So this is a thing I wrote. Little more to say on the topic. This is a different take on the ever-so-popular "Let's give Jaune some powers." idea that I myself have already taken one shot at.

I don't own RWBY at all if anyone is concerned.

Jaune Arc was on top of the world as he strolled through the streets of Vale, taking in the scenery. He had made it into Beacon Academy, the most prestigious academy this side of Remnant! He was going to be a Huntsman and protect the innocents of the world from all the things that were out to get them.

He was finally going to do it. Against all odds, he was finally on his way to becoming the hero he had always dreamed of being.

And all he had to do to get this far was lie and cheat his way into a position he had no training for. It hadn't been hard to find a forge, but finding a good one had been painful; luckily, he'd managed to find a rare gem in the form of "Junior", the gruff owner of a nightclub in the city itself.

After he'd made it clear just what he wanted, having learned of the man's connections through a bit of asking around, the man had rather blatantly taken matters out of his hands. 'Kid, you wanna be a hero? That's fine by me. But around here, heroes ain't worth much. I got a guy, and I'll do the talkin', you just make sure you got the lien.'

And just like that, suddenly he had top-notch forgeries in hand and the man had spared him little more than a grunt of acknowledgement as he left the night club.

Applying for Beacon had been a bit intimidating, but his forgeries were excellent. He was able to get through with little scrutiny, just another Huntsman candidate with a decent record taking on the challenge of being one of the best.

It was easier than he would like to admit, to lie to others. Jaune hated just how good he seemed to be at lying.

But it worked. That was all that mattered in the end, wasn't it? He would learn how to be a Huntsman, and then his deceit would be irrelevant in the face of all the good he would do.

Shaking himself from thoughts of future exploits, the teen instead turned to the now. He was hungry and a good meal sounded like the perfect way to celebrate his acceptance to Beacon.

Briefly, he circled in place to see if any of the nearby buildings seemed like a good place to eat. There was one, actually, that looked like a nice little cafe; he wondered idly just what all they had, he could definitely go for something like a sandwich and then a generous dessert.

Never before had Jaune been so thankful for the relatively inexpensive nature of his hobbies, his inclination to take chores around the house upon himself, or his frugal nature with money. Back when he'd lived at home it never seemed to matter that he always had a large stockpile of lien from his allowance, or helping out neighbors, or doing extra chores. But out in the real world, it'd prepared him for the pains that came from living on your own, even if you were doing so out of a hotel room as a temporary measure.

As he began to step towards the cafe, something else caught his eye. A short girl with an outlandish color scheme of white, pink, and brown had just walked into an alleyway between two nearby buildings... and a small group of men were following right on her heels.

Jaune didn't even hesitate to turn and walk directly after them; there was no freaking way he was going to let some girl be mugged, or worse, when he could see it happening and step in!

And so he quickly followed into the alleyway after the group, forgetting one rather vital thing about himself in the process.

After launching a clumsy punch at the back of one man's head, managing to do little more than draw a curse from the guy who had been in the middle of laughing at the girl for letting them lead her to a secluded spot, Jaune was soon reminded of what he lacked.

Literally everything.

A follow-up punch hit air, as the man he'd sneak-attacked turned and drove a burly fist into his gut, sending the blonde reeling.

"Who the fuck you think you are, man?" The bigger man growled, a pair of dark brown eyes narrowing at the scrawny runt who'd sucker punched him.

"Leave the girl alone." Jaune grit out through the pain in his gut, trying his best to look intimidating.

It didn't work very well at all. "Dude, this guy for real?" One of the lackies chuckled, thumbing at the girl behind them. "She could probably do a better job than he did!"

As the rest of the small group began to laugh at that, the girl herself merely quirking a brow yet remaining silent, Jaune growled and charged forward again, fist raised high.

And he was, again, knocked back without much effort. "You know, man, I was gonna tell you to just fuck off; there's five guys here and you can't even handle one... but your face pisses me off." The lead guy, the one he'd punched, smirked. "So we're gonna rearrange it."

Jaune growled, but a fist to his face cut off anything the teen could say.

And that was pretty much how it continued. He would run in, try to land a hit, but the bigger man would summarily dodge and land a much more powerful punch.

It ended up with the Arc teen sprawled up against the side of one of the buildings, face bruised and lip bloody, covered in sweat from his attempts to fight. His armored chest, which had been ignored in favor of his stomach and face, rose and fell in painful pants. 'I guess I forgot I'm a wimp after all... I didn't even get the girl a chance to run.' The hope was that he would at least do that much even if he did lose the fight... but one guy had just trounced him while the others watched the girl.

Said girl, he could see her past the small group of thugs, merely regarded him with a curious tilt of her head.

She was pretty, that much he could say for sure. A white jacket, pink on the inside, cut off at the front just below her breasts. The back wasn't cut off, leaving the fabric to drape down to around thigh level. She wore a dark sweater beneath that, cut in such a way that, in conjunction with her pants, a tantalizing bit of skin was shown off just around her hips. Brown pants held on her slender body by a simple belt, with a pair of white, high heeled boots that were closed via several dark buttons, the boots being a chocolate brown at the very bottom and heel.

Her hair was pink on the left side, brown on the right, and fell in an almost hypnotizing cascade to her mid back, with just the faintest touches of white here and there in the pink. Several necklaces looped around her slim neck in varying sizes, the lowest hanging of them just above her rather generous cleavage.

And her face. She had such soft features, and such an innocent look to her... but her expression was far from what he would expect. She was surrounded by a bunch of goons who were threatening her, and the only person who'd noticed and come to help was thoroughly beaten down.

