Chapter 2: Trashing bars… Because why not?
The difference between the knights in shining armor and the knights of cloak and dagger is miniscule. It's just that the latter actually demand payment for their service… Which is why you don't see them often.
There is a reason people call cities "the stone jungle". Just as an inexperienced urban dweller will quickly succumb to the dangers and the eerie silence of the wild, so too will someone who hasn't grown up with the sounds of a city in his ears and the pulse of civilization in his heart find himself lost in the… less reputable corners of those massive forests, washed away by the stream of people hurrying about their daily routines and errands, too used to people around them to notice another one, desperately trying to make out any sense in the maelstrom of life that are big cities, or Vale, in this case.
The figure on a massive yellow bike tearing along the streets at at least double the speed limit was nothing like those. Yang Xiao Long had a destination, and no amount of distractions would deter her from reaching it this night. Word had spread that somewhere in this city was a man that could aid her in her search. And she had a pretty clear idea where that man might be.
A neon sign indicated that the establishment before her was called "Elysium". The bright colors of the sign massively contradicted Yang's surroundings, which could best be described as some sort of an industrial district. Water pipes, a railway on the height of a couple stories, buildings clustered together, lamp posts lighting up the streets with dim light. Far from proper scenery for such a club to be here, making it all the more suspicious. Even now, deep at night, music could be heard from within.
While the streets were empty at this time of the day, or night, the inside of the club was bustling with life. Probably three hundred people in total were there, most of them on the dance pad, with the rest either mingling around the bar or engaging in the consumption of various alcohol-containing liquids. Finding one man amongst this crowd? A seemingly impossible task… unless you know where to look. With graceful yet fast-paced strides Yang walked directly to the bar stand, simultaneously examining her surroundings. She could not help but notice an excessive amount of men in black suits, red glasses and hats, clearly security. A question as to the purpose of such an impressive security force crossed her mind but she brushed it off as currently unimportant. She caught the gaze of one of the two girls dressed especially fancy for today's occasion. Must be lieutenants of whoever's in charge here. The girls exchanged a few whispers and continued looking at the new visitor, almost as if they were expecting her. Yeah, those two don't look suspicious at all. Nope.
Yang finally reached the bar, served by yet another crewman in black tux and red glasses. To the left of her stood seemingly the only guy in this bar who didn't have a hat and glasses on, weirdly contrasting with the overall tone of the establishment. To the right, a figure in some sort of a long cape with a hood, slowly draining the nearby glass of an orange liquid.
"Strawberry Sunrise. No ice, Oh, and one of those little umbrellas". Yang's voice broke the silence at the stand in the most innocent tone she could muster.
The man without the hat asked in a weary voice while the bartender was buys mixing the drink:
"Aren't you a little too young to be hanging around here?"
Keeping up the façade, Yang's purple eyes lit up, mocking him. "Aren't you a little too old to have a name like Junior?"
Junior's face changed to a slightly more serious expression. "So you know who I am. You got a name, sweetheart?"
"Why yes, I've got several. But instead of "sweetheart"…"
With force unexpected for such a frame, Yang gripped the crewman's crotch, getting a squeal out of him. "…You can just call me "Sir"".
"People say you know everything. Tell me where to find her and I'll let you go." With these words she pulled out a smartphone, revealing a picture of a masked woman.
"I've never seen her before! I swear…" The informant's voice sounded an octave and a half higher than it did before an unexpected urology session.
"Excuse me?!" The girl's grip on Junior's most precious tool tightened.
"I swear… Sir!"
At this point, about ten guards assembled around the spectacle, all wielding hatchets. A smile appeared on the face of the golden-haired girl.
"Looks like we've got an audience. Awkwa-a-a-a-ard. It must be embarrassing for you, huh?" Yang was trying her hardest to not let her smirk grow into a maniacal scowl from the hilarity of the situation. The person on her right slightly turned to get a good look on the scene, the facial features still unrecognizable under the hood.
A spark of hope ignited in the informant's soul. "Listen... Blondie… Sir! If you wanna get out of this club alive… I suggest you let me go. N-n-now!"
