"They're onto us and called in help! Keep them off our backs! Oof!" Blake's voice went out loudly over the tac-comm network before being cut off by the sound of some blow landing on her.

Jaune and Pyrrha who had been escorted out of the club and onto the street by the twin bouncer broads received this alert just as the red and white divas received theirs. The red twin pulled her scroll out and saw the red flash, widening her eyes at it a bit. She faced Jaune and Pyrrha quickly with her flat look regained, "You two can come back when you stop fighting," The red one then turned back towards her white counterpart, "Come on Mel let's get back in there and deal with whatever this is."

The white one turned the same direction as the red to head back in but in the first step the red felt a tight grip on her shoulder that stopped her. She looked back over her shoulder to see Jaune's steel eyes over his polite smile, "Sorry ladies, 'fraid we can't let you back in there either."

"Hands off Miltia!" The white girl launched a kick at Jaune's face with the heels he now saw were in fact bladed, he recoiled a bit, releasing his grip, but the kick was quickly deflected away from his head by a red blur.

Pyrrha stood shieldless with her spear now in a high two handed guard stance with her steel eyes fixed on the white kicker, "Feet off Jaune."

Both girls entered their own stances and Jaune sighed and doffed his blazer to reveal two black shoulder straps it had hidden. Jaune reached behind his back and an unclipping sound was heard as an arming sword still within its sheath was pointed forward towards the twins, "Guess we pretty much suck at sneaking around huh? Alright then," Jaune's blade and hilt extended into their claymore form and he took up the roof stance his grandfather had taught him, "let's just keep them busy til Blake and Yang make it out. I'm sure Ren and Nora are doing the same inside."

Inside the club Ren and Nora sat at the bar carrying on a lively conversation with Junior. Nora made wild gestures as she sipped from her fourth drink, "So there we were! At high noon!"

"It was nighttime." Ren said flatly as he propped himself up with one arm and sipped from his water glass with the other.

"Surrounded by fifty elite rebels!"

"There were only two. And they were asleep drunk."

"But we fought through them all, captured them with our bare hands, and collected a fortune in lien from the emperor!"

"Tied them up while they were asleep and got the standard bounty from the bureaucracy which covered about a month on our budget."

"Ha!" Junior belked out joyously, "You know that reminds me of the time a couple of my guys got drunk on the job!" Suddenly Junior perked up at something and removed the scroll from his pocket looking at it, "Uh, sorry guys, but I gotta leave you two. Maybe we can finish this another time?"

Blake's voice came through the comm system for Ren and Nora, "They're onto us and called in help! Keep them off our backs! Oof!"

The two immediately realized what was going on. Nora quickly leapt over the bar and swung her left hand into a vice like grip on a lower portion of the club owner's body with a vicious grin on her face that left Junior in a painful expression and groan, "Sorry pal, but if you try going back there there's gonna be some other stuff you can't finish!"

Junior heard a cocking sound and looked to the side where Ren still sat at the bar, holding him at gunpoint as he continued sipping his water. Ren finished a sip and stared Junior down, "I'd advise against reinforcing your master."

"They're onto us and called in help! Keep them off our backs! Oof!" Ruby and Weiss were startled from their boring observations by the alert from Blake.

Ruby demounted her rifle from it's bipod emplaced position and got up in a pose clearly meant to initiate a leap off the rooftop. Weiss immediately yanked the red hood back by her cape, "What do you think you are doing?! We are supposed to cover the exit!"

Ruby looked back at Weiss quickly, "It's different now Weiss! If we don't go in and back them up they'll get captured instead of Torchwick!"

Weiss groaned, "Fine! But if Torchwick escapes…"

"He won't." Ruby said with determination. The two leapt off the roof together and ran towards the back entrance.

Blake and Yang stood poised between Roman and Neo and the exit from the office. Roman stood strangely un-stanced while trapped in the office by the girls and leaned up against his desk to give a sigh, "Look ladies, I really don't have time for this kind of thing so I tell you what, you two leave me alone and I'll call off the guys I have coming in to get you. You let me go, I let you go, and we both let bygones be bygones, whadaya say?"

