It was supposed to be a quick little snatch-and-grab. Nothing too serious. Neo just wanted to rob the next unfortunate soul that made it easy for her to get the funds for another ice cream binge; or two or three, it would depend on how much cash her victim gave her.

With her Semblance, it was all too easy. She had done this hundreds of times by now and gotten away with it even against veteran Huntsmen. Just, prop up a pitiful sight to distract the target, knock 'em out before they realize they've been duped, and she could make free with their funds.

Easy, right?

Well, apparently, not today considering she had just ambushed some super secret powerhouse, she'd never seen or heard of. Whoever this guy was that she had just targeted, he not only managed to detect her within seconds of encountering her illusions for the first time, but he was also concerningly fast.

"So," the man started, "what's your angle, lady? Is this a robbery or an assassination, because honestly, I have no idea who you are or why you're bothering me."

Even if Neo wasn't a mute, she'd be hard-pressed to find a response to his question. Assassination? That only gave further credence to the theory that he was someone whose death was valuable to someone, somewhere. This was really, really bad. Not only did she not know anything about him, but he presumably already knew about her Semblance and could somehow counter it.

Neo made the mistake of grimacing and gripping her parasol-shaped weapon, Hush, just hard enough for the unknown man to notice and misunderstand her inner turmoil.

With a sigh, the man said, "A fight then. Thanks for at least picking a place as isolated as this, I guess." He took a fighting stance.

Welp, in for a penny and all…

Neo resolved to initiate the fight and hopefully either learn enough about the man to win or flee before she was defeated. She rushed the man with the blade of Hush fully drawn out of her parasol and slashed at him.

Out of literally nowhere, a medieval-looking iron or steel sword flickered into existence on the man's hand and he parried her attack.

'That had to be his Semblance, the speed and sense could be trained,' She thought.

Then again, as she continued to press him with more and more attacks, she realized he was terrible with a sword. It was insulting and worrying at the same time as his sheer physical prowess was so high that he managed to fight at her pace even with his god-awful technique.

After a few seconds of constant clashing, she hit his sword one too many times and the blade broke into shattered fragments.

"Seems about right for an Uncommon," the man muttered under his breath as a different sword appeared after he discarded the remains of its predecessor.

The fight was going nowhere if they stuck to constantly smashing their weapons against each other, so Neo began to use her Semblance. She made herself look like a completely different person, a frightened woman, hoping it would cause the man to hesitate but he was absolutely ruthless and she paid for it by taking a hit to her Aura.

"Yeah, I can see how that might work against other people. But, I can tell who you are inherently. It doesn't matter what appearance you take," he said as Neo failed to spear him through the chest.

Neo took a different approach. Instead of changing herself, she concentrated on the environment and made the narrow alleyway take on the form of a hilly field. This application of her Semblance drained at her Aura like nothing else, but it was well worth it against the man who became disoriented by it.

Her power cast an illusion that fooled the senses into thinking they weren't in an alleyway, but in actuality nothing had actually changed. That meant that the building walls to either side of them were still there even when the man tried to dodge into them when he failed to recall exactly where they would be while defending himself. That meant that the slight incline to the open field was a mismatch with the level ground of the alleyway, making it hard to tell where to step without a moment to get used to the difference.

It resulted in the man failing to parry a slash from Hush and—

'He doesn't have Aura!?' Neo balked as her sword carved into his flesh instead crashing into an Aura forcefield.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Her momentarily lapse into shock was her undoing as the man ignored the terrible wound that stretched down across his midsection and delivered onto her a haymaker for the ages.

The force of the punch sent her flying through the air and brought her Aura down to critical levels. The cushion against crashing into the building almost fifty feet away was what actually broke her Aura.

The man whistled as he looked down at the gash on his torso. He was bleeding, but it was a lot less than it should have been.

'Or maybe not,' Neo considered as she looked at the tip of Hush and saw that blood only came up to about half an inch from the cutting edge. She had slashed at him with all her strength and his skin and muscles were tough enough to stop her from going more than half an inch in.

"No Aura?" He asked, though to Neo it felt more like a taunt. A red vial of liquid appeared in his hands which he proceeded to uncork and splash onto his injury. The reaction was immediate as steam from evaporated blood appeared and his muscle and skin reknit itself at a rate that was observable to the naked eye.

