Previously on The 'Lone' Hero of Vale
"R-ruby, L-link, maybe we should go somewhere else." Penny says with fear in her voice as she senses something.
"She's right! Real soldiers!" Link notices two Atlas soldiers running at them
"Over there!" A soldier points in their direction
"Goodbye Ruby! And Link!" Penny shouts whilst sprinting away
"Penny? Wait! Where are you going?" Ruby calls out
"Ruby go! Stick with Penny!" Link said as he gets in a stance, and readies himself for combat by reaching for his bow. "I can handle these guys."
"No Link! You're not fighting Atlas military! There's no time and it's dangerous! Come on, we can lose them!" Ruby grabs onto Link's collar and tries to drag him. "Link please!"
...
A truck going full speed collides direct into Penny...s hands and is even lifted in the air for a brief couple of seconds, Penny by herself with just her bare hands, stops a vehicle easily weighing about ten to fifteen thousand pound vehicle from harming her or Ruby, the latter of whom the truck almost hit. The frightened orange haired girl flees the scene once again, this time pushing past Ruby as more people get closer and some of them even call the police
"Penny come back!" Ruby shouts
"Go after her." Link nods as he walks in front of the truck and helps Ruby to her feet by grabbing her arms and lifting her up. "Go before she gets away and these soldiers get you."
"What about-! Link no, you can't!" Ruby exclaims when she sees Link looking in the direction of the soldiers. "They'll arrest you."
"Go Ruby. I promise, they'll stop chasing Penny and nothing bad will happen to them or me."
...
Link grabs his bow and shoots an arrow at the truck, scaring the people looming around to make them run away, along with frightening the truck driver to make him drive away
"You are under arrest! Surrender now." The soldier on the ground says as he stands back up, his comrade regains his footing and the two soldiers soon stand firmly side by side. "Listen to your superiors!"
"That's an order!"
"Oh... and who are my superiors? Because I sure don't take orders from you!" Link frowns and opens his eyes, both of them flash gold, with his left eye showcasing strange lining going up and down his cornea. He grabs onto the handle of his sword with his left hand, reaches behind him to slide the shield in his hand and bring in front of him, ending this sequence by getting into a defensive fighting stance
Continuing: The City of Vale
The citizens who witnessed Penny stopping the truck going full speed with her bare hands have scattered after the one person team tactically fired an arrow into the truck, to scare the old man in the truck and the people who were recording, calling the police, or witnessing the transpiring events. Soon enough, the scene is the ghost town and the only two people remaining are Link and the two human Atlas soldiers in front of him with guns drawn, aimed, and ready to fire. Their opponent standing feet in front of them is a familiar foe to Atlas military for 'unknown' reasons, the relatively unknown and harmless boy now has a target on his back but he is determined to not give in and allows his enemies to him. Link stands in a defensive stance, with his left leg slightly bent forward, his right leg extended backwards, ready to backtrack and avoid damage, the only weapon present in his grasp is his shield, which he holds firmly with his right hand. The now golden eyes watch both of the soldiers carefully, waiting for them to make the first move and either shoot their guns or charge forward foolishly
(What are you going to do, boy?! Are you just going to rough them up a little? Knock them out? Both of those options would be terrible and it would be too easy... Kill them!)
(Shut up. I don't even want you in my head.) Link frowns and chooses not to grab his sword (I can't kill or even incapacitate these guys, it will be traced back to me and knowing Ironwood, it will be all the leverage he needs to arrest me or worse... forcing me out of here. And I refuse to be forced out of this city as well. Besides, if Penny has some association with these soldiers then it will be clear to anybody who looks for them that they're missing. The consequences to THAT will be more soldiers being sent to look for us.)
"It's your lucky day." Link grins as he exhales calmly and slowly but steadily, the golden eyes vanish. "Now, you wont get hurt too much. Or you could just let me walk away without following me, that would be nice."
"Like hell we will!" One of the soldiers shouts. "We're not cowardly students or weak creatures of grimm!"
"Yeah! Your tricks cannot defeat Atlas military personnel. We'll remember your face, kid." The second Atlas soldier says with a frown on his face as they both aim their guns at Link
"Yeah? So will every other Atlas soldier. I would be surprised if you didn't have an entire file on me." Link rolls his eyes, "Although if you don't catch me, you can't arrest me or put me in jail. And if I go easy on your guys, nobody can make me leave Vale, like your precious boss. And trust me, you will NOT force me out of Vale." Link's smile fades, he draws out his sword at last, closes his eyes, and thinks thoroughly. Images of team RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, even Sun and Neptune came to his head
"A file on your? W-wait!" One of the two soldiers grunts. "You mean you're..."
"Shut up and stay on guard rookie!" The more experienced soldier barks out as they both back up. "There is a file on this one. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of unknown information about him. Despite what we've heard from General Ironwood."
"This one?" Link growls, "I'm just a monster to you huh?" He takes a step back, promptly getting in an offensive stance now. "You should've attacked while you had the chance, but due to your respect for me, I won't hurt you guys... that much, at least." He chuckles as he sprints at the two soldiers, looking more like a flash as his speed increases and moves in zig zag fashion
"He's so fast!"
