AN

Apologies for the delay, trying to break into Emergency Medical Services and my big important $100+ tests are coming up real fast, so you can safely assume where my priorities are.

Chapter 18

For the Record

Funny, thing: There's still a smaaaaaall part of me that is scared shitless Cinder knows what I'm doing, and is just letting me do it to see how I act in the wild. To see if I'll slip up and give her something from Earth that she can use. Like, maybe she's waiting for me to give the Justice League the secret to nuclear weapons, and then she'll gobble that shit up and - oh! Vale got obliterated with the push of a fucking button!

I mean, I checked all of my bases. Dotted all of my 'I's, crossed my 'T's. I went over my jacket three times with a molecular-level radar pulse, no listening devices. Checked my aura, nothing weird. Left my scroll here in the Garden, no chance she could bug that. My earth tech is still on the aviator, so she can't have tampered with that. Constantly used the radar to check for pursuers, doubled back more than a few times just in case... I even followed the advice from that Spec Ops Survival Guide I mentioned I'd grabbed from the plane, a long time back. Remember that? Yeah, it still has some use. Glad I didn't burn it.

Hell, I'm also starting the arduous journey of learning how to write in code, such that even (god forbid) Cinder learns how to read Earth English, she won't be able to make sense of my journals. I'm turning into fucking Light Yagami, here, folks! (I'm not going to make a 'chip to eat' joke. That's too easy.) The point is, no matter how thoroughly I check everything to make sure there's no way Cinder's onto me... I'm still just the tiniest bit worried.

I mean, for chrissakes - she's a demigoddess, now. Half of the real deal, compared to my 'kindasortamaybewedunno'.
Is it paranoia if they're really out to get you?

Anyways, all that to say: I met up with the League today. It's me, Qrow, and Ozpin.
Much as I'd like to call us the Illuminati, earlier I decided on the Watchmen, and that sounds cooler, so I'm keeping that. The League is Ozpin's faction, the Watchmen is the three of us.

It was kind of funny, actually - I was walking up all swaggerific, thinking I owned the place. Qrow promptly beat my ass into the ground, so badly that I had to pull a Commander Shepard and shove a gun in his gut to get him to stop. Then we shot the shit for a while, and then he dropped the bomb: Ozpin had been there the whole time, somehow even fooling my radar pulse.

I'd been played from the start. I thought I had everything in control, but I'm not even a student compared to those two masters.

But, it worked out in the end. Watchmen: Formed. Ozpin and Qrow are on my side, and now I'm not alone. They promised not to divulge even my pseudonym out amongst the rest of the League, so for now, it's just them knowing about the whole Green Hornet deal. I honestly think Ozpin already knows what I look like, maybe he can even read my mind, but I'm keeping up the whole 'Batman Anonymity Method Acting' thing going until I can't anymore. For my own sanity, at least.
I mean, for chrissakes, the mask I got from my first visit to the Garden is pretty much one of those muzzles you see the psych patients wear, albeit less... Muzzling. Point is it masked the important half of my face, a pair of goggles hid my nonexistent eyes, and I wrapped my head up in a big ol' shemagh to hide my bandages. So as much as I'd like to assume Ozpin already knows (he fooled the radar, after all!), I'm going to operate as if he doesn't until I know otherwise.

My throat feels like it's on fire, by the way. I need to get to work on using my semblance to screw with sound. Go from Bale's Batman to Batfleck.

Anyways, point is: I've got allies now. Hooray!

Problem: I need an excuse that the Legion will buy for me spending a lot of Mercury's money on burner scrolls... And though I've already got an idea... I've got a horrible feeling in my groin that I may come to regret it.
Neo may have her use yet.

But the problem with that, is I already fucked that potential avenue up by not thinking and giving her my primary number.
(Oh my god I'm actually considering voluntarily dating Yuno Gasai. When did I lose control of my life?)

Maybe instead I can start siphoning small amounts of money off with every purchase I make? Squirrel it away into bank account, and use that for my burner phones?

That might work better.

