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The quarry was built against the rough edge of a towering cliff to one side, and the sheer, craggy drop of another leading to the ocean on another side. The height from behind was enough that any Grimm leaping down would die on impact, and the cliffs to the side were so high, sheer and ragged, he doubted even climbing experts would dare it. Or could make it if they did. The hundred yards or so of uneven, umpy ground between the two natural barriers was covered by a long, low wall maybe two feet taller than Jaune himself and half a foot thick, all made out of dull, grey concrete topped by barbed wire, split only by a handful of heavy, iron gates overlooked by a single watchtower each. All of which made for a pretty secure camp.

Aside from the bus-sized hole smashed into part of the long stretch of wall…

Inside, below the litany of climbing rigs, equipment and cutting tools that spanned the lower part of the cliff where the stone was extracted, long, rectangular gray buildings were stacked as high as could be in one corner. And landing pads for Bullheads and whatever else were dotted along the rest of the space, surrounded by fuel tanks, machines for weighing things that he'd seen in Ansel, and huge conveyors that would roll the heavy cargo up onto the pad to be loaded up. There was only one ship, though, parked at the pad closest to the long rectangles and swamped by dozens of workers.

Which was far too many for the ship to carry, and Jaune didn't need an expert to tell him that.

"We made it ahead of the Grimm?" He murmured, kneeling in the trees at the top of the ridge overlooking it all, his Minions chattering and shuffling excitedly behind him, scattered throughout the trees that ran all the way down to the rolling hills that led back to the Tower in the distance.

"Some of the daft workers tried to run." Gnarl explained to him, standing beside him. When Jaune turned to look at him, he frowned. "You already know what that means."

"Yeah." He sighed. They were dead - the Grimm ran them down, and that had bought the time he needed to get here in time to make a plan. "Damn it… How many did we lose?"

"Oh, who even knows?"

"Gnarl…"

"They did a dumb and died, Master, they aren't important now." Gnarl said, wincing when he growled lowly and turned to him. "What I mean is… They have given you the chance to be the hero you so very desperately want to be. And we should take full advantage of that, no?"

"You're right." He sighed, standing and turning, "Minions, prepare to-"

"Wait, Master!"

"What?" He turned, looking down on the Head Minion and then sighing and kneeling when he waved him down, into hiding. "What, Gnarl?"

"You want to be a hero, right?" He nodded and Gnarl smiled, wider and toothy and feral. "Well, part of that is saving the whiney little gits when they need it, yes. But you know the other part? The part that is almost just as important?"

"What other part?"

Gnarl smiled even wider, somehow, and gestured down at the quarry-camp, "Presentation, Master! To impress them all and lionize you in their eyes!"

"Gnarl…"

"Just think!" He rushed to press him, "How many stories have you heard? Epic tales of great warriors sweeping in at the last moment, saving the day and sweeping the snivelling, cowardly princess off her feet? Or prince! We're evil tyrants of darkness, not bigots, Master, so no judgement here!"

He rolled his eyes and frowned, thinking back. It was true all the best stories had the hero sweeping in to save the day at the last moment. 'The dawn after the dark' as his sister Saphron had always called it, usually when Terra was around to giggle at it. And that kind of appealed to him - first impressions were important, after all. And this would be the first impression anyone would ever get of the Overlord and his army.

He had to make it count, right?

"Okay." He finally sighed, "But no one dies. Got it?"

"That's somewhat hard to guarantee…"

"If you can't guarantee that," he grunted, "then we are going in now, Gnarl. Saving people is the priority, not some thoroughly planned way to make me look cool."

"Ah, but you do want to look cool, no?"

"Well, yeah, but…" He shook his head, "Don't duck the question, Gnarl."

"Then I advise you to come up with a plan that will work for this, Master." Gnarl sighed, rolling his eyes theatrically when Jaune cocked his head. "You are the Overlord, your Darkness. Not me. If you want something this specific, this difficult, then you can't rely on me, Shadow Lord. I am decent at warfare, but only the killy, straightforward version. Not this weird, strange one where you 'save people' and 'plan thoroughly'."

"Fine, fine…" He sighed, kneeling over the edge with a hand on one of the particularly large rocks while he looked everything over. His Minions would die if they tried to climb down, even if he could make the leap, but he knew they were alright at normal climbing. So he asked, "Think they can get over those walls even with the barbed wire?"

"The Minions you mean, Master?"

"Who else would I mean…?"

