1,344I don't own anything related to the RWBY franchise
Chapter 25 - past, Present, and futuretech
Author's Note:
I edited a few aspects of the last chapter.
First of all, I forgot to mention that Neo is currently moving around Beacon under an illusion to conceal her real appearance.
The mute psychopath is currently sporting an illusion that gives her black hair, blue eyes and makes her umbrella look like a mechashifting short-spear.
The second matter that I edited was in regards to some military jargon I wrote incorrectly in the chapter that I ended up editing at (two) readers' request. I was using 10 codes (such as 10-4), which are used more by the Police than the military, and as such, I have replaced 10-4 with the word roger, which means received and understood. I also used the word sitrep as a short form for situation report, when I should've been using the term mission briefing.
Author's Note Part 2:
A man by the name of George Devol of England invented the very first (very simplistic) robot in 1948.
Six Months After Jaune Freeman Escapes From Arc Castle, Atlas Grand Amphitheater…
After exiting the armor-plated hover-limousine that her family arranged for her use, Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, glided into the first venue of her first concert tour while waving serenely at all of the fans that were standing beyond the parking compound's fence. Of course, she never once even considered actually approaching the fenceline to sign the posters, lyric sheets and album covers that everyone was waving in her direction, but not because she didn't appreciate her fans…
With a full squad of Schnee family vassals observing every movement that she made, Weiss could not afford to interact with the general public in such a direct… and unsafe… fashion… She couldn't afford to give her father's people any excuse to remain on the premises, pushing around all of the people that they themselves vetted to act as her concert staff…
No, Weiss wasn't willing to do anything that might jeopardize the relative freedom that she was about to win from within the Schnee family's clutches, as the Atlas wide concert tour that she was about to take part in was for the most part… a ploy…
Of course, Weiss really was proud of her skills as a singer and songwriter, but that didn't change the fact that performing live for the general public definitely wasn't her primary objective, and it was far, far from her first priority…
But what it was… was working.
Immediately after Weiss parted from her security detail at the back door of the stadium, the omnipresent scrutiny that she was experiencing dropped away, replaced by a cautious indifference that Weiss found extremely refreshing. Dashing back and forth throughout the incredibly cluttered loading dock, an army of very uncoordinated and busy looking stagehands were trying to get her settled in for the concert she was putting on later that evening, and they didn't have the time to judge every movement, gesture, and facial expression that she made.
"Freedom," Weiss breathed to herself, as she glided through the loading dock and service hallways threading through the amphitheater, and then emerged into a backstage area erected within the vast, circular, arena that it contained.
In exactly a minute and a half, Weiss was scheduled to meet a Mrs. Owens, her brand new PR agent slash assistant, so that the two of them could organize the flock of headless chickens that was her newly hired stagehand staff. A swarm of dark blue denim-wearing teenagers, with little to no identifiers to make them stand out from each other, we're going waaay out of their way to avoid even approaching Weiss's general vicinity, which was actually very thoughtful of them… None of these blue collar workers existed within Weiss's social strata (or even close), and she wasn't especially eager to make an example of someone to keep them from being too… familiar.
No… The stage hands were doing well so far… Despite the fact that they were running around and yelling at each other in a fashion that was essentially negating any usefulness they might have, the stagehand staff were not the reason why Weiss was so frustrated at the moment…
Mrs. Owens… was late… which was inexcusably unprofessional under normal circumstances, and was completely unforgivable right now… After all, who was Weiss supposed to even speak to in order to smooth out the unmitigated chaos that she saw developing all around her. Without an intermediary to work through, Weiss was left just standing there in the middle of the staging area, watching everybody detour around her as if a wide invisible dome was encircling her body.
A perfect state of alienation that allowed Weiss to catch sight of the man's entry onto the stage…
Moving gracefully but with purpose, a black-haired teenage boy/man suddenly marched across the increasingly congested stage, carrying a whiteboard that he found in the corner into the middle of the room.
Due mostly to the fact that this man actually appeared to know what in the hell he was trying to achieve, Weiss found her eyes tracking his every move as he began drawing on the whiteboard with several different colored markers… The man appeared to be making a map legend (a color coded designator) for where everyone should place all of her gear…
According to the legend that the man quickly but clearly drew upon the whiteboard, musical instruments and parts should go into a green box, props in blue, stage elements in orange, lights in white, Dust in red, scaffolding in purple, clothing in gray, electricals in yellow, and everything else would be left where it was in the loading dock until it could be organized.
With the whiteboard legend completed and a small audience watching him work from the sidelines, the black-haired man picked up a tape measure and a large roll of red duct tape that was resting in the tray of the whiteboard, and then he dashed across the stage. Soon enough, he'd carefully measured out a five meter by five meter red box, and he was repeating the effort with green tape just two meters to its right.
Over the following half an hour, Weiss watched as the unknown black-haired man, calmly, smoothly, introduced both direction and purpose into the chaotic efforts of his peers, offering directions and making decisions as if he was merely brainstorming out loud…
Which made sense.
Merely by looking at the man's unadorned blue uniform, Weiss could see that he didn't have any actual authority over any of the stagehands that he was working with, which meant any leadership that he provided needed to be very subtle and non-invasive in nature…
The man was an organizational phenom… a humble and unassuming leader of men…
He was a diamond in the rough.
Without even thinking about it, Weiss found herself moving towards a purple box taped onto the floor, where the black-haired man was repositioning a large metal beam so that it would take up less space. Then she was poking him on the shoulder and staring into his smokey black eyes when he turned in her direction.
"Oh! Pardon me, heiress Schnee. Can I help you," the man asked, after sidling two steps backwards and then bowing at the waist.
"Yes, stagehand, you can indeed help me," Weiss immediately responded in a cool, businesslike tone of voice. "You sir, are going to be my Butler for the remainder of the afternoon… Do you know what the occupation entails?"
"Butlers… Extremely capable and efficient intermediaries and assistants," the black-haired man replied with a thoughtful look upon his face. "While I've never acted as a personal assistant, and I don't have any authority over my peers, If you detail exactly what you need me to achieve, I will do my utmost to meet your expectations…"
"We've come to an understanding then," Weiss immediately agreed while suppressing the sigh of relief that wanted to slip from her lips. "I will send you the actual job description via email along with my specific requirements, which means I will need to pair my scroll with yours. Needless to say, if the access code to my scroll is ever released to the general public, I will know it was you, and I will be very upset."
While the black-haired man's eyes did widen for just a fraction of a second, in the end his only real reaction was to bow a second time while holding his scroll hand out in front of himself.
Beep.
Pulling her wrist-holo-computer away from her brand new Butler's much less sophisticated scroll, Weiss turned away as she regarded the new information it contained… Of course, Weiss Schnee, as an Atlesian heiress, would never ask someone as unimportant as a stagehand to provide her with his name, nor would she react well to him volunteering his name unasked... Thankfully for her, in the act of securing a method of communication with the man, she also secured what contact information his scroll was programmed to share.
Below a photo of the man leaning against a wooden railing overlooking a cliff, was the following information.
.
Name:
John Freeman
Scroll Code:
EXH-FKJ-5632
Email:
JohnFreeman-
Address:
127 Orange street, South-side residential district, Atlas Colony, Atlas
.
With a small, almost imperceptible, smile of achievement, Weiss cued up the information that Mr. Freeman required from her, even as she turned back in his direction. "Read this article as we move. We need to be on the roof four minutes from now to meet with a VTOL carrying a grand piano…"
Then Weiss Schnee was marching off of the stage, with her newly drafted Butler moving quickly at her back…
One Year Later, Beacon Academy, Second Day of The Vytal Festival…
Heiress Schnee… My name is Bruin Brownrigg of the illustrious Brownrigg family, and I would like to honor you with my company at the Vytal festival ball."
