Chapter 5
The angry growl of a 1700cc V4 cylinder bike could be heard roaring down Vale's south west highway 5 from a mile away. The sao paulo yellow and raven black Street Demon was a race bike disguised as a cruiser… And it's rider was just as deceptively dangerous.
Downshifting as she pulled off the highway into Vale's industrial sector, before slowing to what felt like a crawl, the bike came to a halt outside of a bar and nightclub, before the rider cut the engine, kicked the stand in place, and locked the bike's steering column. Dismounting the vehicle, the rider removed their full head helmet, and glanced around with lilac eyes, before letting it rest on the handlebar. Turning, Yang Xiao Long fluffed her long and flowing golden hair, as she walked towards the front door of the club.
Going unnoticed by the blond, two black birds sitting perched on the nearby street lamp cawed at each other before one flew off.
Entering the packed establishment Yang looked all around, as she tried to find the nightclub's owner. Skirting around the dance floor, the blond made her way directly to the bar, quite literally brushing shoulders with a man she recognized from the news as he left the bar. He was the criminal, Roman Torchwick, making the man he had just slipped roughly 5k lien to, Vale's information broker, Hei Xiong, "Junior," and his bodyguards, the twin Malachite sisters.
Hopping up into the barstool near the counter, Yang spun and faced the bartender there, momentarily ignoring Junior as he stood beside her, and the twins walked away. "Strawberry sunrise please, no ice… Oh and one of those little umbrellas." She said, pulling her wallet out of her half jacket's pocket, and dropping a 5 lien card on the counter.
Junior turned his head to look at her, and raised an eyebrow. He only really cared because the last thing he needed was extra heat for serving alcohol to minors, but the girl looked a little young to be drinking… Though that mostly came down to her youthful face, and less so the curves that complemented it. "Aren't you a little young to be in here blondie?" He asked.
The girl of only 5 foot 7 spun in her seat, and crossed one leg over the other. "Aren't you a little old to be going by the name Junior?" She asked with a small giggle. "You don't have to worry about me, I'm legal." She said with a wink, flashing her motorcycle license for Junior to see, indicating she was 17.
A small grin crept across Junior's face. "Well in that case…" Junior slid her 5 back across the counter. "You can drink with me tonight." The girl giggled, before biting her lip. "So, you already know who I am, would it be too much to find out who you are?" Junior asked.
The girl slid off her seat, as she picked her drink up off the bar counter, taking a sip before leaning in towards Junior. "I'm Yang." She said with an easy smile, pressing her free hand against his chest, before tracing it down his vest past his belt. "But you can call me…" Her palm came to rest against his crotch, her target acquired. "...Ma'am."
Yang squeezed her hand into a fist around one of Junior's balls. Dropping the glass in his hand, the older man nearly doubled over, and suppressed the urge to yell in pain, as Yang's grip tightened. She took a moment to pick the umbrella out of her drink with her teeth before spitting it away, and then slamming the remains of her drink back down her throat. Her deminor instantly shifted to one of irritation. "Alright Junior." She placed the empty glass down on the counter. "I'm looking for a woman named Raven Branwen, and rumor has it, you know everything there is to know about anyone who matters."
"I swear, I've never heard that name before." Junior eked out, before Yang readjusted her grip, catching both of Junior balls. "On god, I swear, Ma'am!" He whimpered.
Looking to her right, Yang smirked as three of the club's security approached the two. "Looks like we've got an audience. Must be embarrassing, huh? Your balls in a vice like this? You know, unless you're into that."
Junior looked around at his men, one revealing a handgun, before he looked back at the girl currently crushing his nuts. "Look, blondie, Ma'am. Unless you want to try fighting your way out of the club, I suggest you let me go."
Yang just grinned. "Oh, Junior…" She said, finding that his name was fitting in a way after all. "It's cute that you think I didn't plan on fighting my way out in the first place." She said, releasing her hold on his crotch, before winding up a kick, and nailing Junior right between his legs with her boot, which caused him to fall over onto his side, and vomit all over the floor.
