Ruby at Atlas
By: FunahoMisaki
(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)
As soon as the first bullet was fired there were several screams as most of the students dove to the floors. A few of the more rational students managed to move themselves to the turrets blind spots, sheltered by thick metal.
A small number of students, including Ruby, moved to attack the turrets. Most of the ones that did were hit with some of the bullets but Ruby however was fast enough to see them coming and dodge the bullets with her enhanced speed as she burst into rose petals once more and managed to make it outside without being hit.
Unfolding her scythe, one good swing took out the turret and stopped the bullets. A method she repeated on the other four turrets that were still opening fire, although now they were swinging to aim at her. Apparently, they had recognized and labeled her as a bigger threat than the ones inside of the bullhead. Taking down the last turret Ruby then burst into rose petals once more and entered the bullhead again to check on those who were shot.
Blinking for a moment when she re-entered the bullhead Ruby took in the sight of at least seven or eight of the other potential students having plant splattered on them from where they were hit with the bullets.
"Ah paint balls. That explains it." Ruby said taking a look at one of the 'bullets' and nodding in understanding. It made sense after all. There was no use in shooting live bullets at the potential students and risk killing anyone who wouldn't be able to shield themselves with their aura in time or dodge. She had thought they had been a bit smaller than normal and moving a little faster than usual too, them being paintballs also explained that.
"How the fuck?" One student asked gaping at Ruby who was completely clean, not a spot of paint on her.
"Skills!" Ruby chirped happily and making Winter snort slightly at that.
"Well I see that we definitely have an interesting one in this years hopefuls." A man with short cut blond hair said eyeing Ruby curiously. Usually most students had at least a speck of paint on them, if only from near misses or the paint balls splattering close to them, but Ruby was pristine as if none of them had even touched her. In fact, not a single one of them had touched her and even if they had she knew how to use her aura as a passive shield over her entire body and keep it up at all times unlike most of her potentially future classmates it seemed.
"That's the weapon smith General Ironwood told us about isn't it? The prodigy." Another woman with her red hair tied up in a braid asked looking at Ruby curiously and Ruby was wide eyed and near bouncing at the sight of the weapons on the Atlas teachers and the group of five standing near the General.
"Indeed she is. I see you're even more talented than I first believed Miss Rose." General Ironwood himself said as he stepped onto the bullhead and nodded to the scythe wielder who blushed a bit and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly at that.
"That's one of the very few times anyone's managed to take out even one of the turrets, and I believe it's the first time in over thirty years that a group of students managed to take out all four…" One of the teachers said looking at the turrets in a bit of wonder.
"That's the first time I've heard of that just one student hopeful managed to take out all five of them on their own." The oldest looking one said sounding amazed as he stared between Ruby and the turrets, making a few of the students look angry and jealous while Ruby just shrugged.
"They were a bit slow, the one on the far left wouldn't have been able to fire off ten more bullets before it jammed. The third one over there was rusting inside and the gears would have snapped in less than two minutes and just made it blow up. The first one is in the best condition but almost all of them were just a few moments away from mechanical failures…" Ruby trailed off not looking too pleased with how bad of a condition the turrets were in.
"We were aware of one of them getting to be in need of replacing…the others however seemed fine during last years check." One of the teachers said and Ruby raised one eyebrow at him and moved to pick up one of the turrets sliced apart pieces.
"This thing has so much rust on it that not even acid could get it clean." Ruby said flatly as she showed them the rusty pieces and the teachers winced when they realized that she was right. They were very rusted over, enough so that Ruby's hands were stained with the rust already and she had only held it up long enough to show it to them.
"Remind me to fire the person in charge of their maintenance." General Ironwood said blankly and earning nods from the other teachers at that and they all looked very unhappy about this.
"Miss Rose, one of your first assignments will be to build new turrets to replace the ones you've destroyed. You will be shown to your new workshop in the morning by Specialist Schnee. For now your designation will be Reaper until further notice, understand Specialist Rose?" General Ironwood asked making Ruby give him an almost flawless salute immediately. She was playing more than being serious with the salute but she noticed the looks of respect on the other teachers and that group of fives faces at the sight of her actually saluting the General.
"Understood sir!" Ruby said happily and she immediately reached into the backpack on her back and pulled out a sketchpad and pencils.
"Are there any limitations on the turrets I should be aware of before I start designing?" Ruby asked eager to get started on her newest project and making the General chuckle slightly as he ruffled her hair, making her whine a bit and try to fix her hair.
