66 Mission as usual

Like a lot of other people, Neo had no particular experience of travelling by air. Airships were usually used by those who needed to travel – Hunters on missions, missions which Neo's team was not yet authorized in participating, some merchants, and lastly government officials. Is it any wonder, though, when crashes were not really a rarity? Flying Grimm loves to attack lone airships, after all.

And even among this small group, there were even less likely a person that can be found that flown in airlinkers. Until recently, only a small fraction of the Atlas army had even any experience travelling in the steel hovering giants.

Neo stood out, in a way, in this case. It was even enough that she could brag about it in front of a lot of people – one of the rare few people who have ever boarded a battle airship. But then again, the number of people who had traveled by teleportation in their lives was even smaller – and Neo was part of that small group. Not that she can really brag about that one.

Information about Jonathan's abilities was highly classified.

But the fact that Neo had indeed experienced teleportation before made any possible joy she might have had on the airborne ship moot. Never mind the fact that the flight would take hours – hours, on which any possible shine she might have about the flight disappear.

Now it's nothing more than a long and boring flight.

'I wish I could just teleport to Atlas with Jonathan – but instead we had to crawl, figuratively speaking, over an ocean of boredom!'

Neo grimaced, the vistas of unchanging waves driving her insane with boredom as she looked at the waves below her to find anything to distract her. 'And what am I supposed to do with all this free time!?'

The airliner that Neo was currently travelling in was the pride of Glenn's fleet. The airliner housed several deluxe living quarters enough for Jonathan, his office, and even a kitchen to serve the small passenger complement – but it was still, in its original essence, a warship.

The rest of the space was taken up by residential barracks, bullhead hangars, ammunition and provisions stores, staff rooms, and radio towers. In short, everything that was necessary for a warship that was both a member of the military, supply, and staff unit of the Glenn Army.

There was no space for entertainment quarters – maybe a couple of lounges here and there, but nothing that would attract Neo's attention. There were no games, no access to social media, the film collection consisted of educational material and a few patriotic and historical ones, not even a gym.

In other words, Neo, who knew that the trip to Atlas would take at least another five to six hours, was seriously considering the possibility of dying from boredom.

In any other circumstances, Neo would have resorted to pestering her friends, or Jonathan, hours ago. But seeing that Jonathan had shut himself away in his office along with Neo's only other available friend, Cinder, that was not an option. With her only other friends being Trifa or Nora – her pickings weren't exactly bountiful.

Seeing that Trifa was now a couple of hundred kilometers away from Neo, that was also not an option. While, yes, one of the reasons Neo had gone on the trip was to have a chance to step back a bit and come to terms with their new status for each other… as exes. And yes, she was already that desperate.

And Nora? Well, even Cinder wasn't strict enough to take a twelve-year-old girl – albeit a perfectly prepared and behaved one for her age – on a trip to another city for an official summit. Equally fearing as much what might have happened to Nora in Atlas, as what Nora havoc might cause in Atlas.

In other words, apart from her three friends, well, Nora wasn't really Neo's friend, just by the fact that she was too young, but Neo still considered them pretty close – there was only Neo's own team remaining.

While she was close with her team, they weren't close 'enough'. They had all spent six months together and Neo trusted her life to the team as much as the team trusted her, but half a year was yet enough for Neo to fully become trusting. Well, another reason being that Neo's unique method of communication takes time to learn.

With options for friends dwindling, her only other option was to go bother the soldiers and office currently resting in the aforementioned staff rooms. Sadly, she doesn't think that such an activity would be looked at fondly, and she might get into trouble. With Cinder that is, Jonathan was too much of a softy to reprimand her, something that Cinder would double on in response.

And so, with nothing else more interesting to occupy her time, Neo defaulted to doing the same thing she had done hours before – trying to drill through the airplane's wall with her glare. Not the most captivating of activities after the first five minutes, after she didn't suddenly develop a Semblance for laser eyes.

So, with an agonized exhalation, as if Neo herself were performing some incredible feat, she broke away from her 'captivating' pastime, and made her way to search for her teammates.

