When normal people thought of criminal masterminds, they thought hours upon hours of elaborate and careful planning, with backups for any contingency. In truth? Roman simply planned for what he was going to do initially and adapt to whatever happens. That was why his scheme to get Ruby into Beacon was brilliant in it's simplicity.
Having payed off one of the cafeteria workers, he knew that senior professors made coffee orders at around 8:45 PM, to a certain shop, located near a dust store that Roman hadn't hit yet. Plan was for Ruby to be in there already, doing something that looked innocent enough like reading from one of those weapon magazines she loves, when he comes in with the thugs he hired off Junior. None of them actually knew of Ruby, meaning they'd try and do something stupid to her like try a rob her. Ruby would then take the fight outside and beat the hell out of the thugs, before he came up, said something to her and fired Melodic Cudgel at her, with complete faith that she could easily dodge it. He'd would then proceed to climb up to a nearby building and have Ruby see him and follow. Roman had managed to convince Cinder to be on standby with a bullhead, to which she could take and get this week's dust afterwards to ward off suspicion. By now, the huntsman or huntress would have heard the explosion he fired and come to help Ruby. From this, they would likely try and ground the bullhead, but Cinder could easily stop them for him.
Roman thanked his luck that for all this time, Cinder still did not know about Ruby and could make this plan a success. Cinder seemed to be the kind to blackmail people by threatening to attack families, but Roman knew better and managed to keep Ruby from being known.
|/|
Later that Night...
Glynda Goodwitch sighed as she was walking in downtown Vale. While she personally preferred tea, it was an agreement between Ozpin and the three senior professors that every Friday night someone went and got the coffee ordered for next week. As Beacon's professor for Combat Training and Criminal Interactions, she found mundane tasks like this boring, she'd rather go off and relax somewhere nice then get the favoured beverage of Beacon's faculty.
Well most of them.
|/|
Ruby knew that her dad's plan was simple, but she also knew that sometimes, simple is better. Her father had taught her much about how to be a successful crook, and one of the best lessons she had was that elaborate schemes had a tendency to go wrong somehow, and that it's better to have a simpler plan and be able to improvise should something go wrong. As Ruby walked into the targeted store, called From Dust Till Dawn. Ruby can't help but giggle at the place's name. Ridiculous names aside, Ruby put her hood on and walked over to a stand with magazines for weapons on it. Taking a newer one, she stands by reading it with her headphones in and hood up.
|/|
Roman swaggered down a dark alley, thugs in tow, briefly stopping to smoke his cigar. As they made their way down the street, people stop and gasp slightly at the sight of some the dangerous men, moving out of their way quickly.
Well at least one of them actually is dangerous.
Roman walks down the street to the store he selected for his plan. Opening the door, he sees that no one is in here, meaning his little girl is around here somewhere, a bit out of the way.
So ideally? It's perfect, no other witnesses.
|/|
"Sh sh sh sh... Calm down, we're not here for your money," Roman looks over at them, "Grab the dust." he tells them. Gary walks over to the dust dispensers on the right side over the store, he sees a little girl over reading some magazines. Drawing his sword, he points it at her, saying, "Alright kid, put your hands where I can see 'em." When the girl doesn't react, Gary scowls before saying again, "Hey, I said hands in the air!" walking over to her, he says more to himself then her, "have you got a death wish or something?" He taps her on the shoulder and knocks her hood off, revealing red and black hair.
|/|
Ruby feels someone tap her and pull her hood off. She turns her head around a little, seeing one of Junior's thugs point at his ear. Taking her headphones off, Ruby asks the man, "Yes?" The man looks at her angrily and says, "I said, put your hands in the air, now!" Ruby looks at him before acting a little dull, asking "Are you...robbing me?" Almost shout out a "Yes!", Ruby looks at the man with a dull look before saying, "Ah..." before she kicks him with a semblance powered kick to chest, launching him backwards. Another thug aims a gun at her, yelling "FREEZE!" to which Ruby simply fires Crescent Rose, launching her forward into the guy and knocking them out the building through a glass window.
|/|
Roman looks out the window as he watches Ruby extend her weapon into it's scythe form. Roman never did know why she used a scythe, they were very rare and hard to use, much less master. But when his little Ruby put her mind to something, she didn't give up easily. Maintaining his farce of not actually knowing what was happening, Roman watches her spin it around a little before planting the blade into the ground. Roman mutters to himself, "Ok?" Looking at the thugs, he says like it's the most obvious thing in the world, "Get her."
