The density of the rain and forked flashes of bright lightning made visibility in the sky incredibly poor. People stayed inside on days like these, even children who enjoyed playing in the rain withdrew, ushered indoors by their mothers, who feared the electric lightshow and heavy downpour. Shop-goers and business workers on mass decided to get the train or bus home in dread of walking in that vast seemingly unending storm. It is because of this, this highly fortunate but completely coincidental cover, that nobody noticed it. The smaller, faster, and by far brighter cloud moving in a straight line through the heavens, leaving a great yellow contrail in its wake.
Upon this speedy golden cloud sat two girls, and although it was raining, anyone could tell from one glace that whatever novelty this venture had once held, was long extinguished. The white-haired girl wearing a similarly coloured parka and combat skirt sat hugging her knees shivering while the black-haired woman sat cross-legged peering over the edge of the cloud, her red cloak flying out behind her in the slip stream. Each time the wind blew with extra ferocity, she would wince back slightly as if afraid of being bucked off the fluffy suspended pillar. The white-haired girl would also make a concerned gesture whenever this happened, looking as if to get up and jump off after her fallen friend. After a particularly violent gust of wind, Weiss Schnee raised her head and spoke quietly to herself.
"He never said anything about rain."
Ruby looked over; it was clear that she had seen Weiss' lips move but hadn't heard her over the gale but had interpreted what she'd said anyway. Placing both of her hands down on the cloud in front of her, Ruby spoke in a high, slightly frantic sounding voice, that betrayed her cool demeanour from before. Weiss suspected from this that her glances down towards the earth had not been of reckless enjoyment of their situation, but of nervousness.
"Up p-please, Nimbus!"
In an instant the cloud reared and shot diagonally upwards straight through the clouds. There was a great shriek of shock from both the women as the cold water splashed their exposed skin but stopped immediately when Nimbus broke surface and they could see the sun again. The distant setting sun cast a radiant light down on the swirling fog beneath the small cloud. The sound of rolling thunder was still audible but sounded farther away now they were tis high up. Though they were now drenched with water from the cloud, Ruby and Weiss had both been soaked anyway by the long journey anyway, so they rejoiced at having the view of the sunset, a nice change from the stormy foreboding skies. The speed of Nimbus combined with the fleeting sunlight soon took its toll, and in time both the girls were dry again, though they still shivered from being so high up.
"Do you think we can trust him?" Weiss asked abruptly. The question hung in the air for a few moments before Ruby answered, crossing her legs and arms with a troubled look on her face.
"I dunno, he didn't look like him, but I'd recognise that voice anywhere. In any case, he had that cane, and nobodies that good a thief. But all the same it's a lot to take in, Blake's old partner, Ozpin and Salem, the gods wiping out humanity…" Ruby trailed off into silence, glancing down at the fluffy expanses of the cloud that was her and Weiss' ride. Knowing how this subject must be torturing Ruby's mind, Weiss didn't particularly feel like pressing the point. Shifting slightly on the cloud, Weiss cleared her throat and changed the subject.
"Things at Beacon must be worse than ever if Ozpin was willing to let all of that slip, although it doesn't see like the relics are the big prize anymore." Weiss still recalled the status of the streets before she had left her school with her amputee friend in tow. If things were worse than that…she didn't want to think about how the teachers were doing, not to mention the other teams. Coming back to reality, Weiss realised that she had upset herself in a bid to not upset her teammate and mentally kicked herself for this before changing the subject yet again. "H-Handy that they had this cloud thing though, but I was surprised that I was allowed to ride it and Blake wasn't." Ruby shivered as Weiss finished, the memory of that painful moment still haunted her, to think she had been fused with someone like…that!
Weiss smiled amusedly "You're going to have to forgive her eventually, your team leader-"
"It's not like I'm immature or anything!" said Ruby in a shrill voice, her staring silver eyes very close to Weiss', "She didn't say anything Weiss, it was the fact that she said nothing! Pure! Radio! SILENCE!" Weiss blinked and her leader was slumped on the other side of the cloud, hugging her own knees and pouting, the heiress was not a fan of Ruby's new ability to move faster than the eye could see. The conversation back on the lookout had been awkward to say the least, but it had been enlightening as well. In any case they now had a path forward.
After an unexpected series of revelations from their ex-headmaster, team RWBY received a nasty shock from Mr. Popo regarding the Witch Salem's possible motives. Weiss remembered the worried look on the dark features as he explained the long history of evil people seeking to misuse those wish balls that Goku had mentioned. That nugget of information coincided with another unfortunate detail, the only thing that scorpion man had croaked out under Popo's…questioning. That weird tentacle thing that had been attacking Goku could apparently drain one of their memories to be viewed via a twin. Goku knew about the dragon spheres and where to find them and what they looked like and now so did Salem.
