January 24th, 2011 Beacon Academy, Vale, Remnant, 8:00 PM EST- SP:21,290 (nsfw warning: BDSM, rope play, spanking, pet play)

One of the things I liked best about Blake was how strong willed she was. That girl had an iron spine, and the fact that it was perched on a dumptruck ass was only one of the reasons I found that appealing. The OTHER reasons were the fact that challenge could be fun…and the fact that based on her reading preferences her snarky nature masked a profound submissive side.

That was proven when she didn't even question my orders to strip, sliding her dress off soundlessly, face burning, and standing awkwardly in front of me.

If she'd been more experienced, or less submissive, she'd probably have posed for me. Hip cocked, bedroom eyes, biting her lip. There were lots of appealing ways to display a body like hers. Blake was in excellent shape, fat ass notwishstanding, she was lean and toned, with a flat stomach and well muscled thighs.

Instead, she just blushed at me shyly, standing more awkwardly than I expected of and eighteen year old ex-terrorist as I took in her current outfit. She'd clearly considered this might happen, and was wearing a lacy bra that lifted and pushed out her modest B-cups and probably the skimpiest G-string I could imagine.

"Do you know what a safeword is, Blake?" I asked in a barely suppressed growl of lust. I could tell she was nervous, so I wanted to make sure to dot my I's before we got to fucking.

Swallowing hard, she nodded. "Yes," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I figured you might," I smiled. "I saw some of your reading material. I think we have a lot in common, preference wise. But good girls don't answer questions so informally. So yes WHAT, exactly?"

Her eyelashes fluttered, breathing speeding up. "Yes, master," she panted. I'd given her the out. I let her know how I wanted this to go, now I'd give her the safeword before I started.

I walked up to her, prowling forward slowly, not bothering to hide my hard on as I stripped off my jacket, unbuttoning the wrist cuffs on my shift to roll them up, showing off my forearms. I didn't take off my clothes. I wanted the reminder that she was more vulnerable than I was. I put a hand on her hip, letting it slide down, fingertips gliding over smooth skin as I palmed a cheek.

"What is your safeword, kitten?" I murmured in her ear.

She swallowed hard. "Radish," she said in embarrassment. "I've never needed to use one before, my ex and I never did anything like this and I had to come up with it on my own and I-" Her voice cut off with a squeak as my hand came off her rump, smashing back down open palmed with a sharp crack, pale flesh rippling and turning red as it buckled under a hard slap.

"No need to babble, kitten," I said gently. "Just do as you're told. Now, I like your panties. Why are they so skimpy?"

She looked away, ears pinning to her skull. "For you," she said shyly. I wanted you to be able to look at my butt without seeing lines."

I massaged the aforementioned butt, rubbing away the redness from my slap, then abruptly pulled away, walking over to sit on the bed. "Well," I said casually. "You wanted me to see it. Come and show me."

She stared at me, pupils blown wide with lust, then, almost teetering on her high heels, slunk over to where I was sitting. Looking uncertain, she just turned around and leaned forward a bit, presenting her butt cheeks. I rolled my eyes. "Maybe try something with a bit more rhythm." I reached into my pocket, pulling out my phone, and scrolled through files until I found a song, hitting play.

The electronic refrain of the Urban Contact Remix of "Destroy It" by Black Tiger Sex Machine began to pump through the room (I couldn't resist, it seemed so appropriate), the energetic music making my heart pound along with the erotic situation.

Giving a nod and a ragged breath, Blake flipped her hair over one shoulder, bending her knees and planting her hands on them, ass outthrust toward me as she started to dip and bounce it.

Her early efforts were a little awkward. Blake wasn't a trained dancer, but she was a graceful and athletic girl, and she had a hell of a natural advantage. She started to improve, learning that just throwing her ass wasn't as appealing as winding her hips, gyrating and grinding in tight circles. She still threw her hips, noticing my incredible pleasure when her ass cheeks clapped together once in a while, but she was mixing it up.

I added in my own refrain, short, sharp, smacks to her rear when I wanted more speed or variety, and I was pleased to see her try to push her ass into my hand a little when it made contact.

My eyes were glued to the pale, wobbling, glistening flesh of her ass as she worked it, toned muscles rippling even under all that ass meat, showing that it wasn't all inherited, she put work into it too. Between her legs I was able to see flashed of black lace from her tiny panties, G-string swallowed whole by her mountainous behind but pussy giving tantalizing glimpses as she danced.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. Grabbing her hair, I pulled her over me, swinging her around to land on the bed, face buried in pillows, ass in the air. I slapped a cheek, watching it ripple for a minute before pulling it and its counterpart open and shoving my face in. My head dipped down, mashing my tongue against the soaked crotch of her panties, digging into them a bit before carefully pulling them aside with my teeth and wriggling my tongue into her sopping cunt.

Blake wasn't talky, at least not at first. I liked girls who talked. Instead, she was a whiner. "I, fuck, yes, no don't stop, right there, FUCK, please, master please, lick your kitten, lick me up good."

I ran my tongue over the crease between her cunt and asshole, noticing she cleaned up as I rimmed her, holding her hips in place while I sampled her holes so she couldn't do anything but take it.

Then I sat up, panting. "Grab the headboard," I said bluntly. She didn't even question it, just did as she was told. Reaching down, I undid my belt and stripped it off, leaning forward and looping it around her wrists and the metal bar at the head of the bed before pulling it tight. I slid my hand down, slapping her ass again before sliding between her legs and jamming my ring and middle finger into her drenched pussy.

"LIttle slut," I growled as I fucked my hand into her roughly. The angle needed a bit of adjust but I managed to scrape over her G-spot as I fingered her, earning whining needy yips from my partner. "You knew what I wanted. Waving this fat ass in my face. You knew what I was going to do to you. Wanted to be put in your place."

She wailed, grinding her hips back at me. "YES! I was bad master! I was such a bad girl. Punish your slutty kitten."

