The Good, the Grimm, and the Ghastly

Prologue:

Somewhere on Menagerie

Ruby Rose typed away at her computer, her latest hobby well underway, as her sister entered her room. "Hey, Rubes." Yang called. "Mom's finished with dinner."

"Okay. Just give me a second." The hooded huntress replied, still typing.

Yang's curiosity urged her to peak over her little sister's shoulder. "What're you doing?"

"Oh, nothing." Ruby shrugged. "I'm just taking a break from my Transformers story to write an AU fanfiction."

"What's an AU fanfiction?"

Ruby swiveled around in her chair. "It stands for 'alternate universe.'" She explained. "I'm writing a story right now about Torchwick, Neo, and Adam as good guys."

Yang scoffed at the idea. "How could you write about those creeps as good guys?"

Ruby considered how to explain her reasoning. "Okay, answer this; if you could go back in time and kill Salem, would you?"

"Well, duh! She was kind of a bitch, Rubes."

"Yeah…" Ruby held up a finger for emphasis; a coy smile spread over her lips. "But what if the only time you could go back to was when she was just a kid? When she was locked up in a tower by her evil dad? When all she wanted in life was to find true love? You think you could still do it? Use Ember Silica to blow her brains out?"

Yang frowned at the morbid thought of killing a child. Even if it were Salem. "What's your point?"

Ruby's smile remained, even as she shrugged. "My point is that nobody is born evil, Yang. Life's all about change. Some change for the better… and others… well…"

End prologue.

Vale

A red haired man in a clean black suit with a white tie and his companion, a shorter woman with brown hair in a contrasting white dress entered Hei Xiong "Junior's" nightclub. The couple made their way to the bar, scanning the crowd for their friend who had already entered the club a few hours before them. As they hoped, they spotted the bull Faunus sitting on the other side of the club, flirting with some hapless drunk party girl. After the bartender set their drinks down for them, the woman balled up the paper wrapper of her cocktail straw and flicked it at their third partner's horn.

The bull Faunus looked up, irritably, and spotted his partners heading towards the club's gender-neutral bathroom. With a heavy sigh, he bid the girl farewell and went after them. Once he was in the bathroom, Adam blocked the door with the trashcan and leaned against the wall as he glared at his partners. "I really don't like either of you." He declared.

"Music's too loud. Comms are useless." Roman noted.

"Pink-haired, bisexual, experienced cat Faunus!" Adam sneered as he kicked open one of the stalls. "That is the unicorn of club girls!"

"I spotted the target when we came in. He was heading up to his office with five escorts." Neo added. "No idea how many were already up there."

"Hang on, why is Neo talking?" Yang interrupted.

"Well, she turned good before the accident." Ruby explained.

"What accident?"

"Roman told me someone cut her throat. Just sit down and keep quiet."

"He also had a female with him." Roman concluded, loading his weapon with dust.

Adam shook his head as he tossed his earpiece into the toilet. "Y'know, I talk and I talk and I feel like you guys just don't listen to me."

"That's because you never stop talking!" Neo snapped.

"That's enough, you two." Roman scolded. "We need to work together, tonight. And remember; stick to codenames."

The trio were after Hei Xiong "Junior," the club's owner and son of one of the most powerful crime bosses in Vale. Wanted for multiple crimes and worth five million lien, the mercenaries were determined to bring him in. Once they were all armed, the trio silently made their way upstairs, assassinating any guards who got in their way.

Adam went around one corner while Roman prepared a flashbang. "Deploying stun!" He shouted into the comm-link. But just before he tossed the flashbang, Adam had already circled around and decapitated the other two bodyguards.

"Ha! I'm awesome-!" The sudden flash blinded the boasting faunus. "GAH! What the fuck?!"

"Get down!" Roman shouted as he tackled his ally to the ground while Neo used her parasol to block the dust from the other bodyguards.

"Get the fuck off!" Adam struggled to push Roman off of him.

"It's me!"

"I know!"

"Enough!" Neo called out, pulling a trigger on her parasol and gunning the remaining bodyguards down.

Adam had finally rubbed the spots out of his eyes by the time they came upon their target. Junior swung a bat at the trio, but the bull Faunus sliced it lengthwise in half, much to the club owner's horror. "Y-you can't do this! Do you know who I am?!"

