'The Vale Police Station, it was a dreary place, a place where the miscreant, the vagabond, even the odd thief could call this dingy building of tile and metal their home away from home. At least until their time's been served, to which they waltz right out onto the roads of Vale to do their morning routine all over again. Regardless, on this day in particular, where the moon glowed ever so dimly, the cold breeze whisking away the dead leaves left on the cracked asphalt road that made the city beat, there laid three individuals, all in the same cell for reasons-'
"Miss Rose. While I appreciate your excellent storytelling prowess, may I remind you that the vivid description of our current location is not answering the question at hand?" The voice of a man echoed through a pitch dark room, with a table, two occupied seats, and a plate of milk and cookies resting upon said table with a gray lamp giving a consistent, if harsh light source to the scene.
Ruby Rose herself was striking a pose, her outlandish gestures helping sell the atmosphere she was going for. But with her audience not being particularly enthused about her superb talents in the arts. She plopped down back in her chair, snatching a small stack of cookies as she did so.
"Look, I was simply defending my business! Sure, things got a little out of hand-"
"Two of the four perpetrators are currently in the hospital." The man stated matter-of-factly.
Ruby bashfully rubbed her left arm. "Alright, so things got a bit too crazy, but everything worked out relatively fine in the end!"
The man on the other side of the desk took a sip from his mug and reiterated. "Keep in mind, Miss Rose. We are not the police, and we are not here to reprimand you over your actions." An amused smile could be felt from his voice. "If anything, I would say the gentlemen in blue appreciate having a new lead in their war against the rising criminal wave as of late."
Oh, OH! Ruby slumped in her chair, the universal sweet words of 'you're not in trouble.' echoing in her head. Her lawyer was out on vacation for the month, so the idea of having to depend on a Council provided lawyer didn't sit well with her. It wasn't like she was saying they were bad people, but anything related to the Council was a no-go for her.
She really didn't need them siccing the DTF on her store and Zwei.
The man shrouded in shadow decided to take this moment to lean forward, his tuft of gray hair being the first thing to be exposed to the light, then came his astonishingly youthful face and itty bitty black glasses that looked to be there for decoration more than anything. The green scarf was the last striking detail the silver-eyed girl could get from a glance.
There was also the Blonde Woman in secretary clothing, wearing a fashionably torn cape, and ominously hovering behind the man, staring at the young store owner with fierce blue eyes that her glasses could hardly contain. She chose to avoid the murderous glance for the sake of her health.
But swaying her attention back to the man in front of her, Ruby couldn't help but tilt her head in confusion. "Headmaster Ozpin?" The last time she saw the man was during her combat academy fair. His image was the front and center of the Beacon Academy pamphlets.
Now why would a busy man such as the Headmaster of Beacon academy himself bother to cover her from the cops? A better question would also be; Will this shoot her chances of getting into beacon up in .45 acp?
"Am I getting shanghaied?" Was the question that slid from her mouth instead.
The heedless question was enough to provoke the Blonde Secretary from her abode in the dark. "Miss Rose!" A whip crack resounded in the barren room, causing the poor redheaded girl to jump a few feet from her chair. "You're in a precarious situation as is, please do not add Slander to the list as well."
"Wait, list! What list?!" Despite the young redhead's alarmed question. The Blonde woman refused to elaborate.
Ozpin, finishing sipping from his mug, tapped on his assistant's shoulders. "And may I remind you that we didn't come all this way to fearmonger the poor girl?" That must have taken all the wind from her sails, as the cold-eyed woman muttered something under her breath, her riding crop swiftly exiting just as it appeared.
"I apologize for my assistant, Glynda. But a 50 caliber bullet hitting you in the chest would make anyone angry. Don't you agree?" Ruby could only nod at the man's words, cringing as her suspicions were proven correct.
The memory of the incident was still seared deep in her mind.
"I'm so, so, so sorry! I swear I didn't mean to tag you with Crescent Rose, it's just that I was so into the fight that I wasn't thinking straight and-"
Glynda raised her palm, forcing the young girl's attention. "There's no need, I also share the fault for not approaching the situation in a more delicate matter. Let us leave it at that, shall we?"
Ruby nodded, "Uh, yeah. I'm cool with that too!"
"Glad to see we have resolved this misunderstanding so quickly." Ozpin's amusement was clear in his voice, what with being the peanut gallery of this exchange and all.
