Chapter 20
As she stood next to Sheila alongside Summer and Ruby, Weiss couldn't help but blink. "Ruby, you know I love you, but I find myself questioning your intelligence. What other explanation is there for why you would want to turn Sheila back on when we went through all the trouble to shut her down?"
To this, Ruby let out a wince. "I know how it sounds, but something she said before she was shut down makes me think that she might have an idea where Paulette has gone."
Here, Weiss hummed in thought. "She could be lying. I mean, it's strange that she would actually know that...but just in case: Summer, what are the odds we could turn her back on? Maybe disable the guns or something?"
Summer shook her head even as she examined the tank's chassis. "Sorry, no can do. It's a mess back here. I'm actually a bit surprised she was working at all."
Ruby looked at the tank, a curious expression on her face. "Couldn't we just put her consciousness inside my head like Paulette does? I mean what's the worst that…?" Her eyes quickly widened. "NOPE! Nope, nope, nope! Not finishing that! Not finishing that sentence! We all know what happens when someone uses that trigger phrase!" Eventually giving a sigh of relief, she cleared her throat before declaring, "Anyways, about my idea?"
Weiss, having long since gotten used to Ruby's quirks, simply cleared her throat. "Sorry, Ruby. It's not a bad idea on paper, but unfortunately, Paulette and Sheila are two different A.I.s. There's no guarantee it would even work."
Summer shook her head. "It wouldn't. Sheila would only be able to be moved if you had a similar class of vehicle."
Weiss sighed. "Well, the Warthog's out then: it doesn't have any…" She blinked as an idea came to her. "Wait a second, the ship!" She turned towards Summer. "Miss Rose, do you think that we could maybe transfer Sheila onto one of the Manta's computers?"
Summer nodded with a grin. "If we can set up a hardline, it should be possible."
"Mom, wait!" Everyone quickly turned to see Yang running out of the Academy towards them. "Mom, hold on: I have something to tell you!"
Summer, touched that Yang was still calling her "Mom" despite the recent strain on their relationship, nonetheless quirked an eyebrow. "What is it, Sweetie?"
Yang smirked. "I just wanted to point out that if this works, then it's plane as day that we'll have plenty to tank you for later."
Ruby and Summer shared a groan. "Should've seen that coming."
Weiss, on the other hand, stared in bafflement and terror. "HOW DID YOU EVEN HEAR THAT?!"
Yang simply snorted. "I'm like Supergirl: I know when I'm needed."
Meanwhile, the rest of Team JNPR was greatly enjoying Amarilla's company. The older Arc sibling laughed as she told them countless embarrassing stories about Jaune. Said leader was burning bright red despite the glare he kept giving his sister for having her arm around Pyrrha.
"Okay, I never thought I'd say this, but enough about Jaune." Pyrrha giggled. "Tell us about yourself, Amarilla."
"Well, I graduated from high school a few years before Jaune got in, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, so I spent some time in college, took up a part-time job as a waitress at a tavern, where I kinda went through a bi phase, then I joined drama club, went through another bi phase, realized I was bisexual, and then right around the time I heard Jaune was going to Beacon I was forced to pick a major, so I chose be a teacher so I could visit him!"
"Wait, wait… you became a teacher because you missed your little brother?" Ren arched an eyebrow.
"She's Jaune's sister, alright." Nora added.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Jaune spluttered.
"So, uh… bisexual, you say?" Pyrrha blushed bright red, which only turned darker as Amarilla looked at her. "I-I mean, what classes will you be teaching?!"
"Actually, I'm only supposed to be teaching one team in particular." Amarilla unfolded a piece of paper from her pocket. "Apparently, one of your teachers died, and I've been sent to replace them so I can teach the special team they were in charge of. I kinda assumed that was you guys."
"Hey, you hear that, Ren?!" Nora cheered. "We're special!"
"That's certainly one word for it," Glynda remarked with a good natured roll of her eyes. "Anyways, Amarilla, I need you to hold down the fort while I locate Ciel, Ruby, and/or Velvet. I'm hoping that they can give/design Phoebe a weapon of her own and/or upgrade her Atlesian Knight body. If my adoptive daughter's going to be hanging around Beacon, I want her to be properly prepared for if and when things inevitably go south."
"Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you apparently were a part of Project Guardsman and that you somehow got a robotic daughter out of it." Jaune remarked.
Glynda couldn't help but chuckle. "I have a secret life that you know nothing about, Mr. Arc."
"Well, I for one am just happy to see you being, well, happy for once." Pyrrha declared with a grin.
"What can I say?" Glynda said with a shrug and a smile. "Having Phoebe here is re-awakening my maternal instinct." She then gave the team a stern frown. "Don't think this means that I won't tear into you if you make a mistake. I am still your teacher, after all."
"Noted." Ren declared with a subdued grin, somewhat relieved to know that some things never change.
"And don't worry, I can handle things around here for a bit." Amarilla declared with a salute. "Although, as fun as it is teasing you, Jaune, I need to clarify something: during the little story exchange I had with your friends, they kept bringing up 'Team JNPR'."
