The 'VIP' lounge was little more than a modified changing room when Yang entered with Ember Cilica at the ready. It was chillier than the crowded bar and dance floor behind her, and it was illuminated by two soft floor lamps on either side of a deep-brown leather love seat. The arms of the love seat were occupied by the Malachite sisters, both of whom were fawning over the petite girl seated in the middle.
The girl's chocolate and strawberry hair hadn't lost its shine or its curl. Her posture was poised as if she were a Lady at a royal garden party, and her entire demeanor exuded self confidence and control. When Yang had entered the VIP lounge, this wicked angel, the second-in-command to Roman's criminal empire, was hand feeding cherries to the enraptured twins, undisturbed by whomever should be sent into her lair.
As the door behind her closed, Yang heard the soft click of the door locking. She gauged that her only escape would be through the door under the bright 'Exit' sign across the room, within the direct line of sight of the 'bouncer', Neo Politan. She crouched forward, balanced on the balls of her feet, prepared for an attack or provocation. But the trio on the couch seemed unconcerned with her entrance. Yang shivered as she was ignored at the threshold of the club. The scene before her disturbed her in ways she couldn't describe.
She cleared her throat.
Without looking up at her next victim, Neo snapped her fingers at the twins. They turned their eyes to the floor and went about gracefully pulling out a small table and wooden stool from beside the love seat, and placed them in front of their mistress.
Melanie gave a slight bow to Yang and held out her white gloved hand to the stool. Militia stood at attention by the door, unconcerned by Yang or their past fights. It was only when Yang hesitated again, that Neo looked up at the tall blonde beauty. Neo's mouth twitched up, as if to cast her trademark smirk, but it was pulled back down again. A great shadow seemed to drain her previous charisma, leaving her hauntingly beautiful, instead of irrationally cute. She gazed steadily at the Huntress, waiting. The chill seemed to have left the room, as if it too were holding its breath.
Slowly, her eyes on all three of the other girls, Yang took the offered seat. Melanie leaned forward in the slightest bow, and joined her sister at on the other side of the door, her heals clicking loudly in the muffled silence.
Neo stared at Yang, her mismatched eyes taking in every detail of Yang's appearance, including her new metallic arm. She didn't seem angry or arrogant, and her body seemed as languid as a sleeping cat on it's soft leather perch. Her white coat hadn't a speck or blemish on it, and her multiple black necklaces moved up and down seductively. She was the picture of enchantment.
Yang stared back at her, checking for illusions and hidden weapons in every possible crevice of her slight body. They were both so still, that Yang began to wonder if Neo had used her Semblence for a moment to recreate her figure and prepare a sneak attack. But the Neo on the couch blinked and gingerly held up both of her hands, slightly apart, and clapped twice.
The girls at the door smiled and knocked on the locked door. They were released for an unknown reason or task, leaving Yang and Neo alone together in the rapidly cooling room. The corsetted girl seemed to have no burning energy to fight or begin engagements, which left Yang with the awkward option of speaking to the criminal about leaving Junior's Club quietly.
To her surprise, Yang realized that she and Neo had never spoken before, and she wondered fleetingly about how she would begin this process of extraction. She went through half a dozen starts to a conversation in her mind, unsure and hesitating in this uncomfortable predicament. Neo, on her part, didn't seem to have any interest in whatever Yang could say to her. She waited stoically until the club door opened again, admitting the twins with an identical cocktail in each hand. They left immediately after they set the drinks down in front of each high-level fighter, and once again the door was locked after it closed.
Neo reached for her drink, but Yang held up her hand. Her gloved hand reached across the small table and took the drink from in front of Neo, checking for a response on her enemy's somber face. She had gambled on Junior not spiking her cup earlier, but her odds at this new game, with this trickier opponent were significantly lower. She took a sip of the cocktail, maintaining eye contact with the criminal across from her.
And immediately spit the drink back out.
The drink was entirely over sweetened, and underneath the sickly sweet taste was an illegally high proof of liquor. It burned her nostrils and lingered on her stuck out tongue. Neo, now covered in her favorite cocktail, used her sleeve to wipe her face, then used her Semblence to return her outfit to its earlier clean elegance.
