Chapter 43

Then

In a seedy club in the kingdom of Vale, Miltia and Melenie were enjoying some downtime with their boss, the affectionately named "Junior", as well as a few of his guards. "I have to admit: that guy really knew how to cook." Militia declared as she set aside her silverware.

Melenie could only chuckle in response to her twin's remark. "Yeah: shame the boss had to let him go."

Before the man in question could reply, however, they had an unwelcome interruption. "Hei Xiong Junior! My old pal!" Loki shouted, happily, as he barged into the club. "Why I haven't seen you since… wait, I've never seen you before, have I? You need to get out more."

"Who's this joker?" Junior asked his assistants, irritably.

"Not joker. Trickster. Want me to demonstrate?" Loki snatched a pen from one of the waitresses and stabbed it into one of the tables. "I'm gonna make this pen disappear…"

Junior snapped his fingers, ordering one of his bodyguards to handle the intruder. But just as the unfortunate henchman touched him, Loki grabbed the back of his head and slammed it onto the table. The pen pierced his eye, and dug straight through his brain. "TA-DA!" Loki laughed as he let the limp body fall to the floor. "It's gone!"

Junior and the twins immediately stood up from their seats and drew their weapons. "Alright, freak!" Junior snarled as he grabbed Loki by the scruff of his shirt collar. "Nobody comes into my club and starts causing trouble!"

"Except for that blonde chick with the huge rack." One of the twins snorted.

"Shut up, Militia!"

"I'm Melanie."

"Now, now, this is all just a big misunderstanding." Loki lifted his hands in a calming manner. "I heard through the old grapevine that that 'blonde chick with the huge rack' is a pal of Svetlana Crimsonoff. All I need to know is where she is so that she can arrange a little chat with Svetlana and myself."

"Yeah, we know where she is." Junior huffed, pushing Loki away and drawing his gun. "But I'm not letting anyone kill Xiao Long! That's a pleasure I'm reserving for myself! Now, about my club and that bodyguard..."

"Hey, now, let's not do anything we might regret." Loki smirked. "My friends wouldn't like it."

On cue, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Hazel Reinhart jumped down from the ceiling and engaged the Malachite twins. Without his backup, Junior had to face Loki on his own.

Meanwhile, Militia couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as she and her twin surrounded Hazel even as Emerald and Mercury moved to deal with the rest of Junior's guards. "I can't help but be curious: the way you carry yourself, it's obvious you don't wish to resort to violence."

"You're right, I don't." Hazel nodded. "But I have my reasons for being here, and if you insist on being a detriment to us, I will fight you if need be."

Melanie simply scoffed as she and her sister got into a fighting stance. "Tough talk from someone who doesn't seem to realize that he and his allies are clearly outnumbered."

"That's true." Hazel said with a light chuckle as he injected himself with a specialized dust crystal Loki had developed for him. "But you don't seem to realize how clearly outmatched you are."

"We'll just have to see about that won't we?" Militia declared.

Speaking of Hazel's allies, Emerald couldn't help but cock an eyebrow at the amount of people surrounding her and her companion. "Two against twenty: it hardly seems fair."

"No, it really doesn't," Mercury agreed with a smirk. "We'll need to go a little easy on them, huh?"

Junior cringed as he watched his men getting slaughtered, but focused on dealing with the intruders' ringleader. After taking several punches to the face, the club owner managed to grab both of Loki's fists. He then headbutted the crazed trickster and floored him with a right hook.

"You hit me…" Loki growled, wiping the blood from his lip. As he rose back to his feet, his eyes flickered with a menacing green aura. "That wasn't very nice."

"What's the matter? Can dish it out, but can't take it?" Junior smiled, unaware that the other assailants had incapacitated his bodyguards. "Well, I'm gonna do a lot worse than just hit you! I'm gonna… I'm gonna… ha… I'm… ha ha… ah, ha ha ha!"

"What's so funny?" Loki smirked, putting his arm around the hysterical club owner. Melanie and Militia were shocked into silence as Junior burst into laughter. And yet despite his happy disposition, tears of pain rolled down Junior's cheeks and he began struggling to breathe. "Oh, my!" Loki gave a mock gasp and drew a switchblade. "It looks like your lungs are clogged up! No worries! I'll just give 'em some air-holes!"