"Gods, you are a fucking cliche." Adam muttered as his allies surrounded the crime boss and threw him across the room, onto the floor. Adam cheekily stabbed his katana into the floor just centimeters away from his prey's cheek. "Hei Xiong 'Junior.' You're wanted for murder, rape, drug trafficing, money laundering, operating without a liquor lisceance - I mean, pretty much every jailable offense known to man."

"Who the hell are you guys?!" Junior quivered.

"Well, I'm Toro Rojo, these two are my friends, and… we're the good guys." Adam smirked as Neo slammed the hilt of her parasol into the club owner's face, knocking him out.

"I know that things are difficult right now, but trust me: things will get better eventually." Tukson remarked over his scroll sometime later.

"If you say so," a black-haired cat Faunus said over the other end. "...I miss you, Uncle Tukson."

"I miss you too, cub...but I'll need to cut this short."

"Wait, was that…?" Yang couldn't help but ask.

"Yep, that was Blake, alright," Ruby said with a grin. "I mean, she did mention that Tukson was an honorary uncle to her. Anyways…"

"Enjoy talking to your family?" Torchwick's voice called out.

Tukson turned around as he pocketed his scroll. "You were supposed to stay in touch."

"We had a little communications issue." Torchwick sighed as he motioned towards Adam.

"You said comms were useless!" Adam snapped, bitterly, as he carried their bounty over his shoulder. "Useless!"

"We meant downstairs where the music was!" Neo snapped back. "That does not mean remove your earpiece!"

"Oh, well I'm sorry that I couldn't read that fucked up brain of yours, and realize that you meant the exact opposite of what you fucking said!"

"Enough!" Tukson shouted. "We can finish this discussion later. Right now, we need to get Junior here away from the scene of the crime before his dad's goons notice he's missing."

"You're right, you're right: we can yell at each other later." Roman said with a sigh. "We've got more important things to worry about and….why are you slowing down?"

"We've got a red light up ahead," Tukson called out.

"Just run it." Adam shrugged.

"Yeah, the last thing I need is a speeding ticket." Tukson huffed.

"Wooow." Adam rolled his eyes. "Tukson Burgundy: trained killer of men, draws the line at public safety."

"Taurus, I'm trying to keep the authorities from being suspicious of us, so I am not in the mood for-!"

"Codenames!" Neo snapped while Roman was kissing her neck. Tukson and Adam winced as Neo moaned, sweetly, at her husband's touch. At last, the light turned green.

"Look, money's just a little tight right now." Tukson sighed.

"'Money?'" Adam scoffed, amused. "We just scored the bounty of our lives! Even after dealing with the equipment costs, split four ways, that asshole is still buying me a new car, you get something nice for those three girls you adopted, Roman can buy all the shitty cigars he wants, and Neo does… uh…" The bull Faunus gave a glance to the backseat, where the diminutive mercenary stopped kissing her husband to shoot him an icy glare. "... whatever she does with money. I'm assuming therapy?"

"Stick to codenames." She snapped before turning back to her love.

Adam just sighed. "Sorry Popsicle: just don't spend all night making out with Matchstick over there."

"Wait a minute, Popsicle? Matchstick?" Yang called out.

"What? They make sense!" Ruby declared.

"...might want to change that bit, sis."

"Oh, alright."

"Sorry Rainbow Star: just don't spend all night making out with Gentleman Thief over there."

"That's better."

"Glad you like it. Now if I could just…"

"Right, sorry," Yang said with blush. "Continue."

"Enough!" Tukson called out. "We've got other things to worry about."

Roman rolled his eyes in reply. "Sure thing, Black Panther."

"Uh, that's not Tukson's codename," Yang couldn't help but reply.

"It's not?" Ruby said with a blink. "...oh, right: he already had one back during his days in the White Fang. Well, did Blake ever tell you what it was then?"

"Yep: it's Jungle Cat." Yang said with a smile.

"Thanks," Ruby said with a nod, before going back and changing that part.

Roman rolled his eyes in reply. "Sure thing, Jungle Cat." Taking a break from his wife, Roman took out his scroll to send a message to Vale's police department regarding their bounty. But after the message was done pending, his smile vanished.

"What's wrong, dear?" Neo asked, concerned.

"Pull over." The red-headed mercenary ordered, sternly.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Just pull over, now!" Roman barked.

Tukson reluctantly did as instructed, pulling into an empty parking lot. "What's wrong?"

