Here we are at Chapter 72. Sorry about the late update. Had stuff to take care of this past weekend. Anyway, time to see how Ruby's group are handling things with their mission in Atlas. I do not own RWBY or Transformers. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 72. Enjoy.
Chapter 72: Bug in the System
Up in the Atlas military compound, Ruby's group make use of the tubes as their point of entry. Fortunately, the military isn't monitoring them, so they get in without being noticed. Unfortunately, the ride isn't exactly a smooth one, which some members of the group can attest to.
Soundwave comes out of his tube while holding Laserbeak in his arms, "Ugh, by the Pit, I think I would've been better off just flying up to Atlas myself, the shields be scrapped," Laserbeak squawks in a daze, while Soundwave looks like he always does.
The next one to come up is Shockwave, "I saw the logic in Miss Schnee's plan for gaining entry into the military compound... but, I wasn't expecting the trip to be unpleasant. Reminds me of that time when I had to share an escape pod with Starscream on our way to Cybertron's surface," he notes while Ruby comes up next, stumbling until May and Penny help to steady her.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" they all look to see an angry Weiss pulling on Nora's ear. "Oh, come on. That was a once in a lifetime experience!" Nora defends herself until Weiss painfully releases her ear. "Ow," Nora rubs the ear.
"Experience? You could've caused serious harm to Lady Weiss with that stunt. Try something like that again, and I'll give you a whole new lifetime experience to partake in. My way," an angry Dreadwing warns her.
Weiss sighs, "Calm down, Dreadwing. We need to focus on the task at hand. Let's go," Weiss starts walking ahead while fixing up her hair with the others.
"You okay, Soundwave?" Ruby asks her silent guardian, and he simply nods. "Guess nothing phases you much,"
"So, which way do we go?" May asks.
Shockwave hits a few buttons on his gauntlet, and pulls up a map of the compound, "While I was working with Arthur Watts, I took the liberty of downloading the schematics and plans for Atlas military installations and technology. This map will show us the way. I can guide us to our target destination. If you will be so kind as to follow me," Shockwave begins leading the way while the others follow him.
"Cool, I was about to scan the compound and point the way with a bunch of lefts and rights. You're pretty handy, Shockwave," Penny smiles, but Shockwave merely nods in response.
To ensure they don't get spotted, May uses her semblance to create a field around them, essentially making them invisible.
"Make sure to stay within the field, got it?" May tells them before they move on.
Following Shockwave, they move through the halls and some rooms of the compound before coming onto an elevator. Once inside, they take it up to the floor they need to reach. However, as the elevator goes up, it suddenly stops on a floor several levels below theirs. Worried about getting spotted, the group back up as far as they can into the elevator before the doors open (good thing the elevator has a lot of space), and soon enough, they do and reveal two Atlas soldiers walking inside.
"I don't think even the squad captain knows what's going on right now," one soldier notes, hitting a button for a floor above the group's intended stop. "I heard we sent out scout ships into that big, dark storm to gather more intel, but they get shot down the second they get anywhere near it. Those Grimm have it locked down tight, surprisingly. I'm almost afraid to think about what else could be hiding in there besides that massive Grimm we saw fly in,"
"Honestly, I don't know what scares me more: seeing that huge army of Grimm with the big one at the front outside out kingdom's shields, or the fact that they haven't so much as sent one Grimm in to attack the shields. I mean, our shields are strong, but I don't think they could withstand a full-scale assault from a Grimm army that size for long. What could they be waiting for?" the second soldier wonders.
"Hopefully, the General will have a plan to deal with them. No way a Grimm army that size would just show up the way they did, only to go right on back wherever the Hell they came from without so much as a fight. Grimm aren't like that," the first soldier notes.
Soon enough, the elevator stops on the group's floor. Staying quiet, they sneak around the soldiers, still invisible, and exit the elevator, but not without Nora smirking as she hits all of the buttons on the elevator. They leave the elevator, and the two soldiers who notice all the buttons lit up before the doors close on their confused faces. They eventually reach one door, only to find that they can't get inside without security codes for clearance. Luckily, Penny easily handles that part by popping a plug from one of her fingers into the terminal, using her father's security codes to gain access.
