A\N: Technically the first fanfic I created for RWBY, I wrote this last fall with the intention of this being the main multi-chapter fic I would focus on - a Realistic Crime-thriller AU with team RWBY being various shades of criminals, each with their own stories that would eventually converge in a noir-like fashion.
I got 3 chapters in with the story before I eventually scrapped it after I realized that the story I envisioned for the fic was going to be far too long and expansive for me to ever finish writing. I retooled some elements I had planned for this fic into another Crime AU longfic, Thieves Like Us, and basically let these chapters sit in my drafts before I revisited them and realized they might do well enough as one-shots. Seeing as how it's been a while since I published anything, and how it's gonna be a while before I have anything else ready to publish, I decided to just pull the trigger on these chapters for the time being.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
Thursday, January 16th, 1:50 PM.
Somewhere in the Kingdom of Vacuo
Maybe it was the mugginess of the Vacuo air finally getting to her, but Ruby didn't even want to get out of the van and take the 20-second walk into the drab, little bank in front of her if it meant leaving the cool comfort of the van's air conditioning.
Granted, some of her suffering was self-inflicted, as she wasn't exactly dressed appropriately for the climate. With a thick maroon zip-up hoodie over a longsleeve t-shirt, paired with dark blue denim jeans, Ruby felt like a walking anomaly as everyone she saw since she drove into Vacuo was wearing something along the lines of tank-tops and shorts. But in the weeks prior, when she and Yang were casing the very same bank that was in front of her, it never got as hot and muggy as it did now.
The first time the two had cased the bank, they knew that this couldn't have been a more opportune branch to hit. The building was likely smaller than your average fast-food restaurant, but that made things easier for her and Yang, since there would be less of a chance for people to hide out in rooms. Given that Vacuo was already practically a barren desert, there was a small chance any bystanders noticing the robbery. But since this bank was on the side of a cracked, empty road that was 20 minutes from any highway, even if someone did witness the robbery and called the cops, the police's response would be slowed.
"You think that's him?" Yang asked in the passenger seat to the right of Ruby.
Parked on the side farthest from the bank's opening, Ruby was able to see every car pulling out and coming in to the bank's parking lot without having to crane her neck around. Consequently, Ruby was able to see exactly what Yang was talking about: a tan, beat up early 2000's Honda Civic had just sputtered into the parking lot and was now pulling into a parking space. It matched the make and model of the car that belonged to the Security guard that should be coming in to start his shift right around this time.
"I dunno. What's his plate?" Ruby replied.
"Gimme a sec," Yang said. Ruby glanced towards Yang and saw her reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out a pair of binoculars. Yang then held the binoculars up to her eyes as she stared forward through the windshield, face hard as stone.
Ruby took this brief moment where she knew Yang was too focused to catch her staring to size her sister up and wonder to herself, "How on earth is Yang completely cool while I'm sweating bullets over here?" Hell, Yang was dressed even worse for the Vacuo weather than Ruby was: she was wearing a cracked, brown leather bomber jacket with a fur-lined collar along with thick and heavy cargo pants. Ruby thought she looked ridiculous with her get-up, every time she saw Yang it was like looking at an Eskimo in the middle of the Sahara. Despite all her clothes though, Ruby hasn't seen a bead of sweat of Yang once in the last hour.
"AJ19KL, Vacuo plate. That's his, right?" Yang inquired without moving, her eyes still glued to the binoculars.
"Yup, that's him." Ruby quipped.
Ruby twisted around in her seat to grab her laptop out of her bag behind her. Ruby also took a quick inventory of the back of the van to ensure that Yang's gear and "Plan B" was still in the back of the van.
Seeing the grey cloth sheet was still covering "Plan B" in the back of the van, she was satisfied that her little "secret weapon" was still safe. Yang had protested about bringing "Plan B" along, since it was heavy as all get out and would slow their van down in any chase, but Ruby convinced Yang it was better to be safe than sorry.
Ruby then placed her laptop in her lap. As she opened it up, the screen flickered to light, with a black and white screen with four camera feeds showing the inside of the bank appearing.