"The Grimm? " Gnarl shrugged, shaking his head wryly, "I can't bloody well read your mind, you know, and this is you considering a battle strategy. Ours aren't the only ones who would even be coming from that direction. Regardless… Most definitely, yes. Barbed wire isn't all that hard to manage, really, if you've half a brain. It's more useful a trick against dumb animals."

"Alright." Jaune nodded, "Then here's the plan…"

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"Everyone, please, you have to calm down!" Fiona pressed gently, standing on a low crate outside the little Atlesian air-shuttle Robyn had gotten her for what had been supposed to be a quick hop out to a quick job. Get in, calm the situation down until the pack wandered off or Robyn and the others could get there.

Instead…

"We have to get out of here!" One of the foremen screamed, pointing a long, thickly gloved finger at her and snarling. "You let the managers go! Why not us?"

"They had their own ships!" And hadn't asked, either - they'd taken off before she even realized what they were doing. "My Ascalade can only carry maybe ten people! There are dozens of you! A-And it doesn't even have defenses! As scared as you all are, we'd get swarmed anyways."

"Then protect us!" Another worker, an older woman with a mask over her face, screamed. The others agreed, pressing closer to her shuttle, demanding her keycards, her help, so much else. She saw one in the back heft one of their heavy stone breaking mattocks and grit her teeth, ready for what was coming-

Then, she heard the scream, "Grimm!"

She was moving before she realized it, rushing forward and pushing through to the front of the group, her Aura flushing through her familiarly as she did. Readying her for the fight. A fight she knew she'd lose, but a fight she'd fight anyways. She grabbed a hammer out of a worker's hands as she reached the edge of the group and shoved the worker back, turning to glare at the broken section of wall as a trio of Beowolves came through, sniffing and scratching at the ground. Tasting their scents.

Their fear…

"Back!" She ordered, taking the long handle in both hands. "Everyone with a hammer, or-or a pick, get ready!"

Most argued with her, or pleased or just screamed, but a few did as she said. It wouldn't matter, she knew, but at least they'd be able to drag a few of the Grimm down, too. There were eight of them now, fanning out just inside the hole, red eyes turning to appraise each other and chuffing lightly. 'Letting the fear steep', her father had always said. 'So it'd taste better'.

She'd wondered once or twice if that were literal or not…

"Guess I'm about to find out, now…" She murmured as the Grimm finally seemed satisfied by their terror and came for them, rushing headlong, their sharp claws ripping up snow and stone as they came. She braced herself and took one step as they finally neared the huddled mass behind her-

And, suddenly, the air around them cracked painfully and the lead Beowolf was crushed into the ground and, after, a man came down from the heavens, plunging an armored fist down and into the monster's shoulder with a meaty, wet 'thwack'.

He stood in the same motion, throwing his sword-arm out to the side and turning to ready himself as his cloak flapped wildly in the wind and he straightened. Another Grimm came for him in barely a second and his armored hand snapped up into a sort of fist, the same echoing 'crack' sending it flying away as he stepped forward and turned, throwing his hand dowm towards the ground and setting off another that hurled him forward, using the momentum that brought to thrust his sword forward, burying it to the hilt in its chest chest as his impact threw it back and they came down, him on top of it. Another leapt from nearby and he turned, blasting it away the same way. It came up easily enough, shaking snow and surprise off as it growled.

And charged.

The armored man turned, fist snapping up as it leapt and checking it with a meaty blow to the jaw that pitched it up. It recovered quickly, scrabbling back in the snow, but the man pursued. He grabbed it by a spine on its back and wrenched it around between her and the man, burying the sword in its skull and then stepping onto it and standing, tall and dominating over the dying creature. The other Grimm circled him, focusing, for the briefest moment, on the sudden, surprising threat that had quite literally come down from the heavens to slaughter them. The man didn't say or do anything, just rolling his armored side's shoulder lazily and letting out a long breath.

Finally, she heard his first words, barely audible over the wind and the Grimm and the workers even with her Faunus ears…

"Well, that was fun…" Stepping off the dissolving Grimm, he held a hand up, fingers curling into a fist as something on the back of his armored hand glowed brightly-

Suddenly, the Grimm turned back towards the walls, snarling as… Things leapt over it. Dozens of them, cackling and rushing towards the monsters who snarled and yapped as they rushed to meet them. The creatures, whatever they were, were tiny. And when a Grimm leapt on one, it died screaming, but as the Grimm mauled one another two, three or four other little creatures would leap onto them. Riding them as they stabbed them, dragging the Grimm down by weight of numbers and through a thousand cuts. It was a brutal, bloody affair, the tiny goblin-like thingies being crushed underfoot, clawed into pieces and ripped apart by gnashing teeth.

