Rogue Huntsman
Vault
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Arex wasn't really in the mood to go swimming. Even with the bikinis just arriving. She'd taken a liking to just lounging on the couch at the opposite end of Seyda to keep herself busy with her scroll.
Dante had long since left. Seyda fell back asleep on the couch. Anoel went to check on Lylac in the master bedroom. Kit was playing chess with GHOST on the dining room table.
And Ray was still out.
Or, at least, he was until the door to the apartment opened and Ray pushed himself inside.
He entered the apartment and silently scanned the room with his eyes, passing over everything inside before wordlessly making his way to the kitchen and opening the fridge.
He pulled out a carton of orange juice, setting it on the island before opening the cupboard above the sink to pull out a glass.
One hand holding it steady on the island, he filled the glass close to the rim before placing the carton back into the refrigerator.
He then leaned back against the island, facing the fridge as he quickly downed the entire drink.
Arex just quirked her head at that, but didn't say anything about it. He'd been gone though, she was more curious about that than his… drinking habits.
With juice.
"Never seen anyone have a drink before, Arex?" Ray calmly asked her as he focused his attention on rinsing his empty glass out and leaving it on the drying rack. "It's pretty normal, you'd know that if you left your room."
"I leave my room enough times to have seen someone down a drink," Arex replied evenly, still distractedly watching him. "I'm just wondering where you've been. You're still hurt."
"What are you? My mother?" Ray replied back, finally turning to return her gaze as he leaned against the counter. "I can look after myself."
"You had a hole in your chest," Arex cut back dryly. "You could have looked through yourself if you tried hard enough." Her mutter ended as she pushed herself up to sit straighter on the couch, softly resting her scroll down for now onto her outstretched legs.
Her eyes stayed on the cushions as she arched her back in a little stretch from not moving in a while, quietly pulling her legs up toward her chest and leaning them loosely against the back cushions to settle in again.
"I'm just thinking you should probably mend the damage before jumping off of anymore buildings."
"I have yet to land on something that's as stubborn as myself. I'm sure it's fine. But thanks for the concern, always nice to know someone who can barely lift a sword is worried about my wellbeing," Ray replied, quirking an eyebrow in mild amusement.
Arex opened her mouth to reply to that last statement, but quietly closed it after realizing he was mostly right there. She specifically designed her sword to be fairly lightweight. "I have the right to be worried, don't I?"
"About your sister, yes. You don't know me."
He was speaking harsh truths, but there didn't seem like there was any real reason for it. Unless he was trying to agitate her.
"And while you may have the right to feel worried, doesn't mean you should, you don't owe me anything."
He saved her sister… she definitely felt like she owed him for that. "Still have the right to be," Arex muttered quietly to herself, trailing her gaze to her partner staring intently at GHOST's side of their holographic chessboard.
It was getting closer to dinner now. Arex usually used that to help timestamp the day, at least. Dinner meant it was getting late.
But it also gave her an excuse to do something productive, since she forgot all of her tech supplies back in her dorm room.
She'd need to go back to grab those at some point. Just not now.
"I do have a question, though," Arex said, glancing back to Ray as she curled her legs up more and loosely wrapped her arms around them.
"And that would be?" the boy responded, raising an eyebrow.
"How did you make it so GHOST could appear anywhere she wanted in here?" she asked curiously, eyes roaming away again to watch the AI's avatar walk about in the middle of their game board.
She'd just taken one of Kit's pieces. And was happily rubbing it in.
"See those cubes in each corner of the ceiling?" he asked, waiting for her to pay attention to them.
"Noticed them, but I just thought they were cameras," she replied.
"Why would I put six cameras in one room?" Ray asked incredulously, narrowing his eyes a fraction before continuing. "They're hologram projectors, each having 120 degrees of projection to cover the whole room," he explained with a deadpan glare. "She could appear as a full-sized human if she wanted."
Arex couldn't help but feel berated there, but it wasn't a very good assumption from her end. He just seemed content to make her realize how bad it was. "Does she like her small appearance?"
"It makes her feel special, apparently," Ray replied. His words were significantly calmer than his last response.
The phoenix smiled at that. "I don't blame her. It's cute, and I've never seen AI's take physical personified forms before, so she's easily special."
Arex eventually flicked her gaze away from the chess match to seek Ray out again, her hands starting to fiddle with the case of her scroll.
"By the way, is there anything you wanted to eat later? Ly's probably going to still be asleep by then, so I wanted to cook a little."
"Not particularly, I was just going to make hamburgers and call it a day. I have stuff to do later," Ray replied evenly.
"I can handle that then, if you'll be busy," she offered back.
"I can cook and then work, Arex. It's called prioritization," Ray deadpanned again. "But since you look bored out of your mind, sure. Knock yourself out."
