Disclaimer: See last chapter.
Grimm Kart
"You know Ruby, you're going to have to go shopping at some point," Yang grinned as she leaned over to the side. Her avatar went careening off the edge of the screen. "Ack, shoot! Hold on, go back, re-do!" she muttered as she straightened up.
"It's not nearly as bad as you think it'll be, Ruby. Best to just get it out of the way," Pyrrha said, sitting on the couch like someone would expect a woman of her caliber to be sitting. What they wouldn't expect is the small game controller in her hand, an absurd novice at Grimm Kart.
Jaune was sitting behind Ruby, on the couch next to Pyrrha. But whereas she was an obvious novice, he was an expert beyond belief. His avatar would duck and weave with the best of them, and Ruby had a minor thought that he'd been a speedrunner at one point, with how good he seemed to be.
Yang had, in fact, come down earlier that day to bring her out dress shopping. But just as Ruby had realized earlier that today was one of the days that the shop had to be open, Yang hadn't.
Which meant that Ruby had to deal with Yang being bored for a few hours while the shopkeeper actually kept to her shop. Then Jaune and Pyrrha had come down to buy some ammunition for Mio, and then Ruby had decided spur of the moment to invite them all upstairs to play games.
It had been awkward having Jaune there with her entire family, but he was much more comfortable with the rest of the team. Blake had stayed behind, busy on research on...something. Yang wasn't too sure what, and neither were Jaune or Pyrrha.
"So I have one of these red shells now, do I throw it?" Pyrrha asked, a kindly soul in a game full of wickedness, deceit, and Jaune.
"No! Throw it behind you, throw it behind you!" Yang shouted as she looked at the giant three on her share of the screen. Ruby was in a comfortable second place, and Jaune was...on his second to final lap.
There were ten laps to each race, and she was on the fifth. How on Remnant was he almost done!?
"Yeah, just throw it ahead of you. Mind the banana trail," Jaune answered. "You'd want to press the left bumper, this one," he said, showing Pyrrha exactly which one it was. He'd taken his hands off the controller too.
"Isn't that cheating?" Ruby muttered under her breath as she used the opportunity of Jaune's avatar not doing anything to try to pass him.
"What's cheating? Me showing her how to play?" Jaune asked with a tilt of his head. "You asked what games I was good at."
"Seriously Vomit Boy, when we asked that we didn't mean 'what game can you kick our butts in?'. We asked 'what game are you talented in but not quite willing to go the extra mile to make sure we end up defeated?'" Yang asked. She let out a low groan as her avatar was hit by a red shell from behind.
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha cried out softly as she passed Yang. "I just thought that was the point of the game!"
"It is the point of the game," Ruby answered. "It's just that Yang is a sore loser sometimes."
"Oh...should I not be doing this then?" Jaune asked. Ruby glanced up at his share of the screen to watch his character do a sliding boost off a hill, cutting the entire map in half. No wonder he was so far ahead then.
"How did you learn to do that!?" Yang asked. "I'm trying it, I'm near that turn."
"I wouldn't do that, it took me a long time-" Jaune tried before Yang let out a groan of disbelief as her avatar was stuck between the two sides of the track. "Yeah, that can happen. It's not frame-perfect, but it's close."
"Were you a speedrunner at some point?" Ruby asked, her eyes narrowing. "At least for this game?"
"A speedrunner?" Pyrrha asked, her head tilted slightly.
"Speedrunner's a name for the type of person to show off how quick they can beat a game. Almost every game's been shown off at some point, but most of them have at least some game breaking bug in them that allows it to happen," Jaune explained.
"Like cutting the course in half," Yang commented snidely. She gave another groan as her character was finally placed back on the race track, now firmly in fourth place.
"That's not game breaking. I'm talking like...that one bug on Ring, remember that Ruby? Where Qrow accidentally jumped off a cliff that activated a cutscene despite the fact we weren't even in single player mode?"
