Decided to rip Centuries apart and post the chapters I had as separate oneshots.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.
"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the grand final match of the Vytal Tournament! Please give it up for Pyrrha Nikos, and Penny Polendina!" The crowd roared in response as the two girls entered the arena, Pyrrha waving at the crowd and Penny giving a small wave of her own to Team RWBY. Once the pair reached the centre of the arena Pyrrha extended a hand to her opponent. Penny looked at the outstretched hand curiously for a moment before smiling and reciprocating the handshake. Penny noticed the other girl blink in confusion once their hands made contact, but the amazonian girl shrugged after a moment.
"May the best girl win." Pyrrha stated with a smile, releasing Penny's hand and retreating to her designated starting point. Penny nodded and did the same, moving back and unfolding her back panel to release her blades. Once they were several dozen meters apart both girls turned to face one another. Pyrrha set herself into a fighting stance, Akouo in front of her body and Milo ready at her side. Penny on the other hand simply stood casually, waiting for the buzzer to sound.
'I will make you proud, father.' Penny thought to herself as the loudspeakers signalled the start of the match.
Both girls watched the other, Pyrrha scrutinizing Penny from a distance while Penny waited for the redhead to make the first move. Neither so much as blinked as they stared each other down, watching for any twitches or signs of movement.
Pyrrha acted first, swapping Milo to rifle mode and firing a volley of bullets at the mechanical girl. Penny flicked her hand and her swords sprang to her defence, deflecting the bullets harmlessly to the side. The redhead frowned as she switched Milo back into spear form and began slowly circling around the side of the arena, carefully making her way towards the android. Penny kept her eyes trained on the warrior as she slowly approached, watching for any tells from the other girl. Once she was about 20 feet away Penny saw the other girl's legs tense, seeing the attack coming a fraction of a moment before it happened. As Pyrrha charged her, Penny held her ground and flung two of her blades towards the other girl. Much to her confusion however, the swords veered slightly off course and missed the girl by a narrow margin. Penny frowned.
'Did I miss?' She asked herself as she brought another pair of swords up to block a thrust from Milo. 'I've never missed before... I might have to run another diagnostics check after this match.' Penny continued to parry strikes from Pyrrha's spear, but all the while she felt a strange tug from her swords, as if they were struggling against her. They were moving just a bit slower, not always going exactly where she told them to go. Penny was nothing if not precise, and noticed every time her swords would move just a fraction of an inch away from where she'd intended. Furrowing her brow, she spun her blades in front of her like a saw blade and lashed them towards the redhead to give herself some more breathing room. Pyrrha jumped back a few feet to avoid the metal cyclone and Penny fixed her gaze on the amazonian fighter once more.
'I do not understand, why is this happening?' Penny wondered as the two girls returned to circling each other. 'Wait a second, I'm such a dummy! I forgot to find out what her semblance was! How could I be so careless!' She quickly scoured her memory for any info on the girl in front of her, but unfortunately came up empty. 'Strange. She must be hiding her semblance for some reason. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to figure it out myself. Okay, here we go!' Tensing her legs, Penny sprang towards her opponent, swinging several blades at the girl at varying angles trying to trip her up. All of the blades deviated mid-swing though, and were easily deflected by Akouo. However, Pyrrha hadn't noticed that Penny had kept charging, swiftly pulling her shield up and digging in her heels to block the fist rocketing towards her face.
A deafening clank of metal striking metal resounded throughout the arena as Pyrrha was flung backwards several meters, tumbling through the air and landing roughly on her side with a look of shock on her face.
'Okay, so it's not telekinesis, otherwise she would probably be flinging me around the arena.' The mechanized girl thought to herself. 'Some kind of repulsion field? No, that can't be it either, or it would have resisted my punch. Hmm.' Penny broke herself from her thoughts and charged Pyrrha, who was just getting to her feet, and flung a few of her blades at her from either side in an attempt to trap her. Once again, the swords shot harmlessly past her, but their wedge pattern had forced her to approach Penny to avoid them, leaving her in a perfect position for another haymaker.
