I do not own RWBY or AdventureQuest Worlds.

As soon as the adventurer touched the door to exit, and the bell at the door sounded, he let himself melt into the shadows of the shop. They grey haired teen didn't notice him as he continued to browse at the books. He moved to the corner of the shop, watching the two customers Tukson has. The green haired one, the thief, had pickpocketed him off of a gold pouch.

Now, losing gold wasn't that much of a problem for him, as he had amassed a wealth for himself now. But it was the principle of it being stolen from was the issue. Wasn't as if the green haired girl was a starving on the streets and desperate for anything to survive. These two were…as he observed them trying to intimidate Tukson, were some kind of assassin?

He knew he had to step in when the girl prepared to shoot Tukson. With a swing of his katana, he disarmed her. Something was odd however.

When his blade struck at her hands, it was like he was hitting armor, not flesh. He was pretty sure he'd taken some fingers, but all he had managed to do was wound her hands.

Revealing himself from the shadows, he let himself be seen by the three in the shop.

"Sorry," He chuckled. "Just forgot something. Seriously, who mugs book salesmen?"

He plopped his paper bag to one of the shelves as he slowly advanced to the two would be assassins. The two teens glared at him.

The green haired one (he'd call her Greenie, for now), hissed as he walked. "What the fuck do you want?"

The adventurer raised an eyebrow at her. "Really? Stealing gold from me? Then trying to execute some poor shopkeep? Do I have to explain this to you?"

Her wounded hand reached behind her back and revealed the small bag of gold she had stolen from him and quickly tossed it at his feet. "Here. Now leave. This isn't any of your business."

[Neutral] "Uh huh. And I should follow that because…?"

"You don't know who you're dealing with, pal." The grey haired teen (the adventurer decided to call him Snowy) warned. "You're making a huge mistake." He turned to his partner. "I don't even think we should let him leave here alive. We're going to get roasted alive if this gets out of hand." Greenie glared at him for that.

[Evil] "Bold words kiddo. How about I rip off your pal's arm here and shove it down your throat instead?" The adventurer fired back. "If you're worried about getting roasted alive, then I'm sorry, but you're not going to face any much better here with me."

"Then I guess it ends this way huh?" Snowy said, crouching further. Greenie grit her teeth and hissed out a breath.

In a flash, the adventurer swung his katana in three consecutive blinding fast slashes of Tachi, targeting Greenie. The green haired teen, surprised at the sudden movement, fired blindly in front of her as she leapt backwards. Snowy, not about to let his partner get cut apart, launched his own blitz of kicks, each one punctuated by a blast of shotgun shells. The adventurer avoided all of his attacks, and struck at the heels of his grey haired attacker, attempting to cut his tendons.

Sever. A technique of the Legion Blademasters. An attack meant to strike at the heels and render their opponents helpless in combat.

The vicious attack meaning to slow down his opponent was almost meaningless. As his sword cut apart the pantleg of Snowy, it revealed robotic legs with a bunch of cables running through the prosthetic. Plus, he had a suspicion it wasn't only steel he was hitting back there.

He hadn't the time to think about it, as Snowy leaned to his left, and revealed a sickle on a chain launching towards him. Uke Nagashi, he thought as he swiped forwards, deflecting the weapon to Snowy. Or at least that's what he planned to do.

His swipe hit nothing but air, and the sickle came just after his attempted deflection technique. He ducked backwards, letting the chained sickle tangle through his sword, and pulled. What was that?! He thought. That shouldn't have missed! That was in my face! His thoughts were interrupted by Snowy slamming down his foot towards him in an axe kick. Pulling his katana, he bent his body further backwards, using the momentum of his dodge, to flip backwards to dodge Snowy. The grey haired teen's foot cratered the floor, missing him entirely. As he pulled his katana, the one holding the other end of the chains yelped as her other weapon was snatched out of her hands. Greenie was pulled along with her weapon, and she stumbled forwards.

The adventurer caught the pistol-with-chains and threw it below him, and promptly crushed it under his feet. He pulled the chains of his katana and sheathed it. Greenie barely had the time to react and with all her strength, pushed herself up. The katana just barely missing her by a few centimeters, even cutting her hair, as her opponent slashed at her with a lightning fast Nukitsuke. Spooked, she immediately vanished into thin air.