"This…" Roman angrily showed the screen of his scroll. The Vale criminal database didn't have any files on Hei Xiong 'Junior.'

"Mother fucker!" Adam cursed minutes later as he kicked a discarded beer can across the lot.

"Hei Xiong 'Senior' must have someone on the inside." Neo sighed, bitterly.

"That's impossible." Tukson dismissed.

"Every city has bad cops, dude." Adam grunted.

"'Bad cops?'" Tukson scoffed, irritably. "They erased his file! As far as they're concerned, we have an innocent man in the trunk of our car! The fuck're we supposed to do with that?!"

"Not to mention we still need to cover our equipment cost for the whole thing." Neo pointed out.

Roman, who had been silent throughout the entire conversation, suddenly got an idea. "I know how we get our money…" He announced as he turned to his comrades. "Just hear me out. I don't care what his file says; Hei Xiong is not an innocent man. But he is the son of the most powerful crime boss in this part of Vale."

"No." Tukson shook his head. "Ransom? That's where you're going with this, right? Roman, we set out to take down bad guys! They do time, we get paid! If we try to sell 'Senior' his son back, we're no better than them!"

"Philosophically, I get what you're saying. I do. But you're not looking at this pragmatically." Roman went on, trying his best to keep the puma Faunus calm. "Look, you left that Atlas agency because you thought they were shady. Then you brought us together because you saw our potential to do good. But what you're not seeing, right now, is that Hei Xiong 'Junior' is a bad person. His father, 'Senior', is a very bad person, who pays bad people to do bad things. We ransom his kid for… fuck it, let's say double the bounty, and we are taking money away from 'Senior!' We are hurting him, financially! Hei Xiong 'Senior' takes a major hit, and we reunite a family."

A dead silence loomed over the air as the two Faunus thought about Roman's words. Naturally, Neo was the first to side with him. "It's also likely that 'Senior' will increase his son's security." She reasoned. "Fewer people on the streets. Less income to keep those men happy. It could yield better results than our original plan in the long run."

"...well, I suppose you have a point there," Tukson said with a sigh, "but I don't know: I'm not feline like this is a good plan."

"Yang, stop messing with my script!"

"Ah, come on: that was a good one!"

Ruby just sighed. "I'll try to insert a bit more humor into this, alright? Just don't mess with my story without my permission, okay?"

"Oh, alright."

"...well, I suppose you have a point there," Tukson said with a sigh, "but I don't know: this new plan seems a bit risky."

"Hey, no risk, no reward," Roman declared with a grin.

Tukson paused for a few more minutes to think it over. Seeing no other option, he finally gave in. "Okay." He sighed. "So… who wants to make the call?"

Everyone turned to face the Gentleman Thief. "It was your idea." Adam shrugged, giving a smug smile at his friend's uncomfortable frown.

Thirty minutes later, the group had reconvened at the abandoned quarry outside the city limits. Neo and Adma tied 'Junior' to a chair and kept him gagged and his head bagged. Tukson found an empty office room for them to hold him. Roman had inserted his ghost chip into his scroll, looked up Hei Xiong 'Senior's' number from their captive's scroll, and dialed it up. After fifteen seconds of listening to the dial tone, the answering machine picked it up, much to Roman's frustration. "Mother fucker!" He cursed, slamming the scroll against the table.

"Maybe he's not home." Adam shrugged.

Before Roman could reply, his scroll vibrated along the table. Sharing a cautious glance with his wife, the Gentleman Thief answered. "Hello?"

"Where is my son?"

Roman smiled as he put the scroll on speaker mode. "Mr. Xiong!" He greeted. "So good to hear you, sir. To answer your question; I have your son in an undisclosed location, right now."

"Should he not be in custody of the Vale Police?"

"Well, here's the thing; it would seem that your son is completely innocent! Must've just been a mix-up."

"I see. So to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

"Well, you see, I went through a lot of trouble to get your son to the Vale Police, so if you ever want to see him again, I suggest you wire ten million lien to the private account number I will send to you in the next few minutes, or these will be the last words you hear from your son…" With that, Roman tore the gag out of 'Junior's' mouth and held the scroll up to him.

"Dad!" 'Junior' coughed. "Dad, just - just pay 'em! Please, pay 'em!"

Roman snapped his fingers at Adam. "Shut him up." After the bull Faunus put 'Junior' in a headlock, covering up his mouth with one hand, Roman went back to the call. "I know this must be very difficult for you, Mr. Xiong, but understand that if you do not deliver the money, your son will-"

"You're a fucking idiot."

