Chapter 9: A Drunk, a Mute, and Several Mistakes

NOTE: I do NOT own RWBY. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this, now would I?

Epizon slashed at the silent girl in front of him with Mend and Rend in a cross, which the girl blocked by flicking her parasol open and holding it in front of her. His smirk died as it somehow blocked his blades with only slight damage visible to show for it. He quickly kicked off the ground backwards as she flicked her weapon closed and stabbed at him, missing as he flew backwards. He slashed Mend at her horizontally after flicking the slide all the way, watching as she repeated the same block as earlier, flicking her parasol open to block, and blocking the segments of Mend with little trouble.

He flicked the slide on Mend back into its original position, watching the girl tilt her head in what looked to be confusion as the blade segments flew back into place in Mend with a CLICK. She shrugged before dashing towards him. He readied both of his weapons as she approached, before rolling backwards as she leapt forwards, blade plunging towards his chest. As he came out of his roll, he swung both blades at her horizontally and watched in satisfaction as she attempted to block with her parasol, like she had the previous two times. He immediately flicked the switch on Mend halfway, and smirked as her Aura flashed briefly pink on her side, where Mend had curled around her parasol to hit. He flicked the slide on Mend back to its starting position again as he leapt away.

"So do you want to give up, or do you want to keep on fighting?" Epizon said as he smirked at her. She had no response except for a glare and then he just stood there. He paused at that before slashing Mend horizontally at her, flicking the switch all the way and scowling as the image of where the girl had been shattered. It looked like she ran away. Oh well, he still had - he ducked as he heard a swish of metal quickly flying through where his neck had previously been located.

Nevermind. She was just pulling an invisibility trick like that mint girl. He quickly leapt away from where he, and by extension, the now invisible and silent girl had been, before focusing on the area around him. After all, if she so much as moved a tiny pebble, he'd be able to pinpoint her general location, and Mend would help solve the rest. He relaxed slightly as he neither saw nor heard any movements nearby. Well, at least until he heard a metallic ting behind him and saw a slight furrow in the ground 2 feet behind him as he turned around. He tried to dodge again, but this time was too slow, and as she slashed him across the chest with her blade, his Aura shattered in a burst of faint, fragmented purple light that vanished as quickly as it appeared.

He rolled the rest of the way backwards and checked over where she had cut him and scowling as he saw red spilling out of the large cut in his coat and sleeping into his coat. "Do you have any idea how aggravating it's going to be to wash this blood out of my coat?" He wasn't surprised when he heard no response. "I need to get back into shape though. I usually wouldn't have gotten caught off guard just because a brat like you pulled an invisibility trick." He sighed before stabbing Rend into the round and reaching into his coat before pulling out his flask. He shook it and frowned. "Goddamn it. Empty again. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have some extra alcohol for me, would you?" He ducked as he felt metal cut through the top of his shoulder and he winced slightly. "I'll take that as a no." He put his flask away and grabbed Rend. "Well, anyways, let's finish this up, shall we?" He pulled Rend out of the ground before cracking his neck.

He saw a faint hummer in the air in front of him and flicked his blades upwards in a cross as they blocked the blade of the invisible girl's parasol, before he flicked them downwards into two diagonal slashes, which he saw connect as the air in front of him appeared to shatter like glass and the girl flew backwards from it. "Huh. Pretty neat Semblance." He ducked as she lunged at him and heard a metallic screech fill the air as it slid over the top of his right shoulder. The girl paused and blinked in confusion before her expression quickly morphed into one of regret and pain as his right fist plowed into her stomach, causing her Aura to flare as she flew backwards.

He sheathed Mend and Rend in their respective sheathes before walking towards her. "So, I figure that pays back the hurt you gave to me, so how about you don't fight back. I've got a bounty to collect. Either way it's going to happen, it's just whether you choose the easy way or the hard way." The girl haphazardly flipped backwards, aiming the tip of her parasol, and it's blade at him with a fierce scowl. "Ok, fun way it is." He got into a rough boxer's stance as he waited for her to attack, before noticing a slight flicker in the air before a faint shimmer moved from where her, or more accurately, her afterimage, was standing towards his back. He waited for it to get within reach before punching at about chest height for him, barely missing the girl who appeared with her face inches from his right fist and attempted to stab him in the chest. He quickly slapped the blade to the side with his left hand, hitting her in the stomach with his left leg as he executed what looked roughly like a roundhouse kick, causing her to fly backwards as her Aura shimmered around her, faint cracks visible in it as she rolled to a stop.

