause (no pun intended) that grew up in a world where you had to murder shit on the regular. I could work with moral ambiguity.

"I'll try to keep my comments about your ass to a minimum." I promised. I could just think about it all the time. I'm sure that was fine.

She smirked at me. "Good, because yours is pretty nice too. I'd hate to have to kick it."

"Double standard!" I gasped in mock outrage. "Anyway, how about it, want to come with me and Lucky to steal from a racist asshole?"

The smile that lit up her face was as radiant as the moon. "Why, Mr. Collins, I thought you'd never ask. But how are we going to get there?" Her eyes were gleaming with predatory intent, and I almost felt bad for Roman. Almost.

"You have a bike like Yang?" I asked. "I was able to keep up with hers on foot. I can move fast when I want to. Or I could ride on the back."

Her predatory grin became a smirk. "You can run." She said as she turned around, wide hips swaying enticingly. "I can't fit a second person on my seat. And when we get back, you can tell me about some of your favorite books." She looked over her shoulder, face a strange mix of confident and shy. "I'm a big reader myself."

It was my turn to smirk as I followed her, enjoy the bounce and flex of her hypnotic booty. I knew all about Blake's taste in literature, and I was looking forward to seeing how much of it translated into the bedroom. My poor kitten had been all pent up for the entire time she'd been at Beacon.

Clearly she'd been waiting for me and didn't even know it. I was going to make all her perverted little goth dreams come true, and then probably take her home with me. I had the points for it. Until such time as I got to tap the platonic ideal of ass jutting from her lower back though, I'd enjoy romancing her a little. Maybe she'd enjoy being on the other end of this game of cat and mouse.

January 22nd, 2011 Roman's Warehouse, Vale, Remnant, 9:00 PM EST- SP:15,600

Blake's bike really interrupted my view as we headed for the warehouse. I only got to see half the booty, but I still enjoyed chasing her tail through the streets. After a little while, I even stopped trying to peek at the tops of her mouthwatering cheeks and just enjoyed the chance to compete with someone skilled. Blake was a hell of a driver, sneaky, cool headed, and willing to take risks, and some of the moves she pulled off impressed me immensely.

When I landed next to her at the destination, I was puffing a little. Not much, but I'd gotten a decent workout, since I'd kept the heat in my chest at a low gutter. She smirked at me. "You must really enjoy being behind me. Is my rear really that interesting."

"Your ass should be hanging in a museum." I said bluntly. "I've seen sunrises and rainbows less awe inspiring."

Her face went red. "That's not…you're supposed to be embarrassed." She complained. "How am I supposed to tease you if you have no shame?" She wasn't pouting, but I could tell it was taking real effort to resist it.

"Fine," I said with a laugh. "I'll be good. Shall we break into this warehouse and steal a bunch of dust?" I paused. "Actually, I could use a run down on dust. I don't really know much about it. Rocks made of elemental energy. That's pretty much all of it. So Miss book nerd, educate your poor simple partner."

She snorted. "Well, if you're going to beg, I guess I can humor you. Dust basically varies in potency based on two factors. Size and purity. There are five grades of Dust. Grade one is basically sand. It's trash quality, a handful of the stuff can power a Bullhead for an hour, or make a couple bullets. It's mostly what they sell in dust shops."

I nodded. "So most of the stuff in there is probably Grade one?"

"Most likely," She sighed. "But there should be quite a bit of it. Roman and his pals have been stealing every ounce of Dust they can get their hands on for a while. Grade two is bigger. Less sand and more gravel. Rocks around the size of a thumbnail of inferior quality.

"Grade three is where you start getting into decent purity. They're about the same size as Grade two, but they're clear and cut. They last for a month or two, and are used to power most Dust weapons. Grade four is the most potent Dust you'll likely see outside of a vault. They're about the size of a fist, and are are flawless faceted gems. They're self perpetuating and draw in energy from the world around them, making them long term resources. They're used for Dust reactors, sometimes big machines like that Paladin you took apart."

I noticed she'd left something out. "What about Grade five?" I asked with interest. I loved learning more about cool shit I was about to steal.

"Grade five Dust crystals are called Minehearts." She said with a grimace. "They don't just pull in energy, they emanate it. Their energy seeps into the ground and crystallizes, causing veins of dust to condense in the nearby rock. They're strategic resources, and there are only ten of them in all of Remnant. The Schnee Dust Company owns eight, and keeps them under lock and key. Mistral and Atlas own the other two."

