If It's War That You Want... Then You've Got It.
Penn hummed quietly to himself as he diced the vegetables as finely as possible by hand. Weiss had handled all the food she'd been given so far like a champ, and he wondered if he was being overly cautious with her. Her coma hadn't been EXCESSIVELY long, after all...
But either way, he didn't want to risk causing her pain, so tonight's fried rice would have vegetables so finely diced, they might just dissolve in the pan. If she could handle this without issue, then she could probably handle regular food without issue.
"Isis, play-"
His song request was cut off as a soft knocking came from the door. His first instinct was to hide from Salem, but that thought was immediately quashed by the fact that Salem wouldn't bother knocking.
"Mind if I watch?"
He practically breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized the voice. He turned on his heel and leaned back against the stove, trying not to let his burst of anxiety show as Blake Belladonna entered the room. She was clearly aware she was intruding, trying to give her most placating smile and look as small as possible.
I know I get a bit hot under the collar in the kitchen, but she's acting like she's approaching a wild animal!
"Long as you don't get in my way, I don't see a problem with it." Penn gave the most welcoming smile he could manage before turning back to the counter. "Oil's heating up in the pan, so don't get too close. It'll spit when I start adding stuff."
"Fair enough." Blake perked up and picked up a fair amount of confidence as she walked over to a nearby table to take a seat. "So, what are you making?"
Penn pointed his knife to the baking tray with a pile of white rice he'd left in the fridge the night before. "Fried rice! It's an easy, flexible recipe I can hammer out pretty quickly with the right prep! That way I can get back to working on other stuff just a little faster."
"Like what?"
"Well, getting the car fixed, for one..." Penn mumbled, more to himself than to Blake. "She's still a long way from being roadworthy, you know?"
"Well, considering it got thrown and rolled half a football field, nobody would expect it to be running again in a couple days..." Blake dismissed. "I'm surprised you're even trying to fix it, rather than getting a new one."
"That car is like family! I'd never give up on her that easily!" Penn chuckled. "I mean, it's basically a frame-up rebuild, but hey, I'm doing all I can to keep her spirit in it!"
"Cars have spirits?"
Penn wasn't facing her, but he could practically HEAR Blake's raised eyebrow. "Well, I think so. Haven't you run into a car with its own special quirks and behaviors? Things that only their driver knows about them? Some cars won't even drive at all if you don't know how to treat them the way they like!" He chuckled. "Sometimes they're even a little sassy about it, throwing hissy fits to spite their beloved driver, but in the end..." with a final decisive chop, he finished dicing the last of the celery stalks and began to turn back around to face his guest, "they always-"
Blake was up out of her chair, now, leaning against the table and giving him a quizzical look. He didn't know why, it made sense for Blake to be able to move quietly enough for him not to tell, but... something about the unexpected change threw him off.
She tilted her head as her bow shifted near-imperceptibly.
"Something wrong?"
I must be getting jumpy thanks to Salem...
"Nothing. Sorry, I guess I'm just a little more wound up than I thought!" He took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves as he piled all of the hardier vegetables together on the cutting board and tipped them into the hot oil with an angry-sounding hiss and sputter. "As I was saying, they always do right by you if you do right by them, and that's enough for me to think they've got a little bit of a soul!"
"Hm... so it's reciprocity?"
"Well... not JUST that. " Penn shrugged, giving the vegetables a vigorous stir to prevent any from burning. "I think it's more than that. They're just... intricate enough to have unique interactions with just about anybody who gets behind the wheel. That feels 'alive' to me."
He wanted to keep all of his attention on the vegetables, but... he could feel paranoia on his back, prickling at his skin like an army of marching ants. He decided to just glance over his shoulder, just to soothe his nerves. Blake was still in the same spot. She tilted her head back in the opposite direction.
"Is something bothering you?"
Penn shook his head.
"Just... used to being alone in the kitchen. Guess I'm still on high alert." He shook his head, trying to force the antsy feeling to be back of his mind. It wasn't fair on Blake to be so suspicious. There wasn't any good reason for him to treat her like this.
"Sorry, I'm not trying to make you nervous." Blake stepped up beside him, joining him at the stove to watch his cooking more closely. "If you're just going to work on the car, what about stopping Baalchion?"