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, I mean, don't get me wrong: those stories were great." Amarilla remarked with a shrug. "It's just… well why haven't we been talking about your team?"
"Our team?" Jaune arched an eyebrow at his sister.
"Yeah! Team CPPR!"
"I'm sorry, Team wah-zah-wah?!" Pyrrha spluttered.
"Uh, yeah." Amarilla rolled her eyes as if it were so obvious. "The team I was sent to teach."
"Jaune, what's she talking about?" Pyrrha turned to her friend with a startled expression.
In response, Jaune sucked in a breath through his teeth as he finally remembered a crucial flaw his sister had. "Ooooh, yeah. I suppose this is probably a bad time to bring up the fact that my sister is dyslexic."
"WHAT?!" Pyrrha gasped.
"But girls can't be dyslexic!" Nora added.
"Oh, yeah?!" Amarilla crossed her arms. "Well, they also say girls can't ejaculate! But guess what?!"
"Amarilla, that's not - wait, what?" Jaune shook his head at his sister's remark.
"AAARGH!" Pyrrha groaned. "Why didn't you tell us you were looking for Team CPPR?!"
"Because-"
"And don't say 'because nobody asked'!" Pyrrha interrupted, angrily.
"But nobody has asked!"
Meanwhile, Summer and Weiss were busy hooking up the hardline between Sheila and the Manta ship. "Okay, Ruby, how does it look inside the ship?" Weiss asked into her scroll.
"The red lights are red, and the blue lights are blue." Ruby replied.
"What about the green lights?"
"Those are black."
Weiss huffed. "Okay. When the green lights are green, please call us back." The heiress hung up her scroll before turning back to the older huntress. "Just out of curiosity, was she dropped on her head as an infant?"
Summer snorted. "Not exactly. But she is her father's daughter."
On the other side of the courtyard, Team JNPR and Amarilla were busy looking for Team CPPR. Luckily, the group ran into Rachael about a few yards from the caves. "Hey, guys." She waved. "Be careful! We came back to talk with Jasmine and find Fox, but we found out that this ground is becoming a little unstable. If we don't tread lightly, we might cause a cave in."
"What?" Raven spluttered. "That's ridiculous! If that were true, then the whole ground would've caved in when the shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip-!" The huntress was cut off as she fell through the ground, much to everyone's shock.
"Yeah, like that." Rachael pointed out.
Raven's aura managed to shield her from the fall, but it still hurt. Grunting and groaning, she managed to get back on her feet and look up at the hole she fell through. "Okay, no problem." She told herself. "I'll just open a portal, and-" She patted her hand for her katana, but it wasn't at her hip. "Oh, great! The one time I don't have the damn thing… okay, keep calm. It's not like things can get worse, can they? Can they?"
"Oh, hey, Ms. Branwen! What're you doing down here?"
Raven pivoted on her heels, only to find the blind kid from that team of horny teenagers right behind her. "It can!" She cried in exasperation. "Oh, it can!"
Back above ground, Jean ran up to the group. "Whoa! What happened?!"
"Raven fell into the caverns!" Pyrrha cried. "We have to go save her!"
"But the bats!" Ren protested.
"Ren! She needs us!" Pyrrha argued. "And besides, if she's related to Yang and Ruby, we'll probably need her in the future, too!"
"Why? What would we possibly need her for?" Ren protested further. "All she ever did was yell at us a bunch and tell us we suck. Here, we'll just divide up her workload: you yell at me a bunch, and I'll tell you you suck."
"Shut up and get in the hole, Ren!" Pyrrha shouted.
"You suck, Pyrrha!" Ren spat back, only to smile and spread his arms. "See? This new system is working great! No reason to go off exploring caves which may or may not contain thousands of evil baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaats!"
"You're welcome!" Nora giggled after pushing Ren into the hole. "Now come on! Let's go!"
After Nora and Pyrrha jumped into the hole, Jaune turned to his sister. "Oh, yeah, uh… this is Rachael and Jean, by the way."
"So?"
"Oh, uh, they're part of Team CPPR."
"Oh, cool!"
"Yeah, so, uh, I guess just hang out with them or something." Jaune shrugged. "Just try not to embarrass me anymore."
"Whatever, bitch. Don't do me any favors." Amarilla rolled her eyes as Jaune followed the rest of his teammates into the hole before turning to Rachael and Jean. "So, what's up?"
"Uh, well… if they're taking care of this, I guess we could introduce you to Penny and Ciel." Rachael shrugged.
"Or I could give you the mandatory physical that General Ironwood had our first teacher undergo." Jean added.
"Yeah! Or we could raid the medicine cabinet for some morphine!" Amarilla suggested.
"Heh, yeah. Wait, what?"
Meanwhile, Pamela, currently inhabiting a floating orb that the Doppelgangers had lying around, was wondering if it wasn't too late to maybe try and make up with Ruby and the others. Spotting Ren, who had managed to land in a different area then Raven and Fox had, she smiled. "Ren, did Penny and the others send you to rescue me?"
