Coming Storm - I

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Beta(s) :

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You all live in the gutter, I swear. Gutter dogs, all of you-

No snu snu was had, lol. They aren't there yet, even if Neo is a bit of a flirty minx in this she's still not good at the whole 'emotional maturity' thing.

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"So, uh…" Jaune murmured quietly, sitting on the couch with Neo curled up in his lap, head on his shoulder and legs tucked up under his other arm while she pressed herself against his chest as hard as she could. Tugging his collar straight he chuckled unsurely and finished, "That, uh… That was a thing, right?"

Neo only nodded, her face pressed against his neck and a hand absently twirling one of his hood strings.

"Yeah, I'd call it a thing…" Idly, and nervously, he ran a hand through her long hair and then froze when she shifted a bit. But she only turned her head, settling in where he could get more of her hair. Running his hand through it, he started picking out the sticks and rocks he could, pitching them on the floor, and asked, "Do we… Need to talk about it?"

A shake of her head.

"Okay." He pitched another pebble onto the floor, "Are you, uh, feeling better?"

"You're ruining the moment, Jaune." She signed with her free hand, huffing an amused breath against his neck when he stammered an apology.

"I'm bad at this." He defended, "Never even kissed a girl before today…"

Neo went very still at that, and he sighed when she sat up and turned, sliding a leg between them so she could sit facing him with her legs wrapped around his hips. She wiggled to get more comfortable, pressing her hips down against his, and her smirk turned coy. She cocked her head to the side and signed with a hand, "Oh, I can tell, trust me."

"Don't be mean…" She huffed one of her laughs and he rolled his eyes as she dipped back, rolling off of him and onto her hands, and then over again onto her feet. It was slow, a show, and he let himself enjoy it until she was straight again, tossing her hair back. Smile softening, he said, "We need a plan, Neo."

"The moment-"

"Was great, a-amazing, really, and I want a lot more of them." He didn't say what he meant, but he knew she understood from the way her eyes widened ever-so-slightly and how she stilled. It only lasted a moment, but he smirked, even as he moved on, "But… Right now, I can't be selfish and let it go. Now while you're in danger…"

It took a moment but, eventually, she nodded and signed a simple, "Alright."

"Alright." He nodded, leaning back in his seat and chewing on his lip. He could still taste the salt… He pushed the thought away and started to stand. Neo smirked when he did, head cocking to the side, and he waved her off. "Go grab a shower, gremlin. I'll make food, and then we can talk."

"About?"

"Whatever you and Roman are caught up in." He grunted shortly, turning for the kitchen before she could argue, "I'm making tacos."

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The door to the cell hummed as it opened, sliding out and then to the side smoothly on magnetic hinges that didn't make a single sound. Stepping into the doorway, Ironwood turned his head and grunted shortly, "Protocol Seven."

"Yes, Sir." The guard beside the cell snapped a salute and turned, marching off without another word and leaving Ironwood along but for a pair of guard droids standing a step back and to either side of him.

He waited until the Human was gone before he sighed and asked, quietly, "How are you, Torchwick?"

"Oh, I'm fine enough, all things considered." The man chuckled, leaning into the light and grinning around a black eye and a split lip. "Though I will have to file a complaint about one of your goons."

"Oh?" Ironwood clasped his hands behind his waist and raised a brow, "And why is that?"

"They hit me!"

"Oh, is that all?" He huffed a laugh and shrugged, "I thought you had something serious to tell me, Roman."

"Eh, I figured you wouldn't care anyway." Roman smirked, leaning back and resting a foot on his knee comfortably. "When has Atlas ever cared about 'prisoner's rights'? Or 'national sovereignty'? Or 'morals'?"

"Now you are going to challenge me on morals?"

"Hey, just because I ignore them doesn't mean I don't recognize them." Roman countered, pointing at himself and Ironwood, "Well-known criminal and all around rogue, literal leader of a nation. I think the standards are different. No?"

He had a point…

So Ironwood changed the subject, "The White Fang helped you attack Vale. Why? You're Human."

"How very observant of you, o' great, moral paragon!" Roman sneered, shaking his head and then shrugging. "It was a business arrangement, nothing more"

"You expect me to-"

"And even if it were," Roman cut him off, smile falling and eyes hardening as he turned to stare Ironwood down, "I wouldn't tell you, Ironwood. Not even if my life depended on it."

