Sorry for the delay folks, I've got no real excuse on this but I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Also I would like to announce I have gotten a 'New' 3DS XL from a pawnshop and have downloaded Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon on it (And Fire Emblem Awakening since Launch Price on the 3DS eShop is the cheapest you'll ever find) so I can finally write this story in a way that isn't as railroaded… Hopefully.
Don't get me wrong, Chugga is great, but there are things he does that lacks the… First time through lack of direction that I kind of need to use to write this.
[[]]
"Yah!" Ruby cried out as the Pixelator reconstituted her mid air, dropping her in front of E. Gadd. "You definitely need to adjust that."
E. Gadd sighed, "I am aware, but to do that I would have to do it manually for each camera." E. Gadd as he pressed a button on his chair and a pedestal appeared next to Ruby, "Set the gears there and the repairs will be automated."
Ruby nodded and set the gears on the pedestal which quickly retracted into the floor before pulling up a separate chair and sitting down, "So… How long is this gonna take?" Ruby asked.
E. Gadd hummed for a moment, "Not too long I should think." He said as a mechanical claw lowered down a small package of cookies for Ruby, "So how have things been at home with Summer back?"
Ruby ripped the package opened and smile, "Things have been pretty good really, Mom took up a job as teaching assistant for Beacon when the brace came off." Ruby's smile faltered for a moment, "But there are things that I was hoping Mom would explain to me or Yang, but never did. The look on her face just screams 'bad memories'."
E. Gadd chuckled, "I suspect it has something to do with Raven doesn't it?" E. Gadd asked.
Ruby nodded, "Dad and Uncle Qrow always dodged questions about Yang's mom because of Yang… Well, being Yang really." Ruby said, "But mom… I think it hurts her emotionally to think back to those times."
E. Gadd nodded, "I would assume so, Summer and Raven were an odd duo, but they were often considered the best of friends." E. Gadd explained, "Would you like to hear some things I know?"
Ruby nodded eagerly.
E. Gadd smiled, "Well first off before I even start, I should let you know something about Raven that your father and uncle are probably uncomfortable talking about." E. Gadd said as his smile faded, "You see, the Branwens are a tribe of bandit's that operate in Mistral."
Ruby's eyes went wide, "Wait so Uncle Qrow and Raven are…" Ruby started.
"Not Qrow." E. Gadd interrupted, "By his second year at Beacon he had chosen to give up the bandit life, following the straight path gave him a lot of happiness in life… I had thought Raven changed for the better too."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"During her first year she was rather cold hearted towards others." E. Gadd said, "In fact she had some issues with Summer because of the tribe's motto."
Ruby swallowed, "What was it?" She asked.
E. Gadd sighed, "That strong live and the weak die." E. Gadd said, "A rather short sighted motto in my opinion, after no one is truly born strong, the potential to be strong maybe, but strength is acquired." E. Gadd chuckled, "Raven looked like she had swallowed a lemon when I told her that."
Ruby chuckled at the thought, admittedly she was reminded when Yang did so during one of their truth or dare sessions. For some reason Yang would never dare her to do anything.
"Of course, Raven, and admittedly not too many people really, wasn't aware that Summer was born and raised in Vacuo." E. Gadd said, "And the motto of Vacuo has always been-"
"If you can survive, you're welcome here." Ruby said remembering what Qrow had told everyone during one of his classes in Signal, then blinked, "Wait, Mom was from Vacuo?"
E. Gadd chuckled as he nodded, "She was, but you would never be able to tell, and at the end of their first semester Summer made a bet with Raven." E. Gadd said, "A best of five matches set during their week long break, one duel a day. If Summer won she demanded acceptance from Raven as a leader if nothing else. If Raven won then Summer would make Raven leader in all but name."
'I'm glad things didn't get that bad with Weiss.' Ruby thought, "Did mom win all three matches?"
"Not in the way you're thinking." E. Gadd said, getting Ruby to tilt her head in confusion, "The first match Summer threw, to get Raven overconfident in her own abilities." E. Gadd then turned to his computer and pulled up an image of a younger Raven walking away from Summer, who was on her back, Raven had a smug smirk on her face, but Summer had an uncharacteristic equally smug grin on her face.