Roman then gets a first class seat to watch Ruby kick the asses of the thugs, almost literally, as she spins on her planted weapons shaft, and kick the first thug directly in the face. Pulling her scythe out of the ground as she kicks off the man's face, she fires it to get momentum, and swings it directly at two of the thugs, cloths-lining them and knocking them back into the store. The last thug decides to get loud, pulling out a machine gun and firing at Ruby, who, using her semblance, fires Crescent Rose to make her move rapidly from one spot to another. She does this twice once to the left and right before swing her scythe like a bat and smacking the gunman up into the air, and smacks him back down again.
Roman watches as the man lands at his feet. Maintaining the act, he says to her, "Quite magnificent little Red, truly. Now right now, I got places to be this evening and no time to chat, so this," Roman raises Melodic Cudgel, aiming at his daughter, "is where we part ways." Firing the second he finishes talking. As he fires at her, Roman runs for the ladder at the target building. He watches Ruby fire her gun and fly up into the air, dodging his explosive flare. Watching as she says something to the shopkeeper, she follows Roman, using her gun like a Pogo stick to fly up onto the roof.
|/|
Glynda had just left the coffee shop, having just payed for next weeks coffee for almost everyone but her to enjoy. Glynda sighs as she starts walking back to her bullhead, when she hears an explosion somewhere nearby, using her semblance to get her onto a roof, she sees the notorious criminal Roman Torchwick climb onto a nearby roof, soon chased by some little girl in a red cape. As she ran to help the girl apprehend Torchwick, a Bullhead shows up and the criminal climbs in, not before turning around and shouting, "End of the line, Red!" and throws a red burn crystal at the little girl. Glynda races forward and projects a shield to protect her.
|/|
Ruby watches the huntress in front of her, making some kind of shield in front of them. Watching in amazement as the huntress throws some purple energy shaped like orbs at the Bullhead, shaking it but not causing much damage, it does cause Torchwick to stumble a little inside. Roman turns to Cinder in the cockpit, who comes swaps with him, as he starts flying instead. The huntress throws a storm crystal, making a cloud appear above the bullhead, which rains icicles down on them. Cinder throws some kind of fireball that is blocked by another shield, but splashes on the ground like water, which then explodes upwards with a scream. Back flipping out of the way, the huntress causes the debris to form a spear shape and launches it at the bullhead, to which Cinder shoots it with 3 smaller fireballs that act almost like lasers. The spear of debris splits into 3 with each coming from different angles, but is stopped by some sort of nova from Cinder, causing all of the matter to disintegrate.
Ruby, not wanting to draw any suspicion, compacts Crescent Rose into it's gun form, and starts firing at the bullhead, which is casually blocked by Cinder, who creates 5 smaller versions of that screaming explosion. Seeing her make a hand gesture that Ruby has associated with her attacks, Ruby leaps forward to dodge it, as does the huntress. However this distraction allows her dad time to get away.
Ruby looks at the huntress before saying what would be expected for someone meeting a real one. "Your a huntress. Do you do autographs?" Ruby says with an almost fan girl look.
|/|
The huntress, Glynda, didn't do autographs.
But she did lecture, which meant that she was likely the teacher they were looking for. "They started it, I was protecting myself!" Ruby complained. "If it was up to me, you'd be sent home, with a pat on the back," Glynda sees that look on her face, "And a slap on the wrist!" She the slaps her horse crop on the table right in front of the girl's hand, making her jump. "However, someone wants to meet you."
|/|
Ozpin knew when he walked in, the girl looks vaguely familiar. She had silver eyes, a rare trait, red hair that darkened closer to her head. But her cape looked very familiar but with different colour. Ozpin looked at the girl, who had only said that her name was Ruby. Apparently when his deputy asked for her surname, she said she didn't have one. "Miss Ruby, you have...silver eyes." Ruby looked a little confused at this, "Uh um...?" but he cuts her off before she can say anything. "So. Where did you learn to do this?" Glynda is holding a tablet, with a recording of Ruby's fight with the criminals. Ruby looks at him before muttering, "I taught myself..." Ozpin is actually shocked when he hears this, though his face doesn't show it. "You taught yourself how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" Ruby shrugs before looking at them, "I grew up with my sister, we had to learn to fight and so I read a book about weapons and I saw a scythe, so I got some tools and metal and built myself one. I practised with my sister until I was very good with it."