"Oh yeah! That was fun, playing the single mode for a level with all four of us. We should do that again!" Ruby cheered. "Come on, I'll put on Ring once we're all done with this. Or rather once Yang finishes up."
"That's it, I'm dragging you out to buy a dress and there's nothing you can do it about it."
"Yang, no!"
"Yang, yes!"
Ruby let out a sigh as she passed the finish line, solidly in second place. "So were you a speedrunner, Jaune?"
"Yes, I'm quite curious myself," Pyrrha asked, a soft smile on her face. It was obvious that she wasn't used to playing video games, but the fact that she was here at all spoke volumes of how much she wanted her team to succeed.
"Oh, no. Saphron was for a time, she was really into Grimm Kart. And she kind of dragged me into learning some of the techniques to help her get better at it. She actually has the world record for this level at the moment. Although last I checked with her she was having to start practicing again. Someone's getting close," Jaune explained.
"Wow. Someone with a world record..." Pyrrha said as she glanced to the screen. "I didn't realize people had the opportunity to get good at games like this. I thought most people were fighting."
"I mean, Ansel's small, but it's not that small. Sixth highest population city in Vale territory."
"Doesn't Ansel only have something like five thousand people?" Yang asked. "That seems just small to me."
"Yang, we're from Patch, I don't think we can talk," Ruby reminded. "Patch has like, what, a thousand at most?"
"Last census was three hundred and twenty," Yang answered easily. "Blake wanted to know, to compare Patch versus Menagerie's numbers," she said.
"That seems an odd thing to ask. So what is this Ring about?" Pyrrha asked. "I haven't heard of it, but I don't play many video games."
"Oh, basically we're in space, and we're like Hunters in space. And there's a giant war between aliens and us, and so we're trying to keep them from destroying Remnant through the power of bullets," Ruby said cheerfully.
"I'm going to remember that. Purifying the world one alien at a time, all through the power of bullets!" Yang commented.
"Power of bullets, yeah!" Jaune tried to awkwardly chime in. Ruby's ears perked up as she heard the oven ding.
"Oh, dinner's ready! Hold on, you can put the game in I'll be right back!" Ruby said as she forced herself up and ran into the kitchen. She ignored the small rose petals that fell around her.
Zwei was sleeping on the table, a lone dog pillow having been dragged up there. From there, Ruby could see he had the perfect sight range to look at all four of them without any problems.
She made sure to get her oven mitts on before opening her oven. Just because she was used to the high temperatures of a forge didn't mean that she was immune to the heat. Although an oven didn't get nearly as hot as a forge did. Speaking of, when was her next forge day? She'd have to look back at her calendar and check.
She pulled out the dinner, a bunch of stuffed chicken breasts with some veggies on the side, to let it cool a bit on the rack before she glanced at the calendar. She had a few weeks before her next one, because the owner was trying to get some presents made for his kids birthdays.
Apparently that was a common thing he did every year. And she hadn't even been open a full year yet...wow. She hadn't realized that. It had seemed so long...
The sound of Ring starting up made her realize that she still had hungry guests over. "Alright, let's eat!" she said as she pulled out four plates, quickly plating at least one breast each. Hunters usually ate a lot more than what she could offer, but they'd probably eat again once they get up to Beacon.
"You're gonna be alright with just this for now, right?" Ruby asked as she handed them out. Yang took hers and didn't bother caring about the heat for the first moment as she took a deep bite only to have to spit it out, her tongue burning.
"Yeesh Ruby, what was that!?" Yang commented. "That was burning my tongue up!?"
"Oh, I found some hot sauce I like. I don't put it on everything, but it makes everything taste better!" Ruby said. Yang made a look to the side as she muttered about never eating her sister's baking again.
Pyrrha's eyes brightened up at the mention of hot sauce. "Yes, this should be fine to tide us over. Jaune, do we still have the snacks in the cupboard, or did we eat them all already? Or did Nora get to them?"