I was pretty sure there were weird social implications of petplay here, but since this wasn't my world and I didn't give a fuck anyway, I just leaned into it. "Stupid little cat bitch!" I hissed. "Your fat ass waving around at all the men. You think you can just get away with being such a sexy little whore?"

"No, master!" she yowled. "I'm a disgrace. I don't know how to act because I don't have a proper owner. Discipline your slutty kitten. Give my pussy all that hot cream."

Not wanting to wait another minute and not caring to pass up such a straight line, I unbuttoned my pants with one hand, sliding my cock out and then lined up and pulled out my hand, using it to grab her hips before I shoved myself into her in a single thrust.

"FUCK ME!" she spat, breaking out of her lust haze somewhat. "Brothers, you're splitting me in half! You're breaking my fucking cunt in two. Shit, give me a second, Radish, I need a second." She shoved her face into the pillow, breathing like she'd been kicked by a horse. "Fuck, ok. I think I'm alright. Fuck that hurts good. I feel like I'm going to explode. Go easy, just work it in nice and slow for me."

I slid out of her, both hands gripping her hips as I smirked down at her. "Bigger than your ex?"

She giggled sexily. "Fuck baby, you're bigger than my dildo. And so HOT. Fuck I don't remember cock being this hot. Like I'm wrapped around a fucking lightbulb."

I noticed her responding a bit more, shifting into me, and I started to speed up, getting up a good rhythm. "That's just me. Side effect of my constitution. Extra warm body. Fuck though, your cunt isn't exactly chilly either. You're fucking scalding me. And tight too."

"Just for you master," she purred. "Your kitten was made to wrap around this big fat cock. Fuck, deeper please, harder. You can go harder now, I can take it." I obliged, slamming in rougher, angling my hips to get lots of force. My pelvis collided with her thicc ass, making it ripple and clap as I fucked her. "Yesssss!" she hissed. "That's it! Fuck me master. Fucking get it! Throw your sexy kitty that hot dick!"

Slamming into her I let my fingers dig into her hips. "Fuck this is good pussy," I ground out. "Turn on your aura. I want to feel what it's like."

There was a flash of energy and a dark aura surrounded blake, not covering or concealing but highlighting all that pale, writhing flesh as I buried myself inside her over and over again. I sped up, knowing the aura would take any beating, the full power of my unnatural body focused into my hips as I smashed my cock into her in a way i wouldn't have dared with a normal girl.

"Fuck! My! Pussy!" she yowled. "Fuck it's so good master, you're so deep! I'm gonna fucking cream all over this fucking cock. Cum inside me? Cum in your kitten. The aura will make it safe, but I want to feel how hot your cum is at it hoses me down inside!"

I slapped her ass joyfully, getting a lewd moan of excitement and a giggle that pushed me to do it again. "Fuck, I'm getting close, I'm gonna cum. You sure you want it? Because I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna blow my fucking load all over the insides of this hot little cunt." I slapped her ass again, loving the springy feel of the cheek against my palm.

"Do it!" she mewled needily, grinding her face into the pillow and her ass into me. "Your pretty kitty is in heat master. Put out the fire in my pussy. Breed your little cat bitch!"

I knew that wouldn't happen…but I was super turned on by the thought and I couldn't resist as my balls seized up, unloading spurt after spurt of boiling hot cum into the depths of her waiting, hungry snatch.

Blake screamed in ecstatic pleasure, her cunt exploding as she squirted her excitement all over the blanket, pussy, spasming and wringing me like a white knuckled masseuse until I emptied my balls inside her. She collapsed, giggling contentedly, wriggling into the blanket with a purr, though her tied hands made her positioning awkward.

"THAT," she said giddily. "Was wonderful. I needed that. Did you have fun?"

I chuckled, patting her on the ass fondly. "I had a great time. But I'm curious about one thing." I leaned forward, looming over her as I pressed the head of my still erect cock against her battered pussy. "Why are you talking in the past tense? I'm not even close to done with you." Her only response was a gleeful shriek as I shoved back into her, and after that it was all just hard fucking. I had no idea why I hadn't ever gone to a dance before. They were fantastic.

January 24th, 2011 Beacon Academy, Vale, Remnant, 5:00 AM EST- SP:21,490

I was feeling pretty fantastic. I hadn't realized how pent up I'd gotten since arriving in remnant, and drooling over Blake didn't help. Now I'd released all that tension, and I was in bed with a beautiful girl. I let my hand flex, watching my fingers sink into the milky hill of perfection I was palming, and looked up to see a cutely pouting catgirl.

"Must you play with my butt?" she asked in exasperation. "I'm trying to sleep."

Nodding somberly, I met her eyes. "I'm afraid it's a moral imperative…kitten." Her face heated and her pout got deeper as she averted her gaze.

"That's offensive," she muttered. "Don't…don't say it when we're not…you know."

"When I'm not pounding your fat, jiggly, glorious ass into this mattress?" I asked smugly. Then I paused. "Or any other mattress, or maybe up against the wall of an alley. I really don't want to put limits on where I can fuck you senseless."

She smacked me on the shoulder. "Stahhp," she whined as her face went from pink to red. "You can't tell anyone. Humanplay is sooo degrading. I've never even done it before, but you know how porn can be. I just kind of wanted to try it. But you have to promise to keep it in the bedroom."

"Oh, are we going to be doing this again?" I asked, lazily swatting her ass cheek and enjoying the wobble. "I wasn't sure, since you just seemed like you wanted to blow off steam."

Shrugging in faux casualness, she said. "I had fun. I'm not like…proposing to you or anything. I'm not looking for a boyfriend. I have too much on my plate. You seem like you can take care of my needs though."

I grabbed her hip forcefully yanking her against my naked body. "MINE!" I growled into one of her kitty ears, nipping it lightly.

Whining, she wriggled against me happily, literally purring before she froze, eyes going wide as her hand snapped to her mouth with an eep. I smirked at her and she glared back. "That didn't happen," she snapped in embarrassment. "And I don't belong to anyone."

