Chapter Text
“Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a Dust shop open this late?” Roman Torchwick waved his hand, one of his lackeys holding a gun out to the shopkeep’s face.
“J-Just take my lien and leave-”
“Shh sh sh… Relax… we’re not here for your money…” He cocked his head to the side. “Grab the Dust.”
He calmly turned around, taking a drag of his cigar.
“Burn, uncut.”
Another good day of grand larceny. Nothing could go wrong… oh, why would he think that? Now something was going to go wrong.
—
”The mechashift mechanism produced by the Valian Weapons Institute (shown to the left) has a tendency to break faster, but is cheaper and easier to replace, while the Atlesian Standard Issue mechashift mechanism (to the right) tends to be more robust, but requires much more expensive materials.”
Ruby scanned over the newest installment of Weapons Magazine. She knew all the information, sure, but why not read it again.
“Zor-” She felt paws on the top of her head and reached her hand up to flick the creature there on the nose.
“Come on, Zorua, I’m trying to focus! I just got to the good part, don’t you like this stuff too?” She glanced up and found her Zorua glancing down at her, an annoyed look on her face. “What?”
“Zor!” She pawed the top of Ruby’s head again, much to the girl’s annoyance, and pointed backward.
“Easy on the ears, Zorua!” Ruby complained, flicking her Pokémon again and clutching her fox ear, then turned the direction Zorua was pointing. She found… a man holding a Dust blade out toward her… Huh…
He said something, but she couldn’t hear over her music, so she pulled her headphones down. “Yes?”
“I said put your hands in the air!”
She and Zorua both raised an eyebrow at the same time. Ruby grinned. “Ohh…” She grabbed Zorua and tossed her in the air, the Pokémon making a sound of glee as Ruby took the moment to lean back and fire a kick into the man’s stomach, sending him hurtling across the room and into a table, knocking it over.
Ruby caught Zorua in hand and she gave a happy yip, then looked up to find 2 more men wearing almost the exact same outfit running out into view from the aisle… She’d need more space.
“Hold on tight~!” With a burst of her semblance she burst through the window and arrested her momentum with a bit of spinning. Zorua stood atop her head, not so subtly grabbing her ears to stabilize itself. “I told you to stop doing that! How do you do it, anyway, you don’t have opposable thumbs!”
“Rua!”
“Damn it! Whatev-” Ruby cut herself off when the four men popped out of the store, followed quickly by another in a white jacket and bowler cap. With a spin, she unfurled Crescent Rose and slammed the tip into the ground to her side. A few of the men in black suits flinched a bit at the sight of it, something Ruby revelled in.
“Well… Get her! And get that Pokémon too, if you can! They pay a pretty penny for those!” The white-suited man, probably the leader, commanded. Ruby bristled, and she felt Zorua tense up.
“Not gonna happen!”
She’d need to be careful, she had no idea what these guys-
Jump, slash, spin, kick, stab… oh wow, they were all down. This dude really needed better lackeys…
“You were worth every cent, truly, you were…” He dropped his cigar (That he had lit in a Dust shop?!? Was he insane?!!?) and stomped it out with his cane. “As much as I’d like to stay around, this is where we part ways, Red!” He lifted said cane toward her and a small scope flipped up from the end.
On instinct, Ruby jumped, just barely missing a Dust flare that came out the end of the cane. When she got to the ground she looked around briefly, finding the man scaling a nearby fire escape. Quickly, she popped back inside the shop to find the shopkeep. “You good?”
“Mhm-” She didn’t wait for a more detailed response before bolting out and using her semblance to jump up onto the roof.
“So persistent!” The white-suited man commented, turning to her. “I’m afraid we’ll actually be parting ways, this time. Goodbye, Red!” Before Ruby could catch him, he jumped off the edge of the building.
“Wait-” Before panic could really set in, a bullhead rose from behind the building (How had she not seen that before?) with the man in it. A Fire Dust crystal was suddenly at her feet, and before she could react another flare was hurtling toward it.