Instantly turning towards the pack of security guards, Yang grabbed the nearest bottle from off the bar counter as the Club's music started to blare louder. She threw the half full bottle at the nearest suited man who raised a pistol at her, the glass shattering against his face and an active aura. Yang smirked. She could cut loose a little if Juniors goons had aura.
The other two moved to pull their hand guns free, before Yang bolted forward, socking the first in the jaw with a right hook, and kicking the pistol out of the other's hand with her boot heel, before double tapping the man she'd thrown the bottle with a left cross while he was still disoriented, which knocked him out.
Locking the now broken jawed man's neck under her right arm, Yang kneed him in the groin before uppercutting his broken jaw. Shifting her attention to the gunless man as he tried grabbing her, Yang back kicked him in the gut as she let go of the now blacked out goon. The kick sent the man flying onto a few of the club patrons, before he fell to the floor too winded to continue. Looking out to the dance floor as more of the club's security approached through the crowd their signature black hats separating them from the bar goers, Yang grinned, as she flicked her wrists outwards, and her shotgun gauntlets, "Ember Celica," deployed to cover her forearms and the back of her fists, the 24 rounds she had on tap ready for the party.
Walking down to meet her first, Yang blocked an attack made with a knife as the club's lights flashed, obscuring her target. She uppercutted the man with her right fist, and the inertia trigger in her shotgun flew forward setting off the shell, spraying 9 lead pellets into the man's gut, winding him, shattering his aura, and knocking the man on his ass. The recoil of the shotgun blast cycled the next round in the revolving shotgun into battery, and cocked the internal striker.
As the gunshot rang out, and the surrounding party patriots began to scream and panic, Yang socked the next man across the face with her left, blowing away his aura with another blast. The crowd pushed past her, as the third man had a machete in his hands swung at her. Yang blocked the attack with her left arm, and grabbed the inside of the man's wrist, before raising his arm over her head and punching into the side of his rib cage with her left fist, blasting him with buckshot though not breaking his aura. Sweeping his leg out from under him as she let go of his arm Yang rounded a right hook down into his gut as he fell, shattering his aura with the buckshot and knocking him out.
Now in a lowered stance, Yang was able to grab the next attacker's arm and hip as he ran at her, axe failing to hit it's intended target. Throwing him head over heels to the floor, Yang took the advantage presented to her and socked the man in the head with either fist, slamming the back of his skull to the floor with two shotgun blasts one after another.
Standing and continuing to walk across the dance floor as the crowd thinned out, Yang came face to face with 6 more goons, 5 drawing pistols, and the 6th racking a shell into the chamber of a sawn off pump action. Stepping forward quickly, Yang tucked into the nearest man as a bullet hit her aura. She snaked her arm under his, and wrapped her gauntlet-covered hand over his shoulder, and then bladed it against his chin, locking his arm out, before landing a hammer fist against his neck, causing the man to choke as he fell over, surging forward, Yang landed a one-two set of jabs on another thug's chest discharging a shotshells worth of lead with each blow, knocking the man over, and taking his aura.
Holding a guard, as the rest of the men fired at her, Yang's gauntlets blocked the incoming rounds as she moved. The man with the shotgun was her next victim, as she caught him mid rechamber. Grabbing the still hot barrel of the gun, and pulling it down at the ground as he slam fired, Yang discharged her own spray of lead with a punch to the man's face, which disoriented him. He released the gun from his grip, and with the barrel still in Yang's hand, she wound up, and used it like a bat, the crow's neck grip slamming into the back of some left handed goon's knuckle, fracturing a few of his fingers, and causing him to drop his pistol.
On the backswing Yang knocked the previous owner of the shotgun out cold, and broke the weapon in two, as the receiver hit his head. Dropping the remains of the bludgeon, Yang returned to the man with the fractured hand, and jumped up into a kick, her shin slamming into his face, before she undercut him with her left fist while she fell, laying him out on the floor.
