Dust in the Wind

by Buried In Ash

Choosing isn't the hard part. It's living with the consequences afterwards.

54. Vol2: Days in the Weeks I

**Special thanks to Mecharic for Beta-ing**

I've worn a lot of crazy things. As a wastelander, that's just naturally par for the course. New clothes aren't easy to come by unless you make them yourself. Most often the best you can do is used the odds and ends you pick up to maintain what you've already got. Depending how often you do it, you can become a semi-competent tailor and cobbler.

But for the vast majority of situations, that's not entirely possible. So you learn to make do.

I've crossed the Mojave in everything from business suits and body armor to centuries old Power Armor and the most technologically advanced pieces of stealth hardware ever conceived. After a while you have to imagine that there's not much else you could wear that would surprise you. What more could you add on top of those things that would be more audacious?

The answer: You can't add anything.

But you can certainly strip it away and have the same effect.

I'd walked into the locker room, same as I had every other day we had PT. After the other day, a part of me was more gung-ho than before to get into it. Now that I knew what I needed to do to begin improving my aura, I needed to start making up for lost time. I'd already begun planning changes to my regiment to facilitate it. Replaced and added a few exercises to account for using my aura. If I didn't try and roll with it, I was only going to fall further back in that regard. Not good, for something so useful.

Except, when we'd arrived at the gym today, we were told today was going to be different. Our training clothes had already been swapped out, and we were to get changed and head to the gym in short order. I was a little off-put by the sudden change in direction from the regiment we'd spent weeks doing. But I didn't have any real reason to not play along with it either. As long as I could more effectively train my aura, it was more important to just grin and bear it.

I was more off-put, however, by what exactly I was expected to change into.

Resting on top of my usual workout clothes, were a pair of tight looking shorts. Something I'd expect to see on some of the male hookers hanging around Gomorrah. The ones that look like fetishized cowboys, not the whip and chain ones. The only true differentiation came from the color and length. They were a neutral grey, as much as my normal clothes were, with blue running up the seams at the sides. They were a smidge longer as well, and only a smidge. The Gomorrah guys had shorts that reached furthest down at their crotch. I at least had the decency of having the legs reach maybe an inch or two past that.

That was it. That was the whole uniform.

Judging by the reactions of the people I was expected to change around, this was what we were supposed to find. Except that not everyone was reduced down to my levels of… modesty. Some people had pants in a similar tight cut style to mine, but were at least slightly longer. Most others wore looser shorts that seemed more in the style of Boxer's trunks. Hell, some of them even wore shirts. A veritable host of different styles in an array of colors.

And I was stuck dressing like a stripper.

Terrific.

I had to wonder who I had the pleasure to thank for that.

"The fuck is this?" I asked, more just voicing my own confusion than expecting an answer

"I dunno, looks like a swimsuit to me." Jaune said from the locker across from me. "We're supposed to be swimming today."

"Yeah, I got the memo-" I groused "But what the fuck is with the clothing?"

"I'm pretty sure you got to choose what you wear." Ren said from his locker, about three down from mine "They asked us when getting our training gear in order."

"Well, I don't remember fillin' that part out." I shot back "Shouldn't that just mean I get nothing, or at least whatever the 'standard' suit is?"

"Um- I think those are supposed to be the normal ones." Jaune said, tucking his clothes under his arm, a longer and looser pair of yellow and blue trunks "Like, if you didn't put in an order?"

"… Why the fuck is this the norm?" I groused, ramping up the annoyance.

Jaune pondered it for a moment, then gave me a shrug, shutting his locker. Not like there was much more to be offered for it anyway. Other people in the locker room were in much the same situation I was, but didn't seem to be as perturbed by it. Hell, there were guys that had apparently asked for smaller suits. Weirdos or showoffs in either case, if I could say so. Assuming Jaune and Ren were being honest, and I had no reason to doubt them, then I had no one to blame here but myself. Should've read the paperwork more carefully.

Begrudgingly, I took my 'suit' and shut my locker. Turning and following the steady trickle of students to a row of changing stalls kept near the showers. Most of the time they didn't see any use, but I guess most of the male student population had issues with judgment. Even given what we were getting dressed in now.

Of note, the showers almost never saw use, and the locker room tended to smell a bit ripe after PT.

But I've walked through Vegas on a hot day, and there are some things even a gasmask can't filter out. I'm no stranger to Eau du Funk.

I stepped into one of the stalls and peeled out of my uniform, or what I hadn't already shed, anyway. Setting the clothes on a shelf as I held the swimsuit in front of me for a moment. Questioning if I really had to wear it.

Then I remembered other people were wearing them, and clearly weren't bothered by it. I knocked my hesitancy on its ass and squeezed into the suit. It kind of reminded me of the body suit I wore under my training leathers, or the Stealth Suits the Big Empty made. Tight, but comfortably stretchy.

The only thing left to take care of my helmet.

I peeled it off and inspected the interior before reaching a hand in. You can't wear a gasmask while underwater. That's common sense, really. At the very least, it would completely destroy the mask's filters, rendering it useless. But you were also effectively creating an air trap. Water pours in through the filters, the mask's seal around your face gives it no exit point, and it can only slowly drain back out the way it came in. Really, just a bad situation all around.

Also, if it had built in lowlight vision like mine, you might electrocute yourself with the power cell.

I'd had to wear my helmet while swimming before, and had learned how to modify it to keep myself from drowning. A couple simple changes: remove the filter and gasket that help it stay airtight to my head. I'd figured out how to easily remove and replace them some time ago, and learned to do the same when I had to go underwater. Granted, it was also much easier to just not wear it, but I wasn't about to give anyone the satisfaction of that.

I opened the filter housing, then twisted the puck out of its socket. After hid the filter among my clothes and reached my hand into the interior of my mask. There was a series of small clasps that locked the seal in place. Not the easiest thing to dismantle without the appropriate tools, but I had the practice to make it happen.

Of course, I did have a different option, but I didn't see a need for it at the time.

It only took a minute or two to dismantle everything, and it would take longer to put it back together later. As soon as it was done though, I belted my helmet back on and stepped out of the stall. Walking back to my locker I earned a couple of looks here and there, but was mostly ignored. Couldn't tell if that was a result of the scars, or my clothes either. There were at least a few others here with scars of their own, and I wasn't the only one wearing something rather… light. But it didn't really matter in the end.

Reaching my locker, I set my clothes in it and locked it back up. Last thing I needed was for someone to pull something funny and leave me to wander around in this. There were definitely people I wouldn't put it past either.

I waited a minute or two longer before heading to the gym. Partly because I had no clue where exactly they were going to send us for this to work. But also, because I figured it'd be the friendly thing to wait for Jaune and Ren to show up. It wasn't too long of a wait anyway; most people were in and out of the stalls after a minute or so anyway. Jaune and Ren wound up being about the average too.

What absolutely was not the average though, was what they came out as.

Jaune was wearing looser fit trunks, as noted, in shades of yellow and blue. Nothing particularly noteworthy about the clothing itself. What was surprising, though, was Jaune himself. While dressed in his uniform, or the white armor he used in combat he looked a bit out of place. Whether it was his armor being too big for him, or him just being a naturally lean person, I wasn't entirely sure. Seeing him now though, I knew for a fact it was definitely the former and not the latter. For someone who acts as nebbish as Jaune, he was actually pretty broad chested. There wasn't much definition to anything about him, but the presence was there. The early stages of a fighter's build. Given a few months more of training he would probably, loathe though I'd be to admit it, be what Legionnaires strove for. Not everyone can be Lanius, but anyone can shoot to be a praetorian.

Not bad for someone who cheated the system.

Ren, on the other hand, was closer to what I was expecting, but still a surprise. He came out wearing trunks not too dissimilar from my own but longer, reaching to his knees, and colored black and green. He wasn't as 'big' as Jaune, but made up for it in his own way. In some ways he reminded me of Fox, lots of lean, endurance muscle. But Fox would have him beat in terms of size, and likely muscle power, as well. That wasn't to say Ren looked weak by any stretch, but he was certainly smaller. Fox had the body of someone who trained to get caught in the heat of a fight. Ren had the body of someone who preferred to keep ahead of it. The kind of muscle you expected off someone who spent their time running the roads of the Mojave. Plus more time running from the things that lived on them. That wasn't a shot for cowardice either, most people would rather run than stand toe to toe with some of the wilder stuff in the Mojave. Standing your ground was an option for the insane fools, or the ones who didn't have a choice.

You wouldn't normally use the word svelte to describe a guy, but Ren proved the exception.

In return for my unspoken observations, however, they gave me strange looks.

The male representatives of JNPR returned to their lockers and we mingled into the crowd trickling towards the gym.

Likewise, I began mentally prepping myself.

I'd been having trouble… focusing, in gym recently. I personally wasn't a fan of it, and had no clue what was bringing it on. It'd been difficult when almost everyone was mostly clothed. It didn't take a dose of Mentats to know this was going to be infinitely worse if I wasn't actively being mindful.

So as the corridor from the male and female locker rooms converged, a fucked-up design choice, I chose to begin chatting with Jaune and Ren.

"So, we're swimming then… where exactly?" I asked

"Beats me." Jaune shrugged "I didn't even know we had a pool."

"If I had to guess, the gym." Ren answered "They seem to have built in equipment for plenty of different exercises."

"Sounds about right." I said, training my eyes to the ceiling as I felt them drifting places they shouldn't "They're able to raise and lower stuff like the obstacle course out of the ground, wouldn't be too surprised they've hidden a pool there too."

"Not to ask a dumb question either." Jaune said, motioning to my head "But are you… planning to swim with that on?"

"That's a silly question Jaune, not a dumb one." I answered "You should know the answer by now."

"You don't really think you can swim with that on, do you?" Ren asked

"Yes, I do, and I'll out swim you while doing it." I answered, heading for my locker

Ren quirked an eyebrow at me. "You realize you'll probably drown, right?"

"Bold assumptions." I shot back "You know neither my swimming abilities, nor my lung capacity."

Ren said nothing for a moment, then chuckled and rolled his eyes. Jaune still seemed perturbed, but less so than he'd otherwise be. On some level I had to imagine they were accepting that this was just par for the course by now.

We kept moving down the corridor until we were just outside the gym. It would normally take a moment or two for scents to work their way through my gasmask. With the filters and gasket removed however, my nose was almost immediately assaulted by the chemical sting of chlorine. Even before we entered, it would appear Ren had been correct.

We spilled out into the open air of the gymnasium, and found it once more transformed. Its vast floor space had been split open, revealing a massive pool of almost eerily blue water. Rubber mats and benches ringed the pool, and the handles of ladders poked up from the far and near sides. The floor of the pool, beneath the water, was flat for a third of one side, long ways. Then the depth dropped off rapidly, markers along its walls showing it reaching down as far as twenty feet. At that end of the pool, sitting at its edge, were raised diving platforms. Hanging from stanchions around the pool were life preservers. Both the ring-shaped kind that you'd see in some pre-war comics, and long rectangular ones that were flexible enough to bow slightly under their own weight.

I personally didn't have much experience with pools. The closest I'd ever come to one was the bathhouse in the Ultra Luxe. But I'd seen enough stuff around Lake Mead to recognize it.

The crowd reached the pool, spreading around it. Most seemed to be tempted to just jump straight in, but restrained themselves. We had class, whatever Port was going to throw at us came first, then people could have fun.

I spotted my teammates and the missing half of JNPR hanging around a bench near the shallower end.

Much like I'd predicted, I found my eyes tried to wander to things they shouldn't be. I fixed that by focusing on other things. Like this one lock of hair that'd been sticking out of Yang's hair, at the crown of her head. Thinking about it, I was almost certain it'd always been there.

Of course, it didn't help that their swimwear and mine shared a similar annoying attribute. Compared to the training uniforms we normally wore, these ones were less personal and… well, uniform. Despite being color coordinated to their preferred shade, they weren't exactly loose fit. The legs and sleeves varied between each of them, some lacking sleeves altogether, or were a two-piece like the outfit Yang had worn before losing our bet. Ruby and Weiss each wore one long body suit, Ruby's sleeves and legs reaching to her elbows and knees, Weiss's only covering her shoulders and a few inches below her waist. Blake, Pyrrha, and Nora all wore two-piece suits. Blake with shorts and sleeves that reached mid-way down her thighs and arms, baring enough of her stomach to show her navel. Pyrrha's cut short in the legs, the sleeves rendered to straps, stomach fully exposed up to diaphragm. The cuts made to emphasize her well-toned physique in an eye catching, flattering manner. Nora was the only one of three to try and keep the look as close to her original outfit as possible, despite its tighter nature providing a more alluring quality. Yang was in the former category with Ruby and Weiss, wearing a one-piece swimsuit. But it shared some qualities with Blake and Pyrrha's. tight legs that hugged her form, straps over her shoulders that took the place of sleeves. Cuts and angles that accentuated her form in an athletic, form fitting, and enchanti-

Wow, would you look at those overhead lights. I wonder, what wattage does it take to get them going?

Jaune, Ren, and me approached our respective teammates as they were in the midst of some conversation.

"-I'm telling you Rubes-" Yang said, clearly excited about something "-there's no way he…" Her gaze drifted up to us as we approached, drawing the rest of their attention with it. I couldn't help but notice Pyrrha and Nora both looked more surprised than my teammates. "… Really?" Yang asked, looking supremely annoyed "You're kidding, right?"

"About?" I asked.

"You're helmet." Weiss said, giving me a deadened glare "You can't seriously be swimming with that on."

Ah, so that's what this was about.

"Yes I can." I shot back "What, were you expecting I'd be unprepared for something like this?"

"Um… won't you drown?" Ruby asked, looking slightly concerned.

"Only if I can't hold my breath." I told her "Made sure it won't cause me any trouble."

"Holy cow!" Nora squawked, eyes bulging out of her head as she… well, quite blatantly, she was staring at me chest.

"Yes, I'm hairy." I said, unconsciously scratching one of my pale haired pecs "It's perfectly natural."

"I don't believe that was what she was referring to." Pyrrha said politely, seeming to have a better time fighting off whatever came over the two of them. "You have quite a number of… rather noticeable scars."

"Oh, yeah, those." I said "Well, you didn't assume I got this far with getting hurt a few times, did you?"

"A few!?" Nora squawked again, somewhere between awe, surprise, and amusement.

"Compared to some guys from the Mojave, yes." I said, giving quick glance down to my chest. "Though I'll admit, some of them are a bit bad looking."

"Where'd they all come from anyway?" Ruby asked innocently.

"Fighting mostly, though a few of them are from stupid antics of my own making." I admitted "Not something to be talking about in public though."

There weren't as many of them as there had been before I came here. Something to do with how I shrank on arrival. But there were still plenty of them. Old, star shaped dimples from bullet wounds. White, hairline slashes from blade wounds. Splotches of mottled pink and white skin from catching laser and plasma bolts, or just missing them. Then there were the gnarlier ones. Irregular, notched marks caused by claws from geckos and coyotes. Large semicircular punctuations from cazadores and smaller ones from bloatfly larvae. The occasional, long healed gash from the teeth of Yao guai and nightstalker alike. There was also, of course, the remains of the surgical scarring from my inaugural trip to Big Mt.

If I wasn't as good a healer as I was, I'd probably be a lot grizzlier looking than I was. But careful healing and judicious use of stimpacks kept the scarring minimal.

"Do any of them hurt?" Pyrrha asked.

I looked back to Pyrrha, and noticed that Nora seemed to be inching her way towards me. Her hand out and finger extended.

As soon as her hand was close enough, I flicked it aside. "No touching."

"Aww~" She whined, before smiling in a joking way. She backed off without losing the smile, noticeably letting her gaze drift to her partner. Her smile gained a more… appreciative edge to it.

If Ren noticed, I honestly couldn't tell.

"-To answer your question: -" I said, returning to Pyrrha "- sometimes, yes. But only some of the worse ones, and they're temporary more than anything. Pain's normally a good sign too, means the body's healing like it should."

"I see." Pyrrha nodded.

I nodded with her, before turning to my teammates. "So, any other obvious things we feel like pointing out?"

"… Why's your swimsuit so small?" Blake asked, clearly trying to make one last barb at me.

"Screwed up the paperwork and got the default swim suit." I shot back.