Yang went into her wolfish grin, "Sorry Torchy boy, but we got our own backup, I doubt yours will be able to get you out of this one. Tell you what though, if you give up and come quietly we won't need to crack your skull together with your little ice cream cone's."

Roman smirked, "My little Neo here is a lot harder to crack than you think."

Roman immediately raised his cane and fired a shotgun blast at Yang who ducked it only to be uppercut by Neo's umbrella. Yang took the uppercut unflinchingly, had her eyes begin glowing red, and immediately began swinging into Neo who dodged every blow as though she could see them beforehand. Yang kept her eyes locked on Neo and shouted, "Blake! Get the boss so we can get out of here!"

Blake surged forward at Roman who fired another shot at her, but her image merely dissolved to reveal the true ninja ducked behind it. Blake rose from her low run into an upward slash with her ninjato that was narrowly parried by Roman. More such slashes were issued rapidly to every open point on the crime lord which he only just managed to deflect with his cane. Roman kept his own eyes fixed and issued a similar aid call to Yang's, "Neo! I could use a little help over here!"

Neo dodged another punch and followed through on that dodge into a cartwheel kick aimed at Blake which hit her into the shelves on the side of the room. As Neo engaged Blake Yang rushed Roman, "Switch partners and it's me you gotta fight Torchy boy!"

The blonde socked Roman straight in the jaw and he was thrown against the same shelves Blake had been. The crime boss shot another blast at her that the golden mane dodged once more before lunging forward to harry the criminal with a series of blows that the boss was forced to fend off with his cane without being able to strike back easily with his back against the wall. Meanwhile Blake and Neo kept sparring silently. Neo dodged each strike from the ninja but didn't seem to strike back herself. Blake's eyes narrowed at the teasing style and the ice cream girl smiled at her. Blake was thrown off by the grin and faltered a bit in her recovery from a missed slash, an opportunity Neo immediately pounced upon with a thrust of her umbrella that ended in a point blank shot against Blake. The kunoichi was knocked back towards the shelves again this time with a clearly shattered aura.

Yang gasped a bit at the sight of this and Roman wasted no time using the distraction as an advantage. The crime boss pounced on Blake and out of Yang's reach and tackled the black clad girl to the ground where he wrestled her for a second. Roman rose with the top of Blake's hair gripped tight in his extended left hand and his cane pointed point blank at the girl's back with his right. He used the struggling girl as a shield between him and Yang and panted out, "Okay Goldy, we've had our little fun time together, but now it's time for you to give up the game or else I'll paint this room with your friend here."

Yang gritted her teeth while held still by this new hostage based standoff.

Jaune and Pyrrha stood arrayed against the twins but neither side had moved yet. Jaune became a bit confused by this, "So… Are we just gonna stand around here all night or?…"

Pyrrha addressed her leader without taking her eyes off the twins, "We have the obvious reach advantage, as soon as they move in we'll strike and they know it."

"I see," Jaune responded to Pyrrha, "So you two are just trying to keep us away from our friends the same as we are keeping you away from your boss. Well in that case I'm fine staying put in some sort of mutual stall."

The white twin humphed, "We weren't stalling for that, stupid."

The red twin continued, "We were stalling to come up with a plan to beat you idiots."

"Uh… But you guys didn't talk to each other…" Jaune pointed out.

"We don't need to." Both twins said perfectly harmonized before immediately lunging towards Jaune. Jaune immediately brought the sword down from its roof and Pyrrha thrust with her spear but it was a feint. The red twin parried both strikes into each other with her crimson claws while the white twin altered her feigned bladed heel strike towards its true target Pyrrha, slashing her aura defended chest and pushing her away from Jaune. The twins then refocused on Jaune who swept wide arcs defensively to buy time for Pyrrha to rejoin. Before Pyrrha was back up though Miltia deflected a montante swing and Melanie offered a thrust heel into the opening in Jaune's side this created. At this moment Pyrrha made it back up and saw the incoming strike on her romance, gasping.

Pyrrha's aura glowed a bit by her will and Melanie's kick faltered, leaving just enough room for Jaune to dodge it. While Melanie stood a bit confused at the development Pyrrha lanced towards her from behind, only to get parried by Miltia again. The parry, oddly enough, was exactly when the unstruck Melanie spun into an immediate kick perfectly aimed at Pyrrha even though she hadn't had eyes on her. Pyrrha's aura glowed again and the kick was delayed enough for her to dodge out of the way just as a realization of the twins took hold in her, "Jaune, they can sense through each other or something!"

