"Mr. Jackson, please. Take a seat." Ozpin gestured to a chair on the other side of his desk and Percy cautiously sat down. The tall ceiling and wide room put Percy on edge. So much open space… he felt incredibly vulnerable.

"I just wanted to speak to you about a few things before the dinner. Namely, I wanted to discuss my proposal to come to beacon."

Percy shook his head. "That's still a no. As you saw, I think I can take care of myself."

"What I saw, Mr. Jackson, was an incredibly talented youth who is wasting his potential by refusing an education. You beat Qrow, yes, but he still taught you things, didn't he?"

Percy shook his head again. "Qrow's different. I haven't had anyone teach me like he does in… in a long time. That sort of thing, he can only get from a lot of experience. I mean, I've been through a lot for my age, but he's been fighting for his whole life, right? I can't get the same thing from someone who's taught classes their entire adult life."

"I assure you, Mr. Jackson, that all of our staff have the same credentials and skill—"

"You've been Qrow's employer since he graduated, right? So we both know that's bullshit. Drop the games. I'd accept that maybe some spec ops soldier in Atlas has as much experience as Qrow, but a teacher? Are you telling me the lady I met earlier has as much field experience as Qrow on top of running the administration of one of the largest huntsman academies?"

Ozpin smiled slightly, that smile that said that he knew something Percy didn't, and took a sip of coffee. "Qrow himself teaches combat schools at signal academy. Don't judge a book by its cover."

Percy snorted, leaned back, and crossed his arms. "She has manicured nails, Ozpin, and not a scar on her. Qrow has scars. I have scars. Tell me right now she has as much in field experience as Qrow and I'll believe it."

"Just because she hasn't seen as much com—"

"Yeah, whatever. You're not going to convince me, Ozpin, so move on."

Ozpin just sighed and set down his coffee mug.

"Well, there is the nature of your… less than savory activities."

Percy shrugged. When he arrived today, he'd have been tense at the implication, but he figured that if Ozpin hadn't done something already, he wouldn't now.

"If you do come to beacon, I'd have to ask that you cease those same activities."

Percy raised an eyebrow. He didn't plan on coming to Beacon anyway, and even if he did, he wasn't opposed to leaving his life of crime behind and trying at what passed for normal in this world. But he couldn't resist playing devil's advocate. "And why's that? I am helping things in Windpath. Crime has hardly gone up, especially violent crime. I thought you'd want me to help, if anything."

Ozpin took another sip from his mug. "Vale has a rising crime problem at the moment, but you would not help the situation, only interfere."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "So what, you don't want me interfering because I might run into one of your huntsmen?"

Ozpin shook his head. "No huntsmen interfere to stop crime. Vale will take care of that itself. The only responsibility of a huntsman is to protect people by hunting grimm."

"But Qrow has done more than that." Percy stated, and Ozpin paused. They both knew that Qrow had fought people too, not just grimm, and not just in a spar.

"Qrow is a… special case. He runs missions for me."

"And what sort of missions would the headmaster of Beacon need accomplished?"

Ozpin stared back at him for a moment of silence before an alarm went off, and Ozpin pulled out his scroll. "Ah, it seems we'll be late for dinner if we don't go now. I'm sorry to cut the conversation short."

Percy smiled as he stood from Ozpin's chair "I'm sure you are."

The dinner, Percy noted, was nothing like his last major dinner meeting.

For one, he wasn't planning on killing everyone (or even anyone) as soon as the dinner was over. For another, the food here was the kind of thing that he'd imagine the people in Beverly Hills back on Earth eating every night. Incredibly small portion sizes, the finest cuts of beef and poultry, caviar and oysters all filled the large banquet table in front of him, as opposed to the relatively cheap Chinese (Sorry, East Mistralan) food the gangsters in Windpath ate.

Despite all that, the most notable thing which had changed is that people in Vale talked business as they ate.

Percy had tried that once in Windpath, with Dan, the old man sitting next to him. It hadn't gone well. They preferred to eat, discuss, make merry, catch up, and then finally talk business. That wasn't the case in Vale.