"… Really?"

"Seriously." I nodded "It's at least a reasonable excuse, and par for the course."

"But seriously, still with the helmet?" Yang asked.

"Yes, seriously." I asked back, focusing on that annoying curl of hair "Why are you so hung up on it?"

Yang scrunched her nose in something resembling a pout "No reason."

"Sure doesn't seem like it. In fact, why's Blake still wearing your bow?" I asked "You're going to give me shit for wearing my helmet, but Blake's the exception?"

Apparently having the gall to call the kettle black, or the cat Blake, Blake was still wearing her bow. It sat primly tied atop her head, its darker shade pairing nicely with her swimsuit.

"You know why I'm wearing it." Blake said, keeping her voice low.

"Yeah, and it's the same reason I'm wearing my helmet." I said, lowering my voice to match "I like my privacy."

"… How about we just drop it?" Yang offered, clearly miffed "I guess this really isn't the place to be talking about it anyway."

"No, no it's not." I nodded, glad to move the conversation along to newer topics "So what's the plan here, besides standing around in our underwear?"

"It's not underwear, they're swim suits." Ruby said, puffing her cheeks slightly "I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be swimming today, but Professor Port hasn't-"

"Attention students!" Port boomed.

'Ah, right on cue.'

Collectively, the present students turned, following the thunder of Port's voice. I found him quickly enough, since I'd already been rather proactively looking towards the ceiling.

I almost wish I hadn't been.

Standing atop the tallest diving platform, was Professor Port. As per usual, he was dressed so as to participate with the class. Perhaps his own way of encouraging the students. Frankly, it backfired in this situation. I don't think there was anyone in the student population who ever wanted to see him in a swimsuit. I'm pretty sure I saw Ruby physically cringe, a fair reaction to what Port was wearing. One universal, as I could see most of the students trying to suppress it as well.

To be fair, Port was in good shape for a guy his age. There are just some things that you can go without seeing in your life. Having had the misfortune to see many of them, I would know.

Port in a swimsuit was one of them.

He stood with a proud, wide stance. It only made things worse. "As the summer is continuing to grow-" Port boomed "-We thought it would be prudent to allow you students the opportunity to begin the swimming portion of your exercise regimen." He shifted his stance, drawing his feet closer together and setting his hands on either hip. Almost like he was trying to flex. "Today, you will begin with the basics. Practice your strokes, practice your dives, and improve your endurance."

"Guy, you're gonna give me stroke if you don't put some pants on." I muttered under my breath.

I couldn't help but notice Yang trying not to laugh.

"I encourage you all to use the time presented to you wisely, and focus on the areas you find yourself to be weakest." Port continued "By the end of this course, there will be an exam that will require you to swim in your hunting attire. I suggest, while enjoying the water, you take that into consideration."

"Psh, that doesn't sound so bad." I heard Nora chitter.

"Clearly you've never swam with an extra fifty pounds of gear."

"-There are flotation devices located around the pool, should they be required." Port finished "This class shall be more free form than our previous ones, but that does not mean you should slack. Work hard, train harder, and most of all: -"

"Stay vigilant." I heard most of the present class drone. Seems his little maxim had started to catch on.

With that Port nodded, and sprang off the diving platform. Flipping with an unexpected, weightless grace through the air, before careening towards the pool like a rocket. Crashing down with all the impact of one as well. Staying beneath the surface for several moments before resurfacing a couple yards from where he landed.

Most of the students took that as their cue to dive in. Some made a straight shot for the diving platforms, while others dove straight off from ground level. Clearly eager to put… that behind them as quickly as possible.

"… Welp, now I wish I was blind." I said, knowing that the image of Port was going to be burned into my head for the remainder of my unfortunate life.

"Yyyy-up." Yang said, looking like she'd just swallowed a bug.

"I didn't need to see any of that." Ruby said, sounding like she was about to heave.

"… I think we should just… get in the pool." Pyrrha said, clearly trying to find the strength to muscle past everything.

"Good idea, the bleach should help scrub the pain out." I said.

With decidedly hurried strides, our little group started towards the water's edge. An unofficial little race to see who could wipe out that little incident first. It came to an abrupt end, however, when my teammates began to slow down, and allowed JNPR to overtake and beat us to the water. Nora practically throwing herself into the clear waters.

My team on the other hand, splintered off after a few steps.

I came to a stop myself and turned back. I saw, in order of distance, Ruby, Yang and Blake, then, all the way at the back, Weiss. Standing with a pensive look of apprehension.

"What's wrong Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"N-nothing." Weiss snipped, though strangely lacking any of the usual heat it carried "I feel a little unwell. I believe I will sit out this class."

"Whaaat?" Ruby whined "But this is like, the most fun gym class we're going to have."

"Yes, but I've decided that I'm not going to participate today." Weiss answered primly.

"Aren't you the girl obsessed with her grades?" Blake asked, unable to suppress a small smirk "Wouldn't this be bad for them?"

"My grades are quite capable of accepting a day of missed work." Weiss continued "Besides, I believe I am quite physically capable."

It took everything I had not to bark out a laugh.

"Aww, but Weiss~" Ruby whined.

"No buts." Weiss answered, clearly trying to put an end to the conversation before any further arguments could be made.

Tough shit, you give me crap for wearing a helmet, I'll give you crap for being a wimp.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Hmm?" Weiss hummed, quirking an eyebrow at me.

"You said you don't feel good, what's wrong?" I asked, motioning to her "You seem to be standing quite fine, so it can't be anything serious."

Weiss's eyes widened slightly "W-well, um-... It's the air."

"… the air?" I asked, after letting it sink in for a moment.

"Y-yes, it's the smell, the pool water is making me nauseous."

"… So you're complaining about an upset stomach?" I asked.

"She's certainly bellyaching." Yang said under her breath.

"Yes, yes I am." Weiss said, trying to bolster her confidence.

I nodded, having heard her excuse. "Hm, I guess that makes sense. Chlorine isn't the most pleasant smell in the world. But I'm pretty sure that's not what's upsetting your stomach."

A flicker of uncertainty passed through Weiss's face. "What do you mean?"

"It's not the chlorine." I continued "It's the line of Brahmin crap you're trying to feed us."

Weiss's eye twitched. "I-it's not-"

"Really, you've got a stomach ache, Weiss?" I asked "You couldn't have come up with something more believable? Like: 'I skipped breakfast, and don't have the energy for this.' Or 'something's wrong with my shoulder, and I'm going to the nurse'? Seriously, you could've faked a limp and it would've been more effective than that."

For a moment, Weiss managed to maintain her composure, like an immaculate porcelain sculpture. Then the porcelain shattered into a dozen tiny little pieces. Her face fell, and she looked to the floor, defeated.

Apparently not enjoying the sight of her partner being verbally beaten, Ruby turned and walked to her. One of her slender hands finding its way to Weiss's shoulder.

"Weiss, what's wrong?" Ruby asked "You know you can tell us if something's wrong, right?"

"You expect as much from us at least." Blake said, dragging Yang along to help keep the conversation a little more private.

"Nothing. There's nothing wrong." Weiss lied, clearly trying to piece the porcelain back together.

"Snowflake, we know you're lying." I said, stepping closer "At the risk of looking like a hypocrite, spare us the song and dance?"

"I-it's not funny!" She shot back. Yet it still lacked any of the heat I was expecting. It was a bit more shrill, immature. Something that told me this was less of a serious issue, and more one she was just slightly embarrassed by.

Weiss's eyes darted fervently amongst us. Clearly looking for some kind of escape, but quickly failing to find one. Then I saw her lean slightly, looking past us. Her expression soured further.

Sparing a moment's thought to it, I turned around to try and see what she was looking at. Curiously, I didn't see anything of note. Most of the other students had already flocked to the water. Anybody who wasn't already in it, seemed to be getting ready to-

Oh…

No fucking way.

I turned back to Weiss.

"Snowflake-" I said.

Her eyes instantly met mine, and I could see some childish degree of discomfort beginning to crystalize in them.

"-Do you… not know how to swim?" I asked.

"…"

Weiss said nothing.

But watching the look of discomfort instantly blossom into one of childish fear was absolutely priceless.

I clearly wasn't the only one to notice it either.

"…"

Blake didn't say anything, but I could see her desperately fighting back a case of the snickers.

Ruby and Yang on the other hand, wore nothing but smiles. Yang's one of amused disbelief, and Ruby's of utter confusion.

"I-it's not funny!" Weiss protested, getting a little red in the face.

"… I'm going to borrow a phrase of yours for a minute here:" I said, bemused and befuddled "What do you mean you don't know how to swim?"

"I'm from Atlas, do you know how cold it is up there?" Weiss continued to protest "Why would I need a pool?"

"… So you would know how to swim." I shot back "Kind of important, given what you're training for."

"Well- where would I keep one, it would freeze!"

"… Well then-" I said, motioning to the building around us "Beacon must be blowing your mind right now, because clearly Indoor Pools don't exist where you're from."

Weiss's face turned red enough to match Ruby's swimsuit.

Blake's snickering was steadily growing into a chuckle, not too far off from outright laughter.

"W-well- I-I-"

"Snowflake." I cut her off "I'm from a wasteland, a desert wasteland, and even I know how to swim. You have no excuse."

"…"

At first, Weiss's face scrunched up into an indignant pout. Then her shoulders suddenly gave out, slumping in defeat, as the light went out of her eyes like a snuffed candle. She'd lost, and she knew it. Part of me wanted to take satisfaction in knowing that, for once, Weiss was getting a taste of humble pie. Except, it wasn't satisfying. More than anything, this was a very clear sore spot for her. Needling her about it was basically the same as bullying her.

Something my teammates must have picked up on. Despite having every reason not to, I couldn't help but notice Blake began to rather actively stifle her own laughter. Helped along by a gentle elbow-to-the-side from Yang. The smile on Yang's face shifted, changing to one surprisingly compassionate. "Hey, it's not so bad. At least you didn't jump in the pool without telling us. This is the wrong season to go Weiss Fishing."

Perhaps compassion was the wrong word.

Without hardly a word, Ruby turned back. She walked to her partner and put an arm reassuringly around her shoulders. "We're here to help Weiss, remember?" Ruby asked "It's part of being a team."

Weiss pursed her lips, looking to Ruby. For a moment, she looked more like a lost kid than a confident young woman. A positively jarring change given the way Weiss normally carried and conducted herself.

Ruby fixed me with a look, and I returned it with a nod.

Very rarely will you hear me admit that I was on the same wavelength as a teenage girl.

"… Alright." I said, motioning with my hand "Let's go."

"Go?" Weiss asked dejectedly "Go where?"

"The pool, snowflake." I clarified "You're not going to learn how to swim on dry land."

Weiss blinked, and the life immediately came back to her eyes. "Eh?"

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered, Her arm shifting to grab Weiss's "C'mon, me and Yang can teach you!"

"W-wait, what!?" Weiss sputtered, slowly being dragged forward by her partner.

"Well, you didn't just assume we were going to laugh at you then leave you to drown, did you?" I asked.

"B-but-"She continued.

"No buts, remember?" I said, mimic her tone "Yang, grab her other arm."

"Heck Yeah!" Unexpectedly, Yang complied, giving Weiss a devious grin. "Me and Rubes have been swimming since we were kids, this'll be easy."

Between her and Ruby, they almost lifted Weiss off the floor completely.

We started towards the water, and I began lecturing. "Lesson one: how to jump into the shallow end."

…

"This is stupid." Weiss complained, lying on her back "This is completely and utterly idiotic."

She promptly sank like a stone into the pool water, flailing for a minute in its chlorinated depths. When she finally found her footing, she broke the surface sputtering and coughing like a stalled engine.

"It's also the most fundamental lesson when it comes to swimming." I said, letting the water drain out of my helmet as I completed another lap "Learning how to float."

We were keeping to the shallow end of the pool. Mostly because trying to teach Weiss by throwing her off the deep end would've been cruel. There was always a chance the sudden shock might force her to learn. But there was a much greater chance she'd just sink to the bottom. Given the evidence of her current performance, I was inclined to believe the latter.

Weiss regained her composure and stood up, face scrunched up in a grimace. Her hair wreathed her head in damp, darkened tendrils. "This is… idiotic!"

"You're learning, it takes a few tries." Yang said, shooting Weiss a sunny smile as she and Blake lingered near the edge. Yang standing navel deep in the water while Blake sat on the rim of the pool, legs dangling in. I couldn't help but notice however that Yang's hair, and her entire upper half for that matter, were bone dry.

Guess she didn't want to swim either.

"Remember, you're only floating on your back because there's air in your lungs. You need to keep your breathing steady, otherwise you're gonna sink." I said, rising to my feet in the pool. The water was about waist high on me, so about three feet deep. "Remember-"

"-Slow, deep breaths, I know." Weiss sniped.

"None of the sass either." I said brightly "It weighs you down."

Weiss shot me another pout, then took a deep breath and lowered herself back into the water. We told her once she could do this for a minute, we'd actually move on to the moving part of swimming. We'd been at it almost a half hour at that point, and we'd made some progress. But despite being a fairly learned individual, she was picking up on this rather slowly. Although considering she'd apparently known nothing about swimming until we'd dragged her into the water, I guess she was picking it up rather quickly. Learning to float on your back is one of the most fundamental and basic things to learn about swimming. It takes the least energy to do, and can be a lifesaver if you're stranded too far from land. But that didn't mean it was easy. If you couldn't keep calm, control your breathing, you wouldn't have the buoyancy to stay above water. Some people can struggle with that, and panicking out on open water typically only ended in drowning.

Unless you had a rebreather. Then, by all means, walk on the lake bed. You might find some lost Legion gold while you're down there.

Weiss was slowly getting it though.

As she relaxed into the water, her body eased beneath its surface. She closed her eyes and smoothed her features. The warm water of the pool began to splay and fan her snow-white hair around her, as wake from the other students traveled and washed over her. Most of her body was beneath the surface, only the upper part of her chest, shoulders, and head were above it. I could see her chest rising and falling in slow, deep motions. She was getting better at controlling her breathing. The water slowly washing over her chest with each exhale, then receding as she inhaled. Naturally rolling down the scant curvature of her form, and the pale blue and white swimsuit. She was a skinny thing, twiggy almost. I was going to need to consider giving her extra portions at dinner. But, it was fitting I guess, she was thin and flat as a board, now she was floa-

OH HEY LOOK IT'S NORA!

Without so much as a warning, Nora came plowing through the space Weiss had been floating. Arms that could toss around a thousand pounds like a feather cut through the water and hammered my white haired teammate. Slamming her beneath the surface like a nail being driven by a supersledge. Nora gliding through the space she had once occupied, arms beating the water in thunderous claps.

Ruby was close behind her, less than a foot away really, and closing the distance as quickly as she could. Unintentionally trampling her partner with the same level of care as Nora had. Fighting to keep pace with the tawny haired girl.

It came to a sudden end as they crashed into the edge of the pool. Yang scrambled to get out of the way, but tripped into Blake, dragging her in and sending them both into the drink.

Nora reached the edge first her hands slapping wet against the concrete.

"I win!" Nora squawked, her voice hoarse and breathy as she breathed raggedly.

"Wha~ no fair, I want a rematch!" Ruby whined, similarly heaving, slamming her tiny fists into the pool with a splash.

"You're on!..." Nora huffed, leaning against the edge of the pool "In a minute."

"I told you to take it easy." Ren said, swimming past me in a slow, relaxed backstroke "You're not going to keep winning at this rate."

"Oh… don't be… like that." Nora puffed, smiling as bright as I'd ever seen her.

"Hey, could you watch where you're swimming?" Yang said, grimacing as she pulled herself and Blake back out of the water. Yang's golden hair rendered a damp, clinging yellow, faint rings of red to her irises. Blake's hair had been made a glossy black that hung and clung to her face. Their previously dry swimwear had been rendered to a darker shade as well, giving contour to their grasp. Darkening in pigment further as they contacted the skin beneath. Giving shape and form as they-

Oh, wow, Blake's bow looks a lot softer than I thought it did.

"Sor-ry~" Nora huffed, giving up and letting her weight settle against the wall.

"You really should be more careful Nora." Pyrrha said, paddling up alongside…

"Um, what?" I asked, trying to process just what exactly I was looking at.

