yesboss21 -Aw shucks you're makin' me blush!
Guest-Here you go but hope you stick with it till' the end!
Dark Warrior Of The Multiverse- Thank you and the bar acts as a sort of nexus to multiple dimensions.
Rakkis3059- Gratzi!
Guest 2- Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long and thanks we here at TheBlackDagger 456 do plan to complete any and all stories posted on here eventually.
Chapter 5: Plans In Motion
"So this is where you disappear to? Doesn't look like much."
"You should know by now that looks can be deceiving Vernal."
Vernal gave her mentor a skeptical look as she and Raven stood in front of an old wooden door in a destroyed town, the Grimm had passed through not long ago and though she had her own misgivings on entering a town like this so soon but orders were orders besides if she finally gets to meet the man that had captured her leaders attention she'd be able to handle a few Beowolfs. Opening the door Vernals eyes widened as instead of a broken down room she was treated to the sight of glowing portal one in which Raven walked through without hesitation quickly following after her the tribeswoman was shocked to be treated to the site of an active bar filled with Huntsmen, reaching for her weapon Vernal cursed as she found it missing from her side.
"Hey there!" An energetic voice yelled.
Looking up Vernal raised an eyebrow as she saw a little girl in a maids costume holding her weapons with a large smile on her fac. "Welcome to The Horsemens Bar! I'm Ruby Rose how may I help you?"
Narrowing her eyes Vernal prepared to lunge at the girl only to freeze when she felt a hand grip her shoulder looking up the girl flinched from Ravens glare and stood down taking the unspoken threat from her leader. The black haired woman kept her red eyes on her subordinate before turning them to Ruby her eyes taking on a kinder appearance as she smiled at the girl.
"Hello Ruby, is Jaune here by any chance?"
"Yup, he's in the back c'mon I'll take you!"
With that the silver eyed girl began to lead them through the bar with Vernal tensing every time a Huntsmen looked at Raven too long and glaring at a few wolf whistling aimed at her. As far as she was concerned none of these weaklings were fit to be in the same room as the bandit leader, hell she had half a mind to cut down some of these people with her crescent blades if not for said weapon being looked over by Ruby. Seriously who the hell gets sparkles in their eyes while looking at a weapon and was that a fucking giggle, Vernal gave Raven a look which prompted the older woman to chuckle just as the three approached a door with weird markings from it.
"Jaaaaune!" Ruby yelled as she banged on the door. "Ravens here with a new girl and wants to see you!"
Vernal heard muffled cursing before the door opened revealing Jaune in a disheveled state, his eyes having slight bags under them. "What do you want Raven?"
Vernal bristled. "Watch who you're talking to kid."
Turning his attention to her the bar owner stared at the woman for a bit before turning to Raven. "Ray who is this sassy child?"
"What!?"
"Calm yourself." Raven said. "Jaune this is Vernal, the spring maiden."
"I thought that-"
"Like I said Vernal is the spring maiden."
Jaune just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why you are here Raven now's not the best time."
"Something wrong?" Raven asked a flicker of concern washing over her face for a second much to Vernals shock.
"Oh you know the usual selling beer, kicking out rule breakers, Emerald being framed for murder ya' know just the usual."
A this Ravens eyes widened in surprise it wasn't like the thief to be caught doing…well…anything really and to hear that she'd not only been caught but left a witness alive was not just concerning but alarming.
"Where's she now?"
Jaune sighed. "I couldn't let her come back to the bar, not with both the police force and whatever Atlas soldiers looking for her, so what was it you needed from me?"
Raven eyes shifted to Vernal and Ruby the silver eyed girl looking over the brunettes' weapon with sparkles in her eyes much to the older girls annoyance.
"Vernal, Ruby could you leave us for a moment?"
"W-what!? I just got here and you still haven't explained why you-!"
One look from Raven was enough to stop any more questions from leaving the young womans mouth and with a grunt walked off with Ruby which prompted the young girl excitedly asking questions about her weapon
"So what's so important that you had to talk to me in private?"