"Mr. Perseus, a pleasure to meet you. I'm Jack Waters, the CEO of Emerald Capital. I heard you're doing some interesting things over in Mistral." Percy took the man's hand.

He was currently trying not to make a fool out of himself at dinner, and likely failing. He was the only one in jeans and a t-shirt, for one, but he didn't care about that quite as much as using some improper etiquette. Nobody had corrected him on which fork he was using, though, so he figured he was fine for now.

Percy plastered a fake smile on his face. "Please, call me Perseus. And likewise, it's a pleasure to meet you as well."

"Then call me Jack. I'm very interested in what you can do to help Mistral, and any investments I might be able to make, or if you need any help at all. Please, give me a call." Jack handed him a card, and Percy took it with the same fake smile.

"I'll be sure to do that. We could always use some more investment."

Jack nodded. "I'm sure you're running a bit low at the moment. Just giving away all that free income can't have been lucrative for your pocketbook. But rest assured, you're doing a good thing."

"I can only hope so."

Of course, Percy was hardly hurting for cash. He had more than he knew what to do with, in reality. But Jack didn't need to know that.

What Jack needed to see was a teenager who got lucky, and wanted to be a good samaritan by opening up Mistral's economy, perfect for someone like Jack, a hedge fund manager, to take advantage of. The Vale and Atlas markets were already beyond saturated. The companies here had been around for decades, and had already had the eye of every investor on them for years. There wasn't any real opportunity there.

But in Mistral, where the population lived in squalor and there was more available skilled labor than anyone knew what to do with? That was an opportunity, and only the people in this room, speaking with Percy, had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.

A day ago, Percy would have actually considered the man's offer. But Ozpin had enlightened him as to just how big of a deal all this was, and he intended to take it all for himself. A 'free' market, where he owned every business in Mistral in majority. That likely wasn't what Ozpin had in mind when he chose to inform Percy of what him creating a free market in Mistral actually meant, but Percy didn't care so long as Ozpin wasn't mad enough to actually do anything about it.

And Ozpin… wasn't a threat.

Don't get him wrong, he absolutely was a threat if he actually decided to do anything, but from what Percy could tell, Ozpin wasn't concerned in the slightest. Even when the large and rising amount of crime in Vale itself had been brought up in their private conversation, he seemed entirely unconcerned, as if it was just another thing which would go away if given a little time.

Ozpin seemed very intelligent, and incredibly influential, but not willing to do a damn thing with that influence. That was fine by Percy. In fact, he preferred it that way. Ozpin wouldn't be an obstacle that Percy would have to remove if he kept that way. Percy would just work with Ozpin for seemingly humanitarian goals, and they would stay out of each other's way.

The only potential misstep there would be Haven academy. Anything Percy did to influence Haven… Percy got the feeling that Ozpin wouldn't be a fan of people interfering with huntsmen or the academies.

"Don't mind Jack over there, he's just in it for the money. Albert Greene, a pleasure." The man on Percy's left held his hand out.

While Jack was a man in his younger middle ages, this one seemed to be approaching elderly, gray hairs completely covering his head.

Percy took the hand while Jack responded.

"Oh come on, we both know you're just in it for the money, too. Don't you have enough in the retirement account already?" Jack smiled playfully, but Percy could see clear as day that there was a tension between the two. Jack and Albert, it seemed, were not huge fans of each other.

"You know most of my profits go to charity nowadays. Heck, you were at my last charity banquet, weren't you?"

Percy was the schmuck these two were fighting over. To the world, Percy appeared as though he genuinely was just a philanthropist. How the news of him locking every crime lord in Windpath in a room and cutting them all to pieces hadn't spread, he had no idea.

But either way, they were trying to win him over by 'subtly' convincing him that they were the morally better choice. Convincing him they were the more philanthropic one of the two could potentially earn them billions of lien, depending how much they managed to play Percy.

Despite their motivations, Percy was content to let two of some of the richest people in this world try to impress him as much as possible. It could certainly have its benefits.

Percy locked eyes with Ozpin for a moment from across the table as the two businessmen sent jabs at each other, despite the fact that Percy wasn't listening to a word they said.