"Figured out our semblance huh?" Miltia started.

"Well we know yours now too!" Melanie finished.

Jaune and Pyrrha both rushed the twins from opposite sides, but each of the back to back twins easily fended off the strikes aimed at the other one and struck back in the gap created. Rather than Melanie, this time it was Miltia who aimed her claws at Pyrrha's opening, slashing rapidly and chewing through Pyrrha's aura like a woodchipper until it shattered and Pyrrha managed to recover her stance and fend off the final strike. Meanwhile Melanie kicked powerfully and took a chunk of Jaune's aura away while knocking him back.

"See why you can't touch us now losers?" Melanie asked mockingly.

"One of us is the spear and one of us is the shield, and with our semblance we can switch which one's which whenever we want." Miltia informed.

"There's not a pair on remnant that's a better team than us." The twins said harmoniously.

"Dammit…" Junior said in a groan as Nora held him by his manhood, "I shoulda known this was why you were here when you started talking about bounty hunting… Same job different country huh?"

"Not quite." Ren said flatly.

"Yeah! This time we're doing this for our friends not for money!" Nora then put her free hand to her chin, "Though getting the money will be nice… Ooh! Ren! We should use it to buy more party outfits!"

The happy hopping elicited from Nora by the thought of bounty caused the pain she was inflicting to become more excruciating upon Junior. The groans now locked the club owner's face into a grimace of anger and pain, "Yeah well you two aren't gonna wear those here ever again." Junior slapped a spot under the bar and an emergency claxon began blaring over the music. As the patrons evacuated the employees entered armed with submachine guns pointed towards the two bounty hunters. Junior smiled through the pain Nora was inflicting, "As a matter of fact, this is the last night out you'll ever have anywhere!"

Nora grasped the huge barkeep up and tossed him out from behind the bar into the way of the shooters. Meanwhile Ren spun, unleashed a hail of machine pistol fire on the guards, and leapt backwards behind the bar as he did. Junior landed on the ground and rolled a bit before standing back up and shouting at the minions, "What are you waiting for? Take these freelancers out dammit!"

One of the nearby ones hesitated, "Inside our own club boss? But we don't have insurance!"

Junior grabbed the thug by the collar and brought him in close with a snarl, "We have enough cash to cover it."

Junior pushed his goon away as he snatched the subgun from him and began unleashing a barrage from it, followed swiftly by the goons who ceased hesitating and began their own storm. The bottles burst into explosions of liquid overhead of Ren and Nora who were both oddly calm under these circumstances. Ren sighed as he reloaded his pistols, "Well Nora it seems we didn't manage to avoid the fight yet again."

"Want to take them out like usual Ren?" asked the heart chested girl as she hitched up her dress to retrieve her great maul from its concealment. Ren merely nodded and Nora grinned. The jade dragon leapt out from behind the bar in a plume of shenlong's mist which he trailed behind him as he wove through the gunners who occasionally hit each other with stray fire.

Junior himself fell prey to a stray shot to his aura from the mist maze and shouted out while enraged by it, "Cease fire! Don't shoot til you see them!"

The goons all began turning in place on the lookout. Intermittently they witnessed flashes in the mist and heard bursts of gunfire. Each one standing alone was struck down from behind by either a verdant or pink and silver blur that came out of the mist quick. Junior became angrier and angrier as he heard the cries of each of his men getting injured. The barkeep made his way back to the bar through the mist, dropped the smg he'd been using and pulled a large metal bat from beneath his work space. The bat shifted into a tubelike apparatus which Junior placed upon his shoulder, pulling the trigger placed upon it to fire a rocket into the center of the room.

The rocket's exhaust parted the mist quickly right before the shockwave of its explosion blew it out from the middle and set off a sprinkler system that began causing the mist to die down. Ren and Nora got up slowly from the shockwave amongst groaning henchmen and both stared down Junior from across the ballroom floor. The huge barkeep shifted his weapon back to a bat and leapt down onto the partially blown up dance floor, walking forward maliciously towards the pair of bounty huntsmen, "Like Senior always said, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself."

