『 Delivery 』

Chapter 3: The Renpire Strikes Back!

Ren only wished for the sweet reprieve of sleep, but his team was adamant about chasing Roman Torchwick through the night. His hopes crumbled when Professor Port handed him a map of White Fang hideouts that was in his pocket. It was the same document that Port got from Ozpin and the police, but there was a new location circled on the map. In big red letters next to it were the letters "RT", with an illustration of some kind of bird with teeth.

There is no way I could have overlooked this. Ren's eyes widened when he connected the dots. Emerald. Torchwick purposefully targeted her and Mercury, so that means that she was on their side for now. Satisfied with that, he decided to postpone any further investigation into the transfer student.

It was an abandoned warehouse in the Industrial district, formerly property of the Schnee Dust Company. The corporation moved to a newer and bigger location closer to the center of the city a few years ago. The SDC held a massive expansion campaign, trying to establish dominance over the Dust market even outside of Atlas.

How ironic. They are moving Dust from one SDC warehouse to another. Ren smirked.

He raised his head. "This is probably accurate."

"Splendid! We leave at once!"

Nora was all smiles today. This mission was so exciting. The Professor was surprisingly straightforward on missions, considering the amount of times he gets side-tracked in his stories during class.

"Mister Arc, how do we hunt difficult prey?"

Jaune snapped back to reality at the mention of his name. He still looked visibly shaken from his motion sickness. He is probably hungry now, too. Nora chuckled. He did lose his noodles on the ride.

"We have to think like our prey."

Think like our prey...

"Correct, Miss Nikos! Now what would our prey do right now?"

Am I onto something here...

"Whatever he was doing before, I suppose. He's probably back at his headquarters right now."

Think like Torchwick...

"Excellent, Mister Ren!"

"We're going to steal from him."

Four heads turned towards Nora.

"We are going to go to that warehouse, steal something important and make him talk to us!"

A mischievous grin found its way onto her face.

"Are you seri-"

"If we try to give him the letter, he will just run away! We are going to force him to come to us!"

"Magnificent! I am proud to call you my student, Miss Valkyrie!"

Her team was dumbfounded yet again.

The girl puffed her chest out. Her being praised by teachers was a rare occurrence. "I am Roman Torchwick!"

"Nora, I think you are taking this too literally."

"Silence, grunt! I am Torchwick and I do not tolerate indiscipline!"

Ren was beyond caring at this point. This plan was just crazy enough to work out. As the most agile member of Team JNPR, his task was to infiltrate the warehouse and steal "something that looks important" while the others caused a distraction.

Ren observed the situation from a rooftop next to the large building. The sound of wheels screeching marked the start of the operation. Professor Port drove his car straight towards the entrance, picking up speed with every second. The first grenades hit the main entrance, caving it in further with every shot. Port slammed the pedal to the metal and crashed into the gate.

Surprised by the sudden attack, the White Fang members tasked with keeping the gate hurried towards the wrecked jeep. Jaune leapt out of the car first, exhaling as he felt solid ground beneath his feet. As the first faunus arrived, he charged straight towards them with his shield raised. Knocking two enemies out of the way, he quickly found himself surrounded. Ren was surprised to see his leader smile. Just a few weeks ago, Jaune would have tried to surrender right there. Instead, he calmly parried the first attacks with his blade and charged the smallest opponent with his shield. Turning around immediately, he swung his sword in a vicious arc, keeping the distance he gained.

Jaune ducked under a mace flying towards his face and brought down the tip of his shield on the assailant's foot. He parried an overhead strike with his sword and smashed the handle into the thug's face. The training with Pyrrha paid off, I see. The amount of progress Jaune has made was astounding. With Pyrrha, Nora and Professor Port backing him up, the first squad of guards never stood a chance. Sirens went off inside the building and hostiles came running from every corner.

This should be enough of a distraction. Ren flicked his wrists and pulled out StormFlower from his sleeves. Nobody seemed to take notice of him shattering the glass with bullets with the chaos at the gate. Perfect, he thought, as he entered the women's bathroom.

Roman Torchwick's mood went from one extreme to another. He just completed a successful heist and got his sweet revenge on those brats. Everything was fine and dandy when they stole the ice cream truck on their way back. Neo relished her Politan, while Roman was more an Orange Sorbet kind of man. They were laughing as they drove the van past a few playgrounds and kindergartens, playing the iconic ice-cream music as loud as they could. Watching crying kids try and run after the truck was hilarious. When he came back to the safehouse, he just wanted to relax and bask in his own glory.

The White Fang worked together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Team JNPR attacked. To be honest, he couldn't care less, but he was on Cinder's payroll after all. Annoying little shits.

"Sir, what do we do?"

"The same as usual, Perry. Wipe them out. Neo, we're going."

"...?"

"No, I don't care if you haven't finished your ice cream yet. Put it in the fridge."

"...!"

"I don't want to do this either, but we have a job to do. Do you want to sit in the corner again?"

"..."

"Well, hurry up then."

Ren snuck out of the bathroom as quickly as he could. The second floor mostly contained offices and archives. He looked through the hallways and took out the few office workers that weren't sent to defend the gate. Since they weren't fighters, chasing them down was almost laughably easy. One of them pointed him towards Roman's room after being slapped a few times.

It was almost impossible to miss. The big wooden door with intricate carvings stood out from the generic offices like a sore thumb. A crude drawing of a bowler hat and an ice cream cone was attached to it with duct tape. Ren whispered a "sorry" before he shot the lock and kicked in the door.

The room was full with expensive looking wooden furniture. A couch, a big television screen, high end sound system, Torchwick had it all. Living the life, huh. A door towards the back led to a room with beds and a giant closet, but what really caught Ren's eye was a glass case. Inside the cabinet was a single bowler hat.

