Torchwhick.
It was a name well known throughout Vale's backstreets for its infamy in regards to dark world dealings and orchestrated theft. A Household name for all the wrong reasons, and Roman was proud of it.
Taking time and effort to foster his reputation, Roman had thought he'd be able to enjoy the comforts of his efforts to lead his best life as a free man who followed his desires.
"That damn Red," Roman gnashed his teeth and sighed with contempt. He felt if he glared enough at the stack of documents next to him, they'd shrivel up and just burn away into oblivion.
Field work was better than this! Well, actually no, considering he'd sent Junior's men to do the grunt work, but still, this was exceedingly frustrating.
It was all that woman's fault. Sure, she wasn't a psychotic bitch, but she was a slave driver. At least she paid well. That was the only reason Roman stuck around and listened to her.
If a problem couldn't be solved with Lien, then you just weren't throwing enough of it at someone's face, and Roman would gladly be that face, but the appeal was beginning to dwindle with the appearance of wrinkles and stress lines.
"A report on suspicious individuals arriving into Vale proper," Roman murmured, skimming the recent information on the foremost document in front of him.
A vein quickly popped over his temple.
-Faunus with arms for wings.
-A man in a clown costume scaring away children.
-A strange woman with a case of pink eye and mood swings.
-A man carrying an overly large suitcase…a smuggling attempt?
"Tch!" Roman tore the paper to shreds, tired eyes twitching. "You see Red, that's why you don't hire stupid."
Roman knew that he was alone, but he couldn't help but complain. Throwing his hands up into the air and shoving the documents away from him, Roman kicked back and lit a cigarette. He was no fool, and experience was his greatest asset.
Pulling out his scroll, Roman reread his contacts with Neo. He ruminated over her warnings about past heroes and villains with a particular focus on a supposed threat Neo insisted could not be dealt with through their means. It was better to run and mount an escape than to fight.
A formidable adversary who sides with Darkness, and the fact that Archer was also somehow involved with Beacon in trying to defeat this foe- Peculiar, wasn't it?
Roman took a long drag of the cigarette before letting out a cloud of acrid smoke.
He closed his eyes and reveled in the cigarette's narcotic effect before refocusing.
The dots were clicking together.
Tightened scrutiny of those entering and exiting Vale, Scarlet and Archer running back and forth, and an enemy even Neo was wary about it in the background.
It may have sounded like Roman had been joking about a potential invasion prior, but all the signs were pointing towards it. The Mercenaries were stockpiling Dust, and various orders of ammunition and weaponry were coming in through Atlas, at this point all that was left was personnel.
Reports about Atlas and its robot army coupled with a growing number of Huntsmen and Huntresses attending this year's Vytal festival because of the Arc boy, painted a certain picture.
Something was definitely brewing and Scarlet was a fool to think that Roman wouldn't notice.
Extinguishing the light on the smoke of his cigar, Roman fell into silent contemplation.
Where will Torchwick stand in all this, and what was there to gain?
Roman was nothing if not an opportunist. However, disinformation would be too much of a liability. He needed to get a better grasp at what he was dealing with in order to better-
Crack!
"!"
Roman froze, lip twitching as he stared at the floor beneath him and his chair. The sheer weight of all the added furniture, and the stacks upon stack of documents Scarlet had brought in for him to look over had finally broken the floor's foundation.
In real time, Roman watched as cracks began spreading out beneath him, his chair, and his desk on the second floor. Fracturing into spider-web like breaks, Roman could picture the inevitable.
"...Oh, fuck you Red."
The floor broke from beneath him, and Roman plummeted, a hand shooting up to hold his bowler's hat in place as he fell through a hole with elegance and style.
Spitting out dust and roof plaster, Roman blinked to get a handle on where he was in the Rose Mercenary building, but didn't recognize the room. It wasn't as if he had been allowed to just search the place at his leisure considering what magic bullshit Archer as the boss had in his disposal.
Having landed on his butt, Roman grunted while patting himself off and sitting up.
The room was a mess as the roof where Roman had fallen through had caved in, but the room was primarily empty anyway.
Coughing, Roman took off his hat, and tapped it a few times to get the dirt off before he paused mid action.
Roman must have fallen into some sort of storage room considering all the miscellaneous things around him, but he hadn't gotten to the point of lunacy yet where he considered a glowing weapon as normal.
Hidden in the debris, the golden gleam around the dagger made it stand out all too clearly in Roman's eyes.
Swallowing, Roman keenly noticed that he was the only one in the room, but if he didn't act now, the secretaries and people Scarlett had hired to run the agency would soon come running to check the commotion.
