"Ugh..."
Coming to after a night of partying didn't hold much of a special place in Melanie's heart, especially when she hadn't been having any fun beforehand - unless you considered getting gassed particularly enthralling. But she was alive, breathing, and it still felt like her clothes were right where they should be; aka, on her person. No major bruises dotted her skin either, so whoever took them hadn't done so with the intention of breaking bones to leave a message.
Cracking her eyes, she slowly shifted them around, hoping to continue feigning sleep long enough to get a read on their situation. Her head was already tilted to one side, probably unconsciously while she was, well, unconscious. This gave her a nice look at the majority of one end of the room, which didn't amount to much really.
Kids? Small bodies, random unfashionable clothes, and covered in all sorts of mud and grime; yep, these were homeless tykes. A little sad for sure, but ultimately none of her concern. Jay and her were brought here for a reason, and Melanie wanted to know why before anyone realized she'd woken up.
Sadly, that didn't end up being the case.
"Hello?" The voice passed through the lips of a particularly small young girl, who through hazy vision wore what appeared to be an oversized hoodie. Figuring there was no point in pretending anymore, Melanie opened her eyes and tensed her body; ready for anything. The kid, instead of acknowledging this, merely pressed on with something akin to concern. "Are you feeling okay?"
An odd question to be coming from one of the people holding her hostage, but whatever.
"I've had better days." Never show your fear, no matter what. Melanie leaned up, again surprised she didn't meet any resistance. Opening her eyes completely, and noticing her place of sleep didn't have any physical restraints to keep her from breaking out into acts of immediate violence, Melanie pushed her legs off and onto the floor. Standing again, she stretched as the kid backed away a few steps. "Oh yeah, that feels good."
"Um..." Soon enough, the kid scurried off behind a larger woman, who looked ripe and suspicious.
"Shy, huh?" Melanie wouldn't throw shade; who wouldn't be wary of someone like her? Well, it was clear they weren't intending to do anything stupid, like try to ransom or restrain her, and so she'd give them the benefit of the doubt and toss out some questions of her own. "Well, whatever. So, does anyone want to tell me what I'm doing here?"
"You passed out." The tough one said, stepping up to plate and cementing herself as the leader in Melanie's eyes; at least until it was spoken otherwise. "Gas, apparently."
"Oh?" Her eyes shifted around, and sure enough, Jay was over by the wall. He looked at her with a tiny spark of what she'd assume was relief - but it was still mostly drowned in cowardice. Sure, that made her want to punch him, but seeing as she doubted that these street rats from the looks of it saved her for any benign reasons, Melanie would go out on a limb and toss the kid a bone. Nudging her head towards Jay, she addressed the woman who's name she had yet to learn. "Let me guess, I was brought here by that bozo?"
"Yep." The fighter's eyes quickly narrowed. "Although, you don't sound all that happy about it."
"Personal problems." That got a nod, and Melanie looked between the few children milling around. "So... what's the reason a bunch of urchins like you decided to give a girl a helping hand?"
"Neo trusts you, so we trust you... for now."
"Oooh... scary." Melanie scoffed, but with a snide smirk. Unexpectedly, this earned her nothing aside from brief dismissal as the unnamed woman rolled her eyes. "And who's wrath will I be incurring?"
"Tulip." Crossing her arms, a raspy growl hummed across the floor from her. Neo, apparently sensing the growing hostility, gave Tulip a pat on the arm, somehow taming her underlying rage.
"Right..." Melanie settled down herself; it was useless picking at someone like Tulip. She was safe, dry, and very much not in ropes or chains, so Tulip at least won some honorary points in regards to intent; or, in other words, she'd proven that some level of thanks was in order. "Well, I guess we owe you for not selling us out."
"We don't need your thanks." Tulip mumbled, straightening her posture and losing some of that standoffish edge. "We just need you to scoot when you're ready." She nodded over to Jay. "I told your boy over there about how new faces scare the others, so I need you gone once you're good to go."
Stretching, Melanie worked the kinks from her neck; a bit of a stiff sleep, but not bad enough to cripple. Her body felt fine to move, even if it was somewhat sluggish overall - an aftereffect which she blamed on the gas. She took one final look around, and after cataloging how decrepit their current holdup was, figured they may as well take off. They'd originally been headed for Beacon, but if she was out for any amount of time, then chances were the others were on their way back.
Taking a few steps forward, she sent a look to Jay.
