Three Bears Club
Ruby did not like what she and Jaune had just walked into.
For starters, it is a nightclub that looked very shady, with all the staff members bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Axe Gang from Kung Fu Hustle, even carrying weapons openly. The regular patrons, or at least what looked like regular patrons, are all talking to someone in a way that seemed as if they don't want anyone else to eavesdrop on them. That last part is definitely confirmed when Ruby caught a glimpse of one of the patrons passing an entire briefcase of Lien - the global currency of Remnant - to another patron in exchange for what looked to be nothing more than a photo.
Illicit activities. Ruby thought. Only criminals would come to this sort of place. Criminals that would make deals with Roman Torchwick...
Jaune seemed to feel uneasy about the place. He looked like he wanted to be out of this place as soon as possible.
"Ugh, this place literally screams 'bad guy bar' to me." Jaune complained. "I sure hope nothing goes wrong here... I just jinxed it, did I?"
Ruby ignored the Marine's complain. She had just lost track of the two men she and Jaune overhead talking about Torchwick, and it is going to be impossible to find them among the noisy crowd.
Or so she thought.
To her surprise, Ruby quickly located the two men from before - whom she directed Jaune's attention to by tugging on his hoodie - chatting with a bartender.
"Despite not standing out, those two sure are easy to find." Jaune commented on how easy it was.
"Let's get closer..." Ruby said before proceeding to do so, dragging the Marine with her.
The nightclub is loud enough that the two men and the bartender had to shout just to be able to hear each other. But even then, it is so noisy that Ruby and Jaune weren't able to hear what was being said until they are literally right behind the two men.
"Vanille Gang's doing business with new guy in town. His name is Torchwick." The first of the two men said.
"Seems that Torchwick guy has his own organization. I think he called it Chrome, spelt C-R-M-E." The second of the two men added.
The bartender, an Asian-looking man with a beard, passed two glasses of what looked to be cocktails to the two men. "CRME, huh?" He then said. "Must be newer than you thought, since I've never even heard of them before."
The first man reached for one of the cocktail glasses and downed the whole thing in one go, then gently set the glass down on the counter. "Loads of bollocks, if Trivia Vanille thinks having a business partner can help her rise in Vale!" He then said in a mocking tone, likely directed at whoever this Trivia Vanille is.
The second man downed his cocktail before adding his own opinion to the chat, "Ain't no chance she's going to own the kingdom's shadows, I say!"
The bartender collected the empty glasses and shrugged. "Maybe you're right. The Vanille Gang has been stuck at the bottom of Vale's underground even after Trivia stabbed her parents in the back and took it over years ago." He offered his own opinion. "Still, you can never be too sure of the status quo."
"Eh, whatever." The first man shrugged back in response. He then took a stack of Lien from his pocket and placed it on the counter. "Thanks for the drink, Junior."
"Just don't mess things up too badly and you two are free to come here as many times as you like." The bartender, now named Junior, told the two men who then walked away from the counter.
As for Ruby who was listening to the conversation with Jaune, she is kind of disappointed that there is no information linked directly to the whereabouts of Roman Torchwick. On the other hand, she did learn that Torchwick is doing business with someone called Trivia Vanille. So...
"Hey, aren't the two of you too young to be here?" Junior noticed the two Earthlings and, thinking they are children due to their appearances, told them that.
Ruby is snapped out of her thoughts, as her mood immediately went foul upon getting mistaken for a child again.
"Well, so much for discretion." Jaune said.
Junior didn't hear what Jaune said because the nightclub is so noisy. But still, he didn't seem happy having "children" in the nightclub where they don't belong due to age alone. "This isn't a playground, you two." He told the "children". "Go back home before your parents get worried about you."
Ruby really hated being treated like a child, but held back her rage in order to not make a scene in the nightclub, especially since it is full of assorted criminals.
"Actually, I was here to ask some questions about a man called Roman Torchwick." Ruby revealed her intention to Junior.
Junior seemed surprised, though it is probably less due to what Ruby just said, and more that Ruby has the voice of a grown woman despite looking like a little girl to him.
"What my friend here just said." Jaune walked forward and said. The Marine, on the other hand, really has the voice of a young boy despite being the same actual age as Ruby.
"From what I heard just now, you have never heard of Torchwick or his organization until now." Ruby continued. "Though you do know about this Vanille Gang, whom are apparently doing business with him."
"Let me guess..." Junior tensed up. "You want to talk to the Vanille Gang's boss lady?" The bartender then shrugged. "Well, good luck with that. The Vanille Gang may be bottom tier in Vale's underground, but that still doesn't make them easy to talk to."