"Just make sure that they can swap from non-lethal paintballs to very lethal bullets if need be Specialist Rose." Ironwood said making Ruby hum to herself a bit as she thought about it and moved over to the destroyed turrets.
"Hmm…if I stick to their original design then they'd have a blind-spot of about fifteen degrees…maybe if…hm…add a few gears here…take away this here…" Ruby was already plotting how to make the turrets more efficient as she poked at some of the sliced apart pieces.
"Is there a design I should stick too or a budget I have to worry about sir?" Ruby asked not even looking at the General as she continued to poke at the turrets innards before returning to her sketch.
"Keep it less than 5,000 lien while still being efficient and I'll give you a bonus on your paycheck. As for design make sure it has roughly the same design but if you add a few small things I'll turn a blind eye if you're under budget." Ironwood said flatly and making Ruby's eyes bulge slightly.
"5,000? Sir that's way too high! I could have these replaced with a far more efficient design for roughly 1,000 all together!" Ruby said mind boggled as she looked at the General who raised an eyebrow at that.
"Really? Those cost us 2,500 a piece when they were last replaced. Ruby if you keep the budget under 2,500 then not only will I double your next paycheck and let a few small design changes go but I'll also give you a promotion and introduce you to our head engineer and technician personally." Ironwood said making Ruby look shocked and confused at that.
"I didn't even know I was getting a paycheck…" Ruby trailed off shocked as she turned back towards the turret she was poking.
"Rose you're going to be an engineer and a weapon smith for our army. Of course, you're going to be paid just like all of the other engineers and weapon makers are." Ironwood said staring at the girl who only nodded once distractedly as she looked for her sketchbook.
"Not bad kid." One of the women in the weird red and white uniform instead of the blue and white of the teachers said as she looked through Ruby's sketchbook.
"Hey give that back!" Ruby said frowning at the woman who smirked at her.
"Why don't you try and take it from m-" The woman let out a small yelp and made a half jump backwards when Ruby vanished into rose petals and stole the sketchpad back in less than two seconds.
"The hell was that?" The woman demanded confused and surprised and making Ruby stick her tongue out at the woman.
"I'm faster than I look. Next time why don't you show some manners and ask before you take something!" Ruby said pulling a face at the woman who's eyebrow twitched while another woman in red and white let out a loud laugh.
"The runt's got some spunk to her! I think we'll get along just fine kid! Name's Elm!" The tall kind of stocky looking woman said grinning as she looked at Ruby who beamed brightly at her.
"Nice to meet you! My name's Ruby!" Ruby said brightly before she turned back to the other woman in red.
"At least someone has manners!" Ruby said making the other woman twitch again.
"Kid do you have any clue who you're talking to?" The woman asked making Ruby smile brightly.
"Someone with no manners! How would I know who I'm talking to since you never bothered to introduce yourself?" Ruby pointed out happily and making the woman twitch.
"The name's Harriet brat. I'm a member of the Ace-ops." The woman introduced herself making Ruby shrug and causing gasps and sounds of shock to come from the other potential recruits.
"Good for you? I'm guessing that's good? You have too much of an attitude for the Ace-ops to be something basic or low level like a cleaning squad." Ruby said completely unbothered and not noticing the looks of shock and horror on the others faces.
"You got a heck of a mouth on you brat. It's going to get you in trouble if you keep it up." Harriet growled at the girl.
"Maybe but not before your pride gets you in trouble!" Ruby said shrugging and Harriet let out a snarl before she raced forward towards Ruby using her semblance. Ruby didn't look bothered as the woman dashed at her at what seemed to be super speeds. In fact Ruby didn't react at all until Harriet was almost right in front of her.
Ruby just casually stepped to the side and stuck out her arm, making sure to doubly reinforce it with aura.
Harriet ran straight into the outstretched arm and ended up clotheslining herself because she wasn't able to change directions in time.
"Nice try! But my semblance is Speed too, so you won't be able to surprise me like that!" Ruby said grinning and causing jaws to drop as Harriet laid on the ground wheezing for air and unable to get up at the moment.
"Congratulations Specialist Rose. You just managed to take out one of the top five Hunters in Atlas in less than ten seconds." General Ironwood said looking impressed and amused while Ruby blinked for a moment.
"She's a top Hunter? That explains the arrogance." Ruby said shrugging it off and making Elm let out a loud laugh as she grabbed the reaper and hoisted her up onto one muscled arm.
"I like you kid! Oi Clover! I'm keeping the kid!"