"Really?" I said with a lazy grin. "Because we're still in bed, so I believe per our earlier agreement that means I'm still your 'master' as you so cutely put it earlier." I rolled over, pulling her hips on top of mine, though not actually sliding into her, just pressing our bodies together. My hand fisted in her hair, yanking her head back and exposing her neck, which I bit playfully. "Now, who's my pretty kitty?"

She wriggled needfully against me. "Nooo, stop being so mean." I bit a little harder and she mewled, eyelids fluttering. "It's meeee," she whined. "I'm your pretty kitty."

I pushed her off me with a laugh, ignoring her squawk of outrage. "Good girl," I teased, noting the way she preened in what she thought was a subtle way. "Now shake that big wobbly ass. We have dust to steal today. You're taking off your classes, because we need to get to that shit before anyone decides to move it."

Her face went serious as she sat up, happily not hiding her nudity. Her strawberry milk nipples looked pretty cute against all that black hair. "You want to raid them all?"

"All the ones we can find," I affirmed. "I've got a list. Lucky has been out scouting all night, not to mention during the dance. I DID promise we'd take a huge chunk out of Roman's supply." I smirked at her. "I'd never want to let down my pretty kitty."

Speaking of prissy cats, the most prissy of all had just phased through the wall and was floating above the bed snootily. He meowed at me regally. "Wait, how many?" He repeated himself and I grimaced. "Well where the fuck are they moving it?" Cursing, I started yanking my pants on. "Sorry kitten, flirting later, we've got to move. The White Fang are taking all that dust down into the sewers…for some fucking reason."

This didn't make sense. The dust was supposed to go to Mountain Glenn, to get rammed into the walls and set of the Grimm stampede. It had failed, and necessitated the tournament pla- shit. Vagabond had bounced Cinder before she could implant the virus. There WAS no tournament plan now. They couldn't hijack the Atlas ships OR fuck with the match ups. There must have been a plan C I didn't know about.

All my fucking butterflies were butterflying right up my ass. I'd been trying to stick to moistly canon events to avoid literally this exact situation. Now I had several tons of missing dust being carted around under the city for…something. And considering their other plan involved a fucking DRAGON I wasn't confident we could handle the endgame here.

"I need you to get dressed," I told Blake apologetically. "I don't know why they would be stocking the tunnels under the city with dust, but somehow I doubt it's fireworks for a puppy parade." To my surprise, Lucky cut in again with another meow, and I turned to him with a shocked look. "Wait…what? When did that get finished?"

Blake cocked her head. "What?"

"Lucky has a gem ready. It's complicated, but he creates gemstones with certain powers. They can be implanted in items to improve their performance." I also suspected they could be used in jewelry and had a few ideas for how that might benefit me later, but for now, the best way I knew to put Lucky's gems to work was socketing them into machines and weapons.

Holding out my hand, I shot him an expectant look. He meowed in annoyance, but then started making a hacking noise. I was surprised, because that wasn't normally how the gems came out, but I honestly preferred it. After a few hacks he coughed up a ball of steel wool, and when I moved it out of the way I found a perfectly faceted crystal clear ruby inside, burning with an inner light.

"I need your weapon," I told her bluntly. "I'm going to socket this thing in, but it needs to be done in a specific way. Do you trust me?"

Her eyes were fixed on it in wonder, the glow of the ruby reflected in their amber depths. "I…I do," she said after a pause. "I don't really know why. You're shady as hell. Don't think I don't notice how little you talk about yourself or your life. You're hot and smart and morally ambiguous…but I like you. You're fun and sweet when you want to be. If I wasn't sure you'd leave soon, I'd probably want this to be serious."

I was surprised. "You figured out a lot of things I wasn't expecting. Maybe when this is over, I'll tell you more. I've got something I want to ask you for your help with. For now, let's try to figure out what the Fang is doing and stop them before they blow up the city or something."

I liked Blake. I WANTED Blake, and I was going to have her too. Not because of her feelings for me after a few days, this wasn't a fairy tale. No, I was going to convince her to come with me because at the end of the day, I knew what Blake wanted more than anything in the world. Not justice, or fairness, or equality. Blake wanted to MATTER.

Blake wanted to do something important that helped a lot of people. Trying to end faunus racism was important to her, but it was also a very long term goal. One she absolutely couldn't complete soon. I could give her power to help accomplish it, give her support when she finally decided to do it, but more importantly, I could give her a mission to complete NOW. Endbringers were slowly killing my world, and I was on a collision course with those Kaiju bastards.

My brain was filled to bursting with ways to use that too. But that would come later. I took Blake's weapon gingerly, gave her a quick kiss, and hurried off.

First thing I did when I got to my room was read both the gem and the weapon into my book. Gambol Shroud was an E-class item, and I got ten points off that one, but the gem was C-class, and a particularly powerful one too.

C-class story element incorporated. Cat gem: Heart of the Ifrit. One thousand Silvertongue Points gained.

I grinned at the words as I gained the information I needed. The Heart was a powerful gem. It imbued a weapon with the power of flames, overflowing into the wielder and enhancing their spirit with the fires of revolution. It was perfect for Blake, especially since I was pretty sure in this case 'Spirit' meant 'Aura'.

Since I was now up to twenty two thousand six (almost seven) hundred points, I quickly read out my shelves, rifling around for a pair of books that I knew would help.

First was a novelization of the roguelike game Diablo 2, and the second a chinese novel called Martial Peak, which I had bookmarked earlier to a specific page. A pair of quick reads got me two objects that could solve two of my problems.

[Sufficient point total! C-class utility tool. Horadric Cube. A mystical box that stores more items than it should. Possesses the power to combine mystical gems with items in order to imbue them with magical effects.]

[Sufficient point total! C-class education item. Burning Sun Blast inheritance statue. Imbues the inheritor with the crest of the burning sun, which stores flame energy over time to release in a large, powerful blast.]

Down to twenty thousand six hundred now, but it was worth it. I'd need a way to use Lucky's gems in the future, and this particular item would make that infinitely more simple. It would ALSO let me store and remove items without having to withdraw shit from the book in front of people, which was a concern up until this point.

