"Sal-u-tations! Welcome dear guests! Please enjoy tonight's festivities!"
Penny Poledina wasn't bored. She wasn't sure if such emotion was programmed into her in the first place. But even if they were, there was no way Penny could be bored greeting all these new people, taking pictures with the children, and assuring the citizens of Atlas that as the Kingdom's duly appointed protector Penny will always be combat-ready for any threat the Kingdom might face.
"Miss Poledina, you can take a break if you want. We'll watch the doors for a while."
Flashing a brief smile at the soldier, Penny zipped off deeper into the magnificent mansion that was hired for tonight's event. Her long ginger hair turned into an orange arrow as Penny zipped through the halls. The guests, dressed in various shades of finery and immaculately accessorized, parted politely to allow the girl to pass with brief cheers and grateful greetings. So it was that within minutes, Penny found herself in the building's main ballroom.
Her mind and feet wandering through the music, the dancing, and the cheer of the guests. Penny abruptly found herself staring at the centerpiece of tonight's function. A skillfully cast, bronze image of a kindly old man in a wheelchair. A memorial for the greatest scientist in the Kingdom of Atlas.
"Father," Penny wistfully sighed as she traced her green-gloved fingers over the plaque set into the base of the memorial. A pithy platitude that was wholly insufficient to express what she felt about the man who brought her life, before leaving her alone in the world with nothing but questions, and too few people she'd trust enough to ask.
"I wish we could have spoken more." Penny finally said as she touched her fingers to her lips and pressed them to the statue's cheek. Then, with a wry smile across her freckled cheeks, she turned away to allow other people to pay their respects, and while stepping through the ballroom to resume her duties as a greeter, her eyes caught sight of a familiar face drifting unobtrusively through the crowd.
Tapping quickly at her wrist, Penny pulled up the database on her internal hard drive and zoomed in on the list of wanted criminals currently active in Atlas. Something deep in her circuits drove her to scan the names listed under 'Assassins' and she gasped when the facial scan found a match.
Wilson Pink. The Black Wings of Mistral. Remnant's Third Deadliest Assassin, and the world's most dangerous martial artist. A handsome stranger whose cheeks were bulging with Mantlian Spring rolls while bright pink eyes stared merrily at the decorations and festivities surrounding him. Looking for all the world like a child at a toy store.
Penny panicked. Her first instinct was to confront and arrest this dangerous monster before he harmed anyone in this building. Her second instinct was to call for reinforcements, then apprehend this dangerous monster before he harmed anyone in this building. However, both ideas were dashed when she looked away for a brief instant to find a soldier to report her sighting, and at that moment Wilson had disappeared.
Now her combat programming and training kicked in. Heeding the directives, Penny slowly paced backward to put her blindspot against a wall. She then cycled through each vision mode her wide green eyes currently possessed and scanned the ballroom. Forcing herself to work through her frantic motherboard so that she would not miss any minute sign of the Assassin's presence to and from the ballroom.
Presently, her experimental heat vision noticed an anomaly in the room. Namely, an absence of heat that trailed across the dance floor, past her father's memorial, and up the main stairway to the second floor. Without hesitation, Penny dashed off in pursuit of the trail. Grav-Servos built into her long boots propelled her quickly up the stairs, while internal sensors kept her from crashing into anything as she blitzed after Wilson.
Those same sensors picked up the sound of efficient violence three sharp corners in and half-a-dozen corridors later. There were no shouts or screams. Just a sudden gasp or a half-worded-question cut off by bones snapping and bodies dropping. Even with an extra spurt of speed Penny was only fast enough to catch a glimpse of a pair of black wings billowing outward as Napier swooped down and plunged his fingers through a woman's skull once the girl turned the final corner.
"No!"
Without turning, Napier slowly set his victim unto the floor before pulling his fingers out of what remained of the woman's face. Penny noted that the killer was unarmed when he stood up and chuckled while wiping the blood off his gloves.
"Well, well! The robot with a soul."
Penny braced herself and raised her hands. Within seconds, an arsenal of swords suspended on invisible wires blinked menacingly at Napier as Penny spat.
"And you are nothing but a soulless monster! Surrender now! By the authority of the Atlesian Council, you are under arrest for murder!"
Napier's face adopted an expression of mock surprise as he placed a finger to his silky-soft lips and mused.
