[Degrade]
Atlas was storming like usual as Weiss was sitting in the control room with all the important resistance fighters, they were coming to a consensus on the groups next action.
Vale seemed to be the most popular pick, nobody actually wanted to leave their home kingdom but at the same time everyone knew that there was no food to be had in this frozen wasteland.
They could go to Mistral but they estimated an extra three or four days worth of sailing plus no Atlesian military base waiting for them when they got to the other side.
Vale allowed a military installation on the tip of Sanus, just bellow the Island of Vytal. It was more a glorified highly protected refueling station than a military power, they would be scraping it for ammunition and extra fuel before moving onto Vale city, see if any survivors exist and if not, loot the city for its resources as they set up farms and general long term operations.
But all that was the future, they were busy pressing through a blizzard at a decent clip, their destination was the far west of Solitas to avoid the city and towns around the old academy, also known as the Grimm hot zones.
Theo walks up to her with a few rations "thought you would like a meal after that meeting" Weiss nods "they always manage to make a person hungry" taking the tastless bars and some dried meat Weiss tucks in.
"So how is Penny?" Weiss asks, Theo looks around uncomfortabley before answering "Getting better, already strong enough to hold conversation for short periods of time, still spaces out every now and then" he kicks his foot at the floor gently keeping himself from staying too idle as they talk.
"When you say conversation... what did you two talk about?" Theo makes a wobble motion with his hand at the question "Just how she got in that situation to begin with, turns out her dad was in the middle of repairs when schnee private police invaded the complex looking for any experimental energy technology, they only found Penny and you know the rest" Weiss looks surprised but not towards the story "she actually told you all that?"
Theo scratches his chin "most of it, filled in the blanks with the info we have" Weiss nods again in understanding.
Weiss knows it will take some time before they reach the docks so she gets up to leave the meeting room. Theo gets up as well, no doubt not wanting to stay with the rest of the gloomy crew.
"Wonder when last Penny has eaten?" Weiss stops after a few carriages to inspect the food rations "She eats?" Theo asks in genuine curiosity.
Weiss falters for a second "well, I am not certain, but she sees herself as human so we should at least try to treat her like one?" Theo was frowning.
"You know we don't actually have food to spare for sentiment like that, its basically throwing it away" Weiss was immediately looking his way with a scowl.
"What if y-" before Weiss can get out what she wanted to say, Theo interrupts. "look, unless you want to give out your own rations I have a better idea" he looks around before motioning to follow him back towards the original Penny prison.
"What do you have in mind, also, for your information I would have gladly given up my own ration" Theo nods "I was thinking of things to do to cheer her up last night but there wasn't much I could do" he pauses "but there was an idea you could pull off."
Weiss was invested now, anything to help Penny "I noticed she wasn't the cleanest, and has no arms to help herself" Weiss realizes what he was getting at "I suppose you wouldn't be the most comfotable doing that then?" Theo looks pained "I would do it in a heartbeat, but not when she agrees to half the things I offer and doesn't pay any attention to the actual request, feels too much like an exploit for me."
Theo continues "With you cleaning, it would go a lot more smoothly. Not only are you a girl as well, but you knew echother before The Fall" Weiss doesn't hesitate "I can do it."
"Thanks" Theo nods back "like I said, it just felt out of my depth" Weiss looks over her shoulder "Understandable, you mind helping me find the cleaning agents and oils?"
It didnt take too long and Weiss finds herself on the way into the living quarters that belong to Penny, carrying a crate of supplies. As Weiss opens the door Penny looks up at her from the floor besides the bed.
Quickly placing the crate down Weiss rushes over "What happened?" Penny looks embarrassed, its the most normal emotion Weiss has seen from her.
"I tried to sit up" Weiss doesn't ask why and moves on "let me help you with that, you mind if you sit on a towel?" Penny doesn't seem to mind and carries on like nothing happened. "Its nice to see you again Weiss" Pennys words were gentle but more because of the soft and timid tone, the usual Penny cheer Weiss was used to was gone. "It is rather nice to see you as well, you bring up happier memories of Vale and my team." Weiss wasn't just saying that for idle chatter either, she missed it so much, even thinking of team RWBY pained her deeply.
"But enough about that, I have some cleaning equipment with me and want to ask if you want some help" Penny gives a soft chuckle "did Theo rope you into that? I could tell he wanted to offer but was too shy."
Weiss was amazed at how well Penny was doing "he gave me other reasons than that of shyness, but yes it was Theo's idea" Penny had a small smile "poor Theo, he was trying so hard to make me feel comfortable yesterday."
