Here we are at Chapter 74. Time for more action and suspense as Ruby's group try to get their message out to the world. I do not own RWBY or Transformers. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 74. Enjoy.
Chapter 74: Spread the Word
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, Soundwave, and Laserbeak, 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," Penny notes as she sits in the center of the mine, with a bomb at her 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 with what we have available to get us up there by themselves," Pietro then looks at Soundwave. "Are the primary communication systems all set?" he asks, and Soundwave merely nods as confirmation. "Alright, then that just leaves us our little launch issue," Pietro moves through the arena as Maris shows up in a giant worker mech, carrying a cyclindrical device with her.
"Ha, good thing we're sitting on a couple hundred tons of thrust. I guess we can thank the Grimm for keeping Ironwood occupied enough that he hasn't taken out the rest of the Dust here," Maria puts the device down next to Pietro and Soundwave.
"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 Maria watches with concern, and Soundwave and Laserbeak glance at one another.
"You know, when are you going to let Penny make her own decisions? Hasn't she been told enough times to do something that someone else wanted her to do instead of herself?" Maria asks.
"If I may, Dr. Pietro," Pietro and Maria turn to Laserbeak on Soundwave's shoulder. "We know what it's like not being able to make our own decisions. While he may have once been on the council back on our world, Soundwave ultimately was not able to do much that he wanted to do. Especially when it came to fixing the corruption within his home and helping his people progress to a new dawn. But, when he left the council, took an oath of silence, and became a gladiator, those were all HIS choices. Penny is your daughter and you are worried for her. I can respect that, as does Soundwave, but the more you try to control her, the more you'll only push her away,"
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 flies up from the mine and returns to Amity. Pietro and Soundwave work on their computers to finalize the systems for launch.
Soundwave is the first to finish his side, "...All systems... Prepared... Activate..." his visor goes off.
Pietro nods as he finishes up on his end, "All systems are online and ready. Penny, if you will," he calls out before Penny joins 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 you would be here, you damn doll, though I was also hoping for Ruby to be here too. 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 changes her appearance to a smirking Ruby, spooking Maria. She then grabs and throws Maria out of the mech, but Maria lands on her feet and smiles as she wields her cane against Neo who attacks her. Meanwhile, Penny gets ready to fight Cinder, only for a missile to fly out at her, forcing her to jump back before it hits the ground and explodes. She looks up to see Starscream flying over her.
"You won't be so lucky like our last encounter, you pathetic heap of sl-ARGH!" Starscream gets shot down and hits the ground. When he looks up, he sees Soundwave land in front of him with his blades out. "Soundwave?! What are you doing here?"
"...Protect... my friends..." Soundwave's visor goes off.
Starscream gets back up, "I'm actually surprised you would stray away from your precious Silver-Eyed pet, but no matter. I've got a few scores to settle with you as well. Might as well while I have the chance," Starscream takes out his sword at flies at Soundwave.
Soundwave rolls back as Starscream flies over him and kicks him up into the air, followed by firing off a few shots at Starscream that hit. Starscream corrects himself in mid-air before using his semblance to create two clones to attack Soundwave. 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 with Soundwave, the two clones fire their rifles at him while the main Starscream attacks with his blade. Soundwave swiftly dodges the shots while parrying Starscream's sword. The two clash their blades, but Starscream smirks when one clone gets an angle and prepares to fire. However, he gets shot in the back of the head, and looks back only to get clawed in the face by a passing Laserbeak. The second clone tries to shoot him down, but Laserbeak evades the shots as he flies towards Soundwave and Starscream. The second clone aims and fires as Laserbeak flies behind Soundwave, and Soundwave leans his head to the side, causing the shot to hit Starscream in the face. This gives Soundwave the chance to get a few sword strikes in, followed by grabbing Starscream with his tentacles and swinging him into the first clone as he gets near. The second clone fires his rifle at Soundwave, but Soundwave jumps over the shots and then activates his semblance, sending out a resonance blast across the area. Starscream and the clones fall to the ground as they cover their ears, and even Neo gets distracted enough for Maria to kick her in the head from the side. 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.
Back in the other fight, Starscream and his clones regain themselves and prepare to face Soundwave again. They all fire their rifles at him, but he charges at them as he evades the shots. When he gets close, his three opponents bring out their swords to strike down Soundwave, but Soundwave slides under all of them while sending out his tentacles to shock the two clones until they disappear.
Starscream gets livid, "Why couldn't you have just stayed in that damn phantom zone where you could never get in my way again?!" he flies at Soundwave again, while Soundwave simply awaits his approach.
"...Soundwave superior. Starscream... Inferior," his voice stuns Starscream enough to throw off his focus.