Seemingly satisfied with the information, the girl released the deathgrip on the man's not-so-manly manhood. With his nutsack finally free, a relieved sigh emerged from Junior, the voice returning to his normal baritone as he put the familiar red glasses on.
"You'll pay for that" he grumbled as he turned around and began walking away. Aww, now he's upset.
A sudden feeling of remorse seemed to overwhelm the girl as she rushed behind him. "Oh come on Junior! I was just playing with ya, don't be so sensitive!". Seeing as Junior kept walking, seemingly unphased by the quick change of heart, Yang went all-in.
"Come on! Let's kiss and make up, okay?"
That got him. The man turned around, his testicles still aching from the makeshift examination, but the surprise was clearly visible on his face.
"O-ookay". The poor informant approached the girl as she couldn't hold a chuckle inside her. The hooded person appeared more and more interested by a sudden make-out session.
But just as Junior's lips were about to touch Yang's, an armored fist materialized before his face, sending him flying straight into one of the glass pillars around the club, all accompanied by a loud bang. The security immediately turned on Yang, taking up formation and readying their hatchets. The figure near the bar took something out of the depths of the cape, putting it on his (or her?) face…
A shotgun shell was ejected out of Yang's wrist as the odd-fashioned bracelets on her hands turned out to be high-powered wrist cannons, completed with armored gauntlets for close combat. As the gauntlets continued to unfold, the girl leapt into the air, slamming the ground with devastating force shortly after. The power of the impact sent the henchmen flying, only for ten more to take their place immediately…
It was as if a spring was tripped, setting events in motion with blinding speed. As Yang turned to face the goons just getting up on their feet, the hooded figure dashed forward, revealing two scythes in its hands that took a shape of a singular, larger scythe in what looked like a heartbeat. A sleight of hand and the newest reinforcements became concealed in a cloud of smoke, so dense it was impossible to make out anything within and dark as night itself.
"The music here is quite catchy but I fear the local beverages will kill my liver if I even try one!" A slightly muffled voice reached Yang's ears as the stranger turned to her, revealing a mask resembling the front of a human skull, scythe on the ready. "You get your ten, I'll deal with the blind kittens."
"Knock yourself out". Yang managed to brush off the momentary confusion and turned towards the crowd of the guards already sprinting towards her. One of them, slightly ahead of the group, jumped at the girl with an axe held high… Only to be swept away by a devastating hook from the right, additional air time provided by the discharge of one of the gauntlet's shells. Thus, the dance of battle began as Yang flew from one goon to another, dispensing pain with an unseemly brutality for such a naïve-looking woman. The looks truly are deceiving…
One of the attackers had grabbed a makeshift katana from somewhere, his strike easily dodged as he received a blast into his stomach, sending him on a one-way trip to unconsciousness. The blast knocked Yang back, allowing her leverage and speed to deliver a roundhouse kick to the jaw of an opponent behind her, pushing him into his comrade and blowing them away with another round of the cannon. As the last of the group kissed the floor after a preliminary date with the ceiling, Yang turned around to see how her brother in arms from nowhere was doing.
By this point, the darkness has dissipated enough to see what is happening on the other half of the battlefield. Eight bodies were scattered on the floor, their faces twisted in horror but their chests still rising and falling, indicating that they were, in fact, alive. The two remaining mercs charged at the stranger as the latter swept the legs of the first one with his scythe as it split into two just in time to block the sword of another one. With a deafening "CLANK" the cheap blade shattered into pieces as the stunned guard was launched in the air with an uppercut, only for the scythe (When did it become one again?!) to smash him into the other goon trying to get air into his lungs. The masked figure turned towards Yang, only to shout "Machine gun in the DJ booth!" and hurl himself to the side as a stream of bullets peppered the spot he was standing on. Yang started running in the direction of the booth as an orb of pure black flew past her head directly into the DJ's face. No direct damage as the DJ was wearing a bear's head, comically overblown in proportions, but just enough to temporarily distract him in an attempt to remove it to avoid the spreading fire.