"I am so sorry," Yang coughed, wiping her tongue onto the orange scarf around her neck. "Ugh, that is revolting." She said as the burn subsided into a soft numbness in her mouth. Neo held up her hand for silence and pulled out her scroll. It seemed that she would be the one to begin the conversation, as it were.
She pulled up a picture of her old boss, Roman, his familiar red head posted on a 'Most Wanted' flier. She held it up for Yang to see it clearly, and pointed to it with her other hand.
"What about him?" Yang asked, tapping a finger on her fiery lips.
Neo pointed at him again, a look of sincere concentration in her eyes, and Yang jiggled her knee uncomfortably.
"I'm pretty sure..." Yang began, "Ruby said he was eaten, the night you guys fought on the..." She was cut off as Neo swept the cocktail glasses off the table, crashing against the wall in an instant. She slammed her fist against the table and glared at Yang, the flare of fighting spirit bristling throughout her body. Yang was on her feet in a flash, her fists up and ready for an attack.
Another tense moment passed before Neo tightened her grip on the screen with Roman's face on it, and put it back into her pocket. She then opened her hand and gestured from Yang to the 'Exit' door. Yang was being dismissed.
Yang put her fists to her side and assessed the situation; this time from Neo's perspective. Hanging out a criminal's refuge meant you were either a criminal or a criminal-to-be. Or, in some cases, you were looking for existing criminals to contact. From the one sided exchange that had just occurred, Yang guessed that Neo was searching for her old boss, and that she had been waiting for him the entire time she'd been at Junior's.
It was disgustingly pitiful.
"He's dead." She restated, gauging a reaction. Neo's dismissive gaze turned into a glare, as her open handed gesture tightened into a meaningful point towards the door. Sensing the rising tempers, Yang stepped closer to the 'Exit' door, and faced Neo again.
"You can't stay holed up in a bar waiting for a dead man." She went on.
It seemed like a bomb had detonated within the 'VIP' lounge. Neo flipped the table up and at Yang's face, Yang smashed through it to find Neo's hauntingly mismatched eyes inches out of range of her reach, before she could shoot Ember Cilica a weighted parasol came up for her abdomen and smashed her through the exit and out into a filthy back alley.
Yang's arms were up and she shot at an image of Neo coming through the door that shattered easily, Neo came from the side and extending the blade from the top of her parasol and slashed wildly at Yang. Yang kicked back into a roll and was on her feet and running into the night. Lighter on her feet, Neo snuck up ahead of Yang and slashed again aiming for the blonde's head. Flaring up at the insult to her regal golden mane, Yang punched upwards at the parasol. They clashed back and forth with shots from Ember Cilica and metal clangs of the parasol, some times used as a weapon, and other times used as a shield. Neo flipped, dipped, and feigned at Yang, more offensive than their last fight. Yang grew stronger at each ill placed hit with her Semblence, but was breathless at the rapid fire attacks and defenses that were traded between the two titans of close combat. Irritated at the evenness of the match, she moved forward and struck the parasol from Neo's grip during a turn, then blasted it mid-air, sending it flying out into the night.
Yang paused panting, waiting for the next move of her opponent. Neo, breathing equally as heavily, she gave Yang a deathly stare, before turning to run after her weapon in a frenzy. In this moment of chaos, Yang launched a barrage of attack shots at not only the direction Neo was running, but also at all of the possibilities of where she could be running. The guess was good as the image of Neo running away shattered, another illusion, and just to the right and in the shadows of the alley a separate shot hit a solid piece of space in the air, sending that space crashing into a line of garbage cans. The space beside the trash dissolved into the real body of Neo, her disguise melting away along with her consciousness.
Yang stood panting, waiting for any more tricks from Neo, before putting both of her arms up in the air for victory. A small knot in her heart untangled. Her instincts throughout the night had been good, and her hard training had led to the defeat of a foe that had consistently gotten the better of her in the past. All the time she had worked towards being a better Huntress; studying, training, fighting, and repeating this process had now paid off. Her rematch had ended in victory.