But those strange eyes of hers merely remained fixed on him, one pink and the other brown.

And then she blinked. Now they were both pink.

What? That was weird... and why had the guy stopped yammering on about beating him down? When did that stop?

Reality shattered like glass, and suddenly the face of the girl was much closer to his. Jaune gasped in surprise, before his darting eyes picked up signs of the remaining people in the alleyway.

All five of the men who had been mocking him and threatening this girl were groaning in pain, just barely able to get up off of the ground. "Y-you little bitch! You'll fucking pay for this!" One of them growled, an arm thrown over another's shoulder as they began to limp away.

The girl merely giggled silently, one dainty, gloved hand before her lips as the beaten thugs scrambled off. After a moment, making sure they had gone, the girl turned back to him with a small smile.

"Oh... I guess you had that under control, then..." He mumbled, wind taken quite thoroughly out of his sails. Yay, he'd gotten beaten up for no reason and made himself look like a loser in front of a pretty girl. So much for today being a good day.

A scroll was pressed in front of his face, and Jaune blinked at the sudden action before reading what was typed on the screen.

'Yep, all under control. But thanks for the laughs; I really needed that.' The girl giggled once more at the sour look that drew from him, bringing her scroll back to her and typing up something else as he glared. 'It was sweet, don't get me wrong, but you're just one kid and there were five men there; that was stupid of you to do.'

He growled a bit in his throat, angry with a lot of things. Himself, this girl, the world, those guys... "Yeah, yeah... I get it; I'm pathetic. I swear, I'm gonna prove everyone wrong one day. I've already made it to Beacon, now I just need to make it through and I'll be so much better than I am now." He'd wanted to be a hero so badly, but he just never managed to prove enough talent to get into a combat school. So if he couldn't get in normally, he'd fake it and just get better from there.

The girl blinked at him, quirking one eye curiously... and then she burst out in laughter, which was somewhat disconcerting considering how she didn't make a sound more than just breathing. It was kind of disturbing to watch, like the sound had just been stolen from her entirely. That at least explained why she was using a scroll to communicate, he supposed...

But it did some pretty nice things to certain parts of her body, which his eyes couldn't help but be drawn to as the laughter caused them to move up and down. Short as the girl was, she was far from lacking in that department. They weren't huge or anything, but as close as the two of them were he'd have to be blind not to notice.

Oh man she noticed him looking... Jaune huffed, turning away with a flush. "Screw this... you're fine, I'm a mess, and I'm still hungry. I'm out of here..." As he began to stand, the girl pressed on his chest with one hand.

And try as he might, Jaune couldn't even budge her as he tried to stand. That was just not fair! How was this girl half his size so much stronger than him?

The answer came in the form of a scroll. 'Boy, there is no way you made it into Beacon without your Aura unlocked. Even if you somehow managed to fluke your way through the entrance exams, you would need Aura to get that far.' As though she was able to see the confusion in his eyes, the girl snorted silently at his ignorance before typing another line. 'You do know what Aura is, right?'

As tempted as he was to say yes, Jaune figured she could tell he would be lying. "I don't know. Now let me up!"

She didn't. Another scroll message thrust into his face; the girl was typing them one-handed without even looking at the damn thing. 'You were serious about getting into Beacon, so either you're some kind of lunatic and legitimately believe you made it in... or you cheated. And, funny enough, I happen to know a man with a soft spot for the clueless ones. Does the name "Junior" ring a bell, kid?'

His breath hitched, and Jaune knew she noticed it. God, she knew? Already his secret was blown out of the water, and by some girl he hadn't even met? What kind of luck did he have, going to try and do something good and kind for no reason other than he could, only to be met with this? It was infuriating. Was this what being a nice guy got for him? That was just not even right. No wonder people figured the nice guys finished last; he could sure see that.

This girl had a damn super power or something that let her run over those five guys like nothing, she could hold him down with one freaking hand, and she was aware of his biggest secret all in the first five fucking minutes he'd met her.

... Jaune was close to tears out of sheer frustration. And to think, the day'd been going so well too.

Seeing his distress, the girl frowned. 'You know they'll slaughter you at Beacon, right? Even if you get in, the initiation is going to kill you. You should quit now before you get hurt.' The emphasis put on the words "slaughter" and "kill" were obvious due to the fact that it was in text.

Jaune flinched, but turned away. "It doesn't matter. I know I don't have some special freaking powers or anything, but I still want to help people. Is that so wrong? Am I gonna just be a pathetic waste of space for the rest of my life?" He spat out, feeling that same lingering distress he'd always had.

He had always, ever since he could remember, found himself so jealous of people with talents he lacked. Jaune hated himself for it sometimes, that he couldn't just be happy when one of his sisters showed off something she was good at, or when he heard of the deeds of those heroes out in the world today. But whenever someone did something worth praise, it made him feel all the more inadequate.

Because he didn't get praised for being talented, not ever. If he got anything, it was because he'd just been nice. Oh, thank you for cleaning the kitchen honey! Thank you for doing the dishes! For sweeping the house!

He was like a freaking maid, and it was all because that was all he could ever even do to get that praise because he was never, ever, never even close to as good as anyone else at anything and it always made him so angry, hurt him so bad, brought the self-esteem issues he'd always had so much closer to the surface...

Every time someone displayed some unique talent or ability, Jaune couldn't deny the fact that he envied them. That he wished he could do such things.

That he wished he could be special, too. That envy... as much as he hated to admit it, Jaune couldn't deny that it was a part of him, a large part of him at that. As much as he tried to keep it forced beneath his usual smile, that same negativity was always there.