"You seem to know a lot about this." I observed casually. Her tone was…blank, but I could tell from the twitch in her bow that the last part had upset her.

She shrugged. "Faunus are regularly forced to mine Dust for the SDC. The White Fang is in the business of helping free those workers. Or they used to be. Nowadays they're more likely to blow up a Dust refinery than rescue some miners." Her jaw tightened. "Things have changed a lot since I was a member. Or maybe they haven't and I was fooling myself."

Blake had been open about her past with the Fang when we'd talked. She'd already told all her friends, and I guess the fact that I'd saved her and helped take down Torchwick made it feel like I was in on the secret. "You alright?" I asked quietly. "Because you seem kind of not alright. If this isn't something you're up for, we can go." I'd still be robbing this place, but I could always come back.

"No!" She snapped, eyes blazing. She seemed to realize she'd yelled though, and pulled back a bit. "No." She repeated more sedately, but no less firmly. "This is good. This Dust was taken from the hands of oppressed workers and is being used by dangerous extremists. Neither of the original owners deserve to hold it. Feeding it to a mechanical cat is…it makes me smile. Sorry. I just don't like thinking about the Fang."

"Because of your ex?" I asked.

She grimaced. "Yes. Adam was…he was older, and passionate, and driven. He made me feel special. Like I could save the world. He taught me things. Fighting. Sex. I was fourteen when I ran away to join the Fang, and Adam was twenty two. He was part of the experience, you know? My revolutionary mentor. But he didn't care about me. I was a pretty toy he could drag out. Ghira Belladonna's daughter. Like I gave legitimacy to all the horrible things he did."

"That's kind of fucked up," I said sympathetically. "When did you realize?"

She snorted. "When it was already far too late. Three and a half years or so. It wasn't anything dramatic. He wasn't cheating on me or anything. I didn't overhear him calling me a pet or any of the revelations you might expect. We were robbing a Bullhead. Stealing a bunch of Dust. Adam killed the pilot, and most of the guards. I didn't like it but he was always like that. But one of them survived, managed to get a shot off."

Her hand traced her side, pulling her vest up to show me a scar. "He shot me in the gut. It wasn't fatal, obviously, but I was in pain and afraid. And Adam just…looked at me. Checked the wound and said it was fine. Then he moved on. He wasn't worried, or scared. He didn't even help me bandage it. He just didn't give a shit.

"Adam didn't care about me as a person," she said quietly. "He seduced me because it kept me dependent on him, he trained me because my death would have inconvenienced him, and when I left, he took it personally because it reflected poorly on him."

I stared at her. Looking into her luminescent amber eyes, and I felt the heat in my chest flare. Not in arousal, this time, in rage. Blake, I had already decided, was mine. She was beautiful, and intelligent, and stronger than she gave herself credit for. Adam Taurus had hurt someone who belonged to me. Maybe the order of events was mixed up, but that didn't matter. If I met that jank faced motherfucker, I was going to pulp his skull like a rotten watermelon.

"Adam," I said forcefully. "Is a psychotic terrorist. And his opinion on pretty much anything should be taken as the opposite of accurate. And if I ever meet him, I'll kick his ass for you."

She smiled softly. "You just met me." She pointed out. "A little flirting doesn't entitle you to get all protective of me. I can take of myself you know." Her eyebrow arched in challenge, and I took in her posture, one hand on her hip, which was cocked defiantly, as if expecting me to refute her.

"It's not about that." I said with a head shake. "I'm sure you could kick his ass ten ways from Sunday. But hearing how he treated you pisses me off. So after you have your turn, it'll be mine. Not because I'm feeling protective, but because he made me angry, and I want to vent my frustrations. Nothing to do with you really. I'm just a violent thug." I smirked at her. "If you were smart you'd run the other way."

Her eyes searched mine, luminous in the dark. "Maybe being smart is boring." She said quietly. "And maybe I'm the kind of girl who doesn't mind her men a little violent." She sniffed, flipping her hair over a shoulder. "But you'll have to find that out in time. A little story time isn't going to get you into my pants. I'm not that easy."

"If you were easy," I grinned at her. "Then you wouldn't be worth the trouble." My sentiment was interrupted by an impatient meow as Lucky's head stuck out the wall of the warehouse. "What? Well, why didn't you tell me you were ready?" He meowed again. "No, neither of us is in HEAT. How do you even know that term? You're a machine."

