The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

That Beautiful Sound

"What would Penn do... What would Penn do? I know what Penn would do!" Missy began to stomp her way towards the exit. "If it was Sunset, he would go after her and not let a living man, woman, or child stop him!" Her stomping petered out after a few seconds, however, as another thought occurred to her. "Until Big Sis reeled him back in and forced him to stand down and stick to the plan..." She trudged her way back to the back of the room, where Alucard was watching her with interest. "Then again... If it was ME, then they'd BOTH go on a roaring rampage of revenge!" She tapped her chin thoughtfully, only to stop as a giggle forced its way up. "I mean, can you imagine the sheer CHAOS if both of them lost it at the same time? PEW, PSSSH! FWOOM!" She mimed her imagined explosions, topping it off with miming the act of flinging fireballs at her opponents. Alucard simply responded with a raised eyebrow, keeping his thoughts to himself. "Hehe! Heh heh... heh..." The giddiness of pretending swiftly gave way to the hollowness of her words and actions. Her wings drooped and she felt the burning of tears running down her cheeks

"I guess... I'm just trying to distract myself, huh?" Her feet dragged as she floated her way over to the boxes they had been sitting on as they talked. "I have no idea where they would have taken him, and even if I did, I don't have the kind of overwhelming power we'd need to save him from Salem..." She glanced over, noticing Alucard's skeptical look. "Well I DON'T! Even if we all worked together as an archetype, we'd have our work cut out for us trying to storm Evernight Castle!" Her face involuntarily shifted to a pout. "We MIGHT be able to do something if I could use my Instant Win Condition, but we'd need the time to put together 10 Xyz materials then and there!"

She wiped the trails of her tears from her cheeks. "It's just a stupid gimmick... No wonder he thinks we're just a casual deck for beginners..."

Her focus was broken by a firm hand tapping the top of her head. Looking up, she saw Alucard scowling at her, snapping her out of her self-pity. "R-right! Right, there's no use getting down like this! Since we can't go rescue him, we're going to have to stick to the plan here! We'll make sure nobody rigs the festival!" She jumped up to her feet and planted her hands on her hips. "So, any news from-"

She was interrupted by a soft knocking on the door. She glanced at Alucard, who strolled to the door and flung it open, revealing the tiny form of Jiangshi standing in the doorway, arms held out straight and eyes wide.

"Well, speak of the ghoul, that's just the seeker I wanted to see!" Missy flew forward, beaming her brightest smile as she scooped him up beneath his arms and flew him in a circle before dropping back to the ground. "Any news from the lower levels?"

She leaned down, letting him whisper in her ear. Her eyes grew wide with surprise as he related what he'd seen to her. "No way..." she grabbed him by the shoulder and looked him straight in his eyes. "You're SURE?" After another nod of conversation, she grinned wider than ever, eyes glistening with anticipation that outshone her tears. She turned to Alucard, who was watching her with his head tilted curiously to the side as he waited for her signal.

"It's SHOWTIME!"

"Hey, boss! Where do you want all this ice dust?"

"Where do you THINK, Jerry? Downstairs with all the rest!"

Jerry was glad that his mask hid his eyes, because he needed to roll them at least ten times an hour working with Torchwick. The fact that the White Fang was being forced to work with him seemed to make no one involved happy. But what the higher-ups say, goes... he thought as he hefted the case of dust crystals up off the ground. Keep them happy and nobody gets hurt, or worse, fired...

"Hey, I'll take care of that!" a voice piped up.

He turned around, seeing no one at first until he looked down. The girl barely came up to his hip in height, with a pair of black-and-white wings and a very... "fancy" take on the standard White Fang uniform.

"Aren't you a little young to be in the White Fang, kid?"

She fluttered her wings, floating up to eye level with him and putting her hands on her hips. "Humans don't care how old I am when they tell me 'We don't serve faunus here!' Can you BE too young to fight for your rights?"

Jerry rolled his eyes again. "Okay, okay! Geez, kid, it was an honest question. Anyway, I think this thing is a little too heavy for you."

"Oh yeah? Watch THIS!" She reached out and seized the handles of the case, snatching it out of his hands and desperately flapping her wings in an attempt to stay airborne. In a few seconds, her face had turned bright red and her arms were trembling. "HhnnnnrrrRRRRG!" she groaned with exertion as she began to turn in the direction he had been headed.

"Okay, kid, you proved you can carry it, put it down before you bust a blood vessel!"

"I- RRRGH!- got it!" She began to sag slightly in the air as her wings began to falter and her breath came in ragged gasps. "I'm sick of- UGH!- grown-ups thinking I can't do things! Just because I'm-"

RIIIIP!

The case clattered to the ground... with the girl's arms still attached.