Getting access to the security camera feeds inside a bank was usually a challenge, and most of the time Ruby didn't even bother trying. But, since this was a First Vacuo Credit Union branch, Ruby knew that this branch had a "Stone Lake Security Consulting" security camera and alarm system, since Stone Lake was First Vacuo's go-to company when it came to security contracting. Stone Lake made the fatal mistake of becoming one of the first security companies to use wireless cameras. Although the company swore up and down that the wireless connection would be encrypted so no one could "hack" into the cameras, Ruby knew all she needed for full access was a Stone Lake employee's login credentials and password, which she was able to get through a gullible security guard and help from Yang's incredible email-scamming skills.
Looking at the live camera feeds, Ruby ran a quick head count and tallied up 3 tellers, 4 civilians and the branch manager. A heavy-set, cherry-faced woman soon walked into view of the cameras as she strode across the bank towards the bank's entrance doors. Ruby looked up from her computer screen and saw the woman through the windshield as she emerged from the bank doors not a few seconds later. The woman walked over to the beat-up tan Civic and approached the driver side window, which slid down as she approached. Ruby watched as the woman took a set of keys on a ring off of her tool belt and hand to the driver and as the two shared a few words.
"Cue Mrs. Haggerty handing off her keys to Mr. Corcoran, as expected," Yang said.
Ruby knew "Mrs. Haggerty" was Jane Haggerty, 37, security guard for Stone Lake, and "Mr. Corcoran" was Alec Corcoran, 22, also security guard for Stone Lake. After conducting countless hours of research into the security guards that work for this particular branch, Yang deduced that Alec Corcoran, at 5'1" and weighing only 102 pounds, would not impose much of a physical threat if confronted.
When casing the bank, Yang noticed another vulnerability with Mr. Corcoran in his pre-shift routine: Every day, at 1:55 pm, Haggerty would walk out of the bank, hand the keys to Corcoran, and then smoke a single cigarette for 3-4 minutes while Haggerty got in her car and headed home.
A whole 3-4 minutes where no security guard was in the building. That's all the time Ruby needed to kill the camera feeds and for Yang to make her move.
"I don't think any security guards are in the bank right now. Should I kill the camera and alarm systems?" Ruby asked.
"Now's as good of a time as any," Yang drawled.
Ruby nodded and brought up a command prompt window and began typing away. With just a few inputs, Ruby was able to reduce the four camera feeds to static.
"Done. What now?"
"Let our man finish his smoke. Then I'll trail him in, take him down and greet the crowd."
The bank had a key card access reader installed on the door so only customers with a valid membership card and security guards could get in and out, so Yang had to act quick and follow Corcoran in right behind him or she'll be locked out of the bank.
Ruby looked up and saw that Corcoran had begun his pre-work smoking ritual in front of his car. From his long, pointed face, his small stature, and the grotesque, greasy-looking man-bun sitting on top of his head, Ruby could tell Yang he was just the type of guy that she hated, and was eager to knock this guy flat on his ass the minute he was through the bank door.
Yang turned around and grabbed her weapon of choice: an old Ithaca double-barreled shotgun. The gun was a family heirloom, and was their father's hunting shotgun before he died.
Ruby cringed a little at the sight of the poor shape the weapon every time Yang brought it out. The steel of the barrels was starting to rust a bit, the sight at the end had begun to chip off, and the wood on the stock was starting to warp. Ruby offered to clean the gun up countless times to Yang, but Yang would always deflect the request by saying she "liked the gun rugged, just like herself," or would tell Ruby to "go obsess over your own guns for once."
The latter insult from Yang stung a little whenever Ruby heard it, because...well, she already did obsess over her own guns, or any weapon, really. Whether it was a firearm, knives, clubs, explosives, etc., Ruby certainly knew all there was to it, and if she didn't, she'd spend hours just researching it. Weapons fascinated Ruby to no end, just as it had almost all her life. Her parents, teachers and other kids at school thought this was odd at best, or that she was a nutjob at worst, but Ruby couldn't help but admire how sleek and well-engineered a quality handgun is, or be amazed at how razor-sharp a bayonet's edge can be.
Yang reached into her pocket and fished out two shotgun shells and began loading them into her shotgun, all the while keeping her sight on the security guard Corcoran, still smoking away and now checking his phone. Ruby felt her chest tightening in anticipation, so she took this time to mentally prepare herself for what was about to go down and also remind herself of Yang's carefully-laid instructions. Once Yang had entered the bank and started to control the crowd, Ruby had about 20 seconds to pull the van up right in front of the entrance, effectively blocking any view of what would be happening inside the bank. At that point, Yang would be standing in the entrance to let Ruby inside the bank. Once inside, she'd help herd the people inside to somewhere Yang could keep an eye on all of them, and then collect all their phones.