The news that there existed relics that could grant any wish had been a nasty shock for Ozpin, as well as the kid he was now inhabiting 'Oscar', who was just confused about who they all were and why he was there and why the short red head kept calling him 'Lil Oz' and laughing hysterically. Ozpin agreed that while the relics were powerful and necessary in his deal with the gods, a chance to wish for anything she wanted put Salem in an unfortunate position of absolute power over all of Remnant and maybe even the gods themselves. Weiss had found it difficult to think about all this information while hearing her old teachers voice coming out of a small child, it made the whole conversation feel surreal. Her injuries had only just been healed by Buu, Ruby and Yang had been fawning over this new kid that seemed to be switching between boy and huntsman at random intervals. Blake wasn't even paying attention to Oscar at all, she was stood stock still the whole exchange looking over at that white fang girl with a puzzled look on her face.
After the inhabitants of the lookout had calmed down and with the two prisoners secured, it had been decided that the team would have to find the drake circles first. It made sense that if they could even find one and destroy it then the world would be safe from Salem's reckless will. But the problem stood that Goku had stormed off, and he alone knew what they had to look for. Popo was able to provide a description, seven orange glass balls embroidered with small dark orange stars numbered one to seven, but that was all. Their only recourse was to journey across the ocean to the place where a device called the Dragon radar was apparently located in the ruins of an old city in the west of Remnant.
The fact that Salem would undoubtedly know about this as well meant they had needed to leave as soon as possible. It was then that Mr. Popo decided to introduce team RWBY to the 'Flying Nimbus cloud'. By calling out that name, the small yellow cloud zoomed out of the sky and stopped before the girls at waist height. It took some persuading to get anyone to climb aboard this apparently solid cloud, Yang and Blake couldn't do it at all. Popo explained that it was to do with innocence of the heart, so nobody was surprised that Ruby could stand atop the cloud looking pleased with herself, Weiss was a little surprised that she was permitted to climb up but was more confused as to the other half of her team. Yang was smirking in a manner than made it clear why the cloud didn't consider her 'innocent', and only once she and Ruby were at least half a mile away from the lookout did it finally click for the team leader, and her screams would have been audible to all those above and below if not mistaken for the distant thunder.
The sun was nothing but a great sanguine line on the horizon when Nimbus lurched and began its decent. Neither Ruby nor Weiss knew how the cloud knew where it was going but were not particularly concerned about it. According to the compass on Weiss' scroll, they were and had been going west for the entire journey. It was unfortunately cold and wet going back through the clouds, but they didn't have much time to lament the cold. The sight below drove the cold out of their minds. The landscape below Nimbus was an ancient industrial marvel, a vast metropolis of tall buildings, so tall in fact that the cloud had to steer hard to avoid collisions with their greying cracked surfaces and dark cracked windows. The street level below was overgrown and completely deserted, although the cars left scattered across the road gave the impression that those who once inhabited the area left in a hurry. Discarded effects littered the ground, groceries spilling from bags and visibly rotting, tatters of clothes blowing across the road like tumbleweeds. All the hallmarks of a once vibrant human society overrun by the creatures of grimm. The flying Nimbus cloud weaved through the dim quiet streets like a phantom, steering at its own behest for it apparently knew where it was going. Popo had simply told it to go to somewhere known as 'Capsule Corp'.
"What is this place?" Ruby asked, looking around at the desolation with the same sad eyes as when she had visited the ruins of the failed Veil extension. The combination of the wet and chilly weather with the silent deserted city made the whole place feel like the beginning of a crime drama, or a cheesy horror movie.
"I think it was called Westopolis" said Weiss, looking down and noticing the eerie creaking sound of a discarded pram rolling in the wind, before returning to the article she had open on her scroll. "I think it was a settlement constructed some time before humanity was wiped out. Apparently, this city housed some of the most advanced scientific research in the world. The city survived but the humans that re-emerged were primitive, and they destroyed all they could gather together, accusing it of being witchcraft. Nobody could find anything salvageable after those purges and couldn't understand what they did find." Weiss sighed and looked back up at the direction they were travelling. "I guess that by the time all four kingdoms were in contact with each other, everybody just assumed this place was a settlement that fell to the grimm in our time and stayed away."
"Well at least that makes our job easier." Said Ruby bracingly. "if nobody's come here in ages, then there's a good chance that the radar is undamaged." She thought they were fortunate to not have encountered any grimm so far, she surmised that they most likely lost interest in this area due to the lack of human feeling to draw them in. She wondered how many people had been driven out of here before the gods made that horrible decision to revenge themselves on Salem. The whole thing troubled her greatly, Ruby had never much cared for the idea at all but now that she knew that the gods were real and not just legends, she began to question their reasoning. Surely a god is supposed to protect the things it creates, not destroy. But the god of life stood by while everyone was wiped out. From cursing Ozpin and Salem with permanent life to wiping out a whole species and threatening to do it again, Ruby was starting to consider the possibility of collecting the dragon balls herself for a chance to speak to these 'Gods'.