"Impossible!"
The soldiers speak at the same time as they began to shoot their guns at Link, who either dodges the shots or blocks them with his shield effortlessly as he gets closer and closer
"You silly Atlas people only care about firepower, try this on for a change!" Link puts his sword away and reaches for a minor weapon, a wooden boomerang with a steel bridge connecting the wooden wings.
Wanting to do as little damage as possible, he throws his boomerang, watches it fly by the soldiers heads, only for it to return back to its owner. During its return it hits a soldier in the head. The speed and power of the boomerang is deceivingly strong, even though it didn't do critical damage, it does enough to stun him for a few seconds
"No need for that toy either!" Link then grabs his hook shot, and quickly fires it at the soldier's gun. "Hmph!"
As soon as his hook shot pierces and effectively destroys the gun, the boy shoots himself towards the soldier forcefully with the usage of his hook shot. When they're face to face, the one person team spins in place, raising an elbow in the process and connects against the soldiers head with a spinning elbow, ending the quick skirmish by lifting his left leg and kicking the same soldier in the gut, knocking him down backside first to the ground
"We're not pushovers, kid!" The soldier who was hit with the boomerang and stunned momentarily shouts as it's his turn to get his chance at fighting one on one
"Hm!"
Link returns to defending by raising his shield and blocking many bullets that come at him, each blast feels stronger than the last one and at one point, the huntsman has to dig deep by figuratively digging his ankles into the ground and withstanding every single powerful bullet that collides against his shield
"Grrr!" The soldier growls in frustration as he aims up, down, to the left, right, straight down the middle, fires wildly and even takes slower calculated shots, in hopes of something landing
"You'll have to do better than that!" Link taunts as he perfectly telegraphs nearly every shot, although two bullets happen to brush his leg and bicep. Regardless, the boy keeps dodging and blocking bullets, but something is bound to change as soon as he notices the other soldier getting back up and rushing at him. "Damn alright then! I shouldn't have expected it to stay one on one forever."
With the soldier who was previously on the ground now deciding to approach the Beacon student with hand to hand combat, the soldier shooting must stop and take the same offensive approach. Link shrugs and with all of his strength, throws his shield in the air, high enough for it to stay in the air to give him the time to fight back. Initial focus on the first soldier, Link begins with fast kicks, aiming primarily for the midsection. The soldier takes all the incoming roundhouse and sidekicks, attempting to get a hit on Link with a basic and straightforward jab-straight combination. However, a crucial mistake is made, Link in a moment of inexperience, drifts away from his initial kicking offense that found him immediately success by lunging forward and throwing an overextended overhand of his own, which misses drastically. The same soldier stays focused and strikes Link in the chest with a powerful hook, the Atlas soldier does not go easy on Link the way he was doing with the soldiers, and puts full power into the punch, which knocks the wind out of Link. The soldier lets out an audible laugh as he next attempts another punch, this one a powerful closed fist straight punch, and aims directly for Link's face
(This one's not bad, but he just got a lucky hit, that's all.) Link acts quickly and lifts both arms, blocking the punch with his forearms. The second this happens, the same soldier follows up with an uppercut. At the same time this happens, the second soldier previously firing shots enters the frame to attack Link. Despite this, he stays calm and calmly catches the uppercut from the soldier who had a sliver of success with a tight grip. Link turns his body in a swift motion and redirects the soldier whose hand he has grasped and launches him violently into the incoming soldier, who was barely entering the picture to fight hand to hand with the student.
"Ahhhh!" The soldier who is thrown into his comrade shouts as he crashing back first into his midsection
"Ooof!" All of the air is taken out of the second soldier who does not even get to throw a single punch but does have the wind taken out of him by his own colleague
"You're not pushovers, but you aren't that amazing enough either and I have some bad news for you. When one of you called me 'so fast' and the other said 'impossible', I was not using my full speed. Another huntsman or huntress would have seen anything I was doing from a mile away with how little speed I used." Link backs up to catch his breath and raises his air to catch his shield with no problem as it falls back down, "I'll give you credit where it's due, that wasn't half bad, but this is over now." The boy calmly puts his shield away and grabs his sword. He wields it with his right hand, aims the back of his left hand at the soldiers slowly to get up, the small triforce engraved in his left hand lights up brightly...
"What are you doing?!" The soldiers quickly work their way back up to their feet, not knowing what's coming next
"What am I doing? I'm taking it easy on you guys."
