"I'm not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance."- Celine Dion
The ride back was quiet, the occasional clang of the rails being only interrupted by the scratch of pen to paper as Daria wrote while Ruby watched, occasionally glancing down at her watch to check for when they'd arrive back at the station. They had finished eating recently, Daria avoiding any questions whatsoever about what that traitor had meant…
'It's her business I suppose' concluded Daria as she flipped another page in the magazine she was reading. The woman would talk to her when she was ready and perhaps then she'd get some idea of what had happened.
Roman Torchwick waved the patrol goodbye as their vehicle roared off back down the road. He'd asked them to take him to the nearest city, well here he was; on the outskirts of 'Warsawa' (A frontier city if he assumed right). Indeed the walls and turrets made this place look like one of those old castles he saw on the History Channel that one time.
Undeterred he headed down the street, the locals looking at his only in the occasional curiosity as he wondered around; It was rather foolish of him to have only brought a map for the capital. Now he had to find some place with either free Wi-Fi or some place that sold them to check just where this place was.
Sure enough he found what looked like a bookstore a street down and entered through the door. The place looked warm but cosy and a man sat behind the counter; engrossed in a book until the bell from the door led him to put it down and look at Torchwick "Hello mate, what you looking for?"
"I'm looking to acquire a map of the city and the country, could you show me to them?"
"Erm….'pologies mate but this here's a book shop. If you want maps there's a tourist burro over by the station"
"Okay then, where is the station?"
"Mate, I thought you were a tourist? Just turn right out of here and then follow the signs, perhaps harass someone for directions if you get lost"
Torchwick sighed and tossed the man a One Lien coin for his trouble and left down the road; following the occasional sign until he was finally before a rather antique-looking station beside which he found a clearly designated tourist information burro. "Sir" the bored man inside turned to him "Would you have any maps of the area?"
"Yeah, which ones you want?"
"One of this city and one for the whole country"
"Here. That'll be twenty Lien"
Once Torchwick payed the man he headed to a Café where he studied the maps. 'I was told Neo went missing in Murmansk so I need to get over there' he concluded observing that a rail line ran from the city of Warsawa to Murmansk. He stood up and went back to the booth.
"What is it now" grumbled the man inside "we don't do refunds"
"I just need to get to Murmansk, I heard a train goes there"
"Yeah. Comes and goes every once in a while; shame it left a few hours ago"
"Well" tapped Torchwick in frustration "When's the next one?"
"Hell if I know, talks to one of them lot at the station, they might know"
Torchwick swore and walked up the steps into the station. Spotting a ticket booth with a handful of people waiting their turn he walked over and joined in; moving astoundingly slowly as the que in front of him finally diminished into the face of a young woman "Hello sir, how may I help you?"
"I need to get to Murmansk, when is the next train"
"Of course sir, let me check for you" she typed something and replied "I apologise sir. the next one should have already been here an hour ago, it seems there were Grimm on the tracks and the train will take a little while longer to get here"
"How much longer" growled Torchwick
"Anything from two to five sir"
Torchwick roared and threw his hands up "Is there anything in this goddamn city that works!"
The woman now looked nervous "sir, please try to calm down. There is nothing I can do…"
"Give me a goddamn train. Any train! I don't care if it's ferrying fucking horse shit. Get me a train!"
"Look sir, if you are in fact willing to go with a non-passenger train we could book you in for this one that's coming through within the hour. It's a MAF train so you'll have to barter with them not me. Is that alright?"
Torchwick could almost kiss her, the only thing stopping him being the inch-thick pane of bulletproof glass and a commitment to keep a low profile as he looked for Neo "Yes…. Yes, that would be marvellous"
As the train stopped Ruby and Daria finished up their conversation. It was awkward and a bit forced but at that point neither cared much as their internal need for conversation overcame them. "Yeah, that movie was great" agreed Daria awkwardly "It's a shame I didn't get to see part two"
"Well. Part two is awful anyway"
"I'll keep that in mind"
The door behind her swung to the side, the train's engineer ushering someone in. She turned behind her and saw some man put his rucksack to the side and sit on their right as the engineer explained one or two things to him "Now, in the unlikely case that we're attacked you need to stay here. We have two qualified Overseers right next to you and they can repel all but the most numerous attack I assure you"
"Could you remind me what an Overseer is?" answered the man. He had a smug but not too deep tone to him as he pulled out a cigar.
