Chapter Text
The bar doors were kicked open.
Miss Malachite knew who it was before she even looked up because there was only one man that could be so disrespectful. Unlike normal where there was a mix of her people and patrons of the bar, today there were only her spiders. Each was already drawing their weapons in preparation for a fight, for what it would be worth.
She sat still at her table, putting on a blank face despite the disrespect. Seeing the man in person was different from hearing about him or the pictures. “Ha.” he let out a disappointed breath, putting a gloved hand on the cigar in his mouth. “Gotta admit, I was expecting more from a ‘spider’s house’.” He said with some humor.
There was a man that stood above most of the people at six foot five or around that height, and a bulky frame to fill it out. He had a tanned complexion and matching brown eyes that went along well with his slick black hair that still managed to reach his shoulders. It was parted in the middle allowing her to see the strand of gold on the right. The only other detail was the well-maintained stubble around his jaw.
He wore red-rose color trousers held up by a belt with several bullets hanging off and a matching jacket, with four golden bars on his left lapel. She almost mistook the brown undershirt as a deeper shade of red as her eyes trailed around the golden fastenings. Over it all he wore an open red overcoat with golden highlights and a strange badge on its left side, that eventually led to the brown gloves.
The man looked at every member of the bar sizing them up only for a moment as he continued to puff on his cigar. “Ya know, I’d reckoned the ‘biggest crime lord this side of Mistral’ would be liven a lot more comfortably, ya know.” He said as he finally landed his eyes on her. She couldn’t help but shiver as for a moment she felt like prey. Luckily one of her spiders stepped up to the man, pointing the bat at the cocky man.
The dumb fool.
“Don’t you go speakin down t-” He didn’t get to say another thing as the man shot forward and shoved his hand into Mortar's mouth. She heard several guns click as the man put his foot on Mortar’s chest and then kicked, and pulled back at the same time. There was a loud squelching sound as the man’s jaw was ripped off and then casually tossed to the side.
“Would’ve thought ya boys had some manners. Ain’t you teachin em not to talk so casually to their betters.” He said as he flicked the blood off of his hands. Mortar was gurgling on the floor as the blood pooled around him. At the rate things were going they were going to devolve into a fight, and there was several reasons she wanted to avoid that.
Mostly in that they wouldn’t win.
“Well then Mr. Heng, how do I rank on that little totem pole of your’s.” She asked and the man considered her proposal before he nodded. “Well yer the leader of this, so ya got the right to speak to me.” He stretched his arms behind his head for a moment, lettering her to get a look at the weapon on his side.
It was a podao that was mostly red, but had a golden edge. Along the large blade were several exhaust pipes, and the hilt was more like a revolvers cylinder. On the side of the blade stood a guard and a trigger for him to fire.
“I do plan to keep this brief Mr. Heng. I know what you want, come sit if you wouldn’t mind.” It was a risk to let the man get so close to her, but just off of the reports she knew that if he really wanted to kill her he would have done so already. He walked towards her table at the end, not bothering to step over mortar, and walked over to her. She could hear the two spiders next to her begin trembling and she used her fan to lower the revolver of the girl next to her.
She coughed into her hand just as Lei Heng sat down and put his feet on the table. The man next to Miss Malachite nodded and he went around to begin to get them both a drink. “Anything to drink?” She asked and he just waved her off, flicking more of his cigar’s ash onto the ground.
Everything about Lei Heng was a mystery not just to Miss Malachite, but also the several informants that she’d paid for information. The man had just appeared from the Mistrilian wilderness several months ago and he had began making a huge racket in the criminal underworld.
He’s had no kind of trail that she could lead back to. No school records, medical check-ups, paper trail of any kind, etc. The man just walked into Mistral strapped like a huntsman and asking questions anyone should know. The only useful thing he’d provided in return was the only information that she could go off of that led to the wrong trail.
Lei Heng as a name wasn’t uncommon, but there were only a few Lei Heng on record that became huntsmen. For instance there had been a tiger fanus with that name that was last seen a year ago also armed with a similar weapon, but that’s where the similarities stopped. After all that Lei Heng’s weapon shifted into an assault rifle…
He was also found dead due to an Alpha Beowolf.