Seriously?

Jaune felt truly proud of himself for the first time on a mission. Compared to Pyrrha, these thugs moved in slow motion. He rolled underneath another attack and spun around, letting Crocea Mors bite into his opponent's ankle. The man screamed and fell, buying him some time to rest. Pyrrha and Nora were wreaking havoc, but even they couldn't compare to Port.

He didn't fire his Blunderbaxe even once, content with hacking away at everything in the vicinity. Jaune shuddered when he saw his Professor cleanly chop a shield in half that looked twice as heavy as his own. The Huntsman was a force of nature, and he didn't mean that in a good way.

Even with the occasional higher-ranking White Fang officer appearing, the group wasn't being pushed back just yet, until two familiar figures appeared.

Roman's interest was piqued. Although he didn't know exactly how they found this base, he had his suspicions. Still, pulling off a full frontal attack like this took guts.

"Welcome to the party, everyone!"

Torchwick kept his eyes on the portly Huntsman. He had no delusions about the White Fang members. It was clear that the only one capable of stopping that man was himself. Port made his way to Torchwick with brute force alone.

"Hello there, laddie. You're going to stand still there for a bit, so that the girl", Port said, while gesturing towards the girl in pink, "can deliver her message to you."

Roman couldn't make sense of the Professor's words. He couldn't recall all the faces of his victims, but it was more than likely that she held some kind of grudge against him. That hammer looks like it's very heavy.

Without replying, he immediately thrusted his Melodic Cudgel towards Port's face. Criminals don't give a damn about fair fights and dueling manners. The only thing that was important is the snide remark you make after you have your opponent lying at your feet. And Roman considered himself very good at hurting someone's feelings.

The cane hit it's mark perfectly and Torchwick pulled the trigger. Most Huntsmen could have dodged or diverted that follow-up attack, but not Port. He took the shot and somehow came out unscathed. Surprised by his opponent's toughness, Roman had to back up a few steps after Port started swinging at him wildly.

The criminal could tell that blocking would be a bad idea. Instead, he focused on diverting and dodging attacks. When the opportunity presented itself, he smacked Port with his cane or punched him with his off-hand, but the hits had little to no effect. Offense was the least of Torchwick's concerns right now.

Something is fishy. He could tell that Port wasn't trying to kill him. The flurry of blows they exchanged may look dangerous to lesser trained eyes, but neither of them was fighting seriously. One, two, three, four. Roman was tempted to slap himself. This was the oldest trick in the history of thievery.

"Hey, Perry, you want to take this one?"

"You're going nowhere laddie!"

Port grunted, his mustache twitching from the exertion, as he lifted his Blunderbaxe with both hands. Roman instantly knew that Port was merely trying to keep him busy. The axe came down in a fast, but predictable arc. Roman simply stepped back, smirking. Then he heard Port pull the trigger.

The Blunderbaxe shot knocked a few fighters off their feet behind Port, but more importantly, the recoil sent the axe forward at a blinding speed. In an instant, the overhead swing became a thrust with the flat top side of the axe. The Professor let go with his left hand and lunged forward, extending its range by another few steps. Roman barely managed to put his Melodic Cudgel between his face and the thrust, but it still sent him flying. He rolled backwards onto his feet, but found himself staring down the barrel of the Blunderbaxe.

At first glance, the design of the axe makes the gun impractical to use and shoot, as the blades prevented the user from putting the gun onto his shoulder for aiming and reducing recoil. Port however needed none of those. He simply held the top of his axe with his right hand, pulling the trigger with his left. His strength and toughness allowed him to withstand the recoil one-handed, while the need for aim was rendered obsolete by the short range and wide spread of the shot.

Torchwick immediately jumped backwards diagonally to reduce the impact and braced his Aura. He was only grazed lightly by the blast, but it still hurt like hell. Several steel crates and containers were ripped to shreds near the spot he was standing in just seconds ago. The combination of the surprise thrust and the annihilating blast would have destroyed any other opponent.

"Remarkable! This is the first time in a while that I could unleash everything!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, old man, but I've got another appointment to keep."

Roman knew he couldn't afford to draw out this fight any longer. He shot a few rounds at Port and rolled to the side simutaneously.

"End of the line."

He grinned as he grabbed a handful of yellow dust crystals and flung them towards the blonde boy fighting Neopolitan. He was trying to be courageous by fighting the second in command of the enemy forces, but it was obvious that he was the weakest link. All his swings ended up shattering illusions and mirages, while Neo danced around him. She kept smacking him onto his head with her umbrella, giggling uncontrollably. Roman shouted in excitement, lining up his shot with the crystals.

Port was too late. He focused his Aura in his feet as he made the leap, but that left very little Aura to defend himself with. The explosion of the lightning Dust left him paralyzed. Roman turned around and quickly made his way to his room while the fight continued to shift in favor of the White Fang, with the biggest threat eliminated.

Checkmate, old man.

Ren thoroughly checked the glass case once again. Disarming all the traps took much longer than he anticipated. There were complex electrical safeguards next to simple wire-based booby traps. He slowly opened the lid and hoped that he didn't overlook any other safety measures. The sudden sound of footsteps made him turn around.

"You think you're clever, kid?"

StormFlower slid out of his sleeves into his hands. He pointed one of his guns at the bowler hat inside the opened casing.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do."

Hey there friends. In this chapter and probably the next one too, we will get a little more focus on Ren and Torchwick. I tried my hand on a little bit of action, and since this a first for me, tell me if you liked it or not.

I would have loved to describe Team JNPR being awesome, but I have limited space to work with in those 5 chapters, and Port needs more love in general.

Please don't kill me for the massive cliffhanger. The final 2 chapters are going to be worth it - I promise!

Thanks for the continued support!