Slipping the gem and Gambol Shroud into the box, I activated the synthesis function by hitting a few symbols on the outside. There was a low flash from the box, and when I withdrew Gambol Shroud, it had changed.

Rather than just socketing in the gem, it had infused it, and there were veins of crystalline, fiery red shot throughout the weapon. I could feel the thrum of heat and power through my palm as I held it, and I knew Blake would be thrilled by the workmanship. This was way better than some bullshit socket.

With that out of the way, I turned my attention to the statue. It was easy enough to activate. I just cut my palm and smeared it on the stone idol. The human shaped object glowed dimly, and I felt a burst of information as the skills of the Burning Sun Blast imprinted themselves on me, along with the red symbol that appeared on my hand.

The symbol was dim, not having filled up with energy yet, but I still beamed at it. Finally, a solid offensive option, and one all three of my selves could use. It wasn't exactly Enbringer level, but I was betting the power would be enough to seriously damage most Brutes.

The idol, sadly, crumbled to dust when I finished using it, but I didn't mind. If anything it was better because it made it so I wouldn't need to safeguard it.

With all that done, I turned to Lucky with a wry smile. "Well, seems like we're ready to head out. I'll bring Blake her weapon and then you can lead us to the nearest stockpile. We need to clear out as many of them as possible before the end of today." Whatever they had planned, I wasn't letting it happen. No way was some slinky bitch with a god complex going to blow up all of my spoils from this trip. It was time to go to war.

January 24th, 2011 Underground Tunnel, Vale, Remnant, 7:00 AM EST- SP:20,700

"Traitor whore, die!" screamed one of the masked goons as he rushed past me to attack Blake. I'd been through this enough on the way down not to bother stepping in. I just stuck out my foot and tripped him as I blurred forward, Aura glowing like a distant star as I engaged a pair of White Fang goons.

My unarmed combat skill wasn't too high, only level fourteen, which was still Novice level I was pretty sure, but it didn't matter. I was stronger and faster, so my barely superior foundations were still plenty to deal with these fucks. One of them rushed me with some kind of chainsaw blade, and a quick flick of my wrist deflected it off an aura covered forearm before I reached down and gripped his wrist.

Stepping in, I yanked and twisted, causing him to drop the chainsaw and flip head over ass. I stomp kicked him in the head as I passed, breaking his aura and possibly his neck as I stepped a circle around the other one and slammed my elbow into the base of his skill, downing him too.

I turned to see Blake reconstituting from a series of burning shadows, a series of pieces having been sliced off her enemies (nonlethally, to their detriment) leaving them amputated and screaming on the ground. She ruthlessly kicked each one in the face, shutting them up temporarily, before retracting the burning ribbon she'd used to disarm ( pun intended) her guy as she pointed the gun part of Gambol Shroud and fired a small burst of burning bullets past me.

The last White Fang patrolmen screamed as his Aura broke, diving for cover, only to be decapitated be a giant fuck off centipede grimm that burst through the floor like a runaway train, chomping down on his head in a single bite.

My hand came up as I triggered my Burning Sun Blast. We'd been doing this for an hour or two, so I'd stoked enough fire to charge it about ten percent of the way. A torrent of concentrated flames consumed both the twitching body and the top half of the centipede, the bottom half slamming to the ground, dead.

"Well, this is way less entertaining the fifth time we've done it," I noted blandly. "Lucky, where the hell is the first stockpile?" My cat appeared next to me, meowing idly as the centipede grimm's lower half dissolved into shadows. "You said it was the next chamber over an hour ago." He meowed again. "No you did not say the next chamber DOWN. But fine. If you want to play it that way, we can play it that way. If there isn't a big pile of dust through that tunnel entrance, you're not going to be eating anything but charcoal for a week."

Hissing, he swiped at me with his laser claws, which skidded harmlessly off my Aura. I rolled my eyes and flipped him the bird before turning to check on Blake. "How you doing back there kitten? Your Aura must be getting low."

She shook her head, hand stroking the now not flaming ribbon of Gambol Shroud. "I'm ok, actually. My clones don't take much Aura, and neither does using my weapon. The gem is doing most of the work. I'm at maybe seventy percent," she smiled at me shyly. "This is the best gift anyone has ever gotten me, Simon."

Grinned I stepped up next to her, leaning down to brush my lips against hers lightly before reaching around to slap an ass cheek open palm. She whined into my mouth before I stepped back. "I'm glad you like it, but we have business to attend to, don't look so sexy at me or I'm going to pull those spanx down and fuck you here in the tunnel."

"I wasn't doing anything," she pouted. "It's not my fault you always think about sex."

"Kitten, trust me. It's ENTIRELY your fault," I grinned as I leaned up to nip one of her cat ears. "But I'm mostly joking. I can control myself." Which was…mostly a lie. I wasn't operating at a hundred percent sanity right now, I'd sent Nightfall ahead to try to snag one of the other stockpiles. My Ego was capable of checking the majority of Vagabond's horny violent nature, but seeing my sexy little kitten princess strut around waving that jiggly ass my way made me want to bend her over and-

I forced my mind to return to the task at hand. I'd had to do that a lot since Nightfall had left. My logic was offsetting the need to fuck, though it wasn't blunting my violence too much, hence the probably dead White Fang grunt with a shattered neck.

Turning away from her, I exercised all the force of will my Ego had to push myself into the next cavern, ignoring the massive erection the thought of being inside Blake had me sporting.

When I stepped through, I expected an attack, but this time I didn't get one. All I got was a series of multicolored glows emerging from a bunch of crates, all wired with explosives to a large cave wall.

"Blake, we found the first one," I told her over my shoulder. "I'm not sure WHY it's here. Except…shit. Hold on." I jumped a few times, my boots allowing me to scale the stack of boxes without disturbing them. When I got to the top I flooded my Burning Sun Blast sigil with just a bit of flame, the light driving back the shadows on the wall in front of me. "FUCK!" I spat, kicking off to get some distance. I flipped lightly, landing soundlessly next to my approaching kitten.