"It happens to, in fact."

"Uh huh, sure, because you wanna risk that diplomatic incident. Right?" Ironwood smirked as if to ask why he wouldn't, and Roman snorted. "Oh, don't try to play the player, General. You'll make the game boring!"

"I don't know what you-"

"Oh, please." Roman cut him off, shaking his head and barking a laugh. "I know more than you, Jimmy. No one was around when we popped out of that hole. Just your tin men, your drones, and a bunch o' Hunters coming in. Means someone got word to the powers that be about what was coming, and it was stopped. So, unless you have reason for me to doubt it, that tells me everyone oughta be right where they were, office-wise, when this all kicked off."

"So," Roman went on, smiling knowingly and lacing his fingers behind his head lazily, "that would mean the Council is taking responsibility for stopping me. So they won't want to let me out of their custody. Am I close, there?"

Ironwood didn't answer, only glowering at him, and Roman snorted, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"My word still has weight-"

"I don't care." Roman snapped hotly, "I don't trust you."

"You don't know me."

"No, see, I do, actually, and that's the problem." Roman growled back, shaking his head and closing his eyes, "People like you are always the rest. And I won't risk me and mine with someone liable to toss us out on our asses, or to the Grimm, to get a leg up."

"Cynical…"

"Did you honestly expect something different?"

"No. I'd hoped, but… Well, you are exactly who I would have expected from the reports." Ironwood sighed, "But I will admit I thought you'd be cynical and smart."

"Meaning…?"

"I have time, before everything is secured and I have to hand you over, Roman." Ironwood sighed, turning his back on the man and stepping out. Looking over his shoulder, he quirked a smile and said, "You let me know you know things, and you let me know you had zero interest in telling them to me. Further, you let me know I can't trick you based on the circumstances to hand."

"So," Ironwood turned away, "You only leave me force. Information Acquisition Specialist Copperback?"

"Yes, General." The old, round-bellied and dark-skinned man grunted, standing a few paces away.

His uniform was fine and pressed, but the man himself was old, weathered, and covered in a bushy white beard and long, wild hair. It clashed against his skin and the dark black of his special uniform. His face was old, covered in wrinkles, but unblemished besides, free of scars or other marks. But most of all, his eyes seemed to bore even into Ironwood's own, bright, luminescent scarlet almost searching him for weakness.

Or answers...

"Do your work." Ironwood grunted quietly, "You have until the morning."

Behind him, he heard Roman shuffle and murmur, "Well... Fuck me, I guess."

Ironwood let himself smirk for his victory as he left the cells behind, and his favored information extractor with them.

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He heard Neo pad into the kitchen half an hour later as he set the food out on the counter the way Roman had shown him and flicked a look over his shoulder. She was only wearing her leotard, again, with her not-quite-dry hair tied into a ponytail that she'd draped over her chest to air-dry, water dripping down her chest slowly. She smirked when she sa whim looking and he sighed, turning back to the food.

"You can't distract me, Neo." Or, well, she could, but he was hoping that she'd behave for once. To that end he added, "Please, we have to deal with this."

She knocked twice on the table to say she agreed, and then he felt her arms wrap around him and he sighed, "Neo…"

"I just want to hug." She signed with one of the hands resting on his stomach. "I like it."

He couldn't find the heart to argue against that and sighed, sliding a hand down to hold one of hers while he set out the plates. She squeezed it gratefully and he smiled, humming as he worked and enjoying the warmth pressed against his back, and the fingers playing with his own. But eventually, the food was done, and she slipped away from him, padding to the table and pulling a chair out.

He stole a glance over his shoulder while she shouldn't be looking. Her ponytail had been tossed back over her shoulder, and he turned back to the plate he was getting ready for her with a victorious grin that he wiped off before he turned around to bring his new... Whatever Neo was, to him, now, he supposed, her cheese and chicken. She grinned and pulled it close, tucking in with a contented sigh while Jaune fell into the seat across from her and did the same.

Fighting was hard work, after all.

After each of them had gotten halfway into their second plates, he finally let outt a bracing breath and asked, "So… What is going on then, Neo?