Stunned by what he saw, he also had barely just enough time to block another flurry of shotgun kicks from Snowy. He deflected each one with Uke Nagashi, and with Snowy staggering a bit from that, the adventurer moved. Snowy, sensing something dangerous, jumped back, but he was too late. The air in front of him twisted, and a sudden attack slashed entirely through his aura and cut through both of his prosthetic legs.

"Fuck!" "Mercury!" Snowy and Greenie screamed. He scrambled backwards, dragging what remained of his prosthetics with him, which only seemed to weigh him down. He watched as his opponent walked towards him slowly. "What was that about not leaving me alive, Mercury?" The adventurer mocked his downed opponent. "Can't do that now can ya, stubby?"

"Aaagh!" Greenie shot at the adventurer with her pistol. Must've picked it up while I was dealing with stubby here. That was careless-! He thought as he was forced back to deflect and dodge the bullets raining down on him. He slowly made to move towards the girl while trying not to get shot.

Greenie had to run out of bullets eventually. She jumped and twirled through the air, her chain whipping towards the adventurer, tearing through the shelves of books around them. He smirked. The gal was desperate, he dodged backwards, and launched bolts of fire from his other hand. Greenie failed to dodge, and took the hit directly to her torso. A faint wisp off light tore away from Greenie, the adventurer observed, and her body smashed besides the counter where Tukson was leaning against. Tukson jumped a bit, dodging the body of the girl that tried to kill him.

"Emerald, no-!" Mercury said in horror as his only hope getting out of this mess was knocked out. He faced back to the adventurer, who placed his katana to Mercury's neck. His breath hitched in fear. His aura was gone. His legs was gone. He was totally useless like this!

"Hehe. Hahaha!" Mercury could only laugh at his situation. He glared at the adventurer who raised an eyebrow at his reaction. "You." Mercury growled. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into, dumbass. We're assassins, sent to kill this guy. Know what that means? Means someone with enough money and power hired us to kill this fucker for running from the White Fang. We don't return, the Fang is going to converge to this place, and they'll find you, and they're going to kill you!" He raved at the adventurer. "Not to mention my boss! She's going to burn you alive! You should have never gotten in our way!"

[Good] "Oh, don't worry." The adventurer shrugged. "I'm going to let you and your girlfriend here go. I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to let your bosses deal with you."

"What?" Mercury couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Doesn't mean I'm going to let you cause more trouble though." That was the last thing Mercury heard as he was smashed across the face with the katana, knocking him out cold.

[Thief's Respite x 1, Talaria x 1]

]|[

Tukson stretched a bit after tying down the two assassins. He locked them in the back room, and he walked back to the front of his store, where his savior was waiting for him to talk. He found him sitting on one of the ruined shelves, his katana stabbed on the floor beside him. He has one of Emerald's pistols in his hands, and the ruined prosthetic legs of Mercury beside him.

[Tukson, Shopkeeper]

"You got a name?" Tukson asked. The adventurer shook his head, leaving it at that.

"Must've pissed of some really important people to get assassins after you, Tukson." The adventurer started. "Can you tell me about that?" He stared expectantly to the shopkeep, who sighed and sat in front of him in one of the other bookshelves.

"I was a member of the White Fang. I didn't agree with how they're going about their business now, so I left. That's it." Tukson answered.

The adventurer removed his cap and brushed through his hair. "You're leaving something out, man. What is it?"

"That's it! I swear!" Tukson shouted. "I was just some rank and file. The Fang is just vicious enough that they execute deserters like me." He sighed, rubbing his face with his hand.

"What made you leave again?" The adventurer pressed on with his questions.

Tukson shook his head, face twisted in a mix of sadness and disappointment. "I couldn't do it anymore. All the robbing, the terrorism," He shuddered. "…the killings. It wasn't what I signed up for."

"Robbing?" The adventurer questioned. "What are you stealing? Cash for your little group?"

Tukson looked at him like he grew a second head. "Where have you been this past few weeks? The White Fang was robbing every speck of Dust in Vale. With the help of Roman Torchwick of all people."

