AN: Still dont own RWBY. Still dont own Highschool DxD. Still don't make anything off of this. Still keeping the heat low and the burn slow.

Also, all but one of the scenes in this chapter fought me up until they clicked into high gear and ran away from me.

The time between semesters is one for relaxation. For calming down, catching your breath and getting ready for the more difficult, dangerous second half of the school year. For an RA, having the bulk of the students you're responsible for staying at home, not in their dorm rooms makes the workload far lighter. Lazy days where you only change out of your pajamas to shuffle over to eat at the cafeteria, then changing right back when you get back to your dorm are the order of the day more often than not. If you don't have to work to keep tuition paid that is. Between her and Velvet employing a bit of teasing and pouting, there had been days that the guys had went to bring food back for the team instead of them having to make themselves presentable to go eat.

With only one empty dorm room on her floor available to fill with a new freshman team repeating the second semester of their first year, her duties as an RA had amounted to knocking on said dorm room door once the sounds of moving had died down, and introducing herself as their RA. What the break between semesters isn't supposed to have, is being woken from a very restive nap by one of the students on your floors dog after it uses its semblance to get into your room. She tries to ignore the damn mutt, but he's insistent. She stifles a sigh, and, careful not to wake up Velv or Yats, shimmies away from her two still blissfully slumbering teammates to climb out of bed.

She hunts around the room until she finds her pajama pants and slides into them. Glancing around the room, she tries to spot her top while idly rubbing Sabers head as the begging dog does his best to act pathetic and hungry, and she does her best to ignore that. Jaune had warned her. Multiple times. Give into his dogs begging for attention and treats too many times and he'll adopt her. So now she has a dog with its aura unlocked and a semblance that lets it pop out of corners at will, showing up every other day or so looking for her attention and food. As do the other members of the Arc family, and a good chunk of their close friends, apparently. She heaves a sigh and grabs a tank-top off the floor and throws it on. Its technically Velvets, and doesn't really fit her right, but its good enough for the short trip needed to return the dog to sender.

She can worry about underwear after she takes a shower. She glances back into the room where Yats and Velvet are still sleeping. A little past noon according to the clock above the bed, the nap had made up for most of the lost sleep from them waking up after Fox had failed to slip out of bed without waking them. It had been before dawn. Fox is due back from his job helping teach at one of the busier combat schools in a few more hours. She tugs on the dogs collar as she quietly makes her way out of the dorm room they really need to get around to cleaning. She needs to do something nice for her partner when he gets back. The job he'd been getting up well before sunrise during their entire break for, is going a long way towards keeping their student loans paid on time for the rest of the year. Besides, with her RA gig wiping out what the team owes on room and board, the other three doing odd jobs and temp work they enjoy instead of working food service or retail, is still plenty to keep the teams student loans for tuition paid on time and above the minimum. Plus, it leaves her schedule open enough to put in enough work that she can confidently claim to be a good team leader, instead of just a passable one.

She slows to a halt in the middle of the otherwise abandoned hallway when she hears an elevator ding and its doors slide open behind her. When eight familiar voices start echoing out into the hallway, she quirks a smile and turns around. The sight that greets her doesn't so much de-rail her train of thought as damn near destroy it. It doesn't, but it comes close. She could chalk that up to the mental flexibility that comes with being a team leader, being well rested from having had the last few weeks totally free, Yats knowing exactly what a tongue is for, or half a dozen other things. It doesn't change the fact that she's a girl with things she needs to get done today, and figuring out why teams RWBY and JNPR are all utterly caked in scraps of food, with their clothes and hair stuck at weird angles and sticking together strangely and damp from, probably several, different types of drinks and juices.

The eight of them are all laughs and smiles, so not even the duties of an RA can make them her problem right now. Saber breaks free of her, admittedly loose, grip on the usually good boys collar and bounds over to his actual owner. The loveable mut skids to a halt on the polished wood floor and starts eating the food off of him and his friends. Jaune had told her, about a month ago, she thinks, that he almost never has to feed his own dog, with how often it gets snacks and scraps from his family and all their friends. Looks like Jaune will get out of needing to pay for dog food again today. "He begging you for food again?" Jaune asks, rhetorically, scratching his dog behind its ears and pushing its snout away from his food-caked clothes.

Coco nods, the two freshman teens ignoring her and the dog as they keep walking down the hallway towards their rooms. "I needed to wake up, and he helped with that, but..."

Chuckling, Jaune fishes his scroll out of his pocket as the gaggle of teens reach their destination just behind her "I tried to warn you Coco, I really did." He taps the device to the lock and pushes the door open.

She lets out a self depricative laugh "Don't rub it in. Who busted you?"

Shaking his head, the younger leader simply answers "Goodwitch" as he shoves the dog into his dorm and holds the door for his team. Coco winces in sympathy. "Ozpin was with her though."

"Lucky you. Enjoy whats left of your break." He nods and returns the pleasantry as she turns to grab a towel and her shower caddy out of her own room. The kids will be taking up the showers for a while with how dirty they are, and she doesn't want to wait around long enough for them to start smelling past the food. She is just barely able to get to the showers before the messy freshmen. Sure, there are actually twelve shower stalls and she didn't have to rush to get one this late in the day. But its does mean she is able to snag one of the slightly bigger stalls right by the door to their floors bathroom as well as the little electric water heater that keeps the water in the showers this far from the buildings main heater in the utility room down in the basement actually hot.

She is finished with her shower at about the same time Ruby, Nora, Jaune and Ren are. The longer haired girls of the two freshman teams loudly griping about the pains of washing food, soda and water-mellon fragments out of their luscious locks across the stall walls. She dries off, ties a fresh towel off around her torso, lumps her pajamas under one arm and falls into step with the clean freshman as they, more or less as dressed as her, leave the bathroom for their dorms to dress.

Once they get into the hallway, their ears are assaulted by the wails of a crying baby. "Is, that what I think it is?" Ren asks, voice sounding more than a little pained.

Coco nods. "Unfortunately, it is. Holly managed to get back in, despite the dumb yuppie having been stupid enough to get herself knocked up during the break between semesters last year."

Ruby pouts at Coco. "I mean, accidents happen..."

Coco pins the younger team leader with a glare that, while not as formidable without her sunglasses, is still enough to get the other girl to fall silent. "I saw her with three different guys on the common room couch in one night. The guy who turned out to be the father got himself killed 'protecting' her from an ursa major they both could have gotten away from a week after they figured out who the dad was when the doctors sent her the paternity test results." Nora and Ruby both pull their towels a bit tighter, and all four freshmen look at the common room a bit green in the face. Coco waves them off. "It was the second floor, not us up here on floor six, and that couch got replaced. I think. She's a decent shot with her sniper-spear, but it was either daddies money or her moms dads influence that got her in if you ask me. More of a rich-girl than Weiss, and a lot less honest about what she thinks about people, who also loves to gossip. Be careful."

"I mean, it sounds kinda like Headmaster Ozpin should'a gave her spot to someone else." Nora awkwardly quips as they, once again, close in on their dorms.

Coco lets out a sigh, feeling a touch guilty about bad-mouthing a student who doesn't deserve it. The girl had her flaws but, "There's more too it than that. The gap between the best and worst of my class last year was pretty wide. She was, is, a team leader, but the teammates she got were..." Coco trails off to collect her thoughts. "She's more than a bit of a queen bee, she'd be crap as anything but a team leader, she just, didn't have the best or smartest teammates. Went through more team line-up changes than anyone else I went through initiation with. I imagine going through that even once." All four of the freshman nod in agreement. Her fellow leaders both look especially green at the possibility. "Everyone's gotta cope somehow, I guess."

Ren casts a piercing glance Coco's way "The sort of person that can get anyone and everyone to see things her way when she wants to?"

Coco rests her free hand on her door and nods. Nora offers a much more energetic nod back at her, which has the shorter, curvier girls towel loosening up a bit, but not by enough to shift out of place on her, and replies "Don't get in a catfight with the new team leader. Maybe give her a few chances before we make up our minds."