"Remember, once we got everyone under control, get the manager to open the vault for you, then have him open lockbox 168," Yang said.
Of course Ruby remembered the last part; that lockbox was the whole reason the two were here in the first place. Someone wanted something in lockbox 168, so they passed the job along to Roman Torchwick, and then he passed the job along to Yang and Ruby. Whoever requested it was dishing out big bucks though: Ⱡ60,000 for Ruby and Yang each, plus a Ⱡ20,000 cut to Roman for facilitating the robbery. On top of that, 90% of the Lien that Yang and Ruby got their hands on in the bank was theirs to keep. Of course, being the greedy bastard he is, Roman tried to worm his way into a 30% cut of whatever money the two got, but he was happy with 10% after Yang told him she'd make a necklace out of his teeth if he kept asking for more money.
Corcoran was now clearly finished with his smoke, dropping his cigarette butt to the ground and snuffing it out under his shoe. Turning on his heel, he was now walking towards the bank entrance.
"Alright, I'm going in," Yang said in a low voice. Yang reached behind her and pulled out a gaudy, bright yellow motorcycle helmet with black flame vinyls on it. Yang gracefully slid the helmet over her head, snapped her double-barrel shotgun shut, and then grabbed a duffel bag from the floor of her seat.
"Showtime," Yang said in a fake, deep voice before opening the van door and then shutting it behind her, slinging her bag around her shoulder at the same time.
Ruby watched through the windshield as Yang walked briskly towards the bank entrance while holding her shotgun behind her back, hidden from view of the bank. Meanwhile, Corcoran was now swiping into the bank and opening the front door, oblivious to the rolling thunder trailing behind him.
Ruby could feel every bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as Yang was now practically bee-lining towards the security guard Corcoran. Ruby could feel her heart practically beating out of her chest, and her gut felt like it was getting crushed under a bus. All the mental preparation and planning for jobs never got rid of the anxiety and dread she felt right before the action started. What if something went wrong? What if they got in a shootout? What if they got arrested? All these thoughts always choked her up during every job.
Of course, all those thoughts flew out of her mind the moment she saw Yang raise her right foot, and in one swift kick, send Corcoran flying through the doorway and into the bank. The job was now fully underway, and it's now time the adrenaline kicked in.
Ruby quickly turned the keys in the ignition as the van engine roared to life. Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby spotted Yang swing her shotgun up against her shoulder, now pointed at the customers while she was likely yelling what Ruby could only imagine were expletive-laden commands. Ruby slammed the pedal against the floor of the van as it lurched forward and jetted towards the entrance of the bank. Fearing that she would almost spin out of control, Ruby slammed on the brakes and pulled the van up to the entrance of the bank, essentially blocking it and giving her only a 3-step walk into the bank.
Every inch of skin on Ruby's body felt like a live wire and she felt herself breathing heavily as she quickly turned the engine off and reached into the glove compartment of the van to pull out her weapon, a Beretta 92FS. At any other given time, Ruby would love to admire the gun, how sleek it's cold steel looked and how comfortable it felt in her hands from the custom grip, but her mind was locked solely on getting into the bank at the moment. Ruby opened the van's door and hopped out onto the concrete, slamming the door shut behind her. Before she started walking, Ruby slipped on her disguise of choice: a pair of cheap sunglasses, and a black surgical mask with roses embroidered on it. Ruby then pulled her jacket's hood over her head and began storming towards the bank entrance.
As if on cue, the door in front of Ruby swung open, with Yang holding the door open while simultaneously holding her shotgun towards the people within the bank. Through the bank, Ruby was able to see that all the people inside the bank, including the tellers, were now laying on the ground, their hands outstretched in the air.
"Nice of you to finally join us," Yang muttered as Ruby walked past, her voice muffled underneath her motorcycle helmet. Once Ruby was in the bank, she instinctively raised her gun towards everyone inside, eliciting shocked expressions and gasps of terror from practically everyone inside along with a loud shriek from one of the tellers.
"Oh my god, we're all gonna die!" the teller yelled at the top of his lungs from the far corner of the room.