Link smiles as a beam of light fires from the back of his hand, it hits the two soldiers and stuns them in place. The next thing the two Atlas soldiers see is two large and magical like forces appear out of thin air in front and behind them; they are in the shape of the same figure on his hand. The triforce behind them is bright, the three triangles are gold and the outline of the diagram is white. Meanwhile the other one in front of them is faded and much more transparent, the triforces rotate in place, with the one behind them spinning very slowly whilst the one in front spins rapidly
Meanwhile: In Another Alleyway
Penny has barely stopped running after many minutes of sprinting after stopping the moving truck from hitting her friend
"Penny! Come back!" Ruby cries out, getting closer and closer but having the aura to use her semblance again so soon, but after some time she is able to chase and cling onto Penny's arm for dear life to prevent her from running any further
"Um... Um..." Penny scans the area, looking for a way out that involves shaking Ruby off her
"I am not letting go until you tell me what's going on. Penny!" Ruby shakes her, "Please! What is going on?!" She pleads. "Why are you running? How did you do that?!"
"Everything's fine!" Penny confidently speaks, but two seconds later she hiccups loudly
"Penny, look at me." Ruby lets go of her arm and walks around to look her in the eyes. "If you can just tell me what's wrong, I can help you."
"No!" Penny shouts and backs away. "No! Just... no! You wouldn't understand."
"Let me try!" Ruby pushes forward, insistent on remaining in her face. "You can trust me!"
"You're my friend, right?" Penny sighs, seemingly relenting, although she herself takes up the last of the distance between her and Ruby's face, that they're practically touching noses. "You're my friend, right? You promise you're my friend?!"
"Penny." Ruby smiles softly. "I promise."
"O-okay... here goes." Penny looks down. "Ruby... I'm not a real girl."
Penny opens her hands and shows Ruby what stopping the truck that would have killed her did to the former's hands. 'Skin' on both of her palm's skin is ripped away, revealing the white-gray metal underneath. The girl stares sadly into Ruby's eye and fears for the worst, the silence from the leader of team RWBY does not help either
"Oh..." Ruby mumbles. "Penny, I-I don't understand... what? why?"
"Well." Penny straightens her back to speak professionally, "Most girls are born, but I was made. I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura." The professionalism does not last long as she drops her head. "I'm not r-real, you don't have to pretend to be my friend anymore if this is all too weird for your liking."
"Not real?" Ruby grabs Penny's hands, opens further to see the exposed metal, then closes them and clasps her own hands over hers. "Of course you're real. You think just because you've got nuts, bolts, and your brain is practically a computer instead of squishy guts and blood makes you any less real than me?"
In spite of what would normally be catastrophic exposure, Ruby's warm and caring attitude makes Penny smile with gratitude. Although, all doubt is not gone as on the inside, she cannot help but still feel... merely a special robot, to be used a future soldier
"I don't understand..." Penny raises an eyebrow. "Um..." She squints her eyes as she remains inches away from Ruby's face. "Y-you're... taking this extraordinarily well."
"Duh. You're not like those things we saw back there, those Atlesian Knights." Ruby takes a step back and taps Penny on the chest. "You've got a heart and a soul under all this metal. I can see and feel it!"
"Oh..." Penny does not let Ruby get much space as she smiles happily. "O-oh Ruby!" She grabs Ruby and pulls her into a hug, shaking her back and forth. "You're the best friend anyone could have!"
"I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower." Ruby muffles due to the squeeze of the hug
"Oh, he's very sweet!" Penny lets go of Ruby, her momentary sadness is completely gone and she is back to normal. "My father's the one that built me! I'm sure-!"
Penny cuts herself off and starts looking around in panic when she realizes two crucial things she ignored when running away. The soldiers stopped chasing them and Link is nowhere to be seen...
"R-ruby..." Penny nervously covers her mouth. "Link isn't here? Did he stay back to distract those nice men? Where is he? Do you think he was captured or perhaps he was even-!"
"You're right Link isn't here, but nope to your last question!" Ruby says with a smile, with full trust and confidence. "He did stay back to distract those soldiers so we could get away, he sure bought us a lot of time. There's no way they captured him, he can handle himself. Although, it is taking a while." She looks at the alleyway and back to the main road, expecting Link to show up any time now. "If anyone is in any danger, it's those soldiers, Link is someone you don't want to face."
"Is he that good of a huntsman?" Penny gasps. "Is he also not real?!"
"N-no, at least... I'm ninety-nine percent sure he's a real boy." Ruby cackles. "He's just on his own at Beacon, everyone has teams of four just like the academies in Atlas, Vacuo, and Mistral, everyone except Link. Our headmaster Professor Ozpin allowed him to be by himself, although nobody knows why, not even Link himself."
"I have heard Mr. Ironwood talk about him recently, but the things he said... weren't very nice."
"The general?" Ruby cocks her head to the side in confusion. "What does he want with someone like Link? He's just a student like the rest of us."
"Not sure." Penny shakes her head. "I only happened to eavesdrop for a few seconds before some soldiers spotted me and asked me if I was okay."
"The soldiers?" Ruby asks. "But, if your dad built you on his own...?"
"O-oh!" Penny laughs. "I am sorry, I did not finish my sentence because I worried about Link. My father ALMOST built me by himself. He had some help from Mr. Ironwood."
"I see." Ruby smiles. "So you're practically military royalty. Is that why those soldiers were after you?"
"Yes!" Penny cheers. "They like to protect me, too!"
"Huh?" Ruby scoffs. "They don't think you can protect yourself?"
