Alright. Before we begin, I'd just like to let those of you who have been following the story know that I didn't quite go through with all my planned edits. All changes I made were relatively minor, the most relevant being that I changed Emerald's role in the fight in Networking and tried to make it a little more obvious she was the one messing with Lee's perception back in Immersion, despite Lee thinking it was Neo somehow doing it. Couple of words changed here, a couple of sentences added there... It's not necessary to go back and reread. Especially since I only really edited the first two arcs. I've decided to give up on most of the ideas I had for Interludes, though I may go back and do the Xiong/Malachite one as a side story at some future date. Umm... Yeah. That's it for that. Now without further ado, let's (finally) get back to the story!

Chapter 20

La Vida Loca

Part 4


"I can not believe you're actually eating that."

"What?" Lee's defensive tone could be heard as he looked up from his meal, face clean.

"Those things are so... greasy. Which, I recall, was your reason for not going out for a burger with Merc the last time he offered."

Lee couldn't help but look down at his hands, resisting the urge to sigh as he did. They were, in fact, covered in grease at this point, but they were also holding a delicacy that he'd never thought to see replicated on Remnant, despite the fact that you could find it just about anywhere in his home nation (assuming you were willing to settle for an inferior knockoff attempt, that is). It had been a specialty of the region he'd lived in before coming to Remnant, a region which had not been his home region. At first, Lee had been skeptical of the greasy delicacy as well, seeing as he was usually the type to go for more wholesome, healthier foods; the body is a temple and should not be polluted with garbage. But once he'd actually tried one, made at one of the two locations (directly across from each other, naturally) where it had all began, it was love at first bite. But just what greasy delicacy had Lee fallen in love with, one might ask? Well, to answer that, all one has to do is ask what to call it when finely sliced beefsteak, onions, and melted cheese are put on a hoagie roll. And the answer to that, is a cheesesteak. Of course, that was only the basic recipe... As was the remaining half of one in his hands.

Finally, he sighed.

"To be honest, I can't believe I'm eating this either; as far as cheesesteaks go, this is kinda average. But I'm telling you, once you've had a proper cheesesteak, you'll understand, they're that good."

"Uh huh... I'll put that on the list of things I'll have to take your word for, right after Star Wars."

"Ugh. Just enjoy your chicken salad."

"I will, seeing as you paid for it."

"Ugh... Rub it in, why don'tcha..."

Lee had, unfortunately, lost the race from earlier, which meant that, per their wager, he was forced to pay for Emerald's lunch. Which, contrary to what one might expect from their conversation, actually turned out to be somewhat expensive, consisting of a grilled chicken and berry salad, topped with a Forever Fall vinaigrette (made with real tree sap!), a side of ciabatta bread, and a large green tea with Forever Fall tree sap and honey... Lee had decided he hated Forever Fall sap when it doubled the cost of Emerald's lunch.

"Hey, you're the one who came up with this."

'Yeah, because I thought I could win...' Lee was smart enough to not say; that would have just left himself open to further torment, no matter how close he actually had come to triumph (which was actually fairly close, Emerald having only slipped by him again when they reached the final, open stretch). Instead, he resorted to visibly swallowing what was left with his lunch, along with his pride...

Emerald's smug smirk didn't need to be seen in order for it to rankle.


A short while later, Lee and Emerald were once again on the streets of Vale, this time strolling nonchalantly... Or at least, as nonchalantly as a pair can when burdened with a trio of metal cases, one of them roughly the length of their buddy's left leg. There were, of course, a collection of curious and wary stares directed at them, but most of those dissipated once they also caught sight of the colorful outfits and openly carried weapons the both of them were sporting, those and their young age (falsely) identifying them as Hunters-in-Training. Of course, their banter wouldn't have done much to dissuade passers-by of the notion.

"I can't wait to try these bad boys out!" Lee exclaimed, hefting the longer (and heavier) of the two cases he was carrying. It was roughly the length of a sniper rifle, but wider than one would expect were a sniper rifle the actual contents.

