[X] Ruby Rose
"Wow." Ruby noted, looking around the weapons workshop. "I thought the place at the guest manor was big."
It was huge. Like, not just big. It was more like...
Looking at the stairs leading to a partially revealed upper floor that was still in the same room, and over at the testing area with target dummies and shooting range targets, the girl in red did quick estimation of the size of the room.
She could probably fit her house in this one room. Maybe even a house and a half! And it wasn't like she lived in a small house either. Sure, comparatively, it wasn't much compared to what the Schnee had with them, but there were still a lot of rooms back home.
Looking over at a weapon rack on a nearby wall, Ruby gasped, and surged forward. Rose petals fell behind her, condensing through the air where her red scarf hung back, as she stared up with starry eyes.
"It's beautiful." She half-whispered, half squeed, reaching out a hand to stroke the scythe ahead of her lovingly. "That's... That's based on the Mona designs, isn't it? Weapons designed to test the skill level of the user, calibrated so that usage was impossible for a novice, forcing the most practical usage of it to also be the one to carve the most artistic flow of battle..."
"Friend Ruby, you appear to be drooling."
Ruby pulled her hand back from the Mona designed scythe, quickly rubbing her chin against her scarf as she looked back at Penny, who was smiling somewhat.
"Sorry..." Ruby replied, rubbing the back of her head. "It's just... Most of the Mona designs were thought experiments, and the design was intricate enough that we've only recently managed to get the technology to make the parts needed to properly construct it. Heck, we still haven't managed a perfect recreation of Mona's designs, last I checked! I'd need to take this one apart to see how close it is, but I'm not even remotely good enough to try and put a Mona design back together."
"They are rather intriguing weapons." Penny admitted. "A rejection against the standard of the time, that all weapons had to be crude and immediately practical, Mona designs were all about the concept that there was beauty in everything. They're a piece of art to the core. The designs are more like masterwork paintings, the concept sketches look like something out of a museum, the placement of every little gear and mechanism was chosen for aesthetic reasons, all seeking to create a piece of art that just so happens to be a weapon..."
Looking at the scythe for another loving moment, Ruby's gaze turned to her hip after a moment, towards her weapon.
"I'm sorry, Crescent Rose." She sighed. "But can you blame me? If we switched positions, you'd be drooling over her as well!"
"Her?" Penny asked, confused.
"Well, I can hardly say 'It,' now can I?" Ruby replied defensively. "It's too impersonal. Someone poured time and effort into making this beauty, to say nothing about the original design. Am I supposed to just refer to this scythe like I would a kitchen knife?"
"I see..." Penny replied, in a tone that clearly said that she didn't.
With one last longing look at the scythe, Ruby sighed, and turned away.
"Is there a heater in here anywhere?" She asked. "I mean, it's a bit cold."
Penny nodded, pulling her scarf tighter.
"I see what you mean." Penny agreed. "But I do not know this place well enough to know where the heating systems would be. And it is not that cold. We will not notice once we start working on another weapon design!"
Ruby nodded. "Alright! What design were you thinking of for now?"
"I was thinking a sword." Penny replied. "I noticed there was a design that seemed interesting a little bit ago. A sword and sheath, designed so that when you pulled the sword out, the sheath could also transform into a duplicate of the sword. And from there, they could be combined into some sort of rifle. It seemed interesting."
"It's a bit basic, though..." Ruby replied.
"I'm not sure." Penny replied. "I'm fairly sure that it had three different gun modes, from what I saw? While sheathed, the sword can become a shotgun, but independently they can turn into pistols, and when put together in sword form, the turn into a rifle?"
"Three different gun forms?" Ruby asked, suddenly more interested. "That could be interesting to work out. The barrels of the guns would need to be designed so that there's no wasted space, since three alternate forms would take a lot of mechanisms, no more than that, everything would need to have multiple functions to have the weapon design properly work out, and there wouldn't be very much room for redundancies. Not to mention the likelihood of ammo concerns, since a shotgun wouldn't fire the same type of ammunition as a rifle or pistol, and depending on the specifics, the pistols might need to have smaller bullets. Unless, maybe they could be paired with certain gauntlets? If Dust-based ammunition was used like with Ember Celica, some gauntlets with a connection that lets the user monitor and alter the Dust rounds... No, that wouldn't work, but a fast feeding system using a similar concept? Perh-"
"You are doing the thing again." Penny suddenly spoke up. "I am unsure at which point you run out of breath, or if you are able to stop once you get started. Perhaps you should think of a hand gesture to allow people to know when you need medical assistance, because you did not stop to breath?"
Ruby stopped, and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."
"Do not be upset on my behalf, friend Ruby!" Penny chirped. "I wouldn't want you feeling uncomfortable because of me."
"Well then, let's get to it!" Ruby decided.
Penny walked past Ruby, reaching for a weapon on the rack, and pulled it off.
"This is the base design." Penny noted. "That, apparently it's kind of faulty? Prone to jamming, really inconvenient. The book I was reading out of was using it as an example of an exercise to build on a design to iron out some flaws."
