"Ok no more mister nice-" He said as he swung a wide right towards her.
The rest of his cliche heel dialogue was cut off as Ruby leapt at him, locking her legs round his neck and spinning. She cocked her hips during the rotation, sending him to the cold concrete face first. He tumbled and rolled into the gutter, giving his partner the space he needed to grab her arm in a wrist lock!
She cried out as he wrenched, walking in a circle to try and lessen the pain - unable to escape the veteran Grey Michaels' powerful grip. But he turned to look at the terrified pedestrians and jeered them, allowing the wily Rose to pirouette under his arm and deliver a series of chops to his quite frankly glistening pectoral muscles. Resisting the urge to squee at the fact she actually just chopped a former Royal Rumble winner - She pulled herself onto his back using his arm like for leverage. Not stopping, she nimbly maneuvered across his back over his head - grabbing it underarm into a brutal DDT.
"Wow kid, Jake Taijitu would be proud." Came a sarcastic voice from the doorway. The Wrestling Wares Evolve store owner was playing the part of scared bystander amazingly. But this was Thee Roman Torchwick. He applauded her for another brief moment as his goons discretely cleared themselves out the way, "Now then, since I'm a big believer in opportunity, I'll give you my attention for a minute." He flicked some ash at her dismissively, "Who the hell are you?"
She grinned, bringing her right arm across her chest and extending her left in a line, both hand's pointing upwards as she spun in place before staring down the current Cross-Continental Champion. The pose was supposed to signal for her finisher… but it was a lot flashier than the other taunts SFW let her use; "I'm Ruby the Rose - the red baroness. I've travelled the kingdoms putting smiles on faces and butts in seats. And I've had it with you robbing this city blind Torchwick!"
He mocked outrage and surprise, the onlookers giving small cheers and applause for the diminutive upstart. Roman had the wherewithal to strike while the iron was hot, moving in to get in her face… well, if she reached his chest maybe he'd be in her face - "Well Red, I don't recall having ever stolen a thing in my life." He turned his back on her, "Ask any of these people, I'm an absolute saint!" Boos rained down to which Roman smugly shrugged.
"You've robbed these people of countless matches, always running and cheating when the going got tough. I'm going to teach you a lesson, just like I did to poor Joe Blackside here." She laughed and the crowd popped, a few tried to chant Ru-by but it didn't get much traction.
"Newsflash kid, you can't touch me. I'm out of your league." Someone actually tossed a hotdog at him, "Nice aim Douche. But like I said…" He got right up in her face and whispered - "surprise eye rake, get ready to fight off the mooks when they jump in." with such speed she barely processed it. "You're nothing but a little girl playing dress up… and I am nothing if not a teacher." He dragged his hand down her forehead and she screamed out, clutching her eyes with an intensity that pushed the crowd to near rioting.
Roman laughed while Grey and Brock Blackside on the little nuisance. She was selling like a champion and the crowd were eating it up. She'd actually shown a lot of patience not going for the comeback yet… hell for someone he hadn't heard of she was proving to be a Grade A prospect. Hell, he hadn't even heard of the academy she represented.
The comeback was finally on though,as she slid through Brock's legs and gained separation; ducking the clothesline from Grey she hit a lightning quick dropkick, sending him down to the ground. The crowd erupted as she laid into Blackside with a series of precise and devastating leg kicks, to finish off the flurry, she leapt up with a quite frankly scary vertical leap and pulled out a hurricanrana.
"Shit, got too invested in this kid's performance." Roman chided himself, It's time to tease the finish… He ran in while grunting to let the kid know a surprise attack was coming and landed a double axe handle to her back. She dropped to a knee and he signalled for the powerbomb, tossing away the cigar and winking to the hissing crowd. He whispered to her while the crowd covered, "Escape into finisher tease… what is it?"
She hesitated… "Roman was going to make her look strong?" Yang might be the best sister ever..
"It's a phoenix splash… I can do it standing but it's a bit risky." She confessed blushing.
He lifted her for the powerbomb but as he hefted her seemingly limp unconscious body up to the chorus of three dozen boos she swore she could hear him mutter, "Standing Phoenix? Kid's something else…" As she rose she brought an elbow down on his head, appearing dizzy and Roman going with the program stumbled half a step.
The crowd cheered.
She elbowed him again.
The Crowd cheered as Roman fell to a knee.
He resurged her upwards and looked to be delivering the final blow!
Until she delivered three elbows each getting their own pop, before the crowd exploded when he fell to his back with her on top landing with an improvised seated senton!
The tenacious little underdog put her hands on her knees panting, gathering what reserves she had left in kayfabe. In reality she was steadying her nerves, holy hell this was happening! "Are you putting knees up or rolling?" She said, making sure her hair hid her mouth.
"Rolling. Don't give what ya got away, when you hit it in the ring they'll go nuts Red." He groaned after the whisper, but his eyes revealed a fierce mixture of pride and ecstasy, whilst the crowd were in raptures and completely under their spell.
She spun, extending her arms and pointing upwards, unknowing that form Roman's perspective the moon perfectly framed her stance, a silhouette that he couldn't help but picture on posters for years to come.
She turned her back and prepared to leap as the crowd chanted her name:
"Ru-by Rose. Ru-by Rose Ru-by Rose."
For those seconds she was in heaven, sailing through the air in slow motion, only moving into one rotation in account of Roman's intention to move. She marvelled as ever about how clear the world seemed when you looked at it upside down. Then she landed, much harder than she intended coughing slightly from the impact of ribs on pavement.
But she had to stay in character, because Roman was getting away.
Giving chase she followed him through to the Central district, losing sight of him as he climbed the steps of Arc Memorial Arena.
Where who else awaited him but the hottest free agent in wrestling; Cinder Freaking Fall.
She was about to fangirl out, were it not for two things - her chest was stealing the very air from her lungs… and a very pissed Goodwitch had stormed in front of her to accost Roman about something…
Maybe she'd lie down while the professionals talked this out.
She grinned despite the fire racing through her every second. Whatever else happened today, whatever happened tomorrow, whatever happened any day from now on couldn't change one fact;
This was the best sweet 16th ever.
"And that's the bottom line, because Ozpin said so." She finished at a whisper, before breaking into the most painful fit of giggles in her life to that point.