All of the students that were changing seats at the end of Professor Port's Hunter Fundamentals class came to a sudden halt at Bruin's very public proposal, and for good reason… Men asking women to be their dates to dances was a relatively rare occurrence these days, as the men involved usually had more than one option, and they rarely focused on one…
Which is the reason why Weiss's response was obvious right from the get go…
"No."
That was it. That was Weiss's entire reply. It wasn't sharp, it wasn't angry, but it was humiliating in its succinctness and lack of any real consideration. Weiss Schnee barely even glanced up at the boy standing in the aisle beside her seat as she stowed a textbook into her satchel and then moved it to the floor underneath her feet… The classroom was about to undergo its transformation into an arena, after all. All of the desks were about to slide down between the barriers that would emerge in between the newly elevated rows.
"No… but… why," Bruin asked, unfeigned confusion in his somewhat nasally voice. "I'm a noble, just like you are…"
"You might be a noble… but you're certainly not a gentleman," Weiss countered with a dismissive roll of her eyes. "You and I are strangers, sir, and yet this ultra-public proposal of yours will lead our peers to believe we're… involved…"
"And so what," Bruin argued, a petulant expression growing across his bland and foppish face. "I'm this generation's Brownrigg heir. Any woman, including you, should be proud to be 'involved' with me."
While at first it didn't look like Weiss was going to respond to Bruin's words, after drawing in a very deep breath, she abruptly turned to face the boy directly and she pierced him with her eyes… "Mr. Brownrigg… While I do recognize that your blind arrogance is a consequence of your upbringing, this still needs to be said… You presume far, far too much, sir… and it isn't a good look on you..."
With her message delivered, Weiss immediately returned her attention to the arena that was forming below, dismissing Bruin as far beneath her notice… At which point Bruin's gaze slowly slid off the side of her face… and landed squarely upon the man that was sitting behind her.
Jaune Arc… The Prodigal Son…
"What I presume," Bruin growled out with a fierce scowl upon his face, "is that your Platoon Captain's already laid claim on you through a mixture of deceit, manipulation and abuse of his authority..."
For several seconds in a row, Jaune simply stared at the angry young noble, as he attempted to figure out the source of all the hostility… Then, abruptly, he snapped his fingers, as he suddenly remembered exactly where he recognized the boy's nasally voice from… "You're that boy that was riding on my VTOL to Croftlan Colony. The one that refused to land at a prearranged area… So… How'd it go then? How was your Initiation Test?"
In the moments following Jaune's question, snickering could be heard in patches around the auditorium, and he heard several people gossiping to each other in hushed but legible voices. Apparently, Mr. Brownrigg spent the first two and a half hours of the Initiation Test running for his life after dropping directly into an area full of B-ranked Grimm, until he finally met with a rather strong huntress that didn't have a partner yet. An outcome that helped him pass the test, but left him without a team or partner after the fact, because the Huntress involved refused to stick with him. Now the boy was placed on a stitched-together Platoon full of social rejects on the lower end of the team standings…
As it turns out, Jaune's question was a landmine, and he'd just slammed his foot right down on it…
"I scored far better than you ever could, no thanks to your machinations," Bruin spat out with his hands fisted white at his sides. "As a result of your deceitful little 'plan,' I had far more trouble finding a partner than I should've had."
"Because all of the trainees you might've met landed at the prearranged area that Jaune suggested, and then started collecting points within just minutes of landing," Blake suddenly pointed out from off to Jaune's left.
"Sounds to me like this Joker sabotaged himself," Yang concluded from Blake's left side.
Once again, sniggering could be heard all throughout the arena, but it was short lived as no one wanted to miss the drama that was unfolding.
"In reply to your earlier accusation, no, I have not 'claimed' heiress Schnee through coercive means," Jaune continued into the newly silent room. "What I have done, is ally myself with Weiss in an Atlesian sense, which means…"
"That the snow princess is still single," a handsome blue-haired boy interrupted from among the ranks of Sun Wukong's team. The man in question, Neptune Vasalius, happily pumped a fist up into the air along with his words, and then winked playfully at Weiss when her eyes snapped in his direction.
All of the sudden, all of the students milling around in the auditorium were experiencing an extremely rare event. It appeared Weiss Schnee was defying the odds, in the sense that she currently had several different men vying for her attention at exactly the same time…
Four rows ahead of Platoon Number One, the four youngest Arc sisters stared disapprovingly at Weiss, visibly judging her as a three timing hussy that didn't deserve their brother. Off to their left, the C,E and N of team CEMN, Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Neo Politan gazed up at Jaune as if they were starving and he was the buffet…
Due to the fact that correcting the class's assumption would make it look like he was rejecting Weiss's suitability as a partner, Jaune merely returned his attention to Bruin Brownrigg, and the way the red-faced boy was skullfucking him with his eyes…
"Everyone return to your seats and prepare for combat," Professor Goodwitch suddenly called out as she marched into the room and activated the class ranking hologram with a wave of her hand. Soon enough, through sheer force of Goodwitch's personality, the class's attention was returned to business as usual, and Bruin was stalking back across the room.
For the seventh day in a row, Jaune Freeman was called to spar with a trainee of a higher rank than he was, during which time, he once again displayed increased aura control, as he moved faster, hit harder, and perceived his enemy's attacks with advanced levels of clarity… He fought aggressively, he managed to avoid his opponent's highly mobile Semblance attacks, and due to his work with Blake and Pyrrha, his sword techniques were vastly improved from anything he'd displayed just the week before.
But then Jaune won his fight by negating his opponent's Semblance, again, as if he straight up refused to do so using conventional means…. Not only that, but for Oum only knows how many times since the beginning of the semester, Jaune crippled his opponent with the collection of rocks that he was carrying in his pocket.
When Jaune's opponent, Cindy Sterling attempted to use her short distance teleport Semblance to move directly behind his back (two meters being her maximum range), her Semblance suddenly failed to work because he'd scattered a small cloud of rock dust around her projected destination. As Jaune figured would be the case after his fight with Aiden Ochre the week before, his opponent couldn't teleport into a location that was already occupied by a physical object, because her Semblance wouldn't allow her to merge her body with whatever obstruction was in the way.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Due to the fact that Cindy Sterling didn't notice the cloud of gritty dirt that Jaune was manipulating around his body, she was completely caught off guard when her Semblance refused to work for seemingly no reason, and she failed to react in time to the brutal counterattack that the man was sending in her direction. As a result, Jaune's sword slammed down into the crown of her head with every scrap of his newly beefed up strength while both of her short-swords were held down at her waist in preparation for a backstab.
All of the sudden, Cindy was crashing down towards the floor with stars in her vision, which almost prevented her from teleporting away from Jaune's follow up attack. She did succeed in the end, but she wouldn't be able to negate the downward velocity that she was moving at because her teleporting Semblance wasn't versatile enough to decrease momentum while in transit. What's more, she'd have trouble controlling the direction that her body would be moving when she arrived at her new location because of the blow she took to the head and the disorientation it was causing her.
And the two meters that Cindy could travel via teleport wasn't going to be anywhere near enough under the circumstances.
Just a single instant later, when Cindy dropped away from her newest teleport location, which ended up being almost directly above her opponent's head, a black booted flash-kick (a back-flip+kick) slammed deep into her stomach, and she was launched clear across the arena at the speed of automobile traffic. A state of affairs that forced Cindy to teleport herself backwards over and over again at a rapid rate to prevent her body from slamming into the arena wall, which in turn forced her to deplete a large chunk of her aura reserves.