Roman glanced left and right, intuition warning him that his discovery was all too coincidental. Of all times for the floor to cave, it had to be when he was working on his own, and the room he fell into just so happened to have something he desired?
Well damn it, but greed spurred him into action anyway.
Tiptoeing forward, a thief's hand carefully misappropriated the weapon and let it disappear into the side of his white tailored coat.
A potential trump card was too difficult to pass off.
Now, to find out what it does…?
Based on the sound of the cheering and the jubilance filling the air, the Vytal Festival had begun in Vale. However, Shirou found himself rather far away from the festivities and was instead in a rather empty Beacon Academy.
Ruby had asked him to help give direction to her and her team, but Shirou declined on the principle of fair sportsmanship, leaving Ruby with no room to insist. To use a precious Command Spell out of pettiness was something Ruby could never do, so she reluctantly gave him free time.
Unfortunately, that free time wasn't exactly going to be spent on enjoying himself. Rather, it was the opposite in order to lead this world to a happy ending.
Perhaps it was a type of guidance that had led him to this point, a will of a Remnant world tied to his contract with Ruby. Without a Holy Grail or sufficient means to enact a summoning ritual, he would have never been summoned here.
This was to say, the world itself may have had a purpose in his summoning.
Saving those that lived in it, and handling the failsafes of the Gods who abandoned the world ought to be the right direction.
Dematerialized, Shirou was making his way through Beacon undetected. His current state made it rather simple to get through even the highest security, but the surveillance cameras had to be dealt with.
An invention by a man under Salem's employ named Arthur Watts fixed the problem as soon as Shirou uploaded the program into the main camera computer.
From there, it was rather simple to access a vault containing an isolated holding cell.
In a shower of golden dust, Shirou in Archer's guise emerged staring at the woman who couldn't stop her eagerness from showing in her cruel smile.
"Is it finally time?" Cinder Fall inquired, head lifted from where she was sitting with her back on the wall.
Shirou nodded, knowing that Cinder would have a part to play in this operation as Salem vouched for her usefulness. It was easier to control someone who's ambitions and desires were so blatantly obvious. More so when using her would make him feel less guilty than people who were well intentioned.
With a flick of Shirou's hand, a dagger appeared and cut Cinder out of her straight jacket.
"My thanks," Cinder drawled out with a sultry tone.
Cinder wrung her wrists, stretched, and then checked the limits of her mobility after being put away behind bars for so long. She was certainly feeling out of shape, but was just too elated at the freedom to really care at the moment.
"If I had known you were an ally, I would have preferred soliciting cooperation with you as an ally rather than the other two." Cinder muttered. "At least you're capable. I like capable people."
"I decline," Shirou answered, shaking his head. "Just remember to keep your mouth shut lest Salem's arrangements be disrupted."
A light flickered in Cinder's eyes, but she nodded and acknowledged that she understood. "Shall we?" She suggested, gesturing towards the door. "Never know if Ozpin's intuition and magic may just catch on."
"It shouldn't be a concern. He'll have other things to deal with." Shirou said.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Cinder inquired, crossing her arms with a rising sense of anticipation.
"I've filled my end of the bargain," Shirou said, grunting. "Now you do yours and arrange for the dragon buried beneath a mountain."
Cinder wet her lips, positively giddy at the good news.
Ozpin certainly wouldn't have time to care about her at all now. Especially if one of his field agents suddenly went missing in action.
Cinder held the urge to chuckle, but wasn't above smiling from ear to ear.
As for Shirou, he chose to remain silent from then on.
He'd rather not speak to Cinder more than he had to.
Leaving Beacon, Shirou and Cinder no longer had to worry about the cameras or any real interference as Arthur's programming was making a complete mess of the systems. Glynda, and the other professors were also no more, leaving a glaring hole in Beacon's defense when Summer's focus was centered in Vale.
Leading Cinder into an obscure location of the Emerald Forest, Shirou paused and singalled for Cinder to stop.
Cinder complied, albeit with a little irritation as the path Shirou chose was riddled with mud, sticks, and moss that got tangled in her hair and stained her clothes. Men, no consideration for ladies, but Cinder digressed.
The leaves rustled as a figure emerged from the dark underbrush accompanied by a floating shadow.
Cinder shivered, trembling as she almost mistook the figure as Salem and floater eyes, but the figure was too masculine to be a woman's.
Archer appeared in Cursed Arm's guise, a restrained woman held in one hand by the back of the neck and made to stare at Cinder.
At first, Cinder's mouth opened in disbelief, before a rush of euphoria took over her as it all clicked in place when Shirou had said he'd fulfilled his end of the bargain.