For the record, she was bored. Incredibly bored without her toys. She just wanted something to do that'd at least be helpful for the others.
She hated relaxing like this without anything to do. And it really bothered her how useless she felt when looking at what everyone else was doing.
Even Anoel was actively sifting through her contacts to try to find family ties related to Quinn as she recovered.
Granted, she was doing it without any pants on and through her scroll, but at least she was doing something with her time.
Arex was just… idling.
"It'll save you time and give me something to do. I'll just have to see if anyone else wants something," Arex replied, looking down at her curled legs before resting her chin on top of them.
"Then why are you still sitting there?"
"Anoel's busy and Ly's still asleep. But I can start it whenever," she responded.
"Ly will be hungry when she wakes up and the last time any of you had anything to eat was lunchtime," Ray listed off. "If you want to cook, then get up and look in the freezer for the burgers, buns are in the c-"
"Cupboard. Top left. Yeah, I know," Arex cut him off, sliding her legs off the couch to stand up. She had a quick look earlier when she was sifting through ingredients to make the curry.
It was kind of easy to remember where everything was. And it helped that it was all organized well too.
"Congratulations, you know Ly's system. I'll make the salad stuff in the meantime."
Arex pocketed her scroll and gave him a slightly sour look, if not also a little unsure of herself as she heard that. "You really don't have to do anything, you know. It's easy to tell that you're not all… 'functional', yet. Especially that half of your body."
Arex pointed to the arm that was down at his side. She hadn't seen him use it yet since he came in here, or even lift it.
"It's fine, I'll fix it later," Ray replied dismissively, narrowing his violet eyes a fraction. "That's what I was going to do anyway."
The phoenix's own eyes met with his for a few long moments before she started padding her way over, walking around the breakfast bar again. "Fixing it is good, but you don't have to use it while it's weak right now."
"Which is why I'll use my semblance, I'm not exactly full of Aura, but I have enough to work with," Ray said pointedly, raising his right arm to create a small violet sphere in his palm.
Arex wasn't Anoel, but even she could tell when she was being lied to. The girl quietly crossed the stone-tiled floor in her socks to pluck the small hardlight ball out of his palm, placing it onto the counter before starting to lightly push him out of the kitchen.
The ball already starting to disintegrate.
"Go sit down and do something. I can handle this," she spoke bluntly, surprised that her little nudge actually forced him to take a step away.
"And put myself in the same boring position you were in?" An insulted expression crossed over his face as he frowned disdainfully. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Arex just pushed him a little harder, the boy starting to stumble a bit as she nudged him closer to the dining room. "Look, if a person like me who can barely lift a weighted sword can push you around like this, you really aren't in any kind of position to argue."
"I paid for this apartment, I think I'm owed the right to stand my ground," Ray replied defensively, his frown deepening as he shifted his footing to try and gain some kind of stability.
It really didn't do much. "You may have the right to, but it doesn't mean you should. Dinner will be ready in half an hour, which'll give Ly time to wake up."
She'd just managed to push Ray out of the kitchen before taking a step back, glancing up persistently at him as she rested her hands on her hips.
Sure, he had his shoes on and she was just standing in her ankle socks. Which only made him that much taller than her at 6' compared to her 5'5.
But this was honestly her domain. She was comfortable here. So that didn't matter.
Or, it shouldn't. But she didn't let the intimidation of their current height difference show.
Besides, she liked her lithe stature.
Ray silently stared at her for a few moments with glowing, defiant eyes before his arms crossed.
"Fine. You can cook then," he growled, turning on his heel and walking toward the couch.
A small smile broke out on Arex's face as she nodded, shooing him away as she turned to start prepping the ingredients she'd need for the burgers.
In that meantime, she quickly shot Anoel a small message wondering if they were fine with that for food.
They were.
Holographic fireworks shot out from the tips of GHOST's fingers as she paraded around the dining room table, a prideful expression glowing across her small face.
She kicked over any chess pieces in her path as she periodically pointed toward Kitsuki and put on a gloating laugh.
Kit's dejected face turned down to roll her tipped king around, knowing full well that she'd lost to the small pixie.
She was smarter than her, after all.
"Congrats. Wanna play again later?" Kit asked, taking her finger away from the chess piece to sign. "I wanna play you in cards too."
GHOST immediately ceased her victory march to place her hands on her hips.
"Only if you're prepared to lose again," she replied with a challenging smirk.
Kit just nodded indifferently, more excited at the prospect of getting to play with the pixie than assuredly losing. "It'll be a battle of who can count cards faster."
"With a clock speed of over three petahertz, I know I can count faster than you, but I accept your challenge anyway," GHOST said, sticking her tongue out as she winked.