The room fell deathly silent. Tukson went stiff as a board while Neo nervously propped herself against the wall. Roman shared a glance with a shocked Adam before going back to his scroll. "I'm… sorry?"

"No, you're not." 'Senior' sneered. "But I'm going to make you sorry, you stupid fuck! I'm going to make you wish you never set foot in my fucking nightclub, you stuid, rat-faced piece of shit!"

Roman plucked up courage and grabbed a gun off of the table. "Mr. Xiong, I don't think you've fully grasped the gravity of this situation." To prove his point, the Gentleman Thief shot 'Junior' in the thigh.

"AAUGH!" 'Junior' cried out in agony. "He shot me! He fucking shot me!"

After Adam managed to muffle their captive again, Roman ignored Tukson's irritated expression and turned back to his scroll. "Ten million lien or your son is dead!"

But Xiong 'Senior' just chuckled, earning a concerned murmur from his son. "You think I care about my son? My son is the greatest mistake I have ever brought into this world. He's done nothing but piss away my fortune. He couldn't even run the nightclub I gave him. To be honest, killing him would be doing me a favor. But if anyone were to find out that three bounty hunters shot up my club without consequences, that would be a sign of weakness. Do you understand? Or have you not fully grasped the gravity of this situation?"

Roman shared another glance with his comrades before angrily glaring at his scroll. "You're full of shit, Xiong! And now your kid costs fifteen million!" Tukson was about to speak up before Roman shushed him.

"... you're a bad liar." Xiong scoffed. "But just to make certain you are aware that I am not bluffing, I can tell you that Toro Rojo and his two friends will be paying for what they've done to me." The quartet of bounty hunters shared another horrified glance with each other as their eyes widened. 'Senior' took their silence as his cue to go on. "Oh, that's right. I know your aliases. I know your faces. I know your horns. I even know that cheap-ass pink dye in your hair. I also know that you're in the abandoned quarry outside the city."

Neo and Adam quickly went to the sides of the nearby window to look for the enemy. Tukson looked out of the other window with his own weapon. Xiong went on. "And I can promise you that if you somehow escaped this city before I found you, your families will pay, instead."

"No!" Tukson shouted as he took the scroll from Roman. "Look, just - just take you're fucking kid! No ransom, no money, just take him and you'll never hear from us again!"

"I'll be seeing you soon, gentlemen." With that, the crime boss hung up, leaving the four mercenaries in silence.

"Fuck…" Tukson whispered, angrily, before tossing the scroll against the wall. "FUCK!"

"You botched the cameras, didn't you?!" Adam snarled, grabbing Neo by the arm.

"Don't you fucking touch her!" Roman snapped as he pushed Adam aside. "I double-checked them, myself! The camera's were down!"

"Then how does he know my name, Torchwick?!" Adam screamed, angrily. "How does he know what we fucking look like?!"

"How does he know we're here?!" Tukson asked, to no one in particular.

"I've got a chip." 'Junior' sniffed, drawing everyone's attention. "In my neck. I've got a GPS chip in my neck. My dad put it there… and there was… there was a girl under my desk."

"Under your…?" Roman's face twisted from confusion to disgust. "Oh. Oh, oh! That is - that is just perfect! Yeah, real classy, too!"

'Junior' choked out a sob. "I can't believe my dad said that!"

"I have to call Racheal and tell her to get Jean and Ciel out of there!" Tukson decided, only to be interrupted by Adam.

"You're not doing shit, Tukson!"

"They could be in danger!"

"Well, we are all in danger until we sort this shit out!"

Neo, who had grown tired of 'Junior's' blubbering, hit their now-useless captive in the head, silencing her allies. "Codenames." She sneered, coldly.

Tukson just sighed. "Okay, look: my niece claims to be close to someone who's good with technology: I can go ahead and send her a coded message to let her know that she needs to inform the people I mentioned to get to safety, and then we can figure out how to go from here, deal?"

Roman just sighed in reply. "Deal."

"Hey, just for the record, this 'someone who's good with technology': that's Velvet you're talking about, right?" Yang couldn't help but ask.

"Yep. Anyways…"

"So, what's the plan now?" Neo couldn't help but ask once Tukson had finished sending his message. Half an hour later, the quartet went through all of their equipment, preparing for all-out war. Roman and Neo were in charge of sorting the dust while Tukson and Adam made their calls.