"Okay, so far, so good. Where do we go next?" Ruby asks.
"To reach our destination, we must go through the central command center," Shockwave points ahead.
The next set of doors open up, revealing a large room filled with Atlas military personnel and computers, much to the group's dismay.
"There's no way I can sneak us through all of that. Shockwave, couldn't you have found another path to the terminal without having to go through all of this?" May asks.
"This is the only path that leads to the terminal. Remember that it's a terminal that only General Ironwood normally uses, so of course it would have to be reached through the central command center," Shockwave replies, making May groan a bit.
"So, how DO we get through?" Weiss asks.
"Oh, that's easy," Penny steps right in front of them. "Ruby can help us with that. She can travel at extreme velocity from one point to another by breaking her body down to its molecular level. This negates her mass, and she is able to reassemble herself at the next destination without any harm to herself or others. Ruby is thus capable of transporting all of us in the same way since mass no longer matters to her," she smiles at her explanation. But, it seemed to only go in one ear and out the other for Ruby as she stares blankly in confusion. "You can use your semblance on all of us," Penny's much simpler explanation helps piece it together for Ruby.
Weiss leans close to Ruby, "Did she actually figure out your own semblance before you did?" she gives her a deadpan look.
"Weiss, she figured out Blake was a Faunus before I did!" Ruby retorts, making Weiss smirk a bit.
"Okay, but we'll still need some kind of distraction to take all those eyes elsewhere and give us the opening we need," Dreadwing notes.
Just then, the comms come on, "A security threat has been detected in the compound. Status level 3 – red. Lockdown initiated. Authorization to use lethal force for any potential threats granted," a recording of Ironwood's voice goes off, and the people in the central command get more riled up a bit.
"And our window just got a whole lot smaller," May notes.
Shockwave hits a few buttons on his gauntlet, "It seems the tubes have been sealed. We won't be making our escape through that route. I could bypass it, but that would take time which we don't have,"
"Which means we're stuck in here with the Atlas military everywhere," Blake notes.
"There is a hangar not far from our original route. However, if we leave now, then it's highly logical that they'll increase their security here and we'll never be able to get those codes," Shockwave notes.
Ruby looks back through central command, "But, how will we get through all of that?"
Soundwave notices one military personnel walking by and sends out one of his tentacles, keeping it low to the ground. It gets close to the man's leg and quickly trips him up, causing him to fall forward while spilling his coffee all over a co-worker and his monitor which starts going haywire. That one employee screams and races out of the room in agony.
"Are you serious, Bill?! Read the sign, man! Read it!" another co-worker points at a "no food, no drinks" sign on the wall.
This causes a ruckus with the rest of the staff, giving the group the opening they need. Ruby uses her semblance on everyone and flies through the air until they pass everyone and reach the door to Ironwood's personal terminal. Ruby takes a few breaths from having to move so many people around.
"Alright, let's move on," Dreadwing walks ahead like nothing happened, as do the other former Cybertronians, except for Laserbeak as Soundwave has to hold him.
"Again, next time, I'll just fly here all by myself," Laserbeak squawks.
Walking down a bridgeway, they come across a door with a forcefield in front of it. Shockwave works his magic, and sure enough, the forcefield comes down and the doors open up. They find an empty room with Ironwood's terminal in the center in the back, with several smaller terminals on its flanks.
"Shouldn't there be more people here too?" Weiss wonders as she looks around.
"This area is highly classified. The only ones usually allowed in here are General Ironwood and a few other high-ranking officers in the military," Penny explains as she walks to the terminal. They all reach the terminal and Shockwave sits down in the chair. He gives a nod to Penny, who takes a deep breath. "Okay Dad, I'm ready,"
A few noises are heard before she gives control of her body to her father on another end.
"Ahem, this process is a little complicated, but I think you'll be able to handle it, Shockwave. Still, I'll be here to provide support when needed," Pietro's voice is heard coming out of Penny's mouth.
"Uh... what?" Ruby and some of the others are confused by the scene.
"Interesting. I've gone through Penny's schematics since they were in the military's records, so I'm not all surprised by this. You certainly thought her design through, Dr. Pietro. If Dr. Watts saw this, he'd most likely be letting his jealousy get the better of him right now. But, enough of that. Let's begin. The rest of you, please wait until we have finished," Shockwave begins typing on the terminal.
