Here we are at Chapter 120. This one will take place at the same time as the previous chapter, but focusing on Amity Arena and Penny. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. I only own my OCs. Here's chapter 120. Enjoy.
Chapter 120: Amity
The Amity Arena, which was previously the main part in Ironwood's plan to reunite the world, has been sitting idle over the abandoned SDC mine since Salem's forces arrived. However, that only makes things easier for Penny, her father, and Maria in order to complete their part in the mission. While Dr. Polendina is sitting up in the center stage of the arena, Penny is down in the abandoned Dust mine, sitting in its center.
Pietro coughs a bit due to his health when Penny calls him, "Hey Dad... I'm not so sure this is such a good idea," she notes, staring at the bomb sitting at her feet.
"Well, there's a difference between a good idea, and a best idea. If we had more time, we probably could come up with a better idea. Unfortunately, time isn't exactly on our side right now. In times like these, you just have to make the best with what you've got. 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 get us into broadcasting range by themselves," Pietro moves through the arena as Maris shows up in a giant mech, carrying a cylindrical device in the mech's arms.
"Ha, good thing we're sitting on a couple hundred tons of thrust. While, it's not exactly good how all this Dust was left abandoned. First by the old explosion that killed a lot of innocent workers, and then by Ironwood. But, at least we can use the Dust they didn't take to get this thing up into the atmosphere," Maria puts the device down next to Pietro in the center of the arena.
"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. Luckily, we shouldn't have to worry about any Grimm coming at us. They're all focused on the kingdom, for better or worse," Pietro starts typing away.
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? Even after we get our message out to everyone else... there's no guarantee that anyone will come. After, this is over, there will still be much to do. When that happens, then maybe I could-"
"Penny, I've already told you, we are not having this discussion again! I'm your father, and I'm telling you that... you are needed the most here on Amity. This is where you belong right now," Pietro interrupts her, while Maria stands behind him outside the mech.
Penny looks sad, "Yes, sir," and then moves to leave the mine.
Maria shakes her head, "Don't you think she's getting tired of others telling her what to do by now?" she starts to walk up beside him.
"I'm sure I know what you're implying, Maria," Pietro tries to play dumb.
"Don't play dumb with me, Pietro. How long have we known each other?" Maria stands next to him. "I know you're worried about her. Especially after what happened to her back at the Vytal Festival. I'm glad you see her as more than some weapon or tool like so many other people have thought of her. But, if she is indeed more than just some tool. If she truly is her own person, then you have to be able to let her make her own decisions. She'll always be your daughter... but, she isn't a child anymore,"
Pietro glances down in thought, but shakes the thoughts away as he looks up, "We need to get moving. Prepare to launch, and move us into position," he turns to Maria, who sighs.
Penny flies out of the mine entrance and heads back up to Amity. For a few minutes, Penny sits on the sidelines while Pietro types away on the monitor to set things up for the launch.
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 with a hand on her shoulder. He then realizes 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 to keep him firmly planted on the arena floor while Maria laughs as she returns to her mech.
The bomb within the mine ticks away, mere seconds away from exploding. Penny helps Maria into her mech, but then they feel the arena shake a bit. Penny moves and looks over the edge of the arena, seeing a giant hole in the lower section. Popping out of the smoke is none other than Emerald Sustrai standing on top of an Atlas airship that flies into the arena.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Emerald wonders as she focuses in on Penny.
Penny looks back at her father, who quickly realizes what she's about to do, "Penny, don't do it!" he reaches out in vain as Penny flies down to face this new threat.
Penny hovers in the air above Emerald, who steps off the airship as it lands, and pulls out her pistols. Just then, the bomb within the mine explodes, causing a chain reaction of Dust explosions. The explosions give the thrusters on Amity enough power to begin pushing it up into the atmosphere, causing Penny to fall onto the floor and Emerald onto one knee.
"I was hoping Velvet Crowe would be here, but it seems like she and her friends just sent you to take care of whatever it is you're planning to do here. You're just some tool to be used, just like all the rest," Emerald aims her pistols at Penny. "Now tell me, where is Velvet Crowe?!"
Penny stands her ground, "She's not here. And I won't let you hurt her or any of my friends ever again,"
The thrusters disengage as Emerald opens fire on Penny with her pistols. Penny twirls her blades around in front of her as a shield to block the shots. Emerald's eyes glow a darkish purple and she creates an illusion of Cinder firing off a fireball from the side. Penny blocks the fireball, but the blast was real enough to push Penny back and into a wall. The illusion fades, but Emerald keeps firing bullets at Penny. However, a new shield steps in to protect Penny when Maria lands in front of her in her mech, using its arms to block the shots.
Maria takes a step towards Emerald, "Get away from her you bit-," Maria's mech gets blindsided by the airship Emerald came in on.