"Welp." Adam shrugged. "Our supplier isn't answering my calls, so he's either high or… completely aware of how fucked we are. On the bright side, there's a traffic pile up on the highway that leads to this quarry. Should buy us at least a couple hours in case we wanna just kill ourselves."

Roman sneered and shoved a pistol into the young Faunus' hands. "We have enough dust left to take on a small platoon. We also have the mountain to our backs and sides, which means the enemy has only one way to get to us. As long as we stick together and work as a unit, we will survive this. And there's also the fact that your aura will prevent any self-inflicted wounds from being fatal. So if you waste even a single vial of dust on yourself… I will be very unhappy."

Adam just gave a blank stare as his ally went back to his task. "Why's it always gotta be about you?" He asked, rolling his eyes.

"Because I'm not the one whose itchy trigger finger almost destroyed Menagerie." Roman deadpanned.

"That was one time!" Adam called back with a slight embarrassed blush on his face.

"Um…" They all turned to see "Junior" struggling to get up and look them in the face. "I might know how you'd be able to get some fresh equipment before my father shows up and without him knowing about it."

"Wait what?" Neo couldn't help but blurt out. "But why would you…?"

"My father always believed in the philosophy of an eye for an eye," was Junior's immediate reply, his face full of rage despite his obvious pain. "And after what my father just pulled...well, I think it's time he learns just how dangerous a 'mistake' like me can be. Don't get me wrong: I'm still pissed at you for how you've treated me, but while you and my father might both be assholes, at least you're honest about it!"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, it would seem." Roman said with a grin.

"Alright, so what's the plan, now, Jungle Cat?" Neo asked.

But Tukson wasn't listening. The puma Faunus stared at his scroll, which had a picture of his adopted girls - Racheal, Jean, and Ciel - as the screensaver. Adam gave him a gentle nudge. "Uh, hey, Tukson? The plan?"

"... Senior doesn't know about me…" He said, at last.

Adam blinked. "What?"

"On the scroll…" Tukson elaborated. "He mentioned three bounty hunters; Toro Rojo and two friends. But he never mentioned me."

"Wha… what're you saying?"

"I'm saying I have a family!"

"No!" Adam snapped. "Are you seriously trying to back out of this?!"

"You three fight just as well without me!"

"You piece of shit!" Adam took out his blade and pointed it towards his ally. "I ought to-!"

"TORO!" Roman shouted. Everyone stared at the fuming ginger as he looked as if he were struggling to control his rage. Not even Neo had ever seen him this upset. After a few deep breaths, Roman adjusted his tie and gave the puma Faunus a neutral glare. "... Jungle Cat is right. Senior has no idea that he exists. If he weren't here, no one would question it."

"Please," Tuskson pleaded. "I can't just abandon my family: you of all people should know how much my family, my niece means to me."

Adam simply flinched in response, knowing that Tukson had nearly died protecting him and said niece during one of their earlier missions not so long ago, before giving a sigh. "Yeah, I do. Just...I hope you know what you're doing."

"That makes two of us."

A few hours later, Adam stood in the center of the quarry with his blade pressed against Junior's neck as a gilded limousine drove through the entryway. The driver parked a few feet away from Adam, rolled down his window, and tossed a scroll at his feet. Reluctantly, Adam bent down to pick it up, keeping his sword aimed at his prey. "Hello?"

"Toro Rojo, I presume?" Senior rolled down his own window just enough to glare at his captive audience. "Where are your friends?"

"Oh, they're around." Adam remarked. "Listen, Mr. Xiong, I am giving you one more chance to just take your son, and let us go."

"You forfeited that option when you tried to con me."

"Oh, come on, man! I have a sword up to your kid's neck!" Adam groaned, tiredly. "Most people would call that a pretty hefty bargaining chip!"

"I am not 'most people.'" Senior replied, coldly.

"... no, I guess you're not." Adam sighed before smirking. "But you were stupid enough to come here."

"What are you talking about?" Senior growled out. "I've got you surrounded on all sides and...for gods' sake: what is that music!?"

"Yeehaw!" Neo yelled out as she came in on a Warthog, being tailed by a few drones that she had "borrowed" from Senior's vault. She activated the drones' self-destruct features and crashed them into one of the jeeps surrounding Senior's limo. Not long after, Roman stepped out from the shadows, carrying a gatling gun which he then used to mow down fifteen other thugs.

