6 Chapter 5 - Discussions Require Explosions

Working for Junior had let Miltia and her sister see quite a bit of horrible and disturbing things throughout their three years of employ. It was to be expected that there would be some cocky gangsters or upstarts who thought that Junior, as mainly an information dealer, would be a easy target to start their claim on the underworld's of Vale.

Miltia had forced them to learn the hard way that she had claws, and was unafraid of using them to carve just how stupid they were on their own bodies. She had always had a sadistic streak, Melanie had always said. She would deny her twin only because Melanie didn't have side like that.

She had witnessed The Club being raided several times, and even had to help rebuild sections of it. Hell, she even helped mourn for some of the grunts that had died in various territory wars. Miltia even bore witness to the horrors that the Reds normally left in their wake; she swore that there was more body parts than the bodies that they counted.

However, despite seeing hell and coming back only slightly scarred, she wasn't ready for the sheer destruction that one boy had caused. A boy that Junior had sworn up and down looked like some pansy who hadn't really seen the horrors of the world, and basically said that they would force the very same boy into working for them.

When Junior had said that the very same boy was going to be used in the girly-man's plot to screw with the Reds, Miltia almost resigned on the spot. Except Melanie didn't disagree, so Miltia's dissent went unheard.

Several well trained grunts and some extremely fit newbies were sent to grab the kid last night, too. It should've been easy. They shouldn't have had any problems with dealing with a kid that Neo had sneered at when they had asked if said kid was well trained; the girly-man had even laughed and promised that the kid wouldn't even be trouble.

Miltia wanted nothing more than to stab those two with her claws. Their misinformation had caused fifteen of their best grunts to be arrested with injuries that ranged from bullets that would cripple them for life to severe head trauma. They had taken the bullets for testing, and Junior's moles said something about how they couldn't match the rifling on the bullets with any gun bought recently in Vale.

They should've seen that something was wrong when they got that information.

No normal person can buy a gun that can't be traced. No normal person could buy this much Dust in one day. No normal person blew up a building in simple a bout of escalation.

Something had niggled the back of Miltia's head ever since she saw the boy walk through the doors of The Club with a swagger that didn't quite fit him. She had heard that the Reds didn't take well to any slight against them, but that thought was dismissed when the boy in the costume started to talk to Junior. Somewhere inside her refused to believe that he might be part of those monsters.

Miltia and Melanie had been sent to the back before they could hear anything. They heard the explosions just fine, and the screams of grunts as they tried to fight back against a force of nature. The scariest thing was that, before they came back out, the explosions and screams had all but stopped.

Miltia spotted him first. His costume was once something that she would have laughed at only because a teen in a costume was just a delusional kid who normally did more harm than good. Now, it would be another horror to add to her memories.

When he rose, she noted just how tall he actually was. How he towered over them in his dark cloak, marred with soot. The fires that raided parts of their establishment eddied and cackled along with her heart, and the flickering shadows only served to accentuate the sharp lines of the boy- no, the man.

In one hand, a sword of odd make was held loosely, tracing edges in the floorings. His other hand was close to Junior, and a quick glance showed that her boss only had the odd wound or bruise, but he was clearly done. This madman had bested everyone without so much as a blink.

He turned to gaze at her and her sister, displaying the mask of dulled bronze. Miltia would never tell her brave sister, but she had froze up for a second while looking at those lenses of sky blue. Such an innocent color was now ruined for her.

When he finally spoke, Miltia broke out of her daze. His voice was scratchy and hoarse from the smoke, but that only served to make it all the more terrifying.

Melanie, her loving sister, stepped forwards first, no words being said. She already knew what her sister wanted. They no longer really needed words to fight so long as they could see through each other's eyes.

Miltia's Semblance always made her happy. She loved when she experienced the world as her sister; it made her feel that they were closer. Now, though, she would rather not look at the madman with two pairs of eyes.