Emerald charges at Penny, who flies to meet the charge. Emerald swings her chained-blades around at her, but Penny spins around them, rising higher into the air before firing off a few laser shots at her opponent. Emerald evades the shots before using her semblance again to turn herself invisible to Penny. Penny looks around, only for a chain-scythe to wrap around her right ankle. She looks down just in time to see Emerald swing her around and pull her to crash onto the floor. Emerald then turns to see Maria pushing against the airship.
"Stupid, clunky machine!" Maria slowly forces the airship back before throwing it to the side. Emerald uses her semblance again to make it disappear. Maria looks around frantically, only to see it pop out at the last second as it crashes into her mech and forces it into a wall. Maria shakes her head, seeing that the mech is out of commission. She climbs out of the cockpit, only to find Neo standing before her. "And what exactly are you after, girly?"
Neo uses her semblance, changing herself into Ruby, which stuns Maria. She then grabs Maris and throws her out of the mech. However, the old huntress lands on her feet, cane in hand and smirks at the challenge.
"Come on, then. Let's see if you have what it takes to stand against the Grimm Reaper," Maria taunts her, while Neo changes back to normal and runs at her.
Seeing Neo dealing with Maria, Emerald turns back to Penny, only to find her quarry gone. She suddenly gets tackled from the side by Penny, who kicks her away before firing off more beam shots at her. Emerald rolls on the ground before jumping back on her feet and running around the shots. She fires off more shots at Penny, who flies in the air to evade them. Up top, Pietro watches the fighting go on before turning his attention back to the computer.
"Oh, God, please, no, no, no," he rushes back and taps away on the monitor. Soon enough, he gets the stabilizer working again, only to feel the arena shake again. He pulls it up on the screen, showing that the arena is slowly moving out of position. "No, we're drifting," however, he continues to try to fix the problem as he types away.
Back down below, Penny flies on the outer perimeter of the arena, with Emerald chasing after her as she fires her pistols. Emerald uses her semblance again, causing a Manticore to appear right in front of Penny. Penny freaks out and flies out of the way, only to get hit by a few shots from Emerald. Penny manages to turn around and fires off two energy blasts, one at the Manticore illusion, the other at Emerald. The illusion disappears, but Emerald manages to evade it. She swings her chain-scythes at one of the support beams and swings around into the air at Penny. However, Penny spins over her mid-air strike, and gets her from behind with her spinning blades. Emerald lands on one knee and growls as she glares up at Penny. However, Emerald then looks around and realizes that they're near the outer edge of the arena. She looks back in the direction the center where Pietro is and smirks. She uses her semblance on Penny again and disappears, making Penny gasp.
Back in the center of the Amity, Maria dukes it out with Neo. Neo jumps at her and swings her umbrella around. However, Maris simply laughs it off as she blocks each strike Neo makes with her cane with ease. Neo spin her hat around as she runs at her again. She manages to grab Maria's cane with the hook on her umbrella and swings her around into the air. However, a scythe blade pops out of Maria's cane and she latches onto Neo's umbrella, pulling herself in for a double flying kick to Neo's face. Neo nearly falls onto her backside as Maria lands on her feet behind her. Neo regains her balance and jumps at Maria again. Maria blocks Neo's attack, and then manages to hit her in the face with her cane before pulling the umbrella, and Neo, down to the ground while wearing a confident smirk.
"You'll have to do better than that, girly. You're thirty years too early to take me on," Maria notes.
Meanwhile, back up top, Pietro continues to type away, trying to keep Amity in position for the broadcast. However, his work stops when he hears some noise behind him, and looks back to see Emerald land onto the floor and starts walking towards him.
"I wonder, how well would your little plan work if I took you out of the equation?" Emerald asks as she aims her pistol at him.
Before she can get a shot off, Penny suddenly tackles her off of the arena and goes back down to the level below.
"You. Will Not. Hurt. My father!" Penny yells as she punches Emerald in the face a few times and then throws her into a nearby wall.
Penny remains in the air as Emerald slowly gets back on her feet. Her eyes glow again and she sends out a purplish mist that covers the whole area. Penny and Maria look around, finding both of their opponents nowhere to be found. Penny looks around, only to see Emerald's shadow within the mist. She fires off a powerful shot at the figure and hits them. However, when the smoke clears, she finds it's not Emerald, but Ruby that she hit and sent into a wall.
Penny gasps, "Ruby, no!" Penny flies to her fallen friend's side. "Ruby, Ruby!" she yells.
Ruby's figure suddenly disappears, revealing it to be another illusion. Penny looks around, only to find herself wrapped in the chains of Emerald's weapons. Emerald swings Penny into a wall. Maria is about to help, only to get sucker-punched by Neo and knocked out. Emerald looks as Neo pulls out her sword, about to deal the finishing blow. However, a sudden beam of energy nails her hard and sends her right into their airship; her aura depleted. Emerald looks to see Penny getting back on her feet, her Maiden powers on display. Emerald aims her pistols at her, while a storm forms behind Penny. Emerald uses her semblance to create a squad of Emeralds by her side, all with their pistols ready. The Emerald's fire their pistols, but Penny uses the power of the Winter Maiden to boost the power of her beam attack, sending out a massive blast that takes out all of the illusions and injures the real Emerald. Emerald's strength is low and she just manages to get onto one knee. She looks back at Penny and sees that she cannot win this battle. Using her semblance, she disappears and uses the chance to grab Neo and enter their airship. Before Penny can destroy it, Emerald pilots the airship and gets them out of Amity as they leave the area.
