Here we are at Chapter 130. Time to see how things are going for Voskie'ahk and Penny on their end of the mission. I do not own RWBY. They belong to their roosterteeth. I only own my OCs. Here's chapter 130. Enjoy.
Chapter 130: Message to the World
At the Amity coliseum, which has been hovering over the launch site, abandoned by the military, Dr. Polendina sits up top near the tower with Maria and Voshkie'ahk, while Penny is down in the abandoned Dust mine.
Pietro has another coughing fit when Penny calls him, "Hey Dad... I'm not so sure this is such a good idea," she and Voshkie'ahk sit in the center of the mine, with a bomb at their feet.
"Well, there's a difference between a good idea, a bad idea, and a best idea. Unfortunately, we don't have much choice right now. We have enough systems and resources up here to broadcast across Remnant, and keep the tower afloat up in the atmosphere. Sadly, our thrusters don't have enough thrust power with what we have available to get us up there by themselves," Pietro moves through the arena as Maris shows up in a giant worker mech, carrying a cylindrical device with her.
"Ha, good thing we're sitting on a couple hundred tons of thrust. Luckily, that moron Ironwood didn't think to come back here to take whatever Dust was left in the mine," Maria puts the device down next to Pietro.
"Once we've reached the necessary broadcasting range, we'll activate our stabilizers, re-establish global communications, and send out our recorded message to the rest of the world," the smaller section of the arena hovers up like back at the Vytal Festival as Pietro works on the device to set it up. "After that, heh-heh, we'll just ride Amity all the way out of this mess,"
Down in the mine, Penny gets ready to leave after arming the bomb, "But, what if no one is able to come and help Atlas against Salem? If I stay behind, then maybe I could-"
"Penny, we are not having this conversation again! I'm your father, and I'm telling you that... you belong here in Amity," Pietro shuts her down, while Voshkie'ahk and Maria watch with concern.
Penny looks sad, "Yes, sir," and then moves to leave the mine.
Voshkie'ahk walks up beside Pietro, "How long are you going to keep doing that?"
Pietro looks at her, "Doing what?"
"How long are you going to keep her like some bird in a cage? All her life, Penny has been TOLD what to do with everything she does. By Ironwood, by Winter, by the Atlas military... and by you. When does Penny get to make her OWN decision? I've seen the look in her eyes, and that is the look of someone who only wants one thing... Freedom. And that is something you keep taking away from her," Voshkie'ahk tells him spitefully.
Pietro looks away, unable to answer before he shakes his head, "We need to get moving. Prepare to launch, and move us into position," he turns to Maria.
Penny returns to Amity, and sits off to the side with Voshkie'ahk while Pietro and Maria get things ready.
"You may not believe it, but I understand what it's like... to not have a say in your own destiny," Voshkie'ahk says.
Penny faces her, "What do you mean? You've always been able to go where you want and do what you want. I mean, you're such a skilled huntress,"
Voshkie'ahk sighs, "That's the thing, Penny. I never wanted to be a huntress. I always wanted to be a dancer. But, then Salem came, and my family was gone. There must always be a warrior in the Ryu bloodline. It's always been a family of warriors. I thought I was all that was left. I had to keep the family legacy alive. Yes, I've become strong as a warrior, and yes, I've been able to find my family again, and help people, and I'm become a skilled warrior, met Tiamat, met the love of my life, Yukari, and so many other things. But... honestly, while I can say that it was my choice, the truth is... that there was never a choice to make. Maybe one day, when all of this is over, I can try again. I'm not saying I regret the path I walk upon now, because I don't. I'm just saying that for now, until that day... this is my only path," she looks at her cards.
"One day, you'll be able to have the life you wanted, my child. You just have to keep going and never give up," Tiamat encourages her.
Penny doesn't know Voshkie'ahk like the rest of her friends do, but here, she can feel a sense of understanding with her. Penny takes Voshkie'ahk's hand in her own, a show of comfort and support.
"I'm sorry, Voshkie'ahk," Penny says.
