The Faunus Rights rally was being held in a plaza outside the Council building, the seat of government in Vale. In the glory days of the old White Fang, these rallies could have crowds of up to a thousand people. Now, Faunus Rights could only muster up a couple hundred humans and faunus. Still, the crowd was respectable, and Roman could see a large number of the white and blue banners of the newer organization.
He moved through the crowd, keeping his head down to avoid the gaze of the police that surrounded the area. His hand tightened around the handle of his cane, his knuckles whitening. How dare Cinder saddle him with that idiotic child? He would have already have met with his contact and been on his way out of this damn rally if not for her. He brushed past a clump of sign wielding faunus, absentmindedly pocketing a few of their wallets, just to make himself feel better. It didn't work. Just the thought of the pink and white girl made him- Dammit, there she was.
Neo was standing in a gap in the crowd, leaning on her umbrella and pouting. Roman stopped and glared down at the girl, looming over her.
"I thought I told you to get lost." Neo stared back up at him unflinchingly.
I have a job to do read the scroll she held up to his face. Roman groaned. It was Cinder again.
"She has you by the short hairs too, huh kid?" Hurriedly typing a reply, Neo held up the scroll yet again.
It would be better for both of us if you stopped trying to get rid of me. Roman dropped his head into his hands. That damn woman. He never should have agreed to work with her.
"Fine," he snapped after a few moments. "You can stay, if it's only to keep Cinder off my back. Just stay behind me and don't say anything." She arched an eyebrow at him. "You know what I mean! If I can pretend you're not there, it'll make things easier for me." Not waiting for her to respond, Roman turned and started walking into the crowd. "Now, I've got a job to do, so try and keep up."
Roman headed quickly towards the arranged meeting with Cinder's White Fang contact, Neo trailing behind him. Towards the front of the crowd, there was a bench across the street from the Council hall. Sitting on the bench was a small, thin man. Roman watched him carefully from a distance. The man appeared young, but had a receding hairline. His small, beady eyes darted around the crowd nervously, watching every movement. Most notably, the man had a very prominent nose, with whiskers protruding from the sides of it, as well as from his cheeks. What Roman was really looking for was the bowler hat he held in his hands, almost identical to Roman's own.
A rat faunus with a bowler hat in the arranged meeting place. This was the man he was looking for. Roman frowned as he approached. Judging by the man's demeanor and reputation, he was apt to panic and run, abandoning the meeting. It was always the paranoid ones who were willing to sell out their own, Roman found. Still, he had to be careful, He couldn't risk him running scared, causing Roman to face Cinder's wrath.
Roman sat down on the bench, as far as possible from the faunus. "You're Kerry, I take it?" The rat man, Kerry, jumped in his seat.
"Ah! Oh, yes. That makes you Roman then?"
"It does. Now do you mind telling me why this meeting had to take place instead of just sending me the information I needed?" Kerry opened his mouth to speak, then stopped and looked at Roman suspiciously.
"How do I know that you are who you say you are? What's the code word I gave you?"
"It's 'springtime' Kerry. Are you happy? Can we get this show on the road?"
"Sorry. It's just that I can't be too careful. If your meeting with the White Fang higher up goes south, he'll be looking for whoever clued you in. I've got to cover my tracks, so I wanted to meet face to face, not with saved messages."
"For Oum's sake man. You've been selling information to Cinder for years and you're just now having security concerns?"
"Well, you aren't Cinder, are you?" the rat faunus asked, twisting the bowler hat in his hands. "I don't know you. And Cinder could protect me if things went south."
"Yeah, because Cinder is so protective," Roman muttered to himself, too quietly for Kerry to hear. "Look, I'm on the up and up, alright? Just tell me what I need to know and we can both get out of here." Kerry looked around nervously and then leaned towards Roman.
"Alright, so the meetings are…" He broke off and stared over Roman's shoulder. "You brought someone else? Who's the girl?" He had just now noticed Neo's presence, standing silently by the bench. Roman rolled his eyes.
"She's a White Fang agent. She's here to watch out for any moles. She's with me you brainless vermin. She knows what's going on. So just tell me!" Kerry scooted away from Roman and started to stand.
"No. You didn't say anything about another person. I don't know about this anymore. I need to get out of here." Roman sighed. It figured something like this would happen.
"No. Wait. Don't go." Roman made no effort to put any sincerity in the words, but instead called upon his semblance to do the convincing for him. Kerry let out a deep breath as his shoulder sagged.
"What? Make it quick before we attract any more attention."
"The kid's not going to be a problem. You're in the clear. Trust me." Kerry paused for a moment, and Roman could almost see his aura filling the man's ears, convincing him to listen. The rat man sat back down next to Roman.
"Fine, I'll tell you. The meeting you want to attend is held in the abandoned theatre near the industrial district. It'll start at eleven, so make sure you get there in time." Kerry blinked rapidly a couple times. "Alright. I've got to go." Roman fished inside his coat and tossed him a packet of cash. After flipping through it quickly, the faunus started walking away. Just before merging with the crowd, he turned back. "You might want to get out of here quickly. The rest of the White Fang will be showing up soon, and they won't take kindly to humans in the crowd." With that, he turned and was lost in the shuffle.