Fortunately, the search for one of her teammates – namely Vernal, didn't last long. Though perhaps not the 'exemplary student of Glenn's Academy, second only to Cinder, and Amber Autumn', Vernal tried to keep in line with the rest of the students. The first was to not draw attention to herself, but also to keep up with the others, carefully following the path that Raven Branwen had taught her.

In this case, that meant she was doing what you'd expect the average Hunter-in-training travelling on an airliner would do. Namely, ogling the ocean waters beneath the airliner, disregarding safety rules, hanging over the metal railing so that she was half a second away from a bad fall from the airliner.

Neo hesitated for a second, but seeing that her only other option was to stare at the wall for the next few hours, she shook out her reluctance instantly. Now, seeing an opportunity to gain some excitement, she ducked slightly, reducing the silhouette of her already small stature. Then, slowly, barely treading on her toes, she approached the girl, then, with a mute 'boo!' poked her under the ribs.

Vernal let out an inarticulate shriek, flinching as she almost fell off the ship in surprise. But before Neo would have to intervene, Vernal had managed to find her footing and abruptly turned around, with a middle expression between startled and annoyed, before freezing when her gaze found no face before her.

After another moment, Vernal lowered her gaze, now finding the mischievous look in Neo's eyes and the latter, unable to help herself, laughed a silent laugh. The very fact that Neo was laughing without making any particular sound made Vernal silent for a moment before she let out a slow exhalation, like a machine letting off steam, "Neo, don't do that again."

Neo laughed silently at Vernal's words, still keeping a huge smirk on her face, exhaled before shaking her head and shrugging. 'I can't help it,' her gesture spoke out.

Neo wasn't sure if Vernal had understood her – but judging by the way she frowned a moment later, she had at least grasped their essence.

For a moment, it seems Vernal was thinking of doing something unpleasant to try to make her point stick with Neo. Only to give up almost an instant later, it was harder to change Neo's attitude than it was to a Schnee. The latter was at least in some sense handled by Jonathan, but not even he was enough to rein in Neo.

"Okay," Vernal exhaled. "What do you want? Why were you looking for me for?"

'Eh, no reason.' Neo shrugged, before spreading her arms out to her sides, dropping her shoulders and raising her eyes, additionally hanging her head to the side, showing her sadness. 'I have nothing to do, and I'm too lazy to do anything. So I'm looking for some entertainment.'

The performance of charades then ended, with Neo showing a sly grin, as she glanced at Vernal meaningfully. 'And I've found one thing to break my boredom.'

"Yeah, there's not much to do here," Vernal, either not understanding Neo's last charades or choosing to simply ignore those – a wise tactic to interact with Neo.

"Well, the most interesting thing I found was to look at the ocean, at least it's beautiful enough."

Neo skewed her gaze from Vernal to the water behind her to see what Vernal was talking about – and finding nothing at all that interests her. 'What's beautiful about it? Water and oh look! More water, albeit a lot of it.' Neo signalled to Vernal with her disappointed eyes.

At Neo's reaction, Vernal only tsked, "There's no sense of romance in you…"

Neo only shrugged at this comment, clearly not too upset by such a detail, before returning her gaze back to her co-teammate's face. 'So?'

Vernal blinked a few times thoughtfully before seeing that Neo was still staring at her and was frowning her eyebrows. "What do you expect me to do?!"

'I don't know? Entertain me, I suppose.' Neo shrugged. 'Not that there's anything else to do here, so not much choice.'

Seeing that there's no way that Vernal could get rid of Neo's attention, and trying to parse whatever it is Neo was 'saying' was giving her a headache. Admitting her complete powerlessness in a silent argument with Neo – Vernal demonstrated that she had learned quite well to keep her mouth shut and retreat before Raven's gaze – a tactic she still employed to this day. It seems that her fate was to be constantly bothered.

"Alright then. Shall we go find Amber then?" There's no way she was going to suffer alone, however.

