Dust in the Wind

by Buried In Ash

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

55. Vol2: Days in the Weeks II

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

I closed in on Fox, keeping the flow of aura steady to my legs, too much and I'd burn it out.

My fist slipped past Fox's guard, fist narrowly skimming past his jawline. His arm crooked over mine, and my head whipped back, only narrowly avoiding his fist. I had to twist it to the side to avoid the elbow strike that scraped behind it. Sweat flicked off of his arm as it snapped back.

I stepped in, fist driving for the hollow of his stomach. I felt it connect, but Fox hardly reacted beyond gritting his teeth. I followed with a cross aimed for his head, and he deflected it with his forearm, guiding it off course.

That same motion, his other arm went crooked at the elbow, and swept around at me in a feint. It was followed by the real strike, a scything heel kick. I turned, catching it, tensing my aura in an effort to strengthen my guard. The instant the pressure let off, my fist snapped out in a scribe-counter, catching Fox in the lower ribs.

His leg rebounded off my guard, and his momentum shifted. With my side to him, he pushed in, taking my punch, pivoting his other knee into a strike at my lower back. I tried to shift my aura, but was forced to eat it. Couldn't react fast enough.

My aura glowed, but stayed up, and my head flicked to the side, narrowly avoid the follow-up fist.

His leg began to retract, and I pushed in, driving my shoulder into him, shifting the balance. He pulled an arm up to guard, and ready the other into a counter punch. I intercepted it, pivoting my shoulder up, snapping my elbow into his chin. His counter punch went wide. I kept the pressure up, focusing my aura into my legs, my calves, and sprang up and in. My knee finding purchase in his stomach where my fist hadn't before. A huff of air left Fox as he backpedaled, giving me the space to touch down again. I eased off the aura in my calves, knowing I was running a fine line, and kept pushing. I closed the distance, re-entering the fray with a flicker jab, scraping Fox's cheek as he narrowly pivoted away. My other arm flickered out as the first retracted, forcing him to stay on the defensive. Each quick extension drawing a hiss of breath from me. I couldn't keep a constant attack up forever, but each second I wasn't relying on my aura was another it had time to recoup.

After five of those jabs, Fox stopped running. He pivoted through another of the jabs, spinning a roundhouse kick angled at head height. I narrowly managed to dip under it, hearing the muffled wind as it ripped past my helmet. I pressed in again, arm coming up in an upper cut.

Fox pivoted, arm craning around in an elbow strike.

My punch immediately evolved into a clamshell, as I felt his elbow collide and scrape off my forearm. Coming an inch shy of my face. My free arm snapped up in a counter punch, finally landing a square hit on his head. It was a light one, but a blow to the cheek is a blow to the cheek.

We both backed off again, guards raised, taking a split second to gauge each other. I felt no worse for wear, but I could feel fatigue building in my limbs, the places I'd been heavily relying on my aura. Like a dull, drained feeling. I wouldn't let it stop me.

Fox held himself with practiced ease, keeping from showing weakness. To the untrained eye, at least. I could see the way his shoulders were beginning to sag, the weight he was breathing with. A good sheen of sweat on his arms and brow, shirt drenched.

Hadn't thought I was pushing back that hard, but perhaps I had been.

Fox's weight shifted and he pitched forward, ready to start swinging again. I dipped forward to meet him.

"WATCH OUT!"

A blur of black and red met Fox first. Careening with abandon into his side and sending him to the floor. The blur spun and sprawled out next to him, coalescing itself into the familiar shape of a teenage girl. Her massive red scythe cartwheeling a few yards away, before clattering and skittering to the floor.

Fox and Ruby stayed on the floor for a moment, visibly dazed. Then Ruby began to pick herself up, head wobbling as she looked around, silver eyes blinking blearily.

"Oy, he's mine." I groused "Stick to your own."

"I tried to warn you." Ruby grumbled rubbing her head.

I turned my attention away from her, and back to the place I knew she'd been thrown from. Yatsuhashi was standing there, blade now locked with Weiss's. Well, less locked and more blocked. Where Weiss used a toothpick, Yatsuhashi used a slab. His sword at a crooked angle, clearly recovering from a swing and having only just caught Weiss' attack.

"Watch where you're throwing people, you might hurt someone." I said.

Yatsu nodded, retracting his blade from the lock, with Weiss mirroring the action. He bowed slightly at the waist, indicating he was ending their current session. I couldn't tell if that counted as a surrender or not, but given that he initiated it, I was willing to count it that way.

Just a little past him, I could see Coco in a similar position with Yang and Blake. Only instead of locked blades and flying teenagers, it was a scene of raised fists and flailing purses. Yang was in a stance, now relaxing out of it, fists at the ready, with Blake beside her, blade drawn and pointed at Coco. Coco meanwhile had a very… odd stance. It wasn't that it wasn't a viable one, just strange. Too big for what she was doing and wielding, meant for something larger and heavier. Her bag was hoisted overhead and, by the nature of gravity, was now dangling limply. If she'd remained in motion that probably wouldn't have been the case. All that combined though, made me wonder how heavy that thing actually was.

Seeing the pause in the action however, the three of them decided to follow suit as well. Though Coco notably didn't bow like Yatsu had, so she was less inclined to admit defeat.

I approached Ruby, extending a hand to her and hauled her to her feet. She was surprisingly light, I knew she was small, but this was the first time I'd actually had to pick her up. Barring initiation, anyway, when I'd had to drag her behind me. It was almost deceptive really, even for her size she seemed light. Like lifting a sack mostly filled with air and a few sheets of paper.

An extreme exaggeration, but accurate.

Guess I needed to start giving her extra portions at dinner too.

Now back on her feet, Ruby dusted herself off and sauntered off to collect her scythe. Meanwhile, I turned my attention towards Fox, who'd recovered enough to be sitting upright and was leaning back on his hands. I extended a hand out to him, much like I had Ruby.

He stared at it for a moment, strange thing for a blind man to do, then shook his head, choosing to stay on the ground, chest and shoulders heaving in slow, large motions. He was trying to catch his breath in a controlled manner, if I knew it well enough. We'd been going hard and fast with it, so no surprise he was feeling winded on the other side. Now that he was stopped though, I could actually take stock of just how hard he'd been pushing. Despite his controlled breathing, he couldn't hide the sweat that was rolling off of him. Now that he'd stopped moving, it started collecting him in a veritable sheen and rolling to the floor in sizable droplets. His coppery vest was splotched into a darker shade where it roughed his chest.

I couldn't tell if he was pushing so hard for my sake, or just putting on a show.

"Damn, looks like you broke mine." I said "Thanks, Ruby."

"I said I was sorry." Ruby grumbled, walking back with her weapon.

Coco approached and looked at her partner for a moment, then to me. "Guess you weren't joking about being a fast learner, kid."

"Swift Learner-" I corrected "-and I'm not there yet. Gotta say, wasn't expecting Fox here to burn out so quickly."

Fox shot me an unamused look, and began to get up.

"Real smooth kid, bashing the people helping you." Coco said, looking at me over her shades.

"You know that's not how I meant it." I shot back "I know he's capable, I just assumed he had the endurance to keep up. He's done well enough the past couple times we've sparred."

Now back on his feet, Fox moved around to Coco. The sweat on his skin now almost rolling off him. His head swiveled to Coco, then back to me.
"Most guys in your weight class would be pretty much done by now." Yatsu cut in, voice deep and rumbling.

"Thought we cleared up that I'm not exactly a slouch when it comes to this stuff?" I groused

"And you're saying we are?" Coco asked, tossing her bag over her shoulder.

"Nothing as such." I defended "But I was expecting him to keep steam a bit longer than this. All the PT and aura training in the world, you shouldn't be winded after just a few minutes of punching."

"We do more with our days than just help you y'know." Coco said "Some of it involves getting less time to rest."

"Yeah, 'cause I've got no idea what that feels like." I shot back.

Coco gave me a dry look, then rolled her eyes.

"While I'm more than willing to keep going-" I continued "-I can also understand if Fox needs a minute. Going at it full force like we've been can get pretty taxing."

Fox gave me another look, maybe a bit annoyed. Then he looked away again, towards one of the walls some yards away. A smirk stretched across his lips, and he shook his head.

"No?" Coco asked.

I shrugged "Hey, if you need a breather I won't stop you. I'll just steal Yahtzee from my teammates."

Yatsuhashi quirked an eyebrow at me, mouthing the word I'd just called him.

"Whaaaa- we've got dibs!" Ruby chirped, motioning to herself and Weiss.

"Should've thought about that before letting yourself be turned into a little-girl shaped bullet." I snarked.

Ruby's cheeks turned a few shades red and puffed out slightly. Before she could actually get anywhere though, Yatsu tapped her on the shoulder. Ruby looked up at him, and he nodded at her solemnly, before he turned his head back towards the wall too. Then he turned to address me. "I think your teammates need the practice as much as you do." Yatsu said "Gonna decline."

"Just like that?" I asked.

Yatsuhashi smirked, and said nothing else. Leaving me to draw my own conclusions.

Fact of the matter was, Fox wasn't going to be able to jump right back into the fight. At the very least he needed to catch his breath. He was going to need to consider hydrating if he kept sweating the way he was. Yatsu was the next immediate option, either him or Coco anyway. If he could take two of my teammates at once, then I could stand to learn a lot from fighting him. Even just mixing things up by sparring with him was a start. But if he was pulling himself off the roster, then that left Coco. Frankly, I knew less about how Coco fought than I did Yatsu, but she didn't strike me the same way Fox or Yatsu did. She was certainly keeping up with Yang and Blake, but given the requirements of how I was fighting, there wasn't a guarantee she'd be up to snuff. Yatsu had size and raw power on his side. Coco had lady stilts and a handbag. For all I knew she could kick my ass, but she outwardly didn't show it.

As I mentally debated my course of action, I let my eyes drift about the room. As I did, I found them lingering towards the wall Yatsuhashi and Fox had been looking towards.

Velvet was leaning against it, squatting really, twiddling her thumbs. She looked withdrawn, sullen, and… well, frankly, she looked bored.

Which caused an awful idea to form in my head.

"… A'ight then." I said, motioning toward Velvet "Oy!"

Velvet blinked and looked up at me.

"Get over here and fight me." I said.

Fox and Yatsuhashi smirked at that

Velvet's eyes lit up instantly.

Coco's, on the other hand, narrowed at me.

"Fox needs a break, you and Yahtzee are clearly preoccupied-" I explained "-and you've got Velvet constantly sitting on the sidelines. Let her go a few rounds, there's no harm in it."

"… Kid, remember that thing about Velvet being off limits?" Coco asked, gaining a more serious edge to her voice

"Oh, I remember." I nodded "I also remember you not giving much of a reason as to why you had her sitting on the sidelines while everyone else got to do something."

"Cool." Coco said, keeping the edge "Do you remember the part about not showing all of your tricks and tactics too?"

"Of course, I even agreed with the sentiment." I said "However, having Velvet sit out the entire time is kinda ass-inine."

"Language!" I heard Weiss and Velvet say in near synch, prompting them both to look at each other.

"Not a swear word, look it up." I corrected "While I agreed it's important not to go showing off to everyone who asks, there's a caveat to that. Going too far in the opposite direction is just as bad."

"We still train, just because she's sitting on the sidelines now doesn't mean she's not training later." Coco said.

"You can hardly say either one is comparable." I said "What happens when Velvet winds up out of practice with her actual weapons and skills, because she's forced to keep them under wraps at all times?"

"That's not going to happen." Coco answered, a smirk on her lips.

That irked me instantly. Maybe Coco knew something I didn't, more likely than not she did, but the implication of such a statement was galling.

"… Ok, if I wasn't sure about wanting to fight her before, I am now." I deadpanned "Because I don't think you're taking the position you're in seriously."
That immediately got a rise out of CFVY. Fox and Yatsu's brows crept up towards their scalps, while Velvet tried to cover the look of surprise on her face with her hands.

Coco raised a brow at me in dangerous fashion, light reflecting off of her shades. "You want to repeat that, kid?" She asked in a less than friendly fashion.

"It's one match." I continued, not deterred in the slightest "If I can turn out all of her tricks in a few sparring matches, they were never good tricks to begin with."

Coco's jaw loosened at my rebuke of her subtle reproach.

"Aside from which, the skills you don't use are the ones that rust and dull." I continued, doing a few minor stretches "The place you don't want to find out you've got a dull knife is when you need to cut yourself free."

"So you're calling her dull?" Coco asked, incensed.

"Nothing of the sort." I said "If anything by fighting me, she's prepping for the eventuality everyone faces: in an active field, you can't keep something hidden forever. By sparring with me, you limit how many people actually knows what she can do, you help keep her from getting rusty, and ensure what she does stay quiet a little longer."

"That's what we're here for." Coco said "She trains with us-"

"-And eventually she grows accustomed to the way you fight." I interrupted "She sees and learns your tricks, grows complacent, and you facilitate any future issues she might have."

"That's not how it happens." Coco shot back.

"It is actually." I said "Without introduction of outside variables, stagnation is an inevitability. In the short-term, training like how I am with your team, learning to use my aura, stagnation is less of an issue. But training over the course of years, like you're liable to experience as a team? That breeds it like rats in an alleyway."

Again, Coco said nothing. But I could see even Fox and Yatsu were starting to get a little miffed with me now. I could see my teammates silently cautioning me to stop, looking at me like I was an idiot. But I was getting what I wanted, and saw fit to continue. Frankly, there was another reason I was doing it.

"Honestly, it just seems more like you don't trust in her skills all that much." I ventured, smirking, knowing what I was building to was liable to bite me "Specifically, by forcibly keeping her sidelined, you're insinuating that she's the weakest member of your team. Implying that you can't trust in her abilities, can't trust her to help, can't trust her to take care of herself, or just all around don't have confidence in her. Which becomes a vicious cycle when her not being able to keep herself sharp causes her skills to rust, and make those assumptions and fears a reality."

"Kid." Coco said, and I could hear the irritation in her voice.

"Topping all of that off-" I finished "-just judging by the reactions she had, did you ever stop to ask what she wanted to do, or did you just make those calls for her?"

Coco's jaw popped open, and she looked at me in bewilderment. Fox and Yatsuhashi looked a smidge angry but begrudging. Velvet, on the other hand looked completely dumbstruck by the sudden turn of the conversation.

"So, which is it then?" I asked, pushing one more of Coco's buttons.

Coco regarded me for a moment. On the surface she looked calm, but I could read her well enough, those sunglasses didn't hide much. She was staring me down with cold calculation. Almost reminded me of Goodwitch, in a way.

Then she turned to Velvet, smiling. "Y'know what Vel?" She asked "I've changed my mind. Kick his ass."

Velvet's eyes widened, and a bewildered smile spread onto her face. She stared at Coco for a moment, before turning to look at me.

"Well?" I asked, smirking "Think you can put up a fight?"

Almost as if I had flipped a switch, Velvet's smile gained an edge to it that could cut glass. Not malicious, strangely enough, more a show of determination, possibly excitement. I'd seen it sported enough around the wasteland, and had maybe worn it myself once or twice.

It was a little out of place on her, given the times we'd interacted. But I knew she could bite if pushed enough.

She did a few basic stretches as she sauntered away from the wall and towards me. As soon as she got close enough, I slipped into a stance and half expected her to immediately spring into action. When she didn't, but rather just casually slipped into a stance herself, I couldn't help but ask. "What, you're not going to spring at me like Fox did?"

"Why would I do that?" Velvet asked, tone sincere and stance not dropped.

"Just par for the course." I said "He was willing to do it to catch me off guard. Wasn't putting it past you."

Velvet looked at me curiously for a moment, then gave me a bright, disarmingly earnest smile. "It's just a sparring match. No reason it shouldn't be fair."

Coco barked a laugh at that, and I noticed Yatsuhashi and Fox were smirking again.

"… Well, thank you for being up front about it." I said, nodding "Let's see what we can learn, shall we?"

Velvet's head dipped, and she slipped into a proper fighting stance. As good a signal as I was going to get. I shot forward preparing to close-

There was a boot in my face.

Before I could even react to it, Velvet literally sprang at me. Launching herself from a standing position, she cleared the remaining distance between us in a blink. Leg lashing forward in a flying kick. There wasn't even a second to react.

The kick connected.

My world went liquid and blurry as all 130 some-odd pounds of Velvet collided with my helmet. By the sheer physics it was enough to knock me off my feet. Whatever momentum she'd added to it just sent me flying back. I didn't go far, ten, maybe fifteen feet at most before I tumbled across the ground. By the time I tumbled to a halt, I was only half way through untangling train of thought from the hit. Taking a hit like what Velvet gave was no small feat. Like taking a punch from a Supermutant, and I knew what that felt like.

I at least had enough presence of mind to immediately try and pick myself up. Unfortunately, my rattled brain misinterpreted the motion for me being drunk. My lack of coordination making the initial attempt to rise turn into a half panicked flailing motion. With me getting to my knee before falling back on my ass.

I couldn't help but hear Coco laughing. The others might have been too, but I couldn't really tell.

It took me a moment to collect myself enough to process what had happened. Another half second after that to check my aura. Strangely enough, it hadn't broken. Either she'd hit me softer than it'd felt or I was getting stronger.

She seemed to hit me pretty hard, so maybe it was a good sign.

I righted myself enough to take in my surroundings. Velvet was a couple yards away still, maintaining her stance and looking down at me.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

It took me a second to respond. Was worried if I tried to rush, it would come out sounding slurred, make the damage look worse. "That was a cheap shot." I answered.

Velvet gave me a guilty smile. "Sorry."

"What for?" I asked, slowly staggering back to my feet "You gave me a chance to get ready, you were more than fair."

"You gonna be ok Six?" Ruby called from the sidelines.

"I'll be fine." I called back, rapping my knuckles against my helmet "Though I'm gonna need to put some padding in this thing if you people are gonna keep sucker punching me."

"You sure you want to keep going kid?" Coco asked, snickering.

"What kind of question is that?" I asked "You think just because I got kicked in the head-"

I immediately shot towards Velvet, closing the distance in a blink. I cocked my right arm back in a straight, channeling my aura into it. The moment I was in striking distance, I let it fly for Velvet's head.

Her eyes sharpened instantly, her head snapping to the side as the punch whiffed her. My arm snapped back, and the other swung low on a crook, connecting in about the area of Velvet's liver. It was a firm hit, likely backed by aura, but Velvet shifted with it. A side effect of her smaller frame and lighter weight, took a lot less to push her around.

As the hit twisted her, she pivoted, returning the strike with a kick to my side. I shifted my arm, blocking the strike. She rebounded immediately, twisting the other way around. I let my guard shift to my other arm, ready to intercept. Her leg connected with my arm again, but this time carrying to weight or force. I felt it slide off my guarding arm as Velvet sprang into the air, body spinning, other leg scything high.

I dipped back, watching the heel of her boot pass through the empty space where my head had been. Ripping through the air with bone breaking force.

Gravity took hold and brought her back to ground as I got my footing, and dove in. I was starting to get a feel for how she fought. She seemed inclined to her legs. There was a lot of power to be had in strikes with your legs, leverage. Velvet had the right build for it too. Her smaller frame made her quick, and she was much leaner than Yang, Fox, or the couple dozen White Fang I'd knocked around. What she lacked in power, she could clearly make up in agility.

But there's a massive flaw with a kick-based fighting style that no amount of aura could overcome: mobility. If your legs are off the ground, or your strike robs you of ease of movement, you're a sitting duck. Making it a gamble: either they're getting knocked off their feet, or you are.

If that was something I had to teach Velvet, I had no qualms doing it.

Velvet swept her leg low as she rose up, trying to swipe mine out from under me. I hopped over it, using the momentum to try and drive a knee into her chin. I barely grazed her chin before returning to ground, gliding seamlessly into a hard right straight. Velvet weaved to the side narrowly avoiding the strike, and I could see her leg reeling back for another swing.

My right arm reeled in as my left flicked out, bopping her on the nose. Her prepared kick transitioning into a back step. I pushed in further and kept her on it. Letting my arms flicker out in two and threes, irregular. Keeping her from getting set into a rhythm, while I learned the way she moved. Starting noticing her tells, the way her shoulders pivoted when she was about to dip. How her legs swayed and feet flitted as she weaved. I could see that she was skilled at least, a sign she had at least practiced well. Just not well enough. After keeping her on the defensive for a spell, I had enough to work with.

She was skilled, but if the best she had to offer were a few basic kicks then that wasn't going to do.

I put the pressure on, feinting a strike to her jaw, while my other arm flew in for another liver shot.

I regretted it instantly.

Instead of dodging, and trying to slip into another kick, Velvet slipped in. Getting close enough that I could see the daring little smile on her face.
Then her fist crashed into the underside of my jaw like a sledgehammer.

My head snapped upward, and long practiced instinct took hold. I was suddenly the one on the back foot, trying to understand what'd just happened. Quickly adjust myself so I didn't lose ground.

The moment I stepped back however, Velvet stole the momentum. She came rushing in on me like a coiled spring let loose. Her other arm repaying my previous liver shot with interest. My aura flashed brightly at the hit, but held despite its frailty.

I pulled my arms up in a guard as my mind tried to play catch-up.