It was Jaune and Pyrrha, that much was easy enough to piece out. There really wasn't any mistaking vomit boy and his red-head partner. No, the surprise was in how they were approaching us. Jaune was standing upright in the water, walking beside Pyrrha as she swam. Pyrrha, as stated, was swimming. Not so strange.

Except for the fact she was wearing a life preserver and gripping some sort of board in front of her.

And Jaune had one of his hands under her, clearly supporting her.

My confusion must have been obvious enough, because Pyrrha looked at me and gave an embarrassed little smile.

"You can't swim?" I asked, giving Pyrrha a leery look.

"Y-yes." Pyrrha said, standing up while letting her gaze linger low "I didn't have many chances to try and learn as a child. Argus isn't quite the place to go swimming either."

"She asked if I could help her get the hang of it." Jaune said "She's picking it up pretty quickly."

"W-well, it's not as though I've never been swimming before. The river was just… colder and faster than I expected." Pyrrha looked up from the pool, her gaze traveling appreciatively to Jaune. "Though it certainly helps that I've got a decent teacher."

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you with something you're not good with." Jaune said, smiling "You've helped me a lot in the past, and as your leader, shouldn't I return the favor?"

"Hmm." Pyrrha hummed, an odd smile spreading on her face as her eyes lingered on Jaune. More accurately, I'd say they were drinking him in.

I got the distinct impression that not knowing how to swim wasn't the reason she had Jaune helping her.

"I guess not being able to swim is just an Atlas thing." Blake said, whipping and wiping pool water off herself.

"… I'm inclined to agree." I said, shaking my head "First Weiss couldn't swim and now- oh shit, Weiss!"

It was at that moment I realized Weiss hadn't come back up for air.

I waded through the water as quickly as I could, diving beneath the surface. It took a moment for the water to seep into my mask, granting me a second of clarity before I had to close my eyes. Weiss was on the floor of the pool, only under three feet of water. Her face was locked with a look of shellshock, eyes wide with surprise, and mouth hanging limply open. I didn't see any air bubbles coming out, so either Nora had knocked all the air out of her, or had exhaled in surprise.

I gripped her by her slender shoulders and hoisted her out of the water. Giving all the care you'd give a sack of flour. She broke the surface and immediately began coughing water. She doubled over, trying to breath, and I tried to keep her from immediately disappearing back beneath the water.

"Easy- I got you, I got you." I said, supporting Weiss as she stumbled to get her feet under her.

"How long were you going to leave me down there!?" Weiss sputtered weakly.

"Why didn't you stand up!?" I shot back.

Rather than argue the point, Weiss saved her energy for more important things, like breathing. While she focused on that all-consuming task, I began to walk her back to the edge of the pool. I couldn't help but notice Nora and Ruby looked surprised.

"What was she doing under the water?" Nora chirped "Trying to see how long she could hold her breath?"

"You slammed into her while racing Ruby." I groused, easing Weiss against the wall of the pool.

"… I did?" Nora asked, her eyes widening, looking to Weiss.

Weiss didn't say anything to her, or even take note of her. She just stayed doubled up on the wall. I couldn't blame her, what she went through was a pretty shitty experience.

Nora's previous mood immediately fell.

Ruby weaved around her previous racing partner and to her actual partner. "Are you going to be ok?" Ruby asked.

"… I'll… be fine." Weiss said, trying to regain her composure. She blinked, her eyes tinged red from the pool water, perhaps broken blood vessels too. Had to wonder how hard Nora had actually hit her. Neither one of them had been paying any attention to what was going on around them.

"I-I'm sorry." Nora said, muted regret plain on her face.

"… Watch where you're going." Weiss said coldly. I couldn't tell if it was because that was all she could muster, or because she was that angry. I probably would've been too.

"What you did was dangerous, Nora." I said, turning to her "You need to pay more attention. Even if it was an accident, in other situations this could have gotten much uglier."

Especially considering I highly doubted aura could handle little things like asphyxiation.

Nora's face fell, the energy she normally had ebbed out of her.

Then, without warning, she dove beneath the surface. Through the murky wake of the pool, I could see her brace herself against the wall, then kick off it. She disappeared quickly, only the faint churn of the water left to indicate she was in motion.

"… Where's she going?" I asked.

Ren stood up, looking out in the pool, roughly in the direction Nora had moved. He turned back towards us with a half-cocked smile. "You'll find out when she comes back."

I stared after Nora for a moment, before shaking my head. Weiss was still recovering, and I was probably going to make sure she hadn't been more seriously injured. Aura was good at avoiding that sort of thing, but considering how she'd reacted to getting hammered to the floor, I wasn't so sure all was right. Now I couldn't be so upset if she didn't want to swim, getting attacked out of the blue like that wasn't fun. I'd been attacked by lakelurks in the water before, you never imagine what that kind of situation is like until you're in it.

"You think she's going to stay under the whole time?" a new but familiar voice asked.

"I'd hope she's not that crazy, but Nora's a strange one." I responded, turning back to the concrete rim of the pool.

Coco was there, smirking down at me over the rim of her sunglasses. Her teammates were not far behind her, Velvet and Fox were vying for second place, while Yatsu was taking up the rear. I did my best not to focus any one of them too hard. But it was hard for unexpected reasons.

Mostly because Yatsu was seven some-odd feet of statuesque muscle. In a light green swimsuit that made Port's look modest to boot.

It wasn't that his teammates weren't noteworthy, just that Yatsu was that different.

"You're still wearing your helmet." Coco stated skeptically.

"Yeah, and you're still wearing your beret and glasses." I commented, still looking up at her.

Coco shrugged, pushing her sunglasses back into place. "It's kinda my thing." She smirked, cocking her head slightly.

I didn't fail to notice her head seemed to trail a nearby group of students, ever so slightly. How disconcerting.

I planted my hands on the rim of the pool and pushed up, climbing out of the water. I turned back to the water and came low enough to off Weiss a hand.

"You need a hand?"

Weiss didn't say anything, she just grimaced at me, then shook her head. She probably wasn't in any mood to start moving.

"Wow you are really hairy." Coco said, giving me a perturbed look.

"No, I'm not, I'm wearing a sweater." I answered, straightening back out.

Coco and Velvet both blinked, before giving me a look like I'd just sprouted a second head. Then the corner of Velvet's mouth tugged up in a smile, a few chuckles escaping her. Coco on the other hand just continued looking at me, stuck in the processing stage.

"So, you do jokes now?" She asked.

"No, that was sarcasm, got it with last year's fall collection. Pairs well with the sweater." I said.

This time I noticed Fox chuckle a little, while Yatsu rolled his eyes with a smirk. Coco just shook her head.

"Learn something new every day." Coco said "I wouldn't have pegged you for being a towhead either."

"I'm not a towhead." I shot back, flinging pool water off of me "I'm just a bit gray."

I regretted it the moment I said it.

Coco nodded, smirking "So you're gray under that thing, good to know."

"… Assuming the carpet matches the drapes." I backpedaled, as calmly as I could muster.

"There's another joke." Coco said drolly "…Well, you don't seem to have an issue with modesty, kid."

"Oh for the love of- I didn'tchoose this, it's just the default." I groused,

"Actually, you did choose it." Velvet said.

"Oh yeah?" I asked "Why would I choose this?"

"Well maybe you didn't want to." Velvet corrected, blushing slightly "But you didn't choose anything different, so you chose what the normal one was. Choosing to abstain is still a choice."

"…"

I wanted to argue with her, but I knew she wasn't wrong. Technically, even if I hadn't done it intentionally, by choosing to ignore this part of the paperwork, this is what I chose. Technicalities suck when you're the one they're being used on.

Being called on it sucked just as much honestly, and I felt my ears get uncomfortably warm for a moment. Avoiding wanting to make an ass of myself, I said nothing.

It might've worked too.

Then I noticed Velvet was looking at me funny, and Coco lowered her sunglasses again. She appeared to be scrutinizing me now.

"… What?" I asked.

"Is… is your neck turning red?"

"… What?" I asked, noticing that my neck was suddenly feeling war- uh oh.

Coco's eyes widened at about the same time Velvet's did. "Are you… blushing?"

"No." I said, about as convincingly as Weiss had complained about her stomach.

"Holy cow, he is!" I heard Ruby blurt.

I got the sense my teammates were starting to pay attention now too.

What followed was a moment or two of uncomfortable, for me at least, silence. Partly because everyone who was interested, was busy gawking. I on the other hand was too busy trying to figure out who to consciously regulate my blood pressure and direct it away from my head.

However, as Coco began to smirk at me, and I felt the warm continuing to stretch across my face, I decided it was better to just muscle on.

"… Ok, what are you doing here?" I asked, finally reaching my limit "I'm not going to assume you came over here just to poke fun."

"You don't know Coco very well then." Velvet said, casually ribbing her teammate.

"Extra credit, remember?" Coco said "We get more if you're actually doing it. We were going to make sure you knew-"

"That swimming is one of the best exercises a person can do." I said "Because it combines endurance, resistance, and aerobic training in equal measure. While also avoiding any of the potential joint issues posed by traditional training."

"…"

"You do remember that I train rather proactively, right?" I asked, slowly muscling the heat back out of face and neck. "Just because I didn't know to add aura into the mix doesn't change that."

I could've sworn I saw Coco at a loss for a moment, dropping the normally cool air she had. Small victories for me. But then Fox cocked his head towards her, and an amused smirk worked its way onto her face. Coco shrugged. "Look out Fox, you might have some competition."

"Ain't a competition if he can't keep up." I shot back.

Making the first noise I could ever recall him making, Fox snorted out a small laugh. Whether it was derisive or out of amusement, I couldn't tell.

"But, hey, that's you." Coco continued, moving on "If the coolest hunters on campus and a pair of cute girls come to check up on you and all you can do is brush them off, Guess it's your call."

"Really?" I asked, making my voice sound stuffy and posh "Forgive me, I didn't know I was in the presence of such elites. Please, take a seat by the pool side while I massage your ego."

Coco's smirk gained a slight hitch in one corner, one of what I could sense was genuine amusement. Likewise, the rest of her team were clearly amused by our exchange. I could see Velvet almost tittering with laughter, and the smirk Fox wore betrayed some semblance of enjoyment. The only tough sell was Yatsu, but there was a light in his eyes that told me he was at least glad to be present.

"Okay Wiseass, we'll leave you alone if that's what you want." Coco said, conceding gracefully.

"Who said anything about leaving?" I asked, having regained control of my faculties for the moment "You can stick around if you want, we're all training anyway. We all might have secrets, but it's not like knowing how many laps I can swim is that big a deal."

"Oh yeah, and how many laps can you swim?" Velvet asked, rolling her eyes. Said eyes promptly widened, as she seemed to realize she said that out loud.

"All of them." I said snidely "A silly question, really... still, if you guys want to hang around, I don't think anyone here is going to tell you to leave." I thumbed to my teammates and JNPR "We're all misfits here."

"Wow, way to out your friends, Six." Yang called from the water.

'Outing them would've been saying that Weiss and Pyrrha can't swim.'

"The point stands though-" I continued "Assuming you don't mind hanging out with your less-than-cool underclassmen, there's no reason for you to leave."

Coco looked at me for a moment, lips pursed, expression a cool mask of thought. As though she was genuinely contemplating whether or not hanging with us would negatively impact her reputation.

Then another gaggle of students walked past us, and I saw her eyes track to them appreciatively. Her lips quirked back into a smirk.

"Well… I don't think hanging around for a few minutes would be so bad, right boys, V?"

"Hm." Yatsu grunted, and Fox's head bobbed in acknowledgement.

"R-right." Velvet nodded, her face flushing slightly. Not sure why she was, she hadn't done anything to really warrant it. Maybe she was self-conscious about her swimsuit? But unlike mine, it was a custom job. A brown two piece, trimmed at the edges with either a bright yellow or faux gold. Her body was trim and lithe, hard to notice beneath her usual uniform. Slender-toned arms and legs, lithe stomach, pert-

OH HEY IT'S NORA AGAIN!

Mid-stream of thought, Nora returned, colliding with the pool wall right beside Weiss. Colliding was too strong a word for it though. Flopped would've been more appropriate.

She came up, gasping and sputtering for air worse than Weiss had been. Poor girl almost looked half drowned, color drained from her face and orange hair clinging to her in a darkened mop. She doubled over on the wall, coughing in watery, gurgling fits. Each exhale spewing what I could only assume to be pool water across the concrete. Her shoulders heaving with exertion.

Her sudden arrival took most of us by surprise. Weiss and Ruby sidestepped after Nora had surfaced, taking a few steps away from her.

As if today hadn't already been full of enough surprises, Ren immediately shot up from his post. He waded through the water with surprising speed, and was with Nora rather quickly. The girl shaking like a leaf as she greedily gulped down air, and retched up water in its place.

"T-that was… TERRIBLE!" Nora crowed; voice as unsteady as she looked. Even as she shook and retched, she uncurled just enough to turn towards Weiss, fighting back her body's desperate pleas for air. "I-I'm so sorry." She sputtered out, eyes red, either stung by the pool water or from the pressure of her coughing fits.

"W-why would you do that!?" Weiss asked, obviously more concerned by the fact Nora had nearly drowned herself.

"I w-wanted to k-know what I did to you." Nora stuttered, leaning back against the wall "I-I'm sorry."

For a brief moment, Weiss seemed to relax, her face losing the haggard edge from her near drowning. What replaced it was a softened, muted look of understanding, perhaps even gratefulness. It was gone just as quickly as it came though. Immediately re-sculpting itself into an annoyed, indignant mask. "Don't use me as an excuse to drown yourself!"

"Sorry." Nora repeated weakly.

I had to side with Weiss on this one. A stupid move on Nora's part, but I could at least understand the intent.

"Assuming that's all out of the way, we should probably get back to swimming." I said, addressing everyone "We've only got so much time before Port calls it a day." I turned back to Weiss "You got enough of the basics to keep practicing?"

"I-I'll be fine." Weiss snipped.

"You sure?" I asked "Considering I had to dredge you off the bottom of the pool-"

"That was different!" She snapped.

"You sure about that?" Blake asked snidely "I think that's why he's asking."

"What, can she not swim?" Coco mused, smirking.

A silence fell over everyone present. The fact that none of my teammates bothered to refute her served as an answer.

"… Wow, really?" She asked, blinking.

"Yeah, that was basically my reaction too." I agreed.

Weiss shot both of us a look that screamed 'shut up'. Shame it was cut by the fact that I could see her ears turning red. Her face scrunched up again into a pout. She then folded her arms against the wall again, and buried her face in it.

We let her stay like that for a moment, before Ruby came up close and put a reassuring hand on her back. At least I assumed it was supposed to be reassuring, otherwise that would just be awkward.

Likewise, I knelt down.

"Weiss, do you not feel comfortable continuing?" I asked.

Weiss didn't even look up, but the way her head rolled against her arms came as incredibly honest 'No'.

"… Do you still want to learn though?"

A moment passed again. Weiss clearly contemplating whether or not learning how to swim was worth looking like a fool for a little while. But she was a smart cookie, she had the grades to prove it and everything. Just because you look stupid starting out doesn't mean you just give up. If anything, she was just mildly afraid of nearly drowning again due to someone else's carelessness.

But… maybe I had a solution. Or at least, a way to make this easier.

I just wish I didn't have to use it.

Her head pivoted in a nod, 'Yes'.

"… Alright." I said, standing back up "-Wait here, I'll be right back."

I turned around and quickly started back to the locker room.

The corridor back was empty by this point, so I didn't have to dip and weave around anyone to get where I was going. I did nearly slip once or twice, wet feet and all, but I've got the reflexes to keep upright. I re-entered the locker room and trotted over to my locker. I tapped the combination in and opened it, revealing my plethora of equipment. I had to rummage through it a little bit to find what I was looking for. It'd been a while since I'd had to use it last, but it was a surprisingly useful little gadget. I always made sure to keep it on hand after the business at Lake Mead with the Lady.

I found my rebreather tangled in the remnants of my Parkstroller outfit and weighed down by my four remaining frag grenades. I gave it a quick once over, and swiped a little grime off the inside with a loose bit of cloth. This would certainly keep things moving. Probably should've just started with it, but I hadn't realized it was going to be this difficult to teach Weiss to swim.

