Cinder
The door to Cinder's hideout flew open as the woman in tattered red dress stormed inside. She didn't even stop to close the door and made a beeline straight towards her quarters. The sudden sound alerted the other occupants of the building.
The first to show up was a girl with a medium-brown skin, green hair and red eyes. Despite her rather revealing clothes, she did a good job of looking intimidatingly. Expecting trouble after such a violent entrance, she came fully combat ready, with both her sickles out, preparing to take on anyone stupid enough to storm their hideaway in such a brazen manner. She probably didn't expect to find Cinder, who looked like she just finished a fight with a pack of Grimm. Emerald froze in place for a moment before lowering her weapons.
"What is it, Em? Is it worth getting off the couch to see?," the male voice, coming from the room Emerald stormed out of, awoke the girl from the stupor.
"W-what happend, Cinder?! Are you alright?" Ignoring the voice, the green haired girl asked her boss in worry and made a few steps towards her before being stopped by an outstretched palm.
"I appreciate your concern Emerald, but I'm perfectly fine. Just a ruined dress," Cinder's tone was as calm as ever, her anger and frustration having seemingly completely dissipated.
Emerald was about to ask her another question, when a third figure walked into a room.
It was a young and well built man with grey hair. He also wore a slate gray and black jacket that covered his upper body.
He stopped right beside Emerald and whistled.
"I take it things didn't go quite as planned, did they?"
"There were some complications," the woman answered. "I'm afraid our job here has just become a bit more difficult."
There was a short pause. Finally, Emerald spoke.
"So, what are we gonna do now? We can't really do much without the manpower. The White Fang needs more time to gather men, but we can't just sit back and wait for them. We have to do something."
"I'm fully aware of the situation," replied Cinder, slightly annoyed. "But you are right. If we are to succeed, then we need men, as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, there won't be help from White Fang any time soon. That means we'll have to take matters into our own hands."
"Finally some action!" Mercury exclaimed. "But what exactly are we gonna do?"
Cinder's smile grew menacingly.
"If we take out Torchwick, it will inevitably provoke the war between gangs, causing chaos and destruction. I'm certain that there will be plenty of men for hire in the mess, that the underworld will become after losing its ruler."
Mercury and Emerald nodded, seeing sense in their boss's plan.
"Sounds good," said the grey haired criminal. "But how are we gonna find him? I doubt he will agree to another meeting."
"Don't worry about it Mercury, I have prepared a back up plan just for the situation like this."
The woman walked past the duo and then stopped. Looking over her shoulder, she said
"We will start at morning, so I'd advise you to go to sleep now. We have a lot of work ahead of us and I need you in a good shape."
With that Cinder walked off.
Roman
"For god's sake Neo, you're taking it too seriously. You heard the Doc, it's nothing to worry about."
To say that Roman loved Neo's company would be a major understatement. Most of the time he wouldn't even consider trading it for anything else in the world. But sometimes, when she was too worried about him, she would treat him like a handicapped nine year old. Needless to say, Roman didn't fancy feeling like a handicapped nine year old.
At the moment he was lying on his bed in a new and clean T-Shirt with Jack-o'-lanterns on it and an ice pack pressed to his temple.
When Roman hit the container, after Cinder sent him flying, his head took quite a hit. At first he tried to ignore the pain, but it soon became clear that it wasn't going away anytime soon and it started really bothering him. Neo was worried that Roman might have gotten a concussion, but Ash was quick to reassure both Roman and Neo that he lacked the symptoms caused by the concussion, such as the loss of consciousness, slurred speech, delayed response to questions and forgetfulness.
The pair was quite surprised by Ash's extensive medical knowledge. Though it did turn out that he actually used his scroll to search for information.
After they had reached their base, their medic, whom everyone simply called the Doc, confirmed that it wasn't a concussion and there was no danger to Roman's health. However, the Doc advised him to get as much rest as possible and stay in bed. That way the headache would soon be gone.
With that in mind, they reasonably decided to postpone any planning sessions until the next day in order to let Roman rest. The criminal in question didn't mind at all. He was all too happy for the opportunity to get a proper rest in a long time. Not long after the Doc's prognosis, Roman was already in his bed, sleep overtaking him almost instantly.
The next day his headache was still present. It was not as severe as the day before, but still. His now free time he planned on spending by watching a Spruce Willis movie, since there was a new one soon to come out and Roman wanted to refresh his memory. Despite what some people said about the movies, he thoroughly enjoyed them, even though plots of most of these films were about the main hero defeating the criminals, that reminded Roman of himself, except for the fact that Roman was much more smarter than any of the villians onscreen, of course. Getting comfortable, he was ready to start. There was, however, one thing he didn't take into account.