Just then, Pietro finishes up on his end, "All systems are online and ready. Penny, if you will," he calls out. The girls get up and join them. "Amity is requesting launch access... now," Pietro finishes typing away. Penny takes a moment and then connects with the system, allowing the stabilizers to activate. "Yes, it worked!" Pietro and Maria cheer, but Penny is less enthusiastic, and Pietro tries to comfort his daughter, but then remembers something. "Oh, uh, I didn't have time to install seatbelts, so you might want to hang on to something," he activates some gravity Dust in his chair while Maria laughs as she returns to her mech.
Down below, the bomb ticks away as it gets ready to blow. Up top, Penny helps Maria into the mech, but then the arena shakes and they look back to see a random fireball fly by. They look to see a hole below and Cinder emerging through while riding an airship.
"And where do you think you're going?" Cinder asks as the airship flies around.
Penny looks back at her father, "Penny, no!" Pietro tries to stop her, but it's no use.
Penny flies down to face Cinder, who is more than eager to meet the challenge. Just then, the bomb within the mine explodes, causing a chain reaction of Dust explosions. The explosions give the thrusters on Amity enough juice to begin propelling it into the atmosphere, causing Penny to fall onto the floor and Cinder onto one knee.
"I was hoping your little friends would be here. But, it looks like they left all the dirty work to you," Cinder uses her power to conjure up a large number of swords around her. "You're just a tool to be used!"
"You do not know what you are talking about!" Penny retorts.
The thrusters disengage, and then Cinder launches all of her swords at Penny. Penny spins her blades in front of her as shields, but she still gets pushed back up against a wall. However, Maria lands in front of her, using the mech's arms to protect Penny.
Maria approaches Cinder, "Get away from her you bi-," and then she gets blindsided by the airship, with Neo as its pilot.
Cinder charges at Penny, who meets the charge, only to fly right past her. Cinder growls as she kicks off the wall to go after her, while Emerald watches her go before turning her attention to Maria and Neo.
"Stupid, clunky machine!" Maraia manages to throw Neo's airship to the side. However, when she looks back, the airship has disappeared. She looks to the side and spots Emerald, using her semblance on her. The airship pops out again and rams into her mech, slamming it into the wall. Maria opens up the cockpit, only to find Neo standing before her. "And what do you want?"
Neo uses her semblance and changes into Ruby, spooking Maria. However, Neo gets hit by a lightning Dust card and gets sent flying back. Maria looks to see Voshkie'ahk walking by her.
"Take care of Emerald. I'll deal with Neo," Voshkie'ahk pays her little mind as she faces Neo, who is back in her normal look. "Well, well, well, I was hoping to settle the score with you, Neopolitan. Time for some payback for last time," Voshkie'ahk takes out her cards.
"This won't go like last time. Just be wary, my child," Tiamat says.
Neo runs at her, while Voshkie'ahk throws out a few ice and fire Dust cards in return. Neo manages to evade them and gets close to attack with her umbrella. Voshkie'ahk brings out some more cards to block her umbrella. Neo twirls in the air as she makes a few more strikes with her umbrella, but Voshkie'ahk blocks them all before making a spinning back kick at Neo's stomach, knocking her back. Voshkie'ahk throws her cards up and reforms them into her dual swords. The two girls charge again, with Neo thrusting the blade out of her umbrella at Voshkie'ahk. Voshkie'ahk parries it with her left blade and makes an upward swing with her right, spinning around to make two more slashes with here card swords. Off to the side, Emerald watches and prepares to help Neo, only to get kicked in the face by Maria and slams into a wall.
"You've got your own problems, little girl," Maria challenges her.
Emerald growls as she pulls out her pistols. Up top, Pietro watches the fighting before going back to the computer.
"No, no, come on, please," Pietro types away and manages to get the stabilizers working again. "Yes!" but the joy is short-lived when the screen shows that one stabilizer is damaged from Cinder's entry, and that they only have three minutes left before they miss their window. "We're drifting," Pietro mutters before he starts typing away again to fix the problem.