"Did it work at all?" Weiss asks, Penny doesn't answer fo a moment but eventually whispers back "It won't feel right until I get my limbs back" and continues with "but it was nice having somebody care about my comfort for a change."
"I will make sure we find you some new arms and legs" Weiss states in certainty "I promise" Penny brightens up a little but its not enough to make her happy, it was just a bitter sweet feeling.
"Anyway, let us get you cleaned up" Weiss hovers her hand over the various cleaning equipment and oils before Penny interjects "that vale brand was my favorite" Weiss almost jumped, she wasn't expecting Penny to put in much effort.
"Really?" Weiss shakes her head at herself "what am I saying, Its like the shampoo equivalent for you right? Of course you will have a favorite" Penny was chuckling lightly "Weiss, I use shampoo as well, my hair may be synthetic but its close enough to need shampoo."
The light flush Weiss had mixed with the embarrassment was comical, Penny made sure to capture the memory for when she has some kind of printer in the future.
"R-right" Weiss was already in control again after taking a breather "is this wash cloth fine?" after a nod from Penny Weiss dips it into some warm soapy water "just going to clean away the dirt before applying the oils" Penny doesn't even move, waiting patiently as Weiss shuffles a little closer to the bed.
"So where do I start?" Weiss asked, not sure exactly how to go about cleaning the limb sockets "Well unless you are washing my clothes as well, you can start by taking them off" Weiss nods casually before her mind catches up with the actual meaning behind the words.
Spluttering for a moment as Weiss once again turns a shade of pink, Penny just enjoyed the real emotions and stimulus, five years with nobody or anything changing was leaving her with a worm of mischievous intent.
"No need to worry about it Weiss, I have nothing 'under the hood' as Ruby once said" weirdly enough, Weiss could just hear Ruby using that term. Way to go Ruby, even messing with her five years down the line.
Weiss can't deny it cut the tension a lot though "Right, let me get you some new clothes too, dress or shirt?" Penny thought for only a second before pointing at the red dress.
Weiss nods and puts it on the side table, for when she is done.
True enough Penny didn't actually have much, it was just gentle smooth lumps of synthetic padding without any detail, With a very slight lean towards the feminine form and not even seam lines to break up the continuous skin.
"Father didn't want to design anything I wasn't comfortable with, so he gave me the choice to pick a gender after I woke up" she looks down at herself "he did some small editing to fit my wishes afterwards."
Weiss nods, fascinated despite the slight awkwardness "so how did you go about picking a gender?" Penny looks uncomfortable "its one of the more illogical choices I have made and can't actually tell you, since I don't really know myself."
Satisfied, Weiss nods "makes sense, well I am going to start now" she hesitated as the cloth was about to move in, before biting the bullet and starting with Pennys stomach.
It wasn't as bad or awkward as Weiss feared, Penny didn't seem uncomfortable and actually sighed in content as the gunk and grime of five years was slowly washed away.
"Thank you Weiss, for saving me" it seemingly came out of nowhere and Weiss stopped cleaning to look up at Penny.
"I-" Penny stops and frowns "I was resorting to terrible habbits to keep sane" Penny almost looked panicked "do you know how easy making a semi-sentient subroutine is now? They were the only thing to keep me compamy" Weiss puts down the cloth and sits next to Penny, bringing her into a hug.
"Shhh, none of that matters now Penny, we can all move on together" Weiss starts to rub her bare back softly "you are safe." The tears started to wet Weiss' collar but honestly Penny could cry all she wanted.
After a few minutes of Penny slowly calming down they ended up with Weiss and herself somewhat dry and sticky from the soap.
"Let's rinse off and get your hair cleaned, any favorite shampoo brands I should know of?" Penny smiles at the jab and clarifies "No" Weiss nods and gets up "let me get some clean water for the next stage" She makes her way to the sink in the bathroom and shoots back a quick "will be right back."
Took the remnants of Atlas a few days but they eventually arrived at the desired location.
The town was empty, to the surprise of nobody. Some houses have been flattened and general destruction was common amongst the residential district.
Lucky for them the dockside seemed to have taken light damage in comparison, this would be where all the long term food would be stored, ready for exporting that had never happened.
Turns out the plan was going to take a little longer to carry out, the train station tracks were derailed, most likely destroyed in the towns defense or attempted escape.
Not being able to park the train right up against the docks was a huge setback, having to unload and move all the supplies from the train and navigate the towns ruins was going to be a pain for sure, but thankfully someone managed to find a few cars still parked inside a house garage and they still worked.
Not only that but he dust crystals were barely even used, probably just replaced before the downfall of the town, mix all that with a cleared road after some aura enhanced rubble removal and you got yourself a decent offload speed.