Penn shrugged and gave the vegetables another stir. Most of them were browning nicely. He reached over towards the rice, picking up the tray and tipping its contents into the pan.
"That's just a matter of waiting. We don't have enough netherite, yet, but the forge is going full-tilt for now, whether I'm there or not." He pointed to the table, where his two shields were sitting. "Now that you mention it, I probably SHOULD get back to training with the prototypes... I guess working on the car can wait." He swapped which hand was turning over the pile of white rice as he reached for the various bottles of sauces and seasonings. "You know, once I finish the vegetarian portion, do you think I should finish this off with chicken or seafood? I'm kind of craving shrimp."
Blake pondered the question for a few seconds, humming to herself with thought.
"Chicken."
There was that buzzing paranoia in the back of his head, again, one that made the skin on his arm closest to her prickle and the hair on his neck stand on end. Why? What was wrong? He was safe, here!
"Chicken, it is!" he cheerfully replied as he reached for a spoon. The rice had turned a perfect shade of brown and was giving a fragrant aroma. He scooped up a spoonful and gave it a long blow to cool it off. He chewed on the food for a few seconds, savoring the taste as best he could. "Hmm... you mind tasting this? I think it needs more sesame oil."
"Sure!"
He grabbed a fresh spoon and scooped up another serving, making sure to get as much variety of ingredients as possible before passing it to her. He held it up at face level, offering it to her. Rather than gripping the spoon, however, Blake took a hold of his wrist and moved the spoon to her mouth. They both stood like that for a few seconds as she mulled over the flavor. Penn tried to pull his hand back, but her grip stayed firm.
"Uh, Blake? You can just take the spoon."
Blake pulled his hand back, taking the spoon from her mouth. Penn tried harder to pull his hand away from her, but something about her grip stayed rock-solid. The places where their skin met was also starting to feel... irritated. Itchy.
Something was wrong, here. Very, very wrong.
"Hm... tastes like it could use some salt." Blake smirked in spite of the awkward situation. She reached across the two of them, aiming to pick up the salt from among the seasonings. Just as her hand was about to close on the shaker, there was a flash of motion. With a gut-wrenching crunch, her arm bent backwards at the elbow and her hand shot straight for his throat.
It was only sheer paranoid, anxiety-fueled reflex that let Penn move fast enough to dodge. He threw his whole body backwards and wildly swung his still-gripped arm to force "Blake" as far away from him as he could. The two of them were still bound to each other at the ends of their arms, which was MUCH closer than Penn would like, but now he knew just what he was dealing with...
As long as it was disguised as Blake, he had the advantage of enough size and strength to throw both of them around.
Putting his entire body into the motion, he made a dash for the table, only to feel a sharp jerk as he came up short. Pitch-black tendrils, looking more like a void than any actual physical material, had grown out of her shoes, rooting her firmly to the floor and leaving him on a leash just out of reach of his weapons. The force he'd put into throwing himself at the table, however, had distorted her. She was... stretched out at her arm and legs, with more darkness visible and leaking out of tears in her "skin"
"Now that wasn't very nice..." "Blake" was still grinning as the features on her head and face started to melt down into a bare head-shaped pile of darkness. "What about reciprocity?"
The last word was accented with a burst of searing pain in his wrist, one that forced a scream out of his throat. Underneath his skin, painful bulges worked their way up towards his elbow and down into his hand.
He couldn't reach his weapons, a nyctomorph was already under his skin, and the pain was distracting him, clouding all his thoughts in a foggy haze.
"Penn! You can reach the stove!"
He didn't think twice before following Reason's instructions, tugging even harder on the shapeshifter to get back to the place he had been working on lunch just seconds ago.
"The stove! The fire!"
If this creature really WAS a nyctomorph, then-
Penn gave another pull on his arm, planting his feet and trying to force it into a tug-of-war. Slowly, excruciatingly, the place her hand wrapped around his wrist inched closer and closer to the open flames.
Then, all at once, the resistance disappeared, and the hot pan was sent flying across the room as both of their hands were plunged into the flames.
"NGAAAAAAAH!"
"AIIEEEEEEEEEEK!"
