Chapter Thirty-Four: A Difficult Call.
Yang was inconsolable. Not because she was sad, per se, but because she was absolutely furious, and no number of words were going to fix that. Unfortunately for her – and everyone involved by extension – that's all that they could really provide for that moment. Her fury was so palpable that it was close to being tangible due to the heat which radiated off of her as a result of her semblance. Steam was quite literally flowing from her glowing hair and demonic ire illuminated her purple eyes into a crimson hue.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO!?'" She exploded, not caring that she was yelling in the early hours of the morning. "SOME BASTARD STOLE MY SISTER, AND YOU EXPECT ME TO JUST SIT AROUND DOING NOTHING?!'"
"Yang. We are students. Whoever kidnapped your sister was clearly powerful enough to overpower her and escape with her, likely incapacitated – given the struggle. There was no sign of blood, or too much discombobulation, so your sister is unlikely to have been injured. It's more likely that she was drugged, as opposed to being knocked unconscious. We are dealing with professionals, so we should also deal with professionals. The police have been called. They can handle it better than we can." Oberon calmly explained to the furious blonde, who responded by tossing a chair at him. His four floating hands intercepted the toss and peacefully placed the chair back down.
"YOU JUST WANT TO LEAVE THIS IN THE HANDS OF THE POLICE?! WHEN HAVE THEY EVER DONE ANYTHING RIGHT?! IF THE POLICE WERE GOOD AT THEIR JOB, THEY WOULD'VE FOUND NEO BY NOW, WOULDN'T THEY?!" She yelled, prompting Blake and Weiss to take her by the shoulders, as if they expected her to begin throwing punches at the man.
"…She's right, Oberon." Thea murmured, diplomatically. "Given everything which we have to go off of, we have no idea who the perpetrator could be, when the kidnapping actually took place, or even where they could have gone. There's no chance that the police will be able to find Ruby quickly at all. It could be days, weeks, or even months."
Oberon sighed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "…I don't know why you think that I just magically have some way of finding her in my pocket. Do you think I go around putting trackers on people? I'm not the…!" He then paused, and stopped in thought for a moment, as if suddenly struck by inspiration.
"You're not the…what?" Rylee asked, noticing that Oberon seemed to be onto something. "What is it?"
"…Did Ruby have her scroll with her?" He asked, seemingly changing the subject.
"We didn't find it in her room." Weiss stated. "She might still have it on her, if the kidnapper didn't discard it."
"…Have you tried calling her?" He continued. Weiss shook her head.
"We wanted to talk to you about it, first, since you seem to always have a plan for this kind of thing."
Oberon tapped his chin for a moment in thought before his face twisted between a smirk and a grimace.
"I…may have an idea. But it's risky, and it's likely that it won't work, considering we seem to be dealing with a professional. Even so, every criminal has a weakness. No crime is truly infallible. If they have Ruby's scroll and didn't immediately destroy it, or even just tamper with it, we just need to call her and track the signal through her communications chip. From there, we can pinpoint the general area of her location."
"That sounds promising." Blake murmured. "Can you do that?"
"I can, but…" Oberon sighed. "It's dependent on several variables. For one, it relies heavily on the fact that Ruby's scroll is in the same place she is and is not damaged or tampered with. Second, for the signal to be established, they would need to answer the call. It takes roughly fifteen seconds to pinpoint the exact location of the chip via triangulation technology. Scrolls only ring, by default, for about ten. If they don't pick up, we'd have roughly five hundred square metres of space to work with, and in the middle of a city, they could be in any building within that radius."
"…That is a lot of variables…" Thea mumbled.
"…That's not even the main problem. It would only be a matter of time before we locate the scroll, even if it didn't get answered and was still in working order. The main problem is what might happen if they do pick up." Oberon frowned, clearly uneasy about the prospect.
"…What do you mean?" Weiss asked, unsure why that part would be a problem at all.
"Because it's likely that the kidnapper would be nearby, or even be the one to answer, themselves. If information is freely spoken, they'd know that someone is coming after their hostage. They might do something hasty if they catch wind that we're onto them." Oberon spoke.
Yang's inferno suddenly ceased as she heard those words. "You mean, they might…?" He nodded, prompting Yang's eyes to shrink in their sockets. "…I swear, if they've plucked even one hair from Ruby's head, I'll…!"