Ruby twitched her eyebrows slightly. "I know what you're getting at. But can you at least give me an address so I can go do it myself?" She emphasized, trying to stay as calm as she could, but her dwindling patience is still noticeable.
Jaune has already noticed Ruby's dwindling patience and knew that things will go out of control if he doesn't keep it under control now.
"Uh, Ruby, maybe we really aren't supposed to be here..." The Marine said as he grabbed the USAF airwoman's left hand, only to be impatiently shaken off by her.
"An address is all I asked for... Junior, was it?" Ruby repeated, her growing impatience now very clear. "Just give it to me and I'll be on my way..."
"I would happily give you the address." Junior interrupted, his own impatience just as clear, now that the "little girl" standing before him has proven herself with her attitude. "Providing that you pay up."
That made Ruby pause, her impatience quickly replaced by nervousness. In her focus on getting any leads on Roman Torchwick, the airwoman had completely forgotten that she was talking to a criminal informant, who of course is going to demand payment.
Realizing her mistake, Ruby could only gulp in nervous panic, as she slowly took out Ka-Bar knife and M1911 handgun from the pouch of her "Little Red Riding Hood" outfit.
"Yep, big mistake..." Jaune nervously pointed out as he noticed multiple staff members of the nightclub approaching his and Ruby's position, holding weapons such as swords, hatchets, pistols and even what looked like old-fashioned machine guns In response to the rapidly approaching hostility, the Marine drew his Ka-Bar and M1911 as well.
"So, what will it be, Little Miss Red?" Junior mockingly asked as he pulled out what looked like a baseball bat from behind the counter which he held in a threatening way. "You have a nerve, thinking you're the important one around here..."
As Junior's goons slowly and menacingly closed in, Ruby and Jaune both pondered if they should actually draw their weapons and defend themselves.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is going on here!" Someone suddenly cried out interrupting the tense moment and causing all the goons to freeze in their tracks.
Mere seconds after the sudden interruption, a blonde young lady made her presence known by basically shoving two of the goons out of her way.
The newly-arrived blonde looked like an East Asian saved for her, well, blonde hair. She is wearing a tan jacket that has golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that features two gold buttons. Under the jacket is a yellow crop top that has what looked to be the black silhouette of a burning flower. She is also wearing a pair of black compression shorts, over which is a brown belt covered by a pleated brown piece of material reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist, with the same burning flower silhouette in gold on the right side of the material. Her outfit is completed by an orange scarf and a pair of fingerless gloves, as well as what looked like a pair of stylized bracelets.
"You again, blondie?" Junior sounds annoyed to see this "blondie" as he called her. "What do you want this time?"
The blonde folded her arms in a sassy manner. "Come on, Junior. Is this how you and your gang treat your customers these days?" She asked in a teasing manners before laying eyes on Ruby and Jaune. "And now you guys are picking on little children?"
Ruby groaned at being called a child for the third time today. Curse this "Little Red Riding Hood" outfit...
"Oh wait. Little children don't carry knives and guns." The blonde corrected herself upon seeing Ruby and Jaune's Ka-Bar knives and M1911 handguns. "You guys are picking on schoolchildren from Combat Schools now?" She then turned back to Junior and addressed him.
Schoolchildren?! Ruby thought out in disbelief. Even with military-issues knives and guns, we're still "schoolchildren" to her?!
Jaune has a similar level of disbelief at the blonde's statement.
"If this is about the woman you asked about last time you came here, I still don't know where she is." Junior, irritated by the blonde, told her off. "So unless you're here just to order a drink this time, I suggest you back off."
As soon as Junior finished saying that, his goons all raised and pointed their weapons at the blonde, forgetting about Ruby and Jaune for the moment.
The blonde, rather than being intimidated, simply did a mocking shrug. "Oh, well. In that case, I'd like to order a punch."
Junior became confused at that unusual request. "A punch, we don't-" The bartender-slash-mob boss paused as he realized what the blonde actually meant...
But not soon enough to intercept it, as she suddenly punched him in the face, sending him stumbling... no, flying into the rack full of drinking glasses and bottles.
That scene caused the entire nightclub to grind to a halt, with Junior's goons wincing in behalf of their boss.
"How's that for a sucker punch!" The blonde then bragged to Junior's face as she taunted him.
Ruby rolled her eyes at what she knew was a very lame pun. Jaune, on the other hand, was trying to hold back his chortle, as he apparently found it funny.
Junior soon got back on his own feet. Surprisingly, his face is completely fine, even though a punch that could send him flying like that should've, by all rights, broken his nose at least.
