A cold breeze passed through the streets of Vale, carrying with it a chill that ran up the spines of the citizens. Not only for the cold, but for the group of men dressed in black striding through the moonlit pathways, following a man in white wearing a derby hat as he swaggered towards the nearest Dust shop, cane clutched in his gloved hands.
He made note of how the people of the city backed away from him in dread and smirked to himself. Keeping the everyday folk of the kingdom on their toes made him think he was doing his job right. After appreciating the effect for a moment he went inside the small business before him, his goons filing in after him.
"Decent stash. This should make for a good haul." He felt a little bad for the owner, a man clearly past his prime but still trying to make an honest living. He didn't really deserve what was about to happen, but orders were orders. Approaching the elderly gentleman, the man in white breathed out some smoke from his cigar, ashes falling onto the otherwise pristine shop floor. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?"
One of his men pointed a gun at the owner, who cowered backwards. This pleased him, as it meant the man was less likely to try anything that would risk complicating what was about to happen. "Please, just take my Lien and leave!"
"Shh shh shh. Calm down. We're not here for your money." He tried to sounds calming, as that usually helped keep things moving smoothly, but didn't go so far as to make the man fully relax. He turned to his henchmen. "Grab the Dust."
They got to work pilfering the store's stock, while he began admiring the purely cut Dust crystals kept beneath the counter. For a small shop, the man had a reasonable stock to his name. Taking one into his hands, he began looking it over closer, noticing the reflection of his ginger hair and bowler hat shine on its surface. Before he could get too lost in his own reflection, vague sounds of a commotion came from further in the building. Had their still been a customer in the shop when they came in to rob it?
...Yes, apparently, as he saw one of his hired men come flying past him, landing on the ground with no grace or dignity whatsoever. This was unexpected, but he could work around it, as he signalled for one of the others to go see what had caused this disturbance. Surely whatever it was could be handled by sending enough men at it. "Then again, Junior didn't seem to confident in the abilities of these guys."
Then a red blur knocked the man he sent through the shop's window. Turning to gaze out at whatever it was, he was met with the sight of a girl he'd estimate was in her mid-teens at oldest. That in itself would not have been too notable, but her red cape caught his attention only slightly less than the massive collapsible scythe she pulled out and brandished in the direction of his men.
"Huntress..." He thought to himself, discarding his previous thought that this would not be a complication. This had just become a massive change to the plan, and one that required his attention to think of a solution. While he did that, he would need a distraction.
"Okaaaay..." Looking at the men in black, he felt genuinely disappointed that they were so slow to respond to what should be an obvious threat. He didn't even bother hiding said thoughts as he finally spelled it out for them. "Get her."
The "fight" that followed was either an impressive showing for the girl, or an embarrassing one for his men, though he was not ignoring the possibility of it being both. She made short work of them, darting back and forth and swinging her scythe with impressive ease, aided by the firearm inside it, which served as further proof of her status as a huntress. He wasn't sure which of them he pitied more, as one was sent flying through the air, another got slammed into the ground by the full weight of the weapon, and the last one was launched into the air before being kicked to the ground by his feet.
"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." He said to the now unconscious goon, not even attempting to hide his disappointment before turning his attention to the girl. "Well Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening. And as much as I'd love to stick around..."
Lifting his cane and pointing it at her, the tip lifting away to reveal a gun barrel. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."
A single shot was all he needed. She dodged it, of course, but he didn't need it to hit. All he needed was for it to distract her long enough for him to use the other function of his trusty weapon, a grappling hook, to pull him towards a nearby ladder. By the time she landed from her gun assisted leap over his attack, he was already halfway to the meeting point atop the building rooftop. "Just focus on getting out of here. We can handle the consequences later."
The night hadn't quite gone to plan thanks to this interruption, but it was still salvageable as long as he could meet his "friend" here and make his getaway. Running across the rooftop as soon as he made it to the top of the ladder, he heard the sound of yet another gunshot of that infernal scythe, followed by a high pitched voice yell at him. "Hey!"
He stopped, frustrated but not surprised at how much this girl was interfering, but hearing her confirmed something he had suspected earlier. Between her appearance, voice and the general way she carried herself, he could guess she was still a student, not a fully trained Huntress yet. That would make handling things easier, though he still let his frustration seep into his tone as he mumbled under his breath. "Persistent..."
He would have reason to cheer up when he heard the familiar sound of a Bulkhead's engines, followed by the sight of the aircraft pulling up towards him. The girl must have been surprised to see it, as she made no effort to stop him climbing in through the side door, turning to face her once he did, pulling something he had managed to snag from the shop before his hastier than planned retreat. A dust crystal. "End of the line, Red!"
Tossing it at her feet, the girl didn't seem to realise the danger she was in as he pointed his cane a second time and fired at the crystal. The shot collided, triggering a fiery explosion. He had to laugh at how brightly it burned. "Woohoohoohoo!"
It was short lived, as he narrowed his eyes at a purple light seeping through the smoke. A complex glyph stood between the girl and the fire, and he could see the woman who had conjured it standing there as well. He recognised her. Glynda Goodwitch. A real Huntress. Red might not have been a complication, but the woman standing before him now was.