"I could probably work out something." Ruby noted. "Though, I'd want to give it a test run firs-"
There was a sudden ringing sound from Penny's pocket, and the girl seemed surprised by it.
"Hold on a moment." Penny excused herself, as she passed Ruby the weapon. "Only a few people know how to contact me, so this is probably important."
Walking out of the room, Penny pulled her scroll out of her pocket as she exited the door, and it slammed shut behind her.
Watching the door for a moment, Ruby decided to give Penny her time to herself, and moved the weapon over to a work bench. By the weapon testing area, Ruby decided. She'd probably need to pop in there from time to time anyway.
Placing the sword down on the table, Ruby quickly started making some room to work with. Pushing parts aside, organising tools, making sure other weapons on the table were out of the way...
...Hey, weren't those the guns she an Penny had worked on earlier? How'd they get over here? Did Penny bring them here earlier and forget about them, or were they just another copy?
It was a really interesting weapon, too. Sheath could be weaponised, the ribbon threaded through it let the weapon turn into a grappling hook of sorts, it was really variable in how it could be used with a ton of different ways to fight in the different forms, Ruby was proud of it. She and Penny had done good putting everything in order.
The door to the workshop opened, and Ruby looked back to see Penny walk in.
...With Ciel right behind her?
"What happened?" Ruby asked.
"Nothing much." Penny replied. "There was a bit of a security scare. Nothing serious, but the standard procedure for what to do for the next few hours means that Ciel and I have to be buddied up to report in on if something happens to one of us."
"I will stay out of the way." Ciel assured everyone, as she walked over to a chair next to the weapon testing area and sat down, pulling out a book on quantum physics in the process.
"What kind of security scare?" Ruby asked, concerned.
"I am not sure." Penny replied. "I wasn't told the specifics. If it was a concern beyond needing to follow the proper procedure, I am sure we all would have been informed, not just me."
Ruby nodded slowly. "...Okay then. Let's get to work, then."
Looking over to Penny's other friend, Ruby spoke up. "Do you need anything? Something to do other than read, or-"
"Quiet time please." Ciel requested.
"...Some tool stuff might be a bit loud." Ruby warned her. "But apart from that, I'll do my best!"
"Please start trying soon." Ciel asked.
Well, that was fair, she had kinda shouted a bit to say that so Ciel had her right to be snarky at Ruby for not complying with that quicker.
"Time to get to work." Ruby decided, looking at the weapon. "I'm just gonna test it out real quick, see if I can spot any bugs in it that we'd need to work on that the design notes wouldn't give away."
"Okay." Penny nodded, walking over towards the testing dummies. Ruby took a moment to pick up the weapon, place Crescent Rose on the work table, and followed her. She passed by a computer screen in the process, and lazily, Ruby flicked a finger across it, opening a file with the weapon schematics in it to observe later.
The two reached the training dummies after a moment, and Penny pressed a button on the wall, enclosing Ruby and the training dummy in a box.
"Okay." Penny declared. "I've got a video feed set up to record the testing. We can go over it while discussing how to go about constructing and improving on our copy. Start when ready, friend!"
Ruby moved into action, charging at the training dummy and slashing across it's chest in the same motion that she pulled the sword from it's sheath. She darted away a moment later, bouncing off the walls as she pressed the button to transform the weapon. Aiming at the training dummy, she waited for it to switch to the pistol form.
When she bounced off the next wall before it transformed, Ruby sighed, and darted backwards. Too slow, too slow. Maybe it was just because she was really fast, but the transformation wasn't the sort that could be made into an attack mid-transformation, and it took too long. Too many openings, too sloppy.
When the pistols finally transformed, Ruby opened fire, blasting it for a moment. Then, she pressed the next transformation button, letting them turn into a pair of swords.
Also too slow. She had to wait for the transformation, then put the swords together, then transform them and wait again to get to the rifle form. For a weapon with a lot of transformations, having to go to a default state to get between them was a common practice, but a weapon like this would never be seen in the hands of a trained Hunter.
A second meant the difference between victory or death, after all.
It didn't take her long to finish going through all the transformations, with the testing ending with a shotgun blast that ripped the training dummy from it's podium and into the wall.
"Done." Ruby declared. The wall behind her fell away, though most of them remained up, and Penny walked in.
"Did you get a good feel of it?" Penny asked.
Ruby nodded. "Not one I like, but I can see how it works. It'd need a lot of work to get to a functional state..."
Looking over at the crumpled training dummy, Ruby took a moment to consider.
"Hold on." Ruby said, throwing the now sheathed sword back at Penny. "Just let me fix this, and then we can get right to the next step."
Walking to the end of the small box, Ruby reached for the training dummy, which was surprisingly heavy, and took a step backwards to properly get a feel of it's weight.
In that time, she didn't hear Penny move.
"Is there something wrong?" Ruby asked, as she adjusted her grip on the training dummy.
"...I'm sorry."
Before Ruby had time to process the suddenly sorrowful tone Penny's voice, a sudden burst of pain shot through her leg. The red cloaked girl let out a cry, as she fell backwards, reaching for her leg.
