It hadn't been so long since Beacon that Ruby didn't remember how to land a controlled fall from a rooftop. Crescent Rose would have helped, but there were enough vines and branches that the descent was easy regardless. She landed on a large root cropping up from under one of the giant trees. Taking a moment to make sure she was properly balanced, she looked back up to the roof of the power plant. She could see Neo and Penny climbing down more slowly. It wasn't like neither of them could just jump down like Ruby had, but neither was especially in the mood to literally jump into the thick of it like Ruby was.

Ruby could feel herself starting to sweat. Not from exertion, but rather just the heat. It was balmy, to say the least, and her shirt was starting to stick to her. They had changed out of their wetsuits, but obviously had refrained from changing back into their cold weather clothes. While the heavy and warm clothing had been where they left it on the roof, somehow still perfectly intact like it had only been there an hour or so, they were not about to put all of that back on now that Mantle was going through a tropical phase. They weren't about to abandon those clothes either, as another cold snap could come on at any moment. So as it was, Penny was carrying the winter clothes, and Ruby and Neo were dressed in the bottom layer alone. That meant a shirt and some shorts, which were probably underwear realistically, but they were still somewhat thick and that meant heat was building up inside their clothes very quickly.

Grabbing the front of her shirt, Ruby flapped it in and out to get air flowing through. She figured she would probably be doing that a lot over the next few hours, or however long this jungle stayed hot. Looking around as she flapped her shirt, Ruby got a good look at the street level. The river ran right through the street, and down any alley it could find. It was just as deep as it had been when they walked on the ice, so none of the houses' first floors would be accessible. She could get in through the second floor windows, quite easily in fact, if only she could get to the buildings. In order to do so, however, she would have to get across the river, which was deeper than she was tall. Almost twice as deep, actually. That was not conducive to a Ruby crossing, so she looked back up to her companions.

Neo was still working on getting down, but Penny was on the roof of the power plant's entrance. The weird alcove they'd taken refuge in was directly below her. Ruby wondered what it would look like inside that room now. Would it be the same as they left it, or would it have gone through another ten million years of evolution? As she was wondering about that, Penny's foot went through the roof. She stumbled and fell, catching herself on a root. Moving her weight over to the root, she eyed the hole in the roof with skepticism.

Penny called up to Neo. "Try to avoid the roof here. It's weak and collapsing."

"Under your weight, maybe." Ruby said. She looked between Penny and Neo for a moment, then concluded "Yeah, Neo, stay on the roots."

Neo had something to say about that, and began mouthing off in Ruby's direction. Probably something to do with an implication about her weight, which was not Ruby's intention, but regardless Ruby had no idea what Neo was going on about. Her mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. She must have gotten used to talking and was trying to do it again, but couldn't. Ruby had always wondered if Neo was actually mute or just didn't talk. It seemed like now she had her answer.

"Penny's foot already went through. If it was weak before, now it's weak with a hole in it. The roof is compromised. Try a root. Roots are cool." Ruby jumped up and down on her root to show that the roots were sturdy and reliable. Mouthing some form of expletive, Neo dropped down from the electrical wiring she'd been hanging from and, pushing off from the tower with her foot, launched herself at a root. She landed with a thud, wrapping her arms and legs around it to hold on. Ruby jumped over and helped her up. "That was exciting."

Now that they were all down at street level, or just above street level, they stopped to take good stock of the situation. Their main concern was how to begin their trek to Pietro Polendina's workshop. Penny would know the direction, of course, but it wouldn't be easy going. The river didn't look like it was moving too fast, but Ruby had to remind herself that it was about eleven feet deep. The occasional piece of debris floating by told them its actual speed, which gave them further cause for concern. Even if they could make a boat, it would only work if it was a motorboat, or perhaps a kayak or raft designed for fast water if the vault was downstream. Swimming was out for sure, at least for Ruby and Neo.

Ruby looked to Penny. "Right, so, where are we going?"

Penny pointed across the street. "About seven blocks that way."

"Oh..." It wasn't against the current, but it wasn't with the current either. Straight across. "Okay. So how do we get there?"

Penny was silent for a moment. She looked up and around, taking in the giant trees standing over them. She started wandering off, walking along a root until she was closer to the wide round trunk. Reaching out, she placed her hand on the trunk of the tree, then looked up towards the boughs above. "I bet if I cut this down, it would make a good bridge."