Neo frowned. She was in a pretty bad situation. Not exactly the worst thing she had dealt with, but it wasn't looking too good for her considering the man was physically stronger than her and someone had access to his Semblance despite his lack of Aura. Meanwhile, she was out of Aura to power the one advantage she had managed to pull on him during their fight.

She was about to make an attempt to escape when a gunshot resounded across the empty otherwise empty alleyway. The man staggered forward, having been hit from behind and as she traced the direction from where the bullet came from, her eyes widened.

Roman Torchwick had entered the fight.

"Now, now. I can't have you killing off my partner in crime," Roman droned as he approached with the barrel end of his cane still pointed at Neo's enemy.

As the man turned to face Roman, Neo saw the bullet hole left behind where Roman had shot him, but there was no blood trailing from it.

"I wasn't going to kill her We're in the middle of an alleyway with who knows how many possible witnesses watching from their houses. Also, she's the one who tried to ambush me! I probably would have been in the right if I needed self-defense as an excuse anyway."

"Wait, seriously?" Roman slightly dropped his can while giving Neo a pointed look. When the short woman sighed and nodded back begrudgingly, he grew annoyed and asked, "What the hell, Neo?! How did going out for an ice cream run turn into whatever the hell this is?"

She made a few gestures to which Roman reacted with exasperation. "You thought he was an easy target?" He sighed again, "Well, this was bound to happen eventually. You're lucky I was close enough to hear the commotion and bust you out."

Roman turned to the other man and asked, "I supposed you wouldn't be interested in just letting bygones be bygones, would you? What say I pay you for the inconvenience brought to you by my associate—" he stared in disappointment at Neo, "—and we walk away without muddying up the waters any moreso?"

"I'm… confused," the man said. "Are you not trying to rob or assassinate me?"

"Oh, Neo definitely was trying to rob you at first. You probably did something stupid like go into this abandoned alleyway with no one around, making yourself an ideal target. Of course, now that it's evident that you aren't the low-hanging fruit you appeared to be, we don't want you around as an enemy," Roman explained.

"So, you just pay me and that's it?" The man asked. When Roman nodded, the man continued, "That's fine with me, just… You know, don't try this shit again. If I catch either of you trying to mess with me again, I'm burying you without a second thought."

"Understandable," Roman said as he reached into the breast pocket of his suit and offered the man a card. "Give me a call whenever it is that you want to cash in my offer for payment, Mr..."

"Lapis Lain," the man identified himself. He accepted the card and left when Roman gestured dramatically to convey his freedom to do so.

When he was out of their line of sight, Roman turned to Neo and said, "That went smoother than I expected. He totally could have tried to take us on at the same time and if I'm being honest, it probably would have been a losing battle."

Neo gestured her disagreement.

"Don't kid yourself, Neo, that guy is a monster. I was watching for a lot longer than you might think. I know he was fighting you without Aura and he all but beat you single-handedly."

Neo pouted and gestured in defiance.

"Luck? Surprise? I'm sure a lot of the people you've taken out would be rolling in their graves if they heard that from you," Roman rolled his eyes. "Ignoring that terrible argument for a second, you know firsthand how tough his body is. I've seen you split Atlesian robots in half with Hush and he was merely scratched by it."

"He ate a round from my cudgel like it was the flick of a finger. You probably wouldn't even be able to do any damage unless you used dust rounds on him and even if you hurt him he can just conjure up health potions like some bullshit video game character." Roman shook his head. "Against most other people, I think we probably could have tried something, but the guy is a one-man army."

Neo slumped her shoulders in begrudging acceptance.

"I wasn't kidding when I said we really don't want him as an enemy," Roman said. "Him walking away was the best thing that could have happened for us. A complete unknown like him…" He paused to think for a second before smiling, "We could use someone like him."

Alarmed, Neo demanded that he explain himself.

"As a contractor, my dear," Roman placated her. "You know I wouldn't replace you. I'm talking about establishing a working relationship with him. Don't tell me he doesn't seem the type to go for dirty work. He looked serious when he mentioned offing us if we tried to cross him. I'm thinking he would make a nice source of dedicated chaos."

The more Neo listened to Roman's ideas the more she found herself accepting the potential he viewed in the man. A wildcard being thrown into the underworld of Vale would certainly help them pull off more high-profile heists and boost their reputation.

All she could hope for was that Lapis would entertain the idea of working for them on occasion despite the bad first impression she gave.