"The second and third match Summer won easily." E. Gadd said changing the image to Summer standing next to a fallen Raven, a childish grin on the standing woman's face, then to a third image where Raven sat on the floor, a broken blade in her hand while Summer was looking at her weapon for damage.
Ruby took a minute to examine Summer's weapon, a rapier similar to the one Weiss used, but unlike Myrtenaster, there was no dust chamber, instead the weapon was segmented along the blade, with the second to last segment of the tip of the blade having been divided into four parts.
Ruby remembered helping her mother rebuild her weapon, the Rosen Thorn, the rapier was a whip sword, but the last segment near the tip was designed to pop open to act as a grappling anchor, and the sheath of the weapon was actually a long ranged lever action rifle, with the rapier sheathing to act as a lever.
"The fourth round Summer threw once again." E. Gadd said, "Raven called her out on it that time and Summer simply responded with 'Simple, one last fight where it's all or nothing and victory is so close, and so is defeat. Should get you to really give it your all'." E. Gadd explained, then went quiet for a moment, "Do you know what your mother's semblance is?" E. Gadd asked.
"Ummm… No actually." Ruby muttered, having never really thought about it before.
"Intangibility." E. Gadd said, "Summer could make it impossible to be touched whenever she wanted, even if it were only parts of her body instead of the whole thing, she could even pass through walls and people without issue."
"Whoa." Ruby said.
"Now this might sound scary, and the image I'm going to show you might be as well." E. Gadd warned, "But that fifth round was when Summer started to use her Semblance. And she won in just a few seconds with it."
The image on screen caused Ruby to go wide eyed.
Summer had her left hand on Raven's shoulder, her right hand going into Raven's chest but not coming out the other side, Raven having a terrified look on her face and Summer's face remained calm and muted.
"Summer revealed that she could easily crush Raven's heart in an instant." E. Gadd said, "Summer would often kill Grimm from the inside out with this trick, sometimes with her weapon, sometimes with Dust Grenades, sometimes with her hands if she knew where to strike. But she knew she could do it against other people with much less effort, and she made Raven know it too."
Ruby was shocked at how her mom had acted. Her dad and Uncle Qrow had often said Summer could be really scary when she wanted to, when she had asked her mom what they meant by that she said it was just her 'Serious Huntress' mode.
But knowing her mom was from Vacuo, the 'Scary Mom' thing might have been a part of her personality born from just being a Vacuo native.
"Afterwards, Raven respected Summer as more than just a leader." E. Gadd said, "And despite her aggression towards most other student's not lessening much, she really did soften up towards Summer and the rest of her team. The whole group were thick as thieves as it were, they even managed to find ways to take advantage of Qrow's bad luck." E. Gadd then chuckled, "Summer even managed to force Raven into a dress for the Vytal Festival dance in Atlas."
"So… What happened?" Ruby asked, wondering why Raven up and vanished.
"Personally… I think parenthood scared Raven." E. Gadd said, causing Ruby to blink, "I'm fairly certain being raised among bandit's doesn't make for a good childhood. I'm fairly certain Raven was worried she wouldn't be a good mother to Yang and she certainly didn't want to be the same kind of parent her mother was."
"But why didn't Raven ask mom for help?" Ruby asked, "Mom went all out making sure me and Yang were happy as kids."
"Fear can make people do irrational things Ruby." E. Gadd said, "Raven most likely went back to her tribe because it was something she was familiar with. I can only imagine how upset Summer was that day."
Ruby nodded in understanding, "Maybe that's why she's always glaring at the ravens that sit on the tree branches near our house?" Ruby muttered to herself.
A ding was heard right as Ruby said that and a mechanical claw entered the room with the now straightened gears, which were now attached to a crank handle.
"Ah, wonderfully timed." E. Gadd said, "This should help you get into the next part of the Gloomy Manor."
"Alright then." Ruby said taking the gears, "So what's my goal in there right now?"
"In general, finding the Dark Moon piece that is likely in the Manor." E. Gadd said, "Of course there is a powerful signal coming from the Library, I don't know if it is the Dark Moon piece but if it isn't then it's most likely a ghost whose powers interfere with the signal. Also if you can find Luigi that would be great."
"Wait Luigi's still there?" Ruby asked in surprise.
