Chapter 3: Chapter 3: An Autistic Detective
Rengoku went back to his base and sees his aquatic bodied friend, named Hydro, was sitting in his small aquarium and watching all the fish swim back and forth. His entire body was essentially a living miniature ocean, being able to grow coral, etheral fish, and mimic aquatic life down to the smallest detail. He often had a mask that seemed to resemble a bunny face with ears, and it shows where his face is and helps him communicate. "Welcome back Rengoku, I've gotten a mission and I'm takin' Ruby with me. Also, I'll need more chlorine, I'm running out." he said before coming out of the tank, making sure he doesn't leave the floor wet with each step. Ruby was trying to make herself look as invisible as possible, but her hat made that impossible. Hydro dragged her outside, and morphed into a sort of solid bubble and rolled away with Ruby inside. Hydro's main body was water, but his true power was matter manipulation, so he could mimic any form of matter, and manipulate it at will. They both went into town to see if anything was happening, but ended up getting ambushed with a surprise whoopie cushion on the ground and someone laughing from a rooftop, and someone else looking bored with it. Hydro started chasing them down, but Ruby looked down the street, remembering something that horrified her. Her face twisted in fear, gripping her arms as her powers started creating a curtain of darkness around her head. Hydro noticed that she was paralyzed, and a few snipers were aiming at her from above. So he shot earth spikes at the gun tips to bend them and make them miss while he went to pick Ruby up and get her to snap out of her fear, but she suddenly became frantic and let out a blood-chilling scream as she released a wave of chaotic energy, making the ground crack and the space around her to become warped. Hydro tried to get closer, but the change in gravity was causing his aquatic body to float beyond his control, so he turned into heavy metal, but was being weighed down. Somehow Ruby was creating two types of gravity at the same time. "Ruby, listen to me! You're safe, just open your eyes!" Hydro yelled, but his voice couldn't reach her as she was starting to hear voices that screamed in her head, and she was pleading for them to stop and for someone to save someone named Rodney. Hydro was unable to move from where he was, since turning into water would be useless as he would float away, and becoming a heavy substance would keep him pinned.
Just then, someone was walking through the gravity, seemingly like he was cutting right through it. He talked sort of slowly, like he was trying not to fumble on his words. "E-excuse me..do you need some help?" he said. A small robot was next to him, and give him a thumbs up before blowing some sort of mist that caused Ruby to fall asleep, and her power to lessen. Hydro returned to his water form, looking at who stopped her. He was surprised to see a 34 year old with a blue dyed slicked back haircut, while hearing a plain t-shirt with a black trench coat with blue jeans and black combat boots. He also had his robot companion, which looked like a sort of anthropomorphic insectoid with an entirely chrome body. "Oh, you're Harris's younger brother working for the investigation squad, Sammy. Yeah that's right. Thanks for handling my friend here, I'mma bounce out. See you on the flip side." Hydro said as he grabbed Ruby and floated away as a bubble, not even going for the mission anymore. Sammy decided to follow, using an invisibility code to hide from view, and followed Hydro to the base, where he overheard him talking to Rengoku. "It happened again. But worse. She needs professional help, her parents, a therapist, anyone. She'll be thrown out at this rate, and we can't lose her like this. Especially with people wanting to get rid of us." Hydro said while having a bubble of water on Ruby's head to cool her head. Rengoku seemed to be somewhat stressed, which is rare since he's usually cool headed. He knew Ruby's past, but wasn't able to help her in any lasting way, and felt like he was making it worse. Sam knocked on the door, offering to help and help her start to be more confident.
He prepared a code that'll keep her from going out of control again, while the AI talked to Ruby. As she woke up, the AI began to talk. "Hello Ruby. I would like to talk to you about your past, and how that's related to what happened earlier. You had a younger brother who died to an anti-matter blast, then you caused a massive explosion of Hex energy. Why blame yourself?" he asked, but Ruby remained silent. The AI kept talking to her, trying to get her to engage, but Ruby remained quiet until he mentioned the man that shot her brother. She clenched her fist a bit, looking like she was getting a bit angry. "Now Ruby, instead of swearing off combat, why not avenge your little brother? You know he wanted to follow in your footsteps. Now I'm not saying dive in head first, but at least take the first step. Go on a case with us, we find the man that did this and take him down. Give you the closure you deserve. What do you say?" he asked. Ruby's face suddenly looked serious, and agreed as long as Hydro could join as well. All three of them went outside and to a private building that looked like a gamer house on the inside, but there were pictures of bugs hung up along with family photos. "This is Sammy's house. His brother fixed up this place for him to live on his own. And also, I can help out since he has autism. And I owe him for what I did to his spine." he said as he explained how they met. He was actually an extraterrestrial creation who fell from the core of a nebula. It crashed down 4 years ago, and collided with Sammy's neck, and wrecked his spinal cord. In order to save him, the alien AI fused itself to his spine in order to save him, and connects to his brain, to make him a Cyber Code user.
The computer suddenly buzzed, and it was an alert of criminal activity. Ruby recognized the gang, and went out to confront them by flying on her broomstick made of Hex energy. Sammy followed close behind, the AI looking around to make sure no one was around. Ruby landed and walked towards the leader, making the bullets stop completely as she walked past them. "Hey, Rosco. You remember me you bastard?" Ruby said holding her broom while morphing it into a scythe. However she was shaking in fear, completely stuck in place. Sammy thought of a large hive of wasps, and they appeared in a mass of digital cubes, making a dome around Ruby and Rosco while he was defending against the other gang members. Sammy fought with a Northern Shaolin style, and aimed for non-lethal strikes. Inside the swarm, Ruby wasn't doing so well, with Rosco wailing on her with powerful punches and smiling like a mad man, not bothering to use his magic eye. Ruby started to think about her and her brother, both of them having fun as children, and Ruby using her hexes to create ruby red constructs. She then started to smile and caught Rosco's fist, paralyzing his body entirely. "I think I've finally woke up. I believe me and my brother have a bit of payback to give." she said as she punched Rosco hard enough to crack a couple of his ribs. She then summoned a crimson colored bat, and swung it rapidly multiple times, and all Rosco could do was defend with his arms against her onslaught. It was obvious that she was running on adrenaline, and it was overriding her fear. In a split second, she disabled his powers, knocked him to the floor, and blasted small holes into both of his hands. Rosco screamed out in pain, unable to push himself up. "That's just a taste of what my brother felt. Killing you would just make me uncomfortable. So I hope you can understand if I take something from you." she said as she turned her bat into a scythe, and gouged out Rosco's magic eye, making it useless. He screamed and was only able to move his legs, as moving his hands caused him more pain. The wasps drowned out the nose with their buzzing, and Ruby got off of him, slowly walking away and feeling dizzy with the adrenaline wearing off. She was sweating, and Hydro was waiting for her to come out and propped her up. "First step is always the hardest. I think...I should head home and change clothes. Something tells me this won't be the first and last time I do this." she said, and Hydro carried her to her home, and he went back to the base to sleep in his aquarium. Sammy had the wasps clean up the scene and sent the report to his brother, along with a request to get some fast food and go to the aquarium on his day off.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone