Author's note: The RWBY word for phone kinda pisses me off. So I censored it.
Domino 2: Barfight
Ruby was missing, and Yang was pissed. The two Vale policemen she had been able to find were both busy talking to a shopkeeper about something stupid like a robbery. She couldn't be bothered to wait for them, and punching them until they paid attention was a little more foolish of an action than even Yang was willing to do. They probably wouldn't have been of much help anyway. She got on her motorcycle and rode off.
The Vale police department was a no-go. When Yang got there there wasn't a single other person present. The front door was locked. Someone had even taped a sign to it that said "Out on police business". Who else do you go to when your kid sister disappears for an entire day and law enforcement is nowhere to be found?
Thud. The large double doors of the club slammed open, due in no small part to the insistence of Yang's foot. The bartender looked up at her, then tilted his head with a confused look in his eye. None of the dancers in the center seemed to notice thanks to the blaring music and flashing lights. The alcohol probably had some effect on their lack of reaction as well. The young blond stared at him defiantly, her expression daring him to complain. He raised an eyebrow, but went back to washing the mug in his hand with a shrug.
The young woman walked up to the bar. "Where is she?" Yang asked, fire in her voice, and rage in her eyes. The unclear nature of her request seemed entirely lost on her. It is likely that she was not particularly given to large amounts of introspection.
"Woah, woah, woah..." The bartender said quickly, raising his hands in a placating manner. "Where is who? I can't help you unless you give me some info. And I don't normally give info for free to anyone."
"You'll give it to me though," Yang placed her fists on the bar, revealing the large customized gauntlets she wore, easily recognizable as a Hunter's weapon. She leaned in in a threatening manner, but the bartender only seemed to be half-aware of the threat, as the rest of him preferred to focus on her nicely framed assets. On the other hand, he might have been more aware than he let on, judging from how his hand was slowly reaching under the bar as she spoke to him.
"Uh… I still don't know who the hell you are talking about."
Yang rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration. She pulled out her ***** and showed a picture of a grey-eyed, black haired girl in a red hood to the bartender. "I hear you know everyone in town. Have you heard about a girl like this? Her name is Ruby, and she's my sister."
The bartender looked at the picture, then aimed a perplexed glance at Yang. "I'm not really in the business of finding kids you know… Shouldn't you go to the police with this?
"Oh, you mean one of the TWO POLICEMEN IN ALL OF VALE?" Yang shouted. "I would have, but unfortunately they were busy. You know, since they have to take care of an entire city by themselves.
"I'm pretty sure there are more than tw-"
"ONLY TWO, IN ALL, OF VALE" Yang cut the bartender off, uninterested in his "rational" assertions. "So anyway Junior… Who seriously calls themselves that anyway? But that's not important. Tell me where Ruby is now or I trash the place, starting with you."
At this point what was left of the bartender's – Junior's patience finally left him. His neutral expression faded, replaced by an aggravated scowl. "Look sweetheart," he drawled, fake sweetness oozing from his voice, "I don't know where your sister is, and if you haven't noticed, I've actually been trying to be helpful here. So if you wouldn't mind, how about you calm down or GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CLUB!" He shouted the last words, pointing the way to the door in case she didn't get the message.
Unfortunately, Yang was a woman of her word. She hadn't heard Ruby's location, so it was now club-trashing time. She fired her shotgun-gauntlets, using the momentum from the blasts to pull her into a backflip, landing on a table on the edge of the dance floor… which didn't even rock at the impact. She looked around while assuming her usual combat stance, noticing that the bar itself was also unscathed, evidenced by the way Junior was wiping away the blast marks to reveal a smooth and unblemished surface.
As Yang looked on in confusion, Junior put down his rag and picked up a microphone. "Attention all dancers. Unfortunately, the dance floor needs to be closed down for evening due to an unexpected emergency. I apologize for the inconvenience, and do hope you will come back soon." With that the music and flashing lights shut down, and there was suddenly a large mass of erstwhile dancers moving towards Yang.
She prepared to defend herself from the crowd, but realized that they didn't intend any violence. They were merely moving to pick up the stuff that they had left at their tables. However, they were completely blocking her access to Junior just as well as an angry mob would have. Better even, since she didn't want to hurt any non-combatants. So instead of blasting her way through, she waited, silently glaring at Junior, who met her eyes with a flat expression and a shrug.
After everyone had filed out(avoiding Yang as much as space permitted), Junior strolled out onto the dance floor, resting a massive bat on his shoulder. "Now that you have cost me a full evening's profit, I'm going to give you one last chance to leave quietly. You interested?"
But Yang had already sprung into action. Firing her gauntlets behind her, she rocketed toward Junior. But as she neared him, twisting and readying a mighty punch, an impact from above smashed her into the ground, causing her to slide unceremoniously along the smooth floor, stopping just in front of Junior. Yang caught herself and looked back for the cause of her current position, noting a young woman in a white dress smirking in the middle of the dance floor.