Outside the arena, Penny flies around with Cinder hot on her tail. Cinder uses her powers to send out blasts of fire with her swords, while Penny evades them and counters with her energy beams. The pair fly up, now over the roof of the coliseum. Penny flies around one structure, and Cinder changes her blades into her bow form, readying three arrows. When Penny comes back around, Cinder fires off, but Penny narrowly evades them. However, the arrows hit the roof and explode, causing the arena to shake. Seeing that avoiding the attacks won't help, Penny changes course and flies away from the arena, leading Cinder away from it. Cinder throws some fireballs at her, but once again, Penny evades them. However, Cinder soon realizes her plan and stops, prompting Penny to do so. She looks back at Cinder, who's looking at the arena before she smirks at Penny, and then flies right back at it. Gasping, Penny gives chase to try and stop her.
Back inside the arena, Neo flips in the air to land a drop kick on Voshkie'ahk, who twirls around it and deflects two strikes from Neo's umbrella with her card swords. Neo tries to grab at her ankles with her umbrella hook, but Voshkie'ahk backflips and throws the cards of her left blade at Neo. The cards were gravity Dust cards and when they explode, Neo finds herself pinned to the ground. This gives Voshkie'ahk the chance to make a spinning hook kick to her face, followed by a backflip kick that knocks her back. Voshkie'ahk finishes it up by throwing out the cards from her right sword, which were earth Dust cards. They explode into spikes of rock, but Neo manages to dodge them.
Back with Maria, Emerald fires off her pistols at her, but Maria twirls her cane around to block them and engages the scythe blade in it. When she gets close, Emerald tries a swing with her pistols' blades, but Maria jumps over them and kicks her in the face. She lands and hooks her blade around Emerald's ankle, flipping her around and onto her backside. Meanwhile, Pietro continues his work, but the arena shakes again and he looks back to see Cinder melting the support beams around him, causing it to shudder.
"No!" Penny flies in and fires off a few beams to force Cinder back and they have an aerial standoff. "Why are you doing this? Why serve someone like Salem?" she asks.
"I don't serve anyone! And you wouldn't either if you weren't built that way," Cinder retorts.
"That is not... I CHOOSE to protect people, people who care about me," Penny argues.
The arena groans again, and Penny stabs her blades into the floor to pull it up while using her Maiden powers to freeze the support beams to keep them from breaking. However, Cinder uses this opening to charge at Penny, clamping onto her and trying to grab her face with her Grimm arm. Penny continues to try and freeze the support beams while holding Cinder off, but Cinder uses her semblance to break through and grabs Penny's face. She starts absorbing her powers, but Penny uses her power to create several ice swords to separate them and then kicks Cinder back into a wall while she falls to the floor with her swords. Maria looks back at this, only to look back and find Emerald gone. She looks around, but then gets blindsided by a kick from Emerald into a wall because of her semblance. Emerald looks back and Neo's fight with Voshkie'ahk, and sees Neo getting pushed back as Voshkie'ahk as several cards flying around her now to block her attacks. Neo pulls out her thin blade and makes a pair of slashes followed by a thrust at Voshkie'ahk's face, but Voshkie'ahk deflects them all and manages to get a few hits in across Neo's body with her cards after sharpening them with her semblance. Emerald uses her semblance to make Neo disappear. Voshkie'ahk glances with a glare at Emerald.
"Still using the same cheap trick. You really are a one trick pony," Voshkie'ahk activates all her floating cards, which happen to be wind and lightning Dust cards, and creates a electrical vortex around her to blow away the illusion, bringing Neo back into full-view.
Penny then takes that chance to fire some blasts at Emerald, forcing her to jump into the stands and take cover. With her cover blown, Neo looks back to see Voshkie'ahk spin several more cards around at her. Neo backflips and jumps away to evade them, but Voshkie'ahk throws an ice Dust card at the ground where Neo lands, thus slipping and losing her balance. Voshkie'ahk uses this chance to throw out a few more fire Dust cards at Neo, which explode upon contact and send Neo crashing into her airship as her aura depletes. With one threat down, Penny goes back into the air to face Cinder. Cinder creates a long spear, and then Penny sees multiples of her appear around her. Penny uses her powers to create a storm behind her to charge herself up. Voshkie'ahk looks up and spots Emerald using her semblance and throws a pair of lightning Dust cards at her, shocking Emerald and sending her flying back. Cinder charges just as the illusion fades, and Penny blasts the real Cinder into a wall, taking out her aura and making her pass out from the pain.