Kit smiled and nodded again, giving the small avatar a tilt of her white head. "I always liked playing cards with someone, so it'll be fun. We can bring in other people too."
It'd add more variables. But Kit was just looking for entertainment.
"I can bring in others if you'd like," GHOST said as she nodded, before 5 other copies of herself, each a distinctively different color flashed beside her before fading away. "I don't have any way to handle the cards though, no real hands."
She clenched and unclenched her digital fingers to demonstrate to Kit that she was still just a hologram.
"Arex can help you," Kit signed, happy to volunteer her partner up to play with them. "You and her make a good team."
GHOST's gaze fell to the phoenix prepping food in the kitchen for a moment before turning back to Kitsuki. "We'll need to wait for her to finish eating first. In the meantime, wanna play some video games?"
Kitsuki quirked her head at that in question, confusion sifting through her eyes as she did. "Video games?"
"Yeah, you've never heard of video games before?"
Kit just shook her head no.
GHOST's smile brightened. "That's okay, I'll sho-"
"No, you won't."
Ly's voice pierced the relatively calm atmosphere authoritatively as she entered the room through the hallway entrance with Anoel, instantly shutting the AI up. "You show her video games and we won't see either of you for the next few hours."
Kit only looked more confused at that as she glanced over to the two just walking in. Was it really that engaging? Or did it just take really long to play it?
Ly's gaze fell to Arex as she cut up salad ingredients behind the kitchen counter, sliding them from cutting board to bowl after a few seconds.
"I was gonna cook something, but if you wanna do it, that's fine. Need any help with anything?" Ly asked.
Kit watched Arex glance up for a moment to meet the woman's gaze, those bright eyes flicking to Ray on the couch just briefly before turning back. "If you want. Dinner's relatively simple."
Kit saw Ray's gaze turn to glare at Arex in the corner of her vision before he shook his head and turned back to his scroll in his lap.
He looked… annoyed.
"Alright, anything you're not working on right now? I can take over for you while you do that," Ly suggested, smiling a little at the girl as she headed toward the kitchen, sparing Anoel a small gaze and gesturing toward the couch as she did so.
Anoel seemed to have noticed Ray's aggravation too and just sent Ly an amused smirk, leaning away from the corner she'd found to cross the open room and make her way to the couch.
She calmly sat herself down between the distracted boy and Seyda's napping form curled up on a pile of cushions, glancing over in intrigue to see the cat cuddling with her leopard tail in her sleep.
Arex just hummed in thought for a few seconds as she cut up a pile of onions. "I wanted to make the burgers from scratch, so I just finished getting the meat and everything mixed together in that bowl behind me. I haven't kneaded individual patties out yet."
There was an empty tray just next to the bowl as well, something Arex was just going to use to help her carry them all out to the grill on the balcony.
Which wasn't fired up yet.
"Then I'll do that and season them, improve the taste a little," Ly replied with a smile, pulling out a pack of gum from one of the drawers. "Open your mouth."
Arex confusedly did as asked as she turned the onions around to dice them another way, Ly slipping one of the pieces between her parted lips before pulling away.
"Helps with concentration, and the onions. Though I've been told to prevent crying, you should avoid making an emotional attachment."
Arex slowly nodded as she smiled a little, starting to chew. It was spearmint, which she was actually a fan of.
"Funny, but kind of depressing since I'm the one cutting them up…" she responded, eyeing the way she was carving through layers of onions with a sharpened blade.
They were nice knives, too.
Ly chuckled before tapping her on the nose. "Better make it painless then."
"Hard to comfort them all when all I have is cold metal and a sharp edge," Arex replied back, smiling a little more but pulling slightly away from the bump to her nose.
Kit saw it. She wanted to bump Arex's nose now.
"I've been told metal makes great friends. It can be a little cold at first, but it eventually warms up," Ly replied amusedly. "I'm sure Ray can attest to that."
She received the middle finger in return to that snide remark.
Arex just smiled lightly at that as she tried to ignore it.
"It doesn't warm up to just about anyone. I'm not sure it wants to with me, and I don't know why. I don't really blame it though…" Arex replied, glancing to Ray for a moment before turning that stray attention to Ly.
She didn't really see herself as a person to seek out and get to know.
"Maybe that's because it needs to be heated first…" Ly whispered in response.
Arex frowned a little at that. She was a blacksmith, a baker, and a chef. That was literally her job description, but, "I don't really know how."
"Easy. Take a blowtorch to it," Ly returned as she spared a look before returning her gaze to the patties she was steadily forming. "Metaphorically speaking, of course."
