Chapter 8

Penny From the Block

As the light faded around Penny, she saw that she had arrived in her destination world. The wristband device had worked flawlessly, now she just needed to find the fuel Jaune Solo had mentioned.

She felt dizzy as she looked around; buildings lined the concrete street reaching far into the sky. They looked like nothing she had seen on Remnant. Down on the street level people walked to and fro along cracked sidewalks while vehicles filed along the street orderly.

"Yo, you lost or somethin'?" A voice startled her. She whipped around to see a group of intimidating looking men walking towards her. They all seemed to be wearing a purple colored garment, whether a bandana, hat or shirt.

"Salutations!" Penny greeted cheerily, "As a matter of fact, I am lost. Would you happen to know where I could find TITS?"

The group all looked at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

"This bitch lookin for a titty bar?" One cackled.

"Nah, nah," another wheezed, "she tryin' to get some bigger titties. Bitch flat as a mo'fucka."

Penny looked down at her chest, suddenly feeling inadequate. "I suppose I could ask father for an upgrade…"

One of the men drew a pistol and pointed it directly at her. "Naw, you ain't goin nowhere, bitch."

Penny took a step back defensively. "My name is Penny! I do not wish to fight you."

The other men followed their leader, pulling out weapons and directing them towards Penny. She responded, unleashing Floating Array in attack position.

Suddenly, the sound of screeching tires could be heard down the street as a low slung green vehicle pulled up. It was filled with similarly looking men, dressed in green instead of purple. They also had their weapons drawn.

In an instance the street erupted in gunfire as the green men fired on the purple men, who returned in kind. Penny tried not to intervene, but another green vehicle came roaring into the scene, this time driven by a suspiciously familiar looking set of girls. Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Blake, all dressed in the same shade of green, began to beckon to her.

"Get in P-snax!" Yang called.

Penny did not understand what was happening, but she decided to take a chance on going with them. Collapsing her Floating Array, she hopped into the middle back seat between Blake and Weiss. Yang, the driver, wasted no time in speeding away from the scene.

They called themselves the Orchard Avenue Tribe. In a nondescript house at the end of a cul de sac they had made their headquarters. A street gang, one had inferred. Ruby Ross was the leader, with her associates Weiss Cube, Blake Thought, and Wu-Yang. Another, 'P-snax" Polendina, existed in this world, but had gone missing, and the girls had thought Penny was her.

"So P-snax is still MIA, huh," Ruby sighed. "Damn Playas probably got her." The Playas were the Orchard Avenue Tribe's rival gang, the ones in purple. Their leader, the mysterious CB Fall was said to be ruthless in her efforts to take over the city.

"I am sorry that I am not who you thought I was," Penny bowed in apology.

"So what were you doing in Playa territory?" Blake asked.

Penny wasn't sure how much information she could give about her true mission, but the girls did not seem to react to her being a copy of their friend. "I'm from another world," she began, "and I've come here to find TITS."

"Can't help you there," Weiss said, defeated.

"I CAN!" Wu-Yang stood up, squeezing her breasts together. "Got some all natural goodness right here."

"Everyone get your boobs out for Penny!" Ruby rallied.

Penny sighed. "This unfortunate acronym is no longer comical." She explained what Jaune Solo had told her about the fuel source: a precious mineral crystal that glowed with a bright blue shine.

"Oh, that's what you meant?" Wu-Yang blushed. "Never heard of the fancy name, we just call it meth."

"Very well then," Penny nodded, "Where can I obtain some meth?"

"You can't," Blake said flatly. "The Playas control all distribution in the city. Rumor has it they've got a warehouse full of the stuff down at the port, but you would even get close."

"I have to try!" Penny replied. "My friends are counting on me!"

"I wish we could help," Ruby added, "But we've already lost too many people to the Playas due to someone's mistake."

Wu-Yang continued to blush even harder." Hey, I fucked up, it happens to everyone."

Weiss Cube stood and pointed at her, "All you had to do was follow the damn train Wu-Yang!"

"Enough!" Blake intervened. "Instead of sitting here fighting with each other, why not at least help this Penny get to the docks? If we cause a distraction, it'll draw the Playas away so she can infiltrate and find the good shit."

Penny beamed. "I would appreciate any help!"

"Fine!" Ruby pounded her fists together. "Everyone get your gear. It's time to fuck some bitches up."

The sun had fallen and the moon, whole in this world, bathed the city docks in a cold glow. The girls had assembled a small army of about 50 gang members, all dressed in their trademark green and each carrying a variety of intimidating looking weapons. The plan was to draw as many of the Playas out with a large scale conflict, while Penny would sneak in through the air.

Penny stood ready on a nearby rooftop, scanning the port in its entirety. There were hundreds of large steel cargo containers, and several buildings where workers were still loading and unloading shipments. Even with her enhanced visual sensors, she could not make out anything suspicious.

Except for one thing.