She was only barely saved from burns and a probably broken Aura at the last moment when a blonde woman appeared in front of her, blocking the explosion.
“Woah…”
When the smoke cleared, Ruby glanced up, really taking in the woman. She was tall, taller than Yang at least, with pale blonde hair and a long, purple cape behind her. In one hand was a riding crop, and in the other was an ultra ball. She flicked the ball and her riding crop to the side and a gardevoir appeared to her right while all the rubble in front of her coalesced into a spear and fired off into the side of the bullhead.
“Holy-” The man from before cursed, turning back to go into the cockpit (Talking to the driver?) but before he could a red speck darted for the bullhead. When Ruby really squinted her eyes she made out a… fletchling? Quickly bringing up Crescent Rose in sniper form, she looked down the scope.
While the spear of debris was harassing the ship, the fletchling seemed ever so determined to harass the man specifically. Ruby smiled. Perfect, a distraction. She aimed quickly, knocking a round into the chamber. Just when the bird went over his-
Ruby was momentarily stunned when the man raised his cane and batted the bird out of the air, sending it hurtling to the side. She yelped, pulling the trigger (the bullet just barely whizzing past the man’s head) and lunged forward. Zorua fell off her head with a yelp, but she was in too far by that point.
The world shifted red as she burst forward with her semblance, reaching her arms out and grabbing the bird as it fell over the edge of the building. She realized probably a bit too late that she was now falling off the side of the building… With a very delicate, injured bird in hand.
“Shit shit shit-” Just as she was going to grab Crescent Rose to slow her fall she felt her body seize, then start floating up. It was… jarring, though she had felt psychic before, she never got used to it.
Within a second or so she was dropped unceremoniously onto the roof, a raised eyebrow from the blonde huntress being the only acknowledgement she got before her attention shifted back to the bullhead.
Instead of the man from before, a woman with dark hair and… heels? She had heels on? How the hell… Off topic! Next to her was a Pokémon that was just so obviously a fire type. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but the all orange and red and the well… fire sprouting from its hands told her all she needed to know.
She spun around Crescent Rose again, switching to a Water Dust magazine and firing directly at the Pokémon’s body. To her surprise, however, the woman held her hand out in front of the bullet… and caught a high impact sniper round like it was nothing… What the fu-
Ruby jumped to the side on instinct, finding a pillar of fire erupting from where she was before, and realized belatedly that she had heard screaming before. Just as she was going to return to trying to stop the woman and her mystery Pokémon, a wave of fire came from both the Pokémon and the woman’s hands and cascaded toward her and the huntress beside her.
While it didn’t quite reach them, it did function to completely obscure her vision and when it was gone so was the bullhead… “Darn… Wait-” She turned to the woman. “Are you a huntress? Can I have your autograph- Wait, no, fletchling!”
Ruby extended her hand, showing the injured Pokémon to the woman. Said woman turned to her and sighed, handing Ruby a potion.
“There. But you are coming with me, got it?” Ruby swallowed thickly, looking up at her. Slowly she nodded…
Before being lifted into the air and dragged across the roof and off the building, Zorua just barely jumping back on in time.
She was in so much trouble…
—
Ruby gently held the fletchling in hand, trying to get the bird to stop moving, but it stubbornly refused. “Come on! What’s got you so angry… I’m trying to help…” She couldn’t spray the potion if it didn’t stop moving…
It looked like the wing was the main thing injured, given that it was hung against its side no matter how animated the bird got in Ruby’s hand. Thank god for Aura, otherwise this’d be much more difficult.
“Come on, Zorua, help me out here!” Of course the little gremlin rolled her eyes… But thankfully the fox Pokémon did actually decide to help, jumping up on the interrogation table and clumsily stepping on its hind legs.
When Ruby pushed the fletchling within range, Zorua grabbed it by the legs with her paws (seriously, it wasn’t fair that Zorua’s paws could do that without opposable thumbs…) and held it down. The fletchling squawked and tried to peck at Zorua, but Ruby quickly grabbed it by the neck - gently- and stopped it.