He quickly walked towards her and raised his left hand to knock her unconscious with a left hook before wincing as he felt her stab him in the gut with her parasol, smirking at him as she staggered up. He jumped backwards and held the stab wound with his left hand before letting it go as the blood stain visible on the front of his coat stopped spreading. He blurred forwards and brought his right hand into her stomach before dragging her body into, and then through the highway below them as her Aura shattered, and a cloud of dust flew away from the point of impact.

(Song End)

Ruby thought everything was going great! She frowned at her feet before revising that thought. Except for maybe the people that she and her team had endangered, but they would hopefully be fine! She tuned back into the conversation her team was having in time for Weiss to finish off her rant.

"-he's a dangerous criminal, and he would definitely try to iie his way into escape if we let him! However, that doesn't mean we should blindly charge after him again! What if he isn't bluffing? We would have condemned who knows how many people to death because you decided to go off on some crusade Blake! I want to catch him just as much as you do! He's stealing from my family's company, after all. That doesn't mean I won't look at this logically though! Even if he is bluffing, we might be able to get some useful information from him that he might not let slip in an interrogation!"

Blake scowled at her. "He needs to be stopped! And as you said, he's a dangerous criminal! He wouldn't tell us anything true, and if he did, it would just be useless information! What would even make you think he'd share honest information with us! He's just doing this to save his own skin!"

Ruby glanced nervously back towards here Torchwick was standing before relaxing. He hadn't moved much, all that seemed to have changed was that he was smoking a cigar now. He seemed to be looking up at the highway above them with worry, which was strange, but she didn't pay much attention to it. That is, until she heard the faint rings of metal against metal and realised that something must be going on up there, and it probably involved his backup. She turned to her team. "Guys! Stop fighting! He might lie, but he also might not! From what you've said Blake, it sounds like he wouldn't normally work for the White Fang unless he was forced to or something like that! So maybe he's not the person behind everything! We might as well take the information he has, and wait this out hoping for a better chance to finish this. It's a better plan than attacking him and hoping that he doesn't blow up a bunch of innocent people because of us! Also, you guys may not have noticed since you were arguing, but something's going on up on the highway, and that either means we have backup or he has back up!"

Blake and Weiss winced before Blake perked up before frowning. "All I can make out is lots of metallic screeches and clinking right now. I don't know what's happening, but someone's fighting. It's probably some backup for Torchwick and a Huntsman or… well-trained vigilante." she said after a pause. "I do know it's not Epizon."

Ruby paused. "How do you know that? Isn't he after Torchwick?" She looked over at said person again to make sure he hadn't moved.

"He was at the rally, but he seemed to think Torchwick wasn't the right guy or something, because Sun and I saw him slip away as we ran for our lives. I doubt he'd come back to help us even if he did know that hundreds of people were at risk."

Yang spoke up. "Look, let's just talk to Torchwick, wait for our chance, pummel him, and if his backup shows up, we beat them up too! It works out! We try a bit of both solutions, and everyone's happy! Any objections?!" Ruby shook her head instantly before turning to Weiss and Blake, who were looking at each other with exasperation before they too shook their heads.

"Good! Then let's go talk with Torchwick!" Ruby said as she turned and walked towards where the gentleman thief was standing before clearing her throat. "We're ready to talk!"

Torchwick smirked as he turned towards them. "Wonderful! Now, how about you give me some information first, hmm?"

Ruby opened her mouth to speak before Weiss interrupted her. "Absolutely not! You will answer a question of ours truthfully, and then we will do the same. This will continue until such a time as it s no longer necessary."

Torchwick sighed. "Fine Ice Queen. What's your first question?"

Weiss glared at him with indignation as Ruby responded. "Tell us about why you're working with the White Fang!"

Torchwick blinked. "You have any question to ask, and that's your question?" Ruby nodded. " Whatever kid. I'm currently working with the White Fang on a very large shared business venture because our mutual employer forces us to cooperate." Blake perked up at this as she remembered him mentioning an employer at the rally as well. "Now, for my question. On a scale from1 to 10, how would you rate my sense of fashion? Minus the dust and all that. It's always important to dress well as a master criminal after all. And please leave snark out of your reply."

Ruby perked up at this. "I'd say about a 6. It would be higher, but I think you'd look better if you wore a little more red!" Her team looked at her as Weiss face-palmed and Torchwick chuckled.

Blake shook her head. "Ignoring that, what do you mean your employer forces you to cooperate with the White Fang? I hadn't heard of you working for anyone in recent memory until today?"