"Misunderstanding is putting it lightly, sir." the Sir was emphasized, which was Ozpin's cue to stop prodding her on the subject. With a quick cough to clear the throat- and strained atmosphere, Ozpin brought the conversation back to where he left off.\
"As I was about to say before the slight derailment in topics, we came here today to ask you some questions. The first one being simple, who taught you to wield such a dangerous weapon?" He asked.
This surprised Ruby, but her surprise was quickly replaced with giddiness at the prospect of gushing over her history with her pride and joy!
"My uncle Qrow taught me! He was one of the teachers at Signal you see, and he kinda sorta… Took me under his wing." Ignoring the bizarre smirks on both Ozpin and Glynda, Ruby continued.
"At first I was pretty garbage at a lot of weapons, I mean, I was pretty decent at punching things, but Yang was already hardcore into learning to punch stuff better with dad, so I decided to copy Uncle Qrow instead! Some training montages here and there, and blam! I'm a scythe wielding master!"
Well, sort of, Uncle Qrow still whooped her butt whenever they'd spar, but that was a given since her uncle was already doing cool Scythe stuff since before she was born. But she's inching closer, that she knew for sure.
"I never imagined the drunkard would pick a protegee." Glynda passively commented as she reviewed the footage of the young girl's altercation with the ill-prepared thieves.
"Life is full of surprises Glynda, it just so happened that this one was a pleasant one." Ozpin, with a delighted glint in his eyes, turned to Ruby to ask a simple question. "Miss Rose, Would you like to enroll in Beacon Academy?"
"¿Perdón?" Her Vacuo 1 lessons took over from the surprise.
"It is just as you heard Miss Rose, I would like you to join Beacon Academy." Ozpin stood up as he said this.
Ruby herself stayed in her seat, her thoughts coming to a full stop. On one hand, she's skipping two years, two long years of her attendance at Signal to study at the academy of her dreams, but on the other hand, committing to this decision might force her to abandon Guns and Roses for four long years. This cool, breezy night really has it out for her!
"...I don't know if I can accept that offer, Ozpin, sir. As much as I'd love to study at Beacon, I don't think I can do that without having any flexible time to manage Guns and Roses."
"If it's flexible hours you need, then Beacon academy provides options for students in similar situations." He then leaned over to Glynda and quietly said. "Glynda, put that in the notes."
Ruby, not catching wind of this, took a blue pen out of her skirt pocket. "Alright, where do I sign up?"
Guns and Roses was quiet this night, no soothing guitar to play over the small store, no enthusiastic customer scraping by the closing time to give the world of modern arms a try. There were just the lights, the sounds of a sweeping broom, and a humming young woman diligently cleaning up the mess.
With a yawn, Ruby swept the last of the spilled dust into her broom pan, putting as much as she could in small containers she had laying in the back room. "Alright, so that leaves all the dust, what else do I have to clean up?" One of her smaller shelves helped answer the question by flopping over, ammo boxes still sitting on it.
"Urgh, we really did a number on you, didn't we?" Picking the shelf back up, the young redhead looked around for more things to fix, slowly but surely, the old girl was looking more like herself by the minute.
But she didn't have time to be proud of her handiwork, with plenty left to do, the young rose was ready to use her semblance to speed up the process along, but the jingle of the front door's bell drew her attention.
a smiling Yang stood Right at the entrance, "Hey, Ruby." She lazily waved as she tip-toed through some broken glass. "Heard you got held up by the cops, had to burn some rubber making my way back here from the Airship station with bumblebee." The buxom blonde put her motorcycle helmet on the counter, and leaned on the glass surface for support.
"But knowing you, I knew you'd march straight back here." Yang ultimately waved off as she shook off some debris from the counter, her younger sister's head shaking solemnly at her words.
"How could I not? This store needs some serious elbow grease to get back in working order." A Light in the roof fell to the floor.
The Elder sister leaned on her left arm. "Can't you just call up one of dad's old construction worker buddies? I'm sure they're willing to lend a hand if you ask 'em"
"I guess… But asking for favors right out the bat doesn't sit right with me." The younger sibling shrugged as she reorganized some shelves that still stayed up after the messy altercation. "Just give me a few days, if I can't get everything spic and span by then, I'll have dad make the call, sound good?"
The Blonde pushed away a shattered floor tile with one of her brown boots. "Yeeeaah, somehow I don't see that happening." She muttered under her breath.
Yang rested her face on the palm of her hands, using the glass display part of the counter as support. "Ruby, what happened to the small tidbit of advice I gave you?"
That stopped the young store owner in store cleaning duties.
"Which one, you've given me so many that I've lost count." The young redhead set some ammo boxes aside.
Yang rolled her eyes as she addressed her younger sister. "Oh you know, the one where I told you not to put all the responsibility of the store on yourself?" Her head was now resting on one palm, her free arm used to roll her wrist to emphasize the point.
"Ah. Yeah. That one." Ruby scratched her head, "What if I told you I kinda forgot. I mean, can you really blame me?" Ruby let her store speak for itself, as one of the rectangular lights that dangled over her store decided to snap off right there and then. "It's always so dang busy in here."
"Ruby, you have Vacuan construction workers on speed dial. I don't want to hear it." The older sister shot back.
"Speaking of Vacuan stuff, did I ever tell you what happened at the police station?" Clearly, the young redhead wanted to avoid the subject.
WIth her brows furrowed, Yang pushed herself off the counter, it wasn't like she was here to argue with Ruby anyway, but simply leaving things as is made her antsy. "Well, clearly they didn't sneak out like bandits. What did they look like?"
Thinking back on what Dad told her over the phone, she only knew a few groups that would be dumb or crazy enough to attempt a stunt like this, and considering how fast news flies in Vale's nightlife… Well, she wouldn't be surprised if a few skulls were cracked by the end of the night.
Ruby cocked an eyebrow, but otherwise complied with Yang's question. "Oh, well. They were in black suits, with red being their secondary color of choice. Tasteful choice I might add-"
"Uh huh, I wonder why that is?" The sarcasm practically dripped from her tongue.
Ruby continued. "I know, right? A mystery for the ages." She answered back, with a lower voice than the blond would expect, guess puberty's finally kicking in for her. "Hehe, joking aside I did manage to nab a Machete before the cops could get to it, here."
Again, from the infinite dimension that was her counter, Ruby Rose pulled a Machete, with a black handle and bright red blade that gave the weapon a particular aesthetic, what that was eluded the Blonde.
Which just gave her a big target to go after tonight.
"Huh, wouldja look at that. I didn't think Junior had it in him. Took him more of a sleazy businessman than a dumbass." Yang sheathed the Machete with the use of one of her short's belt loops.
"Aww~ I wanted to put that on a glass case!" Her young sis whined, but she had the perfect answer already.
With a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Rubes, if we do it the Yang way, you'll have so many of these that you won't know what to do with 'em! Trust me on this."
"Somehow that doesn't ring up much confidence." But she knew better than to argue with the older sibling, so the youngest sibling grabbed the motorcycle helmet and accepted, very stubbornly, that the night wouldn't end just yet.
Their destination was tucked away under a bridge. Not too far off from Guns and Roses funnily enough; it was a brick building with various shades of gray permeating all of its walls and crevices, with the only signs of color being that of the flashing white lights permeating through most of the lower windows of the building.
And getting inside was no issue on account of the lack of bouncers.
Once inside, Ruby's ears were pleasantly rocked by the nightclub's electronic music, her silver eyes flashed with assortment of lights shifting from their pure white cones, to a delicate red blanket fitting the black aesthetic of the club, only to switch back and so on. There were even rose petals fluttering from the ceiling! Oooh- if only she brought her notebook…
Instinctually, the young redhead reached for her hood, but a slap to the hand from Yang stopped that in its tracks. "Owie! What was that for?!"
The buxom blonde casually looked back to her younger sister, and gave her a teasing wink. "Shh~ We don't want to ruin the surprise too early."
"Surprise…? Yang, usually you and the word surprise don't go well together." Ruby made sure her hood covered her eyes this time.
"Ruby Rose!" The Elder Sister exclaimed in fake shock, causing Ruby to roll her eyes at the display. "To believe that even my young, precious, and nerdy sister would slander me like this, truly, I'll never recover from this." Yang reeled back, not that the young redhead was enthused about her sister's dramatics.
"The last time you decided to make a 'surprise' dad brought out his tool kit. His tool kit!" The young store owner shivered at the memories. How a single man could cause so much structural damage with a wrench was beyond understanding.
In response, Yang shrugged with an uneasy chuckle. "That was a surprise, wasn't it?"
"Remember bumblebee mk II?"
Of course Ruby had to bring that up. "Alright, alright. I get your point already. Way to bring up sore memories," The blonde murmured the last part to herself. "All you really need to know is that we're meeting a guy."
"A guy? That's it?" Ruby stared at her sister with skeptical eyes.
"Uh huh," Yang reaffirmed, brushing some of her locks as both sisters made their way to the club's bar area. "Hey barkeep, mind giving me a strawberry sunrise? Oh! With the little umbrella too."
The bartender said nothing as he went about his work, not noticing or paying mind to the scrutinizing pair of silver eyes on him. With practiced ease, the bartender went through the motions, grabbing the ingredients, mixing them around, and finally adding the finishing touches to the drink. Soon after, Yang had her drinks and Ruby had made up her mind.
"Psst, Yang. That guy fits the description to a tee!" Ruby pointed out to her sister, it was hard not to when the bartender's uniform was a carbon copy of the thugs that attacked her place, the only difference being that the bartender wasn't wearing a gaudy red visor.
Yang, who was busy sipping her Strawberry Sunrise, could only hum in response. "Hmhm." After taking a few more sips from her pink straw, the older Blonde leaned back on her stool. "Pah~! Oh yeah, the guy just screams bad guy all over." But to the young store owners' confusion, her older sister continued to laze around in her stool.
Huh, if Ruby didn't know any better, she'd say Yang was practicing restraint, an odd word to say relating to her big sis. But just in case, she had her fingers ready and waiting to take out Crescent Rose and do a little makeover session on this fine establishment. Ah, but that'd be in bad taste.
Then again the person who ran this place is probably in charge of the rude henchmen that tried to ransack her store, so an eye for an eye wouldn't be too bad in this scenario.
"Hey Yang, do you think the cops would mind if I shot up the club?" Ruby asked her older sister. She didn't answer back.
Looking over to her left, she saw the buxom Blonde talking with a fairly older man, nothing really stood out to the young rose beyond the buzz cut and beard he rocked, it was pretty well groomed all things considered. It made her wonder, what would dad look like if he decided to let the little stubble he called a goatee grow?
She was going to poke Yang again but instead of finger meeting shoulder, the redhead's prodding finger swiped the air. Looking at her older sister's general direction, she noticed that the bearded man and her were now standing, seemingly sizing each other up. Or at least the man was, Yang was being Yang and not taking it any seriously.
"Oh boy." Ruby sighed as she hopped off her stool, "Mr. Bartender, do you happen to serve any milk?"
"Only 2% percent." Was his monotone response.
"I'll take it!"
The young redhead strolled her way over to Yang with a highball glass of milk in hand. She was in the middle of an exchange with the bearded man, and not wanting to butt in too soon, Ruby took a sip from her glass and waited patiently as the two hashed out their business.
"-It's not like I'm asking for much Junior, just a general direction here, a sighting over there, and I'll leave this bar a satisfied gal." Yang casually motioned at her scroll, a black and gray picture barely being visible on the other side of its screen.
"And like I told you goldilocks, I've never seen her. Not in this kingdom, not in this continent. So I dunno, Why don't ya go to Anima or something? All the bandits love wrecking shop over there."
Yang took this opportunity to lean onto the man, eliciting a gruff 'hey!' from him. "Aw c'mon, I know that nogging of yours has something useful inside! After all, I never said she was a bandit, did I?" A smirk with knowing eyes greeted Junior, and the casual hand on his shoulder turned into a threatening grip.
"You start something here, It won't end nicely." He growled
"I relish the challenge, Junior." She sultrily replied into his ear.
Having finished her nice glass of milk, Ruby decided that now was the best time to butt in. "Alright Yang! Stop harassing the poor man, we're here for diplomacy, not war!" Forcefully, the young rose slapped away the flirtatious Blonde from the well-dressed man. "Sorry Mister, my sister's a bit of a tease. I hope she didn't cause you any problems or anything!"
"... Uh-huh. You're surprisingly short for being the older one." Junior commented.
"Hey!" Yang clearly resented that. "I'm the older one here!"
