Upgrades
Jaune clasped his hands together and sucked in a deep breath, wondering just how to bring up the elephant in the room. It was a good thing Beacon's halls were currently empty because he sure as heck had no idea how to explain this.
"Well? What do you think? Is my baby cool or what?" Ruby was practically bouncing in place, waiting for a reply from one of her besties.
"Um. I'm… I'm actually not sure what it is." Jaune answered honestly after a moment's hesitation.
"It's Crescent Rose Version 7.3!" Ruby declared proudly, waving to the monstrosity behind her and taking a bow.
"That's… Crescent Rose!?" Jaune did a double take. How? What?
"Ruby…" He ventured. "Crescent Rose, uh, the previous version was a scythe, right?"
"And a highly customizable sniper rifle." She chimed in.
"Right, also a gun. So… what… what the heck am I looking now? I don't think that's a scythe or a gun anymore." Jaune hedged. Ruby and oversized death machines always went together, but this was pushing it, even for her.
A hodgepodge of boxy metal parts, exposed wires, dust conduits and who knew what else had replaced the, dare he say it, tiny in comparison sniper scythe thing. The… abomination was less weapon and more twisted fridge with a pole welded on. Was it supposed to be a club?
"Silly Jaune, of course it's still a scythe and a gun." Ruby rolled her eyes and huffed. "Look, if I just push this button here…"
A giant gleaming silver scythe blade erupted from the mess of parts and narrowly missed Jaune's face by a hair's breadth. Jaune screamed in shock and fell backwards, landing on his butt. From his position he had a good view of where the supersized blade reached from floor to ceiling, it's pointy end glinting in the light.
"Ah haha haha… oops, I still need more time to get used to the reach I guess." Ruby laughed sheepishly and hit another button to retract the blade.
"Ok. OK! Big scythe!" Jaune gasped out and backed away nervously.
"That's not all it's got, I've thrown in every upgrade I could think of." Ruby preened and gently caressed her pride and joy.
"W-what else did you put in there?" Jaune asked before he could stop himself. Eyes widening in realisation, he hurriedly spoke up again. "Ah, you don't need to do another demonstration here. I'm good. Thank you."
"Yeah, there isn't enough space for the hardlight extension. If we were outside or on the firing range…" Ruby grumbled.
"E-extension?"
"Oh yeah! My baby's got hardlight projectors in there too, they'll quii qun quin? Ahg! They'll make Crescent Rose's blade five times bigger! Who needs to know hand to hand combat when they can't even reach you." Ruby nodded to herself, adding something about 'showing Yang' under her breath.
"Five. Times." Jaune said slowly, his mind conjuring the horrifying image of Ruby swinging around a building sized scythe and mowing down everything around her. "W-what the heck are you planning to kill with that!? A house!?"
"No, but there are Grimm the size of houses though. And Crescent Rose will cut through them like a hot knife through ice cream!" Ruby grinned.
"…Maybe I was worrying about the wrong person." Jaune muttered. All this time he'd been worrying Nora would be the one to go do something to break reality, turns out, Ruby was the one to watch for.
"Hmm? You say something Jaune?"
"Ah, did, did you add anything else to it?" Jaune said out loud.
"Oh yeah, it's not just a highly customizable sniper rifle anymore. It's now also a man-portable anti-ship cannon!" Before Jaune could stop her, Ruby had already depressed another button, triggering yet another mechashift.
"Blugh…" Jaune paled when he found himself staring down the barrel of the biggest gun he'd ever seen. Somehow Ruby had managed to construct and fit something that wouldn't be out of place on one of Atlas's battleships into her weapon.
"See? Oh and I can make it fire different dust cannonballs too, next time Torchwick and his goons won't be getting away so easily." She promised.
"Ruby." Jaune began in a strained voice. "I think I can fit my head inside the barrel, you can't call something like that man-portable anymore. And, I know we're training to be huntsmen and huntresses, but are you sure that's even legal to own?"
"Pshaw, I can bring it with me, that makes it man-portable. And don't worry, I checked the books, there is no limit to how big a mechashift weapon can be… although it's more of a grey area…" Ruby trailed off frowning.
A small ding sounded from Crescent Rose V7.3 and both of them turned to stare at it. Before Jaune could ask, Ruby was already fiddling with it. Next thing he knew, he was being presented with a golden-brown piece of toast.
"You built a toaster into it." He said flatly. Sure, why not. At this point, he should just roll with it and accept that his friend was a certified mad genius.
Hopefully more on the genius side than mad.
"Yup. It's also got a mini fridge to store cookies and milk while on missions." Ruby said nonchalantly, as though there was nothing absurd about the words spilling from her mouth.
"Uh huh. Is there anything it doesn't do?" Jaune asked tiredly.
"W-well, I'm still working on making it transform. I'm not sure if I want it to turn into armour or make it a mech so it's a work in progress." She said.
"…You know what? Great! I wish you all the best in that. The Grimm will never know what hit them." Jaune shrugged. Sure. A suit of power armour or a transforming robot, why not? Maybe by this time next week Crescent Rose would be able to transform into an airship that didn't give him motion sickness.
"Yep. Oh, look at the time, I gotta go get back to work now. Still have some bugs to work out on the fortress mode." Ruby slung the monstrosity over her shoulder and made to leave.
Only… she wasn't quite used to its new bulk or weight.
Accidentally swinging a little too hard, she lost her grip on it and Crescent Rose Version 7.3 made a perfect arc through the air… before smashing into the ground behind Ruby with a deafening crack.
For a moment, perfect silence dominated. Then more cracking resounded through the hall and the floor gave way. The colossal weapon dropped through the hole into the floor and smashed through the floor below it… and the one below that… and the one after, going until it hit the ground floor.
Jaune and Ruby exchanged a glance.
"Haaah… I'll get the broom." Ruby kicked away some debris by her feet.
"I'll help." Jaune commiserated. "At least-"
"MS ROSE!" The one hundred percent pissed off voice of Ms Goodwitch echoed up to them through the hole in the floor.
"Haaaaah…" Came the synchronised sigh.