Ruby panted as her fists slammed against the small punching bag.
She had woken up feeling restless, thoughts of evil corporations and secret codes were not conducive to a good night's sleep, so she had decided it would be a good idea to work off some of her frustrations. She relished in the burn of her lungs as her thoughts drifted back once more to the code that had been plaguing her thoughts since she received it back in Quebec.
STEWARDESSES; KOI;
RVGHM; ISZSJO;
JPTSB/QFZ/TFNNO;
PQ/GQJTWIL/BJ/UKZCS/PRZLUV;
XNXY/KDL/ERZXQU;
STDM; HLFHLQBGB;
BLACK; MICROSCOPY;
Even as she went over it again in her head, she couldn't seem to make heads or tails of it. The sound of the door opening shook her from her thoughts.
"Heya sis!" Yang called across the warehouse floor. "How's it going?"
Ruby grunted in reply. She listened as the echoes of her sister's footsteps joined the thudding slaps of her fists on the sandbag.
"You know, I could always provide you with a partner who hits back, if you want." Yang joked as she looked the younger girl over. "It would be just like when we were kids."
"I'm good, Yang, thanks." Ruby answered, blinking the sweat out of her eyes. "I went for a bit of a run before I came back; needed to blow off some steam."
"Mhmm," Yang hummed. Her eyes drifted down to the cut on her sister's leg. She watched appraisingly as a trickle of red ran down the younger girl's leg. The mixture of blood and sweat were like ink, writing a story down Ruby's leg that told the buxom brawler exactly how her sister was blowing off steam. She stepped behind the punching bag and planted her shoulder against it to provide support. She knew her sister sometimes needed someone to simply be there for when she eventually came out of her own world, and ever since they were kids that was her job.
Ruby grunted as she felt one of her knuckles split.
STEWARDESSES
Memories of sparring with Yang flashed before her eyes with every strike. Their father wanted to make sure both his daughters were able to defend themselves if they ever got in trouble on a job and would have them spar from time to time to keep their skills sharp.
It was one of the first times they had done this that came to mind in this particular instance. Their dad was drilling them hard and while Ruby was used to avoiding blows form kids like Yang, who were bigger and stronger, she wasn't used to hitting back.
It was somewhere between her dad barking at her and her sister seeming to roll toward her that the fear started to take hold. She had remembered reading a book that had described fear as a paralytic and, until then, she had never been able to understand what that meant; whenever she was scared she would run. It was what she was good at. Her natural reaction to threats was always to get away, it didn't matter if that meant stowing away on a train and eloping to another state or disappearing behind the mask or one of her aliases, if she was scared she ran.
Except in this case running away meant losing, and if she lost she risked these people who had taken her in and put a roof over her head thinking she was just as useless as the home that had thrown her out when she was barely able to walk, let alone fend for herself. She was still having issues opening up to them, but slowly and tentatively she was gaining relationships that she knew even then she was not willing to risk losing.
As the icy tendrils of panic constricted her heart, Ruby felt fire fill her veins as her sister's fist rocketed towards her and everything went blank.
She didn't know what had happened until she heard the sickening crunch of her foot against Yang's knee. After that she numbly crumbled into a ball as tears streamed down her face. She was unaware of her father and sister watching her with pained faces as she mumbled pleas over and over that she was sorry and not to throw her out.
It wasn't until she heard her sister grunt as she limped over to her that Ruby was even aware she was speaking. She was sure she was going to get reprimanded severely for what she had done –the pain on the blonde's face was evident as she crossed the mats –but instead she felt two pairs of arms wrapping around her and holding her close.
"Why would we make you leave?" Her dad asked, smiling softly.
"B-because I-I-I hurt you. I-I hurt my own sis-sister." Ruby sobbed.
"So, you got one lucky shot." Yang said. "You think I'd let my little sister leave before getting some payback?"
"R-Really?" Ruby asked quietly. "You're n-not gonna throw me out?"
"Nope." Her dad answered simply. "Sorry but you're stuck with us."
Ruby smiled before turning and hugging Yang fiercely while tears of joy streamed down her face. She spent that night cuddled up to her big sister, lulled to sleep by her soft promises to always be there for her little sister.
The next day, Ruby went down to the kitchen and, after living with them for nearly two years, properly introduced herself to her family.
KOI
Sweat dripped down her back, stinging the cut on her side and bringing Ruby back to the present. It had been after that day that she had sworn to only fight if she had no choice. She much preferred to use her wits than her fists. Fighting was sloppy. Unpredictable. She still respected her sister for her versatility in various martial arts, and often enjoyed the rush that came when she sparred with her during their time together, she liked having more control over both the situation and herself.
She winced slightly as she put weight on her cut leg. It served as a reminder that though she would rather walk in and take what she wanted from directly under her opponent's nose, a fight wasn't always entirely unavoidable either.
She thought about her current situation, odds were that she and her friends were going to be involved in more than one confrontation before it was all over. She found herself slipping back down memory lane and allowed herself to be pulled back to a time when she was much more sure of what she was doing.
"Have you found a place to set up shop yet?" She asked as Pyrrha joined her at the booth in an old restaurant on the shadier side of town. Her oldest friend had arrived a month ago looking to help after Ruby had said she wanted to do something to make sure less kids ended up like her, and wouldn't take no for an answer.