She looked concerned. "Simon? What is it?"

"What kind of Dust is black?" I asked her grimly. I was pretty sure I knew, but I was hoping I was misremembering maybe it was like…bird dust or some shit.

"Gravity," she answered immediately, dashing my admittedly fragile hopes.

I cursed, grabbing her hand to stop her from approaching. "There's a fucking VEIN of it in the walls. It's not particularly dense, but its there. Either they got super lucky, or they put it here on purpose, which implies the OTHER stockpiles might be on top of similar veins. Personally, I find that to be a little TOO coincidental. What are the chances they got their hands on one of those minehearts?"

"A GRAVITY mineheart?" she said incredulously. "The resources needed to find something like that would be mindboggling. As far as I know, all the minehearts currently in circulation are basic elemental variants."

Which wouldn't be a problem if you worked for an invincible immortal goddess who commanded all the Grimm in the world. "Call this in," I finally said. "I'll claim as much of the Dust as I can, but we need help here. This is way too dangerous to leave it up to even two teams of people. We need hunters out in force to take these break points apart. Because I don't even want to think about what happens if these blow."

Except I was thinking. I was thinking about a theory I heard on the PHO boards for the manga. About how big a coincidence that Dragon being there was. A theory that all settlements on Remnant were built on top of giant titanic grimm whose sheer malice drove other grimm back unknowingly unless called with enough negative emotion.

Mountain Glenn had been a relatively small town, an offshoot, but Vale? Vale was much bigger. If that theory held an ounce of truth, the grimm in question would have to be completely sealed away for the fall of Beacon not to have roused it. Maybe underground.

It made as much sense as anything. Salem would know where any truly massive grimm were. She'd be able to give Cinder a roadmap. I assumed she'd avoided this path originally because the grimm under there was MUCH more dangerous than the Dragon and couldn't be contained. I considered sending Lucky down to check, but…the idea of my cat poking a beast that terrible made me wince. No fucking thanks.

Speaking of, he'd vanished a minute ago, but reappeared as I had that thought, dropping a familiar box into my hands. The Horadric Cube, currently full of Dust. Turning to Blake, I gave her a considering look.

"I have something to show you," I told her as she finished her call with Yang. Scrolls still got signal down here, interestingly. "And something to admit."

I knew I'd have to play this carefully, but I felt Nightfall dismiss after picking up the stockpile currently inside the cube. I was whole, and I knew what I was doing. I pulled out my book, and with a quick read over the most recent passages, both the cube and all the crates under the explosive wiring and detonators vanished.

A quick check of my points left me stunned. Fifty five thousand in those two stockpiles. SO MUCH Dust. I made a note to consider using the cube on Dust crystals and not just gems. I was pretty sure it would give way weaker results, but it would give me a very interesting edge in terms of possible weapon sales when I got home. I didn't know how to process dust into shit, but the cube made that easy.

Realizing I was distracting myself, I turned to Blake. "I know this isn't really the time," I said quietly. "But I didn't want to lie to you about it anymore. I'm from another world. I have another life, hell, I have two lives. I came through a book to reach this place. I can enter and exit books like doors to other worlds. After we finish stopping this, I'm probably going home. I want you to come with me."

Her eyes widened, but before she could think much, I cut her off. "Before you say anything, my world is…different. Giant monsters called Endbringers show up to destroy cities seemingly at random. I have a few identities, but their entire purpose is to gather resources to destroy them. If you come with me, I can gather those items, that power, and help you gather it too. We can beat the Endbringers together, and once we do, I can bring you home and we can destroy the Grimm once and for all. Help your people establish a safe place protected by true power."

This was my ace in the hole. Blake was, at her heart, kind of a drama queen. She was sexy, and smart, and occasionally a little flaky. But she wanted to change the world, make a difference, and she wanted to do it BIG. You don't become a terrorist and then a local superhero because you like being ignored.

I was offering her a handsome guy to run away with to a storybook world where she could get enough power to help her people AND save aforementioned world. Not to mention that because I'd arrived before Yang and her had their heart to heart about Ruby and she was still in her White Fang avenger era, she hadn't imprinted on them as much yet.

Waving her off, I smiled. "It's fine, I don't need an answer now. I just wanted to be up front with you." I winced. "Also, we wouldn't exactly be exclusive? Kind of hooking up with a member of my team or two. I know you said you weren't looking for a boyfriend, but I wanted to be honest."

That one was a calculated risk, but I was pretty sure she'd be too blindsided by the whole book travel to other worlds thing to prioritize it, and if I could set expectations that I wouldn't be monogamous she was less likely to throw a fit once we got back. Her dazed expression was kind of adorable, and I grinned at her. "I'll let you process for a while. Now, we have to track down more of these stockpiles or the whole city might be doomed, let's go."

I headed down one of the tunnels, leaving her to think, as I did, I thought eagerly about the massive stockpiles of Dust I'd just gotten, and all the points I'd hoarded doing it. Even if Blake decided not to come with me, I'd already made plenty of progress on my goals here. Seventy five thousand plus points was a good fucking start.

January 24th, 2011 Underground Tunnels, Vale, Remnant, 9:00 AM EST- SP:105,900

The next few stockpiles were smaller. Thirty thousand total, bringing me up to just shy of a hundred and six, before I finally came across the spot with the mineheart. It was guarded. Which, in retrospect wasn't that surprising, but what did kind of throw me was who it was guarded BY.

Blake froze, staring up at masked samurai looking asshole with the cow horns. It took a lot not to make a joke about how being a 'horned lord' was one of the original ways people referred to cuckolds, but I figured my activist sex friend might not love animal racism, even toward her shitty abusive ex.

As we stopped, I felt a bunch of presences surrounding us, and I knew that Adam wasn't planning to make this a fair fight. I let my Aura flicker to life, preparing for a fight, and adjusted my feet, kind of wishing I had a weapon.

On my palm, the Burning Sun Blast sigil pulsed, filling by the second as I ramped the heat in my body. With my Aura active, none of it would be burned healing, so it could all go to charging my hand laser. Adam stepped forward, and Blake flinched. I debated stepping in front of her, but I felt like that would be the wrong move.