He hissed at me, and I rolled my eyes as Blake started giggling. I raised a brow at her, she didn't strike me as the giggling type. She smirked. "It's nice to know you're a cat person. Speaks well of your character."

"Trust me," I groaned. "I wish I'd gotten a dog." Lucky meowed in outrage, but I turned and ignored him. "Now, he's jamming the security, so they don't know we're out here, and there's only three guards. We should be able to get in and out easy. I can take the dust crates, but I need a distraction. Can you help with that?"

She snorted. "Obviously. I'll draw them off. Take what you can carry with your 'alternate method' and then meet me out here. I'll lose them and rendezvous with you when I'm done." With a wink, she turned and leapt up to a nearby window. I was able to see just well enough to track a pair of shadows splitting off from her as she dove inside.

There was shouting and gunfire, but it faded after a second, and I hopped up to the window myself, staring out into the dark warehouse. There was…a lot of boxes. Just stacks and stacks of crates. I grinned, withdrawing my book, and started my rampage.

D-class story element incorporated: Crate of Grade one fire dust. One hundred Silvertongue points.

D-class story element incorporated: Crate of Grade one lightning dust. One hundred Silvertongue points.

D-class story element incorporated: Crate of Grade one gravity dust. One hundred Silvertongue points.

…

C-class story element incorporated: Crate of Grade three ice dust. One thousand Silvertongue points.

C-class story element incorporated: Crate of Grade three fire dust. One thousand Silvertongue points.

I watched the total tick up. One crate at a time. Forty three total. Eleven of them C-class. Fourteen thousand two hundred Silvertongue points. Counting my current two hundred from this little adventure, which I was about to tick over, and the fifteen thousand six hundred I had in reserve, I was sporting thirty THOUSAND points.

That was enough for three more B-class items, or a third of the way to my first A-class. And I WANTED an A-class. I could get some really crazy shit for that much. Granted, bringing Blake back with me would cost. Stashing stuff in the book was doable, but reading someone out would cost.

Luckily Blake was only C-class. Her Aura made her dangerous, but her power wasn't really impressive in terms of combat. Shadow clones were cool, but ultimately with her limitations pretty tame as far as semblances went.

She'd still be a mid class Brute back home, and I had some ideas for possible powerups. But that was a problem for later. I leapt easily up and out the window, just jumping it from a standing position thanks to my boots. I had a lot to think about, but it was all stuff I could worry about later. For the moment I had a pretty kitty waiting to accompany me back to the dorm with our spoils. I might even try for a goodnight kiss. And after that…well, there were more warehouses to hit. By the time I finished cleaning them out, I'd have plenty of points to test out something A-class.

January 23rd, 2011 Beacon Academy, Vale, Remnant, 1:00 AM EST- SP:30,000

Blake seemed shockingly upbeat when we got back to the dorms, I even got a quick peck on the lips before she scampered off. I was crashing in an empty dorm they'd found for me but as I turned around, I was surprised to find I wasn't alone.

Yang was leaning against a wall, her lilac eyes were focused on me intently, but absent the flirty heat and teasing of earlier. "You're back," she said flatly.

"Yup," I smiled. "We needed to get out, just went for wal-"

Her fist slammed into a wall, cracking plaster. "Don't." She said quietly. "Don't tell me some bullshit story we both know isn't true. I don't know where you went with Blake, and normally, I wouldn't care. My partner needs her ashes hauled bad, and if I thought she was bouncing on what I suspect was an above average dick, I'd be fine with it.

"But you didn't sneak out to fuck. Blake looks happier, but not that much happier, and the only other thing that would have taken the weight off her shoulders like that was White Fang bullshit." Her voice was tense and angry. "So what exactly did you drag my partner into, and why am I not kicking your ass over it?"

"We robbed one of Roman Torchwick's warehouses," I admitted. "I was going either way, and I figured she might like to come along."

She snorted. "You wanted to impress her, you mean. You were sneaking looks at my kitty cat all night. I know what boys look like when they're crushing. I see it plenty. Not from you though. You're all about Blakey. Which is cool, I'm not so insecure I lose my shit when a guy isn't drooling over me. But if your little crush gets my girl hurt, I'm going to break your spine over my knee, kickass heat powers or not."