"Hey, what the hell did I tell you about yelling, asshole!?" Yang barked from under her helmet. "Everyone better shut the hell up from here on out, or they're gonna get what Mr. Corcoran here got," Yang growled, before turning her head towards Corcoran, now at her feet and blood pouring from his nose. "Mr. Corcoran, do you want these people to get their faces bashed in?"
"N-no, ma'am-" Corcoran was able to get out.
"Then please, Mr. Corcoran, tell these folk it's in their best interest they keep their mouths shut," Yang briskly replied.
Ruby saw Corcoran pause for a second, then visibly choke on his words before he opened his mouth.
"F-folks, do what the lady says and we'll all be fine," Corcoran said in a quivering voice.
With the blood rush through her head now beginning to subside, Ruby was able to take in her surroundings and get a head count of everyone on the floor. Ruby counted 7 people, plus Corcoran the security guard, meaning that Yang had successfully rounded everyone up. On each of their faces, Ruby saw wide eyes filled with fear. Some of the people were visibly shaking, and the teller who yelled out earlier was now sobbing softly.
Ruby hated this part of robberies. Everything was an adrenaline rush, but looking at the sheer terror her and Yang inflicted on these people was like slamming into a brick wall. It tore Ruby up inside knowing how much pain she was causing these people.
"Bravo, Mr. Corcoran. I couldn't have said it better myself," Yang said. "To reiterate: Do every single thing that I say, or that my friend here says, and we will all be hunky-dory. We'll be on our merry ways in a bit, and all of you can go on with your days and catch the football game on later, or whatever."
Yang then graciously hopped onto a table in the middle of the room, her shotgun still pointed at everyone below her.
"Now, my accomplice here, Little Red, is going to collect your phones in this bag," Yang said while holding up a small cloth bag. "When she stops in front of you, you will camly reach into your pocket or purse and take out your phone, then reach up and put them in the bag. If you make any sudden movements, if you try to make an emergency call on your phone, or if you just do anything other than what I just told you to do, you will catch buckshot."
Yang tossed the bag to Ruby, who caught it in her right hand. Ruby then shook the bag open and held it in front of the hostage nearest to her, an older-looking man with greying hair and wearing a nice suit. The man whimpered, then slowly put his phone in the bag. Ruby could feel her gut begin to sink as she realized she would have to look every other person in the eyes and see the fear in their faces as they handed her their phones.
Once Ruby finally had all the phones in the bag, she looked around the bank and noticed a coffee machine in the corner near the lounge area. Ruby walked over to the coffee machine and, with the gun still in her right hand, grabbed the pot out of the machine and began pouring steaming hot coffee over the phones, eliciting gasps from the crowd.
"Pipe down. At least now you all have a good reason to upgrade to the new smartphones," Yang joked.
Ruby knew that this was Yang's part of the heist: acting as crowd control. Yang would never take an uncalculated risk that could jeopardize the job, but if she was presented with an opportunity to crack a joke or "do something cool," she almost always did it. Ruby sometimes wonders if Yang should just get into stand up comedy instead of robbing banks.
"Now, is the branch manager currently in today?" Yang asked.
There was a brief pause as all the hostages looked at each other, before the old man in the suit stood up from the floor.
"No, Ma'am, he's out sick today. However, I am the Assistant Manager of the branch," the old man said in a strong Southern drawl.
"Well, Mr. Assistant Manager, can you get the vault open?" Yang quipped.
"I-I can put in the code. But cause of the timelock, and the delay issues we've been having-"
"Jesus, can you open the vault? Yes or no?" Yang asked in an annoyed tone.
"I-Yes, but we'd have to wait for 2 minutes," the manager said.
"We got all the time in the world. Go put in the code, Mr. Assistant Manager. Little Red, you watch him.
Ruby expected the vault to have a time lock; every bank nowadays had some form of timelock. Ruby followed the Assistant Manager past the teller counters and towards a large and bulky steel door with a number keypad on the handle. The Assistant Manager began typing in the code, before clicking enter.
"We gotta wait now until the timelock is up, then the vault door should open," the assistant manager said.
"Alright," Ruby said with a nod.
"Alright, now all tellers, stand up!" Yang barked. Ruby heard the shuffling of feet as some people began to stand up.