But, one by one, the Grimm fell, and the dark-armored man watched it all…

Until it was done and, finally, he turned, peering over a shoulder at her with a fiery, almost luminescent gaze that made her heart race, pounding in her chest. After a second, she realized she wasn't imagining things - his eyes really were glowing. Dull orange, with a fiery red edge to them that made her think of the Grimm. That made her adrenaline course through her again for pure instinct. An instinct she had to cut off, for now, but one that caught her for a moment.

Even with her heart racing, she forced herself to step forward and say, "Thank you and your… Tiny friends! But, um, there's more Grimm coming so we need to get ready for-"

"Minions." He turned, barking the word and moving on in a clipped, deep voice as he raised his Gauntlet, "Into the forest. Keep an eye out for more Grimm. Kill them as they come."

"Yes, Master!"

"Stab the puppies!"

"For the Overlord!"

"Yes, yes, go." He sighed, waving them forward and following a few steps, sweeping his gaze from side to side to make sure they were all gone - and then again, looking over the dozen or so dead 'Minions' leaf in the battle's wake. One was twitching, still, and he turned to trot over, kneeling beside it and laying a hand on its chest. Fiona followed, curious in spite of herself, and caught him murmuring, "Sorry… You did pretty good, little guy."

"Mas… Ter…" It warbled, before it went limp and the man sighed, letting his head fall…

And then it snapped up and he turned, eyeing her over his shoulder almost questioningly.

"U-Um… Um, thanks, again" She stiffened, then realized she was still holding her makeshift weapon and awkwardly dropped it, scratching at her cheek unsurely as he stood and turned to her. Shaking the intimidation of the gaze off, she pushed on, "I'm Fiona. Fiona Thyme, of the, uh, of the Happy Huntresses."

"Good to meet you." He answered, seemingly ignoring - or not knowing - who the Huntresses were and turning to look over the huddled group. A moment passed before he turned back to her and asked. "Is everyone alright?"

"Well, for the most part…"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, they're safe, for now." Fiona sighed, turning to look over the whispering, confused and, in some cases, celebrating workers. "But the managers took all the Dust when they bolted. Hab-units won't be warm for much longer. And in this weather…"

"Can they travel?"

"I'm sorry?" She turned back to him, "Travel? We don't have enough space on my-"

"I meant on foot." He cut her off, waving a hand at some of the big scoop-diggers resting a few dozen yards away in a huge, sheltered by a large, curved vehicle port that sheltered them from the worst of the weather. "Maybe on those?"

"I mean…" No, not really. They were terrified, and exhausted after a long day of work, a night of fear, and the better part of another day of adrenaline and terror. But none of that would help, so she sighed and said instead, "If we don't have a choice, they'll have to be. My ship, the, uh, it's an Ascalade model, it has a transponder."

"Meaning…?"

"You don't know what a transponder does…?" He turned to her, fiery eyes glowing, and she shrunk back, ears flattening against the side of her skull. "I-It means my friends can track it! They should be here tomorrow…"

"Why aren't they here now?"

"Mantle has it rough." Fiona shrugged, staring at the ground, ears flat against the sides of her head again, and this time for a different reason. "I… Was the only one that could make the trip. Everyone else already had a job. I knew I couldn't do much, I'm not… You know, great, but-"

A hand suddenly settled on her shoulder and she flinched, looking up at the armored man as he loomed over her and her heart pounded in her chest. Quietly, he asked, "Did you do everything you could?"

"Um…" She blinked, flicking the armored hand that had been inside a Grimm a few minutes ago a look and then looking back up at his masked face. "Yes?"

"Then relax." He nodded, turning and sighing. "We do what we can, right?"

"Yeah." She smiled, "Yeah, we do."

"Right." He nodded and backed away, clearing his throat and offering her his hand. "I'm J- Uh, just the Overlord. Fiona, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded, shaking his hand and letting her ears flick happily. He didn't look like a Faunus, and she could never be sure that a Human would respect her enough to talk like this, much less shake her hand. So it meant something, and she had to resist the urge to bounce excitedly on the spot.

An urge she only… Half beat, bouncing on her heels instead of hopping eagerly.

"So," the Overlord, as he'd called himself, said just a little, tiny bit awkwardly as he turned toward the onlooking workers, "you get them going, and I'll get Gnarl down here for directions?"

"Who and to where…?"

"My Head Minion." He answered, "And my Dark Tower. Uh, in that order."