"Give that back, Neo!" For some reason Neo thought that watching an action movie filled with explosions, firefights and whatnot right after a head trauma wouldn't do good to his injured head.
The multicoloured devil stood a meter apart from his bed with her hands crossed, one hand holding a remote control. No matter what he said and how he asked, Neo wouldn't budge. Roman was even considering a throwing at her one of the ice packs she had brought, but decided against it. Aside from being entertaining, it wouldn't do any good.
And so here he was, lying on the bed with a headache, completely helpless, at the mercy of his partner, who was hell bent on speeding up his recovery, even at the cost of his comfort.
Roman sighed, accepting the fact that there was nothing he could do to persuade her.
"Fine, no TV, what do you propose me to do then?"
Neo put a finger to her chin and started looking around his room for anything. Finally some item caught her attention. Walking over to his table, she put down a remote control and took a pack of cards. Turning to Roman, she shook the pack and raised an eyebrow.
After a moment of consideration he shrugged. "I guess that works too."
Neo smiled and made her way to Roman. Before she even reached the bed, however, there was a knock on the door.
Roman looked at his scroll. It was only 11 AM. Their meeting was supposed to take place in the evening.
"What is it, I'm on a break now!" he shouted.
Ash's muffled voice came through the door. "We've run into some complications, boss. It's urgent."
Rolling his head back, he let an exasperated sigh escape his lips. 'I just can't catch a break, can I'.
"Fine, come in," Roman finally shouted. With that Ash's massive figure stepped through the doorway, walked inside the room and stopped right in front of the bed, that Neo was now also sitting on.
"It better be worth interrupting our private time," Roman said, gesturing at himself and Neo.
"It is, boss," Ash started. "We got the word that cops are now looking into the commotion you caused yesterday."
"Yeah, so what?"
So far there was nothing out of ordinary to Torchwick. By now everyone knew the drill: cops start investigating some of his recent wrongdoings, they start asking people around and collecting evidence. After that, right people in right places start getting mail with money and/or threats and suddenly there are no valid evidence and eyewitnesses didn't actually see anything. Even if everyone knows that it was Roman Torchwick, who was behind it all (which wasn't rare, considering his love for publicity and the attention he got out of it), there was nothing anyone could do.
As some people joked, 'half of the police department is on his payroll, the other half is watching parking slots'.
Ash, being his lieutenant, knows how to deal with the cops on his boss' back like no one else.
So, unless something's gone reallywrong, he wouldn't be concerning Roman with that.
"For some reason, they seem to be far more determined than usual to finish the investigation,' Ash continued.
"Do they know it was me?"
"They are sure it is you, they just need evidence for the record."
"Hm, have you sent them our little happy letters?"
"We have. Chief of police Donaldson. After receiving the mail he actually slowed the investigation down."
The criminal shrugged, "So, what's the problem then?"
"An hour ago he and 6 other officers got relieved of their duties and arrested for bribery. Judging by the files we got, the new chief of police will be even less cooperative. There is currently an investigation ongoing in the police department. I think that in a few days most of our cops will end up just like Donaldson."
A moment of stunned silence passed.
In his long criminal career Roman learned not to underestimate the police. Even while having them under his thumb, he was perfectly aware of the danger they posed, he was just confident in his ability to timely redirect their attention onto other matters, away from him, through different means. Still, learning that the police took such drastic measures just to investigate the fight in the docks was enough to astound him. Why were they so interested in it? After all, there were far more serious offenses they'd just let pass in the past.
Now, it seemed, they were really gunning for him.
Looking at Neo, he could see the same expression of surprise on her face as he had.
"Well then, any idea what's gotten into them? What's so special about the fight yesterday?"
"No idea. But it's most likely that the order came from the very top, otherwise they wouldn't take it that seriously," Ash shrugged.
Roman nodded thoughtfully, agreeing with his lieutenant.
"But if you want to know my opinion," the grey haired mountain of a man spoke again. "It's probably connected to the woman you fought.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Roman could already feel his headache coming in a full force. Perhaps it's better to wrap it up before he started feeling as if his head was being bashed with a hammer, not to mention he was not so enthusiastic about making decisions in this state.
"Ok, here's the plan: first, we lay low. All current operations must be put on hold for now, we don't wanna attract police's attention right now. Second, find out as much as you can about Cinder. I'm certain she's gonna try to get to me, that's why we must get to her first."
"Got it, boss."
"Good, now go. You're giving me a headache."
Once Ash was gone, Roman turned to Neo, took the cards from her and started shuffling them.
"Neo, be a dear and lock the door, I don't want any further interruptions."
