Chapter 203: Surprise Box

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Surprise Box

To the credit of everyone in the airship, they noticed me immediately. Granted, the back of the ship wasn't particularly large and it was hard not to notice the sudden addition of an extra passenger, but honestly, you'd be surprised how unobservant people could be. I admit I cheated like a motherfucker at every opportunity, but still. People would get wrapped up listening to music or reading a book or simply working and just wouldn't notice what was happening around them. The fact that everyone present noticed the sudden change was impressive in its own way, especially given how unexpected it probably was for all of them.

Which wasn't to say that any of them had the slightest idea how to react to my appearance. For a moment, the three sets of eyes simply focused on me and stared.

Slowly, deliberately, I raised an eyebrow at them and smiled.

"Hello," I said, tapping the index fingers of my gauntleted hands together as I looked them over. From where I was seated, Ironwood and Polendina were across from me, while Penny was to my left, and I knew I wasn't the only one to notice that. I could all but hear the thoughts racing through the General's mind as he overcame his initial surprise and took stock of the situation—at a guess, they probably went something along the lines of 'there's a fucking teleporter next to my robot daughter!'

Given that, his response was rather predictable.

"Penny!" He shouted, bringing his left hand down on the armrest of his chair with enough force to shatter it, pushing himself up and all but throwing himself forward. I saw the machinery activate within his robotic arm, Dust glowing within as it released its power. He punched towards my face with force enough to easily destroy the entire ship, undoubtedly relying on Penny's sheer durability to keep her unharmed.

As he moved, I lifted a hand, placing it calmly between his fist and my face. He moved quickly, as expected of a Hunter of his level, but I…well, I was me and as usual, I was Accelerating my personal time to absurd levels. As his fist connected, there was an explosion of force as the power gathered in it was unleashed in a burst of grey light. The windows of the ship exploded outwards and it pressed against me as well, ignoring the protection of my upraised limb—probably why he chose this means of attack. The walls around and behind me groaned and began to break, shredded by proximity to the blow, and it was only the fact that I was reinforcing them with Crocea Mors that kept the entire back half of the ship from being wiped away.

I felt the wave of force wash over me, scratching at my hardened skin and making my hair sway slightly, as if in the wind—and I let my smile widen. It seemed that even with his confidence in Penny, he wasn't willing to go all out while she might be caught in the crossfire. I suppose that was good; I could tell he cared for her a great deal simply by the sudden fury that arose at my perceived threat to her and the worry that laid even deeper.

"You react quickly, General Ironwood," I praised before shifting my gaze to the shattered windows. Glass shards hung suspended in the air outside, held aloft by my power. "But not necessarily well. Keep in mind where you're standing right now."

With that said, I pulled the glass back into the windows, wiping away all signs of damage with a command to my Glass Elemental. At the same time, I began to repair the damage to the ship around me, causing metal to shift and flow back into place, making it seem as though nothing had ever happened. Ironwood started slightly at the shift, trying to draw away quickly

I closed the fingers of my left hand over his fist and met his gaze calmly, stopping him even as he struggled to pull away.

"Be calm," I told him serious before smiling again. "If I were here to attack you, I already would have."

"You…" Ironwood all but growled, trying to stare me down. It didn't work very well, because I'd seen so much worse. "Who are—"

He stopped, looking me over carefully. I twitched the tip of my tail, still wrapped securely around my waist like a belt, at him in greeting.

"Jian Bing," He whispered, to which I nodded.

"Indeed," I said. "Don't feel too bad for not recognizing me immediately—I was wearing a mask last time. It's good to see you again, Penny."

"Salutations!" Penny replied immediately, looking at me with a smile. If she noticed anything wrong with this situation, it didn't show on her face, but I could see the machinery within her moving, especially around her blades. I didn't sense any hostility from her, but I suppose it was inevitable for her to react when she saw her superior officer attack.

Still, I ignored that and looked her over carefully.

"I see you've made some improvements since the last time we met," I mused aloud, peering into her inner workings. I suppose one of the upsides to being an android was the ability to simply upgrade one's body. While I doubted Penny could do much to improve her physical stats by training, there wasn't much need to do so when she could replace and reinforce things outright, with the only real limit being the ability and resources of Ironwood and her father. Among other things, I Observed what appeared to be a power source for a beam cannon, so I assumed she wasn't having too many issues on that front. "I trust your limbs are doing okay?"

"I am combat ready!" She answered proudly. "It's good to see you again."

"James," Polendina murmured across from me.

"I know," Ironwood grunted back, squinting at me fiercely. "Why are you here? What are you planning?"

"I'm just here to talk," I assured him, lifting a hand as if to forestall any arguments—and stalling the entire ship instead. I made the lights flicker once and allowed the ship to rumble as it struggled against my grip before shutting off power to the engines and holding us in the air with nothing but my will. "This seems like as good place a place to do so as any."

"Sir!" The pilot immediately shouted, having not heard anything prior to this because of Levant; not point in letting him try anything, even if I could shut it down. "The ship is malfunctioning. We're—I don't know what's happening, but we're stuck somehow. We're just floating here!"

