After the dance at Beacon, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald retired to their dorm. They were in their pyjamas, lazing around, when Mercury decided to ask Cinder how her little mission went.
"What exactly did you do anyway?" Mercury asked casually, flipping the page in his comic book.
"I hacked into Ironwood's computers," Cinder smiled slyly as she leaned back, her elbows digging into the matress of her bed. "Now we control all of Atlas's robotic army. With a touch of a button on our Scrolls. Isn't it fantastic?"
"Yeah, it is," Emerald nodded as she sat down on the floor. "But what do we do now?"
"Well, I know of a certain soldier that caught my eye," Cinder started, her eyes glowing mischievously. "I was scrolling through the data when I saw an android called Penny. It's the first synthetic being to generate an Aura, which means she has a Semblance too."
"And...?" Mercury turned his head to look at Cinder with interest.
"We can control her as well," Cinder chuckled darkly. "Her Semblance must be very powerful, given what she is. We can eliminate certain students here so that they are no longer a threat to our plans without doing the dirty work."
"So we use only Penny, right?" Mercury asked, eyebrow raised. "We leave all the other robots alone for now?"
"Yes. After all," Cinder smirked, "she is our lucky Penny."
Penny was awoken from her nightly recharge, her bright green eyes shooting open.
"Hello?" Penny called, turning her head left and right. She was in her charging station, which was her bed with a plug in the headboard. "Father? Did you wake me?"
Her body completely froze in place, silencing herself. She stared at the ceiling, her once green eyes slowly turning black. She stood up rigidly and unplugged herself from the headboard before exiting the bedroom, her movements more jerky than they were programmed to be.
Verifying commands...
Penny robotically marched through the hallways, processing the commands she was given.
Search and destroy. Targets: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Pyrrha Nikos. Location: Beacon Academy.
Penny found the exit of the building and her swords sprouted from her back. They formed a hoverboard and she flew away on it, heading to the kingdom of Vale.
Exterminate.
Penny hovered over Beacon Academy, searching for a discreet way to enter the building. She moved to team RWBY's window, opting to take out the four first. Penny slowly opened the slightly creaking window and slipped inside, her swords sheathing themselves inside her back. She scanned the room with herneat sensors, searching for any signs of life. There most certainly was, all four members of team RWBY were sleeping peacefully. However, the cat Faunus woke up, her amber eyes staring straight at Penny.
"Intruder!" Blake yelled, shooting up in a sitting position.
Yang's eyes shot open and immediately attacked. She didn't have Ember Celica on her, so she jumped off her bed and belly flopped onto Penny's stomach.
"Who. Are. You. And. What. Do. You. Want?!" Yang exclaimed angrily with every punch she delivered to Penny's face.
"Yang! It's Penny!" Ruby exclaimed, slipping off her bed and flailing her arms around.
"Huh?" Yang stopped her punches to look at Penny. "No she's not. Her eyes are black."
Weiss's eyes widened in realization. "It means she's being controlled!"
Penny simply grinned and picked up Yang. She threw her into the door, creating a giant Yang-shaped hole with the blonde hitting JNPR's door. Most members of the team were not woken up, the only one alert was Pyrrha.
"What was that?" Pyrrha exclaimed in surprise, opening the door. Yang fell down completely on her back, her head resting on Pyrrha's feet. "Yang? What's going on?"
"Penny... Controlled... Wants to kill us..." Yang mumbled, a bit winded from being thrown into a door. She slowly sat up and turned to face Pyrrha. "Could you help me up?"
"I'm not sure who this Penny is," Pyrrha said suspiciously, helping Yang up, "but how can she be controlled?"
"See for yourself," Yang bowed, extending her hand to her broken door.
Through the hole, Pyrrha could see Ruby and Blake throwing books at Penny, which was somewhat effective. She was knocked back a step with each book that collided with her body.
"Her eyes are black..." Pyrrha whispered to herself in fear. She walked to the hole and stepped through it just as Penny summoned her swords. She's not a human or Faunus. She's... an android. Pyrrha thought, her jaw dropping a bit.
Penny turned to her, a lifeless look in her obsidian eyes.
Pyrrha Nikos detected. Semblance: polarity. Do not make contact.
Penny backed away from the redhead, her back pressing against the window as she half-sat on the bookshelf. She put a foot on top of it, pushing herself up and standing on the furniture. Penny leaned back and fell through the open window, sending two swords into the dorm on her way down in an attempt to stab one of the girls. They ducked out of the way, yelping.
"We'll get your weapons," Ruby said to Pyrrha urgently. "Go after her. We have to know why she's being controlled." She turned to her teammates. "Come on! We know her locker combination!"
"But I don't think I nee-"
It was too late, they left the dorm. Pyrrha grabbed one of Penny's swords embedded in the wall, knowing that she'd summon them back to her. She was sent flying out of the window as the swords zoomed alongside her for a second before beating her to Penny.
Pyrrha descended from the skies before landing perfectly on her feet, which hurt a little from the impact. She was barefoot, after all.
