A/N: Team RWBY have been asked about - to tell the truth, the reason they haven't appeared yet is simple that nothing has happened in this story that would change things for them, yet. They will have a significant part to play in the story, though, so don't worry about that!

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like he hadn't been seen on the way in. He could get to Cinder's office, wait there for her, and then take a day or so to rest, and nobody would ever know. His pride was officially still intact -

"What the hell happened to you?"

'Damn it.'

Mercury resisted the urge to start shooting as his fellow criminal's voice caught him by surprise. "Emerald," he said after a moment, "We have got to talk about your habit of sneaking up on people before you start every conversation."

"Yeah, yeah," the green-haired thief shrugged off the admonishment, "Whatever. Why do you look like you lost a fight with a Puma?"

Mercury gave a resigned sigh. "Let's call it unexpected... complications, that popped up during my mission."

"Your mission – you mean going to put the screws on that Junior guy?" Emerald asked in disbelief, "You lost a fight to a two-bit thug?"

"No!" He hastily corrected her, "That part went fine. He had some unexpected help show up, though..." he paused, as he considered the potential ramifications of letting Emerald know that he had been knocked around a nightclub like a rag-doll by a little girl with a parasol.

"Don't worry, Mercury, I'm sure that little girl had done a lot of working out... those jungle gyms build some serious muscle tone, you know."

"To be fair, Mercury, you really shouldn't have declined that invite to her tea-party."

"Take cover Mercury, that one's in a pram! It might be a drive-by!"

"There were twenty of them," he said firmly, "And they were all huge."

She gave him a look that clearly said she didn't believe him. "Sure they were."

"Really huge. Now if you don't mind, I've got to go and tell Cinder that I screwed up now."

"Ah," Emerald winced as he walked away, "Dibs on your stuff if she kills you!" She called out helpfully.

"You take my stuff already anyway," Mercury muttered tiredly as he headed for the office of his boss. Bracing himself, he opened the door.

Cinder looked up from a few sheets of paper as he entered. "Ah, Mercury, you're back. And looking somewhat more... haggard, than I expected," she gave him a curious once-over, "Was Junior more troublesome than we assumed he would be?"

"Yeah, about that..." he began hesitantly, "We've got a problem."

Meanwhile, Roman Torchwick was currently hosting a meeting with Junior, Neo, and the Malachite twins, in one of the private rooms of Junior's club.

"Okay, now I only want to explain this all once," Roman began, "Considering my audience, I fear I may have set my expectations too high, but we'll give it a try and see how we do."

"Can you actually go two minutes-"

"-Without insulting someone?" Melanie and Miltia demanded.

"One and a half is my record," Roman admitted, "Now shut up, you're interrupting the people who know what they're talking about."

He cleared his throat, ignoring their mutinous grumbling.

"Our first problem," he began, "They know where we are. We don't know where they are. The second is fixable, the first, not so much. Unless... Junior, do you have a safe-house at all that you could operate the information business from?"

"One," Junior confirmed, "Yeah. The location of the old bar."

"Then you might just want to start using it," Roman informed him, "Because they're going to come back here in force at some point in the near future."

Junior paled at the thought of the person who had just beaten him and the twins handily coming back with White Fang minions at his back. "Point taken. I can afford to shut the bar down for a few weeks, as long as this is over with by then and I make some money from this."

"Have a little faith," Roman rolled his eyes, "You'll get everything you lose back and more. I guarantee it," he began pacing, "Well, now that little issue has a resolution, let's discuss how we're going go about fixing the problem of 'not knowing where they are'."

"What do you have in mind?" Junior leaned back against the wall.

"Well, it's simple," Roman said, "They're going to peacefully, and willingly, walk me right into their base of operations."

Everybody in the room stared at him. Even Neo had raised an eyebrow.

"And... why, exactly, do you think they are going to do that?" Junior asked slowly.

"Because," Roman looked smug, "I'm a vital informant who can tell them all about your mysterious backer."