"Get them!" The bartender-slash-mob boss ordered his goons.
And that was when all hell's broke loose.
One of the goons let out a battle cry before all of them charged forward with their weapons raised.
"Ha! That's all you got?" The blonde mocked and scoffed at the approaching horde of goons. She then raised both her hands in a boxing stance. "This won't take long, 'cause I'm-"
Her one-liner was interrupted by the sound of gunshots erupting from behind her. One goon reeled back for each gunshot that rang out.
Behind the blonde, Ruby and Jaune have both taken aim with and fired their M1911 at the goons, nervous about having to fight their way through so many armed goons now...
Only for the airwoman and Marine's nervousness to shift into horror when all the goons who got shot merely flinched at getting shot in the face, as they quickly got right back up to glare at the Americans. One of the goons even apparently caught the bullet in his mouth as he taunted the two of them by spitting the bullet like a loose tooth at their feet.
"Shit!" Ruby and Jaune cursed at the same time as the goons resumed charging toward them.
Just as it looked like Ruby and Jaune were about to get overwhelmed by the seemingly bulletproof mobsters, the blonde reminded everyone of her existence by putting herself in front of the two and then... singlehandedly punched many of the goons out, and effortlessly catching the swung sword of one goon with her left hand.
"As I was saying," She restarted her previously interrupted one-liner as she raised her right hand...
Ruby and Jaune looked on in disbelief as the bracelet on the blonde's right hand suddenly started shifting, metal plates and seemingly mechanical parts moving around until the whole thing transformed into what looked to be a gauntlet.
"This won't take long..."
And with that, the blonde threw her now gauntleted right hand out, punching the goon square in the nose, with what looked and sounded like a shotgun being fired when the gauntleted fist connected with the man's face, sending him flying toward the opposite end of the nightclub.
"'Cause my name is Yang Xiao-Long!" She then boisterously finished her one-liner, as her left bracelet transformed into an identical gauntlet. "And say hello to my little friends: Ember Celica!"
The remaining goons who haven't been punched out now found it is their turn to swallow nervously, as if saying "This is going to suck".
...
With the now-named Yang beating the snot out of Junior's goons and the assorted criminal patrons of the nightclub whom have joined the brawl, Ruby and Jaune watched in amazement how Yang is throwing punches that for all intents and purposes, should've caved in a person's skull and/or ribcage several times over, especially considering how the blonde's gauntlets apparently have built-in semi-automatic shotguns that are fired whenever she throws a punch - meaning those goons and criminals are also taking point-blank shotgun blasts. Yet none of those goons and criminals even looked injured, as the worst any of them got from Yang's punches-slash-shotgun blasts are just getting knocked out cold. Some of them got right back up to continue fighting only to get knocked down again, repeat ad nauseum until they stayed down after a particularly nasty hit.
At the same time, the few times Yang did get hit, whether it's from a punch, bludgeon, blade or even bullet, she merely flinched with nary a scratch on her.
As Ruby observed the fight, she noticed that whenever the goons, criminals and Yang took a hit, a brief sheen of something can be spotted appearing over where the person took a hit. The sheen has different colors for each person; Yang's is a bright yellow, which even seemed to bleed wisps of similarly colored flames whenever she takes a hit.
The airwoman wondered if this sheen is the so-called Aura that she read about when learning about the world of Remnant in the past week. But either way...
"Jaune, everything has gone FUBAR." Ruby called out to the Marine. "Let's get out of here while we still can."
"I was just going to say that!" Jaune acknowledged.
The two turned to try to make their getaway, only to find themselves face-to-face with two identical-looking young ladies whom are only distinguished by the colors of their dresses: one red and one white.
"Excuse me," The young lady in white began.
"Where do you think you're going?" The young lady in red finished.
Ruby made no verbal response, knowing that nothing she said would get these two ladies to stand down, as she raised her Ka-Bar and M1911.
Jaune wasn't as fast to raise his weapons. "So, let me guess... you two are twins?" The Marine made a very awkward attempt at diffusing the situation.
The twins didn't answer Jaune, as they revealed their rather unusual weapons: the white twin retracted the heels of her shoes to reveal razor sharp stilettos, and the red twin unfurled her arm bracers to reveal a pair of claws on each hand.
Not taking any chances, Ruby and Jaune fired their M1911 at the twins right away, only for the red twin to parry all the shots before closing the distance and slicing both handguns in half, leaving the airwoman and the Marine holding the now orphaned grip.
"Motherfu-" Ruby cursed as she leaned back just barely enough to dodge the red twin's next slash.