"I think so." Pyrrha answered reaching into the confines of her tattered faux-leather bag. The worn material showed signs all over of multiple repairs that by now probably added up to more than the actual bag was worth. It was the redhead's most prized possession, a memento from her father before her parents died in a carjacking. She pulled out a file folder and slid it across the table.
"Where do you keep getting these folders, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked jokingly as she opened it.
"Staples." Pyrrha replied, "One of the cashiers there likes me and gives me a discount whenever I buy something."
"You know instead of leading the poor sap on, you could just join the rest of us in the twenty-first century and use a computer."
"Oh please," Pyrrha scoffed, though Ruby could see her fighting down a blush. "I've been around you long enough to learn that anything that gets saved to computer can be seen by some curious kid with a laptop."
"Hey, I'm not a kid!" Ruby laughed. "I have proof. My driver's license says I'm twenty."
"Forgery and clever makeup might trick the masses that you're not sixteen and barely able to drive in the first place, but to me you'll always be that little girl trying to bust into my house with a rock."
"Alright, alright," Ruby conceded. "The fact that my age has nothing to do with your bitterness over the fact that I can drive circles around you aside, tell me about this place you found."
"It's not much," Pyrrha said showing her the picture of the decrepit little house sitting between two equally rundown apartment buildings. It looked like it should have been condemned long ago, with holes in the shingling and rotting planks of wood boarded over broken windows. It was the kind of building any sane person would say was unsuited for fostering children. Unfortunately, the system didn't seem to care.
It was the perfect place for her to start actually making a difference.
"I love it." Ruby said.
"Yes, well there are few things that need to be taken care of first." Pyrrha said.
"Such as?"
"There will be issues with buying the property as every piece of real estate belongs to some sleaze-ball charging waytoo much to his tenants."
"What kind of sleaze-ball are we talking about here?"
"The kind who robs his tenants blind then bullies them into prostitution, dealing drugs, and other unspeakable things for a local gang. I also think he occasionally takes some of the kids."
Ruby's jaw clenched. "For what?"
"Four or five of them go to him sporadically every few months," Pyrrha continued cautiously. "Most of them are never seen again, probably some deal the gang has with the Russians."
"Most?" Ruby gritted out.
Pyrrha sighed, her earlier happiness washed away as she looked at some of the photos she had taken sadly. "One of them is always sent back. I suspect he keeps them for himself."
Ruby clenched her fists in anger. She hated people who used those with nothing for their own gain, then threw them away like trash. Especially when children were involved.
"This gang, how big are they?" She asked as she fought for control of her emotions.
"Nothing major," Pyrrha replied "though it's still going to take time to deal with them."
"I'll handle that, what about the home itself?"
"Besides the obvious? From what I can tell only one of the three caretakers is a halfway decent human being." Pyrrha laid out pictures of two elderly woman and a man. She pointed to the man first. "Leopold Bloom. He's not a bad guy per say, but taking care of children is definitely not his strong suit. He's ex-KGB and is the brother of this woman," She pointed to the picture of a stern looking older woman. She was grimacing in the picture, like she had just eaten food she didn't know had gone bad, and Ruby could tell from the lines on her face that she wore this expression often. "Sister Katarina Bloom. Worked at a home back in Russia run by the Orthodox Church. She has a soft spot for vodka and corporal punishment, though I don't think her brother very much approves of either and would probably leave her if a better opportunity arose."
"Some personal security would be nice," Ruby observed. "What about this last woman?"
"Her name's Glynda Goodwitch." Pyrrha replied. "There's just about nothing on her, but it is clear that she cares about the kids."
"So we're gonna need an in."
"And I just so happen to know one." Pyrrha smiled knowingly.
"Oh?"
"Yup. There just so happens to be this cute blonde boy who works at Staples who grew up in the orphanage and knows Ms. Goodwitch personally."
Ruby grinned gleefully as she went over the folder one more time before looking up at Pyrrha.
"We're gonna do this."
BLACK
The sting of sweat in her eyes brought her mind back to the present enough to register that her sister had left. She was barely aware of her body screaming at her, or the red stains on the sandbag until she was stiffening at the feeling of soft pale arms wrapped around her torso. Just like that, her mind caught up with her body and she dropped to her knees in a mixture of exhaustion and pain.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up."
She nodded numbly and allowed herself to be directed to the bathroom where she pulled off her sweat and blood stained clothes and stepped into the shower, not bothering to wait for the frigid water to heat up. She felt herself wince as she watched the blood and sweat mix with the shower water and run off her body before spiraling down the drain and disappearing.
She stood there for an unknown amount of time, a single question on her mind:
When did it all get so complicated?
MICROSCOPY
*(OoO)*
A/N: Sorta filler chapter as I get back into the swing of things. Hopefully the backstory helps you deal with the lack of plot and R's strange sulkiness. All I can say is I promise there's a purpose to it (though promise might be a bit of a strong term :P). Anyway, hope you all had a good holiday and once again, thanks for all the amazing support! You guys help keep me motivated to write when the laziness gets real bad!