Coco nods, then taps her scroll to her dorm door and walks in, waving a farewell to the freshmen before pulling the door shut behind her. She suppresses the urge to heave a sigh. Both Yats and Velvet are still sound asleep, the latter pressed up against the former, clinging to him like an over-sized musclebound body-pillow. "Up and at'em lazybones!" She barks, just loud enough to startle Velvet awake. Twitchy as her girl can be, it isn't a gentle awakening. The arm wrapped around Yatsuhashi's torso clenches tight. The one Coco can only partly see, that's angled down towards the shy faunus' partner beneath the blanket twitches as well.

With a grunt, Yatsuhashi's eyes bolt open. "What, Coco?" Velvet asks, blinking her eyes rapidly, half rolling away from Yats and rubbing at her eyes.

"Its past time we get our day started you two. We gotta get our room cleaned up, and the beds pulled apart before the semester starts." Coco orders, letting her towel and bundle of pajamas drop to the floor as she pads over to her dresser to pick out her outfit for the day.

She can hear sheets shifting. Probably her Bun rolling back into Yats to try to go back to sleep. Or Yats sitting up. "Can't we just leav'em together an go back to bed?"

Bra and panties on, the lacey brown matching set today, she looks over her shoulder to find that she had been right on both counts. "Unless you wanna be in detention the whole semester because the four of us were late to or missed first period every single day, no. You know how we get babe."

Yatsuhashi at least gets up, and makes his way over to the shelf where they keep their toiletries and towels. Velvet whimpers and curls up under the blankets. Coco wrinkles her nose, but doesn't comment. "What else do we have to get done today?" he asks, his voice more of a low grumble than spoken words. So awake enough to remember whats happening, but still not happy about it.

Coco shakes her head and turns back around, perusing her dresser to pick the rest of her outfit for today. This afternoon. Whatever. "Unless you forgot, Velvet has a big commission to finish up before the semester starts. No wandering around filling up Anesidora today. And you." She picks a black pleated skirt, turns and points at Yatsuhashi with the hand that's holding the garment "Have a few appointments booked down at Golds. Unless you had someone back out on you."

She grabs two different tops, after sliding into the skirt and turning back around to rummage through her dresser. Both of them could pair nicely with a handful of jackets, jumpers and vests she likes. Coco turns again, this time to ask Velvet what she thinks. She is just in time to see her girl ram Yats out of her way so she can get to the towels and toiletries. Coco suppresses a snicker. Velvet acts like you'd expect a boar or a rhino faunus to between getting out of bed and cup three of coffee, ears be damned. Yatsuhashi covers for his partners aggressive, rude actions by turning the half-stumble her sleight frame had been able to force him to take into a few measured steps back to the orphaned nightstand by where his bed is during the semester proper. He taps on his scroll with the hand not holding the towel now keeping him decent, the screen lights up, and he taps it again. "No notifications, so I'm booked until the gym closes still. No time to get brunch though."

"Want me to run you something to eat in a few hours?" Coco offers as Yats cinches the towel a bit tighter around his waist and makes his way for the door out of their dorm, shaking his head in a negative. Velvet is struggling to get her towel to actually cover what matters outside their dorm with one hand, while the other is alternating between plucking empty bottles from her shower caddy, and hunting around the toiletry shelves for her replacement bottles.

Yatsuhashi pauses with his hand on the doors handle to turn back to look at the girls "Thank you, but I'll be good. All my appointments for today are just helping civilians with weight loss regimens, so a few granola bars and sports drinks from the vending machines should get me through until dinner."

As Yatsuhashi closes the door behind him after stepping out of the room, Velvet, still looking grouchy, well, grouchy for her, pads over to Coco, who is still rutting through her closet to decide which combination of tops she wants to pair with her skirt for the day. "Do I have to follow through with this commission? Cedar is so weird. I know he hired more than one photographer for this. He always does." Velvet tears her gaze away from Coco to pout at the floor to her left. "He's just so picky."

Coco rests her right hand, the one not holding the tan blazer she thinks she's going to match with her burnt sienna sleeveless crop top, and replies "Velvet, when a guy is willing to pay what you normally charge to shoot a freaking wedding, a big one, for a dozen different shots of 'interesting animals', you put up with weird. For lien like that when I still modeled, I put up with borderline rapey for less of a payday. This is tuition we're talking, not a little extra spending cash." Coco releases the other girls shoulder to slide the inner shirt over her head. She'll still need to catch her makeup, pick accessories and double-check the overall look, but she thinks she has a decent start. "Unless you wanna spend the time to do half a dozen sets of family photos on weekends during the semester, or leave the whole team stressed as hell and bet it all on the dogfight that civilians High School Senior Photos always turns into for photographers."

The normally timid rabbit faunus deflates back to her usual demeanor at that. "Fine. Forever Falls usually good this time of the year. I can catch a Bullhead with one of the pro teams heading that way for an extermination mission after my shower and I get some food. What are you going to be doing for the rest of today?"

Coco shrugs "Like I said, we need to get our dorm ready for the semester. That should keep me busy until Fox gets back from his last long shift before the semester starts. I suppose I'll see how that went for him, maybe catch up with my partner a bit." Velvet pouts at her. It almost looks more angry or judgmental than jealous. Almost. "Oh don't look at me like that. We're in this as a team, and for the team. I'll have plenty of time to pad out this semesters spending lien stash giving refresher tutoring to all the returning freshmen after he decides to call it a really early night or catch a nap." Coco pats Velvets cheek playfully, and the girl backs off at that.

"Maybe, we could just leave the beds pushed together two and two at least?" Velvet ventures when it becomes clear Coco isnt budging. Or maybe when she starts feeling guilty and selfish. Either way, she isn't being subtle about the re-direction of the conversation or her intent.

Coco rolls her eyes at that. The girl is such a cuddle-bug when its just the team. If it weren't just the team right now, rumors would certainly start flying. "Velvet, do you want me to go through how each of the possible pairings of shared beds leads us to being late just as often as all four of us together?" At least she has the decency to blush a bit at that. "Go, get your shower started before the rest of our floors 'hair down to my ass' squad finish theirs and can get a whiff of you." Blushing, Velvet leans up to give Coco a quick, mostly chaste, kiss, then scurries from the dorm. Coco lets out a happy hum, and lets the smile she'd normally tamp down on to keep up appearances have its way with her face. She pulls her accessory drawer open, tosses the jumper at her desk chair to be put on later, and turns to start cleaning up the room.

A few minutes after starting her first task for the day, she hears a light bark, followed by happy panting behind her. Coco heaves a sigh, and pinches the bridge of her nose with the hand not clutching a bundle of dirty laundry, and growls out "Saaaaber..."

_-*R-DxD*-_

By the time Pyrrha gets back from her shower, the rest of JNPR is already fully dry and kitted out in their combat garb. Well, aside from their weapons. "I, thought we were going to the library for a refresher before the semester starts tomorrow." Pyrrha asks as her stride breaks in time with the door thumping shut behind her.

Nora offers an over-exaggerated shrug at the towel-clad redhead "Strays."

Jaune shakes his head, and motions for Pyrrha to get dressed. One hand holding her towel tight to her body, the other loosely dangling her shower caddy, she shuffles over to her dresser. "I got a message from Sairoarg that someone will meet us at the Bullhead docks at the north-most point of the Commercial District with more information." The rest of the team shifting so that none of them are facing her so she can have as much privacy to change as the somewhat cramped room allows.

Pyrrha tilts her head, and lets the towel around her body fall to the floor as she unravels the one her hair had been wrapped up in to dry. "From how things went with the last one, I had thought we get told everything we need to know about the stray when we're first notified."

There is a brief pause, probably Jaune shrugging, maybe Nora being restrained from doing something by Ren. Facing her dresser, and trusting her teammates to remain faced away from her, she cant really be sure. "It probably has something to do with us getting sent backup, or there being multiple strays." Jaune replies as Pyrrha fishes a comfy matching set of underwear, a red strapless sports bra and pair of boy-short panties with white trim, comfortable when she's in a fight, but not so restrictive as to make hours searching the city uncomfortable. Pulling the garments on fills the pause in conversation brought on by the lack of visual ques to go with the words being exchanged.

"Makes sense." Ren adds as Pyrrha grabs one of the sets of her combat outfit from her dressers bottom drawer and starts pulling it on. Once she has the inner skirt and corset covering her, she makes her way over to the futon to finish putting the rest of her clothes and accessories on. As much to let her teammates know they don't have to be as careful where they look as for ease of dressing.