Almost like a switch had flipped, Velvet had changed. Everything about the way she'd been moving was different. All of the tiny motions I'd noticed before were erased, moving in new, unrecognized patterns that may as well have been chaos right then. Her stance had shifted completely, shifted upward. Instead of being kick focused, suddenly she was inclined to throw hands at me.

Which she proceeded to demonstrate.

Velvet pushed in close, fist flicking out, probing my defenses. It was followed immediately, and without hesitation, by a straight that slipped between my guarded arms. Her smaller fist easier snaking through and connecting with my diaphragm. Hitting with all the force she'd had before. If I hadn't been trying to switch gears, I might have been better about slipping it.

My aura glowed again as her farm immediately snaked back out of my guard. Even as my stomach felt like it was trying to upend itself, I tried to take control back. Switching seamlessly into a Scribe Counter to try and push Velvet back.

She gracefully slipped around the outside of the punch, delivering a hook on the way around.

My aura shattered, and my body wrenched to the side, flopping to the floor again. This time I was able to react properly however, almost immediately rolling and springing back to my feet. A wave of exhaustion washed over me, but didn't slow me down. I was ready for her to keep going.
When she didn't, I was at least assured that my sparring rule with Fox still stood. Aura broke, the swinging stopped.

Recognizing that she didn't immediately jump in to attack me, I allowed my guard to relax.

"Hardly been five minutes." Coco called with a smirk "You sure you want to keep going?"

"Do I look like a quitter to you?" I called back.

"Don't let her get in your head Six!" Yang called.

"Nothing to worry about, there's not much up there anyway." I answered.

That earned a chuckle out of a few of them. I could see Velvet was amused by it at least, as I sauntered closer, steadily trying to will my aura back to strength in the back of my mind. Trying to make it more habit than conscious action.

Velvet looked at me, a deceptively sweet smile on her face. "You're sure you want to keep doing this?" She asked, reiterating her teammate's statement.
"Why not?" I challenged "You seem to be getting a kick out of it."

Velvet's smile added a flash of teeth, and an amused edge. I was glad she was enjoying herself at least. I'd learned something important though: Velvet knew more than one fighting style. That made her more dangerous to be sure, made reading her that much more difficult. There was no telling how many different ways she could strike. I'd only seen her punching and kicking, but she'd switched between them without issue. That seamless transitioning made her all the more dangerous, and spoke volumes about what skill she had.

Beware the bunny indeed.

"Well?" Velvet said, easing back into a stance "C'mon then."

"Gimme a sec." I said, holding up a hand "I just need-"

My aura flared back to full, and I launched myself at her. Velvet's eyes snapped wide and she slipped to the narrowly avoiding the heel kick I'd aimed at her ribs.

My leg snapped down and planted itself, and I pivoted on it, bringing an elbow strike around and catching Velvet in the cheek. Her head snapped to the side, and I continued to push in. I followed the elbow with a kick to her side, a roundhouse if my terms are right. It connected hard, and knocked Velvet off balance.

She tumbled and sprawled with it, coming back to her feet and facing me as readily as I'd anticipated.

So I'd kept on her, launching at her in a flying kick. Give her no space or time to respond. She only narrowly avoided catching my boot to her sternum, dipping to the side at the last moment. Had I connected, that probably would've done a number.

Despite missing my target, I landed close enough to turn and spin into a heel kick. Forcing Velvet to put up a guard this time. I felt her arms give under the impact. Then they shifted, diverting the kick off, using the momentum to spin into a kick of her own. I slipped under it as my leg came back down, then closed in, a hook angling for her ribs.

Kicks weren't my specialty, I preferred my fists, but I recognize their uses.

The hook connected, and I felt Velvet shift under the weight again, drawing a hiss of air. She sprang off her planted foot, using her kick's momentum to direct herself away. I stepped in, sending a straight towards her head. It whiffed, passing by one of her ears as she dipped down.

As seamlessly as before, she shifted from kicking to boxing, coming to meet me with an uppercut. I weaved to the side of it, narrowly avoiding the blow. Undeterred, she twisted at the waist, spinning her elbow towards me in a strike reminiscent of the one Fox was so fond of.

I pulled my arm up in a guard, immediately blocking it, and counter punched. She slipped it again, but I got closer this time, narrowly scraping her brow. Enough to draw blood if she didn't have an aura.

As Velvet slipped, she pivoted again, her knee rising to dig into my stomach. I weaved, and the knee missed, but the momentum carried her as she spun into a high heel kick. I dipped back and watched her foot pass in front of my eye again. As soon as it cleared my head's air space, I pushed back in, delivering a hard-straight to the side of her head. Catching her right on the ear.

Velvet hissed again, and I made to overwhelm her as the spin of her kick turned her away from me. She kicked backward in a Mule kick, but I saw it coming a mile out, and slipped around it. Her head turned to face me as I did, and my left shot out in a straight jab. The slight angle of her face was enough to find purchase, landing a cleaner, harder hit. She took the hit like a champ and dipped down, preemptively avoiding any follow-ups.
She was growing predictable again.

Instead of following with another solid strike, I flicker jabbed. Sending several softer, probing punches in her airspace instead. A couple missed, but the rest landed, light blows connecting with the side of her head, her neck and shoulder. But even those lighter blows carried mass to them. Velvet's opening kick had only been so devastating because she'd thrown all of her weight behind it. By sheer physics, my light punches were probably in the ballpark of her heavies.

So, when I applied my aura to one of my stronger blows, the results were somewhat expected.

As Velvet turned to face me, I stole the last chance she was going to get to turn that bout around. I stepped in low, pushing my aura through my shoulder and leg. Pitting my power against her weight.

My uppercut caught her under the chin in much the same fashion she had me. Unlike me, all of that force caught under a mass that was roughly half my own weight.

Velvet launched upwards off the ground. Clearing the fifteen, nearly the twenty-foot mark, before careening back to earth. At about the crest of the flight, she had enough presence of self to control her descent, and twisted. Landing in a way that softened the impact, left her ready to spring back up, I noted. But she stayed down for a second, and I let her. In a real fight, that might've been the moment to run in and stomp her into the ground. But she'd paid me the courtesy of breathing room, so there was no reason to deny her it here.

Still, I kept my fighting stance as I approached and looked down at her. "Having fun?" I asked.

Velvet flashed me a toothy smile that made my stomach do a dance. The kind I'd expect from someone like Nora. "Absolutely."

She shot off the ground, and I was ready for her. Her knee came up in a high strike, head high, but came short of connection as I back stepped. Then her calf pivoted upward, turning the knee strike into a flip kick. It made up the difference in distance instantly, forcing me to sidestep or take another blow to the chin.

Velvet quickly came back to ground and we rushed into each other. She leapt into a roundhouse kick as I came in with a hook. I let the hit connect, gambling that her hitting me successfully would slow her down, give time for my strike to connect.

I proved right on both counts.

Her hit connect into the space beneath my ribs, and my hook caught her on the shoulder, causing her to flinch.

Before she could retract her leg, my free arm snapped down over it, trapping it in place. Not missing a beat, Velvet jerked at the hips and changed her angle. Trying to angle her knee parallel to my chest, try to slide out, I imagine.

Right as her knee began to bend, I took my free hand and drove it into the space above her knee cap. Forcing it to straighten out. I then stepped in, applying pressure, forcing it to naturally lock-up.

Velvet's eyes widened as I forced her to hobble backwards for a step. If she didn't, she'd hit the ground, and that'd either count as a loss or, at the very least, a less than advantageous position.

I prepared to sweep her remaining leg out from underneath her, when she decided she didn't like being pinned down. Sprang up, used the leverage my trapping her provided, and slammed her free foot into my diaphragm. Unlike the last time she did it, I tasted bile at the back of my mouth. With her other foot now planted on something solid, me, Velvet jerked her leg free and fell to the floor. Quickly rolling over and springing to her feet.

I bit back the bile, and took a swing at her the moment both feet were on the ground. I got a good shot on her cheek, but she rolled with it. Stepping back to buy herself room, her gaze suddenly hardened.

I rushed in.

I knew how she fought now. Boxing, kicking, grappling- it didn't matter. She had skill, but it was going to take a lot more than that to make a difference.

My fist flicked out, aimed for her head-

The image of her deflecting the strike shot through my mind.

Before it even had a chance to register, Velvet's arm was out, moving in concert to my in-flight jab. It twisted at the elbow, turning perpendicular to my fist. They collided, her arm turned, and my punch was deflected as I continued to sail forward.

Her other flew in quick and sharp, catching me on the side of the jaw.

My head rang as my off-hand rose up and batted her arm away fruitlessly after the strike. I tried to follow it with a Scribe Counter, but Velvet deflected it just as easily as she had the first, following with another shot, this time to my nose. Even with my mask protecting me, the impact was still fierce. I recoiled, watching her movements, gauging her next attack. The way she was standing, the shift in her weight, the slant of her arms and legs. Experience said another kick, high and hard.

Velvet moved, my guard came up-

It scythed low into my knee.

The moment it connected with my leg, I had the involuntary reaction to take weight off it and spring back. My eyes left Velvet for all of a moment, down to my leg, making sure I wasn't missing something.

Her stance was different. The shift and pitch and twists of her motions subtly but noticeable different from a second ago.

The Velvet launched at me again, throwing a one-two combo I'd have expected from someone like Yang.

My legs didn't move, I'd been caught flat-footed. My guard went up, and I deflected the first punch, rolling it to the side as I weaved through the second.

Velvet seamlessly flowed into a backwards wheel kick, catching me across the stomach. Which then flowed smoothly into an elbow strike, catching the side of my head.

My aura flared and broke, weak as it was, and I spun to the floor. The elbow to the face knocking me for a loop.

Velvet backed off. Gave me room to recover.

Almost as soon as I hit the ground, I was unconsciously working on my aura. I pushed through the exhaustion of it breaking and poured energy back into it.

I shot to my feet as it flared back to life, dragging even more of my stamina with it. CFVY had already been surprised by how quickly I'd been able to call it back in the first place. But given the surprise in Velvet's eyes, I got the impression that she, at least, hadn't thought I could recover it that quickly. Being frank, neither did I. But there was something different to it this time.

It felt much frailer.

I shot towards Velvet again, diving into a Legion Assault.

Once more Velvet weaved through the strike and met me, this time with an uppercut.

She hit home, forcing my momentum upward and sending me end over end. My aura shattered again almost instantly, and this time I took almost the entire brunt of the hit. It didn't hurt as much as getting punched by the likes of Yang or Waylon had, when my aura was broken. But it sure as hell didn't tickle either.

I flipped backwards, end over end, touched down against the mat, tumbled, and came to a crouch.

Velvet was on me instantly, her dainty fist less than an inch from my face. Her face was flushed and her breathing was starting to get heavy.

"Stop." Velvet said, a touch breathless "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Kinda the point, isn't it?" I said back, even and steady.

Velvet fixed me with a flat look, and stepped back. Allowing me the room to stand up. I took it, and eased back onto my feet. The fight was over, for the moment.

I looked down at the rabbit-eared girl, appraisingly. This little bout of ours had put her in a new light for me. "You… are deceptively dangerous." I admitted.

Velvet flushed further at the praise. "I try as hard as my teammates."

"Yet you let guys like Cardin pick on you?" I asked.

"… No point in fighting off everyone who doesn't like Faunus." She answered "I'd never get a moment of peace."

"Difference between not taking people's shit and getting into fist fights." I groused, but shrugged "But I get what you mean, at least. Guilty of it too."

"Still think she's weak kid?" Coco called, satisfied smirk on her face.

"What was that?" Ruby asked, starry eyed "That was awesome!"

"That was why Velvet is off limits." Coco said "We're not protecting her from you, we're protecting you from her."

"Cute." I groused. I also doubted Coco was being completely honest. Although I believed Velvet was far more dangerous than first glance would suggest, I doubted that was Coco's only reason. I was certain part of it was protectiveness, as well as recognizing the importance of secrets. I didn't believe for a second that I'd seen the full extent of what Velvet could do, not with what she was pulling at the end. She was kicking me around like an empty tin of beans. I had no illusions she could've done it at any time either.

"So, what was that about being rusty?" Coco asked, stepping closer "I wouldn't be calling her dull now, would you?"

"I wasn't to begin with." I clarified "Only thing I was doing was questioning your decision as a leader without the context I have now. Clearly I had less to worry about, but I stand by my point."

"And that was?" Coco drawled.

"That being forcibly kept to the sidelines isn't good. Eventually, the things you don't polish will rust." I motioned to Velvet "She may not be victim of it yet, but a lack of caution will lead to it happening anyway. I never disagreed with the way you were going about helping your teammates, just how steadfast and heavy-handed you were in doing it."

Coco fixed me with a bland look. I couldn't tell if she was listening to what I had to say or not, but at this point, if she wasn't listening, it was on her.

"I'm grateful you're helping me." I admitted "In the few sessions and days we've been doing this I can already tell I'm miles ahead of where I was. But training applies to more than just me. I get that you're protective of what your team can do, and encourage caution in exercising your talents. But you still need to exercise them. Otherwise, all the secrecy ain't worth a hill of corn and beans."

Coco continued to stare me down for a moment, before lowering her glasses down the bridge of her nose. She looked at me over them. "… Do you rehearse that kind of speech before hand?"

I looked at her curiously "No, why?"

Coco smirked "Just curious, kid. Still, you lose some points for the fact that you still lost."

"In what regard?" I asked "If you mean the fight, then yeah, I lost. But considering my main goal had been to just spar with Velvet in the first place, I'd say I won on the war."

Coco's smirk lost its cocky edge, and I got to see the look in her eyes with her glasses down as they were. I believe the word is flabbergasted, but shocked works as well. Apparently, it hadn't occurred to her that I was playing her like a fiddle before this whole fight started.

"R-right." Coco said, sliding her glasses back over her flustered eyes.

"Stay sharp sweetheart. You've got a lot to learn yet." I said.

"Can we begin sparring again?" Weiss asked, still standing on the sidelines and looking a touch bored. Drumming her fingers on the pommel of her toothpick. "Riveting as this is, we've only got so much time before class ends."

"I think we should." I agreed "Apologies, didn't expect a detour like this."

"You kidding? I want next fight!" Yang shouted.

"… I think that depends on what Velvet wants." Coco said after a moment, before turning to her teammate "What do you want to do Vel?"

Velvet looked at Coco pensively for a moment, then to the wall, then to my teammates and hers, then me. She then nodded to herself. "Can I keep sparring with you?"

"Don't see any reason why not, assuming Fox doesn't mind?" I said, looking back towards the shorter of her male teammates

Fox, still visibly sheened with sweat, just smirked and waved us off. Either he'd had his fill, or was alright with Velvet taking over for a while longer.

"Boo!" Yang called playfully.

"No whining you can have Fox instead." I shot back.

Yang paused for a moment, before a sunny smile slipped across her face. Fox, meanwhile, looked like I'd just tossed him under a runaway train.

"I'll take it." Yang said, bopping Fox playfully on the back. Playfully being hard enough to wrench his shoulder forward. "C'mon, let's fight!"

Yang started back towards her portion of the room, with Fox and Blake in tow. Ruby and Weiss, meanwhile, returned to their former position with Yatsuhashi. Which left Coco with me and Velvet.

"Guess you should get back to it then, before someone starts complaining." I said.

"I guess." Coco shrugged "You know it'll be unfair if I do, right?"

"Who cares whether it's fair or not, it's training." I said, before leaning in conspiratorially "Don't go easy on them."

Coco smirked "Whatever floats your boat, kid."

"…"

For reasons I didn't want to dwell on, that statement irked me.

But, Coco gave me a friendly smile and a nod before turning to Velvet again "Kick his ass 'till he can't walk straight."

Velvet's cheeks puffed slightly, and she gave her leader a determined nod.

Coco then turned and sauntered back towards her teammates and mine. Holding her arms out in front of her as she meshed her fingers and cracked her knuckles.

I looked to Velvet. "You got good teammates. Touch protective, but good."

Velvet gave me a warm smile, and nodded "We've been through a lot together. They can be a bit overboard though…" She bowed slightly "Thank you for getting them to let me spar, it's been a while since I had the chance to really try and push myself."

"My pleasure." I nodded back "I'm enjoying myself so far."

Though I'd accomplished my goal, there was no point in stopping. Frankly, I'd gotten what I'd wanted out of this already, everything past that was just a bonus. Something was weird about Velvet, I'd met few people who fought with that much skill. None so young, or so unpredictable. The girl was an enigma.

Frankly, it made want to fight her more.

"I am too." Velvet said, an uncharacteristically sneaky smirk on her lips "I'm liking your Tabasco."

I rolled my eyes and focused on pulling my aura back. It was starting to wear me down. Putting it back to strength multiple times had that effect. Though that last break had taken more out of me than it normally did. Like I'd tried to push too hard and hurt myself. Was going to need to keep an eye on that, keep it from happening again…

'… Tabasco?'

My aura shimmered around me as I looked at Velvet. "Did… did you just quote Navy Hale?"

Velvet's eyes shot wide with a start, and her mouth drew tight. "W-what? No! I don't even know who that is!"

"That so?" I asked coyly "Because that was a pretty niche reference you just made."

"Niche…?" A bead of sweat rolled down Velvet's forehead that I was almost certain wasn't from sparring.

"Mm, next you'll be telling me you kill Yetis for fun, or asking me to move this along so you can go tangle with a Great White." I prodded.

"I- I wouldn-…" Velvet began to say, then stopped, as a thought seemed to occur to her, from my perspective. She began to look at me with increased scrutiny. Likewise, I looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to draw her own conclusions.

Her eyes widened again, perhaps sparkling a little this time. "Do… Do you read Navy Hale?"

"Of course." I answered "It's a riot, and the art's pretty decent."

A smile of thunderstruck amusement graced Velvet lips. Her eyes wrinkled at the edges as she continued gauging me. "… How far along are you?" She asked pursing her lips.

I shrugged "Far enough to know your smooth hands couldn't make a shark cry if you tried."

Velvet's smile redoubled into a daring grin "Well, you smell like Patchouli and couldn't handle a bloody steak, much less me."

"You're an entitled hippy-" I shot back "- And you may be fast, but you can't out run my fists."

Velvet got back into a fighting stance, smile now fierce "Why don't you prove it, and fight like a Mann." She challenged.

"Gladly." I said, getting back into my own stance "I'll endanger you like I've endangered dozens of other animals!"

"…" Velvet gave me a bland, almost unamused look.

"… That was a quote." I defended "You can't tell me-"

Velvet leapt forward and punched me in the chest, sending me down onto my rear with a *whuff*.

I looked back up at Velvet indignantly. She, in turn, leered down at me with a smile so smug I'd have expected to see it on the likes of Coco or Goodwitch. But there was a genuinely amused, pleased edge to it. "There, there, have an eagle."

I felt a smirk stretch onto my face. "Alright then-" I shot to my feet "I'll just beat you to death with my own damn HANDS!"

We began trading blows like gamblers cash chips.

She kicked my ass for the rest of class.

...

"Are you sure about this, Six?" Pyrrha asked, looking down at her hand.

"This… doesn't seem like something you should give away lightly." Blake added.

"Why's that?" I asked "I'd consider it a worthwhile investment."

"Because it's… it's…" Jaune said, clearly weighing the object in his hand.

"Really cool?" I offered.

"Overkill." Weiss finished, pensively looking at the object in her own hand "This is too much."

"No, giving you two of them would be too much." I corrected "This is just good business."

I noticed Yang snicker a little, but said nothing.

"So, you're just going to give them to us?" Ren asked, rolling his own object around in his hand, shifting it to his fingers and holding it in front of himself. The light of the room caught brightly off the aureus in his hand.

"Yes, no strings attached, free of charge, and I'll even gift wrap it for you if it'll get you to just take it." I groused "Sheesh, talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth."

My teammates and JNPR collectively looked at me for a moment, then down to the aureus each held in their hands. Having learned what they were worth, I'd mulled the idea over for a little while, before deciding to do it anyway.

"… This is the most money I've ever had." Nora said, completely deadpan and devoid of energy.

"Then you'll hopefully know to spend it wisely." I said, looking over the ingredients I had to work with. "Either that, or you'll save it."

"But… why are you giving them to us?" Jaune asked "Why not just… not?"

"Why?" I parroted "Simple: it's my money and I can do what I damn well please with it." I settled on a recipe for the evening, a variation of desert salad. Some green would be good for everyone. "First, I've got more of the damn things than I could realistically spend, and I'd spend them sparingly on top of that. Second, while I'm sure they'll make some things easier, I work hard at being self-sufficient. Third, money only has value if you spend it, so combined with the first two points, I'm using it how I see fit."

Fourth, and one I was reticent to voice: I could recognize that having it might help them in the future. Sure, I couldn't control what they did with it. However, there was never any telling what the future held. What you had today, you could lose tomorrow. Given the line of work that 'Hunters' partook in, a rainy-day fund was worth the investment. Having spent so much time flirting and skirting with coin and cash, I knew it well enough. Maybe they'd be irresponsible, go out and blow their wad on something stupid.

But I was willing to gamble they'd be smarter. Save it for when times got lean.