"Aw thanks, as a business owner I strive to be professional with other businesses, no matter how unrelated." She extended her hand to the man. "The name's Ruby Rose- I'm actually the younger one, and I sell firearms!" Judging by Yang's facepalm, it would have been better to be more tactful about that last part.
"Yeah… If you're looking for a buyer then you're fresh outta luck, already know a guy." Despite this, Junior still met the young store owner's handshake with his own.
"Oh, that? Nah. I'm legal. I came here because I wanted to ask you some questions myself." Ruby marched towards Yang, the sister dramatically unsheathing the red machete from her belt loop. "Thank you, my squire." the redhead regally stated, and then used the tip of the weapon to tap her sister's shoulders.
Yang bowed her head in reverence. "You humble this lowly squire with your words, your majesty." She played along with the most comical Old Valean accent she could imitate.
Striding back to the man with the weapon laying softly in her hands, Ruby offered it to the club owner. "As you can see, Junior. There were some attackers at my store, most of them came in with these weapons, and my sister over there happened to mention a certain individual who loans these machete-wielding thugs to other criminals."
To that, Junior scoffed. "Kid, you think I'm some kinda helicopter parent? It ain't up to me to decide how they go about their jobs" Junior took the machete and looked back to Ruby. "It's only my problem when they end up in a bodybag"
"Pfft, those guys walked off a .50 cal, they'll be fine." The redhead dismissed.
Yang leaned forward, "Rubes, I'm pretty sure you hospitalized most of them." Ruby didn't ignore the unsubtle bradishing of Ember Celica on one of Yang's arms.
"Now you're just bringing up semantics!" Was her rebuttal. "Besides, it's not like any of them are in critical-" A booming shot from Yang's Ember Celica, whipping her head around, the young Rose noticed the owner of the nightclub's arm raised high in the air, with nothing but a hand with a particular weapon missing.
"Huh." Ruby tilted her head, "Didn't plan that out, did ya?"
Junior let out an aggravated sigh. "Well, what can I say? Improv's the only thing that stuck from school."
Ruby almost sympathized with the man, buuut, she did almost get whacked by a bladed weapon. With momentum from one of her arms, Ruby's cape flapped against the gust of wind, and Crescent Rose was brandished for all to see. "The time for diplomacy is over! My squire, pick up your blade and fight!" She cheerfully kicked Junior in the chest, taking the well-dressed man off his feet and into the dance floor back first.
The guests on the dance floor took this as their hint to get out of dodge, screaming and stampeding out the door. Soon men dressed in black flooded the club.
"Now we're talking!" With her two knuckles clashing together, Ember Celica was ready and loaded for the slugfest. "I am so glad you are bad at diplomacy!" And so Yang jumped in, fist raised as she charged at the first man that came to view.
"Hey! Usually these types of things go better at the store!" Ruby exclaimed as she evaded an overhead ax swing, with a wide sweep from her Scythe the ax wielding goon hit the floor back first, a solid kick from the small redhead sending him rolling through the dance floor.
A swift spin and the blunt side of Crescent Rose planted a man's head inside one of the dance floor's many led tiles, consequently Ruby gained some air from it. A thug that leaped into battle with a pipe got sidewinded by a girl using his co-worker's head as an anchor point.
After the pipe user was out for the count, Ruby jumped from an incoming grab and responded with a graceful bicycle kick to the back of the thug's head.
Having a precious view of the fight from above, Ruby saw a thug ready to ambush her older sister from behind, she didn't hesitate to pull the trigger, a chest full of .50 cal and the man took a tough tumble to the floor. And seemingly not content with this, Yang used the poor young man's flailing form as a human mace as she beat three men to submission.
One last shot and a thug aiming a chair at her had his head meet a pillar.
As soon as her boots hit the ground, she lunged headfirst into the weakest link of the circle of armed men that awaited her. With a wide swing, she managed to cut a path open for herself to weasel her way out; A tornado of Roses slammed into the remaining men, sending them flying every which way like bowling pins. Out for the count. "Aw, I got a spare."
Maybe she should have used her semblance from the start? Well, it's not like it mattered anymore. What with her side being devoid of opponents. "Augh!" The flying body that whizzed by caused her to look at the source. It was Yang, and a lot more thugs on her side. Hauling herself across the dance floor, Ruby spun herself in tandem with Crescent Rose to clear up a group of men that were bunched up together.
