Chapter 4: How I Learned to Juggle Humans

Mato was leaning against a pillar, arms folded and eyes closed, giving a solid good-faith effort to falling asleep while standing when he registered a pair of familiar scents approaching him. Irritated, he cracked his eyes open to see Mercury swaggering over with Emerald following behind him. Mercury had his usual smug grin plastered on his face. Gods, he hadn't even said anything yet and he was already annoying Mato.

Mato had come to Vale to, as Adam had said, be in reserve in case things went south. Only things weren't going south, they were going so north they were going to hit the pole if this kept up. And that meant Mato had had all of nothing to do. Since he was within the city, he didn't even have the option of filling his time with hunting Grimm, or going outside at all for that matter. Perry and Bruno had been quite insistent on that, saying Mato was already known to their enemies and he would be too easily spotted. And so Mato had spent nearly two weeks sleeping through the days and spending the nights waiting for a crisis that never came.

The boredom was enough to try his sanity, and Cinder's stooges were only making matters worse. Almost immediately after he had arrived, the dunce duo had been testing Mato's patience. Emerald had mostly backed off after Mato threatened to break her fingers the next time her hands wandered near his pockets, but Mercury had done the badgering of any three people.

This time would be no exception. "Hey buddy, whatcha up to?" The silver haired human spoke in highly pitched tone that had bugged Mato before he had learned that was how humans spoke to children.

"I was meditating." Mato responded tartly. He didn't bother to turn to face the two of them, and continued to stare out over the warehouse's floor. They were back in the first warehouse; the one Tukson had led him to before Mato had found his gainful employment.

"Really?" Mercury paused to let them all hear the, admittedly loud, background noise of the White Fang at work. "Not where I'd pick to 'look for inner peace', or whatever you do."

"Inner peace is meaningless if you need outer peace to reach it." Mato quoted his father's platitude. The crazy thing was the old man had actually meant it. More than once Mato had privately agreed with the guys in town who said his father spent so much time on the farm he began to think like a plant. Mato wondered how he was doing now, how he was handling the harvest without him.

Mercury was oblivious to Mato's little trip down memory lane. "Maybe, but I think you're the kinda guy that prefers action."

"You do keep complaining about having nothing to fight." Emerald added.

"Hey yeah." Mercury said. "If you're looking for a fight, why don't you take me on? I could use the exercise."

"A fight with a challenging opponent is engaging. Beating down a helpless sap is not." Mato explained. He finally turned to look Mercury in the eye. "And the way you've convinced yourself you're the former is just adorable enough that I'd feel bad for killing you."

That got a chuckle out of Emerald and a flicker of annoyance over Mercury's face. "Oh really? Want to prove those words?" His voice had gotten low. He probably thought it made him sound dangerous.

"Why? I know they're true. Or do you believe I care what you think?" Mato closed his eyes and leaned back again. "Now get lost, you're distracting me."

There were a few whispered words between Emerald and Mercury before the latter loudly said he'd love to spar if Mato changed his mind and they left him. Mato sighed once they were out of earshot. That wasn't going to stop any time soon, he knew. It wasn't as if Bruno had been particularly subtle about Mato's purpose. A group you're controlling through intimidation suddenly picks up a "special new recruit" that is singlehandedly accomplishing priority missions for them? The White Fang might as well have hung a sign reading "Anti-Cinder contingency" around Mato's neck.

With his immense power being the main threat to her group's survival, it would have been stranger for Cinder to not be trying to uncover Mato's abilities. It wasn't like she would have been terribly broken up if Mato killed her boy toy while fighting him. That would require her to care about her underlings, a trait she seemed to not even understand on a conceptual level.

Mato grumbled. Suppressing his desire to smash Mercury's perfect teeth in had left him in a foul mood. He flipped off the balcony and landed lightly on the factory floor. Only the closest White Fang looked up and those returned to their work quickly. By now everyone was used to Mato taking direct paths to his destinations, with no regard for convention, gravity, and on one occasion a wall in his way. Perry had been pissed about that one.

Speaking of Perry, there he was now. "Mato. There's a meeting starting as soon as Roman arrives."