Jaune sighed, hanging his head and forcing himself not to cry with what little dignity he could still hold onto. "... just... go away, please. I don't even want to get up anymore... but please just let me sulk here in peace." With only the stinging of his face and ache in his stomach to keep him company, constant reminders that he was just as much of a screw up as ever, even if he was now a screw up on his way to Beacon.

He was just so drained after all of this.

The hand on his chest moved, but not how he'd wanted it to. Rather than leaving him entirely, the girl merely moved her hand to his chin and rather forcefully directed his attention towards her scroll.

'I may have been a bit too harsh on you. Even if you didn't need to help me, you at least tried to.' The emphasizing of the word 'tried' with bold text was noted and not appreciated by Jaune, but he carried on with reading. 'It's not right for the damsel to let her knight in shining armor go unrewarded... even if you ended up being the one saved in the end lol.'

Jaune's growl of displeasure seemed to be the cue the girl was waiting for, as she promptly dropped into his lap. Grunting at the sudden impact of a girl literally flopping onto him, the teen moved to ask just what the hell this girl was doing just before she claimed his lips for herself.

She was kissing him!?

Yes, and rather vigorously at that. The smaller girl had pressed him entirely against the wall, her petite rump settled in his lap and legs loosely wrapped around him as she continued her relentless assault on his mouth.

For his part, Jaune was equal parts confused and aroused; the crippling depression and self-hate had been pushed out rather quickly by the strange girl and her stranger actions.

After a good thirty seconds of the girl furiously making out with him, Jaune did something he would have earlier considered strange and tried to push the girl off of him, to demand just what the hell she was doing.

Except, again, she was way stronger than him. As such, he succeeded in doing little more than inadvertently copping a feel.

That terrified him, as this girl had just ruined five grown men while he'd failed to even fight one, but she merely pulled back for the briefest moment to flash him a devilish little grin that he couldn't help but find immensely hot... before she went right back to practically raping his mouth with hers, even going so far as to grab the hand he'd accidentally fondled her with and moving it back to her breast.

This was his first kiss for crying out loud! Weren't those supposed to be the cute little awkward pecks couples gave each other? Not the full blown snogging session he was currently engaged in!

After a few more minutes of this, the girl drew back. Jaune's eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the thin, shining string of saliva that remained connecting their mouths as if it was the final piece of evidence of the previous events.

His heart was absolutely hammering in his chest right now, and the Arc teen wasn't entirely ashamed to admit he had a raging hard-on at the moment. There was a beautiful girl still seated in his lap after she had just finished dominating his mouth with her own. How could he not be full mast?

Judging by the very small flush on the otherwise monotonous girl's face, she had at least had fun. Who's reward was that supposed to be again?

His breathing still ragged and his eyes still wide as saucers, Jaune slowly opened his mouth to speak. "W-wha?"

... It didn't really work. His mind was damn near shut down right now.

The girl giggled, one slim little gloved finger pressing up against her lip as she regarded him with a positively sultry expression. The other quickly presented her scroll. 'Did you like your reward, boy?'

"Uh... uhm..." Jaune stammered, blushing rather intensely as she shifted in his lap, the girl clearly making note of his arousal. "Y-yeah." He eventually choked out, unable to look at her.

The scroll came into his field of view again. 'We're not done yet, though... you still haven't figured out just what happened, have you?'

"Wait, wha-!" He was cut off by that same strong hand at his cheek, which drew him back into the girl's waiting lips once more.

Damn it, what the hell was with this girl!? Any other day and any other situation he would have thought this was the best thing, but right now Jaune was damn near feeling violated by the incredibly aggressive girl and her advances.

As she pulled back again, that same devilish grin on her lips, Jaune couldn't help but realize that his face and stomach didn't hurt anymore. '... is she actually kissing me better? What the heck?'

'Oh, I know that look. You starting to figure it out? You were glowing like a lantern a minute ago, you know.' The girl's scroll read, the item once more shoved in his face.

"W-what the heck did you do? Do you have some kind of healing power or something?" He stammered out, backing his head away from the girl and her soft, pink lips...

She sighed silently, rolling her eyes. 'Still not getting it then. You really didn't know what Aura was at all, did you? Huntsman need it to survive; it's your soul manifesting into a shell that protects and heals the squishy parts inside.'

"S-so you had to k-ki-kiss me to heal me?" The boy stumbled over the word kiss, partially because he was so new to the very idea of the female form when it came to proximity to him and partially because what she'd done to him was hardly something he would call a kiss.

Another sigh. 'You're not so bright, but luckily you're cute.' That was a backhanded compliment if he'd ever heard one...

"Ow!" He griped as the girl headbutted him suddenly, her forehead colliding with his own and slamming the back of his head into the brick wall behind him. "What the hell is your problem!?"

'Don't whine. It didn't hurt, did it?'

Seeing that text, Jaune realized she was right; he really didn't feel anything from that. Maybe a bit of a thump, but it was really muted.

Manifestation of the soul into a shell, protecting the parts inside... and now he wasn't feeling pain from something like that, not nearly as much as a headbutt that sudden should've brought on. "... You...?"

'Yes. I unlocked your Aura with mine; and let me tell you, boy, if you have one thing going for you it's size.' She grinned at him, again shifting positions and drawing attention to his less than little problem. 'I mean your Aura, that is. You've got so much more than me it's actually really impressive.'

Jaune wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that... "Uh... thanks?"

'If you want to thank me, shut up and actually participate this time.' Was the last thing he saw of the scroll again before it was replaced by the girl's face as she drew him in for yet another mouth-rape session.

But this time, Jaune felt a bit more confidence and actually participated like she asked, his arms sliding around the girl's neck as he felt himself lean in to indulge her more.