The blond brawler had to work with what she had, quickly grabbing a man by the scruff of his shirt, she punched him square in the nose with the enhanced power of 12 gauge and then proceeded to fling the man high up in the air. "Ruby!"
"On it." Using a nearby thug's head as a stepping stone, the young scythe user bounded over the flying man and struck him back down with a hefty swing, taking out a swathe of henchmen as he crashed.
With her back being covered, Yang eagerly took her chance and started bouncing through all the thugs in front of her. Deep gut punches, a surprise jab to catch the incoming enemy mid swing, a right hook followed by some fancy footwork. That's all Yang needed to put the untrained criminals out cold.
With some kicks added to the mix, the surrounding mob could barely throw out an attack before getting the punch of a lifetime for their trouble. Noticing a lone criminal, the Blonde Brawler didn't hesitate to approach the man, casually, and send him on a trip inside the building's roof with a vicious uppercut.
And then there were no more men in her peripheral vision. Yang's spree had ended when the realization that the man she uppercut to the roof was the last man standing.
"Really? I couldn't even stretch out properly." She sighed as she looked to her younger sister, just like her, all the criminals were scattered all over the nightclub in various positions that left the pain up to imagination. A disturbing tidbit was all the heads caved in various furniture and parts of the building itself, just what rounds was she packing?
Yang took a breath as she locked eyes with Ruby, "You done mopping up your guys?" It was more of a formality, but it never hurt to ask.
Ruby was quick to answer with a thumbs up and an infectious grin on her face. "Yep, how about you?"
"Well what can I say? I'm just too good at this." Motioning to her own pile of beat up criminals. "Now c'mon, we'll make Junior cough up those answers by the ball-" The repeated crackling forced Yang to bring her arms up, lead clashed with metal as a man with a giant bear for a head sprayed Yang with a Tommy Gun.
"Never mind, Rubes. Looks like I missed a spot!" The older sister grunted as she charged the bear-man.
But the younger sibling had her own concerns, "Yang, don't ruin Tommy! I haven't been able to get my hands on his drum mag variant!"
A punch to the man's kidneys and Yang had a fistful of fuzzy bear by the head, Yang proceeded to drag him to a nearby rail, and on that day the poor man behind the mask got to see a railing up close and personal. Repeatedly.
"Is there anyone left?" The bubbly Blonde called out to the ruined nightclub, the bear man's limp body slumping from her firm grasp. When they received no answers, the sisters nodded and began moving, only for two figures to suddenly block their paths.
"Did you see that, Militia? I told you they were related." A female voice lazily pointed out. One of the spotlights rotated just at the right angle to highlight a black-haired, green eyed girl in a white dress with a cyan outline and wings attached to the back of the dress's skirt. Her high heels were sporting some sharp blades to boot.
A few seconds later and Militia had a light shine on her too, unlike her sister she had a short bob with straight bangs, with a large feather nestled comfortably in her left ear, in another contrast to her sister Militia wore a red dress with black outlines and was sporting metal claws with the same red and black color scheme.
"Hmhm, they were really in sync too. Melanie, once we clean up here, make sure to write down what dessert you want from that parfait store." The lazy banter between the twins left the unrulier sisters in a bit of daze.
But that was soon dispelled as the twins sprang on the offensive. Melanie's opening kick managed to connect with Yang's head, sending her tumbling away from Ruby, another kick and the sharp heel tip nicked her in the forehead, with barely a time to react, the Blonde Brawler threw out wild jabs to create some space between the two.
Militia bombarded the young redhead with slashes and stabs from all angles possible, the quick spinning of Crescent Rose kept most attacks from hitting, but some still managed to go through. "Those claws are so sharp, and they look pretty cool too!" A few bleeding hits from her opponent weren't enough to stop Ruby from fawning over a weapon.
"Thanks, but Melanie is the weapon's girl. So don't start bothering me with your gibberish." Militia ducked under a scythe swing and countered with a few hooks to change up the attacks.
Unfortunately, her third hook was repelled by the oversized scythe, and she was forced back from the attack. But not wanting to ease on the throttle Militia grabbed a nearby chair and lobbed it at her opponent, predictably, Ruby cut the object to ribbons, but with the chair's sacrifice Militia used the opening to get a devastating haymaker in.