She went still and flicked a look to him, and then grimaced and sighed, signing, "I'll start at the top, I guess. So, a few months ago, Roman and I were going over a plan for a bank heist."

"Because, you know." Jaune shrugged, "Normal Sunday night, right?"

"Bite me." She paid him a wink as if to say that wasn't a joke, but it was weak. Anxious. And she moved on right after like she knew it, frowning. "A woman came to us. A woman named Cinder Fall…"

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Cinder sighed as her cohorts finally slipped into the room, closing the door behind them with a barely audible click. She didn't look up from her book, though. Not until they came to a stop in front of her bed, at least. Then she flicked each a quick, appraising look borne out of concern for her mission and their parts more than anything else. A real injury would be so very…

Inconvenient.

Emerald was standing straight as always, eyes flitting between Cinder's own and the ground anxiously. There was a bruise over one of her meek little eyes, about the size of Cinder's thumb. But she didn't seem to be favoring either leg over the other, and neither of her hands were in casts, so she supposed Emerald was still serviceable. Enough to outweigh her pathetic, fawning little looks, at least.

Mercury was at least absent the fawning farcity, even if he replaced it with a smug arrogance. Arms crossed and leaning to one side, she could tell he was fine without much more than a glance. Which was fortunate. His skills were important, after all, and replacing him would have been… Difficult, at best.

Finally, she spoke, returning to her book, "Report."

"Ma'am." Emerald, ever eager to please no matter how aggravating it could be, rushed to start. "The Grimm have been purged, though they… Well, they didn't get very far, exactly, Cinder."

"Pft." Mercury spat, "How could they? Atlas was waiting for them."

"Yeah…" It was a testament to how obvious it had been, that even these idiots didn't argue about the fact. Instead, Emerald said, "They were in formation… A pretty wide one, sure, but the rough area was right. They had to know we were coming, Cinder."

"I'd had the same thought." She sighed, moving on before they could dwell on it. "And my dear, precious Roman?"

"Aboard Ironwood's flagship, Ma'am." Emerald answered, "I… Heard they had an interrogator coming in, too."

"A good one." Mercury added, "I recognized the name, Copperback. My dad was afraid of him."

"Hm…" That said a lot more than Mercury ever could, frankly. Still, she only smiled, "Roman can last until the morning, at least. I've got it on good authority he'll be moved then. Into the old man's care."

No one asked what her source was, they knew better than to dare.

Though Emerald didn't know better than to suggest, quietly, "I… Think we should do something, though, Ma'am."

"Yeah." Mercury agreed, "Bastard knows too much. We have leverage or something? Cuz if not, I'd put him in the ground. Safe than sorry, you know."

"I see." And here was this problem again… Why was it so hard to find servants that knew their place? Still, for once, Emerald was right. Right enough for Mercury to agree with her whole-heartedly, at that. So she thought for a moment and then ordered them, quietly, "Find our missing fourth, then. We've need of her as it is, so being a suitable bargaining chip only adds to her importance."

"I-I'll head out on the first ship in the morning, Ma'am."

"Bullhead's are done flying." Mercury added, when Cinder's brows knit together. "Drafted into helping with clean-up and search and destroy, I heard."

Ah…

That was fair.

Fair, but unfortunate.

"Very well." She sighed, "First flight it is, then."

She didn't bother to demand peace and quiet to read, or warn them against failure as they settled in for the night. They both knew their place well enough, at least in this respect. Though sooner or later, she knew, it would be good to remind them. Just in case.

All the more reason to collect their absentee ally, she supposed.

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By the time Neo was done talking, their food had gone cold and their sodas had gone flat. Which was all well and good, in his opinion, at least. Jaune, at least, didn't have much of an appetite by the time she was done. And judging from Neo's half-left-over chicken, neither did she. The anxiety was just…

Well, it was a lot, even just from the outside.

"So if you don't do as he says…" Jaune murmured, tapping a finger on the table in front of him. "Cinder will kill you?"

"Yes."

"And you can't beat her?"

"I fought her little minion, Emerald." Neo answered, "And I lost. If someone working for her could beat me…"

"You lost?" He murmured, gut sinking when she nodded. Disbelieving, he asked, before he could even think to stop himself, "But… How? You're one of the best fighters I've ever seen!"