Raven took a breath she knew what she was going to ask would require a big favor from her later on down the road and if there was any other way she thought she could keep her tribe safe she'd take it but as of now this was her only option. If Ozpin kept sending Qrow after her for Rubys whereabouts that would eventually lead Salems lackeys straight toward them and that was the one thing she did not want or need in her life, she needed to keep her family safe but to do that she'd have to leave them temporarily and she knew without her they'd fall apart. They would need a strong leader in her absence on that wouldn't be gutted in the middle of the night.
"I need you to train Vernal."
(Beacon Academy.)
"There she goes, you'd think after what happened she wouldn't be walking around acting so high and mighty."
"Yeah I know what you mean after the shit she pulled it's a wonder the headmaster didn't kick her out o' Beacon."
"Just goes to show you how much money can get you in this world."
Weiss growled as she listened to the insults hurled her way in the hallway these last few days had been, for lack of better words, hell for the Schnee heiress everywhere she went the girl was met with ice cold glares from not only her upper class men but her own friends as well. Team JNPR had completely cut ties with her
Weiss's face turned red in anger and she was about to scream her head off at the boy when grabbed Cardin by the hair and threw him to the ground, his teammates immediately went to defend their leader only to find themselves wrapped up in back cloth. Struggling to look behind themselves their eyes widened to see not only Blake looking back at them with cold yellow eyes but Glynda as well looking at them with furious expression on her face.
"I believe both the headmaster and myself instructed everyone not already associated with them to stay away from all members of Team RWBY."
Cardin scowled at the combat teacher. "It's not like it matters their not even a full team anymore and besides that useless girl was too young for Beacon any-"
Cardin was silenced when Yang slammed her foot into his chest
"Thank you Yang, I-" Weiss began only to stop as she saw the blonde already walking away from here Blake soon following after.
Weiss eyes narrowed before huffing and moving to continue eating her food it wasn't her problem if her teammates intended to ignore her after all I her mind she was completely in the right. Ruby had been sneaking out for weeks now and would refuse to discuss where she was with anybody not even her the girls girlfriend! She couldn't understand it weren't they supposed to be honest with each other? Weren't they supposed to have absolute honesty with each other? Weiss slammed her fork into her plate unintentionally cracking it this couldn't go on if things weren't fixed soon then it wasn't just her Blake and Yang that would suffer eventually, if they graduated like this, this could potentially put civilians in danger if they couldn't' work with each other to properly do the job they were training for.
There was only one thing she could do to fix this it made her sick but she wasn't blind to the solution to her teams problem.
'Ruby you better hope that the headmaster finds you before I do.' Weiss thought as the bell signaled the end to the period. 'Because if I find you first you'd better believe there'll be hell to pay.'
(Elsewhere.)
"Fucking Jaune." Emerald growled as she downed a shot of alcohol.
She was in the local club owned by Hei 'Junior' Xiong one of the only clubs in town that didn't look twice at I.D their policy being if you've got the cash then you're allowed to bash whatever the hell that meant. Ever since Jaune kicked her out the bar Atlas'd been hounding her putting nearly all soldiers on watch for her and having their knight patrol the street so much to the point in which she had to physically change her appearance as to not be recognized by their scanners. That did not bode well for her mind as while a human or faunus mind was easy to manipulate a machine was much, much harder as there was no mind to confuse it took immense concentration and a little bit of magic to walk past them without having a gun shoved in her face. But doing so constantly even with breaks would start to affect her physically evident by the liquid she felt running down her nose.
"You alright kid?"
"Yeah." She said wiping the blood off. "Just hand me another drink will ya'."
"Yeah, no look I'm still dealing with the fallout for when that blonde bitch busted up the place a couple months ago I don't need any heat because some good samaritan decided to call the cops because I was serving a minor."