Emerald manages to get back up and sees this, "Cinder!" Emerald rushes to her side, while Penny hovers over them, and Voshkie'ahk goes to check on Maria. Emerald turns around to fire a shot off that Penny dodges, though it almost hits Pietro, which angers Penny. "I know I can't beat you, nor all of you by myself. But, I can fill that thing full of holes before you take me down," she threatens the computer module.
Penny relents and stays her blades, just as the arena shakes again. Emerald carries the unconscious Cinder to the airship with Neo, and they make a hasty retreat. The others regroup with Pietro at the module.
"Dad!" Penny runs and kneels before her father. "Are you okay?"
Pietro is happy that his daughter is fine, but he still sighs, "The stabilizer was damaged. We missed out window," he shows the computer, showing that the broadcast signal was lost.
"No, we can't have failed here. We were so close," Voshkie'ahk laments.
Penny runs at tries to work on the computer, but the arena shakes again, "I... I can fix this,"
"How?" Voshkie'ahk asks.
Penny turns to them "Our message is only a few minutes long. I can hold Amity in place until-"
"Absolutely not!" Pietro forbids it as he walks up to her. "You're in no condition to go out there. Even just the temperature out there alone-,"
"It is our only option," Penny argues.
Voshkie'ahk stands with Penny, "Pietro, she's right. We have to do this, or else everything else will be-,"
"I don't care about everything else! I care about my daughter!" Pietro shouts out, making everyone hang their heads in sadness. "I lost you once before. And now you want me to go through with that again? No... No. I want the chance to watch you live your life," he takes off his hat.
Penny rests a hand on his cheek, "Dad... then please let me live," she pleads.
Pietro sees that he won't change her mind, and holds her hand in his, "...Alright,"
Penny lovingly kisses him on the forehead. Maria and Voshkie'ahk stand with Pietro in support of both of them.
Voshkie'ahk hands Penny a pair of her cards, "Wind Dust cards. They won't last long, but they'll help give you an extra push since you're not at full strength,"
Penny is pleasantly surprised by the gift, "Voshkie'ahk..."
Voshkie'ahk smiles, "I know that we haven't known each other for very long, but you helped me brother in so many ways. You're his friend... and you're MY friend. That's what friends are for,"
Penny smiles, "Thank you, Voshkie'ahk," and then flies up into the sky.
She looks down at the city and then into the night sky before she flies down and starts pushing against the damaged stabilizer. She uses her powers and kicks her thrusters into overdrive, which gets the arena into position. The second she does, Pietro hits the switch. The message gets sent to everyone in Atlas, Mantle, and all across Remnant, showing Ruby and Khazhak in the video.
"Hello, my name is Ruby Rose. I'm a huntress," Ruby begins.
"And my name is Khazhak Rairyu. I'm a huntsman," Khazhak adds.
"If we've done everything right, then we're talking to all of Remnant right now. Dr. Polendina can explain more later, but you all need to know some things," Ruby says.
"Right now, this very moment, the kingdom of Atlas is under attack. Things are getting bad, and we need help. Your help," Khazhak says.
"But, please, try not to panic. This isn't some new enemy or invading kingdom. This is an enemy we've faced before... For centuries... Her name is Salem," Ruby adds.
All across Remnant, people what their message. From Saphron, Terra, Adrian in Argus, to Ilia and Blake's parents in Menagerie, to Neptune and Sun in Vacuo.
"Salem is the queen of the Grimm, but the Grimm are not the only things she's manipulated. The White Fang, the Atlas machine soldiers, the attacks on the academies and the Vytal festival, have all been because of her. So she can tear down the huntsmen academies, and then the kingdoms. All so she can get her hands on the Four Maidens of the seasons, who actually exist, and the relics beneath the academies," Khazhak continues.
Penny decides to use Voshkie'ahk's cards and they blow gusts of air against the arena to keep it in place.