"Not sure why you're telling me that." Mato replied. There had been five such planning meetings since Mato had arrived here and he had attended none of them.

Perry made a face. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to at least show up for some of these."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that me having prolonged exposure to Torchwick would end with someone dead. Either him at my hands or me from my brain hemorrhaging itself." Mato began to walk away. "Besides, I have better things to do."

"Like what?"

"Anything else." Mato heard Perry's disgusted sigh as he entered the barracks room of the base. It wasn't much, just beds and a few trunks to hold clothing and some minor personal effects. On a whim, Mato started to get changed into civilian clothes he grabbed out of a trunk at random. Once he was no longer garbed in the emblems of the White Fang, he went out the window and quickly scaled the building to the roof.

Mato breathed deep of the crisp night air. The city had its own unique scent, one that was the combination of a hundred other ones. Humans of all varieties, dozens of kinds of food, fuel and exhaust, he could sit here all night dissecting it and not be finished by morning. Not that he was going to spend his first evening outside in over a week lounging around. His time cooped up was proving to be murder on his readiness, he needed to work his muscles or risk them turning to sludge.

And so, after a quick few stretches, Mato blasted off into the night. He soared through the city solely on the power of his legs, only using flight to gain traction on the air. Moving more through a serious of horizontal hops than anything else, Mato gradually began to dip lower as he raced through the maze of buildings this city was. Finally he stopped when he nearly clipped the head of a passerby (who looked up confused at the sudden gust of air) and skidded to a stop down an alleyway.

Mato took a second to get his bearings. His 'run' had carried him over to one of the nicer parts of town, where the streets were lined with shops instead of warehouses and abandoned factories. In fact, Mato realized as he stepped on onto the street, he recognized this place. If his memory was correct… he slipped down an alley, tried his luck with a door that turned out to be unlocked, and stepped into the back room of Tukson's book trade.

There was the sound of shattering ceramics as Tukson dropped the plate he was holding. He jumped back from Mato, backing up to the wall behind him. "They sent you, didn't they!?" He demanded.

Mato paused, not sure what he meant by that. Tukson filled the silence, almost babbling. "I thought they might catch on but I don't care. I won't be party to this madness, not anymore. Adam's going too far, if no one else can see that they're as gone as he is. If they want to kill me for leaving, I'll shred anyone they send, even you." He flicked his fingers and claws extended.

"Tukson…" Mato wasn't sure how to say this. "No one sent me anywhere. I only came here because I was bored."

"You did?" Mato nodded. "Then you didn't know I was planning on quitting the White Fang? Running away to Vacuo?"

"Well, I do now." Mato said. Tukson's face bore a striking resemblance to a gaping fish mouth for a moment and then it hardened.

"Doesn't matter. You know, so I have to kill you." He began to slowly approach Mato.

Mato quirked his head to the side, confused. "Why?"

Tukson pulled up, now looking confused himself. "What do you mean why? You know I'm quitting the White Fang now, you can rat me out."

"Why would I? I don't care whether you stay or go."

"But- but those are the rules of the White Fang." Tukson was surprisingly making a case for Mato having to murder him. "They don't let anyone leave, not outside of a body bag."

"So?" Mato shrugged. "Like I care about the rules of the White Fang. They pay me so I fight for them. Until they start paying me to hunt down deserters, I could care less about you bailing this petty human conflict."

Tukson's expression was a mix of relief and disgust. "You really mean it? You're not going to tell anyone?"

Something just occurred to Mato. "Even if I did care, I owe you for the information you gave me about the moon. So to make us even, I'll keep this little secret for you."

Tukson slumped against the wall as the adrenaline began to leave his body. "Man, I've got to get out of this town." He said to himself.

"Might also be a good idea to not go blabbing your plans to everyone that walks in." Mato commented drily. Tukson looked up at him.

"Tell me something. What do you want exactly? There's no way you're only after a paycheck."

Mato looked away from him, towards the front window he could just see through the doorway. He watched the lights of a car drive by before answering. "I want what I have. Food, shelter, a job where I'm paid to do what comes easily to me. What else could I possibly wish for?"