"Look. I'm not stupid," I responded evenly. "I was the one in all the danger. She just used her clones to bait the guards. I'm not going to get her hurt. That's what I'm there for."

Finally, her cold expression thawed, a wry grin replacing her stony glare. "Careful, keep talking like that and I might decide you're actually good enough. Because right now, the jury is out. Blake is my partner, and she's special. If you just want a fat ass to bounce on your lap go pick up a hooker. My partner deserves better than to be some guy's kitty ear sex doll."

Which was…fair. I kind of had started this wanting to just fuck her. I mean, I always liked her character, but working with her, talking with her. That had made her REAL.

She was funny, in a dry and kind of bitchy way, and sweet, even if she tried not to show it. And she was smart, and passionate, and yes, indescribably hot. I think Yang saw some of that on my face because she stared at me for a second and then smirked. "Well, that's nice to know." Turning to walk away, she made sure to sway her hips, her pajama bottoms clinging enticingly. "By the way," she said over her shoulder. "I'm glad you're serious about Blake, but just in case you were wondering, I was really grateful to you for saving her. If you and her hadn't been on the table, I'd have totally sucked your dick tonight. Sweet dreams."

I stared after her for a minute, then rolled my eyes. That had been uncalled for. But I'd been fucking regularly enough that I wasn't going to freak out about it. Besides, I had something to do that was even more fun than getting my dick sucked by a fictional bombshell. Or, well, almost as much fun. I was going to buy some shit.

I headed back to my room, shutting the door and hopping on my bed as I considered my resources.

Thirty thousand SP. The most I'd ever had. I could afford THREE B-class items if I wanted. Three things on the level of the Heart of a Star. But of course, I had to think ahead.

While I was tough enough to probably take on Hookwolf, and MAYBE Lung if I hit him before a windup, I wasn't strong enough to counter the REAL threats of my world. Fucking Endbringers. Invincible super monsters who regularly faced off against armies of capes and SANK whole islands.

The issue was that they were so powerful that I would need an S-class item to easily put one down. It would be ages before I had enough, even keeping up the pace I was at in this world robbing Roman's dust supply. Which I couldn't, there was a finite amount of Dust here. If I stole it all I was pretty sure I could get past a hundred thousand and afford something A-class, but S-was out of reach for a while.

So I needed an A-class item with a very specific property to counter an Endbringer. I'd also need to decide which Endbringer to focus on, because the specificity was going to mean I'd be lacking against the others.

Picking an Endbringer wasn't EASY exactly, but it was a numbers game. There were three of the bastards, and one of them was water based, and I lived on the fucking coast. So Leviathan was the most imminent threat. The Simurgh would be hell to try to take out or stop, and Behemoth was so big and noisy I'd hear about him coming and worst case scenario, I could fuck off with my family and my girls.

No, Leviathan was the one I needed to focus on. The one who could pop out of the ocean and dick slap my whole city into rubble. Luckily, I'd been doing some thinking about that, and I had an idea of HOW to stop him, or at least slow him down enough to give the other capes a chance. But in order to make sure it would work, I needed proof of concept.

"Lucky," I called my cat. He meowed lazily, swimming out of the wall and floating over to me. "No, not time to eat yet. I'll feed you in a minute, promise. For now…I have other things in mind. How would you like a new power?"

The best counter to Leviathan I could imagine was an ability called Desolate Land. It was from a series called Pokemon, and only usable by some absurd OP legendary monster named Groudon. And not even the base version. Now, I could get that ability on its own, because Pokemon had things called TMs, which let you teach your pokemon moves.

But Groudon was a primordial legendary pokemon, basically a god, and he was pretty much Endbringer level on his own, which mean he was S-class, and getting ENTITIES cost a rank higher. Even if he didn't count like Lucky hadn't, I'd still have to deal with gathering a million SP to get him, and as discussed, that wasn't in the cards.

However, TMs could teach any pokemon moves, and if I dug through enough pokemon novels, I was sure I could figure out how to get a Desolate Land TM. I just needed something to use it on.

I picked up a book off a bookshelf I'd just read into the room, flipping through it. No, next book, also no, the one after that, no again. Books, manga, game guides. Pokemon had a shocking amount of media. It also had a lot of really bullshit moves. I was honestly unsure some of them would actually work on me or my allies, but some were invaluable.