"Nora got to them, but we had Blake refill it the other day and change the lock on it too. It's going to make more than just an electrified hammer swing to get into it this time!" Jaune said.
"Nora, Nora...is that the girl with the hammer and the pink dress, and the orange hair?" Ruby asked. "Uses a Magnum class grenade launcher hammer?"
"Why am I not surprised you know more about a person's weapon than their name?" Yang asked. "Ow," she said softly as Ruby punched her arm none too gently. "Yeah, that's her though."
"But yeah, we should be fine," Jaune answered. "Assuming Weiss doesn't break down and break the lock for her."
"Weiss, that one's familiar enough. She was here just the other week, on one of the easy missions you all get," Ruby answered. "Why would she break the lock? Doesn't she have snacks of her own?"
"She does, but she doesn't like sharing with Nora. Not that I blame her, all things considered," Yang said. "I mean, ooh boy, when Ren starts making pancakes or waffles you do not want to be in that kitchen."
"Sounds...entertaining," Ruby said, her eyes off as she envisioned all the adventures that her sister's teammates must get up to. "Are all teams like hers and yours, or are they much less...lively?"
Jaune shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know anyone from any other team. There's cardinal, but they're bullies at best."
"Most of them have their own unique aspects," Pyrrha answered, "But in general few teams have a person such as Nora or Yang."
"Hey! I'm sitting right here!" Yang answered as she took a bite. Ruby caught sight of her hair on fire for just a moment before Yang swallowed. The blonde woman must've seen Ruby looking at her. "Yes, I use my Semblance for mundane things too, queen of using her Semblance to go places faster," Yang commented.
"Hey, I wasn't gonna say anything!" Ruby said, holding her hands up. Her own chicken was devoured, and she noticed that so was everyone's else's in the time that it took Yang to realize it had cooled down enough.
"Lucky for you, I don't even know what my Semblance is yet," Jaune commented. "But come on, we have a planet to save! By the power of bullets!" he cheered on.
Pyrrha gave off an awkward cheer, trailing off at the end. Which was the real trigger for Yang and Ruby to start laughing, followed by the other two.
If this was what Beacon was like, Ruby knew, then she'd like it there. Less than a year and a half to go, now. Less than that...counting down the months...
Mercury? Part Two.
Ruby glanced over at the clock. The lunch hour was generally ending right about now, so once the three customers she was helping left, she'd probably be a bit more free until around three or four, which is generally when Beacon let out most of their classes.
And Flare. And somewhat occasionally Signal.
"You have to be careful when firing this thing. The recoil is nearly six hundred newtons. If you're not prepared, you can easily bruise yourself," Ruby warned as a young boy, probably no more than twelve or so, hefted a sword pistol. It was literally a sword with two chambers on the guard, pointing the same direction as the sword.
If he hit someone with it and pulled the trigger at the same time, it would definitely do some major damage. Especially if he used a higher purity dust round, that thing could probably take off a Grimm's head from twenty feet away. Assuming he was accurate.
"Is six hundred a lot?" he asked. "I didn't think I'd ever need my math classes, and it never interested me."
"It's about the same as getting a hardball to the chest or arm," Ruby admitted. "It'll hurt, but it won't kill you. Unless the sword part gets recoiled back but if you hold it properly-" she warned.
The boy immediately changed his grip on the weapon to be more like what Ruby had told him he should have his hands. She glowered, but nodded. "Did you want to try it out in the arena first? I have some basic ammunition here, it uses .35's which is one of the most common caliber."
"Sure!"
Ruby nodded and gave a smile to the other two in the shop. One was much older, around seventeen or eighteen or so, probably a fresh graduate from Beacon or in the upper years. The other was a bit younger, probably around Ruby's age, looking through a variety of ammunition that she had stocked. Neither of them were looking at her.
She turned to the hard light arena, putting in some basic calibration testing bots. These were bots that stood there and only took damage, they didn't fight back, which was perfect for someone who was new to even using a weapon.
