A/N: And here we are with another chapter. This one also ended up being a little short, the next one should be a bit longer.

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With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 3: Risky Business

Neo made her way through the nightclub, as the flashing lights and loud music assaulted her senses. She didn't mind the club scene, though it was far from her preferred venue. For what it was worth, the place had some degree of class; the guests were all well dressed, as was the staff, leading her to believe that Junior at least cared about his club's reputation.

Neo had never met Junior personally, but from what Roman had told her he was one of the most well-connected people in the criminal underworld. If you needed information, weapons, or hired muscle, Junior was the man to see. Unfortunately, this meant his services were expensive, leading Roman to only seek him out as a last resort or if the need was especially urgent. Even favors from Junior, of which Roman was owed many, were not things to be wasted lightly.

The short young woman weaved her way through the crowd of club-goers on the dance floor, making her way to the bar. She sat down and wordlessly placed a written order on the counter. A tall, some would say huge, man behind the counter took it and began fixing her the drink. The bearded man removed his red sunglasses and looked over at his silent customer. He straightened out his waistcoat and turned to face her.

"You seem a little young to be in this club," he said, placing the finished drink on the counter, "but looks can be deceiving."

Neo gave the man a devilish smirk, as she took a sip from the glass. She hummed in satisfaction, raising her glass towards the bartender in praise of the drink's quality.

The man nodded in thanks. "So, what exactly are you here for, Neopolitan?"

Neo raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, I know who you are. I also heard your boss got put in the slammer earlier today."

Neo frowned upon hearing that, but was glad that Junior had recognized her; it meant she could cut right to the chase.

"So, I'll ask again. Why…are you here?"

Neo smiled and slipped him a folded up piece of paper.

Junior's brow furrowed as he took the paper and read its contents. "What is this, a supply list?"

Neo closed her eyes and gave a nod.

"Sorry, not interested."

Neo's eyes snapped open, her smile vanished. She fixed the man with a glare.

"You heard me. I'm sick and tired of owing Torchwick favors." said Junior, crossing his arms. "I'm glad he's in prison, keeps him out of my hair for a while. You wanna bust him out, go ask someone else."

Neo crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"No means no; now, get outta here."

Neo didn't get up, instead picking up her glass and taking another sip from her drink.

"Maybe you didn't hear me…I said, leave." said Junior, now scowling at the petite criminal.

At this point, a group of men had surrounded the bar. They all wore black suits and trilbies, and red sunglasses. Each of them had either an axe, a curved short-sword, or a large pistol. A pair of twin girls wearing lacy dresses looked down on the situation from one of the balconies. Some of the club-goers began to take note of what was going on and started backing away uneasily.

Junior hunched himself over the bar, looking down at the much smaller woman. "Well?" he asked her, as she arrogantly took a third sip from her glass.

One of the mobsters stepped forward and placed a hand on Neo's shoulder. His mistake.

Neo smashed the rim of her glass against the countertop, letting the remaining contents spill out. She swung herself around and slashed at the man with the broken glass, before kicking him into one of his allies standing by.

The mobsters stared, dumbstruck, at their fallen comrades, before snapping back to the now-violent woman before them.

Neo grabbed the bar and locked her legs around her seat; she gyrated her hips, flinging the barstool into another one of the bouncers. She grabbed her parasol and kicked off of the bar, just as a trio of attackers charged her. The three men ran into the bar, one of them falling over it upon impact, as Neo descended onto another mobster with a drop-kick. A few people screamed, as all of the civilians bolted for the door.

Four more mobsters swung at the troublemaking thief with bladed weapons, only for her to effortlessly bob and weave between their attacks. Neo held her parasol over her head and swung forward, hitting one of the attackers with the handle before swinging back and doing the same to the one behind her. Seeing an opening, the mobsters closed in to try and deprive Neo of space to move around. She responded by opening her parasol and spinning around, using the expanded weapon to space out her opponents. With the pressure broken, Neo closed her parasol and moved from one target to the next, taking each one out with a quick combination of kicks and parasol jabs. She twirled through the crowd, opening and closing her parasol as needed to block bullets and push people back.

"Stop tearing up my club!" yelled Junior from behind the bar, before a hail of bullets caused him to immediately duck back down.

