There was nothing more thrilling than routine. Most people found routine to be confining, claustrophobic. For Ruby Rose, routine was freedom.
Especially when it involved dashing across the rooftops of Vale. Most people had a healthy dislike for the city, it's high crime rate and rundown amenities scaring off any but the truly desperate. Ruby loved Vale, it was where she found herself, and managed to make a dream come true.
It was also the home of her Uncle's junkyard, where she built her baby. Ruby loved the feeling of Crescent Rose's grip in her hands, squeezing the trigger to release a high powered, pressurized blast, throwing her gracefully across the roof. With another flick of her finger a grappling line shot out, latching onto an adjacent building, and allowing her to swing across the street. Another blast and she was atop the roofs again, deploying Crescent Rose scythe blade.
The sirens were getting closer, but they wouldn't catch the van in time. Supercharged and filled with recently stolen Lien, Ruby smiled as she shot towards the van.
The sounds of obnoxiously loud rock music cut through the rush of wind as she hurtled towards the vehicle.
Ruby passed overhead, unseen by the driver, her scythe blade scraping along the roof and halting her fall. As she came to a halt she swung her body down, feet smashing through the window of the van and into the head of the driver.
The car swerved, and Ruby heard swearing from inside as she pulled herself back onto the roof of the van.
Bullets started ripping through the roof under her feet, the passenger firing wildly as he desperately grabbed for the wheel. Ruby held onto her scythe, still safely lodged in the van. They came close to crashing several times, but it seemed that the van was under control again.
Just before Ruby could wrench her weapon free, a hand grabbed at her red cloak, pulling her down. Ruby looked back to see one of the robbers, hanging out of the back of the van. She managed to find a hold on the door that was now waving haphazardly.
The man wore a white mask, a red slash ominously running across it. They met eyes as he levelled a pistol at her. Ruby pulled herself behind the door as he fired, glass shards flying everywhere as he fired through the window.
Spying a upcoming speed bump, Ruby braced herself, putting all her weight on the door.
When the van passed over the bump the door swung out, before swinging back towards the vehicle. It locked shut, smashing into the gun wielding thief as it did so, knocking him into the bags of Lien that sat on the floor of the van.
Ruby climb inside, quickly throwing the pistol out the window before the thug could recover it. Thankfully the blow to his head, courtesy of the car door, had well and truly taken him out of the fight. Ruby was about to reach into the front of the van when it suddenly screeched to a halt, throwing her back against the doors.
Then she heard two blasts, of what she knew for a fact could only be from a set of shotgun gauntlets, followed by the sound of tires popping. The van slid to a stop, the driver staring out at the smirking face of a blonde woman, eyes veiled by a simple black mask, two gauntleted hands crossed over her chest.
Ruby stumbled out the back of the car, the flashing lights of police vehicles now visible in the distance. "Ru-Reaper! Hurry up, before the cops show up!"
"Sure thing Ya- I mean, coming Blondie!"
Yang rolled her eyes as Ruby ripped her scythe free, "We need to work on my name."
"But Red Reaper needs her Blonde...Blondie," Ruby said weakly, "Fine we'll work on it."
Another day, another robbery. Well, not just one. Torchwick had at two going on today. The first had been easy, a simple detour into a computer company on the way to lunch, steal some tech the boss wanted and grab a milkshake. The second should have been even easier, a simple smash and grab, no need for finesse, just get the Lien and go. He had even thought the incompetent buffoons Cinder had given him could pull it off by themselves.
Of course, if you wanted anything right you had to do it yourself. "You're telling me two kids in dress up, stopped them?" Torchwick said, trying to hold back his anger.
"Uh, yeah boss, took out the tires and beat up Perry," The White Fang thug said, ice pack held to his black eye.
"And you just left before the cops arrived, not even bothering to take the cash," Torchwick said, pinching his brow.
"Uh, yeah, I was under a lot of pressure."
"Pressure? Pressure! You don't know the first thing about pressure, when I put your head in a vice and start squeezing, then you might learn a thing or two about Pressu-"
Torchwick was cut off as the glass ceiling pane on the roof of the warehouse shattered. "Oh not again," Torchwick grumbled as a woman swung down into the building. Several of his thugs pulled out weapons and began firing. The woman, holding onto a swinging piece of what appeared to be a silk like fabric, pulled out a pistol of her own, firing back. Thugs went down left and right, not in an explosion of blood, but with a loud thump. "Rubber bullets," Torchwick grumbled, throwing over a table for cover. "I prefer real ones," he said with murderous glee, opening fire himself.