"Tellers, in my duffel bag there are smaller bags. You will fill them up with all the money in the register. Do not put any bills with dye packs in them, do not trigger any alarms including the silent alarm. Now, git."
The tellers then quickly rushed over to the duffel bag, each one pulling out a smaller bag. All of them then walked over to the teller counter and began filling the bags with cash from the register.
"Let's go, pick up the pace people!" Yang yelled out.
Ruby knew Yang was bluffing about the silent alarm and dye packs, since Ruby had already disabled the silent alarm, and the dye packs...Well, Ruby had a plan for those as well.
Ruby looked over towards the Assistant Manager. He was visibly shaking, and looking on in horror as his tellers began emptying out the registers. It was times like these that Ruby wished she could comfort people, and just tell them that everything will be okay. Just anything to tell them that Ruby was still feels for them…
"So, uh, this your first time getting robbed?" Ruby quietly croaked.
Ruby felt the blood drain from her face once she realized what she just said. Did she really just try to have small talk with someone she's robbing?
"Wha-I...I, uh, yes. This is our first time being robbed, yes," the Assistant Manager sputtered out in a surprised tone.
"Oh. Huh," was all Ruby had to offer in response.
"Idiot!" Ruby thought to herself. It was almost autopilot in her mind when Ruby opened her mouth. Still, what on earth possesed her say something that stupid?
The vault door beeped, and Ruby heard several clicking noises within the door, clearly indicating the door was now unlocked. Out of all the jobs she'd been on, Ruby had never been happier to see a vault door open than right now, sparing her from the awkward silence between her and the Assistant Manager.
"Open the door," Ruby commanded in a firm voice. The Assistant Manager sheepishly nodded and began to open the door. Ruby readied her pistol's aim at the door and steadied it with both her hands, just in case. As the door opened, however, Ruby lowered her gun as she was that not only was the brightly-lit vault devoid of any threats, there was a large pallet of dollar bills sitting on a table. As the Assistant Manager stepped forward, Ruby motioned for him to step inside the vault with her.
Ruby took a few steps into the vault and looked around. Almost all of the walls were lined with safety deposit boxes. Ruby's eyes quickly scanned over the entire wall before she spotted a lockbox with 168 engraved on it.
"Alright! Now, Manager, I need you to use your keys to open this lockbox-"
"I can't," the assistant manager meekly slipped out. Ruby felt the blood drain from her face.
"Wh-what do you mean you can't open it?" Ruby asked.
"Well, uh, this lockbox is special," the manager said. "We've given the owner of this lockbox special privilege, and they have the only copy of the keys to this lockbox-"
"Hey! Everything okay in there?" Yang called out from the lobby.
"Uhh...no, we got a problem! The Assistant Manager said that they don't have any keys to 168 on hand here," Ruby shouted back in her reply.
"They wha-Bring his ass out here!" Yang commanded.
Ruby turned her head towards the Assistant Manager, whose eyes were now practically popping out of his head in fear, and motioned for him to step outside. Ruby knew that Yang wasn't happy, but she knew better than to keep Yang waiting. The two of them limbered outside of the vault and back into the lobby before Yang grabbed the Assistant Manager by the tie while thrusting the barrel of her shotgun under his chin. The Assistant Manager let out a yelp of fear.
"What kind of shit-poor bank doesn't have keys to their own security deposit boxes? You sure you ain't just trying to pull our leg?" Yang spat out in a low voice at the Assistant Manager, each of her words dripping with venom.
"Please, I-I swear! We don't have any keys here to get it open! It was a special request by the owner of the lockbox," the Assistant Manager was able to sputter out.
"Bullshit-"
"Y, he's telling the truth," Ruby piped in. Yang and the Assistant Manager both turned their gaze towards Ruby at the same time. Even though the visor of her helmet was completely tinted black, Ruby could feel Yang glaring daggers at Ruby through her helmet for interrupting her.
Yang always got this way when she was the slightest bit angry; she always flew off the handle towards everyone around her, regardless of who they were. It was almost like for a split-second, Yang forgot that Ruby was her own sister. It always lasted for just a split-second, but it was enough to make Ruby's guts twist up in dread.
Ruby could sense that Yang's split-second of anger was now subsiding, and her head was now collected.
"I believe him. He wouldn't lie," Ruby said, this time with a firmer voice.
