Neo-Atlas. A sprawling megalopolis that covers the entire southwest coast of Solitas. Towering arcologies filled with apartment complexes dominate the skyline, while snaking highways and bridges connect every part of the city with one another. The flashing of neon lights, car headlamps and advertisements glare out into the dark night whilst the honking of horns and reports from TV news blare out with cacophonic harmony.

Ruby Rose dashed through the streets, the sound of her metal feet striking the ground, CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! rang out amidst the noise as she weaved in between pedestrians and congested traffic.

A gunshot broke through all the noise, startling bystanders as armed men in riot gear chased after the young woman. "Police!" one of them shouted, his voice slightly muffled by his full-face helmet, "Stop that girl in the red hood!"

Their commands only urged Ruby faster, moving her legs as quickly as they could, her nerves straining from the effort. She kept her eyes forward, looking for where she wanted to be more than where she was going. Ahead of her, a man in an oversized jacket seemed to hear the police order and moved to intercept the girl.

With quick movements, Ruby came to a halt before him, avoiding his grab for her, and punched him in the stomach with all her might. The man doubled over in pain and the young rose used him as a launch pad to jump up and grab onto a railing. She lifted herself up onto a catwalk, then onto a ventilation shaft.

A hail of gunfire cut into her skin, barely missing her small frame as she began running again, leaving behind a trail of rose petals and a destroyed vent. She checked the bag hanging off her shoulder, thanking whatever divine power had prevented it from being damaged.

Still, she had to move. She jumped from building to building in a narrow alleyway, hopping onto vent after vent and climbing up exposed pipes. She could see a break in the buildings ahead, the sound of high-speed traffic getting closer as she approached.

As she reached the end of the alley, Ruby leapt as far as she could, landing onto a street lamp lighting up a highway, cars zooming past underneath her. Keeping her momentum, she rushed forward and leapt onto the opposing lamp, and then the lamp after that and the lamp after that, bending them with the force she exerted through her legs.

Police sirens blared out, flashing red and blue appearing from both ends of the highway. The runner slid down the lamp and dropped below the highway, taking cover in the shadows of the network of pipes that ran throughout the undercity.

Having lost the police, Ruby slowly made her way through the city, making sure to move slowly and quietly whenever the sound of sirens and police dogs filled her ears. Nevertheless, her destination would require her to move from the relative safety of the vein-like undercity.

Fortunately, it seemed the police had lost her scent and she was free to ascend to the streets. The young runner approached one of the smaller apartment complexes, moving to the side away from the main entrance. She scaled the building, using vents, drain pipes and windowsills to climb higher and higher.

The familiar sight of an open window caught her attention and she approached, climbing inside a dark room and landing on a bed. Again, Ruby checked her package, sighing in relief once she confirmed it was intact. She glanced over to the only light source in the room.

Sitting at a holographic display of several screens was a faunus woman, typing away. Wires leading from the cyberdesk trailed up her chair like creeping vines before connecting into six ports in the back of her neck. Ruby stood up and called to her, "I got your delivery, miss Belladonna."

The faunus finally turned to face her, staring through her with amber eyes that almost seemed to glow in the darkness, "Hey, Ruby, thanks. I hope there wasn't much trouble?"

"Much trouble?" the runner repeated, "I had the cops on my cute behind for longer than I'd like to have! For gods' sake, Blake, I'm a runner, not one of your freedom fighters! See these scars? I got them today from who knows how many-!" She was suddenly hit in the face by a credit chit.

"Which is why we pay you so much for your work."

"Yeah, yeah…" the young girl grumbled, handing over her package. "Mind if I have a little breather before I head off?"

"Of course not," Blake replied, opening the package to reveal a cyberdisc, "Stay as long as you'd like." Ruby immediately flopped onto the bed, easing the tension coursing through her legs. "Are they hurting again?"

The runner glanced at her legs. Metal prosthetics replaced her legs up to her thighs, where trails of cybernetic implants contrasted against her pearly white skin. "Yeah," she replied, "Running like that puts a lot of strain on the nerves connecting them with my body. Still, they're not bleeding like that one time, so that's good."

"That is not a good metric for what constitutes 'good'," the faunus said, inserting the cyberdisc into her computer.

"It is for when you have to make deliveries like I do. There was this one time where a client wanted me to deliver a cyberdeck to Mantle, you know? That thing was heavy AND the cops were hounding me much more than they were today!"