After much deliberation, I decided to get something utility based, rather than trying to stack more raw power. I was pretty much unkillable, and once I got my Aura unlocked (something I was working up to asking about) I'd be even stronger.
[Sufficient point total! B-class educational item. TM - Ally Swap: A technical machine that teaches your companion a psychic type move that lets them swap allies with other allies.]

In my hand, I held…a collar, pretty much. It was a little red band with a machine on it. This had been the earliest form of TM from the games. I reached up and fastened it around Lucky's neck. "Fingers crossed I didn't just blow ten thousand points for nothing. I mean, I could just get a pokemon, but honestly feeding you is already going to bankrupt me, I don't need more animals."

Lucky meowed snidely, and there was a slight flash from the band. It started to glow, then Lucky did, and I grinned. This was proof of concept in more than one way. The Silvertongue system tweaked items. It did it with the snowdrop, adapting the definition of dark magic, and it did it with the anti-thinker backpack, though some of that might have been tinker bullshit from Squealer's power.

But if I could direct that, even slightly, it would enable me to make far better use of my items. Reading out a TM in a different form like this was a great example. An Ally Swap TM would be a disk in most cases, since that was what TMs were later in the series. This one was manifesting like early TMs so I could use it.

The second test was even more important. Lucky was a robot cat. He might not BE a pokemon, but he was close enough that I thought he should count. So I needed to know if he could use TMs like a pokemon, and that was what I was about to find out.

Finally, the light faded, and Lucky sat in front of me. The band was gone, which was a good sign I thought, and I raised a brow at him. "Well?" I asked as he floated away across the room. "Did it wo-" There was another flash, and I was suddenly in a different place. Not MUCH different, just a few feet over…and a few feet up.

I yelped, plummeting out of the sky and barely catching myself on my arms. I glared at my cat from where he lounged on the bed. "Was that necessary?" He meowed smugly.

Rolling my eyes, I snagged a spare bowl I'd stored in my book, set it on the ground, and read out a vial of sand like fire dust. "I hope you're in the mood for something spicy," I said acidly. I dumped the dust into the bowl and Lucky yowled delightedly, dashing for the food.

He shoved his head into the bowl, scooping up the dust in big heaping bites until he'd emptied it and then licking the bottom before looking up at me expectantly.

Sighing, I took out another vial and dumped it it. "You'd better make me some seriously kickass gems this time, cat." I grumbled. "Otherwise I'm putting you back on a diet of cheap metal. Maybe you can recycle my tin cans for me."

Hissing disdainfully, he went right back to eating, and I laughed, heading over to drop down on the bed with a groan. Today had been a big day. Big fight, big theft, big booty cat girl, all sorts of big things. I needed to sleep this off, and then tomorrow, hopefully I would have some downtime. Maybe I could spar with Pyrrha. I remembered her having a fight coming up, and it might help my case for Aura.

As I drifted off, I grinned to myself in satisfaction. This trip was turning out just as fun as I'd hoped. By the time I got home, I should be strong enough to deal with whatever was coming my way. Or at least counter it enough to help. Past that…well, I'd need to figure out a counter for the other Endbringers but that was a problem for Future Simon. For now I was just happy to be alive and having fun.

January 23rd, 2011 Beacon Academy, Vale, Remnant, 10:00 AM EST- SP:20,200

"Good morning!" Came a cheery voice as I opened the door. I stepped out to find Jaune, the blonde guy from Team JNPR, and his teammate Nora, the busty redhead with way too much energy, beaming at me.

I glowered at them. "Prove it," I said flatly. Despite my copious physical modifications and complete immortality, I've never really been a fan of waking up in a bed that wasn't mine. Something about a strange mattress always put me totally out of sorts.

To my eternal irritation, he just grinned. "A morning grouch, huh? Ren is like that too. Don't worry, we come bearing gifts." He shoved a large steaming cup towards me. "There's a professional grade barista on staff in the cafeteria. The headmaster said something it being 'a moral imperative'. Best brew in town."

Taking it from him, I took a long sip. It WAS excellent. Sweet and creamy, as was my preference, but then, I suppose it was most people's. I took a deep, cleansing breath. "Ok, this is pretty good. You can live."

"Generous," he chuckled. "Anyway, I was talking to the others. Seemed pretty boring to just wander around the campus doing nothing. We have combat class today, which is actually tolerable if you're into that kind of thing. Figured you could come along, check it out." He blanched, waving his hands comically. "If not that's cool, you're not a prisoner or anything. Just didn't want you to be bored."

