Disclaimer: See last chapter.

Neo

Ruby stared at the screen in undisguised horror. "Another game over!?" she yelled out as she tossed her scroll back onto the couch. "Zwei, this game shouldn't be this hard!" she complained to the small dog next to her.

It was late at night, and she'd been planning on taking the next day for herself. She'd been spending most of the day at the forge that day, and while her body was tired her mind wasn't, and demanded she do something to entertain herself.

Hence, playing "Super Picky Ball", a game where she controlled not the character, but the map around the character. The goal was simple, small birds, the "pickies", were trapped in a ball and in order to free them they needed to be guided to the goal, which would hammer the ball enough to crack it. Hammer it enough, and the picky would be freed.

She wasn't in the mood for one of the longer games she'd had on her scroll, and she hadn't actually been able to beat this one yet, so she was trying again.

And again.

"Four game overs, Zwei! Can you beat this thing!?" Ruby said as she handed over the scroll to the hound. He gave a small woof, looking over at her and then the controller, his beady little eyes glowing with an repressed urge to point out something.

Ruby realized a moment later it was that he didn't have hands. "Right, sorry. Argh, Yang was saying this game was easy! Maybe the first five levels were easy, but once you hit forty it's nothing but nonsense!" Ruby complained.

The broken moon hung out her window, letting in the light. Ruby hadn't yet shut the window, both because she was still a bit overheated from working the forge, and because that was if Qrow wanted to come in he could.

"Okay, one more time Zwei!" Ruby said, psyching herself up as she grabbed at the controller. Chirping sounds came from the small TV as she played, her tongue sticking out as she attempted to get at least to the goal, if not a new high score. She wasn't the type of person to grow too competitive about that.

That was about the time she heard the alarm from the alleyway right below her. The sudden sound surprised her, forcing her to move the picky well off track, and she ignored it for a moment as her jaw dropped. Another game over, despite only dying once. This game was mean!

"Right, that's it. I'm done," Ruby said. "Game is impossible," she ruled, turning off her scroll. The alarm still blared from outside. "And if someone could stop that alarm, that'd be great," she murmured. That wasn't her alarm...was it?

Suddenly realizing that she should at least check if it was or not, she activated Petal Burst, her Semblance carrying her downstairs in a hurry. The light were still out, exactly as they should be. There was no one at the door, trying to barge in.

There was no Yang, who would've punched until the door caved in, nor was there a Qrow who would've punched buttons on the lock until it caved to his bad luck, or her bad luck, or someone's bad luck, and have it open for him.

The alarm was a bit quieter in here, so it was from outside at least. Ignoring the cold touch of the floor on her bare feet, she moved to her workshop, carefully opening the door and flicking on the light.

Everything was as it should be, really. There were no weapons in progress that were on the floor, but the alarm was definitely from her own back door. "That's weird..." Ruby muttered as she glanced around. There was no one around, nothing that could have set it off. And Vale didn't have problems with wild animals unlike Patch.

She typed in the code and turn off the alarm, getting a "Thank you!" from one of her neighbors. The fact she heard them through her back workshop door said just how loud they'd been screaming at her.

"Everything seems fine..." she said as she took another look at the experimental prototypes. Even her composite powder, a kind of explosive dust that didn't use actual dust was perfectly fine. And that would be about the only thing she could think of that someone would break in for.

There was a rough bark from Zwei above her, and instantly Ruby moved, her Semblance carrying her far faster than just running would have. Up the stairs she went, until there was...who was that?

In her kitchen, stealing some of her baked chicken. With about a thousand lien cards in a small bag, Ruby knew without a doubt that this was her little thief.

Little though...little was suited. She was tiny. A small girl, with pink hair and multicolored eyes. She was wearing mostly white with high heels, in a way that couldn't have been comfortable.

There was also the umbrella at her hip, which Ruby could tell had been heavily modified. Seriously, heavily modified. A .38 shaft and hardened carbide, that thing could almost puncture a tank. It was like that one villain out of that comic book, Man-Bat or something.

"Who are you?" Ruby asked. "Put everything down, including the chicken!" she rephrased herself a moment later. The girl, as she couldn't have been that much older than Ruby herself, slowly chewed on the chicken that she'd already taken a bite out of. "Alright, finish chewing first and then finish the piece of chicken in your hands."

The girl nodded happily, chewing down and scarfing the baked chicken that was intended to be Ruby's dinner the next night. Oh well, she'd make more. It wasn't as if it wasn't easy for her. Baking, yes, cooking, no!

"Alright, asking again, put down the money, and tell me who you are," Ruby said. The girl said nothing, just smiling as she ate the chicken gratefully, but didn't bother to put down the money. "Put down the money," Ruby commanded again.

The girl did a slick smirking smile, and twirled the umbrella menacingly. The response was obvious. 'Bring it'.