Emerald just scoffed before pulling out a wallet, throwing it on the table and leaving ignoring Juniors question of if this was stolen or not. Of course it was stolen did he really think she'd pay for cheap booze that couldn't even get her drunk? Then again she's been drinking from Jaunes personal stash for a while now so that's probably desensitized her taste buds to anything not even remotely as strong as what her brother liked to call 'The Dragons Breath' which was admittedly an appropriate name considering how her throat had been burning for an entire month after a single shot. How Jaune was able to down entire bottles of that was a mystery to her. Walking into the streets of Vale Emerald turned on her semblance she wanted to see if that bakery had anything worthwhile only to swiftly turn around when she saw a pair of Atlesian soldiers patrolling in front. Okay weird that they'd be looking for her around a bakery but whatever she'd try the place another day turning around the girls face turned sour as she witnessed another patrol guarding the crossway. This went on for several more minutes with the girl getting more and more irritated with each patrol she snuck by, seriously she knew she was wanted among their ranks but this was getting ridiculous there were plenty of other criminals roaming around Vale and for some god forsaken reason Atlas'd chosen to focus on her of all people.
'Speaking of other criminals.' Emerald thought as she passed a wanted poster of a certain cigar smoking thief. 'I think I'll stay with Roman for a while till this whole thing blows over, he can't be any more stressful than what I'm going through right now.'
(15 Minutes Later.)
'Okay I take it back, Roman must be stressed as fuck.'
When Emerald had entered Romans spare warehouse the last thing she expected was to find it nearly overrun with White Fang grunts nor did she expect to find them busy rushing around it with dust canisters in their hands. What she did expect to find was the infamous thief sitting around in a chair while his grunts do all the work his partner Neo sitting on a crate above him.
"What the hell are you doing here kid? Last I checked I paid off my tab last week."
"Don't act dumb Roman. " Emerald said. "You know Atlas has been hounding my ass, if it's alright with you I'm gonna lay low here for awhile."
"What makes you think I'll let you?"
"If you don't I'll ban you from poker night."
Roamn paled. "You wouldn't."
"Emerald smirked. "Try me."
"Fine." Roman said letting out a sigh. "Great now I have to deal with you and my new boss."
Emerald blinked. "Since when do you work for a boss?"
"Since he met me."
Looking behind her Emerald raised an eyebrow at the three people that came into view the first was a guy that just screamed asshole with the only thing interesting about him, in her opinion, was his silver hair and eyes. Next to him was some kind of skater chick that had green hair swept to her right, green eyes, black facial markings on her cheeks and had on a dark purple hooded sweater over a mauve sweater with black shorts and knee and elbow pads.
But it was the person in front of the two that put Emerald on guard, she was definitely a woman one with amber eyes that seemed to glow and slender legs that Emerald didn't waste time to appreciate.
The woman gave her a sultry smile one that sent off alarm bells in the green haired girls head she could sense something coming from the girl but couldn't get a proper read on it, it almost felt like a smoldering fire ready to burst out into an inferno at any given moment and while Emerald was on guard at the same time she felt oddly relaxed as if she knew exactly what that power was
"Roman you didn't tell me you were having guest." The woman said walking towards her. "And who might you be?"
"I'm the girl who likes her space." Emerald said eyeing the woman warily she may be cute but that doesn't mean that she gets a pass on her suspicion meter.
The woman gave her a smirk before turning her gaze to Roman.
"She's the sister of an old friend of mine, asked me to watch her for a bit while they handles some business in town." The thief said setting off even more alarm bells of in Emeralds head.
She'd never heard Roman sound so submissive before scared yes but never in the teens life had she ever heard the thief be anything but a smug, sarcastic asshole. Looking over red eyes met pink and brown ones hand tightly gripping her umbrella while and giving her a look while at the same time the others slowly shifted to her concealed revolvers an unspoken conversation happening between the two. A huff of annoyance diverted their attention as the silver haired boy rolled his eyes while the skater girl crossed her arms and glared at Emerald who in turn glared right back.
"I didn't know you were in the babysitting business Torchwick." Skater girl said.
"Yeah what are you that desperate for lien that you have to look after some snot nosed kid."