"Alright, let's get go-" Rabid knocking interrupted her, startling most everyone present save herself and Tulip.
The banging of something on wood had one of the kids scooting over to a portion of the wall, pulling off bricks before a little body shoved itself through, scaring the few around as it crawled to its feet. A young boy, perhaps no older than six and with a pair of fluffy wolf ears frightfully tried to catch his breath. Immediately, Melanie spied the smooth sheen of blood trailing down his neck, and with a dark patch in his earthy hair, she could tell he'd taken a blow to the head; a heavy, and recent blow.
"W-we need to go!" Forcing the words out, he rushed over to grab Tulip's hand before trying to pull her towards the hole. "They're coming!"
"Woah woah!" She tugged him to her face, slapping both hands on his arms and looking him in the eye. An almost natural look of precise calm overflowed across her features, but the rigidness revealed its counterfeit nature. Still, to calm down quickly and mask emotions was a skill that didn't come by pure accident or talent; it was a skill learned through constant and necessary practice, over the course of many hours. "Easy there. Breathe for me, cool your jets, and tell me what's happening."
This admittedly simple and sensible request was rewarded with even worse panic.
"We can't!" Thrashing in her arms, he attempted to get away. "We have to run! I ran as fast as I could, but I think they followed me!"
"Who followed you?" Tulip tried again, but to little avail.
"They're coming! We have to go!"
Melanie, now far less relaxed - a given, seeing as the kid shouting doom carried tangible evidence to show he wasn't lying - sent her gaze back to the hole. The other children covered it up again, and while it wasn't perfect, it still looked natural enough. Oddly, at this same time she felt her scroll vibrating in her pocket, but she elected to ignore it for now, figuring it was Junior calling with news of the others' return.
That was great and all, but right now checking for danger was top priority.
She'd been about to take a trip outside to see if she could spot the people supposedly coming for them, but from the corner of her eye, she spied a change in Jay. The guy was cowardly and selfish, that was for sure, and even when he was spooked he became a stuttering mess. What she saw, however, was new.
His face went white for a split second, and then he dashed and tackled her.
.
.
"I guess this is it." Josh stretched his arms high, exaggerating his fatigue by letting loose a long fake yawn. He wasn't all that tired to tell the truth, but he wasn't always great with casual farewells, and so he usually tried to leave on a laugh or a giggle.
It partially worked: Ruby giggled, Miltia shook her head with a bright smile, and Weiss sighed while rolling her eyes - a healthily varied set of reactions.
"Honestly," Weiss began as a blank face fell over her and she turned to Ruby, "can't we ever get normal friends for once?"
She called him a friend; yep, he still had it, even if he was a touch out of practice since he'd arrived. Don't get him wrong, the club was nice and all, but it was hard to strike up conversations when you knew nothing of the trends and times. The only people he could really get along with were the girls and his bro, but that was because Miltia seemed cool with most everyone, and Melanie, while easy to tease, never took his antics too seriously. Oh yes, she got ripe mad at points, but there was this feeling he got around her that said she wasn't nearly as exhausted as she claimed to be.
That feeling had never let him down before, and he doubted it would now.
"We are the normal ones." Josh figured he could get one final rise from Weiss; she was pretty much asking for banter now, what with the way she adorably spouted that fake little pout. "You're just not used to the fact that ordinary people are colorful like a rainbow."
"So... You're telling me I can count out all the types on my fingers alone?"
"I, uh..." Okay, so she got him again; really, it was his fault for never thinking these analogies through... or were these metaphors? Lack of knowledge in accurate terminology aside, Weiss was at least smirking, meaning she was having a good time. Sure, it wasn't a full blown smile, but a smirk was still a cousin of the happy expression, so she had to be having some fun. All in all: mission successful.
"I'm sure she gets the picture." Miltia offered a few pats on the shoulder, both sympathetic and at his expense. Her smile, still as bright as before, seemed to struggle with holding back any rogue giggles trying to beat past the blockade that was her self-control. "Now come on, I'm sure the others are waiting for us."
"Okay okay." Josh mockingly surrendered, shifting back into his playfully default stance. "I give."
They offered one last wave, earning an exaggerated one from Ruby, and a reserved brush from Weiss. But when they turned around, they were caught by a new face. Wavy long loches, black as a moonless night and with an equally dark bow sitting atop it. That bow was... an odd fashion choice; but hey, he was in anime, so what did he expect really. Honestly, with how unique everyone dressed, it was hard to tell who the main characters were.