"They're not sure if I'm ready yet... One day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn. That's why my father let me come to the Vytal Festival. I want to see what it's like in the rest of the world, and test myself in the Tournament. It's important that I learn a lot here, Vale, Beacon, you, Link, your friends, there's so many fascinating things that stand out more than Atlas. So that's why-!"
"Hold on just a second, Penny..." Ruby slightly frowns. "What are you talking about? Save the world from what? We're in a time of peace."
"Are you sure?" Penny narrows her eyes. "That's not what Mr. Ironwood said."
Ruby, unsure of what to make of the new information she just learned about General Ironwood being after Link and speculating about an impending war, remains quiet. Finding out Penny was not real is the least of her concerns. Penny also remains quiet to match Ruby's energy, but she does maintain a bright smile
...
...
...
Elsewhere
Link, allowing the soldiers to remain stuck in place for an entire minute, opens his eyes and in an instant he dashes forward and appears right in front of the soldiers. He wastes no time and slashes at it, with a variety of slashes that lack power: two handed, one handed, spinning, high, low, straight, and so on. All of these strikes land with more speed than power. The final attack feels like it happens in slow motion as Link grips his sword with both hands on his right side, his left leg is bent forward and right leg extended back, then lunges forward, tactically aiming his sword low and slams it into the triforce. The impact of the final blow smashes both of the triforces and sends both soldiers flying back and crashing to the ground violently; both of them groan in pain but are not in any danger of being seriously harmed
Link picks up his shield and boomerang from the ground, places them back in their rightful spots, then proceeds walks over and step on both of the soldiers individually, making sure make sure they were alive and conscious
"Ugh!" One of the soldiers groans and turns over in pain
"Ahh!" The other soldier holds his chest with one hand and midsection with the other
"Alright, they're fine." Link nods in relief. "Not that there was ever any doubt but, it doesn't hurt to double check."
(They're not dead...? What the hell is wrong with you kid?!)
(Yes, they aren't dead, that's right. My intention was to go easy on them enough to incapacitate them but also to not kill or even knock them out. This move I like to call the triforce slash never kills... which go figure, a move I come up with on my own does not kill, but a move I steal from 'him' is meant to kill and I've made it passive.) Link mumbles (But even still, despite the non-lethal move, even the final blow didn't connect... you could say I 'missed')
"Besides the lucky shots they landed..." Link yawns sarcastically. "If this is what Atlas has to offer, no wonder the bad guys haven't been stopped yet. Even the Vale police with less resources is getting more done."
The sarcasm and fun he expresses fades away when the soldiers slowly begin to get up, so he quickly runs away. Noticing the rose petals on the ground, Link follows the trail and feels confident that he will meet up with Ruby and Penny in no time. He smiles gratefully and thinks to himself...
"Good plan, but not very smart at the same time. When those soldiers recover, they will pick up where we are soon enough."
After some more running and turning corner, within less than a minutes Link turns his final corner of yet another alley and at last sees Ruby and Penny talking and being very close
"Hey guys!" Link waves and executes one last sprint, "Those soldiers are down for a bit but they are on their way!" He rushes and nearly crashes into Ruby in the process
"Link!" Ruby squeals happily and catches him with open arms. "You had me worried, dummy! What took you so long?! Did you lie to me and use your full strength?"
"N-no! Of course not. Going easy on them resulted in them giving me a bit of a fight... Nothing too difficult to handle however." Link chuckles and hugs Ruby back. "So, is everything okay now with Penny?"
"I'm right here you can ask me yourself." Penny slides in between the two and breaks up their hug. "But... Yes! I'm perfectly fine!"
"Fantastic." Link nods and retreats from Penny's desire to be close. "Did Ruby give you a dose of her magical words? That should be her real semblance, she inspires and pushes everyone that extra step to love themselves and be more confident."
"She most certainly does have that ability." Penny smiles, "I have some questions." She turns to Ruby and suddenly her smile drops. "You sounded very confident when I was concerned for Link's safety but now that he is here, you sound worried like something could have happened to me, were you lying?"
"N-no! no no no no!" Ruby shakes her head and blushes faintly. "I was just happy to see him again, that's all. I promise I didn't lie to you Penny."
"Oh." Penny accepts the answer and nods, "Good, I was beginning to think you were acting calmer to calm me down." She smiles again before turning to Link. "Did you fight those men? I believed you were simply distracting them."
"Yes Penny, I did fight them." Link says calmly. "No amount of distracting was going to stop them long enough. They weren't after me or Ruby... but you, isn't that right?"
"N-no!" Penny hiccups the second after he mouths out her lie
"Penny..." Ruby places hands on her hips and sighs. "If you can tell me the truth, you tell Link too."
"That's what I thought." He chuckles. "I've never seen someone hiccup when they lie but that's a first, it's actually kind of cool."
"It is not 'cool' whatever that might signify." Penny thinks but cannot comprehend the words. "And you should not have fought them, they don't deserve any violence. Yes, they were after me because it's their job and duty to protect me and make sure my time in Vale is safe and fun for me."