Militia and Melanie closed their eyes as the madman stabbed their laughing boss twenty times before throwing him onto another table. Then, the trickster picked up a vinyl record from the DJ booth before he stood before them. "Now, our operation is small. But, there's plenty of room for… aggressive expansion. So, which one of you cute little girls would like to join our team?"

The twins both raised their heads in unison. "Well, unfortunately, there's only one spot available. So, we're gonna have…" He smashed the record against a nearby table and threw the sharpest piece in between them. "Tryouts."

Now

Melanie couldn't help but tear up a little as she spoke into her scroll. "...and that's my story. Can I count on you to look after Militia for a while?"

"Of course," her mother declared with a sigh. "Just try to be careful, you hear?"

"I will," she said before hanging up, growling as she did. "I swear there can't be anyone who hates that clown more than I do right now."

Meanwhile, Mikhail couldn't help but look towards his wife, his face full of worry, as she let out a sneeze. "Keep it down, will you? We don't want to get caught."

"Sorry." Svetlana declared as the two of them continued to hike over the rocky terrain of the mountains. The newlyweds had been fortunate enough to escape from Torchwick and his men during the confusion when Freckles stomped. They were now heading towards the Federation's capitol in hopes of finding a way inside.

"Holy impenetrable, Svetlana." Mikhail remarked as he studied the building's walls. "I don't see how we're going to get in there."

"We can't give up now, Mikhail." Svetlana frowned. "Not after everything they've done for us."

Suddenly, a convoy of tanks led by Neo pulled up to the citadel's entrance. The massive doors creaked open, revealing Roman Torchwick welcoming them inside. The Rushland woman glared through the binoculars at the criminal's smug expression.

"I still don't understand something." Svetlana rubbed her chin in thought. "What does Torchwick have to gain from this war?"

Mikhail held his fist up to his mouth to stifle a laugh. "Maybe the Federation hired him. Or… something." He was now giggling, uncontrollably.

"Mikhail this isn't funny!" Svetlana remarked. "I'm being serious."

"S-so am I! Ah, ha ha ha ha ha!" Mikhail dropped to the ground on his knees, unable to stop laughing. It wasn't until she saw the flicker of green in his eyes that Svetlana understood the situation.

"No…" She gasped. "No, it can't be him!" Acting quickly, she opened up her satchel looking for a syringe and a bottle of sedatives. She injected the serum into her husband's arm and sighed in relief as his laughter finally stopped. She whipped her head around, and just as she feared, she spotted someone in a green jacket making a hasty getaway. "Rest, beloved." She whispered, laying Mikail down and planting a featherlight kiss on his forehead. "This time I'll stop that madman for good!"

Meanwhile, Yang led Ruby, Pyrrha, Jaune and their lieutenants through the very same mountain terrain towards the Federation stronghold. Ilia tried to park her warthog, but stepped on the wrong pedal and rammed into the vehicle in front of them. "Oh, sorry! Sorry!" She stammered, her skin changing multiple colors at once. "Why're there so many pedals on this thing?!"

"It's fine." Yang sighed. "We'll just park here and go the rest of the way on foot."

"Well, we've still got a long way to go." Ruby remarked, pointing to the citadel. "Saber, hand me the binoculars, please."

"Right away, ma'am!" Saber complied.

"Thank you." Ruby smiled as she peered through the looking glasses. "Hmm… security looks tight. There's guards everywhere, spotlight towers every fifteen feet, and all sorts of electric security systems."

"So, what are we going to do?" Jaune looked towards Yang.

"Uh… well… I guess we just start walking and make it up as we go along." Yang shrugged.

"Are you kidding me?!" Pyrrha spluttered, pulling on her ponytail out of frustration. "That's your plan?! We're gonna wing it?!"

"Well, in Yang's defence, the Federation will obviously be prepared for any logical plan." Ruby reasoned. "So, maybe what we need is an illogical plan."

"Thanks, Rubes, I knew you'd have my back." Yang smirked. "You've always been the Yin to my Yang!" Much to everyone's surprise, instead of a groan, Ruby started laughing. "Wow! Glad to see you finally appreciate my puns!"

"HA HA HA HA!" Ruby hugged her stomach as tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't - HA HA - I can't stop laughing! HA HA HA HA HA HA! AH, HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

"Uh, heh-heh. Okay, Ruby, it wasn't that funny." Yang replied, feeling a bit put off by her sister's laughing.

"N-no! HA HA! I-I mean I really can't stop laughing! HA HA HA!" Ruby started crying as she fell to her knees, revealing a stranger dressed in green standing behind her. His eyes flickered green, and soon enough, everyone else started laughing, as well.

