Chapter Nine: Roman Invasion
Watts only had time to nod his head in sharp agreement before Roman lead him into his white 1988 Bentley Mulsanne L to go over the current shitstorm.
"So," the developer began, "we've lost my primary source of income and given the mafia the run of fine dining in this blasted place – all because you got screwed out of your precious car and weren't smart enough to keep your old one as a back up."
Watts scowled petulantly and snarled his retort.
"No need to remind me of what's already done; what else is there to discuss?"
"Well," Roman replied, "to make matters worse, we can't call the cops on the mafia without getting exposed. Someone among them will know of our deal with Hazel and Peter, so we'll need to lay low in the meantime."
"Perhaps I can help you there," the Englishman replied. "They have no reason to suspect me of any wrongdoing, since I wasn't the one giving the cash to the policemen. Even if there was photographic evidence of my presence when the officers were bribed, I can tell them I thought it was a gambling bet being paid out or some such.
"Therefore, I'll give the force as much help with the Amity as I can, thereby giving you enough time to hole up and maybe throw a few false leads to occupy them until it blows over."
Roman nodded slowly and understandingly.
"Very well. I'll make sure that we're all lying low. Stay safe, Watts."
Watts nodded sharply, then exited the car to make a statement about the restaurant.
Roman, meanwhile, drove his Bentley back to the compound on Haven Lane, and decided to hole up within it for the next few weeks. When Emerald ushered him into the front room, he gained a massive epiphany.
"Emerald, I've just realised something. You know how someone spotted me bribing Hazel and Peter?"
Emerald nodded tersely.
"Must've been that bloody jogger ..." she grumbled lowly.
"Well," Roman continued happily, "whomever it was that spotted me bribing the two officers would never have seen you or Tyrian that day. Given that we have the leader's address from Neo, I'd like you to get Tyrian to drive there on the 4th and whack her. You, meanwhile, will hide nearby until after the deed is done, at which point you will burgle the place and find out where the rest of the mafia live and work at. Once we have those, our spree can begin in earnest."
Emerald smiled slightly at this.
"Now you sound like the Roman I know. There is one thing I'd like to ask about our plans though."
"What is it?", the ginger crook replied.
"How on earth are we getting Mayor Lionheart onside with our application processes? Especially with bribing police officers and all that in the way?"
Roman smirked, then retrieved a Polaroid of Lionheart kissing another man – which would've been fine, had it not been for the fact that the man's sister was married to Lionheart.
"With the faintest application of blackmail, my young Padawan."
Emerald sighed and rolled her eyes at the Sir Alec Guinness impression.
"Okay, now you sound like the Roman I know," she groused while he began to laugh.
When Operation Rosewood had all checked in to their office later that morning, they were promptly bombarded with a laundry list of issues that pertained to the corruption scandal and the Amity, courtesy of the chief inspector waiting for them within their main offices.
"Greetings, all of you," Glynda intoned. "I've got a few things to say this morning, so bear with me. First of all, Inspector Port and Sergeant Rainart have agreed to resign from the police force and to undergo three years of probation."
"That's a result, I guess," Sun agreed.
"What about the man who was bribing them?", Velvet enquired.
"Well, according to our records," Glynda responded, "he isn't somebody who's shown up on our radar for any crimes. As far as we know, he's a legitimate property developer called Roman Torchwick."
"So the next question is," Sun responded warily, "why would an apparently clean developer be seen bribing our officers?"
Silence followed, as the group of officers mulled over the implications. Finally, Coco piped up with an idea.
"He's a developer, right? There's a chance that the local council might know him. We could ask Mayor Lionheart or the folks in the state planning department as to his activities."
"That does make sense, Coco," Sun agreed. "After all, Torchwick might be planning to do something really shady within the Vale, and paid those guys off to keep it quiet. I mean, it's not like they admitted to anything when questioned."
"You can discuss that later," Glynda interjected; "there's a few more things I need to go over. For starters, I've been ordered to hand out promotions in the wake of Port and Rainart's resignations. Since Port was a DI, I hereby declare you, DS Wukong, acting DI until you've taken the proper exams."