"Under arrest for murder? Is it murder when Atlas executes criminals? No! That is justice, and believe me; this woman is far worse than even that kind of criminal."
Penny mirrored Wilson's movement across the hallway. Ensuring that the assassin could not slip past her by design or accident. The android then snarled levelly as the blades danced around her, minutely responsive to every twitch of her fingers and wave of her hands.
"Stay where you are! Or I will attack!"
Now Wilson paced the width of the hallway like a caged tiger. His black coat swirled at his feet, a nest of black vipers that reflected the poison dripping from his lips.
"Why are you so snappy at me? This woman murdered the scientist that memorial downstairs is being held for. She is the one who had the gall to show her face here before the man she killed. I'm just exacting justice this bitch is long overdue for."
Wilson's words drove through Penny's miniature power generator and for a second the sinuous movements of her blades turned clumsy as the android's eyes darted towards the body behind Wilson. She quickly recognized the only intact part of the woman that was left, a hand with a wedding ring which had given Penny her face and helped her off the workbench when she was first brought to life. The same hands that held hers when Penny first learned to walk, and the hands that read her bedtime stories as her internal processors were being adjusted.
That woman had been a mother to Penny. This woman whom Penny did not know the name of was her father's killer.
"How? How could you know this?"
Now it was Wilson's turn to stop as the smug confidence on his face disappeared. Replaced by regret and a hint of wistful sadness as he calmly answered.
"I was the assassin she hired for the job."
Now, Penny was simply stunned. So Wilson continued.
"His name was Pietro. He wasn't my first kill, but he was my first formal assignment. I was told by my client that Pietro was building some kind of superweapon. A weapon he intended to unleash on innocent people in service of the Atlesian Military under General Ironwood's orders. The lien cleared my account so I took the job. Even then, I was totally ripped off."
An innocent man. Penny's father. Killed by a boy because of a lie and for profit. The concept boggled her; how could anyone be so callous? Was human life so worthless? What made Wilson happily accept this assignment on someone Penny knew would never have hurt a fly?
"Honestly? I thought it would be a challenge. My skill against a superweapon. Also, the idea that some prick like Ironwood could have all that power over others just rubs me off the wrong way. It is an insult to the spirit of battle."
Abruptly, Wilson sighed and stretched.
"However, it was all a lie; Pietro was just some guy who tinkered with toys. Who wanted to build something that would better Atlas. He wanted to build you, and he did good work. He would be very proud of you. In any case by the time I knew, things had gone too far, and this slut was too well-protected for me to get to. So I waited. Until today."
Penny rocked a step back as she processed Wilson's words. A woman who had cared for Penny like a daughter was the one who had her father killed. Meanwhile, a heartless serial killer had taken the time to avenge her father's death and affirmed her father's life's work. How could someone who was so kind to her commit such evil? How could an Assassin be so honorable? The conflict proved too much for the android, and she suddenly burst out laughing at the incongruity of it all.
Wilson looked slightly worried, but the act of laughter seemed to reboot Penny's processors. She then looked at Wilson and asked.
"A good person is responsible for evil, while a murderer is a man capable of great good. How do you reconcile this irony? Make sense of this paradox without losing your mind?"
Wilson thought for a moment before he answered.
"Honestly? I let the fight decide. The one left standing is usually the winner. Because he is alive and able to defend his position."
Penny considered Wilson's answer. After a moment of silence, Penny raised her hands and set her blades to attack position.
"That is an unacceptable proposition; As you have stated earlier, my father was a good man, and as I was brought to life by his hands it is only logical that I too must be 'good'. Despite your actions, I am here. I am alive. Therefore what is good will surpass what is not. Through me, my father's ideal lives on; that in the end good will always win through no matter what evil is used to justify any actions taken against it."
Wilson smirked.
"So in the end, it comes down to a fight. Whoever is left standing is right."
"No, Wilson. I'm not fighting you, I am asserting the truth of the world; Good will always triumph over evil."
Wilson laughed. Short, sharp, and deadly as his coat tails billowed back and the assassin settled into a stance.
"It seems I would get my battle after all. So then robot with a soul, are you ready?"
"Nope!" Penny said as her grav-servos lifted her off the carpet like an avenging angel glowing neon green.
"I am Combat-Ready!"