Melanie was the first to rush forwards, Miltia close on her heels. They were on the costumed bomber in a second, peppering him with their tag team tactics.

Melanie sent a series of fast kicks, putting the costumed man on his back foot. Miltia wouldn't let the opening go, and struck with her claws before he had a chance to regain his balance. They raked harmlessly against his Aura.

However, the man could barely take the time to do anything. His sword was too large in places, and became just another crutch that he hid behind. Only sending an odd, but easily dodged, swipe of panic.

At first, Miltia's fears felt like dream with how suppressed he was. She would swipe high while Melanie kicked low. He would struggle to block one, but get blindsided with the other, sparking a light green sheen to shimmer where he was hit.

'That's Melanie's!?' Miltia frowned at the new information. Light green was specifically the color of her sister's Aura, and, while it could be a close approximation, Miltia still felt disgusted that he shared something with her sister.

Her attacks grew a little fiercer as her anger grew.

As if to spite her newfound anger, an explosion of sheer force and fire slammed into the two of them like a hound from hell. Blasting them away from him long enough for him to gain some respite to their constant attacks. He twisted the handle of his sword briefly, and the large weapon shrunk down by a foot.

Such a thing didn't look like it would make a difference, but suddenly they found that he was a completely different person in skill. With the change he was now ducking and weaving against their tidal wave of bladed kicks and clawed swipes. He was even beginning to gain ground as he stopped trying to dodge every single attack, and let only a few through to hit against his Aura as he advanced to throw in attacks of his own.

Slowly, he was beginning to get a better grasp on how they fought. Miltia experienced wonder at how it seemed like he was trying to get used to Aura, and even gave small flinches as particularly nasty hits were warded off by the energy.

Still, no matter how proficient he got with Aura, or how skilled he suddenly became at a shorter sword, he was still leagues behind them in terms of close combat skill. Sure he could throw a textbook parry every now and then, and he would give a slash or stab, too, but they were all easily seen through. All he was doing was staving off his inevitable defeat.

By all means, they were grinding his tenacious spirit down slowly. There should have been no way for him to even dream of fighting back.

However, that was when things started to get crazy. The madman jumped back in a small window where both Miltia and Melanie had paused their attacks. Miltia was the more apprehensive the two, trying to understand what exactly had in plan.

Her eyes widened momentarily as his free arm reached up to pat a section of his chest that she had struck earlier. There were a series of claw marks that slashed through a ballistics vest that he had worn under his jacket.

Damaged clothes should be impossible so long as Aura protected the user. Melanie saw this too through their shared vision, and immediately pounced on the madman, intending to end this madness.

Then he reached into his jacket, pulling out a packet of some sort. Miltia barely had a moment to comprehend what exactly it was before he threw it, and a blast of noise and force rang through her connection to Melanie.

One of the side effects of their shared perception was that it was possible to impair the two of them if there was sufficient disorientation. And there was also the fact that if Melanie felt pain, so too did Miltia.

Melanie was currently in pain.

"Mel!" Miltia yelled out in worry, but was drowned out in another blast of noise and force.

Her eyes were blinking back stars when she found that the madman had reappeared. However, he was right in front of her, sword raised high above his head.

Miltia reacted on instinct, stabbing forwards with both of her claws in a slight panic. Her opponent stepped past one claw, but failed to dodge the other.

His Aura should have blocked the claw. Instead, she felt the familiar feel of flesh parting under her strength. Her ears itched as he muffled a cry of pain, giving a dull roar in favor of screaming. He was bleeding now with her red claws goring their way through his left arm.

Miltia barely had time to acknowledge the fact that his Aura had changed from light green to red. Red was supposed to be her Aura.

Her thoughts were halted as an intense pain crippled her mind. His sword had slammed into her floating ribs with a sickening crack that echoed in unison with the growing fires.

She flew through the air from the force behind the blow. One of the pillars, that bordered the dance floor, jarred her flight, cratering with her sudden stop and sending shattered shards of glass to bounce off her Aura.