And here Ruby was, without Crescent Rose or any weapon from down in her shop, in her own apartment.

"I don't want to fight you. Just give me the money back," Ruby said. The girl shook her head, biting her bottom lip, almost cruelly.

Ruby could take a few seconds to go down and grab a weapon, or she could...she dove into her Semblance, hoping to at least grab the bag. The girl almost danced away, laughing mirthlessly and without sound as she swung the bag around, using it as a makeshift weapon.

Ruby grabbed one of her cooking knives, and suddenly the girl realized what Ruby had been actually doing. She came back in, this time the knife swinging not towards the girl but towards the bag. The girl danced around again, a smirk on her face as if she was enjoying the 'fight'.

Aura flashed around her arm as Ruby used her Semblance on just one part of her, raising the knife faster than she could blink. The girl's evil smirk reduced in evilness, now just a 'I'm having fun now' smirk. She raised a knee, and Ruby rushed to the side, only to be flattened as the umbrella unfolded right where she was.

Folded again, and stabbed where Ruby would have fallen to, if she hadn't used her Semblance to go around. She swung with the knife in the same way she would with Crescent Rose, only to be blocked by the strange girl's arm again, before the girl did a sudden kick straight up.

Ruby crashed onto the ground a few feet away, quickly going back to her feet. The strange girl still had that smirk on her face. Zwei was in the corner, growling menacingly cutely. It was almost enough to distract Ruby, and she hoped the strange girl was feeling the same way as they both glanced at the dog before returning to their fight.

The umbrella wasn't a decoy, but it certainly wasn't the girl's main weapon. Her main weapon was her entire body. She fought like Taiyang did at times, when he was particular about teaching a lesson. Every over extension would lead to being hurt. It was a common enough style, but this girl had clearly mastered every bit of it.

Which means that every strike had to cautious, examined and known exactly what would happen. This fight had to be planned out to the extreme, in Ruby's mind. If Yang was here, she'd have lost instantly. Ruby took a deep breath, and the girl's smirk fell off, her eyes narrowing as she watched. The lien was still in the bag, but now hanging off of her hips.

Six months ago this would've been impossible, Ruby knew. She ran in, the knife going downwards with a loose grip. The girl had that smirk again now on her face, and blocked Ruby's arm rather than the knife, and Ruby let go.

The knife hurtled towards the girl with barely any room to block, before it crashed into the girl's aura. Ruby swung herself around on the girl's arm, flashing down again with a crescent kick. The smirk on the girl's face was prideful now, and playful as she took the hit and used Ruby's kick to do a flip onto her.

Semblance activated, Ruby fell quicker while the girl was facing elsewhere, shoulder checking her into the couch. The springs gave a groan as the girl and Ruby fell onto them, and she reached out with one hand for the knife before the umbrella shoved her to the side. There was no time to try to do anything now, as the attacks suddenly kept coming.

Prideful, as Ruby knew. Every attack led to another one, and Ruby felt the hits start to add up against her aura. Legs, left arm, back of the knee, back of the head, front of the chest, right arm, the girl was faster than anyone Ruby had ever fought with the exception of Torchwick.

"This is the Vale Police! Come on out with your hands up!" A well recognized voice cut through the attacks, and Ruby was left standing as the girl looked around. She must've felt a lack of weight at her hips though, because she looked down to see the bag she'd stolen all the money in was cut open, the cards having long since scattered on the floor. All it had taken was one rip.

The girl turned to stare, a sneer on her face, before she shattered into polygons of light. Ruby was left breathing hard as she heard the stampede of the police coming up the stairs. The knife was uninjured, and there was no blood on it. If they wanted it, Ruby would have given it to them.

"You alright, Ruby? The alarm went off, but it was turned off so we weren't sure, then we heard the barking," one of the officers said as they climbed up the final step. They looked down at the fallen lien cards.

"I'll be alright. She didn't break my aura, although it was close," Ruby said once she'd caught her breath. She reached for her scroll, seeing her aura reader at only five percent left. Two more attacks probably would've broken it.

"Well...I see we'll have a bit of cleanup to do, and you'll probably have to answer some questions," the officer stated simply, raising her hand to rub the back of her head. "And you might want to change, too."

Ruby looked down. It was just her pajama's. "Give me like five minutes to change, alright?" Ruby asked as she used her Semblance to create a force of rose petals, enough to blind the officer while she quickly changed and put on her combat boots.

"Alright Zwei, stay here and guard the fort. I'll be back probably soon, okay?" Ruby asked. Zwei gave a whine of acceptance, and she took a quick look to make sure he had plenty of water. Food could wait, she'd already fed him dinner. And second dinner.

"It's a good thing I have insurance..." she muttered as she climbed down the steps. The police were down there, making sure everything was in order. The officer she was following nodded her head. That was when she realized what has actually been taken asides from some money and chicken.

