Midnight in Vale. It's a beautiful thing isn't it. With the calm crickets chirping, somehow surviving in the largely populated city, it's an understatement to say the least. The city, quiet and peaceful in the night as the streets are empty. It's nice to be awake and experience the quiet night. That's why the old shopkeep of From Dust Till Dawn liked to be open at night. Not only would he get a few more customers but he got to experience the silent shop and silent city.

At least it was until a young man with orange red hair over his right eye, left from the shopkeeper's perspective, a bowler hat, green eye(s) that reflect the green flag of Vale surrounded by Eyeliner to make a small wing, a grey scarf tied into an ascot, a white overcoat that obviously had been freshly cleaned and was inlaid with the color crimson. In his hand was a cane, the handle white, the shaft off black.

He walked up to the counter with a smile. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" He said with a grin. "Or even a shop at all! It's like people don't think emergencies happen at night!" He exclaimed in frustration.

"Emergencies?" The shopkeeper asked with a raised brow.

"Well, you see," The teen started to explain, "My friend decided to use all my makeup on a dog, and when i say dog, I do mean dog. She put my eyeshadow on a Pug. It was actually impressive, until i realized she used every single thing I had for it. So now i'm here because I have a thing in a few days and so…" He said before gaining a smirk. "Where's your makeup aisle?" The shop keep smiled and pointed near the back of the shop. The teen smiled and went near the back while grabbing a small basket.

The boy walked to the back and looked at the many kinds of makeup. He grabbed a small circular container. "Oooh, i've heard this was good but I couldn't ever find it before." He muttered with shocked eyes before he gained a small smirk as he put it into his basket. "Thanks Neo." He muttered before looking back to the shelves. "Oooh." He said before grabbing eyeliner pens of various colors. He looked around a bit more, grabbing eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, foundation, etc. That is until he left the aisle only to come face to face with a gun. The orange headed teen looked past the gun to see a man with black hair, red glasses, and a full black suit minus the red tie.

"Put your hands in the air." The man demanded as the teen just stood.

"What?" The teen asked.

"Put your hands in the air." The man demanded again.

"Are you robbing me?" He asked.

"Yeah!" The man said in annoyance.

"You should be farther back."

"What?"

"You should be farther back so that I can't do this!" The teen said before using the cane to smack the gun to the side as he dropped the basket. His hand then flipped the cane to grab it on the shaft and smacked the handle into the man's head. The shaft stayed against the man's head as the handle shot off to the window, hooking onto the railing seperating customers from the window. As that happened, the teen grabbed onto the man's tie and jumped up, putting his feet onto the man's chest. The cane started pulling back to the grappling hook at high speed shooting the man towards it. As they flew, the teen saw a dozen other guys in the same suits following the orders of some red cloaked figure. The man flew out the window and the teen kicked off, landing in the the middle of the road in front of the shop. The cloaked figure looked at him quizzically, their head slightly tilted. They turned to the rest of goons with a start, as if realizing they hadn't said anything.

"Oh! Um… Get… him." Their high voice said, likely a woman. With that, the goons charged out towards him. As they ran towards him, he readied his stance and waited. Waited. Waited.

Act!

He spun his cane into the jaw into the gut of another, before shooting the hook around the neck of one and swung him around, slamming him into the others before loosing him towards the storefront, landing just in front of the woman in the read cloak.

"Well. Um… Great job guys…" She said nervously. "You'll uh… You-You'll get him next time!" She said, trying to encourage the defeated goons. The sound of sirens started to grow closer. She looked towards the teen. "Well, I'd hate to cut this short but sadly, I have to go." She said. The teen scoffed, as he leaned on his cane, his other hand in his back pocket.

"Come on! Maybe if I bring you in, I'll get extra credit." He joked.

"How old are you?"

"You act as if you don't know me. I'm the one and only Roman Torchwick, Hunter Extraordinaire… In-Training." He said quickly adding on the "In-Training". The cloaked woman looked at him for a moment or too as he smirked confidently.

"Who?" She said, tilting her head. Just like that his confident demeanor fell as he slouched and spoke again.

"It's Ro-... Roman. Roman Torch-" He sighed. "Torchwick. I'm a… hun… Hunter… In… Training…" He said, slightly dissapointed, as he started shuffling from his pose to a more hunched position as he fiddled with his cane.

"Well, Roman," She spoke once more, "It's been… fun, I guess. But it's time for me to go." She smiled before reaching behind her back and pulling out her weapon, which quickly unfurled into a large scythe which she pointed at Roman. Just under her hood, her eyes were cast in shadow, but he could see her smirk clear as day. He then noticed the barrel at the end of scythe, just as a large bullet shot out towards him as he jumped back as it collided with the pavement, exploding in a large flame, cutting him off from the store. He saw, past the flames, the woman smile at him…

And then, she melted into rose petals, leaving a trail towards a nearby building. Gunshots let out and he saw her fly over the top of the building. Smiling, Roman aimed at the roof, loosing the hook as it soared to the top of and hooke onto a sign, just under the edge of the roof. It swiftly pulled him up towards the roof before unhooking, sending him up and over the edge before landing about twenty feet ahead of the woman, her stopping in her run out of surprise.