Torchwick scowled. "Trust me Kitty Cat, if I could stay self-employed, I would. The bitch who's leashed me and the leader of Vale's branch of the White Fang isn't someone that either he nor I could survive, even if we worked with all of our combined assets. My payment for working for her is getting to keep the lives of me and those acquaintances of mine that wouldn't work as willingly for her. I step out of line or fail her too much, and I'll get burnt to ashes. I wouldn't recommend you kids try any shit against her either, because she alone is more than you could handle. Add in her minions and some organization and Mistress and shit she keeps talking about, and you brats might as well be facing down death itself."

Blake's eyes widened at this. Not only was whoever pulled the strings on this operation strong enough to make both Adam and Torchwick submit, but she also worked with and for other people of similar goals, and presumably, levels of strength equal or greater than her own? That was a terrifying thought. She was knocked out of her thoughts by Torchwick' next question.

"So, for my next question, how about you kids tell me why you're even getting involved with this whole fiasco? I mean, if you're trying to die, then getting in the way of my employer is a good way to do so, but otherwise, if you were just trying to stop me or whatever, it would have been better for you to tell the authorities."Torchwick said with a chuckle.

Blake scowled at him. "We're doing this to help the people of Vale! And we couldn't bring this up to the police. How many times have they managed to catch you? We managed to do it within 2 attempts!"

Torchwick burst into laughter. "Kitty Cat, if you were doing this to help the people of Vale then you wouldn't have led me onto a highway full of them. Some of them might very well have died because of you. Authorities aren't limited to the police, it also includes fully trained Hunters. They'd have done a lot better in this situation than you kids have. The cops have caught me on multiple occasions. It's just I've got some acquaintances who get me out of jail every time. And finally, this is actually Red's third attempt, and you haven't even caught me yet. You've cornered me, but I have ways to make you either back off, or be responsible for many deaths. That is why the police would do better than you. They may not have as much individual skill for the most part, but they make up for it with numbers, proper training, and communication, which would let them spread the rest of their forces and defuse my bombs while I talked with negotiators. They definitely have their failings, as seen by my presence here, but they wouldn't have led an Atlesian paladin into a highway of civilians. They wouldn't have made most of the mistakes that you kids have. Next question?"

Ruby continued the conversation after pausing to realize the problems her and her team had created. "Who is your employer? If they're forcing you and the White Fang to do all this, then maybe we can help?"

Torchwick burst into laughter. "Red, do I look like I have a deathwish? If she even gets the slightest thought that I might have betrayed her then my acquaintances and I are dead. Ask a different question"

Ruby frowned before her eyes widened. "Are you actually connected to the deaths of Epizon's family?"

Torchwick blinked in confusion. "Who is that?" At that moment, a loud crash sounded from the highway above them 20 feet to his right and chunks of concrete and dust fell down, the forms of 2 people seen vaguely through the falling debris and dust before everything settled.

Team RWBY and Torchwick turned to the large pile of concrete chunks before Torchwick added in his thoughts on the destruction that had unfolded. "What the hell?" He turned to Team RWBY and chuckled nervously. "So, I know it's not my turn to ask questions, but did you guys bring any backup that could do that?"

Team RWBY continued to stare at the pile of debris with wide eyes as Ruby answered without looking "No. I think I'd remember someone like that."

Torchwick sighed. "Of course it couldn't be something simple." He paused and cocked his head in thought before turning to team RWBY. "Do you think whoever caused that got crushed under the rubble?" As he said this the large pile of concrete shifted slightly and smaller chunks of concrete fell away from it. "Nevermind."

He waited for a moment for any other signs of movement before frowning. He then winced as the pile completely collapsed, and flinched as a faint crunching sound filled the area. He turned to team RWBY and sighed. Of course this was their response. Every single one of the brats except for Blake looked like they were going to throw up every meal they had eaten in the past year, and Blake looked perplexed.

"I can get why Red, Ice Queen, and the blonde over there look sick, but why do you just look confused?"

Blake twitched before turning to him. "I still hear something. Whoever was in there isn't dead."

Torchwick tilted his head in confusion. "Then how the hell is the debris flat? They couldn't have very well dug their way out from under there, now could they?"

Blake shrugged. "I don't know. I just now I can hear something faint underneath us."

Torchwick snorted. "What, like sewers or something? You're hallucinating if you think someone could dig their way out from under that heap of concrete while keeping said concrete from crushing them. And while there are people who could probably do that, why the fuck would they be here of all places? That is a very short list of Huntsmen and other people with Auras, and most of them either don't give a shit or don't have time to give a shit about wonderful criminals like myself." He froze as he heard a loud cracking sound behind him and turned around to see a gloved hand sticking out of the concrete ground. "Nevermind. Apparently someone did care enough. You wouldn't mind letting me get away, right? I still have the detonator, after all."