"Sir, please don't smoke in the train car" reprimanded the engineer "Overseers are our version of Hunters, the only difference is how they operate. Now we'll be leaving in a few minutes so don't go anywhere" announced he as he headed out and closed the door behind him.
Ruby looked at the man and found him staring at her only to drop his jaw and suddenly turn to away stiff as a board. Now that she noticed the cane that he had with him looked strangely familiar. "Excuse me" she began "are you by any chance…"
The man flung up his cane and the bottom opened to reveal a sight! She moved as soon as the blur of his arm moved up at her, drawing her sidearm and aiming for his head "Well hello there Red" what are you doing in these parts?"
"I could ask the same. Roman Torchwick"
Daria also didn't hesitate, whoever this fellow was there must have been a good reason for Ruby to act like that. She drew her pistol and aimed at the man's torso. "Alright Torchy, let's all go home today" she mumbled as Ruby spoke up.
"What the hell are you doing here?" asked Ruby, her grip tensing
"Seriously Red? I thought you would ask something better given how long it's been"
"Wait, she's your girlfriend?" blurted out Daria before realising she'd just made a huge mistake
"NO! We're not like that!" yelled back the two in unison as Ruby spoke up
"Put it down Torchwick, this is two on one; you can't win"
"Are you sure?" teased the Rouge "I'd say this 25mm dust charge will incinerate you both"
"Okay, perhaps we could all just sit down and hear each other out?" pleaded Daria
The two nodded and the standoff concluded with the three sitting down, fingers still on the trigger.
"So Torchwick, care to tell what you're doing here? More of your usual I assume?"
"Why nothing of the sort my dear. I have come to find a friend of mine"
"And who might that be?"
"None of your business Red" said Torchwick with a serious tone. Now the train began to move and trees became a blur as they went past them "I do assure you that I'm not here to do anything Illegal. Not this time anyway"
"Ruby, Remember that we're not a part of the Lainson Treaty, we have no deportation agreements so provided he has committed no crimes there is nothing we can do" Noted Daria as she holstered her weapon "Just sit down and keep an eye on him"
Ruby sat down reluctantly and looked at the criminal. It was somewhat unusual to see him without his black-suited goons "So Torchwick, why are you here?" asked she
"Let's just say I'm here to visit a friend…"
"Criminal I assume?"
"Not neccearily, she was sent here to organise the local White Fang into something combat worthy. I assume your lot dealt with them?"
"We're Overseers, not policemen or militia. Although now that I think about it…" She thought back to that one raid on the warehouse in Murmansk "We did assist the police in busting a WF group in Murmansk. Was that her by any chance?"
"It could be, but then again… did you notice anything unusual while you were there?"
Ruby frowned at the sudden switch but replied "I have no idea what you mean by unusual. Are you talking about any particular person?"
"I'm looking for a friend… her name is Neopolitan, although she does go by Neo most of the time"
"Can you tell me what she looks like? If she's a Funus you may as well not bother. There were at least a hundred of them there"
"No no. She's a normal human girl with pink and brown hair"
"Pink and brown?" Ruby mumbled as she tried to think back to it "how old was she?"
"Sixteen last time I saw her"
"I… think I saw her. Does she have a stick… no umbrella?"
"Yes! God yes! Any idea where she could be now?" smiled Torchwick
"Well I helped the Inspector take her over to the Police station but that's about all I can recall. You should ask there, perhaps she's in prison or something"
"Thank you Ruby, you've made my life just that little bit better"
"Say, why do you wanna see her? She your girlfriend or something?"
"No! God, don't say things like that. We grew up in an orphanage together and stuck close ever since."