... damn her for being hot and damn his hormones for making it so easy to give in. He'd at least refrained from grabbing her chest again, though he was kind of tempted since she seemed okay with it...

The impromptu makeout session ended again minutes later with Jaune's heart hammering, as the breathless boy stared into the eyes of the slightly flushing girl mere inches from his face.

Those eyes of hers were so alluring. Pink and brown, and they seemed to switch colors every so often. It was a mysteriousness that he couldn't help but find attractive, and not entirely in the way that his current predicament may have implied. There was just something mesmerizing about it, an almost hypnotic effect to her that he just couldn't ignore.

Suddenly, those eyes widened; the first real change in the girl's expression he had seen since meeting her... roughly fifteen minutes ago.

"What?" He asked through his panting, unsure of just what the girl was suddenly so interested in.

Blinking at him curiously, the girl in his lap- how had he not even gotten her name yet despite this whole situation!?- reached into her jacket and retrieved a compact, flipping the pink plastic lid up and revealing a mirror that was shortly forced into his face.

"What in the world?" Jaune mumbled, his own eyes going wide as he realized just what was going on.

A pair of pink and brown eyes stared back at him, and this time they didn't belong to the girl.

The mirror was replaced by a scroll. 'My name is Neo. It's short and sweet, just like me... and I think we're going to have a lot of fun together, my knight in shining armor.'

Jaune gulped.

The city of Vale was a good place to hide out for those who were on less than stellar terms with the law. Being the sprawling metropolis it was, the city itself was positively rife with hidey-holes and safehavens for all sorts of individuals who didn't get quite care what was or was not illegal.

One such individual had chosen himself a particularly cozy hideaway; located away to itself on the ass-end of the city, snugly situated within the ever-so-innocent presence of a business he'd gotten through completely legal means.

The fact that the business in question was an ice-cream parlor was a decision he would never regret; having a steady supply of his partner-in-crime's favorite addiction on hand was always a wonderful thing, especially when the girl was a cold-blooded killer who very well may slit his throat in his sleep if he were to deny her said frozen treat.

Roman Torchwick was not in any way ashamed to admit that Neopolitan was a terrifying little thing. Her strength, skill, and speed were all top-notch in the first place, leaving her with an absolutely infuriating method of fighting which revolved around dodging like she was just a feather on the wind. Her knowledge of the human body and control with her Aura made the simple sword sheathed in her umbrella a weapon just as lethal as his beloved Melodic Cudgel, her vicious and cunning nature made her just as wily an opponent as Roman had often prided himself on being, and the complete silence she moved with gave people fits when it came to tracking her.

And this was all before considering that absolutely spectacular jackpot of a Semblance she had managed to pull out of whatever lottery determined that crap.

Infiltration, assassination, information gathering, extraction, distraction... her fucking Semblance did it all. She could disguise herself as anyone or anything, even going so far as to make herself damn near invisible. She could create fully three dimensional illusions that were so lifelike they were impossible to tell from the real-deal, and moreover?

She. Could. Fucking. Teleport.

That last bit was just not even remotely fair and Roman absolutely adored having it on his side. And the fact that he willingly supplied his cute little killer with copious amounts of ice cream in whatever flavor she desired only assisted in keeping that jackpot of an ability firmly with him, in addition to the rather... bizarre friendship they had formed.

Their relationship was strange in that the two of them were close... but it wasn't something either of them were really willing to acknowledge, not to the other at least.

Roman himself was self-aware enough to know why he felt best leaving it unsaid just how much he enjoyed Neo's presence; it'd be a show of weakness that his entire lifetime of crime had taught him to refrain from. Friends were tools to be used and thrown away as needed, because in this world thinking of them as anything more only led to exploitation either by said friends or others who came to know.

He had no intention of ever abandoning or throwing away Neo; regardless of her status as his closest confidante, she was far too valuable to even consider letting go of. But Roman would admit freely to himself that he valued her as a simple companion as much as he did a partner in crime.

Only to himself, however. Because that was how their world worked. Even if Neo was just as sappy on the inside as he could be, even if letting her know would only strengthen her loyalty to his cause, there was no way he was going to come out and just say how much she meant to him. It was just the way he'd been used to operating and not much was going to be able to change that.

The ginger-haired thief chuckled, straightening his bowler hat and regarding the television on the other side of the well-furnished room with a grin. "Oh, look, they're talkin' about me... joy." He mumbled with a sardonic humor that did little to hide his dissatisfaction.

Therein lied his latest problem; an "alliance" of sorts with one miss Cinder Fall, who had forcibly recruited himself and the leader of the Valean White Fang of all people into her fold.

Roman Torchwick did not tolerate others trying to give him orders as though they were above his station. He had worked long and hard to reach the position he had and to be demeaned so plainly by that woman positively infuriated him.

But he refrained. Because Cinder Fall was powerful, so much more so than he could handle.

He never had believed in fairy tales and magic and the like; hocus pocus made up for children's shits and giggles. Nothing worthwhile, just old folklore that didn't die out.

Until his new employer had forced him to input research because of how ridiculous her abilities were. His resources were nearly endless, a testament to just what he had built over the years, and the disturbing news that those old stories may be more than just that was spine-chilling.

The Four Maidens, wielding powers unimaginable, were not just myths. It took a lot of digging and a lot of subtle inquiries to even uncover this much, and his network had found some concerning signs when on that search.

Someone had been intentionally covering what little factual information they could find under as many layers of dust as possible, which only further affirmed the truth of the matter. Not only did they exist, but they were being purposefully hidden from the rest of the world.

