"I am so bored."

"Nobody needs anything stolen, it's not anyone's fault." Ren spoke from the kitchen, his voice only barely louder than the something sizzling in a hot pan.

"It's been a month though." Jaune whined, drawing out the "o" as he lazily scrolled through the catalogue of whatever streaming service of choice Ren had been using when Jaune had come out for his morning coffee.

"And you're going broke?"

"Almost, I have enough for this month and the next but it's too close of a call for my liking." Jaune admitted.

"Hence why you're here and not visiting Ruby for your coffee."

"Yeah…" Ren exited the kitchen, a small plate of scrambled eggs and sausage on a plate in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other; both of which were set in front of Jaune, "Thanks man."

"Put what I was watching back on and I'll accept it." Ren returned to the kitchen, exiting it with another plate of food and coffee now in hand as Jaune turned Ren's show back on, "Don't worry about it too much, Jaune. Someone will suddenly need something and you'll be there."

"I just wish someone would need something faster."

"Patience is a virtue."

"Not one I'm blessed with."

"Let me ask some people and see if anyone has anything for you."

"Adam doesn't have anything."

"I wasn't going to ask Adam." Ren sipped his coffee, "Unlike you, I'm not antisocial, I've made other contacts."

"I'm not antisocial, I just don't like… strangers… and working for them."

"Ahhhh, excuse me for not realizing the difference."

"Not everything you do is illegal, you haul around important shit for rich people too and if you get caught hauling something illegal you have plausible deniability. I get caught stealing because someone was a snitch, I have nothing." Jaune defended.

"Or you could just ask Adam and have his friends in the police snitch if it's someone undercover. Like I do."

Jaune looked at the TV, not responding as he sipped his coffee; internally wondering if he was part of a bad batch due to his stupidity.

"Want me to ask around?"

"Yes please."

Ren had told Jaune to meet the client in the center of the Vale Mall, by the fountain. Apparently the client knew one of Ren's usual clients so Ren didn't actually know who the guy was. As Jaune strolled down the marble thoroughfare between the shops he saw him, a young man with a wild gray hair cut in a gray gray sleeveless hoodie and black skinny jeans.

"Mercury." He held his hand out and flashed a semi-charming smile that was almost perfectly faked.

"Arsene." I took his hand before we sat down on a bench by the fountain.

"I was skeptical when my friend said he knew Echelon and that he knew you and said you were open for a little extra work but I'm happy to see I was wrong." Mercury spoke as we watched mall goers go about their day.

"Glad to see I could make your day." I flashed a smile just a fake, "So how can I help?"

"A friend of mine has something of mine, he and I had a bit of a falling out so I was wondering if you could go get it from him for me."

"Where is this thing?"

"His place, he usually has a couple of friends over so I want you to try to keep it peaceful while you're there but he probably has it in his office."

"What is it?"

"A knife, real nice piece, black leather wrapped handle with some real nice decorative engraving and aquamarine inlay on the blade."

"My compensation?"

"Oh, you're doing me a huge favor, the dude scares the shit out of me so I can give you five."

Five thousand lien? For a knife?

"That seems… excessive."

"This dude is pretty crazy, he thinks he's a thug or somethin'. I really appreciate what you're doing." Subtext dripped in his voice.

"Okay."

"Great, I appreciate it." He stood and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a small manila envelope, "His address is in there and remember keep it peaceful."

Jaune pocketed the envelope, "Of course man. Meet you here in three days?"

"Sounds good." Mercury waved as he walked away and I quickly went the other direction, getting out of there and out of the area in general as fast as possible; watching and looking around nervously, waiting for cops to round the corner.

"Mercury. Uhhh let's see…" Leo's voice was only slightly garbled over the phone. Jaune figured that if anyone would know about his new suspicious client, Leo would; he was the head of Adam's intelligence, he had to know at least something.

"Gray hair? Kinda looks like a dick." Jaune offered, as he leaned against Ren's bike that he'd let Jaune borrow for the night for the job

"I got the picture you sent man, Mercury is a slightly more common name than you'd think."

"Guy has to be someone, he's paying me five grand for a knife."

"Oh shit."

"What?"

"He's definitely somebody. Mercury is both Altered and an assassin for the Schnees."

"Schnee? What does a Schnee hitman want with a knife from some lawyer in the hills." Jaune had checked on the house he'd been sent to, it belonged to a Sao Phillips, some lawyer who worked at some two-bit law firm in town. The fact a two bit lawyer owned a three million dollar house had clued Jaune that maybe he should do some looking around of his own…

Or more accurately, Leo should.

"No idea, let's see what the feds know about Mercury."

"Adam has a guy with the feds?" Jaune asked in shock.

"Not really, but one of my guys found a backdoor into their database so I can just flicker through their Altered archive whenever I feel the inkling."

"They have an archive on Altered?"

"We were made to be super soldiers, man. Course they keep an eye on us."

"Wait, we?"

"Yeah, you thought Saxon was the only Altered Adam went out of his way to employ?"

"I feel like I'm learning so much today."

"Something new everyday," Leo pauses for a moment, "Okay. Altered number nineteen, Mercury. After cracking his glass, first documented thing was a murder, he apparently broke into a man's house and was going to rob the place but he ended up killing one Markus Black, due to his compliance, confession, mental state after escaping and the fact that Markus Black was a well known hitman in the now destroyed Umbra crime family; he was given two years in a minimum security facility. Ever since, he's been squeaky clean."

"As far as the feds know."

"As far as the feds know. What we know is that Mercury got out of jail at eighteen and ever since had been working for Schnee, he's one of her favorite fixers."

"This is fucking weird." Jaune groaned.