Oberon sighed once more. It was hard to take the brunt of so many burdens which, frankly, should not have been his to carry to begin with. "Listen. I can make that call, if you want, since I think I can keep my cool better than you, and I might be able to covertly gather some intel as to who we're dealing with. But it will not be without risk. It's not my place to make that decision, though."
The three remaining members of Team RWBY looked at each other for a moment.
"What choice do we really have? Just sit and wait until the police inevitably blunder everything?" Blake asked. "Ruby is in danger, so we can't sit around and do nothing."
"It's risky, though. If things go south, Ruby could get hurt… or worse." Weiss countered. "We have no means of knowing the captor's intentions."
"But that's exactly why we should hurry." Yang hissed. "I know it's risky, but it's the only chance we have to save her life."
Oberon nodded, exhaling slowly. "Two for. One against. Now, I have a phone call to make. It is imperative that you remain absolutely silent whilst I'm on the line. If you can't control yourself, I suggest you wait outside. Understand?"
The group nodded to Oberon. Her quickly set up some strange-looking equipment, which he procured from Unlimited Potential. His scroll was plugged into some kind of beacon and antennae, which Weiss could tell was designed to track outgoing signals and pinpoint where they ended up. A plethora of screens filled the air, as Oberon began to navigate the equipment within desired parameters and create a large map of Remnant, from which he could detect the outgoing signal's location. And then, without further ado, he made his way to the contacts list of his scroll and double-tapped 'Ruby Rose.'
Silence filled the air, save for the faint beeping sound which reverberated throughout the room. Nobody dared to move a muscle as the dial tone filled the air, as if they were afraid that even their movements could somehow frighten off the criminal who stole their friend. The delay was maddening. Every passing moment felt like an eternity, as their anticipation flooded their senses. And then… they heard it. The sound of the call being answered. Oberon immediately spoke up, remaining calm and friendly, as to not rile anyone on the other side up.
"Sorry for the late call, but I'm glad you picked up, Ruby. Where are you? You've got Yang worried." His hands were trembling as he spoke those words. His eyes were pressed closed tightly as he did his best to listen to anything on the other side.
"Oh, hi Oberon." Came the familiar voice of Ruby Rose on the other side. Yang covered her mouth at the sound of her sister's voice. She could immediately tell that Ruby was forcing a smile on the other end of the receiver, but she couldn't say anything about it. She bit down on her tongue to silence herself. "I'm just…staying the night at a friend's." Ruby's voice continued, after a short delay.
Oberon drew a deep breath and spoke. "That's a relief. You should've told someone, though. Who's this friend of yours if you don't mind me asking?" He knew he was taking a risk by asking that question, but he had to gather information somehow, outside of just the location of their quarry. He glanced over to the screen of his and watched as the red area began to rapidly shrink, indicating that it was getting close to determining the exact location of Ruby's scroll.
"They're…err…A former classmate of mine from Signal." Ruby replied. Even Weiss and Blake could tell that Ruby was grasping at straws with that one.
"That makes sense. Thea and I used to attend there until recently. Are they someone we might know?" Oberon asked, doing his best to speak calmly and casually. He might have been biting off more than he could chew with that last question, but she hoped that Ruby could pull off a quick-witted response.
"Uh…maybe?" Ruby asked, sounding uncertain. "Do you know Professor Polly?"
Oberon's mind raced for a moment. He'd never heard of a 'Professor Polly.' But then… he made a connection. He decided to take a risk and ask something which would change everything.
"The one with a tan?" Oberon inquired. "Or was it the other one?" Thea looked at Oberon as if he was insane for asking, but Oberon raised a finger, as if silently instructing her to bear with him for a moment.
"No, she's pale-skinned. Had dyed hair? She's rocking purple, now." Ruby responded, quickly. Oberon wasn't sure she'd quite caught on to what he was implying, but that latter half of her statement was interesting. But… surely it wasn't possible that she'd been taken by the person he was thinking of.
"Ah yes, I know the one," He lied. "Need a ride back in the morning?"
"I'm not sure. She seems quite intent on letting me stay for a while." Ruby replied after a moment of hesitation. Assuming that the things she was saying weren't complete fabrications, it was possible that her kidnapper was a woman with dyed hair. Supposedly purple. Still, he had to keep this conversation moving, else their captor might grow wary.
"Fair enough, I'll let everyone know you're taking a break from Beacon, then. Still, you should've told Yang. She's been worried that you were hanging out with boys and making poor choices." He stated, trying his best to smile and crack a joke, as if to throw the listeners off his trail.