With most of the guards knocked out, Neo was almost caught off-guard when the automatic fire rained down around her. She crouched down with a spin and opened her parasol behind her, catching a brief glance of the DJ in a bear helmet wielding a Tommy-gun. Suddenly, Neo vanished in a flash of light, causing the DJ to stop firing and look around in confusion. Another flash appeared right in front of the masked man, disorienting him and causing him to drop his gun. Neo raised her arms and put her closed parasol across the back of the musician's neck, before pulling forward and using the leverage to flip him over the turntable in front of her.

The music having come to an abrupt halt, Neo was able to easily hear the sound of two enemies trying to drop down on her. She jumped off of the DJ stand and turned to see the twins that had been observing earlier. One had short black hair, wore a lacy red dress, and had a pair of long claws mounted on her wrists. The other had long hair, a similar white dress, and a pair of blades on the back of her high-heeled boots. The green-eyed teenagers jumped forward, pursuing Neo onto the dance floor.

Junior peeked back over the bar, his eyes widening as he saw the twins enter the fray. "No, wait!" he called, only to be ignored.

The twins moved as one, climbing over one another and using their respective weapons to compliment each others' attacks. Neo backpedaled and dodged their combined assault, opening her parasol to push the red one aside once she saw an opening. With her sister gone, the white-clad sibling was at a huge disadvantage against her more skilled opponent. Neo closed her parasol, used three precise jabs to throw the girl off-balance, and then finished with a spinning high-kick to the face. The red-clad twin jumped forward, claws outstretched, only to be stopped by an unfolding parasol. Neo promptly directed her into the floor, before flipping over the parasol and stomping on the helpless girl.

"STOP!"

All three fighters turned their attention to the bar, where Junior stood with his hands raised.

"That's enough!" he said, gesturing for Neo to come back over to the bar.

The tricolor-haired girl kicked the red twin aside with a smile, and gleefully skipped over to the bar.

"I'll help you, alright. Just, please, don't do any more damage."

The twins hobbled over to one another before turning to the club owner.

"And you two, go upstairs and get yourselves cleaned up."

Neo picked up a barstool and sat down. She raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the twins that were now heading up the stairs.

"What, them? My newest bouncers, spoiled daughters of a rich friend who wanted them to learn a little discipline. I started them off waiting tables and cleaning up; soon as I saw that they could fight, I started training them. There was no way they were gonna beat you, though."

Neo sat up straighter and smiled proudly.

"Alright, let's take a look at that supply list." said Junior, fumbling around behind the bar for the piece of paper.

Neo waited as the club owner looked over what she needed.

"Okay, I can have all this prepared in about a month. That should give you plenty of time to take care of whatever you need on your end."

Neo simply nodded and gave a thumbs-up. Just as she was about to leave, she raised her index finger and mouthed an 'oh.' She held her finger up to Junior as she fished her scroll out of her pocket. She pulled up the latest photo in her gallery and showed it to the man.

"What's this, you already got a body for me to clean up?" asked Junior, studying the bloody image onscreen.

Neo pouted angrily.

"You expect me to believe you found him like that?"

Neo nodded vigorously.

"I get it; you were looking for that guy and found him dead, and you wanna know how he got that way.

Neo smiled and nodded.

"Alright, I'll look into it."

Two weeks, two weeks was all it took for Roman Torchwick to get accustomed to prison life. After single-handedly beating groups of thugs in exercise-yard brawls for several days in a row, the top dog among the inmates began to take notice. One failed stabbing and a humiliating defeat later, and Roman had taken the man's place at the pinnacle of prison life. The guards had done nothing to stop his rise to power, either; after all, he was just one man defending himself against repeated assaults by gangs of assailants.

Of course, earning the respect and fear of the inmates wasn't the only thing making prison life more comfortable. The fact that some of the corrections officers were cops on his payroll before his arrest certainly helped. They had gotten him some magazines to read, a small TV to watch, some extra padding for his bunk, and even his cigars from his confiscated belongings; they couldn't get him his lighter, though, so he had to settle for getting a light whenever they walked by.

None of the other inmates questioned Roman's luxurious arrangements, of course, for fear of incurring his wrath. On top of that, if a prisoner was useful to him, Roman had no problem using his leverage to get them things or swing favors from the guards their way.

Most of Roman's time in his cell was spent watching TV, smoking, or getting an extra workout in. Whenever he got bored of those things, he would simply listen to the inmates around him talking, see what stories and rumors were floating around. Today, for example, there were whispers about some valuable gemstone being fenced on the Black Market in the next few months.

