Chapter 1 At the club
He sat at the far end of the bar by himself, sipping some moderately expensive liquor. He usually ordered the cheap stuff so this was actually a small step up. Call him cheap, but he was no Schnee and his pockets lacked weight these days.
The club music blared and the revolving ceiling lights bathed the dance floor in flashing neon. He watched on as people hit the dance floor and thirsty party-goers swarmed the bar. He shook his head. He was sure some of those dancers were on something. They looked like they were having a panic attack rather than busting a move. Unless that's how people danced these days. He didn't know.
The night was in full swing, it was the weekend so the place was packed. Junior's, he remembered this place was called. Not a very creative name if you asked him. He could have gone to a closer watering hole in Vale to get a drink but he actually came here for business.
He needed to see the owner of the club, Junior Xiong. Now that he thought about it the club was probably named after him.
Huh...
Maybe he was getting a bit tipsy. He briefly pondered the chances of him getting shit faced tonight...meh, not likely. He wasn't getting drunk anyway, he was just tired. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll. Funny, these scrolls were nothing like the scrolls they had back home. He had to admit the first time he saw the technology of this world he was amazed. It was undoubtedly leagues ahead of what they had back home.
Some of the things he saw still stunned him. Still, it wasn't the same allure like back home. He shook the thought out of his head before it could fester. He didn't want to think about that right now.
He pulled apart the edges of the scroll and a holographic touch screen emerged. He tapped the screen a few times and opened up his messages. He was getting better at using this thing.
'I guess I could say I'm tech savvy now, considering I only had this thing for a few weeks.'
He scrolled though his messages, pausing when the bartender walked over and asked him if he wanted another. He nodded and held his glass out. He glanced at the bartender as he poured the whiskey. He noticed that this was a different bartender that was serving him drinks before.
'The other one must have gone on break.'
And just like the last guy, this one did not match the description of Junior Xiong.
'I was told Junior was the head bartender here, but he hasn't shown up.' He sighed, 'I just have to be patient then.' He was sure he would show up eventually. He just had to wait. The other option would to be make these employees a little more talkative. Maybe even tear this place apart. But he shouldn't do that. This place was some what decent looking, who would ruin it and do that?
No he would wait...at least for now.
He turned back to his scroll and seeing no new messages. He decided to check the news headlines to pass the time. Another great thing about this nifty little thing was its versatility. You could get a lot of things done on one little device.
He swiped the screen left than down and to the right, using some of the short cuts he learned. He frowned though when it brought him to the settings window. Maybe it was left than up then to the right? He tried again and his eye twitched when the screen changed and classical music started playing. The bold words "Remnant The Game, Scroll Edition" stretched across the screen.
Okay, maybe he wasn't that tech savvy or this thing was just defective. He did get this thing for free after all. 'Yea defective, that's it.'
A feminine laugh diverted his attention. He turned around and saw a young woman wearing a...interesting outfit.
Seriously what was see wearing? She wore a strange red dress that was covered in what seemed to be some kind of newspaper. She had white feathers above her left ear and black fur around her shoulders. She also wore a lot of makeup.
"Well that's a first. I never seen someone to come to a club and play video games," she said with amusement.
He gave her a dry look, "I'm not playing a game."
"Uh huh, sure your not."
"It's this stupid thing, clearly it's malfunctioned!" He said while tapping the screen repeatedly. She only looked on in amusement.
"Do you have a positive ID on the target?" A female voiced asked through her mic on her headset. She was sitting in a surveillance vehicle stationed outside the club.
"Affirmative, target is male, blond hair, blue eyes and whisker like marks on both his cheeks." A male voice responded in her ear. Her partner, Jeice was inside the club watching their target.
She reached for her scroll and read through the intel reports. She made a mental checklist as she matched the physical traits of the target listed in her intel to the visual Jeice gave her. Everything matched, it had to be him.
"Targets location?"
"Target is sitting at the end of the bar getting wasted." he replied.
'That's good, if he could drink himself silly, he would disable himself and we just need to collect him. This would go much smoother this way.'
'Or could end up making everything worse,' the voice in the back of her head said. She sighed, that was certainly possible. She didn't need that headache. She could think of certain alcoholic bastard that was more trouble than he was worth when he was drunk.
"Continue visually surveillance."
"Roger."
She turned her attention back to the intel report. The target apparently had multiple aliases that he was associated with. They had been tracking his movements and had talked to the people who he interacted with. He gave out different names most of the time.