"It's kind of hard, though, to do that. For me, anyway," Arex replied in a soft mutter, keeping it out of his hearing range. Or at least, trying to. "Every time I talk with him, it just feels like I'm having a conversation with someone whose better than me. And I feel like I'll mess up if I say the wrong thing."
"Are you trying to impress him?" Ly asked, keeping to the same volume as Arex. "Because you've already done that, he's just not showing it."
Arex frowned again at that. People kept bringing that up, but she still had trouble coming to terms with actually believing it. "I guess I am, in a way. But I'm more afraid of letting him down."
"Again, easy. Watch this, kiddo," Ly said as she finished kneading the last of the patties and turned to her cousin on the couch.
Arex immediately paled a little at what she was about to do.
"Ray? Are you going to the Vault tonight?"
"Yes."
"Take Arex with you then," Ly ordered him, keeping a calm and complacent gaze on him as he returned one with his violet eyes.
He didn't give a response, only narrowing his eyes a fraction as he blinked.
"Looks like you're going on a field trip, Arex. You're welcome," Ly said as she turned to the girl and winked.
Arex's gaze just glanced concernedly to Ray's significantly harsher one directed toward Ly, turning her own meek eyes just as quickly as she looked away.
She just flushed a little and stared back at Ly in apprehension.
"A-Are you sure he's alright with that?" she asked.
"He's not, but I'm not giving him a choice," Ly replied carelessly. "He'll do as I say, or he'll be going back to Beacon."
She… guessed that was a pretty bad punishment for him, then.
Arex wasn't opposed to going with him. Her intrigue actually spiked at the word 'Vault', but she wouldn't have really asked about it.
GHOST apparently heard the conversation and finally faced away from Kitsuki to glance at Ray with her arms crossed. "Well, it's about time you paid me a visit. Nearly two months since you last came home."
Aaaand, Arex's interest suddenly skyrocketed.
GHOST was… at the Vault?
"So?" Ray responded bluntly, meeting her scornful gaze.
"So? Two months, Ray. You said you'd be back after you came back from Sukariko, let alone Mistral."
"I had things to do in Mistral," Ray replied with his uncaring tone. "Like drinking."
GHOST shook her head disdainfully. "Well, at least you'll be bringing a girl home with you. I'll let you off on that."
"Oh, I like the sassy little pixie," Anoel commented, peering over the couch at GHOST as she steadily stroked the sleeping Seyda's fluffy tail. "Treat Arex nice, will you?"
Arex's eyes were still wide from earlier, not really hearing that last part.
She was… going to meet GHOST in person?
The black airship was surprisingly big on the inside, and pleasantly smooth under Vale's turbulence. Especially for a pilot's cockpit.
That was pretty relieving, considering Arex was sitting with her hands in her lap in the pilot seat of the speeding vessel. She actually enjoyed how fast and high up they were traveling.
The controls in front of her were moving about on their own, her eyes watching as dials steadily rose and fell as GHOST manned the aircraft's primary systems.
She was just… sitting in the control seat. Doing nothing.
Ray was co-piloting behind her.
She heard him unbuckle his harness from the copilot seat, standing on the small walkway to the right hand side to walk closer to the glass screen as they approached the mountains.
"We're almost there, considering we've just dropped out of mach 1," he stated as he spared a moment to glance at the phoenix.
She just gave a small nod as she tried to unbuckle too, only for the button to not work. Apparently GHOST wanted her to stay in her seat for now. But she did at least sense their deceleration.
That was at least something she was good at, considering she needed the natural attunement to feel precise velocities.
"I noticed. Where exactly are we landing?" she asked.
"Inside the mountain."
Ray's reply was blunt as he moved away from the glass windscreen and headed to the rear of the ship.
Sanus' mountain range bordering the kingdom of Vale quickly became closer and larger as GHOST weaved the dropship to align it between two of the peaks.
"You may want to hold onto something," GHOST said as her hologram appeared on the dashboard by the controls.
Arex glanced through the pilot's window to see what was going on, but she took a hold of the sides of her chair to do as asked.
She still didn't see a door of any kind yet.
But she did hear the clicking of a buckle behind her, which was a good indication that something was going to happen.
It's just, the time she wanted to use to think about what that might be was cut short as the dropship suddenly rolled onto its back and nosedived right toward the juncture between the two mountain peaks.
Speed suddenly kicked back up again as they dropped, the snowy surface below homing in on the glass window and downward nose of the airship just before a slit formed in the snow-covered rock.
The slit gradually widened as a tunnel shown through its opening, sliding just far enough to fit the dropship as it dove right into it.
Oh…
So that's where the door was.
The dropship's reverse thrusters soon fired as Arex began to see what appeared to be a landing pad, the backblast visible from the sides of the cockpit in bright streaks of orange as the ship's speed dissipated.