Tukson didn't seem to believe him. An awkward silence dragged on between the two of them. Mato broke it by reaching for the door. "Well, you have a lot on your plate right now. I don't want to keep you."

"Um, yeah." Tukson nodded his agreement. "Lots of things to do before I leave, got to take care of the shop and everything."

"Right, right. So I'll just be going then." Mato opened the door.

"Of course." Tukson seemed a little too happy to see Mato go. He paused.

"Oh, I just remembered a question I had. Do you know why the moon is broken?"

Tukson rubbed at his chin while he thought. "There's been a ton of ideas. A meteor impact, a weird orbital problem, some older mythologies claim it was broken in a big battle. There's never been any proof for any of them, though."

Mato thought on that. "I see." He looked Tukson in the eye. "Farewell, Tukson. Good luck in Vacuo."

"Goodbye, Mato." Tukson replied. "Don't take this the wrong way but since there's a decent chance Adam might have you track me down and kill me I hope we never see each other again."

"Fair enough." Mato left, walking back out into the night. Without a purpose he began to wander the city, idly wondering how it would go for Tukson. His soon to be former comrades weren't the types to forgive betrayal, but they were getting busy and Tukson might not be important enough to justify the effort of finding him. Mato shrugged. He didn't care.

And because he didn't care, two days later when Mercury and Emerald returned to the base reeking of blood and claiming to have "taken it upon themselves to kill the rat" Mato said and did nothing. Humans could slaughter themselves in droves as far as he was concerned.

"Hey Mato!" Perry approached holding a clipboard. Mato was currently leaning against a wall on the second floor, where he'd had a great view of the show of Cinder threatening her supposed subordinates. He was beginning to doubt that woman could inspire genuine loyalty from anyone and was ruling through fear simply because she was incapable of doing otherwise.

Perry pulled up a little short. "Uh, is something the matter?" Perry asked him.

"No."

Perry didn't seem convinced. "Uh… anyway, we've got a job for you. We're moving to a new base of operations, but it's in an area likely to be overrun with Grimm."

"So I go in first and kill everything that moves, right?" Mato said. Sounded like just the exercise he needed. "Where is it?"

"We're going to be taking a flight out; you'll just ride with us." Perry glanced down at the scroll in his hands. "We'll need you to work fast; you'll be needed back here soon."

"Oh?" After two weeks of inaction, Mato was surprised to be given two tasks at once. "What for?"

"We're going to be having a rally here, one where we'll be taking on new members." Perry explained.

"Meaning there'll be a decent chance of infiltration, so you want extra security around." Mato summarized.

"Right. The rally is in five days, so we'll need the caverns cleared out in four to get you back here in time for the preparations."

Mato smirked. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'll need one day."

Technically, it had taken Mato two days to empty Mountain Glenn of Grimm, but only because more Grimm had been let into the caves on the second morning by a short lived White Fang member knocking a hole in a wall to make space. Either way, Mato returned to Vale with time to spare.

The night of the rally was upon them. Bruno and Torchwick were going to be putting on a show for a warehouse mostly filled with uniformed White Fang members, but with a sizable contingent on new recruits. Somewhere in that group of casually dressed newbies was Perry, going in 'undercover' to try and sniff out any potential spies. Mato was up in the rafters along with a number of armed guards, using the elevated view to watch for trouble. At a signal from Perry, he would spring into action and bring down whoever Perry had marked.

"Thank you all for coming." Bruno was just getting started. "For those of you joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours. I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!" He was laying it on a bit thick, Mato thought. In the grand scheme of things, Roman's contributions were largely minimal and Bruno knew it. Mato wondered where the praise was coming from. Cinder's orders, to mask her involvement? Bruno trying to get the crowd to accept a smug bastard like Torchwick?

If the latter was the intent, it hadn't worked. Torchwick barely set foot on the stage before being showered with boos. Mato tuned out his self-aggrandizing speech and focused on the newcomers. One of them briefly caught Mato's attention for being armed, but beyond that there wasn't anything suspicious.

