Chapter 13: Painting the Town

"Guess who's back?!" Yang grinned when she walked into Junior's club...

...and was greeted by guns pointed at her face.

"Yeah, so could you define 'friend' for me?" Neptune asked Yang.

"Stop, stop!" a voice rang out, "Nobody shoot!"

A bearded man in a tux, Junior, cut through the crowd, "Blondie, you're here! ...Why?"

"You still owe me a drink," Yang grabbed Junior's arm and dragged him to the bar.

"Whoa..." Neptune watched her go, "What a woman..."

Skyler raised an eyebrow, but Neptune's attention was then directed to two girls, Junior's henchwomen, Melanie and Miltia. Skyler wasn't sure why he felt happy about Neptune's attention diverting from Yang.

"Sup?" Neptune said to the twins.

The two huffed and walked away, "Whatever..."

XXX

By the time Neptune and Skyler got over to Yang and Junior, Yang was pretty much done interrogating.

"I don't know!" Junior said.

"How can you not know?!" Yang pushed.

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you and your boyfriend first came in here!"

"Skyler's not my boyfriend!" Yang protested, her face growing red.

"The point is, he paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

Neptune zoomed over, slamming his fist on the bar, "So where did they go?!"

Junior stared at him, "What kind of stupid question is that?! They never came back!"

He turned to Yang, "Who is this guy?"

"Don't worry about him," Yang pushed Neptune away, "Worry about me if I don't find out what I want!"

"I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them..."

He turned to his men, "Which is something I can relate to!!"

Yang sighed and turned back to Skyler and Neptune, "Come on guys."

"We get everything we need?" Neptune asked.

"Well, we got everything we can," Yang answered, "Hopefully the rest of the team is having better luck."

"Great," Skyler said as he, Neptune, and Yang walked out of Junior's club, "What do we do now?"

"Well," Yang gave a knowing grin, "There is one more place..."

XXX

When Skyler saw the place, he groaned, "Another club? Why am I not surprised?"

"Just trust me on this?" Yang asked.

"...Fine. Let's get this over with."

And they approached the club, there was a sign, simply labeled above the door Seventh Heaven.

"Oh dear Lord," Skyler covered his face, "This place..."

"What? You know this place?" Neptune asked.

"Know it? Yang destroyed it."

They walked up to the bouncer, who looked at the three and said, "Hold up. Let me see some ID."

Skyler smirked, "Certainly. Yang?"

Yang let out a chuckle and cracked her knuckles. The next thing the bouncer knew, he was punched straight through the door. Everyone inside began to panic and run as Yang entered. Everyone except the female bartender.

Neptune was about to walk in too, but Skyler stopped him, "Hey! What gives?"

"I think we should let Yang handle this. Plus..."

Skyler glanced at the bartender, "That lady's giving me a bad vibe."

Neptune looked at the lady, whose name tag read, 'Tifa Lockhart', "...Yeah. I'm getting that vibe too."

Apparently Yang didn't.

"Hello!" Yang called out to everybody, "No need to panic people, I'm just looking for someone."

Yang stopped at the bar, "I will take a Strawberry Sunrise though! No ice. Thanks!"

The bartender, Tifa, just glared, vaulted over the bar, and said, "Sorry miss, I think you better turn around and look elsewhere."

Tifa balled her fists and got into a fighting position. Yang activated Ember Celica and did the same.

"So... Does this mean no sunrise?"

The two charged at one another. Right before they collided, Skyler could've sworn he heard a deep voice say "Fight!", but that was probably his imagination.

Tifa's kick collided with Yang's punch. Yang charged forward and tried getting Tifa with her gauntlets, but Tifa was able to counter and avoid her blows. Tifa charged a fire punch that blew Yang forward. Tifa then charged up some kind of ice and Yang saw the ice surrounding her.

Tifa released her ice projectile and Yang dodged it. The two continued to exhange punches with each other.

"Having fun?" Yang asked in the middle of it all, "I sure am!"

Their punches collided with fire charged and Tifa grimaced, "Don't mock me!"

Tifa punched Yang forward and tried kicking her, but Yang grabbed her foot. Tifa kicked her down with the other leg. Yang charged forward using her shotgun gauntlets and punched Tifa down.

Tifa got up and Yang got the upper hand on her and punched her towards a mirror that shattered upon her impact. While on the mirror Tifa noticed her Premium Heart behind the bar counter as Yang tried throwing a chair at her. Tifa grabbed the Premium Heart and picked up the bar counter.

"Okay, brat," Tifa said, "Warmup's over!"

She tossed the counter at Yang, who managed to shoot the counter down into multiple pieces.

Tifa equipped the Premium Heart, "I'm going to blow you out of the water!"

She froze Yang and then fire punched her, "Take this!"

Yang was knocked through the wall to another section of the bar and Tifa jumped after her. Skyler and Neptune both looked at each other and rushed to the hole in the wall to continue watching.

"Had enough?" Tifa asked mockingly.

Yang got up, part of her face bleeding and her hair glowing, and quickly reloaded her gauntlets.

"Not even close."