Thinking on it, maybe I can merge the two. Convince Neo that, god forbid she gets caught and they go through her scroll, 'they' could find my number in there and use it to track me down. That puts Cinder's operations at risk, and that's bad juju. So instead, maybe we can start picking up burner phones, link them together with free messaging apps (like Kik from back home). That gives me a plausible reason for pissing away money on burner phones, and also a reason to squirrel away money to a personal bank account.

And to keep up good feelings between the two of us I can download the app on my primary scroll, shoot her a message if I ever think too much time has passed. I've learned that, while good, there is nothing on Remnant even approaching the levels of techno-sleuth the NSA reached back home. Tracking scroll numbers? Possible. Tracking IP Addresses? Less so. Figure that one out.

Problem: This means I have to date Yuno Gasai.

Uuugh... What Would Nathan - actually, he'd probably make a 'don't stick your dick in crazy' joke, let's be honest here.
Fuck me.

Who knows? Maaaaaaaaaybe she's actually nice when you get to know her? It's not an absolute impossibility that I'm blowing this all out of proportion... Right? Yeah? Maybe I'll come to enjoy it? In a... Sick... Twisted... Sadistic... Morbid curiosity kind of way, but still.
Or, you know, eventually she'll figure out what I'm up to and cut my genitals off.

But let's not think about to that.
(Ahem... note to self: Buy a cod piece.)
(Ten cod pieces)
(No, twenty.)
(And wear them at the same time, whenever I'm in the same general... Planet, as her.)

So that's that problem fixed.

We'll actually be meeting up with them soon, so I need to get to work on that pretty fast. (Gotta practice my Johnny Bravo.) And since the Legion seems to... Well, at least Cinder approves - I doubt Mercury gives two shits - I won't have to worry too much on that end. I did already kind of set this up, with that whole 'find a girl, settle down' comment I dropped on Cinder.
Makes me wonder how Emerald would have reacted.

After them, we fly back to Taurus... And after that? Fuck if I know, my knowledge is kind of useless until I hear about Torchwick fucking up a dust store robbery, and even then, I don't know very much about what the Legion does in the background of all the RWBY shenanigans. If I had to guess, maybe we'd be trying to find someone to replace Emerald, seeing as how we can't rely on her semblance to fuck shit up in the Vytal tournament anymore.

What I'm hoping to do is make the whole communications issue a non-issue. Once we're done with Taurus I hope to have nothing but time (or at least a lot more of it), and I'm going to use that to bridge Earth and Remnant tech. The keyboard stuff I mentioned awhile back is only part of the dream - what I really want to do is set up some kind of application that reprograms my phone, that way I can use it to connect to the CCT Network, and make calls to Remnant devices. Then, I won't have to piss away money on burner phones, as I'll have a reliable, uncrackable method of communicating with the Watchmen.

I figured out how to use Remnant Tech to charge Earth devices, I can do this.

But before that, I'm going to sleep.

Oh, uh, shit. I forgot to mention: I told them the whole 'Masters' theory Cinder and I have running... Thaaaat I told the Watchmen about, because I think, of anyone, they may need that kind of information as much as I do.
Simply put: Cinder thinks I'm a god.

No, that's not a joke! I didn't tell her about nuclear physics and now she worships me like a caveman would worship a fighter jet pilot, I mean she actually thinks I'm the male equivalent to Remnant's Maidens!
Side note: As a fan of the show, that phrase actually pisses me off, because I know there's no such thing. They were pretty adamant about that.
But as some random asshole trying to survive here? The prospect excites me.
Also: I really need a better way to phrase that. Ozpin was right, it sounds ridiculous.

Anyways, remember I said during our fight that I grabbed ahold of the lightning Amber made, and electrocuted the shit out of her with it? I already mentioned that Cinder is using that as her evidence. She thinks that, at the very least, I still have a lot of power I still haven't tapped into... A veritable aura 'fight or flight', if you will... But the operative word was 'very least'.

As in, she thinks there's a better option.
And apparently, that option is the Master theory, that the same 'magic' that fuels the Maidens, fuels me.
She coined the term 'Master' to describe it... As in, the male version of Maiden.