By the time Cindy managed to bleed off the momentum that her body was moving at, turn in the air, land upon her feet, and then raise her twin blades in a defensive, her aura was down to less than thirty percent, and she still had no damned clue how Jaune Arc managed to interfere with her Semblance…
Nobody sitting up in the stands was surprised when Cindy dropped to a crouch and patted the arena floor three times in surrender. Aura depletion is extremely uncomfortable, after all, and Jaune Arc clearly had her completely figured out. Instead, they were surprised when she walked up to Jaune following the fight, pressed her hands together in front of her chest, bent forward at the waist, and asked the man for a favor.
Cindy Sterling very politely and sincerely asked Jaune to (quietly) explain just what in the hell he'd just done to her Semblance…
And he did… because he wasn't a jerk.
Over the remainder of the class, Cardin Winchester fought, and defeated a boy named Sage Ayana from team SSSN, Mercury Black fought Pyrrha Nikos for just a single minute before giving up for seemingly no reason, and Cinder Fall surrendered to Olivia Arc in a similar fashion not even five minutes later.
It was clear to everyone in the stands that the members of team CEMN were not willing to fight all out, which likely meant that they were concealing their true skills for the tournament itself.
Third Period, Beacon's Library…
"I propose an alliance, so that we may crush General Freeman's secondary army before it can leave Vacuo's desert region," Penny conveyed to Yang, who was sitting across the table from her.
"I agree, but only if you float me ten of the Atlesian Paladins that you lifted from Ruby when you betrayed her back in Mistral," Yang replied with a flinty look in her eyes. "I'll need all the disposable fighters I can get my hands on to deal with your treacherous ways…"
Huddled up in a ball just to Jaune's right, Ruby watched the two girls negotiate with an adorably tearful expression upon her face, as the red themed brunette had taken it hard when her partner destroyed her armies and then annexed her colony.
Remnant: The Game, was definitely the type of board game that could destroy friendships, but then, it was also a decent way to spend a surprise free period. Apparently, Professor Oobleck had some urgent business to take care of for the day, with the end result being that this afternoon's class was self-study. A period of self study that Platoon Number One didn't actually require, because they were in the habit of listening to recordings of their lectures while training other skills.
Unfortunately, only four people could play Remnant: The Board Game at any one time, because it wasn't the most recent version that featured Menagerie as a playable Colony. For that reason, Pyrrha, Lie Ren, Nora, Weiss and Blake were watching the carnage from the sidelines, learning the rules, and waiting to take their turns.
Or at least, most of the platoon were engaged in the game… Jaune could see that Blake was more than a little bit distracted at the moment… which he assumed meant that she was heaping all of Remnant's problems upon her own shoulders once again…
After dropping his scroll-wrist down onto his lap, Jaune tapped in the following text message and then sent it to Blake's scroll: I have Junior looking into the White Fang's movements, and Penny has introduced monitoring programs into the school, military and Police server systems to complete a priority analysis of all their recent targets. We are not doing nothing, Blake. We're gathering intel.
In the seconds after Jaune sent his text message, the cat-eared ravenette glanced down at her scroll, stared at it for several seconds, and then bit her bottom lip as she looked up in his direction. At exactly the same time, her fingers danced across the hologram floating over her wrist, displaying a skill for texting that was exclusive to teenaged women.
The vibration of Jaune's scroll denoted Blake's return message, which he checked as soon as he finished rolling a pair of dice, picked up a random chance card, and then moved his main army across the ocean to Atlas's Southern shores…
Blake's text message was the following:
I can't just calmly go about my business like this. I trust that you're doing what you can, but I don't trust Ozpin or the Police because they don't know what's at stake. They don't know the White Fang like I do…
After reading Blake's message, and recognizing that the cat-faunus was going to act regardless of what he said, Jaune abruptly realized he needed to get her directly involved in at least one of his plans in order to keep her from pulling a runner…. And since he was involving Blake, he might as well go all in, and make a group project of it all…
"Ahem," Jaune suddenly coughed out, in the very fake way that is clearly designed to call attention to oneself.
Everyone sitting around the lounge space turned towards Jaune with newly curious expressions upon their faces.
"It has come to my attention," Jaune began with his hands steepled atop the table, "that this platoon has… enemies… that are encroaching on Vale with the intention of causing mayhem, and that moving in advance is far safer than merely reacting to attack."
"Uhhh shoot, Jaune," Penny suddenly interrupted with a newly sheepish look upon her face. "We're uhhh, kinda being spied on at the moment."
"We're not spying… We were just being playful," Sun immediately argued from atop a nearby bookshelf. Then the blond boy was leaping down into the lounge with a blue haired boy held in his arms like a damsel, and he was placing the boy down upon his feet with a comical level of ease.
"I knew they were sneaking up on us, but according to their whispering, they intended to pop out to say hello," Penny confirmed. "I'm sorry for not saying anything…"
"I'm at fault here, Penny, not you," Jaune assured his brand new lover with an internalized sigh of long suffering. "I shouldn't have started discussing private information in such a public place without any warning."
"It sounds to me like you don't trust me," Sun pointed out, his nonchalant expression thinning as he gave Jaune a meaningful stare.
"That's not quite right… I just don't have… certainty… where you're concerned," Jaune corrected.
"And how is that any different?" By this point, Sun's omnipresent smile was slipping from his face.
"My first impression of you is that you're a decent person and a solid Huntsman," Jaune clarified with a shrug. "On the other hand, since I'm well-aware of your real motive for approaching us just now, I also know of your desire to undermine me, which might compromise the coordination that I have with my platoon…."
While at first Sun visibly didn't know what Jaune was even talking about, his attention soon drifted in Blake's direction, at which point he froze in sudden realization… "Uhhh ohhhh… I see… My attitude back in the motel…"
Rather than respond to the newly interested looks on all of the women's faces, Jaune simply nodded at Sun, before deciding he needed to use his words. "Under normal circumstances, your desire to discredit me in Blake's eyes would be a minor inconvenience… but I can't say the same if we're trying to work as a team…"
"Isn't it against guy code to discuss all of this in front of the woman in question," Neptune suddenly whispered from off to the sidelines.
"Naw, Jaune's right," Sun slowly allowed with a self-deprecating sigh. "Jaune saved our lives, and then I spent the rest of the night chipping away at him… and we all know exactly why..."
When Sun somehow made his implied apology to Jaune an equally subtle confession to Blake, most everyone in the lounge area was impressed.
Including Jaune.
Blake, on the other hand, was currently face-palming herself, as she was taking the White Fang threat deadly seriously, and she saw absolutely everything that was currently happening as a massive waste of time.
And Neptune was about to make it worse.
"Weiss Schnee, singer, song writer, Huntress, heiress, and incomparable beauty… My name is Neptune Vasilias," the blue haired boy suddenly announced while performing a picture perfect Atlesian bow in Weiss's direction. "Unlike Mr. Brownrigg earlier today, I don't believe that I'm owed any of your attention… but I am a noble back in Mistral, which I hope will allow you to speak to me in a casual fashion."
If you only heard the words that Neptune said, then it was a very well-delivered self-introduction, specifically constructed to make Weiss as comfortable as possible without being overly familiar… Too bad the boy threw in a flirtatious little wink at the end, and a sly little smile that essentially negated his words by implying he and Weiss were sharing some kind of inside joke…
Jaune resisted the urge to copy Blake's face palming by focusing his attention on other things.
"While I do appreciate your… courtesy… Mr. Vasilius, I have decided to forgo most of my Atlesian formality until further notice, as it doesn't suit this location, the severity of recent events, or the fact that I'm currently following orders within a chain of command. Weiss replied in a gracious but wintry tone of voice… "Speaking of which… I'm fairly certain my Platoon Captain was speaking about something of some importance just now…"
All of the sudden, everyone's attention swiveled back towards Jaune, who was leaning over the table with Penny at his side, where they were manipulating a holo-emitter to project a topographically accurate map of Vale continent in the air… "Thank you, Weiss," he responded as he wrapped up his prep work and then slid back into his chair. "Mr. Wukong, Mr. Vasilius… If you desire to stay and listen to what I have to say, then please be seated."
