CHAPTER 45

ROMAN TORCHWICK POV

Roman looked at the map of Vale in front of him and the new dots and lines on the map.

Because of his binge robberies, the Council of Vale had started to take precautions and have added more Police Patrols to make the citizens feel safe and catch him.

Not that they ever will.

But the added patrols still made his job a bit harder and increased the risk factor in every robbery.

Thanks to his skills and Neo's semblance, they might not be in any danger of being captured but the same couldn't be said for the useless animals working for him.

And as much as he would never admit it, he would have never have been able to collect so much Dust without their aid.

He heard footsteps behind him and ignored them in favor of looking over at the new Patrol route of the Police force.

It was a good thing that he had bribed some of the people on the inside otherwise this would Robbery thing would be much harder.

He noticed movements from the corner of his eye as Neo jumped and sat on the table while facing him.

He looked at her and she gave him a thumbs up.

"Good." He said and went back to studying the map.

He could once again rob the Dust shops in the poorer parts of the City. But those shops usually went bankrupt after a single robbery and while he was not a good person, he didn't want people jumping off the roofs because of his actions either.

Not to mention that the poorer parts of the city were filled with Faunus population and the useless animals will revolt against him if he tried to attack their 'brethren'.

He could also try to attack the newest Dust shipment but he continued to attack all their shipments then they'll realize that he had access to the intel about all their Shipment routes and change them, which would suck as he'll have to pay more Lien to bribe his connections inside the SDC to get the new routes.

It looks like he'll just have to take a risk and attack the Dust shop with the lowest risk of getting caught.

Now, which shop would that be…

Hmm…

How about attacking the other gangs in the city?

They might not have a lot of dust and their men were capable of fighting back but if he did this then he would give the Dust Market a chance to get back to normal before he could once again go back to robbing the Dust stores.

This would also serve to weaken the other gangs in the city.

Problem was that he wasn't sure if the animals would follow him in this.

They already hated him enough for being a human despite his general awesomeness.

Hmm… maybe if he could find a way to entice them. Find a gang that preys on Faunus. Then mayb-

CRASH!!!

He jumped out of the way as the roof above him caved in.

What the heck were their scouts doing.

He got up in time to get a proper look at their attacker and then his eyes widened at the large metallic fist barreling toward him.

He only had enough time to bring up his cane to block the attack but that didn't help much as the force behind the punch threw him across the room.

He broke through the wall and then the next one and the next one after that before he finally skidded to the ground and managed to come to a stop.

He felt blood well up in his mouth and noticed that his Cane was bent out of shape.

How the fuc-

He didn't have any more time to think as the wall in front of him broke and a 4 meter tall machine with a Dragon head and a long metallic tale behind it.

At first, the machine in front of him reminded him of the Paladins in Atlas. Something that he had been planning to steal for a while now.

But he knew how they looked and this thing looked nothing like one of them.

Plus, with the way the whole Mecha moved, it felt like it was not being piloted but was instead a part of the person who was using it.

That thought became even more clear when the Dragon Mecha turned its head to look in his direction.

Aww hell…

This was going to be painful, wasn't it?

He looked at the broken cane in his hand and threw it to the side.

Then he raised his hands in a welcoming gesture and spoke "Hello there friend. I am Roman Torchwick. Thief extraordinaire, the—" The Dragon mecha lunged toward him and he sighed.

He had never really expected that to work but the person should have at least listened to his introduction.

Some people have no class.

And then he was dodging attacks left right and center.

The Dragon Mecha was big and strong and fast. But he had been fighting for his life in the streets of Vale since his childhood.

He had a lot of experience in fighting for his life and whoever was Piloting the mecha clearly didn't.

Except that one thing was niggling at the back of his mind.

Where was Neo and why had she not come to his aid by now.

As good as he was, he knew that he could only last against the Dragon Mecha for so long.

One more punch like the first one and his aura might shatter.

And then he'll be a sitting duck, ready to be stuffed.

He ran out of the destroyed room and saw the White Fang members fight against two girls in ninja attire who were beating those animals like a Red-headed stepchild.

And those two ninja girls were good.

So good that he doubted that even he would be a match for them.

Really, whoever these people were, they had clearly prepared well for this fight.

This meant that Neo is probably-

The wall at the other end of the corridor broke and Neo rolled on the ground a few times before she came to a halt a few feet away from him.

She didn't get up again.

"NEO!!!" he shouted and moved toward her but another Ninja girl (seriously? How many of these ninja girls are there?) moved in front of him and attacked him.

Unlike the Dragon mecha, whoever this person was, she was damn good with her pitch-black sword.

And he was without a weapon and outclassed in both skill, speed, and strength.

It wasn't long before his aura finally broke.

And then with a final punch from the ninja girl, the world swam and he lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he was sitting in the cell of a police station.

All alone.

With a pounding headache.

What a lovely day this has been.

—————

AN: Neoplolitan Get!

I also wanted to show that despite how effortless Roman Torchwick makes his robberies look like, he must do a lot of planning behind the scenes.

Otherwise, every Tom, Dick, and Harry would be robbing those Dust stores and they would've never worked in the first place.