Shaking his head, Josh pushed those thoughts aside; right now, this place was as real as home, and looking at them all as characters was a bit dehumanizing. Josh was not cool with where his brain was headed, but the bow would be a good way to break the ice of the woman standing before them. She was looking at him curiously, expectantly, and Josh wondered if they'd met before and he was stupidly forgetting her name.
"Hey there..." And because of his brash approach without the least bit of real consideration, Josh found out two words in that, despite wanting to use the bow as an opening topic, he had no idea how to work it naturally into a greeting.
"We've never met." So casually called out; damn... he really was that obvious, wasn't he?
"Heh heh..." He put on his best grin, although a part of him felt the expression wasn't selling anything. "I never said-"
"You were thinking about it."
"Crap." Two headshots; just a little bit overkill. "Beat to the draw twice in a row. Am I really that easy to read?"
"No." This got his brow line perking. "I've just been in this situation too many times before." Well... at least he wasn't an open book in this scenario. She hit him with a much easier look this time, almost appearing relieved with how he'd reacted. "I'm Blake: Blake Belladonna. Nice to meet you."
"Oh." Josh perked right back up. "Josh Kenny. Nice to meet you too." He reached out for a handshake, which she reluctantly accepted; okay, so she wasn't the touchy feely type, good to know. "Belladonna..." He toyed with the name for a bit. "That's cool."
Apparently, that little comment strung a strange intensity across her features.
"You recognise it?"
"Nope." He offered, only to double back. "Wait, yes... No, hold up, can I change my answer to no again?"
Blake looked unsure, and Josh wouldn't hold that against her. Belladonna... wasn't that tied to some sort of myth? Or was it a historical codename? Josh made a point to search that up if they ever got back home; he was tired of knowing just enough about general things to recognise something that may or may not be important, but he could never pinpoint how, where, or what significance that information had. Eh, whatever, he figured it wasn't all that useful anyway. Jay said something about the characters here being based off of fairytales and colors, but that didn't mean they were carbon copies.
If anything, this was a dreadful reminder that he really should have paid a bit more attention in his classes back at school; sure, the information might not have been immediately useful for the career he'd been going for, but knowing and recognising things was both cool and fun.
"He probably heard people talking about you." And here came Miltia with the save; he'd thank her with... eh, probably a joke or something later - he didn't really have any money to buy stuff, so gift giving was off the table. "You're one of team RWBY, right?"
"I am…" That came out concerningly slow, and her apprehension showed with her follow up. "Are people talking about us?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure everyone knows about the leader of RWBY: the young upstart who chased off the infamous Roman Torchwick, even if all they ever do is regurgitate the same thing over and over. Chances are, the rest of you get tossed in with the usual guesses about how the teammates of that type of girl act."
Ruby stiffened, somewhat uncomfortable with people talking about her. Josh kind of felt bad for her; not everyone could handle large swaths of attention, and from the sounds of it, Ruby had been the center of plenty of attention-grabbing news. Although, there wasn't much he could do to take off that particular heat, so Ruby would have to haul herself over that hurdle alone. Ah well, it wasn't a crazy thing anyway; he had faith that she'd get over it.
Josh, strangely, had his attention tickled when Ruby moved to say something. Her lips flapped, and her expression changed to show her embarrassment, but no sound accompanied it. And then it came, that sinking feeling, and Josh witnessed, with horrified realization, how the world began to schism.
No... No no no! However these denials went unheard, as along with the lack of sound sight too began to break apart. The color that made up the world started dividing, and the image of everyone and everything around him was ripped, revealing a white void behind it all. Midway through this transformation, he'd once again been hit by the off-putting notion of terror, crawling up from the pits of his gut.
He'd, again, been instinctually ordered to jump.
And he jumped, feeling everything shift as invisible winds curved around him. All had been torn apart and rebuilt in an instant, just in time for him to land on solid ground anew. With color returning last and dashing away the palette of grays, his body locked up, and all of a sudden he was back again, turning around to see Blake again. Only, this time around, he had no time to chat.
"Blake, right?" That caught her by surprise, and even Miltia from beside took notice.
"Ooh, you know her?" The crimson twin questioned, but Josh was working against the clock.