“You gotta a set of eyes.” The very much alive man said in front of her. “But equal or not, you keep starin at me like that and I’ll have to rip 'em out.” She gripped the hand that she kept under the table tighter. She’d skinned people alive for taking that tone with her, but she knew that if any sort of fight broke out then she and everyone here were as good as dead.
“Sorry about that, I was just waitin for the spider to get our refreshments.” As if on cue the man came back with some wine for her and an ash tray for him. “Didn’t even ask, maybe yer boys got some manners after all.” He said as he flicked some of his ash into the tray.
“Now then it’s clear to me you want to run the show in mistral, given you’re, well.” She gestured to the door and the man who a few were dragging off. Lei Heng simply nodded as he leaned back casually, almost like he was asking one of her spiders to attack him. What she wouldn’t give to drag this man into her torture room and make him regret even thinking he could get away with this, but she knew that it was a pipe dream.
“I’ll be frank, you could easily kill little ol me and everyone in this bar. It would plunge the underworld into chaos, but you’ve proven that you can easily weather the storm and get yourself a nice chunk of territory.” She noticed the way his eyes almost seemed to droop, as if the knowledge he could destroy them easily wasn’t what he wanted.
She’d expected that.
Lei Heng’s past might have been a mystery, but his actions after were incredibly noticeable. It was almost easier not to look for the man than it had been to look into his actions. He seemingly couldn't run into a gang without leaving a trail of bodies. Someone that got into fights that often, and with so little taken, lead to only one conclusion.
“But I don't think you want a small chunk of territory.” Lei Heng let out an amused snort at her words. “Ya, I want the whole damn pie instead of a piece.” Ms.Malachite simply shook her head.
“No, I don't think you do. If you wanted that I'd simply be dead and you'd be organizing everyone. What I think you want is action Mr.Heng.” The amused smirk on the man seemed to grow.
“Oh really now? N'what makes you think you know me.” Her spiders returned with a drink and two glasses. Lei Heng might have waved off her offer for drinks, but he clearly didn't care he was getting a drink. She looked briefly at the bottle this spider had gotten and saw the name Ol'Char's, but not the rest. That was good, it was one of the harder brands that they had.
Two glasses of a cream based liquor was poured for both of them. Her guest swirled the drink in hand, and then threw it back all at once. He smacked his lips, clearly satisfied with the drink. She took a drink of her own, more to savor the taste than to get drunk.
Though she was tempted to.
“Mr.Heng, you seem the type to want a good fight. The kind of man who wants to fight the strongest person just because you can. Because you want the thrill of the battle through your veins. The only throne you'd want to sit on is the one you made of bodies from a fresh fight.” Her sentence caused him to chuckle.
“Ain't a bad guess. Alright then, what are ya askin.” Lei Heng snuffed out the remaining part of his cigar before he turned his attention fully to her. He still looked at her like prey, but now it was because she was dangling something that he might want.
“Simple. I'm sure you're aware that Mistrel has a shortage of huntsmen. It's why gang lords like me and everyone else can run the show.” Well actually, they'd been in control for longer than this new shortage. That little detail could be ignored while she made her point however.
He nodded and she continued. “Well, then why not leave. Vale is full of Huntsman that you'd be glad to fight against, and a weak underworld you can conquer to get funding. I can even arrange transportation there for you.” The grin on his face faltered, and he began looking at her with a more critical eye.
“Weak underworld? From where I’m standin, this here has been pretty weak. H’what kind of incompetence they got there if you can think it’s weak.” She took the jab thrown her way on the chin. She couldn’t really deny that when he’d walked through their defenses.
“They used to be better, but then the old leader died. His incompetent son, Junior, took over and it’s been in decline. I’m pretty sure the only reason no one walks in and kills him is because my daughters are there effectively playing bodyguard. Just tell them I sent you to take over and there’s nothing stopping you from beginning your little conquest.” He was still looking at her, so she had to turn back to what she knew interested him.
“But it’s not the criminals that will get you, it’ll be the huntsman. I’m sure you heard about them all over in Mistral, and are rather frustrated that not one had shown up to stop you. I can assure you, no such boredom will be there with Vale. Not only is it home to the most renowned huntsman academy, who have a penchant for vigilantism, but a few interesting people are there for you to fight.” She grinned, already remembering the thorn in her side from the past.
She could pin two against each other.
“The Famous Roman Torchwick and his little tag along will be someone who could give you a good fight. They’ll probably come for you if you get rich enough so they can put on a show of stealing it.” She took another drink before she continued adding incentives.