He managed to score a hit on the fabric the assailant was hanging from, sending her tumbling to the floor. With catlike agility she managed to tuck into a roll, and come up with a loaded pistol, and a strange looking black sword in her right hand.
One of the White Fang thugs grabbed a crowbar and swung at her. The girl managed to block, using the butt of her pistol to break his nose, and a quick leg sweep to send him on a trip to the floor.
Torchwick watched the girl quickly dispatch his henchmen as he reloaded. She was fast, and her blade was faster, but it never seemed to but, Torchwick assumed it was blunt. He tucked away his pistol as the girl was busy fending off the last of his henchmen. Grabbing his cane he made for the exit. "What is with this town, masked girls running around fighting crime, where are their parents."
He made it to the door, as it opened revealing another masked girl. This time she was masked by a large white motorcycle helmet, but she also carried a sword. "That looks sharp," Torchwick murmured as the tip of the blade glinted in the moonlight, "Oh it is," said the girl in white as she dashed forward. Torchwick turned the blade aside with his cane, throwing a punch at the girl. She tucked at rolled, coming up behind him and lunging. He blocked again, but this time the blade sparked with energy, and sent a jolt through his cane and into his body. His teeth locked shut as he quivered, the electricity shocking him. Suddenly it stopped and he stumbled back, only to be kicked into the wall. "Didn't your mother teach you to respect your elders kid," he said, pressing the button on the grip of his cane, and firing a small explosive out the other end. The girl in white was thrown back against a wall of crates.
"Kids these days," Torchwick said as he ran off into the night.
Weiss picked herself up off the floor. Expect anything, prepare for everything, Winter's disappointed voice echoed in her head, she should have seen the move coming. The visor on her helmet was cracked, but otherwise only her pride had taken a big hit. "Don't move," a voice whispered behind her, followed by the telltale sound of a gun being cocked. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" the voice asked. Feminine, angry, dangerous. Weiss' eyes fell to a shard of glass near her feet, revealing the reflection of the person holding her at gunpoint. Taller than her, armed with a pistol and sword, an angular black mask obscuring the top half of her face, and a set of feline ears atop her head. Faunus.
"I'm here to break up your sad little group," Weiss said, her cold hatred seeping into her tone.
"My little group? You're hunting White Fang members or just Faunus?"
"Does it matter?" Weiss said, causing her enemy to snarl, throw off your enemy when you can. Her leg kicked back, slamming into her assailant's knee, earning a grunt of pain and throwing her enemy off balance. Disable the enemy's weapon first, Winter's voice whispered from the depths of her memory.
Next she kicked up her own blade, using the shard of glass to aim her swing, she knocked the gun from her opponent's hand. Something struck her helmet before she could turn fully, slowing her down. When she did turn, she had lost sight of her enemy. Then came another strike, this time at the back of her legs, forcing her to buckle. She let herself roll, keeping momentum and rolling forward. Her thumb spun the chamber in the hilt of her blade, selecting its function. She swiped blindly again, this time a jet of flame firing from the tip of her blade.
With her attacker likely repelled by the flame she had time to retake her stance.
Now they stood opposite each other, blades at the ready. "Does it matter?!" Her attacker asked, "Are you here because they are Faunus, or because they are White Fang?"
"I don't hurt innocents, whether they are human or Faunus, I hurt terrorists."
The feline Faunus lowered her weapon slowly, yellow eyes no longer sending daggers at Weiss. "They weren't always terrorists,"
"They?" Weiss said, sword still at the ready. The Faunus gestured to the unconscious White Fang members still sprawled on the floor of the warehouse.
"It seems we both have a disagreement with the White Fang."
Weiss' stance slacked, her sword no longer pointing at the Faunus. "At least someone is doing something about them, the police in this city are not worth a single Lien," Weiss offered.
The Faunus nodded, "Good luck, see you around." Then the Faunus ran off, leaping up the stacked crates and grabbing the still hanging fabric she had swung in on, pulling herself out of the warehouse. Weiss watched her go.
"I might need to invest in a mask like that," she said to herself, stretching her neck against the weight of the motorcycle helmet.
"That's all for today class, finish up the chapter before our next lecture, have a good weekend."
Excitement rippled through the auditorium as the class quickly packed away their laptops, textbooks and notepads. "Any big plans for the weekend Ruby?" Pyrrha asked on their way out of class.