Granted, I also should've known better considering my own personal experiences with this place.

Satisfied with its condition, I shut my locker and headed back out to the pool. By the time I got back, CFVY had decided to join in, and had started getting into the water. Yatsu was already in the water, but the shallow end only seemed to reach about mid-way up his calves. Fox was along another of the pool's walls, and appeared to be ruminating beside Ren. Neither spoke to the other, but really, that would've been absurd for either of them. Nora was busy collecting herself beside Ren, not quite looking like she was half drowned, but looking ready to puke. Jaune and Pyrrha had decided to take another lap, and were already half way out across the pool. Which left all my teammates, plus Velvet and Coco, congregated about where I had left them. Yang and Blake had climbed back out of the water and seated themselves on the edge, with Yang ringing the water out of her hair. Ruby was with Weiss, and the two of them were making idle conversation with Velvet and Coco. Or rather, Ruby was making conversation with them, Weiss seemed more interested in the pool's tiling.

As I approached, the four of them looked back to me. There was a clouded, uncertain look in Weiss's eyes. She wasn't comfortable swimming to begin with, and this little incident hadn't helped with that.

I kneeled back down and held the rebreather out to Weiss. "Put this on."

Weiss eyed the rebreather in confusion, before rising up to look at me instead.

"Just humor me, would you?" I asked.

For a moment more, Weiss stared at me, then at the rebreather. When it passed, she took the yellowed piece of steel and tubing. Scrutinizing it with the intensity she did anything that I offered her.

"What is that?" Velvet asked, eyeing the mask in Weiss's hands curiously.

"A rebreather." I explained "An oxygen scrubber built into a face mask that lets you breath underwater and in hazardous environments."

Velvet's eyes went wide, so did Weiss, Ruby and Coco's, frankly. Velvet turned to look at me, clearly intrigued. "Where did you get this?"

"Don't worry about it." I said, nonchalantly pushing the conversation along "Just slip it over your head, then hit the switch on the side. Make sure you've got it where you want it first."

Weiss grimaced at me, but complied, slipping the loop of tubes and steel over her head. The scrubbing tank resting behind her neck and the mask more than ample enough to cover her mouth and nose. Her hand reached up to the tank, feeling for and finding a switch set to one side of it. With a hiss, the tubes began to contract, and the assembly tightened to her. The mask making a perfect seal to her face.

Her eyes crinkled in the corners, something akin to discomfort.

"Eugh, it's musty." Weiss groaned, looking back to me "Is this really necessary?"

"If it keeps you from drowning while learning to swim?" I asked "Consider it like training wheels. Stick your head underwater, you won't need someone to fish you out this time."

Weiss's eyes narrowed in a pointed look, just as the tops of her ears began to turn red.

Then unexpectedly, she dipped her head beneath the water, and stayed there.

We waited for her to come back up for air.

Ten seconds.

Twenty.

"… Is she alright?" Velvet asked.

"Pretty sure, I've used it enough, it's a pretty fool proof device." I answered.

Thirty.

She came back up at forty, surprise evident in her eyes.

"Wow." Velvet said, summing up their thoughts rather succinctly, in my opinion.

"Now, you have no excuse not to learn." I noted, looking at Weiss "Finish learning to float, then you can move on to the more practical strokes."

Weiss looked at me for a moment, and I expected her to come back at me with something biting. If not biting, then perhaps a little toothsome, something to the effect of 'Why didn't you just give me this in the first place?'.

Then she surprised me.

"Thank you." Weiss said, eyes still down and the tips of her ears turning red. "This is… something I know I need to learn."

"… Did… did you just thank me?" I asked.

The red on her ears took a brighter shade. "Don't get used to it!"

"Hmph, whatever you say snowflake."

"Snowflake?" Coco asked, though more in confusion than a question.

"Well, isn't that nice of you." Yang said from her seat, giving a smirk I was learning to recognize

"… Don't you dare ruin this." I said.

"Aw, don't be like that." Yang teased, her smirk only growing "Because of you, now she can breathe easy."

Everybody within earshot groaned. Ruby groaned, Weiss, groaned, Blake groaned, Coco, Fox, and Velvet groaned. I'm pretty sure some of the passing students groaned too.

"Yaaang~" Ruby whined.

Yang beamed proudly "Hey whatever floats her boat, right?"

"Stop that!" Weiss snipped.

Yang's smile only continued to grow. She slid from her seat and back into the pool. Her swimsuit causing her more buoyant-

That's enough out of you.

Yang turned to face all of us, giving a big, toothy grin. "But hey, because of Six, now things should go… swimmingly."

Rather than vocalize their disgust, the resulting damage of the pun caused everyone to be rendered temporarily mute.

Unfortunately, my mouth didn't seem to get the memo.

"I'm pretty sure she'd have gotten it eventually." I said "It's not like I took some sort of dive to make it happen."

Everyone immediately turned their attention to me. I could feel the hate wash over me like the shockwave from a grenade.

It wasn't on purpose.

Yang's smile popped open with a laugh, growing jovial and more full of life.

"There it is!" She beamed "You never let me drown, Six"

"Don't start heckling me." I groused "Sink or swim I'll- shit."

"Please stop encouraging her." Weiss asked.

"I'm not doing it on purpose!" I shot back.

"You all need to lighten up, or you might have stroke." Yang said.

Having heard that joke turned around on me, my mouth, once again, acted without the permission of the rest of me.

"You're only joking about it because you're clearly a natural born swimmer." I said "Unfortunately, we don't all get to be born with natural flotation devices, now do we?"

"… Huh?"

My brain caught up with my mouth about two sentences too late.

Everybody who'd been paying attention either instantly snapped to look at me, or did so in slow, bewildered fashion. Eyeing me like I'd… well, frankly, said what I'd said. Which itself was more than cause enough for everybody to shut up.

Yang's mouth popped open, and her cheeks flushed. Her lavender eyes alight with absolute bewilderment by the sudden turn of the conversation. She blinked once, twice, then shook her head and looked down at herself.

The flush of her cheeks erupted to cover her whole face.

My chest started itching suddenly, and it wasn't because of the hair.

A moment more passed with the silence hanging in the air like a lead balloon.

Then Coco started snickering. I spared her a glance, and found her trying to stifle laughter.

"You're looking a little red there, kid." Coco snickered; mouth drawn up in a smirk.

I looked down at myself.

The upper half of my chest was bright red.

This was the reason why I wasn't nice to people.

"…I'mma go fall off a cliff now." I said, gesturing to the highest diving platform. Then promptly turned, weaved around Coco and Velvet, and began walking at a brisk pace. Jumping from some place high-up seemed appropriate at that moment. More so if I could land head-first. It would keep me away from them for a little while. Maybe give them time to forget how stupid I was. There was little chance that running away would solve anything here. But a little distance might help make it seem less… bad.

Unfortunately, they knew where I slept.

There was no true escape from this.

(...)

"This… is terrible." Yang said, pushing her food around her plate.

"What, what's wrong with it?" I asked, continuing to dole out dinner, giving an extra scoop to Weiss as I passed her plate back.

"It's… just look at it!" Nora squawked, tilting her plate towards me. The contents of it slowly sliding towards the edge in a thick mass.

"… I still don't see anything wrong with it." I said.

"Don't you have anything that's a little less… brown?" Ruby asked, picking up a fork-full of her food and letting it fall back onto her plate with the thick, lethargic, gloppy fluidity of old motor oil.

"Sadly, no." I said "Can't harvest my garden just yet, and I'm fresh out of vegetables. Might have to pick some up in Vale."

Weiss looked down at her plate, examining the chunky brown mass I had passed to her. I'd made sure to give her an extra helping, since she was nothing but skin and bones.

"… I preferred the omelet- THERE, I SAID IT." Weiss huffed, pouting over her food.

"Well gee, I'm glad you enjoyed it." I said sincerely "Too bad we're not having that tonight, we're having chipped Cram and potato."

More commonly known as Shit on a Plate.

A completely serviceable meal. Chopped, or 'chipped', cram served in a dark gravy with some form of vegetation and starch. Sometimes beans, sometimes greens, sometimes jalapeno for a little kick. There are even people who throw in an ear or two's worth of maize kernels, sick bastards.

It was, however, extremely bland. Not even salt could improve it, as cram tends to be fairly salty.

Naturally, this was just the closest approximation to it, given what was available. Strangely enough, I was able to almost completely recreate it. The only real substitution I needed to make was the cram, but potted meat was potted meat. The less you know about what it was made from, the better.

"It is a little… off-putting." Pyrrha said, grimacing at her plate.

"Well, they can't all be winners." I said, passing out the last of the food. "You want wasteland cooking, you get it. Most of it's not particularly glamorous, and I've been throwing you soft balls the last few nights. Tomorrow we'll try Huevos Yermos or something."

"Wav-o's yer-moms?" Nora asked.

"Way-v-os Yur-mow-s." I said, enunciating "An old pre-war dish Raul taught me. Mostly eggs and beans with hot sauce."

"That just sounds so much better than this." Yang said, pushing her food around her plate. "I mean this just looks… *guh*."

"I'm starting to think you're all just a bunch of picky eaters." I said "You've got perfectly serviceable food in front of you and you're complaining about appearances."

"Looks are part of the meal." Ren said, having the bravery to at least try a bite. His reaction to it said it wasn't the worst thing he'd ever eaten, at least.

"Yeah, but if all you're going to do is judge by looks, you'll miss out on whole worlds of food. Literally in this case." I shot back "It's not the most appealing meal, but it's not supposed to be. This is subsistence food, a depression meal-"

"Well, it's working." Yang said, forcing a bite down "I'm feeling depressed already."

"Har-dee-har" I shot back "You guys just can't appreciate different cultures. There are so many foods I could make that you'd all be too off-put to actually try. Red paste, thick red paste, blood sausages, steaks of every variety-"

"Well at least they sound kinda normal." Jaune said, trying a bite.

"Oh, but that's just scratching the surface." I said, feeling myself get on a roll "Once you start trying new things, mixing them together opens up all new possibilities. Black-Blood sausage and insta-mash, canned beans and Rice, Molerat confit, roasted Buffalo Gourd and agave, Barrel cactus and Yucca slaw, chitterlings- if you can stomach them. Endless possibilities."

"What's a chitterling? Sounds cute." Nora said, sneakily trying to empty her plate onto Ren's.

"Braised molerat intestines." I said "Served stewed, fried, or stuffed to make sausage."

It was already quiet to begin with, since none of them seemed too interested in eating. But somehow the room got so quiet I'm pretty sure I heard someone in the dorm room three doors down stub their toe.

"… Braised… intestines?" Weiss asked, looking thoroughly disgusted "As in their stomachs?"

"Not the stomach, just the digestive tract, two separate parts." I clarified "You could probably use the stomach to make something similar, but I'm not-"

"That's disgusting!" Weiss shouted.

I recoiled a little at the sudden outburst. But, almost as immediately, I returned fire. "Just because you can't appreciate the value of food doesn't make it disgusting."

"The digestive tract includes the colon." Ren said, grimacing as he tried to slide his food back to Nora's plate. She wasn't paying attention, frankly she seemed more disgusted by my description of Chitterlings. Not so cute now, I had to guess. "You know that, right?"

"Yea, which is why we thoroughly clean them before cooking them." I said "You know that sausage casing is made from basically the same thing, right?"

Ren didn't respond, but the grimace he gave implied he either hadn't known that, or preferred not to think on it.

"That's- uh… I don't want to think about that." Jaune said, putting on a brave face as he tried to take another bite of his dinner.

"Probably not a bad idea. But in the wasteland, you waste nothing." I clarified "You turn heads into head cheese, bones into bone broth, and every scrap of meat into something edible or close enough. Steaks, stews, sausages, and whatever other way you can trick yourself into eating it. Though most people are put off by Mojave Mussles."

"Muscles…?" Ruby asked, flexing one of her arms.

"You mean the shellfish, right?" Blake asked.

"What does greed have to do with this? We're talking about food." I said.

"… They're not seafood, are they?" Weiss asked.

"Course not, The Mojave's a desert nowhere near the sea. You can get fish and lakelurk meat from Lake Mead, but that's not the same." I answered.

"Then they're going to be something disgusting." Weiss grimaced.

"Pff, no they're not." I lied.

"Yes they are!" Weiss shouted "Every time you feed us something there's always a twist!"

"Not every time." I said "When you first forced me to cook for you, I'm fairly certain I didn't trick you into eating things you weren't comfortable with. In fact, the only thing I've tricked you into eat was deathclaw eggs. And you loved them!"

"Oh yeah, then what are they!?" Nora squawked, having rebounded from her newfound culinary knowledge "C'mon! We can handle it!"

"Deep fried Gecko testicles." I answered curtly.

The words hung in the air for a moment, as everyone processed them. It was followed shortly by both my teammates and JNPR quietly setting their plates aside. Clearly contemplating what I'd just said. Among them, I noticed Jaune turning a little green around the gills. It looked like he hadn't yet worked up the courage to swallow his food yet either.

"… Not too many things you can do with a Gecko." I continued "You can turn their hides into leather, and their bones into fertilizer. But while the meat is edible, it can be pretty unpalatable at times since they're carnivores. But some crazy bastards calling themselves the Great Khans figured out you could chop thei-"

"STOP!" Weiss snapped "Not another word!"

"What's wron-"

"That's disgusting!" Ruby cried, clasping her ears in a way that suggested she wanted to un-hear what she'd just heard.

"They're not that bad." I tried to continue "They're a little chewy, b-"

"Just stop." Yang said "Please, this is just… ugh."

"I really don't see what the big deal is." I said "We make them with Brahmin 'meat' too. Call 'em meatbal-"

Jaune couldn't keep it down any more, and promptly spat his food back onto his plate. Audibly gagging in the process.

"… Ok, now I see why you wanted me to stop." I said.

"Can we talk about something- anything- else!?" Weiss snapped.

"Well that's what we're supposed to be doing anyway." I agreed "Sorry about that, Jaune."

Jaune waved me off weakly, while Pyrrha put a reassuring hand on his back. It didn't seem like he was going to retch any more than he had, but she was there for support if he needed it.

Guess I went a little too far.

"Right…" I started "Well, since we're already talking about food-"

"No." Weiss immediately cut in.

"We could talk about the culture of the Mojave." I continued pointedly "Talk about some of the smaller things you could expect to see there."

"…" Weiss nodded, but continued to silently glare accusations in my direction.

I waited a moment, just to make sure there weren't going to be any more outbursts from the pinyon gallery. They were all watching me warily by this point, having apparently gotten fed up with my food talk. Pyrrha especially seemed to be a little miffed with me. Can't say I really blamed any of them, I've got an iron stomach for most things, but I really should've been paying better attention.

Probably best to move it something as far away from food as possible.

Which lead to an idea.

"Actually, y'know what?" I asked "Why don't we start with one of you instead?"

"One of us?" Ruby asked "Why?"

"Well, a problem we seem to keep running into is the various bits of culture gap between us." I explained "For example, I find nothing wrong with eating-"

"Don't you dare say it." Weiss said sharply.

"… Eating what's put in front of me." I finished "But, what I find edible, most of you don't. It's the little things that make explaining a little bit harder. So why not let you start this time? See if it can't make everything a bit smoother."

"I'm not sure that'll work as well as you think." Ren said "We may run into the same problems you have."

"True, but we won't know until we try. For all you know, you may be better at explaining things than I am, and my comprehension may be better than I think it is." I explained "Plus, y'know, it'd be nice to get to know you guys a little better."

"D'awww~!" Yang said, giving me a sunny, saccharine smile

"Don't make it weird." I groused "We're all friends, but I hardly know anything about you guys, outside bits and pieces. Maybe it's time we started working on that."

"What if there's stuff we don't want to talk about?" Blake asked.

"Have you forced me to talk about the things I don't want to?" I asked "… outside of the obvious, I mean."

Blake pondered that a moment, then shook her head.

"Then I'd say you can reserve the right to not talk about something as well. Silence is always an option, just not the only one." I answered "So… any objections?"

"I do not see why we shouldn't." Pyrrha said, nodding "With how often we all spend time together, wouldn't it make sense, Jaune?"