Blake needed to face this, to get closure, or at least to try. If he overpowered her I'd step in. Just in case though, I held my non fire wielding hand behind my back, and Lucky silently dropped my plasma pistol into it. The familiar weight of the gun made me feel a bit more in my element, considering how outnumbered I was, and all by Aura users.

"Hello beloved," Adam Taurus said dramatically. "I've been waiting for you. You wouldn't believe how far I've come to find you. Agreeing to work with disgusting humans. Colluding with Grimm. I hope you appreciate how far I'll go to have you back."

Sneering, Blake just spat on the ground. "You don't care about me, Adam. I'm just a trophy you wave around so people acknowledge your right to lead the Fang. Don't pretend you're capable of love. Besides, I'm with someone else now. This is Simon. He's human, and his dick is like twice the size of yours. After we finish killing you he's taking me back to his home."

I was surprised by that, turning to shoot her a questioning glance. She blushed slightly but didn't break eye contact with Adam. Apparently she'd come to a decision. Neat.

She was also apparently not averse to ending him. Which was good, because in these confined spaces with like thirty White Fang, I couldn't afford to hold back. I felt a warm pulse from my hand, and, knowing the Burning Sun Blast was full, I triggered my semblance.

Vagabond and Nightfall split off to either side, sigils also full, and I raised my palm towards part of the waiting crowd (not toward Adam, he was standing in front of a dust stockpile) and let loose, even as they did the same.

The three columns of flame impacted a dozen of the Fang goons, shattering their Auras in a single blast, and my hand blurred, firing off ten quick shots from my plasma pistol, all aimed at the head. Without my inferior selves cluttering my mind with sentiment, I was able to clearly calculate the effectiveness of a head shot in these circumstances.

Each shot landed flawlessy, my perfect balance making such a shot child's play, and with no Brute rating outside their Aura's the plasma pistol blow their heads apart like overripe melon.

Bodies collapsed to the ground, and Adam shouted with rage surging forward as the rest of the Fang approached. My other selves took up position, my Superego guarding my back and my Id, rushing to attack Adam, who he no doubt considered to be trying to take what was his.

I slipped into an incoming crowd, fists coming up as I dropped the pistol, letting Lucky spirit it away to Nightfall, whose mask could amplify the output. My unarmed skill, a whopping twenty three at this point, finally showed its worth as I engaged the enemy, crushing blows sliding past guards and chipping away at Aura.

None of the goons were actually any good at fighting, and I slipped past the guard of one easily, looping an arm around his neck and jerking hard. I was surprised when his Aura faded. Apparently while it took lots of energy to breach Aura directly, there were ways around it. Aura gave full range of motion, even when it shouldn't, and a broken neck kills most things. Apparently non forceful contact like holds didn't interact with the Aura.

Luckily my unarmed skill included grappling. I shoved the body of my victim at another Fang operative, stepping in to grab one around the middle and yank him up and over my head in a german suplex. His neck didn't break, his Aura stopping the blunt force, but his head WAS buried in stone.

I left him there, dashing forward to the pile of dust, the biggest so far. The mineheart floated above it, a perfectly faceted fist sized black gem. Lucky dropped the Cube into my waiting hand and I scooped it all up. I'd switched its contents directly to the book earlier to make room, and a quick touch of the book and a mutter of its description stored the Cube, the mineheart, and all its contents surreptitiously.

The point value shot up, though I was too busy to check by how much. And I turned to where Blake and Vagabond were tag teaming Adam. Blake had him wrapped in the burning ribbon of her weapon, her body wreathed in a purple red flaming glow as the Heart of the Iftrit infused her Aura with fire. Vagabond was hammering machine gun fast punches into the horned man, determined to- oh, there it was, his aura broke.

Adam's head fell back and he screamed as he was consumed by fire, his body igniting and then being vivisected before death by the ribbon, unable to withstand the heat and pressure anymore.

Blake stopped, staring at the pieces of Adam. I grabbed his sword off the ground smoothly and tossed it to Vagabond. Without waiting for her to process, I grabbed Blake, hoisting her over my shoulder like a sack of flour, and dragged her with me to the nearest cavern entrance. I'd just felt some kind of shift in the earth. We needed to go up.

To my surprise, Blake didn't resist. I had Vagabond and Nightfall stay behind, dropping their Auras so they didn't burn mine as we fled up to the surface to see what had happened. We came up in some alley, and I carried Blake up to a roof so we could see what was going on. I dismissed Vagabond and Nightfall, Lucky having stayed behind to grab the weapons, and I felt my sense of self fully return.

I turned to stare at Blake. "Jesus," I said in horror. "Blake, I-"

She shook her head, staring blankly out at the city, clearly looking for the source of the tremors. "It's not… I get it. We had no choice. There were too many. I'm not mad. It was just a lot."

I put my hand on top of her head, rubbing her ears. She nuzzled into my hand for comfort, and I didn't mention it. When the explosions finally came we both tensed as we recognized the location. The huge tower in the middle of Beacon, the CCT, came down like a headsman's blade, smashing into the city and punching through the ground.

Blake covered her mouth, choking back a horrified gasp. "Simon-"

"Call them," I said bluntly. "They might be fine. They weren't there, remember?" We'd sent all the Beacon teams out to search the tunnels and disconnect the stockpiles.

She fumbled with her scroll, and when Yang's face appeared on the screen she slumped with relief. "Hey there kitty cat," said the blonde brawler tiredly. "Do you know what the hell that was?" The CCT being down didn't affect local scroll calls apparently, something I hadn't considered before just this second, but there must have been smaller towers for short range service.

"Beacon…" Blake said shakily. "The CCT is gone. They dropped it on the city. You guys are ok though? You got rid of the stockpiles near you?"

Yang shrugged. "I think so. Vomit boy and his crew are out too, and team CVFY. I'll give them a call. Why would they blow up the CCT though? What's the point of that? Didn't they just try to hijack the damned thing?"