The copy of Sundered Rose she'd made was gone.

Penny

Ruby unlocked the door with a large yawn. It was just about dawn now, and she'd spent most of the night with the police officers going over everything that had been stolen. Nearly twenty thousand in lien was stolen, minus around the five thousand she'd managed to recover. She wasn't worried about that though; she had insurance for exactly that reason.

As much as she thought insurance was a scam, with nearly three robberies, one of which she was sure was an accident, in under a few months it sure was paying for itself! Although her rates were through the roof now...

Although she'd gotten the officers to laugh when she said the perpetrator, an unknown girl of about Weiss' height or a little less actually, she'd been on heels, was walking out with a thing of baked chicken. Ruby thought it was to really rub her face in the 'I can steal whatever I want' vibe of the girl, the officers thought it was a 'I'm hungry and this is decent food' vibe.

Decent food or not, now she was down some chicken and was going to have to make more. Annoying, but not debilitating. Was that the girl's priority?

It was when Ruby described the girl's main weapon though, was when she got a name for her. Only one person used a carbide shaft for an umbrella with using .38 rounds. A girl, apprenticed to Roman Torchwick or having some association with the thief. Neo.

How the officer's had gotten that name, Ruby didn't know, but they had shuddered as soon as they said it. Ruby didn't see why, but then again she was in training to be a Huntress. She could handle things like that. Regular officers wouldn't really be much of a match for a girl like her.

To be fair, Ruby wasn't much of a match either. Making her lose only a quarter of the loot? Granted, Neo had been armed with her main weapon and Ruby had been in her pajamas, but still. After the loss to Torchwick she thought she'd have done pretty well against most others, but here she was learning how much she had yet to go!

Grimm were easy, she was starting to learn. No, it was the human element that was hard. It had always been hard for her, but now there were other reasons too.

"Zwei, I'm back!" Ruby announced as she opened the door. Unlike last time that she had been robbed there was very little dust and cleanup to be done. Neo hadn't been after the dust, which was surprising if she'd been an apprentice or associate of Roman Torchwick's.

The dust had been left untouched. The weapons and ammunition, mostly untouched with the exception of the copy of Sundered Rose that she'd made on a bit of inspiration. It wasn't exactly the same, but the idea that a copy of her mother's weapon in Neo's hands, and now probably Roman's, was...infuriating.

She hadn't thought she'd needed to lock it up more than it already had been. A locked shop, with her above it, she thought that'd be more than enough to ward off most intruders. And yet, Neo had been in here.

Ruby headed to the workshop, just to make sure that nothing in there was gone. She'd walked through it last night but hadn't seen anything, but now it was...well, another check in the light couldn't hurt.

Her ears perked up. Had Zwei given his usual affirming bark that he always did? The worst case scenario popped up in her mind, and she immediately charged upstairs with her Semblance.

Ruby didn't know who was more surprised. The orange haired Atlas girl, Penny, Ruby thought her name was, Ruby herself, or the dog laying down on Penny's lap as she gently stroked him while sitting on her couch.

The fact that Zwei then rolled over and asked for more belly rubs probably assured Ruby that it was most likely one of the two people. "Uh...hi?" Ruby asked quietly.

"Salutations!" Penny exclaimed happily, raising one hand. Her other hand was mechanically and robotically petting Zwei's belly in exactly the way he liked it. "I would get up to explain myself, but your dog has seen fit to keep me here!"

"Zwei, what are you doing," Ruby stated simply. She hadn't asked. It was just a statement at this point.

That one got a bark from the puppy, and he gave a small whine as Penny's hand stopped, which got her to keep going. Ruby knew full well that Penny was now in Zwei's clutches, cursed to pet the dog until he no longer wanted pets. Which wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

"Okay then, how did you get in here...?" Ruby asked Penny, sitting down on her bed across the room.

"I came in through the open window! Are windows not additional openings in which to enter from?" Penny asked.

...Ruby wasn't sure if Penny had ever met Qrow, but she resolved then and there to tell her that no matter who told her whatever, windows were not doors. "No. No they are not."

"Oh. They are structural weaknesses then, and should be taken care to be avoided!"

"Right," Ruby muttered, rubbing her head. She'd been awake for too long, this was starting to make too much sense. "What are you here for, then?"

"I came because I heard about the latest break-in by the girl known as Neopolitan! And I wished to ask you questions regarding her."

"You're not with the police, are you? I literally just came from there."

"I am not, no! I am with the Atlas Academy here for the Vytal Festival, and they asked me to come here to ask you questions because, according to General Ironwood, you and I have a rapport!"

"Penny I have literally only maintained your weapon. That does not mean you and I have a rapport." Truthfully Ruby didn't quite even know what a rapport was, she suspected something along the lines of knowledge of each other? That would count as a rapport then...