It was only for a moment, but it was a moment of pure, unadulterated agony for them both. Both of them scrambled to get away from the burning, rushing to opposite sides of the kitchen.
Penn looked down, realizing that his hand was now covered in open flames, and a horrifying thought managed to force its way through the pain.
The ink- The ink his body was now MADE OF- was alcohol-based.
Which meant it was potentially flammable.
Right now, the only things on fire were the rivulets of ichor flowing from where the monster had burrowed into his skin, but...
He violently shook his hand back and forth, trying to extinguish the flames, but they only burned hotter and hotter, taking the pain to new heights. In a few seconds, all thoughts of the nyctomorph were gone as he could feel the burning feeling traveling up into his veins.
"GAAAAAH! AAAAH! AAAH!" He shrieked as he rushed back to the kitchen's sink, practically ripped the handle off, and plunged his flaming hand into the water. With a hiss and a puff of steam, the searing finally abated, replaced with the throbbing, pulsing pain of a fresh injury, pain that worsened with each frantic heartbeat. Looking down at it, the skin looked burnt to a blackened crisp at first, but a closer inspection showed that it was smooth, more like the first few layers of his body had been burned away, revealing the inky flesh underneath. What had once been trails of ichor were now a consistent drip of murky ink-water, as if the ink was being washed away. His hand also felt weaker, and not just out of instinctive attempt to keep it from being injured further. He didn't think he could move it if he tried.
The ink that made up his body was flammable AND it could be washed away.
...THAT was worrying, but he couldn't unpack it right now.
On the other side of the room, the monster had given up entirely on trying to conceal itself, reduced to a three-dimensional silhouette that was, as far as he could tell, gingerly cradling the still-glowing embers of where its arm had been burned.
Penn almost wanted to curse the fact that it seemed less hurt by the flames than he had been.
"PENN! YOUR SHIELD!"
Right... That was right!
He made a mad dash for the table, practically throwing himself across it to snatch up his weapons. As fast as he dared, he crammed his unburned hand into the left gauntlet, then gave the motion to trigger the transforming mechanism. The metal plates shifted and slid into place, locking into a wide-bladed sword. He was only barely able to get the blade in front of him in time to block the creature's lunge for him, pushing back at it. For a second, the monster seemed completely unfazed, beginning to flow around the sword like a liquid.
In the split second between it striking the sword and Penn pulling the trigger on the fire dust contained inside, he couldn't help noting that, up close, it almost looked and moved like a ferrofluid.
When the mechanism was triggered, tiny vents along the blade's entire length shot out a fine mist of powderized fire dust and ignited it, causing the sword to burst into crimson fire. The creature seized and writhed before flinging itself away with enough force to throw Penn back several steps.
At this point, it wasn't trying to keep any kind of shape, now just a writhing, ever-changing black heap. Penn made a note of the thickness of the tendrils and their shape. The smallest seemed to be about a centimeter thick. It wasn't a max-level nyctomorph, but the fact that it had pulled off such a convincing disguise proved that he wasn't dealing with an amateur, either.
"Why?" The thing was still speaking in Blake's voice. "Why are you so determined not to help us?"
There was a short flash of guilt as he remembered that these so-called "monsters" were trying to help them. They were misguided, but still only doing what they thought was right, from their own twisted view...
It was the way they were made.
Penn sighed and shook his head as he settled into a ready position with the shield-turned-sword, the same ready position that Isis had drilled into his brain with the first version of this weapon last time he was in Remnant.
"It's not that I think Baalchion's ENTIRELY wrong..." he mumbled. "I just see a bigger picture than you do."
The shapeless darkness swelled up until Penn could barely make out the form of a large cat of some kind, maybe a puma, that was almost as tall as he was while standing on all fours.
So much for his size advantage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset felt a chill run up her spine as she and Blake made their way down a long-abandoned hallway in the dorms. According to Ruby, the headmaster had evacuated most of the students when the storm began, citing a weather emergency and forecasted danger. Most of the students had been confused that they were leaving what very well might be the most secure place in Vale, but lived close enough to the school for an early holiday break to be more good news than bad. The only ones who'd stayed were the ones who knew the true cause behind the storm, and even that was strictly by choice.
So, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and a few assorted students who lived in farther-away areas had all been moved down into the first-floor dorms, leaving all of the upper floors completely empty.
Until now, when Blake was wordlessly leading Sunset and Missy through the upstairs hallways.
"Blake... I know you want to surprise us, but..." Sunset shuddered and glanced over her shoulder as another chill ran down her spine. "Could you at least give us a hint?"
"It's the view." Blake didn't even turn around. "If we go up to the top floor, then into the upper observation tower, there's a spot where the cloud cover breaks every once in a while!"
"Wait... really?" Sunset's eyes widened in surprise. "That's got to be amazing!"
"It is!" Blake finally turned around enough to look over her shoulder and give Sunset a smile. "It's really beautiful out there, and you can practically see all of Forever Fall from up there!"
Sunset was instantly enamored with the idea of Remnant being turned into a winter wonderland, but a dissatisfied hum from next to her snapped her out of her daydreaming.
"But... we couldn't even see over the cloud cover from Professor Ozpin's office. How would one of the lower towers be able to?" Missy asked.
"I'm not sure, but I think it's something about how the school is laid out affecting the wind currents?" Blake shrugged. "I'm not sure how to explain it, but it's the kind of thing you've got to see to believe."
There was that bad feeling in the back of Sunset's mind again, something off that was nagging at her, and she hadn't gotten this far by ignoring those types of feelings.
"Do you think we could go back and get Ruby? I'm sure she'd love it, too! Oh, and Penn can't get enough of the snow, he'd probably want to see it, too!"
Blake missed a step there, seeming to almost stumble over nothing.
"W-Well, we can go get them later. I kind of wanted this to be something that I could share with just you, at least for a little bit, before EVERYBODY knew about it, you know? But if you don't want to see it with me, then... we can just go back."
Sunset felt a slight heat in her cheeks and a flash of guilt. Was she just being paranoid? Was she potentially ruining something important to Blake, here?
Maybe I should just go with the flow and-
Before she could finish the thought, a sound that made her blood run cold filled the air.
"VWEEEP! VWEEEP! VWEEEP! RED ALERT!"Sunset's right hand went to her saber while her left snatched her phone out of her pocket. Isis's red alerts meant immediate danger. When that alarm sounded, there was only one question that mattered.
"Where?"
"FIRST FLOOR DORMITORY KITCHENS. PENN IS UNDER ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN ASSAILANT!""I'm on my way!" Sunset pivoted on her heel and sprinted back in the direction of the dorm's elevator. As she ran, she turned back to call over her shoulder. "Sorry, Blake! That secret spot is going to have to wait a little-"
She felt something faintly touch her face.
She blinked.
Why was she running?
She practically tripped over her own feet as the confusion overwhelmed her, barely catching herself well enough to duck her head and roll onto the floor rather than crashing jaw-first into the tile. As she sat for a second trying to regain her bearings, she took inventory of herself.
She'd been following Blake to some secret place, then she got a message from Isis and-
"Sunset, come on!" Missy cried as she sped past. "This isn't the time for gymnastics!"
Sunset's heart stopped for a second as her reason for running came back to her. She started to scramble to her feet, but she stopped when she saw Missy slow to a stop mid-air, thoughtfully rubbing at her chin. After a few seconds, she turned back to Sunset with her head tilted at a curious angle.
"You know that feeling where you walk into a room and forget what you went in there for? I just got it."
"VWEEEP! VWEEEP! VWEEEP!"Sunset's attention was immediately one hundred percent on her phone. Isis didn't sound that klaxon outside of absolute emergencies, which meant there was only one question she needed to ask.
"Where?"
"THE FIRST FLOOR DORMITORY KITCHENS. PENN IS UNDER ATTACK!"Sunset jumped back to her feet and set off at a sprint again, grabbing Missy's hand as she passed the dazed duel spirit.
"Come on! We have to hurry!"
Just as Sunset was beginning to settle into her stride, however, she spotted something in the corner of her eye: a silvery strand, barely able to be caught in the diffused, snow-reflected light from outside the hallway, just in front of her face. It barely registered for her, though. Who cared about running into cobwebs at a time like-
She blinked.
Why was she running?