It occurred to me that joking about murder after someone heard about you going full rage beast on a giant robot might not be the least threatening thing you could do. Oh well. He didn't seem THAT worried.

We swung by the cafeteria to get some waffles before the first class, and then I followed them to combat training.

Beacon's combat training room was…large. I knew that from having seen the manga, but this was much different than words or pictures on a page. The assembly area in the auditorium had a section that could rise out of the floor to act as a duelling platform. And the massive hall surrounding it was probably one of the most cavernous rooms I'd ever seen in real life.

Being in Remnant had been weird so far. It was futuristic in some ways, typical in others, and staggeringly alien in subtle ways that I didn't even notice until they slapped me in the face. But this wasn't any of that. This wasn't alien world craziness or superscience. It was giant fuck off room, and in its own way that was the weirdest thing I'd seen so far.

Jaune laughed as we entered and he saw the look on my face, slapping me on the back. "I feel you, man. I came from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. This was the biggest room I'd ever seen too. It's pretty overwhelming. Even moreso when the platform is down. Oh, everyone is already together!" He waved cheerfully to his friends, and I was pretty impressed by the confidence the guy was showing.

During early RWBY Jaune was basically a shuddering fraud. Once he started his training with Pyrrha he'd grown a spine, but I wasn't sure if that had happened yet. It might just be world variance or something so I wasn't going to question it.

When we arrived, everyone greeted us with surprising enthusiasm. Blake shot me a cool smile, which earned us a wolf whistle from Yang and an eye roll from Weiss. The heiress still gave me a perfunctory nod, and Ruby greeted me with a hug like I was her oldest friend, which was honestly kind of nice.

Unlike a lot of guys who read the manga, I had ZERO sexual attraction to Ruby. She was like a puppy. A completely asexual hyper puppy. I was able to enjoy a totally platonic hug with the cinnamon roll with only minimal staring over her shoulder at her sister's criminally large breasts, and I was proud of myself for that.

"Simon! I'm so glad you came! I'm going to fight today I just know it and I'm gonna win, I'm gonna be like whoosh and then slash and bang bang, because my baby is a scythe but she can shoot stuff because guns and blades are like peanut butter and jelly, do you like peanut butter and je-" Her astonishingly long tirade was cut short by a hand slapping over her mouth.

Yang smiled like it was the most natural thing in the world as her sister KEPT talking into her hand for about fifteen seconds before petering out. "Sorry about that. She's actually gotten much better. She used to keep going for minutes after you covered her mouth. Breathe Rubes, then speak with punctuation."

Ruby closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out. "I'm ok!" She announced cheerfully. "Sorry, I just get so excited to show off crescent rose to new people. And Simon is so cool! He can do all this stuff without aura and…" She froze. "Oh no! We forgot Simon doesn't have aura. How is he going to spar if he doesn't have aura, that's how they decide if you're out or now."

They all blinked. "Well damn." Said Yang with a frown. "I wanted to see him throw down with P-money. Mysterious fire puncher against the invincible girl? I'd pay money to see that."

Pyrrha looked shaken. "I suppose. I do have experience awakening aura. I could always just-"

"No!" snapped Blake instantly. Everyone turned to look at her. "I mean, you already awakened Jaune's aura. Doing it too often isn't a good idea. I've heard stories about what that can do to a person."

Despite looking a little smug at the outburst, Yang nodded her agreement. "She's not wrong. Dad used to tell us that we should never awaken someone's aura if we've done it too recently. Of course, he also told us that boys all have an incurable disease you can contract from skin contact and that holding hands with one will kill you, so I don't know if he's a trustworthy source."

"Wait, that was a lie?" Ruby asked, looking down at her glove covered palms. When everyone chose to kindly ignore the question she removed the gloves sulkily and stuffed them into a pocket on her combat skirt.

Weiss groaned in frustration. "It IS true. Aura awakenings forge a deep sympathetic bond between the initiator and the awakened. Performing too many of them can cause psychological problems, soul strain, dissociative episodes and in extreme cases, death. Two isn't going to push someone over that threshold, but damaging your soul is a 'better safe than sorry' scenario in my opinion."