"Oh, you know studying and stuff, nothing exciting" Ruby said as she skipped along.
"Just studying, someone seems a little too happy for studying," Jaune said, ever loathing of study.
"Learning can be quite interesting Jaune, I hope you would be as keen as Ruby in our study sessions," Pyrrha said with a smile. Jaune laughed,
"If I was as keen as Ruby I would be top of the class."
"You can do it Jaune, with Pyrrha's help you've been doing really well," Ruby said. Ruby's phone buzzed, "Looks like I have to go guys, see you next week." Ruby ran off, leaving a stunned Pyrrha and Jaune.
"She does that a lot doesn't she," Jaune said.
"You mean run everywhere?" Pyrrha asked,
"No, I mean it always seems like she has something more important to do. Meh, it's probably nothing."
Yang was waiting by her bike in the university car park, watching Ruby run through the campus. "Hey Yang! Sorry I was just chatting with friends,"
"No worries, let's get you home, I have dinner in the oven."
"Ooooh what are we having tonight?"
"Lasagna," Yang said with a smile as Ruby's eyes brightened.
"Awesome!" Ruby said, capturing Yang in a hug. Yang laughed,
"Yeah, yeah, now hurry up, unless you want burnt lasagna."
Ruby leapt into the sidecar Yang had attached to her bike. Speeding down the highway, Ruby pulled out her phone and listened to some music. Eventually she gave in to the temptation and opened the police radio app she had installed on her phone. Tuning in she listened to the series of routine check ins. Maybe it would be a quiet night. Ruby and Yang didn't go out every night, much to Ruby's displeasure. Yang had put her foot down though, she would have preferred if Ruby wasn't running around fighting crime, even if she did tag along to make sure she was safe. Ultimately though, Yang new she would never be able to stop Ruby, she had always wanted to help, always wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps ever since she found out.
"Yang, pull over, we need to suit up," Ruby said over the sounds of traffic.
"Ruby it's our night off we're not going out on patrol,"
"Yang, someone just bombed the Schnee Enterprises building, there is a massive fire, they need us."
"Well, shit."
Weiss had experienced assassinations attempts before. Several times her family had come under attack from some lunatic who was angry with Schnee Enterprise policy, or furious they had been fired. It had never been this bad.
The first explosion had been on the floor below her, her office crumbling down around her as the floor beneath her feet gave out. The second had gone off on the ground floor, taking out reception, security and making it very difficult for help to make it inside. The last detonated in the parking lot, stopping the people who were trying to escape from making it to their cars.
Weiss coughed, trying to pry herself out from under the heavy desk that lay atop her. Her eyes watered as the smoke stung them, the heat was unbearable.
Then a figure came out of the fire. "Help," Weiss croaked, clawing at the person. When her vision cleared she saw his face. A white mask, accented with red, a member of the White Fang.
"Your time is up Schnee, you'll pay for all the pain you've caused," his gravelly voice said, his lips curving into a smile as he raised a blade.
"Back off Adam," came a familiar voice. Weiss turned her head to see the familiar masked face of the Faunus she had run into several nights previous.
"Ah, I wondered if you would show up. Sad to see you have fallen so far to even protect a Schnee,"
"Shame to see that you would murder a defenceless woman."
Blake had waited a long time for this fight.
Adam ran at her, leaping over flames to swing at her. She ducked, as she had a hundred times when they had practiced together. He would kick out with his foot, she would move to the side and attack, he would block. It all played out as it had many times for them, falling into a rhythm they both had too deeply ingrained in their minds and bodies.
Adam changed it up, and Blake realised a second before the blow hit that she was in trouble. He had never hit her so hard. The air left her lungs and in the smoke and fire left her coughing, hopelessly gasping for air.
"I wish it didn't have to end this way my love."
Yang and Ruby quickly fell into hero mode. Ruby shot her grappling line up onto the upper levels of the building, whilst Yang rushed into the inferno on the ground floor.
Years of training and execution had given Yang the ability to shut down in these scenario's. It was all instinct, moving around the fire, assessing the stability of rooms. Firefighting had been her passion, now it was something she prefered to face without the pain of memory or thought.
One by one, Yang pulled the people out of the fire. Real firefighters started spraying down the billowing fire, as Yang threw people out to their waiting arms. Quickly they too started helping, and soon the ground floor was clear of civilians.
Up above, Ruby broke through an office window and ran into the upper level fire.