Neo wrinkled her nose a little at the mention of Vernal's fourth teammate and partner before nodding her agreement nonetheless. 'I don't have any better options, so let's go.'

She wasn't on bad terms with Amber, on some level you could tell they got along quite well with each other – but in their personality and character they were what some would call 'natural enemies.'

Neo was surprisingly loud, for a mute, an active girl with a very 'liberal' understanding of rules, a burning desire to get into a fight, and a zealous desire to exercise. Neo prefers to play some active games, read fancy magazines, and lie on the bed until she gets a headache from sleep.

Amber, on the other hand, was a diligent student and wouldn't be caught in anything other than her ironed out uniform, all her assignments done yesterday, always sitting in a corner reading some book, but never really silent. As soon as someone said something, she would immediately jump to the firing line. Furthermore, if she found something, that is from her point of view, wrong, she would immediately explain what was wrong, where, and how to fix it, and why it should be done the way she said it should be done.

And she was rarely wrong in that regard. She didn't demand others to do something without reason, she always said exactly why and how something was wrong that needed to be fixed – but that was of little help for her reputation. It's one thing to have someone just looming over your ear – it's another to have to agree that this annoying person is right.

You could say that Amber was like Cinder – but that was wrong, it was as if Amber was a reflection of Cinder. Similar, but not at all alike.

Cinder was a strict leader, but she was willing to bend about the rules, while Amber always tried to stick to the rules, even when almost anyone would have just waved it off.

Amber was trying to get Neo to wear a skirt because it was Hermes Academy's preferred uniform! Neo – in a skirt!

Unfathomable!

Complimenting her stickler nature to rules, Amber was equally fastidious with her studies. Cinder, because Neo can't in good manner compare Amber with herself in that manner, regarded her studies as preparation for the future, while Amber seemed to be studying in order to study more efficiently. And no matter how many times she was told that it was wrong, she saw nothing wrong with her activities. Even the teachers noted the fact that she relied too much on the books. Her grades were great, of course, but she was missing… something.

Neo wasn't a teacher herself, so she didn't know what that 'something' was – but Jonathan only shook his head at Neo's indignation when she complained about Amber one day. He said something along the line that confronting Amber wasn't the answer, and that time would sort things out for itself.

Maybe so, but this did not help Neo at all!

In other words, the trained and coached Amber, seemingly born with a textbook in hand, was something of a natural adversary to Neo. Neo didn't consider her an 'enemy' per se, but they were literally as different as night and day, interacting with her felt like pulling teeth.

But on the other hand, Neo saw no other entertainment source around – so she was forced to go with Vernal in search of Amber. At the very least, if they began arguing, as funny as it was to any outsider to watch someone arguing with a mute, it would be a good one or two hour spent not driving herself insane

At the very least, it would be a cinch to find Amber, they were told not to walk around the ship too much, but that pretty much meant that Amber would be in her room, growing mold or something.

A moment later, after a light knock on the metal door, Amber appeared on her room's threshold, still dressed in her school uniform, causing Neo to sigh. Neo wouldn't be surprised if Amber had purposely brought a couple of uniforms with her and was ironing those right now to always look like an A grade-student the day before enrollment.

"Vernal?" Amber raised one eyebrow before finding her partner's companion's gaze, who gestured to their diminutive member of the team that Amber's eyes had passed over. "Neo? What are you two doing here? Do you need something?"

"No, just nothing to do, well Neo is, and she dragged me along the ride." Vernal sighed.

"Will you let me in?"

"Ah, yes, of course," Amber took a step back, letting the two girls inside.

Neo glanced around at Amber's room and found that it looked the same as Neo's own room, which is as expected, really. Except, even in the bare hours that Neo had resided in her room, it already got a sense of it being lived in. Amber's? The room was almost sterile – even the bed was made prim and proper, as if no one had ever touched it, least of all slept in it. The only thing that looked out of place in the room that made it look actually somewhere where people lived and not some display room was a small book on the desk.

Looking closer, Neo could see that it was marked with a bookmark.

A bookmark! Amber couldn't even just flip the book over and set it aside – she had put the bookmark down!