Winter rushes into the control room and addresses everyone "we got Wraiths on radar, a lot of the bastards too" what little good mood anyone built up was dampened down, one guy in the back even swore under his breath.
Wraiths were considered one of Atlas' top Grimm threats, they would float at high altitude using their many strong eyes to spy out humans at great distances and slowly follow them, this group must have been following them for weeks and only caught up thanks to the long stop to free themselves.
Weiss was always creeped out by them, they look like flattened tadpoles with trunks, both tail and "nose" having kite shaped bones that were good at cracking open bunkers and buildings.
The tail was more for a counter weight than any weapon but she has seen them used as a hasty defense when snuck up on from behind.
Unlike tadpoles they weren't squishy, having a crown of bone covering most of their body, with sockets for the eyes. Underbelly would be considered exposed if not for the countless tentacles hanging from around the mouth there.
They are not the most agile Grimm but always manage to sneak up on people, they were dead silent and would always be able to follow you, usually dropping altitude when you are sleeping to pick you up with its many strong tentacles and feed you to the mouth in the centre of its body.
There were rumors of the smaller ones waiting under snow or water to lay a trap, Weiss personally hasn't seen one do it but would not be surprised if the little conspiracy was true.
Rubbing her exposed arms Weiss tries to hold in the shiver "how far out are they?" Winter nods to her but addresses the entire room in answer "far enough that we don't have to worry immediately, we estimate twenty minutes."
That was a narrow operation window, they are offloading and loading dust that takes care and time, not to mention scavenging any food from the dock town to last them the voyage.
Someone in the crowd seemed to think he had an idea "can't we just shoot em' down like the other Grimm? Use the roof guns!" Winter frowns "when they lower themselves to attack yes, they are too high for our gunners to be effective and we only have so much dust" the guy seemed to be satisfied with what amounts to a "soon" as a response.
Weiss was about to move to the roof before Winter calls out again "help with the moving of all the supplies first, we can't afford to fall into a siege scenario, perform a fighting retreat."
Weiss immediately sees the problem with that, there would be a window where all the supplies are in the ships but the defenders would still be in the train turrets. Having to retreat out of those with Grimm coming down on you is never desirable.
Best to try get most of the supplies out of the train before the Grimm even arrive, hopefully they won't have to escape ten minutes into a Grimm siege, where the air and ground would be swarming in the black masses.
They made good progress, the main ship was loaded and they were now just loading everything else into smaller boats, not planning on leaving a scrap of supplies behind.
Its about then that Weiss gets a messenger asking for her help in the defense, she nods and hands off her crate to somebody else before making her way back to the train.
It was busy, people moving in and out of the train in a rush, some with crates others with known combat semblances.
Somebody trips in the chaos and Weiss almost subconsciously helps by placing a few gylphs in strategic locations, stopping the fall of both the person and dust crate.
There was a little "Thanks" as Weiss moved past and towards the ramp, carefully navigating through the crowd and towards the roof ladder inside.
It didn't take long for the Wraiths to arrive, with an assortment of smaller Grimm like Nevermore rushing in first, uaing thier natural speed advantage.
The trains intercom was linked to the turrets and it buzzed on momentarily with Winter giving the all clear for free fire. The sound of the laser streaks being sent down range was very satisfying, the Nevermore probably didn't think the same as they were delt with swiftly, being considered soft targets for Atlesian battleship secondaries.
The first Wraith drifts down at a shallow angle and into range, it quickly receives multiple hits along it's bone crown harmlessly, with one explosive beam skimming the top of it, exploding on contact and ripping up the flesh there.
It seems to be enough damage to send it crashing down, no doubt releasing all the gas required to float. Weiss tries to ignore the fact that simple gas wouldn't be enough to allow that much armour to fly, they are full of bullshit in her humble opinion.
The number of Wraiths in range quickly grew in number, a huge wave at once, all taking a lot of explosive shots to the bone armour to crack open without a lucky shot like the first.
The Grimm would even bring up some of the more forward placed tentacles to touch the shots about to hit, acting like a shifting wall of decoys, exploding into fried Grimm limbs instantly but just replaced with the next tentacle almost as quickly.
Weiss punches the intercom button to adress anyone on the other side willing to listen "cut out using High Explosive charges! Get some AP in there!" It said a lot that she saw a lot of the shots after that go strait through the wall of tentacles and deal damage, no doubt Armour Piercing, everyone trusted Weiss to know her stuff.