...or so she though. Pyrrha had anticipated her strategy and ducked her head out of the way just in time and, utilizing the momentum of the heavier than average machine girl, yanked her arm and pulled her over her shoulder in a judo toss. With her new opening, Pyrrha wasted no time in pressing the assault on her downed opponent and tried to slam the edge of Akouo into Penny's exposed throat. The android had little time to react, but managed to pull her hands up in time to catch the edge of the shield. As Penny pressed against the metal, the felt an immense force pressing down on the shield, far more than the amazonian girl should have been able to exert in her current position. She had no leverage, and nothing but her weight and gravity to press down with. Strong she may be, but she doubted that the warrior was hiding that much excess weight anywhere in her rather minimalistic outfit.
'Where is all this excess force coming from?' She thought as she pulled a few of her swords towards Pyrrha to try to take some of the pressure off. It worked, as the amazon had to focus on avoiding the blades allowing Penny to land a kick on the back of her head. Caught unawares, Pyrrha was momentarily dazed and Penny quickly pressed upwards against the shield, slamming it into the girl's face. Both girls quickly put some distance between each other and took a moment pick themselves up. Penny took a quick glance toward the scoreboard and found that both of their auras were hovering around the halfway mark, with Pyrrha being slightly better off.
'That took a lot out of me.' Penny frowned as she tried to read the other girl, who was already up and in a defensive stance. Flicking her wrist to retract her blades, she waited for the other girl to make a move, but after a few moments without any motion, Penny deduced that Pyrrha was now on the defensive in an effort to preserve her slim lead.
'Wait a second...' The ginger-haired android's mind was racing, trying to get an edge on the extremely talented warrior on the other side of the arena. 'She can affect her metal shield and my steel swords, but not my titanium alloy body... Titanium isn't magnetic, but steel is. I wonder if that's it, something to do with magnets? If that's it, then that means I can't rely on my blades this time. I'll have to get up close and personal.' With that in mind, Penny retracted her swords and began approaching Pyrrha once more. The redhead tensed at her approach, but once more stood her ground.
Penny lunged forward and unleashed a flurry of jabs once she was in range, laying into Pyrrha with renewed vigour. The redhead blocked the majority of the strikes and managed to get a few hits in on her opponent, several kicks and jabs with Milo. Akouo took the brunt of Penny's assault, innumerable metallic clangs resounding throughout the vast stadium and several dents starting to show. The android began mixing in kicks and flashy flips, finding a rhythm and pressing her attack. Part of her combat training had involved downloading and practising the movements and techniques for many martial arts, and the extent of her hand-to-hand combat knowledge was on full display.
Movements from various styles flowed into one another, keeping Pyrrha from catching her breath. The redhead was no stranger to close-quarters combat, but she relied heavily on being able to manipulate her opponent's weapons. Even fist fighters like Yang generally had some sort of weapon she could shift as necessary, but with her opponent not utilizing her weapons she was now at a disadvantage. Every attempt to mount a counterattack was stymied, the android's martial arts prowess exceeding her own. Managing to block one of Penny's kicks with Akouo, Pyrrha leapt away and switched Milo back to rifle form, taking up a firing position and unleashing a hail of bullets at the android.
Unable to pull her blades back out in time to deflect the incoming barrage, Penny twisted and leapt to avoid as many bullets as she could, but several managed to strike her, draining her aura. Finally managing to release her blades, another glance at the scoreboard showed that both her and Pyrrha's auras were down to critical levels. The next big move would probably decide the match. Pyrrha seemed to have seen the scoreboard too, and was back to analyzing Penny and waiting for an opening.
Penny paused for a moment as her mind raced, trying to come up with a way to close out the match. Getting in close was too risky when her aura was this low. There was still a chance that Pyrrha could exploit a mistake and take the match. She also couldn't close the match out from a distance, because she couldn't actually hit Pyrrha with her blades.