"I think this is an, if I can't have it no one can, thing," I said as I stared at the hole in the skyline where the huge tower had been. "Hey, Yang…do you know about any legends of extremely large Grimm near here? Old stories about monsters that lived in this area before Vale was founded?"

She paused, looking frustrated. "I don't really pay attention in-"

There was a scuffle, and the scroll changed views, showing Weiss, who looked disturbed. "I DO pay attention in Grimm History. There were a few. The Wyveryn, the Basilisk, but the most terrible was probably Typhon. It was a giant Deathstalker with two tails. It vanished centuries ago, and we only know it existed because of oral tradition and murals."

My blood went cold. The CCT was down, it had been BLOWN UP in front of the whole city, punching a hole into some underlayer and unleashing a wave of terror and despair the likes of which the city had never seen.

The ground rumbled again, and I watched with horror as a colossal shape breached the ground. A tail, and then another, and slowly, a scorpion the size of a fucking football field crashed through the stone beneath the city, wrecking buildings and displacing tens of thousands of people as it emerged.

Blake and I watched in horror as it turned and roared, and from around us, we heard an answering cry. Grimm, a few in the city, and many more outside it, raised their voices to the sky and screamed their rage and hate for all living things.

"Dust," said Blake in a daze. "It'll slaughter everyone. None of us stand a chance." She looked spooked, ready to run, but she looked down at her hands where the ribbon was wrapped still. Her expression hardened. "I meant what I said," she murmured quietly. "I want to come with you, help you save your world. You helped me beat my monster. I want to help beat yours. But before we go, I want us to beat this one. Together. Will you help me?"

I caught a spark of red in her eyes, and it occurred to me that having fire in your Aura probably did things other than just make you hot to the touch. Courage, passion, these kinds of things were associated with fire. The Heart was bolstering her.

Not that I could really complain. I wanted her with me, so obviously this was good…just annoying. Sighing internally, I nodded and gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course, that's what we do." I started pumping the heat in my chest, refilling my sigil, which I'd emptied breaking all those Auras.

I was a little surprised she wasn't more pissed about me straight up executing a dozen White Fang, but then, Blake wasn't really squeamish. She could accept reality, or I'd never have invited her back. Mentally, I sent a message to Lucky, telling him to keep Ally Swap handy to use on Blake if she got in trouble. I could survive a head on conflict with that thing, she couldn't.

With that done, I followed the exquisite bouncing rear of my favorite catgirl across the rooftops as we bolted after the giant scorpion. Before I did though, I snagged Blake's scroll and shot off a quick message to Beacon, telling Ozpin about Cinder's plan to kill Amber. Hopefully her being fucked up from the CCT explosion (the first, much smaller one) would give him a chance to repel her, otherwise I didn't have time to worry. I had a city to save.

January 24th, 2011 Underground Tunnels, Vale, Remnant, 10:00 AM EST- SP:148,100

I was kind of pumped to fight the giant scorpion. Granted, it was the size of a football field, and I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to kill it, but then, it couldn't kill me either. Between my book's ability to gloss over mental damage by making it a story element and my own immortality, I didn't have much reason to be scared of pretty much anything.

While that might have concerned some people, I found it kind of freeing. I could just genuinely look forward to the coming fight and hope to really test out my unarmed combat skill. Of course, I was already making plans for something a bit more refined and effective, but I didn't have the time to do it here. I'd wait until I got back to Brockton before I started digging into what weapons I'd use and what style I'd use them with.

For now, I was charging into battle with a sexy cat girl, and that was pretty fucking cool. Of course, the closer I got to the scorpion, the less cool it became. Trying to fight something the size of a convention center was a lot less daunting when it was a speck in the distance, the more I closed in, the more wary I became.

"So…how the fuck do we kill that?" I finally asked as we came to a stop on a building nearby. The scorpion had tried to climb out of its hole, but the streets couldn't support it, so it was mostly just pushing through buildings and streets like a giant twin tailed scorpion street shark.

Not that I was unwilling to fight it, I was just kind of concerned that we might not be able to actually do any damage. At that size, my Burning Sun Blast would feel like a mosquito bite. Blake frowned, scanning the area. Her eyes flickered with a ruby light as red dancer in the normally amber irises, and I could see her determination being bolstered by the Heart.

I could also kind of see what was going on in her head, not as a mind reading thing, but in the sense that I knew how she processed things, both from knowing her and reading about her. I hip checked her. "Hey, this isn't your fault."

She glowered at me. "You haven't known me nearly long enough to make that observation."

"I've plumbed the depths of your soul," then I paused. "Wait, sorry, wrong word. Hole. I've plumbed the depths or your HOLE. Still, you're not that complicated kitten, the Fang stole the Dust with Roman, and you feel responsible for them. Speaking of which, are we going to talk about-"

"No," she cut me off bluntly. "We aren't. Ever. The city is in a state of emergency, and we didn't have time for a soft touch. They earned what they got."

I shrugged. "Works for me. If you have any pent up frustration just aim it at the giant scorpion monster." Which we needed to kill. Fucking NOW. If it kept causing a panic it would wake up the Dragon, and we had no shot at dealing with both of them. Grimacing, I stepped forward and cracked my neck. "Alright, I'm going to scope things out a bit closer in. See if I can blow out an eye or something."

The eyes were multitudinous, but small, and I was pretty sure I could use my BSB on one easily enough.

I darted forward, pushing off the roof with the casual ease afforded by my boots, and began leaping from rooftop to rooftop along the edge of the destruction. A glance back showed Blake's friends meeting up with her, pointing at me and looking concerned. I didn't have time to worry about that. When I caught up with the monster, I had to put some real english on my jump to cross the gap, but I landed neatly on top of the massive black expanse and headed for the mask edge not far away.

A series of smaller scorpions (smaller being a very loose term, Deathstalkers were big) rushed up the sides of the body from somewhere, attacking me head on. I drew my pistol, putting charged blasts into their faces with deadly accuracy. But Deathstalkers were a pain to kill, and I needed multiple shots.