The officers cheered, with cries of "Way to go, Sunny!" and "Nice one, guv!" prominent among the chorus.
"Thanks chief!", Sun replied gratefully. "Who's going to fill my vacancy as sergeant?"
Glynda mulled it over for half a second until she decided.
"To cover for you as sergeant, I'll appoint DC Scarlatina as acting DS. After all, she blew the whistle on Rainart and Port, so she definitely deserves it."
Velvet's jaw hit the floor at this while the squad congratulated her; she was the first woman since Goodwitch to make sergeant within Atlas Terrace; the other female sergeants and inspectors the station had seen during the interim were all transferred in from other stations.
"T-thank you so much, Inspector Goodwitch! I'll be sure to earn my rank."
Goodwitch smiled slightly.
"I'm sure you will, Velvet. And lastly, I've got your next big case right here."
She reached into her briefcase and handed Sun the folder of files on the torching of the Amity.
"This happened last night on the eastern side of Mistral Boulevard. The Amity restaurant, which was a five-star French cuisine restaurant, got burgled and blown up by unknown assailants. The only reason why you guys are handling it instead of the arson squad is that Roman Torchwick is one of the major shareholders of the restaurant.
"A second shareholder, an accountant called Dr. Arthur Watts, gave us a pretty comprehensive idea of what was lost in the fire, as well as the reservation books and crew payroll when he spoke with forensics this morning. His statement, items and the forensic reports are all there. Good luck, officers."
"Thanks, chief," Sun replied casually as Goodwitch departed for her office. Placing the folder down on the coffee table, Sun retrieved the reservation book and crew manifest and approached his staff, handing Coco the former and keeping the latter.
"Right. Coco and Neptune, Sage and Scarlet. The four of you will pair up as indicated and go speak to each of the guests on the last night of business. Try and find out if any of them saw anything or anyone suspicious that night within or outside of the restaurant.
"Fox, I'll have you and Yatsuhashi go through the forensic evidence together and construct an idea of what happened and how many people were likely involved in the blast. As for me, I will talk to the staff working at the restaurant that night, and Velvet will join me in the process. Any questions?"
Seeing only a group of shaking heads, Sun beamed.
"Excellent. Let's get to work, folks!"
Yatushashi led Fox towards the table to start their evidence sifting, while Velvet and Sun retreated to their private office and the remaining quartet started ringing the clientele. Seated at their desks, the newly-minted inspector pulled a pair of whiskey glasses out from a drawer along with a bottle of black-label Johnnie Walker and soda water.
"Velvet, our promotion calls for a small celebration. Care to toast to our careers before we start making calls?"
Velvet uncertainly approached her superior and took the offered glass nervously.
"What's Johnnie Walker like?", she asked quizzically.
Sun gave her a bemused look that screamed volumes about how down to earth most liquor enthusiasts truly were – as well as give normal people more licence to call them "snobs".
"You've never had Johnnie Walker before? Velvet, you're about to be educated on what makes an excellent whiskey."
At the same time, Blake was relaxing with Nora over a bottle of Jacob's Creek Chardonnay that had just been plucked from the grapevines. The warm autumn morning gave a calm backdrop that belied the hell the pair had endured going through the application plans Cinder and Ruby had sent through.
High-rise apartments with sub-standard fire escapes, corners cut with the plumbing and building materials, exorbitant rent and purchase prices on the flats … the villainy of this developer truly knew no bounds. And that was before the soul-shattering gentrification he had in mind for the western districts and shopping strips were so much as considered.
Therefore, Blake and Nora found solace in two things that were always bound to distract them from the real issues at hand; wine and rugby talk.
"So even though Baker missed half the conversions," Blake concluded, "we still thrashed the Bears 20 to none!"
"Sweet," Nora sarcastically replied. She'd been barely able to get a word in before Blake started to wax poetic about her beloved Panthers, and wasn't looking forward to recounting how Cronulla had fared this round.
"How did your lot go?", Blake asked innocently.
Nora groaned audibly.