After a few more minutes of flying, Ruby spotted the large circular building with the sign on the domed roof 'Capsule Corp'. Of all the structures the girls had seen so far, this one was the most damaged, the roof was patchy and misshapen, and the walls had so many holes that it was a miracle that the old place was still standing. Ruby's hopes of the radar's safety wilted slightly at the sight of the dilapidated structure; she gripped her Crescent rose a little tighter as the Flying Nimbus made to stop at the buildings long grassed foyer.
Hopping down from the cloud, Ruby and Weiss took in the scenery for a moment before entering. The building itself was in a large clearing in the city with tall buildings surrounding them. Weiss guessed this was the city centre, and the idea of being surrounded by tall pillars made her feel uncomfortable, like they were surrounded. She also had certain reservations about entering a building that looked like it was structurally on its last legs, but if the radar was going to be anywhere, it would be in there.
Ruby moved forward a few steps before she realised Weiss wasn't following her and turning around saw the heiress standing upright with a stricken look on her face. Her hands were bawled into tight fists at her sides and her eyes were looking straight into Ruby's, deliberately not looking at the green blade pressed up against her throat. Ruby felt her own fists clench instinctively but heard something behind her that caused the silver eyes to swivel to the open doorway of the domed house. The persistent metallic clunk growing louder by the seconds gave the impression that someone in full armour was walking down the halls of the old house, but out of the dark doorway stepped a shiny silver foot attached to-
"You!" Ruby murmured, her face contorting with vicious dislike. As the figure stepped further out of the shadows, more was revealed. A pair of brown shorts cropped to just above the silvery metallic knee, a muscular shirtless torso with a pair of grey fingerless gloves being the only clothing worn besides a pendant around the figures neck. A thin, conspicuous face with cold grey eyes and messy grey hair. He may have changed his clothes and bulked up a little, but Ruby would never forget the guy who framed her sister for violent assault. The right hand of Cinder: Mercury Black.
"Nice place, huh?" Mercury said, as though Ruby had said nothing. "Not a whole lot inside mind you, I guess whoever made that thing stashed it away pretty good." Mercury took a single step closer and Ruby was somewhat unnerved by his total lack of reaction to the rain.
"I guess that's you then Emerald?" Ruby called out to the person holding Weiss who didn't answer before her captive did in a small voice.
"Yeah, it's her. I'd recognise that terrible cheap perfume anywhere."
"Shut up!" rang out a familiar voice from behind Weiss' smiling face that revealed it was Emerald after all. Ruby let out a small laugh at her obvious giving away of her identity and addressed her shirtless partner.
"So why are you two here? You mentioned looking for something?"
Mercury smiled, his expression becoming greedier by the second. "yeah, we are. You see, me and Emerald were thieves for a while, and we know a thing or two about the patterns of thieves. Returning to the scene of the crime is a common one." Ruby was very aware of Mercury's slow paces toward her and the shortening distance between her and Weiss.
"How did you two get here anyw-"
"We know that the radar is here." Emerald barked, interrupting Ruby's question, and Mercury finished his partners statement. "And we know you found it first. Hand it over and this won't hurt that bad."
The silence made the rain sound like a barrage of hard blows against the ancient street. Ruby couldn't hold back a smirk at the threat. "Sorry to disappoint you but we just got here, and we were looking for relics, I don't know what this radar is. By the way If you wanted a rematch with Yang, you're in luck. She decided not to come this time."
Mercury's brow twitched and his expression went from smug to furious with jarring, almost inhuman speed. His voice had also become rougher, more charged with hatred. "Don't interfere Emerald, I wanna handle this." Mercury stopped moving forward and began rubbing his knuckles in a threatening manner.
"You sure you can handle this?" said Ruby with a wry smile.
"If I can't trash your whore sister, her puny little sister will do for now. Interesting that she isn't here, given her track record, I think this is the first time she ever decided not to co- "
Mercury never got his full insult out as the pale fist connected with his face and sent him clattering to the floor in a heap several feet back, the shock of the impact caused a series of disquieting creaking sounds from the old house.
"W-what?!" exclaimed Emerald, peering over Weiss' shoulder. "Why did, but how did she-" But like her partner, Emerald was cut off by a hard blow. Weiss had used her high heeled shoe to stamp on Emeralds foot as hard as she could. This caused the blade at Weiss' neck to slacken just the right amount for the heiress to get a vicious elbow strike into Emeralds gut, drew her rapier in the confusion and sent the green haired thief away with a blast of fire. It didn't damage her much, as the flames didn't catch, but Weiss had gotten what she wanted. She stood upright and combat ready, her blade held firmly in front of her.
"I probably should have mentioned it." She said with her own devious smile as a fork of lightning flashed between the red hood and the heiress. "I wouldn't discuss stuff like that with her at the moment. Somewhat of a…touchy subject."
Hi, sorry for the long wait.
The next chapter is basically done and will be up some time next week.
Thanks for bearing with me.
Johnathan.