Miltia fell to the ground with a ungraceful flop, fits of coughs spasming through her body as she tried to gather more air. Her ribs were burning in agony, and she knew well enough that the madman had just broken five of them. She was no longer moving without risking to send herself into another crippling wave of pain.

Her Aura was trying desperately to repair the damage.

'Wait…' Miltia's thoughts were half dealing with the pain, and half worrying about Melanie. However, she dragged enough of herself to realize that her Aura was still there. 'How did he break through my Aura without outright destroying my Aura?'

"Mil!" Melanie's voice broke through the blinds of pain, and Miltia saw her sister standing up on unstead feet. The pain she was feeling was echoing through their link. Then both of their attention turned back to the instigator who was currently bandaging his bleeding arm with a roll of gauze that had probably come from that jacket.

"You bastard!" Miltia felt a little warm knowing that her sister cared about her enough to spit so much anger in her voice.

She watched as Melanie and her white dressed self launched at the madman, startling him with a series of blinding kicks. He was forced to retreat while barely blocking her hits, and not doing much but watch as her sister drove him into a corner. Screeches of steel echoed as their weapons clashed in symphonies of metal.

He blocked and parried with a hurried fervor, but was only blindsided as Melanie had stopped holding back. Her hips flipped with an odd bounce, and her legs shot up to attack him in a flurry of quick strikes.

Miltia watched as several of her sister's heels scored lines of red onto his form, bleeding him for all the pain that she felt. He was slowing down, and Melanie was speeding up. Then everything ended as a particularly nasty high kick connected with the side of his face, eliciting a scream of pain. His Aura was light green then.

A sort of smug confidence radiated off of the both of them as he was driven further and further to some of the more intact walls of The Club until his back was pressed against the solid brick wall. He was bleeding from all the wounds that marred him, but mercy was not given by her sister. Melanie gave no quarter, and constantly shifted her lead leg to change up her attacks so that he wouldn't be able to retaliate.

Both of them didn't expect for him to fall straight to the ground in what they hoped was an unconsciousness. However, they didn't think that he would grab onto one of Melanie's ankles. Neither did they expect the massive explosion that burst their eardrums in screaming pain and tore down the entire wall opposite of the first explosion, evening out the destruction to mirroring each other. Miltia felt her ears pop from the sheer pain that echoed back through the link with her sister.

Melanie was yelling somewhere between the laughing flames and falling masonry. She flew out from the cloud of smoke that kicked up from the explosion, carving a path through the gas. Finally, Melanie crashed into the floor with a painful thump, bouncing off the hard ground with a groan.

The madman was upon her in seconds. His strides were unimpeded by the massive explosions, and all the damage that Miltia could see was small trails of blood leaking from his ears.

In a fit of horror, she could only watch as stood over her sister's body with a sort of calculative calm, and then shattered that by slamming a boot directly into her sister's stomach. Pain flared through the bond that connected them despite Miltia still feeling Aura trickle in from her sister.

He shouldn't have been able to cut through Aura like it wasn't there.

Miltia's eyes watered from watching as the bond that connected them fell blank. She knew her sister was just unconscious, but simply watching with blurry eyes made it so that she couldn't even see the rise and fall of Melanie's chest.

Then the monster in the form of a boy turned her way. She suddenly noticed that there were now more cuts along his form. Blood trickled from where her sister's bladed heels dug particularly deep furrows into him, and one was probably the cause of his sudden aggression: a cut that tore through his mask, just barely missing his left eye and dragging a line into his sideburn.

"P-please…" Miltia whispered to the monster, hoping to appease it. "Don't hurt my sister…"

The monster of a man froze long enough for her to feel the building tension. Then, in an action that startled her, he nodded briefly.

His voice was honeyed gravel, coarse yet sweet. "I am... sorry."