Not everyone was like Ruby and designing their own scythe rifle, or rifle scythe depending on how she felt like using it, when they were eight. Or ten. Actually how old was she when she started working on Crescent Rose...?
It felt like a lifetime ago.
The arena beeped at her. She stared at it, pressing the same buttons again. "Everything okay?" the boy asked.
"Yeah, it should be. Guess the arena's broken at the moment, I'm sorry. Come in later and we'll go through it, if you so choose. Alternatively, most teachers at Flare or Pharos would be able to help you get used to it. Signal if you're from Patch."
"Okay. How much is it? My mom said I can only spend eight thousand lien on it."
"That's lucky for you," Ruby answered as she headed back over to the counter. "Six thousand five hundred. With two boxes of ammo to go with it," she said, ringing everything up. Truthfully she should charge him the full amount he had, but...well, she knew what it was like to be on a tight budget. And he was a kid, and did have a provisional license.
By the time the kid left, the younger woman and left too, leaving only the older one. She had black hair dangling off to one side, and a shockingly red dress that was more crimson than red, although Ruby appreciated it. Red was her favorite color, after all.
"Hi, sorry for the wait," Ruby said from the counter. "What can I help you with?"
"I was hoping to look through some of your ammo, but you seem to be out of what I need," she answered smoothly. Her voice was thin and conceited, as if she wasn't used to asking for things.
"What kind of things do you need? I carry most everything, but I can always put in a special order if need be."
"Arrows," the woman said quietly. "Broad point, one and a half foot long arrows."
Those were hunter arrows, not the kind of Hunters that went after Grimm. Those were the kind that went after animals. She could almost hear Zwei in the back of her head, whining.
"I thought I restocked on those," Ruby said as she went over to the ammunition counter. She had every type under the sun, or so she'd thought. But the woman was right, they weren't in the display case.
The woman's eyes were a brilliant gold, and they flared with irritation at her. "Hold on, I think I know," Ruby said, ignoring the woman as she looked underneath the glass, where she kept all of her extras. "I don't get many people that want arrows, most people know how to create it themselves if they use them..."
"I do too, but it's easier with some professional ones."
"That I can understand," Ruby said as she pulled out a small box, nearly two feet by two feet. "Here we go, hunter arrows," she said, bringing it up to the top of the counter.
The woman's eyes lit up as she glanced at them. She lifted one up, judging it carefully while Ruby struggled to remember the price she'd set for them. The woman didn't look like she'd use many of them, probably using them as a way to make her own.
"How much for the box?" she asked, her voice almost like a salesman, that same kind of thick and oily sound. Ruby ran the numbers over her head.
It was one hundred lien per arrow. Each box contained two hundred, so therefore for the box was twenty thousand each. She had only the one box, almost no one wanted arrows except actual hunters, and they were rare enough that creating them wasn't much of a lucrative business model. She'd have to order more after this, especially because this was essentially her first sale for the things.
"About twenty thousand," Ruby answered after a moment. "A hundred lien per arrow."
The woman nodded instantly. "That's...not a bad price range. I'm surprised you have them at all, let alone so low."
"There's a suggested price for these from the manufacturer," Ruby admitted as she carried it over to the counter. "And that means that whatever price they set is what I have to sell at. At least for these.
The woman's eyebrow raised up. "It's not like that over at Mistral."
"Mistral's less hunter based as Vale is. The rules come from the old...hold on I did a report on this for Signal last year," Ruby said as she hurriedly went through her scroll. The woman's eyes widened as she realized what she'd done.
"No, no that's alright, I'll just take the arrows-" the woman said, trying to get out her lien card.
"Here it is! Vale's based on the word for Valley, seeing as how we're surrounded by mountains every which way. And so the hunters were the ones who got food and kept the original pioneers safe from the Grimm, supposedly. Because of that, they were allowed to set the prices of things in such a way that they could always afford them."
The woman growled. "Fascinating," she deadpanned in a way that said she was most definitely not fascinated.