As she leapt in the air for what seemed to be the hundredth time tonight, her feet planted themselves into the DJ's now unmasked head in a dropkick, followed by her grabbing said head and repeatedly smashing it into the panel. But just as she exhaled in an attempt to catch her breath, the two lieutenants approached the dance pad, high heels audible even in the deafening music of the hall.
"Melanie, who is this girl and that second-hand Reaper?" The girl dressed in red inquired to the one in white with a voice so monotone one could think such occurrences are their day-to-day routines.
"I don't know Miltia, but we should teach them a lesson." The reply felt even drier than the question.
"Dibs on the red one. Ain't nobody calling me "second-hand"" The figure's voice was dripping with dark excitement as he assumed his combat stance. Left leg slightly in front, knees bent almost parallel to the floor, scythes behind his back. With a quick gesture of her hands Yang ejected both belts feeding her gauntlets the shells, simultaneously inserting two new ones.
As she jumped back into the fray, she unloaded four blasts to distract their opponents. The girls flipped back to evade the incoming threat, the white one immediately surging towards Yang while the red one had to block the incoming flurry of attacks unleashed by the one she called "second-hand Reaper".
Compared to the last guys, the girl in front of her was far more formidable, dodging the projectiles Yang sent in her direction with ease and forcing her to duck to evade the incoming kick which would surely have left a scar or much worse if it were to connect. With half of her ammunition already gone, Yang was forced to play the intricate game of "call the bluff" with her opponent as both feigned strikes to fool the other one. A deadly dance where one hit could determine the outcome of the entire fight.
Melanie attempted two kicks in rapid succession against the golden-haired girl but both got blocked. A counterattack by Yang flew in the direction of the lieutenant's face, yet did not reach its goal as she ducked to immediately attempt a strike afterwards. Using the momentum from the missed punch Yang spun around, just below Melanie's leg, and slammed her elbow square into the girl's jaw, resulting in a loud crunch as it dislocated. Without losing a fraction of a second, a cannon-assisted uppercut sent the white dress into the air only for the feet in a yellow boot to smash it with great force, knocking her down on the dance pad.
In the meanwhile Miltia was slowly, but surely getting overwhelmed by a maze of steel thrown at her by the stranger's scythes. A well-aimed slash connected with her face, the only thing stopping it from getting sliced in two being her aura. Still, the power of the impact caused her to stumble and fall down on the floor as a foot in a steel boot descended upon her face. A powerful kick sent her flying, crashing into another glass pillar.
As the last shard of glass fell on the floor, the music went silent for a moment, only to continue with another tune. The Junior himself entered the arena, armed with a rocket launcher.
"You're gonna pay for this…"
Quickly taking aim, he fired ten heat-seeking missiles with half of them heading towards Yang while the other half chose the man in the cape as their target.
Assuming defensive position, Yang began shooting the projectiles down with great precision while her companion simply… phased through the barrage, making them collide with the floor in an attempt to change trajectory. Not expecting such treachery, the host of the ruined club barely managed to block a devastating swipe of the scythes with the launcher, wielding it like a baseball bat. As Yang concentrated all her energy for a final assault, Junior managed to sneak in a hit, sending the man backwards, struggling to make a breath.
However, he was not allowed to capitalize on that advantage as Yang swooped in with stunning speed, the iris of her eyes turned from light purple to red and her hair glowing even brighter than before. Unable to withstand such fury, the now-probably-ex-informant took several hits to the head and torso before a devastating hit to the chest, sending him flying at subsonic speed.
Miraculously, Junior mustered enough strength to stand up, his rocket launcher now bearing more similarities to a broken bottle than to a weapon of war, his other hand gripping something tightly. Further inspecting his left hand he saw it is lock of golden hair. The figure in the hood, now returned to his sense, only managed to utter: "You poor fool…"
There is no bigger crime against a woman than to tear out a piece of her hair, which is especially true for Yang. With an inhuman howl she charged towards the poor Junior, covering fifteen meters worth of distance with a single leap. The only thing he managed to make is a horrified facial expression as a shell was discharged upon contact with his jaw, sending both him and Yang flying out of the window. The mystery figure soon followed.