They shared a mirthful smile, Ozpin more than likely aware of exactly what Percy was going through at the moment.

Ozpin was placed almost as far away from Percy as he could get, to make sure that they both had room to maneuver. They were all technically here for Percy, but despite how much of an opportunity Percy presented, Ozpin was still the most influential man in Remnant, and a relatively reclusive man at that. Opportunities to suck up to him didn't present themselves often, and council members and businessmen were certainly getting their day's worth out of him.

Percy just held in a sigh as plates were cleared away. It was a painful dinner, but it would be worth it in the long run.

His thoughts were interrupted by Ozpin standing up and clearing his throat, causing a blanket of silence to fall over the table. "Thank you all for coming. As the courses have now been finished we'll be moving to the ballroom, where some additional guests will be joining us."

Percy screamed internally. A ball room? Since when was that a thing, and why did Beacon, a school, have one?

Standing along with the other guests, Percy let out a deep breath. He would get through it. It was just one night, how bad could it be? Ozpin mentioned others would be joining them, but more than likely it would only be a few people. He could handle a dozen rich guys fighting over him — or he would survive, at least.

Approaching the double doors on the far side of the dining room to what he assumed was the ball room, Percy perked up. He could hear chatter from the other side of the doors.

As the doors were opened before him, Percy cursed under his breath.

The ball room didn't have a few extra people in it, not even close. Instead, dozens of men and women dressed in high class, expensive outfits had greeted him on the other side.

He was stuck maneuvering and taking business cards the best he could in jeans and a T-shirt. But he had just excused himself for a drink, and planned on using the time to catch his proverbial breath.

This plan was, of course, foiled. Someone sidled up to the bar on his left as Percy waited for his drink to be made, and he tried not to let his disappointment show on his face.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Percy turned to greet the inevitable, allowing a small, fake smile to come across his face. "It surely is an experience."

The man — a man who had comically bright silver hair and was wearing a silver suit to match — snorted around his drink. "Well, that's the truth at least. These things are hardly enjoyable but I've only got a few more months of them at least." he turned to offer Percy a hand. "I'm Romeo Fox, the CEO of Johnson & Wesserschmit."

Percy nodded, appreciating the honesty at least and grabbing his hand back. "Perseus. What does your company do?"

Fox held in a laugh. "Weapons, actually. My company insists on purchasing the invitations to these sorts of things, but I rarely get anything done. Not many people want to buy weapons outside of Atlas nowadays. Oum, guns are banned in Vale and Mistral, what do they want me to do here?"

Percy held in his own laugh "Business not exactly booming at the moment?"

"The only ones that ever buy guns are the Atlesian military, and they're moving towards more expensive and heavier weaponry. Quality over quantity and all that. The only real sale we've made in the last 6 months is a bulk sale to some big shot in Mistral on the cheap. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I'm set to resign in about three months. We'll be lucky if we don't get run out of business by then, if I'm honest with you."

Percy raised an eyebrow, an idea beginning to take shape. "And what will you be doing afterwards?"

"I'll be moving to be a board member, on a cosmetics company of all things." he sighed, shaking his head.

Percy hummed. "When your company closes and all the assets are sold and all that. About how much do you think everything will sell for?"

Fox chuckled. "Kid, we're hundreds of millions of lien of debt. If we're lucky, we just might break even when the bank forecloses our property."

Percy whistled. "Damn, no kidding. Here." Percy took a napkin from the bar, noticing his drink had arrived while he was talking. He scribbled his scroll number on the napkin, handing it to Fox.

Fox took the napkin cautiously, an eyebrow raised. "And what am I meant to do with this?"

"Call me in a few days, I might be able to work something out." Percy grabbed his drink and pushed off the bar, leaving behind one confused CEO holding a napkin.

Percy nodded at one of the officers who reached out a hand to help pull him into the bullhead. The police officer was decked out with a cloak, mask, goggles, and helmet. He looked like one of those guys you'd see in a SWAT show, or a military movie. Not one inch of his skin was actually visible. By his side in a sling he had an assault rifle.