That opened a whole new world of possibilities. If the Maidens existed, what else could have been true? The thought of that got the nearly childlike excitement he always felt before a big heist burning up inside of him. Ancient legends about mystical powers had some truth to them? Then what about objects, artifacts, weapons? The possibilities were absolutely endless. Stories of ancient magical doohickies and thingamabobs were now more than just trash to throw out.

But it had to wait until he could worm his way out of Cinder Fall's grasp.

For now, he would follow her routine; dust stores, lay low, rinse and repeat.

"... So boring." He griped to himself, bringing one of his oh-so-wonderful cigars to his lips and flicking his lighter open. Holding the little metal contraption to the tobacco product, he lit the cigar and took himself a long, slow drag. Releasing a relaxing sigh and plume of smoke, the thief merely kicked back in his recliner and continued watching the mindless programming on the t.v., idly hoping for something interesting to crop up.

And lo and behold, ask and ye shall receive; not ten seconds after the thought entered his mind, Roman felt the arrival of his previously mentioned companion as she simply stepped into existence.

His brow quirked rather plainly at the sight of her company; she had some scraggly looking blonde kid in a hoodie and jeans. The rather pristine white armor at his chest did draw a bit of scrutiny, as well as the blade sheathed at his hip, but otherwise this very much looked like some random kid picked up off the streets.

... and knowing Neo that was actually entirely possible. The kid fell flat on his ass, eyes closed and one hand covering his mouth as though to keep himself from retching.

That made the thief snicker a bit; good ol' teleportation transport, probably flipped the kid's stomach in all sorts of ways.

And then the boy opened his eyes.

Roman's own emerald orbs shot wide as he took note of the bizarre color combination. The teen's eyes were that same unique brown and pink combination that his partner possessed, and as the boy blinked he noted the shift in coloration from eye to eye.

He stood up after a moment, taking another drag on his cigar as he did so. Exhaling, he turned to the ever-so-smug face of his murderous psychopath of a midget. "... Neo, originally I was going to question your tastes as far as a booty-call." The girl snickered at that even as her... uh... companion? Whatever the kid was to her. Well he turned a rather interesting shade of red as Neo laughed in that usual silent fashion of hers at his joke. "Seriously, tall blonde and scraggly? Never would'a thought you were into that." And then he suddenly dropped the joking tone. "But, well, that thing with the eyes? Rather unique. Mind explaining just who this kid is?"

The kid in question merely shifted some, into an actual seated position rather than just being flat on his ass.

'This is Jaune; I was luring some thugs into an alley to knock them around for ogling me, but he showed up before I could.' She paused for a moment to hide a snort of amusement, but it was clearly noted by both males. 'And he got his ass kicked hard. It was hilarious.' She bust into giggles again, going so far as to wrap her arms around herself in amusement.

"... It's not that funny." The blonde teen growled, a flush coming to his face even as he glared at the short girl making fun of him, knowing full well she was insulting his ability in a fight even without reading her scroll.

She gave him a look with a quirked brow, as if to say 'really?' without verbalizing it.

The teen relented. "... screw you, Neo..." He mumbled, looking away.

"Here I'd thought that was the point." Roman chimed in with a chuckle of his own, before motioning for Neo to continue even as the teen blushed in the corner.

'So yeah. Jaune here stepped in and tried to help. It didn't work. I enjoyed the sight of him getting beat up for a minute or two and then decided I'd deal with it, beat the thugs up, and started asking him just what he'd thought he was going to do to five grown men without any sort of skills to his name.' She frowned a bit here, glancing towards the teen subtly and keeping her expression away from the still flustered boy. 'Kind of a sore topic; he's got some inadequacy issues, methinks. Probably family, and he's not exactly the most amazing out of them if I had to guess.'

Roman made a personal note to keep that in mind if he ever did bother to care about the kid's feelings, but otherwise merely gestured for her to keep going. He didn't exactly need all that, but it was helpful for sure, especially if those eyes of his actually meant something useful.

Rolling her eyes, the smaller girl continued typing. 'Anyway, get this; Jaune here met up with our good friend Junior for some forgeries to get in to Beacon Academy. And he's been accepted. With no Aura or prior training at all.'

That did put a bit of a frown to Roman's face; Junior was usually far more careful than that. The big man did have a legitimate soft-side, something Roman found hilarious to some degree because the man practically doted on his left and right hand girls in the Malachite twins, but at the same time he wasn't an idiot. Forging a kid into Beacon when the kid had no chance in hell was a surefire way to cause himself some suspicion down the line, even if he did have his shit airtight like normal.

But the ginger haired thief ignored it in favor of continuing to read Neo's lengthy explanation.

'So because he looked so pathetic after I told him Beacon would chew him up and spit him out, I kind of decided I'd have some fun with him to cheer him up. He's like a puppy... it's really cute. He definitely perked right up once I started making out with him... in a lot of ways, I might add.' Neo snickered again, this time glancing very pointedly at the blonde's crotch.

"H-hey, Neo! Where the hell are you looking?" He yelped, mismatched eyes flipping around frantically in a display that Roman couldn't help but watch.

Damn was that weird. Those weren't just the same eye colors, those were like Neo's eyes right out of her head, just displaying more emotion in them than he'd ever seen. It was crazy and he knew for a fact there was some coincidence there. The kid had something going on that was copying Neo somehow.

But just what did he manage to copy exactly? Just her eyes? Or something more?

"If I had to guess it'd be your package, kiddo. On the plus side, anything is probably gonna be good sized compared to her." Roman snickered at the scandalized look it earned him from the teen.

'I'd say it's a decent size for anyone. He's got that going for him at least.' Neo typed out, showing her reply to Roman who couldn't contain his laughter.