After glancing around at Platoon Number One, and finding that they were all legitimately interested in the hologram that Penny was controlling at Jaune's direction, Sun and Neptune moved to a nearby bench, and then adopted far more serious expressions.
"The coast is clear up to fifteen meters," Penny assured Jaune as she depressed a button on her scroll, and the lights of the lounge decreased to perfect hologram viewing dimness.
With a nod, Jaune pressed a button on his own scroll, at which point a series of blue dots, black dots and red splotches suddenly populated upon the map's surface, along with a map legend hanging in the air above its highly detailed surface.
The Map Legend read the following:
-Blue Dots - Satellite Colonies untouched by the Grimm
-Black Dots - Satellite Colonies attacked, damaged or destroyed by increasing Grimm Activity
-Red Areas - Confirmed Grimm presence moving in large numbers.
As everyone read the legend and understood what they were looking at, they all started staring at the wide swaths of red that were populating the Northern side of the map…
"On the day that our first year class was organized into Platoons, Headmaster Ozpin briefly revealed this map in order to impart just how dire our current circumstances are," Jaune began with a gesture at the red-filled hologram filling the center of the room. "This map is updated by both the Vale government and Ozpin's agents, and it is not something that we're supposed to have unfettered access to… We do… and we have Penny to thank for it."
As everyone's attention slid in Penny's direction, the orangette smiled and rubbed the back of her neck in the sheepish fashion that everyone was learning to expect from her.
"At this point, you might be wondering how this particular map will help us find the White Fang, especially in regards to how they operate within the walls of Vale Colony," Jaune continued as everyone turned back towards the holographic map. "It's a good question, but let me ask you a question in return… What is the White Fang's emotional state…. How do they feel as they go about their business…"
"Hate…. They hate Vale, hate non-faunus people, and they're willing to destroy the world as we know it to empower faunus-kind," Blake described with a grim expression upon her face.
"Yes… Hate, anger, and violent resolve," Jaune repeated, with a nod of his head and a gesture towards his map. "Observe this map… To the North and North-West of Vale Colony, seven satellite colonies have been attacked over the last two months alone, three colonies have been evacuated, and large numbers of Grimm have been sighted by aerial patrols moving about the area. According to the intel that I've managed to… borrow… from the government, both Ozpin and the military believe that they'll eventually make contact with the White Fang in this area, because they believe this very angry band of terrorists are the actual reason why so many Grimm are congregating…"
"Because the persistent hatred and negativity that the White Fang feel would draw the Grimm in their direction," Pyrrha concluded.
All around the table, everyone nodded their heads in understanding, as the idea made sense, in a monstrous kind of way…
"I believe that they're wrong," Jaune suddenly interjected.
Everyone's nodding stopped on a dime.
"Modern warfare is rare, very brief, and tightly controlled" Jaune explained as he superimposed a hologram of Vale Colony atop the map of the continent and then moved the visual through a bird's eye view of the colony's absolutely gigantic boundary walls. "The Creatures of the Grimm make highly fortified and technologically sophisticated defenses an absolute necessity before large gatherings of people can form. What that means is that insurgent groups hiding within the general population are much more common nowadays than actual rebel militaries… and yet… according to Vale military's Intel group, the White Fang arrived in Vale in force... For that reason, it actually does make sense that Ozpin thinks the Fang are attracting the Grimm to the North… but that's the trick of it. That's the reason why nobody's managed to locate them yet, and why the Fang allowed their arrival to be witnessed in the first place…"
"Ozpin's looking for the White Fang's main force by monitoring the movements of the Grimm, but the Grimm aren't aggroing in their direction so it isn't going to work," Blake surmised, a split second before her complexion suddenly grew pale.
"The anti-human alliance that you asked the Fang assassin about on Sunday night," Sun mused out loud. "I thought you were just fucking with the guy because the Grimm don't cooperate… period."
"If all the Fang have managed to establish with the Grimm is a non-interference arrangement of some kind, that would be enough," Jaune deflected in order to avoid discussing the Grimm's so far unknown leader… "Either way, I believe this map and its findings are being used to mislead the people that are organizing Vale's defenses into focusing all of their resources to the North, and that doing so is leaving gaps in other areas that need to be filled."
"This all sounds like wild speculation to me," Neptune suddenly pointed out, in a carefully non-judgmental tone of voice.
"You're exactly right," Jaune immediately agreed with an easy nod in the blue-haired boy's direction. "My lack of anything even resembling credible proof is the reason why I was about to make a request of my platoon... Reconnaissance… I want us to gather intel on the Fang's location the good ol fashioned way, I want to share my findings with as many people in authority as possible, and then I want to let our superiors do all of the dirty work. Let me make myself perfectly clear right from the get-go. We - are - trainees… It isn't appropriate for us to fight battles that are better suited to the military, nor is it the slightest bit necessary…"
For several seconds in a row, nobody spoke, as they took in the map, and mulled over the validity of Jaune's admittedly out there theory…
"Soooo…. Day trip to Vale," Yang finally asked with a mischievous grin on her face.
Blake nodded first, followed closely by the rest of Platoon Number One, and then they rose to their feet as a sudden surge of adrenaline carried them out of their seats
"I don't believe the Grimm are in cahoots with a human, any human, faunus or baseline… but I don't mind wandering around the slum areas of Vale if it helps keep the Fang off Blake's back," Sun slowly agreed.
At first, Jaune merely nodded as Sun's beliefs didn't actually matter as long as their goals were aligned. Then he held up a hand, as he already had specific locations in mind for everyone to head for the evening, and wandering around in the slums wasn't one of them. "Actually. I'd appreciate it if you and Blake don a pair of costumes and then attend a White Fang intake meeting that's happening near the manufacturing district of Vale's Eastern quadrant."
"Sending us directly into the lion's den, huh," Sun asked with a pair of arched eyebrows.
"I'm doing it," Blake announced to Sun in a no nonsense tone of voice.
"You won't be recognizable as Sun or Blake, and you won't be alone," Jaune added just a split second later. "I intend to have Pyrrha, Ruby, Neptune, Yang, Nora and Ren acting as overwatch atop a nearby building, where they can swoop in to support you in less than half a minute's time.
"And where will the rest of us be going," Weiss asked, alluding to Jaune, Penny and herself.
"You and Penny will be heading to the Cross Continental Transit Tower, where you will log into the SDC's computer system using your corporate login, and Penny will assist you with her technological abilities," Jaune explained with a glance at Penny and then a meaningful look at Weiss. "This will be the first step in several steps that will help you achieve your goals, and it'll also allow us to gather more intel about what thefts the Fang have committed."
After biting her lip in a nervous fashion and then drawing in a very deep breath, Weiss stood straight and proud as she nodded both her understanding and her acceptance.
Yang, on the other hand, squared up in front of Jaune with an oddly determined expression upon her face. "If you don't mind, Jaune… I think I might join you tonight, because I have a… favor… to ask of you."
Due to the fact that he had Junior on his payroll, Jaune figured he knew what Yang's favor was going to be, but he merely nodded his understanding and then raised his scroll up in front of Yang. "Please type in your exact measurements for me…."
Every woman in the lounge area stiffened at Jaune's request, which forced him to raise his free hand in front of his chest in a defensive. "Please extend me some faith, ladies. I need to arrange a persona for Yang to adopt for the evening to be delivered to my bolthole property before school ends today, and I need her measurements if I hope to get it done.
"New… persona," Yang asked…
"I need to make you look like violence and tragedy mixed with an almost sexual disregard for the conventional," Jaune replied with his attention back on his scroll.