"Well..." Link shrugs. "I didn't really hurt them, think of it as giving them a quick nap... That they immediately recovered from."
"That sounds efficient!" Penny gasps. "Can I also experience one of those?"
"What?!" Link covers his mouth to not burst out in laughter. "N-no Penny! I was being sarcastic about the nap, the soldiers are fine. I found you guys using this trail of roses so I imagine they will do the same very soon. So what's the plan?"
"We can keep running, eventually those soldiers have to give up and find Penny later." Ruby nods. "Weiss is probably done too, so now we just wait on Blake and Yang to call or text to report what they find or didn't find."
"Good, I like the way that sounds."
"W-wait, you want me to go with you?" Penny asks while shaking her head. "I can't do that. Mr. Ironwood will have many more soldiers for me than just those two officers. If you plan on being covert, I'm afraid I cannot go with you."
"Penny." Link steps forward and now stands closely to her. "We can give you as much cover as you need, then at the end of the night you can return like you never left and just fool them into thinking they're crazy and that you've been lingering around all day."
"Would that really work?" She thinks
"YEAHHH!" Ruby claps. "Totally, it's not a complete plan but it's worth the risk."
"They're down here...!"
The soldiers faint voices can now be heard in the distance, they slowly and briskly run after being roughed up by Link. Nonetheless and as predicted, they used the rose petals on the ground to find their way towards Penny.
"You have to hide!" Penny looks at Ruby and Link before she ultimately eyes the dumpster
"Oh no, I'm not getting in there!" Link tries to walk away and specifically backwards, where he'd run into the soldiers again. "I can deal with them again, I won't be foolish enough to give them a chance to land a strike this time."
The huntsman steps forward and reaches for his shield first, but the moment his fingers even touch the leather behind the shield to grip it properly, he feels a metallic hand stopping him from taking action
"I cannot let you fight them again, I should not have let you do that in the first place." Penny uses her other hand to grab Link's collar. "Ruby took charge, you took charge, both of you went out of your way to protect me, now it is my turn to protect you two."
"Okay?" Link agrees and tries to free himself. "Can we do anything else besides a dumpster? I can run away if you want me to."
"There isn't time!" Penny shakes her head. "You must... Please."
"Brilliant..." Link sighs as Penny drags him over to the dumpster and throws him inside with an impressive throw by just the grip of his collar
"You too Ruby! you have to hide!" Penny glances at Ruby, who had attempted to run off after seeing how Link ended up. But the fast and clearly stronger girl catches up and grabs her by the shoulders, lifts Ruby above her head effortlessly and keeps her hoisted up in the air, the proceeds to start carrying her to the open dumpster
"Penny, stop! Why are you doing this?!" Ruby struggles and screams as she is carried to the same dumpster her friend was just thrown in. "You really don't have to go with them! I can help you. Link can help you, all of us can help you."
"Look at that we have a guest." Link shrugs as several rats run by his feet
"Don't worry." Penny says calmly whilst throwing Ruby in the trash and closing the lid but speaking a bit louder so the two Beacon students can hear her. "It's okay and I promise that I will be okay. They're not bad people, I just don't want to get you two in trouble. Just promise me you won't tell anyone else my secret. Okay?"
"Penny." Link begins. "If you let us out we can-!"
"Promise me you won't tell anyone about my secret!" She demands
"Sure?" Link lifts his hand, despite Penny never telling him about what she's really made of. "I Promise."
"I promise too." Ruby nods
Penny nods and taps on the lid of the dumpster as a way to signal both of them to stay quiet while she deals with the soldiers
"Salutations officers!" Penny greets the injured soldiers
"Ms. Polendina! Why were you running? And what happened to the other girl? Were you both being chased by that boy in the green outfit?" The soldiers question the young huntress who hiccups before she even begins to answer. "We had to do battle with him and it was not an easy task but he was dealt with."
"Hmph." Link scowls. "The lying scum. Dealt with my a-!"
Ruby quickly puts her hand over his mouth to quiet him down
"Shhh!" She shakes her head. "We can't blow our cover! We will get in serious trouble! And I want to listen in!"
"Other girl?" Penny looked around, then blinks innocently. "What girl? I've been on my own all day." Penny hiccups yet again, which almost gives her away but a quick smile works like a charm as the soldiers do not press on. "Yes I was running away from that boy. Maybe there was another girl who ran because I started to run at her. It all happened so fast, but thank you so much for dealing with him."
(Oh come on, that's not even remotely true, but Penny is proving to be a decent liar. They can't even piece it together about her hiccups.) Link sighs and attempts to speak, but Ruby's hand over his mouth feels like glue
"What were you told about running off on your own? You shouldn't cause such a scene." One of the soldiers says
"I'm sorry I simply-!"
"At the very least tell us." The second soldier interrupts. "Are you okay?"