Christ that sounds so stupid, saying it. And I thought the same thing, too. It sounded just as ridiculous hearing it from her mouth. But as we got to talking, I got to thinking, and realized that my powers (and the peculiarities of them) are pretty similar to what we've seen of the maidens, thus far.
Now, to preface this... As time went on and I realized this theory held more weight, I did try to convince her that the fight or flight theory might be the better one, mostly by not saying shit and keeping most of my conclusions to myself... But Cinder's one crazy lady. She smells power, she doesn't listen to anything that says otherwise.

So, I noticed that our methods of defending ourselves are almost identical. We don't rely on our aura as much as we do our powers. Then too are our abilities similar - this may seem far-fetched, but think about it.

What is freezing leaves but slowing atomic movement? What is creating fire but exciting atomic movement? What is creating a huge layer of clouds but fusing a bunch of hydrogen molecules with a bunch of oxygen molecules? And the lightning storm could easily be created with the leftover electrons from the atomic recombinations, in addition to the ambient energy created by the friction of all of that mass rubbing against eachother? And finally, what is pulling an apple out of thin air but atomic reconstruction on an infinitely complex scale?

"Well, fine -" You say, "- it's just magic. That's their shtick. Magic."
But what is magic but science we don't understand?!
You show a smartphone to a British Empire-era guy, they'd think you're a fucking wizard!

And what have I theorized I can use aura to do, with science? I've theorized I can freeze things to absolute zero... Ignite the air to create plasma - I've basically, in some way or another, and at some point or another, listed out everything above as being possible through my semblance.

Not enough?
Okay, well get this:

After I thought about how a lot of their powers could basically be tied into telekinesis, I considered, 'well, how could they do things on such a small scale, with such picture-perfect accuracy?', and then I realized - thats where the 'magic' plugs in. Without using it, they would have to do everything themselves, but with their Maiden 'magic', all they have to do is think 'apple' and then their powers do the rest, rearranging the atoms in the environment around them until they get an apple. As long as they can visualize it, Green Lantern style, they can have it.

Does that sound familiar?

Because that's exactly how I've found my semblance to work. I want to pick up my phone? I have to visualize it getting picked up and floating over to me. I want to fly? I have to visualize how I want to do it - be it Iron Man style or Superman style, it has to be there in my mind. I want radar? I have to visualize the pulse, start feeling out, as if I could physically touch and feel every surface.

Oh, that's not enough either?

Cinder's had half of the Maiden's powers and has been growing in strength at an incredible rate. Now does that sound familiar? Like a certain 'exponential growth' I've been whining and agonizing about for weeks now?

And then there's that my powers seem to be largely distinct from my aura.
Now that may sound asinine considering all of the shit I've been talking about powering up my semblance sapping my shields... But even if I leave a little bit for the shields, when Mercury would break them, I wouldn't just go back to being human, or suddenly grow weaker, I'd still have obscene amounts of power I could draw on, when it's supposed to be aura that fuels semblance - and if one runs out, the other either ceases to function, or grows much weaker.

Cinder, as an aside, thinks that my telekinesis is a result of me sealing away all of these powers. It's what's leftover. That we just misinterpreted it as a semblance.

Now, the argument can be made, and I do acknowledge, that because I'm technically of another species than these people, my aura may just work differently.
But that doesn't eliminate the fact that there are a lot of startling similarities to my abilities and those of the maidens, and because I do it too much, of course it got me thinking.

Could this maybe explain why Cinder didn't just try to sap my power when she woke it up? Or why she's so borderline desperate to keep my loyalty? She clearly has suspicions, but I can't help but wonder if she knew from the very beginning? And if that's the case, does Salem know? Is that why she decided to pull people from my world? To potentially have an army of Masters and Maidens at her beck and call? Or did she not know, and get really lucky?

And as a side note, be it fight or flight or something more 'magical', could it be related to why my eyes hurt after I pulled Amber's lightning?
At first I'd thought I'd just burned my eyes, but I've seen lightning before, sometimes even up close, and that's never happened before.

Now like I said, this could very well be the result of me being from another planet, another universe, and technically another species. But if it isn't? Oh, man.
I'm basically Doctor Strange to these peoples' Avengers.