"I suspect so, we were in different parts of the manor when things went belly up and he hasn't made his way to the bunker yet." E. Gadd said.
Ruby nodded, "Okay, send me in." she said as the camera in the room aimed at her.
[]
Ruby returned to the foyer of the Manor gently rubbed her rear end with a slight hiss.
"Maybe I should look into getting some fairly thick pants." Ruby muttered before looking around the room and upon spotting the place where the gears go, ran over toward the spot
Ruby then pulled out her gear mechanism and returned the gears to the proper place and began to turn the crank. Looking over Ruby saw the aquarium being lowered down to the first floor of the manor, soon enough the crank refused to turn with the aquarium being completely on the first floor.
"Should I just leave this then?" Ruby muttered, then she noticed a small joint in the crank and loosening it just a bit, allowed her to fold it down so it wouldn't stick out too far. "That'll work then." Ruby said to herself before she began up the stairs.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Ruby looked at the newly accessible door on the second floor, "Hopefully there's another way into the Library if the first floor is still blocked." Ruby muttered as she opened the door to the next room.
It was fairly small with an old fashioned cage door elevator, for some weird reason a doormat with no door, and a couple Greenies playing a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors in front of the elevator.
The moment the door shut behind Ruby, spectral gates sealed her in the room suddenly and loudly, causing her to yelp and jump a few feet in the air.
This also happened to alert the two Greenies, one faded from sight ready to attack Ruby while the other began to frantically hit the elevator button.
"Gotta make this fast." Ruby said as she fully charged the strobulb and released its light, somehow managing to catch both of the ghosts in its flash, "Wow this has some range…" Ruby muttered in surprise before quickly vacuuming away the two Greenies.
The moment the two Greenies were caught Ruby heard a ding come from the elevator, causing Ruby to get distracted and look towards the elevator.
The metal gate didn't even have time to open before the Slammer shot out of the elevator in a panic, constantly shaking itself off.
Ruby raised an eyebrow at the Slammers' panicked actions before she realized the source.
A swarm of red and black spiders scurried out of the elevator, a few of which even stared at Ruby before scattering throughout the room and into several small holes along the walls of the room.
Ruby wasn't afraid of spiders, but the amount of spiders that came out was certainly unsettling, even to Ruby.
Then she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Yah!" Ruby yelped as she turned around with a jump to see the Slammer looking at her with a panicked expression on itself, gesturing to its body, and turning around so Ruby could see it at different angles.
"Uh…" Ruby said as she looked over the panicked Slammer, charging her Strobulb while she was at it, "There… aren't any spiders on you?" Ruby said hesitantly.
The Slammer let out a sigh of relief and wiped it's brow, then it realized its situation and gave it's best attempt at winding up a punch before it was blinded by Ruby, and though it gave a valiant struggle against the Poltergust it was caught nonetheless.
With the lights back on and the gates removed, Ruby looked at the elevator and tried to operate it, only to find the elevator door was locked.
"I guess you don't need to unlock the door to use the elevator." Ruby muttered, "All you need is to just be able to press the buttons on the inside."
With that in mind, Ruby proceeded to use the only door she had available, which led into the library's second floor.
"Okay I'm here." Ruby muttered as she shut the door behind her, then she noticed the piano being played rather enthusiastically, to the tune of the phonograph she had wound up earlier that evening.
She also noticed the cluster of books floating in the air in the middle of the room.
"Okay." Ruby muttered as she looked at all the books, "May as well jump down there and- Whoa!"
Ruby's train of thought was cut off as the books in the room began to launch themselves at her, stopping Ruby from even thinking about climbing over the rails.
"If I even try to jump down there I'll get beaten black and blue from all those books." Ruby muttered as she ran along the rim of the second floor to the door on the other side of the room.
Ruby barely turned the knob of the door before she tackled the door open and slammed it behind her, hearing the thuds of books against the door behind her.
Ruby let out a sigh of relief before looking around the room she was in, a dining room, much smaller that then one at the Mansion Trap, and thankfully lacking a gluttonous ghost.
"Okay." Ruby muttered pulling out her TS and checking the map, "The library is back there, but fighting on that railing is too dangerous on my end, jumping down isn't going to go well with all those books so where…"
Ruby then smiled, connected to the dining room was a balcony, "I can jump down there and- " Upon further reading of the map however, revealed that the path that would lead into the Library from the patio under the balcony, which was through the kitchen, was locked.