"Take plenty of pictures please," Ruby immediately demanded from Yang's right hand side where she playfully batted her little hands into her older sister's ribs.
"Absolutely," Yang agreed with a smile that contained more than one variety of excitement.
Six Hours Later…
After riding an airbus to Vale colony like any other students looking to get away from the school, Platoon Number One split up into three groups, all heading in different directions. Penny knew that Jaune originally intended to have all of his platoon-mates use the various motorcycles that he'd bought for them to reach their assigned locations, but that the man didn't fully trust Neptune and Sun yet, which meant revealing the location of his bolt-hole property wasn't in the cards at the moment.
And that was fine, as Penny could move as fast as a motorcycle if she had need, and what's more, walking towards the Cross Continental Transmit Tower or CCTT with Weiss was giving her a chance to get to know the woman.
The only roadblock in this process was a last second roster swap, as Neptune decided at the very last second that Weiss and Penny needed backup on their most likely completely non-violent task over at the Transmit Tower…
Needless to say, Penny was bemused by how shameless Neptune was in his pursuit of Weiss's attention, not to mention the way the boy was attempting to act as if he was completely indifferent to the woman whenever she actually did decide to interact with him… Jaune once told Penny that women don't like clingy men because eager to please and desperate aren't character traits that convey confidence and strength. For that reason, she could actually see why Neptune was attempting to act dismissive of Weiss to a certain extent… Unfortunately for Neptune, Penny suspected Weiss knew exactly what game the Mistralian noble was playing, because the Atlesian pop idol was ignoring the man's presence entirely…
"So, Penny… You and Jaune met in an Atlesian Military research lab," Weiss prompted in a fashion that wasn't a question but was definitely a question.
"Yes. When Jaune spilled out of a crate that was brought into the lab, I had no idea that he was going to become my benefactor to such an extreme degree, or that he'd become so important to me," Penny mused with a whimsical smile.
"There was no chance involved with our meeting at all," Weiss countered with a small shake of her head. "Jaune incorporated himself into the stagehand staff of my concert tour, and then made arrangements for my personal assistant to arrive four hours late on the very first day, so that I would notice and rely on him. It was staged, scripted, and flawlessly executed…"
Off to Weiss's right, Neptune merely shook his head in mild disapproval. He might have done more, but since Penny was clearly Jaune's staunchest supporter, he didn't pull the same variety of stunt that Sun did just a few nights prior.
"I was told when Jaune was… 'voluntold' to take part in that mission, and I was monitoring his movements the day that he made contact with you," Penny replied with an easygoing smile. "Jaune's backhistory as an Atlesian noble made him the natural choice to interact with you, but he didn't expect to make contact so quickly or efficiently. Ms. Owens, who was, in fact, on Ironwood's payroll, was supposed to become increasingly incompetent over time so that you would rely on Jaune to keep the ball rolling. What he didn't expect to have happen, was that the woman would end up legitimately running late on the very first day, leaving him in the lurch to organize the stagehand staff… Keep in mind, most of your staff were young martial artists looking to ingratiate themselves with Ironwood. Almost none of them had worked a day in their lives outside of regular combat training."
"So while Jaune did have some authority over my staff, his actions were unscripted," Weiss conceded as the three of them rounded a building and the CCT Tower loomed into sight. "That's… nice… as I grew to dislike that memory when I decided it was staged…"
"The guy is pretty… extra, isn't he," Neptune suddenly pointed out, the lightness of his tone conveying the word extra as a compliment, while the way he paused before he said it implied that it wasn't.
"I suspect I'd be long dead if not for him," Weiss smoothly replied as the automatic main doors of the tower opened up in front of her approach, she waltzed across the lobby, and then the three of them boarded an elevator heading towards a higher floor.
Penny didn't say a word to correct or alter Weiss's suspicions when the woman stared in her direction, causing the heiress to nod as if her theory was confirmed.
"Jaune took a bullet of some kind for me… on that day, on that stage," Weiss quietly said into the silence of the elevator, once again her statement was definitely concealing a question.
"Pierced directly through his reactive armor into the meat of his fully aura-shielded shoulder," Penny confirmed.
"Jaune's armor withstood that explosion back at Croftlan," Weiss mused as if to herself.
This time Penny didn't bother to reply.
Ding!
With a cheerful chime, the elevator opened up, and Weiss turned to Penny as she backpedaled free of the space. "Come Penny. Let us do what we can to support our Platoon Captain."
Penny moved with renewed enthusiasm in response to Weiss's words, as yes, the malware and monitoring programs that she was about to release within the SDC server were definitely going to be informative in the extreme…
Left standing in the threshold of the elevator was a rather clever and perceptive Neptune Vasilias, who had not missed any of the unsaid messages conveyed during the conversation that he just heard.
One of the most inhospitable areas in most modern colonies is the district surrounding the Black Dust turbine plants, because the steady concussive forces that drive the energy collection plants make a persistent thump thumping sound that is juuust erratic enough that the brain has trouble tuning it out. For that reason, the areas directly abutting these power plants tend to develop into slums over time regardless of the government's intentions on the matter.
Inhospitable environments are cheap, and cheap environments draw the poor, and poor people draw neglect from the government because they don't have the resources to improve their surroundings or demand that something be done.
It was a tale as old as time…
What made the slums surrounding Vale's Dust plants both better and worse for the slum dwellers that inhabited them, was the fact that there was so much shelter to be found… Black Dust plants are an essential asset to the survival of a colony, which means that they're heavily fortified and covered in several concentric domes of thick unobtanium plating. So much armor plating surrounds these plants, in fact, almost the entire district surrounding them exists in a perpetual state of twilight…
Crime happens in the dark though, and that goes double for dark areas that are located in slums… A single block North of Vale colony's Black Dust plant was an old military base and bunker complex, built long before the plant's defenses were fully automated by the very best sentry robots that Atlas has to offer… This empty and forgotten complex holds a… market… of sorts. A black market, near a Black Dust plant, in a perpetual state of darkness.
Everybody that frequented the Black market agreed about just one thing…
It was very aptly named.
As a roiling bank of fog rolled across an unnaturally dark and humid street and then drifted down an extremely tight alleyway, a deep purring thrum started to grow from off in the distance.
Then it happened, and it happened very, very quickly.
Almost immediately after a pair of powerful high beam lights cut through the gloom, a sleek hover-bike careened down the lane, the bright blue hover-pads at either end of the cycle stirring up dust to float in the air in its wake.
But then the cycle broke away from the street altogether to strafe up the side of a nearby building, before it bounced off into open air and then settled gently atop a four-story building at the very edge of the complex.
Whoever decided to drive their very expensive, high-performance hover-bike to Vale's Black Market, also decided to get creative regarding where exactly he would park the vehicle…
It was a wise decision, but only if the driver could survive the ten meter drop to the street.
Up atop the building, a heavily tattooed white-haired man with a sophisticated looking black ocular implant covering one of his dark red-eyes, disengaged the engines of the hover-bike with the heavily encrypted codes programmed into his scroll… Jaune Freeman just finished driving Yang Xiao Long to the location of his business for the evening.
An arrangement that the very assertive young Huntress had not appreciated when they first discussed it back at his garage, which is why she spent the entire trip teasing the living hell out of Jaune, by sliding her hands up and under the black tank top he was wearing, to perform flat palmed sweeps of both his stomach and his chest… Add in the fact that Yang's more than generous chest was pancaked flat against Jaune's upper back and her cheek was rubbing against the side of his neck, and Jaune's modesty was in serious danger of being blown to smithereens.
"We've… arrived," Jaune slowly announced, his lack of composure evident even through the voice altering device in the implant covering half of his face. His voice sounded deeper and much more rumbling than normal, but if you were listening for it, you could still detect Jaune's smoother baritone in there, as well as the strain that he was feeling.