Neo felt her eyes begin to roll, and fearing the possibility of accidentally glancing at her own brain, Neo shook her head before catching Amber's gaze and looking around, spreading her arms and shrugging. A complicated gesture that Amber only partially understood, answering to the best of her comprehension, "I was reading, as you can see. Not that there's much to do other than that."

Neo glanced at the book before she froze and, eyes widening in horror, looked at Amber.

"Neo, it's not as horrible as you think. What do you even think I would re… Never mind, that's a box of horrors I would rather not open." Amber made her way to the bookmarked book.

"Small Group Tactics in the Event of a Grimm Attack, fourth edition, expanded, with author commentary and expert advice. We have exams in a month!"

"A month," Vernal, clearly agreeing with Neo's unspoken horror, underlined the important details in her voice, "A month! Who in their right mind prepares for a test that would only come in a month!"

"You can never be completely sure about everything!" Amber frowned at Vernal, putting her hands to her sides.

"We're on a mission, heading for Atlas, next to His Majesty, and you're second only to Cinder on the entire course!" Vernal rolled her eyes, reminding Amber that her academic prowess was next to impeccable. "Can't you just put down the textbook for one day?!"

"Missions come and go and exam grades stay forever," Amber stomped her foot as if trying to give weight to her conclusion. Neo in turn exhaled for a moment, inwardly shaking her head. 'Her priorities are clearly not normal…'

But Neo preferred not to draw attention to her thought, deciding not to risk another couple of hours of lecturing from 'Miss Perfect'. Seriously, she never imagined that there existed a person that could beat Cinder in the title of 'Miss Perfect'!

Neo rolled her eyes before exhaling irritably, twirling in place. Well, of course Amber couldn't have been doing anything interesting at all but reading her textbooks, could she! Wait… what if she was lying, and she was reading something else instead, maybe even something steamy! Something that she can lord over her, at the very least!?

Unfortunately for Neo, after she stealthily skulked towards the book, reality cruelly disappointed her after a moment's inspection – it really didn't seem like Amber was reading anything but bloody textbooks. She even checked the contents with a glance to see if she was just using the cover as camouflage, suffering sanity damage after reading something as dry as textbooks.

"Okay, we're here, which means the nerdiness is over!" Vernal, clearly no more excited at the prospect of studying textbooks than Neo, smirked at Amber.

"You can put the books aside and start doing something normal instead!"

"I'm already doing the most normal thing in the world," Amber frowned momentarily, crossing her arms over her chest. "What's wrong with that?!"

"I don't like that you think it's 'normal' to read your books, textbooks even, while you're resting!" Vernal poked towards Amber accusingly, causing her to blush for a moment and then answer back immediately, finding any way to excuse her pastime. "We're not on a vacation, it's a mission! A training mission, for which we'll get graded for when we get back to the academy!"

After Amber finished speaking, Vernal only rolled her eyes and then circled dramatically with her arms outstretched. "Wow, look at the dangers all around us! An Ursa must be about to jump out of your wardrobe!"

At her teammates' antics, Neo could only sigh and shook her head. Leave it to her two teammates to lose the plot entirely – Neo was not advocating for relaxation just because she was bored. Well, for that reason too, but it was simply because they would have no chance to relax in Atlas at all, and they should take the chance here.

Not that she could relay such complex reasons to the two now bickering girls – they weren't yet mature enough to parse the complex concepts in Neo's charades… and because Neo herself was too lazy to explain it to them. Just type her reasons in a scroll and show it to them? Why should she do something so bothersome when she can just force others to understand her intentions instead?

"All right, all right," Amber gave in to Vernal's pressure, sighing and shaking her head. "Then what do you suggest I do instead? It's not like we're suffering an overabundance of entertainment here…"

"On the ship, perhaps." Vernal grinned, as she moved her hands to gesture to the rest of the ship.

"There's no source of entertainment anywhere, I know, I looked – but I might have something… Well, as long as miss hall monitor here don't go tattling."