Before them lay Junior, desperately trying to keep his consciousness. Near him, a little girl in a red dress, no older than 16, curiously observing him, as well as the newly arrived young people. At the site of Yang, her expression changed from curious to excitedly-surprised.
"Yang? Is that you? And who's that?" she pointed the finger at the figure in the mask, now splitting his scythes and sheathing them at his waist before closing the cape.
"Oh, hey sis!" Yang could not contain happiness in this phrase. "As for you, I'm gonna go ahead and agree with my little sister: who are you and on what grounds do you go around involving yourself in bar fights?"
The man in the black cape took off the mask and pulled down the hood, revealing a face with hair the color of wheat. In other circumstances, a rather likeable face, if it wasn't for the darkness that resided where his eyes should have been, making them look like two bottomless pits of the abyss. Although, it was quickly fading, allowing the eyes to assume their normal color of steel gray with a slight accent of blue, sharp as the blades of his scythes.
"My name is Darius, and I'm afraid that rescuing damsels in distress isn't my specialty." Yang scoffed at the notion of someone calling her a damsel in distress. "Neither are bar fights." The boy looked no older than her, but something deep, deep in his eyes irked Yang. It was almost like something else entirely resided in the depth of his pupils, watching her intently. "I was supposed to have an appointment in just about five minutes up in there, but then I saw you practicing interrogation techniques on this poor fellow." He gave Junior a slight nudge with his boot. "So, after seeing that the numerical advantage was not on your side, I decided to even the odds a little and maybe stretch a bit. Apologies if I ruined a perfectly good bar fight". A slight smirk etched itself on his face as he continued. "Now. May I have the privilege of knowing your name and maybe an added bonus of you telling me why this guy had to have the snot beaten out of him by the two of us? Or should I follow his example and call you Sir?" Darius threw his hands up in the air in a joking gesture of fear and submission.
"Two of us? I did all the work on him, remember?" She couldn't help but smile at the man's casual gallantry. "My name's Yang Xiao Long, but you can just call me Yang…"
"My name's Ruby!" The cheery voice interrupted the conversation.
"A-a-and she's my little sister. Say hello to Darius, Ruby!" If there was anything the two sisters shared, it was their carefree attitude. "As for why I was here… I was looking for some information. No offence, but I can't really say it's something to share with a total stranger, even if you did help me in a fight. By the way: thank you. You were pretty helpful."
"And that's all I needed to hear." A hearty laugh followed from both sides.
"Now, is there any chance you're here to go to Beacon tomorrow? You look the part. And, frankly, handle yourself accordingly" A sudden question momentarily surprised Yang, but she confirmed Darius' suspicion with a nod. "Why, that's great! I'm here for the exact same thing. See you tomorrow? If you don't mind, I still have some time for a little chat with our friend here." Another nudge with the boot.
"Sure. Maybe we'll even end up in the same team! And have fun with this guy. That is, if you can get him to wake up." She shrugged as no physical contact so far had managed to get him out of sleep's embrace.
"Oh don't worry, that won't be a problem. Have a good night you two!"
With these words, Darius lifted the unconscious informant and took one of his scythes to act as a climbing axe as he crawled into the broken window. Ruby turned her head at her sister.
"So… what was that all about?"
"Eh… It's a long story."
As Darius climbed back inside, his eyes bore witness to the ruin of the "Elysium" yet again. Drops of blood and broken teeth littered the dance pad, nearly all of the bottles at the bar broken. A look at the somehow unharmed clock told him he still had about five minutes to ask the unconscious man on his shoulders some questions before his appointment was due. Darius put the mask back on and threw Junior, as Yang called him, down on the floor. With a pained moan he opened his eyes… Only to see his neck trapped between two razor-sharp blades. No amount of aura is going to save him this time.
"Now then. Feeling better?" he asked him as his eyes widened in terror at the sight of Darius.