"Must have been a lot, then," Blake stated, showing one of her screens to Ruby.

It showed a news headline with Lisa Lavender sitting at a pristine desk, "Running through the streets of Neo-Atlas today was one of the more evasive runners delivering a package stolen from Schnee Cybernetic Augments, a member of the Schnee family conglomerate. It is likely to contain data relating to their research into cybernetic augmentations, and, as such, could be in the hands of anyone right now, though police suspect it to be in hands of the White Fang terrorist cell.

"The runner in question is a young girl whose face and name are still unknown, though she is always seen to be wearing a red hooded cloak…"

"Not always!" Ruby interjected, "I only wear this when I'm doing something illegal. For my legit runs I don't need it."

"...This has led many to nickname her as Red Hood, Red Riding Crook and various other names associated with her iconic garment. Still, she manages to evade authorities despite her high profile and prolific career."

Blake closed the tab, plunging them into silence. Ruby chuckled, "Well, I guess the attention is sorta nice…"

"But not nice when they shoot at you?"

"I always thought that was a sign they were in love with me. Not that I'd blame 'em, I'd fall for me, too."

The faunus rolled her eyes, "You're beginning to sound like that sister of yours. How is she, anyway?"

"Probably lazing about, beating some poor fella into a pool of his own blood or riding her bike. Maybe all three at once."

"So, the same as usual?"

"Pretty much." Ruby glanced at one of Blake's screens, confused by the display of information moving so fast she was starting to become cross eyed. How the hacker managed to keep track of it all boggled her mind. "What's on that disc, anyhow?"

"From the looks of things, it appears to be data on a particular project," Blake replied, "And it seems to be big."

"Let me guess, they found a way to cybernetically enhance their dicks?"

"Well, I'm sure they'd be pleased with that, but no. Well, probably not would be a better term; the data is so vague, like they coded every single word of it."

"Any idea what it all means?"

Blake shook her head, a rare look of confusion on her face, "No. I've never seen many of these terms used by the Schnee family before. But, what I can make out is that this project spans over numerous branches, with SCAt leading the project."

"It's hard to take this seriously when you refer to the SCA in such a juvenile manner."

"Weren't you the one joking about cyber dicks?"

"Touché, madame."

Blake smirked before refocusing on her screens, "I think I've found the name, as well. Project Ghost."

"Ghost? Didn't realise the Schnee's were a superstitious bunch."

"I'm confused by it as well. I've sent the details to Adam, see what he has to say."

Ruby groaned, "You only tell me these things when you think I'm the one who's gonna do the legwork…"

Blake smiled apologetically, "Well, not many runners out there earn nicknames from the police. Besides, you're doing the world some good by helping us."

Ruby stared at her indifferently, "Not to say that faunus emancipation or whatever it is the Fang is fighting for is bad, but forgive me for questioning whether that narcissist you call a boyfriend has the best of intentions for humans like me." Blake visibly twitched at the mention of Adam, scowling and facing away. "Had a falling out?"

"One way to describe it," the faunus grumbled, "I floated the idea of actually coexisting with humans in harmony. Yet, he still seems to think that humanity is a single group waging war on faunuskind. The only reason he's willing to accept your services is because he thinks you're a faunus yourself.

"Anyway, things got heated and he suggested that we have a cooling off period, wait until things are less stressful before carrying on. To be honest, I don't want to go back to someone who might be a genocidal pillock."

"Yet you still do work for him…"

"If I left, I wonder what he might make the Fang do unchecked. Besides, I still believe in the Fang, just not him."

The runner sighed in exasperation, collapsing onto the bed again, "This city is going to shit…"

"It's been shit for decades."

"Fine, it's even shittier than usual."

Blake hummed as she browsed through the news, "I suppose. There's been another student protest."

"Tuition fees?"

"Yep. Can't blame them for being angry; they're essentially being made into debt slaves as soon as they graduate"

"Didn't the government say they were trying to lower the deficit?"

"Yet felt it necessary to propose a bill that would effectively increase their salary," Blake deflated in exasperation, "They always bring up the deficit whenever someone suggests welfare or something else they don't like, yet have no problem spending more money on improving the lives of them and their friends."