Ruby giggled a little behind him and he frowned. "This isn't exactly a laughing matter Red. This is a matter of life and death for anyone near any of those shops! He said as he raised his hand with the detonator. Or, more precisely, the hand that was holding a pencil. "How the hell? That shouldn't even be possible. I was literally holding the damn detonator!"

Blake shrugged. "It's worked before. It's something weird that I noticed. Haven't you ever been able to do something that seems physically impossible before?"

Torchwick opened his mouth to reply and paused before shrugging. "Fair enough. So uh-" he was interrupted by a louder crack as the fist that had been sticking out of the ground pushed out farther and smashed part of the ground apart. He gulped. "How about I take you up on the whole taking me to the cops thing. That seems safe right about now." He said as he turned back towards them.

Blake smirked and started to respond before pausing in confusion as another crack and then a loud thump echoed throughout the area. Torchwick paused and turned around, eyes widening as he saw a pin and black haired figure lying unconscious on the ground next to the now larger hole. "Neo!" he started running towards her.

A louder crack rang out through the street as the gloved fist ripped through another section of the ground next to the hole before gripping the side, an ungloved pale hand rising up next to it before a grunt filled the air and a familiar battered trench coat wearing figure leapt out of the hole.

"Motherfucker, that was a bad plan." Epizon looked up and grinned as he saw Torchwick, grin disappearing at the sight of the Huntresses in training behind him. "Look, Torchwick, this has been fun and all, but I'm tired, pissed off, I need a drink, and have a meeting I've been putting off for months in the hopes of catching you, all to learn you're just a jackass who wasted half a year of my time. So I'm going to use your bounty to buy some drinks, and you are going to enjoy yourself with this stabby bitch somewhere. You brats just don't blow anything up."

Torchwick sighed. "Fuck."

Epizon picked up Neo and slung her over his right shoulder before walking up to Torchwick. "So is this going to be the easy way or the fun way? She chose the fun way."

"Whichever way gives me less pain and an easier way out of jail." Torchwick said with a wry grin.

Epizon smirked as he leaned forward. "Headbutt it is."

Torchwick blinked. "What?"

Epizon smashed his forehead into Torchwick's, causing Torchwick to drop limp and unconscious as he flew a couple feet backwards. Epizon blinked. "That worked better than I thought it would. Anyways, you brats have fun with Beacon or whatever, I'm going to get drunk as hell and meet with your headmaster or guidance counselor or whatever tomorrow. Hope not to see you then." He packed up and slung Torchwick over his left shoulder, before turning to leave.

Yang growled and ran towards him, grabbing the back of his coat. "I have been looking for you for a while! Tell me what you know about my mother!"

Epizon turned around and replied in annoyance. "Who the fuck are you and why should I give a shit about your mother."

"My name's Yang Xiao-Long, and you should care because Junior told me you were the guy to talk to about her!" Yang said as Ruby ran towards her and tried, and failed to drag Yang off of Epizon.

Epizon glared at her before closing his eyes and breathing in slowly, before opening them again, a sadistic smirk growing on his face. "I don't care who you are, but since Junior recommended you to me, I will talk to you at some point more convenient to me, like when I'm not carrying two unconscious criminals. Now, I am going to leave, and you are going to let go of my coat within the next 5 seconds or I will decide to postpone drinking away my frustration in favor of letting off some steam by knocking you around. If your team interferes, I will gladly extend the same treatment, as I am tired, thirsty, lightly aggravated, and have been waiting to get some form of revenge on the red brat and the cat for starting fights that caused the destruction of things I very much enjoyed. Your choice. Either way I win."

Yang growled before glancing at Ruby and the rest of her team and reluctantly letting go before stepping away. "Fine! You said you had a meeting with Professor Ozpin, right!"

Epizon grinned. "That's the guy!"

Yang's brows furrowed in confusion. That was a quick turn-around in personality. She shook the thought away before continuing. "Then after you talk with him, I would… appreciate it if you answered some questions for me."

Epizon hurged."Yeah yeah, whatever kid. Bring some good alcohol or something as payment. Just don't pull some stupid shit again, and I'll see what I can do. Now if you'll excuse me without temporarily becoming a masochist again, I have some drinking to get to. And some criminals to turn in." He turned away and started quickly walking away, disappearing around a corner in the distance.

Blake blinked. "What just happened?"

Yang grinned. "I got confirmation that as long as I pay the guy, I can finally get some information I've been looking for."

Ruby blinked before frowning. "Hey guys, something he said got me thinking. And it wasn't all the parts of him being a selfish jerk."

Weiss sighed. "What Ruby?"

"Does Beacon actually have a guidance counselor?"