This wasn't an officer from Winpath who wore a more civilian uniform and had a pistol. These were officers from Mistral city, and the closest thing Mistral had to a military. Each one had months of training, and in great numbers even had the ability to take on a huntsman.

Percy hunched over as he entered the bullhead, taking a seat and looking at the other occupants of the six seater bullhead. Four more officers in matching attire manned the doors, two on each side, and a man was sitting across from Percy, his robes a spotless crimson red, as usual.

"How was the event?"

Percy yawned and stretched his arms, idly looking out the side of the bullhead as it took off from the middle of the emerald forest. "Boring, but I did accomplish a good deal. We should have no lack of funding now, not that that was much of a problem before. I also might have a way to cut down on some operational costs."

"Oh? And how's that?"

Percy smiled at Alexandros. He was a good ally, but he still had no idea that Percy was working with the White Fang. He only knew his people were allowing cargo to pass from one pair of hands to the other. Doubtless, he knew it was weapons by now, but he still didn't know who they were going to, or why.

"Don't worry about it, just know it's good news for us." Percy returned to looking out the doors to the rapidly moving terrain below.

He was supposed to stay in Beacon for the night, but had decided he'd rather be in Mistral. He hated wasting time, and staying in Vale was just that. So of course he had leapt out of Beacon soon after the banquet had ended and gotten a pickup courtesy of his new friend.

Percy tensed as each of the officers on the sides of the bullhead suddenly raised their weapons.

"My lords, please secure yourselves. We've gotten word of grimm activity in the skies."

Alexandros shook his head as he quickly strapped himself to his seat. "I knew it was a bad idea to pick you up in the emerald forest."

Percy sighed. "I hate flying."

Lifting himself up slightly to look out the side of the bullhead, he looked behind them, only to see an enormous moving black blob, only identifiable against the night sky when it blocked out stars from view.

"What is it? I can't see it from here." Percy asked the uncomfortable police officer next to him.

"We believe it's a larger variant of the grimm nevermore species sir. Again, it is strongly recommended that you secure yourself in the bullhead. We believe it'll catch up to us soon."

Percy wasn't too up to date on his grimm species, but even he knew the basics like nevermore and beowolves. In order to take something out of the sky like that, he'd need some sort of advantage.

Extending his senses, Percy smiled slightly and braced himself, having to wait only a few seconds before—

"Be right back."

Percy flung himself out of the bullhead, sending the police into a panic behind him.

He felt the warm, humid wind on his face for several seconds while he couldn't see anything and was briefly reminded of Tartarus, before he landed in a rather small lake. But it would be more than enough for what he needed.

Coming to the surface, he looked over at where the nevermore had been, tracking its movements. After deciding he had a general idea of how fast it was going and how high it was, he dived back underwater until he was touching the bed of the lake.

8 seconds.

He sat impatiently, waiting for the nevermore to grow closer.

5 seconds.

Tensing, Percy prepared to jump, coalescing the water around his feet.

3 seconds.

2 seconds.

1 second.

Now.

Percy leaped with all his strength, urging the water to rise with him and launch him as if from a slingshot. Pressure that had been building up beneath his feet suddenly erupted, sending him hundreds of feet into the air.

And right into the path of the nevermore.

Percy landed on the lower back of the nevermore, having to grab on to the stems of the razor sharp feathers in order to stay on.

This quickly proved even more necessary as the nevermore got a face full of a pillar of water, shaking, twisting and turning to avoid the perceived threat and shake itself free of water.

Percy held on for dear life, clutching the stems of the feathers so hard that one nearly fell off, his feet hanging in open air. Soon enough, though, the nevermore was back on course, hunting down the bullhead like before.

Percy pulled himself forward feather by feather, making sure to avoid the razor sharp edges when he could, and tanking it with aura when he couldn't. With how fast the nevermore was going and how much the wind was pushing him backwards, it was almost akin to rock climbing with feathers.

After about a minute, Percy heard the crack of bullets whisking past him, and then soon after the sound of guns firing. They were shooting at the nevermore to attempt to kill or at least dissuade it.

Percy glanced down at the feathers below him, each one of which were several inches thick in the middle and as hard as steel, overlaying each other like a plate of armor. Yeah, that wasn't going to get much done.