"O-oh, yeah." Jaune stuttered "I mean, yeah, we're all friends, so I guess getting to know each other better would probably be good to, since we're already here."

"And occasionally getting insights into other's lives anyway." I said, remembering some of our previous conversations.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Ruby said "Who wants to go first?"

"How about you or Yang?" I offered "As I understand it, you've both grown up around this area. Since most of my knowledge about this world is centered around Vale, it'd make a good frame of reference for everything else."

"Um… ok." Ruby nodded, thinking "Well…. We grew up on Patch."

"That's the island off the coast, right?" I asked.

"Mhmm." Ruby nodded "There's- um- a city- er… town?"

"You don't sound so sure." I said.

"I… I don't know if it's a city or not." Ruby said "Vale's a city, and Radia is smaller, but doesn't it still count as a city?"

"I don't know, why are you asking me?" I asked.

"I don't know, it's confusing." Ruby groaned.

I took a breath, thinking it over for a minute. "… For our purposes, just call it interchangeable. City works just as well as town."

"Ok…" Ruby said, face scrunching up in thought "There's Signal academy, which is in Radia, the- uh- city I was trying to tell you about."

"Alright, good start." I nodded.

"Radia is sort of the 'main town' on Patch." Yang explained "There's, like, a couple of other small villages on Patch, but Radia is the one closest to Vale."

"I'm guessing it's the only one with a port too." I said "If it's the largest, it's likely the one that gets the most traffic."

"I think there's a couple small ones around the island too, for fishing." Yang nodded "But yeah, most people who visit Patch use the Port through Radia."

"So, they're more hamlets than towns or villages, really." I surmised.

"Hamlet sounds like a word for a small ham." Nora murmured.

I resisted the urge to snort out a little chuckle.

"Ok, so that's a start." I said "But what's it like?"

"It's… small?" Ruby offered.

I stared at Ruby for a moment, before shifting back to Yang.

"Yeah, it's kinda… small." Yang agreed.

"That's not very helpful." I said.

"There's not a lot out there." Ruby pouted "Patch is mostly covered in woods, and Radia isn't that big. If you really need something, you get on the ferry and go to Vale."

"Small, quiet, and all around remote." I said, nodding "Sounds like a nice place. What else is there?"

"Well, there's Signal." Ruby offered, again "The combat school Yang and I went to before coming here."

"Ooh, there's something." I said, a connection kicking off in my brain "What's a combat school? I remember randomly catching flak for not going to one back when I first got here."

"Oh, they're- um- schools where you learn to fight." Ruby said.

"… That is decidedly less than helpful." I said.

Ruby puffed out her cheeks "Well it's what they are."

"Combat schools are just as Ruby said." Weiss cut in "They're where any future huntsman or huntress begins their journey. Alongside general education, you learn the basics of combat, as well as how to make your own weapon."

I nodded "Sounds a lot like this place" I motioned to the academy around us. "Only, y'know, more basic. Suppose that makes sense."

"Vale actually has a couple of Combat schools." Yang said "We have Signal out on Patch, but there's also Pharos here in the city."

"Really?" I asked "Huh, must be some place I haven't seen yet. Probably makes commuting easier."

"Our dad works at Signal too." Ruby said "He teaches a couple different classes and is the sparring instructor. Uncle Qrow too before he, umm…"

"Do I sense a funny story?" I asked.

"…Maybe." Ruby said coyly, before giving me a smirk "But it's off topic."

"Ha, funny." I said "I'll ask another time."

"But our dad still teaches at Signal." Yang said "He was always making sure we kept our grades up too."

"He was so excited when I got accepted into Beacon early." Ruby said, giving a slightly saddened smile "Then he started worrying about both of us leaving, and made us promise to come back and visit."

"At least you know he cares then." I nodded "But, to keep from getting too far off topic, is there anything else notable about the island?"

"Not really, it's a quiet place." Yang said.

"There's lots of woods and Grimm, especially Beowulves and Ursai." Ruby added "But it's not like the Forever Fall, or places outside of Vale."

"Should consider taking a trip over at some point then, sounds like a nice place." I said.

"That'd be nice." Ruby nodded "Now you, is there any place like our home where you're from?"

"Well, it's a desert, so no." I said "But there are some places like Patch all around the Mojave. Relatively isolated locations that tend to get left alone, and aren't such a bad place to settle down. One easy one I can name is Jacobstown, a settlement in the mountains to the northwest of Vegas. Before the bombs, it was a ski resort. Due to the mountain's natural geography, most of the lodge remained intact, and was made into a refuge. It's not too dissimilar from how you described Patch. A quiet, isolated area, surrounded by woods, with the occasional beastie lurking through it. Good people too, though some of them are a bit unstable at times."

"How do you know what Ski-ing is?" Weiss asked.

"Cultural osmosis mostly." I explained "You'd occasionally hear messages regarding the lodge and what it was used for on the radio. Enough of the information stuck around that way you could piece together what it was. I've never actually done it."

Weiss nodded, accepting that "Well, it can be quite fun."

"Good to know." I said, returning the nod "But, that aside, there are other, smaller locations around the Mojave similar to Jacobstown. While most places tend to crop up due to economic and security factors, there's always outliers. The town of Goodsprings, for example, is one such place. It's off one of the main roads leading from Vegas, but stays fairly safe due to one of the roads leading in being a breeding ground for the likes of Cazadors and Deathclaws. Another is Red Rock Canyon, which has the benefit of isolation, geography, and just being close enough to the main trade routes that the bandits that used to live there could easily pillage traveling merchants."

"A place like that exists and wasn't being watched?" Blake asked, skeptical.

"Oh no, it was, most people just knew to leave the Great Khans, the aforementioned bandits, alone. They were brutal, marauding warriors, with a penchant for chems, violence, and not giving two shits about 'civilized' society. That said, however, they weren't without their own code and ethos. It may have been ass backwards and next to non-existent from an outsider's perspective, but they had one. They were far from any measure of good, but having even some form of ethics made them better than the likes of the Legion."

Ignoring the fact that they almost joined up with the Legion, until I got them to realize they were going to be completely annihilated if that happened. Oddly enough, their ethics increased dramatically after I found the book Papa Khan had wanted. Having some measure of knowledge about their purported 'ancestors' gave them something more to strive for. Papa Khan had actually sent me a messenger after the second Battle of Hoover Dam, once more thanking me for finding the book. It had apparently left an impression on them.

"If they were a problem, why didn't someone stop them?" Nora asked innocently.

"They did." I said, thinking about all I knew regarding the Khan's history "They were a hardy group. Believe me though, there was a lot of blood in their history, much of it their own. It's also important to bear in mind that, in the wasteland, our way of handling a problem involves a more permanent solution than the way you might've intended."

Nora's eyes widened a little, perhaps realizing what she'd asked as a sad look crossed her face. "Sorry."

"It's alright, I know you hadn't meant it that way." I intoned "We're getting off topic, but before you ask how I know these things, remember, I've moved around a lot."

Nora nodded her head, clearly still listening intently.

"Now, all those locations aside, there are plenty of other, smaller locations you can make a home for yourself at." I explained "It's not uncommon for people to take up homesteading in the wastes and set up successful farms. Even if you can't build something yourself, there are still enough intact buildings left behind from before the war that you can set up shop pretty much anywhere. Near Vegas, the middle of the desert, in the canyons, in the mountains, heck there's this one cabin at Lake Mead that… That- uh…"

"… Everything ok Six?" Ruby asked

"Y-yeah." I answered "Just been a while since I thought about that last one. Funny that it would come up here is all… anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that there're places like that all over the Mojave if you know where to look. Maybe a bit of a stretch comparing it to Patch, but if it helps you understand, then it works."

"If nothing else, it's interesting." Ren said, picking up a forkful of his dinner and eying it warily.

"But even the ones that aren't isolated can still be fairly decent places to live." I continued "Get enough people together, and you can keep just about any place safe. Assuming you can stomach being around one another. Vegas had a couple such neighborhoods at its fringes. They were largely passed over by people traveling to the Strip, who just wanted to gamble their money away. Effectively meaning they were hiding in plain sight to the rest of the world, barring certain incidents. Since not everyone can afford the Strip, these communities made up the majority of Vegas's overall population. Since they were at the fringes though, they were largely left to their own devices, practically being settlements unto themselves."

"So, they get ignored for being poor." Blake said, rolling her eyes "Hmm, how familiar."

"Same old song and dance no matter where you go." I nodded "But most of the people around Vegas have long since learned it, and how to roll with it too. Most know how to work with each other when times get tough. Good example of that is North Vegas square which is, as named, to the north of the strip. It's not so easily defended compared to some of the others, but it's a reasonably sized trade site for anyone who can use their head. They certainly respect anyone who'd rather try and make it there more than anyone they'd see headed for the Strip."

"The Strip is where all of the major businesses are, correct?" Weiss asked.

"If you could call casinos, dancehalls, luxury hotels, and whorehouses businesses, then yes." I answered "Why do you ask?"

"You've mentioned it a few times now, and I just wished to clarify." Weiss answered primly, glaring down at her so far untouched food.

I expected her to eat the whole plate, she didn't look like she ate enough.

"Well, I'll clarify it a little more then, I guess." I said "The Strip is home to the people running the region, including the Late Robert House. These people, referred to as the families, were tribes that had lived in the region around New Vegas prior to the city being resurrected. From what I understand, they were given the 'opportunity' to come revitalize the city, in exchange for some creature comforts. The basics, like a permanent roof over their heads and hot running water. Though a steady stream of the city's more sought-after indulgences probably helped."

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Jaune asked.

"Which, the Strip, or the benefits?" I asked back.

"Umm… yes?" Jaune said, now confused himself.

"Good, you're learning." I said, smirking "The Strip is treated as a major hub for the region. Despite its attractions and clientele, it houses various other resources. Such as embassies and consulates, which make it pretty important, yeah. But aside from that, you really don't realize the importance of hot water until you've spent a few day- scratch that, weeks on the trail without bathing. Keeping a working water heater in order is a lot harder than you think."

"No kidding." Yang said, giving me a look.

"Seriously." I nodded "Plumbing isn't easy, lots of math involved. But because hot water is a valuable commodity, and there's lot of money to be had and lost, the Strip doesn't let just anyone past the gates. They do a credit check on you before they even let you set foot on the streets outside the casinos. As a result, it tends to be a place where the rich, powerful, and soon to be destitute gather. And because it's also a source of political power in the region… well, I think you can see how things can snowball occasionally."

"I can't see how that would happen at all." Blake said snidely.

"Careful, sarcasm is habit forming." I said "Getting back on topic though, just outside the strip, you have a neighborhood known as Freeside. The polar opposite of North Vegas, Freeside has a far greater degree of security due to its proximity to the Strip. Being closer to the heart of the city as well, many groups and businesses have setup there as well. You'll still run into the occasional thug that wants to shiv you for your pocket change. But since one of two entrances into the Strip is in Freeside, that pocket change could be a tidy sum for any enterprising crook. But there's good to be had as well. The local branch of the Followers of the Apocalypse is set up there, can't imagine a better place for them, honestly. They provide all the education and healing they can to the more downtrodden residents. The place is roamed by a resident street gang called the Kings, who do pretty well at keeping the peace. There's also plenty of clean water and electricity, so it's not without its charms."

"I guess being close to where all the money is means it's better taken care of." Blake added

"Hey, I'm warning you about the sarcasm, next thing you know you'll be responding to every sentence like that." I cautioned.

"Sure I will." Blake said, rolling her eyes.

Then she blinked, realizing what she'd just done. Which earned a chuckle from our teammates.

"I warned you." I said "Careful kitten, don't get tangled up in your new yarn ball."

Blake's cheeks flush slightly, but she didn't say anything.

"Now, between North Vegas and Freeside, there is one more settlement worth mentioning: Westside. If you consider the edge of Vegas to be like a sprawling circle, Westside sits between the other two. As a result, it gets the benefits of neither, and all the trouble of both. Despite that, they're actually the ones prospering the most. They're surprisingly welcoming, they keep a well-trained militia, and they've got a surprisingly lucrative farm set for themselves. Granted, they're not all morally clean, and they've done some questionable things in the past. But I've seen the good they've done for myself, and none of what they did was ever truly done out of malice. Just like everyone else, they're only trying to survive."

"Honestly, it sounds as though you're describing a harder hit neighborhood, you'd find… well, anywhere." Pyrrha said, mulling that statement over.

"Scary, isn't it?" I said "All the destruction from the war, and a whole world apart, yet some things are still the same."

Pyrrha nodded, looking wistfully at her plate "It sounds like somewhere I used to live, truthfully."

Perhaps without intending to, Pyrrha drew the attention of everyone present to herself. I couldn't help but blink at that either.

"Really?" I asked, intrigued "You used to live in a war-ravaged city?"

"No, no, mercifully." Pyrrha said, waving me off "… But, my mother and I used to live in a rough neighborhood, towards the eastern edge of Argus."

"Argus… That's the Atlas colony near Mistral, right?" I asked.

Pyrrha nodded "Quite… We didn't have a lot of money, when I was younger. My mother worked hard to make a life for me… It wasn't an easy upbringing."

"I can understand." I said, nodding "Spent some time in Freeside. Lotta kids there living on the streets or forced to find work."

Something I'd been working to fix during my tenure in charge. But there are battles easier fought than won.

Pyrrha chuckled, a warmth I couldn't describe was carried with it. "In a way, that's much what I had to do as well. I found work, helped my mother and I be somewhere better."

"Is that why you fought in the tournaments?" Weiss asked, clearly listening intently.

Pyrrha nodded again "Indeed. There wasn't much I could do to help. My mother worked to make certain I could receive an education, so I felt I needed to return that, somehow. Fighting in the tournaments was the only way I could see succeeding."

"You were a prize fighter?" I asked, once more surprised.

"In a way." Pyrrha nodded "I didn't win immediately, but, after a few tries, I won."

"You're a champion?" I asked.

"Of course she's a champion." Weiss said "She's placed first in the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, and graduated the top of her class from Sanctum Academy."

"No shit?" I asked "Well, that's news to me."

"How did you not know that?" Ruby asked "We've all been friends for months now."

"Because no one's ever actually brought it up before." I said "You all consider it common knowledge, but it's never been brought up in polite conversation before." I turned towards Pyrrha "The few times I've actually seen you fight, I just assumed you were naturally talented."

"Well, maybe a little." Pyrrha said, bashfully looking down, a soft smile on her face.

"Guess you can tack hard-working onto that epithet as well." I said "Takes more than talent to hold a title like that for four years and be considered the best of your class."

I couldn't help but notice the tips of Pyrrha's ears turn a little red. Her hand shooting up and rubbing the back of her neck. "It wasn't an easy road. But I made it all the same, and am happy with what I accomplished."

"As you should be." I nodded "Having spent some time on the gladiatorial circuit myself, I know it's not an easy road to walk, nor easy to continue down for long."

Pyrrha's eyes brightened suddenly, and they came back up to look at me. "There are tournaments where you are from?"

"Well, not as such." I said "Hard to really organize something like that in a place like the Mojave… But there are places that'll let you fight. Put on a show for the people, earn some reputation as a fighter, and get a nice paycheck on the other side."

"So… fight clubs?" Yang asked.

"Again, not quite, gladiator fights are a sadly accurate description for them." I continued "Between Freeside and Westside, there's this underground fighting arena called the Thorn."

"So a fight club." Yang said.

"No, I mean it was literally underground." I explained "The place's founder and show runner, a woman by the name of Red Lucy, set the place up in what used to be the area's sewer system. It was actually remarkably clean for what it was."

"It certainly doesn't sound it." Weiss needled, a muted look of disgust on her face.

"To be fair, it'd had a few centuries to dry up and air out." I offered "We weren't rolling around in sewage down there, otherwise there'd be no fights."

"Still though, a sewer?" Blake asked.

"No one ever said it was glamorous." I countered "The fights took place in what used to be a cistern. Combatants would check in with Lucy, then descend into the arena after they'd decided what they wanted to fight. They could bring whatever tools and armor they wanted into the fight. There was only one rule about the whole thing: Kill what you're fighting or die trying."

"That's a little harsh." Ruby said, clearly off-put.