It seemed people had already evacuated, making a run for the lower levels, all except a single trapped figure. Ruby easily spotted the white hair against the smouldering ruins of the surrounding area. She rushed over, deploying her scythe blade and swiping away most of the desk that lay smoking on top of her. "It's alright m'am, I got you," Ruby said lifting the girl to her feet.
"Great, another masked vigilante," she said with a cough. "You have to help her, she's in trouble," the white haired girl said, pointing through the fire.
"What?" Ruby asked, following the direction of her finger, and seeing a battle taking place through the fire.
"He's going to kill her," the white haired girl said, eyes drooping and consciousness slowly fading.
"Stay here!" Ruby shouted, as the girl dropped to the floor. She leapt onto the desk and fired her propulsion shot in from her scythe, shooting herself over the flames. With an outstretched, combat boot covered leg, Ruby slammed into the White Fang thug.
He grunted as he was smashed against the wall. Ruby swung her scythe, aiming to pull back and pry the sword from his hand. He however, managed to resist the pull, and instead yanked Ruby closer, throwing a punch as he did so. Ruby pulled the shaft of her scythe up to block the punch, kicking him in the gut and firing her propulsion shot. The sword came free from his hand this time, and Ruby flew back, sliding across the floor as the White Fang thug fell to his knees, clutching at his recently kicked stomach.
"Heh, suck it," Ruby murmured with a wicked smile.
"Stupid kid," the White Fang thug growled, whipping out a handgun and firing once. The bullet struck Ruby in her stomach, or it would have if her corset wasn't laced with kevlar. Though not life threatening, Ruby did find herself on the floor beside the masked Faunus she had been saving, with a very sore stomach.
"My turn," Blake said as her rescuer went down. Blake's shots missed, but that was the point, Adam didn't need to know she was firing rubber bullets. Adam took cover, before making a mad dash out of the room.
"That could have gone better," Ruby groaned, getting back on her feet. "Need a hand," Ruby said, offering her hand to Blake.
"I'm fine."
The two picked up Weiss, still unconscious from the smoke inhalation. "Can you take her down to the paramedics?" Blake asked,
"Sure thing, thanks for the help back there, what can I call you? I'm the Red Reaper, but you can just call me Reaper," Ruby said proudly.
"Call me Black Cat, and thanks for the save." Ruby grinned, turning to hoist Weiss over her shoulder,
"You should patrol with us some-" Ruby turned around to find that Black Cat was gone. "Alrighty then, don't blame her for leaving the burning building, now it's our turn," Ruby said to the unconscious girl on her shoulder, before leaping out of the window.
Of course the lasagna was burnt to a crisp by the time they got home. "And then, she started firing at him, but I think she was missing on purpose, and he ran, just like that! It was so awesome!" Ruby was pacing around the room ranting excitedly about her encounter in the Schnee building. "You left out the part where he shot at you," Yang said, with a concerned look on her face.
"Yeah but that wasn't a big deal, I had my armour on,"
"It could have been a big deal Ruby, you have to be more careful. These White Fang guys are proper terrorists, maybe it's best if we sit this out for a while, let the police handle them."
"But Yang!" Ruby whined, "If we hadn't got there, those people could have burned, and that White Fang guy would have hurt those two ladies. The police are really cool, but I don't think they can keep up with all the stuff that's happening, so we have to help."
Yang sighed, she knew she would never win the argument. "Maybe you're right, but if we are gonna keep doing this, we need to get even better then we are now. It's only gonna get worse from here on."
Ruby nodded and gave a thumbs up, a grim determination setting onto her face. "Now what's for dinner?"
Weiss sat at her computer, pain medication finally kicking in. She reviewed the video's again, all playing at the same time. Her research had found the names for the two new vigilantes that had helped her and her employees the day previous. The Red Reaper and Blondie, or Blaze, or Brawler, or Firecracker, she had a big list of aliases. Only in review of the video had she heard the cat Faunus refer to herself as Black Cat. They all were attributed with taking down White Fang members in recent history, the first two also having dealt with general criminal activity.
They were good, maybe not as good as herself, in her humble opinion, but few were. Yet she saw potential, potential for a real threat to the White Fang. A chance at finally ending the war her family had been fighting for so long.
I'm back, and very excited about this story, gonna work really hard on completing it. Sorry about the lack of life on this account, and sorry the other stories have been dead, and likely will not come back. Hopefully you like this one though, love to hear your feedback, see you in the next chapter.