Ironwood very carefully didn't look towards the door to the front of the ship or react in anyway, but I could feel his anger rising.

"Feel free to answer him," I told the General. "I'm not going to drop the ship. I said I came to talk and I meant it—but do you really want this ship to reach its destination with me in tow? I thought not."

"Zachery," Ironwood said, raising his voice without taking his eyes off of me. "Everything is going to be fine. I think I know what's causing this. Just stay calm."

The pilot paused at that, seeming to understand—because of a message hidden in the words, probably—and swallowed. He licked his lips once and nodded, backing away from the door.

"I understand, sir," He replied with a mostly steady voice. Hand going to the pocket of his uniform, reaching for the scroll within. He wouldn't have much luck with it while Vulturnus was out and about, but I left that unsaid.

"Good," I said, releasing Ironwood's hand with another smile. "Please, sit down General."

Ironwood continued to look at me for a long moment, fingers of his robotic hand flexing once—but he looked to the right, glancing at Penny, and then back to the left as if he could see the Professor without turning his head. Then, he took a deep breath and stepped back stiffly before slowly lowering himself to the edge of his seat, not hiding the fact that he was ready to spring up at any moment.

"You want to talk?" He asked. "Then talk."

"In a moment," He answered dismissively. "It would be rude to continue without making introductions. While you all know me and I know all of you, I believe this is our first time meeting face to face, Dr. Polendina. I've read your books."

"Did you now," He answered unenthusiastically, glancing towards his friend and daughter cautiously. After pursing his lips for a moment, he continued, keeping his voice polite. "What did you think?"

I'd been a little disappointed, as I was whenever I picked up a book that looked interesting and didn't get the option to eat it. Instead, I'd just used it for reading in the hopes of improving my INT, back when that was still feasible.

"It was interesting enough," I said aloud, which was true. "The writing was rather dry, but your theories were mostly sound."

"Are you a scientist, then?" He asked. "I admit, I wouldn't have thought you the type going by your reputation."

"Understandable," I admitted. "In many ways, I'm must appear rather old fashioned, I know. But…yes, I suppose I consider myself a scientist of sorts, if of a rather different field then yours. I do my best to keep up with the times, however."

"Always a good idea," He said, looking around the ship. "Your power is rather interesting, I must say. At first, I thought you might be a telekinetic of some kind, but that doesn't feel quite right, given what I've seen of you. Are you a materiokinetic, perhaps? Or something else?"

I chuckled.

"I'm me," I said.

The Professor exhaled slowly, looking me over with pursed lips for a long moment before turning his gaze slightly to the side.

"Introductions have been made," Ironwood said gruffly, reacting to the silent signal. "So I'll ask again—why are you here?"

"To talk," I repeated, shifting my eyes towards him dully. "As I have said several times. It's not often that men like ourselves get the chance to speak face to face, after all—and I was in something of a rush last time we met. But business has brought me to Atlas, so I thought I might take advantage of the opportunity."

"Do you honestly believe I'd tell you anything you wanted to know?" Ironwood asked, making me smile slightly.

"Perhaps not," I acknowledged. "But then, I hardly need you to tell me anything. Just think of this as my way of establishing a polite discourse instead of simply taking what I want."

"Oh? Then, why bother?" He replied, eyes narrowing further even as a scanner activated in the right one. "If you truly could just take what you want, there's no point in doing such a thing."

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"What about the entertainment value?" I asked him, giving him an enigmatic smile. "Perhaps it simply amuses me to do so?"

Ironwood looked at me for a long moment, something activating inside of his right eye. I read the signal he was trying to transmit and almost smiled before interfering with it. The General waited for a minute for a response and I considered faking one for him—but decided not to for the same reason I hadn't stopped the ship without them noticing or created an illusion to make them believe they were traveling in the right direction when they weren't.

In the end, I actually did wish to talk.

"No," Ironwood said. "You strike me as confident and arrogant, true—but not the type to put yourself at risk without reason."

"And what makes you think that I'm at risk?" I asked him, turning my gaze pointedly to the airship I'd halted.

"If you weren't…then why are you stalling?" He returned.

"James," Polendina murmured, glancing towards Penny who'd fallen silent and was watching the conversation carefully. I felt a flicker of emotion from Ironwood, showing that he understood what his friend was trying to say—but he didn't let him stop it.

"You're interfering with communications in and out of this ship," He guessed. "And you're stopping us from reaching…our destination. I think there's a reasons for that, because I don't think we'd be having this chat otherwise."

"Please," I replied. "I hardly need to speak to you to stop your advance. As I said, this is merely my attempt at being polite."

"But you are stalling us?" Polendina asked, turning his gaze from his friend to me.

I smiled at them again and nodded.

"I am," I admitted.

"Why?" He asked before pausing. "The Paladins. You're after the Paladins."

I clicked my tongue.

"Don't be ridiculous," I dismissed. "I've no interest in the 290. I could tear apart a thousand Paladins—they're worthless to me."

Polendina's mouth twitched at that and I felt a flash of annoyance from him.