Before Amber could voice her dissent, Vernal then pulled out a cardboard bundle from her trouser pocket, then lifted it above her head as if to show it off. After a moment, Neo was able to make out that the small cardboard object was a small box of playing cards – clearly not new and already looking worn out.

Playing cards? Well, Neo suppose that I only could probably be expected from Raven's apprentice.

Amber, seeing the cards in Vernal's hands, blinked before furrowing her brow, clearly not understanding exactly what Vernal was planning. Vernal only smirked at Amber's dissatisfied expression. "So! Anyone up for a round of poker!? With bets of course, no way I'm playing poker without any stakes in it!"

Once again, before Vernal could comment, or maybe say something stupid like teenagers shouldn't play cards, Neo poked Vernal in the side. The action made her flinch before glancing at Neo, who pointed at the deck before running her fingers through the air as if she were counting something.

"Don't worry, we're not going to play for favors… or even strip poker." Vernal smirked, "We have the lien we took with us, don't we?"

Neo thought about it for a second – Vernal and Amber hadn't taken more than a hundred lien with them on the journey, but Neo had her stash of several tens of thousands at any time. Not to mention the fact that she was Jonathan's daughter, and could at any time ask him for a loan of… how much could Jonathan realistically give her? A hundred thousand? In any case, far more than Vernal or Amber had seen in their lives.

In other words, there's no way that she could lose! Her favorite kind of games!

"Wait," Amber froze suddenly, as if struck by lightning, before shifting her gaze to Vernal, her expression full of horror. "Are you suggesting that we're gonna… Gamble?"

The last one was uttered in such a low whisper and complete disbelief in her voice, as if Amber had just found out that Vernal was a Grimm in human form, making human sacrifices every night.

"Yeah," Vernal only nodded at that, after which she cracked a smirk, "C'mon Amber is not like it's illegal to gamble in Glenn – we even have casinos back in Glenn!"

"But we're on a warship!" Amber managed to say it in a whisper at the same time, conveying an almost hysterical scream despite the lack of volume. "What if His Majesty discovered what we're doing?!"

"Well, it's not like we'll be telling him about it, would we?" Vernal made a sly grin, then glanced at Neo, and she just rolled her eyes.

Haha, Neo won't tell anyone because she's mute, what an exquisite and original joke! But in the end, she just nodded.

Neo, though, didn't think Jonathan would mind much – a reprimand at most… But then Jonathan would still be upset, and Neo didn't want to upset Jonathan.

Yes, Neo wasn't a zealot like Cinder, who would be ready to gnaw at the throat of anyone who even just looked at Jonathan wrong – but Neo loved Jonathan… also not in the way like Cinder. More like a love for family – a normal family that is, the way a daughter would love her father, which was her only family. So of course, she didn't want to upset Jonathan.

But then, what Jonathan wouldn't find out wouldn't upset him!

And Neo was chomping at the bits to find some fun on this boring journey. And besides, it's not like Amber was about to fizzle and melt at the sight of playing cards like a demon at the sight of holy water – so what's the harm?

"Come on, Miss Perfect," Vernal threw a mocking look at Amber, "What, are you that interested in sitting and reading textbooks? Really, really? Honestly, honestly?"

Amber looked away at Vernal's taunts, causing Neo to exhale happily. Yay, turns out there was something human and normal inside Amber after all! She also didn't want to read textbooks if she saw another source of entertainment in front of her!

"Mhm, but it's against the rules…" Amber made a slurred sound, reminding Neo that even when enticed with a release from boredom, Amber was still 'Miss Perfect', and was now clearly trying to find an opportunity to agree to Vernal's offer… But the damned rules had no intention of letting her go.

"Come on." Vernal smirked as well, and then with a polished trick she flipped the cards in her hand, catching Amber's eye. "We don't have much money on us anyway, and we can make a rule - say, no more than five lien per hand. We'll start with no blinds, the money's here, just to make things a bit more interesting. Playing cards is one thing, but if you see a possible reward in front of you for winning – doesn't the game get better? Real risks and a chance to win… Isn't that just perfect?"