Ren stayed focused on Hei Xiong and shouted, "Nora!"

"On it!" Responded the Valkyrie who leapt forward to bring down her maul on Junior. The giant didn't fall to the strike, rather just as it was about to hit he reached up and grabbed the shaft of the hammer, using it to toss Nora into the air and clobber her with a one handed blow of the other club he owned. Ren shot a cable between the barkeep's legs and used it to slide between them and slash at one with the liu ye dao mode of his other stormflower. Unfortunately Junior's aura held and he reached down fast and grabbed Ren by his sprinkler wetted hair, yanking him up before he could slide away and then slamming him back to the ground, destroying what little aura the jade dragon had remaining.

Junior raised his bat two handed for a final strike on Ren but Nora leapt back in and performed an upward strike with her hammer on the club, knocking it up and behind Junior and putting the giant a bit off balance. Nora then used the opening to strike the left knee joint of the barkeep, bringing him down a peg. Ren lying on his back used the lowered position of the foe to spring into a full body double kick which struck Junior in the jaw and sent him stumbling a bit backwards as well as getting Ren back to his feet in a fighting stance with his sabers. The pair rushed Junior simultaneously but Junior merely held ground and wound up for a swing to sweep both. Nora realized this but a bit too late, while she was able to push Ren out of reach of the swing she herself took it full force and her aura collapsed as she was knocked into the wall of the dance floor. As Nora rose slowly back to her feet the rain from the sprinklers ran out and the imposing Junior seethed with rage at the two bounty partners, "If I was one of you two I'd run. But then again I doubt you'd make it far."

Ruby and Weiss ran up to the back doors and tried kicking them open but the two were unable to do so. Ruby looked at Weiss, "They're locked!"

"Stand back Rose!" Ruby did as Weiss said and the heiress created a white glyph on the door and infused it with a handful of loose dust she had in a pouch on her belt.

Ruby went wide eyed at the technique Weiss was clearly using to break in as the heiress moved to the same position, "You're gonna set off an explosion?!"

Weiss looked egotistically at Ruby, "It is one of the advantages of a construct type semblance Rose."

Ruby got excited, "Set it off! I wanna see what happens!"

Weiss did precisely that and the set of doors was concealed behind a plume of orange flame for a split second before being concealed instead behind smoke which cleared to show a hall blaring a claxon and flashing red lights. Ruby went even wider eyed, "Wow… We gotta teach Ren and Blake how to do this with their constructs…"

Several disheveled goons emerged from various alcoves and branching paths the two girls could see, likely alerted by the sound of the explosion. Ruby immediately picked some off with her rifle and Weiss charged forward on a heel glyph. Ruby launched herself in as well soon after. The thugs they fought through were too busy getting themselves together to fight back and at first the pair of girls was able to fell them easily. Eventually though the backroom inhabitants began wielding their guns properly. Ruby and Weiss began having to avoid and take cover from the fire as well as unleash their own strikes, slowing them down in their advance towards where the location of their friends in danger were.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted across the hall to the alcove in which her partner took cover.

"What?" Weiss shouted back.

"We've gotta clear these guys faster!"

"And how do you expect to do that?"

"I think you know exactly how you usually do it."

Weiss' eyes widened then glared daggers at Ruby, "No! There is no way in hell I am going to set a building on fire Rose!"

"You don't need to aim at the building, just shoot a jet at the gunmen!"

"You think I can control it like that? It is not like the explosive glyphs I can make Rose! It goes wherever it pleases!"

"Well do you have a better idea about how to back up our team and catch Torchwick!"

Weiss thought with gritted teeth for a moment but eventually groaned, "Fine Rose, but if we have to run out of a fire carrying a tied up criminal just know that I am blaming you!"

The white dressed girl spun out of cover and unleashed a flame on the hall they were storming right down the middle. Those henchmen caught in it screamed and rolled around while the lucky few who weren't were suppressed from being able to fire. Weiss cut off the burst quickly and Ruby immediately picked off with her rifle those who peeked back out after the roar of flames died out. After a few seconds it seemed everything was unignited and Ruby walked over to Weiss, "See Ice Queen? You can always use a little fire without lighting the whole building up."

