Ruby didn't know what the green cloud was, but she got the distinct feeling she didn't want it touching her or Neo. She scooped up her small companion and bolted out the door. As she ran, she heard the wooden wall behind her cracking and splintering. Out in the shopfront, she set Neo inside a small recess in the wall and turned back to confront whatever it was that had decided to begin assaulting them.
The back of the building was crumbling around it, brick and wood turning to dust and falling to the ground. The dark clouded sky became visible as the roof fell away, revealing the mass of an abomination. Its electric blue eyes twisted on stocks, its gaping mouth lined with teeth that glinted like cold steel, and the ominous green gas poured out from its gullet like some chemical weapon long since outlawed by the international community. The way the wooden floor blistered and rotted when the gas touched it told her everything she needed to know. In horror, she watched as the noose slid up and into the creature's mouth.
Spears and pikes rose up from its back like spines. Its feet were arrays of razor saw blades. Its spindly arms ended in hands with hypodermic needles, several of them filled with ugly liquids. Through the knives and swords that made up its ravenous jaws, Ruby could see what its innards looked like; a metal chamber with a chair in the center, clamps where the arms and legs would rest, and the whole thing hooked up to wires that sparked with electricity. A guillotine blade dropped in its throat, cutting off her line of sight with the chair, but drawing her attention to another awful part of the creature. It had a tail, a long wooden stake that jutted straight up, more ropes wrapped around it, and a lit fire smoldering under it, just waiting to go up. The tip of the tail held an axe blade, and every once in a while the blade would slash down and cut into a wooden block among the pikes on the monster's back. All along its gross body, between rows of small feathers, a thick black tar oozed out onto the ground.
This was not the same as the plant monster. That thing was, well, a plant. It was made of living stuff, familiar and real, even if horrific. This was something entirely different. A true abomination. It was made of death, tools of execution. The storm raged around them, winds wrapping around Ruby and rain pelting her face so hard it stung. Ruby took in everything she was seeing in a matter of seconds, the abomination sizing her up at the same time. She didn't know how to fight this thing. She couldn't tell what its weak points were. So she decided she would have to just tear it apart piece by piece until it stopped moving.
It lunged, launching its noose tongue at her. Ruby ducked under the rope, rolling to the side as a number of needle points dug into the ground beside her. It lifted a foot and stomped down on top of Ruby, but she was gone before it could hit. Glowering blue eyes searched around for their prey, finding her in the air. Ruby twisted around and aimed her weapon down at the monster, firing at its thick hide. The shots stuck in, but didn't seem to damage it. Quickly unfolding the scythe again, she spun around and slashed at the needled hands that reached for her, batting them away. She hit the ground and jumped back just in time to avoid being shredded by the abomination's feet again.
Looking behind her to where Neo was still recovering, Ruby shouted. "Get up! I need your help!"
Neo moved, slowly, pushing herself up to her feet. Ruby needed her to move faster than that, but more importantly, she needed to move herself. Bladed teeth snapped the air where she had been standing. Ruby had leapt back towards Neo, now standing right in front of her and switching her weapon up. It didn't seem like the shells she had used really did any damage. Really, it looked like they'd been absorbed into the body. Since it was made of instruments of death, it made sense in a way that shooting it would be about as effective as hitting a person with fingers. If that was the case, she thought, then best to gouge out the eyes first.
Planting the blade of her weapon in the floor, Ruby tilted the sniper scythe back and aimed up at the glowing blue eyes. It was getting close to cornering them, so blinding it would be a really big help right now. Once she was sure she was aimed right, she fired. The abomination's left eye shattered in a shower of sparks, and the whole thing lurched back and let out a shriek that would paralyze Grimm with fear, a sound like thousands of metal blades sharpening against each other, gears screeching to a halt till stripped bare, and electric arcs setting flesh ablaze, all mixed into one. It sure looked like it was distracted.
Only the front wall of the building was mostly intact, the shopfront window having shattered completely and the roof having taken most of the rest of the building with it. The wall they'd been backed against was really the only other part of the house still somewhat together. Still, Neo rushed out the front door, and Ruby was right behind her. The blasting wind and rain was not about to let up, though Ruby noticed that it wasn't as bad as it had been at times. Definitely inclement weather, a real problem for visibility and mobility, but it wouldn't simply lift them into the air or flatten them. At least for now.