"That's not fair, you little cheater" Yang complained as she slowly got up.
She really should have been paying more attention to the man in front of her, who brought this to her attention via gentle ministration with his bat. "Fair? FAIR?" he shouted, emphasizing the word with a swing, "What's not fair is some blond bimbo walking into my bar and attacking me just because I don't know where every damn girl in the city is!"
Yang's body flew across the room and stopped after hitting an extremely solid pillar. Junior and the girl in white slowly walked towards her, joined by an almost identical girl in a red dress who was wielding a pair of metal claws.
"You don't have to worry about this Junior. Melanie and I can take out the trash for you" breathed the girl in red.
The girl in white agreed. "Yeah, Militia and I have this handled. We don't want the dance floor to get too crowded after all!"
Junior frowned. "No, we do this smart. Never underestimate Hunters" Following his own advice, when he noticed Yang getting back up with a distinct glow around her body, he charged forward and swung his bat into her face once more. She slid several feet across the floor, a blood smear betraying a broken nose at the minimum. However, Junior didn't appear happy with this result. "She's still got plenty of life in her. There was a hell of a lot more resistance than I expected. We need to take her down fast and hard."
Once again Yang glowed, this time even brighter than before. Once again she began picking herself up, and when she did, her eyes were glowing red. But once again, she was knocked down, this time by a kick from Melanie from one side, and a slash from militia from the other.
"This way sucks though. Takes out all the fun" It seemed that at least one of the girls would have preferred a more fair fight. But that didn't keep her from kicking the repeatedly downed girl once more.
"EYARGH!" This time Yang didn't bother with the dramatic slow rise, having been repeatedly taught that such flair was a good way to get trounced. Instead she fired her right-hand gauntlet, using the recoil to flip her back onto her feet. She was moving far faster now, despite the bruises and broken nose she had sustained. Once again she charged forward, but this time she knew where her opponents where. Claws swung out, and she ducked under them. However, a kick from the other girl was coming at the same time, and Yang was only able to partially deflect it, leading to another bruise that she intended to pay these bastards back for tenfold. But the bartender's club had turned into a missile launcher at some point, and the several were streaking towards her.
However, Yang was ready for this, and after shooting each missile was able to ride the blasts from the explosions with impressive grace for one whose head had been so recently introduced to various extremely solid objects. She landed halfway up one of the pillars dominating the room, pushing off of it in order to rapidly return to the fight, firing both her gauntlets to speed things up. Junior swung his weapon – a bat once more - but Yang managed to evade the blow with a gauntlet-powered backflip. Said backflip caused a happy meeting between her feet and Junior's face, knocking him down and causing him to slide on the ground for a few feet. Any feelings of elation on Yang's part were short lived however, as the two girls took advantage of her divided attention.
One claw hit Yang hard enough to draw blood, but she able to deflect a kick from a shoe that she now realized had a nasty blade on the heel. Not quite as worrisome as large metal claws perhaps, but something she would need to remember. She knocked away the claw using her right gauntlet and spun right as she did so to enable a solid punch on the wielder of the offending weapon. A punch augmented with a gauntlet blast of course.
Militia took the hit with surprise. It was clear from her face that she had not been expecting a blow quite as strong or fast as Yang had provided. Nor had her plans included flying from combat at high velocity only to stop after hitting a solidly built table. Aura or no, that would likely leave a bruise, at least for a little while. But she spat out stray burn dust that had gotten into her mouth and got up not much the worse for wear. She had plenty of fight left in her.
By the time Militia rejoined the fight, Junior and Melanie were trading blows with Yang, and the young woman somehow seemed to be keeping up. This fight had turned out way more even than it had any right to, which assuredly meant that the girl was using some sort of powerful semblance, some power that was keeping her in the game. But using semblances took focus. If she could be distracted, even for a few moments….
At that moment a massive flash of light and smoke exploded in the middle of the fight, accompanied by a voice that although not extremely loud, still carried clear and bright through the large room. "As much as I enjoy watching a good fight, I do actually have a schedule. So if you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate if you would pause all hostilities until I have gotten what I need, at which point I would be happy to allow you to resume your little dance." As the smoke cleared, and the combatants blinked stars from their eyes, they finally managed to see the newcomer – a certain red-haired individual with a bowler hat and cane. He stood casually leaning on his cane with a cigar in his other hand and gave a broad wink at the group.
"Wha?" Yang muttered wearily, her head hazy from the surprise pausing of the brawl. She suddenly felt tired, really tired. She had taken quite a beating hadn't she? She saw the red haired man wink at her, and at that point she just gave up trying to understand what was going on.
The girl collapsed on the ground. The last thing she heard for some time was a merry peal of laughter, and the redhead saying something about his wink being unusually potent today.