She turned around, eyes wide in shock as she took a second to stare independently at each of her empty shoulder sockets.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

"YOUR ARMS!" Jerry pointed to her to illustrate.

"MY ARMS!" she echoed, staring down at the separated limbs in horror.

Jerry shook his head, his mind entering emergency mode. "I- I'll go get help! I'll-"

"Forget help, catch them!" She vainly gestured downwards with her head.

"Catch... them?" Jerry's eyes widened as he looked down to the ground, only to see that the arms had vanished. When he looked up again, the girl had disappeared, as well. "WHAT THE-" When he stepped back, he felt something grabbing at the back of his leg. He frantically kicked his legs out of reflex, but the sensation traveled up his back, culminating in the feeling of a pair of tiny hands grasping at his throat. He frantically seized both arms with his hands, flinging them down the hallway with panicked straight and sprinting in the opposite direction.

"HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLP!"

The two arms floated up to the rafters, where Missy snickered as they fixed themselves back into place. She turned and offered a hand to Alucard, who gave her a satisfied fist bump.

"I don't get it... why would he say something like that?"

"Because he's a whack job, Barb!" Lydia replied, finishing up the last of her makeup in the mirror. "Either he's nuts, or he made it up to get out of work!"

"Well, from what I heard, he's in the hospital for extreme shock!"

"And I heard birds are secretly just drones Atlas sends to spy on all of us!" Lydia placed a hand on her hip. "Don't believe everything you hear! Seriously, just worry about us, we're supposed to pick up the slack now that he's gone!"

"Then why do you still bother putting makeup on under your mask? Can we really afford to waste time like that?"

"Barbara, I understand that for someone as... homely as you..." Lydia placed a finger under her chin, "makeup is more of an afterthought, but some of us need to be able to look fabulous at the drop of a hat!" She reached over to the counter, picking up her visor. "Or, in this case, the drop of a mask!"

The lights in the women's bathroom flickered out, plunging them both into darkness.

"EEP!"

"YIPE!"

There was a brief moment where the two of them refused to acknowledge the other's outburst before Barbara calmed down enough to sigh. "Wow, Lyds, that pun was so bad, even the LIGHTS refused to stick around!"

"Oh, shut up and help me find the light switch!"

"Don't you mean 'put a lyd on it?'"

"BARB! Come on!"

"Okay, okay! Lighten up a little, would you?"

Before Lydia could respond, the darkness was punctured by a pair of half-melted candles that appeared at the corners of the oversized mirror, just barely providing enough light for them to make out each other and their reflections. The two of them looked at the candles, which were both sitting in substantial puddles of wax, then at each other.

"Were those there before?"

"Not that I remember... spooky."

"Maybe we should just get out of here," Barbara muttered, walking towards the door. She gripped the handle and tugged, only to find it stuck firmly in place. She tugged again, but it refused to budge. "H-HEY! We're locked in!"

"WHAT?" Lydia ran up, shoving her aside as she pulled at the door with all of her strength. After a few seconds of fruitless pulling, she gave up. "Figures! Some screw-up disabling the security must have put the arena on lockdown, or something!" She folded her arms over her chest and pouted. "Of course something like this would happen after they got rid of the tech guy!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Barbara noticed a faint bit of motion. Her attention snapped back to the mirror, which instantly entranced her. "Hey, Lyds? What's... that?"

An oily, iridescent substance was slowly creeping in from the mirror's edges. In a matter of seconds, the entire surface had been completely covered, turning cloudy and shimmering like oil on water. Behind her, Lydia let out a sigh of relief, patting her on the shoulder.

"I get it. The candles? The lights going out? Now THIS? We're being punked!" She reached out and knocked on the mirror. "VERY funny, guys, but we've all got work to do! Enough's enough, let us-"

The surface of the mirror bulged outwards, the outlines of grasping hands and a face pressing into it as if trying to escape. It grasped desperately at Lydia, who only barely managed to avoid being wrapped up in it by leaping back until she slammed back-first into the stall doors.

"AAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" the two girls screamed as they grabbed one another tight. The sound of their screams seemed to act like a physical force, driving the cloudy substance back towards the edges of the mirror and opening up a clear portion in the center. The two of them couldn't see themselves reflected in the glass, however, as a third being blocked their view as she framed herself perfectly in the center. She looked like a little girl, dressed in a tattered blue ballgown and wearing a trio of blue roses in her hair. Her long hair was a ghostly white, draped half over her face and flowing all the way down past the bottom of the mirror. A single red eye was left uncovered, wide and angry as it stared directly at the two of them.

The mystery girl reached up, placing her palm against the mirror's surface, as if she were simply standing on the other side of the glass. She looked down at her hand, as if surprised at the barrier, and tightened her hand into a fist, which she banged lightly against the polished surface.