Through sheer willpower, Yang pulled herself together as she looked upon her allies. "What're… what're you guys… doing?" She gasped, fighting the bizarre influence.

"Doing?" The man smiled, sinisterly. "Why they're doing what any sane person in your appalling circumstances would do; they're going mad."

Yang could only growl in defiance, struggling to get to her feet even as everyone was caught up in the mad clown's Semblance. "I won't...go down...that easily."

Despite all this, Loki couldn't help but chuckle. "I must say I'm impressed: they're aren't too many people who can fight through my Trickster's Madness." He then sighed as he pulled out a pistol from his jacket. "Such a shame we don't have time to play." Before he could pull the trigger, however, he was blindsided by a large hammer strike that threw him off balance.

"Rachael" could only sigh in relief, glad she had made it in time. "You alright?"

"I've been better," Yang declared as she got back up to her feet, "but we've got other problems."

Svetlana merely nodded as she turned back to their opponent...only to gasp upon realizing exactly who it was that stood before her. "It can't be."

"Oh no: your eyes do not deceive you, Svetsy," Loki said with a dark chuckle as he got back to his feet. "After all, who would know me better than you?"

Svetlana growled, angrily, as she readied her sickle. However, Loki seemed disinterested as he paced around the laughing huntress and huntsmen, looking up at the sky as he spoke. "Now, some of you may be thinking; 'who is this dashing man who took out Junior? What's his beef with Svetlana? And what the hell is it that the others find so damn funny? Well, for that last one, I'm afraid that they're the latest victims to my Semblance. Something that labeled me as a monster ever since I was a poor little boy. Anyone unfortunate enough to come across my gaze will be driven to madness. In other words, I can make people crazy, just by looking at them. And the best part? I'm the only one immune to it, because I'm already crazy! Of course, once she was given the resources of the Atlas government, old Svetlana thought her teacher could help find a deterrent. Sadly, Mr. Tukson kicked the bucket before he could! Ha ha!"

"Who are you talking to?" Svetlana asked.

Loki shrugged with a grin. "Red vs Blue fans, Deviantart losers with Rooster Teeth subscriptions, and the handful of RWBY fans who ship Nuts 'n Dolts." The mad trickster held up his fists. "But don't worry, my dear. Since Tuskon failed to teach you what you need to know, I'll give you a few lessons. Let's start with 'getting your ass kicked 101!'"

"First lesson: never take your eyes off your opponent." Yang declared before blasting the clown away with her Ember Celica, looking to the Rushland native as she did. "Friend of yours?"

Svetlana scoffed. "Not even close. To put it in a way you might understand, he's to me what Cinder was to Ciel."

Yang gave a low whistle as Loki got back to his feet. "So this guy killed your father?"

"Try my entire home."

"Not your entire home," Loki said with a dark chuckle. "There's still one person I've yet to kill."

"Over my dead body." Yang growled out.

Loki, however, merely gave a mocking grin. "Ooh, lucky me: you already know the rest of the plan! Just be sure to say hi to Junior for me after I've killed you."

Despite her shock at how this guy had killed Junior - knowing full well that the guy wasn't a pushover - Yang merely scoffed as she took a fighting stance. "Tell him yourself."

Suddenly, an altered Paladin-290 suit burst from the cave wall behind Loki, locking onto the blonde brawler and crimson crusader. "Hey, that's one of the suits Torchwick sold to the White Fang!" Yang recognized. "How'd you get your hands on that?!"

"Ha ha ha! Wouldn't you like to know?!"

"Uh, yeah. That's why I asked."

"Well, it doesn't matter much now, now does it?" the trickster declared with a mocking grin. "Seeing how blonde's going to be mush in a little bit."

"Wow, jokes about my hair color," Yang sarcastically called out with a roll of her eyes. "Like I haven't heard any of those before."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, just think of this bad boy as a welcoming present." Loki cackled as the death machine aimed its ion cannon. "As in, welcoming you to the nearest mortuary!"

Svetlana combined her two weapons, converting them into a larger, deadlier shotgun. "I don't think so." She remarked before firing at her blonde companion. With her aura enhanced, Yang activated her semblance. "Strike it right there." She suggested. Yang nodded and hit the Paladin's weakest point, shattering it to pieces.