Luckily for them it didn't need to. Percy pulled himself onto the top of the Nevermore's head, shrugging off a bullet which impacted him on the top of his shoulder.

Reaching into his pocket, Percy uncapped Riptide and shoved it into one of the wide open eyeballs of the nevermore.

It screeched, and predictably started flying evasively. Percy made sure to secure himself, his right hand digging Riptide even further into the grimm's skull while the other grabbed a tuft of feathers, gripping until his fingers turned white.

The nevermore flew crazily, going in circles, hanging upside down, and even diving into the tree branches to try and shake its attacker. Eventually, it crashed into the ground, Riptide doing too much damage to whatever constituted for a grimm's brain.

Percy looked to make sure he wouldn't bodyslam a tree before leaping off the nevermore, coming to a rolling stop a few meters from where the body of the giant bird was slowly dissolving.

Percy wiped some black blood from his face and pulled out his scroll, calling Alexandros' number.

"Hey, I need a pickup."

"I didn't know you were a huntsman."

The bullhead ride back to Mistral was silent with the exception of the police shuffling uncomfortably. They had landed at Alexandros' estate and sat in his living room before the silence was broken.

Percy was in the middle of pouring himself a glass of some sort of vodka mix when Alexandros broke the silence.

Percy just shrugged in response. "Ozpin's main reason for inviting me to beacon was to convince me to attend this fall, not any economic shenanigans."

Alexandros leaned forward. "But still, to take care of such a large grimm… you must be a skilled huntsman for your age."

Percy glanced out the nearest window and yawned, taking notice that yes, it was very dark outside, and yes, it had been dark when he left Vale. He was fighting to stay awake at this point.

"I don't know how I stack up compared to other huntsmen." he lied. "But I can hold my own, yes." That being said, him taking out a nevermore really wasn't that big of a deal. Qrow would have been able to do it with his eyes closed, just as Percy would have been able to with the wave of a hand if he was willing to be a bit more blatant with his powers. The difference between huntsmen and civilians, he presumed.

Alexandros shuffled in his seat for a moment. "I have a daughter who's about the age she'll be able to compete in tournaments soon. Would you… be willing to help train her? I would be willing to pay you handsomely."

Percy tipped back his glass, hiding a snort at the proposition.

He put the glass down, considering for a moment. "I'm not interested in anything you could pay me, but I'll try as a favor to you."

Alexandros brightened, and Percy held back a laugh at the amusement he felt seeing such a distinguished man perk up.

"When can you meet her?" Alexandros asked.

Percy rubbed his neck. "Tomorrow morning is fine." he checked his scroll and winced. "Actually, make that tomorrow afternoon. I'll be here."

Alexandros nodded. "I should retire, then. Would you like an escort to your residence?"

Percy shook his head, standing up. "I'll be fine on my own, thanks." he stretched. "I'll see you tomorrow." he said, waving as he walked out of the room and was escorted to the front door of the manor.

Percy let his eyes close for a moment as he walked out of the villa. He really, really wanted to just go back to his hotel and sleep, but he had one more thing to do tonight.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he walked through the streets of Mistral until he got to the elevator system. It was very hard to get a pass for the elevator system down towards the bottom of Mistral, but at the top where he was now it was practically handed out. Percy was sure that was completely coincidental and had nothing to do with the relative wealth of the areas.

Stepping into one of the fancy elevators, he selected the street level he wanted to enter, wincing as he hit the option for the lowest level, knowing what would await him.

Percy stood impatiently as the elevator descended quickly, the walls blurring as he was sent hurtling down the mountain before he was enveloped in darkness, entering the inside of the mountain.

When the elevator stopped he stepped out into the abandoned elevator station. It was strange how similar the place was to a subway in New York, just… vertical. But nobody down here would be able to get a pass, so it was nigh empty. After all, you couldn't have poor people with easy access to the upper levels, could you? Not in Mistral, at least.

Percy made his way out of the silent station, his footsteps echoing on the marble beneath him.

Stepping out onto the street he ducked his head. He was a fair bit taller than the average person here, but he did his best to blend in with the locals.