"It was a 20-point margin as well, except my team's defence was like a bunch of mermaids in a chorus line."
Blake looked rather non-plussed at this unusual metaphor.
"How do you mean?"
Nora threw her hands skywards in exasperation.
"They were bloody useless, Godverdomme!"
Blake began to roar in tipsy laughter as Nora started to cuss out her team's abysmal performance in Dutch, in a tirade best left untranslated.
Later that day, a somewhat more sober Blake was interviewing people for the position of head waiter at the Vytal, during the break between the lunch close at 3 and the start of dinner at 6. As it turned out, the previous occupant of the post had gotten married to a merchant banker two weeks beforehand, and her staff were clamouring for someone who knew how to work a dining floor.
With the torching of the Amity, Blake's post office box had been inundated with resumes. However, Blake only had one person in mind for the role; Cinder's brother, Ashley. The unusually high number of applicants will be a good enough excuse for me to turn so many people down, she rationalised, and I can always put the other applicants into contact with other restaurateurs that I know outside the Vale. Either way, it's a win-win.
At the stroke of three-thirty, Ashley Fall was ushered into her private office. An inch taller than Cinder, the muscular man of thirty-one nodded respectfully as he shook Blake's hand. Christ Almighty, he's smoking hot, Blake observed as her mouth greeted him politely. No bloody wonder Jaune started bonking his sister.
Fortunately for their respective careers, Blake was a consummate professional and Ashley was gay, and the latter quickly scored the job. As a satisfied Blake walked outside her restaurant's main entrance with Cooper's Pale in hand, she turned around after closing the door and bumped into Lisa Lavender and her small crew, who'd just arrived for a scoop.
"You're Blake Belladonna, the owner of the Vytal, right?", Lisa quickly began.
After half a second of surprised silence, Blake recovered her bearings and answered her calmly.
"Yes, I am. How come you're here, Ms. Lavender?" "
Well," the veteran reporter began, "I've been sent to gauge the public's reactions to what people are calling 'the Amity barbecue', and felt that a restaurateur's opinion would make for good coverage."
Blake nodded sagely; she understood the government-funded channel's need for ratings against the corporate machine, and decided there and then to help them on their merry way.
"Sounds fair. What would you like me to say?"
"Well," the reporter started while motioning to her cameraman, "just describe your reaction at the news, starting … now."
"It wasn't great to hear at all," a visibly worried Blake Belladonna said two hours later on air. "Restaurants hardly, if ever, get burgled around these parts, let alone get sent up in flames. This is concerning for all of us who own businesses on Vacuo Road, and no doubt even more so for the folks working at Mistral Boulevard."
The screen then cut to Lisa Lavender standing in front of the wreckage, while Blake was complemented on her acting by her four lesbian neighbours in her own lounge room.
"As you can see, other business owners are worried about whether the assailants will strike again. Atlas Station released a press statement earlier which indicated that no-one suspicious was seen by the restaurant-goers or the staff that night. We've also tried contacting the restaurant stakeholders for comment, and this was said by one Dr. Arthur Watts on the phone two hours before the time of filming."
The screen then showed a still of the bent accountant as he began to say his piece.
"I honestly hope to whatever higher power's out there that these fiendish bastards get caught and raked over the coals by the proper authorities. As regards the restaurant itself, our insurance company has indicated that we'll be able to operate by July next year, provided we start rebuilding when the police have finished their investigations. This isn't the end of the Amity; not by a long stretch."
The camera cut back to Lavender at this point, while the cold fury present in Arthur's voice left no doubt in the five mobster's minds over who he'd deemed "proper authorities".
"Some strong words there. This is Lisa Lavender, reporting in the Vale, Sydney. Back to you, Cyril."
As Cyril Ian began the finance report, a surprised young woman ran to her phone and rang a colleague of hers up. As the recipient of the call answered, the woman heard a massive clanging noise in the background.
"Hello?!"
"Sun, it's Velvet here. What the hell's happening at your end?"
"Oh hey there, er, Velvet. Kinda caught me at an awkward moment. What's up?"