“Not to mention, I hear that the White Fang have been gathering in Vale. Along with the figure head himself Adam Taurus, someone who’s been giving Atlas’s top brass nothing but headaches. Even recently being found having destroyed a train carrying atlas robots all by himself.”
Lei Heng’s critical eye had faded around the time she mentioned the academy, but with Roman and Adam on the table it had changed. There was a large toothy grin that was both bloodthirsty and childish all at once. She could feel the man’s excitement like it was radiating off of him, and she finished her drink at that.
“What I’m saying is, no reason to stay in little old Mistral when the big wigs are across the pond. The perfect place where someone like you can clash with the cream of the crop. What do you say?” There was a silence before the man began to let out an entertained laugh.
“I’ll tell you h’what. You know how to drive a bargain, that’s fer damn sure. You're right, I do think I’ll be headin to Vale, but I want two things other than the transport.” She grit her teeth, but she nodded at the man. If she was getting rid of him, it was better than having to deal with him right now.
“First, I want some capital. Not a lot, just some funds to hold me off before I take over. Two, I want someone to carry all the ammo that I’ll be carrying. None of these riff raff, someone worth their salt.” Ms.Malachite stared at the man, almost baffled by just how…simple the ‘request’ he gave was actually rather mundane.
Also, how lazy he was that he needed someone to carry his ammo.
“Well Mr.Heng, you’ve got yourself a deal.” She held out her hand to shake, and he took it a second later. “I’ll arrange for the money and a sufficient mule for you. Just tell me where to send them.” His handshake was firm, if a little too tight, and he continued giving her that grin.
“I’ll be hangin just outside of town. Don’t keep me waiting.”
To this day, Lei Heng wasn’t sure how he got here.
It wasn’t The City anymore, that much was certain. Too many people with guns, people too casual, and actual trash for fighters so far. Not to mention the roaming bands of monsters called Grimm he’d run into one or twice when he was searching for civilization.
At first he had assumed this was some type of hell when he saw the Grimm, only because he was certain he was supposed to be dead. Five Mangs to the head was the sort of thing that killed just about anyone, and unfortunately that meant him. Granted, hell being a forest instead of fire and brimstone was a nice surprise. That and he was allowed to fight back, even if he hadn’t had the ammo to use his weapon to the fullest extent.
Then he’d found Mistral, and he was no longer certain that this was hell. Proper civilization wasn’t the sort of thing anyone talked about hell having, and no one had looked like a bunch of demons. Sure a few of them looked funny, but it wasn’t like there wasn’t the occasional odd one out in The City either.
Getting in had been easy after he’d brutalized the guards for talking back, and it had taken him a day to conclude that no he was not in hell. Way too many people were comfortable bumping into him or acting like they were hot shit, and then getting surprised that he retaliated. Not to mention they had police that tried to stop him one or twice.
That was a little too organized.
So, he decided to turn down the Thumb a bit and actually do some recon. Find out what and where everything was in this place. Figure out of this was just some part of The City he'd woken up in somehow, or if it was some form of afterlife.
In a week he'd come to the conclusion. Based on Maps, talks of strange resources, towns and nations he'd never heard of, and the lack of people scared of the love syndicates had him come to a conclusion. One that came with a lot of questions on its own.
He was in another world.
Remnant, as they apparently called it, was the location of several things. Magic dust, animal people, monsters of solid shadow, and some mystical power called Aura that sort of reminded him of Shin and Mang but with more soul babble and less self-realization. That had led to a new question…
What did he want to do?
As much as Lei Heng could admit, he'd been a member of the Pinky through and through. As much as he liked the part he played, it still existed for a reason. For those odd gatherings of their forces to rearrange and plan about how to disrupt the other fingers, or just what they'd been doing in general.
Now he didn't have to do that. Not play with the pinky, uphold vengeance in The Middle, no critiques of art for the Ring, and now follow the orders of the prescript in all its forms. All there was was him and his star blade in a new world. Now that led to the same question he'd asked a million times.
What did Lei Heng want to do?
…
Well, it was what he always wanted to do.
Have as much fun fighting as he could.
No leashes or responsibilities shackled him to any finger, so he could do what he wanted. He was in a world of supposed great fighters, and he wanted to tangle with the best of em. An endless horde of enemies also awaited him, and he was sure there was more from them that he hadn't seen.