The last two suited men, had finally found an opening as the dance floor was now completely empty, dumping their pistol magazine's into Yang's back and side. Her aura being whittled down, Yang turned and grit her teeth as she got a run up and close lined one of the goons with her right first, sending teeth flying with the shotgun blast, before uppercutting the last man with her left fist.
Suddenly gunfire from above distracted her, and just as suddenly Yang reacted to it, zig zagging across the empty room towards the DJ booth, where the automatic fire from a drum fed SMG rained down on the dance floor. First using her aura to jump up onto the nearby pillar that was adorned with light fixtures, Yang discharged a shotgun shell from either gauntlet to aid her in making the jump up to the DJ booth. Sliding over the controls of the booth, Yang attempted to kick the man wearing a fuzzy bear head, only for him to duck back, and slip the costume off of his head, throwing it at her once she landed. Batting the lazy attack away with her right arm, Yang threw a left cross, only for the DJ to bat her hand away with his forearm sending the buckshot into the glowing screen behind him. She tried again with her right, which was batted down and away towards the floor, and she was socked across the face twice before she could react.
It seemed the DJ was more experienced than she thought. Backhanding at the man, before trying to shovel-hook him with her left gauntlet, he swerved out of the way, and took hold of her arm with both hands as the weapon fired into the ceiling. With her free arm she drove her fist into his chest four times, blowing through her right cylinder's remaining shells, before breaking his arms off of her left gauntlet, and then slamming his head back into the broken screen behind him with a left punch, blowing lead into his face, before grabbing him by the neck and slamming his nose into the music booth's controles, finally knocking him out, and rewinding the music by a few minutes.
Finding that her left gauntlet was down to just two rounds, Yang flicked both of them open, the internal extractors sending the spent and still loaded shells flying, before she took two disintegrating belts of 12 gauge rubrumium explosive incendiary shells and slapped one each into her right and left gauntlets, the actions closing over the fresh shells. Looking down at the now nearly empty club, Yang smirked as the Malachite twins stepped out onto the dance floor.
"Sorry about the mess, girls." She said, before stepping up onto the railing of the DJ booth, then dropping down to meet the two. "Tell ya' what, if you let me go, I'll buy you both dinner later." Yang said with a grin.
"Ew." Melania said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, what are you, gay?" Miltia asked.
Yang shrugged. "Your loss." She said, before opening up with a barrage of shotgun assisted punches, the explosive slugs soaring through the air and pitting the walls and blowing up the glass work around the club as the twins swiftly ran to encircle Yang.
Miltia was the first to reach Yang, swiping her forearm mounted twin blade at the blond, who blocked the opening attack with her gauntlets. Melania attacked shortly after, kicking Yang in the back of the knee, before trying to slice her throat with her bladed high heel. Leaning back away from the attack, Yang landed on her hands, flipped backwards and used two explosive shotgun shells to launch her into the air so she could land on her feet.
Blocking the incoming shin strike from Melania with her right gauntlet, and then deflecting Miltia's next swipe into her twin sister's back, Yang surged forward, her eyes turning red, as all the damage she'd taken burned to be released within her. Hair catching fire, Yang punched Miltia while she was off balanced, blowing her backwards clean across the dance floor breaking her aura.
Now faced with the white garbed sister, Yang fired the last of her explosive shotgun shells in a barrage, only for Melania to expertly kick the last 5 shots off course and away from her the rounds igniting on the floor where they landed, before getting a run up on the now empty blond. Melania ducked under Yang's attempted left hook, grabbed the blond's waist, flung herself up and around to lock her legs around Yang's head, then sat upright so she could pummel the younger girl.
On any other occasion, Yang would have been glad to literally be up another girl's skirt, but the fact her carotid artery was being closed off made it a little difficult. Reaching up and taking hold of Melania's thighs beside her head, to lock the girl in place, Yang jumped and fell forwards, slamming the girl in white against the dance floor, hard, her semblance only making the impact that much worse as all the glass in the club was blown out upon their landing.