She was barely able to keep herself from tripping over her own feet by tugging on Missy's hand for balance. Together the two of them slowed to a stop, and Sunset grabbed at her head. She was starting to feel lightheaded, and her thoughts were being overwhelmed by an all-encompassing sense of deja-vu.
"Wha- What's going on?" she murmured. She looked down at her hand, recognizing the flashing red display as one of Isis's most desperate alerts. Someone was in life-threatening danger. She needed to move-
"Sunset? Where are you going?" Blake's voice asked. Sunset felt a worried hand gripping her shoulder. Something light and airy touched her arm and-
She blinked.
"Huh?" Sunset's mouth was open as if she was going to respond to something, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what. Blake was looking at her with a hurt expression and her bow tilted in a way that made it look like her ears were pressed back in distress.
"Back OFF!"
Sunset let out a yelp as a small figure leapt over her shoulder and tackled Blake. In the split second it took for Sunset to recognize Ghostrick Nekomusume trying to claw Blake's face off, Missy had interposed herself between them, grabbed Sunset's shoulders and looked her in the eye.
"Sunset, something's WRONG! Something's messing with our heads!" she declared.
"What? Missy why are you attacking Blake, she's our friend!" Sunset tried to shove Missy out of the way, but Missy fought back, grabbing onto her arm with one hand and ripping her phone from her grip with the other.
"LOOK!"
The screen was flashing red and ringing the telltale alarm that someone was in danger.
"VWEEEP! VWEEEP! VWEEEP! RED ALERT!""We keep forgetting it and Blake isn't helping!" Missy narrowed her eyes. "We have to go NOW, before we forget again!"
Sunset wanted to argue, to yell at Missy or at least help Blake get Nekomusume off of her, but... she trusted her partner more. Something here was definitely wrong, and if her own mind was failing her, she knew Missy wouldn't lead her astray.
"Okay, let's go. Isis, where is-"
"FOR THE THIRD TIME, PENN IS BEING ATTACKED IN THE FIRST FLOOR DORMITORY KITCHENS!"Third time? How much time had they wasted forgetting this? Sunset pivoted on her heel, ready to sprint for the elevator.
"Okay, let's-"
As she turned around, however, she felt the bottom fall out of her gut.
The whole hallway behind them was cut off by a wall of webbing at least a foot thick. Spiders the size of her hand were crawling throughout it, rapidly weaving the wall thicker and thicker by the second. Her whole body felt immobilized by fear as their iridescent carapaces skittered about, and that fear only grew worse when Sunset looked more closely at their movement. They didn't just move from point A to point B. Every step felt... jerky. Erratic. Flickered. It was as if something was constantly trying to pull them out of reality, with afterimages moving in every direction while they crawled along the course they were actually taking.
The thought of trying to rip and cut her way through occurred to her. If she was fast enough, she might be able to rip through the webbing without taking any of its inhabitants with her, but the thought of one of those things touching her made her skin crawl.
There was a sound of a pained yelp, and Sunset spun back around just in time to see Nekomusume fly past them, crashing into the webbing. If Sunset still had any suspicions that she could rip through them, they were dashed completely by the sight of the little cat spirit barely putting a tear in the first layer. Contact with the webs also seemed to rapidly change her mindset, as her struggling stopped almost instantly and her eyes glazed over with a blank expression. The spiders rapidly closed in on their new prey, and Sunset didn't have time to even think about trying to free her before the young spirit was swarmed by them. It was only the telltale sound of a monster being destroyed that gave Sunset the relief of knowing Nekomusume had been sent back where she came from.
Sunset spun back around, and her fears were all confirmed when she saw Blake, clearly no worse for wear, with one of those flickering spiders on her shoulder. Sunset could just barely make out a thread from the spider's back leading its way across her shoulder and down to the back of Blake's neck. She absent-mindedly reached up and gave the spider's abdomen a gentle stroke.
"Well, I guess that the jig is up, isn't it?"
"...Blake?" Sunset tightened her grip on Missy's hand. "What's going on?"
Sunset wanted the throw up when the spider skittered back behind Blake's hair and somewhere onto her back.
"Don't worry, Sunset... you'll understand soon."