"No, this is downright mysterious. It has strings attached but I have no idea where, how and why."

"Should I even do this?"

Leo was almost silent, Jaune could hear the Faunus' mumbling and growling beneath his breath "Pull the trigger. Do it, just as he said, quietly and without any evidence. If this comes back to bite anyone, I'll make sure it's me."

"Thanks, Leo."

"No worries, I'm gonna do some more research and see what I find in our and the feds files, stay safe."

"You too."

Jaune ended the call and slipped the phone into his pocket, pulled on a set of thin leather gloves, pulled his hood up and pulled his bandana over the lower half of his face before climbing off the bike. A large two story house with an attached garage, a backyard with a pool and jacuzzi combination all surrounded by a wall and automatic metal gate. He bolted across the street, bracing against the wall with his hands before grumbling, "This is so sketchy…"

He jumped, grabbing the top of the wall effortlessly and flinging himself over, landing in the shrubbery on the other side quiet as could be. Jaune peeked out, seeing a man in olive green cargo pants and a black T-shirt picking his nails with a knife on the front porch and a man in similar clothes walking around the side of the house, most likely coming from the backyard.

"Shit." Jaune whispered, in a perfect world he could knock out or kill them but he has to be undetected for whatever reason.

"Hey!" Jaune jumped, convinced he'd been spotted but thankfully it was just the new guard snapping at the one who was still picking at his nails.

"What? Keep it down, it's two in the morning."

"Pay attention."

"At what? The grass? The lovely bushes? Nothing and no one is gonna break in here."

"You don't know that."

"Nothing did yesterday, or the day before that, or the entire week before that or even the month before that. Face it, we're getting paid to scare away scam artists and stray cats."

"Gods… at least try and look like you're doing your job."

"Whatever you say boss." The other guard walked away, probably going to the backyard from the other direction as the young guard began mumbling to himself, "Fuckin dick, least he gets to walk around. Alec gets to sit inside and watch TV, but here I am looking at a driveway and grass."

Jaune stepped towards the wall and headed towards the side of the house the guard had just come from, using the bushes as cover. Thanks to the information he'd been given by Mercury, he figured the knife was in the office or bedroom. Jaune hoped it was the former for obvious reasons.

Reaching the side of the house, a stone path separated the bushes from the house, Jaune looked up to see a sliding window that would be at the back left of the house relative to the front, he figured it would be close to if not the office itself. Without a second thought, Jaune jumped up the wall. An action he regretted as he foot scraped against the textured wall, the sound of plaster against rubber ringing out.

"What was that?" Jaune's heart stopped as he heard the voice around the corner, a new voice that he didn't recognize from the front.

"Probably a stray but go check." The guy from the front who was walking around.

Profanity laced thoughts filled Jaune's mind as he hung off the windowsill.

"Way to go, Jaune. Nice job planning ahead you broke bitch." Jaune whispered to himself as he began trying to open the window. Locked.

"On it boss." Boots began tapping on stone and Jaune's panic spiked but as the guard rounded the corner, there wasn't a sight or a sound, "Stray musta fallen or something, nothin."

Jaune exhaled in relief as he propped himself up between the wall and the steel edges of the shower wall, "Hopefully they won't notice a broken window lock."

Closing the window, Jaune stepped down and out of the shower. Gliding across the tiled floor like shadow, stopping at the door. Getting low, he attempted to look beneath it, seeing only darkness. He cracked the door slightly, looking into the dark interior of the house. He saw stairs down to the ground floor straight ahead and to his right he saw an end table with a vase of flowers on; his left however was a different matter. He'd have to expose his head to look. Listening close, he didn't hear footsteps, shifting weight or even breathing. Jaune felt mostly comfortable in tilting his head out.

A dark hallway with a handrail that connected to the stairwell on the right. Jaune closed the door behind him as he stepped out, quiet and slow, he snuck down the hall. Luck was on his side at this one moment, as he cracked the first door he was greeted to the sight of a bookcases and a desk.

Jaune mostly shut the door behind him, only leaving it open a sliver as he looked around. Altered have a sort of darkvision, most see the dark as black and gray out to about seventy five feet. Though the lower numbers can see farther out and in color from what Jaune had heard.

"Why would someone need this many books?" Jaune asked, taking in the small but densely packed room.

The north, west and east walls were covered in bookcases while the south wall had the door and a small table with a few glasses, decanters of liquor and a globe on it and in the center there was a desk.

Jaune began searching drawers one by one, office supplies, loose papers as well as random junk and knicknacks. A photo of a couple drew his eye, a man in his late thirties with dark hair and piercing yellow eyes and a woman in her early thirties with striking green eyes and hair that flowed down her back and over her shoulders that resembled the color of the sea.

"Must be Mister and Missus Phillips. Cute couple. Photo looks old though." I muttered as I momentarily paused my search, the photo was beginning to yellow around the edges. It must've been mistreated or left out for too long.

I returned to my search when the worst possible thing happened…

My phone rang.

My heart took the express elevator to my throat as I began to fumble with my pockets and phone. Texts from Leo?

GET OUT NOW

SAO PHILLIPS IS A FAKE IDENTITY

YOU'RE IN

My reading was cut short as the door swung open and the sound of the slide on a pistol was racked.

"Why are you in my house, Jaune?" Neptune Vasilias asked, fluffy blue bathrobe and all as he aimed a forty five caliber handgun at my head

AN: Hey, I doubt this is the only story some of you follow so you may know that I've been updating again thanks to Quarantine. Yaaaaaay… try to stay positive during these trying times and just try to enjoy your time off or reduced time at work or being able to attend class in PJs and not be judged for it. I'm either going to update Lionheart or Argonaut next, so I'll see you then.