"Heard of her, along with RWBY as a whole." Miltia coined the excuse, and so he would use it - even if she didn't recall, because she hadn't done so yet. She must have sensed the plain discomfort in his mannerisms, because she inquired about it right after.
"Is something wrong?" She wouldn't get it, and he didn't have time to explain. Josh just hoped she would listen.
"I just got a bad feeling right now." He half lied, twisting on his heel to face her fully. "Can you call Melanie? I know it's random, but I have this gross patch in my gut telling me Jay might be in trouble."
Miltia made to say something, but relented. In an act of trust, she nodded.
"Alright."
While she began dialing up the number, Ruby popped in.
"Is something the matter?" A miniscule hint of worry fell into her tone. "Did something come to mind just now? Something about what happened to Jay."
"I don't know." Wrong: he knew full well what this stupid feeling was. Jay had died, and in a few moments, he'd die again. Before, Josh had been able to stop it; tackling Jay out of the line of fire. But now there was an entire city between them, meaning the only person who could possibly protect him was Melanie. His answer only served to unsettle Ruby more, and Josh berated himself; it wasn't fair to get her worried when there was nothing any of them here could do. Putting on a slightly goofier face, he tried to release some of the tension. "It's probably nothing though. Sorry, I just get a bit worried sometimes."
Ruby looked about ready to say something, again, but this time Miltia interrupted the moment.
"Your hunch might not be so unreasonable." The worry was spreading like a wildfire, but at least Miltia had a better time suppressing it. However, suppression or not, the fact she was worried only made his dread even more palpable. "Mel's not answering her scroll."
"Is that bad?" Josh was hoping the whole 'no response' angle was just a fluke.
"Not necessarily. Sometimes she'll ignore me if there are more important things going on." Reassurance, which was calming all for two seconds before she tore it down. "But I don't remember there being anything we had to do today either." She then took him by the hand. "Let's go; I'm getting a bad feeling too."
"Can you try calling again?" Being pushy wasn't exactly Josh's favored choice of action, but if they didn't take action, then Jay would just die again. That actually sent shivers down his spine; Jay dying... Why did it have to be like that? Sure, he was jumping back through time to save his buddy - still no idea how or why that was the case - but it didn't make any of this easier, not by a long shot.
"I will one we get airborne."
Swearing under his breath, Josh relented. If Jay died again, he'd feign a sudden realization of what Jay was going through, and ham things up to their absolute limit if the need called for it. But right now, all he could do was follow along and hope any failed calls Miltia sent made a difference.
"Wait!" Ruby called, and he could hear her running over. "Let me help."
"Thanks, but I don't think-" Miltia tried, but Ruby cut her off.
"Please. He's my friend too, and if something is wrong, then I want to be there too."
"Okay." Josh had no right making that decision alone, and he quickly vouched to Miltia for the added aid. "Look, if something really bad is going down, then we can use all the help we can get."
"It shouldn't be that bad." Miltia argued as they drew closer to the airship. "They should be safe at the club."
"Yeah." Josh agreed, hitting her with, "but what if they aren't? I know it's a long shot, but what if something big went down?"
"We've only been gone a couple of hours. How bad can it be?"
"She's got a point." Weiss appeared beside Ruby, but made no attempts to intervene or drag the girl away. "But at the same time, there's no harm in letting us have a look too."
Miltia again looked ready to counter, until Blake ended up in line to her side.
"It's best if you don't argue with them." The bow wearing one explained casually. "When they get something in mind, nothing can change their decision; especially Ruby's."
"I… fine. I won't stop you." Miltia sighed, finally accepting as they came upon their ticket back to the city. Strangely, Blake stopped at the ramp, and Miltia addressed this. "Are you not coming?"
"Weiss and Ruby are more than enough if things get bad." Blake said, stepping back. "Besides, I can't leave Yang here all alone. I've got to let her know Ruby's out with Weiss if she asks. But if things get too bad, give me a call and we'll be there as quickly as we can."
With everything said and done, Miltia gave a final nod, and the front closed up as they took to the sky.
Author's note
…
Just shy of 30, and we're still figuring things out. Melanie's awake and just as peeved as you'd expect, but with the kid running in all injured, we're left to guess what happens. Josh, on the other hand, knows Jay dies, meaning whatever is closing in on the Mud Puddle clearly killed Jay once.
Oh well; all they need to do is hold out until Josh and the three show up. Can they do it? Probably, but that doesn't exactly say what's going on. Guess you'll have to just wait and see.
Until next time.