Yang, now processing everything Ruby just said, turned her head back to the Assistant Manager to study him, then back at Ruby. She then let go of his tie and lowered the barrel of her shotgun from under his chin. The manager let out a deep sigh of relief as he clutched his chest and grabbed the nearest wall.
"Well, if Mr. Manager here doesn't have keys, then that leaves us with only one more plan, right?" Yang said to Ruby.
Ruby stared at Yang quizzically for a few seconds, wondering what in the world Yang was talking about, before Ruby remembered what was in the back of the van.
"Plan B" was still in the back of the van.
Less than a split second later, Ruby was dashing through the main entrance.
"Hey-Red! Slow down!" Yang called out at Ruby.
"Yeah, yeah-get the door for me when I come back in!" Ruby called back as she threw the bank's doors open and walked back outside the bank.
With some of the adrenaline gone and after gaining control of her senses, Ruby felt the blast of hot Vacuo air as she opened the door and stormed outside towards the back of the van. Scanning her surroundings quickly, she found that nothing had changed since she first left the van: the same cars were in the parking lot, and not a single soul was in sight. Ruby took this moment to tuck her Beretta into her back waistband.
Ruby threw open the back doors of the van and then pulled the cloth off of Plan B in the back of the van. There, Ruby had to indulge herself and take a moment to admire Plan B in all it's beauty: an industrial-grade, 900 RPM diamond-coring drill, customized with a magnetized stabilizing plate and a hand valve to extend the diamond-tipped drill-bit back and forth. All custom modifications were made by yours truly, of course, Ruby Rose.
Ruby quickly snapped back to reality and grabbed the drill with both her hands, grunting as she hoisted the drill out of the back of the van. The drill was only roughly bigger than a microwave, but it weighed a ton. Ruby was putting every single ounce of upper body strength to use to carry "Plan B" into the bank.
Once Ruby reached the doors of the bank again, the doors swung open with Yang posted at the door.
"Get the drill going on the box, and I'll keep an eye on all these assholes," Yang said under her breath to Ruby.
Ruby nodded as she walked briskly past the confused and bewildered eyes of the hostages in the bank and towards the vault. First setting the drill down in the vault, Ruby then began unwinding the drill's power cord and plugged it into an outlet just outside of the vault. Ruby then dashed back towards the drill in the vault and grasped it firmly in both hands. Taking a deep breath, Ruby then groaned as she struggled to lift the drill up. Finally getting the bit level with the keyhole on the lockbox, Ruby gently inched the magnetic plate on the drill closer to the metal surface of the lock boxes above 168 until she felt the drill lurch forward and stick to the lockboxes.
The magnetic plate would be enough to hold the drill steady on its own, but Ruby knew she had to be extra careful and take it slow cracking this box open, since she had no idea what is inside and couldn't risk damaging it. Roman said that not even the guy who set up this job knew what was in the box, although Ruby had to take this with a grain of salt since this was Roman telling her this.
Ruby made final adjustments to have the drill bit line up perfectly with the keyhole, then flicked the power switch to the "on" position. The drill whirred to life, and Ruby saw the drill bit become a mad flurry. Grasping the hand valve with her right hand and stabilizing the drill with her left, Ruby began to inch the drill bit closer to the keyhole until the metal on the keyhole greeted the drill bit's contact with a loud, metallic shrieking. Ruby winced at the piercing sound and turned the valve just a little bit more. Surprised at how easily the drill bit was eating into the metal, Ruby began to ease the drill bit through, centimeter by centimeter, until she felt the drill bit break through the other side of the keyhole. With that, Ruby knew she was done drilling through.
Ruby then shut the drill off and unlatched the drill off the metal surface and gently set it onto the ground. At this point, Ruby was dying of anticipation of what lurked within the box. Was it diamonds? Money? Bearer bonds? She knew she'd find out soon, as she balled her hand up into a fist and gave the metal door three firm pounds, the third one sending the bolt that previously kept the door locked clanging through the now-hollow keyhole and onto the ground. The door then swung open on its own, but Ruby was slightly disappointed that the interior of the box was too dark to see clearly inside. Still, Ruby could make out the outline of an object inside, so she reached into the box with her right hand and pulled out…
A booklet. Wrapped in cracked leather and its paper clearly yellowing with age, but in all, just a booklet.