"Are there actually more than one of them, or..." Pyrrha trails off, not really sure how to politely bring up Noras exuberant tendency for exaggeration.

Jaune shrugs, and plops down on the couch next to her. Well, just out of arms reach. Stockings and gloves pulled on she sets about affixing her armor over and around the fabric garments. "The message said 'at least two' which has me kind of worried. One can be hard enough to keep under wraps, especially with just the four of us hunting it in between classes. More than two and I might need to let another peerage move to Vale permanently."

"How's more help a problem?" Nora quips, idly bouncing on the balls of her feet near the door. Boots, greaves and gauntlet in place, Pyrrha stands to take care of her sash, belt and the last few accessories while Ren rests a hand on his partners shoulder to calm, well, try to calm her.

Jaune flops onto his side, sprawled out on the couch and groans. "More help is a bad thing because Lord Bael wants me strong enough that my primacy, and, as a result, House Baels on Remnant, or at least in Vale is clear before more peerages start taking up residence here. That means a full or nearly full peerage with seasoned devils making it up. Probably a few wins in official Rating Games too. Which we aren't, yet. And we're so far from ready for an official rating game its laughable. Which means he's gonna be more than a little peeved. Me being in anything other than the good graces of the heads of at least a few of the pillars, most importantly that of our sponsors and lieges in House Bael; at any time, makes the long-term plan of having Arc take over for one of the wiped out pillars a lot harder." Pyrrha knows she should be paying attention to his rant, and it is a rant, but the fact that if he tilted his head ever so slightly he'd be looking directly up her skirt has her, distracted.

He pauses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Plus, with the fallen faction we're trying to get a handle on, I don't think having to juggle more skirmishes than just those between us and them will be easy or fun. Besides, Strays don't really try to keep themselves hidden. Having to ditch classes to deal with emergencies we cant just explain away to the Headmaster like we could a run in with the White Fang or some mobsters could easily get us expelled. Then we'd have to find some other excuse not only for the four us us to stick together and stay in Vale, but to continue to match or outpace the other academy students our age. Even worse, if one of those Strays evades us for long enough, the civilian population might just find out about the supernatural world the worst way possible."

Another pause, this one paired with a sigh. "I don't know about you guys, but fighting off a panicked lynch mob isn't how I want my time at Beacon to end."

Ren nods with a frown, Nora winces, and Pyrrha finishes tugging her hair into her usual ponytail rising up from her circlet, before motioning to the door. With a huff, Jaune pushes himself up from her bed and moves to leave the dorm, holding the door for the rest of the team after opening it. Ren steps through the doorway, Jaune on his heels, the other guy on the team adds "Speaking of our duties as huntsmen and huntresses in training, keeping up appearances and schoolwork..."

The four of them enter the hallway at the same time as Weiss, Yang and Blake. "So, I'm not the only one who noticed Velvet was walking kind of funny, am I?"

Ruby, who had been leaning against the wall next to her teams dorm door, a board game clutched against her chest squints at her teammates "What are you guys talking about?"

Blake, small smirk on her face, shakes her head "That could have been sore legs from training yesterday. Did you smell those three? Coco, wasn't as bad as Velvet or Yatsuhashi, but..."

Rubys face shifts from a small, wide-eyed 'o' of understanding, to a pinched blushing shudder. "Nope! I have no idea what you are talking about at all. All I could smell was normal shower-stink, the swordfish my bestie used like a fencing foil and the turkeys my sister had for punching gloves. That's it. Nothing. Else."

Weiss rolls her eyes and playfully shoves Ruby. "I mean, if everything is to size, how does that even work? Like, for either of them?" Yang presses with a grin, her hands coming shockingly close to obscene gesticulating without crossing that line as she continues to ponder to no one in particular.

Weiss heaves a sigh. "Can we not gossip and make assumptions about the love lives of other teams? Whatever they do behind closed doors is entirely up to them, and their choice to have made common knowledge or not."

Ruby nods, just a bit more forcefully than is necessary. "So, you guys headed to the library too?"

The door to team CFVYs dorm swings open as the octet are just about even with it when Yatsuhashi, gym bag over his shoulder, and clad in an eye-watering tie-dye t-shirt and athletic shorts steps from the room. The shirt is mostly fuchsia, with streaks of vibrant yellow and lurid pink. There's other colors on the garment, but they don't really mitigate how ridiculous he looks in it. Before any of them can properly react to the appearance, and, well, appearance of the gentle giant, a slender arm darts out from within the dorm to snare the back of his collar and drag him back into it, before the door slams shut.

All eight freshmen go still. Moments later, their RA's stern voice can, faintly, be heard. "- many times do I have to tell you to throw that abomination -"

"Had a change of plans." Ren answers Ruby's question.

"-to look professional, not like a joke. Unless you want-"

Ruby pouts, but, slowly, starts moving forward again, the rest of the teens following suit. "Oh? I thought we were all going to be hanging out in the library for a while."

Weiss snaps a sidelong glance at the younger girl as they approach the elevators. "Team Juniper was going to study in preparation for the new semester. The board game was simply the least ridiculous plan we could find in my binder that you stole last night when you came up with this scheme of yours."

The group stuffs themselves into the elevator "Hey, I only borrowed it!"

"So you admit you took my binder then!"

"So, what are the four of you doing for our last day of freedom?" Yang asks, pushing the shortest members of team RWBY away from each other. The arm waving and shouting doesn't stop, but it does, somewhat, fade into the background.

Jaune shrugs "My sister Amethyst won some sweepstakes her college was running. Half a dozen tickets to the Valean Pre-Vytal Talent Review, Jasmine loves that sort of thing, and Dad somehow got the owner/operator of a pretty good restaurant a block from the shows venue to offer any Arc and whoever they show up with free food."

"Meet two of the boss's sisters, plus a free show and chow? Why wouldn't we go?" Nora chirps as they all pile into the elevator. Pyrrha hadn't caught who had actually hit the button to call for it. Probably Blake or Ren. The others are too caught up in the conversation to notice small details like that.

Blake shrugs as the elevator falls quiet. "Have fun, I guess." The companionable silence reigns for the remainder of the short elevator ride. Shortly after they all are in the entryway to the freshman dorm building, the second elevator pings, and its doors slide open to reveal Yatsuhashi,nnow clad in a form hugging dark gray muscle shirt, the same shorts from before, and rubbing his right butt-cheek with the hand that isn't holding his gym bag.

The older student power-walks from the building, and immediately takes a left turn. Probably some shortcut from the dorms to the bullhead docks. Not being in that much of a hurry, Pyrrha, along with the rest of her team turn to the right along with team RWBY, headed for the academies main courtyard. Noras familiar alights on the gingers shoulder almost as soon as the group is outside, nuzzling its head into the hollow of her neck as she idly scratches under its chin.

Weiss squints at Nora not long after the now normal occurrence takes place. Nora's familiar had clung to her like this ever since killing the fallen angel a few weeks ago had thrown the girls emotions into turmoil. "Nora, when did you get a pet... what kind of bird is that even?"

She shrugs with her unoccupied shoulder. "I didn't buy Wattage or anything, he just kind of, um..."

"She kept feeding it when we saw it. He started following her around whenever he spotted her. The other week, he started doing this whenever we've been outside." Ren answers for his partner.

Jaune nods "And, since its a bird that Nora just kind of found, we don't have a clue what kind of bird it is." The path between the central courtyard and dorms is considerably more populated than the dorms had been. Mostly with students headed towards the dorms, suitcases being rolled, carried or pushed along with them. It isn't enough foot traffic to make going against the flow difficult, but they certainly stand out.

It doesn't take them too long to reach the main courtyard, where they say their goodbyes to team RWBY and turn towards Beacons bullhead docks, while their friends make for the library. The foot traffic grows thicker as more and more students return for the second semester. For a while, Pyrrha is concerned that they may not be able to find a flight away from the Academy, at least until they manage to shoulder their way through the crowds to the docks, where bullheads are, for all intents and purposes, touching down for just long enough for the students to pile off of the transports before taking off again. It takes a while, but the team is eventually able to hop on one of the transports before it takes off. After a quick conversation, Jaune is able to convince the haggard looking pilot to get them a ride to the northern commercial district.