"…yeah, heard it was real pricey."

"And it was from Atlas?"

"Yeah, some museum piece or something."

"Wait a minute?" thought Roman, as he furrowed his brow. "What did you just say?" he asked the inmate in the cell next to him.

"Um, s-sorry Mr. Torchwick; I didn't say nothin' about you, I swear." replied the man, in a hurried and rehearsed manner.

"What, no no-ugh, forget about that! What were you saying just now, about the thing from Atlas!?"

"Oh, right. There's some big jewel being fenced sometime soon, heard it was stolen from the museum in Vale."

"Well, that's funny, because I stole a jewel like that and I'm clearly not the one fencing it."

"That was the score you got busted for?" asked the other inmate. "Guess I shouldn't be all that surprised considering who's rumored to be selling it."

"Who?"

"Pyrite."

Roman grimaced.

Pyrite, a name reviled by the criminal underworld, especially among the 'old breed' who still believed in honor among thieves. Pyrite had made a business of upstaging other thieves, letting them do the work and then stealing their scores. Roman was far from the first criminal that had ended up in prison as a result of Pyrite's alleged involvement; alleged, of course, because no one could ever prove he did it, just notice their stolen item getting sold by someone else shortly afterward.

"So, that son-of-a-bitch must've been the one who tipped off the cops about my heist." thought Roman. "Well, he just fucked with the wrong thief. This means war!"

Roman's thoughts of vengeance were interrupted when he heard the cell block gate buzzing someone in. He hadn't asked one of the guards to bring him anything and it wasn't time for a meal, making him Roman curious just who it was walking towards his cell. Four guards stopped in front of him, flanking a rather portly man in a charcoal pinstripe suit.

"And you are?" asked Roman.

"We haven't yet been introduced, I'm Warden Glass." replied the slightly shorter man. "You've made quite the humble abode here these past few weeks, Mr. Torchwick." he said, waving his hand at the amenities in the cell.

"What can I say, the perks of good behavior."

The warden scoffed. "The only thing I appreciate less than unrepentant inmates is punks like you who think you can play the system. Guards."

The four officers unlocked the bars and dragged Roman out of the cell.

"A few months in solitary confinement should make an example out of you. Oh, and don't worry about the guards you bribed, they'll probably be locked up in here by the time I let you out." said Glass, with a smirk.

Roman scowled at the smug warden, as the guards dragged him off to the isolation ward.

"Alright, orders are all placed." said Junior, sliding a drink to his small guest. "Everything'll be ready in two weeks."

Neo smiled and casually sipped her drink.

"I also looked into that dead guy you wanted me to check out. Wasn't much to find; he was a low-level street tough, made some extra money on the side tipping off info-brokers, probably got used to feed false info and was killed to tie up loose ends."

Neo raised an eyebrow, expecting more.

"It was a clean kill, cops also scrubbed up the scene pretty quick; there's no evidence that could lead to a killer."

Neo frowned.

"Now, hold on, there's something else I heard that I think you'll find interesting."

Neo perked up and listened intently.

"That fancy rock you and Roman were trying to steal the other night, it just recently turned up on the Black Market."

Neo snarled angrily, knowing this could only mean that she and Roman had been set up. She turned her eyes to Junior, demanding a name.

"And the guy rumored to be selling it…is Pyrite."

Neo seethed even more. It was bad enough they were set up, but the fact it had been done by the infamous 'Thief-of-Thieves' just made it worse.

"Hey, I don't like him either, no one in the criminal underworld does. Only reason he hasn't been gutted like a trout yet is 'cause no one even knows what he looks like. But, tell you what; I'll help you find him."

Neo looked up at the club owner in shock.

"Yeah, he's cost me quite a bit of money, too; I'll gladly help you end him."

Neo smiled and clapped with joy.

"But, one condition."

Neo stopped clapping and inquisitively raised an eyebrow.

"After this, Torchwick and I are even. No more favors; he wants something from me, he's gonna have to pay for it from now on. Deal?" said Junior, extending his hand.

Neo looked at the hand tentatively. She really shouldn't have been making deals on Roman's behalf, but figured he'd relish the chance to kill the man who set them up. With a smirk on her face and eyes half-lidded, she took Junior's hand and shook on the deal.

And that's a wrap. Hope you all enjoyed that. I'm really excited about this next chapter so I'll start working on that right away. Leave me some feedback in a review, and I'll see you next time.