Ruby was about to ask if that was actually a possibility when Neo smacked her side lightly. Looking down, Ruby saw the muted woman wave her hand around haphazardly, then putting it to her ear. For a second, Ruby thought Neo meant she had heard something. She closed her eyes to try and listen and see what she was missing, but she heard nothing. Opening her eyes again, she suddenly realized what Neo was saying. "Ah... yeah, knocking down a tree this big would probably draw a lot of attention. Can we think of something less loud?"

"...Hmm... We could always climb back up the trees and go from one treetop to the nexzzzz-"

While Penny went about readjusting her voice again, Ruby took a step closer to the end of the root she and Neo were on. It tapered off at an angle, eventually going into the water. Still about a foot around as it dipped below the surface, it was able to hold her weight all the way down. She crouched down, looking closely at the water. She reached out to put her hand in, then stopped, switching to her borrowed robot arm. Putting her metal hand in, she tested the water. She couldn't tell quite as much this way, but she could feel the current well enough. It was strong.

Shaking her head, she stood back up and turned away from the water, rejoining Neo. "If only we had a vehicle. A boat would be something at least, but an airship would be fantastic."

"Gzzzt-! Raven or Weiss would be really helpful right about now."

"If it was closer, I'd use my semblance." The street was too wide for that, and there were several more streets after it that they would need to cross next. "And you can't just freeze it, right?"

Penny shook her head. "The current is too strong. I could freeze it, sure, but the water would break it up. If I went with a really wide area and all the way down to the street, the water coming this way would flood over the top. That's no goozzzzz..." She stopped, looking suddenly very annoyed, and started smacking the side of her head repeatedly.

Normally, Ruby would be all about climbing from tree to tree, which seemed like their only option at the moment, but she got a sense that it was a bad idea. Glancing up and looking through the treetops only strengthened her misgivings. The sunlight broke through them regularly, shining light down on the river and the city below, but the trees themselves were dark. The branches were full of dark spots where anything could ambush them from. That was not a place she was eager to get near.

Ruby turned to Neo. "Do you have any ideas?"

Neo didn't look concerned at all. She pointed over to the side of the power plant. It seemed like there was no reason too look there at first, since Ruby knew where that connected to inside the tower, and there was no way back inside. Whatever reason they might have to go into the tower again, they couldn't do it over there. But there was something... Ruby hopped over to another root, getting closer to where Neo was pointing. There was something attached to the outside of the power plant at street level, just around the back. It must have been an external addition.

Snapping her fingers, Ruby caught Penny's attention. "Hey, what's that?"

Penny took a moment to fiddle with her voice, then attempted an answer. "The-zzt... Dzzwww vzzt vzzt." She stopped, clearly annoyed with her lack of voice.

Seeing that Penny's voice was gone, at least for the moment, Ruby hopped back over, root by root, until she could climb up to where Penny was angrily fidgeting with her malfunctioning parts. Ruby started unpacking the clothing bundle they'd saddled Penny with. "I have an idea." She began to explain. "Swimming across the street is a bad idea, since we'd be swept away. However, if we stick to the power plant, we'll be able to grab onto roots."

She started stripping, wasting no time getting into the wetsuit again. The only thing that worried her was the prospect of more of those black parasites finding her in the water. It gave her pause to think, but it didn't stop her from finishing getting the wetsuit on. She jumped back over to the farthest root, with Penny and Neo watching intently, then went to the end where it dipped into the water. Keeping hold of the root, she dropped into the water. After a couple moments to adjust to the temperature, she gave them both a nod.

"It's a lot colder than it looks." Seeing that both of them were unable to voice their side of the dialogue, she went ahead with what she assumed they wanted to know. "I'm guessing it's melt water, so it's still really cold."

Penny's expression didn't change, but Neo got up and headed over to Penny, preparing to get into the other wetsuit. As much as Ruby wanted to stick around and watch Neo change, she didn't want to sit still in water that could still hold those black parasites. She pulled herself along the underside of the root until she was in position to grab onto another root that was completely submerged. Grabbing onto that one, she moved along its length until she reached a pipe on the outside of the tower. She continued on, climbing through the water from roots and the occasional smaller plant in the water to the tower, and back again, making her way around to the back of the tower.

As she got closer, with Neo starting to follow along behind her, Ruby's understanding of what they had seen developed from mere curiosity to a glimmer of hope, and then to a swelling surge of excitement. With one last leap, diving through the water several meters, where the current grabbed her and dragged her past the edge of the structure, she clamped her metal hand onto it and pulled herself close. She waited until Neo was close enough to follow her, and Ruby caught her when she jumped in. Once they were both clinging to the outside of the structure, they were able to focus on fully identifying it.

Attached to the back of the power plant, half-sunk in the water, with its door wide open, was a garage stocked with a pair of Paladin-290s.