"You know, boss, I may have argued about it in advance, but I enjoyed riding bitch for you… and I can't wait for the commute back home," Yang whispered directly into Jaune's ear, eliciting a shiver from the man that drew a smile to her lips. Then she very slowly, seemingly reluctantly, drew her hands back out from under his tank top, dragging them along his equally black cargo pants as she uncurled from around his body…
"You definitely know what you're about. I'll give you that," Jaune admitted, as the woman's curves eased away from his back and his body temperature started dropping back to normal. "Now, it's time to get in character. What's your name?"
"Palla Dium," Yang immediately replied with a smile and a wink. "I'm your very loyal underling slash science experiment…" Along with her words, Yang gestured down at her body and the elaborate costume that she was wearing.
Yang Xiao Long was a work of art at the moment, and Jaune was very impressed. With just a set of measurements, a brief description, half a dozen hours to spare, a half a dozen hologram projectors, and an extremely sophisticated fabrication system, Pietro Polendina and Payla Brown managed to pull off the seemingly impossible.
Yang's body looked just as much machine as it did living breathing human woman at the moment, and yet the confident way that she wore it all made her look sexy as all hell. Starting from the top, Yang's hair was covered by a hologram that changed it to a light blue and purple mixture, she was wearing dark purple color contacts, and an insubstantial white helm appeared to be grafted to her cheeks and temples framing her heart shaped face to perfection.
Then there was her body.
While the left side of Yang's body was human for the most part, her right shoulder, arm, ribs, waist and leg appeared to be comprised entirely of extraordinarily complex robotic components, following the same white, pale blue and purple motif as her hair and helm.
Of course, Yang's right arm and leg were actually fine, but the layer of 3D-printed tech attached to her body, the cosmetics, and especially the artfully exploited holograms, made it look like the woman was an honest to Oum cyborg, manipulating highly articulated robot limbs with an impossible level of ease… A body type that Yang was flaunting rather than ashamed of, as she was wearing a skin-tight purple and white synthetic suit that hid very little from the imagination, and had a low-cut neckline that drew eyes towards her cleavage.
Yang Xiao Long looked like a tragic amputee turned spectacle of futuristic sex appeal, and she would dominate everyone's attention immediately after she entered the market.
Which was exactly what Jaune was hoping for… as Yang was acting as a… sales pitch… of sorts.
"Yes, Palla. As we discussed, my name is Dr. Devol, and you are my crowning achievement," Jaune agreed, as he rose from the bike and checked out his own costume. While for the most part, Jaune's body wasn't covered in augmentations, his forearms were covered in a pair of black gauntlets that appeared to be grafted directly into his skin. He did this to his arms and legs to conceal the fact that he was wearing the black bands underneath (they were becoming increasingly noteworthy with his appearance on the news). Other than that, Jaune was wearing dozens of elaborate (and fake) circuitry-based tattoos up and down his arms, shoulders and neck, and he was wearing a type of makeup on his face that slightly gray-scaled the color of his skin.
Long story short, with his white-hair, red eyes, unnaturally gray skin-tone, tattoos, and augmentations, Jaune currently looked like a supervillain version of himself, but you wouldn't notice his real identity unless you already knew exactly what he was doing…
Yang was having a blast, taking photo after photo of him, of herself, of the two of them posed together on and off his hover-bike, as if they were cosplaying at comic-ket or something, and were just wandering around the exhibits.
Of course, Jaune was happy that Yang was happy, because it's important to take enjoyment from the little things.
"So then, do I look like the future of body augmentation," Yang suddenly asked with a grin and a gesture down at her heavily modified body.
"No… Penny's existence proves that future limb replacement will look far more natural than anything you're currently sporting… but I will admit that you look… impressive," Jaune admitted as he handed Yang a foldable black laser-sword to sheathe beneath the hologram around her waist, not for her use as she was wearing one of her shot-gauntlets concealed within her robot arm, but for his.
"Saaaay iiit," Yang demanded with a twirl and a sensual little smile.
"Congrats, Yang. You make even being a double amputee look sexy," Jaune finally just admitted, because it was true and because it would make the woman happy… Then Jaune was walking up to the edge of the rooftop, with an incredibly self-satisfied Yang Xiao Long bouncing along directly at his side, and the two of them were dropping towards the street as if it was a meter below them rather than ten.
The Black Market is an anthill in the sense that it's busy night and day, but to really find its inner workings you need someone on the inside.
In Jaune's case, he had Junior, and the man acted as an intermediary for him just as soon as he found out that the boy really did have a product to sell.
Even Junior wouldn't sell out the market, not even to Jaune, not even if it meant his life would be ruined when he refused. The market was his mecca. It was important to him like Beacon is to trainee Hunters. Thankfully for the both of them, Jaune did have skills that could be put to good use…
So Junior described a ramshackle warehouse turned nightclub to the boy. A very ad-hock and messy rave that pounded day and night along with the explosions in the distance. And at its back, beyond several well disguised checkpoints, was a stairwell leading down into a far more complex level below.
Of course, Yang started bouncing around in excitement immediately after catching sight of the dancing within the warehouse, regardless of the fact that Jaune pre-warned her about its existence. Then the purple haired cyborg was pulling him into the mass of dancing people, and they were moving with the music as they sank deeper into the throng.
A hand on Jaune's chest, another solid purple hand sliding along his waist, an excessively curvy young Huntress swaying just inches away from his body with a runway-ready smile glowing upon her face. Jaune danced, as he was a good dancer, and he knew what Yang wanted from him. He didn't do anything complicated, but he responded to her movements and curled his right arm around her tiny little waist.
And once again, Yang, just like all of the other girls in his Platoon, seemed completely enthralled with the fact that he could actually move with the rhythm, causing her to draw him even closer until their bodies were flush against each other.
At which point, Jaune and Yang reached the first checkpoint, a black velvet rope near the deep end of the dancing, and Jaune cued up a calling card program that Junior emailed him so that the Security Guard could scan it and then gesture them beyond.
The dance floor immediately inside of the rope was even more congested with people than before, pushing Jaune and Yang even closer together as they sidled even deeper.
Throb, throb, throb, boom, boom, boom…
The music was loud and close, and it could be felt against Jaune's skin as the mass of dancing people ahead of them prevented forward movement at speeds greater than a crawl.
Well… no matter.
With her cheek pressed up against his jaw and her arms roaming up and down his stomach, ribs and chest, Yang was having a good time swaying with the music, and the woman was so close, so alluring, he couldn't help but feel the same… Without even thinking about it, Jaune's hand slid up and down the woman's back, releasing gentle tendrils of his aura that left the woman shivering in his arms. Then the two of them were a few meters from the second checkpoint and their objective beyond, and instead of breaking apart, they remained where they were for a prolonged moment in time, their bodies gently rocking.
Jaune wasn't quite sure how he and Yang arrived at their current situation, but the two of them were definitely sharing a moment that neither of them wanted to bring an end to. The problem was, they actually DID need to move on from the dance floor if they were going to get anything done… Pressing his cheek down against Yang's scalp just behind the helm protecting her temples, Jaune whispered into her ear. "Let's go do what we can for Blake."
And that did it.
With a nod into Jaune's chest, Yang drew away from his body, a hint of redness on her cheeks that Jaune knew better than to comment on. Instead, he slid a hand down Yang's uncovered arm, and then drew her through the second checkpoint deeper into the facility…
No weapons of any variety beyond this checkpoint, a well-tailored Security Guard explained, even as he took in Yang's body and the obvious problem that it was going to cause him. "Young lady… Just how much tech is incorporated into your body?"