"Just... Not on me, please."

"Oho!" Lee exclaimed with a grin. "Are you going to admit that I'm the superior fighter now?"

Emerald scoffed. "If that's what it takes to satisfy your ego."

"Eh, I satisfied it myself when I realized I was beating you more often than not."

"Congratulations, you can beat a girl! It only took you, what, six months?"

Lee could only frown and watch her raise her nose in triumph, a smug little grin on her face; that had, after all, been a death blow in this little argument. Still...

"It was closer to five... And you've been a fighter for far longer than I have!"

"Yeah, right. I still think you were hustling me that first sparring session."

"I'm telling you, I had no idea that I was that good!"

"I wouldn't call it good, per se."

"You know what I meant! I really don't remember having any training before I met you guys!"

"So you expect me to believe I got beat by a total amateur?"

"Well when you put it like that, no. But that's not what I'm saying."

"Well then, what are you saying?"

"I don't know. Maybe, somehow, the basics were imprinted on me by whatever brought me here."


At this point, it's worth mentioning that, while I had won my very first spar against Emerald, my skills at the time were truly describable only as 'the basics,' winning only because she hadn't been prepared for me to be able to keep up with her speed. She had won each of our remaining bouts that day, and every day after that; it would be a full month and a half before I would win again, and three before I could consistently manage 2 out of 5. With Emerald herself having been a skilled enough martial artist at the time to count as an upper level brown belt (1st degree black belt by this point in the story), it was quite understandable that she would find it difficult to believe she had lost to someone who supposedly had no combat training at all, be it formal or gleaned from experience. Which led her to the conclusion:


"Or maybe you're just full of shit."


Of course, I myself would readily admit that I had trouble believing it, which was why I didn't plan on ever telling anybody else about it, and concocted a false background for the benefit of anybody who might find themselves wondering. But I genuinely did not know what else he could say to convince the four who I had already told; I had already told them the truth as I remembered it that day, without any omissions or embellishment. So in that instance, as in several before and to come, all I could say was:


"Does it really matter?"


The simple fact of the matter, as agreed upon by both myself and Emerald, as well as our friends/colleagues, was that I was obviously an amnesiac; I knew too little about much of anything about Remnant. The only logical conclusions, beyond being from a different time/dimension, were that I was either mentally retarded or grew up beneath a rock, both assessments having been proven false by the observations that I was actually rather intelligent when it came to things like mathematics and engineering, and relatively normal, my own unique personality quirks falling well within the status quo. It was also assumed that, whoever I was before running into Cinder, I wasn't anybody terribly important, as a search of open missing persons cases and newspaper articles from the last thirty years (performed by information brokers in all four Kingdoms and paid for by Cinder) hadn't found anything that could possibly be me.


"I guess not..."

One did not need to listen very closely to hear the reluctance in her tone.


It had taken them most of the day, having had to flash (forged) Hunter-In-Training licenses (Lee's identifying him as 'Caerulean Vao') literally everywhere they went after picking up their weapons, but, finally, they were approaching The Bear's Den. A fact that the doorman did not seem to be very enthused about, if one were to judge by the sudden case of the shakes he had developed upon seeing the duo approaching.

"Hey, Scorpion?" Lee asked with a shit eating grin. "Just a guess, but it looks like this guy knows who we are."

"You know what, Cloud? I think you may be right." After returning from their mission to assassinate Summer Rose, Neo had remembered that Lee had dubbed her 'Soft Serve' over the radio; she did not take kindly to that. Thus, after a telepathic rant and a purely physical beatdown that still hurt his pride whenever he happened to recall it, they had come up with some new callsigns. Cinder remained 'Queen,' Neo's new callsign was 'Iris,' Mercury became 'Strider,' Emerald became 'Scorpion,' and Lee became 'Cloud.'

"Scorp, I've told you before: I'm always right. But, just to prove it, why don't we go check?"

"Well, we do need to go in at some point, so sure, why not?"

The doorman, a large, rough looking fellow wearing the iconic Axe Gang suit and red shades, began to visibly sweat as the two approached, prompting them both to grin.

"Good evening, my man!" Lee spoke as he wrapped an arm around the doorman. "How are you on this most lovely of evenings?"

The doorman gulped. "I- I- I'm doing alr-right, I guess. Uh-um, h-how are you?"

"Wonderful!" Lee exclaimed as he released the poor mook, "Thank you for asking! Now, my good man, would you care to settle a bet for the lady and I?"

"O-okayyyyyyy?"

"Thanks chap! You're alright, you know that? Anyway, here's the 411: I think you know exactly who we are. Up-bup-bup! Don't say anything, I'm talking, and I don't like being interrupted. And judging by how close you are to pissing yourself, you've seen exactly what happens when you end up on my bad side; you were here that night, weren't you? Of course you were. So why don't you do your best to stay on my good side, radio Junior, and let him know we're here? We'll be waiting at the bar."

Lee ignored the stuttered affirmative as he brushed past and through the doors, Emerald not far behind. A smirk formed on Lee's face as they progressed, every mook on the security detail having similar reactions to the one at the door (though not quite as visibly). And it wasn't just the security detail which gave them a wide berth; while it was not an uncommon sight to see exotically armed teens and young adults entering The Bear's Den, it was uncommon for them to be permitted to keep their weapons on them past the door. Consider that both Lee and Emerald were both visibly armed, and carrying a pair of cases that obviously carried even more weapons? It was hardly surprising that a natural bubble surrounded them at the bar.

"Not bad, Cloud. For a minute there, I actually believed that act."

"Hey, just because I'm the nice one doesn't mean that I can't also be scary!" Lee exclaimed as he set his second drink, a double whiskey soda on the rocks, back on the counter. "I wasn't kidding when I said that guy was close to pissing himself."

"Point," Emerald conceded after taking a sip of her mint mojito, "but I wouldn't advise trying that act on Junior; he'll see right through you."

"Wanna bet?"

"Not while we're on a mission, no."

"You're no fun."

"I indulged you earlier."

"And won yourself a free lunch out of it!"

"No means no, L- Cloud."

Lee frowned. "That's twice, now, Scorp. You're lucky you caught yourself... And that The Queen wasn't here."

"You said yourself that I caught it in time. It won't happen again."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that to be what senpai finally notices you for."

Emerald choked on her mojito. "...Fuck you!"

"I didn't take you for the type to go for that on the first date, but I'm game if you are."

"Ugh... There's just no winning with you, is there?"

"You bet your pretty little ass there isn't!"

"Ugh..."

Lee grinned at her defeated groan, and stretched an arm out to wrap around her shoulders, affectionately tugging her in for a quick side hug. He was about to say something... Mushy, but was interrupted for the second time that day by the sound of a throat being cleared. Without letting go of Emerald, who by this point was digging her elbow rather violently into his ribs, Lee craned his neck so that he was looking over her head and his own shoulder, where he saw Hei "Junior" Xiong glaring at them, with his arms crossed. He was dressed the same way Lee remembered from that night not quite a couple of months ago, but there was one new addition that Lee could discern: he was wearing gloves now.

"Hey there, Junior! How's the hand?"

The pressure on his ribs let up for a moment, replaced with a silent shaking as Emerald suppressed a giggle. Junior himself did not take too kindly to the jibe, a reminder of his burnt hand. The man growled, but Lee was unfazed. Finally letting go of Emerald, he swiveled his stool so that he was facing him, and Emerald did the same. In unison, the both of them leaned back against the bar, nonchalant expressions on their face. Though, Lee's became slightly annoyed when he noticed Junior's eyes, just barely visible behind dark lenses, wandering towards Emerald's rather noticeable... Assets.

It was Emerald who spoke this time. "Careful, big guy. Do remember what happened the last time you tried to get hands on with one of your guests."

