The Grimm Huntress

Painting the Town

In the ruined parts of Vale, the sound of an engine got closer and closer until Bumblebee and Ender pulled into the street and stopped, showing Yang and Eclipse behind the handlebars in their similar helmets.

Yang, taking off her helmet, gestured with her thumb to the music playing nearby. "Come on, our friend's right in here!"

Yang got off the bike to reveal Neptune sitting right behind her, hair and goggles messed up with a petrified expression of terror on his face.

Eclipse got off her bike and tapped the side of her helmet which then returned to the original form of her sunglasses.

"Cool..." Neptune replied, sounding dizzy. He shook his head, perfectly fixing his appearance, and got off the cycle, looking around worriedly. "And where exactly is... here?"

The music from Junior's Club got louder once inside to show Junior behind the bar adjusting his cuffs as his Henchmen stocked the bottles, carried boxes, and otherwise stood around on the dance floor, until...

One Henchman ran inside, shouting. "Hurry, close the door - they're coming!" He and another Henchman proceeded to roll the doors shut and keep them closed with their bodies.

Junior walked out from the bar. "What are you two idiots doing?!"

The Henchmen shouted incoherently until an explosion knocked them to the ground and forced the doors open, allowing two familiar faces to walk in through the smoke as a remix of "I Burn" started playing.

"Guess who's back!"

Yang and Eclipse continued to smile and pose as eight guns were pointed in their faces with an equal number of angry Henchmen behind them. Though this didn't faze either teen, Yang stopped and glared at the recording studio where the track was messing up until the frightened bear-headed DJ took the needle off the record and retreated back under the table while Eclipse popped a stick of gum in her mouth.

Neptune appeared behind the opposite looking teammates as the Henchmen continued hoisting their guns. "Yeah, so could you define "friend" for me?"

"Stop, stop! Nobody shoot." He cut his way through the crowd of goons, straightening his tie. "Blondie, Moonshine, you're here! ...Why?"

"You still owe me a drink." Yang grabbed Junior by the arm and dragged him to the bar through the hired guns.

"Whoa-ho-ho-ho, what a woman..." He broke from his lovestruck staring to see the twins Melanie and Miltia Malachite standing beside him. "'Sup?"

Together, the twins harrumph. "Whatever."

"Hey Eclipse-" their younger sister Melina tried to talk to her but Melanie dragged her sister away, nose in the air.

The goggles wearing boy then turned to look at Eclipse who was standing with a hand on her hip looking at her Scroll.

"Don't even try it."

•••

Junior put down his glass as he sat behind the bar separating him from his interrogators.

"I don't know!" He exclaimed.

"How can you not know?"

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here." He leaned over to point in their faces. "He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

Neptune rushed to Yang's side to raise a question of his own. "So where did they go?"

"What kind of stupid question is that?" Junior asked after a long pause. "They never came back! Who is this guy?"