Chapter 1: This will be the day.
A gentle zephyr wisped past ebony hair and twirled red highlights in a playful dance. Silver eyes lazily followed a few stray leaves that had floated from the branch of a nearby tree. The young wannabe huntress let out a small puff of air that wasn't quite a sigh. Arms secured behind her head in a blithe fashion. Red cape billowing behind her in a spindling way. The last rays of fading sunlight heated the bottom of her shoulders as she walked down one of the main streets of the city of Vale in the yawning twilight. The street was not that different from many others. People milled about through the tree lined road and a car or two would whizz by every now and then.
A gentle clacking sound could be heard as the large hunk of machinery shifted from its hanging point at her belt. A pale hand clad in black sleeves reached back to adjust the weapon so it wouldn't snag her black skirt with red underlining. Her homemade and greatly prized machinery that she branded in a fight. The ever infamous gunslinging scythe, Crescent Rose. Her own design. With a little help from her mechanically inclined uncle.
The 14 year old girl paused to adjust the custom designed headphones that rested over her ears. Her favorite song playing an intense melody of guitar and raspy voice, spinning a tale of red roses and revolution. The silver eyed teen was headed down the street with no real destination in mind. She was content to wander the streets for a while. Her sturdy black and red boots thumped quietly on the concrete as the sky faded even more to the point of darkness. Purple shades blended into the sky as the final hints of the golden sun faded beyond the horizon beyond the buildings.
The girl puffed a small strand of hair from her face where it fell with the others back to land in a long pixie cut. Her sharp eyes scanned the streets, searching for anything entertaining that may or may not be happening at such a dull hour. An advertisement for cheesy tabloids glared glaring at her from a bright neon sign in the window of a small shop. The Neon sign displayed several magazine cover stories. Ranting and raving about the newest development in a random celebrities life and scandals that occurred in the politics of Anima.
Releasing a sound of interest, the dark headed girl strolled into the door of the little shop with a small bell announcing her arrival. Upon her entrance, the aging shopkeeper looked up at smiled at her. She responded with a wordless smile and pulled the hood of her bright red cape over her head. The shop was simple with a large front window with advertisements and a long front counter with spaciously placed shelves lined with different types of dust. Long narrow tubes responsible for transporting dust into packaging lined the far wall. A long front desk held glowing crystalline dust in large glowing crystals and formations. Dust. The main source of magic and energy in Remnant. Dust was based on elements and was often found in crystalline natural form and ground and condensed into fine powder that was used and a type of enhancement. The elemental based substance could be fused into clothes, weapons, and even a human body, although experiments to accomplish such a feet were seldom successful. The glass bottles and packaged bags housed several different colored powders and substances. All of which gave off a faint glow. The teen made her way through the rows of shelves towards the back of the dust shop to the section that sold cheesy gossip columns and news. The interesting stuff basically.
She grinned silly like as she balled her small fists to her chest. Entertainment in its most interesting form. Other people's lives. She quickly began to browse the many different cover stores that all glared big letters and headlines, desperately trying to catch someone's attention. A Gray and white magazine caught her print made up the headline with a picture of a teenage girl sporting a rapier directly underneath it. Slender hands picked up the tabloid and wide eyes skimmed the front page.
"Newest Innovation at Schee Headquarters." read the smaller print. The young girl on the front cover stood placed, a hand on her hip and rapier drawn to point, an annoyed expression on her pale face. The rose themed girl quirked a smirk and flipped to the page that held the story of Innovations of the famous Schnee family. The rose girl had heard of the Schnee Family. But the most she knew of them was their high standing wealth in the rebuilt kingdom of Mantle that was now Atlas. The same picture of the snowy haired girl was printed on the articles page. A thin scar trickled down the Rapier wielding girls face. Silver eyes narrowed to get a better look at the blemish through the grainy haze of the digital photo. It ran down the center of the white heads left eye. The darker toned girl Hummed before swiveling her eyes to the article on the side of the page.
"New innovation at Schnee Headquarters, Dust combined with metal, The next new Fad?" That did sound interesting to red caped girl. She had often wondered what the affects of using a propellant such as dust would accomplish when paired with her Scythe. She continued to read. Happy to indulge herself further into the realm of remnant politics that lied in the snowy land of Atlas under the Schnee family's roof.
A sudden hand jerking her shoulder around pulled her from her music induced tabloid reading. Her scarlet hood slipping from its position on her head. She spun her head. Eyes widening only slightly.
"Huh?" The teens feminine voice sounded her confusion. In front of her stood a tall man with a black suit and red tie. He had strong jawline and aviators to cover his eyes. The first thing she really noticed about him was his overly tended to Facial hair, that was styled into a trimmed Goatee. The girl narrowed her eyes at him and set her magazine back on the rack behind her. The taller man pointed to his ear in an annoyed gesture. The girl reached up and gently removed her headphones, music blaring slightly louder now that the heavy sound was no longer muffled by the constricting head device. She gazed at him questioningly.
"Yes?" She asked fingers twitching at the sides of her head where her musical transmitters rested at her shoulders.
"I said put your hands in the air" He said heavily, voice holding a slight jersey accent. He scowled, hard, staring at her delicate face.
"Are you, robbing me?" The girl questioned, narrowing her eyes slowly, fingers twitching again.
"Yes!" the strange man bellowed at her, scowl deepening on his face.
