Ruby

I couldn't believe that this was happening to me! Here I was, riding piggyback to one of the vigilante heroes that I had been looking up to for a while now, and this woman was super nice about it! Didn't even hesitate to offer her help either! How come the world wasn't filled with people who were similar to her? Polaris was being super chill about it too, and I'm sure that Lotus was also relaxed about it as well.

While I was being carried across the city, I finally got to take a good look at Lotus and saw what he looked like. He was wearing a green overcoat in which the sleeves were down past his hands, so I couldn't tell if he was grasping onto anything. Would be useful in a fight if the other guys couldn't see you holding a weapon. Hell, I can't even see the gun that was thrown up to Lotus from Polaris earlier. Lotus was also wearing a pair of beige slacks and kung-fu shoes. But what was the most interesting thing about it was a cloth that he had wrapped around his head that covered his eyes.

My only guess was that the cloth itself was transparent on one side so that Lotus could see out from his side, while keeping everyone else from seeing his face. It also had a pretty cool pattern on it if you asked me, one of those ones that seemed to be of an ancient cultural design. I wasn't all that surprised that everyone seemed to be keeping their faces concealed though, probably something that came with being a vigilante.

After taking a better look at Lotus, I focused my thoughts back onto the moment in front of me. The feeling of Polaris' body carrying mine, the wind in my hair as we sped across the rooftops over the city, the adrenaline coursing through my body as this was all happening around me. I honestly have never felt a feeling quite like this before. Oh man, this is so exciting, I really don't know if I'll want to let go even when we get back to my apartment building. I don't know why, but something just seems to be so compelling to me right now.

"Hey, I got a question," Polaris asked me.

I didn't realize how lost in my own thoughts I was until I heard Polaris speak to me. "Yeah?" I responded back, straining to hear her over the sounds of the wind rushing past my ears.

"You obviously know about myself and Lotus," Polaris led off with. "I'm assuming you also know of many others whom we work with as well."

I really didn't want to admit it based off of how much I was practically fangirling earlier today, but they were just so cool, and this was so surreal, I felt like I was compelled to talk with Polaris about it since she asked me.

"Well, I guess you could say that I do know many others," I began to say. "Fellow heroes like Mimic, Arch Mage, The Red Blade, and I'm sure there's more out there in the other kingdoms as well."

"You seem to understand quite a bit about us," Polaris said. "And based off of how you reacted to us earlier, I figured you were alright with what it is that we're striving to do for the world."

"Yeah, you guys are such a huge inspiration for me!" I proclaimed. "I know I said it already, but I seriously would love to do what you do, because of how much I'd be able to help people. All I do now is serve coffee, and it sucks because I feel like that doesn't do much for us."

"You'd be surprised how much normal people are appreciated," Polaris replied to me. "Not everyone who is a hero has superpowers. Sometimes, the biggest heroes are the ones that serve coffee for someone. Sometimes it's the mailman who delivers a package just in time for someone else to make a gift meant for a loved one. You don't always need to have powers to make a difference in someone's life. It's what you do with your life, what kind of person you strive to be, that determines whether you're a hero or not."

I guess Polaris was right, and she certainly had a great way of putting it into perspective. I never really thought of how much of a difference I was making for the people I serve coffee to bright and early in the morning.

"What's your name?"

In all honesty, I was a bit surprised to hear Polaris ask me that. "Um, not that I don't want to say what it is, but why do you care to know what my name is?"

Polaris had a good chuckle at that. "Well, if you must know, I feel it gives me more of a reason to fight harder than I normally do. I know that you and many others will count on me to help keep you safe, and so I want to know who it is that I'm working to save. Plus, you seem really interested in us, and I wanted to learn who it was that spent so much time learning about us and caring about what we do."

"Oh," I replied to Polaris. I really can't believe that she is this interested in knowing who I am, god, I'm so giddy right now. "Well, my name is Ruby Rose."

"Well, Ruby Rose," Polaris looked like she was about to say something meaningful to me. "You are a truly kind person, one that I would be glad to call a friend in real life. Your enthusiasm and kindness are rivaled by few, and I know, deep down, that you will go far in life. Promise me that you'll keep moving forward in life to your fullest potential."

"I promise," I said in response. Let's face it, she certainly is inspirational, I'll give her that.

"Well then," Polaris continued on. "We should be arriving shortly. Care to direct us over to your apartment?"

"Oh yeah, I can do that," I mentioned before noticing where we were. Ironically, we were practically on top of my apartment already. "Wait!"