"Did you see the ABC's news piece on the Amity just now?"
"No. As you might have guessed by now, I've spent the last half an hour trying to fix my washing machine. Anything important come up?"
"Well, they showed a picture of the shareholder that gave us all that information. He's in the picture we got of Rainart and Port taking bribes!"
Velvet then heard a huge sputtering noise in the background, followed by a whispered "SHIT!" from Sun's mouth before he responded.
"Well, that's something worth looking in to. We'll do that the minute we clock in tomorrow. Anyhow, I'd better get cracking on the repairs before my pad floods over, so I'll hang up. See you tomorrow, Velv!"
"Bye!", Velvet kindly replied before her superior placed the phone down. It was then that she noticed that her cheeks were flushed, and that her breathing sounded a little more desperate. What's got me in a tizzy? Her memory promptly chimed in with an unsettling answer. He called me Velv, she realised. My old boyfriends were the only people who've ever called me that.
Despite the fact she liked that pet name, the young detective shut her other line of thought down. I'll keep it professional and ask Sun to stop calling me Velv."Never fish off the company dock", my father always said –
In a sudden case of perfect timing, Velvet's pet rabbit shat on the door of its cage. The sound that accompanied it snapped her owner out of wrestling her subconscious into submission and brought her down to earth.
"For the love of – Josephine!", she whined.
As she set to work cleaning up the cage, the young cop failed to see the coincidence in the fact that she also couldn't keep her home from messing itself up at inopportune times. After all, Sun had just sat down in his bathroom to crank one out when his washing machine shat itself out of spite.
Then again, synchronicity really is an absurd mistress.
The next day, Mayor Leo Lionheart strolled into the Vale Council Chambers for his duties at the stroke of nine. Making his way to the office on the first floor, the derby-hatted figure shrugged off his tweed jacket and hung it before realising his office had an extra occupant.
"Morning, Mr. Mayor!" Lionheart jumped slightly as the man who had him over a barrel emerged from the mayor's own seat, which had been turned away from the door.
"Couldn't you have waited another hour to see me? You know, when you were asked to?!"
Roman sighed as he turned the chair around and walked towards the mayor.
"Under normal circumstances, I would have done just that. However, the recent destruction of my restaurant has made me nervous for my safety, hence why I camped out in your novice overnight."
Lionheart refused to ask how the bastard did that; he found it saved time when conversing with him.
"Well never mind that," he responded quickly as he sat in his seat. "Shall we get down to business?"
"Very well, Leo," Roman responded jovially as he took the seat on the opposite side. "Due to mitigating circumstances, I can't afford to spend any more time involved with the finalisation. Therefore, I have to trust that you'll fill our end of the bargain."
"I'm prepared to try," Lionheart replied, "but there's one last detail I'd like to iron out. I've gone over your development plans and noted a number of cut corners and shadier practices involved. If I am to get the developments approved, the law dictates that I must let the other council members scrutinise the plans. If they object to any of the cut corners, am I to amend the plans or stick to them?"
"Hmm, good question," Roman conceded. "I'll need to think about it for a moment, if you don't mind."
Lionheart nodded as Roman pondered the situation. On the one hand, he reasoned, I've got the mayor by the balls, and can always send my acquaintances to extend my reach over the rest of the council while I hide from the law. But if our motives got seized upon by some do-gooder councillor, then it would be all for nought.
"Hold firm on the western developments," he finally said, "but be prepared to change the plumbing and safety equipment with the southern developments if necessary."
Lionheart nodded apprehensively.
"I suppose that could work, Roman. Is there anything else?"
Roman shook his head and promptly walked out, uttering "Thanks, Leo," over his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Dr. Watts was walking towards the fish and chip shop at the intersection of Mistral Boulevard, Koukuana Avenue and Signal Circle for his lunch. Despite investing money in the high-class wreckage that used to be the Amity, the accountant harboured a love for all manner of seafood that surpassed his rich tastes.
As he made it to the crossing, he was tapped on his shoulder. Turning around, Dr. Watts saw a tall, muscular blonde man wearing jeans and a white dress shirt. The officer held out a badge that marked him down as a detective of Atlas Terrace.