The train stopped for a while as the crew unloaded several boxes and two Overseers into the awaiting trucks and left down the rails to Murmansk. Ruby waved Torchwick goodbye and turned back to Daria before noting just how smugly she was looking at her "You two seemed to know each other very well…" said she as she closed the distance "tell me about your relationship…"
"Daria, I swear by Oum almighty I will strike you here and now if you bring this up again. We are not in any kind of physical relationship!"
"Well I liked the description he gave of what you did in an alley at night…" teased Daria as she drew even closer
"Okay… Look… could you just not?"
"Alright, I was just messing with you. Besides I kinda didn't want to go back to the awkward silence we had in the train car"
"Yeah…"
The rest of the journey was spent in awkward silence as neither of the kinda socially awkward girls could think of anything to talk about.
A half-hour's ride later the two dismounted and said their goodbyes before each heading back to the Barracks. It was decided that Ruby would go first for debrief but she needed to put her rifle and other stuff back in her room so the two went back to their respective rooms and did whatever they had to.
About five minutes later Ruby departed, Daria would come up once she messaged her that she was done to save her an eon waiting in the lobby. As she went up through corridors and elevator shafts Ruby found herself on the main 'street' and walked through the thin crowd into the imposing building before her. The receptionist let her pass and not a moment later she sat before the High Overseer's desk as the man came back with tea.
"Welcome back Ruby, I heard your trip was quite eventful" sad he as the leather armchair creaked and he sipped the tea "could you tell me what happened? I have received some reports from the MAF but I'd like to hear this first hand"
"Of course sir, I and Overseer Szary had just arrived at the Grey Mountains. We were taken up to the base by a staff car and we were shown in by some of the men. We soon met General Mangen but he was unable to talk for some reason and had to leave. As we were walking around one of the men mentioned unusually high winds and that patrols on the mountain would have to come back in. Around that time we heard gunshots coming from one of the rooms, I, Overseer Szary and two guards ran to the source only for us to discover the General's body and for one of the guards to be shot as he tried to reach it"
"Could you tell me what was inside the room?"
"Well as soon as we saw the man being shot we breached the door only for Overseer Szary to be shot, fortunately her Aura protected her and I came face to face with another officer holding a handgun; his eyes were completely black and he didn't stop shooting Daria until I shot all I had at him. He preceded to ramble about a 'White Witch' before all of a sudden the second guard who hadn't been shot ran at him and went berserk on his body, I think it was in anger at the death of his friend…"
"I see, you don't have to tell me of the part where you went out to the outpost and came back to the Grimm attack. I have more than enough reports of that. Please write the rest up in a full report and file it with the office" Ruby bowed and was about to leave before Campbell waved her down and ushered her back "I do have something to say about your promotion…"
"Does that mean I'm a full Overseer now?"
"No…" he began before being interrupted
"No? but I thought we had a deal?"
"Just hold your horses Overseer Rose, I'm not denying you your promotion; I merely suggesting we postpone it for a little while…"
"Postpone it? Why do that though?"
"Ruby, I'm not sure if you've heard with the commotion about the explosion and Grimm attack in the middle of Vale but the Vytal Festival is coming up and for the first time we will be entering as an academy"
"Sir?"
"We may only enter trainees, not graduates. You happen to be one of our best this year and as you have not actually passed the standard course yet we can keep you around as a Probationary until the Tournament is done. Once that's over with we'll promote you. How does that sound?"
"So you want me to enter the tournament?"
"Not alone of course, we have to enter people in teams of four for some reason so we'll take three of the other top students and enter them too. Is that alright with you?"
"Sir, no offence but why are we entering? It's not much of a benefit to us overall"
"Indeed, I understand what you are saying but we hope to use this to gain some fame and perhaps drive up recruitment numbers. You know, including you barely fifty joined this year. We need to drive those numbers up and in this case foreign students may be a solution"
"Very well sir, I'll do it. When do we depart?"
"No no, the tournament is in a month. I'm just giving you advance notice to train yourself up and prepare for it, I hope to give you the names of your teammates within the next few days"
Hope you enjoyed that lads, I was away for the last week and had no chance to write. Please tell me what you think.