In the further building from the port entrance, Penny could make out a faint distress frequency. Whatever it was, she would check that building first.

Gunshots rang out from the streets below; the fighting had begun. She watched as the Playas began to drop whatever they were doing and run out to join the fight. Now was her chance!

Activating her thrusters, Penny took flight, keeping a high arc over the docks to avoid being spotted. The building at the end of the port had several high windows, and Penny deactivated her thrusters to crash through feet first. Landing on the ground, she immediately deployed Floating Array.

"Hey!" Someone yelled. "It's the Tribe, get her!" A hail of gunfire erupted from all corners of the warehouse, but Penny was prepared. First, she knocked out the warehouse lights, plunging the building into darkness. Then, she spun Floating Array's blades around her in a graceful dance, deflecting each bullet with exact precision. As each man stopped to reload his weapon, a blade would meet his throat. Within a matter of seconds, the entire building fell silent.

Penny activated her night vision to see the building in more detail, but was shocked at what she found. Bound to a mechanical plinth, with an assortment of wires all around, was another Penny.

"P-snax," Penny said. "That really had captured you." She approached the unconscious girl and detached the wires from her before freeing her from the device entirely. She had a similar power-on method, and within moments the girl's eyes lit up with a brilliant green.

"Where… Who are you?" she asked.

"I am you," Penny explained. "Well, I am you, but from another world. You are the Penny of this world. You were captured by the Playas."

Clap clap clap.

Both Pennys whipped around as backup lights flooded the warehouse, blinding them. "Isn't this an unexpected surprise?" a cocky male voice spoke.

"Another world, huh?" a woman's voice added. "Maybe we should expand our recruitment."

As Penny's eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that they had been joined by two new individuals. The male had gray hair and wore mostly black with the usual Playa purple; this world's Mercury Black. The other was a woman with purple hair and two bladed revolvers, surely this world's Emerald Sustrai.

"We are here for some meth," Penny explained. "I do not want to hurt either of you."

"Well that sucks," Mercury chuckled, "Because I wanna hurt you." He dashed forwards with inhuman speed, attempting to kick Penny. Floating Array blocked the blow, but Mercury's quick footwork landed several hits sending Penny backwards into the warehouse wall.

Emerald began blasting with her revolvers; Penny tried to block the shots, but her control of Floating Array was decreased as she split her efforts between the two opponents.

"I will help!" P-snax shouted to her. Penny saw the girl focus intensely, followed by a series of high capacity assault weapons materializing behind her in a winged formation. Taking a rifle in each hand, she began unleashing her ammo on the attackers.

Mercury went on the defensive, outrunning the steady stream of bullets. Emerald took aim at P-snax, but Penny launched Floating Array, disarming her.

"You bitch!" Emerald sneered before P-snax's rifles filled her with bullets. Her bloodied body fell to the concrete.

"Emerald!" Mercury screamed. Enraged, he dove at the distracted P-snax, but Penny managed to trip him up with her blades. He landed a few feet from P-snax, who took two new rifles from her stock and blew Mercury away.

"How exactly did they capture you?" Penny asked the clearly overpowered girl.

"Like this." A new voice spoke from high above as a blue wave emitted over the entire scene. P-snax seemed to lose all control of her weapons and body, falling limp to the floor.

Penny looked up and met the eyes of Cinder Fall, dressed in a purple gown, her eyes aflame with fiery energy.

"You…" Penny gathered Floating Array ready to attack. "What did you do to her?"

"Electromagnetic Pulse," Cinder explained as she slowly floated down to ground level. "You seem to have survived it, though. Perhaps your world uses a different frequency range. It matters not. You won't be leaving here alive."

Penny unleashed her blades at the vile woman, but she simply swatted them away with a magical force. The Maiden powers clearly existed in this world too, and Penny theorized it was how she had managed to take over nearly the entire city with her gang.

Cinder formed several fiery spears and sent them Penny's way. She recalled Floating Array and blocked them, throwing them at Cinder for another attack that was equally as futile. They continued to exchange ranged attacks until Cinder seemingly vanished.

Before Penny could locate her, Cinder crashed into her, knocking Penny to the ground. She tried to get up, but Cinder already had a magic blade to her neck.

"Looks like you're useless in all worlds," Cinder grinned venomously.

"Before you kill me, I must ask you one thing," Penny said.

"Very well."

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Why does everyone keep asking me th—"

Penny pulled with all her might on Floating Array, sending several blades through Cinder's chest and face. A look of horror sat on her face as she crumpled to the ground.

The raid on the Playa's was a whopping success, and soon the docks were under Tribe control. The death of CB Fall and her top two lieutenants had crippled the gang, and Ruby Ross predicted they would be able to start reclaiming the city soon.

With a crate of TITS now in her possession, Penny was ready to make the journey back home. She hoped and prayed the others had managed to accomplish their missions with less violence than she did.