"Yeah, I guess it just slipped my mind…! I'll talk to you soon. It's nearly my turn in Trivial Pursuit."
Oberon's mind raced. That was an odd detail. Trivial Pursuit? That colourful trivia game where you try to successfully answer six questions of different categories? Maybe he was reading too much into this, but he had a pretty good idea as to what was going on on Ruby's end.
"Then I shan't keep you. Have a nice night." He quickly spoke, now believing he knew enough to begin his plan of extraction.
"Goodbye, Oberon." Ruby spoke, sounding on the verge of heartbreak, shortly before the line died.
"At least the triangulation device worked." Rylee spoke, as if to console Oberon. "That's enough to go on, even if you didn't learn anything from that conversation."
"On the contrary… I think I know exactly who our perpetrator is." He smirked, much to everyone's surprise.
"You know who took Ruby?!" Yang exclaimed in delight. "Who?!"
"Well… it's more of a theory, combined with a hunch." He admitted, before quickly moving on. "Ruby claimed she was being held by a certain 'Professor Polly,' who was pale, with dyed hair and was, supposedly, 'rocking purple.' Furthermore, she was playing Trivial Pursuit with them."
"…So what? Do you know a Professor Polly from Signal?" Blake asked. Thea shook her head.
"No, there is no Professor Polly. Or at least there wasn't when Oberon and I graduated from there a year ago."
"Think about it. Who has all of these things in common?" Oberon asked, only to be greeted with a room full of blank stares. "Look, it's obviously Neo." He sighed, seemingly disappointed. Said disappointment only grew when nobody seemed to understand the connection. "…Neo-'Polly'-Tan? Who has dyed hair? Recently turned into a purple Jabberwalker? For Remnant's sake, her real name is literally 'Trivia!' So, that means… Ruby is being interrogated by Neo."
"…But why? Or, rather, how? How would a Jabberwalker successfully drug my sister from inside her own room? She'd be easily seen trying to scale the side of the dorm building. And she has claws, sure, but there's no way they'd be prehensile enough to administer drugs to an unwilling victim." Yang asked, "Not to mention how there'd surely be much more destruction in the room, aside from just one moved bookshelf?" She then glanced at the map where a red dot blinked, indicating the location of Ruby's scroll. Looks like it was at the docks, by the abandoned warehouses which had remained a crime scene as a result of that fiasco with Torchwick.
"That's because it's clearly the other Neo at work here." He sighed, sounding irritated that he had to spell this out. "The one who's a criminal, naturally. What reason would our Neo have to kidnap Ruby, anyway? The other Neo would have plenty of scores to settle, considering her partner in crime was arrested, partially as a result of Ruby's interference. Still, fact is, we need to go. Time is ticking, and we have a good amount of ground to cover."
"Don't be ridiculous, Oberon. Not even Bumblebee could get us there in less than an hour, and I could only take two people with that." Yang lamented. "Nobody else here has a vehicle."
"On the contrary… everyone here has the perfect vehicle, which can get us there in about five minutes. Now quick, autodefenestrate with me!"
"Auto-what!?" Weiss stuttered, before witnessing Oberon simply jumping out the window.
Thea groaned. "Not again…" And then she, too, made a running jump for the open window.
"This is a regular occurrence for you guys?!" Blake exclaimed in shock as she ran to the window to peer out of it, only to see that the two had summoned their lockers, jumped into them, mid-descent, and flown off towards the docks. She was then shoved to one side, as Rylee jumped out the window as well.
"Coming through!" They had declared, a little too late.
The three that remained looked to each other in confusion at what they had just witnessed, before hesitantly deciding to follow suit. Shortly into their flight, they all received a group call from Oberon. As they each picked up the call, with varying levels of delay, his voice boomed out a set of instructions, as if that fall had somehow reactivated some dormant memories of him being a drill instructor from a previous incarnation of life.
"This will be a bumpy ride. Assuming you used the co-ordinates of the warehouse Ruby's in, the AI of the lockers should automatically cause us to hover over it, due to a change of programming as a result of a certain someone else's actions in a similar situation. As such, as soon as you feel yourself stop moving forwards and, instead, standing on your own two feet, get out and crash through the roof and prepare for immediate combat. We don't know how many people we're dealing with. I'll team up with Thea to deploy a flashbang which will disorientate the foe, hopefully, before she can escape. Since we'll be there first, you should be able to proceed without being blinded from the preliminary assault. This should maximise our chance of success."