"The tech is my right arm starting at the shoulder, several of my ribs, my right lung, my right pelvic bone and hip joint, and all of my right leg," Yang explained with an easygoing smile.
"I… won't be able to ascertain if your prosthetics contain any weapons… and they probably do," the security guard said as if thinking out loud. "I'm not sure if I can grant you…"
"Young Ms. Dium here actually IS my product… or at least, she's the proof that I have a product," Jaune interrupted with a meaningful look upon his face. "My skills make her rather unique body-type possible, but it would be hard to prove…"
"Hoookay, I can see your point and it does appear you can provide a valuable service," the Guard acceded as he gestured at one of his coworkers to prepare something inside and then swiped an access card against a panel near a secondary door to their right. "Here's what I'm going to do… I'm going to prepare you a small conference room that's sequestered behind unobtanium tempered glass, but connected to the main room and the customer base within. From there, it won't matter if Ms. Dium's arm can become a Dust cannon or not, and the speaker equipment contained inside will allow you to make your pitch."
"Very good, very accommodating. Thank you, Mr…?" Jaune asked with his tone.
"Stone… Mr. Stone. It's unoriginal, but my real name's embarrassing," the man admitted.
Jaune nodded his understanding even as he was led through a secondary hallway towards a small boardroom with a thick metal door.
"As I'm sure you've heard, the market operates on a one pitch at a time basis, with those people looking to buy sitting in the gallery, and the sellers taking up the podium," the Security Guard explained. "This room will be your podium, and during your turn, the metal slats will drop away. In the meantime, take a seat. Using an intercom in the wall, I'll warn you exactly a minute before your turn begins."
With his explanation delivered, the Security Guard ushered the two young people inside of the room, closed the door and then locked it from the outside. Then the man was walking off and Jaune was dropping down onto the couch spanning the right side of the room.
"You trust him then,'' Yang asked, while leaning against the table in the middle of the room, just a meter away from Jaune's feet.
"Junior described all of this for me in advance, and it's standard procedure," Jaune replied with a shrug. "I knew we'd end up in this room long before we arrived."
"Junior's telling you a lot these days," Yang slowly pointed out. "I was hoping that you'd look into something for me…"
"I've already done so, Palla," Jaune quietly admitted, while gesturing that the walls had both eyes and ears, and motioning for her to move closer.
After a single instant where Yang was surprised into a silent stillness, she swiftly cleared the distance between table and couch, and then straddled Jaune's lap with his face cupped in both of her hands. "Tell me something, anything…"
"I will… Of course I will, but I want you to tell me something first," Jaune whispered as his hands gently trailed up Yang's ribs. "What's your motive?"
"Answers," Yang immediately replied. "Why did she leave… Was it me… Was I a… burden?"
In the intensity of his surprise, Jaune's right hand tightened around Yang's back and his left hand slid up between her shoulder-blades to the back of her neck, because the woman's question hinted that childhood trauma was robbing her of common sense.
This couldn't continue…
With an indrawn breath, Jaune started releasing a powerful flow of aura into Yang's body through his hands, conveying his emotions the way that he needed them felt. He was shocked that Yang believed she might have been the so-called 'burden' that made her mother run off. He was concerned that she believed this might be the case, and he was worried about the damage that this unfounded belief might be doing to her psyche. He cared about her, he really, truly did, which is why he wanted her to see events the way that they truly were…
No child is ever at fault for the actions of their parents.
"To find the person that you're looking for," Jaune began with his eyes locked on Yang's, "one would need to seek out the very worst and most dangerous environment for a human being to live in, and then fill it with a very difficult to get along with variety of people… One does not carve out a life for themselves within this hard, remote and brutal location, simply to avoid being a parent… You are not the reason that she left… That much is perfectly obvious."
"I…" Yang squeaked as she felt Jaune's care and concern lighting up her violently trembling body within a tidal wave of indescribable pleasure. At exactly the same time, she heard his words, discerned the location that he was describing, and then fully digested what he was trying to convey…
"We can discuss this topic in greater detail later," Jaune continued as Yang's mouth opened and closed, completely overwhelmed, and he gently drew his aura back out of her body. "In the meantime, please…
A soft set of pretty pink lips suddenly stole Jaune's ability to speak, as Yang Xiao Long pressed a very thorough and insistent kiss upon his lips, taking his breath away along with his ability to think coherent thoughts. Then the rest of the woman's skin-suited body was pressing and rubbing down against his own, her arms were curling tightly around his neck and shoulders, and his arms were tightening around her back in return.
Lips, tongue, an endlessly curvy female body gyrating her hips down into his lap, dry humping his increasingly dramatic erection through his cargo pants in a frenzy of helpless need. Jaune's first kiss was with Penny early on Sunday evening, but he was far from experienced and Yang was even worse. Their mouths clumsily crashed together, but neither of them cared, as they pawed at each other, squeezed each other tightly, and groped what needed groping.
Beep!
"In one minute, the metal sliders will part aside and it'll be your turn to give your sales-pitch," Mr. Stone explained through an intercom in the wall. "Good luck and good fortune…"
Beep!
For fifteen, twenty seconds following Mr. Stone's warning, Jaune and Yang continued making out exactly like the teenagers that they were. Then Jaune cupped Yang's face, held her lips just an inch away from his own, and stared into her eyes as he drew in a very deep breath. "Game time, Palla… Just, follow my lead and try not to get mad, because I'm about to treat you like I own you…"
"Duly noted," Yang panted out, before pressing a last second kiss upon Jaune's lips, launching back up to her feet, and then stalking to the far side of the room with her hands waving towards her face.
Jaune, of course, was left doing very much the same, drawing in deep bracing breaths and using his semblance to regain control of his modesty, even as he dropped a small satchel that was cinched to his waist atop the table, and attempted to straighten out his wild white hair.
Then it was time, Yang was standing at Jaune's side, and the metal sliders that were wrapped around their little presentation room were sliding away from view.
And the gathering of people sitting in the stands that ascended up from Jaune's right, were shrouded from view by a series of holographic projectors, allowing only black silhouettes of varying shapes and sizes to be seen.
It was all very impressive, if one valued anonymity.
"My name is Dr. George Devol, and this…" Jaune gestured to his right where Yang was standing, ' is Palla Dium, my magnum opus, my crowning achievement, a living work of art…"
In the moments following Jaune's words, and the reveal of Yang, in all her cyborg fitted glory, several clusters of whispered conversation could be heard all around the room, once again, distorted within voice alteration mechanisms of unknown design. During this time, Jaune turned to Yang, gestured that it was time, and the girl gave him an obedient nod.
Silently and with a sensual variety of grace, Yang moved into the middle of the space that was allotted them, extended her robot arms out at her side, did the same with her robot leg, wiggled her robot fingers, did the same with her toes, moved her body through a series of stretches as if she was limbering up in the morning, and then, abruptly, she completed a tight, powerfully executed backflip that landed her right were she started like a professional Olympian.
The murmuring in the stands picked up in intensity and volume, as Yang's production proved that she wasn't slow or clumsy or hindered at all by her robot components.
"Palla's prosthetics… although I hardly think that word suffices anymore… are equipped with sensors that provide feedback directly to her brain," Jaune explained when silence finally returned to the room and everyone stared in his direction. "Not only can Ms. Dium here move her robot limbs with her brain just like any other limb, but she can also feel with them… They provide tactile sensation equivalent to a normal body part, with the exception that I've filtered out higher intensity stimulus… pain."
For almost half a minute, no one said a word. Then a heavily distorted female voice called out from among the crowd… "We have all seen the likes of this in the past, only to find out later that it was only a scam, a ruse using little more than holograms and tape. How can you prove to us that this… product, is real."
"Yes, have Ms. Dium remove her limbs for us," a second voice, a man this time, called out from another area in the audience.