"We do not? That makes me said, Ruby. I am sad now," Penny said, her face barely changing. "What can you tell me about the encounter last night?"

Ruby sighed. She was petting Zwei, and that meant she was on Zwei's good terms. She'd just better answer the darn questions, then maybe she could get some sleep. It was a good thing today was a closed day...

"She was fast, brutal, knew how to fight far too well, and used an umbrella with a carbide shaft that shot .38 rounds. Pink hair, multicolored eyes, some kind of Semblance that allowed teleportation or something similar. I don't know."

"Neopolitan does not have a teleportation Semblance. A teleportation Semblance does not exist as far as Atlas is aware."

"Really? Wait, Atlas keeps track of Semblances?" Ruby asked, leaning forward.

"Of course! General Ironwood keeps a running database on all Semblances used on Remnant. However, this does not mean that such Semblances could not exist, as Semblances are extremely unique to the individual, and he has only been keeping this database for the last ten years!"

"...I'm probably not supposed to know that."

"Probably not, but you and I have a rapport, and General Ironwood has said that such secrets are well known in Atlas and thus can be freely given to those we trust in Vale!"

"Huh. Atlas," Ruby said simply. "Look, I have a lot of work to do and have to handle the insurance forms-"

"Oh!" Penny said, her back straightening as she reached into her back pocket to pull out a small hardlight tablet. Trust Atlas to use hardlight dust for the most inane of purposes. "General Ironwood thought that might be the case, so he authorized me to give this to you!"

Ruby took it and looked through it. It was a nice tablet, that was sure, but it was the documents on it that had most of her interest. Insurance forms, mostly, to be paid out from..."Atlas wants me to switch my insurance to them?" Ruby asked. "Why?"

"General Ironwood thinks that as you have been robbed by Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan within the last few weeks that you are a new target to them, and thus will probably have more fights with them soon! This is to ensure that if something were to happen, as long as you go along with the police and the Atlas Military, that you were be able to run your shop easily!"

Did Penny actually believe any of the stuff she was spouting? The green swords of the Floating Array were easily seen behind the girl, but Ruby had a feeling that those weren't limited to just her hands. Which meant she could keep petting Zwei.

"I don't think I can switch, not like this. Not while I'm tired, at least. Give me some time to think on it and then I'll send this," Ruby said, tapping the tablet, "back to General Ironwood completed or not."

"I understand."

"And aren't the police records about this open to Atlas? It's not like I could give any information to you that I didn't give to them."

"They are not! General Ironwood was most displeased when he heard that, but it is Vale law that information about ongoing incidents be reported and kept only within Vale."

Oh. So they didn't know. Alright then..."Okay. She's fast, for one. Definitely Huntress trained, I saw flashes of aura when she came in here. Zwei stayed in the corner, barking at her rather than fighting, but she didn't go after him. I'm not sure how she got in here, or how she got out though," Ruby answered.

Penny nodded, a broad grin entering her face. "Thank you! What was her fighting style like?"

"Redirection," Ruby answered instantly. "She'd wait for you to overextend, or not even wait and deliberately bait you into overextending, before dodging and striking. Every movement you made was another angle of attack for her. And once she got mad, she attacked ridiculously fast."

"Is this 'ridiculously fast' thirteen attacks per second or higher?"

Thirteen attacks per second? What was that?

"That is the highest record of attacks denoted by one at Signal Academy on a training dummy using her specialized weapon!"

Ruby hadn't even realized she'd spoken aloud, and that record was by her!? She'd done thirteen attacks per second on a training dummy...wait a second, she'd done even faster in the hardlight arena downstairs. "I...don't know. She beat to the edge of my aura breaking."

"I understand, Ruby. Do you have a camera or other such video on the premises that Atlas may view?"

Ruby shook her head. "I was planning on getting one, but it hasn't been long enough from the Roman Torchwick break-in that I've got the money yet."

"I understand. That was the last question that I had for you! Please do not mind me, Zwei, but I am needed to go now," Penny said, carefully placing Zwei down on the couch. He gave a soft whine, but Penny was seemingly heartless, leaving him there.

Then she leapt out the window.

"Windows are not doors!" Ruby yelled out at her afterwards. She gave a quick sigh as she glanced at the tablet, and the large amount of lien cards on the floor still. "This is almost as bad as when Qrow gets here."

Zwei gave a subtle whine and looked to her scroll. Ruby looked at the calendar, seeing the small checkbox of "Zwei Fed Morning" being checked with subtle green check. "You're not getting more food that easily," Ruby said with a knowing glance.

She leaned back onto her bed, kicking her combat boots off as she pulled her scroll up. "Alright, time to get these darn insurance forms filled out, and then to bed..." she muttered. Zwei whined as he pushed his full food bowl over to her. "You have food, Zwei," she answered instantly.

Until Next Time!