"I'll do it," said Blake firmly. Her cheeks flushed. "If that's ok with Simon. If you'd prefer someone else I'm sure Yang would-"

"Nope!" Yang said, popping the P. "Can't do it. Used mine. On…uh…Ste-ver-ly. Steverly. Steverly Jones. Super hunky guy I went to Signal with. He moved. To Vacuo. For business." Her face was heating up, cheeks turning red. She glared at everyone looking at her with skeptical looks. "Stop talking about it! It brings back painful memories!"

Clearing my throat, I turned to Blake. "I'm perfectly fine with it being you. Don't want to get in the way of Yang and the 'love that dare not speak its name'."

"He's REAL!' snapped the irate blonde. "He moved there for business."

Pyrrha patted her on the shoulder. "Just stop, sweetie."

Blake ignored her friends and walked up to me shyly. Looking around, she scowled. "Can we have some privacy? Make a wall people, Dust."

Snickering, her friends spread out, standing shoulder to shoulder so we were out of view. She put her hands on my shoulders. "This isn't like…romantic." She said sharply. "This is because I owe you for saving my life. You're cute, but this is way too fast. Only a lunatic would awaken a guy's aura within twenty four hours of meeting him because she had a crush."

I tried not to choke with laughter as I saw Pyrrha twitch at that comment, but managed to smother it. "You sure you can handle this? I'm pretty strong. What if I have buckets of aura?"

She shrugged. "Aura capacity during awakening is pretty much a skeleton of itself. If you're a total monster I might get a little woozy. Think of it like a game. You start with an empty mana bar, and then it fills over time. Now YOU might black out if you have a large aura pool, but you're tough, I'm sure you can take it. Now shut up and let me work. Or I might awaken your aura halfway and you'll be stuck like that."

I was ALMOST positive that was a joke, but I shut up anyway. Blake's hands slid up to the sides of my face, her bright amber eyes staring into mine. "For it is in action that we achieve peace." she intoned as she started to glow. "Through this, we become vehicles of change and bring revolution to the world. Unchained by hatred and free from sorrow, I release you soul, and with my faith, redeem thee."

It was interesting to know the whole fanon chant thing was real (there were PHO threads dedicated to the series on the off topic board, and I'd seen a lot of these), but in that moment, I didn't feel like judging it. I just felt…reborn.

It was weird, because it felt transformative, like it should make me a brand new person, but in the same way it felt like the opposite of that. The change that ran through me WAS an awakening, my true self being unleashed. But it also felt like I was the same person I'd always been. Or maybe people? I could feel both sides of myself with perfect clarity. The versions of me that I'd named Nightfall and Vagabond, the ones that had always been there.

Because I finally realized what those fucking WERE. Vagabond was my Id, the part of me that did whatever it wanted. Nightfall was my Superego, the part of me that did what society told it was right, and then there was just…me. Simon. My ego.

And I felt them distinctly, Felt them composing my very being. My eyes had closed, and when I opened them, I was staring into Blake's shocked eyes, and I felt a sense of vertigo wash through me at the image. It took me a minute to realize why, but when I did, it caused me to whip my head around to both sides.

Triplicate. There were three of me. Vagabond stood to one side, staring at me from a blank hockey mask, Nightfall on the other, in an imitation of his own dragon priest mask. Looking at myself was weird, because I FELT different. Or I should have. It was actually more the opposite. I didn't feel at all. My other selves were staring at me and I should have been freaking out, but there was nothing there.

I flexed my mind slightly and Nightfall vanished, and my superego slotted back into place inside me. I hadn't realized how EMPTY I felt with them both out. I resolved myself not to do that again. But still. It was cool. I wondered if Blake being the one to awaken me influenced my semblance, which was definitely what this was.

"You discovered your semblance this early?" Yang said in stupefaction. "That's got to be a record."

Pyrrha shrugged. " Discovering the semblance on awakening isn't unheard of, though it is rare. You'll want to sit and rest a bit. If we spar it'll have to be toward the end of the class, to give you time to regenerate your aura. Like Blake said, it's empty when it awakens."

I nodded, dismissing Vagabond and sighing as I felt myself become whole again. It felt…jarring. I could tell that my semblance wasn't just clones. There was more to this, and I was going to need to experiment with it to find out what. But, on the upside…free power. Neat. With that settled, I slumped down onto the ground nearby to rest up. I had a fight to look forward to.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent hope everyone enjoys.