And all the dust made his life so much easier. Tigermark rounds had been expensive, but here ammo was almost cheaper to buy than bread on the shelves. They even had types of dust that he could use to give his star blade more than his usual, so he could begin experimenting. It was almost as if someone had crafted a world for him to play in specifically.
Well, who was he to deny a gift hor-
…
“Oi, whoever you are, I can hear ya. Stop tryin to hide and show up.” He called as he turned around. He was a little past the walls of Mistral and near a cropping of trees. Not enough to be called woods, but just enough to be notable. Something shifted to the side, and he caught a shimmer out of the corner to his eyes.
He whirled and caught a hand that had been trying to stab him with a twisted knife. For a moment there was nothing there, and then the air itself shimmered and broke. He was holding the hand of a woman this time.
Now, he hadn’t expected much to be given to him by the Malachites. That being said he had to tilt his head when he saw the clothing that the woman wore, or rather the lack there of. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen his fair share of open outfits, but Miss Malachite hadn’t seem the type to dress her workers like this.
A woman with blond hair and bronze skin glared at him with brown eyes. She wore a blue tube top and pair of black cycling shorts, and a pair of brown T-strap sandals. On her right arm was a leather strap with a sheath on. The only other detail about the woman to see was the series of scars along the left side of their face.
“Well there, guessin you were the carrier they sent. Though I gotta ask.” He tightened his grip on the woman’s arm and she dropped the weapon with a pain yelp. He would have broken it, but he did need someone to carry his ammo.
“Was this your idea, or do I need to walk to little miss muffet and finish what I started?” He asked as he pulled the woman close. She stood there stunned and he sighed as she continued looking at him blankly. “I’m tryin to be nice here, but if you ain’t gonna answer.” He brought his knee into her stomach and then something happened.
A shimmer of pale light met his knee, and it felt like he’d struck a wall. His augmented body didn’t pull back from the strike, but the woman still reacted like she’d been hit. She crumbled to the ground and a grin came to him then.
“Oh, ya got that aura stuff. Real handy I suppose, but it also means I can hit ya a little harder if I want to. So don’t make me-” “My idea! It was my idea, not Little Miss.” She answered as she looked up at him. He continued smirking as he let her arm go from his grip.
“Well then, this is ya one and only warning. Try that again, and I’ll start takin pieces off ya.” He pat his weapon and the woman’s skin turned pale. Not in a metaphoric sense, the woman’s skin turned genuinely white at his words. It took a moment for him to now see how she’d been able to pull that little stunt.
“Cute ability. Now then carrier, what’s ya name.” He asked as he backed away from her. She took a moment to get up, her skin returning to its bronze shade, and she forced herself to calm down. She looked around after grabbing her knife and put it on a sheath before she answered him.
“My name is Chameleon. Miss Malachite has assigned me to work for you as your…bullet carrier.” Lei Heng took a moment to take in that name before he sighed and closed his eyes. He clicked his tongue a few times before he opened them and spoke.
“Please tell me that’s a code name and not yer actual name.” His new carrier had a moment where her skin turned slightly red and she looked away. “Gotta be fuckin…alright then. I’ve heard worse I guess.” he took a moment to point to the side.
There stood what looked like the bastard child of an ammo box and a hiking pack, along with another back tied to it that held all the camping supplies. Real shame this place didn’t have extra dimensional storage, but that was fine. He wouldn’t be the one carrying all of it.
Chameleon’s eyes widened at the sight and he just chuckled. “Well get a move on. We’ve got a lot of distance to walk, and I want to get to Vale as soon as I can.” He called as he began walking down the path that had been sent.
He heard the woman scramble to get his pack, but he ignored it. If she didn’t show up soon then he’d walk back and kill leader of the spiders and find and torture the woman. It was true that he didn’t need to act at all like he was a member of the Finger’s, but a part of Lei Heng always knew he was a piece of shit. You could take Lei Heng out of The City, but you can take The City out of Lei Heng.
He grinned as he imagined the new place that he was being pointed towards. If it truly was just as action packed as he was led to believe, then he was going to have no shortage of fun. He didn’t know the how’s or why’s of why he was here, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he had his blade, ammo to spend, and a new batch of prey for him to hunt.
Yes, it had been too long since the tiger had been allowed to prowl.