Next to me, a colossal hammer covered in lightning came crashing down on a Deathstalker head, a bronze spear impaling the body. Pyrrha and Nora appeared next to me, Jaune, Ren, Yang and all the others showing up next to them.

The blonde brawler grinned at me. "When I said take care of my partner I didn't mean you had to try to slay a Leviathan class Grimm for her. There's showing on and then there's being a kiss ass."

I grinned. "Have you SEEN that thing? It's worth a kiss or two. Keep them off me so I can check things out? I'm the only one here who can survive having their Aura broken, and that thing looks like it would swat most of us like flies." If one of them got killed it would be kind of a bummer, and Blake would be all moody after I brought her home. Plus I wasn't sure any of them had the juice to hurt it even if they got close.

She looked unhappy, but finally nodded grudgingly. "Alright, but be careful ok? Being able to take a hit doesn't make you immortal. I should know."

Choosing not to comment because explaining my immortality would take too long, I snapped off a casual salute and then turned and bolted for the mask. Jumping easily up to the top of it, I started to slide down, using my fingers as makeshift claws to slow me. It wasn't super comfortable, but as they got torn up they became molten hot, which helped.

When I got to the first eye, I made sure it couldn't actually see me as I took position. I didn't think it could feel what was on the mask, this was all bone and at this size there was no way it was picking up vibrations. I waited, letting myself charge up as I pumped the fire in my chest. Then, Holding a hand out to Lucky, I grabbed my book and read out the biggest rank three fire Dust crystal I could imagine, shoving it into my mouth. Biting down, I almost screaming at the explosion of flames, but I ignored it and kept chewing, forcing the shards down into my stomach. Flames flooded my body, exploding through me and pushing my healing into overdrive, my muscles tensed and pulsed as I overclocked, but not enough to matter here.

Calling Vagabond, I grinned as my other self appeared beside me, hanging from the mask, and as one, we raised out hands and started unleashing twin Burning Sun Blasts into the eye. I didn't call Nightfall because I couldn't properly react to the fight without either of them, but my Id was more than happy to pick up the slack. We poured out torrents of concentrated flame, the mark refilling in an instant as the fire ravaged our bodies.

The monster roared, thrashing around, but being a scorpion didn't have much in the way of upward mobility, so we stayed locked in, firing away…but we weren't the only ones out here. I felt my blood run cold as a familiar shape dropped past me. A black clad, pale skinned girl with cat ears I knew pretty well by this point.

I watched Blake plummet toward the monster's slowly opening mouth, and I barely had time to think. I went over a few of the aspects of the fight so far and strung a few possibilities together. I had a faint idea of what to do, assuming a few of my assumptions were right. If not…well it wasn't like I could die permanently. "LUCKY!" I bellowed to my cat as the scorpion snapped out at her. "ALLY SWAP!"

If I'd had Vagabond in me, I might have hesitated, might have missed my window as my self interest warred with my desire to help her. Well, help her and enact stage one of my vaguely forming master plan. But it was just Nightfall and Ego Simon, and Ego Simon wasn't afraid of anything.

There was a flash in my vision, and I barely had time to process what was going on before I was in the mouth of the scorpion. Teeth crashed down on me, rows of serrated blades packed together like a fucking woodchipper shredding my body. The heat inside was burned off as I was crushed, minced, and torn apart over, and over, and over. I screamed, but it didn't last long because my voice box was annihilated pretty quick, and then all I could do was sit and suffer.

Eventually, it ended, and I found myself lying on…something. Groaning, I sat up, and as I blinked away the red of agony, I realized a few things. One, I'd dismissed Vagabond, two Blake was fine, he'd caught her, and three, Lucky had phased in here to find me, and was flying in circles around my head, meowing worriedly.

I groaned, standing up, and cracked my neck. Grimacing, I looked down at my clothes. My boots were wrecked, though still cohesive enough to repair probably. My mithril shirt was fine, obviously, and I hadn't been wearing my cloak, which was good. Stripping out of my current outfit, I read most of it into the book, which I held onto before looking around. Sure enough, I was in some kind of stomach. I'd kind of expected that.

Lucky meowed in annoyance, and I grinned at him. "Don't be such a wet blanket. I do have a plan. And it's going perfectly."

Admittedly, I'd come up with it on the fly. Seeing Blake fall, I'd considered she was about to get eaten and didn't want that to happen. More than that though, I considered what I'D just eaten, and what it had done to me.

I was lucky, because I'd been a bit worried this thing didn't have a stomach, but it appeared while baby Grimm had no organs, something this size developed a sort of inner chamber I'd ended up in. Off in the distance I saw a small black pond surrounded by rocks, and as I watched, the blackness writhed and pitched.

That explained the Deathstalkers roaming its outside. All the better. Opening my book, I started reading, fire dust, lightning, gravity. All the nastiest stuff I could think of, I read out a mountain of it, stacking it high into a glowing hill in front of me. After I was done, I handed the book to Lucky. "Phase out with this, and bring it back after I'm done."

He meowed at me angrily, both worry and outrage clear in his tone. I just rolled my eyes. "You have plenty more Dust. I didn't use it all, not even all the fire and lightning. We got a ton of this shit. Just be cool."

He stared at me worriedly for a minute, then took the book in his mouth and vanished, phasing out and leaving me alone.

I grinned as I turned to face the mountain of Dust. I'd gotten the idea from the crystal I ate earlier. I'd been able to survive, being an immortal, but anyone else would have died from that. Eating exploding magic crystals was a dumb idea for most people.

Glancing up at the ceiling, I prepared myself for another round of unimaginable pain. This was going to be horrifying, but it was going to be so much worse for the scorpion. "Sorry asshole," I said with a laugh. "I guess this is just my nature." Then I raised my still blazing hand and released the wave of flames condensed into my palm, and the entire world went red as the hundreds of pounds of high grade offensive dust ignited, going up inside the relatively small inner chamber of the scorpion like an atom bomb. Man, heartburn was a bitch.

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