Mutual Friends
How do you defeat powerful enemies? By standing together.
[Author's note: This story takes place soon after the end of Volume 4. It was written without knowledge of what might happen in Volume 5. It takes place shortly after the Darkpenn story Yang in Mistral and the story Weiss' Unexpected Encounter.]
Adam Taurus, sitting in a booth in a seedy Mistral bar, checked his watch again. The person he was supposed to meet was late. Didn't she know that he had important things to do? Places to be, people to kill, a revolution to forment. Although to tell the truth the revolution concept was travelling poorly lately. In hindsight, the White Fang releasing Grimm creatures into Vale and Beacon may have been a misplaced concept, from a propaganda perspective. It might be a good idea for him to lie low for a while. And concentrate on his other project. His personal project.
He suddenly realised that there was someone sitting in the booth, across the table from him. Funny, he had not heard or seen her arrive. It was if she had just appeared from nowhere. She smiled at him.
"So you're Neo," he said. "You're late. What, you had trouble with your flight?"
She smiled, and gave a little shrug.
"Your message said that we have some mutual friends," he said. "Who?"
Neo held up her scroll. Four pictures appeared on the screen. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang.
"Ah," he said. "I see what you mean." He pointed to Blake. "This one is an old favourite." He pointed to Yang. "This one is a new favourite, since she apparently failed to bleed to death when she was supposed to."
Neo pointed to Ruby. Who was, she believed, responsible for the death of Roman Torchwick. Then she pointed to Weiss, who had somehow managed to fight her to a draw, just a few hours ago. And had made her late. She did not like being late. And Weiss had ... said things. Things that Neo had not liked. Like the remark about her hair, for instance.
Taurus nodded. "So between the two of us we have reasons to hate all four of them," he said.
Neo nodded agreement.
"But they are hard to kill," continued Taurus. "Tough on their own, even tougher together. I under-estimated them once, and I will not do so again. We need to confront them when they do not have their weapons. Hardly fair, I know ... but I can live with that."
Neo nodded again, and gave a smile that said: I have a plan.
"Oh, this is bad," said Ruby. "This is very, very bad."
"Stop complaining, sis," said Yang. "They're just high heels."
"They are instruments of torture," said Ruby. "And without my scythe I feel ... unbalanced." She tottered, almost fell, and then managed to stay upright.
"Well, the invitation said no weapons in the club," said Yang. "Which is fine. It's the opening night of a nightclub, after all. No fighting required. We have some drinks, we do some dancing, we have fun. You remember fun?" She showed Ruby her scroll, and the message from Hei inviting them. She pointed to the 'no weapons' note – she assumed that Hei wasn't taking any chances with his new furniture.
She showed the message to the bouncers at the door and they were waved through, jumping ahead of the long queue. Inside, people were dancing to pulsating music, others were drinking and eating, and generally doing nightclub stuff.
"Please don't expect me to dance in these things," said Ruby. "I can hardly walk."
Yang laughed. "Maybe a drink first," she said. They went up to the bar.
Ruby slapped some lien down. "Milk!" she said to the bartender.
A voice behind them said: "And I'll have a mudslide, hold the whiskey."
"Blake!" squealed Ruby.
"Hi," said Blake.
There was a cascade of hugs and kisses.
"Hey," said the bartender. "A mudslide without whiskey is a glass of cream."
"I know," said Blake.
"I'll take the whiskey off your hands," said Yang to the bartender. He sighed, and gave the milk to Ruby, the cream to Blake, and the whiskey to Yang.
"It's good to see you, Blake," said Yang. "But why are you here? In the club, I mean."
"I got an invitation on my scroll," she said. "Since Sun and I arrived in Mistral only today, I thought, well, why not."
"Is Sun with you?" said Ruby.
"The bouncer on the door wouldn't let him in, since he didn't have a shirt. So he went off to buy one. Or maybe sulk, I'm not sure."
Hei – Junior – came up to them. Yang made some introductions. "Are you guys as crazy as Blondie?" he said to Ruby and Blake.
"Of course not," said Ruby. "Uh, that is, I mean – "
"No," said Blake.
The disco music stopped. The lights dimmed, and several spotlights lit up the little stage. A band started to play. Then a singer came out and began to sing.
"Don't tell me ... " said Blake.
"Is that ... " said Yang.
Ruby's jaw was hanging open too far for her to say anything.
"What, her?" said Hei. "Yeah, she came in this afternoon, said she was looking for a job. Which was lucky, since the person I had booked had cancelled. She did an audition, and I thought she was pretty good."
"W – W – Weiss?" Ruby finally got out.
Indeed. But it was not a high-class operatic song that she was singing. It was a poppy, somewhat raunchy song about how a woman needs what she needs and what she will do to get it. As she sang, Weiss sashayed across the stage, showing the occasional flash of cleavage and more than a little thigh. The audience was applauding and shouting approval.
