Arclight Foundries - Chapter 16

Working with precious metals wasn't really his forte, he'd been trained to make swords and guns, not rings or necklaces. A sword required a steady and knowing hand to coax a keen edge but avoid making it a brittle one, to find that special spot between hard and sharp that let a sword cleave through flesh like butter. A gun required more dexterity than steadiness, or at least it was more important because of the small pieces that made it up and the myriad of moving parts. Machining a Dust based firing mechanism and then assembling it into its form was an art, like piecing together the finest frames of a painting into a deadly display of artistry.

Or that's how his instructor had explained it, at least, back in his lessons when he was younger.

And honestly, Seer-Steel wasn't what people thought of when they heard the term 'precious metal'. Most common people thought gold, silver, maybe platinum even, but Seer-Steel was more of an armor and weapon metal.

Not for shiny things to buy at the mall and flash at your friends, but for arms and weapons to cover your body and cleave the other guy's in a fight. A hardy, expensive metal that could stand up to Grimm claws, high heat from long bouts of sending rounds through a barrel, or edges sharp enough to make killing Grimm almost easy.

And just so happened he had money, time, and a girlfriend coming over to watch the starts of the first rounds of the singles matches tomorrow. And he'd been told a thousand times by his father and his mother both, women loved presents. Especially the shiny, expensive kind and, for Huntresses, if it was useful then it was even better. A shiny necklace didn't do a damn thing in the field except attract attention, get snagged, and get you killed if you had to fight another Hunter and they got a hand on it.

Using a small torch, he heated the edge of the last chain in the link until it softened, then pushed the cool ones through on each end with a pair of needle-tipped pliers. A simple shirt of chain, no bigger than any of the tees she wore all the time and barely heavier, would stop claws and knives both. And once the last link cooled, he picked the shirt up, laying it on the inside of a thin, black silk vest he'd ordered from a tailor nearby. It was fitted to Coco, not that he'd be explaining how he learned her measurements any time soon unless he suddenly wanted to suffer a case of 'death by teasing'.

Black on the underside, and a warmer black nearing a muted brown on the outside with earthy laces along the zipper-line of the chest, it was at least colored to match her style. Even if it wasn't quite as stylish as Coco usually preferred, it was at least colored right and Jaune assumed that counted for something. Laced up, it would look no different than a normal sports vest save for the tip of the silver sleeves on either arm.

He heard the door downstairs bang open and closed in classic Coco fashion and swore, flicking a greasy finger across his Scroll's screen to check the time, "Twelve?! Since when was it twelve o'clock!?"

"Since they invented the clock." He heard Coco's voice and squeaked in surprise, nearly falling off his stool while the woman chuckled, carrying what looked - and smelled - like something very spicy and Mistralian in her arms. She took one look at the project on his table, and Jaune's sooty fingers while he nervously pulled off his goggles, and grimaced. "Don't tell me you're working... It's the Vytal Festival, and you promised to watch the singles matches with me."

"H-hey there, uh, most… Beautiful woman on Remnant?" A brow rose and he chuckled awkwardly, "I, uh, I like your hair today? Ponytails look great on you."

"Everything looks great on me." She pointed out, earning an eager nod from him that had the curious eyebrow climbing even further. "Jaune…"

"I, uh… Lost track of time?" She scowled deeply in a way that anyone with one sister would recognize, let along seven, and cocked a hip, balancing the food on it, and he threw his hands up in soot covered surrender. "It's a present! For, uh, for you. For the Festival, I mean, I thought you'd like it. And I meant to be done, like, an hour ago for a shower. But you know me, when I'm working..."

"You get lost in it and would probably forget to eat, or take your damn meds, without your alarms to remind you. And I'm just gonna bet you forgot to set it." She rolled her eyes when he smiled awkwardly, smiled good naturedly in return, and turned to carry the food upstairs. "Finish up and bring it up, I won't spoil it by making you show me when it's not done, that'd just be kinda shitty. Just try not to let the food get cold, I'm not hot enough to keep that from happening."

"Gimme fifteen minutes!" He called after her, the woman waving her off hand dismissively as she vanished up his steps. "Not like it's got much left to do…"

He finished adjusting the mail and vest until it finally got close enough to his standards and turned, grabbing a wet towel and using it to scrub the worst gunk off his hands. Both hands were still covered in black, sooty goodness from his work, but anything that could come off without a very intensive scrubbing came off. That done, he sighed and folded the shirt and vest up, bundling it as best he could, and turned to head upstairs. There he found Coco sliding out of her thick jacket, the food already laid out in the small styrofoam containers on the low table.

