*Legend 19-2*
Waltz for Venus
~Movement 2~
-Sobre las Olas-
...
The tram ride passed with little incident or notable happening. Ruby spent most of the ride buried in her scroll, on the CCN app, looking over the profile of Yoko Littner and her team. Yoko's profile was displayed; her stats and achievements on the screen. "She plays alot of Crucible," Ruby said, mostly to herself. "Look at all those kills..."
"Her team aren't no slouches either," Yang said, also looking over Yoko's stats on her own scroll. "Apparently, Lilysteel are the top dogs of the Venusian Crucible scene."
Ruby looked over the page of Yoko's teammates. Velvet Scarlatina's stats were displayed on the screen. Next to her headshot was her semblance displayed. "Blade Dancer..." Ruby mused.
"That explains the invisibility," Zwei said in her head.
Next was her teammate, Neapolitan. Ruby noted the rather stark lethality of the girl's weapon loadout. Ruby made to check her semblance, but the only thing displayed in said slot was '?'. "What the hell does that mean?" Ruby asked. "How can they not know her semblance?"
Any immediate answer to this, hypothetical or otherwise, would remain unknown as the tram arrived at the stop closest to the tournament grounds. "Short trip,"Yang said, as she rose from her seat and donned her purple pilot sunglasses.
"Between the information we can access on the CCN, and any scouting we can do on he ground, I think we can get a fairly good scope of our competition," did Weiss say. She then grinned somewhat devilishly. "Present company not withstanding, of course."
The young Guardians disembarked to find themselves on the end of a grassy field. About fifty yards down said field, stood a pair of erected steel gates, currently swung wide open, allowing the entrance of Guardian and tournament spectator alike.
Just then did Weiss's scroll go off. She fished it from her pocket and frowned at the screen. "I have to take this..." and she wandered off, in search of relative privacy.
Ruby hardly noticed this however, as her eyes were alight with fangirl fascination at the Guardians and their various weapons that currently occupied this place.
"Ooooh, look Yang, the Refrain-23, that's the newest Suros model! The Agrona PR2! Oh my Traveler, the Borealis! That's a level gold!"
"Calm down, little sister!" Yang chuckled. "Why can't you swoon over your own weapon, aren't you happy with it?"
"Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose!" Ruby said in excited defense. "I just like seeing other weapons; they're an extension of ourselves! It's like meeting new people...but better."
Yang was entirely used to this kind of sentiment from her sister, which was why she always teased her about it. "You need to make some friends," she said, yanking Ruby's hood over her head.
Ruby cleared this very immediate obstruction of her vision and asked quietly, "Well...why do I need friends when I have you?"
Yang, a smile on her face and very older sister-ish response in mind, had her attention suddenly diverted by a somewhat far off swish of familiar midnight-black hair. "Actually, I just remembered something, I gotta go. See ya!" And with that statement, did she run off into the crowd.
"Wait!" Ruby cried. "Where are we supposed to be staying? Are there hotels here? Do we have rooms or...Oh...I don't know what I'm doing..."
Ruby's legs formed a 'W' as she planted her butt on the ground, wallowing in her sudden state of loneliness. "Welcome to Venus..." she sighed to herself.
Suddenly, the shadow of another human form washed over her. Ruby looked up to see an almost familiar young man standing over her, his hand held out in invitation. "Hi," was his introduction. "I'm Jaune."
"Ruby," was the girl's return introduction. Taking Jaune's hand did she pull herself back into a standing position. It was then, upon meeting his eyes on level, did she suddenly remember from where she knew him. "Aren't you that guy that threw up on the ship?" She asked with a laugh.
And from there, with no real mention as to how, did the two form an on the spot companionship. The two of them had no true destination in mind, they simply ambled about the grounds enjoying each others company. Their ensuing conversation soon turned towards Jaune's rather unfortunate dilemma aboard the ship that carried them here. "All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a far more common problem than people let on," he said in defense.
"I'm sorry," Ruby said with a chuckle. "'Vomit boy' was the first thing that came to mind."
"Well the name is Jaune Arc," said the young man with pride. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."
"Do they?" Ruby said. As a lady, Ruby didn't find herself loving it.
"They will!" Jaune said.
During a lull in this back and forth, Ruby decided to fill the void by introducing her beloved weapon. "So...I got this thing!" And from transmatt did Crescent Rose materialize in her hands.
Jaune seemed somewhat alarmed. "Whoa...is that Red Death!?"