The room erupted with whispers and hushed comments when Torchwick revealed one of the mech-suits Mato had seized, paladins he thought they were called. By human standards he supposed they were indeed impressive machines. Roman finished his spiel with an offer to join the growing White Fang presence in Mountain Glenn and this time he was greeted with cheers, originating from the uniformed section. Mato admired the subtlety of Perry's planning there. Crowds more often than not followed the lead of someone within them. So, all you needed to do was have a few people in the audience ready to act like you wanted and you could control the group's reaction.

Bruno beckoned the new recruits forward. Mato watched them march forward, until he was distracted by a commotion on the stage. Torchwick was stomping forward, angry about something. Mato was just about to follow his vision to see what when there was the crack of gunfire and the lights went out. There was shouting, someone grunting in pain, and a mechanical whirl before a window was smashed out and seconds later the wall below it exploded outward. The rush of moonlight let Mato catch a glimpse of the paladin stomping away.

Mato flipped off the balcony, relying more on his nose to guide him than his eyes in the still mostly dark warehouse. He landed lightly next to Perry. "What just happened?"

Perry sounded upset. "Didn't you see? There were spies, Roman's chasing them in the paladin, go after them!"

"Going." Mato darted out the hole in the wall. And then stopped looking up and down the street. You'd think a giant mecha unit would be fairly obvious, but there wasn't any to be found. Torchwick must have been really moving, then. Mato shot up into the air for a better view and finally spotted the hulking machine, charging after what he presumed were the spies, although from this far away all he could make out was that there were two of them. Mato dropped back down to the ground and began to race after them. It would be boring if he ended the chase by swooping out of the sky after only a few seconds, after all.

He had just followed Torchwick to one of the city's raised highways when a car flew over the side and plummeted to the ground below. Mato had plenty of time to meet it in the air with a hand raised ready to catch it. That hand proceeded to neatly punch through the car's floor, with the mass of the vehicle slamming into him.

It took Mato a few seconds to right himself, which brought them far closer to hitting the ground than he would have liked. Grumbling at the shoddy materials used in Remnant construction, he lowered the rest of the way and set the car down on the pavement. He ripped his hand free, just in time to see another two cars flip off the highway and go tumbling to their doom. Cursing internally, Mato went to work.

He sent a ki blast ahead of him to the first car, neatly severing it in two. Mato positioned himself between the two halves and grabbed hold of the seat in the front, with a woman in it, and the seat in the back, with a pair of children. That humans tended to be strapped into their vehicles would be convenient for this next part. With a flick of his wrists, he broke the seats from the rest of the car and hurtled them both into the sky. By now the other car had almost hit the ground but it was a simple matter of body flickering in front of it and making sure not to concentrate his catch in one spot to get ahold of it. After setting it down somewhat lightly, Mato just had to zip back into the air to catch the pair of seats.

"Yaaay! Let's do that again!" The kids were pleased from their little trip; the mother looked as though her life was still flashing before her eyes. Mato set them down next to the severed remains of their car and blasted off after Torchwick.

Mato spent a while scanning the maze of elevated streets in this part of town before finally spotting the mech, down off the roads on the ground below. As Mato got closer, he noticed a problem or two, depending on how you would classify its arms being missing. There was also a bunch of ice covering it. Mato wasn't sure how that would happen but he was pretty sure it wasn't a good sign. Lastly, approaching this crippled, immobilized mech was a blonde woman moving at a somewhat impressive speed for a human. Mato sped up.

The woman's fist hit the paladin before Mato did and shattered the battlesuit to pieces. Annoyingly, despite all the odds Torchwick rolled free from the wreckage completely unharmed. He patted at his clothes. "Just got this thing cleaned."

"Yes, that's the real problem here." Mato said in a tone dripping with sarcasm. He landed next to Torchwick. "You steal a paladin for a joyride, fail to accomplish anything of value with it, and now it's fit only for scrap. But no, what matters here is that you must suffer the inconvenience of having to do laundry."

"Hey! Who are you?!" A female voice demanded. Mato ignored it.