'Well I could try using my laser. That would probably end this.' She thought to herself as she eyed the other girl. 'I don't want to hurt her though. Maybe a reduced power could still get the job done. 25% should be just enough to drain her remaining aura.' Adjusting her laser's output internally, she returned to flinging blades at the girl while approaching, hoping to keep her off balance. Pyrrha deflected all of them with minor difficulty and returned to her defensive stance. Observing the scattered swords, Penny flicked her wrist and returned to her bladed assault while slowly approaching her opponent. All the random angles made it a bit harder to deal with them, but Pyrrha still managed to avoid all of them.
Suddenly, Penny twitched her fingers and sprinted forward, sweeping all of her blades simultaneously in a fan motion towards Pyrrha's legs. The redhead had no choice but to jump away backwards, going airborne for the fraction of a moment Penny needed to predict where she would land. Following through with her swing, Penny's fingers flicked again and the swinging blades curled into a cylinder. Pulling her arms back, a green glow appeared in front of her and she lined up the shot at where Pyrrha would me in a few milliseconds. Once charged a sufficient amount, she thrust her arms forward and let the blast loose. Pyrrha saw the beam coming a fraction of a second too late, her foot meeting the ground again just as the blast collided with her chest.
A loud buzzer announced that Pyrrha's aura had dropped to a critical level and the match was over. Loud cheers could be heard from Team RWBY, but the rest of the crowd devolved into restless murmuring, none of them expecting an upset like this. 'The Invincible Girl' defeated by an unknown girl that came out of nowhere? Nobody knew who this girl was, or where she'd come from, and she had just defeated the undisputed champion of Mistral?
Penny paid no mind to the discontented murmurs and quickly made her way over to her downed opponent. Waving away some of the lingering dust, she reached her hand down towards the redhead who was just pushing herself into a sitting position. Pyrrha glanced up at her with a look of slight shock on her face. Blinking several times, she shook her head and accepted the outstretched hand offered to her. Penny quickly pulled Pyrrha to her feet, throwing the still slightly dazed girl back off balance. She would have fallen if Penny's other hand hadn't shot out to catch her. Pyrrha blinked again before noticing the look of concern on the android.
"Are you okay? Are you able to stand?" Penny questioned, worry evident in her voice. "I didn't overdo it, did I?" The mechanized girl's mind filled with concern, glancing all over Pyrrha for any signs of injury. Pyrrha simply waved her hand in front of her.
"I'll be fine," the redhead dismissed, "just kind of worn out. Think you could help me to the locker room, though? That match took a lot out of me." Penny allowed a smile to form on her face at that.
"I would be delighted!" She replied, pulling the amazonian girl's arm over her shoulders to support her, and began to make her way to the exit. Seeing the show of honour and sportsmanship, several members of the crowd began clapping. Slowly, the noise spread into a crescendo, and soon the entire arena was filled with applause as the pair made their way through the exit.
Penny and Pyrrha entered the locker room to a plethora of congratulations, praise, and questions from both Team RWBY and Team JNPR. Ruby waited until Penny had let Pyrrha down on one of the benches before nearly tackling her with a hug.
"Ohmygosh Penny, you were so cool out there!" Ruby exclaimed, releasing the girl and performing several wild hand gestures. "You were all like, wha-cha, and Pyrrha was all like hiya, and then your were just like wha-chow! Then you went all pshoo! That was so awesome!" Penny giggled slightly at Ruby's antics, along with Yang, who gave the android a rather firm pat on the back.
"She's right slugger, ya did good out there." The blonde commented, giving the new champion a large grin. "That match was intense. Right down to the wire." Yang gave her a solid lump on the shoulder. "So, how does it feel to be the champ?" The android shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"I'm not sure." She responded after a moment. "My main purpose was to train for and participate in the Vytal Tournament, but now I don't really know what I'm going to do." The blonde hummed for a moment before shrugging.
