Ruby blinked awake in the semidarkness of her hotel room. With a long, drawn-out stretch and accompanying yawn, she squirmed and shuffled against the heavy comforter before closing her eyes once again.
"…none of that, now," Nora chided as she hurled a pillow across the room.
The implement hit the back of Ruby's head with a muffled thump, and the small girl promptly pulled it down over her ears to try to block out the sound of Nora's footsteps on the carpet.
"…five more m-"
A second pillow slammed into her butt with far greater force, and Ruby let out a yelp of surprise before flailing the covers off of herself.
"Okay, okay! I'm up!" the girl insisted as she raised a hand in self-defense at her companion.
Nora stood at the side of the bed with her second pillow slung over her shoulder like some sort of heavy weapon and a smug look upon her face.
"Are you, though?" the redhead taunted before cracking her neck. "C'mon, Ruby. We've gotta hit the road. We're what, two days out, now?"
"Yeah, something like that," Ruby mumbled as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and covered another yawn with her hand. "Maybe three. Or four. Who knows?"
"Sage, hopefully," Nora offered as she tossed her pillow onto Ruby's bed and began a stretching routine of her own. "I'm gonna take a shower. The boys are already awake, apparently. Ren texted me and said he's doing a food run for them. Why don't you go join him?"
"Food," Ruby replied in an almost trancelike state as she rose to a standing position. "Yeah, I could do food, right about now. I'll grab you something. What do you want?"
"…what don't I eat?" Nora asked with a raised brow as she braced a hand upon the doorframe of the bathroom.
"…good point."
Nora winked and made a clicking noise with her cheek before closing the door and leaving Ruby alone in the main room. The girl let out another small yawn before shaking out her bare arms and shivering to try to shake herself awake. Despite her noble efforts, a haze of sleepiness clung to her like a wet towel, and she eyed up the various things around the room without really processing any of them.
"…meh, whatever," Ruby muttered to herself as she laid eyes on Crescent Rose and Magnhild, which were leaning over in the corner near the bathroom door. "It's just breakfast, and we're skipping town afterward. Nobody's gonna care if I get dressed."
Ruby pulled her white spaghetti-strapped top down a bit farther to cover her navel before grabbing the baggy leg of her rose-patterned pajama pants and giving them a gentle shake. With one final sweep of her hands down over the length of her pants to smooth out some wrinkles, Ruby nodded with satisfaction. She swiped her scroll from the nightstand and stepped into a pair of fuzzy pink slippers before heading to the door and flicking the device open to text Ren.
On my way. I'll help you carry stuff, and we can all eat in my room.
Ruby let out a small grumble of protest as she opened the door to the outside world and the sunlight assaulted her eyes. She put a hand up to cover face as she squinted and tried to let her eyes adjust to the overwhelming contrast.
"Nyeh. Stupid morning. Stupid sun."
A vibration in her hand and the sound of metal clinking in the parking lot below caught her attention at the same time, and for a moment, Ruby froze in place. She flicked her scroll back open first to find a simple text reading "Okay." from Ren, before walking her way to the railing and peering down to the ground level. Ruby opened her mouth in surprise as she watched a familiar figure performing maintenance on a motorcycle below, and her mind raced with possibilities. Finally, her mouth caught up with her thoughts, and she leaned over the railing before waving her arm frantically.
"Coco!"
Coco Adel looked up from her position bent low and holding a socket wrench next to a candy-red motorcycle. In place of her usual fashion-forward garb, the woman was clad in a brown and black leather jumpsuit fir for riding. Despite the motorcycle helmet resting squarely upon the seat of her vehicle, she still wore her classic sunglasses and had her hair styled. Upon spying Ruby waving form the second floor balcony, she flashed the smaller girl a radiant smile and beckoned toward herself while rising to stand. Ruby quickly made her way over to the staircase and sprinted down it before running over toward her friend.
"Coco!" Ruby cried again before throwing her arms around the older girl in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you! We were all wondering what happened to Team CFVY after Beacon! What are you doing all the way out here? Where are Fox, Velvet, and Yatsu? What are…"
Ruby hesitated as a heavy feeling of dread crept up her spine. Coco's embrace tightened around her, and before she could react, Ruby was lifted off her feet and brought up and over Coco's shoulder. The larger woman slammed her into the pavement before driving her elbow into Ruby's back and pinning her to the ground upon her stomach as she let out a yelp of pain and began to cough.