"Chalk it up to Lucy having founded the place around some idea about 'enlightenment through combat'." I said "But most of the things you were put in the ring with weren't tamed animals either, they were the same kinds of beasts you'd find roaming the wastes. Everything from radroaches and giant Mantises to Cazadores and Deathclaws. You got to choose how many of them you wanted to fight at once too."

"Then you were dubbed a champion for surviving, I assume." Ren said "With such harsh combat, surviving should carry some weight with it."

"Well, yes and no." I explained "Just winning a fight or two would earn you some credit, but wouldn't mean anything if you couldn't keep doing it. A lot of people can get lucky, most can't do it consistently."

"Then how did you do it?" Jaune asked, clearly intrigued.

"Kept throwing myself into the ring, that's how." I said "Didn't have luck, but I could take a hit. I was young and needed the money, at the time it just seemed easy enough. Nobody really batted an eye at it at first."

"What changed?" Pyrrha asked, watching me intently now.

"Decided to do three consecutive matches against three deathclaws simultaneously." I answered

My teammates and JNPR fell silent, looking at me dumbstruck.

"…Wasn't in a good place at the time" I said "-figured doing something stupid was easier than the alternative."

"Three Deathclaws?" Yang asked, disbelieving "That giant lizard-grimm from initiation, you fought three of those. At once?"

"They weren't grimm when I fought them." I corrected.

"You did that three times?" Jaune asked.

"And made out with a nice chunk of change to boot." I nodded.

"… I'm sorry, but I don't believe it." Weiss said shaking her head "This time I'm almost certain you're lying."

"Believe what you want, I know what I've done." I said, turning back to Pyrrha "Point stands, I've been in the ring too. I've got an idea of what it's like."

"It certainly is a different sensation." Pyrrha agreed, a reserved tone to her voice "The roar of the crowd, the cold lights overhead, the ring of the bell-"

"How the air feels so hot around you, it's almost boiling." I said "The trickle of sweat down your back as you struggle and strain."

Pyrrha's eye suddenly went wide, brightening.

"The feeling like your heart is about to burst out of your chest it's beating so hard." I continued "The shock that goes through you when you manage to get a hit in."

"The pain when someone manages to hit you." Pyrrha said, disbelieving "How quiet everything else seems beyond who's in front of you."

A smirk wormed its way onto my face. "That little niggling of fear in your gut about what might happen if you lose… You ever get that one?"

Pyrrha didn't answer right away. She sat there, looking at me in equal parts disbelief, melancholy, and isolation. Strange to see among friends. Then she blinked, and they vanished with a bright smile and a warm laugh. Those almost apparent feelings replaced by elation, acceptance, and camaraderie. "Every time!" She laughed.

"Yeah, that's one that doesn't go away." I nodded "Good to know you ain't the only one feelin' it either."

Pyrrha nodded, the warm smile never leaving her face.

"So, he's telling the truth then?" Jaune asked, baffled.

"I'd certainly believe it." Pyrrha answered, giving her leader a smile that could disarm an entire battalion.

"Whoa." Jaune said, looking my way once more. An action that was, once again mirrored by everyone else as the disbelief shattered across the room. If the resident champion could believe I knew what I was talking about, then I wasn't just blowing hot air.

"Y'all need to stop doubting me." I said "You'd be surprised by some of the stuff I've done."

"Uh, no kidding?" Yang asked, setting her plate aside and leaning back on her hands.

"This is certainly a surprise." Pyrrha continued "Almost everyone knows about my victories, to think there's someone just as skilled here and yet no one's noticed."

"I try not to advertise." I said "Perhaps we could spar sometime though? Wouldn't mind trading licks with a fellow champ."

"Y-yes." Pyrrha nodded, a bright smile on her face "That sounds quite enjoyable."

"Ooh- ooh! I want to fight too!" Nora cut in, giving me one of her patented grins

I instantly got one of those squirrely feelings in my gut that said I'd just opened a can of worms.

"You did that for money?" Ren asked.

"Hey, people do worse for it." I shrugged.

"I'm more surprised you've got a system of currency, actually." He corrected.

"Well, obviously." I said "What, did you expect us to gamble with shiny rocks or something?"

"Well, most currency was just shiny rocks at one point." Ren shot back.

"… Touché." I relented, feeling the conversation shifting away from the topic we started on. "But the Mojave, and the wasteland at large for that matter, does have a currency and economic system. Depending on where you are, it might even have several. The Mojave certainly qualifies, given the number of people coming over from the NCR to gamble, and the Legion knocking at the door."

"There were actually people that would trade with them?" Ruby asked "Isn't that kind of a bad idea?"

"Not to sing them any praises, but there was some logic to it." I admitted, begrudgingly "The Legion was good about keeping their roads clean, apparently. Meant they were safer to travel and trade on. They also dealt in gold and silver which, on paper, would make their currency far more valuable than the standard. But good luck finding anyone in the Mojave who'd accept them. Anything stamped by the Legion was practically worthless since the majority of people know better than to deal with them."

"Why not just melt it back down?" Ren asked "If the only problem is that it was made by an enemy, why not melt and re-cast it?"

"A reasonable suggestion." I agreed "Unfortunately, actually finding the tools to do it properly is a pain in the ass. Even if you could, then you'd need to get other tools to re-stamp it back into coinage, unless you want to carry around full-size bullion. Not to mention that gold is extremely dense, so carrying around ingots of it isn't the brightest idea. Then you run into logistical issues of who can even realistically trade with gold in large quantities. Really, the problems just start to snowball from there."

Ren nodded, accepting the answer with contemplative silence.

"A good notion to be sure," I said "-but realistically, the only good re-smelting and casting it would do would be to stock your gold reserves until you're ready to either cut it back down again or buy in bulk."

"Which I imagine would make it valuable to some of the other groups in your world." Weiss said "If they are trying to re-establish themselves, then making sure their currency is worth something is rather important."

"Again, a valid point." I assented "Trouble is, you'd need to make sure people have a reason to respect your currency in the first place. The Legion used gold and silver, but were so reviled that most people wouldn't accept it. On the flip-side of the denarii, you had the NCR and their dollars"

"Doll-er?" Nora asked.

"Think of them like the Lien here, which they pretty much are." I explained "Styling themselves after the pre-war world, they tried to copy the currency prevalent from the time. Easy enough, considering there are bundles of it still floating around via barter and trade. It's more widely accepted than legion coin, but not worth anywhere near as much."

"Why's that?" Ruby asked, finally mustering the nerve to take a bite of dinner. She grimaced, but didn't find it bad enough to warrant spitting out.

"Because the NCR uses Fiat currency, rather than one backed directly by gold." I continued "A while back, they got into a war with the Brotherhood of Steel, whom we've discussed previously. One of the Brotherhood's preferred methods of hurting the NCR was making raids on their treasury. While the NCR managed to push the brotherhood out of their territory eventually, they still lost a good chunk of their economic power in the process. Supposedly they used to mint coins much as the Legion does, or rather did, prior to that."

"What's a Fiat currency?" Jaune asked.

"A type of money backed by a governing body rather than a valuable commodity such as gold." I answered, motioning to his plate "Let's say that plate of yours is a giant coin. I claim it's part of my currency, and that it has a value of one. It gains an inherent worth based on that, and it's my duty as the currency's backer to make sure it stays worth something."

Jaune blinked and looked down at his plate uncertainly, so did his teammates, and mine.

He looked back up at me. "But it's a plate." He said, clearly confused.

"Yes, but a plate that has a value of one." I continued.

"But nobody else here thinks that." Weiss said "It's just a plate with food on it."

"And that's the problem with Fiat currency." I explained "The money is only worth something if people actually believe it's worth something. If you can't convince them of that, you're left with plates whose monetary value is worth less than the value of the materials making it."

"Which is why NCR money is worth less." Weiss concluded.

"Exactly." I said "Because people don't believe the NCR can make good on their claims, the value of their dollar is worth less as a result. Which can turn into a feedback loop when your own people stop believing in you, because then you get less power to back those claims, making your money worthless, meaning people won't support you, meaning less power-"

"So, what, their money revolves around 'think happy thoughts and it'll work out'?" Yang asked.

"… In a funny way, yeah, kinda." I admitted "But that's what happens when you want to try and take charge of your economy. They'd probably just have been better going back to backing their currency with water. Weaker though it may have been, the stability is worth more than you think."

"Why would you use water?" Weiss asked.

"Well, what could be more valuable in a desert wasteland than that which gives life?" I asked in return.

"Um… breathing?" Nora offered, though I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not... frankly, she had a point.

"… Not the point." I said, muscling forward "But that's the reason water is used to back most currency. In a world where clean water is a valued commodity, it's safer to use it to back your currency, than just try and trade everything unevenly."

"Emphasis on clean." Ren said "I imagine not just any water would work."

"You'd be correct." I agreed "Most water you'll find is either mixed with other liquid soluble nastiness or irradiated. Your money's not worth much if every time someone touches it they catch dysentery."

"Ok, so the legion uses gold-" Weiss said, clearly trying to process everything "The NCR uses their imagination, who uses water?"

"The rest of the wasteland, obviously." I said "You don't need centralized government for trade to still exist. You just need to have something with an agreed upon degree of value."

Weiss rolled her eyes, then hoisted up her dinner. "So you expect us to believe you consider dinner plates to be valuable and used as a currency?"

"Don't be ridiculous." I chided "Dinner plates are too big to carry around, and way too fragile. We use the bottle caps from beer and soda bottles."

"…" Weiss's eye started twitching.

"You're just messing with us now, aren't you?" Yang asked flatly.

"Why would I do that?" I asked, reaching into the box under my cot "Heck, I think I've actually got some here, gimme a sec…"

I fished around in the box blindly for a moment. I could have just pulled the whole thing up rather than just feel around, but that would've made sense. Plus, it also wasn't so big a deal if I didn't have them. I could always prove it at a later time.

But, it turned out I was right, and I produced a small coin purse from my box of goods.

I opened the little leather sack and got a look at my valuables. Most of my bottle caps were from Sunset sarsaparilla and beer, but there were some varieties of nuka cap mixed in. What NCR bills I had were kept in tightly rolled wads, mostly to keep them from getting crumpled under the various caps and legion coin.

And there was a lot of legion coin. I may not have been able to trade it but that hadn't kept me from claiming it off of every legionnaire I came across. I'm stubborn, it's shiny, and I'd spent most of my time skirting poverty for one reason or another.

This wasn't the only pouch I had like this either, just the one I carried around the most frequently. I kept a few others with the rest of supplies, and many more back at the Lucky 38. Never keep all your eggs in one basket, or coins in one purse.

I'd taken to stashing my Lien in there as well, just for the sake of convenience.

I pulled a couple of the bottle caps from the pouch, giving them a little shake in my hand. The old steel clinked against each other as I held them out to be seen.

"Most bottle caps come off of either Nuka cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla." I explained "Occasionally you'll find beer bottles still topped with them, but that's pretty rare in the Mojave."

My teammates said nothing, just staring at the dinky little circlets of crimped steel in my hand. JNPR was doing much the same, but Nora was at least amused, if her smile was anything to go by.

"… That is so dumb." Yang said, clearly failing to grasp the value of money.

"Next to no one makes them anymore, so their value is pretty much stable." I continued "They're abundant, since they'd normally be considered a waste product. Most importantly though: it's almost impossible to make new ones. Meaning no one can devalue it. There're obviously more valuable things out there, but caps have stuck around as a stabilized, roughly central currency because they're so stable. You could back them with anything and achieve the same result really, water is just the standard because… well, everyone needs it."

"… It's still dumb." Yang said.

"Call it what you want, if it works, it works." I answered.

Yang shrugged "Guess there's no changing your mind then."

I looked at her in confusion. "No, why would you even assu-… Oh."

Yang quirked a smirk my way. "I knew you'd get it, guess I was right on the money."

"Stop." I said.

"Why?" She smiled brightly "My jokes are gold."

"Speaking of gold." Ren said, clearly having more drive to end the pain than I did "Back when we started doing this, we pulled out a gold coin."

"Good memory." I nodded, fishing back into my pouch and producing an aureus "What of it?"

"Those would be the Legion coins you were referring to, yes?" he asked.

"Correct." I nodded.

"If no one accepts them unless they're working with the Legion, why do you have them?" he asked.

"An excellent question, with an obvious answer." I said, flipping the coin into the air before catching it "Even if it's minted in a form no one accepts, it's still gold. You yourself listed off what to do with it based on that fact."

"Ok, but why do you have them?" Weiss asked, cutting in "How did you get them?"

"Ah, that's a little trickier to answer." I said "Sometimes people would stash large quantities of it away for later, again: gold. But the Legion also paid its soldiers and assassins with it as well. They've actually got silver versions of these coins called denarii too, though I think some of you have seen me trade with them here."

"Oh yeah." Yang said nodding "Guess they work here, silver-linings, huh?"

"…" I said nothing, I wasn't going to encourage her.

"Are you saying you… worked for the Legion?" Weiss asked.

"Fuck no." I said, firm and immediate "… But I did run afoul of them, after a fashion. Given that I'm willing to defend myself, they certainly going to be putting it to any good use."

"… Are you saying you took that after you killed them?" Jaune asked, looking mightily disturbed.

"It's hardly a crime in the Mojave." I replied "In fact, not looting someone's corpse is almost more of an insult. Like saying they're so worthless the only value they had was in breathing."

Jaune's disturbed look spread to the rest of his teammates and mine. I wasn't entirely surprised. They'd been raised on civilized sensibilities and decorum. Frankly it was probably better they didn't have to know what looting a corpse was like anyway.

I held the aureus between my thumb and index finger and looked at it. Funny to think, I could never use them or my denarii back in the Mojave. Here though, they most certainly had value, and no one batted an eye at them. Gold was gold, silver was silver, cash was king, and as long as it was legitimate, they didn't seem to care about its source.

Though, technically, I was devaluing it by introducing more of it into circulation…

"Actually, I've got a question." I said, holding the coin out again "How much do you think this thing is worth?"

"You mean you don't know?" Weiss asked.

"Obviously." I answered "I picked up a book on how to determine the value of gold, but unfortunately it was more a book about economics than anything practically useful. In hindsight, that should've been more obvious."

"… have you never bothered to grab a newspaper?" Weiss asked "There's a whole section devoted to economics."

"Who reads newspapers?" I asked "They're all propaganda and advertisements."

"…" Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose.

"All I want to know is how much they're worth." I groused.

Weiss gave me a withering look, then pulled out her scroll, sliding it open. Her fingers gliding across the transparent pane in furtive frustration.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Do you know how much one of those coins ways?" She asked, completely ignoring me.

"…" I slid the aureus into the palm of my hand, held it there for a second. "… Somewhere between one and two ounces, I think. Measurements on these things are less accurate than the Legion thought they were."

"Very well." Weiss said, tapping at her scroll a bit more. Her eyes lit up a moment later, and she nodded. "If they are on the lower end, then their current market value is one thousand, eight hundred and fifteen Lien."

My hand instinctively snapped closed over the coin.

"… You mind repeating that?" I asked "I think I misheard you just now."

Weiss quirked an eyebrow at me, but assented "One thousand, eight hundred and fifteen."

"On- one thousand-" I stuttered.

If I hadn't already been sitting, I'm pretty sure that would've knocked me on my ass. My teammates must have been picking up on the fact that I was struggling to process this. Judging by the looks they were giving me.

I slowly re-opened my hand, staring down at the gold piece in my palm. The image of Caesar in the time before his death still embossed on the soft, lustrous metal.

"… nearly two grand, you say." I said, working the piece back betwixt my fingers "Is that measured in troy or imperial ounces?"

"A troy ounce?" Weiss asked, visibly confused.

"A unit of measure reserved for precious metals." I said numbly "It's only slightly larger than a normal ounce. Should be more surprised that you use the imperial system here, but I'm feeling a bit off right now."

"Imperial?" Blake asked "It's called the Valian system."

"Mhmm." I said, only half paying attention.

"I'll have you know that Atlas is developing a far more accurate metric system based around the weight of water and the circumference of Remnant." Weiss said haughtily.

"…That's stupid." I answered.

"Stupid!?" Weiss asked, oddly offended "You use water to make bottle caps valuable, you have no authority!"

"Yeah, water." I said, too busy running numbers in my head to formulate a response.

"… uh-" Jaune grunted "You ok, Six?"