"Is there something up, inspector …"
"Wukong," the man responded. "And yes, there is something up. We have a picture of you witnessing bribery that took place on the 19th of March during the late afternoon. It resulted in two of our officers resigning for accepting it."
"Wait a minute!", the accountant exclaimed. "Are you referring to the day I was at Roman Torchwick's manor?"
"Correct."
"Well, I didn't know it was bribery when I saw it go down."
Sun looked rather puzzled at this.
"Come again?"
"Well," Watts replied smoothly and slowly, "when I walked up and saw those officers receiving cash from Roman, I made sure to ask about what I'd just witnessed. I was promptly told by one of the two cops that Mr. Torchwick had lost a bet on the rugby that they'd made with him, and the cash they'd just pocketed were their winnings."
Sun nodded slowly.
"Alright, that does sound plausible."
He fished inside his pocket and handed Watts his card.
"If you hear about anything suspicious that Torchwick gets up to, don't hesitate to ring this number and let me know, alright?"
"Alright," Watts lied.
As the detective strode back to his car, Watts shook his head as he crossed the road.
"Cops are so easy to fool," he muttered to himself smugly.
After a few days of much-needed quietude, April the 4th rolled around, and Ruby Scarlett Rose was all set to enjoy her thirty-first birthday. Having awoken to the smell of cooked food at the stroke of seven, Ruby craned her head to the vacant side of her queen-sized bed. Pyrrha was approaching the open doorway with a tray, which contained what Ruby instantly deemed to be the best breakfast she'd been given from outside her family.
Pyrrha had painstakingly made a four-high stack of chocolate-chip pancakes with maple syrup and ice-cream, along with a bacon-and-egg sandwich which used two pieces of toast and tomato sauce as a side, and a perfectly-brewed white and two to wash it down. Ruby was drooling at the sight instantly; the fact that the cook was wearing a transparent plastic apron and nothing else was gravy to her mind.
After an immensely satisfying breakfast, Ruby kissed her better half goodbye at Vale Primary and went to greet her first years. Little did she know that during lunch the preceding day, the school's principal had gone around to each of the children in her charge and told them about her upcoming birthday.
So Ruby nearly fainted when her kids marched in after the bell with the principal, singing "Happy Birthday!". Ruby was given a cake which looked like a giant choc-chip cookie; truthfully, it was a blondie cake with melted squares of chocolate embedded all throughout.
"Thank you so much, kids!", she gratefully said after blowing out the candles. "As reward for your kindness, there won't be any lessons after you've done your reading today!"
The resultant cheer thundered throughout the corridors of Vale Primary School.
After she'd come home at four-thirty that afternoon, Ren, Weiss and Nora all came personally to see her. Ren had given her the two latest entries in the Discworld series; "Sourcery" and "Wyrd Sisters" were their titles, and Ruby found herself eagerly looking forward to reading them.
Nora, meanwhile, had given the assassin a counter-weight to humourous fantasy with a book of humourous science fiction. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" was something Ruby never expected to get from Nora, given how the ginger usually tended to get anything that pertained to firearms, but she would never refuse a Douglas Adams novel.
As for Weiss, what she'd termed a Black Forest spider was handed to Ruby. Coke and strawberry ice-cream was the combination at play, and Ruby instantly loved it. Weiss was also kind enough to give her five drinks on the house if she ever needed it, and Ruby happily accepted the offer.
Despite the excitement of the mid-afternoon exchanges, the greatest event to go down was set to commence at six o'clock sharp. Even within their poker meets, the Bellas rarely took anything seriously outside of their criminal activities. Tonight was the single exception to that rule, for Ruby's favourite passion was set to be indulged and enjoyed by a select few. Yang, Ruby, Blake and Pyrrha were going to play Dungeons and Dragons, with Qrow serving as the dungeon master for the evening's proceedings.