"Four:-" Nora said, eying me with a grin "You're worried that we'll need money at some point and just want to help us."

"…"

I said nothing, I had the right to remain silent.

"…Why don't you ever do anything like this?" Ruby asked, turning to look at Weiss.

"I bought us lunch yesterday, didn't I?" Weiss groused.

"Speaking of food-" Nora said, completely ignoring Weiss "What's for dinner? Steak? Pancakes? Steak and Pancakes!?"

"Salad." I answered shortly.

Nora gave me a look of disgust that was so insulted it was like I'd just slapped her with a rotten fish.

"Aww~" Ruby whined.

"Quit yer belly-aching." I shot back "It's good for you, makes you big and strong."

"That's what milk's for." Ruby countered, pouting.

"Milk is mostly proteins and fats." I countered "You need vitamins or all the milk in the world won't make a difference."

"Well, I for one welcome a salad." Weiss answered primly "I quite enjoy fresh vegetables."

"Excellent." I said, pulling out a head of leafy greens "Then you can go rinse this off in the kitchen." Before Weiss could say anything, I tossed her the head, forcing her to react and catch it.

"What?" Weiss asked, brow knit in confusion.

"Go rinse the greens." I reiterated "They're covered in dirt, and I don't want to hear any complaints about dinner being gritty."

"What!?" Weiss asked again.

"… Are you really going to make me say it a third time?" I asked "Are you going to help make dinner or not?"

"You want us to help this time?" Yang asked, confused.

"Naturally." I said "My week of debt is over. I don't have to make dinner for any of you now. You want to eat, you're going to help make it."

Yang pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at me "Weak."

"You hungry or not?" I asked.

Yang rolled her eyes and shrugged, then shot me a smile. "I guess."

"Good, then you're on tomato duty." I said, passing her two of the fruits and Blood-Nap "Dice 'em."

"On what, my hands?" Yang asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"No, that'd be a good way to make finger food, not salad." I said "Use your dinner plate, it's gonna get dirty anyway."

Yang gave a small scowl, then shrugged and got cutting.

"Same goes for the rest of you." I said, passing out ingredients and tasks as I went "Jaune, shell the nuts. Pyrrha, shred the cheese. Ruby, peel the carrots, then give them to Yang to chop. Blake, shred the greens when Snowflake gets back. Nora-" I paused, looking at the job I was about to hand Nora, then thought better of it. "-Ren, slice the onions, half-moons, thin."

Nora gave me the stink eye as I passed her boy toy the onion and a smaller knife.

I wasn't trusting her with a knife.

Instead, I poured measures of salt, vinegar, oil, pepper, and a few other spices into a set of cups, then sealed them like a cocktail shaker. "Nora, shake the dressing until I tell you to stop."

Nora eyed me sharply as I handed her the cups. But it passed and she just gave me her usual manic smile. "'Kay."

I took a quick stock of everyone, I found Weiss was still sitting with the greens in her hand. Nobody had started moving yet either.

"… Well, what're you all waiting for?" I asked "We can get this thing together in two shakes, just set the garbage aside and I'll compost it later. You want dinner or not?"

At the question, they all started working. Chopping, cutting, shredding, and peeling as Snowflake got up and rushed out of the room, muttering to herself. While the rest of them tore through their tasks, I took out a few small bits of steak I had hanging around. I tossed them with salt, then seared them in the skillet, just enough to get a good rare- medium rare finish.

After a few minutes, while the meat was cooking, Weiss came back with the greens thoroughly soaked. Judging by the water still dripping off them, I had to guess she hadn't bothered to dry them. Acceptable, but it left me questioning the job she'd done.

But, if dinner turned out gritty, they knew who to blame.

"So, where do we feel like starting tonight?" I asked, poking the steak, judging doneness by feel "Any ideas, or interests?"

"Um, actually, there is." Ruby said, giving me a decidedly embarrassed smile "If- um- you don't mind?"

"Ok?" I answered, not sure where she was going with this.

"I- I wanted to try and tell you more about Patch." Ruby said.

"… Really now?" I asked, checking the steaks again "… Well, it seems we might have a few minutes. What do you want to say about it?"

"More than I did." Ruby said, giving me a firm look as she continued peeling the carrots. "You're trying to tell us about your world, but I didn't do a great job telling you about here."

"That's not so big a deal." I said "Trying to explain everything is difficult. I've just had practice."

Ruby pursed her lips, silver eyes gaining a determined gleam. "… Radia is the port leading to Vale." She started "We told you about it last time."

"…" I nodded, willing to listen.

"It's… small, but it's also a really pretty place." Ruby said "During the summer, and winter, we have solstice festivals. The whole town pitches in to decorate, like how Vale's decorating for the Vytal festival. People hang decorations from the street lamps, and there's stalls and games on almost every street."

"…"

"During the summer, the entire island stinks like fish and the ocean." Ruby continued, shrugging embarrassedly "But, y'know, it's an island. I guess that's normal… but it's a small place, everyone knows everyone. Halloween's always fun, because you know who gives out the best candy. During the winter, everythin-"

"Whoa, hold on a sec." I interrupted.

Ruby's eyes widened like she'd done something wrong, and looked at me worriedly.

"How the hell do you know what Halloween is?" I asked.

"I-it's a holiday." Ruby flushed "Everyone knows about it."

"… Does it involve wandering the streets at night, dressed in costumes, playing tricks on your neighbors, and getting candy from them?" I asked.

"Uh- yeah." Ruby answered, nodding "Why?"

"Because we had a holiday before the war, centered around those exact things." I answered "It's got myriad origins, but there are hallmarks of it that are so ingrained, we still know what they are, even hundreds of years after we stopped celebrating it. Trick-or-treating, dressing up in silly costumes, running the streets at night-"

"What about Jack-o-lanterns?" Ruby asked.

"And pumpkin pie!" Yang cut in, having taken an interest.

"You mean those things people would hollow out- um… pumpkins, right, Yang just said it. Yeah, we had those too, you'd set them up some place for people to see, have images and faces carved into them." I nodded, thinking "… Never had pumpkin pie, but I wouldn't be surprised if it existed."

"How do you know about it if you haven't celebrated it in literal centuries?" Weiss asked, helping Blake shred the greens.

"Depending on where you go, you'll find decorations and calendars still hanging around from before the war." I explained "The bombs fell literally a week before it was supposed to be celebrated…" I turned back to Ruby, a question burning in my mind "What day is Halloween here?"

Ruby gave me a cute, bubbly little smile "October 31st, my birthday."

"…"

I stared quietly at Ruby for a moment as a chill ran up my spine.

It must have been pretty obvious, because everyone seemed to pick up on my sudden silence. Ruby looked at me funny. "Six?"

"… That's the exact same day as my world." I answered.

Ruby's eyes went wide. Same with the rest of the room. The clatter of cutlery and work suddenly coming to a halt as that piece of information settled. It wasn't something earth-shattering, just a date. What made it so profound was that it was for a holiday that was mirrored on both our worlds. Worlds separated by time and space and so dissimilar you could be forgiven for not connecting the two. Yet they were the same. Same events. Same Days. Same traditions.

It was… jarring, for me at least.

"… Well, that's a coincidence." Nora said, looking at the cups in her hands, before beginning to lightly shake them again.

"Y-yeah, no kidding?" I asked "I… I think we're going to need to have a conversation about that at some point. I've never celebrated it, but I know enough. There are so many questions I could ask, and I really don't know how many answers I could get here tonight."

"Would you rather talk about that instead?" Ruby asked.

"No, no." I dissuaded "I… I think I need to digest that first… also, your birthday is Halloween?"

Ruby gave me another disarming smile "Yup."

"… Cool." I nodded.

Ruby flushed at that, then shook her head "So, what now?"

"I believe you were talking about Patch. We got sidetrack at Halloween." I offered.

"R-right." Ruby nodded "Um… Halloween's fun, and winter's always cold and snowy. Like, there's always ice and snow everywhere, and everything's gray and windy."

"Sounds like Atlas." Weiss mused.

"But during the winter festival, it's actually really cool." Yang said "People set-up all kinds of lights and everything smells like cookies or hot cocoa."

"Figures things would be cool in winter." I muttered, poking the steak again.

Yang gave me a narrow look, before looking down. Then her eyes brightened and she gave me a playful look. "Ha! I hadn't even realized I made that one. Thanks."

"…"

I rubbed the bridge of my mask. I was only getting worse. The looks everyone was giving me were well deserved.

"But summer's pretty cool too." Yang added "We've got the beach, and since most of the island is covered in forest, you can get up to all kinds of trouble without anyone finding out."

"… You know dad caught you every time you tried to sneak out, right?" Ruby asked, throwing her sister under the proverbial bus.

Yang gave her baby sister a cocky grin "Only the times I let him."

Ruby gave her a confused look "You mean you let him catch you sneaking out after stealing that bottle from Uncle Qrow's cabinet?"

Yang paled a little "Y-yeah, totally."

"Party in the backwoods, stolen booze, and just a hint of illegality." I mused "Sounds fun."

"It wasn't stolen." Yang defended "I was just borrowing it, and planning to pay Uncle Qrow back later."

"… That's theft, Yang." I said.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Not like it worked anyway, dad was literally waiting outside for me. I stepped outside, and he literally grabbed the bottle out of my hand."

"That was your first mistake, should've tried hiding it." I admonished.

Yang's eyes narrowed at me again, before she rolled them again "Never liked the taste of Hunter-Chief anyway."

"There's also lots of Grimm on Patch." Ruby said "All of the forests and caves give them plenty of places to hide and spawn from. Their numbers are normally small, but you can find clusters of them sometimes."

"Hm, danger too?" I nodded "Wouldn't be a party without it, I guess."

"I was always happier at Signal's workshop." Ruby said "But there are other cool places in Radia. Stitchins' Beach, The Lumière Library, Cinna's Movie theater-"

'You mean the 'Cinna-ma?...'

I let my eyes drift back over to Yang. She was staring at me expectantly. With such an easy, tantalizing target, she must've made the joke a thousand times.

She was waiting for it.

But not today, not this time.

"Sounds like a nice place, honestly." I nodded "Maybe we really should make an effort to visit sometime in the future."

Yang deflated slightly, giving me a sour look. I wasn't tempted by easy targets. Would need to be something more challenging. Professionals have standards.

Aaaaand I just acknowledged I had standards with regards to puns.

Fuck.

"We live closer to the interior of the island." Ruby said "But it was always easy to get around. You could normally walk anywhere without worrying about trouble."

"Or ride your bike." Yang added "It's a lot of fun."

"I'd be inclined to agree with that sentiment." I nodded, thinking for a moment "… Y'know what, I've got a question: why's the island called Patch?"

"'Cuz they named it after the guy who settled the island." Yang said.

"… Someone named their kid 'Patch'?" I asked, not the worst name I'd ever heard. Certainly beat-out MotorRunner and Troike, if not Kimball and Oliver.

"No, I think his name was actually Percale Stitchins." Ruby said, thinking "Patch was a nickname someone gave him, and it stuck."

"… Patch Stitchins?" I asked "Someone literally named him Patch Stitchins?"

"I know." Yang smirked "Sew nice of them, right?"

"… Yep." I said tightly "People are terrible. Absolutely terrible."

Yang's smile brightened "That's what Patches are for!"

"…"

I lost.

It turned into a battle of wills, and in a moment of weakness Yang hit me in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which meant the worst possible thing that could've happened in that moment, happened.

"… pft- HAHAHA-"

I started laughing.

Hard.

Making it worse, I kept laughing. I'm really not sure how long it went on for. But longer than I wanted seemed an appropriate measure. If the looks everyone gave me were anything to go by, either they hadn't been either, or hadn't been expecting me to start laughing. Frankly, I hadn't been either. It took me a few seconds before I was actually able to fight it back.

"You're laughing." Yang said, visibly dumbstruck "You're actually laughing."

"-HAHA- hah- fuckin- Dammit, why did I find that funny?" I asked, fighting the laughter down.

"…Dunno." Yang shrugged, beaming at me "Guess we're just cut from the same cloth."

"That's not going to work twice." I answered, steeling myself.

"I don't know, I think you're hanging by a thread." Yang needled.

"I think-"

"Six, dinner's on fire!" Nora squawked.

"OH- SHIT!"

With all the back and forth, I'd stopped paying attention to the meat frying in the skillet. What fat had rendered out had begun combusting from the heat, or vaporizing into plumes of smoke.

Sloppy, very sloppy.

I killed the heat, using my spatula to move the meat onto a less thoroughly cooked side. I covered the skillet with a spare plate, and left it to rest. Give it a few minutes to redistribute its juices.

"Nice going Yang, you've burned dinner." I groused.

"Worth it." Yang smirked.

"I'll make sure you get the burned bits then." I assured her.

Yang smirked, but didn't seem otherwise bothered.

"… So, are we going to ignore that you laughed?" Nora badgered.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I answered shortly.

"NO IDEA!?" Nora squawked.

"I wasn't laughing, that was someone out in the hall." I answered "Probably Cardin reading the gullible sign."

Nora gave me a mystified look. "We have that?"

"Yeah, it's written on the ceiling." I said, pointing upward.

Nora gave me a scrutinizing look, then started to look towards the ceiling. About half-way through though, she seemed to realize the joke, and looked back at me. She gave me a vicious smile "Nice try buster, I'm not falling for that one again!"

'…again?'

I shrugged "… Eh, worth a sh-"

"I don't see it." Ruby said "Where is it?"

"…"

I turned and looked at Ruby.

She was staring up at the ceiling. Searching the unmarred canvas with vigor and determination. Her face pinched into a focused expression. Silver eyes narrowed to slits and lips pursed.

"… *snrk*." I felt the laugh building and killed it.

"R-Ruby-" Weiss sighed.

"What?" Ruby asked, looking to her teammate.

Weiss, for her part, and just gave our leader a pleading look.

Ruby looked at her for a moment. Then back to the ceiling, lingering there for a second. Then her ears turned red, and she looked back down. "O-oh."

A tense silence fell over the room. As Ruby's head started turning as vibrant a shade as her cape, I noticed the others were trying to stifle laughter. To be fair, she'd looked to the ceiling in complete sincerity, clearly having missed the joke. I had no clue if that made it worse or not, but it counted for something.

As she was sitting close enough to me this time, I reached out a hand and gave a pat on the back. "There, there, it's written in disappearing ink."

Ruby gave me a sharp look, then punched me in the arm. Her tiny fist bounced harmlessly off my much bigger and bulkier bicep.

"Jerk." She muttered, head growing a deeper shade.

I shrugged her off, bruised egos and embarrassed feelings healed and faded quickly. More so than wounded pride at least. "In all seriousness though, thank you Ruby." I said "It was nice to hear a more in-depth description of the place you and Yang grew up."

"W-well, you're always trying to tell us about the Mojave. Shouldn't we do the same?" Ruby said "Still… it was harder than I thought."

"It takes practice, I've just had my fair share." I said "So… Where was all this the last time we talked about Patch?" I asked, bemused.

"I had to think about it." Ruby said, still flushed.

"Well, you girls think of anything else to add, please do." I said "I was quite enjoying this."

Ruby took a steadying breath, then flashed me a winning smile, nodding.

After another minute or two, I took the steaks out of the pan and sliced them thin. All of the ingredients finally together, I took a bowl and mixed them all together. Giving a heavy drizzle of dressing. The meat was sadly overcooked, but since there weren't going to be any leftovers, I was less concerned about it being overly dry at the time.

I was assuming there weren't going to be any leftovers, anyway. They ate everything else I put in front of them, barring plates of Chipped Cram, they'd best not be skimping on their veggies.

I doled out the salad, making sure everyone's plates were towering with leafy greens. "See how much faster it is when you help?" I asked, sarcastically.

"*Blech*" Ruby stuck her tongue out at the plate of vegetation before her. A positively beautiful symphony of healthy foods. Tangy dressing with a peppery bite and savory seared meat, balanced by mineral-y tomatoes, bitter greens, rich cheese, and the sweet crunch of the carrots.

Ruby was giving it the stink eye. Like it'd insulted her mother.

"I expect clean plates." I clarified "You put the effort into making it, you'd better eat it."

"But you made us make it." Ruby whined.

"I see nothing wrong with that." Weiss said, moving her salad around the plate. She arranged an amount of it into a neat pile, and stabbed it with her fork, eating it in short order. Her icy eyes sparkled and she hummed thoughtfully. "…Adequate."

"Funny how putting a little effort in can make something as simple as salad more fulfilling, ain't it?" I asked "So, where do we go from here? Because honestly, I don't think there's much I could say tonight that would top what we've heard so far."

"I wouldn't say that." Pyrrha said "While it was certainly surprising to learn our worlds might share some unexpected things, there is still much we do not know. It makes me wonder what other things we might share, but have not yet touched on."

"Agreed." I nodded "But, I'm going to need a bit before trying to figure out what else. I'm alright with talking about some more minor stuff, but trying to cover anything heavy might just lead to information overload."

"So, what'll it be?" Nora asked, picking through her salad "You can't be out of stuff yet."

"I'm not, just trying to come up with something that we can cover more easily tonight." I said "Or at the very least something at least one of you would find intriguing. At least then you'd be more inclined to remember."

Nora gave me a wounded look "I remember everything you tell us, I even passed the test!"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember." I said, waving her off "Still…"

I pondered the thought for a moment, as everyone steadily tucked into their salads. I wanted to cover something, and had even had a bit of plan. Cover Freeside maybe, take a closer look at some things. I'd been wanting to talk about some more of Vegas's local history anyway, but that could be put off a little longer. Especially considering what I'd learned tonight. Even if I didn't get the chance to talk with them again, I was going to need to do some further reading. But Ruby had made an effort to better describe Patch, completely unprompted and wholly of her own volition. It was touching, really.

There had to be something that could both be easy enough to understand, and repay Ruby. I just needed to think about what she liked and…

'Hmm… that could work.'

"…Y'know what?" I asked "How about I take another crack at robotics?"

Ruby's eye brightened, shifting from her detestable greens to me "Really!?" Ruby squeaked, obviously excited.

I shrugged "Hey, you took the time to try and better explain something you'd struggled with, no sense in me not trying to do the same."

"Did you find something for reference?" Ren asked "I remember that being the reason you didn't go further with the topic last time."

"Well one of them, anyway." I admitted "The other is that we tend to cover a lot each time we have one of these little chats. Having to stop and explain everything in detail would lead to us getting stuck. We'd wind up wasting entire nights talking about why the sand is orange instead of yellow."

"The sand is orange?" Weiss asked.

"Completely off topic." I answered "But, short answer, some of the sand is coated with naturally occurring iron oxide. Gives everything a more orange-red hue. I wouldn't be surprised if it occurred in deserts here as well."

Weiss nodded, accepting what was a fairly reasonable answer, for once.

"Robots?" Ruby queried.

"Salad?" I shot back, parroting her tone.

Ruby gave me a pointed look, then grimaced at her food. Reluctantly, she loaded her fork and started eating. Her face softened as she chewed, but never showed anything beyond distaste. "Happy?" She grumbled, stabbing at her plate.

"Adequately." I answered "Now then, let's see…"

I continued to think about where to start next. There were a number of different models and series to choose from. Was going to need to start with Robco, already had a base for that. Couldn't use protectrons, already used their base model, no sense in rehashing the numerous variants. Which left me with a handful of options. Starting small was probably a good idea as well.

"… Alright, so Eyebots." I said "We'll start with those."

"Strange name." Ruby hummed.

"They were one of Robco's more common designs before the war." I explained "The protectrons, the worker drones I mentioned before, were their bread and butter, being a cheap substitute for labor. However, the Eyebots were built with other applications in mind."

"Like what?" Ruby asked.

"For one: entertainment." I explained "They were built with various receivers and transmission equipment built into them. Making it not uncommon for people to use them as radio and television sets. Aided further by the fact that they were small and mobile." I began motioning with my hands for emphasis, trying to illustrate for them "They're basically large metallic balls with speakers built into them. They've got long antennae that run out the back, and float in the air using a combination of superheated air and turbines."

"So they look like giant floating eyes?" Nora chirped.

"Of course no-…" I paused for a moment, thinking about it "… actually, if you squint at them the right way, they kinda do."

"Ha! Cool." Nora smiled.

"All they used them for was radio?" Ruby asked, oddly miffed "I mean, I guess that's cool."

"You didn't let me finish." I said "While, yes, one of their main purposes was to be used for radio broadcasts, their simplicity made them highly adaptable. Given their transmission capabilities, they were also used in fields such as security, reconnaissance, and espionage. They could be fit with photographic and facial recognition software, as well as machinery ranging from multi-tools to medical equipment."

"… I guess that's a little cool." Ruby said, pushing her salad around.

"Like many other robots, they could also be fitted with an AI if you wanted to give them more advanced instructions. One of my companions, ED-E, was actually one such case. Being a late model Eyebot known as a Duraframe Eyebot. He was the last iteration developed by the Enclave as one of their post-war experiments. They scrapped it for something called 'Hell-fire' armor, and were going to recycle his entire line. But his creator shipped him out with all the data so all the work wouldn't be lost. Found him in a place called Primm, after some dirtbag had shot him inoperable… Actually, y'know what, here:" I reached into my box of tricks and pulled out my old group photo. I fought back my instinctual desire to ruminate on it, and passed it over to Ruby. "You can see him there, in the corner. Little guy with the license plate on his side."

