Author's Headnote: This is going to be a story with Penny as the main focus/protagonist. It's basically going to be the story of her life, from start to finish, with also a few backstory given to some major characters around her. I want to make it clear that this is not an Alternate Universe. All the events of the canon will/have happened here save maybe for a very few minor detail. Also, i am not a native speaker and i am doing this as an exercice to practice my english, so dont be too harsh on me for the grammar mistake i made, but feel free to signal them if they really are too annoying.

Penny and the Puppet Masters

Chapter 1:

White Corridors

It all began with a great flash of white light, and a faint smell of vanilla tea.

For a moment, everything remained calm. Nothing but the distant noise of a conversation and the regular beeping of a nearby machine, whose purpose was unknown to her, broke the silence. Penny slowly opened her eyes to life, and lost herself in the contemplation of the roof for several minutes.

It wasn't exactly a very interesting roof, to be honest. White, pure, and clean, just like the rest of her equally uninteresting room. Most people would have stopped looking at it after a few seconds, arguing that they had better things to do than to stare blankly into the void. But "most people" aren't born two minutes ago and as such, they don't have to deal with the disturbing and nearly indescribable feeling of suddenly existing from out of nowhere as a fully developed person. "Most people" start up in life as an ugly blind baby and they develop from there, slowly discovering and mastering the multiple functions of their body until they turn up into half-functional adults like the rest of us.

Penny, however, was an android shaped like a young woman and that meant she now had to deal with an overwhelming cascade of feeling, thought, and sensation, without any time of adaptation granted to her. The dryness of the room, the contact of the blanket on her skin, the blinding light projected by the neon, the painful sensation produced by a drop of boiling vanilla tea on her cheek

A wind of perplexity arose in the observation room, as scientists and technicians started to wonder what exactly was going on. Her body was active, all the sensors indicated that her aura was stable, so why exactly was she not moving?

While everyone was running around, searching for an answer and being productive, Doctor Arthur Watts sipped another drop from his cup of vanilla tea to cover up a grin of satisfaction. So far, the experiment was a complete disaster, which was everything he had ever hoped for. Watts was a tall, slender man with brown hair, brown skin, and an evil mustache. Like everyone else in the room, he wore a white lab coat, the main purpose of which was to look swag, considering he was the headmaster of the Computer Science department.
"Pietro, my dear friend, I think I owe you an apology. It turns out I was wrong..."

The Doctor Pietro Polendina did not pay any attention to the hyena masquerading as a human being that claimed to be his collegue, all his attention focused on his monitoring screen. Pietro was nothing like his rival. Sure, he was a tall, slender man with brown hair and brown skin, but the resemblance stopped there. Unlike his counterpart, he had no evil mustache, but a big, sexy chad beard in its stead. He was also buffer, with way more muscle and way less jerkiness.

"... You did manage to create artificial life, after all. A perfectly functional vegetable. Truly, it s a resounding success for you and your team. The Council will be pleased to know all those millions of Liens were not spent in vain."

"Silence, Watts."

Amused by the command, Watts chuckled.
"Oh, don't worry, Pietro, i will stop talking. I m just going to sit here and watch in silence as your career disintegrates."

Unfortunately for Doctor Watts, and gladly for the rest of Remnant, the problem was quickly identified. As it turned out, people are not made in one day and Penny would have to learn how to deal with life step by step like everyone else. Without surprise, Pietro volunteered to take care of her, but his suggestion was overruled by the high ranking military officers who had backed up the project from the start. They decided to keep the young android under surveillance within their reach, arguing that such a dangerous weapon could not be allowed to run around the world freely.

The first years were relatively easy: teaching her how to walk, talk, behave, brush her bolts, wash her hair, eat properly, update her database, respect the elders... It was like raising a small child, except she weighed 300 kilograms, had a body of steel, the ability to fly, and enough strength to send you into orbit if you tell her to go to bed when she doesn't want to. Penny grew up to be an energetic but lonely child. Kept hidden inside a secret military bunker buried deep in the bowels of the Atlesian military complex, she was never given an opportunity to interact with other children. Growing up in this maze of white corridors populated by stern adults and soulless automatons quickly took a toll on her social interaction skills, making her awkward, secretive, and shy around strangers.

Doctor Pietro, seeing that the child was getting more and more introverted as time went on, tried everything he could to shake the rigid Atlesian bureaucracy and make them accept a more sensible policy regarding the education of what he now fully considered to be his own child. Alas, the system was now in place and nobody wanted to expose his neck by defying openly the will of the Council. Officially, Penny was not a human, but a weapon and the property of Atlas. She would not be allowed to interact with children who could accidentally trigger her, and she would certainly not be allowed to leave the vicinity of her bunker until she had been deemed combat-ready, for that would be a clear breach in security protocol.