"Darn it!" Ruby muttered as she dropped to the floor and groaned, "I don't wanna be in an old ghost infested mansion anymore!" she cried out as she curled up into a ball.
For Ruby, the trap mansion was bad enough, but the average ghost there were almost all the same, some were just bulkier than others and some used a different trick, but they were all capable of the same thing so Ruby got used to it.
"Now I'm stuck in a dining room because the ghost in there actually can manipulate things with more than its hands, and the kitchen below me is-" Ruby ranted before she cut herself off, remembering one of the stories Weiss told her and her team.
Her father was visiting a 'friend' of his in a relatively small manor (which as far as Ruby was concerned, may not be as small as Weiss made it out to be) when a group of White Fang attacked.
When the White Fang began to approach the dining room Weiss was in at the time, Weiss's butler, a man she called Klein, stuffed her into a small compartment in a wall called a dumbwaiter and told her to keep quiet until the situation was handled.
Yang was the one who asked Weiss what a dumbwaiter was and Weiss was happy to tell them all.
"A small elevator used to bring food from the kitchen to a different floor." Ruby muttered as she began to look around the walls of the room.
Soon enough she found it, a small panel against a wall that had a rope hanging down next to it.
"I can't thank you enough Weiss." Ruby said as she pulled the rope down, resulting in the dumbwaiter opening up, "I'm gonna need to talk with Weiss about other rich people's things, they may actually be useful for me."
Climbing into the dumbwaiter, Ruby situated herself in the surprisingly large compartment before it suddenly jolted, "Not again." Ruby muttered expecting the dumbwaiter to open up underneath her.
Instead, but still rather similarly, the dumbwaiters shot down to the first floor of the mansion before shooting her out of the compartment.
"Ow." Ruby muttered as she righted herself and looked around the fairly dark kitchen.
Moving through the kitchen toward the library, Ruby kept her eyes open for any signs of ghosts, and was greeted by her first sign in the form of a floating pot.
Ruby took a deep breath and began to charge up the Strobulb, intent on stunning the invisible ghost before it could notice her.
However Ruby quickly figured out it knew she was there the whole time when it took the lid off the pot, tossed the pot into the air, and picked up a rolling pin.
The Greenie appeared, the lid acting as a shield, the pot a helmet, and the rolling pin as a sword.
In reflex to the sudden action Ruby flashed the strobulb, only for the Greenie to bring the lid up like a shield.
"Uh oh." Ruby muttered as the Greenie laughed at Ruby's attempt at blinding it before winding its arm up and swinging at Ruby with all the might it was capable of.
"Wah!" Ruby cried out and jumped out of the way of its swing, getting up. Ruby noticed the Greenie couldn't seem to control itself and pretty soon it was dizzy from its failed attack.
Ruby smiled as she quickly aimed the Strobulb at the Greenie and flashed, stunning the ghost and causing it to drop its armaments, the ghost was captured soon after.
With this done, two more Greenies appeared, one in front and one behind Ruby.
Ruby quickly stunned and began to capture the one in front of her, while the second one was quickly arming itself.
By the time the first one was captured, the second had fully armed itself, however in the end it made the same mistake as the previously armed Greenie and was stunned and captured by Ruby soon after.
"Okay." Ruby said as she took a deep breath, "The Greenies are at least smart enough to find ways to defend themselves. That is very concerning for me." Ruby said as she looked toward the door of the library.
After catching her breath Ruby crept up to the Library door and slowly opened it, trying to make as little sound as possible, sadly it seemed like ALL the doors in this manor were squeaky.
Entering the library, the ghost playing the piano revealed itself to Ruby and if finished it's song, an amber colored ghost with a comically large head, as if it had a massive brain.
The ghost, A Poltergeist, hummed as it looked at Ruby before floating away from the piano laughing as the floating books began to surround it and with a spin the books scattered and the Poltergeist vanished.
Ruby gulped and looked around the room trying to spot the Poltergeist when it showed up.
However instead of catching the ghost in her sight, she spotted a stack of books shaking as if something bumped into them.