Half an hour before the arrivals were set to come, however, an unexpected visitor came to the door with a box. Ruby had just ordered two family-sized pizzas when the knocks came through. She went to the door and opened it as Pyrrha readied the glasses, and found herself looking at Velvet Scarlatina, who was holding a large cardboard box under her left arm.
"Happy birthday, Ruby!", the brunette said merrily.
"Why, t-thanks Velvet," Ruby said with not a little surprise. "Haven't seen you in a while; how have you been?"
"Well," Velvet replied, "my new job's going well. What about your teaching gig?"
"It's already paid dividends," Ruby replied humourously. "The kids surprised me this morning with a blondie cake that had been done up to look like a giant cookie!"
Velvet laughed warmly.
"That sounds amazing. And speaking of presents, I'm due to visit my parents for dinner tonight, but I wanted to drop off someone I'd like you to meet. Here he is!"
Velvet opened the box onto the floor, and out trotted a baby Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
Ruby was stunned into silence as long-forgotten memories of her dad's old Corgi, Eins, flooded to the surface. She felt nine years old again as a pair of soulful grey eyes looked up at her.
"He's so beautiful!", the murderess cooed. "I'll call him Zwei!"
"Suits him well enough," Velvet responded kindly, while handing the box to Ruby. "I found him at the animal shelter yesterday, and remembered that you once had a corgi. I then realised that your birthday was today, so I knew exactly what I should do with him. Inside the box is some food, along with his bowls and his bed."
"Aw, thanks again, Velvet," Ruby replied warmly. "We'll need to catch up soon for a coffee or something; it's been months since I've seen you."
Velvet nodded.
"Fair enough. How does the 8th at the Weiss Cream place sound?"
"Perfect! I'll see you then, Velvet!"
"Sure thing, Ruby!"
Velvet leapt onto her motorcycle and sped off for the northern tip of Vacuo Road, while Ruby led her new puppy inside his new home.
"Who was at the door, love?", Pyrrha called out as she filled an esky with ten kilograms of ice.
"Velvet swung by with the best present I've ever gotten," Ruby said cheerily as she and Zwei entered the room.
Pyrrha turned to face her and saw what Ruby was getting at.
"Velvet got you a puppy?! That's so sweet of her," she said kindly. "What have you called him?"
"His name is Zwei," Ruby responded quickly.
"Ah, that's fair enough," her lover replied, having heard the Eins story before.
Ruby then placed the water and food bowls on the other side of the back door, before draining a water bottle into the former and emptying a small can of food in the latter. She placed the dog bed within the dining room across from the kitchen, away from the living room out front where the night's activities were set to commence. Zwei made a beeline for the food instantly, and Pyrrha mentally thanked the previous owners for installing a dogflap.
Not two minutes after the mexican and hawaiian pizzas arrived and the Cooper's Pale was chilled to satisfaction, the three other members of the Vale Dungeons and Dragons Society entered the house at the stroke of six. Yang held the character sheets, along with red, silver, green, purple, and gold dice sets.
"Tonight," the quarter-master began, "we're using dice sets based on eye colour. Character sheets have used the same colour scheme with the ink."
"Clever work, Yang," the sergeant-at-arms replied enthusiastically, picking her silver set and sheet while the treasurer retrieved her green counterparts.
The king of the society was next to enter, wearing the business suit and red tie that was his custom. His eyes nearly matched the latter, appearing like rust in a good light, and he brought the campaign they'd been working through inch-by-inch.
Lastly, the vizier entered and found herself on the receiving end of a concerted pair of smirks from a pair of smug auburn lovers. The 8-6 loss that Blake's team endured against Ruby and Pyrrha's team on the 2nd likely had something to do with it.
"Don't mention it," she hissed near-silently as she fetched her dice and sheet, the pair stifling their laughter while their boss sat down.
The pair of two-seater couches that sat along the northern and western walls now lay occupied; Ruby and Pyrrha sat on the former, while Yang left a space next to the window for Blake. Qrow, as usual, sat down on the armchair on the eastern side of the window, a television set between him and Blake.
"Alright," the DM started, "we left off just before you four swarthy heroines agreed to descend to the basement level of Merlot's keep ..."