Pushing herself off of the girl as she groaned, Yang cracked her neck, before standing up. "What just happened?" Melania asked in a daze.
Yang smirked, as she started walking to the bar's exit, her shot-gauntlets returning to their concealed bracelet configuration with a flick. Her burning hair illuminated her path, before it fizzled out and her eyes returned to their natural lilac.
Once the door to the club opened, Yang was met by the flashing of red and blue lights, as three squad cars from the Vale Police Department pulled up to the building, sirens blaring.
"Ah shit." Yang said to herself as the officer's got out of their car's training their guns on her.
In the nearest precinct's general holding cell, Yang sat on the bench beside the wall, and sighed with her arms crossed. She contemplated using her phone calls to see if she could get Clayton's dad to be her lawyer, but held out for the moment, not entirely ready for the conversation she was going to have about getting caught beating the daylights out of over 15 people, and possessing a small bag of weed.
The holding cell door opened, and Yang looked up to find a familiar face, holding a plastic bin filled with her possessions. "Uncle Qrow?!" She asked, standing up and running over to hug her uncle.
"Hey, Firecracker." He said, returning the hug with one arm.
"What are you doing here?" Yang asked, letting her uncle go.
"I was in town, and heard that my favorite niece trashed her first bar." Qrow said, ruffleing Yang's hair, being one of the few people she would let get away with such a thing.
"It's really not what you think." Yang said sheepishly, as she rubbed her neck.
"Doesn't matter what I think, it matters what the DA thinks." Qrow said before pausing. "Fortunately for you, I happen to know the guy, and he was willing to listen to reason. Your charges were dropped after he heard that you were operating under my license as a student of Signal Academy." Yang smiled as Her uncle put a hand on her shoulder and led her out of the drunk tank. "Now come on, let's get you home before your dad finds out about this and kills both of us." Qrow said, before handing Yang the bin.
"So what are you doing in the Kingdom? I thought you were out on some convoy protection job in Vacuo?" Yang asked, fixing her gauntlets in place as the two left the police station, and made their way to the impound lot.
"Eh, it didn't exactly pan out how it was supposed to. Got stiffed on a payment by the village elder, and well, the grimm were all taken care of, so I cut the contract. Besides, one of my teacher friends has a job for me out in Anima. I'm on my way there right now actually so I can't exactly stick around to see you home." Qrow said, before flashing his phone and the plastic license at the impound officer, who buzzed them into the lot.
"Gonna bring us back any souvenirs?" Yang asked as the two found Yang's motorcycle in the back corner of the lot.
Qrow chuckled. "It's not that kind of mission. I'm just shadowing someone, that's all."
As Yang unlocked the steering column, and mounted her bike. "Just stay alive old man." She said with a smirk.
"I should say the same to you." Qrow said, before he raised an eyebrow remembering something. "Oh, and uh, speaking of saying as I do." Qrow reached into his back pocket and tossed a small crumpled box into the plastic bin Yang held.
Yang looked down to read the crumpled box labeled "Spermicidal condoms." She snorted in amusement. "Gee, thanks."
"If you don't already keep some on you, split them between you and your sister. Tai wouldn't shut up on the last phone call I had with him about Ruby's boyfriend... And your late night stealth missions away from home." Qrow said, stepping back a pace from Yang's bike, as she pocketed the small box. "Felt like I had to say something about it."
Yang rolled her eyes. "You don't have to. Ruby's not stupid. She and her boy are keeping things kosher, and I'm smarter than that." She said, before Qrow turned and started walking to the lot's exit.
Qrow chuckled as he walked away. "Whatever you say Firecracker, just keep your nose clean. You know how bad your dad's gonna flip if he finds out you've been smoking weed."
Yang shook her head with a smirk, before putting on her helmet. Starting her bike, the engine rumbling pleasantly, Yang dropped the plastic bin at her feet, kicked the bike stand in, and took off out the open lot back to the Vale Ferry Yard.