But to her surprise, all she managed to hit were rose petals. And before she knew it, a violent force sent her flying to a nearby pillar.
Militia was out of the fight.
"Sorry! I'll make sure to make it up to you one of these days!" The young Rose awkwardly waved goodbye as she moved away from the downed Militia.
Looking to Yang's side, the older sibling was having a shimmy battle with the Melanie girl as both tried to throw out attack after attack, only for them to hold back on it and keep moving erratically instead, each reaction and flinch caused by the other's small shifts in movement. But then Yang went for a low gut punch.
Melanie kicked it away and traded the failed attack with two kicks to the face, pushing her chance, the girl in the white dress went in for a devastating roundhouse.
Yang's smirk didn't give the twin a good feeling.
Instead of the hit connecting to the stomach as she intended, the Blonde grabbed the offending leg mid-swing, looking at the blonde, the last thing she saw was a gauntlet rocketing towards her.
Melanie was out for the count.
"I kinda feel bad for them." Ruby muttered as she carefully dragged an unconscious Militia out of the pillar she ended up crashing in.
Yang was more lackadaisical about their beat down, "Don't worry too hard Rubes, they wouldn't have this job if they couldn't handle a few bruises from superior siblings." She smiled as she ruffled her sister's hair.
Slapping the offending hand off her, Ruby took out a small notebook from her skirt. With a small application of her semblance she scribbled down everything she needed hastily and left the paper beside one of the unconscious sisters.
"There!" She exclaimed, "Now let's go get that Junior guy and bust him by the balls!" Not letting her older sister register what she just said, Ruby ran right ahead of Yang to Junior's office space.
"Who told you you can say that?!" Yang chased after her younger sister, completely forgetting about the note she left behind.
It took some door-busting, but eventually, the duo managed to bust in the right door as they were greeted with a classy desk made of mahogany at the front and center. The office also contained shelves, a comfy office chair, a water cooler, and had far too much space for an office.
It even had a rocket barrelling toward them.
With muscle memory kicking in, Yang decided to contest the rapidly approaching object with a punch of her own. Surprisingly, it worked. The rocket, with a suggestion from Ember Celica redirected itself back to the source, a very panicked Junior.
"Ah. Why do I even bother anymore-" The explosion rocked the room and sent the nightclub owner on his back. Surprisingly he was still able to prop himself up, with the help of his busted bat. Looking forward, he was met with the view of two women ready to pound his head into the dirt.
"Alright, Junior. Let's start over, shall we?" Junior was lifted by the scruff of his vest and was forced to sit down on his office chair, "You're not going to answer my question? Fair enough. But we're not leaving 'till you give her the answer she needs." The blonde grabbed his neck with a steely grip and applied pressure.
The man felt the air stop coming to his lung, the choking noises reverberating from his ears. "Alright, Alright! I'll tell the kid what I know…! J-Just let me fucking breath!" As soon as the pressure was relieved from his wind pipes Junior gulped down as much air as his mouth and nose would let him, only stopping when he heard someone approaching him again.
Once he caught his bearings, Junior looked up to address the damn redhead so he could get this whole mess over with, but instead of finding her in front of him, the young redhead was busy fiddling with his metal club.
"Hey kid! Wait! That thing's all banged up it might-!" Junior cowered as the girl forced the club into its Bazooka form. But to his surprise, the room didn't witness a second, bigger explosion, instead the girl was busy gawking at the club's bazooka form.
"Woah~! The mechashifting mechanisms in this baby are tough as nails," She fawned over the club as she kept switching its forms with ease, "And the way the transformation is still smooth despite an external force violently rattling the parts…"
The man was sure the girl had a small line of drool coming from her mouth, but he decided to humor the girl. "Yeah… Built that in my garage way back. Heh, I remember the day clearly too, the family dog wasn't barking, no smog in the garage either." Simpler times back then.
It looked like the nostalgic tangent he had made the redhead stop fidgeting with it. "Oh, It must be a very important object to you then."
Junior nodded. "Yeah, it's about the only thing I had in my possession when I got booted out of the house, but that's boring crap you didn't rip my nightclub a new one for, so spill it, what do you want?"
"Do you know where we can find Roman Torchwick?" Ruby asked outright. "He was with your men before he ran away himself, even something like a general area would be something I can work with." Her tone was soft, imploring.