Little did they know that three hours later, a pair of dark and vengeful forces began to hunt for them that very night.
Emerald was struggling to control her nerves while she drove Tyrian's white 1982 Volvo 340 slowly north on Sanus Street. Having just come down off of a high he'd scored earlier in the day, the madman sat in the passenger seat. He giggled softly and constantly, fondling his silenced Beretta 92 in his left jacket pocket all the while. As the car rounded left onto Beacon Street, Emerald pulled over and felt obliged to remind the crazed addict about his duties.
"Remember the plan. When I get to the bushes on the other side of Blake Belladonna's house, you park the car in front of it. Enter the house however you see fit, then blow her brains out and run. The minute I see you leave, I'll take it from there. Got it?"
Tyrian nodded with a surprising amount of calmness.
"All right then. I'll get out of the car now and let you get on with it."
Emerald exited the car, leaving the keys in the ignition, then made good time in her rubber-soled shoes down to the bushes that faced the fence between Blake's house and Ruby's house. Tyrian got in the driver's seat, and shut the door. He wound down his window to look for the number clearly, and readied his gun.
But in a moment of amazing stupidity, Tyrian forgot to stop the car when he was supposed to, realising his mistake a split-second too late. Improvising in the heat of the moment, he fired his pistol wildly at the house's front window and sped off cackling loudly, abandoning Emerald to the elements and his target to their doom. In a cruel twist of fate, the bullet missed every mobster in the room, but lodged itself in Qrow's abdomen.
Qrow had just stood up to leave when the bullet got to him, forcing him to fall over and upend the coffee table in the loungeroom. The four shocked ladies heard the screeching of car tires and nasty laughter fading in the distance, before they noticed the blood and collectively freaked out.
"QROW!", Ruby screamed as she ran towards him with tears welling in her eyes. With great presence of mind, Blake ran to fetch the first aid box and Pyrrha retrieved the keys to Qrow's new BMW E34 from the hook near the door. Ruby, meanwhile, was stopping the bleeding as best she could, while Yang was trying to keep him awake until Blake patched up his wounds. Once that was done, Yang turned to face her boss.
"Me and Ruby will get Qrow to hospital, Blake. You and Pyrrha stay frosty and watch out for any suspicious activity."
Blake nodded swiftly. "Agreed. I'll nip over the fence to fetch my M16 and keep lookout."
Pyrrha retrieved her .300 Winchester Magnum from underneath the northern couch, and her affirmative expression could have opened a strongroom.
Having watched a simple job go up shit creek, Emerald was visibly angered at Tyrian's fecklessness and lack of professionalism. However, her mood worsened quick–smart when she saw an injured man being ushered into a car by a pair of women – neither of whom were Blake Belladonna.
Son of a bitch, Emerald realised, we got sent to hit the wrong bloody house! Neo fucking set us up!
Thinking quickly, the thief retrieved a well-worn pencil from her pocket and pinched a letter from the letterbox closest to the bushes. Dumping the contents whence they came, the thief decided to leave a clue for the Bellas, writing within the street light's range.
To whom it may concern, the arsehole who shot that man had a brown ponytail and was driving a white 1982 Volvo 340, licence plate number P1NC3R5. I hope this helps you bring him to justice.
Waiting until the trio drove away, Emerald nipped across the road and slid the note under the garage door. She then ran at full sprint down to Sanus Street, and walked slowly into her ground-floor apartment in the complex on the corner.
Although Roman will get even more paranoid when Tyrian dies, Emerald reasoned as she disrobed and lay in her bed, Tyrian nearly blew our cover with his laughing, shot a civilian who wasn't being targeted, and was incompetent enough to fuck up the most basic of jobs. So, Emerald concluded, all I've done is damn a liability whom we all hated. Helping those poor women get justice for what happened is an added bonus.
Needless to say, Emerald slept easily that night. The streets would be much safer without that freak around.
A/N: The plot is thickening. Tune in when October's finished.
And a small note regarding Volume 5; I really hope that Lionheart's an anti-villain or anti-hero in RWBY.