"Senju, Shikamaru, Gaara, Kakashi, Sasuke and...
"The Ultimate Bad Ass."
She scowled at the latter. "What kind of joke is this? Is he a fool or is he purposely mocking us?"
One thing was clear though, he was trying to hide his identity with all these alias. To her that most likely meant he was trying to hide something nefarious. And thus far it had been effective. It was difficult to track him down. He never spent too much time in one place. And they also had reports that he had some kind of technique or ability to disappear.
They didn't have solid evidence of how this worked, but many of her fellow operatives reported losing sight of him when they were on his trail. Disappearing like a ghost in thin air. They also knew he had a cloning semblance, which was not rare but he was said to be very proficient with it.
"Update, target has been approached by a girl"
She frowned. "A girl?"
"Yes a girl, I believe her to be one of junior's body guards."
"What's the temperature of their conversation look like?"
"I can't hear what they're saying from here, but judging from their body language it seems non hostile. Maybe flirty?"
She frowned, that was an unwanted distraction.
"Do you want me to move in closer? You know, just in case he pisses her off and it turns violent?"
"No, I'm going in."
"Winter?"
"Come back to the van and take over communications for me."
Back at the club
"How old are you anyway? Are you sure you're in the right place? This club is no place for a little boy" she said with a smirk.
His eye twitched, 'Oh so that's how it is?' He couldn't tell how old she was exactly but she looked to be roughly the same age as him. He smirked, "Heh, slow down, you have to buy me a drink first..."
She raised a brow, "Oh and what makes you think I would want to buy you a drink?"
He gave her a charming smile and he could sworn he saw a slight blush form on her face. Or it could have been the hue from the club lights, he couldn't tell. He was starting to feel a bit buzzed.
"Well there's a lot of reasons why you should, but I think you could think of a few..."
He then noticed she had some kind of clawed weapon attached to her arm. He figured she was trained in combat.
"I'm wondering how well you could use this thing," he said while he trailed his finger up her arm and onto her weapon.
Her arm shot up and the tips of her sharp claw hung a mere inch from his face. He only smiled in response and she was surprised that he didn't even flinch. She gently brushed her claw against his face and leaned in and whispered in his ear.
"Very well."
"Hmm, I'm sure you could do other things well..."
She was about to respond but was cut off by a new arrival. "Miltia what are you doing?" It was the voice of her twin sister. He turned to face her and was surprised to see a practical replica of the girl he was flirting with.
"I'm just having some fun Melanie, relax." Miltia said offhandedly.
'Heh, twins. Who would have thought?' They even dressed similarly. He was sure there was a sex joke about twins to be made here but he decided against it. The girl now known to be Melanie gave him a look over and leveled him with a suspicious look and glared. "Were needed in the back let's go," Melanie said to her sister.
Miltia sighed but nodded. They started walk off before she stopped turn back to face him. "What's your name? Seeing how you now know mine you should tell me yours."
He smiled, "Senju." She paused, that was a strange name. She returned his smile nonetheless before her sister pulled her away.
Once they left he chuckled and downed his drink. 'Well that was a thing.' As entertaining as that was, he didn't come here to pick up girls. He certainly became more popular with the ladies than he used to be. Funny how that worked out. He just hoped he didn't became as perverted as ero-sennin.
He was actually disappointed she left. He could have asked her to introduce him to Junior. If his hunch was correct, she was one of Juniors bodyguards. Then again if she was one of his bodyguards, that line of questioning might not have gone so well. Not that he was afraid to stretch his arms. It has actually been a while since he had a good tussle.
He was about to call for the bartender to pour him another drink when he spotted him already coming his way. Though this wasn't the same bartender from before. It was Junior himself. Black hair, black beard, with a matching black stache. Yep, this was Junior Xiong.
"Here's another round," Junior said while pouring him another drink. Though he raised an eyebrow when he noticed the bottle was different.
"That's not what I was drinking."
While he appreciated top quality liquor, he didn't appreciate paying for it. Junior looked at him an smiled, but it was obviously a fake one.
"Anima Dalmore 18, single malt. Aged in Mistralian white oak. Already paid for by the lady in the white dress," he said pointing to a woman across the bar.
"Enjoy."
His eyes trailed towards his mysterious yet generous benefactor. Long, snow white hair styled into a bun, her bangs fell down the right side of her face. She had fair skin and light blue eyes. She wore a sleek white dress that had deep v and spaghetti straps that exposed her upper back. The dress fell just below her knees. Not quite risqué but definitely a flattering dress that followed her curves.