"S-she's trying to get out..." Barbara whispered. Lydia could only nod, her breath coming in short bursts.

The little girl's eye brimmed with tears, and her gaze locked back onto the two of them, as if she had heard them. She took a deep breath before unleashing the most blood-curdling scream either of them had ever had heard. The noise tore through the two of them like a cold wind, chilling their very souls. She began throwing herself wildly at the glass, her red eye glowing like a burning coal as both of her fists beat against the mirror. The two girls gripped each other tighter, each afraid for their lives as the monster in the mirror tried over and over to knock down the thin pane of glass separating them. Her hair grew unkempt and began to float outwards from her body, and the sleeves of her dress began to show signs of wear as she beat her arms against the surface over and over. The cloudy substance began to close in again, making it clear her time was limited. Looking up and around her, she seemed to see and fear the encroachment, which gave them both hope. The girl stepped back, then rammed herself headfirst into the glass, splitting open a wide gash on her forehead.

CRACK!

Both of their hearts clenched as they saw a long crack cross the entire length of the mirror. The specter seemed to notice, as well, smiling as she doubled the length of her run-up and bashed herself against the barrier again. The gash widened, spilling blood across her face and adding dark streaks into her hair and down the front of her dress.

KA-KA-CRACK!

More cracks spiderwebbed outwards from the point of impact, the barrier between the two words just barely holding. The blood-covered little girl deliberately counted three steps back, looks straight at the two of them... and smiled.

And then the candles went out.

CRASH!

SLAM!

Light spilled into the room, and before either of them were aware of the source, they had both sprinted out of the women's bathroom, screaming and babbling as they tore their way down the hallway. Just as suddenly as it had opened, the door to the bathroom slammed itself shut again. The fluorescent lights switched themselves back on, revealing the girl still standing in the mirror, arms folded smugly over her chest as she smiled at the other closed stall.

"And so the student becomes the master..." There was the sound of a toilet flushing, and Missy floated out, shaking her head and smiling as she began to wash her hands. "Wow. Okay, when I told you it was 'No holds barred,' you really went all out! How's your head?"

Ghostrick Mary smiled and reached up, peeling off the "skin" from her forehead, along with the "bloody" squib that had been hidden there. Underneath was a quickly-developing bruise, but one that would soon heal.

Missy giggled to herself as she dried her hands and sat herself on the counter. "Okay, you proved it to me! I'm putting you in charge of this year's Haunted House, okay?"

Mary pumped her fist multiple times, silently cheering to herself from the other side of the mirror. Missy reached into her hat, retrieving a juice box and passing it through the mirror. "You remember the address I gave you for the dry cleaner Alucard and I use? Go have Warwolf lick all that raspberry jam off of you, then take your dress straight over! We don't want that pretty little number getting stained!"

Mary nodded, gratefully downing the entire box's contents in a matter of seconds before she gave a quick salute and vanished from sight. Outside, Missy heard the sound of multiple frantic sets of footsteps closing in on the bathroom. With a shrug, she leaned back, diving through to follow her comrade. "Hey, wait for me!"

"I'm telling you, it wasn't a faunus, it was an honest-to-God WEREWOLF!"

"Oh yeah? I saw a VAMPIRE hanging from the ceiling fan in my room, but it was gone before I could bring anyone else back!"

"I SAW A HEADLESS HORSEMAN GALLOPING DOWN THE HALL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!"

"ZOMBIES! UNDER! MY! BED!"

"And that's not even the worst of it... The WORST part is that nobody can sleep! Every time we try, this eerie moaning starts to come through the vents! We try and try, but it's chanting in some ancient language, and thumping against the walls!"

"No, no, no! It's right hip bounce, left hip bounce, and then one more right, THEN we go into the hand wave!" Missy sighed and shook her head. She had been practically filled to the brim with pride for her precious archetype, but they couldn't dance in a coordinated manner to anything that wasn't from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, not even if their lives depended on it.

"I'm not mad, guys, you all know I couldn't be happier with the amazing work you've been doing keeping the White Fang chasing their own tails! This is just something to blow off steam, right? Nobody's here because they don't want to be? Good! Let's just give it another try, okay? Watch me, then join in when you feel comfortable!" She pointed to Isis, who began the song again...

"AND HOOOOOPE SHINE ETERNAAAAAAL!

"AND FRIEEEEEEENDS ARE ALL I NEEEEEEED!"

Sunset grabbed her phone as the rest of her teammates gathered around. She tapped the screen and tilted it sideways before placing it on their desk. The screen blinked on, revealing Missy waving with a happy smile.

"Hey, Sunset!"