"What the fuck do you want?!" he screamed for help, but the bar was empty. Even the music stopped, resulting in echoes travelling back and forth, the only witness to this scene.
"I'm going to put it bluntly. Answer my questions and you're free to go. Refuse and I will slowly cut your head off. And rest assured, I can make it so that you will feel every second of it until your head is fully separated from your body." as the boy's eyes flooded with darkness, his screams grew into wails.
"Please! I'll do anything you want!"
"Good. Before the girl entered I saw you striking some sort of deal with a guy in a white trench coat and orange hair. What is his name and what did he want?!"
"H-his name is Roman Torchwick. He's the local gang leader, at least as far as I know. I was passing him the addresses and details on all the dust shops in this city. I don't know what he wants to do with them, I just do what I'm paid for! Please, please let me go! I swear I don't know anything else!" Before Darius managed to sheath his scythes and stand up, Junior's gaze lost focus as he fainted. That works.
"When I arranged an appointment with you, I did not expect to come to an aftermath of a battle. Mind telling me what happened?" A calm voice reached his ears. As the hooded figure turned around, he already knew who he was going to see. Grey hair, small glasses, black coat with a green scarf and a cane. Only one man could keep calm in a scene like this.
"Professor Ozpin, sir." Darius slightly nodded in acknowledgment. "I must say, the story is a rather complicated one. Shortly: a girl tried to interrogate this guy here." he pointed at Junior. "She was then met with overwhelming security force. I decided to help out."
"A knight in shining armor hurrying to the rescue. It is good to see the spirit of chivalry live on in the younger generations." A barely visible smile crossed Ozpin's lips. "Although, considering who I'm talking to, shining armor is the last thing I'm going to see on you, isn't it?" the boy raised his brow in mild surprise. The degree of awareness that Beacon's headmaster possessed was never in doubt, but still: the Orders of the Servants were not exactly common knowledge. "I know of your Order's history. I am unaware of your current motives, but I recognize an Avatar in the making when I see one and I see no reason to not allow you to join our collective."
"However?.."
"However, the skills that you and your Order possess may be of use to us."
Another brow was raised. "Professor, am I to understand that you just offered me to do wet-work for you and the Academy?"
Darius could see Ozpin slightly roll his eyes at such bluntness. "I'm certain assassinations isn't the only thing you can do. In fact, such a brute force approach is the last thing we need. Espionage, infiltration, sabotage, analytics, these are all parts of how this world, including Beacon, functions. I'm sure I don't need to explain to you that this world isn't guarded solely by the knights in shining armor. There is plenty of work for those who prefer the cloak and dagger instead." He stared right in Darius' grey eyes. He, in turn, let a smile creep onto his face.
"Why yes, I do understand. But… Don't you have professionals who do that for a living?"
"Where do you think we get them? Every now and then we filter our rosters for passing candidates. We train them, we ensure their loyalty and we make sure that they can serve this world's safety through other means than just slaughtering Grimm. Although that definitely helps. In your case, it's quite clear you'd be an excellent fit. Now unfortunately, it would mean that you'd have to work in a solitary unit, outside of any teams. Of course, for the first semester during your initial training and in between your assignments you are free to ally with any team you choose to, just like normally. It's just that you won't be officially included into the team's name. Would that be a problem for you?"
For a few seconds, silence loomed in "Elysium" as Darius was digesting the information just spilled on him. After that, a nod. "Sounds decent to me. I only have one condition: I want full information on my assignments: what I'm supposed to do, why I'm supposed to do it and what it will lead to. We both have our visions of the world, and if you want me to promote yours, I at least want to know why."
The headmaster agreed almost immediately. "I can work with this. I will see you tomorrow at the opening ceremony. Welcome to Beacon."
Running across rooftops in the direction of the hotel Darius had been staying in for the last four days, he was thinking about the deal he just struck with Ozpin. Overall, it would be a lie to say he was displeased with what he got. He had no illusions about why he was offered this: in a way, it was the service expected from him if the academy was to accept a Silva. The only thing slightly wounding his pride was the fact that he would not be a part of an official team…
But after all, the D is silent.