Their velocity gradually slowed down as GHOST righted the ship, hydraulic whirring indicating landing gear as the ship touched down.
The second it did, both Arex and Ray's buckles automatically disconnected and the door at the back of the ship opened.
"Welcome home!" GHOST chirped with a smile. "Don't forget to wipe your feet."
"I'll wipe my feet when you order a doormat," Ray replied, rolling his eyes as he walked to the back of the ship, stopping right before he hopped out to turn back to Arex's wandering gaze. "You coming?"
Arex had to pry herself away from her curious roaming of the hangar she could see through the window, turning quickly to distractedly follow Ray out. "Yeah. Coming."
Ray hopped out the back and stretched a little as he slowly paced his way toward a steel-gray structure illuminated in the distance, occasionally looking back to see if Arex had stopped.
She had.
"She's not going to wait forever, you know," Ray called out as he turned back to the structure. "She's more impatient than I am."
Yeah… yeah, she could tell. Arex's eyes just roamed for a few more seconds as she wondered if she could find all the components that controlled the doors above.
But all she could manage in that short time was tracing its power cables down to disappear into the water surrounding the raised, rock platform they were on.
Which she'd just realized was surrounded by water from the melted snow above… considering her gaze had been staring at the ceiling that whole time.
She finally broke her gaze away and jogged a little to catch up with Ray, the boy waiting by the doors of the structure for her.
"Sorry. I was just curious how the entry worked," she apologized, falling in line with him again.
"This one uses guide rails to slide slates of rock open and closed. There are other entrances dotted around here and there that operate differently, including my least favorite…" Ray paused for a moment to offer her a helping hand up the steps. "The underwater dive."
The boy shuddered a little after uttering those words.
He didn't sound very pleased about the underwater bit. "There any reason why it's your least favorite?" She asked, looking at his offered hand hesitantly for a moment before taking it.
Did something go wrong the last time he used it?
"He's scar-"
"GHOST, I will delete you if you finish that sentence!" He called out to interrupt the voice erupting from a hidden speaker system.
Arex looked up to try to find it for a few moments, but she brought her gaze back ahead of them as she was pulled up the stairs.
He was… scared of something? That was… actually a little unbelievable for Arex. She'd been picturing Ray as that 'fears nothing' type, due to how stubborn he was.
Ray gestured for Arex to follow him as he led her down a white, well-lit corridor, leading to a pair of glass elevator doors.
"Step inside when you're ready, we haven't even scratched the surface yet, literally."
They… hadn't? That entrance was pretty big.
He stepped inside and took a step to the left, allowing Arex space to fit inside comfortably.
She stepped in after him, keeping closer to the wall than him now that she had her hand to herself again. He pressed a button once she was clear of the door, panels closing shut behind them before the elevator started to descend.
Nothing but rock and metal beams passed by through the window as she waited anxiously to see what waited for them below.
Only, the elevator kept descending long after she thought it'd be close by then.
And it was getting exponentially faster too.
A small look of worry suddenly donned on her as she felt her light weight start to quickly disappear. The girl's eyes snapped down as her hair began to drift upward a little, suddenly feeling the floor slip away from the balls of her feet as she started to float up.
This thing was moving fast…
Ray turned his gaze to face her as her body floated high enough for her to reach his eye level, before he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her down to meet the floor again.
"E-Erm, thanks…" she muttered quietly.
He just nodded, but he didn't seem too surprised by what happened.
"Same thing happened to Seyda once, but I seem to have completely misjudged how lightweight you really are."
"Yeah… happens a lot," Arex commently softly, bringing her eyes back to the glass in front of them. "You're not the only one who's misjudged it."
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you how much I weighed, so we'll just pretend this never happened."
Considering he could hold her down while staying grounded himself, which meant he was supporting both their weights, she figured he just weighed a lot more than normal.
Which made sense, she guessed. If he had any kind of metal augmentations.
He kept her from losing that footing again, holding her there just as the tight elevator shaft suddenly widened until they were both suspended in an expansive cavern.
A really… really… expansive cavern.
Red Dust veins webbed across the far walls of the dark, open cave system, overwhelming what few other colors lined the surrounding rock. Each vein faintly glowed to illuminate the massive white structure far below, which reflected that glow in its embedded architecture. It looked like it spanned in all directions through the cavern itself, and filtered down into the rock at its base.
Which meant this already impressive area was just level one of… many.
"How many sections and levels are there?" Arex asked, wanting to walk up to the window. But seeing as they hadn't slowed down yet, she wasn't going to try taking any weightless steps.
That didn't stop her hair from floating up a little into her face though, which she kept out of her vision with a delicate hand.