“Thank you, buddy.” Slowly, carefully, she reached the potion over and sprayed a few times on the injured wing. Within a few moments both wings were flapping in sync again, both trying to get the bird free. But soon it squawked in confusion and tilted its head toward Ruby, staring at her. “You’re… welcome?”
The next thing she knew she had a bird on her head. Not entirely sure why… it was just on her head now… “You… okay little buddy?”
“Fletch.”
“Got it…” She looked at Zorua and they both shrugged.
“Ahem.” Ruby swallowed thickly and looked up, while at the same time she felt the fletchling hide behind her ear. Standing in the center of the room was the same huntress from before, appearing very irate.
“Now that I have your attention… I hope that you understand that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady!” She stepped forward, leaning over the desk. “You put yourself and others in great danger!”
Ruby shrunk into herself a bit… “They started it!”
“I do not care who started it, you should not have intervened!” The woman turned around, then quickly turned back to Ruby. “Listen… if it were up to me, you’d be sent home with a pat on the back…” That was different! And good! Great, even-
“And a slap on the wrist!” Ruby yelped as she yanked her hand back, the woman’s riding crop falling where it was before. She grabbed Zorua to stop the Pokémon from jumping onto the huntress’ face to defend Ruby (that probably wouldn’t go well…). “But that isn’t my decision to make. Instead, there is someone who would like to see you.”
The woman stepped to the side, but in the time between doing so and the door opening, Fletchling jumped down in front of Ruby and began pecking at the pouches across her outfit.
“Ow- ow- what is it-” It managed to open one of them and stuck its little face into the open pocket. “What are you doing-?” Ruby quickly grabbed it and pulled it away then looked at it in the face. There was not an ounce of guilt in those beady black eyes, and in its beak was a miniaturized Poké Ball.
It squirmed free and dropped back onto Ruby’s lap, then dropped the ball and started headbutting it. “What are you- oh… Ohhhh… Here-” She reached down, ignoring the bird’s attempts to peck her hand, and tapped the button on the Poké Ball, which quickly enlarged it. “Now try.”
This time when the bird-Pokémon headbutted the ball, the ball opened and sucked it inside. Three soft shakes later and the ball clicked fully shut.
“Well, Ruby Rose, I certainly did not expect such an introduction when I decided to come here.” Ruby jumped, dropping the ball on the ground and almost falling out of her seat. When she looked up… Professor Ozpin?
“I- uhh- Sorry?”
“It’s quite alright, Miss Rose. Though, I do need to ask. Where did you learn to do this?” He cocked his head to the side and a hologram appeared over the table, displaying security footage of her ‘fight’ with the lackeys from the robbery.
“Oh! Signal academy!” She chirped, leaning backward and grabbing Fletchling’s Poké Ball (Her first capture!).
“They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?”
“Well, one teacher in particular.”
“I’ve only ever met one scythe wielder of that skill before… a dusty old crow…”
“Oh, that’s my Uncle Qrow! I was complete garbage before he took me in, but now I’m… cool…” She did some fighting motions with her hands before quickly realizing she looked stupid and pulling her hands back in, blushing.
“And what exactly is an adorable girl like you doing at a school designed to train warriors?”
“Well… I wanna help people! My parents always made it clear that helping people is the best thing you can do, and I would join the police or something but being a huntress is just so much more romantic! And I get to hang out with more Pokémon!”
“Zorua!” Said pokémon immediately jumped up onto her head and Ozpin chuckled a bit.
“I see.”
“So of course I’m gonna go to Beacon! My sister’s going this year but I’ve still got two more years at Signal left before I can go but I’m gonna be there as soon as I can!” She squealed a bit, hurting herself just a little with the volume.
“Hmm. Do you know who I am?”
“Of course. You’re Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy.”
“And you want to go to my school?”
“More than anything.”
She watched as the man looked back at the woman behind him, who rolled her eyes incredulously. “Well okay.”