Stopping on the rooftop, Polaris and Lotus both looked at me with anticipation. "We're actually on the roof of my apartment," I mentioned. "Just gotta let me in through the front door so that I don't raise any suspicion."

"Sounds reasonable enough," Polaris said as she walked to the edge and leapt downward. I was a little surprised at first, but when we stopped moving, I loosened my grip. I didn't even realize how tight my grip was until I released it. "Well, this is your stop."

Climbing down off of Polaris' back, I was surprised to see that she didn't look tired at all. "How are you not tired?"

"You'd be surprised how strong you get when you've been doing this for as long as I have," Polaris responded confidently. "In any case, you should head back inside. I'm sure you've had a long day, and should catch up on some sleep."

In all honesty, I was about to tell her otherwise, but then I just so happened to yawn, so that kind of blew that out of the water. "Yeah, I guess so," I ended up saying instead, a little disappointed that I had to go back inside. "I guess this is goodbye."

"I would say that I hope to see you again," Polaris said. "But, usually when people run into me, it's because bad stuff is happening, and I need to save their lives. So instead, I'll say that I hope we run into each other in good circumstances."

"Yeah, that works," Ruby replied. "Well, same to you. Anyway, it was really nice to meet you, Polaris. Keep up the good work, we're all counting on you!" I turned and walked over to the front of my building, and with just a few minutes left to spare, I walked into the front door of my apartment building. I sped up to the apartment I specifically lived in, and with my heart still beating rapidly, I threw open the door to my home.

"OH MY GOD JAUNE YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME!" I shouted to him right as I entered the apartment. Normally, I was much quieter when I entered the apartment, but after what happened, I just felt like I could shout this to the whole world. It just so happened that Jaune was my roommate, and so he got to hear all the insanity I normally threw his way.

See, Jaune and I have been friends since we were kids. Grew up on the same street, went to the same school, and now, as a result of being such awesome friends, he was being the best roommate as well. Jaune had his own room in the apartment, I had mine, and we both shared pretty much everything that our apartment had to offer. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm straight up gay, we probably would've been dating by now. But, that's besides the point, he's more like a brother to me anyways.

"Jeez, any reason you felt the need to shout not even a second into entering the apartment?" Jaune asked me as he was cooking on the stove. "Also, dinner should be ready in a few minutes. I would say that it's your turn tonight, but I know you had to cover a shift at work today."

"Dude, I have some pretty freaking insane news I gotta tell you," I mentioned. "And hurry up with food, I'm STARVING!"

"Ok, ok, jeez, calm down," Jaune groaned as he started to bring the food out to the table. "So, what happened that got you this excited?"

"Well, you know how I got asked to cover a shift today at work?" I started off by saying, barely giving Jaune chance to even nod in acknowledgement. "Well, anyway, I was running home so that I could get back before curfew. While I was running, I ran into this guy who was trying to mug me."

"Wait, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa…" Jaune interrupted as I was explaining. "What the fuck are you talking about exactly? You were almost mugged?"

"Oh some guy had a gun to my head, no big deal," I said. Honestly, I knew Jaune was going to say something, so I decided it was in my best interest to keep talking and move on before he got a word in edgewise. "So anyway, I had a gun to my head and then the next thing I know, the gun was pulled away from the muggers hands like it was nothing more than a string. Turns out, it was Polaris who saved my butt. Let the mugger go, saying how he had a second chance to improve his life."

"Wow," was the only thing that Jaune could say in response.

"Yeah, you're telling me," I replied. "So then, I got a ride over here since I still had a long walk ahead of me. Even better, Polaris herself gave me a piggyback ride so that I could have time to spare before reaching curfew. So, that leads me to where I am now."

"Damn, you really had an interesting day if I do say so myself," Jaune mentioned to me, taking a bite out of the chicken cutlets that he had sliced, breaded and cooked up for us. "Just be sure that you're more careful from now on. I don't know how pissed off your dad would be if you got hurt, or worse, Yang."

"Well, I'm sure Yang would just hunt down the person responsible," I replied as I dug into the food. "She is a mercenary after all."

"One of the one's working with the vigilantes, if I'm not mistaken, correct?"

"Yeah, so I'm sure things would go over well," I replied. Normally, I wasn't happy about what Yang did for a living, but in some cases, I understood. She had the chance to make a difference in the world, so she took it. "Anyway, enough about that, I really need to get back to talking about what happened!"

Pyrrha

It was strange watching Ruby leave, I don't know why, but I had this feeling deep down that I wasn't done seeing her yet. Still, now that the job was done, it was time for me to move onto the next task. So, once I was sure that Ruby reached the inside of her apartment building safely, I leapt upwards to the roof of the building where Ren was still waiting for me.