"It would be a snap to send you to meet your brother, and quite shocking if you happened to see your father along the way."

Junior was visibly quivering with rage by this point... But, a moment and a deep breath later, he seemed to decide against taking violent action, wisely realizing that even if he did win (which, in all honesty, was about a fifty-fifty proposition), he would most definitely lose when Cinder came back with Mercury and Neo. And when it came to facing off with Cinder, losing was almost always fatal.

"I assume you're here for the dossier, Scarface."

"Well, Teddy Bear," Lee quipped as he stood, pressing forward until he was squared up with the taller man, "I'm not just here to terrorize you and your men, as amusing as it's been."

"And I didn't come to be ogled by mooks with no self control." Emerald followed, crossing her arms over her chest as she took her place just behind and to the left of Lee. "My eyes are up here, Junior."

Grumbling, Junior took a step back as he motioned to a mook, who quickly stepped forward with a manilla envelope, presumably carrying the documents that they had come for. With shaky hands, he passed the envelope to Lee, who passed it to Emerald, who used the blade on one of her revolver-sickles to slit it open before passing it back to Lee.

"Thanks, Scorp."

"Don't mention it."

Curiously, Lee reached into the slit and removed the contents, which turned out to be a manilla folder labeled 'Adam Taurus.'

"Huh. Haven't heard of this guy before."

"You wouldn't have; the man has been careful to stay out of the news ever since his faction was formed."

"About two and a half years ago, right? If he's managed to keep his name out of the news for that long, then how did you hear about him?"

Junior just raised a brow.

"Right, trade secret, forget I asked. Let's see what we've got here..." Lee mused aloud as he began to skim the contents of the folder. Lee was no expert, never having seen a dossier on anyone before, but it seemed to line up with what he expected. The front page was a cover sheet, containing some back ground and a summary of the most important things about him, and to which a photograph of the man was clipped. He appeared to be a bull Faunas, sporting horns that just barely peeked out of his red hair... But that wasn't the only distinctive feature to him. Lee couldn't quite place how, but his Grimm Mask also appeared to be unique somehow... After that, more documents and photos, presumably all related to Adam Taurus. A low whistle escaped his lips before he passed the file to Emerald.

"For someone who is supposedly an unknown, this is quite a bit of information. Color me impressed... And I'm sure the boss will appreciate it as well."

Junior shrugged, smugly nonchalant. "That's everything I had on him. Given enough time, I might have been able to find out a little bit more, but that should cover just about everything important."

"For now, I'll take your word for it."

"It's not as if we don't know where to find you if our boss disagrees," Emerald chimed in, tone friendly, but connotations... Threatening. Something that Junior did not miss, his whole demeanor visibly tightening.

"Is there anything else I can do for you two, or will you be leaving now?"

The world around Lee slowed as he raised his left brow, and his eyes glowed as he tilted his head down a fraction, affixing Junior with a decidedly flat gaze. There wasn't anything that they really needed, but he hadn't missed the way Junior had managed to make "will you be leaving now" sound like "now get the fuck out," which had left Lee decidedly unimpressed. So in order to add insult to injury, he could 'request' a VIP table and an open bar tab for himself and Emerald; he was supposed to be on a date. But he was also pretty sure that Emerald would attempt to rip him a new one for that, seeing as Cinder wanted them back at a decent time; it may have only been about seven o'clock in the evening, but they also had to get all the way back home, and using public ground transportation no less. So, deciding to let it slide, Lee caused the light in his eyes to recede, allowing a different sort of glint to come to them as the world around him resumed its normal flow.

"Nah, just try to get your men to grow some backbone. I swear, the lot of them look like they could faint at any moment."

And with that parting shot, Lee picked up his two cases and left, ignoring Junior's visible symptoms of rage other than to step around him on the way out.

Perhaps he had overdone things a little.


"So, is this the part where you kiss me goodnight?"