Neo blinked and flushed at the naked praise, but answered regardless, "I don't know. I just… Couldn't hit her. No matter what I did, she was always just out of the way of my attacks. Even when it felt like I should have hit her, I always missed by a hair."

"So she… Dodged?"

"Not really." Neo shrugged unsurely, holding up a hand to make a 'kind of' gesture and then going on. "It was more like I… Just kept missing, somehow."

"I see…" That made no sense, though. Neo was lethally accurate, he'd fought her enough times to know as much. Even if he wasn't anywhere even remotely close to her level, he still had Roman's word about how she fought to fall back on. But she just… Somehow missed this 'Emerald'?

He didn't buy it. Something had to be up, there…

But what?

A Semblance, maybe…?

Neo snapped her fingers to tug him out of his thoughts and he blinked her way as she signed, "What are you thinking?"

"That she has to have some kind of Semblance." He answered frankly, "Something to trick you. Did you see anything?"

She shook her head, "No. I didn't see anything. Just me missing and her shooting me."

That was a lot less than helpful, but he couldn't blame Neo. Whatever Emerald's Semblance actually was, it had to be powerful. On par with Neo's own, at least. Which was a scary thought…

"Anyway." He moved on, putting all the little tidbits - few as they were - on the shelf and moving on. It was all he could do for now, after all. "She's had you stealing Dust for the last few months? Leading up to that… That Breach?"

Neo nodded quietly.

"Why, though?"

"No clue." She answered simply, "She keeps us in the dark on everything except whatever our orders are right then and there. She doesn't want us working ahead. Or even seeing ahead, as far as she can control it."

"Then…" His mind raced, searching for what could possibly motivate this, until he landed on a handful of grim ideas. Every last one of which had one, central theme at play. "Then she's aiming to cripple Vale… RIght ahead of the Vytal Festival, too. If something happened there, the reaction would be-"

He shot to his feet, "The Grimm… How did you keep them from swarming your camp in Mountain Glenn?"

"We didn't." She shrugged, "They just… Stayed away, mostly."

It was impossible, but… "Sowing this much fear… Taking the Dust away, weakening the Hunters most of all. And the Military. Who do they normally fight, along with the White Fang?"

"Um…" Neo blinked suddenly and then her eyes widened, "The Grimm."

"Cinder used the Grimm to attack Vale today." Jaune went on, heart racing. "I don't know what she's really after, but if that was just a trial run, then… Then she wants to bring more in to attack Vale, or Beacon, or maybe both. Which means…"

"The Breach was just a trial run."

"Gods…"

Jaune didn't say anything, yanking his Scroll out of his pack and flicking it open. He scrolled through the pre-packaged contacts until he found the Headmaster's and reached for it. Just before a message icon popped up on the screen. It surprised him and, before he could really think, he opened it.

"Mister Arc," Jaune read aloud, flicking a look to Neo before he went on. "I believe we have something to discuss. Something of vital import. Please, respond as soon as you are able. Lives depend on your swiftness."

Jaune wasn't sure what to say…

So he sent back a simple '?'.

"Really?"

"I panicked, okay?!"

An answer came quickly, and Jaune turned to read it out, "Well, in short and with an understanding of matters at hand you couldn't possibly know… Let's just say that I do believe I owe you a tip for your delivery."

Jaune blinked, confused, and then murmured, "Oh, fuck…"

Neo only nodded, stood, and went to the fridge. When she came back, she was carrying three bottles of cheap looking beer that she sat on the table and signed over, "I don't think we're at the point of worrying about the drinking age laws, are we?"

After a second, Jaune reached out and grabbed one of the bottles. "If there was ever a time to start…"

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Joe Cola :

Very observant, you are. And yes, I'm aware of the One Time rule with Raven. I have, indeed, already planned around it.

Atomic R4y (Guest) :

And a fine day for sailing it is! Lol.

Smokey panda :

Believe it or not, the blonde doofus himself... Actually isn't that big of a thing, at least in terms of changing things. You'll see.

Human Dragon :

Thanks!

Mister Cuddlesworth :

Glad you like it. Wrote that scene, like, five times trying to get it juuuust right.