A/N: Hey everyone, this is the first chapter in my new whiterose bumblebee fic. I'm shooting for a monthly release, but I'll be uploading whenever I'm finished. It's a little bit weird, but I hope you'll like it. Let me know what you think!
Hi, my name is Ruby Rose and I'm eighteen years old. On the mean streets of Mistral, they call me Erythra. It means 'The Red Woman' in their language. Oh, and by the way, I'm a superhero.
Ruby squatted on a steel beam suspended by a crane high above a construction site. Word was that there would be a weapons deal here at eight this evening. She had been surveying the area for the last few hours, waiting for someone to appear. Suddenly, her scroll vibrated, telling her that it was a quarter to eight. As if on cue, a man in a beige trenchcoat walked in, flanked by three (sort of) armed guards. One was bald, another was fat, and the last was, well, also fat.
You can't see my face underneath the hood, but I'm smiling. I love it when my intel is right.
Ruby dropped down from her perch, landing on the lead gunrunner with her elbow to the base of his skull. From the sickening crunch that came from his spine, she figured that he would need to be in a body cast for a while. That was fine as long as he wasn't dead. She never killed.
The other three men turned on her immediately with their swords drawn. But they were still too slow.
"It's Erythra! Get her!" One of the fat ones yelled in the thick Mistrali tongue.
You'd figure that for a group of gunrunners, they'd actually have guns.
Ruby smirked, dodging the men's attacks effortlessly. Her speed semblance gave her a distinct advantage against them. It was like they were moving in slow motion. In a flash of roses and steel, Ruby unsheathed her Crescent Rose scythe, pulling its trigger and slashing deliberately. She used the energy from the gunshot to spin her scythe in a complete arc, sheathing it in a single fluid motion.
I know that I don't need to use Crescent Rose, but it scares the bad guys, and I love her to death.
The men looked on in disbelief as their blades shattered, their shards falling to the ground uselessly. It was actually so quiet that she could hear every single shard clinking against the concrete floor.
"Run!" The bald one yelled, trying to make a break for it. The other two followed behind him.
Ruby sighed, wondering why they even tried. She zoomed past them and stood at the gate to the site with her arms folded, her trademark cloak fluttering in the wind. "Sorry boys, it's too late for that. Now I insist that you tell me where these guns were headed. That is unless you want to end up like your friend over there."
They threw themselves to her feet, begging to be spared. "Vale! Vale! The weapons are headed to Vale!" The same fat one said, clutching at the fabric of her cloak.
"Hey! Hands off, do you know how hard it is to get this cleaned discretely?" Ruby asked, nudging at his hand with her boot.
She ran, using a nearby spool of chain to tie up the three. They were the local authorities' problem to deal with. Or they would be, if the police force wasn't so horribly ineffective. On some nights, she felt like she was doing their job for them. And judging by the fact that she had yet to be arrested, she suspected that she was right. It's not like they could catch her if they wanted to anyway.
Less than an hour later, Ruby found herself jumping out of a plane into Vale from twenty thousand feet above.
Here I am with my back to a (figurative) wall, coming back to a city that I only just left. What was it that they always say? All roads lead to home or something, right? I didn't think that I would be back here for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but the last thing that dad asked me to do was protect people. I needed some time away from this city after dad died. And before tonight I figured that my sis had Vale covered, so I moved to Mistral without telling anybody. Three years of my work dropped the Mistrali crime rate dramatically, and I even managed to put most of the big crime bosses behind bars. So a gun deal from Mistral to Vale after months of silence from the gangs . . . that doesn't sit well with me. It's too much of a coincidence to not follow this up.
Ruby soared through the air, feeling her heart jump into her throat. Despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn't help but howl, riding out the adrenaline high that flooded her system. She held her arms to the side, gaining speed. Then, as the ground grew closer, she took the edges of her cape in her hands, spreading her arms outwards. The air caught her, slowing her momentum down considerably.
She landed on the roof of 'From Dust 'Till Dawn' softly, drinking in her surroundings. A wave of nostalgia mixed with sorrow rolled over her like a ton of bricks. So she did the only thing that she could. The thing that she'd been doing for the past three years. She repressed it.
The sooner I find these guys, the sooner I can get back to Mistral.
Ruby climbed down the back of the building, into the small space that separated the property from the apartment complex beside it. Piles of trash littered the narrow alley, leaving her with some questions: Why hadn't Yang been keeping this place up? And if she wasn't here, where was she?
Clearing her throat, Ruby spoke the key phrase that would let her into the 'Dragon's Den', her father's old hideout.
"Thus kindly I scatter."
After a short sequence of beeps, a woman's face appeared on the side of the building. The sight almost brought Ruby to her knees; it was her mother, Summer Rose. Except it wasn't. When Ruby first started being a hero, she found out that her father had an AI created after her mother's image called 'Tempest'. It was a sweet tribute, but at any rate, Ruby knew where she got her problems with coping from.
"Voice identification verified: Welcome home, Little Red." The floor opened up, revealing a hidden staircase that led to the Den.
Ruby scowled to herself. She hated that name, Little Red. It made her feel small. She was small, but didn't like being reminded about it. She preferred Erythra anyway.
As Ruby walked into the Den, lights came on, illuminating her old lair. Everything was covered by a thick layer of dust. (Not the magical kind, just regular dust) Nobody had been here for a while. Luckily for Ruby, her father had secretly put trackers into his two children's costumes. At least he thought it was secret. Ruby always knew it was there. Fortunately, that tracker would be useful tonight. If there was going to be a weapons deal here, she was going to need some help.
"Tempest, show me the location of Starlet," she said, walking up to the massive supercomputer, built into the Den's wall.
Starlet was the codename that Yang had used back in the day. Since their father was the Sun Dragon, she decided to become a small star - a starlet.
You're probably wondering how a small family from patch could afford this kind of equipment, right? Well long story short, dad saved a very rich, Atlesian woman from being murdered. Her gratitude ran deep, and fortunately, so did her pockets.
"Certainly, Little Red. One moment," The computer flickered on, the image on the screen a map of the city of Vale. A small red dot pinged evenly on Vale's waterfront.
"Enhance."
The map zoomed in towards street level, revealing a decrepit warehouse that was half sunken into the water.
"Ugh. Why can't bad guys ever make deals somewhere nice?" Ruby thought aloud.
"I'm sorry, I don't have the capacity to answer that question," Tempest responded, much to Ruby's annoyance.
She sighed, "Sorry, Tempest, that one was rhetorical." She sighed again. Walking to the waterfront wasn't an option if the deal was going on now. No she was going to have to take a page out of Yang, or rather, Starlet's book. "Tempest, Bumblebee wouldn't happen to still be here, would it?"
Rather than answering her, a still dark corner of the Den was suddenly illuminated. Immaculate against the dust that coated the walls, floor, everywhere, was Yang's prize possession.
Ruby walked up to it and ran her hand along the edges of the gas tank, surprised to find that it was warm. She clenched her other hand.
Right. That sister of mine still has time to take care of her bike, but leaves the only thing we have left from dad in the dust? When I find her, the two of us are going to have a talk.
"Tempest, open the garage door please," she said, strapping on Yang's helmet.
The door shuddered open, and Ruby took note of it. She was going to have to oil its chains. That she didn't mind. Throughout most of her childhood, her father went out on missions to fill the void that Summer Rose left when she died. That meant that Yang basically raised her, and that most of the technical maintenance of the Den was attributed to Ruby.
Wind blew against her face and seemingly through her. Bumblebee had kick, that's for sure. She'd never been behind its handlebars to drive it before, but knew it intimately, having built it back up when Yang wrecked it those few times. At this time of night, barely anybody roamed the streets, beside the odd dust dealer, or a drunk, stumbling to keep his footing. It definitely made it easier to get where Ruby needed to be.
If Yang was tracking the gun deal, she was going to need some backup, whether she wanted it or not.
Another five minutes later and she was in the same exact position that she had been just hours before: crouched on a steel beam, overlooking a weapons deal.
This is where Yang's tracker led me, but she isn't here. Where is she?
Ruby's question was answered almost immediately as an ever familiar mane of golden hair walked through the doorway, her face harder than she'd ever seen it before. She wore a different costume than when they were children; her leather jacket was intact, but instead of a tank top underneath, she had her chest bound with gauze. Ruby smiled, remembering the arguments that Yang had with her dad.
"Yang, you need to wear more than that," he'd said.
"Why? Being more exposed helps me use my semblance," she'd replied.
That shut down his argument. That shut down his argument every time until he didn't even bother trying to change it any more.
"Boss, I checked the perimeter and we're good. The Mistrali should be here soon," she said, walking towards another girl, dressed in a white frilly skirt and feathered scarf.
"Good work," she nodded, crossing her arms. "Roman will be here shortly."
Roman? As in Torchwick? Why would Yang be working with that degenerate?
"Roman will be here now," a man said, walking through the doorway. He wore a black bowler hat, and a dirty, white suit. "So, when did you say the Mistrali would be here, Ravager?" It was Torchwick himself
Ravager? Did she change her name too? I'll ask her later. Well this would be as good a time as ever to stop Torchwick.
Ruby jumped down onto the metal floor with a loud clang, standing up tall - as tall as she could. "They won't," She stared defiantly at her older sister, who looked like she just saw a ghost.
Torchwick looked at her with a bemused look on his face. "So nice of you to drop in." He turned to face Yang. "You didn't tell me your ex-partner would be in town.
"I . . . didn't know," she seemed at a loss for words, which was good. Ruby didn't want to think that she hadn't been missed.
"Kill her, Melanie" He commanded.
"Ru - Red?" She whispered, taking a hesitant step forward, her face softening. Then, she shook her head and hardened back up. "Wait! Let me handle this."
It wasn't a question. It was a command.
"Oh, you want me to let you handle her? Yeah right. Kid, I didn't become as successful as I am by doing stupid things."
Ruby readied her scythe. She knew that this girl wouldn't hold back. The lack of remorse in her eyes was a look that she had stared down a hundred times over. She'd never broken her kill rule though, and she didn't plan on doing so tonight.
Melanie rushed forward and feinted with her left foot, then threw a fast hook kick, trying to catch Ruby with the blade on her heel. Ruby cartwheeled backwards, barely dodging her attack. When she regained her balance, she went on the offensive, using her speed to get behind Melanie.
"Mel. Red, stop!" Yang yelled, firing her gauntlets, Ember Celica, beneath her and leaping in between the two combatants. "We can work this out."
"Like hell you can!" Torchwick shouted, aiming his cane at the three girls. "Ravager, you're fired! Melanie, you're going to deal with these two. Then -" he stopped short, his sentence cut off by a wet 'shlunk.' He coughed, blood trickling out of the corners of his mouth, as a short blade protruded from his chest.
A black shadowy figure leapt into the air and through a hole in the ceiling. Ruby was stunned, and by the look of it, so were Yang and Melanie. Ruby wasn't sure what just happened, but she was sure that she needed to catch the figure. Torchwick's death wasn't a loss to the city, and Ruby didn't harbor any love for him, but like all criminals, he'd deserved a proper trial. She would catch the figure so that he or she - whoever it was - wouldn't kill again.
Breaking News: Ravager and Little Red, both former sidekicks of the vigilante known as Sun Dragon have been sighted in pursuit of what appears to be another female. As of yet, the VPD has made no attempts to pursue. More news will follow as it breaks. This is Lisa Lavender for Vale News Network, signing off.