Weiss scoffed. "Of course it does! Beacon is arguably the best Academy for Hunters in training on Remnant! There's no way it wouldn't have something that basic!" She paused for a second. "Right?"

Blake cleared her throat and Weiss looked towards her. "It does."

Weiss' eyes widened slightly. "How do you know?"

"I read the pamphlet."

"Well then who is the guidance counselor?" Ruby asked curiously.

Blake winced. "Well, the thing about that is…"

Yang grinned. "Come on, spit it out Blakey!"

Blake sighed. "It's Professor Port."

The rest of team RWBY paled. "No. How could they?" Ruby said in horror.

"It gets worse. He's also the school therapist, psychiatrist, technician, volunteer nurse, and part-time lunch man."

Yang slowly turned as pale as Weiss. "Oh no. Is that why all the second years hide if they're injured?"

Ruby gasped as a thought struck her. "Hey guys? We've never seen a 3rd or 4th year student or team before at Beacon. Do you think he's related to that?"

"It's just a coincidence. There's no way he got them all to quit, right? I mean, how bad could… nurse Port be?" Weiss said with a shaky smile.

AN: 5 Reviews(scattered through chapters), I'll go in chapter order.

Guest(Prologue): Let your fears be put to rest for many reasons! One, the only connection between me and Epizon is gender, being assholes(I think I'm just a bit nicer than he is), and the fact that I am the one who wrote the fanfiction he is in. If this was a self-insert, I would say that in the summary, and it would be more of a story about a dumbass fucking everything up than what this fanfiction will be.

OriginalNameByMe(Chapter 4): I mean, they could already see he wasn't using his weapons, and while he could have lied, the thing with Epizon is that while he is a good fighter, along with some other talents, including being able to hold his liquor to ungodly levels, a good liar he is not( I mean, look at his choice of an alias. He chose a name that tells anyone who knows the language pretty much who he is, if they just dig a little bit, instead of choosing a random one). And besides, did he really give them that much information? He could create intense heat that would melt his weapons, crush them with immense force, freeze them until they shatter, or any other number of possible Semblance related things that would stop him from using his weapons and his Semblance at the same time. He's definitely not the smartest guy around, but he won't hand out information unless he doesn't care(like the whole Yang thing in this chapter), there's not much (important)knowledge that can be gained from what he said, or he has good reason to give it out.

Guest(Chapter 8): I mean, there are factors that played out to make it a bit tougher for Epizon, but yeah. While Neo did have the whole improved invisibility thing, after a bit, that wasn't enough, and things went downhill.

selfishgecko(Chapter 8): My thoughts on the bluff were that Ruby was THERE for one of his robberies and would have seen if he planted anything, and so he specifically thought tha it would be easy to see through once she thought about it. Luckily for him, she's Ruby. Unluckily for him, anime physics were on Blake's side. Hope you enjoyed the (admittedly not so great) chapter, and hope to see you next week.

Alduin(Chapter 8): Yep, yep, yep, kind of. In that order. Epizon knows, he's got a meeting, Neo got beat, and Yang was Yang. Roman's bluff held up, through the power of team RWBy fighting itself, and I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.

Now, uh, this is a bit late. And a bit worse than I intended. But tis the season, and unforeseen forces decided my fate! So I did the best with the time I had, prepared for the small family gathering that I am going to end up hosting tomorrow, and this was the product. Sorry if it's a bit of a letdown, but life is life, obligations are obligations, and I figured that this was a pretty good final product. Decentish fight, mistakes, conversations, surprises, regrets, and some extra regrets on top. Also an ending joke because I figured why not, and the idea of Port being the Beacon version of the ever-present old shopkeep of Vale. Everything was mainly just me writing it out, revising, reading, revising, you get the idea, until I got something that seemed like it fit reasonably well with character personalities and stuff. If there was going to be a song to go with the fight(fight's too short, and not that important, so it doesn't have one), it would have been The Good Life, by Three Days Grace. Pretty good song, matches decently to the fight, and to the story as a whole. Might actually go with a fight at some point, but for now, if you decide "Hey, that fight deserves a song!" for some reason, there's a good song. Anyways, this has been a bit long, so same deal as always, love the feedback, and will continue to look at them for good advice, hope you liked the chapter, and Merry Christmas! I will try to be back next week with a chapter I can look at and say "This. This is a masterpiece.", but if I was that good at writing, then I would be writing books for a living instead of just writing and reading fanfiction as a hobby(nothing against fanfiction, but if you were that great, wouldn't you?). Now I must be off to the place known as the coffee machine, so I can finish preparing for the baking and cooking that must occur.