"Coco, what are y-"
Ruby's eyes widened as she looked over her shoulder and caught sight of the object in Coco's hand. There in place of the socket wrench was instead a pink lace umbrella with a wicked needle protruding from the top. Coco smiled deviously as she brought the weapon downward for the back of Ruby's neck, only for the girl to burst into flower petals that scattered across the asphalt. A streak of deep red shot back toward the staircase before Ruby rematerialized and began to run up the steps with "Coco" in hot pursuit.
"Sage!" Ruby yelled as loudly as she could while racing for the boys' hotel room door. "Sage, I need you!"
Again, Ruby looked over her shoulder just in time to see the umbrella-sword thrust out for her neck. She dodged to the left and put a hand on the weapon, only for a swift kick from a leather boot to catch her in the side of the face. Ruby's aura pulsed an angry red as she lost her grip on the umbrella and stumbled backward. "Coco" leapt up onto the railing and began to run at Ruby, before the brunette threw a hook in an attempt to sweep her legs. "Coco" shattered like glass at the contact and appeared behind Ruby before she sank a heel directly into the center of the girl's spine.
"Gah!" Ruby cried as she stumbled forward and pulled herself up before breaking into a sprint. "What do you want with me!? Were you following us!?"
No answer came from "Coco" as she gritted her teeth and ran after Ruby along the terrace. Just as she passed the staircase, the door to the boys' room flew open with great force and caught her square in the face. The impact sent her tumbling backward along the balcony in a roll as Sage emerged from his room, shirtless and breathless with his sword held at the ready. His dark-skinned chest was marked with scars, while his back was etched with a large, black tribal tattoo. The contrasting patterns seemed to expand and contract as he breathed heavily, his eyes on the intruder mere feet away.
"Oscar, stay in the room! Who… the hell is that!?" the man questioned as Ruby held onto the railing behind him while trying to catch her breath.
"…an old enemy I didn't think I'd ever see again," Ruby answered. "Neopolitan. I think she's been tailing us."
"Yeah?" Sage answered as he cracked his neck to one side. "Well, that ends here."
Neopolitan pulled an annoyed face as she pushed herself up off the ground. Fragments of her illusory disguise fell off of her jacket and pants, shattering as they touched the floor of the terrace. Her shoulders tensed as she gritted her teeth and pointed her umbrella first at Sage, and then Ruby behind him without a word.
"Not on my watch," Sage warned. "You want the girl, you get through me, first."
Neopolitan narrowed her mismatched eyes of pink and brown for a moment before the corner of her mouth upturned into a cocky smirk. She offered Sage a noncommittal shrug and dashed in with an umbrella thrust, which Sage quickly parried off to the side with the flat of his massive two-handed sword. Neopolitan leapt forward with catlike grace and pushed off the weapon with a heel before sailing over Sage's head and slashing downward at Ruby in midair. The girl responded by simply bursting into petals once again and sailing over the railing in a crimson streak. Neopolitan was quick to follow by vaulting the iron railing just as Sage's sword crashed down upon where she had been standing, and the man let out a growl of frustration.
"Alright! Fine then!" he roared before placing a hand upon the wrought iron and throwing himself over the edge. He landed hard upon the pavement, his boots slamming into the ground as he eyed up Neopolitan. "Need a lotta room for my semblance, anyway."
Neopolitan watched out of the corner of her eye as Ruby zipped around the parking lot and then back to the staircase. Sage made a point of orienting himself to block off the path as Ruby ran up toward her room, and Neopolitan let out a dramatic sigh. She shook her head and gave her weapon a twirl before drawing the sword from within its handle and tossing the body of the umbrella aside. With one final, bored look, she pointed the blade directly at Sage and then beckoned toward herself.
"Not much for words, huh?" Sage asked as he raised a hand and began to trace a slow circle within the air. An amber outline of glittering energy appeared along the path, and as the circle closed, crisscrossing beams of light carved the floating circle into twelve equal sections. "Me neither."
Neopolitan watched quietly as a green line of energy manifested within the third section of the circle and began to tick in a constant, erratic rhythm. The metal of Sage's sword frosted over with a coating of jagged ice, and he began to walk in a circle around his opponent. Neopolitan copied his movements in the opposite direction while stealing occasional glances at the midair 'clock'. As the green hand ticked over into the fourth quadrant, Sage's sword erupted into flames, and Neopolitan smirked as she nodded with understanding.