She caught him staring at her, less to stare at her and more to think of what to say and how to give her gift, and she smirked, "It's pants and a white sleeveless you can't even see through, Babe. You've seen me runnin' round in shorts and a sports shirt before and didn't just stand and stare. What's up?"

"I, uh, made you a present. But you know that, cuz you saw me doing it…" He sighed and, after a second of blowing air out of his cheeks exasperatedly, just went to sit on the couch and held it up to her. A brow raised again, this time in concern, she took the little brown vest and he explained. "It's a, uh, it's a vest with a Seer-Steel mail shirt under it. Made to, you know, fit together, and I made the shirt by hand too 'cuz… You know how I am. I'm going to make clips for the bottom and the arms that'll hold it together later, but didn't want to pin it so you could wash the vest and… Stuff."

"You made me armor?" She opened the vest, running a finger along the shining metal and then the silk of the vest. "And you ordered a silk vest to go with it?"

"Yeah, uh, Seer-Steel chainmail isn't all that heavy, so it won't slow you down or mess up your style with the vest." He smiled, watching her turn it over in her hands, testing the weight of it and seeming to find it satisfactory. "Claws, knives, whatever, that'll stop anything but a bullet if your Aura goes down. No Boarbatusk is clawing through that, I can promise you that much. I'll eat my hat if it does."

"I've always wanted a nice set of something protective that wasn't fuck off ugly…" She gave him a reproachful glance, frowning worryingly at the young engineer, and asked, "Seer-Steel is expensive though, Jaune. You shouldn't have spent so much money on something like this, you have a business to run that's… More important than buying your girlfriend a present. Or making one."

"I've already got money for rent paid ahead for a few months, a-and plenty left over for supplies for any projects that don't have special order requirements. Which the customers have to, you know, cover for in the charges anyways." He argued nervously, the woman relaxing as the worries faded from her mind and left her with the present. "I can't fight out there, to protect you and let you do your job. But I can make things that do it for me, even if I have the fashion sense of a guy."

"You have the fashion sense of a wet noodle. And not a Mistralian noodle either, an Atlesian one." She amended gently, the blonde rolling his eyes at the quite barbing while Coco sat beside him, holding the present in front of her and looking at the shining metal. "The vest is simple, but I can style it up pretty easily. And silver is hard to match with- with my hair, too, but… It's beautiful."

"I did my best on it, but yeah, it's not really matched all that-"

The woman tossed it on the arm of the couch and turned, practically slamming into him and pushing him into the corner of the couch, lips finding his and drawing a heady and hot kiss from him. Crawling up him until she was straddling his waist, she kissed him like a starving woman devouring a freshly seared steak, and he did all he could to just keep up. His hands moved to her hips and hers to his hair, playing with it and using it to hold him there at the same time, nails raking across his scalp and sending flares of heat up his neck and further south both. Finally needing air, she pulled away, pressed a kiss against his cheek, and sat up in his lap while he tried his damndest to look at her eyes instead of the large bust currently pressed against his chin.

"S-So, I, uh, I guess you like the present?" He grinned, still tasting her lipstick and holding her hips while she sat in his lap, fingers just touching her soft waist above her pants. "I-I mean you usually attack like that when I do something good, so…"

"It's a wonderful present I can't wait to accessorize around, I love it, and if we didn't have a show to watch and it wouldn't probably literally kill you, I'd spend the next hour with my head between your legs showing you how much I love it." Flushing and swallowing dryly at the frank and serious tone in her voice, he forced an apologetic smile and Coco sighed, resting her forehead against his comfortably. "All my girlfriend training is useless with you. Any other boyfriend gets head and maybe time in bed when he surprises his girl with a present, so I dunno what to do here."

"Thank you works pretty well, right?" He half-joked, the woman rolling her eyes and pressing a much more chaste kiss against his lips before climbing off of him. He watched her adjust her shirt and chuckle, and added, "So I have this other idea for polarizing goggles-"

"No goggles, they put wrinkles on your face after a couple years."