"Enough to fill approximately 45 kilometers down. If I had to wager a guess, there's over 40 levels, each one having maybe two or three subsections," Ray replied as his face contorted in thought. "Level 7, which I know for a fact will be your favorite, is the biggest by far."
Her eyes were already wide from the sheer volume of possible space this Vault took up, and how long it must've taken to even build in the first place. But what he said last caught her attention immediately, curiosity piquing.
Her favorite?
"What's on level 7?" she asked quickly, keeping her gaze roaming over the facility below as they slowly approached its ground floor.
Ray's lips curled into a smirk as he slowly retracted his hand from her shoulder.
She felt herself float again for just a second before the elevator finally slowed to a halt, the doors eventually opening once they stopped moving altogether.
"My favorite toy."
Toy? So, level 7 was just going to be both their favorites? Arex didn't really know what Ray could've seen as his toy, or his favorite toy, considering anything could fit that criteria.
And she still didn't know him well enough to know what he liked to play with.
She just knew he wasn't a fan of delicate blacksmithing, which was what he hired her for.
"Sounds… fun?" she ventured out enough to say, following Ray out of the elevator as she tried to get used to her normal weight again.
Ray led her to a t-junction before taking a left, Arex tagging along just behind him as she noticed a displeased look on his face.
"For someone so evidently excited to see visitors, you have a real funny way of showing it…" he called out as he stopped at yet another junction.
The place was like a maze, but Arex didn't have much time to look around before light, almost inaudible footfalls could be heard coming from around the corner.
And before the phoenix had time to utter a single word, a short, happy-looking blonde girl slid around the corner in her stark white dress and knee-high socks.
"Hello!"
Arex's jaw almost dropped as she stopped in a startle, locking up entirely with a confused but excited gaze, if not also riddled with disbelief.
"G-GHOST?" That girl… as in a girl-girl… was an AI?
"I bet you thought her avatar was all just CGI, didn't you? Bet you feel a little stupid now," Ray commented to the side as he smirked a little.
"W-Well, y-yeah, I did. But… I-I just thought…" Arex trailed off, head slowly tilting as she stared in curious wonder at GHOST's physical form in front of her. She was… even warm, which meant she had body heat.
She… she wanted to hug it- her. She really wanted to hug GHOST right now, like she'd been wanting to.
"Carbon nanorod skeleton powered by the highest grade synthetic muscles, encased by real, genetically grown hair and skin. All powered by a rechargeable Dust core," Ray listed evenly. "Bet you won't find this in Atlas Research and Development."
Arex's gaze was still locked in its wide stupor, staring at GHOST's beaming face and eyes as the words trickled through her semi-conscious attention.
Ray turned to GHOST and quirked a brow. "Enjoying the new model?"
GHOST reflexively nodded and gazed at her hands as she curled and extended her fingers. "It's much lighter than the other one, I can actually run now without draining the power supply."
Arex's own fingers twitched slightly as she suddenly realized she'd been staring in silence for a few seconds, finally coming to slight terms with what stood in front of her. "You said carbon nanorod skeleton?" she asked quietly.
GHOST looked to her with gleaming blue eyes. "C'mon Arex, try to keep up, if you're blown away by this, you'll become catatonic with all the other stuff we have."
"N-No, it's just, carbon means durable and…" Arex quickly got over her stupor and shook her head, "that means I can hug you."
GHOST and Ray shared a confused look before the AI turned to her and nodded. "Well… I guess so, yeah."
"You sound surprised," Arex said, fingers starting to play with the hem of her sweater again. "May I?"
GHOST nodded before extending her arms in invitation. Her legs straightening out to brace herself, but they'd only just gotten into place by the time Arex darted forward and wrapped her arms around her.
The impact was marginal at best, Arex's lightweight hardly doing anything to the 5'6 girl in front of her as the phoenix's hair slowly drifted down from her movement.
"S-Sorry, I just… wasn't expecting to see such a real version of you," Arex muttered quietly, squeezing her arms around GHOST's frame. It felt real. As real as it looked.
"Then girl, you are in for a surprise. This Vault has only been in development for 5 years," GHOST replied, returning the embrace. "You're squishier than I thought you'd be."
Arex smiled a little as she pulled her head back with a small fluster, not sure what GHOST meant by that. "O-Okay? And I look forward to seeing it. if I'm allowed to see it all, that is."
"I really don't want to go back to Beacon right now, so sure," Ray remarked to the side.
Arex's smile grew a little as she slipped her arms away from around GHOST's body, taking a step back to give her space again. It sounded like Ly had the power to keep her promise to Ray, about sending him back to Beacon.