Taking a chance, Ruby flashed the Strobulb at the books, revealing and stunning the Poltergeist that was hiding behind the books.
Ruby quickly aimed the Poltergust at the ghost and began her attempt to catch it, and quickly learned that the Poltergeist had more stamina than the Slammers, which was rather surprising to Ruby.
She also quickly learned that even while trying to escape the Poltergust, the Poltergeist was still very much capable of launching the library's books at her.
At one point with three books heading toward her, Ruby had to make a split second decision in order to avoid the books, not wanting to either release the ghost or get hit, Ruby jumped.
The Poltergeist lurched forward in surprise at the lack of being held back, and as Ruby no longer had her feet planted on the ground, was pulled forward, dodging the books flying at her, before landing safely on her feet and resuming her capture of the Poltergeist, and soon successfully manage to capture it.
Ruby let out a sigh of relief, "I'm glad that worked." Ruby muttered, "I've never been so happy Gambol Shroud has a Kusarigama form before, that extra training I had my team pull just to work on our balance when thrown by that really paid off."
However a pair of hums sent a chill down Ruby's spine as the piano continued to play itself, looking upward, Ruby spotted two more Poltergeists floating down toward her at opposite corners of the room.
"Oh crud." Ruby muttered as she quickly flashed the one closest to her with the Strobulb.
Dealing with one Poltergeist required Ruby not to have tunnel vision due to all the flying books, but dealing with two meant that Ruby had to work quickly on trying to capture one of them as she was constantly having to dodge books flying at her from all sides.
Several times during the fight Ruby had to cut her losses and let go of the Poltergeists, but soon enough Ruby managed to capture one of them, and not too long afterward, caught the second one.
"Done!" Ruby cried out as she fell on her back and sighed in relief, "I hope I don't have to deal with more of those guys too soon."
Ruby pulled out the TS before E. Gadd could give her a call.
"Professor, I got rid of the ghosts that were in the library!" Ruby said, "A trio of amber ghosts with big heads."
"Ah, the Poltergeists." E. Gadd said with a nod of his head, "I should have figured those three would be in the library. Still, good job Ruby, it'll take me a bit to scan the mansion for the Dark Moon piece, in the meantime see if you can find Luigi and clear out any more ghosts you can find."
"You got it professor." Ruby said, hanging up the call and looking around the room, "So… Where could he be hiding? I still have a few rooms here I need to search, and I haven't even begun to look at the third floor of this place."
Turning around to go back to the kitchen, Ruby froze as she saw the door fade from existence.
"What?!" Ruby cried out as she began to touch the wall, not finding any hint that the door was there, then turning back to the other door in the library and found it was still blocked by webs, "No no no no no!" Ruby cried out, fearing being trapped inside the library.
Then a familiar high pitched cackle emanated from within the now sealed off kitchen.
Ruby's narrowed into pinpricks, "No." Ruby muttered, "That can't be possible."
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Professor E. Gadd's Ghost Dossiers
Subject: Mollusc Luggs
Referred to simply as 'Mr. Luggs' throughout most of his life, pre and post mortem, Mr. Luggs spent most of his life eating, and made most of his money by traveling to different towns and winning every eating contest he ever won. The massive mouth from his Toad Faunus genetics certainly helped him achieve these constant victories.
He died in Mistral when he won, at auction, a feast that was to be eaten during the Harvest Festival, and he happily had invited his family and friends to share it with him, which was rather surprising for many who knew Mr. Luggs habits.
However when the Harvest Festival arrived, all of the people invited by Mr. Luggs could not make it due to Grimm infestations across the roads.
Despite the feast being made for at least 12 people, Mr. Luggs insisted that he would not let a single piece of the food go to waste- And instead of simply inviting others from outside, or even donating it to Mistrals nearby orphanage, Mr. Luggs proceeded to eat every last crumb of the feast.
Unsurprisingly Mr. Luggs died after he had finished the feast. Surprisingly however his cause of death was listed as 'Heartburn' instead of overeating. (This may explain how he has coughed up fireballs)
Threat Level: Minimal on average, however it will shift to High Threat Level should his food ever be taken from him.
Note-
Thankfully in his afterlife he prefers a spectral variation of food that seems only ghost know how to obtain, so if he is to be released from his painting then the food storage should be relatively safe.