For a while, the only sounds to be heard are the low thrumming of the engines, wind whipping past the small airship, and the occasional beep or signal tone from the cockpit. "So, why is Beacon trying to get all of the students back to campus using the bullhead fleet? Doesn't Vale normally just divert one of the bigger airships for the start and end of each semester?"

The pilot shrugs without looking back at Jaune. "We aren't Atlas kid. Two of the big girls are in drydock, one is dealing with some Goliaths that tried getting fresh down by the southern wall, another's investigating a reported Leviathan sighting in the waters between the mainland and Patch."

Ren quirks an eyebrow. "What about the other two? Academy students have limited access to some of the coordination assets for the military, huntsmen, and wilderness settlement militias use. One of our kingdoms six capitol ships being lost or put out of commission would receive the sort of notification that only the criminally incompetent of fatally stupid individual could miss."

That does get the pilot to turn back to look at team JNPR. His eyes are obscured by his visor, but, going by the grimace on his face, his answer is going to be unsatisfactory or cryptic. "The Triumph and Watcher are both out on high altitude operations. Short notice assignment, and that's all I'm at liberty to tell civilians."

Jaune makes a dissatisfied grunt at that. Nora pouts at one of the boarding hatches, Ren remains suspiciously stoic from where his seat next to Nora, and Pyrrha crosser her arms and leans against the hull. Silence, well, near silence, falls over the Bullheads interior again. Jaune breaks it after a few awkward minutes. "Hey, guys?" When he has the teams attention he scratches at the back of his head awkwardly, then continues "I'm sorry about going off on all of you earlier. It's just..."

"Stressful?" Pyrrha offers when he trails off, clearly unsure where to go beyond apologizing. "That is understandable. Team leaders have more to worry about than the rest of us at Beacon. And with our teams, unique situation, you have even more to deal with."

Nora nods, not quite her usual exuberance, but close. "If you cant rant at your teammates in our room, than who can you go to when you're feeling overwhelmed, right?"

Ren casts a quick glance at Nora, which lingers for a moment, before he turns to face their leader again. "So long as the rants don't become too regular, I'm inclined to agree. Getting an earful in the privacy of our dorm is certainly better than a massive public outburst, or freezing up on the battlefield."

"Thanks, guys. I'll try to be better about it, but-" Whatever he had been getting ready to say is drowned out by the roar of the engines flaring to slow their descent as the Bullhead banks and lines up with the service docks by Vales northern wall.

_-*R-DxD*-_

Qrow Brawnwen stalks, honestly and soberly, away from Beacon Tower and Oz's office. Frustrated. Yea, that's a good start for describing how he's feeling. Frustrated. Sure, he gets sent on scouting and fact finding missions all the time. It's half the reason the overly cryptic, secret hoarding old wizard had given him the ability to to turn into the most cliched bird possible.

He is used to long searches for seemingly tiny gains. Gotten inured to the frustration of leads running dry or coming up with information they'd confirmed months or years ago, or that wasn't even remotely relevant anymore.

His first solo mission for Oz, looking into the fate of the brains behind the end of the Grimm Reapers career had been one such dead end. Tock had died from an overdose at a homeless shelter in one of Vales slummier districts, a little more digging, neatly tied off the question of whether the mercenaries responsible for the functional elimination of the last silver eyed warrior before Summer were still a threat or capable of creating one.

Flashing his actual huntsman license, the one with the Special Dispensation from the Headmasters of all four Huntsman Academies and a spiderweb worked into his Emblem, never know when legitimate underworld backing will be what you need to get what you want, had gotten him the late mercenary assassins medical record. That had dovetailed into her personal and criminal records.

Honestly, not even Raven would have taken the idiot in. A long history of sloppy hits for the sort of gangsters, scumbag billionaires, and garden variety politicians a good Broker like Lil' Miss, who is damn prickly about her 'only people going to get themselves caught, that wont go after my network out of spite on the way down' policy would happily give up. Capstoned by a single years work for the Grimm Queen herself, but that just made her a useful idiot.

Growling, Qrow pulls his flask off his belt for a drag, and takes care to accentuate his stagger after swallowing. Even if its just a bunch of brats seeing him right now, keeping up the image of being drunker than he is is about all he can count on to keep himself alive in a pinch. Ever since Rae decided her own skin is more important than the fate of the world, that is. He knows his mind is wandering, but its just barely past noon, and pleasantly buzzed does not equate to a lack of cognitive capacity, thank you very much. Shouldering an overly self-important looking kid out of his path, Qrow enters the flow of students returning at the last moment for the years second semester, still seething. He goes back to aimlessly wandering and letting his thoughts wander until he's calm enough to work through the actual issue.

Tock had given two kids over to orphanages, making her the only part of her ad hock hit-squad to leave behind verifiable spawn. Both had been born well after her brush with wealth and high class vice had led to her working corners to support her habit after the lien from her payday ran out, along with her new 'friends'. One of the assassins spawn had been an overweight soccer mom CPA with a kept man keeping up a white picket fence farce in suburbian Mistral. That broken rubber had been left with the assassins swords. Said weapons are currently hung above a fireplaces mantle, oiled but dull. The half dozen spawn of the psychopaths spawn are all raising their own gaggles of honors students in civilian high schools, each of whom are angling for scholarships to pay their way through private colleges. Ignoring the ears and sanity of retail and food service workers, no threat to society there.

She'd asked her social worker to give her second kid her stopwatch when CPS took him. Revoked license or not, Vale is and had been as aware of the existence of hereditary Semblances and complied with her request.

The guy graduated Beacon a few years before STRQ did. Marriage with a civilian fell to shit, stereotypical soldier/huntsmans wife sleeps around while he's deployed sob story. After going through a depressive streak that had left to half of his team deciding to do solo work, he'd shacked up with his partner. Well, she'd probably went after him the way summer had Tai after Raven ran off, but whatever. Kid learned the ropes from his old man, and how to think before he leapt from his now paraplegic mom. Carries his grandmas watch on him without a clue as to who said grandparent had been, and is enrolled at Beacon thinking he's carrying on the family tradition, not the one turning working as a huntsman into a family tradition.

None of that information had been useful for stopping Salem. None of it helped fixed societies ills or pointed the way to another Silver Eyed Warrior or prodigy huntsman waiting for that last polishing bit of training and instruction. That said, it hadn't been useless either. With the likes of Hazel Rainart working with Salem, however, it narrowed the list of potential minions, patsies, expendables and recruits the Queen of the Grimm potentially has at her beck and call. That alone had made the entire month of mind numbing boredom as he had dug through police and medical records, court filings, and notes, observations and tips from Malachites network a useful dead end.

Ozpin had asked Qrow to look into whether or not Raven has plans to set up another splinter of the Tribe in Vale. Even if she just uses him to fence high profile loot, launder ransom money and send the occasional recruit back to the Tribe proper like Hemlock had, knowing they need to be on the lookout is useful enough. So, Qrow had spent the last few weeks flying from one rest stop, hotel or tavern in Mistrals wilds to the next, keeping to a very specific list. Each of them is a favorite haunt of the Branwen Tribes thugs, if the tribes camp is reasonably close.

A few more students bump into him. One ends up with a cracked scroll screen, and another has her suitcase fall open, her lingerie and a few sex toys topping the resultant pile of belongings. Qrow winces in sympathy for the kid, but presses onwards to nowhere in particular. Whenever any of the Tribe notice him, and he's always careful to make himself plainly visible when Oz has him looking for his sister, they tell Raven. Raven then, after an hour or so, shows up to grumble and snap at him before stalking back through a portal to her tribes camp. Sometimes he even gets what Ozpin needs or wants out of the terse exchanges.

When all of them are bereft of any members of the Tribe that means one of three things. First, that the Tribe is on the move, so no one is allowed to do anything that could slow the caravan down or put it at risk. Stopping in for a drink at your favorite watering hole, or to buy something for yourself at some backwater rest stop could do both. Second, the Tribe is gearing up for a raid. Anywhere from a week to a month before the attack, depending on how big the target it, everyone is confined to the camp to make sure word doesn't get out. Finally, grimm hit the camp and it's being patched back together, the weak are being cremated and their things being shared amongst the survivors. The aftermath of grimm incursions, while often times most people want to bury themselves in vices and personal comforts, aren't viable escapes a nomadic tribe of criminals to allow its members to indulge in.