"Just a scratch." Penny opens her hands to the soldiers, which were shredded a bit, revealing metal she showed only Ruby
"Penny, your father... will not be happy.. when he hears about... today." One of the soldier struggles to speak as he hunches over, still reeling from the earlier fight with Link
"Please, just come with us, immediately." The second soldier, with more composure says as he leads the way for Penny and his injured partner
"Yes sir." Penny gives another salute and willingly walks away with them
After a minute and no more than a minute, the huntsman and huntress in training climb out of the dumpster as fast as they can, Ruby gags and falls to her knees, opening her mouth to throw up but nothing comes out. Link on the other hand, checks his arms and feet to make sure there are no more rats lingering around, to not take them back to Beacon
"Can we please never do that again." Ruby pushes her palms off the concrete to boost herself back up to her feet
"We didn't exactly have a choice." Link smirks. "Your robot friend kind of threw us in there."
"What?" Ruby frowns. "How long have you known? She didn't even tell you!"
"Today, when we ran into her again. She already sounded far too composed and robotic to be a regular human like you or I. Then today she sounded like somebody reset her the way someone would reset a scroll to get a fresh start." Link nods. "Luckily, Penny didn't forget you so they clearly didn't reset anything. Her 'father' and the tinman likely had a long talk with her, and that's who picked her up at the docks."
"Yeah that makes a lot more sense now. Wait..." Ruby's hands move to her hips again. "Tinman? You're not referring to-!"
"General Ironwood right?" Link rolls his eyes. "You'd be correct if that was about to be the answer to come from your lips."
"Penny told me that the general doesn't view you in a good light, do you want to explain why that is?" Ruby asks. "I don't know much about the general but I know he wouldn't just go after anyone unprovoked, did something happen? Was it recent? Or some time ago?"
"Not necessarily, no." Link crosses his arms. "It's not something worth your time anyway, trust me. You would be bored, sad, or both."
"Link!" Ruby stomps her foot into the ground. "You can tell me anything, I hope you know that."
"Whoa, didn't know you picked that up from Weiss." Link laughs and mockingly whips his hair the way Weiss did earlier. "At least you two are becoming good friends at last."
"I'm being serious." Ruby groans. "There's a time for jokes of course but not right now. Why doesn't the general like you? Is it something really bad? I want to know."
"Yes I know. Look... I'm going to tell you Ruby, about everything... one day. I just don't know if I am ready to open up about what life was like before I got to Beacon at this moment." Link looks up at the darkening sky. "It's a long tale with many short and long stories and I haven't told anyone about this."
"Is there anybody you've run into during your past that can say everything you've been through?" She asks
"Of course not." Link scoffs. "Nobody else knows the full extent, many facts were twisted along the way, and the reason Ironwood is out for me is not even the truth. I know if I sit down and have a chat with him he's not going to believe a word I say so there's no point getting near him or anybody from Atlas."
"You've gotten near Weiss?" Ruby nervously laughs. "That's technically Atlas. Well not technically but literally Atlas since her family is the most important thing over there... and everywhere in remnant too"
"Fair enough." He chuckles. "Atlas military to be specific."
"Promise me that whenever you're ready, you'll let me or anybody know as soon as possible. If you're in danger, I can help you." Ruby reaches out her hand and balls it up
"Ruby, of course." Link smiles and fist bumps with Ruby. "I would and will tell you when I'm ready, I wouldn't dream of leaving you out of anything important. Besides, even if I try, you'll figure out a way to involve yourself because that's who you are, a sweet girl who cares."
"I try my best." Ruby smiles back
The two exit the alley after airing themselves out for some time as a result of being in a dumpster for longer than they ever wanted to be in one. Ruby and Link walk down the streets of Vale, waiting for calls from Yang or Blake, and if they receive nothing the plan is meet up with Yang in Vale later on. Little do they know however, that during this entire fiasco with Penny and Link fighting the Atlas soldiers, the rest of their friends have been going through their own adventure. Starting with Weiss flawlessly completing her task and avoiding talking to her father and sister in the process. Yang ultimately ends up obtaining no results from her investigation with Neptune. Meanwhile Blake and Sun are going through their own troubles...
"Hm? Blakes calling me." Ruby eyes her scroll. "Maybe she found something about the White Fang."
"What a coincidence." Link shows Ruby his scroll, he has an incoming call from Sun. "Why would they both be calling us?"
"I'm not sure but we better find out." Ruby nods and answers the call
"Right!" Link nods back and answers Sun's call
"Everyone!" Blake shouts. "If you can hear me, we need back-!"
"HEEEELLLLP!" Sun shouts even louder in Link's ear. "They have a big robot, I repeat, big robot! And it's big, real big."
"Come on, let's go!" Ruby nods as she and Link began to run "I do not want to miss this!"
"That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him of course. He's, like, controlling it or something!"
"Where are you guys?" Yang shouts loudly that she can be heard by Link through Ruby's scroll
"HURRYYYY!"
"It's chasing us into the freeway, please hurry!" Blake shouts one last time before hanging up
"Alright! Do you have a plan? Or do you need to come up with a plan, Ruby?" Link asks
"N-not really, but I can definitely come up with a plan. However, if we all end up fighting that robot, we have a plan as a tema, but it's team RWBY exclusive."