"Really?" Ruby muttered under her breath. Ruby reached her hand back into the box to make sure she wasn't missing anything, but she could feel that the box was now empty.
She couldn't believe it. All this trouble, just for a checkbook? To say Ruby was disappointed would be an understatement. Still, Ruby remembered that she and Yang were being paid $60,000 for whatever was in the lockbox, even if it was just a dusty, old piece of junk.
"How we doing in there, Red?" Yang called out from outside the bank vault.
"All good! Lemme bag the rest of the cash!" Ruby yelled in response.
Ruby turned towards the pile of cash that was on the metal table in the middle of the vault. "Well, at least we won't be going home empty handed," Ruby thought to herself. Ruby threw the duffle bag that was around her shoulder the whole time and pulled out three more empty duffel bags.
In a weird way, bagging up the cash was Ruby's favorite part of the job, since she knew she was the best at it. Ruby could go at light speeds when it came to loading up the bags with cash, and it pissed Yang off to no end that Ruby was blowing her out of the water when it came to that part of the job.
Ruby had just finished bagging up all the cash and making the trips back and forth to the van loading up the money. In all, packing the cash and moving it took no more than 10 minutes, plust the 2-3 minutes Ruby spend struggling to get "Plan B" back into the van. It would have taken a lot longer if Ruby had to search the stacks for dye packs, but Ruby had a plan for those: a transponder in the glove box to cancel out the proximity sensors in the packs and trick into thinking they were still in the bank. Now, with all the cash loaded up, Ruby could safely say that they had cleaned out this joint to the best of their ability.
"Y, I think that's all of it," Ruby said.
"Alright, Little Red, in that case I'd say it's high time we hit the road," Yang replied. "Go start the van up, I'll be out in a minute," Yang continued in a hushed voice.
Ruby nodded. She knew that Yang was going to take this extra moment to crack one more corny joke to these people or make some grandiose speech. Still, when Yang was on her "comedy routine," there was no stopping her.
Ruby walked back out into the oppresive Vacuo air and briskly walked over to the van's driver side door and swung it open. Opening the glove compartment, Ruby pulled out her Beretta and threw it inside and then slammed it shut. Reaching for the ignition, Ruby felt the keys in her fingertips and gave the keys a twist, causing the engine to roar to life. As if on cue, Yang was now backing out slowly with her shotgun still aimed at the hostages, until she reached the van's doors. Yang ripped the door open, and then quickly sat down in the passenger side seat and slammed her door shut.
"Go, go, go, go, go!" Yang shouted the minute she was in the van. Ruby instinctively punched it and the van lurched forward, shooting out of the bank's parking lot.
"Yo, the transponder?" Yang asked.
"In the glove," Ruby replied curtly. Yang threw open the glove compartment and found the grey little box with an antennae attached to it, with a piece of scotch tape labeled "transponder" on it clearly indicating the gadget's function. Yang then flipped the transponder on and saw as it whirred to life with a green light in the middle.
"Let's hope this works," Yang said.
Ruby slammed the pedal onto the floor of the van and began speeding down the side road that the bank was on. Ruby knew that once the van had made it 20 meters of the bank, the dye packs would either trigger if the transponder didn't work, or would remain dormant if the transponder did its job.
As if she was sensing that they were reaching the 20 meter mark, Yang turned around to look at the pile of bags filled with cash in the back of the van. Ruby could feel her own heart rate rise as she was expecting an explosion of colorful ink to shower them and the money, completely ruining any success they've been having so far…
Nothing. Ruby must've driven at least 40 meters down the road at this point, and the money bags in the van remain completely still.
Yang then turned to sit forward in her seat, and then removed her helmet and threw it in the back with the money. Drenched in sweat, Yang shook out her hair and breathed a sigh of relief. Ruby took this time to let down her hood and pull the surgical mask off from her face. Turning towards Yang, she saw that Yang had her hand balled into a fist and outstretched towards Ruby.
"Bump it, yo," Yang said. A wide grin spread across Ruby's face as she then returned Yang's fistbump. Immediately after, Ruby could no longer help it, and the two erupted into childish laughter.
"WE DID IIIIIT!" Yang shouted at the top of her lungs as the van shot straight down the dusty, barren Vacuo backroad, leaving behind only a cloud of dust.