Ruby's Surveyor

Ch. 24: No Rest for the Wicked

"You called me friend! Am I really your friend?!"

"Ummm..." Looking to her teammates for help they all shook their heads and hand saying what would be an obvious answer but...

"Yeah, Sure. W-why not!" Ruby smiled as if forcefully, all but Ruby "Face-faulted" not believing Ruby.

"Hahaha! Seeensational! We paint our nails! Try out new clothes! And talk about cute boys!"

"Ooooh, is what it felt like when you met me?" Ruby asked her partner putting her goggles on, somehow being able to scan Penny. "No, she looks FAR more into this..."

"Sooo...what brings you to Vale?" Yang changes the weird subject.

"I'm going to be fighting in the tournament!"

"Wait...you're fighting in the tournament?"

Ruby, out of Penny's sight scrunches her face, as the Goggles display an "ERROR" in bright red colors, as if rejecting to scan Penny.

"What the-?"

"I'm combat! Ready!" Penny proudly declares, giving a salute.

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."

"Says the girl wearing a dress" Blake remarks.

"It's a combat skirt." Ruby slides next to Weiss, "Yeah~!". Weiss opens her palm for a Low Five, which her red haired partner obliged.

Penny notices Ruby's Goggles and freezes with wide eyes. "F-Friend Ruby. A-are those what I think they are?" "Hm? What?" Looking at herself she sees nothing if important, that is until she realizes what she meant.

"You mean these?" Pointing to her Goggles with a head tilt. "Y-yes! Those are Outdated Atlas Military Grade scanners! H-how do you have one?!" The group sees that Penny is visibly distress, she backs away a couple steps as well.

"These are outdated?!"

"Those are Military Grade?!"

Both Ruby and Weiss yell in exasperation.

"Oh, she's had those for years, it was a Birthday Gift from our Uncle."

"And he just...got it for her?" Blake had to ask, "How did she even get Atlas Tech?! They're practically impossible to get, let alone extremely expensive." An even more confused Weiss asked.

"Hey if you knew our uncle, you wouldn't be questioning it as well."

"But wait! What do you mean outdated! It's only been two years!" Ruby's past questions about Penny go forgotten as she was now worried about outdated tech.

"W-well...Those goggles are the Atlas Scanning Machine Mach. K. Or A.S.M Mach K for short.

"Not system?" Yang chuckles.

"Well there was the Atlas. Scanning. Syst-"

"Then what's the most recent Scanning Machine?" Ruby cut in, knowing exactly what Yang is talking about.

"That would be the Mach. N. Almost as if it is Mach "Newer"!" Penny happily mentions. Yet Ruby was far from happy as she held surprised face, her mouth open.

"W-well what's the difference?"

"The Mach. K only has 100 gigabytes of storage to hold while the Mach N has over a terabyte's worth. Why's that friend Ruby?"

Penny and the rest of RWBY looked to their  leader, and they saw a young girl in awe with her goggles in her hand.

"A whole Terabyte..." they heard her whisper.

"Anyway, how do you know all this? Are you from Atlas?"

"That I am!"

"Wait a minute. If you're here for the tournament. Does that mean you know that monkey-tailed Rapscallion?" Weiss holds Penny's shoulders.

"The Who?"

"The Filthy Faunus from the boat!" Weiss grabs a poorly drawn picture of Sun and shows her.

"Why do you keep saying that?!" Blake angrily yells. "Stop calling him a rapscallion, stop calling him a degenerate, he's a person!"

"Oh I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring this trash can as a trash can? And this lamppost as a lamppost?"

"Stop it!"

"Stop what?! He clearly broke the law. Give him time and I'll bet he join the other Faunus in the White Fang."

"Ugh! You ignorant little brat!" Blake suddenly clenches her fist in anger and walks away.

"Grr! How dare you talk to me like that! I'm your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl!"

"What in the world makes you say that!?"

As Blake and Weiss continue to argue Yang could only stand next to Ruby. "Uhhh, I think we better go..." she said.

"Where are we going?" Penny suddenly says happily, as if ignorant to the atmosphere.

Ruby could only sigh as they walked back to Beacon, the two arguing all the while. Ruby wanted a way out of the tough work for a day, and in the end more was just added on.

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