Her tactic seemed to work, until the next wave arrived and the size and number of Wraiths increased, the slow attack speed of the AP beams becoming apparent immediately, not to mention the armour was getting a little too thick, and if you didn't get a direct hit it wouldn't penetrate the thicker curve of the bone crown.
Weiss personally was using the giant main eyes as a target, Somtimes the smarter Wraiths would pull up the bone kite on the trunk to block it, but if they didn't do that or Weiss catches them by surprise she punches right through the huge squishy red eye and into the core.
There were simply too many of them, people were getting out and using ranged semblances to try even the battle out, some were useless, but there was one in particular who seemed to deal a lot of damage, some kind of lightning attack that would arc over the many tentacles and hop to the Wraith next to it.
It was devastating and helped stem the tide, now being helped by some other Grimm on the ground, fast and weak canon fodder types but still deadly to the crew behind them busy packing away supplies as fast as possible.
Weiss takes a moment between reloads to contact Winter, using a Morse code system with Glyphs to get information. After a lengthy exchange Weiss knows that they could almost retreat, there was the last batch of supplies being sent out now.
Going back to the killing, Grimm now in the dangerously large size and clearly a step towards Alpha, Weiss has no idea how so many of this size got into one group but pushes on.
Staying in contact with Winter the whole time Weiss was ready to tell the rest of the gunners when the retreat was sounded.
Turned out when Winter gave the call for retreat Weiss had *bigger* problems to deal with, what she thought was "almost Alpha size" turned out to be average size.
There was clearly a difference between them now, she saw the radar signature even through the hazy mass of Grimm.
It dwarfed the others, Weiss would estimate its larger than the main cargo ship they were using to escape and was about half the size of an Atlesian battleship.
It took Weiss a long time of oggling before remembering that the retreat was called and she should be telling the others.
Panicking she slammed the intercom and almost shouts into it, no doubt scaring the living daylights out of the other gunners "Ignore that radar signature! Winter has ordered the retreat! They are waiting on us to climb aboard the speed boats"
With her semblance activated she felt the surrounding turret doors fly open and the many occupants running strait off the side of the train, aura dampening the fall.
Weiss' loader has the same idea and abandoned his position before she was even done speaking, what most seemed to forget was the fact the Grimm were still very much a threat and would need to be delt with as some retreat.
Thankfully there were a few sensible members still fighting, the electrical semblance was still being used, but sparingly Weiss notes, must be almost out of Aura.
She was still way above half, but not exactly full because of the long distance Morse code and semblance enhanced aiming.
Thankfully she had a pretty cheap semblance, and both those uses even more so, she felt confident stepping out to assist the lightning user.
What she didnt expect was Theo to climb out a nearby ladder hatch and walk up to Weiss "need a hand?" he had a shaky smile but they both knew it was a mask.
"You know you are supposed to be on the main ship, your Semblance is way too important, they need all the fresh water" Weiss says that, but still can't help feel glad he stayed. She had grown to miss having a combat partner.
"Couldn't do that, my comrades need the help now, the future wouldn't be the same without everyone here" he looks around towards the small group of people busy gathering into one place, congregating around the electrical semblance guy.
Moving over to the small group Weiss actually recognized him, it was the jolly bald man, what was his name again? Henry Spencer? No. Hans Sprave? Yeah thats it.
"-can start to retreat as well, fighting through the towns rubble" she catches the end of the conversation and nods to herself, it was a good plan.
"Actually" Theo started, but stopped when the entire group turned to face him. It took a small nudge from Weiss to get him to snap out of it.
"I have a plan, I just need Weiss' Glyphs as an escape and defense as I work, all of you can make it to the boats safely" the group looked skeptical at first but Weiss quickly throws her two cents in, trusting Theo on this. It seems to work, the group makes a decision to trust one of the Schnee sisters reknown for the overthrowing of their former rulers.
After they disperse Weiss looks back around to find Theo with his hands spread wide, like some kind of messiah "I hope I didn't just bet wrong Theo" Weiss snipes.
"Your throat gimmick inspired me, I have a little something planned" Weiss doesn't comment, just throws up a few Glyphs for defense and summons her knight amongst the Grimm horde.
It does nothing to slow them down, so she just desummons it. Theo was swirling his hands around in a spiral during the whole process.
"You mind explaining what you are doing? Better be good" Weiss shifts her stance agitated beyond belief, looking over her shoulder at the group nearly at the ships and then back at the Grimm horde... And Alpha Wraith, that was in clear view now, actually shoving aside the other Grimm with its size alone.
"Before, I always just relied on water to be on or inside the target, but we both know Grimm don't have such a weakness" Weiss was frowning now "yeah, what changed?"