"Hey, Missy! What's going on?" Sunset smiled back. Ever since she had revealed Missy's existence to the rest of her teammates, she'd been able to stop taking calls secretly and just answering her phone in the open.

"Well, I figured you'd want an update on how things are going at Amity!" She flashed them a wide grin. "We've been scaring the pants off of the White Fang members around here! They hardly sleep or eat without jumping at little sounds, so their productivity is WAY down!" She sighed and scratched at the back of her head. "The ringleaders are a little trickier for us to track down and spook, so we've mostly been scaring the grunt workers, but Jiangshi confirmed for me last night that Torchwick is DEFINITELY here!"

"Which means that whatever the White Fang was planning, they've moved it to the arena," Blake muttered to herself.

"Amity Colosseum is a beacon of hope and friendship for all four of the kingdoms, the security is top-notch! It's constantly moving, how would they even have tracked it down?" Weiss added.

"Incorrect."

"What?"

"The security is not 'top notch.' I have been rolling out multiple software updates across all connected systems, but Amity Colosseum is a closed system. By the time one of my drones arrived on the scene, the systems had already been deadlocked, presumably by our enemies. Its security is several orders of magnitude weaker than the rest of the systems I have updated, and they have made the most of it."

"So you're saying they're already in the computers here?" Missy furrowed her brow. "Not exactly my area of expertise, Isis...

"Affirmative. I have been sending more units to try and brute-force an override, but I would need a hard line connection to every system I wanted to override. That many drones would not only be highly conspicuous, but are more than I am allowed to allocate to this task."

"Well, either way, it looks like we know where to find our bad guys!" Yang grinned. "You're pretty cool, Missy!"

"And you're pretty hot, Yang!" Missy replied with a pair of finger guns. A moment later, her expression shifted to one of quiet pondering. "Wait, I think that came out wrong... Look, what I mean is right back at'cha!"

"What about Cinder? Any leads on her? Or where Penn is?" Sunset asked. Missy shook her head, looking as disappointed as Sunset felt.

"She hasn't shown her face since that night, at least not around here. I'm guessing that since you're asking, you haven't found anything, either? What about Sylvia? Did that plan not work?"

Sunset shook her head. "The car has a lot of memories attached to it, but I can't get my geode to point me towards Penn, just the same direction as always. Guess magic doesn't pick up scents like a bloodhound, no matter how much I want it to..."

"Well, don't get discouraged! We'll figure this out! I'm gonna get going, Yuki-Onna and I are going to go put ice on every set of stairs in the top floor!" she giggled to herself. "By the time anyone can make it back up to investigate, the only evidence will be puddles and a bunch of butthurt White Fang members!"

Sunset nodded, Missy's joy spreading to her enough to lift her dour mood from reporting her failure. "Stay safe, Missy! Don't you go getting caught, too!"

"Pfft, are you kidding?? I can fly circles around these guys all day! Keep me posted if you find any new leads! See ya!" She waved to the group before the screen switched itself off.

"So, we know where the White Fang is going to be..." Blake muttered. "That's definitely something we can use to our advantage."

"Now we just need to figure out what they're planning and stop it!" Ruby declared. "Once we do that, we can make them tell us where Cinder would have taken Penn!"

Sunset nodded. "Right! We beat the White Fang, we'll find Cinder,"

"Sunset Shimmer, there is one more order of business..."

"Huh? What is it, Isis?"

There was a beat of silence, followed by a low humming as a familiar figure came to rest on the windowsill: a tiny metal dragon with a glowing pink crystal in its chest. It gave a low bow, the tip of its muzzle almost scraping across the ground.

"The replacement for the repair drone assigned to you has arrived."

"Oh! I didn't even think about that!" Sunset scooped up Isis's new body, letting it climb up onto her shoulder. "I mean, I knew Cinder busted the other one, but-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! SUNSET!" Ruby's elated screech cut her off, her team leader pointing straight at the mechanical marvel. "WHAT. IS. THAT?"

"It's adorable!" Weiss added. "So sleek! So modern!"

"Oh, right! You girls have never seen it before! This is one of Isis's drones!" She held out her hand, letting the drone float down and display itself. "It can do all kinds of cool things, but it mostly-" Ruby cut her off, snatching the little robot up in her arms and beginning to inspect every inch of it.

"Do these panels ALL open up? Where's your power source? What kind of tools do you have? Is that a quartz crystal CPU? Can you FLY? Are you the same Isis who's on Sunset's phone? Are you Penn, Missy, and Sunset's mascot?" She gasped and Sunset could practically see stars in her eyes. "CAN YOU BE OUR MASCOT?"

Sunset chuckled. I hope Isis wasn't planning on getting that drone back...