Once I was up there, I pulled the hood down so that I could feel the breeze on my face. Sometimes, it got really stuffy wearing the hood, so this was a nice chance for me to breathe for a moment. "So," I said to Ren since we had a moment. "Now what do we do?"

Ren shrugged his shoulders at first, nothing coming to mind, for there was no imminent threat in the area. "Honestly, I would suggest we head back to base for the evening. It's getting really late, and besides, most people are already back in their homes because of curfew."

"Alright then," I said to him as I lifted my hood back up and over my head, turning my modulator on as it came up. "Let's head home."

As we made our way back across the city, I only had one thought on my mind. Something about Ruby seemed intense, as if she had hidden potential about her that was ready for release. I needed to talk with the Headmaster about this, but first, I have to ask Ren his opinion.

"Hey, got a question," I spoke up to Ren as we ran.

"Yeah, what's up?" Ren asked me in mid jump

"Did you have a similar feeling to what I did when we were around Ruby?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," I explained. Thinking of how to word this, there wasn't a whole lot that I could come up with. "It's, I don't know, similar to when you get that feeling that someone is going to be important in your life. It's like when your gut tells you that something is important because of this one person. Do you get what I mean?"

I could tell that Ren was thinking about it just as much as I was. Despite not being able to see his face, the way he stayed silent after I had asked him the question was key enough. Eventually, he finally said something to me, something that we both agreed on.

"I had that feeling too," Ren replied. "But whether it's real or not, the Headmaster needs to hear about this."

"Agreed," I acknowledged.

After that, the two of us remained silent for the journey back home. We reached the front of our home after about an hour of travelling across the city. I always enjoyed living here. It was actually out in the woods a little bit, a nice quaint home that most people would equate to a mansion. It was large and secluded, much to the delight of many of us that live here. Multiple training facilities, lounges, housing, enough food to feed an army, this place has quite a lot of things that most people would love to have with them.

As we walked through the front doors, after clearing through the security checks that this place held, we were greeted with the sight of our home. I pulled down my hood as we walked through the doors and took a deep breath of the air that was held in this place. "Ah, home sweet home," I said to myself, though I heard Ren chuckle at my statement.

"You never seem to get tired of this place, do you, Pyrrha," He mentioned to me.

"Yeah, it is one of those quaint little places in society that seems to captivate you, doesn't it?" I responded in full.

"It sure is," I heard Ren say as he pulled the cloth away from his eyes, vibrant magenta shining through clear as usual. "I should probably go check on Nora, make sure she hasn't destroyed the place we live in." He started to make his way over to where he would assume Nora would be, giving me a final acknowledgement as he drew further away. "Be sure to let the Headmaster know what we encountered today. I'll give him my account in the morning."

"You have a good night, Ren," I called out to him as I headed up the stairs towards the top floor of the house. As I walked across the glass bridge above the courtyard in the inside of the walls, I noticed something. One of the mercenaries was speaking with my friend, Weiss, otherwise known to the people as Arch Mage. From the looks of things, I'd say they were taking a break from training, or at least talking amongst themselves about the results of their training.

The mercenaries, such as the golden haired one that was speaking with Weiss, stayed with us at the mansion, their commanding officer and our Headmaster working in conjecture together on many of the issues troubling our lands. Our goals are almost entirely the same, and while our methods differ on the slightest occasion, they are basically our greatest allies in our fight. They may not have super powers like us, but they do pack quite a mean punch when in a fight.

Still, the Headmaster's office was just ahead, and I had some explaining to do to him. So, with that in mind, I continued onward towards his office, the entrance almost directly in front of me. Opening the doors, I could hear the gears turning in the clockwork mechanism hanging above our heads.

"Headmaster," I said to him once I entered the room.

He looked up at me with his brown eyes, his small glasses hanging at the edge of his nose and his grayed hair shifting a little bit as his head turned upwards in my direction. "Miss Nikos, how did the patrol with Mr. Ren go today?"

"Well, there's something you should know about."

AN: Well, now things are starting to get interesting, aren't they. Since you guys are wondering, I do know what the pairings for this are going to be, and I can tell you what one of them is.

Victory Rose.

Yes I know, it's just Noble doing another Victory Rose story, but it's actually more than that, so please stick with me on this one. I promise that it'll be more than just mindless shipping in this story.

Anyway, thanks for tuning into this second chapter of Deliverance: Book 1-The Rise. Shoutout to MartunaMajor for editing this chapter for me. Seriously, he is like a god when it comes to editing.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to review, follow, fave, at your discretion, and I hope you have a wonderful day.