"Ooh." The girl again let out an interested sound from her lips in contemplation of her situation, no fear evident in her wolf like eyes.
She smirked, a condescending look on her pale face. She placed her hands on her petite hips and stared at the man before her as if she were staring at a child that had tried to pick a fight with an adult. The goliath of a man grunted at her snarky behavior before lunging forward to grab her. The rose's smirk stretched ever so slightly. She ducked down in squat position and in the fraction of a second that it took for the man to realize his prize had eluded him, the girl rested all her weight on her hands and kicked out both her feet forward. Metal reinforced black boots collided with fine leather suit and sent the impromptu robber sailing towards the front of the store.
The pixie cut haired girl adjusted her crimson sock that had become dislodged before rising to her feet and flicking her cape. The man crashed into a large dust display near the front of the store. He landed in a heap amongst broken shelves and spilled dust elements. Several other shoppers had looked back at the injured man in confusion. Closer inspection revealed these customers to be dressed in the same fashion as the girls failed robber. Standing near the front with anger filled expressions stood at least eight men, dressed in the same overdone fashion of the crumpled man on the floor. A man with a white trench coat and black bowler hat stood at the counter. The dissimilar man glanced at the girls handy work and nodded his head to the man standing closest to her. A slight turn of the head. Orange bangs flicking slightly and cigar puffing as Mr. Mystery Mafia signaled towards the offensive young scythe wielder. A slightly smaller built man charged towards her and stopped just short of her standing position. Pointing a long silver barrelled gun to her nose. Red designs decorated the gun and stared at the girl, the man behind them smirking at the caught prey. The girl frowned and clenched her fists tight. She kneeled down in running position and took off at full speed towards her attacker. Taking him flying through the front window of the store before he could blink, let alone pull the trigger on her. Sailing through the thin transparent material of blown sand, the girl and man both tumbled into the street. Shiny shards of iridescent glass raining around them like a fountain.
Three other men peeked out of the razor edged broken window. All raising a brow and tightening their grips on their pick axe like weapons. The little red girl stayed on the ground a heart beat longer. Long enough to grab the heavy piece of machinery that lay at her waist. She rose slowly, tightening her finger on the small trigger on the handle of her currently folded up weapon. The weapon unfurled in all it mechanical glory. Handle extending and the end curving with added red supports standing stark against the black metal. It curved all the way into a long sharp blade that glinted in the moonlight. Cape flapping, the rose lifted her head and smiled as she opened her stunning silver eyes and glared fiercely at the carrot top man who frowned at her in suspicion. She spun the heavy weapon over her head and swirled it around her body. Twisting and spinning as she went to reveal a weapon like dance. Ending in a proud stance with the end of her deadly scythe dented in the asphalt, creating smaller pieces of the rock flying from the mini crater she created.
The man with the bowler hat looked out at the scythe wielder and thought. His men drew their weapons hastily and stood guard.
"Well, get her." the man ordered.
His men quickly rushed out the door and took up an attack stance. A man near the front shot first. Ruby, used her semblance quickly and dashed away to avoid the hail of gunfire. She fired her scythe/sniper rifle to propel herself forward and slashed the man who had shot at her. She then quickly jumped back to dodge a glowing projectile that the man wearing the trench coat had shot from his cane. Taking this into account, Ruby quickly spun to face her attacker who was smirking and readied herself.
"Well Red, isn't it past your bedtime?" he asked menacingly.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Ruby asked cautiously.
The man quickly smiled and shot another projectile at the small girl. When Ruby had recovered, she looked around for the man, but he was nowhere in sight. But when she looked behind her, she saw the man climbing the ladder to a nearby building. Ruby turned around and asked the shopkeeper: "You okay with me going after him?"
He nodded and pointed, the man had reached the top of the building. Ruby nodded and ran after the man. She started sprinting but when she reached the ladder, Ruby decided that it would be faster just to use her scythe. She aimed her massive weapon at the ground and pulled the trigger. Instantly she was propelled upwards and onto the building's rooftop.
The young reaper spun and shouted at the man. The man smiled as his hair and clothes started flying around as if caught in a gale. Then, a huge airship flew up from behind the man and Ruby stepped back. As the man stepped into the airship, he turned and yelled over the noise of the engines.
"End of the line Red!" He then threw a solitary red dust crystal at Ruby's feet. At first Ruby was confused, why would he leave one dust crystal? Then she figured it out as the man aimed his cane/gun at the ground in front of her feet and fired a shot. Ruby instinctively covered her face waiting for the pain to come. But… the pain never came.
Ruby opened her eyes slowly to see what had happened. What she saw surprised her. Standing in front of her was a woman, holding a black riding crop. A purple glyph had appeared in front of her. The strange woman had short blonde hair, wore a white, button up shirt which ended in a purple collar. She also wore a purple cape that was flowing around in the wind, it ended in several arrow-like tails that whipped around as the gale died to a woman then pushed her small glasses further up her nose, and when she waved her riding crop, pieces of the rubble that the red dust crystal had made, formed into one spear-shaped lance and flew at the ship. She then waved it again, clouds started to form over the now stationary airship. Unbeknownst to either of the two standing on the roof. The man in the bowler had climbed into the driver's seat and taken control. Meanwhile a woman, fair, dark haired, and covered in shadow slowly stepped out onto the loading bay of the airship.
To be continued...