Miltia didn't know what to say, but she didn't need to as her pain finally got the best of her. She fell into the blissful realm of dreams where monsters never apologized. Her thoughts were only on the fact that Junior's crew, as of today, were done in by a Rapier Wasp's nest that they shouldn't have kicked.

-x-

I was exhausted. My limbs barely had the energy to move, and it was only the soft warmth of Aura that kept me going on. Blood was beginning to soak into my costume that those twins had absolutely torn into.

There were some close calls in the fight. Like when I realized that I was taking their Aura, and for some reason, their own Aura doesn't protect against itself. The wounds on my body could attest to that fact.

However, I miraculously won in the end. I finally bested three users of Aura with liberal use of all my stockpiled Dust, stealing their powers and utilizing the fact that if I wrapped my own weapon in Aura then I could strike through their own. Honestly, I am surprised that everything worked out as it did. Even if I felt I had been a tad too brutal in the final attacks, but I was really too angry when that white dressed girl slashed my face with her heels.

My mom was going to kill me if it scarred.

If there was one thing that I should take away from this fight, then it was that I needed to acquire Aura somehow. The resource was something that I felt would be around for most of my fights. As my dad always said 'if you're enemy has it, then make sure you have it as well'.

Well, my dad didn't really say that, but as an impressionable toddler I think most things I heard my dad say could be something else.

Still, Aura was useful enough as I could feel the smaller of my cuts closing up with the help of it, and the worst of my wounds had already stopped bleeding. Though, the blood helped in the factor of intimidation against Junior.

His breathing was hard as he watched me stalk closer. I could practically smell his fear as I squatted down next to him, fires burning behind me. Junior was too exhausted to even move now, and if it wasn't for Aura, then I too would be a wreck like him. Though, as I grew closer his fear slowly twisted to anger that was easily visible on his face.

However, the only thing I felt was a real sense of confidence and pride at taking down these villains. "Now, Junior, how about we get back to that deal, huh?"

"Go die in hell." Junior spat back venomously.

Frowning as I wiped his spittle off my mask, I snapped my fingers. There really was no need, but it served to drag the angry man's attention to one of the small explosion that bored into a section of the wall.

The building shuddered as a whole chunk of it broke under the strain of its own weight no longer held by anything beneath it. I tried not to flinch as It crashed with an echoing thud and stirred up another cloud of dust. Junior's jaw clenched at the casual destruction.

"Are you feeling up talking now?" I asked again, shaken up inside at how much damage I was causing. Internally, I hoped that there wouldn't be anyone innocent nearby. "I'd rather not tear down this place." I added in truthfully.

"You…"Junior accused, his face paling. "You're not that kid. He was just a civilian from a retired Huntsman's home. There was no mention of training or awakened Aura… Wh- who are you?"

I blinked at his words. 'Wow, he knows quite a bit.' I thought fearfully. However, I had already come on too strong when I wanted him to removing information on my family. Right now he was just in shock, but when that wears off he might put two and two together.

So I needed to bluff my way out of here. "Who I am doesn't really matter, Junior. I just don't like getting innocents caught up in my business, and you have directly incensed my anger." I felt like I separated myself from my family enough, so I needed to bring it back that Jaune and I are not the same person. "Now, here's the terms that we're going to set, so all this," I gestured around. "Doesn't happen again, okay?"

Junior nodded apprehensively as I continued. "First, you're to tell that Jaune Arc had nothing to do with me to anyone who you gave information to. Second, You're going to erase any information you have on the Arcs as compensation for dragging them into this. And lastly," I paused, unsure what exactly I wanted. My eyes peered through the veil of smoke to find a rather nice Dust car parked in one of the garages nearby. It was lucky to not get caught up in any explosions. "Is that your car?"

Junior looked over to the nicer car that was parked outside. He nodded slowly as I smiled at him under my mask. "I'll take that, too."

"Maybe you can take one of the other cars? There are plent-"

Flashes of red and blue interrupted Junior from denying my last requirement, and his voice was cut off by sirens that echoed throughout the caving building. Panicking a little I hurriedly found Junior's keys, and only paused to look at Junior for a second.