"Get it? Good for you," Sage praised. "Just gotta buy her a few more sec-"
Neopolitan provided no such courtesy before slipping behind a nearby truck and then disappearing from view entirely. Sage ran toward the vehicle as an image of Neopolitan darted out from around its side, and he swung hard into the illusion. The projection of Neopolitan shattered, her fragments bursting into flame before the coating around Sage's sword became an ever-shifting spiral of wind. The man was quick to adjust his focus as the real Neopolitan came over the hood of the truck with her sword drawn, and he lashed out his sword with a baseball swing. A massive wave of wind pressure caused Neopolitan to fly back up and over the cab and into the truck bed, and Sage ran up the hood to give chase. As he readied himself to swing down into the back of the truck, he paused and stiffened.
There in the truck bed was Ruby's blood-covered corpse, still dressed in her pajamas. Her clothing was tattered and torn, and Neopolitan's sword was resting just beside her. Just as Sage realized what was going on, the dead body leapt upward and raked the blade across his upper chest, earning a dazzling flicker of his deep green aura as he stumbled backward and nearly fell off the vehicle.
"Cheeky little runt, ain't ya?" Sage questioned as he blocked another thrust with the flat of his blade while balancing atop the hood of the truck. "Almost had me there for a second!"
Neopolitan threw out another strike just as Sage's blade began to crackle with lightning. She pulled back just in time with a sharp gasp and leapt over the side of the truck bed and down onto the pavement. A high caliber bullet whizzed past her from up on the balcony, and she looked up to see Ruby with Crescent Rose braced against the railing and her face pressed to the weapon's scope.
"Don't move," Ruby warned with a firm voice. "We want to ask you some questions. We'll… uh, give you paper, or something?"
Neopolitan rolled her eyes and jumped straight up, her blade aimed for Sage's shoulder as her bloody disguise melted away. Another rifle round tore straight through her abdomen and caused her to splinter into shards before she appeared near the staircase, running while crouched. A sudden flurry of rapid-fire bullets tore into the asphalt in front of her and caused her to backpedal just before she reached the stairs. Upon looking to her left, she found Lie Ren with both of his guns trained upon her.
"Do not move," the boy warned as he began a slow approach. "It's three to one, Neo. You cannot win."
"Four to one, you mean," Nora corrected as she appeared behind Ruby upon the balcony. The woman was wearing only a fluffy pink towel and had Magnhild trained upon Neopolitan in its grenade launcher form. "Hello again. We didn't miss you."
Neopolitan shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose before swinging her sword up and over her shoulder. The weapon's umbrella casing manifested around the blade, and she flicked the lacy circle open to hide herself from view of Ruby and Nora.
"Oh, screw this!" Nora yelled as she fired a grenade straight for the umbrella.
"Nora, it's just an illu-" Ruby began, only to watch in horror as Neopolitan closed her umbrella and swung hard at the grenade. The projectile flew up toward the balcony and detonated in midair, causing a sizeable explosion. Ruby just barely managed to grab Nora and duck behind the railing as the blast went off, and Neopolitan sprinted for her motorcycle in the ensuing chaos as Ren ran forward to get an angle on her. Sage leapt from the roof of the truck and began to give chase, only for Neopolitan to rev the throttle on her bike and take off for the curb with her helmet tucked under her shoulder.
"Wait!" Ruby called as she raised a hand. Ren and Sage both froze and stared after Neopolitan, who turned her bike around and glared up at Ruby as she revved the engine. "Just… why? Why are you after us…?"
Neopolitan's face again sunk into a hateful glare, and she shook her head. Slowly, she pointed an accusatory finger directly at Ruby, who turned her own finger toward herself.
"You're after me? Just me…?"
Neopolitan spun her helmet in her hands, and the object began to change shape as it moved upward. Upon reaching the top of her head, the helmet had turned into a black bowler hat with a red band around the base. Ruby's heart sank as she watched Neopolitan don the headgear and then peel out, her taillight growing smaller as she sped down the highway.
"Was that…?" Nora questioned as she laid a hand upon Ruby's shoulder.
"…yeah," Ruby answered as she kept her eyes on the road. "And she's heading the same way we are. I think… this trip just got a lot more complicated…"
Author's Note:
In case it wasn't abundantly clear between Ruby not believing Coco is in Vacuo and Sage actually having a semblance, I don't plan on following After the Fall or Before the Dawn. Next chapter will focus around Blake's crew, and hopefully a certain interaction that's been on hold for far too long.
-RD