Those rules aren't Raven. They aren't leftovers from their self-important, self-indulgent wastrel of a father, nor his before that. They are as old as the Tribe, rote tradition that will probably last until the Tribe dies, or settles down to form its own kingdom, or, less realistically, a law abiding, tax paying settlement. He has explained this to Oz. Multiple times.

At. Length.

Each and every time that he has encountered a total lack of Branwen Tribe presence at any location he could reasonably be expected to find them, without making himself Remnants most ineffective one man continental search party, Ozpins response had been the same as his orders to Qrow today. Five minutes of florid purple prose, and a bargain bin motivational speech that boils down to 'try again.' Yea. Frustrated.

Not that he'd been idle during his fruitless search. Out in the wilderness, the sort of place bandits are welcome and questions aren't asked, people don't have to be discreet the way dive bars and criminal haunts are in the cities. It's assumed that anyone who stops through is either a clueless and tired traveler, or crooked in one way or another. So Qrow had asked a few questions, listened to the gossip while pulled up to the bar, lounging in the common room or browsing the supplies and newsstands.

Like a good spy and gofer, he always made sure to bring back any information he picks up that may be useful to Ozpin. Like, say, the fact that Sinna Mul, a discredited biologist who had interned under Doctor Merlot. Who had been a known friend, contemporary and partner to Doctor Watts in the last years before the madman had been chased from Atlas with criminal charges nipping at his heels; had resurfaced in Vacuo.

The likely mad scientist had been Summers target on three separate missions she went on for Oz, and a secondary target on his Team Leaders last mission. That Sinna Mul had opened a new lab and was looking for security personnel is worrying. Her not going through official huntsman recruitment lines, or temp agencies, or to any number of job listing services on the CCTNet that PMCs and Security Firms frequent, is a major red flag. The fact that her word of mouth recruitment as traveled from Vacuo all the way to Mistral via word of mouth in the sort of seedy, middle of nowhere, any port in a storm Inns, Rest Stops, Pubs and Supply Stations you could expect to run into members of thew Branwen tribe at, to Qrow at least is the sort of news you act on yesterday once you get it.

At least, to Qrow it is. Oz had waved that tidbit off with more pretty words that boiled down to 'it can wait, get back to your search, I have a meeting with Port soon that is more important right now.' Qrow sidesteps a couple more kids. Two guys who look ready to fight, and a girl who looks halfway between pissed at both of them, and wishing shed chosen one or the other months ago. Not trouble he needs to get caught up in. Especially keyed up like he is.

He takes another swig from his flask, and is shocked out of reverie by an unfamiliar voice "Hey man, mind sharing a swallow?" Looking down, Qrows first reaction is to share just by the haggard look on the poor kids face, the slump to his shoulders that doesn't belong on any huntsman, in training or not, wringing his hands on a bench off to the side of Beacon Medicals main entrance. Honestly, he looks like it should be pouring rain just so he can be sitting getting soaked with an umbrella sitting unopened on the bench next to him.

Qrows second impulse is far less kind, and he stamps down on that train of thought hard. "Rough day kid?"

He scoffs, and runs a hand through his rust toned hair. "Try rough weeks. This is my fifth trip back hear to get one of the guys on my team checked out since first semester ended." If having excellent observational wasn't vital to the survival of both a huntsman and a spy, Qrow probably wouldn't have recognized the kid. Hair laying flat against his head instead of gelled up with everything above his nose concealed by big, angular sunglasses that fade from dark orange at the center to vibrant yellow where the edges widely wrap around his skull, most of what makes a face recognizable is, well, not. The black muscle-shirt with 'SEX GOD' emblazoned across his chest in big white block letters with arm holes that end below his short ribs, and acid wash blue jeans with worn spots they probably had on the shelf new clinging to him so tightly they have to be crushing his junk. Definitely not what Qrow would be expecting from the description Ruby had given him a month and a half ago mid scroll-call as she ranted about the bully in her class.

Hardly suprising, but not what he'd look for if asked to find the guy her his overly nice, socially awkward prodigy protege of a niece had nothing good to say about. The fact that one of his nieces freshman classes team leaders is clearly on the verge of a messy public breakdown, and alone, is what has him setting aside his filial protectiveness, sitting down, and offering his flask. The semester hasn't started yet. "Wanna share why?" Team leaders, from what he remembers from his time at Beacon, watch out for each other. Little pep talks shared when its just leaders. Venting and commiserating when some of the other trainees that dont have that extra burden of responsibility are in detention or slacking off because they can when the leaders can't. Advice and solutions that worked for one or another of them bounced back and forth in group chats no one else knew about until after graduation, if at all.

Sitting with someone you don't really get along with while they wait by Medical not knowing if the team they had waking up leading be the same as the one they have going to bed. Yea, not everyone is cut out to be a Leader, and it isn't just tactical prowess that makes a good one. For one reason or another, they have to care.

"One of my guys got concussed bad at what was supposed to be a make-work extra credit job right before finals ended. Been having dizzy spells and feeling nauseous on and off ever since." Cardin Winchester, apparent bully king of this years freshman class raggedly answers, shaking his head and taking a long pull from Qrows flask. He pulls the gaudy sunglasses off his face and hangs them from his shirt to reveal bloodshot eyes with deep bags under them. Damn if the kid doesn't look like hell.

Cardin passes the flask back with a heavy sigh. Qrow wipes the rim, takes a sip and clips it back onto his belt "Brought him here alone?"

Cardin shakes his head. "Reg tagged along, but Doctor Ivory stomped out about two hours ago and dragged him past the reception desk. The nurses were all staring at me in the waiting room, so I came out here for a breath of fresh air."

Glad that the burly trainee isn't the lost cause his niece had painted him as, Qrow leans back in the bench to rest his back on the hospital in silence. It had been a few years after team STRQ had graduated when Qrow pinned Ozpin about why the asshole who had been the bane of their existence had been made a leader. Ozpin had, calmly, reminded him of the first real bad mission his team had been on after getting their licenses. Qrow takes a deep breath, and starts to tell the story.

A mining town at the edge of the nominal safe line. Before Mountain Glenn had fallen at least. The town's militia was stretched to the breaking point, called for evacuation. Crap luck for them, a few other towns way up north were getting hit pretty hard too. So, three teams and four bullheads were all that could be spared to evacuate a few thousand civilians. It hadn't been too bad at first. Two teams helped hold the walls, the third rode with the evacuees to get any supplies they needed. Rode back on the bullhead that had been refueling and repairing.

The grimm just didn't stop, though. The bullhead repairs took longer, and the active ones had to stretch their fuel that much more. Night fell, and the team riding with the civilians napped in shifts in transit. Things really went to hell when one of the transports got taken out on the ground around noon on the second day. There were a few breaches in the wall by then, and it was pissing rain. Looking back, Qrow hadn't even realized it had been happening. He kinda wishes Vest, asshole he had been, was still around so he could ask when the militia fighters with families started getting bundled on to transports by tired old timers, some wearing Emblems that looked like they hadn't seen the outside of a trunk or drawer in years, others just looking grim. Local loners with no one who'd miss them all that bad, or widows and widowers whose kids had moved on, or never had any.

When only two bullheads came back in the gloom of the second morning, Summer had looked distraught, but was hell bent on saving everyone. With just the two transports it'd would've bee at least four more round trips. They only had one trip back to Mountain Glenn with how hard the grimm were pressing in. Vest and one of the old men who had stepped up just shared this quiet little nod in the rain and mud and blood, the codger shoved the militias Captain at the transports and told them to load up and go. Before long, there was just enough people to fill the bullheads as much as they could be. The healthy ones, the ones with families, a bright future ahead of them still. Summer dug her heels in. Wanted to stay and fight, save everyone.

Vest had called her a mewling, overly optimistic idiot who was going to get them all killed. She went to fight him, but had run herself so ragged he knocked her out with a bop to the back of her head, shoved her at Raven and told them to get on the transport. They'd saved everyone they could. Trying to do any more would just get them all killed.