"Bet you're wishing you'd stayed away right now." The Gentleman Thief smirked.

"You...you can't be serious," Senior called out. "You're horribly outnumbered, outgunned, out...everything, and yet you still try and fight?!"

"We're not the idiots you took us for," Roman called out. "We knew that coming here as we were would be akin to suicide, but you made it clear that you'd try and kill us no matter what we did, so we figured if we're going to go down, we'd go down fighting."

"...admirable." Senior reluctantly declared. "Stupid, but admirable. I'll be sure to remember you as the warriors you were."

"If you can kill us, that is." Neo replied, "And trust us when we say that we won't make it easy for you."

"After everything you've done, I'd almost be disappointed if you did."

Suddenly, one of Senior's bodyguards dropped dead as his brain splattered over the ground. "SNIPER!" Another thug called out before getting shot down. Roman smirked to himself; there was only one member of their group who was handy with a sniper rifle.

Tukson ran out of rounds for his rifle, so he fired a grappling line towards the others, grabbed his shotgun, and ziplined down to take cover with Taurus.

"Why'd you come back?" Adam couldn't help but ask. "I thought that you wanted to protect your family."

"You guys are family, too," Tukson declared.

"A bit sappy for my tastes, but you won't hear me complaining about getting a little assistance either way," Neo remarked with a grin.

"Well, what do we have here?" a muscular blonde girl declared as she entered the area, preparing a set of shotgun gauntlets and cracking her neck as she did. "Looks like we've got some uninvited guests here that I'll need to serve some punch to."

"Hold up, hold up, hold up!" Yang growled out. "Is that supposed to be me?! Why am I helping out Junior and his family in this AU of yours?!"

Ruby just smirked. "Wait for it...

"I don't suppose that you could just let us go." Tukson remarked.

"Not a chance." the blonde girl replied. "Don't get me wrong: I don't exactly want to do this, but if I don't, I lose my chance to save my sister, the only family I have left."

"Ah, that makes sense." Yang begrudgingly admitted. "I'd do anything for you, sis."

"Aww, I love you too, Yang," Ruby said with a grin. "Anyways…"

The blonde just gave a reserved look as she got into a fighting stance. "I know that your niece speaks highly of you, Tukson, so you can believe me when I say that this isn't personal."

Tukson nodded as he too got into a fighting stance, deciding to file away the fact that this girl knew his niece away for later. "I know."

Yang propelled herself forwards with her Ember Silica, taking the former Guardsman by surprise. She used that to her advantage and delivered several powerful aura-draining blows to her opponent. But speed and brute force didn't Trump years of experience. Using his claws, Tukson finally managed to hold her in place long enough to punch her. While she was dazed, he put her in a full Nelson, and suplexed her onto her head. Yang saumersalted away and tried to attack again, but Tukson kicked dirt in her eyes and waited for her to rub it out.

"You...you won't beat me so easily," the young brawler growled out, her eyes turning red in rage.

"This won't help your sister." Tukson quietly declared even as he readied himself for another round. "And I think you know that...deep down."

"Enough of this," Senior growled out even as the blonde girl's eyes returned to their original violet color out of shame. "Blondie, you know what to do."

"...yeah, I do." And that was all the warning that Senior got before the blonde girl turned and fired a shot straight into the place where, Aura or not, it was bound to hurt, much to the discomfort of every other male in the area. "I don't care who you are: nobody messes with me or my little sister."

"Nobody," Yang said with a nod.

Despite the pain he was currently in, Senior managed to let out a growl. "Don't just stand there gawking: kill them!"

"So, does this mean you're on our side now?" Adam couldn't help but ask.

"Help me save my sister and consider me part of the crew," the blonde brawler declared. "Besides, I'm hoping that hanging with your cat faunus friend will allow me to spend more time with his hot niece."

Tukson blinked, realizing that he'd need to talk with said niece later, but cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should worry about that after we get out of here alive."

"Fair enough," the blonde said with a nod as she readied her gauntlets. "Guess it's time to deal out some pun-ishment."

"No."

"What?! You would totally make a joke like that!" Ruby groaned out.

"No, I wouldn't: even I have my limits, and you know it." Yang growled out.

"Ugh, fine…"

"Fair enough," the blonde said with a nod as she readied her gauntlets. "Time to finish off this shotgun reception."