Jaune was able to completely dodge the red twin's slash by crouching down in time, only to then get kicked in the face by the white twin, knocking him onto his back. He rolled out of the way just in time to avoid getting a bladed stiletto in his face. He then took the opportunity to counter by stabbing his Ka-Bar into her calf, only for the knife to bounce right off her Aura.
At the same time, Ruby struggled to avoid getting hit by the red twin's slashes. She had picked up a bar stool to use as a makeshift shield, only for it to be sliced clean in half by the claws, forcing Ruby to instead use each half as makeshift projectiles as she threw them at the red twin, who didn't even bother to dodge or parry them, instead allowing them to just bounce off her Aura harmlessly.
Then the red twin retaliated thrusting both of her claws forward at Ruby, which would've impaled her had she not slipped on a puddle on the floor at the last second, causing her to stumble backwards into the bar counter, just far enough to avoid getting stabbed.
That was when Jaune got kicked by the white twin hard enough to send him sliding across the floor. By some kind of hilarious coincidence, he came to a stop right under Ruby, and found himself looking up where he shouldn't have...
"Whoa. The Anti-Upskirt Technology actually does work..." Jaune commented with slight amusement in his tone.
Ruby may have gone past the age range where she'd have blushed violently at apparently flashing someone, but even if the so-called Anti-Upskirt Tech did work and not give Jaune a view of what is under her skirt, she is still offended enough by the Marine's apparent perversity to want to stomp his face in, which she did attempt to.
Jaune noticed Ruby getting offended by him accidentally looking up her skirt (even if the Anti-Upskirt Tech really worked and he wasn't able to see anything under the skirt) and quickly rolled out of the way to avoid getting his face stomped in.
And because of the fact that they are fighting against the twins at the moment, neither Ruby nor Jaune noticed that the former's stomping had enough force to it to dent and crack the marble floor.
Getting right back on their feet, Ruby and Jaune, having lost their Ka-Bar knives during the fight, both raised their fists in a fighting stance as they prepared for the next round of fighting against the armed and dangerous twins.
The twins rejoined each other, and scoffed at Ruby and Jaune's display.
"Did you really think you can just walk right in and demand answers?" The white twin mocked.
"You are not leaving here with your dignity intact!" The red twin stated.
Before either twins can resume the fight, however, Yang suddenly appeared and punched the white twin right in the back of her head, causing her to faceplant into the marble floor. Yang then proceeded to deliver a right hook to the red twins face, knocking her down as well.
"Wow, you two really suck at this." Yang said to Ruby and Jaune as she reloaded her gauntlets with fresh belts of shotgun shells. "You two never actually went to any Combat Schools, did you?"
"Uh, no?" Ruby replied with confusion as to what Yang meant.
"You're a Hunter?" Jaune took his opportunity to ask.
"A Huntress-in-training, yes." Yang proudly answered before kneeling down to punch both twins in the head just as they're about to get up, knocking them unconscious for now. "Word of advice? Get better, more badass weapons! Your dinky little knives and peashooters are totally worthless against anyone with Aura!" She then added as she held up both Ka-Bar knives and the severed halves of both M1911 handguns, which she then threw over her shoulder. "You're lucky Melanie and Miltiades haven't unlocked their Semblances yet!"
Ruby looked down at the unconscious twins, allegedly named Melanie and Miltiades, at Yang's feet. Ruby remembered reading about Semblances from the same thesis paper that discussed Aura, which made her realize that if these two twins can wipe the floor with her and Jaune without the benefits of Semblances...
She really hoped that she and Jaune would, like Neopolitan Torchwick, develop super strength, super speed and super toughness soon...
"Oh, and in case you're wondering, I've beaten up every crook and thug that tried to fight me." Yang then said as she hooked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing at the carnage that left much of the nightclub wrecked, and Junior's goons and the assorted criminal patrons lying out cold on the floor.
Then Junior, the only crook in the nightclub who is still standing, made his presence known as he stepped onto the middle of what is left of the dance floor.
"Hey, blondie!" Junior, somehow having come into possession of a rocket launcher, called out to Yang. "You're going to have to pay for wrecking my place!"
With that, the informant-slash-mob boss fired his rocket launcher, which seemed to fire several RPGs in a single shot, at Yang.
"RPG!" Ruby instinctively cried out.
Ruby and Jaune acted according to how they were trained in the US Military, and ran off to the sides as quickly as they could to get as far away from the target of the RPGs - that being Yang - as possible.
Yang, instead of making any attempts to jump out of the way of the RPGs, simply turned toward Junior's direction before making a mad dash toward him, strafing around all the RPGs in her way even as Junior fired more at her.