"Dammit! Everyone wants to ruin my night, don't they?" As the woman began firing bolts powered by Dust at the ship, he forced himself through the turbulence it was causing to get to the cockpit, yelling to the pilot. "We got a Huntress!"
She understood, and being better suited for dealing with it, ran to the back area, leaving him to pilot the ship. Between being the getaway driver and being the one who fights a trained warrior, he would gladly pick the former of the two.
Pulling away as best he could, he prepared to get them out of there before the situation could get any further out of hand. This became a little more complicated when storm clouds began to spontaneously gather overhead. Even less so when those clouds began spitting sharp icicles at the ship, one only missing his head by a quick movement on his part. "We're getting turned into a pincushion here! Hurry it up with that cover fire!"
Looking out the window, he could see his accomplice firing shots back at Goodwitch, who easily countered by forming nearby debris into a spike shaped swarm. The crimson clad woman attempted to counter it, but it moved too fast to destroy, necessitating quick thinking on his part. By shifting the angle of the craft, he was able to make it bounce off the top, still causing damage, but allowing them to stay airborne a little longer. "We can't take more punishment like that! Gotta get us out of here next chance I get!"
With a blast of whatever fire powers it is she has, the former pilot blasted away what remained of the debris, before blocking a few shots that Red tried to fire at them. Knowing that they were running short on time before reinforcements came, the sinister woman prepared to summon more pillars of fire beneath the two, giving Goodwitch enough time to see what she was doing. The attack didn't need to hit, it just needed to make the Huntress waste time getting the young girl to safety.
With a flick of the riding crop she used as a weapon, Red was moved out of the path of the fire, before Goodwitch just barely dodged in time. Seeing his opportunity, the man turned the ship and flew off as fast as he could, secure in the knowledge that the two couldn't chase them any further.
"Phew. I'm all for having women pay attention to me, but that was not what I had in mind." He said jokingly to lighten the mood, even though he doubted she would appreciate it. It would be less fun if she did.
"What happened out there? I sent you to rob a simple Dust shop, and you come back with nothing." The girl was clearly unhappy, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.
"I would have thought it's fairly obvious. Wannabe hero gets in the way, makes a scene big enough for a Huntress to show up. I'd probably have better news for you if Junior's boys weren't so...lacking."
"And yet the only better result you were able to manage was escaping. Why should I consider you any more useful than them?" There was a threatening edge to her words, as if she was considering cutting her losses with him and finding new help. Considering who she was, she probably was, and with a more literal use of the word "cutting" than he would have liked. Not releasing the controls for the ship, he carefully considered how he was going to sell himself as a useful ally.
"How about the fact that I'm still walking free after some runt with a scythe-gun tried to stop me? Or how about the fact I was able to fly this thing even as a Huntress was shooting at us and raining ice on our heads?" He tapped the icicle still lodged next to his head for emphasis, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a crystal, switching his tone from sarcastic to charming. "Or how about the fact I still got you a souvenir after all that?"
After a moment, the woman snatched the crystal from his hand and observed it, smirking once she was convinced it was real. "Hmm, perhaps you have earned a second chance. But understand I don't tolerate failure, so you had better get bigger results than this next time."
He smirked at getting to keep his job, and went back to piloting towards the planned drop-off point. "Oh, don't you worry, gorgeous. I always aim to outdo myself."
A few minutes later, he landed near the docks, and the woman got out, handing him a cheap scroll as she did. "I'll contact you about your next job through that. I'll be in touch soon, so keep it on you. Now go dump the ship."
"Aye aye, captain. See you soon." Taking off again, he pretended to thank the ship for a good night's work, but even he wasn't sure who he was putting on a show for. Not long after, the ship was being taken apart for scrap by some enthusiastic and not particularly inquisitive men dealing in illegal vehicle mods. All evidence that could be used to track their whereabouts would be safely distributed amongst random cars across Vale, with no-one being the wiser.
Now that his jobs for that woman were finally done for the night, he walked a few blocks, taking in how much quieter it was now than it had been just a short while earlier. Perfect time for a late night call to another friend of his.
"Hey there. Before we get into it, let me just tell you that the coffee on Wayne Avenue is to die for. Maybe we should meet up there some time?"
The man on the other side of the call chuckled over the line, no doubt happy to hear the coded phrase for the first time. "Perhaps we should. Though if I must ask, does this mean you have good news for me?"
Looking around the street one last time to be sure, he said the words he'd been waiting all night to say. "...I'm in, Ozpin."
"Wonderful to hear, but let's discuss the details over that coffee you mentioned. Say, tomorrow at noon?" The headmaster's smile could practically be heard through his voice, proof of a job well done.
"I'll be there." He hung up the call without another word and strode down the path before him.
This is Roman Torchwick, Huntsman, spy and gambling man.
Hi there. First of all, thanks for reading to the end of the chapter. Second, I want to express that right now this is more of a proof of concept than anything else. The idea for this alternate universe was one I thought of and figured might be fun to explore, but I want to know what you guys think. If people seem as interested as I am, then I will consider continuing forward, though updates might be a little slow if that is the case, as I work out details of how things might change from the main timeline. I have a few ideas, mostly for the backstory of this story's version of Roman and Neo, how they know each other, etc.
Lastly, I hope everyone's taking care of themselves, and hope you all have great days now and for the foreseeable future. Take care, everyone, and thanks again for reading.