"First of all," Torchwick began as his pet mute Neo popped out of nowhere to join them. "This suit's dry clean only." Mato didn't know what that meant, but he knew a lame comeback when he heard one. "Second of all, I was taking care of intruders that slipped right under your nose, you miserable excuse for a guard dog."

Mato decided to pass over the inherent absurdity of being called an animal by a mudman, mainly because Torchwick wouldn't understand, and glanced back over his shoulder. There were four of them, all women. It was with a slight bit of chagrin that he saw one of them was the person he had noted being armed in the warehouse. "Indeed, they look quite dead to me." He looked back to Torchwick. "Now they'll never tell anyone about our new weapons. Our enemies will surely not be able to work out who the paladin that rampaged through town with a White Fang emblem could possibly belong to."

"Don't ignore me!" The same voice as earlier yelled as something was fired towards them. Without turning, Mato raised his hand. He had to resist the urge to double check the angles; if this didn't work he'd look stupid as hell. Luckily, what he had seen out of the corner of his eye was sufficient and he caught the flaming shell without seeming to pay any attention to it.

Mato had meant for that little trick to impress the women, but it seemed Torchwick also got the message. "Right, maybe you should finish the job then." He said, his usual cockiness abating somewhat.

"Maybe I will." Mato turned to face the women, but looked back at him. "We'll finish this talk later. For now, just get out of here." Torchwick and his lackey bolted while Mato regarded his new foes. The blonde was clearly a hand to hand combatant with an exploitable temper, the black haired one was chosen to be the infiltrator so she was bound to be a more sly and cunning fighter. It might also mean she was weaker than the others, though Mato was the last person to dismiss the danger of a clever if physically weak enemy. The other two looked more standard for hunters, elaborate weapons and colorful outfits.

Mato sighed. He just wasn't really feeling it. "Go." He told them. "This once, I will let you escape."

"What?" The one wearing the cape asked. She looked disappointed if anything, like she had been looking forward to dying at Mato's hands.

Mato folded his arms. "It's a reward for kicking Torchwick around. Seeing him fail that miserably has made my night, so I'll pay you back by letting you live."

"And what if we don't accept?" Challenged cape-girl, who probably didn't think that sentence entirely through.

"Well then," Mato smirked, then body flickered. From directly behind them, he continued. "I'd have to kill you all anyway."

Their reactions were pretty satisfying. They all jumped in complete surprise, though their training showed and they were all ready to fight with weapons raised a second later. It confirmed Mato's suspicion, that they were not able to follow his movements. That was why he had used body flicker in the first place, even though orienting himself properly had needed three uses of the technique. He had made sure to fold his arms again, they wouldn't be able to tell he had unfolded them to begin with and it reinforced the impression that such speed came easily and naturally to him.

The performance had mostly worked; they looked a lot less confident than they had seconds ago. The blonde was still raring for a fight, but her comrades were looking much more like the only reason they weren't already running was their pride. As a bullhead carrying Torchwick and Neo passed overhead, Mato decided to let them hang on to that.

"Looks like time's up." He rose slowly into the air. "Don't forget, the next time we meet, you won't get to walk away." He shot into the sky, following the airship. With any luck, when they got back to base he'd get another chance to tear into Torchwick.

AN: And Mato finally meets Team RWBY. He's not very impressed, though that may change with time. Or not, who knows. (I do)

This chapter took a lot longer than I had hoped to get out, mainly due to college deciding three exams in one week is an entirely reasonable thing to do to a person. I'm not entirely satisfied with the ending point, it feels inconclusive somehow. Let me know what you guys think.

Reviewer Responses: GotenGT: Sadly, Blake was long gone by the time Mato came around. I'm not really sure she'd be able to really talk sense into him either way though. It would require him being willing to admit he's wrong.

Mangahero18: I'm glad to hear that (the typical saiyan bit, not the OC part). Part of what was missing from DBZ was that with Goku knowing nothing and Vegeta being the super-elite prince, we never really got a look at what an ordinary saiyan would be like. Mato is my take on the concept, and so far I think it's coming across pretty well.

Okay guys, I'll see you next time, which hopefully will be a little quicker than this one.