"Winging it then for the time being, I can do that." Link nods as the two of them run to the freeway
The City of Vale: The Freeway
Ruby lead the way, but it's under the freeway... which anybody who hears that the robot is headed to the freeway and getting on it, would be bizarre to be underneath it
"So Ruby, what are we doing here, won't they be up there?" Link pointed to the actual freeway
"Right, but Weiss has a plan to bring it down here to avoid civilians from getting hurt." Ruby nods, then hears two voices, each getting faint because they sound like they are shouting
"Sun and Neptune!" Link points at them falling to the ground, seemingly to their death or at the very least a hard fall that will break some bones
"Link!" Ruby commands. "Catch them in any way you can, just make sure you're okay!"
"Got it!" Link sprints towards Sun and Neptune, realizing he won't make it on time for both of them at the same time
"Last resort, let's see if it pays off!"
Link comes to a complete stand still, grabs his sword and begins by throwing his sword, spear style at Sun, higher than him so it doesn't hit his head. Luckily for the monkey faunus, it clips and digs into his baggy shirt and drives him into a pillar about ten to fifteen feet high. Link then grabs his bow and arrow, feeling like he has no time to turn it into a crossbow. The one person team pulls back on the string attached to the steel bow, inhales, exhales, and rushes to take a shot, just one shot, one chance to save Neptune from a brutal fall
"OH MY GOD!" Neptune shouts, the arrow barely grazes his neck, manages to hit the huntsman's jacket and hook him to a pillar as well. The shock of the close call makes him pass out from the fright, the fall does not help either
"Phew." Link sighs, which is then followed by the shattering of ice and a giant robot collapsing to the bottom of the freeway, "Gotta go work help them out."
Link safely brings down Sun, who is barely conscious by impressively making his way up the pillar with strength as he jumps onto the pillar clinging onto it with his legs and arms, then leaps upward, landing underneath Sun's feet. With another lunge above him, he's eyes level with his sword. He shakes Sun awake, surprisingly the faunus does not panic, he just gives Link a thumbs up; prompting Link to pull the sword and let him fall. To avoid having to do the save with Neptune regarding the climb, Link grabs his hookshot and practically ziplines to the pillar he is on. Neptune however, is pully unconscious, making Link wrap an arm around Neptune's waist and positioning him to be on his shoulder. A quick plummet later and Link is on the ground with Neptune safely on his shoulder, his aura breaking the fall.
"One fresh teammate for you." Link walks over to Sun and lays Neptune next to him
"Unbelievable, first he's afraid of water, now heights too?"
"Are you kidding? NEPTUNE is scared of the water?" Link smirks
"I blame his parents for that one. And Neptune being a chicken."
"Fair enough." Link laughs a bit more, then rushes back to the now foggy setting of team RWBY fighting Roman Torchwick in an Atlesian Paladin
"Link! Don't worry about us!" Yang shouts whilst firing more shotgun blasts at the Paladin. "Just follow Ruby's orders and make sure Sun and Neptune are safe."
"What about the giant toaster?!" Link shouts back. "I can help you unplug it!"
"We'll be fine, I promise!" Ruby nods
"Believe in us." Weiss speaks firmly
"Yeah, we can take this thing down." Blake mumbles
"A-alright then." Link sighs and turns back
(Good thing you aren't focused on the oversized oven. Because you have company kid, look behind you!)
Link turns around to find Sun and Neptune still there, but there was another person in front of them, it was a woman, a woman completely unfamiliar to anybody except Roman Torchwick. Her hair and eyes were both different colors; One half was pink, the other was brown. The same can be said about her eyes as her left eye is pink, with the right one being brown. is very short despite being in heels and everything about her is colorful. She wears a white cropped jacket that has pink mixed into the edges, with large pink cuffs at the end of each sleeve. Under her jacket is a brown corset that curves in the middle and at the bottom, exposing some of her skin around the hips. Her bottoms consist of brown leather pants with a dark belt. The aforementioned heels are black, pairing along with white boots, with black laces that go up to her knees, ending slightly below her knees. Her height, regardless of her heels adding multiple inches to her height, she appears to stand at four feet and approximately nine or ten inches. Additional features about this mystery woman are the accessories she wears, such as multiple black beaded necklaces around her neck. The only item in her hands which could be a weapon is a pink umbrella, which only makes look more adorable than menacing
"Who are you...?" Link asks as he slowly walks forward with caution. "If you're a civilian, you need to get out of here. If you're on our side, those two guys behind you are good people, they're not the enemy."
"..." The woman simply smiles and opens what is now clear to be a parasol, not an umbrella
"Just circle around and go wherever you need to go, those two are none of your concern." Link gently calls out. "What's your name? Where'd you come from?"