Ruby took the photo and began scutinizing it. Her eyes lighting up when she apparently spotted him "Ohh, ok, cool. Cool."

"Yeah" Yang said, leaning over to look at the picture "I see what you mean."

"Boo." Nora intoned.

"Har-de-har." I said "Like I haven't heard that one before."

"Eye got you to laugh once, eye can do it again." Yang said, giving me a wry look.

"Hey- um, what about the dog in this picture?" Ruby asked "His name was- um-"

"Rex" I answered.

"Yeah, Rex, right." Ruby nodded, flipping the picture around, tapping my quadruped companion "He's not a normal dog, but he's not a robot either, is he?"

"No, no he's not." I answered "If you'll remember correctly, I specified that he's a cyberdog. He's not a machine, but-"

"A dog that's been enhanced with machinery, like a cyborg?" Jaune asked.

"…" I looked over to Jaune "… So I guess that concept exists here too?"

"You see it a lot in old sci-fi movies." Ren said.

"There are also numerous companies in Atlas, including the military that specialize in producing bio-mechanical prosthetics." Weiss chimed in "Everything from mechanical limbs to replacement organs and life-support systems."

"No shit?" I asked "Huh, well, I'm just learning all kinds of useful information today."

"Though that's not to say they're all of the same quality." Weiss continued "The Atlas military has cutting edge limb prosthetics, but most life support systems are done through various private sectors."

"Makes sense, soldier isn't much good in combat if they're crippled." I admitted. They could serve in non-combative capacities, but the word 'soldier' is synonymous with combat for a reason.

"So, what does that make Rex?" Ruby asked, eyes starting to sparkle "-Does that mean there are cyborgs in the Mojave too?"

"That… is off-topic, slightly." I answered "I promised you robotics, and while it's related, we'd be stepping down a very deep rabbit-hole if I tried to explain it."

"Aww~" Ruby whined.

"It is tangentially related to another topic, however, so we'll probably wind up talking about it later." I added "Suffice to say though, what was done to Rex wasn't exactly a 'common' procedure before the war. It was part of an initiative by the pre-war government to keep old service dogs active. From the markings on him, Rex was part of a K-9 unit based somewhere in the Old-world state of Colorado. I'm not sure how he got the procedure done though. There were, much like Atlas, a few private contractors that would do it, so narrowing down the maker is a bit hard."

Though, having been to the Big Empty, I had seen how the process was done, and wouldn't have been surprised if Rex had been sent to them at one point.

"So… is that really his brain?" Ruby asked, pointing at Rex as she handed the picture back to me.

"Well… yes and no." I said.

Ruby gave me an uneasy look. "So that's another dog's brain?"

"Again, yes and no." I told her "I don't know if that was Rexie's original brain in the case, but when I first got him, he was having trouble getting around. Doc I took him to said that he was suffering neural degradation, an unfortunate side-effect of the bio-gel and the two hundred-plus years it'd been floating in it."

"Huh?" Nora asked.

"… His brain was rotting in his skull." I told her succinctly.

"Oh!" Nora gasped, then her eyes grew worried "Oh no!"

"Don't worry, he's fine, we wound up catching it in time to do something." I placated.

"But his brain was dying!" Weiss cut in, showing an uncharacteristic degree of concern "You can't just fix it like- like-"

"Like taking it out and putting a new one in?" I offered.

"Yes!" Weiss said "That- that would…" Her eyes widened as she seemed to realize what I was saying. A perturbed look spread on her face "You didn't."

"It was either that, or let Rexie die a slow and painful death." I said "There weren't many options to choose from. And I sure as hell wasn't going to put him down. Rexie is a good boy, the best. Even barring his hatred of rats, hats, and anything that rhymes with the two."

My teammates and JNPR all gave me a very concerned look.

"So... you'd kill another dog just to keep yours alive?" Ren asked, calm but pensive.

"… It wasn't a choice I made lightly." I told him "There weren't many donors to pick from either. Had to be a biological match for Rexie's systems to accept it. Couldn't just take some random pup off the street and… y'know."

I could see that everyone was growing uncomfortable with the topic. I wasn't comfortable with it either. But I'd promised the King I'd help his boy, and I was fond enough of Rex by that point to put my own compunctions aside. Didn't mean I had to like what I did.

"… So what happened?" Blake asked, clearly at least willing to hear how things turned out.

"Had a couple 'donors' to choose from." I answered "The Fiends and Legion were known to raise and breed dogs, and there was bound to be a few among them that's fit the profile for Rex… But I wasn't comfortable doing that to him. I wasn't sure what putting another dog's brain into his body would do in the first place, let alone ones that were as hostile as that."

"Like it not being Rex not being Rex once it was over?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, that was my biggest fear." I admitted "I'd only known him a short while, but if my trying to help him screwed things up worse I'd… I don't know what I'd have done… So, rather than take the chance, I went to an acquaintance I had by the name of Old Lady Gibson. She raised and bred dogs to keep as company, and guards for her scrapyard. Her oldest pup, an old hound by the name of Rey, was getting on in years, had trouble getting around. In the wasteland, that meant he only so much time left, maybe a year, assuming something didn't get him while he was trying to keep Gibson safe… So I introduced her to Rex, and explained the situation to her, made her an offer."

"You paid her to kill her dog and take its brain?" Weiss asked, looking horrified.

"… I don't expect you to understand." I said, trying to keep my voice even and soothing "But it's a hard, simple fact that all living things die at some point. Gibson knew Rey's number was almost up, and wasn't happy about it either. She loved Rey as much I love Rexie. If there were any other way, I'd have gladly seen that the both of them would get to live long enough to see either of us wither to dust. But reality isn't so kind. Hell, when I explained the situation to Gibson, while she was sad, knowing she was losing Rey, she was happy too. Knowing the pain he was in was going to be over, and that a part of him would get to live on in Rexie. She was almost cavalier about it…" I took a deep breath, steadying myself "Please, please, stop assuming I'm talking about these things like they're easy. I may be an idiot, but I'm not heartless. Given the options available, letting Rex die, replacing his brain with that of a feral animal, or one from a loving companion, I chose what I thought the lesser evil."

Weiss gave me a pensive look, then pursed her lips and began absently picking at her salad.

"… So, what happened?" Ruby asked "Did it work? Was Rex still…"

I nodded "Rexie was still himself, coming out the other side. Not sure how it worked, but the machinery supporting his brain must have saved his neural patterns or something. He came out the other side, same lovable boy he was going in, minus the medical trouble… But, sometimes, I catching him staring off elsewhere, acting a bit out of sorts. Not in a bad way, just not in the way I know he would. Have to guess Ol' Rey is kicking around in there with him. At the very least, I find peace in knowing that I hadn't been lying to Gibson in saying he would still be around." I nodded "This whole thing turned into a tangent, and is a bitter pill to swallow. But you have to get used to it. There are a lot of ugly things in the wasteland. Try as you might, there's not always a happy ending."

"But I guess this is one, huh?" Ruby asked "In the end, everything worked out, right?"

"…"

I thought about all the travels Rex and me went on after his brain was replaced. All the stupidly dangerous places he'd followed me into, the random crap I had to keep him from chewing on. The number of times he'd just walk up to me with a doggy grin looking for a scratch behind the ears.

Man's best friend at his finest.

"… Yeah." I nodded, smiling "All for the best."

Everyone looked thoughtfully at their food. I couldn't tell if they all agreed with what I'd chosen to do, but frankly they didn't need to. They weren't the ones that needed to make the call at the time, I was. If the world was fair, they'd never have to face a dilemma like that.

But the world wasn't fair. She was a cheatin' bitch with a stacked deck. Most I could hope for was they could hang on when the time came.

Yang looked back up from her plate with a soft smile. "So… Rexie, huh?"

"Hm?" I grunted.

"You keep calling him Rexie." Yang said, still smiling "Why not just Rex?"

"Uh… well, um…" I hemmed.

"Kinda strange how you'll call everyone by their name, but your dog gets special treatment." Yang said, her smile turning into a smirk

"Rexie is the best boy, he gets special treatment, Sunshine." I shot back.

Yang's smirk deepened "That so?"

I realized a moment too late what I'd just done.

Yang pointed at herself. "Sunshine…" Her finger trailed to our teammates "Snowflake… Kitten… Tiny…" Her finger trailed to JNPR "Pancake… Vomit boy-"

"That last one was yours." I groused, cutting her off.

"Do you have ones for Ren and Pyrrha too?" Yang asked.

"I'm not going to answer that." I shot back.

Yang's smirk turned to a sunny smile "I just think it's funny how much of a softie you really are under all that talk about being from such a horrible place."

"Terms of endearment having nothing to do with pragmatic bearings." I said "That I'm willing to try and behave civilly is only a facet of that."

"… Endearment?" Yang asked, still smiling.

"…"

Yang's smile doubled in size. "I'm starting to think you and Blake have a secret contest going to see who can act the most brooding and mysterious. She's winning, by the way."

Blake gave her partner a pointed look, but I could see she was getting a small flush to her cheeks at being called out on her habits. Not helped by the small chuckle I noticed everyone else was having our expense.

"I am many things, Sunshine." I said, calmly "I've been many places, done many things, and have my share of scars. Of all the things I am, soft is most certainly not one of them."

Yang turned to me again and started to say something, but stopped as she opened her mouth. She paused for a moment, as her mouth drew back into yet another smirk.

"…What?" I groused.

Yang nodded at me "Your neck is turning red."

"…"

The room had gotten noticeably warmer.

"There's nothing wrong with saying you like the people around you, y'know?" Yang asked, still smirking "It's not like I'm saying your bark is worse than your bite."

"…" I shook my head "If you were expecting me to laugh at that one, you're sorely mistaken."

Yang shrugged, clearly not bothered by that "Oh well, I tried, guess you just don't have a dog in this fight."

"… We've gone way off topic now." I said "We're going back to it now."

"'kay." Yang said, smiling warmly.

I rubbed the bridge of my mask, and exhaled deeply through my nose. Clearing my head. Last thing I needed to do was get caught up on stupid shit, like what I was supposed to call Flowers and Champ-

Aw- dammit.

"… Next on the Robco line-up is the Securitron series." I explained "They were an odd-duck in Robco's catalogue. Namely because they only really have presence in New Vegas. From what I gather, Mr. House had them developed to function as private security for the city. Effectively making them his robotic police force."

"I can only imagine that went over well with the actual police." Ren said.

"Don't actually know that, honestly. While I'm sure House owned the police prior to the bombs falling, I think he kept the Securitrons as more of a 'personal detail' until the bombs fell. Afterwards, now being connected to the whole of Vegas, they became his private army. And he had a lot of them. In terms of design, they're odd even by Robco standards." I began motioning with my hands again "Imagine a large, rectangular body with a television or computer display built into it. On top, you have an array of broadcasting and sensory equipment, and underneath you've got a single, massive wheel used for mobility. It actually makes them surprisingly nimble, despite what common sense might have you believe. On either side of its body, you've got boxy 'shoulder' pieces, and a lanky arm descending from each."

"They don't sound all that threatening." Blake mused.

"True, but that's likely intentional." I agreed "Unlike the Protectron series, the Securitrons were developed with peacekeeping and combat in mind. Most of them are decently armored, and equipped with an array of weapons and important sub systems. The standard model was more than capable of dealing with your average rioter, being equipped with half-inch titanium-alloy armor plating, a 9mm submachine gun in one 'hand', and a Gatling laser in the other."

Ruby's eyes lit up "A Gatling WHAT!?"

"… oh, right, we still haven't talked about that."

Ruby looked at me expectantly.

"… another time." I said.

She deflated "Aww~ but Six-"

"We keep getting off topic." I said "I promise I'll tell you all about them at some point, But I said I'd try and keep it light, and we're already treading murky waters to begin with."

"…" Ruby gave a dejected sigh and rolled her eyes "Fine~."

"None of the sass, now finish your salad." I said motioning to her half-finished plate

Ruby blew me a raspberry, but continued eating.

"There were a couple other variants beyond the standard issue which, if rumor is to be believed, House had planned to use during the battle of Hoover Dam." I continued "They included self-repair systems, as well as missile pods built into their shoulders and an automatic 25mm grenade launcher to replace the SMG in its hand."

Ruby stopped mid-bite and looked at me like I'd sprouted a second head.

"No, I did not stutter or mis-speak." I told her "They replaced the smg with a fully automatic grenade launcher, and put missile launchers in its shoulders."

"… -ool~" Ruby said, mouth full of food.

"What exactly were they planning for these things to fight?" Weiss asked "Atlas has vehicles carrying less weaponry than that."

"Remember what I said about House being paranoid and preparing for the nuclear apocalypse?" I asked "He didn't know one hundred percent what was waiting on the other side, so I have to imagine he went heavy just based on principle. It paid off in the end, most who tangled with one of the upgraded units tended to be left a charred pile of mincemeat."

That wasn't even getting into the variants that Big MT had 'reproduced'. House probably paid as much mind to the competition between him and Dr. 0 as most did when they looked for a spot to take a leak. Fact was though, had Big MT ever had the opportunity to take their model to market, they'd have floored Robco. Same could be said for almost of their inventions. Assuming House didn't immediately try to ruin them with copyright.

"It does seem quite like overkill." Pyrrha said "However, all things considered, it's far from the single strangest thing we've heard tonight."

"No arguments there Ch- Pyrrha."I answered.

Pyrrha gave me a puzzled look as I pushed on. "The last of Robco's designs I can call upon, outside of some automated turret systems, is the Sentry bot." I explained "These things were built to be the most dangerous commercially available robots Robco produced. Even by the standard of the Securitron. Though their shock value came as much from surprise as raw power."

"What's so special about these ones?" Weiss asked "Did they somehow manage to cram even more explosives into it?"

"No, actually, on the whole they tend to have less apparent weaponry than the Securitrons." I answered "Like I said, House intended them to be his private army, and kept most of their more dangerous features hidden. Sentry bots weren't built for subtlety, however. They were built purely for combat and had no reason to hide that fact. It wasn't uncommon for them to be used for perimeter security, and I can think of a few occasions where they were used for interior security as well."

"How did that work out?" Blake asked.

"About as well as it did for Sn- Weiss's family." I answered, then leaned towards her "Personal tip: if you're going to have them working in tandem with people, make sure they've got personnel badges that can't be removed."

Weiss gave me a puzzled look "If we have them replacing the workers, why would we need-"

"Anyway, yeah, people tried using the sentry bots for security. Not the brightest move, but it worked, depending on the context." I continued "Sentry bots were made to be highly mobile, though less nimble than their Securitron cousins. Where the Securitron rolls around on one wheel, the Sentry bot uses a combination of six, set in a tripod formation. Each set in a pair, and able to rotate and turn in a full three hundred and sixty degrees. Theoretically giving the Machines a nigh unparalleled range of motion. The tripod connects to a torso mount, again much like the Securitrons, but more streamlined and limited in range of motion. The idea was that the bots could move in a full radius, switching motion almost instantly and as smooth as mechanically possible. Though having encountered them, I can say that they never got that part ironed out. Their AI is too limited to actually perform those action seamlessly."

"So it's a man sized tank?" Nora chirped "A tanklet?"

"I wouldn't say man sized, bit larger really, but close to it." I nodded "The armor is the same alloy as the one used in the Securitrons, but far thicker and overwhelming. Their systems and programming, though limited, are redundant enough to ensure that, even when damaged and stuck in prolonged combat, the machine would still function. Its mobility, though not reaching its potential, was still more than capable of traversing almost any terrain without issue. Coupled with this, its arsenal is at least comparable, if not exceeding, that of the Securitron. The standard model comes equipped with either a Minigun or Gatling laser by default, in addition to a missile launcher. Further advancements include cluster grenade launchers mounted to the machine's back that can function effectively as short to mid-range mortars. In combat, even one of these things can be positively devastating. Some were even built to self-destruct once critically damaged, as a final screw-you to whoever broke it."

"Wow~." Ruby cooed.

"They sound similar to something I saw during my time with the White Fang." Blake said, thoughtful

"That so?" I asked.

Blake looked pensive for a moment, but grew resolute and continued "During one of our raids, we encountered a four-legged drone, armed with heavy artillery."

"Really?" Ruby asked "What was it like?"

Bake shrugged "Four legs, a torso, two heavy cannons on the shoulders. They pulled together a few times to fire a combined shot… The armor was black and red, like the droids in that magazine you have."

"The knight-130's." Ruby supplied.

Blake nodded "There might have been something piloting it too, but I didn't get a chance to see, it might've been one of them. I don't know what it was called though."

"It sounds like a Scorpio-150" Weiss supplied.

Our heads collectively swiveled towards her.

The heiress gave a sigh, and explained "They were a prototype artillery mech, developed with my father's company, much like most other weapons used by the Atlas military."

"A mech?" I asked.

"Robots you can pilot." Ruby supplied.

'Isn't that just a piece of industrial equipment then?'

Ruby turned towards her partner. "I've never knew what happened to the Scorpio series, I read a column about them once but nothing else ever came up."

Weiss shrugged "As far as I've ever been aware, they were scrapped. The materials and personnel were shifted towards some other project."

"Tended to happen before the war too." I said "From some of the documents I'd find lying around occasionally, it was a mad rush to find some knew thing to keep one step ahead of the Chinese. If they had better stealth tech, we needed better armor. If they had better infiltration skills, were needed smarter computers. If they built better hideouts and bunkers, well we'd better be able to make stronger explosives."

"If they try to blind us, we'll zap them with lasers!" Nora chirped.

I resisted the urge to chuckle. "If a project couldn't meet the requirements fast enough, everything was diverted to whatever could better counter the new threat of the week."

"How many more of them were robots?" Ruby asked.

"Honestly, I couldn't tell you." I answered "We've reached the end of the Robco line-up, that I'm aware of. But projects tended to be scattered across the country. There could be all manner of robots and machinery that exist that I've just never encountered before."

Of course, there were also the ones I didn't necessarily want to talk about, at least not yet. The Robo-scorpions were unique to the Big MT, and were one of a myriad facets connected to the place. I was also hesitant to tell them about the various cyborgs you could find in the Mojave, myself included. I wasn't sure how they'd react to that. Which also extended to the Robo-brains I'd find wandering around. Hearing about Rex's situation had already been something clearly rough for them. Hearing about what was done to create something as screwed up as the Robo-brains or the Lobotomites wouldn't be something I could expect them to stomach easily. They were all grown boys and girls, but even I was uncomfortable thinking about it.

However, there was one other robot developed by General Atomics I could talk about.

"… Alright, I think this will wind up being the last robot for now." I said "It's one of the more common ones, and avoids us getting off topic by too much."

"What is it?" Ruby asked, eyes glittering "High altitude, supersonic flight drones? Tread mounted Lightning launchers? Giant bipedal robots with Laser eyes!?"

"No, no, nothing so…" I paused for a moment, as I thought about a picture I'd seen once, of Mr. House from before the war. Standing in front of a pair of giant mechanical legs. "… Ok, there might be some merit to that last one, but I've never seen it in person, so no comment."

Ruby smiled anyway, even the mere prospect of such a thing got her excited.

"So, this last one wasn't made by Robco, surprisingly enough, but by their direct competitor: General Atomics." I explained "RobCo had the market cornered on most computer and robotic hardware, but General Atomics focused on other portions of the private sector. Appliances most commonly, things like fridges, washing machines, televisions, and so on."

"So everything that RobCo didn't." Ren answered.

"Basically, yeah, if they could get money off it then they would certainly give it a shot." I nodded "Though it wasn't uncommon for them to throw their hat into most general mechanical applications as well. Their entry into the world of robotics produced one of the most widely used and reliable models still present in the wasteland: the Mister Handy."

"That's an interesting name." Blake said snidely.

"As in Handy-man, Blake." I said, shaking my head "Their basic design and purpose was to be used as a combination of construction and maintenance unit. A response, of sorts, to RobCo's Protectron series. Their more advanced programming and design made them far better suited for their role however, and it wasn't uncommon for families to keep personal models to serve as butlers and caretakers. In a way, they managed to keep to the simplicity of RobCo's earlier models, enabling the series to be easily adapted and modified."

"Which means they used it for combat too, right?" Yang said, not really asking a question.

"Bingo." I nodded "The standard model came equipped with a set of pincers, a circular saw, and a combination cutting torch and flamethrower. The Mister Gutsy, the model sold to the military came equipped with the standard fare: better armor, upgraded systems, and a replacement weapon for the buzzsaw."

"What kind?" Ruby asked, grinning expectantly.

"I think you already know." I answered, being as vague as acceptably possible. This girl was already obsessing over laser weapons she hadn't seen yet, no way was I going to get her on the trail of Plasma. She wouldn't let it go until I gave her something. "Aside from that, their general design was a bit unorthodox, compared to the more standard designs RobCo worked with. Like the Eyebot, the Mister Handy hovers in the air rather than move across the ground. Though unlike the Eyebot, they accomplished this using a single jet constantly spewing hot air underneath them. So, their main chassis was a long, fairly thin column with a sphere of metal on top. Descending from it are six arms, three 'eye stalks' tipped with its optic sensors, and three mechanical tentacles under each 'stalk.