"Yeaaaaah... I don't think so." Missy declared as a trap card materialized in her hand. "Ghostrick Van-"
There was a flash of silver as a strand of webbing shot through the air and anchored itself to the card, snatching it from between her fingers and pulling it into the web. Blake tutted softly.
"No... No games. There's too much on the line." Blake's eyes narrowed. "We're going to save everyone, Sunset. Even you."
Sunset tightened her grip on her saber. Whatever these spiders were, she needed to be careful. They'd clearly messed Blake's head up pretty badly, and she wasn't immune to it, either. They understood Missy's tricks, too. Obviously, they were well-informed. From the sound of Isis's alarm, they had gone for Penn at the same time, too. They were coordinated.
This was a trap. A two-pronged attack to take out their entire party at once.
FSSHT!
The red light of her saber filled the hallway, casting everything in ruby light.
"Blake... I'm going to save you. Then I'm going to squash every last one of these bugs. Then, we're going to save Remnant!"
Sunset knew Blake well enough to recognize the disappointment on her face, even if it belonged to the thing messing with her head.
"You'll understand soon. I promise."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm telling you, it's bigger on the inside!" Ruby cried. "He put an engine in it that was twice as big as me!"
The other students gathered together in the room all snickered. Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby had all come to visit Weiss now that she was awake, giving her their own versions of events that had happened since she'd fallen unconscious. At the moment, Ruby was telling them the supposedly-true story of why she'd come back from "checking up" on Penn covered in motor oil and grease that took the better part of an hour to scrub off in the shower.
"There's no way that can be possible, right?" Jaune asked as the laughter faded. "I mean, an engine bay the size of a dorm room? In a car?"
"Well, I would not be so quick to dismiss it!" Pyrrha chided. "In an infinite multiverse, I would be willing to believe anything it possible!"
"I mean, sure, anything's possible, but..." Jaune trailed off, settling into deeper thought after a second.
Yang didn't have a comment, she was too focused on her current task: trying to master her breathing. Despite her earlier success, she was having trouble with the idea of trying to focus her breathing through her arm. The was gripping the lead weights in her charcoal hand as tightly as she dared. Just by the ambient heat coming off of it, Yang could tell that she was getting her arm up to oven-level heat, but that seemed to be her upper limit right now. It wasn't even enough to melt what Penn had called "as low of a starting point as I can give you." She needed to push it farther.
She didn't WANT to take it slow.
"Well, there's no way that such an engine would work." Weiss rolled her eyes. "The fuel and air requirements alone would be unfeasible. It would be much more efficient to put a high-performance car engine in his car, wouldn't it?"
"Only if he is planning on building a car," the blonde-haired girl added from the corner of the room. "From what you described, and knowing him like I do, he's not going to be content with something that pedestrian. He'd rather have a siege engine disguised as an automobile."
That one was still a bit of an enigma to Yang. She'd come in with Penn and Sunset, but neither of them had even attempted to introduce her to them. That meant that neither of them had outright vouched for her. When they had asked, she'd just introduced herself as "Sally" and claimed that she was a hitchhiker who was riding along with them on their way to some other world called "Britannia." When pressed for more details, she'd simply shrugged and said it was none of their business.
Everything about her seemed suspicious, but that just made Yang glad that she had deigned to sit in on the conversation: it was easier to keep an eye on her like this.
"VWEEEP! VWEEEP! VWEEEP! RED ALERT!"Everyone jolted in their seats and scrambled for their scrolls. Pyrrha was the first to compose herself enough to have her scroll up and open.
"What's the situation, Isis?"
"PENN IS BEING ATTACKED BY AN UNKNOWN ASSAILANT IN THE FIRST FLOOR DORMITORY KITCHENS!"Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby all jumped to their feet.
"We gotta help!" Ruby cried. Her hand reached behind her, only to stop short as it only grasped at the air. "Oh, no! Crescent Rose is in my dorm!"
"So's my sword!" Jaune added.
Pyrrha reached to her back, only to also come up short. She didn't seem too perturbed, narrowing her eyes and clenching her fists. "We weren't expecting to be attacked here."
Before Yang, Weiss, or even Sally could say anything else, their scrolls all began to vibrate in their hands as the alarm sounded again.