All they could was still only about half the towns population.

Qrow takes a pull off of his flask as his story winds down. Cardin scoffs. "Great pep talk old man. I feel worse now."

No, he hadn't at first either. Qrow stands back up, feeling a hell of a lot older than he is. "That's why Oz makes a few guys like you Team Leaders every year. You put your people first. Every time. You can make the hard calls, when there's no good options. When the optimists and idealists want the fairy tail ending where no one dies and the good guys prevail against the forces of grimm, you're the asshole who crams reality down their throats so they live to fight another day. Save a lot more people over a long imperfect career than a short perfect one."

Cardin looks up at him, silent, until it stretches near to awkwardness. "Yea, one of your guys is hurt bad. Might wash out for medical reasons, might pull through. Check in on him, keep up with him if he ends up flying a desk for the VSPRD or VAC. But be the damn leader you're supposed to be too. You still have two other guys looking to you to keep their training and studies up. To plan for the Vytal prelims, maybe even the festival tournament itself. And if your guy in there cant heal up well enough to stay at Beacon, you'll have a new fourth man who'll need his leaders support even more than the guy in the hospital right now. Even if his old team was the most dysfunctional one in your year, he'll be hurting, and need his leader."

Qrow starts to walk away to go off on Ozpins pointless assignment to get in touch with nomads who are currently unavailable. He can plan his personal mission to Vacuo while he's flying around Mistral. "What happened to him?" Qrow stops to turn, making a questioning hum that's probably barely audible at the distance he is from the kid. "To, Vest, was it?"

Qrow shakes his head, pops his flasks top and pours a bit out. "Bastard volunteered for the last search and rescue party sent out after Mountain Glenn fell. That one never did check back in." Cardin winces, Qrow shoots him a sloppy two-fingered salute and saunters over towards the bullhead docks. An airship ride over to Mistral should help him finish calming down. Besides, the sort of little four or five family communities that run the places he'll be making a second circuit to check from bandits at normally have one or two beauties waiting to be wooed. No rule saying he cant have some fun while he's stuck on a pointless mission.

_-*R-DxD*-_

After hopping off their bullhead, team JNPR had quickly double-checked that return service to Beacon was continuing as normal from the landing platform they had disembarked at. Once getting that affirmative, they called their rocket-lockers. Another short wait before sending the weapons deployment service back to the academy. The walk to the small park their contact is waiting for them at is equally short.

Jaune is surprised to see Akeno waiting for them, but not upset. The small Gazebo she had picked for a rendezvous point is a clean white, dome topped, and has a nice view of the coy-filled artificial river running through the park, as well as the neatly trimmed gardens making up the bulk of the public space. Clad in a charcoal, knee length pencil-skirt and a light purple long sleeved blouse with a deep rectangular cutout spreading from the inside of either shoulder which toes the line between classy and racy with its depth. Her hair is hanging loose over her shoulders and held out of her eyes with a simple headband the same shade as her blouse. Between her top, accessories and natural coloration, Akenos violet eyes seem far more vivid and striking than they would otherwise. A slender black leather belt with a bright, ovular silver buckle holds her recently acquired whip in a coil off of her left hip and ties off her outfit neatly.

If Jaune didn't know her any better, he'd say she just needs an emblem and her Huntress in Training disguise would be complete. But the girl next door gone professional look is just one of the roles Akeno Himejima can effortlessly slip into, and definitely isnt all that she is. Acknowledging that, his own combat garb is less than expressive of who he really is than it should be. But until something big happens, he needs to look like who his family and friends here on Remnant think he should be.

It sucks, sure, but it does kind of give him an insight into why Pyrrha is so happy to be making friends who don't just see the Invincible Girl first. After checking out some of the compilations her fanboys have uploaded to the CCTNet, he definitely doesn't envy her. Looking around as he takes a moment to re-focus his thoughts he finds the park mostly empty save for a handful of couples either walking hand in hand or leaning into each other on benches, and a gaggle of civilian highschoolers horsing around on the bank of the river that lazily winds through the park.

"So are you four just gonna stand around or actually come over to talk?" Akeno projects her voice just loud enough from the pillar inside the gazebo she is leaning against to be heard without shouting at them. Team JNPR quickly walks over to join Akeno. She glances around once the local devils are gathered around her. Jaune does a check for prying eyes and ears as well, and, after seeing no one, nods to the Priestess of Thunder.

Pyrrha is the first to speak up "Not that we aren't thrilled to see you Akeno, but, isn't this a bit unusual for notifying a peerage that there are strays they need to hunt down in their territory?"

Akeno offers a small, clearly forced smile at that. "It is. You see, Issei, in his infinite wisdom gave his entire left arm to the Welsch Dragon to get enough power to beat Riser. It took me, Asia and Koneko working together to drain off enough of the dragons energy to put a glamor on his arm so that it looks normal." Akeno takes a deep shuddering breath. "Koneko and Asia had an easy time going through the extra energy. Koneko, Kiba and Issei had a no holds barred sparring match. Asia patched them up every time one got taken out of the fight."

"So, what about you?" Nora asks as Akeno twitches. Hard.

She takes a deep breath. "My lightning is too flashy and destructive for me to burn through all the extra power bottled up inside me without attracting too much attention or causing too much destruction on Earth. I've been holding all the excess power in for weeks now. I've barely slept at all since Rias engagement was called off."

Doing his best to ignore the manic look on Akenos face, Jaune holds his ground as the rest of his teem all take a step back. "So, you came to help out, and maybe get back to normal?"

Akeno nods aggressively, before holding her hands up to summon her half dozen imp familiars. As they scatter, she explains "One of the strays, Decinia Estraanda took up four pawn pieces when she was reincarnated and was notable for having decent biological magic. The other, Avitus Cromwell took up two rooks, and had weak earth magic. The former was a showoff and deviant, even by the standards of most devils, and the latter a recluse." She passes Jaune a pair of pictures, both labeled with the strays names, and the date last seen. Both have been gone for months.

Jaune nods as the group starts ambling towards the parks exit. He lets out a sharp whistle, calling Saber to his side, whispering the targets description to, then sending his familiar off to search while Nora shows Wattage the pictures and shoos the thunderbird from her shoulder. Ren gets the picture next, and, after his Kodama's astral projection, disguised like a street urchin sees the picture, it too scampers off. Pyrrha tries to show her juvenile Lamia the information, but it simply wraps its body around her shoulder, hides its torso in her hair and settles down to nap.

As they near the edge of the park, Ren asks "What about the third stray?"

Akeno shrugs. "Like I said, it's only suspected. The individual in question wasn't considered at risk until very recently, and Remnant is only one of the places they could flee to if they did go stray. Besides, their king hasn't had the Evil Piece that devil is tied to return to them yet, so its only suspicion."

Jaune wants to point out that even suspicion is normally enough to spread the name around, and it isn't an easy reputation to shake, even if the devil in question steps back from the proverbial ledge. Most members of a peerage go so far as to only question their king in private specifically to avoid the rumor mill pegging them as a potential stray. But the way Akeno is being extra careful about not dropping any useful hints about the devil in questions identity, and hadn't made eye contact with anyone while answering Rens question has him nervous.

For a while the quintet walk Vales commercial district in companionable silence. The occasional tidbit of small-talk bubbles to the surface every now and then, but most of their time is spent looking for buildings or alleyways that seem, off. The familiars they had sent off searching stop back in to nudge the devils searching in one direction or another, but for the most part they have a pleasant stroll down decently kept up sidewalks, with small brick or concrete faced shopfronts whose barred display windows and gaudy signs and advertisements continually fail to garner any interest from them. Foot traffic is light, and stays politely out of their path. Lightly rusted cars, trucks and vans with faded paint and the occasional dent or scratch roll past, some slowly with music blaring too loudly out of the speakers, others dart past at the speed limit.

The first thing to break the peaceful, quiet searches is a juvenile voice exclaiming "Holy crap, its the Pride of Solitas!". The devils all freeze, and look around for the disturbance. It doesn't take them long to spot a cluster of kids about Rubys age, all, well, mostly in Signals Advanced Combat Course uniform. For the girls that's a maroon and gold tartan skirt with maroon suspenders clasped to the skirts over a white short sleeve blouse with a vibrant crimson ribbon tied around their necks. For the boys, dark maroon slacks, and a white short sleeved dress shirt comprise the uniform signaling they have been placed in the training oriented two year program that usually culminates in acceptance at one of Remnants Huntsman Academies, rather than the three year study focused path ending with college applications or recruitment into the army or police.