Ruby grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, history can be really neat if you're forced to look into it day after day for a grade. A grade that if you get an A in, like I did, you get cookies afterwards." She took the lien card from the woman, running it instantly before handing it back. The woman snatched it out of her hands and grabbed the box of arrows.
"Oh, one other thing! Also according to those same laws I need to know the name of everyone I sell them to so that way if you get in trouble I know exactly who to point it out to."
"Mercury Black," the woman said instantly. Ruby blinked. Wasn't that the name of the grey haired boy who'd wandered in a few weeks or months back and needed his prosthetics maintained? She thought it was, she recognized the name Mercury.
She wrote it down anyways, but now her suspicion was raised. She gave the woman a better eye as she walked out. The dress was glowing in odd directions, and she could almost see the faint smoke smell in the air. How one could see a smell, Ruby wasn't sure, but it was there somehow.
Ruby watched her leave, before heading to her scroll. It would be the last customer of the hour, and probably for the next few. She could run a search on the name of Mercury Black, and then find out what happened to the arena.
The search of Mercury Black took only a few minutes, and there was almost no information, not that Ruby was expecting a lot. Not everyone could be a Blake Belladonna who had literal articles written after her father.
But she did find that the "Black" surname had once been owned by an assassin for hire, and one of the best, based on how many 'most wanted' lists he was on. It wasn't Mercury, so Ruby doubted there was any connection, but it was a good idea to keep open.
Just because people had the same last name didn't mean they were related, just as people who didn't have the same last name were related. Like Dad and her! She wasn't Ruby Xiao Long, she was Ruby Rose.
She'd asked her dad about it once when she was young, and it was because he and Mom hadn't taken the others last name, so it was only fair that if Yang had his, then she'd have Summer's.
It made sense to a six year old, at least.
She grabbed a few tools that she used to work on the hard light arena before she got around to heading into the center, syncing her scroll to the computer within the arena. It was a simple thing, mostly containing a program that acted the hard light or deactivated the hard light based on other characteristics.
It was actually less advanced than her scroll, which is why when it was connected to a scroll, it ended up using the scroll's computer rather than its own.
But it also had a separate computer that was mostly used for debugging purposes, and while she hadn't been actually given the codes to it, she knew how it ran and had figured out most of the codes on her own. And whatever she didn't, that's what the CCT was for.
The debugging software came up on her scroll, and connected to the arena computer. "Alright, let's see...error four oh four...wait, that can't be right," Ruby muttered.
Four o' four was essentially 'piece missing'. But it had been working fine just that morning. So who could be messing with her arena? And more importantly, why?
She went to the small pipe that led to the area underneath the arena, where the repairmen can go down and fix it manually. She took a few steps back after she'd moved the cover back. Ruby took a deep breath, and forced herself to use her Semblance, trying to squeeze impossibly small into the thing. She wasn't big, but the cover was tiny. How the repairmen could fit into it, she didn't know, but she could-
Her Semblance turned off as she landed underneath the cover, her body squeezed in by the walls. She'd gotten through the cover. She narrowed her eyes and used her Semblance again, this time squeezing to the actual arena underground. She landed safely underneath it, and she could breath easy enough now that she had more room. There was a light coming from above, although the underground didn't need it. There was a large series of pipes and wires going all around her, which helped the hardlight dust create the arena walls.
The center was shaped like an inverted pyramid, with dozens of purity sixty three white dust crystals on each of the main facets. Four o' four meant...she glanced at the wiring underneath the scroll container. If there was a piece missing, it'd be right there.
The wires had been melted. An easy fix, but it didn't...she knew what it looked like when wires melted. She'd done more than enough melting of her own. This...these did not look accidental. Her eyes narrowed. Who would do that to her shop? And more importantly...why?
Grimm Kart is most definitely an expy rip-off of Mario Kart. I have no problems with this. I was also most definitely writing that segment while watching Games Done Quick, which should say a lot about my writing speed.
Until Next Time!