"Oh boy, that'll be fun in the bedroom I'm sure. Good luck with that, Neo!" He cackled even as the teen remained mortified in the corner, hands covering his face and cheeks scarlet. "But wait, no, no, don't try to distract me with all that stuff; what the heck is with his eyes? Do you even know or what?"

'Oh, I've got no idea.' She replied, waving the scroll about cheekily, much to his irritation. 'Some suspicions I guess, but nothing concrete?'

"Shoot, Neo; I'm dying of curiosity here." He really did want to know just what was up with that, as there were some things that it could be that would make him a very, very happy person. Of course, if said possibilities were true, and if the kid was more... malleable.

'I figured I'd give the boy a little gift for being sweet... so I went to the trouble of awakening his Aura.' She paused for a moment, giving him a very pointed glance. 'Roman, the kid has higher Aura capacity than both of us.' Seeing his nod, and a quirked brow of slight interest, Neo's grin widened. 'I meant together, Roman.'

That... that took him a moment to process.

He and Neo weren't the most Aura-heavy individuals out there. They weren't juggernaut kind of fighters at all, both of them playing more towards speed and finesse, himself more rugged and crafty and Neo simply fluid to a degree that was outstanding.

That said; they were two fully trained fighters at the level of a professional Huntsman. To have more Aura than the two of them and it was just awoken? That was nuts. Not particularly useful, since he had no training to speak of, but still. In sheer quantity, he could brute force his way through lesser fighters without any skill at all just by merit of hitting them harder than they could hit him.

"... Alright. That's actually something significant." He admitted, glancing towards the kid idly. "But the eyes are my main concern here Neo; those aren't just the same color as yours, they're exactly like your eyes in every way. That ain't normal."

If you asked him to tell the two of them apart just by the eyes, it'd be easy... but only because the kid wasn't like Neo at all. Neo was infinitely less expressive, and so the teen's easily detectable confusion set him apart.

The boy in the corner merely frowned at this whole conversation he was being excluded from, feeling the need to get involved. "Hey, uh... Neo. What'd you bring me here for anyway?"

A moment later a scroll was thrust in the kid's face, and a wide blush shot across his face. "W-wha-what!? You can't be serious! I've known you for like a half hour!"

Roman's eyes rolled as the kid began stuttering. Neo certainly had some interesting tastes, that was for sure. But if she wanted to shoot for the fruits that had only just ripened, who was he to judge? It wasn't him taking the kid to bed, after all. "Neo... staying on target please?"

She pouted, put off at not being able to play with her latest toy even as said toy continued to stammer and blush, looking between himself and her. 'I think I also got his Semblance working. And I don't know exactly what it does, but... well, the eyes are kind of a clue. You know what I said about issues with inadequacy? I think his Semblance is trying to answer that somehow.'

That made some sense. A Semblance was often regarded as being a pure manifestation of one's soul into a power to outwardly interact with the world. In layman's terms, it was a superpower that was unique to the user in many ways. Some were, rarely, hereditary... but again, that was exceedingly rare. As in, he only knew of the Schnee family off the top of his head, and they were stupid famous so it'd take an idiot not to know of them in some capacity.

So if the kid didn't think he was good enough, was his Semblance trying to let him be someone else?

There were two major possibilities that could make this kid gold, and a myriad of others that would be silver at best and fools gold at worst.

Golden possibility one; he could either shapeshift or disguise himself on a physical level. That made for a very useful infiltration specialist and spy, and a thief being able to be one person one minute and another the next was always useful. Roman could always use someone with a talent like that, and if the kid was just a blank slate as he seemed to be then he may be useful.

The second possibility that would strike gold is that the kid's Semblance latched onto Neo's and was similar, manifesting much the same as her eyes did. That was a freaking goldmine in and of itself, because if he had even a fraction of Neo's powers he was going to be useful.

And then it kind of went down from there in terms of usefulness.

But above everything else, Roman did have one suspicion. If it was possible, and he really did hope his little thought was correct, this kid would be worth more than gold.

What if he copied other people's Semblances? If he could just mimic someone else's powers?

Roman was getting ahead of himself though. They'd need to test it, and further he'd need to endear himself to the kid if he was trying to make use of him in any fashion.

"... right. Well, the kid can stick around. I don't mind it, really." Their safehouse was larger than needed in the first place, just because Roman liked to live in luxury whenever possible. It was useful in situations where they had a hostage or something, he supposed, but he wasn't really the type to take hostages. Far too much risk of it causing trouble down the line, in his opinion. "You gonna actually try and figure out what he's got going for him or what?"

Neo's grin practically split her face. 'In a lot of different ways, yes.' She replied simply, before skipping over to the teen who had only just managed to compose himself.

"Er, N-Neo? What are you doing?" The boy mumbled out, eyeing her much like a mouse would a particularly hungry looking cat.

Without a word, obviously considering just who she was, Neo merely placed her hand on his chest.

It was at this point the teen realized just what she was about to do. "Wait, wait! Hold on, don't-!"

And just like that, they were gone.

Roman sighed. "Well, that was entertainin' for a few minutes... wonder if she'll remember to try and work on figuring out just what his Semblance does or just screw him silly?" Aw well, whatever. As long as she didn't make too much noise he didn't care much what she did.

Stumbling, Jaune nearly fell on his face if not for the small hand holding him up. He glanced at Neo, who was giving him a tiny smirk.

She was totally evil. That was just not okay to do to people.

On the up side, it didn't cause him as much issue as last time. He'd been a bit more prepared for it.