To this, Ozpin raises and eyebrow and replies, "I see." He pauses briefly to take a drink of coffee from his mug, before continuing, "It just that I've only seen one other scythe wielder using at scythe with that kind of skill before. I thought that perhaps you had been trained by him." Ozpin waits for the girl's response, to which she doesn't. "Well then Miss Ruby, with skills like yours, what is it that you intend to do with your abilities?" Ruby looks at him inquisitively before replying, "I don't really know, I'd like to be able to improve my skills and learn a bit more about grimm and how to beat them."
Looking at the girl again, he can tell she is around 15 years old, and while entree to Beacon requires you to be 17, Ozpin can tell that for practical lessons, Miss Ruby will have little to now trouble or handicaps. Her theoretical work could always be taught, but it would be best to see what her kind of knowledge surrounding those topics. "Do you know much about how Vale is run, and the history of our world?" Ruby nods, explaining, "Yes, I spent a few years learning this things for fun and in case I needed to know them."
"Miss Ruby, do you know who I am?" Nodding again, she tells the man, "Your Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon." Smiling at the girl's correct guess, "Hmph, Hello.", the girl replies "Nice to meet you." Ozpin looks at Glynda, who rolls her eyes and shrugs. Looking back at Ruby, he asks her a question that will likely change her life for the better. "How would you feel coming to Beacon and becoming a huntress?" Ruby looks amazed, "But, I've got no credentials or anything..." Ozpin merely smiles and tells her, "I will handle that. I believe that you have the potential to become a great huntress, but you'd have to put in the effort to learn the more academic aspects. So, do you want to come to my school?" Ruby takes a moment, clearly thinking about it, before nodding. "Well alright then, come to the Bullhead transports tomorrow, all new students will be there for the initiation."
|/|
Ruby started walking home and texted Neo to come pick her up. One teleportation later, they are both home. Ruby sits down on the couch with Neo as they both watch some action movies. A few hours later, Roman comes home, and tells Ruby, "Good work Ruby, very good acting and ability to tricking a huntress. Now on a more serious note, what happened after?" Ruby recounts what happened during her meeting with Ozpin, to which Torchwick congratulates he's daughter on a job well done. "Now that your in Beacon, enjoy yourself, make some friends, do all that kind of fuuun stuff. Just be careful not to slip up and make them suspicious. Neo will be ready to bust you out if needed." Neo nods at her little sister, to which Ruby smiles back at. "So, work out what Cinder is up to and let you know. Otherwise be another huntress in training. This is going to be fun!" Ruby says excitedly.
Roman smiles at her antics. He knows that she is a good person and her time at Beacon will be good for her practically. And she will be able to make friends hopefully and enjoy being a normal teen.
|/|
"What is it Oz?"
"I will be taking in new students tomorrow, there is one, a young girl called Ruby. She's 15 but shows excellent weapon skills and keenness to learn. I want to know if you can finish the mission I gave you and not waste time coming back." Ozpin says to Qrow over his scroll. Qrow's face is scowling at what is being asked. "And why's that?" Qrow inquires. "She uses a scythe and is very skilled with it. I would like you to teach her whenever possible." Ozpin pauses for a minute. "Also, the girl reminds me of Summer." This gets a reaction out of Qrow, who's eyes widen in surprise. "I would also like you to look into her possible relation to her while you train her." Qrow is already nodding his head. He had been good friends with Summer and was very angry when he had been told she died. He spent a few years trying to find his niece that disappeared, but to no avail. "Alright, I'll do it, hopefully we can learn something from this."
Ozpin watches as the call ends. Turning his chair around so he is looking out at the Beacon grounds, he sighs before thinking to himself.
This is going to be an interesting year.
Author's Note: And so like that Ruby is enrolled into Beacon. I would like to point out that I was thinking about skipping most of what happened here, such as the robbery and fights, but I wanted to start the next chapter with Ruby going to Beacon. So I kept it in and made it like this.
Until Next time AD.