16

Chapter 16: Spark

Unknown Location

"Aw, screw this!"

Neo simply tilted her head to the side, eyes never leaving her scroll as a coffee mug flew past her and shattered against the wall. She looked up from her reading, annoyed, then rolled her eyes. From the crate she was sitting on, she had a perfect view of Roman Torchwick standing over his desk, hands flat against its surface, glaring down at his scroll.

"Where the hell are they?" he growled to himself, flicking his finger across the scroll's surface, information flying by much too fast for him to actually read. "I found Little Red and the cat easy enough, so where the hell is Monkey Boy and Laser Girl?"

Neo shook her head, going back to reading, crossing her legs as she tried to relax.

This had been going on ever since the previous day. Roman had practically thrown a parade when he found the cat Faunus' information among all that Neo had stolen for him, and had immediately copied down everything noteworthy onto a large marker board he had placed behind his desk, even drawing a black stick figure with little triangles on top of its head at the top of the board. He'd been equally excited when he found the scythe-wielder's info, but, strangely, had calmed down after reading for just a few minutes.

Neo had thought it weird. He'd been ranting and raving about his eventual success over the girl, (Yes, your great success over a fifteen-year-old, Neo had thought at the time) when he'd just… stopped. The sudden silence had been enough to make Neo look up from her scroll, giving her a peculiar sight. The look on his face as she stared at his scroll had been an odd one, something between shock, disbelief, humor, and… sadness, maybe? He'd mumbled to himself for a while after that, nothing Neo could really make out. Something to do with the girls parents.

A few minutes later, though, Roman had added the girl's info to the board, complete with a little red stick figure holding a small scythe, and set to work finding out about the other two kids that he'd seen at the docks.

That was at 11:00 p.m. on Friday night.

It was now 9:00 a.m… on Sunday.

Roman had found nothing. No record of a blond headed, nunchuck-wielding monkey Faunus, no record of an orange haired girl that shot laser beams.

And it was driving. Him. Nuts.

Roman had briefly entertained the idea that Neo had missed something when she stole the information, an assumption that Neo had quickly dismissed with an umbrella upside the head. She knew what she had gotten, just what Roman had asked for: the entire student registry. She'd even taken the faculty records as a bonus. Neo had given him everything he'd asked for. Now she was left sitting around, because Roman had said that the moment he'd found something on all four of them, he'd have a new job for her. Now she was getting frustrated and bored, having spent almost two days stuck in their base, listening to Roman cuss out his scroll.

She did have a pretty good idea of why he couldn't find any information on the two missing teens, and a small part of her felt like she should tell him, but…

"Augh! This is getting me nowhere! Stupid, useless, good for nothing- *THUNK!* Ow, damn, my foot!"

...this was just too funny.

Roman flopped into his desk chair, cradling his foot after kicking his desk in frustration. He glared angrily at his scroll, before turning his head, staring at the metal ceiling. He pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing at it slightly. "C'mon, I'm smarter than this," he murmured to himself. "There had to be some information somewhere…"

*this is the way, we want to spend every day!~

Roman stiffened in his chair, his head snapping back to look at his scroll in surprised dread. Neo slowly lifted her head as Roman's scroll continued to blare a little tune that was happy, cheerful, and not-at-all embarrassing for a full-grown man to have as his ringtone.

Roman pointed at her warningly. "Not one word."

Neo's expression turned unimpressed.

Roman blinked, then groaned, his shoulders slumping. "Oh, you know what I mean!" He snatched his scroll off the desk, looking at the caller ID. "Audio only… aw, man." His tone went from curious to exasperated, an annoyed frown on his lips. He hit the answer button, cutting off the sickeningly sweet song. He quickly put his scroll to his ear, a too-wide smile plastered on his lips. "Hey, Cinder. How's academy life going?"

Neo shut off her scroll, sitting up straight. Cinder calling Roman meant one of three things: she had important information for him, she needed him to do something, or she was mad at him. Whichever it was, the same thing would happen: Roman would tell her to do something about it. Which she would… for a fee, of course.

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I… what?" Roman's easygoing tone quickly turned apprehensive. "Yeah, I sent Neo in to steal some infor… wait, lockdown? She caused a lockdown?" He put his hand over the phone, turning to Neo with a look of panicked disbelief. "You caused a lockdown?" he hissed at her.

Neo shrugged. She didn't really know. One of the teachers, some fat guy with a monster of a moustache, had seen her as she was leaving Beacon's server room, but she'd vanished before he could stop her.

Hey, Roman had told her not to get caught. Didn't say anything about being seen.

Roman glared at her before turning his attention back to the phone. "Uh, sorry 'bout that… you were planning to leave Friday night? Oh… oops…" Roman sweatdropped. "It was for a good reason… well, remember that little fiasco at the docks last month, the one you told me not to have happened again? I figured that if I had all the info on Beacon's students, I, and by extension, the rest of our little operation, would be better prepared for if any more of those tots decide to play hero. Pretty smart, right?" Roman's proud expression morphed into one of surprise. "Oh… you… oh…"

Roman seemed to deflate in his chair. He suddenly perked up, angry. "As a matter of fact, yes, I do have a plan… kinda… I've already got all the info I need on two of the brats from the docks, I'm just trying to find out about the other two… Well, I can't find nothing on them! Neo got the entire school registry, and I can't find anything on them… of course, they're students, they're too young to be full fledged Hunters… what?"

Neo watched as Roman's expression went through a rapid series of emotions at whatever Cinder said. Confusion, Surprise, Realization. His face went blank for a moment, before he facepalmed.

"The Festival… right. Yeah… yeah… I'll do that… Yes, I'm taking care of it. Taurus gave me a bunch of what he said were his 'best men', and they're out getting it right now. They should be calling any time now… hey, that ain't on me! Taurus said they were his best. If they screw up, that's on them! Okay… whatever… bye."

Roman ended the call, letting his arm fall limp to his side. He pressed his fist to his forehead, eyes screwed up in thought. Then he looked over at Neo, eyes curious. "Did you realized those two are probably from different schools?"

Neo blinked, a small chunk of Roman's one-sided conversation making more sense. She smirked, nodding.

Roman's eyes narrowed. "Would you have told me even if you could talk?"

Her smirk grew. She shook her head.

Roman stared at her. "...I hate you."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Roman groaned even louder when his scroll started singing again. He answered it without even looking at the screen. "What?! ...oh." His tone changed instantly, becoming much more calm. "You got it. Well, I guess Taurus was right when he said you guys were his best." Roman got out of his chair, picking up his cane as he did. "Okay, I need you to take it to the warehouse on the south side of the city. We're having a big rally for the White Fang there next Saturday, and…" Roman suddenly trailed off. He turned his head towards the marker board. His eyes sparkled as he looked at the two stick figures. A large smile spread over his face, piquing Neo's interest.

"Actually, scratch that. Bring it back to base first, and gather up anyone in the Fang who knows about robotics. I need to make some… modifications." He clicked off his scroll. He turned to Neo, still smiling. "Neo… how do you feel about stealing some Atlas tech?"

Neo blinked. Her lips formed a wide smile as her eyes flickered to both be pink. This sounded like fun.

Betaed by Covert Weapon

A/n: Wow, two chapters in as many weeks! Been awhile since I pulled that off.

Just a short little chapter to get the plot moving again. Next time, Team RWBY gets a taste of Mated life.