"Nice." I heard Blake mutter, before her eyes widened, darting around the room.

I wasn't the only person to hear her, judging from the looks surprise on JNPR and my teammates faces.

"… Y'know you just said that out loud, right?" I asked, turning to her.

Blake's irises dilated as a very vibrant flush filled her cheeks. I could see it mirrored, by Ruby and Weiss, as well as Pyrrha and Jaune. But I couldn't help but notice that Yang looked like she was trying to bite through her lower lip to keep from laughing, while Nora was twiddling her thumbs, smiling uncontrollably. Ren was probably the only one with any real control over himself, but I could see the soft smirk he was trying to hide, looking towards Nora.

"S-shut up." Blake hissed.

"Oh please, it was slip of the tongue." I needled "Plenty of worse things you could've said."

Blake's blush grew deeper. "I-I was just making a reference." She defended.

"Oh, really now?" I asked "What to?"

"Nothing!" She snapped, then backpedaled "N-nothing you'd know."

"Oh, probably not." I nodded "I'm sure whatever dark passions and intense rendezvous could entrance a young woman such as yourself would hold no sway for a man of my persuasion."

Blake went to say something then stopped. Her face fell somewhere between disbelief and shock. Her eyes searching for something.

I smirked "But the world is full of strange things, stranger and wilder still the people who might stalk its shadows."

Blake's mouth opened in horror, as the red she'd been trying to keep trapped on her cheeks crept its way up to her scalp and down her neck. Her face the picture-perfect definition of devastation.

She should've done a better job at hiding that book. Especially after Ruby outted her.

Everyone else was looking between the two of us, completely confused as to what just happened. The only apparent thing being I'd succeeded in embarrassing Blake so thoroughly she looked like she wanted to curl up into a little ball. That and, whatever it was we were talking about, were apparently embarrassing enough to get a rise out of Blake of all people.

I chuckled "Just can't seem to keep yourself from getting tangled up in things, huh Kitten?"

Kitten shot me a glare rife with embarrassment and fire. Shame that it was cut down by the fact that she was a bright red as the tomatoes on her plate.

Yang however, put a reassuring hand on her partner's shoulder. Then she started smirking at me. Giving me a look of satisfaction I didn't quite-

Oh.

'… Dammit.'

...

The light of the interrogation room shone sharp and cold over the table, in a blank featureless room. It cast down on three men. One seated at the table, and the other two across from him. All three were dressed for business, Button up shirts, ties, and slacks. The standing two were immaculate in care and appearance. One an older man, hair graying, eyes sharp beneath a pair of spectacles. The other was younger, gaze not so sharp, and features a bit softer. The seated one wore clothes creased and wrinkled, stained with sweat and grime. Hair unkempt and face showing the early scruff of a beard. He wrung his hands, looking down to the table. Heavy bags under his eyes, stress creasing the corners of his mouth.

"For the record, please state your name and badge number." One of the standing men asked, producing an enlarged scroll, meant for clerical work.

The seated man sighed, running a hand over his face. "Detective Curtis Cashe, Shield 172018."

The clerical man hummed, inputting the information into the scroll, before nodding to the man beside him. The second man, an elder man, hair graying and eyes sharp, sighed through his nose.

"Alright Curt." The elder man said "Tell us what happened."

Curt took a breath, steadying his nerves, then spoke.

My partner, detective Dramm, and I had been assigned patrol hours. With the Vytal Festival getting close, we're already stretched thin. All this business with the White Fang has only been keeping us more so.

"Please try and keep to the facts." The elder man spoke

Curt nodded, and continued.

The two of us were assigned extra hours on patrol. With all the extra trouble that's been happening the past few weeks, it's been keeping most of us in the precinct busy. Dramm and I had been assigned an extra shift of patrol duty, which neither of us have done in forever, frankly.

We'd been assigned a beat in the residential district, R12 specifically. It'd been getting a lot of foot traffic recently, again because of the festival, and we needed an extra car for coverage. There hadn't been much trouble in the district since that tip-off we'd gotten a few weeks back. Detective Dramm and I had been on patrol for about three hours, and had stopped to eat. There's this burger joint we'd stop at back when we worked the beat and-

"Just the facts Curt, please." The elder man reiterated

"With all due respect, Sarge." Curt answered, looking to the elder man "I'm trying to keep to the facts, but I've got to process this my own way. Please?"

The sergeant looked at the younger officer for a moment, then nodded, allowing him to continue.

Dramm and I had stopped at the place, Chopp's, and had placed our order. No sooner did we do that, than a Van came screaming down the avenue. Recognizing that they were driving erratically and well over the speed limit, we abandoned our order and took off after them. The driver of the vehicle ignored our sirens, and we were forced into pursuit. Unfortunately, in the course of the chase, the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed. Resulting in the vehicle being wrapped around a tree, and the driver being grievously injured. We called for paramedics over the radio, and attempted to remove the driver from the vehicle. In the course of pulling the driver from the wreck, Detective Dramm was injured, and had to receive medical attention as well…

"Is that good?" Cashe asked "Did I cover all the bases?"

The elder sergeant studied the detective for a moment, then looked to the clerical officer. The younger officer nodded, swiping a finger across his larger scroll.

"It appears that will be the official story then." The sergeant sighed, taking a seat at the table, across from the detective "Now, why don't we talk about what actually happened. Because the official story is going to neglect things, like the six other passengers that'd been in the van. Or that they'd been carrying military grade weaponry."

"Or that it was a bunch White Fang, looking to do who-knows-what?" The detective asked, rubbing his face again "I could use a cup of coffee… and a smoke."

"You can get to that in a minute." The sergeant said "Let's get this done first… where do you want to start?"

The detective blew out a long breath, collecting his thoughts.

We'd just screeched around a corner, and kicked the siren on, when shit hit the fan. Being in the residential district, even that late at night, there were going to be people out. Not as many as the commercial district, but there were plenty of people out late. Enjoying the night air, partying- I don't know. Point is, there were more people out than there should've been. So having an erratic driver was bad enough. If they jumped the curb, there wasn't any telling how many people were going to get hurt. We had to have been doing, I don't know, Fifty, Sixty miles an hour? Those roads are meant to be in the mid-thirties. Trying to keep that speed on those roads… shit, it's a miracle we didn't crash.

We kept on them though, Dramm's a good driver. Always preferred him to be the wheel man back on the beat. Kept up with the van, and I think the siren was able to keep most people out of our way. Think once they knew we were coming, they knew to pay attention. Which was good… thought they were just a couple of joyriding punks.

I remember, we'd just pulled onto a straight away, going into the neighborhood over on Fifth and Rice. Instead of slamming on the gas, they started to slow down. Figured they were going to pull over before Dramm could force them off the road.

Then one of them kicked open the back door, and started waving a gun around.

It was right around then that Dramm and I realized we weren't chasing some random punks out on a joyride.

The guy in the back of the vehicle was dressed as a White Fang member. Starting to become an uncomfortably common sight around the city, how many times we've been finding them. Unfortunately, these bastards hadn't been beaten into the pavement when we found them. Honestly, I'm not sure whether or not I should be angry about that, considering how things went.

Anyway, the guy at the back of the vehicle kicks the doors open, and levels a machinegun our way. One of those military jobs you reserved for, y'know, the military, or some of those kids you see occasionally from Beacon. Gotta wonder where they get the money for that kind of hardware when we can't scrounge up the scratch to keep the damn AC on.

The sergeant nodded, smirking a little. That was a long standing issue he knew was never going to be addressed.

So, the asshole levels the weapon at the car, and starts spraying at us. Dramm's reflexes were better than mine, and he swerved us onto the pavement to avoid getting shot. The van picked up speed again after that, and we tried to keep pace after swerving back onto the road. It was around that time I reached out to dispatch over my scroll, and tried to get someone to send back-up. While I was tied up with that, Dramm focused on the White Fang. Unfortunately, every time we tried to get close to the bastards, the gunman at the back would start spraying more bullets at us. After the third burst, Dramm chose to keep us back far enough to avoid any more fire. If their driving didn't get someone killed, the stray bullets from us getting shot at would. It didn't help much anyway, just made it more difficult for him to actually hit us. Plenty of rounds still wound up hitting the car, and I heard more than a few go through the windshield. You've seen what the cruiser looks like by now I'm sure, I've seen blocks of cheese with less holes in them. Really I guess the miracle of tonight is that no one got hurt just by that first little series of exchanges alone. With the amount of fire he kept letting off, it wouldn't have been much to send it through someone's window.

After calling for back-up, Dramm and I continued to tail them. I tried once or twice to return fire, leaning out the passenger window and using my sidearm. I wound up missing each time. There's probably a few people who could shoot like that, but trying to line everything up was next to impossible. So we had to keep on like that, chasing them through Residential, trying to avoid getting shot or losing them. We couldn't have been at it for more than a few minutes, half hour at the most. Felt longer than that. We were just waiting for backup to arrive, or work on trying to block them off. Honestly thinking about it though, now that I'm decompressing, that'd have been a massacre if we'd managed to do it.

"Which has me asking-" The sergeant spoke, drumming his fingers on the interrogation table "How did that vehicle get wrapped around a lamp like that?"

"Well, the obvious answer is correct in this case sir: they crashed." Detective Cashe answered

After being in pursuit for however long we were, Dramm told me he was going to try and pit them. We both knew that was going to be dangerous, given the fire we'd been taking. But we also knew that if we didn't try and get them off the road, the situation would only escalate. So Dramm told me to brace myself, and hit the gas. The Fang at the back didn't waste the chance to light us up. I know I took a few rounds, but my aura kept me safe, same with Dramm. He got it worse though, think the Fang realized we'd been about to try and hit them, and tried to stop it from happening.

Unfortunately, things didn't go like Dramm had planned.

As we were getting within ramming distance, something intervened. The angles were kind of fucked up by where I was sitting, but I could see some of it. A glowing ball of fire came flying down from one of the nearby rooftops, smashing into the van's windshield. The angle said driver's side. Fire leapt over the roof of the van, and the driver swerved. It caused the one with the machinegun to stumble, fall out the back of the van. Dramm wound up turning him into a speed bump by accident, but last I heard he was taken to Vale General, then arrested, so at least he's not still running around.

The driver was less lucky. Dramm managed to connect with the back of the vehicle, sending the swerve into a fishtail, then a skid.

Which ended with it crashing sidelong into the lamp post, as reported.

Dramm pulled us to a halt a couple yards from it, and we both sprang from the cruiser. We had our sidearms drawn, and closed in on the driver. The driver was wearing a one of the White Fang uniforms too, so there wasn't any mistaking his involvement. We approached with about as much caution as we could afford. The first person to come out of the vehicle had started shooting at us, so we couldn't take too many chances.

It turned out to be a smart move on our part.

After a few moments, the side panel of the van slid open and at least five more people fell out of the vehicle. All wearing matching uniforms, and armed for a fight. Not looking to take any chances, Dramm and I opened fire on them as we withdrew back to the cruiser. That detail might look bad when the press gets wind of it, but we couldn't take the chance. They wouldn't have either.

The occupants' auras must've eaten the brunt of the crash, because they picked themselves up after the first few shots left our weapons. Dramm and I kept our cool, made our shots count. But we were going up against assault rifles with pistols. We managed to land a couple rounds on at least two of them, but the other three recovered, and returned fire. Dramm and I had managed to get back behind the cruiser in time. I swear it felt like at any moment a bullet was going to rip through it and nail me in the head though.

It got Dramm well enough.

In the midst of the gunfire, a bullet ripped through the car on Dramm's side, put a hole in his shoulder. One of those situations where we either stood in the open and knew the danger coming at us, or took cover and hoped it'd be enough. Didn't work for Dramm that time.

As blood started pouring down his arm, there was a sudden explosion by the van again. Didn't see this one either, had the car between us. But it was loud, bright, like having one of those mortar fireworks go off right beside your head. I know it blew out the windows of the cruiser, added broken glass to the list of Dramm's problems, set my ears ringing.

Whatever happened, it clearly wasn't part of whatever plan the White Fang had, and they ran. Booked it for the alley between two houses on the opposite side of the street. They didn't stop spraying at us, and the shuffle they moved with seemed to say it was panicked. Most of their blind fire wound up going up into the air, not sure who or where it wound up coming down afterwards.

"We were getting reports of raining lead around the same time you were reporting the situation." The sergeant spoke "No injuries, but rattled a lot of people and broke a few windows."

"Good, good." Cashe said, running a hand over his face "Small miracles."

I lost a moment checking on Dramm, but he waved me off. Told me he was fine while bleeding all over the ground. I could hear the sirens in the distance, so I knew help was on the way. I fished Dramm's scroll out and gave it him, made sure he could provide directions. After which, I ducked my head out from behind the cruiser, made sure there wasn't anyone waiting to keep us occupied. But the only Fang we found waitng for us was the driver, who'd managed to stumble his way out of the driver's seat. He was, at the time, squirming on the ground, looking like he'd wanted to claw his eyes out.

I spared precious seconds making sure he was handcuffed, then went back to the cruiser.

After retrieving our patrol shotgun from the trunk, I finally followed after the Fang in pursuit. Opening comms with Dramm so I could keep him up to date on the situation. It was bad enough this was all happening in Residential, if it started spilling into people's homes, things were only going to escalate.

Scary to think that it only took a handful of guys to do all that.

But it got scarier when I started finding their bodies.

I took off down the alley, doing my best to try and pick up their trail. It seemed a lost cause at first, I'm not a blood hound, and it was dark. Even with the flashlight from my scroll, I had trouble making out much. But after making my way down the alley, and onto the next street, I started hearing it again, gunfire. Coming from another street down.

I double timed it down the sidewalk. Immediately fearing that someone had made the mistake of getting in their way.

Then I skidded into the intersection, and found one of the White Fang lying in the middle of the street. His weapon shattered over him. That's not hyperbole either. It looked like he'd been smacked with it so hard the metal had sheered itself to pieces.

In either case, the guy was out of it, and didn't look like he was going to change.

The gunfire was still echoing further away. It almost sounded frantic, uncontrolled.

Like they were scared.

I didn't have any way to secure the perp at the time, and had to make due with reporting his location. Don't know if the boys picked him up after the fact, but it was all I could do at the time. I kept running, trying to make up the ground. Being completely honest, Sarge, even through the adrenaline I was scared shitless. We've been running around like headless chickens trying to keep pace with these assholes. Even with them on the run like they were, I wasn't favoring my odds.

"Most sane men wouldn't." Sergeant eased "If you were to tell me you weren't afraid while chasing down multiple heavily armed suspects, I'd have you recommended for a psych eval."

"No, I was definitely afraid…" Cashe said, pausing "But there was someone who wasn't."

The sergeant's eyes lit up.

I followed the gunfire as quickly as I could carry myself. I'll be the first to admit I rely too much on my aura, don't hit the gym as much as I used to. The adrenaline was helping to compensate for it, but I was getting winded.

By the time I found the second body, I was pretty well soaked with sweat, it's been hot recently.

But it clued me in finally: someone else was chasing the suspects with me. He was beating me to them too.

Crazy Steve was there.

The distant gunfire was started to make more sense.

But it also made things a lot worse. Steve, whoever he is, didn't seem to care that he was engaging in a firefight in the middle of the Residential district. At night, when most people would be home and asleep. I didn't relay that over my scroll at the time. No sense in confusing an already tense situation.

I started running after them again, pushing myself harder. We don't know a lot about 'Crazy Steve' but whenever he gets involved, we've found that bodies tend to get left behind. Living ones, which is probably the only reason we don't have him our sights as much as we do the White Fang.

"Not that we'd have the resources to worry about him anyway." The sergeant groused

The gunfire lead me down another alley, and I began seeing the carnage of the fight. No one visibly injured beyond the two White Fang I'd encountered. But casings and bullet holes littered the ground and walls of surrounding buildings. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out later that someone did get hurt in the crossfire.

"Ballistics hasn't actually finished their report yet, but damnedest thing, most of it hit the best places they could've hoped for." The sergeant cut in again "There were a few broken windows, but most of the angles point to them shooting the stronger portions of the walls. Don't know what you'd call that."

"Don't know Sarge." Cashe responded "But I don't trust that no one was hurt, not until tonight is over and done with."

"I'm not saying I do either." The sergeant nodded "Continue."

I kept chasing them for what felt like blocks. The entire time I'm hearing them be just steps ahead of me. Leaving behind a breadcrumb trail of casings and bullet holes. After a while I even started noticing signs of Dust use. Bits of frost melting off the walls and sidewalk. Little sputtering bits of flame or, in one case, a blazing dumpster. Not sure how that one came about. Whatever was happening though, it didn't seem like there was much of a coherent plan. The only thing I could tell was we were getting further and further out of the Residentials. Another block or two, and we'd have been in the Industrial district. Maybe the Fang were trying to make a break for it? I don't know.

What I do know, is we didn't make it that far.

After running for several blocks, the White Fang decided to stop trying to make a stand.

I ran down an alley between a pair of homes, and came to a privacy fence. A section of it had been smashed through. Light spilled out from the otherside, and I could hear voices. Screams.

Whatever had been happening, the worst had come to pass. People were now directly in danger.

I ran up to the fence, and avoided crashing into it. Instead, coming up beside the hole and using the fence as cover. Surveying the situation before I rushed in. The lighting was dim, mood lighting I guess. The people on the other side must've been doing some sort of party or something. The only real light in the area were those cheap wicker torches you see in grocery stores. Made everything murky, hard for me to see. Emphasis on me, I know that most Faunus don't have a problem when it comes to the dark.

But I could see the three Faunus I'd been chasing.

They had a hostage with them. A young girl, looked like a highschooler, maybe a senior. Long red hair, brown eyes, think she was in the report filed when they came to pick me up.

"Sam Wines" The sergeant affirmed "She and some friends were having a barbeque when this happened. Whatever you're about to tell me, she'd have corroborated on."

"Then I think you might know where this is about to go then." Cashe answered

When I found the White Fang, they were panicking. Honestly, I could've walked out in front of them right then and I don't think they'd have noticed me. The three of them looked like they'd walked through a minefield, and were so rattled a stiff breeze could've put them down. I almost questioned if they'd been the same guys who'd almost run me and Dramm off the road. The one who'd been in charge of the hostage was the only one who had his weapon pointed someplace it could hurt someone. The other two were frantically waving them at the sky. Searching for something.

As they were panicking, Ms. Wines tried to get free, striking her captor in the face. Her captor then struck her in the back of the head, and threatened to kill her if she tried that again. His two accomplices were still panicking, and were acutely aware that the police were going to be closing in on them before long. They quickly made plans to enter Ms. Wines residence, and make their stand there. They began forcing Ms. Wines towards the residence, to which she complied. I prepared to intervene then, knowing that Ms. Wines and whoever was within the residence were going to be in greater danger if I didn't act.

Before I could act however, I had the chance stolen from me.

Another ball of light coursed down from above us, landing in the midst of the White Fang. It exploded with a blinding flash and a deafening roar. Like having one of those Atlesian stun grenades go off in front of you.

"I'm not familiar with those." The sergeant spoke

"Watched a special on Atlesian tech once." Cashe explained "Don't know if they still use them or not, but they seemed effective."

But the ball, whatever it was, went off like one. I was left deaf and blinded for an uncomfortable amount of time. By the time I could see again, the whole situation had changed. The burst, whatever it was, had carried enough force to knock over most of the nearby torches. Further removing what little light I had to work with.

That hadn't been enough to stop Steve.

As my vision came back to me, I saw the White Fang getting their asses handed to them. Between the darkness, my ears being blown out, and being blinded, I couldn't see or hear what was happening. Not with any great level of clarity. But what little I saw of it was scary. Crazy Steve, whatever or whoever he is, he dealt with the Fang quickly. Before any of them even had a chance to realize what was happening, he'd appeared from nowhere. As my vision came back, the White Fang that'd been holding Ms. Wines hostage was laying on the ground with his arm broken in the wrong direction. He'd then moved onto the other two. By the time my vision was cleared, they'd joined the first one on the ground.

And he was standing there. Again, I couldn't see much of him, but Steve, he had to have been doing as much running as the rest of us. On top of that, it didn't look like he'd used any weapons meaning he'd charged in and physically beaten them.

He didn't even look winded.

Being completely frank, it only put me more on edge.

The darkness didn't help, but he was clearly human, or looked like one. For all I know he could've been a faunus himself. But it was hard to get a clear read on him. He had something covering him. A coat, cape maybe? For all I know it could've been a pair of wings.

He had glowing red eyes too.

Truth be told, when I first saw them, I almost thought he was a Grimm, with how he'd taken out the White Fang.

"… Really, a Grimm?" the sergeant asked

"You'd have to have seen it, sir." Cashe said "It was a knee-jerk reaction."

"There's no such thing as a humanoid grimm, Cashe." The sergeant spoke "At least, none that could get into the city."

"I know sir, but at the moment, I'd have believed I was looking at one." Cashe explained "With everything else that'd been happening, either Steve was a really capable fighter, or some sort of damn monster. In that moment, the line seemed really blurry."