And with the nugget of information she let slip, he'd do her one better. "Is that why Roman wanted my men? To rob a freaking Gun Store like some amateur?! Holy shit the man's more whipped than he let on."
The man shook his head as he turned to his mahogany desk and grabbed a manila document from one of its cabinets. "Look kid, I don't know where that guyliner-wearing idiot is right now, he bounces from hideout to hideout every odd heist he pulls off in whatever area of Vale he decides to hit."
Junior slammed the folder down on his desk, letting various pictures slip out in the process, some had pictures of buildings, others schematics of said buildings, and even a map of Vale with these places highlighted through the various districts.
"But my guys, they've stuck around with Roman long enough to map out all the little ginger rat's nitty gritty holes in Vale. Take the papers. Didn't plan on using 'em anyway. Guy's too good with his mouth to let something like blackmail nail him down."
Yang raised an eyebrow, "Huh, didn't take you for the type of guy to swing the other way, Junior."
"Shut it, Blondie. You know what I meant."
Ignoring Yang being Yang, Ruby neatly put all the new information back in the manila folder and held Junior's weapon by the handle. "C'mon Junior, I know a couple of guys, I think they'll like what you have to offer to the table." She continued to tease the man further.
But Ruby put a stop to that with a light chop to the Blonde's head. "Come on, Yang. We didn't come here to harass the man all night."
Yang chuckled as she looked at her sister. "Yeah yeah, I getcha." She then turned her head to Junior. "Alright big guy, we'll pull back for tonight, but if I see any of your guys get near my sister's business again, then I'll come back to finish the job. Ciao!" With her threat made, Yang was out the door.
"With what went down in just a couple of hours, I don't think I'll need to tell 'em to avoid that place like the plague." He muttered to himself
"Yang! Wait up!" Ruby followed after her older sister, only stopping when she reached the doorway. "Um, I know this probably won't mean much, but I'm so sorry for the mess, I swear this wasn't what we- I had in mind when we came here." She didn't wait for an answer however, leaving with a small bow to catch up to her sister.
Junior waved her off. "I wouldn't be in the business if I didn't know any better, kid. Now go, before I actually get the nerve to call the cops."
Once the young store owner walked through the nightclub's front doors, her shoulders slumped as Vale's cool breeze passed over her. Things could have gone much smoother, but she had Yang on this expedition, and she was forced to admit that her diplomacy was a bit rusty. But she did get a plethora of information to work with so this mess still turned out as a victory!
And she even appropriated a Thompson submachine gun with a drum mag pre-built into the gun!
Putting on her helmet and getting on the bike, Ruby leaned over Yang's shoulder to ask. "So, Yang. Where will you take us now?"
"Well, that depends Rubes. Didja close up shop before coming here?" The older sister inquired.
"Under lock and key." Ruby assured.
"Good, because we're marching off to bed!" With a powerful cry from bumblebee, Yang and Ruby took off to Vale's Airship Station.
"Aw, what! But I'm not even tired!" Ruby whined, "Besides, we have so much information to sift through!" She motioned the best she could to the manila folder without risking the wind snatching it.
"And we can do that tomorrow, but right now I want to hit the hay. We'll go through those papers at the store tomorrow. Alright?" Yang went for the compromise, the night's been exciting enough as it was, and a gal did need her beauty sleep.
Ruby wasn't pleased, but all she could really do was silently grumble. "Fine, for now we retreat back to Patch, but tomorrow there shall be lots of cool stuff happening…! Probably."
With that said, bumblebee's engine overtook the sister's silence as they rode their way back home. A nice reprieve from the action-packed night they left behind.
And the firing of a Tommy Gun.
"Rubes!"
"I couldn't help it! It just sounds so cool!"
Fun Fact, chapter 2 was a victim of Cost Sunk Fallacy. Originally this chapter was near completion a few months back, then I read over it, realized this incarnation of the chapter would literally do nothing for the plot and scrapped it in service of creating the current one you see before you. But thankfully, thanks to the constant harping of some friends I've decided to just plan out some chapters before I start writing them so it should mitigate many problems in the near future.
Other than that, I've been working on some personal projects of my own while trying to juggle Fanfiction, it's annoying, but it's not like I'm losing sleep over it.
Anyway, I need to put my nose down and start planning out chapter 3, see ya guys there.
Discord shilling - EfAYbKbm