While Shockwave and Penny/Pietro work on the terminal, the others hang back around one of the smaller terminals and talk.
"With the two of them working on this, we should be done here, and then we'll head out from the hangar and get out of here," Weiss notes.
"Hopefully, Yang and the others are making progress with their mission down in Mantle. Who knows what possible problems they might be dealing with down there," Dreadwing crosses his arms.
"...Megatron... Predaking... with them..." Soundwave's visor goes off.
"Soundwave's right. Yang is a super tough fighter, Megatron is a former gladiator champion, Predaking is, well, a king. Blake is as swift with a sword as they come, Jaune's really come along since Beacon, Oscar's no longer some random farm boy, and Ren is... well, Ren is..." Nora's jolly mood sours when she mentions Ren, which the others notice. "...Honestly, I don't know what Ren is right now... Everytime I think we're making progress, he just... We've been together our whole lives. When we first met, I was already out on my own on the streets as an orphan. Before Beacon, there was no one else. It was just the two of us. But now, I feel like I know less about him than I did that night all those years ago, and I don't know if that's his fault or mine," Nora lets out her inner troubles.
"Fighting side by side with someone for so long creates that kind of connection. It was the same with my twin, Skyquake. Even though we were millions of lightyears away from one another, I still felt it in my spark when he awoke from stasis, and when his spark was extinguished. We were brothers, but we were also individuals. We were in many ways alike, but also in many ways, different. They are a part of you, but not all of you. The rest is yours and yours alone. Never forget that," Dreadwing explains.
Nora lets out a bitter chuckle, "Heh-heh, I actually have no idea who I am... without Ren... Pretty sad, huh?"
"Then maybe, you can take this opportunity to find out. Find out about the things that only Nora Valkyrie can do," Weiss tries to support her.
Nora grunts a bit, "Like what? Be strong and hit stuff? I think our alien friends here have that field pretty much covered," her mood hasn't gotten much better, which worries the others.
Weiss is about to comfort her friend when they hear beeping from the terminal and walk over to see how's it going.
"We're downloading the cloned imprint now. When Penny gets to Amity, we'll run the launch sequence. Amity's computer terminal will try to connect to Ironwood's terminal, but ge Penny instead," Pietro explains through Penny as Penny downloads the imprint needed for the launch.
Once that's finished, he gives Penny control of her body.
"And after the launch, I'll return to help all of you with the evacuation," Penny says.
But her father thinks differently, "About that Penny, when Amity goes up, I think you should be up here with Maria and I," this makes the others look concerned for Penny.
"But, the others need me," Penny turns to them. "...Right?"
Despite her hopes, they don't exactly agree with her, "Well, if you stay far enough out of Salem's reach, she can't open the vault," Ruby says.
"Maybe... it is for the best," Weiss agrees somewhat.
Shockwave steps up, "We will discuss this later. I believe it would be more logical to focus our efforts on leaving this place as soon as possible," and turns to the door.
They walk to the door, "I guess... we all have to do some things... we would rather not..." Penny goes to open the door.
However, when they open the door, they find the Ace Ops, minus Clover, on the other side.
"Hello, kids," Harriet 'greets' them with an angry expression, as does Elm, while Vine looks indifferent, and Marrow looks saddened by this situation. "Time to come home now, Penny,"
The group quickly draw their weapons, "You really think you scare us, especially after how you lost to us so easily last time," Dreadwing taunts them.
"We were holding back," Marrow retorts.
Vine tries to deescalate the situation, "We have all said things that we regret, but please hear me out first. I know you were only doing what you thought was right when you left with the Maiden power, but Salem is here. Things have changed,"
"...Leaving Mantle to die... The right thing to do would be to stand our ground...You can't just give up without a fight..." Soundwave's visor goes off.
"Soundwave's right. If Ironwood still wants to leave Mantle to die, then nothing has changed," Penny stands with him.
"Listen, this is a war, and our enemy is here now-," Vine begins.