Ruby frowned sadly, "Maybe they just don't see it all," she suggested, "Maybe if they saw what life was like for us, then maybe…"

"That's exactly the problem," Blake interrupted, "They either don't want to see or can't be bothered seeing. Things are going fine for them, so why should the status quo change?" A similarly gloomy expression covered her face, "I suppose it's in our nature, both human and faunus, to look out for ourselves first, even if by doing so we ignore the suffering of others…" Silence fell between them, the darkness of the hacker's room feeling more and more oppressive by the second.

A message notification cut through the quiet, drawing their attention to the cyberdesk. "It's Adam," Blake noted, "Looks like he wants you to go and steal whatever it is SCAt's working on."

"Where exactly is that?"

"Looks to be the Polendina facility."

"Hell no!" Ruby shouted, shooting onto her legs and glaring at Blake, "You're asking me to break into the most secure facility on the continent to help a revolution that would sooner see me suffering for crimes I haven't committed? Are you insane?!"

"Adam's paying ten times the usual amount."

"Ten times…!" the runner spluttered, sitting down on the bed again. That was enough to make her pause for thought. Regardless of how Adam felt about humans, he was willing to pay her quite a lot for her runs, enough to live off for a few weeks, anyway. Ten times that and she could probably afford to have her legs redone. She began to rub the point at which her prosthetics and skin meet, wincing slightly from a cramp-like pain. So, with a sigh of heavy reluctance, she muttered, "Alright, I guess I can try. But you better be helping me!"

"Without a doubt," Blake replied, disconnecting the wires that connected her neck to the cyberdesk and stood up. She embraced Ruby into a gentle hug, "I'll be with you every step of the way, even if I'm here for all of it. So don't worry, I'll make sure you get out alive and well."

Ruby released a breath of relief, reciprocating the hug, "Yeah. Thanks, Blake."

Soon, Ruby was leaving. Her red cloak stuffed into her bag, she climbed out the window. Blake called to her before she left, "I'll do some research on Polendina, see what I can find. I'll call you when I'm ready." Ruby nodded as she scaled down the wall.

It wasn't long before she found herself on the streets again, walking past police without fear of being arrested. She overheard a conversation from some of the officers.

"Any idea of where she went?"

"No, ma'am. Someone reported seeing a girl in a red hood around here, but none of the women we stopped met any of her characteristics."

The superior officer sighed, "Those characteristics don't actually help much. All anyone seems to remember is that her hood was bright red." Ruby smirked slightly, glad to know the illusion one of her friends from college taught her was working. Memory can be such a fallible thing, and bystanders only ever seem to remember her iconic hood or her striking silver eyes.

"Could it be that young lady, there?" the junior officer stated.

"No, she's too young to be our girl."

Ruby was significantly less glad about that. Despite being in her early twenties, her small stature and cherub-like face practically had everyone convinced she was still a teenager. While she was happy it deterred suspicion, she didn't like being mistaken for a child all the time, especially when it came to having drinks with Yang.

In a slight amount of fury, the runner glanced at the senior officer. She was tall with blazing red hair and emerald eyes, the name on her uniform reading P. Nikos whilst the triple gold bands indicated she was a sergeant. Muttering some silent profanities, and some excuses for her stature, Ruby continued on her way.

It was difficult to think when wandering the streets of Neo-Atlas. Advertisements were constantly on, their neon signs plastered over the buildings whilst loudspeakers screamed out their music.

Holographic displays were everywhere, one of the more famous in the city being the Laughing Man. Supposedly, he is a caricature of some Mistralli religious figure that eventually become a cultural icon, and was later imported to Neo-Atlas following a wave of Mistralli immigrants fleeing the economic damage of the ChromS epidemic. Ruby was certain that the Laughing Man was not even called that in Mistral, it was merely a nickname given by the Atlesians and Valeans.

She passed a fashion store, Adele's. Another member of the Schnee group, though not founded by the family, it has become the largest chain of fashion retail in the city.

The runner glanced into the window, noting the gynoids that posed in alluring forms whilst wearing the brand's clothes. Ruby had always been fascinated with engineering and mechanics, and would have continued her degree if the price did not force her to drop out. Still, she always asked questions about her legs and how they operated and how they were maintained. She even invested in an amateur toolset so she could do it herself, an investment she was happy with as it reduced the costs she needed in repairing her legs.

The silver-eyed girl came to a crossing, waiting next to an older man in ragged, patchwork clothes and a mother escorting her daughter.