Even on the bottom level he had to go some distance to reach where he was going. Slowly more and more people wore hoods and jackets in the mid-summer night. Less and less did streetlights populate the streets, and less and less did lights stay on in the few shacks and apartments there were.

Percy paused before a warehouse with a small group of guys hanging out in front of it, glancing at his scroll. Yeah, this was the place.

Percy walked towards the entrance, each of the men in front of the door taking notice of him and quickly moving to intercept him.

When Percy got close enough one laid his hand on Percy's chest, applying slight pressure. "Sorry, private property. Nobody's allowed inside."

Percy raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the faunus. Some sort of lizard, if the scales and claws on his hand were any indication.

One of the others elbowed the lizard faunus. "Yo, that's Perseus you idiot."

The lizard dude's hand was withdrawn like Percy's chest was a hotplate, and he quickly stepped back. "Oh, uh, sorry. Just… security and all that."

Percy ignored them, passing through their rapidly parting group and walking through the rusted warehouse door into the unlit warehouse.

There was a bevy of motion, though. Faunus workers called out to each other and stacked crates on top of one another.

Percy would have been blind if not for the giant skylights on the roof of the warehouse, filling the building with moonlight enough for Percy to make his way around to the back office and walk in.

"Took you long enough."

Percy shut the door and turned on the lights in the small office, setting himself down in the small chair on the opposite side of the desk.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you had nobody waiting for me?"

Adam Taurus snorted. "I'm sorry princess, did I hurt your feelings by not having an entourage?"

Percy narrowed his eyes. "The men at the front almost didn't recognize me. I'd hate to get blood on my shirt." Percy chose not to mention that if there had been a bit less of a moon out tonight then he'd have had to either turn on the lights or stumble his way into the back office. "Anyway, what am I here for? And where's Sienna?"

"Sienna's back in Menagerie running recruitment and PR for now. I've been left in charge in Mistral."

Percy raised an eyebrow, the obvious going unsaid. Adam was young. Like, probably younger than Percy young. And yet, he was running the main operations of the largest armed resistance on the planet.

"So what do you want? I don't have all night."

Adam leaned forward onto the small desk, likely meant for a foreman or some such thing.

"More."

Percy sat back, unimpressed. "More what, money? Weapons? Why should I give you more? I already did what I said I would and I'm getting all the dust you guys capture. How does this help me?"

"You could not give us what else we need. You could pinch pennies. We'd grow eventually, that's for sure. We'd capture railcarts, execute Atlas soldiers, kill SDC guards and take their weapons. We'd slowly claw our way up the ladder until we were able to stop SDC production entirely. But why wait? If you consistently supply us with weapons we'll be able to get far more dust for you. If today you put a rifle in the hands of every faunus in the White Fang, I could more than double the dust you get by tomorrow."

Percy considered it. He needed Shiro here, or something. He was far from stupid, (at least, he thought so) but he was hardly acclimatized to these kinds of conversations either. He had done what he did to Windpath because back in America that was just basic economics every kid was taught in high school — not that he had paid much attention.

"I'll get back to you."

"When?"

"When I get back to you." Percy narrowed his eyes at the bull faunus. He wasn't one for power moves or political games, but he wasn't going to be walked over either. "Is that all?"

Adam straightened from the desk and grunted his assent.

Percy rolled his eyes and stood up, couldn't the kid just use words?

Percy walked out of the building immediately after, ignoring the eyes on him. He just knew he would have to make some calls tomorrow.

Unfortunately, no weekly updates this month. I have a myriad of things to blame all the way from finals and professors to pixelmon and friends, to life in general. But I can thank Methos and Kolton for sponsoring me on pat reon. It's certainly given me the motivation to write knowing somebody's paying for my lazy ass to write, even just a few dollars a month. That's linked at the bottom, and on my profile. Chapter 12 will be put up there today as well.

Come hang out in Discord: Discord .gg/kYCPuAw

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Weekly updates will very likely start in January and continue at least for the rest of the month, probably a few weeks after that.

Hope you enjoyed!

Next chapter: January 17