Weiss grunted in disgust, "Can we just go? We've already wasted too much time as it is."

"Yeah, let's move." The two girls ran upstairs quickly as a small ember fell quietly onto one of the curtains which kept the rooms private.

"Neo, open the rat tunnel." Roman called out to his small helper as he held Blake at gunpoint. Neo casually walked over to the shelves that they'd knocked around during the fight and reached behind them, flipping some switch which caused them to slide aside and reveal a secret door with a keypad on it.

Yang spat from the spot she stood still in with eyes crimson, "You cowardly little son of a…"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Roman interrupted, "Not cowardly, cunning! And practical, after all you can't be doing stuff that gets the huntsmen to come after you without a way to lose them now, can you? Once we're on our way out of here you can take back your little friend with her…" Roman looked perplexedly at the hand he held Blake's head by, "weird feeling bow and be on your own way out."

"You think we won't chase you down as soon as you let go of her?" Yang said as she observed the somewhat frightened Blake.

"No… What I think is that there's lots of paths out of here that that leads to and I'm not going to tell you which one I'm taking." Roman responded. Neo typed the code into the door's keypad and it sounded a tone of opening before swinging wide. "Welp," Roman said as he began shuffling towards the door with Blake, "it's been real fun hanging out with you girls today but I'm afraid it's time for us to part ways."

Yang gritted her teeth and Neo smiled in devilish cuteness her direction as she pranced towards the exit with Roman. Suddenly and without warning though an explosion ripped the main door into the office off its hinges and crashed it across the room into the desk. Weiss and Ruby charged in and Ruby fired at Neo as soon as she caught a glimpse of anyone other than who she knew, though Neo was able to take cover from it. Blake used the distraction to kick Roman and broke free of his grip on her hair, rolling away from him and back into a crouching stance with her focus on him. Blake was in a tense stance, but everyone else including the crime boss seemed to just stand there stunned for a moment as they looked at her. Roman was the first to break the silence with a laugh, "Ha! No wonder the bow felt weird!"

Blake's eyes went wide and she saw her black ribbon still clutched in Torchwick's hand. She reached up and felt the top of her head and instead of feeling the velvet ribbon she felt an animal's pivoting ear. Ruby was the first to speak up for the good side, "Blake… You're a faun?…" The cat eared girl immediately broke away running into the escape route and Ruby cried out after her "Blake wait!"

Weiss shook free of her trance and aimed her rapier at Roman who called out to his assistant, "Neo get us out of here!"

Neo leapt forward and grabbed Roman just as Weiss shot a bolt of ice towards him. As soon as the bolt hit Roman though he seemed to shatter into a million pieces along with Weiss' entire view of the room. Behind the shattered mirror the door to the escape route slammed shut and Yang ran up to it and began beating on it, "Argh! They got away! And so did Blake! There's no way we can know which way they went in there!"

"We need to leave." Ruby said seriously.

"Wait Rose." Weiss said as she quickly drew her scroll and began photographing the board with blueprints on it, "Even if we can't capture Torchwick I want to acquire his plans."

"Fine, just hurry it up!" Yang said.

Ruby pressed her ear, "Infil this is overwatch, the mission is aborted! I repeat, mission aborted! Escape and head to the rendezvous point! Out!"

Weiss stopped photographing, "Ok I have all of it, let's go."

Ruby went back over towards the entrance to the office and went wide eyed as she looked down the corridor and called back, "Uh… I don't think we can get out this way anymore…"

"What?" Weiss said as she went up to Ruby's side. Weiss looked down the hall and saw an orange glow coming from within the stairwell and black smoke rising up through it. Weiss turned her head to Ruby with narrow eyes, "I blame you for this."

"Can you use an explosive glyph on the escape door?" Ruby asked in a stressed tone.

"I'm out of enough loose fire dust for that." Weiss answered.

"Dammit." Yang said, "Rubes, looks like I'm gonna need you to shoot me."

"What?!" Weiss shouted.

"Ok!" Ruby said fondly towards Yang.