"Okay, no goggles then." He thought for a second, grinning, and raised a finger, "Okay, maybe a helmet then to-"

"So help me, Jaune, I will suck you into the hospital for the damn story of it if you try and put me in a helmet." She poked his arm and he scoffed playfully, the woman grinning at the joking. "Plays absolute hell with my hair, and I am not cutting these lovely locks any time soon. Now hush up and eat lunch with me, we have like… Five minutes before the Vytal Tournament announcements kick on and I don't want to be crunching food through it."

"Sure, sure. Did you remember the soy sauce?"

"Did I remember the damn soy sauce?" She rolled her eyes, waving a hand at a small plastic container of the brown liquid. "Who the hell gets Mistralian and doesn't get soy sauce? I think that's illegal…"

He just rolled his eyes and they started to eat, chatting idly around food while music played on the large flat screen Coco had brought in for the Festival so they could 'watch it right'.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"Rest assured, ladies and gentleman, that every medical measure will be taken to ensure that young Mister Black's leg is treated to the best of medical standards in Mistral, where he requested to go for his recovery. An investigation has been launched and will be released to the public once the reasoning behind Miss Xiao Long's attack have been ascertained. As it stands, it seems to be an effect of the fight. Adrenaline has been known, in young competitors, to-"

"Bullshit." Coco grunted, snapping the remote off and switching the television off. Her eyes were hard, staring at the blank screen for several seconds, and Jaune was just about to say something when she added, "She wasn't trembling. Adrenaline makes your hands, whole body even, shake like an addict without a fix. That wasn't adrenaline…"

"She looked confused, though." He pointed out, Coco humming curiously at the statement. "Like… Like she looked confused, I don't know. He held his hand out for her to shake... And she didn't even seem to register it. It was like she wasn't seeing him at all."

"I saw, but… But adrenaline would do that." He nodded and she growled, agitated as much by what had happened as her not understanding it. Then a thought occurred, and one that frightened her. "I mean, I guess I don't know her that well. I know she has a temper, but if I'd known she was like that I wouldn't have taken you to hang out with her just because she's your friend's sister."

"It's Ruby's sister, I would have had to meet her eventually. I already met her partner, way back when, I… Think." He waved the momentary confusion off with a hand, Coco looking at him in a resigned sort of way with her lips pursed and eyes cool. "And like we both said, something is up here."

"Jaune…"

"It feels off, okay?" He snapped, more at the patronizing - uncharacteristically, even, but he was willing to put Lien on that being because of the situation being Hunter-related than anything else - tone in her voice. "I-I don't know what's actually off here, I know that. A-And I don't know Yang too well, but I know Ruby really well. Have for a couple months now. If Yang had this kind of temper then she would have warned me a long, long time ago."

"You're way too trusting, Jaune… Way, way too trusting, especially of people recorded doing shit like that." Coco smiled though and he knew that the chiding wasn't even really meant to actually chide him. "I like it, though, so don't go changin' it. S'probably why you aren't a racist twat like most are."

"I had good parents..." He shrugged, crossing his arms and laying his head back, staring at the ceiling. "I remember a bunch of kids told me Faunus were all evil. Grimm-spawn, and me being the Hunter loving kid, that made me hate them. My dad helped out a Hunter friend who was a Faunus, and I called him names because of it... Then my dad explained to me that wasn't true, after I told him about what they'd said. Didn't yell, or punish me, or anything like that… Just sat down and explained it to me."

"And that worked?"

"Not for a couple days, no… Okay, maybe it was a week, but I was just a brat back then, so I think I get some leeway." He shrugged, smiling bitterly at the awkward memory. "But it did before I saw that Hunter again. And I apologized, and he gave me a piggyback ride. Told me stories about his Hunts, too."

"S'a good dad, and a good kid." Coco nodded, watching him carefully. "This have a point, though? Beyond 'cute stories about my childhood' I mean, not that I don't love cute stories about you when you were little. Well," she glanced him up and down, smirking teasingly, and added, "even more little."

"Oi. Rude." He threw up his arms in feigned offense and Coco laughed, a short and tinkling sound before she could catch herself and cough. "I'm serious, though, something was off at the end of that fight. She went from smiling and enjoying herself to… Staring at the floor like her mom had slapped her hand for trying to get a cookie."

"That's a weird analogy for someone who just went crazy and broke someone's leg…" He gave Coco a dirty look and her hands went up in mock surrender. "Allegedly! I meant allegedly, Babe, come on. Don't glare, you'll ruin that pretty face of yours."