"And that makes it okay to sacrifice hundreds, thousands, of innocent people. I've seen what happens when leaders make those kinds of choices in war. It never ends well. Not for them, nor for anyone else. I made plenty of poor decisions in war before... And I refuse to make that same mistake again," Dreadwing notes defiantly.
Vine sighs, "I thought your duty was to protect the people, not hurt them," he looks at Penny.
Penny is taken aback, "I would never hurt them,"
"Well, Winter is in critical condition...because of you," Elm spitefully retorts.
"And you repaid her by taking the power that was rightfully hers," Harriet adds.
"And who decided that? General Ironwood? Give it to someone that he can easily control. General Ironwood's goal is to save Remnant. I fail to see the logic of saving the world by leaving it to fall apart, piece by piece," Shockwave retorts.
"Ironwood is doing what he has to in order to save Remnant. Because of you, people in Atlas and Mantle are going to die," Harriet steps forth.
Marrow tries to calm things down, "Please, Penny, you can still fix this. Just open the vault, hand over the relic, and you can save Atlas,"
"And what about Mantle?" Ruby asks, prompting Marrow to look away, unable to meet her gaze.
"The General says he's trying to save Remnant... But, there is point in saving the world if you have to sacrifice who you are to do so. There is no honor in that. No victory in it. The way we win matters just as much as winning itself, if not more so. If we end up becoming the monsters we swore to defeat, then we don't win this war; we only succeed in prolonging the chaos," Dreadwing says.
"Please, you don't have to do this. You know that Ironwood has lost it if he thinks that destroying Mantle is the way to save Remnant," Ruby says.
"One more word out of you, and I'm locking you up right next to your uncle, runt," Harriet threatens her, angering Ruby at the mentioning of her uncle being locked up.
Penny steps forth to defend her friend, "Leave them alone,"
Penny, Soundwave and Laserbeak, and Shockwave step forth, but then Harriet hits a button on her scroll, causing the doors behind them to close, separating them from the rest of the group while the shield activates. They look back at the door before turning back to face the Ace Ops, with Penny activating her Maiden powers. Shockwave makes the first move by firing his cannon at the Ace Ops, forcing them to scatter as they attack the group. They charge at the group, but Penny uses her powers to halt their advance with a strong gust of wind. Marrow and Harriet get blown back, while Vine and Elm use their semblances to hold themselves down. Laserbeak flies on the currents of wind and fires a few shots at Vine, forcing him to dodge them only to get clawed at his face by Laserbeak's claws as he flies by, making him fall back from the wind. Soundwave swings along the railing with his tentacles, coming in from the side to attack Marrow with his blades. Marrow blocks the strikes with his boomerang, while Harriet comes in for Soundwave's rear. However, Soundwave ducks under a thrown punch and back-kicks her away and fires his gauntlets at both of them, forcing them back. Meanwhile, Vine goes for Penny, only to have to dodge another shot from Shockwave's cannon.
Vine sends out one of his semblance arms to grab his cannon arm in an attempt to pull him away, but the scientist surprises him by overpowering him and pulling him in close, smacking him away with his cannon and freeing himself. Elm twirls her hammer around to swing down on Penny, but Penny deflects the strike with her swords and spins them around in the air, forcing Elm back. Elm switches her weapon into its rocket launcher form, but Penny knocks the weapon up, causing it to misfire, and then blasts Elm away with a close-range blast to her chest. Harriet sees Elm having some trouble and decides to help with their main target while Marrow deals with Soundwave. Marrow throws his boomerang at him, but Soundwave rolls under it and makes a few sword swings at Marrow, who tries to dodge them. The boomerang comes back around, but Soundwave backflips over it, causing it to miss before being caught by Marrow, However, the second he does is the second that Laserbeak flies in and slices at his back with his sharp wings. Soundwave sends out his tentacles to shock Marrow before throwing him near his allies. Meanwhile, Vine takes out a disk-blade weapon and jumps into the air to attack Shockwave. However, Shockwave doesn't wait for him to come down and blasts him with a cannon shot, sending him into the wall above the locked doors.
"For those said to be the best huntsmen in Atlas, your movements are too predictable," Shockwave shakes his head as Vine gets back on his feet.