"You don't need to worry about that right now. Just revel in the moment, and celebrate the fact that you just won the biggest combat tournament of the year." Penny nearly jumped when she felt something make contact with her backside, and whirled around 360 degrees to find the culprit before receiving a laugh and a wink from the blonde brawler. "Don't be so tense, the match is over. We're all friends here. Loosen up." With that, Yang moved to talk to Pyrrha, being replaced by Weiss.
"That brute is right, you fought very well." The frosty heiress admitted after a moment. "I've never seen someone able to go toe-to-toe with Pyrrha in close quarters combat, much less trump her." Penny beamed at the praise from the normally stoic girl.
"Thank you very much Weiss! You did very well too!" Weiss folded her arms and sighed in response.
"Not well enough, it seems." she replied, before giving the android a small smirk. "You won't get so lucky next time though. I'm going to be training and next tournament will be different. You'd better be ready." Penny returned the smirk and saluted.
"I'm always combat ready!" Penny stated, dropping the salute. The shorter girl rolled her eyes.
"Riiight." Weiss paused before speaking again. "You know... if you want, you could come spar with us sometime. I doubt the rest of the team would mind, and it'd be interesting to see for myself what you're capable of." At that, Penny beamed at the heiress, who cocked an eyebrow.
"Do you really mean it? Would that be okay?" The heiress gave her a wary look before slowly nodding her head. Penny giggled in glee and picked the heiress up in a hug. "That would be senSATIONAL!" Weiss struggled against Penny's iron grip, but to no avail.
"Put me down this instant!" She cried, helpless to stop the much stronger girl from swinging her around. After a moment, the android finally did relent and lowered her to the ground. Weiss huffed before brushing off her skirt. Penny gave the heiress an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry Weiss, I didn't mean to get so excited. I don't really have many friends, so that just made me very happy." The heiress sighed at the apology.
"It's... fine." Weiss muttered. "Dust knows I get ambushed enough by the little red dolt over there to be used to it by now. Just try to keep your enthusiasm in check." Penny nodded before being roughly slapped on the back. Turning her head, she found herself face to face with a rather bubbly looking girl with orange hair.
"Aww, princess, don't try to hog the champ all to yourself!" The new girl scolded Weiss lightly before turning back to the android. "Hey there! My name is Nora, nice to meet ya!" Penny smiled at the rambunctious girl.
"My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!" She replied. Nora's grin grew wider.
"That fight was so awesome!" She exclaimed. "Pyrrha's like, really good, so that makes you, like, super really good!" The android couldn't help but chuckle as Nora pointed over at the two boys near Pyrrha, whom Penny had not met yet. "Those two guys over there, along with Pyrrha, are the rest of Team JNPR. The blonde one is Jaune. He's the team leader. And that cool guy over there with the magenta streak in his hair is Ren. Me and him have been together, like, forever. But not, you know, TOGETHER together. That would be weird. Anyways, you should totally come hang out with us sometime! We could paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" Penny beamed at the talkative girl.
"That sounds wonderful!" The android replied. "I would love to!" Nora grinned again and was about to reach into her pocket before she hear Ruby clearing her throat.
"Alright everybody, listen up! Who's down for going out to a restaurant to get some dinner, and to celebrate the end of the tournament? We all worked really hard to get here, and now I think we deserve a reward." She paused for a moment, and when no one declined she clapped her hands together. "Alrighty then, let's get out of here and get some food!" The group mumbled in agreement. Nora elbowed Penny lightly in the rib area.
"Gimme your scroll number later so we can hang out." Nora whispered. "I'll give it to the rest of the team back at our dorm." Penny smiled once more and nodded her head before Nora bounded off towards Ren.
'Is this what it is like to have friends?' Penny mused to herself as the large group moved to the exit door. 'This feels nice.'
"And Weiss is paying!" Yang yelled as they filed out the door. Said girl's eyes widened.
"What?!"