A real head turner. And turn heads she did. He noticed the attention she was getting from the male patrons. But her eyes were only fixed on him. She gave him a flirty smile, a smile that he returned.
But the smile faded from his face once he turned his head back. She was a looker no doubt. A second woman hitting on him within minutes? Most men would have called him a lucky bastard and pounced at this opportunity. But he could already tell something was off.
Junior's behavior was strange. His smile was fake and didn't meet his eyes. He could feel the anxiousness and fear poring off of him. Junior was afraid, but not of him. He was afraid of this woman. He glanced back at her but she was no longer looking at him and had this conceited look on her face.
'A real cocky one huh?'
As if one glance was all it would take for him to run up to her. To be fair it would take less than that for most men to come over. He could already see men taking seats closer to her spot at the bar. It was familiar seen he saw at bars all the time. It was like a boat of fisherman sticking their rods out hoping to catch the best fish.
She looked like the classy type though. Not someone who would visit a place like this. He brought the glass to his lips, the fumes filling his nostrils. The liquid burned his nerves. He held the liquor at the tip of his mouth before swallowing the flavor. No doubt about it, the Mistralians made good stuff.
He turned his attention back to the reason why he was here, Junior Xiong. From what he learned the man was an information broker. He was said to know about practically everything going on in Vale and some knowledge of the other kingdoms as well. He was also known to offer out jobs that needed muscle or information gathering. From what he gathered, Junior seemed to be the kind of guy not afraid to get involved in dirty business if it sent some extra lien his way.
His thoughts strayed back to the white haired beauty sitting across the bar. He smirked as a thought came to mind. He shouldn't, this was the type of stuff he tried to avoid. But he was feeling a bit adventurous.
'Why keep things so dull' he thought. With that in mind he stood up and slowly made his way down the bar.
She tapped the tip of her glass with her index finger. She was getting slightly impatient as the target had yet to approach her. If she was insecure she would have been insulted. Was she not physically appealing enough? Though the looks she was getting right now, would say otherwise. She mentally scoffed, as if she would be taken by any of these scoundrels.
A place distasteful as this couldn't possibly bring decent company. Hopefully none of them would attempt to make a move on her. She would have to fight down the urge to draw her blade and maim them. But of course, she couldn't' do that. She had to be patient and not reveal who see really was.
She had previous experience on missions like this before so it was noting she couldn't handle. Even if it was unpleasant. Being an Atlesian specialist, her missions varied from search and destroy to intelligence gathering to anything else in between.
The hidden receiver in her ear crackled as her partner's voice came through.
"Winter have you made contact yet?"
She sighed, "negative."
Jeice was about to respond but she spotted the target approaching.
"Quiet, target is approaching."
In a few strides he was next to the white haired beauty. He took the seat next to her and immediately heard several groans and felt multiple glares leveled at him. But he ignored them and gave his mysterious admire a charming smile.
"Hello there."
"Hello yourself," she replied casually.
She gave him admiring look over and smiled. "So, I see you finally noticed me?"
"Well it would be kind of hard not to..."
'Yea, it only took some liquor to get your attention,' she thought sourly.
"You sure took your time coming over though, didn't you?" She replied sweetly, hiding her irritation.
He wasn't deterred though. "Well, I'm a bit shy. Woman as beautiful as you can be intimidating some times," he said smoothly.
'A charmer huh?'
"Well you don't have to worry I don't bite much..."
He grinned in response and held up his glass. "I have to say this quite the drink you gave me."
She smirked, "well I could help but notice the rather unimpressive stuff you were downing, and I thought I'd introduce you to some of the finer things in life. " She said softly. She than leaned in closer to him. "You don't have the best taste, do you?"
He mirrored her and leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Well I don't have the worst taste, after all I'm sitting next to you, aren't I?"
Okay she had to admit it, he was good at this. She did not expect that. She wasn't sure how old he was but she guessed somewhere between 17 and 19. She expected him to act like some amateur teen trying to seduce her or be a stuttering mess. But he seemed very confident in himself.
Looking at him, she couldn't help but be drawn into his eyes. They were a very bright shade of blue. The held something that she didn't quite know what it was. but you couldn't help but be drawn into them. She forced herself to look away.
He in turn had also been staring at her. He had to admit seeing her up close was certainly a better view. She was stunning. Her snow white hair contrasted nicely with her light blue eyes. The close proximity of their faces almost made him blush.