There was a boom of thunder, making Ruby glance up through the neon jungle to the pitch black canopy that hovered over the city. It was most likely raining, though the raindrops would never reach the heart of the city with the buildings in the way. This made the streets of the inner city exceedingly warm (the coastline, Mantle, Old Atlas and the city outskirts were generally cooler due to their exposure to Solitas' weather).

Apparently, the country outside the city got so cold that snow would fall in the winter, sometimes year round. Ruby had never seen snow before, aside from illustrations from geography class in primary school, and she doubted she ever would, the taxes were just too much to ever get some time off her work even for Winter's Feast. Besides, she still had to pay off her debt for the university course she dropped out of.

The lights changed to red and a bell rang, the runner crossing the road with the other pedestrians. Whilst the man entered into a rather dubious establishment and the mother-daughter pair carried along down the road, Ruby stood at the tram station.

Eventually, a tram arrived, already packed with other passengers; men in business suits holding briefcases, women in revealing clothing with only jackets to protect them from the cold, and students with bags slung over their shoulders. Ruby stepped aboard and approached the cash terminal. She held her hand in between the jaw-like machine, as a blue light covered her hand.

"Payment accepted," the machine bleeped, "Welcome back, Miss Rose."

As the doors behind her closed and the tram began to move, ascending above the roads on the ground, Ruby made her way into the tram, squeezing past other passengers. Stuck between a rather large man in a suit and a slobbish looking student, her nose was assaulted with the scent of body odour, no doubt emanating from a long day sitting at a desk with few breaks, and the revolting stench of prostitutes who, even after vigorous showers, could not get the stench of their occupation to leave them.

To take her mind off this, the young runner looked out the window, down at the vehicles below her. Cars, trucks and motorbikes were barely distinguishable from one another, only appearing to her eyes as streaking lights of yellow and red.

A booming sound pulled her eyes up as a bullet train rushed by on the tracks above the tram. The train system was the fastest way to travel in Neo-Atlas, but also expensive. The people who used them most frequently were the upper middle-class, those affluent enough to afford such a luxury, yet not elite enough to travel in the style of the super-rich.

As the train sped away, Ruby could see through the train-tracks lights flying way overhead, distant enough to almost appear as stars. She knew they were no such thing, the light pollution of the city drowned out such wonders. Instead, they were the headlights of the hover cars exclusive to the wealthiest individuals; limousines they used to get home whilst relaxing in style. They were considerably slower than the vehicles below, probably not to disturb their occupants, yet it felt to Ruby as if they were trying to flaunt their wealth and lifestyles over those beneath them. She knew she was not alone in this thought, Blake had expressed similar resentment and the scowls of some other passengers displayed that they agreed. Yet, amidst those scowls was also ambition and envy, hopes that someday they too could live that lifestyle, to live like stars.

Soon, the tram came to a stop. Most of the passengers, including Ruby, disembarked, leaving primarily the students aboard. As the tram began to leave, Ruby gazed at the building before her; the Atlesian Central Bank. Once a publicly owned institution that was responsible for maintaining economic stability after the fall of Old-Atlas, it was privatised after years of economic boom.

Ruby kept one of her three accounts with them, her main account, whilst her savings and pension were logged with other banks. Due to the nature of her job, it was safest to keep her money as spread out as possible to deflect suspicion from the authorities.

The silver-eyed woman entered the building alongside the rest of those who had left the tram, fiddling with the chit in her hand. She approached one of the free terminals and held her hand over the scanner, her neural implant connecting and communicating with the machine.

"Hello again, Miss Rose," the machine greeted in the same voice and tone as the tram, "Please insert how much you would like to deposit today." Ruby did as instructed, inserting the chit into the machine. The small piece of acrylic was devoured by the machine, as the number in her account rose. "Deposit accepted. Have a pleasant evening, Miss Rose."

Ruby readjusted her bag and left, catching the next tram to her flat.

Sitting on the 63rd floor out of 200, it's a rather modest living space; a single room with a bed, kitchen, computer and workspace with a small ensuite attached. Certainly not as cosy as the large apartments at the top of the arcology, but enough for the woman to live in.

Setting her bag down, Ruby collapsed onto the bed, releasing an exhausted sigh.

I got inspired to do some cyberpunk. The plan going forward is to do a chapter of Red Hood Pirates and then a chapter of this, but if you'd prefer to see one over the other then I can shift priorities, so let me know.