Soundwave deflects Starscream's blade while spinning around, grabs the back of his neck and throws him to the ground. He then makes a spinning hook kick across his face, and finishes it up with a wide slash across Starscream's chest that sends him flying into a wall as his aura depletes. Meanwhile, Maria continues to duke it out against Neo, but as Neo flips into the air to throw an axe kick on Maria, Laserbeak lies in and his her leg, throwing her off as she falls to the ground. Maria takes this chance to hit her in the face with her cane, followed by Soundwave looking over and firing off a shot that knocks Neo into the airship they came in on, taking out her aura.
Laserbeak lands on Soundwave's shoulder, "That was underwhelming," he notes.
With that done, Penny turns to face Cinder again. The two Maidens fly into the air and Cinder creates more blades to launch at Penny. Penny creates a storm that sends out a burst of lightning to block all the blades. She looks around, seeing that Cinder has vanished. Cinder attacks her with a long spear at her back, but Soundwave fires off a few shots to halt her attack. Penny turns and fires off a huge energy beam a Cinder, forcing her to a wall while taking out her aura and knocking her unconscious.
Starscream gets up and sees this, "Lady Cinder! No!" he flies over to her and sees that she's alive, but knocked out. Starscream growls as he turns towards them, "I will make you suffer for that!"
"No, you won't," they all hear a new voice and look up to see the masked figure break through the ceiling while riding a Cyber-Teraptor and landing near him. "We are returning to Salem. Now," he orders him.
"But, the Winter Maiden is here. We can't let them do whatever they plan on doing-Awck!" Starscream suddenly holds his head as pain consumes it.
"Return to the Monstra. Immediately. Or suffer for your disobedience," their benefactor commands them.
As the pain subsides, Starscream has no other choice. Grabbing Cinder and Neo and hoisting them into the airship, they take off into the skies, while the figure glances back at Soundwave before taking off himself on his Cyber-Teraptor. Though they were both confused and freaked out by what they saw, the group gather around Pietro since they have more important things to worry about.
"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.
Penny runs and tries to work on the computer, but the arena shakes again, "I... I can fix this,"
"How are you going to do that?" Maria 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-,"
"Pietro, please, we have to think about the bigger picture he-," Maria begins.
"I don't care about the bugger picture! I care about my daughter!" Pietro shouts out, making everyone hang their heads in sadness aside from Soundwave and Laerbeak. "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 gently cups her father's cheek to get him to look at her, "But Dad... I am trying to,"
Seeing that he can't stop her, Pietro concedes and holds her hand, "...Okay," he tries to smile.
Penny lovingly kisses her father on the forehead before Maria stands next to Pietro for support. Penny looks and nods at Soundwave, who returns the gesture, and then flies up out of the arena. She looks down at the kingdom and then into the night sky before flying down and pushing against the damaged stabilizer. She uses her powers and pushes her thrusters to their maximum in order to get the arena back into position. She second she does, Pietro hits the button. The message they made then gets sent to everyone in Atlas, Mantle, and even all across Remnant, showing Ruby Rose standing before them.
"...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, everywhere.
"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, and Weiss are sitting against Weiss' bed, with Weiss holding a sleeping Nora while Weiss plays the broadcast on her scroll. Shockwave and Dreadwing watch from the side as they glance up into the sky.
"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..." her message goes on.
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, sweetheart. We'll ride out Amity together!" Pietro 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,"
Laserbeak and Soundwave glance and nod to each other before they race out of the arena.
"Soundwave? Soundwave, don't do it! It's too dangerous!" Maria calls out to no avail.
Soundwave reaches the edge and jumps off without hesitation. Laserbeak flies up and around to grab onto Soundwave's back with his claws and extends his wings while Soundwave takes out his arm blades. The pair starts gliding through the air towards Penny to try and save her.
…
Meanwhile, back in the tundra, Megatron's group watch as the message goes out.
"That was the message! Why did we lose the signal?" Yang asks as he checks her scroll.
"Do you think something happened?" Blake asks.
However, before anyone can answer her, they feel a slight shake in the ground around them. They quickly move to scope out the scene, and eventually come upon a river of black ooze a short distance away from the outpost.
"What... manner of dark magic... is this?" Predaking mutters as he stares at the black river.
Just then, they see a Grimm head pop out of the river before falling back in to answer his questions. And not in a good way.
"It's... Grimm... A river of Grimm..." Megatron realizes as they look to see where the river is heading. Unfortunately, it's heading to only one place. "And it's heading straight for the kingdom..."
And that's the chapter. Soundwave and Penny managed to get the message out, but now Soundwave must save Penny from possibly more than just a bad fall. To make matters worse, Megatron and his allies find a river of Grimm heading straight for the kingdom. What horrors await our heroes down the road? Until then, please Read and Review.