"Gosh, she can really shake it when she wants to," said Blake.
"You know her?" said Hei.
"I thought so," said Yang. "But now I am not so sure."
The performance finished and Weiss left the stage. The recorded dance music began again.
"Just what are you doing here, Blondie?" said Hei.
"You invited me, remember? Me and Ruby."
"Me too," said Blake.
Hei looked from one of them to the other. "It is true that I occasionally give free invitations to attractive girls," he said. "But you guys are way too dangerous for that."
Yang showed him the invitation on her scroll. So did Blake.
Hei looked. "Nope, not mine," he said. "Looks like your scrolls have been hacked. Which isn't that difficult, when it comes to sending a fake invite."
"But why?" said Blake.
There was a sudden disruption at the other end of the dance floor, a flash of light and shouts from patrons.
"Oh no," mumbled Hei.
The crowd parted – and Neo and Taurus were standing there. Neo had her trademark smirk, and Taurus wore an evil grin. They each drew their weapons. They stared at Ruby, Blake and Yang.
"Well, if there's going to be a fight I'm going to get rid of these damn shoes," said Ruby, kicking them off.
Taurus raised his sword and charged, aiming for Ruby. But Yang leaped in the way, raising her mechanical arm. The sword hit the metal with a clang! Taurus pushed, but Yang did not give way.
"Bad move, moron," said Yang. "This is gonna hurt."
An electrical charge ran from the arm into the sword, and then down to Taurus. He leaped back in pain and surprise.
"Ha!" said Yang.
Neo double-flipped and came up next to Ruby, her blade in her hand. She stabbed out – and then the blade struck a glyph.
"Don't think so," said Weiss.
The glyph moved, whacking into Neo. Another glyph appeared, on the side, hitting her. Neo tried to leap away, but another glyph prevented her. Glyphs began to appear all around her, moving, boxing her in, smashing into her. They appeared and moved almost faster than the eye could follow, faster than Neo could knock them away with her umbrella.
"Fuck me," whispered Blake. "That's ... incredible."
Taurus was again attacking Yang but Yang, instead of confronting him – foolish, without proper weapons – was dodging away, evading the sword. And then an electrical cord, with coloured light bulbs still attached, coiled around him. Blake snapped the cord again, and Taurus was pulled off his feet. He went spinning across the dance floor.
Neo finally managed to find a way out of the forest of glyphs. She spiralled away, somersaulting – and then a cord wrapped around her ankle. She was pulled off balance – and, astonished, came up face-to-face with Yang.
"We meet again," said Yang. And then she punched her. On her elvin nose. It sent Neo spinning away, and she landed next to Taurus. The two of them struggled to their feet.
And were confronted with Yang, Blake, and Weiss, standing shoulder to shoulder, dukes up, ready for another round.
"Coming through!" cried a voice.
A red vortex zoomed past them, slamming into Neo and Taurus. They were swept up in the slipstream as the vortex spun around the club, smashing them into pillars and walls. Finally, it stopped, and Ruby materialised next to her friends.
Neo and Taurus, bruised and battered, again struggled to their feet.
"Hey," said a voice from behind them. "I'll need to see your invitations, morons." And then Hei whacked them with a huge club, sending them staggering.
Neo and Taurus looked at Team RWBY. Yang made a gesture: come on, if you've got any more. Blake re-coiled the cord she was holding. Weiss raised her hand, prepared to loose another volley of glyphs. Ruby gave a grim little smile.
And now the club held by the big guy was morphing into some kind of bazooka.
Neo conjured a portal behind her and Taurus. She put a hand on Taurus' shoulder.
Weiss looked at Neo. "Swords again, next time," she said.
Neo gave a smile and a nod. Then she and Taurus leaped backwards through the portal. They were gone.
There was a long moment of silence in the club. Then the patrons erupted into applause. "Best opening night ever!" shouted someone. The music began again.
"Sorry about the damage, Hei," said Yang. "Really, not our fault."
"Meh," he said. "No-one seems too upset, so I guess I can live with things. I suppose you guys are cooler than you used to be."
"Cooler by twenty per cent!" said Ruby.
"You still have to pay for your drinks, though," said Hei. He smiled, and then went off to oversee the repairs.
The four of them looked at each other. "Well, here we are," said Ruby.
"Yes, we are," said Weiss.
"I suppose that we all have some explaining to do ... about things," said Blake. "But, for the moment, well, fuck it."
Sun came up to them. He had just entered the club. "Ladies," he said. "And Weiss."
"Watch it," warned Blake.
He pointed to his new shirt. "What do you think?" he said.
"Oh brother," said Yang.
"Worst ... taste ... ever," said Weiss.
He sighed. "Well, have I missed anything?" he said.
They all stared at him.
"What?" he said.
END