Ruby was still in awe of Atlas, the floating city was incredible just to look at from afar, but it was amazing up close too. It was the day after they arrived and RWBY, JNR, Crow, Oscar and Maria were exploring Atlas. Crow and Weiss, who had been to Atlas before, were not as interested as the rest of the group, but still followed in tow. Ruby, however, could not have been more awestruck. Her eyes gleamed in wonder, staring at the shining street full of dust shops and little boutiques, seeing the high-end pieces of clothing could only think how out-of-place her own were. The only person dressed for their surroundings was Weiss, but she had lived here.
"WOW!" Ruby exclaimed "It's all so pretty!" she darted from shop to shop peering through the windows.
"C'mon Ruby, we need to meet up with my friend, he's got a place for us to stay." Crow told his niece
"Yeah, and I'd rather not stay here to be dragged back to my father." Weiss added.
"Yeah Yeah, meet friend, see dad, I know." Ruby commented, obviously not listening. Yang sighed, knowing that Ruby was getting nowhere by herself, she once got lost in the beacon mall because she didn't notice when Yang and their dad had gone on. She went and picked up her sister and slung her over her shoulder.
"Okay. Where to now Crow?" Yang asked as Ruby wiggled to see all the stores.
"Well to my knowledge, it should be on the other side of this district." Crow said, turning to face down the steet.
"Wait!" Weiss called "What time is it?!"
"About 1:25, why do you ask?" Blake inquired.
"There's an atlas guard coming through here in 3 minutes!" Weiss began to panic. Ruby, seeing her friend's distress, sprang into action
"Don't fear bestie! I Ruby Rose, shall help you!" Ruby said, freeing herself from Yanga and striking a pose. Ruby then turned to Crow. "Crow! Where dd you say your friend was?"
"O-on Stock's Boulevard…" he answered, unsure and a little frightened on what Ruby was going to do.
Okay everyone! Follow me!" And with that Ruby darted off.
In the wrong direction.
"Ruby…" Ren said, trying to indicate Ruby's mistake.
"Right! Other Way!" She said before doing a U-turn and dashing the other way.
~Intermission~
"BRAIIIIRRR!"
"For the last time Kyla, you know why we were sent here, why all the Shade academy students were sent here."
"Yeah! We came here to represent our academy! To be the best! Woof Woof!"
"We never agreed on that catch phrase, Rei."
"But Asher! we're called BARK! We literally what a dog says!"
A group of teens were walking down the streets of Atlas. The one leading the group, Briar had orange hair with black tips. She wore an orange cape and hood, with a black long-sleeved undershirt and a Jaffa orange jacket with attached skirt and had sunglasses covering part of her face. The next girl, Asher, was tall and had chest length silver hair, wore a grey hoodie and tactical gear over it, and accompanied sweatshirts with more gear on them. The next was Rei, very short, bopping around and wore a white trench coat with blue lines, blue skirt, white t-shirt and headphones around her neck. Bringing up the rear was Kyra, a blonde-haired wolf faunas with a giant pony tail, she had a crimson purple jacket and black pants, along with a black tank top and a crimson visor resting on her head. The visor looked much like the ones the White Fang use, except it was slimmer, and of course, crimson.
"Ugh! We're getting no-where!" Briar complained, "We still need to get to our accommodation, but we're completely lost! We should have listened to Rei instead of you Kyla."
"Well sorry! I really did think I was right!" Kayla apologized. Rei Slung her arm around Kyla's shoulder.
"You always think you're Right Kyla" Rei smirked. Kyla smacked the back of her head.
"Look," Asher interjected "Let's just ask somebody. It can't be any worse than wandering aimlessly."
Briar stepped forward "Okay, as team leader, I nominate Asher's plan. Any opposed?" no-one said anything. "Okay then, Here's some people." She spotted ten people running towards something down the street. Briar waved over to them.
"Hey there! Do any of you know where the Flower's Hotel is from here?!"
A black-and-red-haired teen, about the same age as Briar called back "Yeah! We're going there now! Follow us!" and sped off with the nine other people panting behind her, a muscular blonde ne carrying an elderly lady. Briar shrugged at her team and ran after them.
~Intermission~
The group arrived at the Flower's Hotel before the Atlas guard patrolled, with a few new faces in tow. The hotel's lobby was very crowded, seemingly full of hunters and huntresses. The pearly white walls and royal blue carpets lined the room and receptionists were boking in customers at a marble desk. Ruby could only take it all in.
"Thanks again, we got pretty lost thanks to blondie over here" The orange haired girl they had direct to the hotel motioned to a wolf faunas who just grinned at the group. Crow tried to catch his breath from running one side of a shopping district to the other.
"Okay, *Huff* I' going to get in touch with my friend now." Crow pointed to the group "You eight stay out of trouble, alright?" and with that Crow left to the line queuing up to the reception desk.
"Hey, we haven't introduced ourselves." The tall, silver-haired girl said, "I'm Asher, this is Rei, Briar and Kyla." In the same order she motioned to the blue, orange, and blonde-haired teens.
"Well hey, I'm Yang, and this is Weiss, Blake, Ren, Nora, John, Oscar, Maria and the one who cannot pay any attention is my sister Ruby." Ruby was now inspecting the scarlet rose bushes
"Well It's been nice, but we have a room booked by our academy, so we best be off. We hope to see you in the tournament!" Kyla called as they al left.
"Wait, what do they mean by tournament?" Ren Questioned. Nora shrugged. Then the Screens hanging from the walls all flickered to the same channel.
"HELLOOO ATLAS!" A man appeared on the screen. He wore an electric green hat with what seemed to be a nevermore feather. He also sported a pinstripe suit and pants that were a bright yellow, with a slightly paler yellow undershirt. "My name is Baron Jesse Scott, now you probably may have heard of me before. *Pfft*. Who am I kidding? Of course, you haven't heard of me before!" The man gave off a presence of extravagance and absurdity.
Nora tilted her head "He looks like a banana."
"Huh, so he does." John said.
"Now I have already visited the three other kingdoms of Remnant, telling them that I was going to Atlas. TO HOLD A GREAT TOURNEMENT!" The baron was waving his arms around wildly as he spoke. "What is this tournament you ask? Well it's simple. I will hold the tournament of an undetermined length of time where I test the skills of an attendee's with various challenges. SO! Just know that if you do enter, this will not be your fighting skill alone. But why on Remnant would I attend such a vague tournament from an odd stranger?"
"Well he got odd right" Blake commented
"Well, for the winning person or team, I shall grant one of two prizes. The first is my castle, and every possession in it. The exclusion to this is the second prize. The second prize." The man reached out of the camera's view "Is this. The relic of destruction!" RWBY and JNR's mouths dropped. How did this man have the relic of destruction?! "Oh, just so you know, my castle is completely impervious from the outside, so please don't do anything rash. And should you want to steal from me… Well… Let's just say you'd have an easier time taking on Atlas's entire military. SO! MAY I SEE YOU AT THE TOURNEMENT!" And then the screens flicked and went back to the program they were previously on. There were a few moments silence before a large rumbling occurred. Everybody fled outside to see what was going on. Over the horizon, the silhouette grew until they could see what it was, a giant castle. It was absolutely massive, almost a third of Atlas itself.
"How did he get the relic of destruction?!" John asked, distressed.
"I don't know, but I can tell you what we are going to do!" Ruby said.
"Enter the tournament and win the relic?" Weiss asked
"We're going to enter the tournament and-" Ruby paused "Yes, yes we are."
"Hey, what's going on here?" Crow was back. Everybody looked at each other.
Oscar spoke up, "Uh Crow, we need to tell you something…"