"Y-yeah." I said "Just… weighing this thing out in my hand."

"How heavy is it?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, y'know-" I said, a lilt to my voice "About an ounce, ounce and a half… might even be pushing two with some of the poorly minted ones."

Ruby's silver eyes grew as wide as her dinner plate.

"… Snowflake, what's the price of silver?" I asked, slowly coming to terms with a reality that'd apparently been here this whole time.

Weiss quirked another eyebrow at me "Silv-"

"I have a lot- and I mean a lot more silver than I do gold." I explained "Silver will be a drop in the bucket by comparison, but I want to know."

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Yang asked.

I held the aureus up for her to see. "I'm holding upwards of two grand between my fingers right now. I want to know."

Yang gave me an uncertain look, then turned to Weiss. Weiss looked between the two of us for a moment, then tapped at her scroll a couple more times. "… Roughly twenty lien for an ounce." She answered.

Which frankly, seemed far more reasonable, but didn't change anything.

I had hundreds, maybe thousands of aureii.

And I certainly had thousands, if not tens of thousands of denarii.

I'd been actively working to stomp out the Legion and had been fending off their assassins for a long time. Which is a long period of collecting back pay.

Pay I'd never been allowed to actually seize, until now.

"… I- uh…" I stuttered "… I think I might be rich."

(...)

The night kicked off in usual fashion. I hit the local night scene, ready for it to hit back, and wasn't fazed when it did.

What I was fazed by, was what happened in the middle of it.

I'd been in the middle of moving to the next stash-house, when I heard gunshots a couple blocks down. Given the kinds of crap that seems to be the norm in Vale, I wasn't initially as fazed by it as I should've been.

After I checked my scroll and made sure that the White Fang hadn't actually made any big moves, I moved to investigate. If they were going to suddenly start causing trouble without sending word out, it either meant their chain of command was shit, or they'd grown wise to my snooping. In either case, if there was a chance anyone was going to get hurt, I was going to be there.

I'd taken to using the rooftops more frequently after the night I'd intercepted the White Fang at the Laundromat. The back alleys and side roads were good in a pinch, but I could cut straight lines by keeping to the roofs. I just needed to be careful to not fall and break my ass again. I got off easy for that, next time I probably wouldn't.

It took me longer than I wanted to follow the sound regardless. Without my compass pointing me, I was chasing sounds that were echoing off of every building in the city. Being on the rooftops helped to keep everything isolated, but not by much. Once I'd reached where I was headed, I paused for a moment, peering down over the edge. I was immediately greeted with a sense of déjà vu.

There was a car, sitting outside a storefront. From the depictions of gemstones and crystals embossed on the glass and signage, I had to guess either a Dust shop or a jeweler's. Either was a possibility, the White Fang had sent out a blanket order saying they were stopping with Dust Shops. But in the same order, they'd made it clear that they were giving carte blanche for anything the grunts wanted. If one of them wanted to keep hitting dust shops, no one would stop them.

The street was deserted, the gunfire must've been a clue for people to get outta there. But it was silent as well, no alarms going off. Strange.

There was a car sitting out front of the shop. A four-door car that, if the scoop on its hood and fat tires were an indicator, said it'd been souped up. It was in mint condition, and parked halfway onto the curb and half on the street. I could just barely make out a rumbling idle and rattling along the body that told me it was running. The driver's seat was empty though.

Meaning however many people had come in it, they were all inside at the moment.

I ran for the adjoining edge of the roof, and took a fire escape down. If there was a rush to getting down there, it wasn't apparent. Jumping off of rooftops would need to be reserved for more immediately lethal situations, thank you very much. Didn't have enough stimpacks to warrant constantly shattering my lower half. Frankly, no amount of stimpacks warranted that, really.

Plus, y'know, it's not the fall that kills you.

My feet touched down, and I broke into a crouched run across the street. Place was deserted, gunfire had scared people off. Cops hopefully weren't going to be dragging their heels to get there. This wasn't like the other places that'd been hit. The buildings were well kept, the streets clean, and the lights were all on and working. Not the type of place I'd been fighting in until now. Stealth was going to be harder.

I came up to the car and kept behind it, working my way towards the rear. Moving quickly, trying to avoid drawing attention from anyone who might be observing. I peered around the edge of the car, getting a better look of the store front.

There was a lone gunman facing out of the shop. Turning and sweeping frantically up and down the street. From the loose, shaky way his weapon was held, I had to guess he was green. That didn't change that what he was carrying was serious hardware. The design reminded of the Automatic Rifles I'd found in the Madre. Long barrels, bipods, boxy, all wood and steel.

The guy holding it was dressed as a White Fang.

Couldn't tell what he was though, whatever 'attribute' made him a faunus must've been well hidden.

I drew my cattle prod and began to creep around the side of the vehicle. The moment there was an opening, I needed to move fast and hit hard. This was going to be tricky. Visibility was better than I would like, and Faunus have better senses than a human's. If I didn't do it fast enough, he'd see me coming from a mile out, if I was too loud, he'd hear me before that.

Which meant it was time to gamble my aura again.

The moment the gunman's head was half-way turned the opposite direction, I pushed my aura through my feet, and shot forward.

I must've moved faster than I thought, I was on the guy before his head had even stopped turning. Like he'd never heard me coming.

I tackled him at full speed, gloved hand clasping over his mouth as I rammed the handle of the cattle prod into the back of his skull. The momentum from my run sending us both to the ground, the White Fang landing on his Rifle.

He remained stunned for a half a second, unable to register what'd just hit him. I slammed him in the back of the head, again, keeping him that way. My hand left his mouth for a second, long enough to rip his arms out from under him, away from his gun. Last thing I needed was for him to seize up and start blind firing down the street.

"W-Whut da-" The Fang slurred, drunkenly.

I shut him up by gripping his mouth, pressing my knee into his spine, and jamming the electrode into him like I'd intended.

A muffled squeal tried to fight its way through the filter of my hand. It came out just soft enough it could be mistaken for a giant rat's fart. All around unnoticeable in any location unless they were right on top of you.

I was on top of him in that case, but semantics.

As soon as the squeal stopped, I released the prod from his neck and the hand from his mouth. My fist crashed in where they'd been, hitting the back of his head and hammering his face into the concrete.

One down.

I slipped back to the door the grunt had been standing in front of, and peered in. Needed to keep the momentum. As soon as they realized that the door was unguarded now, things were going to get crazy in a hurry.

My assessment had ultimately been on the mark. Going by the merchandise and cases lining and filling the floor of the shop, it was a jewelers. Unless people made dust into jewelry, then it'd be a dust jewelers. I had no clue why they'd do something like that, it'd be like hanging a live grenade or fuel rod from your neck. But sense had clearly abandoned this place some time ago, I was just the one trying to hold on.

The interior of the store was well lit. Either the place had still been open when they got here, or they had no problem being visible to the whole world. There were three more grunts inside, each visibly armed. Two of them, a male with dog ears poking stiffly through his hood and a female with a fluffy red tail hanging limply from her waist, were the same. Carrying Automatic Rifle clones, much the same as the first grunt had. The third, a male, changed it up, I could see a pair of what looked to be .45 Auto Pistols under either shoulder. Each of their hands, scaly, claws jutting out of each finger. There was something off about each of them, but I had bigger issues to worry about at the moment. They hadn't noticed my presence yet. Too busy smashing open the displays, gathering up their potentially ill-gotten gains, and depositing them into duffle bags.

If nothing else, they were moving quickly. Unlike past groups, these White Fang didn't seem keen to stay.

They were keeping closer to the rear of the showroom, allowing me to slip in through the front door. I crept along the displays dotting the floor, keeping them between me and the grunts. Poking my head out to watch and overhear them. They were more focused on the money than me.

"We're gonna be filthy fuckin' rich!" The dog-eared male said, cramming jewelry into a duffle and zipping it shut.

"Less gab more grab Buck." The female said, slinging a loaded bag in the dog-eared man- Buck's direction.

Buck caught it, stacking it beside the one he'd shut. "Lighten up Blanche, even Wheatey's enjoyin' it."

"Yer damn right." The scaled grunt, 'Wheatey' growled "Las' time I got to hold this much money was back on that job in Vacuo, you 'member the one."

"Can't say I do" Buck corrected, ramming the butt of his automatic rifle into a glass case. Surprisingly, it didn't set off any alarms. "Been with my brother since we started, you're thinkin' of someone else."

Wheatey paused for a moment, rubbing his chin, then snapped his fingers. "Palms, that's who I was thinkin' of, my boy Palms."

"What'd I say about gabbin' an' grabbin'?" Blanche asked pointedly, putting her hands on her hips

"Relax, dear." Buck said "Ain't nobody gonna come botherin' us with Clyde knockin' out the alarms. The gunfire'll take a few minutes to get people's attention, an' we got Hamm sittin' at the door on a swivel. Soon as Clyde an' Bon-bon get back, we can double time it."

I began creeping closer, putting my cattle prod back at my side and levering my shotgun over my shoulder. Slowly and carefully cycling the lever, making sure there was a shell in the chamber.

These guys were already armed, and seriously at that. Quicker this got put to bed the better. Buck and Blanche needed to come down first. Wheatey would be a bigger problem if he could draw his pistols. But it wouldn't take much for The other two to swing their rifles my way. I could deal with dodging pistol fire, assuming he could actually manage to get one out and draw on me. I wasn't chancing automatic fire from two machine guns.

I clicked the action shut as I began to close in on the Grunts. Piecing together what way this was liable to go in my head. Nothing fancy, needed to remove them from the fight before things went sideways. I was about ten feet away from them. Opposite side of the showroom, a ring of display cases between us. Peering over the lip of the cases, the three grunts were still close together, arguing.

"I'd rather not wait for your brother and his girlfriend to get back here before we start loading these things into the car." Blanche said, putting her hands on her hips "Unless you want a repeat of what happened in Iridos with those hunters?"

"We're in Vale, not some back-water farm town." Buck said "The cops in this place don't give two shits, or are too busy dealing with the White Fang-"

"What do you think we look like right now?" Blanche hissed "Do you really want to get caught looking like this?"

"Pff, re'lax Blanche." Wheatey drawled, tapping one of his holstered pistols "We got more than 'nuff to take on a couple academy drop-outs. It's the ones in trainin' ye gotta watch out fer. Dumb brats sometimes think they're good 'nuff that they can go and harass hard workin' individ'als like us. Had 'nuff run-ins wit' 'em in Vacuo to know most-a 'em are a bunch-a cocky fucks. Didn't keep 'em from gettin' the drop on Hamm though" Wheatey turned towards the front door "Ain't that ri-… Hamm?"

Blanche and Buck mirrored the motion, finding the doorway vacant.

I snapped up from the case, leveling the shotgun at Buck's back. Even at 10 feet apart, I was going to be hitting each of them with a full shell's worth of lead. Most people don't realize how far you can reliably hit with one of these and assume they'll miss at half a dozen paces.

That's an exaggeration, mind you, but the general idea is the same.

Fire and lead leapt from the barrel as the magnum shell cried thunder. Couldn't use any less. The buckshot collided with Buck's back in an irregular, tight-knit pattern. Sending Buck sprawling forward, out of sight.

Blanche and Wheatey had only just begun to turn towards me as I cycled the action. By the time they had eyes on me, the chamber was already loaded and the spent shell had just reached the floor. My finger twitched, the hammer fell, and the gun jolted in my hands again. Sending Blanche backward, crashing into the smashed open display case before crumbling to the floor.

My hand knocked the lever forward as I pivoted to Wheatey.

A bolt of startled fear shot through him. Valuables dropped from his hands to the floor as he began to reach for his armpits.

I snapped the lever back and pulled the trigger before he even got hands on them. The shot slammed Wheatey's crossed arms into his chest, practically flipping him over on himself.

I vaulted over the display case, sprinted about eight feet, then vaulted over another set of display cases. Clearing the distance between us and landing on Buck in the process.

I flipped my shotgun around and rammed the grip into the back of his head. Hammering it into the floor hard enough to bounce off of it. I had to take that as a sign he was out of the fight.

My head snapped to Blanche and Wheatey.

They were both recovering from being shot, Wheatey still with his arms crossed and Blanche trying to prop herself up. For a moment, I debated which of them was going to be the one I needed to take-out quicker. Neither of them seemed capable of being an immediate threat.

As I focused on Wheatey though, an image played out in my mind. Wheatey's arms snapping forward, pistols drawn with practiced ease. Fire and light flaring from the barrels.

It caught me off guard.

Then, with ease I'd seen from veteran raiders and mercenaries, Wheatey's arms began to move. Carrying a sinuous, practiced fluidity to them. As his peppered forearms began to unfold from his chest, I caught the barest glimpse of steel.

I lunged towards him from my crouch, flipping my shotgun around to grip it by both the barrel and stock. Using the strength of both my arms to ram the side of the gun into Wheatey's face. Even as I did, he tried to finish drawing his pistols. But it didn't work, closing the distance like I had removed much of the room he had to move. His crossed arms swept out, forearms connecting dully with my chest, and stopping.

Then they both went off.

Wheatey had displayed a case of horrific trigger discipline, having drawn with his fingers on the triggers. His arms were still crossed under each other, the scales on his hands and forearms bunching up strangely. The pistols rang with a clap of thunder, quick gouts of fire erupting under his upper arms. Carrying the burning stink of singed cloth and hair. The bullets flew to opposite ends of the store, one shattering one of the store-front windows, and the other a yet un-broken case. Wheatey yowled in surprise, having caught himself with the muzzle flash.

I quirked my my arms, shifting the pressure off to the side, using the handle and lever of the shotgun like a crook. They caught Wheatey on the temple, knocking him off balance. I did my best to keep him arms from unfurling and pointing in my direction.

Angling the shotgun around the handle, I reared it back, then slammed it into the side of Wheatey head, near his left eye. The motion caused his arms to slip free from their coiled position. I moved to the side, allowing a tense moment for one of them to clear my chest as I followed the other arm. Keeping me at angle, and forcing him off target.

Wheatey began to slump, but I didn't take that as a sign he was down. I hit him again, then jerked my shotgun up enough to hold it with one hand, at the meeting of the receiver and foregrip. I let my free hand pull my cattleprod back out, then jammed it down in place of my shotgun. Whether his aura was broken or not, Wheatey crumpled completely after that, pistols falling limply from his hands. I held the cattleprod in place for a moment longer, then used the crook of my shotgun to swipe the pistols out of Wheatey's hands. A miracle the shock hadn't caused him to squeeze off any extra rounds.

A dry, retching cough drew my attention up from Wheatey.

Blanche was shakily trying to pick herself up, sucking air in labored fashion. Hands carelessly pushing into the broken glass laden floor for support.

Her head drunkenly swiveled over to me.

We stared each other down for a moment.

Blanche's mouth quivered for a moment.

I used my moment to launch at her. Not intending to give her any time to get her bearings or try to draw the Automatic Rifle from her back.

I jabbed the electrode into Blanche's face, only narrowly missing the eye guard under her hood. Almost immediately she collapsed back to the floor with a yelp. I made sure she stayed there, planting a knee in the center of her back. For added leverage, I reached towards the small of her back and grabbed her tail, laying limp across her backside. The tail of an animal is the extension of their spine. Faunus traits being what they were, the same school of thought applied.

I grabbed it by the base and gave it a hard pull, knowing it would be enough to stun her. Keep any funny ideas out of her head.

I felt something snap in my hand, and I felt my arm jerk away from Blanche.

Confused, I looked to my hand, now hovering several inches away from Where it'd been.

Blanche's tail still firmly grasped in it. Two tendon-ous threads dangling from the end of it. Nary a drop of blood or errant chunk of bone to be seen.

"… What the Fuck?" I muttered, pausing to look at the wad of fur dangling in my hand.

Right at that moment, Blanche tried to shift underneath me. Had she been someone like Yang or Nora, she'd probably have thrown me off like I was made of paper and glue. As it stood, even if aura was intact, she struggled to push herself up. She got about maybe two, three inches off the ground.

Then I bopped her on the back of the head with the cattle prod, and she hit the ground, out like a light.