There were murmurs of agreement, alongside complaints due to the discomfort of their method of operation. Weiss, in particular, was most annoyed that she had basically stepped into a jet-propelled tumble-dryer which was now flying through the air and completely ruining her outfit and hairdo. Yang was honestly enjoying herself and was resisting the urge to fling open the door and peer out like a dog riding shotgun in a car. Blake was just bothered at her previous decisions to store away her backup reading collection in the locker. It made things much more cramped, and that's not even mentioning how she was being assaulted by the things which she liked more than people!
Still, after a short while, Oberon and Thea arrived first on the scene. The locker doors were flung open, and they immediately jumped through a conveniently opened ceiling window. Or, rather, one that had been previously smashed in. No sooner had they entered the warehouse did Oberon toss the grenade he'd produced from Limitless Potential. In the moments he witnessed before the item detonated, he caught a fleeting glance of what he'd been expecting, but also what he'd been dreading. The captive Ruby, bound to a metal chair by multiple sets of cuffs typically used by the Atlesian military. Staring down the needle-like tip of her weapon was the heterochromatic criminal which was in the process of ending Ruby's life. The blade was being pressed into Ruby's stomach, as if the mute monster was intentionally drawing out her suffering and looking her in the eyes as she made the decision to end the girl's life. Except, when that fleeting glance turned in slow motion to face him staring at her…and the flashbang grenade he had tossed her way.
A bright light enveloped the room, accompanied shortly after by a deafening blast. The combination of which surely scared the daylights out of the unsuspecting captive and slightly-more-suspecting captor. When the light faded and their once-shielded eyes returned to their senses, they were left with what could only be described as petrified glass fragments which fell to the floor where the criminal had once been standing. They lingered for a moment where AlterNeo's legs had been before they cracked and fell to the ground. And then, dissolved in the air like a fallen Grimm.
Oberon had rushed to Ruby, whilst Thea seemed oddly fixated on a broken window of the warehouse which she had immediately rushed to, upon hitting the ground. Several of the man's hands rested reassuringly on Ruby's shoulders, as he ran in front of her to check her vitals, sighing in relief when he saw that the needle-like blade did not pierce material, nor flesh. The girl, however, was not as well as he had hoped, since she seemed to have fallen unconscious, judging from her closed eyes and shallow breathing. Her pulse was normal, but she was cold with shock.
Rylee was next to arrive on scene, closely followed by the remaining members of Team RWBY. Oberon was in the process of picking the locks of Ruby's cuffs, only to be interrupted by Rylee simply cleaving the cuffs in half with Sunderstorm. Blake promptly laid Ruby down on a hastily constructed mattress, courtesy of Limitless Potential, before lifting her legs up to help her recover quicker.
"What in all of Remnant just happened…?" Weiss mumbled, looking between their unconscious teammate, and the stony afterimage which had been burned into the floor where AlterNeo had been standing. Thea turned around to face the group with a frown, before simply stating; 'Silver Eyes.'
"…What?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow as she worriedly looked over Ruby. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Haven't you heard of Silver-Eyed Warriors? They're capable of turning Grimm to stone with a glance." She stated, before moving her head in the direction of AlterNeo's crumbling glass-stone shoes. "…Though I didn't know it interacted like that with Semblances…"
"…How do you know about Silver-Eyed Warriors, Thea?" Oberon asked, "…Are you a fan of the Grimm Reaper?"
"No." Thea murmured, reaching a hand up to her bandages and uncovering her heavily scarred eyes. And then… she opened them, revealing a pair of silver eyes which glimmered gently in the moonlight from above. "I know… because I am one."
Writer's Note:
Just a quick update. Since only one person gave their opinions on the question I asked last chapter, (thanks, by the way,) I've decided to keep it as an adventure instead of a tragedy. I know people probably don't care much for OC interactions, but I do still try to make them as interesting as I can. With any luck, we should be able to make great strides of progress after this chapter, getting towards the juicy action. Let me know if you guys wold like to see another chapter from the perspective of the villains, or if you'd like to see what Neo's going through from inside that Jabberwalker. I haven't quite decided where to begin from here, since I've been caught up in things recently. Namely, planning a Pathfinder 1e campaign (with four absolute wackos for characters) whilst studying IT and trying to get into employment at the same time. Thanks, society. Getting a job is reeeeeally easy, these days /s. Anyway, expect an update at some point, once things have calmed down a bit. I hope you enjoy.