On seeing Yang closing the distance, Junior has the rocket launcher transformed into the bat that he tried threatening Ruby with earlier, and swung it at Yang, who easily dodged it by sliding under it before getting right back up to punch the mob boss in the face. Unlike what happened earlier, Junior is prepared to take hits this time, so he merely staggered a bit before recovering and retaliating with a diagonal swing of his bat.
Yang simply blocked the hit with her gauntlets before throwing another punch, which Junior dodged before taking another swing at her.
This time Junior did land a hit, as Yang staggered upon getting hit in the side of her head.
"That hit hard!" Yang taunted as she recovered. "But I bet that is not your-"
The blonde paused when she noticed a strand of her hair falling down right in front of her.
Before anyone realized it, Yang's hair literally burst into flames. "YOU'D PAY FOR THAT!" She cried out in anger before rapid-firing punches, hooks, jabs and haymakers at Junior, each hit seemed much more powerful than before.
Junior was caught off guard by the blonde suddenly going berserk as he struggled to block and parry every punch she threw at him. Then Yang got one punch through Junior's defenses, hitting him square in his chest, causing him to stagger which already spelled his defeat as Yang was throwing so many punches in quick succession as to give him no chance to recover.
With a particularly powerful haymaker, Yang sent Junior flying across the nightclub, crashing right through the main entrance and out of the nightclub as he slid across the pavement for a short distance before coming to a halt.
...
Streets of Vale City
The mob boss raised his head a bit and let out a pained groan before collapsing back down as he went out cold.
Yang, having cooled down from her literal burning anger, exited the nightclub so she could deliver another one-liner. "Out with a Yang, I say!"
Ruby and Jaune soon followed Yang out, carrying what remains of the clothes they bought prior to entering the nightclub.
"Ouch. Hope he broke nothing from that hit." Jaune commented while pitying Junior.
Ruby is left absolutely speechless at how Yang just trashed a nightclub full of armed and superpowered criminals all by herself.
Yang then turned around to address Ruby and Jaune. "And that's how real Huntsmen and Huntresses fight!" She proudly bragged to the two. "But seriously, you two need something bigger than those toy knives and peashooters." She put off her proud look as she advised them. "Being Huntsmen and Huntresses aren't just about putting on fancy costumes. You need real weapons as well as an unlocked Au-"
"Yang!" A high pitched voice suddenly called out from behind the blonde. "Is that you?"
Yang turned around to face the owner of the voice. "Oh, hi, sis."
Standing in front of the unconscious Junior is a little girl with a light brown complexion and shoulder-length brown hair. Her outfit consisted of an off-white blouse with frill detailing on the shoulders and a pleated lower half with a central split, alongside a brown vest that has golden lining around the collar as well as a dark brown corset and matching pants. Her whole ensemble is topped off with a brown shoulder strap with some pouches slung diagonally across her body.
"What are you doing?" The little girl, apparently Yang's sister, asked.
"Nothing unusual." Yang answered with a shrug. "Was just asking some question, but then I ended up having to save two little kids who tried to play Hunters with a bunch of armed crooks."
Ruby let out a groan at being called a kid for the fourth time today.
"So what about you?" Yang took her turn to ask her sister. "What are you doing, Amber?"
You've waited long enough for this chapter, so here it is! Hopefully it will be worth the wait. Enjoy seeing Yang and all the Yellow Trailer asskicking awesomeness that entails, even if it's very watered down because it's hard to translate Monty Oum's fight scene magic into words.
But what's this? Yang's little sister here is Amber? As in the Fall Maiden? Yep, you're reading that right! Although I should point out that if Amber is still the Fall Maiden here, Yang would be completely unaware of it.
Another thing to point out: as an ethnic Chinese myself, it kind of bugged me how Yang's full name is Yang Xiao-Long, with Xiao-Long as her last name/ surname when, according to Chinese naming conventions, the last name/ surname comes before the first name/ given name. So going by Chinese naming convention, Yang's full name should've been Xiao-Long Yang. However, I didn't want to change Yang's name and invoke political over-correctness of any kind, not to mention that Yang Xiao-Long is a great name even if it makes no sense in terms of Chinese naming conventions. So I'm willing to let this incorrectness slide and have Yang handwave it in a later chapter as to why her first name/ given name comes before her last name/ surname when in "Mistralian naming conventions" it should be the other way around (didn't do it this chapter because I couldn't find a way to fit it in without making it look like a shoehorned exposition).
Oh, and for those of you who try to dismiss the above points by saying "Yang isn't Chinese because China doesn't exist on Remnant", just... shut up and keep it to yourself.
Afterword ends here.