And so life went on, with it s up and down and overall emptiness. Penny was young , naive, and she did not had any element of comparison to realise exactly how dysfunctional her childhood was. When interrogated, she would usually answer that she was quite happy with her predicament, and that would be it. Sure, it wasnt exactly the most exciting existence, since she spent most of it following boring lessons and being admnonished for her lack of attention, but it was her life, and she had been given no reason to feel dissatisfied about it...

...Yet.

Meanwhile, somewhere else inside this gigantic mess of white corridors, pawns were moving, negociation were made, and greedy asshats were develloping stupid plans under the interested eye of a corrupted crowd.

"...This will be a revolution. Remnant will never be the same after this . Ladies and Gentleman, allow me to present to you..."

Jacque Schnee pushed a button on his remote, and an hologram representing a giant mining complex materialised at the center of the reunion room currently filled with military officer, politician, buisnessman and scientist leader.

"...Project New Draconnia."

Jacque Schnee smiled victoriously at the crowd. It was a man of stature, tall and alluring, who wore an elegant white jacket perfectly matched with the color of his skin and hair. The only flaw in his perfect appearance was his evil mustache, but in his defense, evil mustache had always been considered to be quite fashionable among the atlesian elite. Actually, most of the people in this room, including some women, wored one.

"...A few weeks ago, a scouting expedition financed by the Schnee Dust Compagny was launched deep into the unexplored wasteland of Remant's fifth continent. And though the casualty were catastrophically high, they managed to come back with vital information that will completely change the face of our world. For you see, honorable citizens of Atlas, deep within the surface of the Cursed Continent of Draconnia lies..."

He marked a dramatic pose.

"...Money."

Enthusiastic yelling and cheering erupted into the crowd. Many people started clapping. Shots of approval were fired into the air by some of the officers present in the room.

"This guy knows what's up!"

"Shut up and take my political support!"

"What a coincidence, i just happen to be in need of money!"

"Lieutenant Ironwood, call in the airfleet! Tell them it's time for some intensive carpet bombing!"

Calm and triomphant, Jacque Schnee raised his hand and asked for calm. he then proceeded to expose the entirety of his plan.

"Dust money, to be precise. The biggest, largest reserve of Dust in the world, according to our intelligence. And it's right there, snap in the middle of this unclaimed, tottally defendless landmass. After some intense brainstorming, the Schnee Dust Compagny has devised a very clever strategy to make us all filthy rich. A plan that will recquire the full support of the Atlesian Army. Let me..."

Jacque stopped talking in the middle of his sentence, and frowned. Forever the mood killer, Lieutenant Ironwood had risen up from his seat, a disaproving grin plastered on his face.

"Forgive me to interrupt you in the middle of your speech, Mister Schnee, but with all due respect, i think i already have some heavy objection to your proposal. First off: The Cursed Continent of Draconnia wears this nickname for a reason. It's a dangerous place filled with the strongest, nastiest type of Grimm, and purging it even partially would recquire an intense military effort that could drag on for decade. Secondly, the Atlesian army is already deployed across our kingdom to hunt down Grimm, and if we remove the troops necessary to support your mining project, our safety as a kingdom might end up being compromised. Third point: i dont like the way you talk of us, as if the Atlesian Army was just a minor branch of the Schnee Dust Compagny created to serve your interest. We are not. And frankly, i fail to see why exactly we should send our brave soldier to die on a foreign continent, just so that the SDC can add a few zero to her balance sheet."

There was a sound of dropped mic, followed by a long periode of uncomfortable silence. Everybody stared at Lieutenant Ironwood, the rising start of the Atlesian Airfleet, an absolute chad of a man gifted with the physic of an olympian god. Wait, did i said he was a man? He wasnt a man. He was a moutain, a colossus of unwavering charisma, who radiated authority from every orifice. People looked pale and tame in his presence, as if they were standing next to a being of divine nature. For some reason, there were always two nerds crawling at his feet, following him everywhere and licking his boot whenever an occasion was presented to them. At first disconcerned about that fact, people now simply just rolled with it.

"...Gosh, Ironwood, way to ruin the party."

"...Wait, so we aren't actually just a branch of the Schnee Dust Compagny?"

"This is why we never invite him to our illuminati roleplay session."

"Stop bothering us with fact, Lieutenant, we have politics to do."

"Anyway, about that Draconnia Project..."

And so, the Draconnia Project was adopted by the Atlesian elite, and the opinion of Lieutenant ironwood and his supporters was sidelined.