The kid who had caused the disturbance has round glasses and a wild mop of light brown hair, with a half untucked shirt and is pointing skyward with the hand not holding his scroll up to record. Next to him, a girl with her light blue hair in a chin length bob cut is, gently, glaring at the boy, and standing close enough to him that they had likely had their arms locked before his outburst. The tallest of the kids is wearing a black, white striped tracksuit, has an angular chin, dark eyes and short black hair. His right arm is wrapped around a girl who looks a lot like Velvet with tall rabbit ears and gentle brown eyes, though this younger girl has freckles, and a slightly darker complexion than the Beacon Sophomore. She, like the blue harried girl is wearing her full uniform properly.

"So what, Kobicha? It's just an airship." tracksuit drawls loudly in a tone too aggressive to be a natural accent. Jaune looks up to see a pair of Atlesian airships, both of the long hulled craft painted in the standard faded navy and slate gray, with their thrust nacelles in a tightly grouped distance flight configuration. One of them is above and behind and the other in front of and below a hulking behemoth of an airship. Closer to triple than double the size of the two more typical Atlesian Airships.

The, helpfully named, Pride of Solitas has a dozen flight nacelles where its smaller kin have six. Six to either side of the more aggressively chisel shaped hull. The dust magazines are pointed wedges instead of beveled rectangles, the inner magazines holding a set of three thrust nacelles configured the same as the smaller airships, while the outer thrust nacelles are flared widely and downward. Jaune cant help but think of an eagle breaking to land looking at the charcoal gray and ice blue behemoth.

Protruding from in between the dust magazines on either side is a set of vertical prongs Jaune recognizes as Linear Rail Acceleration Cannons, with an additional canon affixed to the outer face of the outer dust magazines by a low, asymmetrical pyramid, long towards the cannons prongs and truncated towards the vessels stern. Unlike the standard Airships, he can actually see the fighter bays and laser canons on the monstrosity, despite how far from the ground it is. "Just an airship?!"

The now named Kobicha shouts at his, friend? "She's the first of the Solitas class Dreadnoughts completed! She's been the Atlesian Airfleets flagship since a year before the Great War! The only one out of fourteen never to be defeated in battle, the only ship of her class still in service! Alone she can match half of Vales Airfleet! And she's gracing our humble skies along with the rest of the Atlesians Airfleets Command Squadraon! That's two Carchadons and eight Negaprions!"

Blue hair swats the back of Kobichas head, forcefully reclaiming the arm that had been pointing with her own at the same time Velvets maybe-relative bumps her hips into tracksuit and shoots what looks to be a very practiced glare at him "Tusca, be nice." the faunus admonishes, drowning out an excited murmur from Kobicha that sounds a lot like 'born to rule the skies.'

Squinting back up at the military formation above them, Jaune can spot an oval of smaller airships, probably a third of the size of the Carchadons, the lowest point of the oval just above the lower of the two, and the highest just below the rearmost capitol ship. Each of the long chisel-hulled escort vessels has a quartet of thrust nacelles, two to either side of the hull affixed to a dust magazine to keep the ships airborne.

"I really do miss Ruby when Kobi gets out of hand like this. Her ranting over weapons always calmed him down and kept him occupied." A gray haired, crimson eyed boy in an immaculately pressed and perfectly worn Signal uniform quips at the final couple of the group of kids.

The girl, a redhead with hair a few shades darker than Noras hanging down to the small of her back, held out of her smiling, angular face either by a pair of vestigial blood red horns, or painted bone hair-clips. Either way, the kids hair has the same overly-well cared for shine as Yangs and Rias', which seems to make her piercing blue eyes seem brighter. She snorts, aggressively, earning her a jostle from the reserved looking kid with plainly and short cut brown hair, and steel gray eyes in a properly worn, slightly rumpled Signal uniform. The redhead, blouse untucked and top few buttons open, no ribbon in sight, gives the reserved looking kid a winning smirk, before turning back to the apparent seventh wheel "Oh, you're just mad that with Ruby getting moved ahead Kobi had enough free time to figure out that Rusi is more into him than curious about you, Keppel."

The gray haired kid shifts to shoot an awkward glare at the redhead. "And you are simply jealous that she got moved ahead two years and you didn't, Amaranth?" The girl in question glares right back, and throws in a growl. Ren making a surprised noise draws the devils attention away from both the small airfleet and the bickering kids that will probably be their underclassmen in a few years. His familiar is urgently tugging on his sleeve, and pointing towards one of the nearby alleyways. Without asking any questions, they follow, a new voice can barely be heard saying something about missing their ride back to Signal if they dont hurry up by the time the devils reach the mouth of the alleyway.

_-*R-DxD*-_

Weiss will, grudgingly, admit that Rubys 'most fun ever' idea had been, enjoyable. Well, while it had held together it had been. The food fight may have been an impromptu thing, and certainly disgusting between its end and a good long shower, but she wont lie to herself and act like she hadn't enjoyed the bit of silly competition. Playing Remnant: The Game had been an, interesting, experience. The Rapscallion interfering had been tiresome, as had his attempts to flirt with a clearly distracted Blake. However, when Blake had, in a fairly normal snit of irrational pique, stomped off Weiss had immediately forgiven Sun.

Neptune Vasilias had proved himself not only a pleasant and charismatic conversationalist, an excellent study in the male form and formidable tactical foe. Even going so far as to best herself, and the rest of her team, by the agreed upon time to call the game complete. At that point the exchange students had been called over to the circus that are the bullhead docks to meet up with the rest of their team. She and her teammates had tracked down Blake, then returned to their dorm to clean up and, generally laze around. Yang and Ruby had put some goofy Mistrali obstacle course show on the TV while they cleaned.

Unfortunately, after she and Ruby had re-tightened the ropes for their bunk bed, Yang and Blake had switched out the books forming their bunk, Weiss had thought her moody teammate settled enough for a calm, reasoned discussion on how she had been more so than usual lately. One whirlwind of a conversation later, and her dolt of a partner had herded the team into confronting the White Fang and Tochwick themselves instead of leaving the investigation and arrests to the authorities.

Only to dash from the room after realizing she had forgotten her board game in the library.

"Speaking of nightclubs, Blake, you need to blow off some steam."

"But-" Yang grabs her partner by the back of her collar and turns towards the door. "We're supposed to be planning-" The blond brawler starts dragging the faunus in disguise towards the door. "At least let me change!"

Yang pauses to toss a wave at Weiss. "Any plan you help hatch as keyed up from stress as you are will end up with all sorts of flaws and oversights. We won't be out all night or anything. Just enough to take the edge off. Don't wanna get so wasted that we let the cat out of the bag."

All Weiss can do is shake her head as Yang lurches her partner through the door to their dorm. She settles onto her bed with a book to wait for Ruby to get back to their dorm after the door thuds shut. A few minutes later, her scroll buzzes in her pocket.

Dolt: decided to go to the machine shop to work on that commission Jaune got me. Better auto-cad than I have on my scroll here.

Weiss rolls her eyes, marks her spot in the book she hadn't even been reading for ten minutes, and trots over to her desk. She really should join Ruby, especially now that she has a decent handle on how the assorted drafting programs and machine shop tools work. Considering that Jaune may very well have set Ruby up with a stable side-job doing commission work for other students, Weiss definitely should capitalize her partners skills and experience while its still freely available. And she will. Just, not yet.

Weiss pulls her desks bottom drawer open, and fishes a sheet of paper out from the bottom of the drawer and makes her way to the middle of the room. A few quickly uttered words, and the summoning circle Ravel had left her with after her last visit flashes golden then quickly burns itself up. Weiss has more questions, and Jaune will only just spread his increasingly hard to believe story thinner if she asks him.

Not too long later, the by now familiar orange circle flares to life just above the rooms floor. A second circle shoots up from the one on the floor, a brilliant plume of light stretching between them for a fraction of a second before it all bursts out of existence leaving Ravel behind.