Taking a look around, he couldn't help but gulp as he belatedly realized she had just brought them to a bedroom. Hers, he assumed, but really if he'd learned anything from the last forty five minutes or so it was that this girl just did whatever she wanted.

And then there was a scroll in his face again. 'I think you made a good impression on Roman. As good an impression as blushing, stuttering, and all around looking like a doofus could make, that is.' She pointedly ignored his glare in response to that statement, merely continuing to type. 'You've got your Aura unlocked now, and that's great and all... but you've got no idea how to use it. So you're better than before, but still not particularly good. You get it?'

He flinched at that. "... yeah. I do." Jaune mumbled in response, unable to really deny it. He didn't like hearing that, but it wasn't wrong.

'Good. Then let's get to work on figuring out just what the story is with your eyes; they're still like mine. There's something there we can make use of, I'm sure.' That was really exciting to her. It was something new and interesting, someone who could, maybe, copy the things she did. Roman would be extremely pleased if they could get another one of her.

"You're going to help me?" The Arc teen couldn't help but ask, eyeing her a bit warily. "What are you getting out of it?"

'You.' Neo replied in short order. 'This will probably seem odd to you since you're just some kid trying to become a Huntsman, but relationships for people like me don't exactly work well. I don't have the time or the candidates for a regular boyfriend/girlfriend thing to work out. It's just not realistic.' Seeing his rather wary look, she rolled her eyes. 'Roman and I are both career criminals, Jaune; I'm not going to sugarcoat that. You're not exactly clean either with those forged transcripts, though.'

She did have something of a point there, even if Jaune could definitely argue that he was only doing that so he could get into Beacon to become a Huntsman, and that he'd only do something illegal for a good reason... but really, that argument was kind of childish. It'd be like saying that she or her friend didn't have a good reason to do what they did, and he couldn't say that because, really, he didn't know their lives. They could have had way better reasons than him for getting into this crap, especially considering his reason was kind of petty in the first place.

So just as he opened his mouth to argue, he shut it just as quickly and just accepted that statement. He was a criminal too, just one who hadn't been found out yet. And he wasn't willing to argue that point with the girl who had already proven to be far more dangerous than him.

'At any rate, I'm willing to help you get better. You've got a lot of Aura and that on it's own can be used to make you worthwhile, but the eyes changing means you've got a Semblance and it's already unlocked. That can give you a lot of options depending on what it does, but we need to find out first. And trust me when I say I can definitely help you learn.' She paused in her typing, glancing at him with a smirk. 'And all I want in return is some entertainment. No strings attached.'

Jaune blushed a bit at the insinuation, figuring he knew just what she meant by entertainment. Things were moving really fast here, and he wasn't entirely comfortable with it...

... but she'd offered to help him get better. That wasn't something he could just toss out, because she was clearly stronger than him, not to mention the first person to really even bother helping him in that regard.

Was it worth it? If it really was just her wanting his body, strange as that sounds, wasn't that kind of a small price to pay? He'd been wanting to get a girlfriend, wasn't this what that would've led to eventually? He was just... kind of skipping some steps.

But still. It felt like he was making a deal with the devil. A short, attractive, and whimsical devil.

"... I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to any of that stuff, you know." He managed to mumble after a bit of consideration, cheeks red at the thought. "I've never done anything like that."

'That's fine by me.' Neo's response was quick. 'I hardly expected you to be some kind of ladykiller, Jaune.' She smirked at him, that same devious little look that he was starting to become wary of. 'Actually, I think it'll be fun to watch you stumble your way through things. I'll be patient with you, don't worry about that.' More of her silent giggles came as she regarded him.

"A-Alright." Jaune stuttered out after a moment. "We've got a deal, I guess..." What was he really getting himself into here? This girl was a flat out criminal, and he didn't even know exactly what she did even with the admission that it wasn't legal.

The multi-colored girl's face lit up. 'I'm glad. First things first, though. Can you actually feel your Aura at all? Try to remember what you felt like earlier and see if there's anything different you notice.'

A little surprised by the sudden change of topic, he took a moment to consider.

Earlier, his body felt... well, normal. He'd just kind of been your average teenager, healthy in his build but not particularly strong or fast.

Now, though, he did feel a bit different. His body was still normal, he supposed, but there was something he could sort of feel. It was kind of like he could feel blood running through his veins, but not at the same time. A sort of warm something was around him, molded to his body but not constricting him.

Nonetheless, he could feel something different. "Yeah. It's kind of like I've got, like, a layer of something around me, but it's not even an inch from my skin. Does that make sense?" He wasn't really sure what he was supposed to describe it as.

Neo shrugged. 'Good enough. That'll be your Aura. Can you control it at all, move it around, anything like that? Just try to mess with it.' She waved her hand dismissively, as though to tell him it didn't really matter what he did with it.

Jaune hummed, trying to concentrate. "I can try." With that said, he began trying to will this force to move, eyes closed to help him focus.

It didn't exactly listen. He could feel a sort of push and pull between his thoughts and what he wanted the stuff to do, and what it actually did. It wasn't really accomplishing much one way or another, not that he could see.

Neo merely watched as the boy flexed his Aura a bit, managing to force a white glow off of himself from the disturbance. He was basically just expending energy for no real reason, but it did at least give her confidence that he could identify his Aura and start trying to manipulate it.

After a few moments, she walked over and lightly tapped his arm, drawing the teen out of his concentration. 'What you were doing there is pretty much just forcing your Aura up to the surface for no real use, so that's something at least; you can identify it and try to move it. Images help some when it comes to that, what were you thinking of? Anything specific?'