Fuck me, I need sleep.

'Till next time.

The Garden had been mostly quiet and empty when he'd returned; and both Cinder and Mercury both looked fast asleep when he checked downstairs with his radar pulse. When he returned to his room and dropped all of his gear, he fell asleep within seconds of collapsing onto his bed. More dreams about Amber haunted him once he returned to the Garden, wrote his journal entry, and collapsed into bed. Worse was that, now with his meeting with the Watchmen, they had taken on darker undertones, what with Cinder stepping around Amber and declaring she knew all along what he was doing. Then she shot him in the stomach and dropped him in a ditch with Qrow and Ozpin's bodies.

He didn't get much sleep, obviously, and the first thing Aldric did when he woke up was use his radar pulse to make sure Qrow's slip of paper was still in the strongbox with the RWBY SD card. It was still there, folded up perfectly, stowed away with the Garden coins that Mercury had never asked for the return of. That put Aldric's mind at ease as he collapsed back into bed, a cold sweat covering his body.

"Hoooo... Gawd." He breathed.

I've got the Watchmen now, so that means I can leave major plans to them... But I still need to come up with something in case what they do doesn't work, and Beacon still falls. He thought, resting his forearm on his head. The real question here is do I bring those two in on the whole RWBY thing, or keep that to myself? That would solve a lot of problems, but then it would make just as many. And I have to make this choice soon, 'cause in a year or two, all of that knowledge will be firmly outdated. Ancient history. Could I avoid the destruction of Beacon? He wondered, groaning as he raised himself up to a sitting position. What would happen if I do that? Christ, the show wasn't even approaching being done when I got plucked out of the sky. He planted his hands on his knees and pushed himself to his feet.

Let's assume that Beacon and Vale don't fall. That, telling Ozpin about RWBY or not telling him, at least warning him that Beacon's a target will give him enough time to plan and prepare a defense that allows the academy to stand. Cinder's fallback would inevitably be 'Fall Maiden Or Bust', and that would result in Ozpin and Pyrrha dying, but Vale still standing. He fell into a chair and slid on an undershirt, before pulling his power glove up and connecting it to the larger of his two scrolls, intent on making an 'incognito' version of the Cap Shield, such that he'd never have to worry about something like his fight with Qrow again. So Ozpin and Pyrrha, dead, but Beacon still stands. Ozpin would do... Whatever the hell it is he did in Volume Four and hop into that kid, so he's down, but not out, and the League would experience a net gain in the form of not losing Beacon. Vale might be contested territory, but with Beacon providing a safe zone from which to coordinate their efforts, them and Atlas could push back pretty quickly, once they get their momentum. He summoned the shield, this new one hardly a centimeter larger than the standard one, meaning it took up its neutral blue wireframe.

Assuming... Of course... That goddamn dragon doesn't wake up. That would put a damper on the whole thing... But if Pyrrha still dies, we can assume Ruby will show up, do her silver-eyes thing, and shut that thing up. Okay, so maybe Beacon falls regardless, but with the dragon sealed up again, they might still be able to use it as a staging grounds. He found the color settings much quicker this time around, and got to work setting up the metal options he had going for the Cap Shield, minus the colors. So... Beacon down, but not - fuck. That dragon throws things off... Okay, I told Ozpin here that they're targeting Beacon. He's a smart cookie, so he'd get worried about the dragon. If the dragon remains sealed, Beacon doesn't fall. If it gets unleashed, Beacon will fall. Okay, this I can work with. Soon the shield started to take on a dark gray hue, looking more like coal than bright, shiny metal.

So, Beacon falls, Salem moves on like the show. Beacon stands... I'd be willing to put some faith in her focusing a lot of Grimm on that area to keep the pressure up, so she could still move on like the show, and probably do a one-two punch at a later date, have two academies fall at the same time. Maybe assault a second academy and crack open the dragon, a lot of people would lose hope after that. Aldric suppressed a sigh. Should I let Beacon fall? Would that be better? God damn, what -

A notification popped up on top of the tablet-sized scroll's display, it was a message. Aldric had no idea that this scroll could sync up with the phone-sized one and display its messages, he leaned back in his chair, blinking in surprise. Obviously, it wasn't a number he recognized, considering the only ones he had programmed in were the Legion's. Unfortunately, while he didn't recognize it, that didn't mean he couldn't predict who it was from, after all, there was only one other person in the world who had his number.