Finally, he could get out of this damn crowd. Not sparing Neo a glance, Roman brushed past her and headed toward the alley that headed home. He almost made it.
Fifty feet from the edge of the crowd, a loud sound stopped Roman dead. It almost sounded like the howl of a wolf.
Figures stepped out from the alleys and side streets surrounding the plaza. At the same time, several members of the crowd reached up and placed bone white masks over their faces. The howl faded, and for a moment, there was silence. Then the screaming started.
The warriors of the White Fang pulled knives, axes, guns, and all other sorts of weapons on the panicking crowd. The civilians tried to run, but the terrorists had surrounded the area and were able to stop most any attempt to escape.
The faunus of the rally were mostly ignored, merely clubbed out of the way or trampled to the ground. The humans weren't so lucky.
Roman stood in the chaos, Neo a few paces back. He could hear the sirens of the police already on their way and knew it would be too late. The police around the crowd were already dead and the White Fang would be long gone before anymore arrived. Right now though, Roman was more concerned with his own safety than the rest of the crowd. If he wasn't careful, he would meet the same fate as the other humans nearby.
"Human scum!" Roman heard yelled form behind him. He turned in time to see an incoming White Fang grunt get kicked in the side of the head by Neo and get sent sprawling. He didn't get up.
Roman headed quickly towards the edge of the crowd. The foot soldiers would be no problem, but if he was correct, they weren't the only thing to be worried about here. His suspicions were confirmed when three members of the terrorists grouped blocked his way, two men and a woman. Judging by the markings on their uniforms, they were higher ranking, and would be aura enhanced.
"Roman Torchwick," the woman purred. "I recognize you from the news. A common criminal. Typical human." Roman leaned casually on his cane and pouted at the woman, noting her green cat eyes.
"Only a common criminal? Give me some credit, pussy cat. I feel I deserve at least master thief. I've worked hard at it." The woman hissed at him- actually hissed!- and pulled two long knives from behind her back.
"Don't call me that!"
"What, pussy cat? Would you prefer Whiskers? Or Mouser?" The woman growled and charged at him, her knives swinging for his throat. Anticipating the move, Roman easily blocked the strikes with his cane. A boot to the chest sent her sprawling to the ground. He thumbed the safety on the handle of his cane and the bottom popped open, revealing the barrel of the mini launcher concealed there. The woman hissed again and looked at her two companions standing to either side. They nodded and drew their weapons. The larger fellow, who was sporting and impressive rack of moose antlers, pulled an ordinary sledgehammer off his. The other unsheathed a long katana and a smaller straight sword.
Neo stepped up to Roman's side and pointed questioningly between the two of them. "I don't care which one you fight, just get one of them! This is your job isn't it?" Rolling her eyes, Neo started walking towards the hammer wielder. Roman turned back to the one with the two swords. They stared each other down for a few moments, then Roman suddenly brought his cane around and fired a shot. His opponent rolled under it, the explosion cratering the ground behind him. Roman parried a series of quick swings, then stepped close, inside the reach of the longer sword. Putting the end of his cane against the man's chest, Roman pulled the trigger. The resulting blast knocked them both back, and their auras protected them, but the other man got the worst of it, and flew back thirty feet before managing to stagger to his feet, one of his swords missing.
As Roman collected himself, brushing himself off, he almost missed the woman rushing at him with her knives. He fell back, but not before collected a few slashes through his white coat. He looked down at it in dismay. "Careful! I get these custom made." The woman looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Then I'll apologize in advance for the bloodstains." She charged again, but Roman stepped neatly to the side, hooking her leg with the crook of his cane. As she tumbled to the ground again, Roman kicked her knives away and a put a foot on her throat and pressed down.
"Don't worry, I'll be very careful about where I get your blood." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Neo had disarmed her opponent, who was desperately swinging at her with large fists as she danced out of reach. "Finish it up, kid," he called to her. "We do have the police on the way. Or are you deaf, too?"
Ignoring her reaction, he saw that the other man had recovered enough to start coming at him again. Unfortunately for him, he had not recovered enough to be able to dodge the third shot that Roman fired, which hit him directly in the face before he had closed half the distance. He was blown back into a nearby building, blood trickling from the back of his head where it collided with the bricks. He took his foot off the unconscious woman, who was sporting a boot print shaped bruise on her neck, and felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Neo behind him, with the large moose faunus bleeding from several wounds.
The sirens were much louder now. Roman quickly ducked into the alleyway in front of him, turning back to watch from the shadows as the first cop car pulled into the plaza. In a matter of minutes, the White Fang had arrived, attacked, and left, leaving only a screaming crowd and dead bodies behind. But it didn't matter. Roman had gotten what he had came for.
AN: As always, praise/criticism is appreciated. Wow, so it's been a while. Sorry about that. I'm going to blame finals and then getting caught in infuriating writer's block. But now I'm on break and hopefully out of my rut, so I'm going to try and update this story a lot faster. Like, every couple days. At least, that's the plan. There's a chance it'll fail horribly and you won't get a new chapter until March. But I'll see what I can do.
Fun Fact: This rally is supposed to be the one mentioned by Lisa Lavender on Ruby and Yang's airship ride to Beacon. That's right folks, we're still in the first episode!