"Oh, please," one of the goons declared. "Even with the help of those jokers, do you really think that you can win?"

"Something you should know about me," the girl declared as she slammed her fists together, her hair lighting on fire as she does. "I'm more than meets the eye."

"I am so in love with her right now." Neo called out as the blonde girl went to town on the goons that surrounded her.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

"Enough of this!" Senior yelled out. "I'm going to…" ...and that was as far as he got before he was hit by a RPG, gasping out as he realized who fired it. "You?!"

"An eye for eye, remember?" Junior snarled in reply as he readied his weapon.

"You have a lot of nerve helping them out." Senior said with a growl.

"Why: because I did what you taught me to do and used an opportunity when I saw one?" Junior called out. "Because I'm not behaving as you demand of me? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter what you think: I know that I am 'the greatest mistake that you have ever brought into this world', after all...and now everyone else in your little organization knows how little we all mean to you as well."

Senior actually paled upon hearing this. "You...you didn't."

"I did: I sent everyone a recording of your little tantrum over the scroll when I was being held hostage." Junior declared with a snarl. "Let them hear for themselves how you were more concerned about your reputation than your own son...and how that flies in the face of our little 'family first' policy that you implemented. I figured I'd show you just how organized your little 'mistake' was before I took you down."

"No, what you've done is signed your own death warrant!" Senior growled out as he shot down his own son. Unfortunately for him, that left him open to a swipe from Adam's sword. As the crime boss bled out on the ground, he looked up at the bounty hunters.

"You shouldn't have brought family into this." Tukson remarked.

"But… you already did…" With that, Hei Xiong Senior died.

"Yang!" a young girl in a red hood cried out as she ran over and hugged the blonde brawler sometime later. "You came!"

"Of course I did," the blonde girl replied as she returned the embrace, stroking the younger girl's hair as she did. "I'll always be there for you if you need me. Always."

"Always." Yang repeated with a smile, getting some tears of joy from her sister in the process.

"So, what's next on the agenda?" Roman couldn't help but ask sometime later after they had dealt with the stragglers.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I seem to recall saying that I'd be joining your crew once my sister was safe," the blonde girl, who they now knew was named "Yang", declared.

"We'll need to leave your sister in a safe location for the time being, but if you really do want to be a part of our crew, you'll need a codename," Neo remarked.

The blonde brawler nodded. "I understand, and as to my codename, call me 'Killer Bee'."

"Best. Codename. Ever. Of all time." Yang said with a nod, having already decided to use it for herself.

"Glad you liked it sis." Ruby declared. "Anyways…"

"Do you really have to go, sis?" the red hooded girl - whom they had learned was named "Ruby" - couldn't help but ask.

"I'm afraid so, munchkin, but don't worry: we'll see each other again." the newly christened Killer Bee declared.

After Ruby left, Adam shifted over to Tukson. "Uh, hey…" He stammered, bashfully. "Thanks for… y'know, coming back for us."

"Of course." Tukson gave his friend a reassuring pat on the back. "We're partners."

"... partners." Adam nodded with a smile.

"We still need to pay our equipment cost." Neo pointed out, much to everyone's discomfort. "Plus what we just spent taking care of all this."

"Yeah…" Tukson sighed as he looked at the dead bodies of the Xiongs. "Probably would've been a good idea to turn 'Senior' in…"

"Well… how much do you think we could get for this?" Adam smirked, tapping his knuckles against the golden limousine.

To Be Continued

Epilogue:

"Hey, that wasn't half bad, sis." Yang declared with a grin.

"Glad you liked it," Ruby remarked. "And thanks for helping me proofread this after dinner."

"My pleasure, Rubes. Hey, what other stuff have you been writing over the years?" Yang asked as she curiously scrolled through Ruby's documents. "Ooh, what's this one? 'A Huntress' Waifus: Tales of the Ice Queen and the Real Girl?'"

Ruby was horrified. "Yang, NOOOOOOOOOO!" But it was too late.

Hours later, Yang was sobbing into her wife's shoulder as the couple lay in bed. "What's wrong, sweetie?" Blake asked in a comforting tone.

"I'm a failure of a big sister!" Yang wept. "I let my perverted nature taint my baby sister's innocence! No! Worse than that! I've soiled it! Soiled it, I say!"

Blake could only continue to hug her wife through the night until she eventually cried herself to sleep.

End epilogue