"..." She remains silent and pulls on the handle of her parasol, sounds of metal colliding with plastic come off identically to someone unsheathing a blade
"Don't you dare hurt my friends!" Link whips out his sword and shield and sprints the girl
Link has no problem getting to her as she stands perfectly still. The huntsman dashes forward when he's a few feet away and executes a powerful vertical swing, but the girl disappears and produces three afterimages, completely throwing off the enemy in front of her
"W-what?!" Link quickly turns around and notices the woman in front of him again, they practically swapped places. (She willingly let me get back in defensive range of Sun and Neptune, but why? Does she not want to fight? That blade in her parasol says otherwise...)
The diminutive woman slides the handle back into the parasol until it's tightly shut. She opens the parasol and poses politely like a delicate woman in a different time period would. Link meanwhile, is through the games and charges at her again, he gets near her and swings his sword vertically, horizontally, jabs, spinning backhand slashes, but the woman is impressively agile. She responds by using Link's frustration to fight back, dodging and evading each swing while remaining close to his arm like a clingy partner who lingers and doesn't want to let go. This woman leaps onto Link's arm and balances on it as if it were a beam, she winks and lets herself drop down, wrapping her legs around Link's head and using the momentum of the two moving people to falls backwards, hooking Link's head and flipping him over, driving the boy back-first onto the floor whilst she lands perfectly on her feet
(She's really agile, I can't even touch her. Although... she hasn't exactly hit me either, what is this?)
Link gets back up to his feet and calmly walks up to this woman, who willingly allows him near her. An attempted leg sweep like the ones he and Pyrrha perform on Jaune on the time does not succeed when Neo glides over the incoming leg. She frowns and fights back, spinning in place and aiming multiple roundhouse kicks. Link's eyes track each kick and his shield does the rest of the work, blocking all of her offense. The woman narrows her eyes even more and mixes up her kicks, faking body kicks and aiming upwards, therefore switching it to question mark kicks, but no matter the kick technique, Link's defense proves to be his stronger suit as he blocks every incoming attack. She spins in place again and attempts a spinning back kick, her goal is to drive her heel into the opponent's gut and seriously injure him. But Link telegraphs it perfectly, blocks with his shield, and finally frustrates the woman when he charges forward and bashes his shield directly into her back, knocking her off balance
"Enough of this." Link grows in frustration as he makes the risky decision to put away both weapons and attempt to talk
"..." The woman regains her balance and faces Link again. She blinks and her eyes change color at the exact same time
"What is this? Your semblance?!" Link senses danger and grabs onto the handle of his sword, the triforce engraved in his left hand lights up for a second time today, and for the first time today so do the designs around his sheath, shield, sword, and clothes
"..." Neo winks at Link in taunting fashion, she goads him to attack first again
"You think it's fine? Try this!" Link closes his eyes, focuses carefully, and opens his eyes, they both glow gold and only gold, no strange lining kicks into his left eyes today
The one person team from Beacon Academy disappears and within seconds, he is already across to where that woman was previously standing. However, she is gone yet again and Link takes in his current surroundings. Soon discovering that he has cut perfectly through a pillar, the concrete slowly starts sliding to the side as one of the many important pillars to hold up the freeway is badly damaged now
"Dang it! I missed." Link wonders where that woman left and what he can do to help. But it's Ruby's orders that race through his head, which is to make sure Sun and Neptune are okay and safe. "Sun, come on... Let's go." He puts his sword away, walks over to the unconscious Neptune and lifts him up, onto his shoulders again
"Thanks for saving our butts there Link. I had no idea who that creepy girl was, but you sure scared her away!" Sun picks up his staff and grabs Neptune's gun in the process. "Come on, I'll buy you dinner, my treat. I know just the place for us guys to eat this late at night."
"Oh really? I'll be the judge of that." Link chuckles and follows him
Approximately Fifteen Minutes Later: A Simple Wok Noodle House Restaurant
Sun, Link, and Neptune who has finally awakened, sit on three of the four available stools in of 'A Simple Wok Noodle House' with the owner of restaurant being the familiar old man shopkeep who runs 'From Dust Till Dawn', he stands behind the counter, ready to take the order of the three young men sitting at his restaurant
"A Simple Wok huh..." Link looks up at the banner of the street side noodle bar
"Yup, it's the best of the best, no need for some fancy restaurant. You pay less and get even more awesome food!" Sun nods
"Well, mainly because we're a bit tight on cash too." Neptune chuckles as all three of them promptly order food
"Shouldn't we have backed up team RWBY at least?" Link asks with concern in his voice as he, Neptune and Sun were all waiting to be served their food
Sun and Neptune turn to each other an grin confidently
"Nah." Sun chuckles
"They're probably fine though, right?" Neptune turns his attention to Link
"Ummm..." Link shrugs
"..." Sun looks at Link and pats his shoulder, then decides to answer the question for him. "Probably."
Neptune does not respond to the not at all convincing answer of Sun, but he does face straight forward as the old man bring them their food
"I suppose so. They did tell to make sure you guys were okay, so at least I'm following orders." Link bows his head once, a half hearted nod, but ultimately he gives the topic no more though, grabs a pair of chopsticks and admires the aroma of the food placed of front of him by the hard working and talented shopkeep
(9/26/17) Edited: Minor details + Link's fight with the Atlas Soldiers & his encounter with Neo.