The android's head turned to her before she charged at her, weapons ready.
Weiss, Ruby and Blake had taken their positions in the hallways. They had quickly come up with a plan to get Pyrrha's weapons to her as fast as possible. Ruby was too tired to use her Semblance for more than two seconds, it would drain her even more than she already felt.
Weiss ran and skidded to Pyrrha's locker, quickly typing in the combination. The locker opened, revealing Milo and Akouo shining in the moonlight, which poured in from the large windows. The heiress grabbed the weapons and closed the locker. A white glyph appeared under her feet and she flew through a few hallways, making sharp turns around the corners. When Blake was in her path, she stopped abruptly and threw the spear and shield at her teammate.
Blake caught the weapons and sprinted to where Ruby would be, using her shadow clones to propel herself forward. There were a few obstacles in her way, such as dropped pencils and a pudding cup, which was there for some reason or another. She slipped on a pencil and started to fall, gasping quietly. Blake turned around to catch herself and put a clone in her place, shooting backward.
She continued on and found Ruby, who was eagerly waiting with her hand out in front of her.
"Come on! Come on!" Ruby whispered loudly, bouncing in her spot. Milo and Akouo were thrown to her and she disappeared in a blink. Ruby got to her dorm window in a second and a half.
"Pyrrha!" Ruby called out the window, not caring if she woke anyone. "Catch!" She didn't bother to aim for her friend and threw Milo out the window.
Pyrrha had been backing away as she waited for her weapons, jumping a little when she was Milo stab the ground in front of her. She picked up her spear and her shield, which whizzed by her head as she caught it. She turned to Penny, who sent her swords after the redhead in a horizontal line formation.
Pyrrha leaped in the air and did multiple twists, evading the attack. She charged at Penny, her shield out in front of her. The swords moved in front of her, making a protective wall in front of their master. Pyrrha slowed down and moved the swords ever so slightly to make a hole big enough for her to stab Penny.
It threatened her and her friends, of course she was going to shut it down.
She drew her shield back, going for the kill with Milo pointing at her target. Pyrrha went for it, but a mere milimetre away from even touching the android, her weapon was grabbed with two hands by her attacker. Her eyes widened, but she wasn't all that surprised. The swords fanned out and Penny pulled on Milo, successfully taking the weapon and throwing it to the side. Pyrrha's head snapped in Milo's direction. It was a fair distance away and she had nothing but her shield, Akouo, in her grasp.
"I know how you fight, Nikos," Penny said darkly, her voice taking a deeper tone. "I know about your polarity."
Ruby, Blake and Weiss were watching from their dorm in horror. Did she just best Pyrrha Nikos?
"We're coming, Pyrrha!" Ruby screamed out the window, about to run for her locker to get Crescent Rose.
"No, Ruby," Weiss held out her arm to stop her. "She can do this."
Pyrrha was in big trouble, but she had a small, risky plan. She jumped onto Penny's shoulders, planting her feet into the metal, knocking the android off balance. She pushed off of her, flipping back and landing far behind her. Pyrrha threw Akouo, hoping to make a slash mark on Penny's back. Penny took the hit, the affected area making loud static noises as she turned around, sending the swords to Pyrrha in the process.
The spartan's eyebrows knitted together. She tossed Akouo to the side and held her hands out, wanting to finish the battle quickly. Penny's swords stopped suddenly, slowly turning around and stabbing the ground, cutting so deep it left just the end of the swords sticking up.
"What have you done?!" Penny shouted, clenching her fists furiously. She knew very well what she did, but couldn't help but be angry.
Pyrrha moved her hands slightly, staring straight at Penny. She was going to control Penny.
Systems disturbed. Multiple parties fighting for control over body. Overload engaged.
Penny started jerking from side to side, throwing herself in every which way. She yelped loudly with every movement, her eyes switching from black to green rapidly.
Shutting down.
Penny stopped where she was and dropped to the ground face first.
"No!" Emerald was sitting next to Cinder, shaking her fist at the woman's Scroll. "You were supposed to kill her!"
"I told you, she's really good," Mercury said haughtily. He sat on Cinder's other side.
"Quiet," Cinder mumbled, glaring intensely at the blank screen. "We have to come up with another way to get rid of them..."
"How about we don't?" Mercury suggested. Emerald sent him a look that spelled out 'Are you crazy?'. "Hear me out. We just wait until their first mission and take action when they're gone."
"Don't we get a mission too?" Emerald asked.
"We could ditch the mission, right?" Mercury asked, looking at Cinder for clarification.
"I suppose we could bend the rules," Cinder said thoughtfully, placing a manicured nail on her chin. "We accept the mission, but work on our little operation also. We'll be making progress without causing suspicion." an evil smile slowly tugged on Cinder's lips. "It's a wonderful idea..."
"So we kick Penny to the curb?" Emerald asked, a glint in her red eyes.
"No, we send her back to Atlas," Cinder said, pointing to the door. "You two, get the robot. Say you'll take care of it. I'll be waiting."