"Oh. I was kind of imagining it like tug of war; I had to pull so much my way but the other side was pulling back almost as hard." He replied, chuckling at the thought of it.

'Okay. Try this, then; imagine yourself walking through a veil of water, and imagine someone other than you while you're doing it.' Neo was actually really excited to see if this would work, because it could be really fun. Jaune had copied her eye-color seemingly at random, so it could be any number of things, but she was really hoping that he ended up doing what she thought he did.

He blinked at her. "... Uh. Sure?" The blonde didn't feel all that confident, not really even knowing what this was supposed to do. But for the moment he trusted her despite his concerns, so he would go along with it.

Jaune closed his eyes, imagining himself in a white tiled room, like the showers at the public swimming pool. In the center of the room, drains at the ceiling started letting loose water in a single curtain.

And then he walked through it, with the image of Neo at the forefront of his mind.

A few moments passed, and he wasn't really sure anything had changed... but a sudden, rather excited series of taps on his arm drew him out of it.

Neo was in front of him, happily jumping up and down like a child at Christmas and frantically pointing towards the full-length mirror next to her closet.

Turning to look at himself and see just what he'd done, Jaune instead saw a pair of Neos.

He blinked in surprise, and one of them did too, while the other merely clapped her hands giddily.

"... I'm you?" He mumbled, his voice coming from one of the two Neo's in the room. The other merely nodded gleefully.

'Roman is going to freak out! Come on, follow me really fast; this'll be great!'

Being tugged along by the girl, Jaune was shortly alerted to the fact that he was no longer Neo and was now, again, Jaune.

This drew a pout from the girl as she realized he had lost it. 'I suppose performance anxiety is something a first timer would encounter.' She typed up after a moment, giving him a playful smirk. 'Do you feel tired at all? Could you try it again, but this time as someone else?'

Jaune nodded. "Sure... let me see what I can do." After a moment of concentration, imagining that same feeling of walking through a veil of water and coming out someone new, he let out a breath and opened his eyes.

Neo grinned at him. 'The shade of orange for the hair is a bit off, the eyes are too bright, and the skin is just a bit too dark a shade. The material of the jacket is wrong, and the brim of the hat is too small. You also forgot the scarf.'

The faux Roman looked over the girl with wide emerald eyes. "Wow... you noticed all of that? I thought I'd nailed it." He glanced himself over again, realizing that she was right on multiple counts. Upon thinking about it, he could clearly see where he'd messed up.

'Roman has been my partner for years. I'd know better than most what he looks like, but it's a good try.' Truly it was. If he walked up to someone on the street who'd only seen Roman on the news then they wouldn't know the difference, but Neo could pick it out easily. 'Try changing into someone you've never seen before. Just imagine a new person and become them.'

That... would take a bit, Jaune figured. Roman and Neo were people he had just seen literally moments ago, and he was apparently able to turn into them easily enough somehow.

It took a bit of doing, and he did take some features from characters from his favorite comic series as well as just random things he thought of, but shortly a new person stood before Neo.

She scrutinized the new teen briefly. He was clad in a pair of black dress pants, well polished dress shoes of the same color, and a blue button-down shirt. A silver chain necklace hung from his neck, but otherwise he had no real accessories.

His hair was a dark blue that neared black, his eyes an electric yellow. A small scar reached from the left side of his lower lip to his chin, small enough that it could have been caused by just about anything.

'Good. I recommend you keep making up new people, try to vary them as much as you can. Don't stick to just men, maybe look at some fashion magazines for ideas on outfits. The scar was a nice touch, at a glance it makes you look like someone with a bit of a history to them rather than just some girl's dream boy come to life. Try to do little things like that on all of them, not just scars though.' After showing this bit of advice to the disguised teen, Neo gave him a rather encouraging smile. 'You're getting it pretty quickly. This is one of the easiest things my Semblance lets me do, but for someone with no idea about Aura to get it so fast is still pretty good.'

Jaune flushed at the praise, losing concentration on the person he had become and shortly falling back into his true identity with a sound like shattering glass. "Thanks. I'm... really happy to hear that." How long had it been since he was praised for doing something other than just being a nice guy? He'd aced a test on a lucky break once, a test most kids in his class had failed... and that was really the one time he'd done anything that was special. Other than that, it was just constantly a bunch of praise for just being helpful around the house.

Some girl he'd met like an hour ago was doing better for his self-esteem than his entire family had been up to this point. That was kind of sad, but he was in too good of a mood to care.

"Should I keep practicing it?" Jaune asked after a moment, feeling slightly winded by this point but not particularly tired.

This drew a wider grin from the girl, who stalked towards him slowly, her hips swaying hypnotically as she moved.

His eyes being so attracted to that motion in particular, it took Jaune a moment to realize that her scroll was in his face again.

'No, you can be other people later. For now, I'm going to have my fun with you.'

So here you have it. Jaune with an ability to copy the Semblances of others.

His Semblance follows some rules that I've thought up, it's got limitations on it.

I don't expect to update this often. I'm posting it mainly just because it's been sitting for a bit, and it'll be something I am planning to update, but it's somewhat slow and as of now, for instance, I've got no work on a second chapter done and don't know when I would get one made.

So. Jaune has the ability to copy Semblances to some degree; I'll go ahead and say right now that his copied ability is not as strong as that of the person it is taken from. It has some disadvantage to it that the original user would not have, such as increased cost as far as Aura use, limitations that may not have existed, ect. His relationship with Neo here is just as it sounds; she's bored, he's cute and interesting, and she doesn't get much in the way of physical relations. Could it develop more? Sure, maybe. Or maybe it could not.

Maybe I just like writing Neo and Roman. Who friggin' knows?