Ravel, wearing white denim shorts, sneakers, and an orange t-shirt. Her hair is hanging loosely over her shoulders, and doesn't look as immaculately cared for as it usually does. A pair of wide-lensed, wire framed sunglasses are resting on her forehead and she has a tan purse slung over her shoulder. "Hello, Weiss. Did you have more questions about devils, or just need someone to vent to again?"

Weiss pulls the chair out from under her desk and spins it around to face the room before sitting down. "I... did have some questions. About Rias, and your brother."

Ravel breathes in slowly, and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I take it you heard about what happened, then?"

Weiss gestures at Rubys desk, and Ravel claims the seat after turning it to face the huntress in training. It seems a bit odd that the girl is in shorts and a shirt, when Weiss has only ever seen her in dresses, but she didn't summon her fellow noble to critique her fashion. "I, think I did. Rias and her, 'entourage' visited from Vacuo the other day. They said they had recently won a series of duels to have the engagement called off, and wanted to celebrate with Jaune and his team."

The blond devil lets out a snort of a laugh. "Yes, I suppose that's one way to describe a Rating Game."

"But, aren't those only for mature devils with complete peerages?"

Ravel nods. "They are, it was a mock rating game, technically. It wasn't reported to either of their official records, and only family and close friends were, originally, able to watch it. Honestly, it was just a way for Rias to save face before our clans went ahead with the wedding."

Weiss can all but hear the 'but' trailing that statement. "I take it Rias somehow managed a win, then?"

Ravel laughs at that. A polite, small thing, one hand covering her mouth, but a laugh. "Oh, no. If the stakes were anything else, Riser would have surrendered out of respect for the tactics and tenacity that Rias' peerage displayed. But he was victorious."

"Then how did-"

"If your teammates aren't due back for a while, I have a recording of the game I could show you." Ravel cuts off Weiss' question. Rude, but efficient.

Weiss nods, and Ravel pulls a pair of shimmering turquoise gems from her purse. Both are about the length of her palm and as wide as her three middle fingers, pointed and octagonal. She glances at the sigils carved into the center of each, before tapping one, and letting the gem float up from her palm. Moments later, a screen the same shade as the gem flares to existence, before cutting to a shot of Rias and her peerage waiting in what looks to be a lounge or common room. Moments later a professional sounding woman's voice identifies the location as a copy of the academy Rias and her peerage attend.

Not long after, Weiss holds up her hand, and Ravel stops the recording. "Is your brother actually..."

"Getting a hand-job? Yes." Ravel replies far too calmly for what the screen is showing.

Knowing she is blushing, and not really caring, Weiss barely keeps her response below a shout "You were in the room! His Sister!"

She shrugs, still too calm. "Normally I have a book with me when he insists that I be present so he can 'play' with his whole harem. That is far from the most graphic thing I've had the displeasure of watching my brother do."

Weiss knows she's gaping like a fish caught on dry land. She probably looks like a fool, but, wrapping her head around that admission deserves more focus. "Did he not know that he'd be on screen? Was he not supposed to be shown yet?"

"Oh, no, he knew that he would be on screen soon."

Weiss rubs at her forehead, still trying to think through her scandalized shock. "What was he thinking? His fiance's entire family was watching! What if, what if he had finished while they were all watching?" Weiss throws her arms wide, body more or less doing its own thing.

Ravel actually snickers at that. "Oh, that would have been fun to tease him over. He would have probably just called it Rias getting a preview of something she'd be seeing often before long, or something like that."

"So, the engagement was called off over his blatant infidelity then?"

"No, harems are fairly common in the underworld." Ravel quickly quips with a grin, before resuming the recording. Weiss finds herself drawn into the unfolding battle quickly. The speed and power blatantly on display was impressive, to say the least. So much so that she almost wishes she had let Jaune recruit her for his team. Ravel must have noticed Weiss' cringing when Issei had, violated the first member of her brothers peerage. "Oh, it gets worse."

Worse, as it turns out, was the cretin using his perverse technique on Ravel. "Did he just..."

"Strip me naked in front of my entire family and most of my friends? Yes."

"So you..."

"Tried to roast the bastard."

"Good job. The flame dress looked good on you."

Ravel snorts. "Maybe, but I don't think the trend would catch on if I started wearing it more regularly."

The recording makes it as far as Riser insinuating some of the members of his peerage may die, and that he'd replace them with some of Rias' evil pieces before Weiss signals for another stop. "Isn't one of the points of rating games to keep devils from killing each other for stupid reasons?"

Ravel, face tight, barely grinds out "They are." Silence reigns for nearly a minute before Ravel says any more. "Even jokes about people being hurt or dieing in rating games are considered in poor taste with how effective the safety measures are."

"So, what Riser insinuated made him look pretty bad, I take it?"

The blond girl nods. "Even if someone were to try to bring more shame to the Phenex clan, they'd be hard pressed to."

Between her father and brother, Weiss knows exactly how the other girl feels right now. "Don't worry, whatever damage you're brother does, I'm certain you will be able to repair."

Ravel takes a deep breath and clenches her eyes tight as she nods her head in understanding. "It's just. Remond is fiftey years older than me. Ruval is my elder by two centuries. Mother and father tried, but, they have a clan and company to run. Risers the one who picked me up from, and dropped me off at school. Who showed me how to deal with bullies and helped me chase off creeps and stalkers before I was strong enough to deal with them myself. Most devils are lucky to have a sibling at all, forgett about one close enough to their age to grow up with them. For Riser to act this-" She gestures at the paused recording and lets out a frustrated growl.

Weiss rests a hand on Ravels shoulder. "Winter left for basic training, and didn't come back home until she was a Sergeant in the Specialist Corps three years later."

"Your sister is still a good person. I've been idolizing a morally bankrupt jerk most of my life." Ravel pouts, shrugging Weiss' hand off her shoulder.

"It can't be that bad." Weiss opens, but isn't really sure what she could add to the statement to make it strike true. Ravel starts the recording playing again in the silence.

Once the rating games recording ends, Weiss is still at a loss for words. And not just because of her friends current emotional plight. Ravel lets out a small chuckle. "You know, I'm not sure if I pity Rias, or envy her." Weiss tilts her head in confusion at the seemingly random statement. "The cretin is a lecherous buffoon, but, to have a boy that devoted to you..."

Weiss nods, catching Ravels meaning. As a huntress, she definitely can understand the allure of someone willing to endure that much pain for you. "Ravel,. If you don't want to show me the next recording, we can just talk for a while."

She shakes her head "No, its pretty clear you summoned me so you can find out what happened with Rias' engagement."

Weiss rolls her eyes "Only because Jaune wont just admit to me that he's a devil." Ravel rolls her eyes at that, and starts the second recording. Not giving away the local Kings 'secret' but not denying Weiss' assumption either.

_-*R-DxD*-_

Rens familiar leads the quintet of devils to a small, run down shop. 'Mushnik's Flowers' is proudly emblazoned on the sign hanging above the door. The window, before it had been blasted out, probably had the same name printed on it. In red, if the handful of colored glass shards that can be picked amongst the pile in the early evenings gloom are anything to go by. A statuesque woman with curly black hair hanging down to the small of her back, dressed in a dark red corset and tight fitting black slacks struts from the recked shop, a small smirk on her face. Enough mulched plant matter for three or four dogwoods squiching under her knee high leather boots, she pauses and cocks her left hip out when after noticing the devils. Four black wings flare out from her back "If you were here to meet up with your half plant devil friend, she's quite dead."

The fallen angel manifests a massive claymore of light and rests it on her shoulder. "However, if you've come to beg my forgiveness for putting my subordinate Surriel through so much trouble, I'd be happy to hear what your corpses have to say." Jaune turns to his team, ready to order them to action, but the words die on his lips when he lays eyes on Akeno.

More specifically, the small, peaceful smile gracing her face as she moves to pull the whip from her belt.

Was not expecting this chapter to baloon to the size it ended up being. If I didnt need all the bits you just read separate from what I have planned for pacing purposes, I probably would have cut the last couple off for the next chapter. But thems the breaks I guess.

Love it? Hate it? Spent the last week eating nothing but fiber bars and are afraid of the poop you're gonna have? Drop me a review! I love those things!