"VWEEEP! VWEEEP! VWEEEP! RED ALERT! SUNSET SHIMMER AND MISSY ARE BEING ATTACKED IN THE 5TH FLOOR DORMITORY HALL!""WHAT?"
"Both of them?"
"This isn't a coincidence!"
Sally narrowed her eyes, speaking up of her own accord for the first time. "It's a coordinated attack."
"Pyrrha, give me your room key." Ruby held out an empty hand. "I'm the fastest, I'll get our weapons and meet you at the kitchen."
Pyrrha nodded, shuffling through her pocket for a second before passing Ruby the keycard. "The rest of us will move in and fight hand-to-hand until then."
Yang swung her legs over the edge of her bed. "If we're going hand-to-hand, then I'd better come, too. Even if I'm only at fifty percent-"
"No."
Sally's voice carried an air of authority that made everyone stop in place and look at her. Her icy blue eyes locked on Yang, making her shrink back slightly.
"Weiss still isn't capable of defending herself. You should stay here and guard her." She turned to Ruby, Pyrrha, and Jaune. "You three have the right idea, but the wrong target. Back up Sunset Shimmer." She pushed herself out of her chair. Ordinarily, Yang wouldn't feel so intimidated by someone, but... that woman had a look in her eyes that set every nerve in her body on edge.
"I'll take care of Penn, myself."
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Man, turns out I was right about Blake. Albeit, to be honest, I was expecting Neo.
Interesting how Baalchion used Blake or her appearance to try an catch Penn, Sunset, and Mussy off guard... must've thought she'd be the easiest to emulate or something
I’m loving the world building we’re seeing with the forces of Baalchion!
Well, i feel put to shame saying it was unlikely to be an imposter.
Oh good, it's just a fractal infiltrator, I thought it was Neo in there with him.
11595364
Specially after the last season, where her semblance evolved into audiovisual, solid illusions.
Let me guess, Penn reacted to Blake not asking for tuna.
I wouldn't be surprised if after the next report, Nick Fury himself scolds director Bakersfield for not grabbing a weapon at the first hint: "You are not being paranoid enough for this line of work".
*blink*
Got to say..
When Penn was getting the paranoia I thought it was Salem disguised as Blake
Also...when Penn is making things is it just me or does he and isis remind anyone of Tony stark and Jarvis when they are making things like in the first movie?
Okay...I was hesitant to start reading this story. I mean a fanfic with so many crossovers with other properties? Doomed to fall apart, there's no way it could be any good. A *self insert* too? I scoffed at the idea but, running out of other stories I gave it a chance. I started reading, and it wasn't long before I was dragged into the adventure myself like it was the Neverending Story. I felt a connection form with the characters as I watched them continue onward. Thinking what I could do to help, and resolving to trust in everyone to get through.
This story SHOULD NOT WORK...but Penn obviously doesn't care and makes it work anyway, the mastermind.
I'm all caught up now and all I can say is...keep at it Penn! However hard the world is, know that you can do it no matter how hard it gets! We'll be waiting for more news on your adventure!
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This... this is the type of comment that warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye.
First of all, "I couldn't stop reading" is about the highest praise I can think of for a story. The fact that someone can be so dragged in and completely enveloped by something I made, knowing I brought them into the adventure I wanted to... it just feels good. That's what I write for. I bridged their experience and my imagination.
Second: it has taken a lot of work to make this story... well, work. It feels so good when people point out that it, by all experience and example, shouldn't. But, if I can toot my own horn a little, I put the work into this and I have been patient as hell, and it feels really good to have that acknowledged!!! And ending it with those words of patience and encouragement just.. really hits home because I hate taking long hiatuses like I have since the last chapter.
10/10 comment, no notes.
...seriously though, thank you for making my day today.
Nooooo, I'm all caught up and there's no more chapters yet
Man this story has been a wild ride so far. I completely agree with Redbow Rose's comment. On paper, the concept of this story looks like it shouldn't work but you've done such a great job tying everything together in a wonderfully engaging way!
This has been such a fantastic trip across both worlds I'm familiar with, and a couple I only know about in passing (agents of SHIELD, and Bendy specifically). Not to mention your original concepts with Radian and Baalchion are really cool.
Love the story, and now eagerly awaiting the next installment