Lee rolled his eyes and smirked, even as he drew to a stop just outside of their apartment and turned to face her.

"Normally, yes." Lee snarked as he gently slipped his arms around her waist, the soft skin of her bare midriff feeling like silk in his hands. Once again, he found himself drawing a comparison between her skin and milk chocolate, the minty scent of her shampoo mixing with the chocolatey aroma of her perfume only strengthening the similarity. And when his eyes roamed over her parted lips, he decided that he intended to sample some. Grinning with hooded eyes, Lee leaned down to do just that.

He did not expect her to attack his own like a starving dog. But of course that didn't stop him from obliging her. She might have been new to the whole thing, but, well, it wasn't as if she was bad at it. Awkward, for sure, but that's what Lee was for; he'd help her figure it out. Though, after the second near miss in under a second, he quickly decided that he'd better stop her before she accidentally bit him.

A sharp pain and the sudden taste of copper told Lee that he wasn't quick enough.

"Mmmph!"

Emerald released his lip, and Lee abruptly pulled away, wearing a pained grimace as he ran his tongue over the wound. Emerald had broken the skin on both sides, and while they were not large wounds, facial wounds, including those on the mouth, tend to bleed quite a bit more than one would otherwise expect.

Emerald was busy laughing her head off.

"You bitch..."

Lee tried to say. But with both his hand and his tongue being firmly pressed against the wounds to stem the bleeding, it sounded more like "yew bith..."

Emerald snickered some more. Amusement evident in her tone, she asked: "Want me to kiss it better?"

The sad part was, Lee kind of did. But he wasn't about to let her. Not after that stunt.

"Thup no! Giddavay thummee cwazy woomin..." Lee grumbled as he turned away (Emerald still snickering uncontrollably), and finally opened the door to their apartment before stooping to pick up his weapon's case.

Emerald tried to stop him, but a glare and a glance at the blood leaking from between his fingers changed her mind, allowing Lee to move through the door uncontested.

Ten minutes later, a scowling Lee was sitting on a closed toilet while a confused Neo applied diluted hydrogen peroxide via cotton swab to his cut lip.

"Okay, now that you aren't bleeding everywhere, what the heck happened?"

Lee pouted as best as he could with his lip being pinched in one of Neo's hands. "Emerald did."

"What, did she punch you while your Aura was down or something?"

"Let's just say she's a really bad kisser."

.

..

...

For a few moments, Lee was fascinated by the conflicting motions warring over Neo's visage. On the one hand, he could see that she was struggling not to laugh. But at the same time, the fiery rage that flared to life in her eyes was terrifyingly enthralling. Which was probably why it took him a second to realize the rage had won when she had let go of his lip, dropped the cotton swab, and teleported out of the restroom with a fwoosh, leaving behind an afterimage which shattered into a million pieces as Lee burst through it, having shot to his feet.

He wasn't quick enough to prevent the ensuing pandemonium. By the time he had made it out the door, the sounds of a violent scuffle could already be heard coming from the kitchen.

"Bwah! For Dust's sake, Neo, don't do that! Wait a second, why are y- Ahhh! Hey! What gives?!" The sound of Emerald's screams were accompanied by various crashes and clangs.

Lee made it to the kitchen just in time for Emerald to make her escape, slipping through the kitchen door and putting Lee in between her and Neo. It didn't do her much good, since Neo decided to simply teleport past him, allowing her afterimage to run into his outstretched arms.

"Shtak!"

"Ahhh!"

Lee whirled and charged, having seen enough in the brief glimpse he got from Neo's afterimage: she was dual wielding a frying pan and a kitchen knife; she was out for blood.

Thunk.

"Ow! Fuck, that hurt! Merc! Lee! A little help please!"

"The sooner you stop running, the sooner it'll be over! Now hold still, dammit, this will only hurt a lot!"