"Because the grease, oil and welding hasn't?" He snorted and again, despite the mood after what had happened, they grinned at the joke. "Seriously though, Coco…"

"You're right, though, I think." She finally said after a few seconds of thinking, grimacing and shaking her head. "I just don't know. I'm with you, though, that looked and felt, just, wrong somehow. What do we do?"

"We ask Ruby." He said simply, holding up his Scroll and smiling cockily in his best mirror of when Coco did it. "I have her contact information, after all, so let's just ask her and see what Yang says."

"Works, yeah. We'll give her a call in a bit." She shrugged, hopping up and stretching. "I'm heatin' up some of the leftover chicken first, though. And we need to wait a while anyway, so they get back to their dorm instead of being at Amity. They'll hold Yang for a while for interviews and such for the investigation."

"Yeah, makes sense." He sighed, letting the Scroll flop into his lap. "Heat up some for me, Babe?"

"Oh, doin' the pet names back now?" He rolled his eyes and she chuckled, heading off to his kitchen to heat up the food while he thought. Something weird was going on, he could feel it down to his bones, but…

He had no idea what that could possibly be, though. Not until he got Ruby on the line.

"Yang says that she saw him attack her, plain as day." Ruby answered an hour later when he called and asked, confirming at least that something had happened. Gone was the smiling, innocent face of Ruby Rose, replaced by the red rimmed eyes, pale skin, and limp hair of a young woman shocked and stressed beyond belief. Her voice even broke a little, sounding weaker when it didn't crack. "A leaping kick, that's what she said she saw, and… And we believe her. She saw something, it's just…"

"If it was there or her imagination is the question." Coco offered, agreeing with the idea while they sat on the couch, pressed against each other to fit on the Scroll-screen at the same time. "It could have been adrenaline getting to her."

"Not Yang. Nuh uh, nope." Ruby said simply, grunting in the negative and shaking her head rapidly. "She's an adrenaline junky, she knows how to handle a rush. She's never, ever snapped like that because of adrenaline, her Semblance means she gets hurt a lot. And that gets adrenaline flowing. So… She had to get used to it, training when she was little. It's like… Like..."

"Like Fox had to learn to see with air pressure when he got his Semblance." Coco offered, the girl on the other end of the Scroll call snapping her fingers and nodding with a sudden smile that almost brightened her back to normalcy. "It was rough on him, but he know how to work with it now."

"Yeah, yeah, just like that." Ruby's smile vanished after a second, replaced by that same anxious face again. "And Yang, she… I mean, she has a temper, right? A-And I mean, I'm not blind, I always saw how boys looked at her, and Dad did too. So growing up, Dad taught her how to deal with guys trying stuff. She could have totally dealt with him without hurting him, but… I don't even remember his Aura breaking all the way."

"Aura being low enough, a solid hit will break limbs through it. Or maybe he was dumb enough he didn't think to use it right, or got surprised. Fuckups happen." Coco pointed out, waving a hand at herself for proof of that and waving Jaune off when he gave her a sour look. " S'true babe, I'm over it. But from what you're saying, that… Doesn't seem like something she's do either."

"No way… She'd know better, and be way stronger than him with her Aura still up and damage running through her Semblance." Ruby agreed, shaking her head slowly almost like it was just an afterthought to even do that. Which given everything, it might genuinely be. "She said it was like… She acted on her own, on instinct, but…"

"She's trained to control her instincts, to fight with her Semblance." Jaune said quietly, Ruby giving him a glance and nodding from her end of the Scroll-call. It was obvious, based on how Ruby had explained her sister's Semblance, that she'd be far more able to control herself... And Yang had looked like a zombie for the minute before the attack, and then she'd been confused and panicked when the guards surrounded her. "Something is way off here, and I don't know what, but… But something isn't right, here."

"Yeah, it's-" Ruby turned, looking at someone else who's words Jaune couldn't make out, and then she nodded and turned back to the Scroll. "I have to go, guys, General Ironwood is here and wants to talk about what happened. I'll… Keep you guys posted."

"Please do." He said quietly, Ruby nodding and waving before the Scroll cut off. Running a hand through his hair, he turned to Coco and asked, "What do we do now?"

"I call my team, and we start asking questions." Coco said simply, fishing her Scroll out from her bra uncaringly and flicking it open. "My leg still ain't right, and you can't go walking around Beacon for five hours to ask people questions. Partially because you aren't actually allowed to just wander around the Academy's grounds."