"C'mon Red!" He said with a smile. "You're gonna have to work harder than that to get rid of me!" He announced.

"Persistent." She noted with a smirk.

"Like a tree anchored in the dirt." He said, gripping his cane, ready to fight.

"Well," Red said before reeling back her scythe, ready to sprint into action. "Timber!" She announced, launching herself forward as Roman did the same. She swung as he slid down under the blade, hooking the cane around her leg. He lifted it up and unhooked her leg as she fell forward. He slashed at her back, as much as a cane can slash, only to find air as she bolted forward a few feet, leaving rose petals in her wake. She quickly bolted back, a trail of rose petals following as she swung her blade. He brought his cane up to block and he felt the blade scratch into the cane shaft before it caught and took him up from his feet, through the air, into the ground about 10 feet away. Groaning as he looked back up, he saw a Bullhead rise from behind Ruby who stood at the edge. She gingerly stepped upon it as he stood up and charged towards her, aiming the cane at her as a small reticle pops up from the end of it and he fired. It rose just in time to miss the shot as it continued soaring, puncturing the forehead of an SDC HR worker plastered on a billboard.

"Eh," Roman said, "Close enough." He broke into a run towards the edge as the Bullhead raised out of his reach. He skidded to a stop in front of the ledge as he looked up to Red.

"Goodbye Roman!" She called out as she dropped a red rose which fell down, drifting right into his open hand. "Maybe next time!" He watched with a smile as the Bullhead's door slid shut and flew off. His fingers grasped the rose's stem lightly as he brought it to his nose.

"Freshly picked…" He said with a smile. He pulled out his scroll and tapped a few icons before bringing it to his ear. "Hey Neo… I think I found a rival…" He said. He waited a moment before bringing his hand to his face. "Yeah, I-I know you're mute, I've known you for about ten years, I don't know why I called, bye." He said progressively getting faster as his face grew red from embarrassment before hanging and grumbling at himself. He turned around to become face to chest with a woman. He looked up at her in her green eyes.

"You're coming with me, young man."

"Uh…" He said, completely caught off guard. "Stranger Danger?"

~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~

Roman sat alone in the interrogation chamber with a sour look on his face. As he waited for the Light blonde woman with green eyes to finish talking.

"With a pat on the back…" She said as she paused for a moment. "And a slap on the wrist." She said, swinging her riding crop onto his hand. He pulled it back with wide eyes as he winced and shook his hand. "But someone wishes to speak with you…" She said before moving to the side as a man with a dark green suit walked. He had spectacles perched atop his nose, seemingly only for the aesthetic as well as silver hair. He pulled the chair out from the other side of the table and sat down silently. They both looked at each other in silence as Roman looked the man over.

"Where'd you get the suit? Anthony's on twenty-fifth and sixth?" He asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

"No, Henry's on ninth and tenth."

"Really?" Roman said, confusion on his face and in his voice. "I thought Henry's couldn't afford to use cotton."

"You're thinking of the one on sixteenth street."

"Ah. Wait, he's got, like, a line of 'em?"

"No, it's just a common name."

"True, I suppose. I'll have to check out the one on ninth and tenth."

"I suppose, you shall." The two were quiet for a moment, before Roman spoke once more.

"I want my lawyer, and my phone call. That is, if i'm being charged with something. You can't make me stay here if i'm not."

"Of course, we just want to talk, Mister Torchwick." The man in green said. Roman shuffled in his chair a bit coming out to be a bit taller as he smiled a small bit. "You applied to Beacon a few months ago, You were accepted and invited to join initiation, but…" He paused for a moment. "You declined. Why might that be?" He asked as Romen shuffled again, making himself smaller and he frowned.

"I'm not sure that's any of your business." The boy said coldly.

"I'm the headmaster of Beacon Academy, I would believe this would count as my business." The man said, with a simple smile as he stared into the eye of Roman, who in turn, scoffed a bit and sighed.

"Fine. It's my friend. She won't be able to go and… I can't leave her. She'll have no one if i do and i just… I can't." He said, looking down a bit in embarrassment. Slowly, the headmaster nodded.

"Now, tell me," The man started. "Is this friend of yours in your line of work as well?" Roman raised an eyebrow at that in confusion, before the man continued. "Huntress to be?" At that, Roman laughed a bit.

"She's trained, she's slightly better than me, but since she's, well, not the easiest to communicate with, nobody would let her into any of the training academies." Seeing the slightly tilted head of the headmaster, he explained. "She's mute, you see, and people don't really want to spend enough time to understand her." At this, the man nodded.

"Well, if she's every bit as good as you say she is, I'm sure she wouldn't mind coming to initiation with you." He said as he stood up from his chair. "I'm sure she'll be quite the fine Huntsman when she graduates." He said, turning to the exit, starting to leave. Roman quickly stood up from his chair.

"Wait, you're saying she can..?" Roman asked, shocked.

"Of course." Ozpin said with a hidden smile. "You're free to go." And with that, he and the woman left. Roman waited for a moment before running home.

He had news to tell.