The red hood chambered another round and aimed down at Yang, "Go for the chest wouldja Rubes? That's where I got the most cushioning after all."

"What on remnant are you two maniacs doing?!" Weiss shouted.

"Relax Weiss," Ruby said "we just need to charge up Yang's semblance so she can bust the door down."

"Her semblance?" Weiss said still confused.

"That's right Ice Queen," Yang said happily, "I can convert the force from stuff that hits my aura into strength that's amplified over the amount of force I originally took in. I call it 'Too Hot to Touch!'"

Weiss' face went flat, "That is the most idiotic title…"

Ruby interrupted by taking the rifle shot into Yang's chest and knocked her back. Weiss gasped. Yang rose up from the hit with her aura glowing gold and her eyes glowing red, "Time to punch our way outta here!"

Yang wound up and launched a full body jab into the coded metal door, busting it from its hinges and leaving it skittering across the floor of the hall ahead. Weiss looked wide eyed at the show of strength and Ruby grabbed her by the arm, "Come on, let's go!"

The three girls all ran out of the now burning building together.

Ren and Nora both faced off against the hulking Junior while hearing the comm broadcast from Ruby, "Infil this is overwatch, the mission is aborted! I repeat, mission aborted! Escape and head to the rendezvous point! Out!"

Ren looked at Nora and the girl nodded then addressed Junior, "Sorry Junior, we gotta leave now! Bye!"

Junior shouted angrily at the redhead, "You aren't going anywhere!"

Ren addressed the giant calmly as well, "I'm afraid you may have more on your hands than us right now." The jade dragon pointed over towards the flames that were now pouring out from the entrance to the back rooms and Junior went wide eyed at the sight. Ren continued, "I'm aware that you were not too against damaging the easily repaired bar and floor, but since you are uninsured you may wish to keep your entire property from burning down instead of pursuing us."

"Argh! Damn you!" Junior yelled as he climbed out of the dance floor and fetched a fire extinguisher with which he began fighting the blaze.

"Have a good night Junior!" Nora cried as she and Ren fled the burning club. Nora spoke with Ren more quietly as they ran out, "That was a close one Ren, if he didn't have to fight the fire it's us that woulda been toast!"

Ren nodded and the two burst out the front entrance of the club to see Jaune and Pyrrha still in the middle of their fight with the twins. Ren sighed and produced a pistol, firing a burst into the ground around the twins, "You are now outnumbered and your employer needs help fighting the fire," Ren pointed a thumb back to the building smoke could now be seen emanating from, "I'd advise you to disengage."

Melanie and Miltia looked at each other and then got out of their stances, raised their chins, and haughtily walked back inside. Jaune and Pyrrha looked at Ren in a bit of astonishment at his negotiation skills. Jaune perked up out of the trance, "Uh… Alright then! Good job handling that fight Ren! Now let's hightail it out of here!"

Team JNPR ran off down the street to the assigned rendezvous point.

Junior put out the last few flames he saw with an extinguisher that he tossed in a pile with a bunch of empty ones. The twins came back over to him from where they'd been engaged in the same thing. Junior tiredly addressed them, "Everything put out on you guys' end?" The twins nodded a bit forlorn at Junior who sighed and plopped down where he stood to sit on the floor exhausted, "Good…" Junior heard the front entrance open and began shouting out, "Sorry we're..." Junior looked over as he shouted and saw the bowler hatted man and his assistant entering through the front way. The giant stood and dusted himself off, "Boss?! You came back? I thought you'd move spots after something like this happened?"

Roman twirled his cane as he walked over to Junior, "I just waited to make sure those huntsgirls left before returning."

"But what if they call the cops on this place?"

"I doubt a bunch of freelancers would, but even so we don't have enough time to move hideouts. We're too close to when we have to pull off our biggest job yet."

"We're still gonna go through with that? After everything that happened here tonight?"

Roman closed with Junior and put the tip of his cane under the giant's chin, "We don't change plans because of one little incident with some girls, especially not our most important one of all time!" Roman withdrew his cane and began walking over towards the bar, "Call every man we have back here and have them clean this place up as well as they can. We'll need them all together for the heist anyway." Roman sat down on a barstool and sighed at the shattered bottles, "Great… Right when I could use a drink…"