"We know that all of this may sound crazy to you, but we can assure you that Professor Goodwitch at Beacon, and Headmaster Theodore of Shade can verify all of this," Ruby says, as the shopkeeper in Vale turns to a stunned Professor Goodwitch who watches her students on the screen.
"Listen to them and they may be able to send help fight back against Salem. However, you should know that General Ironwood can no longer be trusted. We weren't prepared to fight Salem at the Fall of Beacon, but you all have that chance to be prepared. Salem may be immortal, but she is not invincible. We've proven this when we stopped her forces from destroying Haven Academy like they did Beacon. She can be beaten. Salem is not unstoppable. She uses others, works from the shadows, and with great caution until now. The reason for that is simple: she FEARS humanity. She is afraid of how strong we become when we all work together. Because she knows she can't stop us, so she tries to divide us and get us to destroy ourselves and do her dirty work for her. That is why you must know that even if Atlas falls, you must NEVER give up. You must keep moving forward, and fight together, no matter what," Khazhak adds.
Just then, something happens to Penny as her eyes flash red for a moment, and she loses focus and falls off of the stabilizer. However, she regains control and flies back up to push Amity again.
"Penny? Penny, what's going on down there?" Pietro calls out.
"Argh, I... I don't know," Penny replies.
"I hope Amity tower will bring us all together. Because, in the end, that's how we'll win-," and then their message goes out as it happens all over the world.
"Penny, that's enough. We got the message out now. Just come back inside, please!" Voshkie'ahk pleads.
"No, I can't... The vault. I... I have to go. Argh, no!... Dad," Penny suddenly shuts down and falls through the atmosphere from Amity.
"Penny? What's happening?! Please, say something!" Pietro shouts out.
"...I love you," Penny replies before the comms go out.
"Penny!" Pietro yells in vain before coughing, and then crying as Maria hugs him for support. "Penny... no,"
Voshkie'ahk slowly steps back in shock. She clenches her fists and then takes off running.
Maria looks back and realizes what she's doing, "Voshkie'ahk, no, it's too dangerous!"
"Not again... Not again," Voshkie'ahk mutters as she reaches the edge of the arena.
"Whatever you're about to do, I'm with you all the way, my child," Tiamat says.
Voshkie'ahk jumps off the edge and brings out a few Dust cards. She uses earth and ice Dust cards to create a shield for her descent, and wind Dust cards to propel her down to the planet as she chases after Penny.
…
Down on the surface, Yang's group watch the message go out, "That was our message. Why did we lose signal?" Yang wonders as they all check their scrolls.
They hear some noise outside and open up the door to find Lloyd and Porphyrius approaching.
"Porphyrius, Lloyd, what are you-," Jaune stops when he sees Lloyd's scared face. "Lloyd..."
Porphyrius and Lloyd get off the hover-board and Yang immediately hugs her boyfriend, "What happened to you guys?!"
"Kamir'ahk attacked us. He said that you guys went outside the city," Porphyrius notices that Oscar isn't there. "Where's... Oscar?"
The others look away, "It was a new type of Grimm. One we've never seen before. It took Oscar... most likely to Salem," Yang says.
"What?" Lloyd asks, but then they feel a slight shake in the ground behind them.
They quickly move to scope out the scene, and eventually come upon a river of black ooze.
"What... the Hell... is this?" Porphyrius mutters.
Just then, they see a Grimm head pop out of the river before falling back in, which horrifies them.
"It's... Grimm... A river of Grimm..." Porphyrius notes as they look to see the river heading in one direction. "And it's heading straight for the kingdom..."
And that's the chapter. I wanted to create a few moments between Penny and Voshkie'ahk since they've never spent much time tgoether. Anyway, Penny and Voshkie'ahk beat back Cinder and her group, and get the message out to the world, but at a cost as Penny now falls to the surface with Voshkie'ahk going after her. Lloyd and Porphyrius reunite with Yang's group, but now find a new threat in a river of Grimm heading for Atlas. Will Voshkie'ahk save Penny? What new threat awaits out heroes in this river of Grimm? Until then, please Read and Review.