"WHAT!?" Loki yelled out, unable to believe that the Paladin had been taken out so quickly.

Svetlana couldn't help but let out a chuckle of her own. "Didn't do your research on this one, did you, Loki? The blonde you mocked earlier? She's already taken down one of these things with help from her team and thus is familiar with all of it's tricks. Combined with her ability to turn pain into power and my own skill in spotting any weak point in a person or object in front of me and this battle was over before it even began." She then cocked her gun with a determined expression. "Speaking of ending battles, though…" And that was all the warning the trickster got before another round was fired from Svetlana's Temnaya Mest.

That said, upon feeling the bullet zip past his ear, Loki couldn't help but turn and give his longtime nemesis a mocking grin. "Heh: you missed."

"Wasn't aiming at you." Svetlana mockingly called back just before the bullet she fired hit a rock in the side of the canyon, resulting in a chain reaction that ultimately caused a small rockslide that temporarily buried the clown in rubble.

Sometime later, Yang couldn't help but frown as Svetlana helped her move their teammates into a nearby vehicle. "Not sure what sort of history you have with that guy…"

"Trust me: you don't want to."

"...but from what I saw, what you did won't be enough to put him down for good," the blonde brawler continued despite being interrupted by the Rushland native.

"It's not, but it'll give us time to regroup and figure out our next move," "Racheal" remarked, before looking at Yang with a serious expression. "That said, we can't head straight back to base: that's what he'd expect us to do. I don't suppose Blake ever told you about any desolate locations in Menagerie?"

Yang simply nodded in response. "We can head to Outpost 419. No one ever goes to Outpost 419: not since it's sudden abandonment and even more sudden repopulation."

Meanwhile at Outpost 419

"I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"Yang Xiao Long has a kid!"

"I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"Summer Rose is a robot!"

"I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"Penny Polendina is the Summer Maiden!"

"I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"Winter Schnee is alive!"

"I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"James Ironwood knew what Jacques Schnee was up to the whole time but still didn't do crap!"

Back with Yang and Svetlana

"...I suddenly feel very annoyed, and yet know not why." "Rachael" slowly declared with an uneasy look.

"Eh, I'm sure it's just nerves." Yang shrugged and hopped into the passenger seat. Svetlana took the wheel and entered the outpost's coordinates into the onboard GPS. As she started the vehicle, Yang immediately took note of the upbeat music. "This isn't the usual music." Yang remarked.

"Yeah, Mikhail and I got tired of that old music." Svetlana smiled. "So we came up with our own mixtape."

"Huh, well this is pretty damn catchy." Yang nodded as she mimicked the tune. "Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na, da-na!"

"We have to make a stop first." Svetlana declared. "I had to leave Mikhail behind before I found you. He's… oh, no…" Yang braced herself as the car came to a screeching halt. Svetlana jumped from her seat and quickly investigated the area. "No… not again. I will not lose him again!"

Sometime later, at an undisclosed location, Emerald pulled out a tray of freshly baked cookies while her new boss sulked in his armchair.

"He's still upset." Hazel remarked.

"Yeah. Somehow it's scarier when he's not smiling." Mercury added.

"I'll handle this." Emerald declared, approaching her new boss, cautiously. Putting on the best smile she could muster, she presented him with the cookies. "Hey, Mr. L, how about a little pick-me-up? Look! I made this one shaped like that Svetlana girl!" She picked up the cookie and began talking for it in a playful manner. "'Hello, Mr. L! I'm Svetlana! Eat me! Eat me! Eat me!'"

At last, Loki turned to acknowledge the green-clad girl with a soft smile. "I know you're trying to cheer me up, Emmy." He replied as he took the cookie and broke it in half. "But you see, any time I blow a million lien deal… IT REALLY KILLS MY APPETITE!"

Suddenly, a hail of bullets tore through the north wall of the building, prompting the group to scatter. Once the firing stopped and the dust cleared, Loki peaked out from his hiding place to see his employer strutting into the room with a small platoon of hired guns behind him. "Honestly, Roman, don't you think I feel bad enough, already?"

Roman snarled and grabbed the trickster by his coat collar. "You madman! How dare you use one of my weapons to-!"

"Emmy?!" Loki called.

Emerald drew her weapons and aimed them at the crime lord. "Let him go, bowler hat!"

Roman glared at the girl. "Neo?" On cue, Neo catapulted herself towards Emerald, knocking her down with a kick. Hazel and Melanie were too perturbed to do anything while Mercury decided to kick back and watch the show.