The sergeant nodded, taking in what the detective was saying. "… So what happened? Clearly you didn't take him in."

"Not for lack of trying, sir." Cashe explained

After finally clearing my senses enough to react, and Steve had finished his business with the Fang he approached Ms. Wines. Ms. Wines had fallen when the burst happened. Steve kneeled down towards her, not sure why. But Ms. Wines, clearly scared out of her mind, had the presence of self to scramble backward, away from him. Steve made no efforts to try and chase, instead choosing to stand up.

Which was when I stepped in. Admittedly, too late to have made a difference now, but it was the only thing I could think to do in the moment.

I leveled my shotgun at Steve and told him to keep his hands where I could see them.

Steve… didn't comply. He just stared at me, Eyes, or whatever those things were, glowing red. I tried to get as good a look of him as I could, so we could finally put a description of him on record… but I didn't really succeed-

"You still thought he looked like a grimm, didn't you." The sergeant said

"Sir, it was dark, my adrenaline was through the roof, and I couldn't tell how much of what I was seeing was real, or just spots in my vision." Cashe defended "… But, yeah. I thought he did."

The sergeant ran a hand down his face in exasperation.

"He was definitely wearing body armor of some kind and, again, a cape or coat of some sort." Cashe explained "But it all might as well have been carapace and wings, I've got no clue what was up with his face."

The sergeant sighed "Alright, so why don't we have him here in cuffs then?"

"Aside from having already used my cuffs?" Cashe asked

I had a bead on Steve as he stood there. I could hear back-up approaching, and knew that, if Steve was going to run, he'd try to make a run for it before they got there.

Which he did.

He turned towards the nearest Fence and ran.

I fired my shotgun, hit him in the back.

He completely ignored it and kept running. Vaulting over the fence and disappearing without so much as pausing. Which was probably better for me, because If the guy could shrug off getting blasted by a 12 gauge without even stumbling, I probably wouldn't have done much more to him.

After that, I waited for back-up to arrive. The White Fang were arrested, Ms. Wines and her friends were asked to give statements, then I was brought back here.

"-And then asked to give a false report of the situation, before giving an accurate one to you, sarge." Cashe finished

"Yes, that you were." The sergeant nodded "You'll also be asked to use discretion for the time being regarding this situation."

"With all due respect sir, you realize this wasn't some small event, yes?" Cashe asked "We were all over the residential district trying to stop one vehicle. Word's going to spread fast."

"I know." The sergeant answered "But this situation is proving to be much more complicated than it appeared. Especially given what you've told me tonight."

Cashe nodded, drumming his fingers across the tabletop "… You think he's been trying to help us?"

"Who, Steve?" The sergeant asked

"Yeah…" Cashe nodded "We keep finding the places he hits, all the weapons and supplies, the White Fang too… with how tonight went, do you think it's possible-"

"More than you might think, but that doesn't change what he is: a vigilante." The sergeant interrupted "You stay on the force long enough, you find out they're more common than you might first think."

"R-right." Cashe nodded

"Whether or not he's trying to help us doesn't matter." The sergeant said "Our job is to uphold the law and maintain order within the city. Hard as that may be, it's what we're sworn to do. We're not perfect, but if we allow people to go taking matters into their own hands, chaos follows. Even if what he's doing helps us, it could just as easily become more of a hazard than it's worth. I'm sure you understand that, detective."

"Of course." Cashe agreed "Doesn't change that he's making us look like idiots."

"…" The sergeant chuckled "Wish I could argue that one."

The sergeant pulled out his scroll and opened it. His eyes flicking up to the time quickly, before closing the device. It was late, but his guest should have arrived by now. No sense in keeping him waiting any longer.

"I think that'll do, detective." The sergeant said, standing up from the table "You're free to go check on your partner, can't imagine you'll be returning to patrol tonight."

"Thank you sir." Cashe answered rising from the table. The two walked towards the door, the sergeant holding it open for the detective to leave first.

As the detective stepped out of the interrogation room, he found someone new standing close by. They were staring listlessly into the now empty room, through the one way mirror, likely observing the entire exchange. A middle-aged man, maybe somewhere in his thirties, with tousled silver hair and mossy-brown eyes behind a pair of spectacles. His complexion was faire and features sharp. Despite the warm summer night, he was dressed in a tight green turtleneck and black trousers. Black, squared off shoes immaculate, matching the bizarre, clockwork cane in his hands.

Of all the people he'd been expecting to see that evening, professor Ozpin had not been high on the detective's list. Though he also found the list to be quite lacking, given the events that had played out that night.

"Ah, good for you to be here, professor." The sergeant spoke, closing the door as he stepped out "I apologize for calling you here so late."

The professor turned to the sergeant, giving him a polite smile. "No need, Sergeant Piper, I found myself up late regardless. I'm no stranger to these call either."

"All the times you've been called here, I'd imagine not." Piper said, returning the smile. The sergeant then turned to the detective. "That'll be all Cashe, I need to speak with the professor for a moment."

"Um… of course, sir." Cashe said, dismissing himself. The detective then turned and began down the hall, elsewhere into the precinct.

Leaving the professor and the sergeant alone.

"I'll take it that you heard the whole story then?" Piper asked

"Enough of it." The professor agreed

"Then I think it goes without saying, why we called you down." Piper said

"Perhaps." The professor answered "Though it doesn't do well for the police to make informal accusations towards my students."

"It wouldn't, no." Piper agreed "Except that a precedent exists with regards to the student population of Beacon. One we can both prove as being unfortunately accurate."

"Quite." The professor admitted

"With that being said, and having the context of tonight, I will ask: Do you know who it is?" Piper asked

The professor fell silent for a moment, outwardly contemplating. It was an act, one he'd had long practice with. Important for obfuscating what he did and didn't know. The professor had known who 'Steve' was the moment he'd first heard the description. Though he'd been once again blindsided by his apparent drive and effect, the professor wasn't surprised by their identity.

However, informing the sergeant that he knew full well who was responsible for these acts of vigilante justice wouldn't do. Especially not for 'Steve'.

So he slid the mask of authority and ignorance upon himself once more, and began the dance of deception.

"I'm afraid I wouldn't know who they are." The professor answered smoothly

The sergeant eyed the professor intently, inquisitive gaze searching for any cracks he could exploit. "Is that so?" Piper asked "I'd say that's quite unfit, for a headmaster."

"My academy houses hundreds of huntsmen in training." The professor defended "Anyone of whom are capable of matching the description of tonight's events. As your detective said as well, he could not get a decent image of what this 'Steve' looked like. It would hardly do to begin calling my students in simply because we wished to scrutinize their outer wear."

The sergeant stared hotly at the professor for a moment, then sighed, resignedly "No, no it would not."

The professor nodded, turning back towards the one-way window of the interrogation room. Staring into its now empty confines. "Further muddying things: the Vytal festival is almost upon us. Students from all across Remnant are pouring into my academy in droves. I can hardly examine all of them myself, nor watch them as closely as needed."

"If I wanted to, I could probably get a warrant to search your student registry." The sergeant said "Help save you some trouble."

"But that would require you to make this an official investigation into my academy." The professor returned "One that would require both grounds and proper paperwork."

"Hm." The sergeant grunted

"If one of my students is involved in this then, I assure you, I will root them out and reprimand them." The professor said "But, otherwise, I don't believe there is anything more to be said here."

"Perhaps not…" Piper answered "Before you go though, tell me, what do you know about team STRQ?"

The professor looked at the officer for a moment. He knew STRQ well, or had at one time. Most of the team's members were no longer active, or in different capacities now. Though he was still in touch with some of them.

"I am… familiar with them." The professor admitted, cautiously "Might I ask what they have to do with this?"

"Everything." Piper answered "In academy, they drill into the rookie's heads the whole fiasco that went down with them years ago. Back when we were more worried about the Spiders, and the White Fang were their own issue."

The professor was familiar with what the officer said. It was well before Ozpin's time as headmaster. Back before the council of Vale had instituted stricter laws regarding the conduct for huntsmen in training. An upstart young woman managed to convince her teammates to prowl the city at the dead of night. Stalking the Spiders along their webs, cutting the threads as they went, and leaving them behind for the police. It hadn't been a terribly well publicized affair.

At least it hadn't been.

Then four teenagers got trapped in a cleared out bank-vault, with an anonymous tip sent to the police. After which, the issue became something of a hot topic for the people of Vale, and called into question Both the Police and Beacon. It was then ruled that huntsmen in training were to refrain from interfering in the city, and police efforts, barring extenuating circumstances. If they were caught, depending on the severity of their actions, they'd be tried almost the same those they'd interfered with. Albeit, perhaps less harshly depending on the circumstances.

Assuming they were caught.

Some students didn't really care about the council's ruling on the matter, and would take matters upon themselves as they saw fit. An unfortunate reality of raising the students to be the potential beacons of humanity that they were supposed to act as.

A recent occurrence of this was still fresh in the professor's mind. When five hunters in training were found to have prevented a large-scale dust theft at the Vale docks. The situation had been largely swept under the rug, as many of the recent incidences with the White Fang had.

"They make sure that, when we catch kids breaking that law, we ream them out for it." The sergeant said "It's the kind of behavior that undermines everyone's authority and security."

"It's also what they are raised and trained to do." The professor countered

The sergeant nodded "No arguments with that… but the law is the law, and our job's not to interpret it, only enforce it. It's the court's duty to determine the rest."

"I understand that." The professor reiterated "I do not condone it of my students either, though I find the drive admirable."

The sergeant nodded, a sad smile on his face "Good to see it, there's not enough of it anymore…" The sergeant looked the professor in the eyes. "If we wind up catching 'Steve', you understand we'll have to prosecute him, correct?"

"I am." The professor said

"It could also bring a lot of unwanted heat down on your school." The sergeant warned

"It could." The professor agreed. "Provided you can catch them and prove it."

"And if we do, you understand, there'll be nothing you can do to help them, assuming nothing drastic occurs." The sergeant added

"Naturally." The professor said

The sergeant smirked "Then the only thing left to say is, should you determine who is responsible, if anyone, you should provide some gentle encouragement. Namely, they need to quit while they're ahead… If anything changes, don't hesitate to reach out."

"Of course, Sergeant." The professor said, nodding "More than happy to help the fine people of the department."

The sergeant turned, and escorted the professor back through the maze of halls that made the precinct. Passing myriad offices and rooms, they returned to the reception area. The sergeant left the professor at the desk, and the two split. The professor walking out the front door of the building.

The wind of a fair summer's night was the first thing to hit him. The heat of the day having long since died away. Muting the smells that normally filled the city air. Even at this late hour, he found that the city was still abuzz with activity. Some of it pertaining to the incident in the residential district, perhaps. But not all of it. The rest was a product of life. Something worth protecting.

He could hardly blame his students for wanting to do what they believed was right. He'd had suspicions as well, that the sudden downturn in Vale's criminal underworld wasn't a matter of chance. However, he had not placed it high enough on his list of priorities to warrant further investigation. Most students knew the consequences for being caught performing vigilantism could become quite severe. If they were caught. After such a narrow brush with the authorities not more than a few weeks prior, it was worrisome.

Mr. Six was quite unfamiliar with the laws of the city as well. Or, at the very least, was dismissive of them. The professor could hazard reasonable guesses and assumptions as to why the, previously reserved, visitor was now suddenly involving himself. Given the apparent targets of his actions, and his team's recent history, there was no doubt a motive to it. Especially given Ms. Belladonna's own personal history.

That did not however, change that it was a dangerous game they were playing.

While the professor's actions would give the younger man time to finish whatever he was doing, it was only that, time. He had no clue what Mr. Six or his teammates were involved in, and it was not beyond him to dig into the situation a touch deeper. However, there were more pressing matters that required his attention. Ones with time limits of their own that carried far greater consequences.

Responsibility was a burden everyone needed to shoulder at one time or another.

The one currently afflicting team RWBY was their own. If the time came for them to face the consequences, they would need to do so themselves.

However, buying them time, even if only a small amount, was well within the Professor's purview.

He would just have to hope it was enough for them.

The professor pulled out his scroll and checked the time. It was late, nearly midnight. The airships had stopped running hours ago, and would not begin making trips until early the following morning. The professor himself had only been able to reach the police station by way private transportation. Something many of the students, including the courier, lacked.

Which to the professor, indicated that the young man was in the city yet.

A part of him could only marvel: where could he be now, and what else had he done?

…

Things hadn't gone as planned.

Correction, they'd been an utter shit-show.

I'd been following a lead I'd picked up from a previous stash-house. Regarding a place the Fang had on the outskirts of the residential district. At first glance it had seemed like some sort of warehouse or garage. A bit of snooping around the outside, had informed me it was actually a cab depot. An abandoned one at any rate. Most of the windows were boarded up, despite light slipping through the cracks here and there. Should've been more obvious to outsiders that something funky was going on there, considering the place was supposedly shuttered.

From the lead I'd found, the Fang were planning to use the place as a staging ground. Indicators on the map made it seem like they were going to be making multiple individual attacks from it. If they could keep it fast enough, they probably could've carried out a majority of them before relocating.

The fact that they had the staging ground at all was reason enough for me to intervene.

But the problems started almost the moment I got there.

I'd been too slow and a vehicle, a delivery van by the look of it, had just left. Rolled out of the building right as I got there. Forcing me to choose whether or not to try and chase it down, or stay, and handle the White Fang that'd taken command of the building. Ensuring that, whatever plan they had, they could carry it out with only moderate intervention from the police.

My choice was a simple one.

I was doing all of this to keep the police focused, as much as track down the White Fang. Even barring the people that'd get hurt if they succeeded, they'd keep the police tied up if I didn't get in the way.

I wound up failing.

My aura made me faster, and I could rely good enough on my endurance to keep me pushing. But I'm still human. I wasn't outrunning a car.

The White Fang wound up getting the authorities' attention not long after they broke into the Residential district. The more up-scale portion of the place too, not the middle and lower class area predominating the district. Didn't see where they'd picked up the police's attention, but it was easy enough to follow them after that. Just listen for the siren.

Then, after that, the gunfire.

I had a rough idea of the route the Fang were going to be taking. It wasn't perfect recollection, and there's a difference between seeing something on a map, and traversing the real thing. The only advantage I had over the Fang and Police was I didn't have to keep to the roads.

Once it became clear I was wasting time on the chase, I stopped following them too.

I cut my way across the rooftops to further down the line. The Fang seemed more interested in shooting at the police than driving, probably hoping to spread more Chaos, I guess.

I set-up along a straight-away, gave myself the best chance to line up a shot and be ready for a follow-up. When they came into view, I lobbed a flare right into the windshield.

Frankly, I hadn't been expecting it to work as well as it had. Though it probably helped that the cops had taken it upon themselves to try and ram the Fang off the road at the same time. The Fang wound up crashing, and tried to stand their ground after pulling themselves from the wreck. It'd been a six on two fight at the time, even if the guy in the driver's seat wasn't making any moves to get out of the car. The Fang kept the cops pinned down with rifle fire, but the crash had shaken them, I could see it. Things had started going sideways, for them and they knew that sticking around was a bad idea.

Which they figured out even more, when I lobbed a flash round into the mix.

The burst of light and sound stunned them, scared them. Opened a window into the firefight that, had the situation been different, would've been perfect for me to slip into. Instead, as soon as the fang recovered, they bolted for the nearest alley.

Which happened to be on my side of the street.

After that, it was easy enough to keep on them. They were running panicked and scared through the streets. They had guns, which complicated things, and was a bad combo with scared criminals. But I kept the pressure on them. Every time there was a crack, I hit hard and fast. Took out the first guy less than half a block away from the crash site. Came down on them from above and stole one of their weapons from them. Literally hit a guy with it so hard it went to pieces on impact. Startled the crap out of the rest of them. They took potshots at me as I returned to cover, but kept trying to escape. They had their priorities in line, despite everything.

I broke those priorities over my knee like kindling.

Took out the second guy with my cattle prod. Sent enough voltage through him to light-up Vegas neon. Immediately after, I took back to the rooftops. Having another of their guys taken out finally broke them, and the Fang started running blind.

Which was one of the more grievous failures of the night.

I'd pushed them too hard, and now they were jumping at shadows, opening fire at the drop of a hat. Bullets crashing into just about everything and anything. Mostly the various houses around us. Most of them were stone and masonry in one way or another. But that didn't mean someone wasn't going to get hurt. They weren't being discriminatory at that point, they were just mag-dumping into anything that was potentially a threat.

Right up until they got themselves a hostage.

The Fang tried to cut their way through a back lot, and stumbled across a party. I don't know how the fuck those people didn't notice all the gunfire. They had music on loud at the time, but gunfire tends to stand out. There'd been a good handful of people outside at the time, but they scattered the instant the Fang came crashing through the gate.

Except one of them. A younger girl, had to have been around Ruby's age. She got tripped up because of how close she'd been when they came calling.

I wasn't sure what to do. Hostage situations were tricky, even in the wasteland. In the best case, you can get your shots off first, kill the hostage takers before things escalate.

That wasn't an option this time.

There was three of them, all armed, and a hostage. I'd rattled them to the point that trigger discipline was basically nonexistent. One wrong move, someone was going to die. I had no quick and efficient way to take all of them out that didn't involve taking the chance of them shooting the girl. If I fucked it up, an innocent bystander was going to wind up dead because of preexisting failures.

I had no choice but to gamble.

I popped a flash round into the group of them, and started with the one that'd taken the girl hostage. I went in hard on him. Broke his arm in at least three places. The other two started firing blindly, bullets splattering against the house behind me. Glass shattered, screams echoed. Didn't know if someone'd been hurt.

I made them regret it.

I went harder on those three than I should have. It wasn't going to send a message to anyone, I was just angry, they'd given me an excuse to take it out on them. Didn't make it right.

Especially considering someone was watching.

When I finally stopped wailing on them, went to check on their former hostage, she was terrified of me. Not like I needed her to like me or anything, but it still stung. The whole situation did.

What made it worse, was that right then, right when they couldn't do jack-shit to help anymore, the police arrived. Which left me looking worse for it. I didn't bother to stick around so they could arrest me. Not when there were pressing issues elsewhere. Couldn't count on them to help me. Bastard even shot me in the back as I was running. Stung like hell, busted my aura too. But my armor is still worth something, so it didn't do much besides hurt. I didn't mind it. I had worse problems to deal with, and it just gave me more reason to be angry.

I had plenty more Fang to take it out on.

As they were about to discover.

I kicked open the door to the depot, shotgun drawn. I opened VATs, allowed myself a quick survey of the interior

It was an old building, cracked concrete and oil stains scattered and stretched across the floor like cobwebs. Poorly maintained equipment dotted the space of what I had to assume was a vehicle bay or garage. Caked with grease and grime as though it had never once been cleaned. Likely it never was. Parts and pieces lay scattered across disheveled toolboxes and makeshift tables. Cut and hacked to fit and shape. Portable lamps provide soft light where needed. There was a second van, raised up onto a lift, guts of the machine hanging out the bottom. Hand tools- wrenches, torches, grinders, and the like were littered about the place.

Interspersed evenly with five other White Fang.

All caught in startled, frozen stances. Starting to turn towards the door I'd kicked in.

Two by the Van.

Two staring at a bench with extra illumination, holding what I guessed to be documents.

One carrying a box of something, it looked like scrap, towards the two near the van.

All caught off guard.

All unarmed.

Ironic.

VATs closed, and reality sped back into motion. The White Fang began turning towards me, towards the door I'd just kicked in. Towards the shotgun I leveled at them.

I pulled the trigger, and the blast echoed through the depot. A magnum shell's worth of buckshot flew through the air, colliding with the Fang standing still with the box. It connected with his shoulder, wrenching him sideways, scattering the scrap across the floor. I cycled the action as I closed the distance, coming at him hard and fast. Couldn't give him a chance to recover. Before he even had a chance to turn towards me, I swung my shotgun around. Smashing the handle of it into the spot where his temple would've roughly been, under the hood and mask. His head wrenched aside with a howl, and I shoulder checked him, pushing him off balance. He hit the floor and started scrambling backwards.

I leveled the shotgun and blasted him at point blank.

He laid back, and stopped fighting.

The other four began scrambling into motion. The two near the van scrambling out from under the lift. The two near the document table began scrambling at the surface of it, either hastily trying to hide something or searching for it.

"What the Fuck!?" One of the Fang nearest the table barked

For no particular reason beyond hating it when people curse at me, I shifted focus to him.

I cycled the lever quickly, loosing another pair of magnums at my curser and his study mate. My curser wasn't lucky enough to avoid getting hit, toppling beneath the table, but his mate was. I immediately whipped back towards the two dumbasses near the Van, and fired my last shell. The Two Fang dove out of the way, but I hadn't aimed for them. I took half a moment to aim for the hydraulics of the lift.

Shot nicked the hydraulic line, pissing fluid everywhere and the Van crashed to the floor. Its horn blaring in the confined spaces of the depot. Annoying for me, debilitating for them.

I hadn't thought about that at the time, but it worked to my advantage.