"Oh." She blinked, "O-Okay then…"

Oh great, he was crazy…

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"See?" Gnarl remarked as he and Jaune shuffled along the path at the head of a veritable caravan of tired, trudging workers and huge diggers the older, more tired, or hurt among them rode on, headed towards the Tower. "That went splendidly!"

"I think I sprained my shoulder…" Jaune grumbled, rolling his gauntlet-side shoulder stiffly again. "But I guess? No one died and Fiona seemed impressed. Right?"

"Oh, she was practically bouncing with joy, Master." Gnarl chuckled, "Cute little thing, too… See what happens when you listen to me? A victory and a conquest all in one fell swoop!"

"I… Don't follow?" His brow furrowed, "Aren't those the same things?"

"Oh for the love of all that is Evil and Dark and- Ugh!" Gnarl sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Why does almost every Overlord absolutely suck at this?"

"Suck at what…?" Jaune pressed, confused, "I don't understand what you're talking about, Gnarl."

"Master," he sighed, "is your bed about the right size for one person?"

"Um… No? It's kinda big, actually. Like, big enough for three people, maybe. Why is that, now that you mention it, Gnarl?" The Head Minion only stared at him for a long, long time as they walked, and then Jaune flushed as he suddenly realized what he meant - and what the 'conquest' Gnarl had mentioned was. "Oh! Oh, Gnarl, no! I didn't save them to get Fiona to- I mean she's cute, but come on! We literally just met!"

"And?" Gnarl shrugged, "Doesn't mean you can't warm your bed up with a little-"

"Don't make me hurt you." Jaune threatened, heat creeping up his neck. "She's a Huntress. Just here to do a job. That's all. Besides, why would she be into me?"

"Oh I don't know." Gnarl griped, "Why would a young woman be interested in a tall, dark, powerful warrior who swept in to save her life? Why ever could she be interested in that, hm?"

"I hate you, Gnarl…"

"Good." The Minion chuckled, "I'm doing my job, then."

"Maybe do it worse then?"

"What?" Gnarl hissed, "Never!"

"Yeah, figured that'd be your response." He sighed, "But I'm not after her that way, Gnarl. And I better not hear you said anything to her to try to-"

"I would never!"

"Really?" He cocked his head, "You would never pressure her into anything at all?"

"I… Well, um…"

"See?" Jaune smirked, "I'm learning."

"Yes, well… Look, regarding the whole 'oh wouldn't it be wonderful to take the cute sheepgirl to bed' thing… That's all just options for you to consider. So do as you like, don't feel pressed into anything, of course, I'm just offering ideas." Gnarl sighed, voice so terse and disapproving enough for Jaune to guess how he really felt about all of that. "Just… When we get to the Tower, I will invite her in. Show her around, would you? You'll need friendly contacts out there regardless. And who knows… An Overlord does need Mistresses."

"Ugh…" He sighed, thinking for a long time before he finally sighed tiredly and nodded. "But you're right-"

"Oho!"

"About having contacts! Geez…" He sighed, shaking his head. "Maybe…. Maybe she could help me get more resources for the Tower? If we get a way to make Lien, maybe quarrying or Hunting or logging the forests, we can use her to make purchases. And she might know someone who can help us get the old books translated for us.

"See?" Gnarl smirked, "Gnarl is always right, Master!"

"Ugh…" He blinked as he noticed something suddenly and his brows furrowed, "Wait, Mistresses? P-Plural?"

"Usually." Gnarl nodded, "Not exclusively, though. Do as you like. Now, if you'll pardon me, these old feet are tired, so I'm going to go hitch a ride on one of these digger things. You have fun walking, though! Remember, it makes you look more impressive! And first impressions matter!"

"Yeah." He sighed, "I guess…"

As Gnarl fell back, Jaune turned forward and looked up, watching the sleek Atlesian air-ship hovering along overhead, keeping its radar up to look out for more Grimm. He watched it for a moment, blushed, and turned to stare dead ahead while he tried to calm himself back down again. Which didn't really work all that well…

"Damn it, Gnarl."

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Merry Pigeon :

That WOULD be a pretty evil route, lol.

Dr Killinger :

At least SOMEONE does. Gnarl drives our Overlord absolutely crazy, lol.

Good Stuff :

Girlyman would be proud indeed! He's even collecting potential non-Human waifus! XD

Powerball Wiz :

I think the Minions could get along with a lot of characters as long as their penchant for destruction is kept in check in one way or another, yeah.

Oh, he and Penny WILL meet. That isn't QUITE up in the air. It's just what that means that is lol.