Lee's eyes widened in shock. While it was not unheard of for Neo to use her voice these days, it was still an uncommon enough occurrence that he would classify it as rare. However, he'd be lying if he claimed not to have noticed that he was usually either the sole audience or the primary cause for her to use her voice. It was pretty obvious, actually, as well as flattering. But that didn't mean he was about to let her murder his girlfrie- well, he didn't want to assume just because they'd gone on a date and kissed a couple of times- Emerald, just because she bit him.

Then again, Lee pondered as he settled against a wall to watch, he was still rather angry about that himself. While it hadn't been explicitly stated, it was implicit that when two people kiss, there's at least some measure of trust involved. After all, you have to be able to trust that your partner isn't going to try to harm or otherwise take advantage of you. In a healthy relationship, violations of that trust should occur anyway... But they should also be relatively minor. A nip here or a tickle ambush there is perfectly okay, and can be entertaining for both people involved. But biting so hard that medical treatment was legitimately required was so far beyond what was considered acceptable that it gave rise to serious doubt in Lee's mind, especially when combined with Emerald's use of Semblance to knock him out earlier in the day. Granted, one could make the argument that Lee shouldn't have been hurt anywhere near as badly as he was in either incident, seeing as his Aura was unlocked, and Lee himself would agree that the traffic light incident was his own damn fault. But he'd trusted Emerald enough to relax his barriers, and promptly been rewarded with a near maiming; Lee would have lost a chunk of his lip if he had obeyed his instinct to pull away. And while it was true that prostheses and cybernetics on Remnant could do a lot, synthetic skin was, to Lee's knowledge, still beyond current medical technology, so he would have been permanently defaced. Sometime during the period in which he'd been watching the chaos unfurl, he'd caught Emerald claim that it was an accident, but neither he nor Neo thought that she seemed very apologetic. So Lee was perfectly content to watch Neo, who had finally cornered Emerald in the... corner, go to town with the frying pan (Mercury, summoned by Emerald's desperate pleas for help, had nearly been skewered to the wall by Neo's thrown kitchen knife before he wisely chose to stay out of it). Or at least, he would have been had he not still had two open holes on his outer lip.

With a sigh, Lee made the right decision.

"Neo, I appreciate the outrage on my behalf, but I still need help stitching my face up."

Thus it was that when Cinder finally made her entrance, she found Lee and Neo sitting at the kitchen table, mid operation, while a thoroughly chastised Emerald was sprawled out on the couch in the living room, wincing as Mercury applied icepacks to various bruises.

All four greeted her as best they could under the circumstances.

"Do I even want to know?"

It was Mercury who spoke up. "Probably not."

"Do I need to know?"

"...Probably."

.

..

...

"Caerulean, Neopolitan, as soon as you have finished in there, please bring yourselves and five glasses of Merlot to the living room. I suspect we are all going to want one by the time we've heard this story through."


Cinder was right, of course. By the end of the night, we had all had at least two glasses of wine. Well, all of us sans Mercury, but the man could hardly be blamed for never touching a drop of alcohol considering his upbringing. But that's beside the point. By the end of the night, the rest of us were drunk, and while Emerald had finally apologized for nearly mutilating my lip, I was still upset with her. Additionally, she and Neo were both still furious with each other. Tensions were running high... But at least we had our next target. The only problem was that we couldn't yet act. When I had skimmed Adam Taurus's dossier, I had failed to notice that he wasn't in charge of the White Fang yet. Not the whole organization, at least. He himself merely controlled the largest cell based near Mistral. Admittedly, that last piece of information had me questioning just how Junior had even gotten this much information in just a few weeks, but I knew that unless he was somehow capable of fooling Cinder, which I highly doubted, it had to be accurate information, regardless of how it was obtained. So, until Taurus could bring the rest of the White Fang under his banner, all we could do was continue to plan... And with no further reason to remain in Vale, it was finally time to leave.

We were going to Mistral.


So... I don't care what Roosterteeth calls the ape Grimm from the character short, I'm calling them like I see 'em: Grimms out for Harambe! xD