Flipping the shotgun back over my shoulder, I bolted for the documents table. Dodging around assorted torches and tooling. The two Fang were crouched beneath it, hands clasped over their ears, animal or otherwise, in a bid to dampen the sudden assault. It left them unaware, made my job easier.

I grabbed the nearest one, a flourish of spots running up and down their arms, by the scruff of their neck. I hauled them to their feet, then slammed their face into the edge of the workbench. Then reeled them back and did it again for good measure. I then released them, and chopped a fist down onto the back of their neck, sending them back to the floor in a collapsed heap.

"Shit- SHIT!" The second shouted, a leathery eared individual, as he scrambled backwards on the floor.

I drew That Gun and fired from the hip, a pair of shots cracking off. Nailing the Fang right between the eyes. Anywhere but here, more than enough to kill a man. All it did to him was knock him onto his back, head snapping against the floor.

The distance closed between us in a single bound, and I planted my boot into his face. Full bodyweight behind it. Immediately, he joined his friend in painful slumber.

There was a clatter of metal behind me, and I immediately whipped to face it, gun raised.

One of the other two white Fang, back weighed down by some form of shell, was fumbling with one of the toolboxes. Digging through the upper drawers for something. As his hands began to rise, I saw the squared off angles of a pistol slide. Their hand wrapped over it, racking it backwards.

VATs opened and closed in a blink.

A shot cracked off from my own pistol.

Sparks erupted from the White Fang's pistol. Lead spatter caught their fingers, their off-hand jerked off the slide, and the pistol escaped their grasp. Flying behind them as they stumbled to try and grab it. I took aim as they fumbled, placed my last two shots at their head. The first catching them on the jaw, the second at the corner of their eye, snapping their head back and staggering them.

I rushed towards them, giving them as little time to recover as possible. By the time they recovered, the only thing they got to see coming was my fist. It crashed into their nose, and staggered them again. They blindly swiped their arm at me, clearly panicked and desperate to keep me back. I caught their swing on my pip-boy and pushed in, striking them in the throat. They let out a raking growl, common reaction to a throat strike, and their hand flew instinctually to their neck. As my own arm retracted from the strike, my other snapped out, whipping them in the face with the butt of my pistol. As they staggered, my off-hand shot back out, finding space in the hollow of their stomach. The Fang doubled over, and I prepared to finish them, arms rising up and together as my knee moved into position beneath their head.

Then there was feral scream, and a bolt of pain shot through my right shoulder.

The other remaining Fang, a woman, by the shape of her, with spots on her arms had found her courage. She charged in to help their friend, took a swing at me with a large wrench. She'd managed to get a lucky strike in. But that's all it was, luck.

After the first swing, now that I knew she was there, her follow-ups missed. The first attempting to strike my shoulder again, only to slide off as I twisted to one side. The second flew into the airspace of my head, which ducked low, before crashing into hers. The Second Fang reeled back and my off hand lashed out in a push, driving her back as my other hand threw That Gun back into its holster. I quickly replaced it with my cattle prod, Voltage cranked to maximum output.

The first Fang began to regain their bearings, but I couldn't have that. Close as I was then, I slammed into the toolbox they'd been rifling through, toppling the heavy steel box onto them. Another metallic crash filled the already horn filled air, followed by pained curses from the trapped Fang. They promptly began trying to free themselves, as I turned back to their still mobile friend. She'd regained her composure and stared back and forth between me and her friend for a moment. Her visible mouth creased in apprehension and fear.

Then she bared her teeth in a less than frightening snarl and came howling at me. Wrench raised and ready to strike.

I parried the wrench as it came down. The tool flew out of her hand, clattering off into the darkness of the irritatingly loud garage. The opening it left let me thrust my 'Prod forward, and the electrode contacted her chest. Her howl turned shrill, and she lost her momentum. Her knees began to buckle backwards, and I helped them along. I pushed her backwards and down, so that she collapsed onto her knees. When she hit them, I drew back my 'prod, and swung my leg out in a forward kick, catching her under the chin. She fell to her back, and I kicked her in the stomach for good measure.

'Then, there was one.'

I took a moment to breathe after that. The marathon I'd had to run trying to keep up with the Fang in the first place had already taken a bit out of me. After the run back, my arms and legs felt like lead weights. I was almost surprised at how sharp my aim still was. Wasn't sure whether to thank my aura for that or not.

After breathing, I turned back towards the last remaining white Fang, still cursing and trying to lever the toolbox off them. They'd begun to get somewhere, I could see the container beginning to angle upward. It must've been heavy, all the tools in it, plus the drawers and general size of it. It probably weighed a couple hundred pounds, easy. Something they'd probably be having no trouble with if I'd given them the chance to prepare for it. But, fair play wasn't a thing for fighting.

These bastards had hurt people tonight.

They didn't deserve 'fair'.

My boot planted itself on their chest. Instantly slamming them and the toolbox back to the floor. They could count their blessings. I could've gone for the throat.

The Fang struggled for a few more seconds, before apparently realizing the situation for what it was. They were pinned in place and not going anywhere. At the mercy of whatever psycho was currently holding them. Their head swiveled towards me, and I could see them pale almost instantly. Whether that was out of fear, or blood-loss I wasn't sure. For all I knew, they'd hurt themselves trying to lift the toolbox.

I leaned in close. The ever-blaring horn from the van starting to grate on my nerves and make my ears ring. "Fuck YOU."

My fist slammed into his head, causing it to rebound off the concrete floor. I repeated the motion twice more, for good measure. Once it was clear they weren't going to be getting back up, I took my foot off of them, and proceeded to the van. As I walked, I returned my 'prod to my side, and began calmly reloading my ammo. When I reached the van, I used Blood Nap to jimmy the food open. I knew enough about mechanics back in the Mojave to fix up a motorcycle. With tutelage and guidance from Raul, could probably do more. But I knew fuck-all about how engines worked on Remnant. But I didn't need to, really, I just needed to know what wires to cut.

There were a few connecting to what appeared to be some form of electrical cell, so I went with that. Snipping one while being careful to not contact the other terminal.

When the horn finally cut out, it was to the eternal joy of my ringing ears. It didn't have much else to be happy about that night, so I'd take solace in what I could. End of it all, I'd failed. People had gotten hurt, and the White Fang had narrowly succeeded in dragging the police into their shenanigans. Even having failed, the police would still be somewhat tied up with the havoc they had wreaked. If I'd been a little faster, I could've stopped the whole thing in its tracks. Burned the depot down before any of them could get rolling. What success I'd had was ultimately cold comfort.

I was going to need to find something to warm it back up.

I left the van, and walked back to the opposite end of the room. Being mindful not to trip over the Fang as I went, no sense in letting them get one over one me, now that the fighting was done. Though I did nearly slip on the hydraulic fluid that'd been puked everywhere. That would've been embarrassing.

I nudged the ones laying in front of the bench aside, and grabbed one of the lamps to keep it well lit. As I'd guessed, the table was covered with documents, strewn about haphazardly. Dossiers, ledgers, books, and a map, crinkled and dangling haphazardly halfway off the edge of the bench. I wasn't sure what among it was going to be useful, so I took a few moments to thumb through some of it. Most of it turned out not to be. Resources allocations, past jobs, requisitions, data of things that'd been done, but none an indicator of what it lead to. But I knew, once we had enough of it, there'd be a thread we could yank on. Somewhere amongst all the words and numbers, something was going to stand out. When it did, we'd be able to do more than run from derelict buildings to seedy bars and back alleys.

I'd be able to do more than just assault a bunch of criminals after the crime was done.

'…Fucking worthless.'

As I began to pack the papers away for later, something caught my eye. Most of the folders present were smeared with grease, and starting to get worn out. The one I was looking at however, was fresh, something new. There were a few minor smears and smudges on it, but by comparison, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Judging from where it was sitting, it must've been what the two Fang I was now looming over had been looking at. I slipped a thumb under the cover and flipped it open.

Inside the folder were a few sheets of paper, a map, and some photos. The map was of Vale, obviously, but with specific locations marked on it. Most of them seemed to edge themselves between the commercial and upper-end residential districts. Marked by numbers that, with a cursory glance, I could match up to the other sheets in the folder. Most of them seemed to be lodgings of some kind, hotels, apartment complexes, and a particularly up-scale hotel marked Webbman's Continental. Odd that was special enough to be marked on its own, odder still that it seemed to have already been scratched out.

It did not sit well, either, as I began to look at the pictures.

People.

Families, specifically.

Each picture was paper clipped or dog-eared to a corresponding slip of paper. Detailing the families in some way, names, numbers, birthdays, origins, and where they were currently staying in Vale. Most of the families were prominent ones, either locals here in Vale, or having travel in from elsewhere to attend the upcoming festival.

It was a hit-list.

I felt a chill run through my blood as I began flipping feverishly through the papers. It was scary how much information they had on most of them. Either they'd been looking to bump these people off for a while, or had very good informants. Both was the easier answer, but it didn't really matter either way. Judging from the look of papers, I had to guess the orders were still fresh. If they'd started killing the old-money of the world, I get the feeling I'd have been hearing more about it. Things like that don't have a tendency to stay quiet, and the White Fang would relish claiming responsibility.

I began scrutinizing the papers more thoroughly. The White Fang weren't strangers to giving orders out via Scroll, but they had chosen to give out physical copies this time. That seemed sloppy, and didn't sit right, but they'd made simple mistakes in the past. Nothing was outside the realm of possibility.

As my eyes scrawled down the document, I unfortunately found what I was looking for.

A time, and a place.

Tonight, and a marketplace a few blocks over.

It would be happening any minute.

"… Fucking son of a bitch!" I growled

Tonight had been a bust, but it was still young.

Things could always get worse.

I crammed the packet of papers into my coat, and bolted for the door. Pausing only momentarily to look forlornly towards the van. A part of me wished I knew how to drive. The other part of me knew that, even if I did, I'd probably get stopped by the police.

At least twice now, I could've gotten myself a set of wheels.

I missed my motorcycle.

My head shook, and I made for the door. People were dead if I didn't move.

I needed to turn tonight around.

...

The sunlight felt good as I was working. It helped with how sore I'd been recently. All the running around I'd had to do the past few nights was starting to wear me down. Bad enough my sleep schedule had been pared down as much as it had been, if it started keeping me from other work then it'd be bad. Things had been ramping up in Vale, and trying to keep up with it was getting to be a little rough. Nothing I couldn't handle, but I could feel it starting to chip away at me.

Normally I'd relay what I'd found the previous night to my teammates after work was done. But this time, they'd found their way to me. Ruby and Yang chose to come meet me outside after class, before I'd had a chance to nap or finish my work for professor Peach. I'd even entertained the notion that they might be kind enough to actually help me, rather than just leave me to tend to everything by myself.

Shortly after we began however, their real goal came to light.

"The answer's no." I said, as I stepped the blade of the shovel into the mulch with my boot.

"Six~" Ruby whined.

"None of your whinging either." I said, tossing my shovel-full of mulch into the wheelbarrow. I then stabbed the blade of it into the mulch and started to wheel the material away.

"But Six-" Ruby continued, hounding me like an angry puppy "You can't cover everything on your own."

"Watch me." I shot back.

"We have been." Yang said "It's not looking any better either."

A fair assessment, frankly. Every night I went out and came back, even with the progress I was making, most of what I told them wasn't good. Even if I was preventing some trouble, the White Fang were still making inroads. I was doing a lot, but it wasn't enough for a complete stop.

Which led to this conversation.

"The plan stays as we set it." I told them "I can handle doing this on my own, you girls just need to have the information straight and be ready to go. When the time comes, you'll be doing plenty of fighting."

"But we can help!" Ruby argued "If you would just let us come with you at night, even one of us, we could make everything go faster."

"Or tip off the White Fang that a larger force than what they might already think is working against them." I countered "They already know about the police, and I think they're starting to gather that I'm actively working against them. Once they realize the kinds of numbers they actually dealing with, it'll become even more of an uphill battle, because then they know they're only up against four teenage girls and a former mailman."

"You know we can handle ourselves in a fight." Yang said "We'd be fine."

"That's not the point I was making." I told her "It's not a quality issue at that point but a quantity one. Once they know there's only five of us then, at most, they only need to set up five different things to keep us busy. Once we're all preoccupied, they can go about their business unimpeded."

"And that's somehow better when there's only one of us?" Ruby asked, doing math with her hands "That would just make it easier for them."

"Not when they haven't figured out our numbers." I said "They may know that someone is giving them grief. That have no way of knowing that it's just one person specifically. Having that bit of mystery on our side is invaluable under the right circumstances. Especially when the time comes to actually have you girls involved."

"Well…" Ruby said, trying to build to a point, before deflating "I still don't like it."

"I didn't say you have to like it either." I told her "I know it's unfair, and I know you want to help, but you have to trust me here. When the time comes, you girls are going be invaluable."

"Tell that to Blake." Yang said "She hasn't been looking so good recently."

"I'm aware of that, believe me, I see her most mornings." I agreed.

Blake… hadn't been taking my nightly outings well. Not because I was attacking the White Fang, no, that ship had sailed. I had to guess it was more that, much like Yang and Ruby had argued, I'd forced her to the bench. This whole situation had to do with her wanting to do something about the White Fang. Whether that was to soothe her own guilty conscience or not didn't matter. Being told to sit back and be patient wasn't easy, and I could tell it was eating away at her. It was no small miracle she hadn't done anything stupid yet, but I had to hope it was in effort to avoid a repeat of recent events.

Instead, Blake had taken to another popular form of torture: insomnia.

Every morning I'd comeback for the past week or so, Blake was still wide awake. A small reading light pointed over a book in her hands, and several cups of coffee not far out of reach. Just judging by the books' varying covers, a rarely effective method, they weren't her preferred form of literature either. I had to imagine their contents were tangentially related to our situation. When she wasn't reading, she was pouring over the documents I'd brought back, or studying the map. Putting every ounce of energy she had into trying to figure out just what was happening.

Hell, I'd go to sleep and she'd still be awake when I woke up two hours later.

Girl was burning the candle at both ends, and not being wary of it either. But that was going to need to be a problem addressed at a different time.

Today was going to be something a bit more personal.

Having reached the designated spot, I tipped over the wheelbarrow and dumped its contents onto the ground. Leaving it for the actual club members to use when they finally showed up. What they did with it wasn't my concern, I was just the mule in this case. After dumping the mulch, I walked the wheelbarrow back to the shed, tailed by my two shadows, and locked it up. It was about two or three in the afternoon. Normally, this would be about the point where I wrapped things up with Peach for the day and went to go take my nap. But today was going to be different, there was something more important happening. Something I'd been waiting weeks for.

Harvest day.

My first round of Mutfruit were finally going to be ripe enough to harvest and eat. Which had me rushing to get the work done so I could actually focus on what was more important. To me, at any rate. Though I wouldn't have been surprised if Peach was interested in an entirely alien species of fruit.

I started towards my own garden, not minding that Ruby and Yang were following me at the moment.

"Where are you going now?" Ruby asked, still attempting to act as my shadow.

"To pick fruits and vegetables. My garden should be ready now." I explained.

"You mean that place where we had the campfire?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, most of the stuff should be ripe by now." I explained "About time too, that means you girls might be the first ones to taste the newest flavor sensations to grace this world. If I'm feeling so kind as to share, anyway."

"You sure it'll be safe to eat?" Ruby asked.

"Safe?... probably." I shrugged "New food, new allergies, never really know until you try them… but should be safe otherwise."

"Oh… yaaay." Ruby said, sounding less than enthusiastic.

It took a minute or two to pace our way through the grounds to the back corner I'd carved off for myself. Away from the prying eyes of students and staff alike. It wasn't their business if I unleashed a hardy strain of mutant fruit upon the world. They'd be grateful it wasn't something as vicious as what was in Vault 22 or Big MT. Most wasteland flora could grow in even the worst conditions, and could solve hunger as long as you had sunlight and water. Which you could also say about the flora from Vault 22 and Big MT. For different reasons.

As we walked into the garden, however, I found that my privacy was being challenged.

I had an uninvited guest in my garden.

Standing among the ringed back lot of trees and foliage, was a man. He was tall, well-built too. Smaller than the likes of Yatsuhashi and Junior, or Lanius for that matter. But that just meant he was normal tall, not a giant. I put him as being about half a head taller than Yang, so just over Six foot, roughly my current height. He was built lean, but strong. Callisthenic muscles, again much like Yang's. His skin was faire but tanned, carrying an earthy hue. The kind acquired by someone who spent a good amount of time outside. His hair was a short, sandy blonde, with a small curl sticking out of the top. He wore knee length orange shorts, along with a light, tan button-up and a small brown vest. The boots on his feet were dirty and scuffed, but sturdy. A metal spaulder rested on one of his shoulders, and a long leather glove-gauntlet that ran up the same arm, covering his forearm. Between the two, a tattoo whose shape I couldn't immediately discern.

He wasn't any teacher I recognized.

As we stepped into the garden, I slowed down. The stranger had not yet realized we were present, and I wanted a moment to gauge them before approaching.

The man, whoever he was, had a hand on one of my mesquite plants. He appeared to be gently examining the lea-

"Dad?" Ruby asked.

The perked slightly, then turned to look in our direction. His nose was long and straight, between warm blue eyes and below a soft brow. He had a strong jaw that lead to a rounded chin, dusted in a light fuzz, a small patch of blond beneath his lower lip. His mouth was wide and, with the knitting of his brow, set in a startled frown.

The man looked our direction briefly, his eyes darting over me briefly, before shifting to the girls trailing behind me. As he settled on them, his eyes lit with unbridled warmth, and his mouth bowed into a smile that could melt permafrost.

"Hey girls." The man said, starting towards us.

"Dad!" Ruby said as she darted forward, followed closely by her elder sister.

'Dad?'

My two teammates ran up to the man, who promptly scooped the both of them into a bear hug. He squeezed them hard, and I could tell they were reciprocating. They stayed like that for several silent moments. It probably wasn't strange for them, but it felt awkward to me, considering I was the one just standing there watching them.

After a few moments more, the three of them released each other and the man, their father, spoke. "It's so good to see you girls, I was going to come find you, but wanted to stop here first."

"It's good to see you too dad." Yang said, a smile that matched her fathers on her face "What're you doing here?"

"What, a guy can't come visit his daughters unannounced?" Their father asked.

"You could've at least told us you were coming." Ruby pouted "We haven't seen you in weeks, we could've had lunch or something."

"Who said we weren't going t-…" Their father stopped mid-stream, as his gaze drifted away from his daughters. It found its way back towards me, and furrowed in confusion "… Who's he?"

"Uh, hi." I said, giving a wave "Don't mind me, just the mailman."

"That's Six, he's one of our teammates." Ruby said "I told you about him in the letters I sent home, along with Blake and Weiss, remember?"

"That so?" Their father said, his gaze narrowing "You didn't mention he was a guy."

"O-Oh, right." Ruby stuttered, face reddening "U-umm…"

"Surprise?" Yang offered, handling the situation far better than her sister.

"Hrm…" their father grunted. He gave them both a small smile, before slipping past them and approaching me, expression narrowing again. "So, you're the odd one."

"Odd one?" I asked "I think you've got me mistaken with someone else. Compared to most I'm actually quite normal."

"Most teams only have four people. But you're the fifth on their team." The man said "I'd say that makes you a little odd."

I shrugged "Well, if you want to get technical, I suppose that would make me a little stra- wait a minute."

The smile returned to the man's face again, this time with an amused edge to it. "Well, you at least seem to pay attention, which counts for something."

"Oy." I groused.

The man smirked at me in a fashion that reminded me all too much of Yang. He reached a hand out to me. "Taiyang."

"…" I took a moment, then traded grips with him "Six, a pleasure, sir. I can see where Yang gets her sense of humor."

His gaze sharpened again, in what I'm sure was supposed to be an intimidating fashion. "And that means?"

"That Yang's puns make most wish their days were numbered." I answered honestly.

Taiyang's eyebrow quirked at me, before giving me a good-natured smirk, nodding. "Not bad."

"Thank you, I have less control over it than I like." I said.

"I'd give it a six outta ten." Yang broke in, smiling.

"Boo." I intoned.

"What, it's not the worse five ever heard." Yang said.

"Can we please change the topic?" I asked "I didn't mean to start this."

"What four?" Taiyang asked back, smirking "Can't handle the heat?"

"No, but puns make me want to slam my head into a three." I said, motioning to the nearest tree. It took me a moment to realize what I'd done after the fact.

"Six, c'mon~" Ruby whined "Don't encourage them."

"He wasn't trying two." Taiyang said, playfully ruffling his youngest daughter's hair, eliciting an embarrassed whine from her.

"Yeah, he's got no chance of winning this one." Yang said.

"…" I pinched the bridge of my mask "Ok, I yield, satisfied?"

"Nope." Yang said, still smirking.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Ruby asked again, having come up with a better answer "You didn't say you were coming."

"Was I supposed to announce myself?" Taiyang asked.

"This is a private academy, which likely would have security keeping random people from walking in off the street so… yes?" I said, trying to follow Taiyang's logic.

"I'm an alum, comes with a few perks." Taiyang answered, before wrapping an arm around either of his daughter, hugging them again "Like visiting the two most wonderful girls in the world, who couldn't bother to pay their old man a visit over vacation."