Dust. He read about that earlier. Some sort of crystal these people used for power and combat. He took note of the name 'Roman Torchwick', as well. Might come up later.

"What're they going to do with the dust?"

Tukson grimaced. "With that much dust? Nothing good. They've been stealing so much dust it's probably enough to blow the city up to high heaven. Whatever they plan with that, I can't be a part of it anymore."

Oh heck. That sounds too much like an adventure waiting to happen.

"So what're you going to do now?" The adventurer asked the ex-White Fang. "Can't stay in the city if they're sending assassins after you."

"I'm leaving for Vacuo. Got a plan all polished up so they won't be able to come after me." Tukson said with determination. "Probably gotta leave now. I'm not safe here anymore. I'm betting that the desert is at least safer than this city right now."

[Good] "What about your bookstore? Gonna close it down?"

"Don't care." Tukson shrugged. "Can't bring my books if I'm gonna leave now. It's a shame, but I will do what I have to."

The adventurer smiled, a plan forming in his head. "Hey Tukson, listen for a bit… I have a plan."

]|[

[House Item: Tukson's Book Trade]

[Scroll x 1]

After convincing Tukson to leave the store to him, he grilled the man for the papers to the store. Problem was, all the papers for the deed and permits has Tukson's name written on it, on Tukson's identity. There was the gigantic problem of being a literal nobody as he doesn't even have a proper government ID on him.

Fortunately, Tukson had a contact named "Junior". An information broker staying at a bar named…"Junior's". He had another pressing problem however. He looked at the still knocked out Emerald and Mercury.

He paced around the room, thinking of a way to get rid of the two. He said he wouldn't kill them, so what now?

[Good] He could just dump them outside to the police station around here. Might be a problem if the police started asking where the two teens came from though.

[Evil] Or he could ask the local criminal underworld to deal with the two? He could probably pay off this "Junior" to deal with the two for him.

[Neutral] He could also just dump them outside the city? Emerald has her aura, she could probably carry her stumpy partner back to the city.

Decisions, decisions… The adventurer thought. He stared at the two still tied together. Good thing Tukson had rope, can't have the two assassins escaping them.

Rope… The adventurer's eyes widened. "I have an idea!" He shouted at no one in particular.

]|[

After…dealing with the dangerous duo, he made his way to Junior's, using the Scroll Tukson gave him to make his way around the city. It was huge! It's like he was walking around Dreadrock Citadel, getting lost on the roads. So many people too. Some with animal ears or other body parts, Faunus, he learned they were called, among the regular vanilla humans. He wondered if there were other beings in this place. Like the druids of Brightoak Grove, or Dragonkin, or the Darkbloods. Or the Celestials…Infernals.

He shuddered. Don't think about that. He thought to himself as he entered the club.

Music blaring around, people at the dance floor, and lights flashing a lot. Yep. Not used to this. He winced. He made his way to the bar, to the tall man with a mustache and matching beard cleaning a glass at the counter. "You Junior?" He asked.

"Who's asking?" The man didn't look up from his work. The adventurer slid a gold Shadowscythe coin towards the man. "Someone who has a job for him." He said.

The man, Junior, placed the glass down on the counter and picked up the coin. "Pure gold…" He muttered. "Going to need a lot more of these for my services." Junior said neutrally. The adventurer simply placed an entire pouch of gold coins on the counter. Junior's eyes widened slightly.

"Okay kid, you have my attention." Junior looked at him finally. "What do you need?"

The adventurer smirked. Gottem.

]|[

After also grilling the man for information, the adventurer left the bar, now named 'Johnny Lore' in his identification card from the small village of Piner's Heights from the Kingdom of Sanus. In a few days, he'd be able to…legally own Tukson's Book Trade, now renamed to Maya's Bookstore, after his old friend. He planned to visit the city hall in a few days to legalize his ownership of the shop.

He visited some shops around the city, at Junior's advice, that traded the gold he had for Lien. He hailed a cab and got himself to the edge of the city limits.

Skipping around the checkpoints, he once again sneaked out, blending into the shadows, practically invisible to the city guards.