With the battle over, Penny grabs Maria and brings her up before checking on her father, "Dad, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Penny, but..." Pietro looks at the computer. "The stabilizer was damaged. We missed our window,"
Maria wakes back up and slowly gets onto her feet before joining them. Penny tries to fix things on the monitor, but it's no use. However, she still has one more idea.
"I... I can fix this. Our message is only a few minutes long. I can hold Amity in place until-," Penny begins.
"Absolutely not!" Pietro is not keen on the idea. "You're in no condition to go out there. The cold alone would be-,"
"Dad, it's our only chance!" Penny says.
"Pietro, she's right. We have to remember the big picture here," Maria says.
"I don't care about the big picture! I care about my daughter!" Pietro smashes his fist down. "I almost lost you in Vale. Are you asking me to go through that again? To simply sit here and do nothing when you could very well... No... No... I want to watch you live your life,"
Penny coaxes him to look at her with a hand on his cheek, "But Dad... That's exactly what I'm trying to do,"
With those words, Pietro finally concedes, "Okay... Okay," he holds her hand.
Penny gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead while Maria holds his hand in support. She then flies up and out of Amity and then goes straight for the damaged stabilizer. When they get back into position, Pietro immediately hits the button to send out the message to the whole world. All over Remnant, their message takes over and everyone sees it.
"...Um, uh. Hi. My name is Ruby Rose. I'm a Huntress. And if we've done everything right, then I'm talking to all of Remnant right now. Dr. Polendina can explain more later, but right now you all need to know that the Kingdom of Atlas is under attack," they watch their pre-recorded message go out.
All over the world, from Mantle, to Mistral, to all the corners of Remnant, their message is getting sent to everyone. All of their friends and allies, from Sun and Neptune in Vacuo, to Ilia and the Belladonnas, to Saphron and her family. Everyone.
"Things are dire, and we need help. But please, try not to panic. This isn't some new enemy or invading Kingdom. This is a force we've faced before, for centuries… Salem. The White Fang, Atlesian drones, even the Grimm themselves have all been controlled and manipulated by her, in order to tear down the Huntsman Academies. I know the idea of the Maidens and Relics seems… well… crazy, but I promise Professor Goodwitch of Beacon and Headmaster Theodore of Shade can verify all of this. They might even be able to help organize a way to fight back. But sadly, General Ironwood can no longer be trusted. But despite that, you must know that we haven't given up hope. Because that is precisely what Salem wants. For us to fight with each other, and lose hope. That's what happened at the Fall of Beacon. It wasn't Atlas that attacked. It was her. She wanted to divide the kingdoms at the Vytal Festival, which was created to bring us together. We didn't have time to prepare for Salem. But now you do! Just because she can't be destroyed, doesn't mean she can't be beaten. We proved that when we stopped her attack at Haven Academy. Salem may be immortal, but she is NOT invincible. She can fail, and she has in the past. When we stand together, united, she can't stop us. And that is what she's afraid of. If she really was unstoppable, she wouldn't have acted with such caution until now,"
Inside the Schnee Manor, Ruby, Velvet, Blake, and Weiss are sitting against Weiss' bed, with Weiss holding a sleeping Nora while Blake plays the broadcast on her scroll, and Ruby leans against Velvet as they watch the message.
"Salem knows we're a threat. That is why she does what she does. She sends her followers into the kingdoms to slowly tear us apart from the inside out, to divide and weaken us. Only then does she make her move. But, now she is out in the open because she knows that won't work anymore. She has a massive Grimm horde here, but still, we will never give up. So even if we- even if Atlas falls, you can't give up... I hope Amity Tower will help bring us all together. Because in the end, that's how we'll win-," but then the message stops and they lose the signal.
Outside, something happens to Penny as her eyes keep changing colors, and something appears to be happening with her systems.
"Penny? Penny, is everything alright?" Pietro calls out.
"Dad, something's... wrong. I don't know," Penny tries to fight it.
"Penny, that's enough sweetheart. Just come back inside and we'll ride Amity out of here together!" Pietro pleads.
"No, I can't... The vault. I... I have to g-Argh, NO!... Dad," Peny then shuts down and begins falling from Amity through the atmosphere.
"Penny? What's going on? Please, tell me what's happening. Penny?!" Pietro calls out.
A moment later, "...I love you..." and then the signal cuts out, much to his horror.
"PENNY!" Pietro shouts into a coughing fit. "Penny... no," he cries, while Maria can do nothing but stand by his side for support.
And that's the chapter. Now we know what happened at Amity. Penny managed to beat back Emerald and Neo and get the message out to the world, but at what cost? Will Penny be alright? Will help come thanks to the message? Until then, please Read and Review.