The words 'Guess who?' were accompanied by a picture of the tri-haired mute herself.

Aldric honestly found himself surprised that it was a formal-looking picture, and that she hadn't tried screwing with his mind by sending him cleavage shots. He wouldn't have put it past her. This message did, however, remind him of the more existentially terrifying part of his plans with the Watchmen, and he dropped his head to the desk with a light thump, groaning as he realized he had to dedicate to this, if he wanted a believable excuse to be using Mercury's money to buy an obscene amount of burner phones. Even Walter White didn't have to deal with this - at least he had his own funds to spend in secret.

With a sigh, and a determined frown, Aldric picked his head up and clicked on the notification icon. Maybe that she sent a safe-for-work picture was indicative that he was blowing this all out of proportion and thinking too much. He certainly did enough of that.

You know... He responded. This could be anyone. You just sent a picture of yourself to a random scroll. I could totally claim to be the guy you intended to send this to and you'd never know. The snide. He couldn't resist. It called to him.

She, in response, fired back with: Your shield looks better in black, you should keep it that way.

Uh, what?

Frowning, Aldric felt further out with his radar pulse, and, sure enough, there was a certain short assassin in a jacket and a corset standing in front of his door, leaning on her umbrella, as she awaited Aldric's response. Further out than that, he could sense her employer seated in Cinder's room, two large briefcases on each side of his chair, as he conversed with the Lady In Red. Mercury, he could sense in his room, legs kicked up on a desk as he idly watched television.

How long did I sleep? Wow.

The Watchman rolled his eyes, and with a wave of his hand, used his semblance to swing the door open. Neo's pale, smiling face was revealed as he swiveled around in his chair to face her, bracing himself for what was to come. "So... Am I still asleep? Is this some kind of nightmare?" He deadpanned, a single raised eyebrow marking the only change in an otherwise neutral grin.

Neo huffed and rolled her eyes, typing something out on her scroll and tossing it to Aldric as she stepped inside.

"Oh, just... Make yourself at home." Aldric said, briefly following her and wondering if the sway in her hips was intentional, before he focused on the scroll.

A dream, more like. Now don't wake up.

Aldric suppressed a yawn, "a dream." He snorted, "I'll give you that." He said, tossing the phone back to the tri-hared mute as she sat down on his unkempt bed. "Don't want a chair, or somethin'?" He asked, his voice still lower and more rumbly than usual, still trying to wake up.

She didn't even make a written response, merely tilting her head to the side and arcing an eyebrow. This silent staring contest went on for a moment before Aldric realized her implication, and he chuckled again, leaning back in his chair. "Why bother when you're gonna get used to it?" He said in a questioning fashion.

This turned her smirk into a smile and she nodded, as if to say 'You're learning, now!'. After a moment, she frowned, and scooted up to the edge of his bed, leaning forward and holding out her hand; Aldric resisted jumping when she brushed her fingers up against the still tender flesh underneath the bandaged stump that was his arm, and though she didn't go so far as to touch them, he sensed her gaze briefly travel up to his bandaged eyes. If Aldric didn't know any better, or if he thought she was slightly less sociopathic, he'd think she actually looked concerned.

"How'd it happen?" He voiced, to which she nodded, and he shrugged. "We all got into one hell of a fight. Let me tell you - despite losing the arm and the eyes, I gotta admit, it was fun as hell." And he wasn't lying either, the only thing he regretted was actually losing his parts. "Someone we weren't really ready for came in, and..." He made a chopping motion with his hand, pantomiming cutting his arm off at the shoulder.

Neo regarded him a moment, before making a brief gesture, pointing to her eyes and then to him.

Though he was tempted to play up the blind card, Aldric decided not to, not if he wanted his little plan to work. "Can I still see?" She nodded, "well I'm playing charades with you, aren't I?" She frowned, and flipped him off, before scooting back onto his bed and making a waving gesture with her hand, indicating he could continue his work on his shield.