There was blood, Ruby realised. She'd been cut. But, her Aura was still at full strength. How...
There was the sound of a door sealing, and Ruby looked up to see her and Penny looked in the little training box. Penny was holding the sheath of the weapon, but not the sword itself.
The sword was at Ruby's feet, she realised.
"What's..." Ruby stuttered out, trying to comprehend what was going on.
"Dragon bone." Penny noted. "An odd substance. Has some of the traits of dragons, but not all of them. It'll bypass your Aura at the moment, but without the power of the Dragon's soul behind it, that cancel only lasts while the wound is being dealt. It'll heal, if you don't pull on it.
"What's going on?" Ruby finally forced out. "Penny, why-"
"You deserved better." Penny interrupted again. "You really did. But nobody can stop what happens next, and if you were there, you'd kill yourself trying."
What the hell was going on? Ruby pushed the training dummy off of her, and tried to stand, but immediately stumbled as she tried to stand on her left leg.
"That cut was calculated." The orange haired girl continued. "Your Aura will stop the bleeding before you lose too much blood, but until then, you won't be able to walk on the leg. You won't be able to leave here."
"This isn't funny, Penny." Ruby whimpered out. "Please, just-"
Penny turned her back, as Ruby tried to crawl forward some more.
"...I really wish we could have avoided this." She admitted. "In a better world, we could have enjoyed being friends. But this isn't a better world. I can't just sit aside, through what's coming next. And this is the only way to keep her from killing you."
Reaching for her neck, Penny reached for the green scarf around her neck, and threw it off behind her. Ruby clawed forward another inch, and stopped for a moment to blink the tears that were forming out of her eyes.
When she opened them again, Penny was gone.
"Ciel." Said a voice, from outside the steel container Ruby had found herself locked in. The walls of the container bleached away and lost colour, and that monochrome tint quickly spread through the content of the sealed off room. Ruby watched, as the red of her cloak bleached away into a grey, and tried to crawl forward some more.
Her legs moved twice as fast as her upper body, for a second, until the colour dulled in them as well.
There was more talking from outside the box, and Ruby realised that whoever was talking, they were talking too fast for her to understand.
...No, that wasn't it. Rather, she was hearing them too slow. Whatever the monochrome trick was, it was slowing down time.
For a moment, Ruby felt her breath hitch, and she gave herself a moment to cry.
What was happening? Why was it happening? Penny had attacked her, basically crippled her, and left her trapped in here. Why? Hadn't they been friends? Why was it apparently safer for her to be in here?
...If it was safer for her in here, then what was going on outside?
Were people in danger, out there? Someone would have killed Ruby if she hadn't been in here, and Penny had said this was safest for her. Which meant that something was happening on the outside. People would be in danger. Maybe even killed.
...No. She couldn't let that happen. She...
She had to do something. Stop whatever was going to happen. Find out why Penny was acting like this. Fix the problem. Be the hero.
Looking up, Ruby ripped off her scarf, and flipped around so she could bend over to her injured leg. The injury was on the back of her leg, and Ruby didn't really care to look at it. She could look at it later. For now...
Tying her scarf around her injured leg, Ruby made sure it was attached tight, before focusing her Aura through the scarf as if it was a weapon or armour.
This was going to hurt, but pain couldn't stop her. She was going to be a Hunter. A little pain wouldn't stop a real Hunter. If Yang could fight through the pain like she had back when Dito had-
Ruby's thoughts froze as the memory resurfaced, but she threw it aside as quickly as it came.
Yang had been in more pain and still kept trying. Ruby could still open her eyes. That meant she could keep fighting.
Getting to her feet again, Ruby let herself scream as pain shot through her injured leg. But, the wrapping of her scarf was enough. She could stand on it, as much as it hurt. And she had been expecting the pain.
Taking a step back, Ruby closed her eyes, braced herself for the pain, and surged forward. Her Semblance sent her flying into the wall, and she slammed into it with all her might.
Nothing.
As quickly as she had approached it, Ruby backed away, and she took a moment to let the pain fade.
She had to get out. She had to stop whatever was coming. The walls were strong enough that she couldn't just burst them down in one collision, but with enough...
Taking a moment to pause, Ruby looked down, at where the sword was. Picking it up, she took a moment to regret that Penny had taken the sheath, and thus the shotgun attachment, before holding it in front of her.
She surged forward again stabbing the sword into the wall while throwing all of her weight and momentum behind it, and then kicked off it again, flying back without letting her injured leg slam into the ground.
There was a scratch, but not much progress.
It was a start.
Gritting her teeth, Ruby let out a cry, and charged again.
Now that we know where Miss Rose stands in the current situation, let us return to her sister. Miss Xiao Long and the orphans will be able to get away, but who is the first responder who drives them back to the Schnee manor?
[X] The tall woman in a butler suit who worked for the Schnee and organised meetings with One.
[X] Taiyang, her father, who had left the guest manor to help as soon as he heard the news.
[X] Winter had apparently called in someone who she worked with, with a high rank in the military.