"Well, I have all day then, if we wanted to get started," Arex replied, swaying her arms a little at her sides. Something she couldn't stop due to her own excitement. And she was a little ashamed to realize she was bouncing lightly on the balls of her light feet.
"I'll let GHOST handle the tour," Ray replied, looking down to his weakened left arm. "I ought to get this fixed before it causes permanent damage. I'll catch up later."
With that, he began to walk away, heading in a different direction to the one GHOST was suddenly dragging Arex in.
"Come on, the 42 levels of this facility are waiting to be ogled at," the AI said demandingly.
"R-Right…" Arex guessed Ray was wrong with what he thought earlier, then. Since he said 40 levels in the elevator. "As long as you don't mind me ogling, anyway."
"I built 40 of them, so no, I don't mind at all," she replied with a smirk.
"Okay, then I won't feel too bad if I gawk either," Arex replied, hoping she'd be able to keep a cap on her internal squeals and keep them from slipping out. "How much of it can I touch?"
"Well, aside from the E.W. lab, and Central Processing, you can touch most of it without risk to your wellbeing," GHOST returned, pulling Arex into an elevator. "This level is just for show anyway. The real fun begins on the next floor."
Arex happily nodded to that, keeping pace with GHOST's surprisingly firm pulling for a girl in slippery socks. "Just let me know if I'm looking to touch something bad, then. I'm actually really excited to see this… and for what's on level 7, too."
GHOST's smirk widened. "We'll leave level 7 until you've seen the other 5."
Arex couldn't help but whine a little, but they were going to pass through those levels anyway. So she didn't complain. "Okay… What's first then? For level 2?"
"Living quarters, recreational facilities, and the base of this first cavern. I can show you the hot springs while we're at it too."
Arex's mind jumped a little at that, flicking her gaze to GHOST for a moment in question. "There's a hot spring down here too?" Speaking of that… How many caverns were connected here?
"Yeah! The Fire Dust veins heat the water that permeates through the rock on the mountain. It's completely potable too, if you like drinking hot water, that is," GHOST replied with a bright smile.
Seemed she was reluctant to let go of Arex's hand too, which the phoenix honestly didn't mind.
"Does anyone use it recreationally?" Arex asked curiously, wondering if it was alright to actually enter it.
"I've seen Ly use it a couple of times, but the others all tend to use the swimming pool and steam rooms, the temperature stays toasty without it burning," The AI explained. "Most of the hot springs are completely untouched, now that I mention it."
"That… actually sounds really nice," Arex muttered, keeping her eyes on the elevator doors in front of them. She'd always liked heated bodies of water. She liked them far more than pools of any kind, actually.
Maybe it was just because they felt meditative for her.
"You seem more excited at the prospect of dipping in the hot springs more than you did with Ly's pool, is that your Affinity talking, by any chance?" GHOST asked curiously.
Arex gave a light, quizzicle hum for a moment as she brought her gaze back to GHOST, but it quickly turned a little meek at seeing her gaze. "That's because I am. I… like it more when the water's heated to higher temperatures. It kind of has a calming effect on me, the same one an open fire has when I'm near it."
She didn't know if that was her personally, or her Affinity actually comforting her from those sources. But she did know she could easily fall in love with any fire or soothing warmth that surrounded her.
"That's interesting, maybe we have something else here that may appeal to your tastes, once it's safer to approach, that is," the AI replied, smiling considerately.
Arex's gaze grew curious, but also a little concerned. "Is it dangerous to get near? Even for me?"
GHOST hummed in thought. "Further experimentation will be required to determine a conclusive answer. We still don't know much about it yet, but it's hot… really hot."
Arex liked really hot, though. But she stood by GHOST's warning, especially if the AI was putting that much emphasis on it. "I'll… keep my distance then."
The AI nodded to her response. "That's probably a wise decision, at least for now."
The phoenix nodded to that, but her curiosity stuck with her. Just… how hot was she talking?
Before she could ask anymore questions, though, the elevator came to a slow stop and the doors in front of them slid open.
"Welcome to your potential new home!"
Arex seems to be getting comfortable, which is a good thing. Really good, especially for someone like her who lets anxiety dictate her life. And she got to meet GHOST in person! Something she's been dying to do, but has been too nervous to even hint at the fact that she wanted to.
Ray and GHOST's Vault should hold her interest for a long while, too. But something tells me it's only really GHOST who's the reason why that interest is so strong.
Arex is actually going through some nice character change, which has been slowly developing ever since her intro into the story. She and Anoel both are.
She'll need the confidence, for what'll happen.
Another omake down below.
For now, Favorite and Follow.
I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.
Cya XP
Omake: by Xera Stark
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-"
"Jaune?!"
"H-HELP!"
"What happened?!"