"But someone is trying to take them," He said. "Aren't they?"

And here it was; the moment of truth. I could have skipped this conversation and distracted them in any number of ways, but this was a chance I couldn't pass up. Originally, I'd resolved to go along with Cinder's plans—was still resolved, truthfully, if only for the fact that I couldn't afford to leave her plans be—but Cinder had proven herself to be far, far more dangerous than I had expected. While watching over her plans was all well and good, I couldn't afford to leave her be any longer, even if I didn't dare to interfere with her directly.

Truthfully, even approaching things this way carried a lot of risk. There was always a chance that she would find out and that she might trace things back to me, after all, something I expected would be extremely unpleasant for me—but there were ways to mitigate that. I wasn't arrogant enough to assume I'd seen even a fraction of what Cinder was capable of, but now that I was aware of how pants-shittingly terrifying she was, I was better equipped to take measures to stay the fuck away from her. Furthermore, I could pretend that this was a plan on Conquest's part, angled towards infecting the General, Polendina, or potentially even just to look into Penny, which I might be able to swing. And one of the reasons I had chosen Ironwood, besides the breadth of his resources and the role he apparently played in Cinder's plans, was the fact that his base of operations was on a different continent than Cinder's, hopefully minimizing their exposure to one another until Cinder put her scheme into motion.

By that point…well, hopefully my plans would have come to fruition by then. If not…

Well. I suppose I'd need all the help I could get, however unlikely the place it came from, which was why I was going to drop a few hints for him and plant a few seeds. I'd just have to hope I was right in taking this chance and that he was as smart as I hoped.

"It's a shame to have to assist her plans in any way," I said with a sigh. "But yes, someone is stealing them even as we speak."

Ironwood's human hand spasmed on the chair, gripping the edge of it in place of the shattered armrest. But I saw him grit his teeth, focusing through the initial rush of emotion, and focus on me.

"Who?" He asked. "Why? You claim it's a shame, but then why stop us? Your words contradict your actions; if you don't want 'her' to succeed and if you have no interest in the Paladins, why interfere?"

I looked at him for a moment and sighed, as if disappointed.

"You asked before why I would put myself at risk by appearing here," I replied. "And I told you the truth—that I was in no danger. But that does not mean that you are in no danger. I'm afraid that if you interfered, you would most likely suffer dearly for it. So, for the sake of preserving your lives, I chose to delay your flight and perhaps say enough to keep you from walking into something you're not prepared for."

The ship fell silent at that, Ironwood and Polendina looking abruptly taken aback. After a moment, they shared another glance.

"You…" The Professor began before pursing his lips and shaking his head. "You claim you're saving our lives? Even assuming you're telling the truth, what reason would you have for doing such a thing?"

"I thought that would be obvious," I said. "It's because we share a common enemy."

Ironwood sucked in a sudden breath and stared at me as if seeing something for the first time.

"…She?" Ironwood whispered. "You're talking about her, aren't you?"

I kept myself from reacting, returning his stare. Did he know, somehow? Was he talking about Cinder or someone else? If possible, I'd like to believe there wasn't another unknown party waiting to fuck up my shit, but how could he possibly know about—

Oh.

Pursing my lips, I considered him carefully.

"Did Ozpin tell you?" I wondered, gauging his reaction before shaking my head. "No. Then it must have been Qrow."

Ironwood stiffened, expression twisting.

"What would you know about that?" He asked.

"What wouldn't I?" I replied before mulling over my next words and the cards I had to play. This was something else I was unsure of; the ties between Ozpin and Cinder. If, as I feared, they were both Riders, then they were ostensibly on the same side—yet Cinder hadn't known who I was. Furthermore, her plan, or what parts of it she had revealed, seemed like they could undermine Ozpin's own position. Perhaps there was something I wasn't seeing and this was set up for something greater, but what if they weren't aware of each other? And there was still the possibility, the hope, that I was wrong about Ozpin. Either way, this might be worth it just to test the waters.

I closed my eyes for a moment before opening them back at Ironwood.

"When we are finished here, perhaps you should contact Ozpin," I told the man. "While we may not be friends, we both know what is at stake—and politics makes for strange bedfellows indeed. When you do, tell him I did this as a favor to him."

Ironwood was silent and still for a long moment, staring at me hard. The corner of his mouth twitched, followed by an eye, and I could tell that inside he wanted to swear. At me? At Ozpin? Probably at us both. This was another thing I hoped I wouldn't regret.

"Say I believe you," He said at last. "What do you know of her?"

"I know who she is," I said. "I know what she is. You don't need to know either."

"Why not?" He challenged.

"Because I suspect you'd run off and hurt yourself," I replied. "So instead, you'll be staying here, out of trouble."

"If I knew—" He started fiercely before sucking in a breath. "I'd stop her."

"No," I replied mildly. "If you were lucky, you'd just die trying—all three of you. Regardless, this is not a debate and I am not arguing with you; I'm merely keeping you out of trouble. You can consider me your babysitter, if you like. Either way, we've some time to waste, which is why I am here. So…what else would you like to talk about?"

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