Ruby and Yang blanched.

"We-um… kinda got into trouble." Ruby said.

"Oh, don't worry, I know." Taiyang said, smiling "Professor Goodwitch gave me a call the morning after what you did at the docks."

"And you're not mad?" Ruby asked hopefully..

"Oh no, I was livid." Taiyang answered, not losing his smile "But I was happier the two of you and your teammates came out in one piece."

"Oh…" Ruby hugged her dad a little tighter.

I let them have their moment and took the chance to move past them. Try to focus on my plants. The honey mesquite pods were ripe for the picking, so I began plucking them by the fistful. Roasted, they'd make a nice addition to my morning coffee.

"You sure you should be picking those, kid?" Taiyang asked, still hugging his daughters.

"I planted and tended them, so I'll do what I want with them." I shot back.

"Oh…" Taiyang paused for a moment, then nodded "Carry on then."

"… Actually, quick question, sir:-" I said, continuing to harvest "How'd you find this place, most students don't know about it."

"I know, who do you think planted it?" Taiyang asked, slowly releasing his daughters "I'm surprised the place has held up as well as it has."

"You're welcome for that, it was a bit overrun before I started." I said "Spent a good couple of days after I found this place just clearing out the weeds and brush. Made planting my own stuff easier."

"I was wondering where this stuff had come from." Taiyang said, walking up to the mesquite tree "I know how to hoe a row, but I don't think I've ever seen some of these plants before."

"They're not native to the area, no." I said, hedging the truth "Brought them with me when I came to Beacon, planted the seeds hoping I'd get the taste of home while I was here."

Taiyang nodded "Well, don't think there's anything wrong with that... What're those orange flowers over there?"

"Broc flowers." I answered "Good for medicines, remedies, and teas."

Taiyang hummed in acknowledgement, then looked around the rest of the garden. Whatever wasn't taken up by pre-existing flower beds and trees, I'd crammed in whatever seeds and vegetation I could. There were plenty of things that were going to take years to mature to their most efficient. But wasteland crops were hardy, and most mutated or evolved to produce fruit, and seeds, as quickly as possible. Even if I wouldn't be getting anything in large numbers, something was better than nothing, and they'd produce all season long.

"Looks like you're growing corn over there." Taiyang noted, looking towards my maize. He then looked over towards the mesquite bush I was currently harvesting. "You sure doing this won't cause any problems?"

"For the most part, no." I said, plucking a handful of the beans off the vine. Rather than store them away though, I decided to do something nice. I held the beans out to Taiyang. "Care to try some?"

"…" Taiyang looked at the beans for a moment, cautiously, then back to me. "You know you have to cook beans before you eat them, right? They're poisonous."

"Not these ones sir." I said "They'll only make you sick if you eat too many, and that's a fiber issue not a poison one."

"I dunno, common sense says otherwise." Taiyang said, eyeing me warily.

"Well, common sense isn't always right." I said, know damn well that was a very slim margin for error. "Trust me, I've eaten bushels of these things raw. They're pretty tasty, nice and sweet too. Kinda tastes like candy."

"What kind, a chocolate covered laxative?" Taiyang asked.

"Oy, don't be rude, you want to try it or not?" I asked again "You've got an aura, don't you? What's a little food poisoning?"

"Clearly you've never had Mistrailli sashimi turn on you in the middle of a long drive." Taiyang said, before finally growing a pair and taking the beans from me. Holding the pods in his hand, he slid one into his mouth and started chewing. He seemed confused by it at first. But as he ate, his expression lit up, his chewing grew slower and more thoughtful. He swallowed, and spoke. "… It's… It's like a green bean… but it's sweet." Taiyang turned towards his youngest daughter with a smirk on his face "I think I finally found a vegetable you'd eat without complaining."

"Dad~" Ruby whined.

"Share with her, she might actually like it." I said, finishing the first shrub of mesquite pods.

As I started to move onto the next shrub, I heard rustling in the tree above me, and looked up to the branches.

Resting on the branches was a small dog, staring down at me with a doggy grin. It wasn't any type of dog I was familiar with either, I could've almost mistaken it for a rodent of some kind. About the same size as any of the giant rats you'd see running around Freeside. It was small, pudgy, with short and stumpy legs. Most of its body was covered in coarse black or light brown fur, save for its white belly and legs. Its beady brown eyes looked down on me with mischief and excitement.

I froze, trying to puzzle out how they'd even gotten up there in the first place. "What the fu-"

The dog fell out of the tree, crashing into my face. I fell back, landing rough and loosing grip on some of my mesquite. As I lay there, the dog bounced off of my face, and trotted happily over towards my teammates and their father.

"Zwei!" Ruby shouted, voice a peel of delight.

The little dog toddled up to her at a break-neck pace, bouncing around her feet and yipping happily.

"…" I looked to Taiyang in annoyance. "Why was your dog up in the tree?"

"He gets around." Taiyang shrugged.

"That's not an answer." I said, picking myself up out of the dirt.

As the small dog continued to yip and bound around Ruby, she bent down and snatched him up off the ground. The little dog wriggled in her arms for a moment, before settling against her, panting happily. Yang reached an arm out to the pup and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

"Ok, now I know something's up." Yang said, smirking to her dad "What gives?"

Taiyang sighed dramatically, still smirking at his eldest daughter "Fine, if you really need to know, I'm heading out of town on a job."

"Really?" Ruby asked, surprised.

Taiyang nodded "The Grimm have been more active recently; Council thinks it's due to the Vytal Festival. We can't seem to get enough people together to look into everything, so they're having the staff from Signal pitch in."

"You're going on a mission?" Ruby asked, visibly excited.

"You bet." Taiyang smiled "But it's nothing big. They've got me looking into some disappearances that happened outside Vale's borders. We're honestly not expecting to find much, but the request came through."

"What are the odds that it's not just Grimm?" I asked "White Fang have been active in Vale lately, there's always a chance."

Taiyang looked my way, then shrugged "There's always the chance. Some of the people that've already been looking into it seem to think the same thing. There's evidence people were involved, but their money is on bandits over White Fang. The attacks don't fit what people think the White Fang are up to."

"Alright, what do you think about it?" I asked.

"Personally? I have no idea." Taiyang answered "From what I've heard it doesn't really fit either one. Which is why I'm getting sent out to look into it." He then motioned to the pup in Ruby's arms. "Since I won't be around, I need someone to look after Zwei for me."

The dog, Zwei, yipped again, and leapt out of Ruby's arms. Completely unafraid of the fall despite his small stature. He landed harmlessly and bounded over to me on his stumpy legs. As he reached me, he leapt up onto his hind legs, planting his front paws onto my leg for balance. His stumpy tail beat the air aggressively as he gave me another, panting, doggy grin. Tongue lolled out the side of his mouth.

"…" I looked back to Taiyang "You know, asking for a favor after your dog just knocked me to the ground is a bit impertinent."

"Well, I wasn't going to ask you." Taiyang answered snidely, turning back to his daughters "I was going to send you girls a letter, but figured it'd be nice to get to spend a little while with you."

Ruby gasped, smiling "We can watch him, totally!"

"Oy, shouldn't you let Blake or Weiss know before you go agreeing to anything?" I asked "Giving everyone a warning would be the nice thing to do."

"Oh, they won't mind." Yang said "Zwei's a sweetheart, they'll warm up to him in no time."

"Again, he attacked me the moment I saw him." I said.

"He was just playing around, you're not actually hurt, are you?" Taiyang asked.

"Well, no, but he still jumped me. Shouldn't I get a say in this?" I asked back.

Ruby, Yang, and their father looked at me for a moment, before Ruby decided to actually ask. "Do you mind if he stays with us?"

"…" I looked down at the dog still leaning again me. The grin had left his muzzle, and his eyes had suddenly grown watery. He looked to me with puppy eyes, a pleading little whine elicited from him. "… I recognize coercion when I see it." I said, before reaching a hand to scratch him on the head "Damn you."

"That sounds like a yes." Ruby said "Three to two unaccounted for, he can stay!"

"Awesome, thanks girls." Taiyang said, smiling "I brought a bag with his food in it. There should be enough in it to last until I come back to get him. I don't know how long the job is going to be though."

"All good pop." Yang said "It'll be nice having Zwei around. Haven't seen him in forever."

Zwei yipped at that, before bouncing back off my leg. He balanced himself on his hind legs for a moment, then fell back onto me again. I moved the leg he was balancing on and let him fall back to earth. Immediately he began bouncing around me excitedly, before toddling back over to his family. He nuzzled up against Yang, who immediately knelt down and began fussing with him. A brilliant smile blossoming onto her face as she began squishing and molding the small dog's face between her hands. Little pup seemed to really enjoy it.

I'll admit, it was a nice scene, in the moment. A happy little family having a brief reunion.

"Well, this is nice… so, late lunch?" Taiyang asked.

"Sounds good, I skipped breakfast." Yang said.

"Well, I hope you three have fun then." I said, returning to the reason I was in my garden in the first place. "I've still got to handle this, and have a busy night ahead of me."

"We will, see you at dinner, Six." Ruby said "C'mon dad, we can tell you about what happened at the docks."

"Or Initiation, it was wild." Yang said.

"It always is." Taiyang chuckled "I remember doing it when I was your age."

"You could tell him about how you knocked me out and tied me to a chair while you're at it." I added snidely "That's a story I'm sure he'd love to hear."

"… Excuse me?" Taiyang asked.

I turned to look at him again, and found him staring at me in confusion. Ruby and Yang on the other hand looked like they'd both just stepped on a landmine and heard it go *click*.

If they thought I was going to let a moment like this pass, and had completely forgotten about that little incident, they were mistaken.

"Your daughters, along with others, invaded my privacy, knocked me unconscious, and tied me to a chair." I elaborated "While I let it go at the time due to extenuating reasons, I figured if they were going to be telling you all about these past few weeks, I wouldn't want them to overlook that one."

"…" Taiyang's face darkened slightly, before an unnerving tranquil smile found its way to his face. "That so?"

"Indeed." I said, sealing the deal.

Yang and Ruby, for no reason in particular, began sweating bullets. To be fair, it was hot out.

"I see, thank you for your candor." Taiyang said "I'll be happy to hear all about it." Taiyang turned, facing both of his daughters, putting a hand on either of their shoulders. "Girls, is there something you want to tell me?"

"Umm…" Ruby said, her eyes darted between her father and Yang "… We can explain?"

"Please do." Taiyang said "Because I think we need to have a… private conversation."

"Oh no." Yang said.

Without waiting a moment more, Taiyang turned his daughters around and began to walk them away. "Please take care of Zwei for me, Six." He said "It was a pleasure to meet you."

"No problem, he'll be safe as houses with me." I called back "And girls, don't fill up on cafeteria food, we're having roasted maize and Mesquite barbeque for dinner."

"Y-yea, thanks." Ruby said, as she and her sister were led away. Leaving me alone with the dog.

I looked down to Zwei, who had toddle his way back over. He was sitting politely beside me, looking at me with a doggy grin.

He sure was a happy dog.

"… You know, where I come from we eat dogs sometimes." I said, looking down at him "Especially the ones that attack us."

Zwei cocked his head sideways, but didn't lose his grin.

"We don't get too many like you though. Most of them are big, lanky. Not too much meat on 'em, save for a few steaks." I explained "… But a boy like you… well, you're small. Gotta have a bit of fat on you. Good life would mean you're tender. Make you a nice bit of stew, or a roast…"

I stopped harvesting my vegetables and turned towards Zwei. I hooked the small dog under the joints of his front legs and hoisted him up. Making sure I could look him square in the eye.

"How about it pup?" I asked "You sure you wanna stay for dinner?"

Zwei's head stayed cocked for a moment, eye contact unbroken. Completely fearless.

Then his tongue lashed out and licked my mask.

Either fearless, or really stupid.

"… *snrk*" I chuckled at the dog "Oh, I like you." I shifted him around so I could keep him rested in my off arm. He nestled in like it was the most natural thing for him. The little prince. "I think we're going to get along just fine."

…

When next I saw Ruby and Yang, I received a very formal and sincere apology.

---

You know, when I went back to sleep, I was hoping things would've calmed down when I woke up.

Nope. World's still on fire as of this writing. Somebody give Billy Joel a call, we need a sequel.

As usual, I do apologize for the delay, I had planned to get this out by last month at the latest, but re-writes and personal drama got in the way. Both have been sufficiently handled, for the moment. But, more on that later.

'Aren_Serathy': Honestly, never had them, though I know what they are. I'm not averse to trying them sometime either

'SelfishGecko': Glad you enjoyed, hope you found something to enjoy with this one as well :)

'Rio Skyron': Understandable, DMC is a stylish series, it never hurts to pull at least a few things from it. Weiss'll be fine, she just needs a pair of floaties.

'PoisonPen37': Well then, I apologize doubly so for this wait. Hopefully it was worth it in the end.

'Benixwolf': Here you go, with any luck, you found something funny here as well. :)

'Thepkrmgc': It's always a good show when someone's shown to be not so above it all. Helps show how human they are.

'PilotWithThreeStrikes': That moment you realize you could probably be one of the richest people in the world if you weren't such a spaz.

'PoofyOhio': As a wise man once said: If I have no idea what I'm doing, then surely no one else does as well.

'Spatialyeti8': Oh, I know all about 40k (not Fantasy though, that one eludes me a bit), so I get it. I suppose that RWBY's moral simplicity with everything is what makes it so attractive to these darker universes (A good example is Remnant Inferis by GamerJay). Being so rooted in its theming of classic fairytales, it makes for good mirroring and exploration, while also deconstructing both universe's approach to morally tenuous issues and circumstances.

'PaladinSans': ... I'll get back to you on that.

'Licklicklick123': Sadly, no, he didn't. There's a reason he didn't, that I'll address later, but I don't mind admitting that he didn't here. CFVY has a funny way of giving people energy, doesn't it?

'Guest': Fair enough.

'Bile_Rune-Tongue': I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often as well, copycat criminals are a thing. Granted, disguising yourself like a violent terrorist cell isn't the smartest move, but criminals are usually really stupid (clever, but often really stupid.). Hope this chapter finds you in good times. Skål!

'Greymane': Aye, only took, what, 55 chapters?

'Q': I think the concentration camp stuff only really started to ramp up in the years before the Great War, so I think I can understand why it was a sort-of slow burn- talking out both sides of your mouth situation. The jingoism didn't really become a major issue until all the issues began to boil over. Though the Russians became less of an issue in Fallout after the Chinese eclipsed them, which probably helped. A part of me can see why they were willing to do business with them, when they had bigger fish to fry. Though that excuses nothing, obviously.

'ENDDRAGON369': From what I gather they have a slightly bitter flavor to them. The spice might've been actual poison depending on what kind of ant they were, but considering the dosages you deal with from ant bites, it probably wouldn't have been anything worse than a little extra zing, Yeah.

'Mundanely-Atypical': You know, it always feels weird to read that People actually enjoy Six's character. I see so many people complaining about it, I forget there are those of you out-there who actually enjoy it. Thank you for the support, and apologies for the wait.

'Jknapper1998': Here's another, thank you for your patience.

'Firestar001': Good to hear, always a treat when you manage to inspire others, whether that's to take up old habits or try new things. :)

'Guest': That he would be, that he would be.

'Dragonkin4ever': Ninety percent of the time, yes. Though occasionally I slip into his voice being different for some reason, can't rightly remember who at the moment but it's someone chuckle worthy. Not that the image of Ben Tennyson running around getting the tar kicked out of him isn't worth a chuckle.

'Anoncorpse15267': Good to hear, hope this tickled your fancy as well.

'DuskenWillow': Well, there's an anachronism I wish I'd picked up on sooner. I'll at least give props to you for pointing it out, that's just not something I'd thought about at the time.

'Rider': Yes, they banned me from the library for it. ;)

'Buttermu': Thank you, hopefully the same can be said for future works.

'StemmedGolf5': A bit late, but here you are.

'GuestINF': That's a surprise, that line was a spur of the moment one. Glad to hear it at least got a chuckle out of you. :)

'Conquest_and_Death': Understandable, choosing to ignore your better judgement for the sake of something as dumb as alcohol is what would normally get a character killed. I think at the time I was just more focused on trying to make things happen rather than thinking about how the characters would more logically try and approach them. I've tried to get better about that, hopefully I have.

'Lord_Inquisitor_Richard': What will be of the wasteland shall be in its own time and no sooner, that's all I can say about that right now. I haven't played through Fallout New California, though I've got respect for the team behind it, projects of that size can be absolutely ridiculous and they did well. Sadly, due to planning reasons, I can't include them. I'm too far along in the stages to go back and change anything without overhauls and retcons, which no one appreciates, really. Had I'd known about it back at the start, much like the New Vegas Bounties, I probably could've found a way to work it in. As for the Bounties... well, there's a note below addressing them.

'Steven': Here you are, hope you enjoyed. :)

'RyanK00pa': That was actually one of the early drafts for this story, believe it or not. About the start of Vol. 2 I was going to have Ironwood mention during his conversation with Ozpin that a similar event to Six's arrival occurred out in the Vale countryside. Six's companions would eventually arrive and more shenanigans would ensue. This plan was scrapped, however, after talking with Mecharic. It came across as being a bit... sudden. There wasn't much to really foreshadow their arrival, and them chasing Six down to remnant would be hard to explain.

'Guest': F'real.

Alright, so, story time. A couple of people seem to have asked about whether or not I've included the New Vegas Bounties mod as part of the story's canon. By and large, I have chosen to not talk about it when the question comes up. Coinciding with that, my writing has slowed down significantly. It's been part of the ongoing trouble with this story for sometime.

Well, time to address that.

Yes, the Bounties are canon.

The first arc is also completely finished and the first chapter will be going up in a separate story in the coming week. I'll address mods 2 and 3 at a later date... maybe.

I wanted to get the whole thing finished before posting it, so that you wouldn't have to deal with the constant wait for one or the other. Or have to prioritize one over the other. I'll be leaving a poll on my account page to determine whether the chapters should be dropped all at once, or on a weekly basis. For those who would rather binge it up front, or enjoy the slow-burn. Took too long to handle it (two years, but who's counting?), but it's over now and that means I can bring my focus back to center and everything can go back to normal, right?

... Right?

Which brings us to the drama. Part of the reasons this story has slowed down as much as it has was because I was writing the Bounties in tandem with it. Writing two stories at once isn't easy, even one of them is lighter reading by comparison. But I was also trying to balance it with the responsibilities of working a job that I was totally ill-fit to be doing, but pressing forward because I needed the money. Juggling the three was a trial, and towards the end, I was starting to come a bit undone. The direction I'd found myself heading in wasn't one I was happy with, and knew things weren't going to end well if I didn't correct course.

Emphasis on was and were.

To spare everyone the details, suffice to say, I'm currently between jobs and looking to try and find my center again. After working the job I was for as long as I had been, only to realize how unhappy and unfulfilled it was going to leave me, I need to find my new direction, and think I know what it is. Being fulfilled isn't necessary for most work, it's all about the money at the end of the day. But in what I was doing, it was an important part of why it wasn't working out. I'll find other work in the meantime, eventually, but I can float for now. In the immediate, I want to focus on my own personal projects, original works. I've got some time to try and do something I haven't before, so I'm going to take my shot while I still can. With luck, it'll pan out.

Much to the annoyance of many, this story's not going anywhere yet. (Phrasing) It also isn't going to be experiencing a sudden resurgence in chapters either, sadly, as I need to put my focus on these other things. I can only promise that it won't slow down anymore than it already has. But my focus needs to be moved elsewhere. Believe me, in many ways I'm not happy about that either, as I can see how much people enjoy this story. But if I'm going to take this sort of thing seriously, I need to put forth the time and effort to make it a reality. At the very least, because I have more freedom in my schedule, I can make sure that the time alotted to working on DitW is more consistent and focused than it has been. Cold comfort, but it's better than nothing.

For those of you wondering why I don't open a P_treon or some similar crowdfunding website to seek donations, there's a couple reasons. Biggest of which is I don't like having to shill myself in the first place, I'm just not comfortable doing that (I only brought up that I'm working on original stuff as part of an explanation, nothing more). But pretty close to it, is that copyright law is almost ridiculously succinct when it comes to Fanfic. Rather than take the chance and risk getting myself in hot water, I maintain that I'm not going to pursue those things. (which is strange considering the rules are far less stringent when it comes to fanart.)

Also, because I doubt FFN would be happy with me shilling my own work on their website, I'm not going to include any further mention of it here, or where you can find it. As strange as that might seem, again, I'm just not going to take the chances. Besides which, most of you come here DitW in the first place, you don't need me to beg you to check out something you probably won't be interested in. It'll be out there for you to go find eventually, just knowing that you know is enough.

Regardless of how it all plays out, I thank all of you for your continued support. You're a wonderful crowd and I couldn't ask for better.

Well, I could, but that would be rude. ;)

Ok, time for me to go back to sleep before somebody decides to give me a thump over the head.

This Fanfic is brought to you by Cinna Cinemas: "Yes, we're aware of the name, no we are not going to change it to the Cinna-ma."

Adios.

-Ash