Aldric was tempted to fight it, but then he thought about her. She wasn't a dumb woman, just an arguably sociopathic one. She was functionally mute, the only way she could talk to him was through her phone - and those messages would show up on the tablet on his desk. The only reason he had to not be working on the shield was to look at her as they talked, but two things working against him in that area were his lack of eyes, and that she all but knew about his radar pulse. She'd been his opponent for his first fight, after all, and had claimed to have seen his fight against Yang Xiao Long. She may not know the peculiarities of his semblance, but he was willing to bet she knew he had a good enough sixth sense about him. She knew well enough that he could still see her even if he wasn't looking, so she was telling him to keep working such that their conversation didn't stall it.

Maybe she did care.

Or maybe I really... Really am fucking thinking about this too much. Lady waved at the shield. Probably a multitasker. Look at that, we've got something in common. Move on. Aldric nodded his head to the side, and turned back to his desk. "I assume you're here with Torchwick, over in the other room?" He asked, "surprised him talking with Cinder and Co isn't breaking any Garden rules." He deadpanned, as he focused on the tablet's screen, trying to see how dark he could get the shield.

He'd remember once reading about vantablack paint, which was supposed to absorb so much light that even crinkled tin foil would still look flat. It had something to do with human beings being completely physically unable to perceive light efficiently at that kind of a low level, and while he knew that this level was reached because of veritcally aligned carbon nanotubes, but was willing to bet that messing with the wavelength settings, he could achieve a similar enough effect. Exactly how it was able to do all of this? He had absolutely no idea - he'd always understood color to be light reflecting off of surfaces, and the color black being too little light reflecting off of something. So how solid light could somehow absorb itself to create a color approaching something like charcoal, let alone black, or vantablack, he probably would never know without being able to dip back to Earth. Nothing he had from the plane helped him out, in this respect.

A moment after his quip, a notification popped up. So you can see through walls! And if you don't have eyes, that means that's how you see everything, now! Does that mean you're looking in my shirt? She responded, cleverly avoiding his question.

Aldric noticing her grin even though he wasn't physically looking at her only really made her joke funnier, he had to bite back a grin. "I try not to think of that." He wasn't lying, either, it had taken him a while to figure out what kind of focus was enough such that he wasn't always getting a metaphorical eyeful of everyone around him. Typically what he did was a brief little glance to make sure there weren't any concealed weapons hiding on them - and the sheer number of hidden knives and small firearms the tri-haired mute had on her was astonishing. The micro-pistol and the boot knife she'd nearly killed him with were hardly even the tip of the iceberg.

She latched onto this like a vice grip. So you are! Now you have me at a disadvantage, Mister Aldric. You're lucky we won't be staying long else I'd have to be getting even. She smirked, before making an animated show of brushing her multicolored hair back behind her shoulders, pushing her chest out just far enough that it took prominence.

"You get off on teasing me, don't you?" Aldric asked, giving her a brief glance over his shoulder, and a smirk when she didn't even hide it, nodding yes. "So we just kind of skipped the whole 'awkwardly dating' phase, didn't we?" He turned back to his shield, as she crossed one leg over the other.

And every time we meet you see fit to remind me how perceptive you are. She responded, be careful how you say such things, Mister Aldric. It may sound as if you're complaining. She looked back up to him, her thin smile still on her face as she observed Aldric's body language while he read her response.

Aldric merely gave a brief tilt of the head. "Eh, I'll give you that." Now how to word this? "Kind of stuff was... Complicated, shall we say, in that village I told you about." Those very same video games, comics, and movies that he attributed his still living to may have had a role to play in said complication. "Despite the fact that you being a very accomplished assassin honestly scares the holy shit out of me..." He nodded, "I will admit it is actually kind of refreshing, it being so simple." Like the guy on the highway had said: Just make it smaller.

A moment later: Awww. He sensed Neo getting to her feet and approaching him, and then he had to resist the urge to jump when he felt a pair of hands sliding first around his neck and then over his shoulders, as she leaned over him, resting her head against his. The smell of mints flooded his nostrils as he ceased his work on his shield.

Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak - AGODDAMNSUPERPOWEREDASSASSINISTRYINGTOGETINTOMYPANTSJESUSCHRISTWHENDIDILOSECONTROLOFMYLIFE?! Aldric pursed his lips in a light-hearted frown.

"You're over there telling me 'oh no, work on the shield', and now here you are hangin' all over me." He hummed, "gonna be one hell of a relationship you and I have, you realize this." He pointed out.

There was a light huff, and one of her hands retreated, before it came back with her scroll, and Aldric watched as she typed the next message out. Even ignoring that it will likely be more often we have entire countries between us than we don't, consider what this is. An assassin working under the most powerful criminal in Vale, and a terrorist trying to take over the world. She patted his sole hand, thought about that, by the way. She let him read, before she got back to her feet and pulled out a spare chair.

He turned to face her as she unfolded it, and as she typed out her next message, Aldric could sense the dealings between Cinder and Torchwick going smoothly. He made a mental note to see if he couldn't tune his radar pulse a bit more, to see if he couldn't use it to hear as well as see, because he could see them talking just fine, but he was horrible at reading lips.

You're a smart guy, Mister Aldric. I don't have to tell you what I do for a living - I came pretty close to doing it to you. Neo wrote, giving him a wink at the end, that he would have rolled his eyes at, had he had any. And because I know you're smart, and I've gotten you roped up into this 'this' we've got going on here, I'm pretty sure you know what I'd do if I found out you were being unfaithful, yes? Her words said one thing, and her arced eyebrow and teasing smirk said another.

Aldric snorted, scooting back an inch and cupping his groin. "I've got an idea."

Her shoulders quivered in a silent giggle. Just one second. She gave him, before leaning back in the chair, legs crossed, and typing so fast that her fingers looked like a blur.

I wonder if she's about to go where I think she is... Aldric wondered, Is she about to do my job for me? Give me some spiel about interacting with the police regularly, so it may be a good idea to set up a less traceable method of keeping in touch? Holy shit I could kiss her. He watched her tap out her next message.

He was far closer than he'd initially thought, he realized, as she turned her scroll back to him. Well, like I said. You're smart, and you know what I do, so I'll keep it simple. Since I'm Mister Torchwick's Gardener, that means I deal with the police more often than he does. Aldric frowned, he had been close. I get caught to send messages. Typically my mere appearance in a precinct is enough to set many of the officers and detectives, both those of whom are on our payroll and not so, on edge. More often than not, any of the former who are thinking of 'cashing out', as it were, upon seeing me become too scared to act out, and any of the latter, upon seeing me, are once again reminded of how nigh-untouchable Mister Torchwick is.

He gets caught when he has lapses in judgement. Compare his five run-ins with police over the last eight years versus my... Much higher number. But he is so thoroughly connected to Vale, even with contacts burgeoning elsewhere, to the point where he has influence in the Council of Three and all levels of state police, that it would take a Huntsman investigation to thoroughly ruin him. She had no idea how right she was. And with all that we've been doing for you and yours recently, it may not be long until the Huntsman do decide to investigate us. The only people to whom dust is more important is the Schnee family. So if that happens and my scroll gets confiscated and searched, it could lead back to you and yours.

So, did he get a prize?

You know... That makes me wonder. I keep making these five-second goddamn predictions, and they keep coming true. Is that genre savviness, or actual foresight? Am I prophetic? Can I see... Like... The imminent future? Not days or weeks, not even an hour, but a few minutes? That'd explain a lot, actually, and if I'm supposed to be a 'Master', I guess it wouldn't be too out there, as a possibility. I'll have to look in on this. He decided, with a light nod to himself.

"You're trying to suggest we get burner scrolls." Aldric deadpanned, leaning back in his chair. "Hoooly shit. What've I stepped into?" He asked, running his hand through his hair.

She smacked him on the knee. Oh hush, you. She wrote, with a teasing grin. Yes and no. Going through a dozen different scroll numbers would be too much hassle. I like you, Aldric, but not that much... Not yet. ;) Aldric grinned. But downloading a messaging app, trashing the phone afterwards? Much easier. Don't even have to activate the number.