Reaching his destination to the forest outside the city, he sat down at the bushes near the clearing, watching the trap that he set.

]|[

Emerald awoke to mosquitoes biting her face. She tried to move her arms, to no avail, as she was still tied down. It wasn't her only problem though.

She was also somehow upside down.

She squirmed trying to worm her way out of the ropes, swinging her around from where they were tied.

"Stop moving!" Mercury screamed at her. "You're going to make me hurl!"

"Where the fuck are we?!" Emerald screamed back. "What happened to us?!"

Steadying themselves after stopping their swinging, Emerald tried to assess their situation. "Okay, so that bastard tied us down, dumped us outside town, and set us up like pigs tied upside down."

"Great deduction, Sherlock." Mercury snarked at her. "Can you solve this mystery then? How do we get out of here?!"

"Piss off!" Emerald snarled back. She sighed to herself. "Ugh! This can't get any more worse! Tukson's probably gone now, and now we have another problem! Cinder will seriously skin us alive if we even somehow get out of here!"

Mercury grimaced. "You still have aura?" He asked. "Mine still recovering. Can't wrestle my way out of these ropes."

Emerald sighed. "No, I'm also empty. That fireball ripped through my aura."

"Shit." Mercury swore. "Here's hoping we don't get eaten by Grimm." He thought for a bit. "Can we somehow call for help?"

"How? Even if we scream our heads off out here, all that would hear us are the Grimm."

"Can you somehow reach your scroll?"

"I don't think we even have our scrolls with us." Emerald sighed. "He'd have to be dumb to—wait. I can feel my scroll in my back pocket." She wiggled her arms a bit, trying to reach for her back pocket. "Nope. Can't reach it, damnit!"

"Maybe I can reach it." Mercury said. "Lemme just-."

"Where the hell are you touching you creep!"

"Stop fucking moving! I almost got it. Just a little more…"

"EEEK! Mercury I swear I'm going to kill you after we get out of here!"

Their screams echoed through the forest. Luckily, with only one to hear them. The adventurer watched in amusement at the classic anime scene replaying in front of him.

]|[

After a long and humiliating time trying to make a single phone call, Emerald and Mercury both tired themselves out, both trying not to talk about what happened. Both of them hung up the tree like yesterday's laundry.

It was how Roman Torchwick found the duo, and of course, immediately laughed at the predicament the two had gotten themselves into.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh brothers! Neo! Get pictures now!" Roman said between his laughs, rolling on the forest clearing, as his multicolored assistant, Neo, took pictures of the two.

"I swear Roman, I'm going to kill you and your little bitch after I kill Mercury! Cut us down from here!" Emerald screeched at the two still cackling their heads off. Mercury closed his eyes and tried to imagine himself in a place not here.

"Alright, alright. Neo pass me those pictures. And cut the two loose." Roman said, and Neo happily obliged, tossing the scroll to Roman, and sliced the rope hanging the two from the tree. The duo fell to the ground unceremoniously, grunting in pain at the impact. With another swipe of her parasol, she freed the two.

Emerald tried to stand, but immediately falls back down smashing her face to the ground below. She was so tired all she could manage was a groan, and can't even move.

Mercury literally cannot stand, resigning himself to staring at the sky.

"Gods. You two look like you were beaten like dogs. What the hell happened to you?"

Both of them can't even manage to speak and groaned simultaneously remembering the ass-kicking they got earlier.

]|[

Johnny watched the man in the hat and the woman with two toned hair cart the two away, ordering some men in masks to carry them. It worked. Someone did come to rescue the two. Now to find out who they're working for, he only needs to tail them.

As he moved to stand up, he felt the woman with pink and brown hair stare at his position. She can't see him, he's sure of that, but…

The woman shakes her head and follows after the others.

Interesting girl. Johnny thinks to himself. He made to move slowly from his position, beginning to tail the group.

]|[

"What is it, Neo? Something in the forest?" The man with orange hair and the bowler hat, Roman, asked his partner Neo. Neo shook her head. She held up her scroll to Roman.

"Nothing. Must have been my imagination." It said.

Roman shrugged and continued to walk on. All the while Neo felt like there was someone burning a gaze at the back of her head.