"I also have a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle," Ruby said, priming her Calcutta LR-2.
"Cool!"
"So what do you got?"
"I have this Auto Rifle," Jaune said, drawing the weapon in question.
"Oooh..." Ruby recognized the weapon as the Cydonia AR-3, a level green weapon.
"It has the lightweight perk, so I can run faster," Jaune said.
"But doesn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, it does..." Jaune said in defeat.
"Well, I like it!" Ruby said spiritedly. "Not enough people have an appreciation for the classics nowadays."
"Yeah...the classics..." did Jaune echo. It was then, and seemingly only then, did a certain synapse fire inside Jaune's mind. He regarded Ruby's weapon as the question escaped him, "Wait a minute...you're Ruby...Ruby Rose?"
Ruby nodded.
"Holy Traveler, you killed an Archon! You're like legendary!"
Ruby smiled proudly. "I helped kill an Archon," did she correct. "My partner Weiss Schnee had a lot to do with it too."
Jaune only nodded in awe.
A few minutes and the equivalent of three city blocks from there, did the pair pass through an alternate gate leading back onto the tournament grounds. This particular entrance happened to be guarded by two security officers, standing on either side of the gate, auto rifles in hand. Jaune passed by with little incident, but Ruby's entrance, while not barred entirely, was certainly challenged. "Miss Rose!" barked one of them gruffly.
Ruby turned in question, slightly surprised that they knew her name. "Um...yes?"
"If we could ask you to please stow your weapon in transmatt."
Ruby's eyes rolled over to Jaune, who's Cydonia AR-3 was strapped prominently to his back. "Uh...what for?"
"Given the...nature of your weapon, we ask that it be stored in transmatt."
Oh right, the Red Death thing. "Last time I checked, Guardians were allowed to open carry," Ruby said calmly.
"Indeed that is true," one of the guards said. "But as the Red Death was designed outside of Vanguard specifications, and regulations, it is not permitted on grounds."
"Funny how no one says that when I use it against The Fallen," Ruby said, folding her arms. Next to her, Jaune's mouth fell open, no doubt aghast at Ruby's daring defiance.
The guard scowled. "Vanguard policy urges Guardians to destroy this weapon sight...it's a Guardian killer."
"Every weapon is a Guardian killer when you use them to kill other Guardians," Ruby said back darkly.
The guard seemed to have a response to this, but his partner stayed him with a hand on his shoulder. "We'll just report her to her Vanguard captain, he'll sort it out." The first guard begrudgingly accepted this. And as Ruby turned to walk away, she saw the second guard wink at her.
Jaune turned to Ruby. "You're...bad..." he breathed.
"Crescent Rose always gets to people like that," she said back. "I'm used to it."
The two of them had entered the main grounds now, and it seemed like a massive crowd was forming in front of a large open air stage. "Oh, the ceremony is starting!" Squealed Ruby.
"Oh, the Super Guardian thing?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, that's like half the reason we're here!" Ruby then rushed a farewell to her new friend. "It was nice meeting you, Jaune, I'll ee you after the ceremony!"
And just like a shot, she was off into the crowd. Jaune, now alone, wondered where oh where on Venus could he possibly find another nice quirky girl to talk to...
Ruby found making any headway into the crowd was quite impossible, everyone was far to excited and jostling for better position, so Ruby was relegated to the very rear of the crowd, where watching on the large screen that had been set up was the only good way to get a view of the stage. There, she could see the familiar form of Lord Shaxx, pouring over his scroll as he seemed to be preparing something.
Just then, by a stroke of extraordinary luck, was she joined by her two teammates. "Girls, where have you been?"
"Oh, you know, around," responded Yang. She looked rather content and smugly accomplished.
"Hopefully, we did not miss the start of the introduction ceremony," Weiss said.
"Nope. Looks like it's just getting started!" Sang Ruby.
Everyone's heads turned uniformly forward as a great fanfare sounded from the stage, signaling the start of the show.
...
*End of Movement 2*
...
A/N:
Finally updated, phew! I know I said that these shorter chapter bits would be uploaded more quickly but...yeah, you know, life happens and stuff. Been busy a) working. b) playing Magic The Gathering. And c) working on my actual story; the one that I hope to one day have published as an actual book. Part of me wants to maybe post it to ...but I don't know...maybe...ish.
As it stands, as this story floats to the top of the list I can hopefully get some some new exposure; likes; reviews and whatnot So thanks for reading. Movement 3 will be up in a bit.
-B.D. Skunkworks