"You know to keep quiet about me, right?" I made a show of tapping the hilt of my sword. It wasn't like I would actually do anything reprehensible, but if it worked to scare him, then I was willing to do it.

From how Junior nodded, I could tell that I got my message thoroughly carved into him.

Then I was gone, running through one of the holes I created on my way to my new ride. I should have expected to find myself face to face with several very confused police officers. It was with a little awkward when all the policemen present stared at me as I froze on principle. The sounds of several pistols leveling my way rang out the next second, and I was forced to spend a little effort to run away.

"Hands up!" A couple of them yelled, and I complied out of dull confusion.

When one of the more braver ones advanced on me with the intent of placing handcuffs on me, I realized that this didn't really look too good. Swallowing a wad of saliva, and shutting down my jittering fears, I made a choice that would save my life.

I was not getting arrested. Mom would definitely kill me then.

So I made what could be the coward's decision. I blew some of the last of my Dust, engulfing another side of The Club in a blast of force and noise. All the policemen ducked by relfex at the random explosions, and I took the chance to run straight towards what was now my car.

A couple of bullets impacted futilely against the Aura I still parasitized, and glanced off my new car, digging holes into the sleek, black finish. However, I could care less about that now as I quickly opened the door.

I slid into the driver's seat, happy that I now had a car to call my own. Still, I had no idea why my family forbid me from driving in the first place?

The car roared as I made my getaway from what was most likely a severe crime scene.

-x-

The police weren't the most recognized place in Vale, Chief Vert knew. He had spent his time dealing with all the shit that came with the job, and it was safe to say that he had seen a thing or two. However, there came a time when a new type of idiot decided to live in his city.

Glaring at the five officers who led the response to a series of bombings on one of the bars in the Eastern parts of Vale. They were all shaking as if they had been a direct witness to one of the Reds.

"So let me get this straight." Police Chief Vert pressed a steady hand on his throbbing temples. "You lost a guy in a costume when he drove his car off of two whole overpasses, went down an alleyway that just barely fit his car, blew through several red lights and changed highways by driving off them?"

"And he strictly drove in the wrong lane, sir." One of the shaking men added.

"I don't think I saw him break once…" Another said with a shudder.

"Yes, I get that, and I realize that most of the Bullheads that we have were out doing other things." Vert answered with a calm rage. "But that doesn't excuse you from missing a suspect in what amounts to a huge terrorist scandal! I'm already having to filter the news from the Reds, and I don't want panic spreading from someone who thinks it's okay to blow up a building! Do you want the public starting to feel unsafe, dragging a horde of hungry Grimm to us?"

"No, sir!" All five saluted.

However, one particularly brave man stood up to attention, and turned his eyes down from Vert's impressive girth. The chief had been a retired Huntsman, and yet still invoke a sort of terror that was hard to match. "There's evidence that the place hit was one of the Information Broker Junior's. We don't have much to go on besides a couple of his men apologizing for angering 'the Vigilante'." He finished with air quotes.

"And?" Chief Vert asked.

"Well, I mean, maybe we should calmly ask for him to come in? We can say that an aspiring Huntsman took out one of the gangs in the street, and you know how the press would eat up any hero stories they hear." The same police officer suggested.

"Yes, and while we're at it why don't we invite any Huntsman-in-Training to take the law into their own hands." Vert said sarcastically before slamming a hand into his desk, shocking everyone back into feared attention. "This is a serious matter! You don't want kids who are trained to fight monsters busting down places just because they think it's the right thing to do! That just causes more chaos."

"Then what should we do, sir?" The same brave officer asked, his voice no longer confident.

Chief Vert frowned for a second. "I want this 'Vigilante' caught before something happens that we can't control. And I want it done yesterday!"

The police scrambled into motion as a new element was introduced to the streets.

And no one knew what would happen next.