"And the rest because it'd kill me." He nodded, growling in frustration but resigned all the same. "Alright, let them do it… I hate not being able to help, but nothing we can do about it, so may as well stay and try and wait on them."

"Don't worry, we'll find something to do to distract ourselves." Coco promised, sending her message and tossing the Scroll on the table.

"How, exactly?" Coco just smirked in that way he was so used to, fishing out some lipgloss and putting it on theatrically, and Jaune went, "Oh. Sounds fun, yeah, and it's a pretty good distraction. Smart thinking, Coco."

"Hey, no judging, I'm stressed the hell out and hate just waiting around." He rolled his eyes and she scoffed playfully, turning so she was kneeling on the couch and grinning almost predatorily. "Now be a good boyfriend and do your boyfriendly duties, Babe."

It was a better way to pass the time than sitting there, watching the news say the same thing for hours and stressing out.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"Are you worried about sabotage?" Winter asked Ironwood once night had fallen, standing at attention in the general's private office, adjacent to his quarters.

"Yes, given what happened to Miss Xiao Long...." The man was sitting in front of her, behind his desk with his head in his hands. A great and powerful man, with broad shoulders and a pressed suit, but looking exhausted and weak after a stress-filled day. "I trust you believe as well that something strange went on down there?"

"Indeed. Adrenaline shock, in a brawler whose on-record Semblance directly means she'd have trained to control herself?" Winter clicked her tongue and shook her head, disbelief clear enough for both of them with the simple gesture. "Something must have happened. A Semblance perhaps, likely one that lowered her inhibitions and caused her to react to a simple offered hand and spoken word as an attack?"

"She claims the man leapt at her." He pointed out, Winter nodding with a small grimace. "That brings me to your orders, and why you will not be returning to Atlas as of yet."

"Sir?"

"If, and I do mean if, there is sabotage happening at the Vytal Festival, I need you to find out." He said quietly, looking to her with stern - if clearly exhausted - eyes. "Whatever happened down there, I am confident after having spoken to her and her team in private that it was not just an adrenal response overruling her sense. So your orders are to make… Inquiries, quietly, into the matter. All other duties are to be delegated quietly, and officially, you will be taking time to visit with your sister who is traumatized by what happened."

"A ridiculous theory, but one the media will devour like a fine steak." She nodded, the man sighing but leaving the comment. "Is that all, Sir?"

"Yes. Please leave now, and get the investigation underway." They couldn't afford to wait, after all. If someone were planning something during the Festival… "Stop whatever this is, if it is indeed anything and you can."

"Yes, Sir. Of course, Sir."

"Good luck, Specialist Schnee." He gave her a nod, respectful and short. "Dismissed, Specialist."

The woman snapped a salute and turned on her heel, striding from the room in typical Atlesian crispness. He murmured a prayer to the Gods for her and stood, sliding his uniform jacket off and reaching into a drawer for his medicine, his false shoulder aching terribly from the long day and the lack of it. A good night's sleep would be helpful, he hoped, along with the medication he'd been prescribed.

He was halfway out of his shirt when his Scroll chimed, unconsciously flicking a finger over it for an audio-call and sighing, "Yes, Ozpin? It's late, and I was just about to take my inflammation medicine, so don't be offended when I say I'd like this call to be a short one, please."

"Of course, I won't keep you from your rest, James. I know more than many how much you need it, given your duties public and private both." The man's voice answered back, sounding a mix of amused and concerned. "I was merely calling to ask what you intend to do about the recent events in the tournament? I know that I, at least, saw a great many questionable things down on the arena floor."

"Hm." A cagey way to phrase it as usual, not that James expected otherwise. "I have Winter conducting a small, very strictly off the books, investigation into the matter for me. I don't know what we'll find, if anything at all, but… My instincts tell me Mixx Xiao Long saw something down there. And not due to some 'adrenal response', as easily as civilians might buy that."

"Indeed. Such was my sentiments as well, though I'll leave the investigation to you as you are handling Vytal security matter." Ironwood just grunted, recognizing the backhanded comment for what it was. Ozpin was still angry, then, that he had pushed for security control rather than let the old manhandle it. "Any news on our more… Personal ends?"

"I'll forward you a report come morning."

"Very well." Ozpin sounded impatient, and the moment of time that passed made James wonder if he'd push for that report now. But instead, he said, "Good night then, James. Get some rest."

The Headmaster hung up before the General could, and James sighed tiredly. Now for bed, he knew he could handle all of this tomorrow either way.