Neo's face lit up as she figured it out, and she nodded appreciatively.

"But you're our... they haven't seen you yet," Junior finally realised.

"That's right!" Roman gave him a sarcastic round of applause, "They haven't seen me yet. They've only seen you three, and Neo. So we're going to take advantage of this - I pose as someone who can give them the information they want, they then lead me right to their base, I get as much information as humanly possible out of them, and then I get out."

"And how are you going to get them to believe you?" Melanie asked.

"Yeah, I don't know if you noticed, but you're not the most trustworthy-looking guy," Miltia agreed.

"I'm glad you asked, girls!" Roman said cheerfully, "I do love showing off just how much more intelligent I am than anyone else in the room, after all. You see, I'm going to earn a lot of legitimacy with our mysterious enemies when they are forced to intervene... to save me from your backer's ruthless enforcer. Ruthless enforcer, take a bow, please."

Neo stepped forward and gave a theatrical bow.

"Okay," Junior acknowledged, "That could really work. But how do you plan on getting out of there?"

Roman gave him an unimpressed look, before pointing at Neo again.

"Oh, right." Junior palmed his forehead in realisation.

"I mean, really," Roman shook his head in disappointment, "She's been the solution to, what, ninety, ninety-five percent of my problems so far? You'd think you would have started to notice the pattern by now."

Neo simply shrugged, smiling.

"Now, while I'm doing that, you," he nodded to Junior, "Need to put out feelers. We need to know about any big dust deliveries that are coming into Vale in the next few weeks. There's more Police on the streets now, making the little jobs riskier, so chances are? They're going to need to go for bigger hauls if they have some kind of target to meet. If we know what they're going for, where it's going to be and when it's going to be there, it will be a lot easier to sabotage them when they try to take it."

"Makes sense," Junior nodded, "I'll see what I can find out."

"What about us?" Miltia asked.

"You two," Roman informed her bluntly, "Are going to learn how to win a fight. That's twice in a few days you've been beaten, quite quickly too, if what I've heard is any indication. If you're going to start pulling your weight around here, you need to be able to beat up something better than a random henchman."

"Oh, really? And how do we do that?" Melanie retorted, slightly annoyed at the insult to their skills.

"Why, the best way to become a better fighter... is to learn from a great teacher, of course," Roman answered with a smirk.

"Great teacher? What do you..." Miltia trailed off as she and Melanie went pale.

Roman glanced at the impressively evil grin on Neo's face, and reflected that this may actually have been the first time in his life that he felt genuine sympathy for another human being.

"Miltia?"

"Yes, Melanie?"

"At least we're going to die together," The trembling Melanie whispered.

"The way we always said we would," Miltia agreed weakly.

"So at that point, I decided to get out of there and get back to you with the information," Mercury finished.

An oppressive silence reigned for what seemed to Mercury like an age, as Cinder thought over what he had told her.

"You made the correct decision," she finally said, "In placing priority on bringing this information directly to me. Well done."

Mercury breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"A new element... this is not what we need right now, and yet, it would also explain a few things," she mused, "Adam did seem very surprised that his assassin failed to kill those men."

"You think these guys had something to do with that?" Mercury asked in surprise.

"It's a possibility," she replied, "This girl is particularly troubling. The shattering effect you described sounds like a semblance, and the fact that she was able to decisively overcome you the way she did speaks for her skill."

"So... who do you think they are?" He asked.

She seemed to mull it over. "We don't have enough information to even guess. Our next priority is fixing that," she looked at him, "Go and get some rest, Mercury. We will need you at full strength, soon enough."

"Sure thing," he said in relief.

After Mercury had gone, Cinder pondered what to do about this new problem. At the very least, they'd need to go back to the club as soon as possible – examples had to be made, after all.

She got to her feet, and left the office. She needed to find Adam.

After all, if there was anything the White Fang would appreciate, it would be the opportunity to commit some wanton violence and property damage.