Cinder needed a maiden if she was going to be of any use, and 'Archer' as Salem's agent had said he'd do it for her at the time of the operation.
When Shirou had said Ozpin would be too busy, Cinder had been right to inwardly assume it was because one of the Four Maiden's had been kidnapped.
"The Fall Maiden." Archer said in his guise as Cursed Arm.
The voice sent shivers down Cinder's back. She never knew Salem had someone like this under her employ. Indeed, she'd missed a great many things while locked away to rot in Beacon's prison room.
Nonetheless, she swallowed down her nerves when it was evident that she wasn't with enemies, but cooperative allies.
The same couldn't be said for the Fall Maiden, Amber. Her complexion was deathly pale, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't muster the means to move after some magic sword blade thing was stabbed into her shadow.
No, it was more than that.
Thump thump, lubdub.
Thump Thump.
Lubdub.
Amber felt nausea, an acute pain in her chest as Cursed Arm's other hand held her beating heart which he threatened to squeeze and murder her at his leisure. It was the final nail that ended all resistance when Cursed Arm kidnapped her.
Ozpin had sent warnings, insisting she stop traveling alone and regroup because of a new danger, but Amber had been skeptical until that danger came to her.
She was going to die here, forcibly made to stare at Cinder's direction.
Already, the shadow that followed Cursed Arm's side was wrapping around her legs and steadily pulling her into the darkness. Unable to struggle, the Fall Maiden's power within Amber began to release a storm of fire around her, but that too was dispelled by a red spear constantly pressed to her side.
T-These damn magic weapons!
To think they could exist and carry such bullshit properties.
Just as Amber was submerged down to her waist in the shadow, Shirou in Archer's guise, seemingly impatient, took out a twisted ritual dagger and stabbed her through the chest.
Amber's expression faltered, her eyes widening as a silent scream escaped her mouth, but no sooner, the shadow enveloped her whole.
All that was left behind was a discharged swirl of magic energy in the form of flickering flames, captivating in its intensity.
Where that loose magic would go was obvious.
Funneling around Cinder, the magic visibly settled within her, her bangs heating up with a fiery hue and rising tendrils of smoke.
Cinder stared at the two men before her with varying levels of emotion, she opened her mouth to address them, but all that came out was a cackle.
She had a job to do.
Summer was stressed. More stressed than she'd ever been before, but unable to just shirk it off and ignore it.
Pacing, Summer bit at her nails while trying to reassure herself that everything was going to be fine with all the measures she and everyone else had already taken. Ruby and her team would be participating in the Vytal Festival as normal, and it was going to be the job of the adults to handle the dangers threatening the peace.
No, it was just Summer's selfishness of not wanting to endanger her daughter or her friends.
Ruby had already made sure to share the most important aspect of her future diary with Summer, and Summer could not break that trust.
The things Ruby could do were limited, but Summer had Ozpin's backing and Shirou's power and versatility. This alone should make the most difference.
But then why was she still feeling so unsettled?
Ozpin had gone radio silent as he frantically tried to investigate Amber's disappearance at such a crucial time. It had Salem's hands written all over it, and Ozpin was playing his game of chess with her.
Vale was in danger, and Summer had the key to defeating Cursed Arm.
Atlas and James would bring the big guns for the encroaching Grimm, and the attraction of numerous Huntsman by Jaune Arc would create a united kingdom fighting force.
Preparations were all in place, and the fervor of the festival would help keep Grimm at bay by diminishing negative emotions.
All that was left now was to defeat all enemies.
However, Summer couldn't fight Cursed Arm on her own. Her sole means would not be able to grant enough pressure on Cursed Arm.
She needed Cursed Arm to strike at her with his strongest attack and the intent to kill in order to activate the artifact she'd recovered from using Ruby's future diary. Worse, Shirou's role against Salem was too important to ask him for help against Cursed Arm.
She needed a team.
She knew one that could reliably help.
Once again, she glanced at her scroll left tossed on a couch and flinched.
But was she ready to face her own demons?
Hesitating, the thought of a better future was what spurred her on.
Resolutely, she sent out the message from an old contact number long thought inactive.
/-/
-Resting in a tree white maintaining the edge of her blade, a woman wearing a Grimm mask perked up at the sound of her scroll.
-In a bar getting wasted, a flashing notification instantly sobered up the drunk. The time had come.
-...and in a quiet Patch, glass shattered and wood splintered as a bear of a man came running out in a desperate hurry.
/-/
Team STQR.
Assemble.
-Summer Rose.
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