And like that these two were on her shit list bad enough one put her in the same league as those privileged upper class but the fact that she needed to be babysat was crossing a line. The last time someone thought she needed babysitting Jaune had to spend the next hour getting chewed out by one of his dragons she may have been a street rat once but she did not needed to be look after like some kicked puppy. She didn't need to be protected she'd been doing that for half of her life on the streets you don't survive gang wars and drug dealers without picking up a few speaking of which, Emerald gave the two a smirk before reaching into her pocket and pulling out two wallets full of lien causing the owners of said wallet to go stiff and for the orange haired thief behind her to snicker. The woman in front of her smile became wider and a gleam could be seen in her eye as she was no doubt impressed by how the thief could so effortlessly steal while remaining right in front of her.
"Impressive." The woman said. "Tell me what kind of business in Vale are you doing in which you need such an interesting skill set?"
"She-"
"I believe I wasn't asking you Roman." Like a light switch the womans tone changed from friendly to cold and dangerous a flame forming in her hand. "Be silent unless spoken to, you've already disappointed me with the amount of dust you're bringing in do not push me further."
Roman promptly shut his mouth.
"Now then I believe I asked you a question?"
Emeralds eyes narrowed, that didn't sound like a request. "Were just taking care of some loose ends my brother is very thorough about his work no witnesses and all that."
"And you're role?"
"I'm the reason why he's not making headlines like Mr. Wick over there?"
Emerald was sure the womans smile would split her face.
"Interesting." Cinder said as she slowly walked up to her. "I don't believe I've introduced myself my name is Cinder Fall if possible I'd like to talk to you and this brother of yours if you're as good as Romans says I may have a few 'business' arrangements we can work out."
'What the hell?' Emerald thought flinched as the black haired woman placed an almost comforting hand on her cheek. 'Okay, mysterious lady I've just met offers me a job and puts a hand on my cheek…not creepy or suspicious at all.'
"I'll see what my brother has to say but if Romans shacked up with you I can say that'd he'd be very interested in what you're offering." Emerald said ignoring the thief's response.
The woman gave her another smile and a nod of her head before walking off her two minions following soon after with the skater chick giving her a large that Emerald scoffed at. As soon as they were gone she turned around and raised her eyebrow at the look Roman was giving her the thieves facial expression being a cross of exasperated and annoyed, the thief took a large drag from his cigar before addressing her.
"Well kid, if Jaune didn't want to kill you before he'll definitely want to now."
Emerald just rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure I can handle myself Roman, I've faced things much scarier than some lady in a dress."
"She's not some lady in a dress Emerald." Roman said. "Arguably, she's the most powerful being in this city right now and she's got big plans for Vale kid."
'That right.' Emerald thought as she finally took notice of things surrounding the base.
Behind Roman was an abundance of crates each filled to the brim with multiple kinds of dust, the warehouse they were in was bustling with noise as white fang grunts trained and organized their weapons and supplies. In front of Roman was a map of the city multiple buildings circled and others with X's on them from the looks of it seemed as if the WF and Roman were gearing up for some sort of big battle in the future. Turning her gaze to Roman she found the man yelling at a faunus who'd dropped a crate of dust not caring for the glares he was receiving from the others and a thought occurred to the green haired girl, if that lady could put enough fear into both the White Fang and Roman enough to get them to work together towards some big goal that encompassed the entirety of Vale then that meant that she may be part of that group her brothers been keeping an eye out for and if that was the case then wasn't it her job as his little sister to help out? A toothy grin made it's way onto her face as she turned to Roman.
"Roman, Neo how'd you like to get back at your boss?"
The thief raised an eyebrow while his ice cream themed partner gave an incline of her head. "And how do you suppose we go about doing that little green?"
Ignoring her remark Emerald began to explain her plan to the man and as each detail was laid out in front of him the thieves grin grew wider and wider the profits of the plan having him hanging on to the younger girls words more and more. Oh, yeah she may not have known them long but Roman had to admit he was damn lucky that he'd stumbled into their bar.
Ben: Okay I planned on making this longer but I'm tired and want to start work on other stories next chapter will have things start to pick up a bit but until then you can look forward to more chapters in The Omega Deku, Six Demon Emperors Of Konoha, The Reaper, Unwanted Rebirth and The Broken Hero.