"I DON'T KNOW! IT JUST HAPPENED, OKAY! WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP ASKING?!"
"Because you're standing on a landmine in the middle of the CAFETERIA!"
"I KNOW!"
"Oh my god! Jaune what-"
"Screw it!" Jaune dangerously threw his hands in the air, practically stomping on the mine. "Just kill me now!"
"Wait! Jaune, please, if you explain what happened, I might be able to help you," Pyrrha pleaded, her voice growing softer.
"If you wanted to help me, then why are you standing so far away?!" Jaune threw his arms down now, staring at the redhead with bright, bushy, ungodly annoyed eyes.
Pyrrha's shoulders huddled together as she shrunk in a little, standing with the crowd by the door.
Jaune alone in the center of the room.
"Because I have to know that I can trust that you won't move."
"Pyrrha! That's like telling me you straight up think I'll jump off this thing as soon as you get close!"
"W-Will you?"
"NO!"
Pyrrha sucked in a breath as she nodded. For moral support, Nora helped nudge her comrade forward into the blank emptiness in front of her, starting her perilous journey.
After the gruelling seconds of silence ticked by, she managed to position herself just in front of Jaune's irritated frame, his eyes locked with hers.
"Okay," she breathed out, trying but failing to relax her shoulders as she turned her gaze down to the obsidian black mine beeping quietly beneath Jaune's sneaker. "So, what exactly happened?"
"I was walking back to the table when some ice cream chick dropped what I thought was a burnt pancake on the ground right as I was stepping by," Jaune calmly, but emphatically, explained. "Turns out! It's not a goddamn pancake at all!"
Pyrrha quickly held up her hands and hushed him, trying to sooth him as she lightly gripped his shoulders and got him to stop moving around so much. "It'll be okay, Jaune. We'll get you through this."
"This. Is. Bullshi-"
"Jaune? What are you… standing on…?" somebody else's light voice came out, and Jaune snapped.
"So help me god. I will jump off this damn explosive if people don't stop saying-" his mouth slammed shut as he glanced to the side and saw Arex flinching under his bloodshot gaze, an immediate sense of guilt washing over him as she stepped back.
But what made that worse was who was with her.
"A-Ah, s-sorry," Jaune quickly mustered, eyes avoiding the mass of black Arex was standing beside.
Niro's green eyes bore into his soul like a damn railgun with an invisibility cloak, Jaune's voice all but dying and leaving his body behind in a sacrificial act of survival.
"P-Please forgive m-"
"Everyone out." Niro spoke coldly.
And just like that, the room was deathly empty. Even Pyrrha was gone in a heartbeat.
Jaune stared with wide, fearful eyes all over again as Arex quietly closed the doors to the cafeteria, leaving Jaune alone with a ticking time bomb and a landmine.
"L-Listen, I know you don't like me, but I didn't mean to snap at your teammate." Jaune quickly tried to lick his wounds while he still could, desperately hoping he didn't just sign his death warrant as the teen in black slowly paced further into the room.
Staying coldly silent.
"I'll make it up to her!" Jaune tried again, his spine almost rattling out of his back as he quivered and shook. "A-Anything! I-I'll do anything!"
"Stop talking."
"Okay," Jaune squeaked, holding completely still now.
He was dead.
He was so… so dead.
"Don't move."
He won't! Really! He won't!
Jaune held completely still, even his eyes stopped tracking Niro's movements as the black-clad teen slowly positioned Jaune's body between himself and the cafeteria doors.
"After I get you off this bomb, you can make it up to her."
Jaune's entire body visibly shuddered as he breathed a sigh of relief, his breath quickly coming back to him after holding it since birth. "Oh thank god, you're gonna help m-M-"
A powerful force crushed into Jaune's side as his body crumpled over Niro's swinging leg, everything feeling like a twig snapping as a jarring pain ripped into him.
Everything almost went black as Niro's leg carried through him, Jaune's body turning into a human cannon ball as it ragdolled forward, off the mine, and straight through the closed cafeteria doors.
And the literal moment he broke through them, the entire cafeteria erupted in a fiery blast of shrapnel and scorched tables.
Jaune rolled out of the billowing smoke straight into Pyrrha's arms, the girl quickly cradling him and checking him over as his white aura shimmered across his skin.
Mending the bruises.
Behind him, out of the smoke and flaming room, Niro wordlessly walked out of the dark haze. His pale hand brushed ash from his shoulder for a brief moment before tipping his hat up, metal beams creaking and collapsing to the ground in the cafeteria just behind him.
His eyes fell on Jaune, then thankfully dragged to Arex as she stood in her own little world off to the side.
"Let's just get takeout," Niro said, his voice surprisingly neutral. "Cafeteria's off the menu, it seems."