But he pushed it back. He was not some amateur! She might have noticed slight reaction on his face, she smiled and leaned back. "So, what's your name?"
"The names Kage."
She resisted the urge to smack him over the head. 'Great another alias.'
"Well I had to admit, that's an odd name. By the way I'm Flora." Yeah, she had a few of those too.
He chuckled, "well I guess it's kind of unusual, but I'm not a usual guy so, it works out. By the way, Flora, where are you from?"
"From Mistrial, I'm just visiting Vale for some business."
"From Mistrial all the way to Vale? That must be some business. I'm curious just what kind of business would that be..."
She gave him a seductive smile, "you should buy me a drink first before asking me so many questions."
He grinned, "that I should." He made eye contact with Junior and snapped his fingers. "A refill for the lovely lady!"
Junior walked over and looked at him than to Winter, the latter giving him a waring look.
"Fill his glass up as well, would you kindly." She said.
"Of course."
He refilled his glass than reached over and grabbed Winter's glass. "Um, the bottles empty. We keep the high end stuff in the back. I'll just grab another. He made to leave with glass in hand before a firm hand shot out and gripped his wrist.
Junior saw the blondie haired kid was the culprit and gulped when he saw a hard look in his eyes and felt his grip tighten.
Winter's tensed as she felt change in the air. His demeanor did a 180, her right hand moved and rested on her hidden weapon out of reflex.
Junior face looked like a deer caught in headlights. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. There was a pause and tense silence, but it felt like minutes to Junior.
"Leave her glass." He said softly but words had a definite edge to them.
Junior swallowed before finally finding his voice. "Of course," he said and walked away once the blond released his wrist. Kage's eyes followed him until he was out of sight. He turned his attention back to her and the hard look on in his eye vanished and was replaced with a smile.
"That guy," he shook his head. "Can you believe the service here?"
She smirked, "well it's not like this place is high end. I wouldn't expect much honestly." On the inside though she was cursing Junior's incompetence and hoping he wouldn't screw this up. He was supposed to serve her a nonalcoholic drink whenever she had her glass refilled. She didn't want to be impaired in anyway in case she needed to fight. But she wished he would have been more discreet about it.
Normally she wouldn't resort to tactics such as these but the target had proven to be elusive and was potentially dangerous. His reaction proved that much. The general was firm in his desire to capture him and she didn't want to report back failure. That was inexcusable to her. She prided herself on her mission record and was not going to compromise it now.
Junior returned with her drink, he caught the irritated look Winter was giving him and quickly left. He wanted to be as far as away from these two as he could. He wasn't sure who the blondie was but he seemed familiar. He gave off the vibe though as someone you didn't want to mess with.
The woman on the other hand, he knew who she was as soon as she entered his club. Winter Schnee, one of Ironwood's dogs. The last thing he needed was Atlas snooping around his place. He just hoped she stayed occupied with that kid over there and didn't look into his personal dealings.
The night continued as the two of them continued to make small talk. She relied on fake stories she came up with if he asked her anything to personal. She wasn't able to get anything meaningful out of him as she could tell he was doing the same. His voice start slur as they continued to drink and his face was flushed.
She hadn't planned on actually drinking but had no choice, less she tip him off. She wasn't drunk yet, but he on the other hand, had been drinking before she had even got here.
She decided this was good point to end it. She leaned and whispered seductively into his ear.
"How about we take this back to my place?"
He grinned, "You read my mind."
He stood up and slightly stumbling but managed to stand up right. He put his arm around her waist.
"Shall we?"
She smiled and nodded her head. "My ride is parked outside in the back."
He kept his hold on her waste as they walked out to the parking lot. She moved her arm around him, afraid he might fall before they reached her car. 'He can barely walk, this was easier than I expected.'
"My rides over here," she said pointing at the blue van.
He chuckled, "That's it?! Honestly you seemed like the type to have something with a little more style!"
She smiled, "Your right, but this is just a rental."
They reached car and all she had to do now was disable him and have Jeice restrain him for the ride back to Atlas.
Just as she reached for the handle of the door her eyes widen in shock as she fell forward, her legs swept from under her. Before she could hit the ground, her left arm was griped and twisted behind her back. Holding her in place Kage grinned as she glared at him.
"So close to scoring! What a shame."
End
This is an idea I came up with for a RWBY crossover, I don't know how it will be received. I'm basically coming up with the plot as I go. There is no update time table for this or anything else I write. Basically if I have time and I'm motivated I will write. To my readers, thank you for the support.