"Look, let's settle this like gentlemen shall we?" Loki freed himself from Roman's grasp, adjusted his tie, and led the crime boss over to a table. "Now, let's hash this out like rational men."

"You'd better have a good explanation as to why I just got a report of a rockslide outside of a Federation outpost, one that didn't involve Little Red and her friends being buried in it, I might add." Roman growled out.

"The ambush I set up was the perfect plan," Loki shrugged. "It's not my fault that Svetsy showed up."

"So, Svetlana finally caught up to you, huh?" Roman smirked. "And from what I saw, it seems Red's sister got the better of you."

Melanie couldn't help but snort here, quickly raising her hands upon having both men turn towards her. "Don't look at me: I warned you that Blonde wouldn't go down so easily."

Loki turned towards the sky with a smile. "And you guys were wondering why I even bothered going to Junior's."

Roman blinked. "Who is he talking to?"

Melanie shrugged. "Who knows? I'm new to this operation."

Loki sighed. "Listen, Roman; I've still got a few tricks up my sleeves. I can still finish the job, but if I have to deal with Svetlana now, the price goes up."

"Don't push your luck, clown." Roman snapped. "You're in no position to make negotiations. Especially since I can see that you have nothing to work with."

"Well, we did catch her boyfriend." Mercury reasoned. "Maybe we can use him as leverage?"

"Fine." Torchwick conceded. "But you better not screw it up again. Otherwise, 'Mr. Rojo' will be the one punishing you. And he's not as reasonable as I am. Bull in a china shop, and all that. Neo! We're leaving!"

With that, Neo gave Emerald one last firm smack on the head with her parasol before following her partner out. Loki sat back down in his seat, thinking about their next move when Emerald wearily limped next to him. "How ya doin', slugger?" He asked, smiling.

"A-okay, Mr. L…" She declared before collapsing from exhaustion.

"Well, my friends, it seems old Svetsy has left us no choice." Loki decided, pulling out a map of the island and pointing at a certain location. "Using Mikhail, we shall have to lure teams RWBY and JNPR here."

Seeing where the trickster was pointing, Melanie couldn't help but frown. "Why there? Local chatter has it that no one goes there anymore."

"How come?" Mercury asked.

As if to answer his question, a pile of rubble shifted behind the group, prompting them to draw their weapons. A raven Faunus stood on his feet, facing the villains with an empty gaze. "I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"Uh… hey, man." Mercury waved, confused.

"OH, NO! THEY CAN SEE ME!" The raven Faunus cried. "NOW, I HAVE TO STOP YOU FROM KIDNAPPING MIKHAIL KASHTONOVVY… IN THE FUTURE!"

"Uh… we already did kidnap him." Hazel replied.

"... I KNEW YOU'D SAY THAT!"

"Okay, let's make this quick." Melanie rolled her eyes as she drew her sword. "I hate these delusional types." She dashed forward to slice her prey in half, but in the blink of an eye he effortlessly jumped over her and pecked at her neck with his elongated beak.

"NOW YOU CAN SEE THE FUTURE!"

"Ow! What the fuck?!" Melanie cried before using her weapon to set the raven Faunus ablaze.

"...I'M ON FIRE...IN THE FUTURE!" He cried before crumbling to ashes.

"...you know I'm starting to understand why no one ever goes to Outpost 419 anymore." Loki remarked before turning towards his allies. "Emerald and I will go ahead and scope it out. The rest of you load up Miky boy and follow."

With that, the two criminals in green entered their own car and drove off. Hazel, being the strongest of the remaining trio, easily lifted Mikhail and loaded him into the back of the truck. Mercury hopped in with him to keep an eye on him while Hazel and Melanie climbed into the front seats. The Rushland man had every faith that his wife and her friends would save him, but that didn't mean he couldn't help them. "It was Mercury, yes?" He asked. "What is Loki paying you for this?"

"What do you think?" Mercury replied. "Money. And lots of it."

"As much as they're getting?" Mikhail nodded his head back towards the window, referring to Hazel and Melanie.

Mercury paused. "Uh… I don't know."

"Look at what you've had to put up with. I think you deserve more."

"Hey, hey!" Mercury snapped. "I see what you're doing! You're just saying stuff to get me to turn on them!"

"Am I?" Mikhail did his best to hide his smirk as he saw Mercury's suspicious gaze.

To Be Continued