"Nothing much, just realised something" he grins over his shoulder "you know the moisture in the air was always too little and too far apart to do anything with?" Weiss nods absently, focusing on delaying the Grimm with Glyphs.
"Well I was messing around in that storm when trying to sleep a few days back and realized something" Theo had a small grin forming now.
"I remembered something from when I got my semblance, that the differences in air density and tempretures make air currents." The Grimm were getting too close for comfort.
"Tried it out... It works almost too well even..." Theo's speech was picking up some odd tones that Weias couldn't place. "The body water heating never felt right, always like it was just not what my semblance was for, I always thought that was morals speaking but I was wrong."
It dawns on Weiss after a moment, but she can't do much more than gape at the sight unfolding in front of her "turns out my scale is a bit bigger than we thought, and once you displace enough air it gets a little out of hand."
Weiss thinks thats a little bit of an understatement, in the cracks between the ground and flying Grimm there was activity far out. What any Atlas citizen would recognize as a blizzard, and a very harsh one at that.
"Remember that storm from a few days earlier? Yeah it actually followed us somewhat, I felt it at the very edge of my range earlier and knew what to do" he had an absolutely mad look across his face now.
The wall of white was closing in abnormally fast, and was abnormally thick, it was like a hurricane mixed with a blizzard all in one powerful package.
"You are utterly insane! since when is your semblance this powerful!?" Weiss shouts over the increasing wind speeds Theo doesn't reply and starts to laugh, it breaks into full on cackling a moment later as the blizzard hits the Grimm formations.
The snow weight and wind strength alone takes down the smaller more fragile Grimm, only being felt with her semblance as they are lost to her eyesight.
Then the snow starts to solidify into ice shards, giant spears falling and being pushed down from higher altitudes, impaling the squishy tops of the Wraiths, shards that miss melt -boiling Grimm flesh- and then evaporate back into the growing storm.
It was a devastating show of force, the swarms numbers dropped fast, the only thing left standing was the Alpha Wraith, being sent to the ground, where the giant bone kite on its trunk and tail was used to anchor into the ground.
Theo drops to his knees and starts panting in effort, Weiss crouches next to him and calls out over the winds "its grounded! We can rush to the boats!" Theo looks up at her "I have some extra Aura, let me finish!"
She feels the blizzard focus somewhat, the edges being pushed inwards as a spiral and forcing it on the Wraith, snow flash freezing on Grimm contact.
It... Was suddenly very frozen and continued to turn into a giant glacier. Sadly, about half way through turning the Grimm into a mini ice mountain, Theo cries out as his Aura shatters in a dark blue display.
Not wasting any time Weiss summons up some speed Glyphs for the escape, picking up Theo and hightailing it out of there.
The worried Morse code she was ignoring up until that point finally being responded to, she assured Winter they were going to make it back and that the very unnatural blizzard wasn't hostile... To them.
Making it to the docks was the fastest Weiss has ever gone outside of Ruby assisted flight. The last speed boat waiting for them was filled with scared looking indeviduals and faces, no doubt for the truly awe inspiring but terrifying sight of mother nature on your side.
The trip to the large cargo ship outside the port was done in silence, until Hans spoke up "next time, I am so adding my lightning to all that water" said water was no longer being manipulated and the storm was already dying out.
It breaks the tension and a few crew actually laugh at the remark, Weiss smiled and added "that would be something to see, maybe save some Aura for it next time."
Some other crew comments on that "next time!? Hopefully there is no next time! That was insane!" Theo was apparently asleep already but had a small smile at that regardless.
"You're right, hopefully no next times" the mood was generally high as they made their way to the Atlas fleet of oceanic type ships.
Once they got offloaded on the main ship it took a long time to calm Winter down, she wasn't impressed by Weiss' and Theo's stunt and almost had a heart attack from the sight of the unnatural blizzard engulfing the area.
"Was he injured?" Winter directed the question towards the bed bound Theo "no, just Aura exhaustion" Weiss supplies and fiddles with his blanket a little, tucking him in further.
"This Alpha Wraith that you talk about, Is it delt with?" Weiss looks back to winter and answers with "no, Theo only gave us some time to run, that ice will start to melt already and the Grimm is probably strong enough to break free tomorrow even."
"Its a Wraith in the end, we can outrun it" Winter nods "nevertheless, I will make everyone aware of the threat while you rest up and take care of Theo."
Great news! We have concept art! The Wraith and Oxjaw [A teaser for next chapter] both have nice professional looking sketches, my brother and I worked together to bring these concepts to life, really like the outcome and want to share it.
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