"Uh, yeah! They did! First things first, though: you wouldn't happen to know a way out of this cave that has the smallest bat population?" was Ren's immediate reply.
Pamela quickly found herself frowning. "You're lying."
"What?"
"You're lying!" Pamela yelled with angry tears in her eyes, briefly losing her monotone as she did. "I was programmed with the ability to lie: you really think I wouldn't be able to tell when I'm being lied to in return?! Penny didn't send you! I bet you don't even want me around!"
"What? No!" Ren exclaimed. "Of course I want you around...preferably outside of this bat-infested cave."
"So...you didn't even want to be here," Pamela remarked with a nod and a scowl, having regained her monotone. "Well, fine then: you want me to be the bad guy? Well, now I'm the bad guy!"
Ren felt like his blood had frozen solid. This had to have been what Pyrrha had been trying to tell him: since he couldn't keep his Chiroptophobia under control, he had inadvertently made an already bad situation even worse for everyone else. "Luna, stop," he begged, hoping to calm things down. "That wasn't my intention at all! We don't hold what you've done against you! Penny, Ruby, Weiss… everyone has forgiven you! You're our friend!"
To his relief, Pamela/Luna actually froze upon hearing the sheer sincerity in his voice, looking at him in shock. "You...you're not lying here, are you?"
Ren just shook his head, knowing that this was more a statement then a question. "You're right about one thing: I don't want to be here. This place sends shivers down my spine like you wouldn't believe… but you know what frightens me even more? The prospect of my… our friends getting hurt because I let my fear control me. Please: don't let your fears control you."
Pamela/Luna couldn't help but sigh. "I'd like nothing more than to come back… but here's the thing: you still lied to me." And that was all the warning Ren got before several bars were raised around the spot he stood in, trapping him.
"What are you doing?!" Ren demanded, already not liking where this was going.
"Like I said, you already lied about coming to rescue me." Pamela/Luna remarked. "And I know better than anyone that the best lies are those with a kernel of truth to them. The only way I can know for certain that Penny, Weiss, and the others are willing to take me back is if I make them come to me so I can ask them for myself. Until then, I think it's time that you face your fears."
Ren gulped even as Pamela/Luna attempted to attract some bats to their location. "Luna, you don't have to do this."
"Even if you were being 100% honest, I'd still have to keep up appearances with Paulette and Tyrian." The monotone A.I. declared. "Besides, 'Luna' is what friends like Penny call me. To you, it's Pamela."
"No, wait!" Ren cried out even as Pamela vanished into the caves. He tried using his aura to give himself some light, but it was no good.
"Hey, I think I found him!" A voice came from deeper in the cave.
"Pyrrha! Help! Get me out of here!" Ren pleaded. Luckily, his scarlet-clad friend managed to follow the sound of his voice.
"Ren?! Oh, my gods! Okay, just hang on, I'll get you out!" Using her semblance, Pyrrha went to work on bending the bars to free her friend. Only to be distracted as something sharp pricked her neck. "Ow!"
"Whoa? Are you alright?" Ren asked, concerned. "There's something on your neck."
"What…?" Pyrrha's vision blurred as she grew groggy. "Is it a snake…? Get it oooooooff…"
Luckily, Ren was able to slip through the bars and crouch down to inspect his collapsed friend. But this relief was short-lived as something soon pierced his own skin. "Ow…" Following several more pricks in different areas. He yelped in pain just before the drugs took effect. As he slowly slipped into darkness, he managed to spot the culprits who attacked them. "Oh, hey… bat-people… don't eat me, bat-people…"
Back outside, Sheila had finally been transferred into the ship's mainframe. "Hello!" Her voice echoed over the intercom. "Thank you for activating the M808 Main - wait… where am I?"
"Sheila! Oh, thank goodness, it worked!" Ruby cheered. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I am feeling wonderful!" Sheila replied. "It is so much roomier in here!"
"Great! Oh, uh, so now can you please tell me where Paulette is?"
Back at the tank, Penny and Ciel walked up to Weiss just as Summer received a call on her scroll. But before a single word could be said, the older huntress drew her weapon.
"Don't move, Penny!" Summer threatened. "Or should I say 'Paulette?!'"
"What?!" Penny spluttered. "I'm not Paulette!"
"Nice try!" Summer glared. "Ruby just called and told me that Sheila saw Paulette possess Team CPPR's leader! It all makes sense now! You were the last member of your team to find your teacher dead, and you were the first to confront Pamela before anyone else!"
"That's all coincidental!" Penny protested. "It doesn't mean that I'm possessed, it just means that I made some bad decisions! Besides, no one on Team CPPR was ever officially made team leader. Technically, we all worked for the Atlas government who worked directly under General Ironwood. So, we all just took orders from - oh… oh, no…"
Back within the caves, Barmak and a group of rogue Doppelgangers gazed at their enemies through the multiple television screens set up. While their newfound partners smirked with triumph. "It seems the android has caught on to our ploy." Tyrian stated.
"It doesn't matter." Tukson laughed, heartily. "Soon, they will all pay! Mwahahahahaha!"
To be continued