Neo, of course, was aware of the fact that Vernal had been raised by Raven once with the express purpose of becoming her right hand in the future. But even so, involuntarily, Neo had the image of Vernal superimposed with the telemarketer on the TV, trying to sell anything to anyone who decided to stop for a moment and glance at the bouncing salesman figure on the screen.

The greasiness that image brought, made Neo reflexively grasp the pocket that held the plastic notes, sighing in relief as she found the notes in place.

"Okay, fine, you win! Now stop that thing you're doing! It's making me feel slimy!" Even Amber couldn't resist Vernal's display for long, as she exhaled in defeat before looking up, "But we're only playing for a couple of rounds!"

Famous last words there, Amber.

***

'Well, well, well, looks like the bank is coming back with me…' Neo expressed smugly as she displayed a wicked grin, raking in the final pot of several dozen liens, causing Vernal and Amber to shoo her away with indignant and hurt looks. Past rules and betting restrictions were long forgotten, between the fifth and tenth stakes, and Vernal, for all her cheating, could not beat Neo… who's the best at cheating!

It was a good thing she had learned to use her dense illusions to the max – and that none of the others remembered that Neo had this ability!

No, Vernal was perfectly capable of cheating, but the problem was that in the clash of being able to flip cards quickly and the ability to create any card out of thin air? It wasn't hard to imagine who exactly would come out on top.

The only one who didn't know how to cheat or use her semblance to do such a thing was Amber. Alas, the ability to use lightning was of little help in poker… Unless it was the ability to hit the other players with lightning and take their money directly. In that case, lightning was definitely overpowered.

However, in the end, Vernal was only twenty lien poorer – the ex-bandit clearly knowing her measure and perfectly trained and able to stop in time, carefully sensing the course of the game. Neo, on the other hand, was a hundred and fifty richer, which meant only that Amber was the biggest loser.

Neo suspected that this was Amber's first experience in gambling at all – and Amber proved to be a very poor gambler, completely unable to stop herself from betting more and more. She had even managed in a short time to learn how to control her emotions and bluff – on a beginner's level, that is. Something completely wasted when she was too easy to be baited and fooled.

"I demand a rematch!" Amber shouted out the cry of sore loser, having already lost seemingly all the money she had allocated for her trip to Atlas. "I know for a fact that my next hand wou…"

A loud knock on the door made the three girls freeze for a moment before they immediately rushed to hide the contraband, quickly shoving the cards under Amber's bed. Which Neo couldn't do, because the card in her hands wasn't actually real, and trying to hide them would 'show' her hands as it were… Luckily, her back is facing the door, so if she just lowered her hand under the table, both Vernal and Amber wouldn't be the wiser of her cheating!

"Just a minute!" Amber shouted, shaking herself off the metaphorical crime off of her a few times and smoothing her untidy, disheveled hair before heading for the door.

"It's me," Cinder's familiar voice from behind the door made Amber exhale slightly. "We're entering Atlas airspace, so I came to tell the team to get ready, and I couldn't find Neo or Vernal anywhere."

A moment later, the door to Amber's room opened, revealing Cinder behind the door who momentarily began glancing around Amber's room, and pausing at the face of a smirking Neo. Or more importantly, at the cards Neo was trying to hide.

The glow from the plastic-covered card caught Cinder's gaze, and caused her to instantly form all the logic chains in her head, before returning her gaze to her sister.

"Neo... Have you been cheating at cards again?"

After another moment, when the information reached Vernal and Amber's minds, they immediately turned towards Neo with murderous looks. Neo, in response, threw a hurt look at Cinder, before returning her attention to her angry friends, raising her hands in a conciliatory gesture. 'I would have given you all the money back at the end…'

Perhaps her co-teammates didn't understand exactly what Neo was saying... Or perhaps they weren't going to. Either that, or they knew better than to believe Neo's lie.

And under Cinder's mocking gaze, Vernal and Amber rushed into battle with a battle cry worthy of the fiercest Amazons.