As they discussed in advance, Yang's normal human arm started sliding across her stomach, moving towards her hip.
"No, Palla," Jaune barked out at Yang as if he was offended by her intention to cooperate with the audience's demand. "Your - body - is - mine… and I will not share it with anybody…"
"Then how do you intend to prove the validity of your product," the woman up in the stands asked in a vaguely disgusted sounding voice.
Picking up the satchel on the table, Jaune removed an exact duplicate of Yang's metallic hand from within the bag, and then he held it up atop his palm…" For demonstration purposes, I have brought this, but to fully make my point, I'll need a suggestion from the audience. Where would you like me to attach this to my body?.. Please don't be grotesque…"
For several moments in a row, no one said a word, then the unknown man from earlier called out the word 'shoulder' with a very thoughtful quality to his voice.
Jaune merely nodded, as if attaching robotic hands directly to shoulders was merely common sense, as he moved in front of the table, placed his right hand atop the shoulder in question, and then started releasing golden yellow aura directly into the area.
"My Semblance," Jaune began with a look of pain-filled concentration upon his face, "is a healing and bolstering Semblance that allows me to alter the physical constitution of my subjects… "It is not a… pleasant experience… to grow a brand-new cluster of nerve pathways, and then expose them directly to the air around my body, but I can do it, and the tech within this hand can do the rest."
Even as Jaune said all that, blood started seeping out from under the hand that he'd placed on his shoulder, and his face grew sweaty with growing discomfort.
"This robotic hand contains a nervous system of its own, you see," Jaune continued as he drew his hand away from his visibly abraded shoulder, patted it gently with a clean cloth from his bag, and then retrieved the hand that he was talking about. "Threaded throughout this hand, is a synthetic protein based conduction system that can interpret the electrical signals from my brain."
With that much said, Jaune pressed the robotic hand's wrist directly against his shoulder, and he willed his brand new nerve clusters to make a connection with the electrodes required, exactly like he did oh so very often back when he was helping Pietro build Penny's body… Then, when he started feeling the cold air of the room that he was standing in wafting against the hand's sensor system, he closed his eyes, and he willed it to happen….
And the hand, it twitched, and it shuddered, and then its middle finger slowly straightened away from the rest.
Dr. Devol was making it very clear what he thought of the audience's lack of faith…
This time, there was nothing silent or subtle about the so-called whispering that was happening all throughout the room. Remnant is a very dangerous world to live in, and very few people go their entire lives without someone that they know losing a limb. The more dangerous the profession, the more likely you are to get maimed, the more likely it is that Jaune's abilities might prove useful to your cause…
And the room that Jaune was standing in was full of very, very dangerous occupations…
With a grunt, Jaune ripped the hand away from his shoulder, and then began returning his shoulder back to normal with a hand placed atop the area.
"What would it take to get you on… retainer… working for my people," the unknown woman suddenly called out, her voice tightly controlled and devoid of emotion.
A cacophony of different voices exploded out in response to the woman's question, filling the room in the intensity of their outrage.
"I refuse to work for a specific individual or group," Jaune denied in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "I have a unique ability that makes me far too valuable to kill, I'm stubborn enough to commit suicide if I'm ever abducted, and trust me when I say that abducting my associates won't get you anywhere… I will not hinder my own profits by working for an organization... period."
"How much do you intend to charge for your services," the male voice asked, unconcealed hunger in his voice.
"The use of my Semblance comes with a 200,000 Lien baseline price, but the real cost of my services is based on what tech you want attached to your body," Jaune explained with a shrug. "The robot components are expensive at their simplest, but they will skyrocket in price if you desire weaponry concealed inside of them…"
The audience's reaction to Jaune's newest explanation wasn't quiet in the slightest, but rather, it was rowdy in the extreme. The idea of concealing weapons inside of a fully functioning and fully-articulated robot arm was every professional criminal's dream.
"On a side note, due to the fact that I have a personal… vendetta… against them, If you can prove to me that you've screwed over the White Fang somehow, refused to work with them, or better yet, can provide me the location of their forces, I will cut more than three quarters of the price of any procedure that you desire from me," Jaune suddenly called out to the newly quieting audience.
This stopped everybody in their tracks, dropping a heavy silence all around the room.
"How dare you," a deep, growl-filled voice called out from far off in the back of the room.
"Oh I dare, Fang," Jaune immediately called back, his ice-cold voice filled with undiluted hatred and scorn. "After what your filthy compatriots did to me back in Atlas, I'll dare til you're all dead…" After quickly scanning the stone silent audience, Jaune pointed towards the distant voice and clenched his teeth until his neck muscles bulged. "The presence of a Fang member here, in this place, can only mean that some of you are doing business with them, and I won't judge, because I used to do the same… Until the day that they betrayed me and the people important to me… Until the day they slaughtered my entire colony…"
"You lie," the canine-affected voice loudly barked out.
"A group that the White Fang call the red-tat slaughter squad butchered my wife, shot my mother in the forehead, killed everyone that's ever meant anything to me, and they said we were just the beginning," Jaune continued, as if the canine-voiced man had never said anything at all.
"You have no proof," the White Fang man suddenly screamed as he exploded to his feet.
"I don't need proof, fool," Jaune screamed back in a wrath-filled, tortured voice. "Money talks, and I'll perform even radical procedures for free if it means destroying you!"
By the time Jaune's words stopped echoing around the room, everyone in the stands were on their feet, looking at their associates and screaming words so quickly they were drowning each other out.
Two whole minutes later, when the Black Market finally settled down again, the White Fang member's seat was empty, and everyone was staring at him as if they were on a diet and his body was made of cake…
"I'm going to leave now, as I need to get ahead of the assassin squad that the Fang will be sending my way, but I will leave my contact information with Mr. Stone, and I will await emails from interested parties," Jaune concluded in a voice completely devoid of concern. "If you desire my services at far less than cost, then send me verifiable intel on the Fang, and then await my confirmation."
With that much said, Jaune walked up to the solid metal door containing him and Yang in the room, gestured at Yang, and then watched as she used her 'robot' arm to punch the door clear off of its hinges.
After leaving the Black Market and checking his hover-cycle for bombs and GPS devices, Jaune quickly flew the two of them out of the area, and then raced around the colony to shake off the two vehicles that were following them… The whole entire time they careened down city blocks full of traffic by launching up and over anything in the way, Yang's body was curled around Jaune's back like glue, and her hands were back up under his tank top where they were fussing at his stomach.
Finally, after half an hour spent breaking every road traffic law that exists on Remnant, Jaune brought his bike to a stop at a small well-groomed park, and then drew in a breath as he checked out his scroll.
"Over two hundred emails already," Jaune confirmed to Yang, who was still resting against his back.
"It's as Weiss always says," Yang whispered directly into the meat of Jaune's shoulder as she peered towards his scroll. "You're a gangster."
"It was an act, Yang, I won't put weapons into people's bodies," Jaune replied with a scoff.
"You can be so hard sometimes though… You do have it in you," Yang persisted as she stretched like a cat towards the sky.
"I want to be a gentleman, so I will be. Simple as that," Jaune countered while turning in his seat.
"Well, what I want from you isn't gentlemanly in the slightest," Yang purred with a hungry look on her face and a luminous quality to her eyes…
Beep Boop…
Looking down at his phone in response to a text from someone in his platoon, Jaune's eyes widened at what he saw upon the holo-screen. Then he was re-engaging the engine to full spirited life, and Yang was falling against his body in her surprise.
"What the," Yang began.
"Blake, Sun and everyone need us at the White Fang intake," Jaune barked in his haste. "Things are getting violent over there!"
Yang never got a chance to respond, as all of the sudden they were blurring down the street, the Dust engines of the hovor-cycle burning in their wake.
To Be Continued
Author's Note:
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