Ducking between two other buildings, Ruby turned back to face where the abomination should have been. She couldn't see it for all the rain, which was moving pretty much sideways. That didn't stop it from pouring off the roofs above her in a constant waterfall that drenched her completely, for what little of her was still dry after the shop had collapsed. An endless sheet of water was being dumped on her head, but instead of sputter or try to get away from it all, Ruby crouched down. The entire world in front of her was grey, her eyes were blurred by exhaustion and water cascading down on and in front of her, she was freezing cold, but now was not the time to shift her position. Now was the time to wait for her foe.
Through the grey endless streaks of rain, she saw the blue glint of the abomination's eye. Judging by the size of the light, she figured it was standing about where the front door had been. Ever so slightly, she angled her sniper rifle upward, peering through the scope. She could barely see, but soon, even that would be a leg up on her enemy. Soaking wet, she felt a surge of energy warming her body, like a predator on the hunt. She began to squeeze her finger on the trigger, then stopped. The eye turned, looking around for her, but it seemed like it was having as hard a time as she was navigating in this weather. Without a glowing spot on its target, it couldn't find her at all. She grinned, half bearing her teeth in a show of ferocity, half smiling at the ease with which this battle had been handed to her. She led the eye by just enough to adjust for the mad winds, not much at this distance, but she was now confident she would shatter the glowing blue center of the eye and not see her shot glance off the metal casing around the outside.
She stopped a second time. Unlike last time, it wasn't to readjust her aim. This time, she was stuck on something that had strangely occurred to her. That eye... and the one she'd already taken. The electric eye twitched, a metal shutter closing over it, like an eyelid. Even through the rain, she could see it clear enough. There was no doubt. That was the same bionic eye as Maria's.
Ruby shook her head. It couldn't be Maria's. Surely Pietro Polendina had made more than one set of eyes that looked like that. So, somehow it had taken those eyes and added them to its body? No, that didn't make sense. Ruby remembered all the things on and in its body. Its very essence was death machines. There would be no sense in taking those eyes unless... unless it took them straight from the ultimate machine of death, The Grimm Reaper. This was the first sign of another person she had seen since finding Neo, and Ruby got the sense that she had just learned what happened to the people of Mantle. Abominations like this one, and the plant monster, had killed them. But they couldn't have killed everyone. There seemed so few of them, and Ruby had been able to kill one already with only Neo aiding her. Maria was a casualty, Ruby was sure of it, but that didn't have to mean everyone was.
The thoughts of Maria had distracted Ruby. When she refocused on her target, she noticed that the rain had cleared up a lot. A sickly warm breeze washed over her, metal blades jangling in the air. The maw of knives loomed over her, moments from snapping down on her head. There was no way out. Ruby knew it was over. She'd let herself get distracted, and forgotten her prey. Her prey, meanwhile, had not forgotten her. That was it. It was over.
Ruby closed her eyes.
"So, that's all it takes to make you give up."
Ruby's eyes snapped open. That voice. It couldn't be. Sultry, seductive, teasing, and sadistic. It couldn't be any other voice than Cinder's. She snapped to attention, looking up at the abomination standing over her, just in time to see a long black arm stretch through the air and clamp down on the remaining eye, claws digging into the meaty part underneath. The hand clenched into a fist, and tore the eye out, trailing wires and yellow fluids. The beast of death recoiled horribly, shaking and sprawling out across the street.
The way ahead of Ruby was clear. She stood up and staggered out into the street, turning to look to her left. She saw the Grimm arm shrinking back towards its owner, electric eye in hand. Wind whipping around her, causing her red dress to go wild, and her soaked black hair madly fluttering in every direction. Ruby recognized the fierce glimmer of power in her eye. It was Cinder.
She couldn't do it. Not yet. She didn't know where Neo had gone, but if Ruby was to defeat the abomination, she would need help. If not Neo, Cinder would do. She had already demonstrated her willingness to battle it, so perhaps she would put off fighting Ruby until that was finished. Readying her weapon, Ruby turned to the abomination as it began to stand again. Her eyes turned away from Cinder for a moment, and something changed.
Cinder dropped the eye on the ground, letting whatever power it had left fizzle away in a puddle. She stepped to Ruby's side and produced a weapon. The same pink and white parasol Ruby had seen with Neo time and again. She shouldered the weapon, and her form melted away, revealing Neo. Her eyes were the last thing to change, in a blink, from fiery orange to pink and white.
Ruby sighed. "What a terrible prank. Let's kill this thing."