He agreed with this wholeheartedly - even more so that now he could pin the blame on her if the Legion ever got pissed - but he still had a role to play. "You spent an entire afternoon getting my number, now you're telling me you want to delete it. Why bother getting it in the first place?" He asked, with a humorous frown.

Her response made him laugh. Next time I saw you I wanted to freak you out.

Thus, he realized, the shield comment. She'd planned this days ago. He was willing to forgo asking if this meant Torchwick had set up the Garden meeting back then, or that she'd simply known an opportunity would present itself. After he finished clapping his hands, she had another line for him.

I'm glad that didn't go over your head. She told him, and besides. That little dinner date of ours was me ensuring you were worth getting to know. Taking down your number? That was defining terms. She said, with a sly grin.

"I thought that was this whole thing right here." Aldric yawned, making a gesture to his room.

No, this right here was you catching on. She countered. I also haven't heard you say no.

"Because I know what'll happen!" Aldric shot right back, a manic expression on his face. "I say no, turn around for a second, you take that knife in your boot and shove it in my groin." He laughed, cupping the aforementioned part of his body.

Her smile turned wider at this, and she shrugged, tilting her head to the side as if to say he wasn't wrong. And as she typed up her next response, Aldric sensed Torchwick and Cinder getting to their feet, their conversation having reached its close.

"Well, before you get too into that." Aldric said, attracting her multicolored eyes. "Seems like Torchwick and Cinder are about done. So how about we do this - you send me this app you want to use, yeah? I'll set up the accounts and stuff I need to get done on my end, and we'll go from there."

Hardly a second later, "oh Neo!" Came Torchwick's singsong voice.

He expected the light huff as she got to her feet, and he expected her to bend back over and give him a peck before she left. When he presented his cheek to her, however, he wasn't quite ready for her to grab at his face and right it back to her, whereupon the expected peck on the cheek turned to an unpredicted assault on his lips. Before he had time to properly react, or even consider reciprocating, Neo let go of him, ruffled his unkempt hair, about-faced and waltzed out of the room, a sway to her hips and a spring to her step.

Aldric waited a full ten seconds before he let out a deep sigh, and sank his head into his hand. One problem exchanged for another. Now he could excuse spending Mercury's money on burners, but he also had to deal with dating an assassin, whose threats against were said in such a way that Aldric couldn't tell if they were serious or not. He appreciated a snide sense of humor more than most would - he lived and breathed constant sarcasm - but in Neo he had met his match. His terrifying, lethal, romantic, match, who would probably try everything she could to kill him if and when it came to light what all he was trying to do.

Well I guess I really am a spy, now. Thought the Watchman, as he swiveled his chair back to his desk and slid in close. Keeping secrets from everyone... Working for one faction for another faction... Now I'm - though I hesitate to use the word - seducing a woman because it makes my job easier. Who does that make me, then, Light Yagami, or Revolver Ocelot? He wondered, as he slid all of the settings-sliders down, and watched the shield go from charcoal to jet black.

That was all he was able to do, as he sensed, with Torchwick and Neo's departure, Cinder quickly making her way towards his part of the Garden. Aldric let out a low huff, turning his chair back to his still open door. Cinder appeared moments later, and though there were words she had to say, they died on her lips when she got a look at him.

She arced an eyebrow, "working your magic, Nebo?"

Aldric frowned, and after a moment's thought, realized what she was referring to and wiped his lips on the back of his hand, the leftover lipstick getting wiped away. "Don't worry hot stuff, I've still only eyes for Mercury. If there's one man I'll let into my bed..." He said, with a thin smile.

Cinder shook her head, "we need to talk." She fell into Aldric's spare chair.

Aldric decided it may just be best if he killed any plans to work on the shield, today, and nodded, holding up a finger as he turned back to his desk. He exited the Power Glove's settings menus, and once he killed power to the scroll, he briefly smacked the shield, it fading away in a shower of black embers, good enough for now. He turned back to Cinder, and prompted her to speak with a nod, and a hand gesture.

"How do you feel about being a spy?"