Tifa started firing multiple fire shots at Yang, who dodged them. Yang retaliated with multiple explosive bullets that Tifa avoided. Tifa tried launching an ice attack at Yang, prompting Yang to launch herself in the air with her gauntlets, resulting in more close quarters combat.

Tifa gets the upper hand by feinting, and slammed Yang into the air and back down, "You're going down!"

As Yang got up, Tifa prepared a large ice projectile, "Don't move!"

Tifa launched it forward and Yang punched it through and shattered it. The shards knocked Tifa back and wounded her. Slightly bleeding on her side, Tifa started powering up.

"All right," she said, "Let's see if you can keep up with this!"

Tifa charged forward and uses Beat Rush and Water Kick, which were blocked by Yang. Yang staggered after Tifa performed Somersault, allowing her to use Meteodrive, Dolphin Blow, and Meteor Strike successfully.

"Here it goes!" Tifa yelled as she threw Yang onto the ground where she exploded.

Yang got up dizzily, "Ugh, did I just explode?"

Then she noticed a strand of her own hair fall to the ground. Skyler noticed too and now looked legitimately scared.

"Uh oh..." he said.

"What?" Neptune asked.

"If there's one thing I've learned about Yang in all my years of knowing her..."

Tifa unleashed her ultimate attack, "Final Heaven!!"

Yang was engulfed in a large explosion as the hair piece hit the ground. Then she spread the fire from the explosion away from her.

"What in the world?!" Tifa exclaimed.

Yang bashed her fists together, her hair flying up, brighter than ever.

"...You do not, under any circumstances, touch the hair."

She charged forward and shattered Tifa's Premium Heart. She unleashed several rounds and punches on Tifa.

"Like that?!" Yang yelled as she delivered one final punch.

Tifa fell to the ground, completely blacked out. Yang walked past her two friends and put on sunglasses.

"Nailed it."

"Was the fight really necessary?" Neptune asked.

"Nope," Skyler smirked, "But it sure was entertainingly awesome. Luckily, Yang didn't snap a neck again."

"What?"

"Nothing."

XXX

Not two seconds after they got back on the bike, they received a call from Blake and Sun.

Blake: Everyone!! If you can hear me, we need back-

Sun: HEEEELLLLP!!! Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!

"Where are you guys?" Yang asked.

Right on cue, behind them, the three saw Blake and Sun running through the street with a giant mech, a Paladin, hot on their heels before they both disappeared from view.

"HURRYYYY!!!" Sun screamed, both in person and on the Scroll.

"I think that was them," Neptune said.

"Yeah, no kidding Sherlock!" Skyler retorted, "Yang! Floor it!!"

Yang grinned, "On it!!"

"Waitwaitwait-!" Neptune was barely able to stay on Bumblebee before finally getting a grip.

XXX

They were able to catch up and follow the mech suit on their ride, coming up next to it as it runs.

"We've gotta slow it down!" Yang yelled.

"Got it!" Neptune answered.

Neptune reached for his gun, but Roman noticed the trio on his sensors and crashed into a multitude of cars with the Paladin's strong bulk, sending them flying towards his chasers.

"Hold on!" Yang warned.

"Wuh-oh..." Skyler gulped, subconsciously clutching tighter onto Yang's stomach.

Yang swerved, leaning her bike to the side in avoidance of flying debris while Neptune flailed in a panic. Back on two wheels again, Neptune unslung his weapon, aimed as sparks start flying, and fired several bolts of blue electricity at the Paladin, causing Roman to grimace from the force of the attacks.

"Yang!" Skyler said, "Get in front of it! I need to get a clear shot!"

"On it!"

Yang drove up along next to it and Skyler got out his weapon in sword form while Neptune transformed his gun into basically an electric spear. The two jumped off, landing on the mech and stabbing it. Sun and Blake paused in their car-hopping to look back.

"Guys!" Sun yelled, "Hang on!!"

Closing his eyes, Sun smashed his palms together, and from the golden Aura around him, his Semblance created two glowing outlines that copied their creator, leaping off and going back over the tops of vehicles and collided into the Paladin's front.

They exploded into blinding light upon contact to let Sun leap forward with his staff held high, but Roman finally turned enough to send Neptune and Skyler flying off and knocking into Sun, sending all three of them off the highway.

Skyler thought quickly and grabbed Sun and Neptune's collars with each arm and caught his weapon with his feet by the handle, the blade facing the ground. Using his feet, he pulled the trigger and the fire slowed the fall. They landed on the ground in a heap.

"Wow," Neptune admitted, "That was pretty cool."

"Agreed," Sun replied.

"I never thought I would be able to impress myself," Skyler agreed.

XXX

A few minutes later, they were at a street vender nearby, having tea.

"Do you think the girls are alright?" Neptune asked.

"Eh, don't worry," Skyler waved off, "If there's one thing I've learned from those four, it's that they can more than take care of themselves."

"Agreed," Sun said, and he and Skyler fist-bumped.

XXX

And that's done! Next up, a long awaited cat fight between Weiss and Hazel. Till next time guys!