I studied the back of Blanche's head for a moment, noting the spot I'd hit her. Then I looked back to her tail, still dangling in my hand. A moment passed as I looked at the severed length of limp fur, then my head swiveled to the other two bodies lying on the floor. I focused on Wheatey's exposed arms, to the scales on his hands. The way they seemed to bunch and fold more like hardened plates on fabric than, say, the skin of a gecko or deathclaw.

I switched my attention to Buck, not too far from Wheatey.

His dog-like ears were sitting cockeyed and disjointed from his head.

"Are… Are you wearing costumes?" I asked, bewildered.

Before I could get an answer to that question, not that I was going to, I heard a door crash open towards the back of the store. I whipped around to face it as two more White Fang stepped out. One a lean looking man, the other a faire woman, a notable hitch in her stride. Rabbit ears protruded from her head, while a thin, feline tail dangled behind the man.

My mind flashed back to the conversation being had before I barged in.

These must've been the two left unaccounted for.

They reacted with the same practiced grace Wheatey had. The woman pulling some class of shotgun to bear, and the man another Automatic Rifle. This time the barrel cut-down, more maneuverable.

Better for shooting indoors.

I swore under my breath and dove back over the displays. A bullet ripping through the space I'd previously been occupying. More of its kin followed it in a chorus of booming sound as the man dumped the magazine in my general direction. I went prone behind the displays, wads of dust-propelled lead easily piercing the plywood constructions and flying elsewhere. I began crawling along the edge of the displays. If I stayed still, one would eventually get lucky and hit me.

But I also knew that he had to run dry sooner rather than later. Automatic Rifles had abysmal magazine capacity, for an automatic weapon anyway. I wasn't in the mood to be counting bullets, and the man didn't seem to be in the mood to control his fire.

I'd crawled a distance of maybe ten feet, towards the left of my assailants, put us at an angle. Then the booming chorus took a refrain, and the wood and lead stopped flying.

I slipped my cattleprod back into its holster, and flipped out my shotgun again. I sprang up enough to send a scattering of buckshot back towards them. The man and woman moved in kind, splitting apart, one each moving to opposite sides of the store. Whether they were trying to flank me or not, I couldn't tell.

The woman returned the volley with a blast of her own. Shot ripping through the display next to me, debris catching me on the other side.

I dipped back behind the displays as a second blast rocketed through the space where my head had been. Aura or not, I wasn't taking a shell's worth of shot to the face. As a third blast hit in roughly the same neighborhood, I scrambled back the way I came, trying to keep out of sight. The displays I was hiding behind were set in a ring. Until I left cover, I was basically boxed in. Hadn't considered that when I'd dove in.

I cycled the action of my shotgun, chambering the last round in the tube. Fast as it was to empty, reloading required time I didn't have in my current position. Needed to nip my situation in the bud, before things got worse.

Only one of them currently had a loaded gun. Couldn't tell how many rounds she had waiting, so far she'd shot at me three-

The display I'd been about to crawl in front of blew out into a shower of splinters and paint.

Four times.

Most shotguns that were confined to a tube magazine only ever held five rounds. Four in the tube plus one in the chamber. You could increase the capacity by lengthening the magazine, but the Gun Runners didn't do it, and I'd never seen anyone try it. That aside, it was only an increase of two or three rounds, maximum. The tradeoff being additional weight towards the muzzle. Not much, but still more.

I hadn't gotten a great look at the shotgun the woman was using, but I had to assume similar rules applied. I hadn't seen a box magazine.

Which meant I had one person trying to reload and the other with only one round left.

I wasn't in any position to brag. But at least I had more guns.

Pulling out my flare gun, I gripped it in one hand, and slid my other hand down to the handle of my shotgun. Fingers webbed through the lever loop and over the trigger. What I was about to do was honestly stupid, and had I been attempting it in any other capacity, probably would've backfired.

As it stood, I needed to shift the balance back.

I put my aura into my legs again, took a deep breath, and then sprang up. Tucking my knees into my chest to ensure I was out of the immediate line of fire.

Another booming roar sounded, the woman's last shot filling the space I would've been in. Instead, it barely clipped my boot.

I snapped open VATs. Earning the moment I needed to assess.

I'd gone from having an angle on them, to both having separate angles on me. The man to my left, in the midst of pull the magazine from his rifle, his head slowly pivoting to follow my ascent. The woman was recoiling to my right, the shotgun in her hands still lurching back. Last wisps of fire still flaring out from the muzzle, fading into the air a dull orange.

VATs closed, and my hand tracked to their targets as my jump reached its apex. Shotgun pointed to the man, flare gun tracking to the woman.

Both of my hands twitched. A cloud of lead flew at the man as a glaring red sun flew at the woman.

I missed both shots.

The wall beside the man erupted with a spray of masonry and glass. Causing him to shout, diving off to the side. Similar could be said for the woman. The flare missed her by a mile, but it collided with one of the displays, shattering on impact. Releasing a burst of red light and heat. The woman gave the instinctive action all living creatures have when fire suddenly erupts beside them. She screamed, and scrambled away from it, losing all composure and almost dropping her shotgun.

I came back to ground, whipped my shotgun back behind me, and shot off towards the woman. Of the two she was the most affected. Her beau may have had an arguably more dangerous weapon, but the woman had already proven she was far more capable with hers. All she needed was to get a second to put a round back in it, and I was in trouble.

I vaulted back out of the ring of display cases and broke into a dead sprint. I slipped my flare gun back into its holster as I closed in on the woman. She was struggling to overcome her involuntary reaction. By the time she managed to get her head back in the game, I was already on her. She came to face my fist right as it was about to meet her nose.

I hit her with a hard straight, and her head snapped back, body rocking with her. I kept the distance close, arms snaking out, grabbing her shoulders. I drove my knee up into her stomach, forcing her to bend with it, destroying what was left of her balance.

My left leg kicked out, sweeping at the woman's, and I hauled her to the floor. Keeping my knee in place, the impact driving the force of her fall onto it in one, concentrated point. I felt my arms tingle with exertion as I tried to push my aura into them, bringing them down on her back in a hammer blow. Driving all of the force I could at her from two directions.

Her aura shattered instantly, breath leaving her in a harsh squawk of pain.

She flopped off of my knee, gasping for air. Body trembling from the assault.

I grabbed the back of her hood and slammed her head into the floor. Making sure she stayed down.

The man didn't take kindly to that.

"Bon-bon!" The man roared; the racking of the rifle's action almost muffled by it.

I sprang to my feet, drawing That Gun, getting a bead on the man as his hand slipped back to the trigger. That Gun jolted in my hand, beating the man half a second before fire leapt from his rifle.

My shot landed, hitting him in the shoulder, his shots going wide.

I didn't have a lot of choices in that moment about where to go. I couldn't keep playing hide and go seek with him hoping he'd empty another magazine. I squeezed another round off, nailing the man in the head.

His rifle roared, muzzle rising and twisting as rounds flew into the ceiling and outer walls. I gave more thought than he did about hoping the bullets didn't make it through and hit something, or someone else. Of course, he clearly didn't give a flying fuck in that moment, so it wasn't too hard.

By the time he got the rifle under control, I was halfway to him, closing the distance. He began to whip the rifle back around to me. Its cut-down state made it lighter and more maneuverable. But physics weren't on his side. I closed in at the same point he finally got his rifle pointed vaguely back to me. I batted it aside with my forearm. The man tried to turn the motion into a strike with the buttstock, to his credit. Even if my aura wasn't in working order, my armor dampened the impact enough to not be a problem.

Unfurling my finger from the trigger, I brought the butt of That Gun's grip crashing into the side of his head. I repeated the motion, treating the fine piece of machined steel in my hand like an oddly shaped rock. Hitting and whipping the man about the face. He tried to knock me back with his rifle, but he wasn't taking the repeated hits well enough to actually do it effectively.

After hitting him maybe five additional times, I put the barrel of the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

He rocked back, legs staggering to try and catch him, only to fail and send him to the floor. I grabbed the barrel of his rifle on the way down, wrenching it out of his grasp. Both to keep from using it on me, and to keep from mindlessly spraying it around the room.

The man hit the ground, and his arms shot up, guarding his head. Voice escaping him in half-threatened growls. He scrambled back wards across the floor, and I let him, just a little. I took small, slow steps towards just to make sure the distance stayed the same.

I returned That Gun to my hip, and gripped the rifle in both of my hands. It had a good weight to it. Something about it felt snappy in my hands, balanced. Despite the different origins of the weapon, it felt familiar in my hands. I found the magazine release with ease, pulling the steel box from the receiver and dumping it to the floor. I stared the man down as the heel of my opposite hand knocked the action back, ejecting an unspent round. Reducing the weapon in my hands from being a firearm to being an over-engineered wood and steel club.

I flipped the rifle around and gripped it by the barrel as I closed in on the man.

Almost as if a switch had been flipped, the man's arms fell away from his head. His right hand shot to his waist, at the front of his pants. With a whip-like motion he drew an auto pistol, not bothering to aim, using my close position to point at my general location.

He pulled the trigger, thrice in rapid succession.

The first shot went wide, but I felt it tug at my coat. Put a hole in it, more than likely.

The second slugged me in the stomach. Little more than a dull push than the sharp punch of a normal bullet. My aura eating the impact and finally breaking it.

The third hit me in the chest, in the area of my right lung. Carrying more of the energy it should have. Punching into the armor plating of my vest, and breaking apart against the harder material.

But leaving me no worse for wear.

I swept the butt of the rifle horizontally, at arm height of the man, connecting with the pistol and hand holding it. The man's hand and arm flew to the side with the impact, the pistol spinning out of his hand, wrenching his trigger around the back of his hand. Eliciting a howl of pain.

Planting my foot, I swung my rifle-club in reverse, this time striking the man in the head. His aura glowed a tawny brown, then faded out. The rest of the hit connected, blowing the man to the floor, on his side. His arms drunkenly scrambled to try and prop him up again.

I brought the club down on his head again. He hit the floor with a bounce and stayed there.

I waited a moment, watching him, before sliding to a knee. Trying to control my breathing.

"Fuck's sake, how many times do I need to stove-in someone's head before they get the message?" I growled "Is it so hard to just cut your losses and give up?"

No, I do not know the meaning of irony.

As I recovered, and focused my energy into restoring my aura, I stared down at the man vindictively. Focusing on his White Fang 'uniform' as it were.

There were things… wrong with it. The insignia that was normally on their white tunic was on the front rather than the back. It appeared to be rather crudely applied as well and incorrect, there was only one slash mark instead of three, and the beast's head looked rather… dopey. The steel mask wasn't as encompassing either. Less of a guard and more… well, a mask.

I looked down at the man's tail, laying flaccid beside one of his legs.

The bottom half of it coiled like a piece of rope. Something that would be otherwise excruciating. Spines are not meant to be used for rope.

I gripped the tail and, following a hunch, gave it a firm tug. It stayed in place at first, but I felt it give a little, showing it wasn't securely attached. I gave it a second, firmer yank.

It snapped free of his pants, and was left dangling in my hand. I stared at the 'tail' for a moment, then back down at the man.

"… You assholes aren't actually White Fang." I said, shaking my head "You're not even faunus!"

Surmising what was actually going on broke down to this: they were run-of-the-mill thieves. They'd just been using the insanity caused by the White Fang's recent actions as a smoke screen for themselves. No one would be looking for a bunch of humans amidst a storm of Faunus crimes. They'd have gotten written off by the police, and get to walk away with the valuables.

I was wasting my time on copycats! Literally!

I turned to look back at the other thieves, currently laying passed out around the store. All the pieces were starting to fall into place now. Which incentivized me further. I couldn't afford to be wasting time on a bunch of fakes. Yet here I was, standing in the middle of a blasted out jewelry store, surrounded by people I'd just assaulted. Granted, they'd all had it coming, but that didn't change that there were likely far worse things happening in Vale that moment, and every second I'd wasted there could've been spent elsewhere.

Right on cue, my Scroll chimed, stealing my attention.

I opened it, and found that I had received a message from one of the dubious conversations I was eavesdropping in.

[Corner of Burgundy and Tinn. We roll in ten.]

"... Fuckin' shit!" I yelled. I didn't have a great knowledge of the city's layout yet, but I was starting to get better at it. That was at least eight blocks away. I was going to be late, things were going to get ugly. As if I needed one more reason to get pissed off.

Then I noticed the fire that was starting to kick up next to Bon-bon.

The flare that'd only narrowly missed her had still left behind enough fuel to burn, at least for a short while. Given the heat at which it burns, it didn't take much for the surrounding environment to catch fire. Which began causing it to spread and grow in intensity. Only now, after having a moment to begin collecting myself, did I actually smell the smoke.

Then the store's overhead fire suppression systems kicked on, spraying cold water down over everything.

The fire began to die back, hissing and sputtering.

I was largely fine, my coat wicked the water. But getting caught in a sudden downpour is never enjoyable, even in the Mojave.

"Yeah." I grumbled, walking for the entrance "Doesn't that just figure."

---

Jesus Christ, I close my eyes for five seconds and suddenly Russia's in Ukraine, Celebs are attacking each other on the boob-tube, and I have to sell my soul to put gas in my car.

Meh, guess nothing's changed really.

Has been a minute though, sorry for the silence, but like I said in the A/N for the previous chapter, I'm only uploading here en masse for the foreseeable future. Just makes more sense than hitting it each time the next part is ready. With any luck, there'll at least be an uptick in things before too long, but I know how these things go by now.

"PoisonPen37": Back from my nap for the moment, thank you for the your patience. Here's hoping my narcolepsy doesn't kick in.

"PilotWithThreeStrikes": Only way it can go, ninety percent of the time. He's Six, after all.

"Selfishgecko": This one hopefully scratched the itch then, lots of talking here.

"Rio_Skyron": Well, he has seen it, at least. He just hasn't yet gotten to taste the forbidden fruits and dairy products of italian... Vali-... Remnant cuisine... wait, wasn't Remnant a pizza sta-

"Thepkrmgc": Lesson one of combat: No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Ever.

"Spatialyeti8": I aim to please :)

"TheYellowNinja13": Reputation? What reputation, I have no idea what you're talking about. There's no reputations here, only insinuations.

"Someguy_the_Anon": Cardin: Hah! stupid eggs. *gets mauled by an over protective Mama-claw*

"Degenweeb": Ay, that it is. Painfully so sometimes. The support is appreciated :)

"Hunter_of_Entities": A wonderful example. You can train all you want, but in the end the body will always have its limits. Push them as far as you can, but in the end we all hit a wall. Question becomes, what happens when you start destroying those walls then? Does the world start throwing bigger fish at you, or do you become the big fish?

"Darkromdemon": Soon... Sooooon.

"PaladinSans": Really should've shouldn't it? Carnitas, Chili, Arepas, so many missed foods. C'est la vie.

"FastestGunInTheWest": I shall, it would certainly be a topic worth broaching at some point.

"Holandia1103": I did promise Mr. Kellar that I would patronize him some more, just been trying to think of more potential scenes to have drawn. Shame I can't post any of them here.

"Bile_Rune-Tongue": Always a pleasure, hopefully the next fights will be a bit better than the one in this chapter. Felt a bit sub-par for me. Skål!

"OhBoi": Tried that for a while. She kept getting into the chicken hutch.

"Guest(1)": Always a thought, good for exercising and what-not.

"Guest(2)": He was the best. IMO he's leagues ahead of 3-Dog and Travis, and liked at least one of them.

"Blockhead1122nv": 8-5-10-4-10-9-1, as compiled by a read over on SB

"Guest(4)": We're opening a gambling pool now? Sweet. Time to make some side accounts. ;)

"Jhsilver123": I'm keeping a close eye on it. At the very least, nothing is set in stone until it's actually written down. Otherwise, Six would be in a world of pain.

"Savathuns_Bathwater": Jury's still out, when I have an answer, I'll make sure everyone knows.

"Guest(6)": Now why would I spoil the fun here? ;)

Something that did change though, is that this story now has over 2K favorites. I still remember hitting the 100 mark and being floored by that. Again, thank you, all of you. I shall endeavor to persevere and, who knows, maybe things will turn around. Thank you all for your support, it truly means a great deal to me.

Ok, I'm going back to sleep now, maybe when I wake up, things will have calmed down. This Fanfic is brought to you by Barley Bank and Trust. "You can trust your money is right where it belongs, with Barley."

Adios.

-Ash