Inside the other room, the others try to break through with Weiss' Armas Gigas summon and Edom's skulls, but the field destroys them each time they touch it.
"Isn't there any way we can help them?" Weiss worries.
"We won't be able to help them much until we find a way past this forcefield," Dreadwing notes.
"Don't worry, Penny is the Winter Maiden and Soundwave, Laserbeak, and Shockwave are with her. They can handle themselves. But, we definitely have to find a way out of here, and quickly," Ruby looks all over the door covered by the forcefield.
Nora steps up to the door, "We have to get out there," she stares at the door and gets a crazy idea. "...Be strong... and hit stuff," she takes out her hammer.
"Nora, wait!" Weiss tries to stop her, but Nora already hit the door with his hammer.
The electricity moves from the hammer to her, and she uses her semblance to charge up her strength. The power of the field is so strong, that it pushes her beyond her limits. The electricity leaves scars reaching all across her body. On the other side of the door, Penny and her friends have the Ace Ops on the defensive. But, Soundwave and Laserbeak look back when their sensors pick up something behind them. Nora screams as she swings her supercharged hammer around and smashes the door in a huge explosion.
Soundwave uses his tentacles to grab the others in that same moment to pull them to the ground. The explosion knocks the doors off their hinges and sends them flying into the Ace Ops. The combatants get up and look back at Nora, her hair sparking from her semblance.
"That was... pretty awesome..." Nora's aura then gives out and she collapses onto the ground, passed out.
"Nora!" Ruby shouts when she and the others kneel beside her.
Just then, Harriet gets a call, "Sir... But, General, we-,"
"We understand, sir," Marrow stops her.
While the others protect Nora, Penny's group charge at the Ace Ops. Vine sends out his semblance arms to grab them, but Shockwave and Soundwave stop them while Penny and Laserbeak fly right by. Marrow fires off his rifles at Laserbeak, forcing him to fly up into the air to evade the shots. Vine swings his arms wide, sending Soundwave and Shockwave over the side, but Soundwave swings by with his tentacles and grabs Shockwave in mid-air before flinging themselves back up. Penny swings her swords and Elm as she blocks them with her hammer. She makes a few swings at Penny to force her back, allowing Harriet to zip around her with her semblance and grab onto one of her swords. With a strong enough pull, she snaps the string and takes the sword from Penny. As Soundwave and Shockwave land and they all regroup, the Ace Ops suddenly to a reversal and all jump off the side of the walkway, though Marrow glances back at them sadly for a moment before leaving like the rest.
"What... was that about?" Ruby wonders.
Penny and Shockwave check on Nora, "We can worry about that later. We must vacate this place immediately," Shockwave says.
With Dreadwing carrying Nora and Weiss her hammer, they make their way to a hanger, only to find it empty aside from a few airships.
A sudden whistle rings out, "You coming or what?" they hear May's voice and move to find her concealing herself and an airship. "Alright, you guys ready to-," she stops when she sees Nora.
"She's in bad shape. We need to find somewhere safe for her," Ruby says.
Penny looks ahead and activates her semblance. A moment later, they break through the compound and high-tail it out of the area.
"I'm so, so sorry," Penny helps lay Nora down gently. With the mission done, Penny looks sad for what comes next. "It is time for me to go now, isn't it?"
Ruby hugs her friend, "Don't worry. We'll see each other really soon. I promise," and she holds her tighter.
Penny looks at her friends, seeing them offer her supportive smiles to Ruby's words. May opens the cockpit door, and Penny gets ready to leave.
"...Hold on...," Soundwave visor goes off and stands up. "...Coming with you..." he nods as does Laserbeak.
"Soundwave..." Soundwave looks to Ruby. "Be careful," she pleads, and he nods.
Penny eventually nods and grabs onto Soundwave before taking off into the air towards Amity with Laserbeak flying with them while the others search for a place to lay low for a while and to heal Nora.
And that's the chapter. Sorry for the late update again. Had some things to take care of. Ruby's group succeed in their mission, but not without cost. Now they must find a place to hideout while tending to Nora's injuries. Meanwhile, Shockwave goes to Amity with Penny. Will the next step in their plan go more smoothly? Or will something else get in the way? Until then, Please Read and Review.