"You're here!" Nora exclaimed to Penny as the door to Team RWBY's dorm room opened up to her. The brash bomber grabbed her by the hand and pulled her inside where the rest of Team RWBY was waiting for her dressed in their sleeping clothes.
"What's going on?" Penny asked her, looking around at the excited faces of the friends. Penny had been busy enjoying the romantic and sultry tales of Ninjas of Love from the privacy of her room when Nora texted her to come to Team RWBY's room with no explanation why.
"Jaune got back from his date!" Nora exclaimed to her, sitting her in a chair.
Penny had been trying not to think about that, she had tried distracting herself with the only form of romance she felt she was going to get upon the pages of a cheap paperback lent to her by Blake. "And?" Penny asked her expectantly. She supposed Nora wouldn't be like this if she had bad news for her.
"Jaune says he had a great time and the date went very well," She explained to her.
Penny felt like she was tossed off a cliff. She nodded to her, "that's… good." she said to her. As much as it pained her to say that a part of her did feel a small tinge of happiness for Jaune. She had heard the phrase if you love someone let them go, perhaps this was that, as sort of happy sad, bittersweet as some called it.
A pillow flew across the room and struck Nora. "Nora!" Team RWBY exclaimed to her all at once.
"You're torturing her!" Blake chided to her.
"Tell her the rest, don't keep her hanging!" Weiss interjected.
"What?" Penny asked looking around the room.
"They're not going to have a second date!" Nora told Penny crossing her arms with a pleased expression on her face.
Penny let those words hang in the air. "I do not understand," she said.
"Jaune told Nora that while he and Neon had a great time they both agreed they're different people and don't see themselves working as a couple," Weiss explained calmly laying it clearly out for her. She shot a glare towards Nora, "Was it so hard to put it simply like that?!" Weiss asked her pointedly.
"I'm sorry I'm just excited," Nora explained, "Penny has a chance now and we were all rooting for her!"
Yang grinned, "You got a straight shot at Vomit Boy now Penny, we're rooting for you!"
Ruby nodded in agreement with her sister. "We're all very excited for you Penny."
"Just don't wait too long confess," Weiss told her, "Doubtlessly more girls are likely to ask Jaune out, if you're not careful you'll lose your chance again."
"Yup it's still weird to hear Weiss talk about Jaune like that, careful Penny I think she means herself when she mentions 'other girls'." Yang teased.
"SHUT UP!" Weiss shouted at the blonde throwing a pillow at her. Yang just laughed and took the blow.
"Our point is… we want you to do this," Blake said, "You need to tell Jaune how you really feel."
Penny stood up from her chair trying to process this all in. Telling Jaune how she really felt still felt scary and insurmountable. And Neon, even though she had the courage Penny lacked to be upfront to Jaune and ask him out, apparently things still did not work in her favor. She supposed she should simply feel happy that she had a chance but what if things didn't work out with Jaune even after she confessed to him, and she still was not sure how or if she could confess.
"Thank you for telling me all of this, goodnight," Penny said, taking a step towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Nora asked her.
"I want to get some advice," Penny told them, stepping out the door.
She didn't completely understand why she was going to her, she did not know if she had any advice that would be different than what Yang or the rest of her friends could offer but she walked through the hallways directly towards Team FNKI's dorm.
She could hear voices inside thanks to her enhanced hearing, she often kept her audio senses just above that of average human hearing in order to remain alert but avoid unnecessary eavesdropping. She could hear Neon's voice inside so she was clearly awake despite the late hour so she had no fear of suddenly waking her in the middle of the night.
Penny's knuckles rapped on the door and in moments the knob turned and it opened up for her. It swung open and Ivori looked at her from the crack in the door. "Uh… hello?" he said clearly not expecting to see Penny of all people coming to her at this time of night.
"Greetings," Penny said to him, "Can I speak to Neon please?"
He looked back and past him she spotted Neon sitting on a bunk in sleeping clothes with a game controller in her hand. "Uh ok?" Neon said standing up and going to the door and stepping out, "Ivori take my place. I'll hold you personally accountable if I lose this match."
Ivory took the controller as she handed it to him and closed the door leaving both girls out in the hallway. "What's up?" Neon asked her with a smile.
"That night you asked Jaune out on a date… I should have told you that I have a crush on Jaune," she told her honestly.
"Oh…" Neon said awkwardly, eyes widening as she was taken aback, "I had no idea… if I knew I wouldn't have asked him out… mind if we take a walk?"
Penny nodded and they began strolling down the hallway together, Neon was barefooted but she seemed unconcerned with that. "I heard your date with Jaune went well, but you both agreed that there is little chance of there being more in the future."
"Word gets around fast apparently, I don't think it has even been a full hour since I told him goodnight." Neon told her.
"Nora had to tell me the news after Jaune told her, she knows about my feelings, along with Team RWBY."
"So why are you talking to me?" Neon asked her, "Jaune's fair game now, you can ask him out I won't get in your way."
"I know that," Penny told her, "I did not come here for your permission or anything. I came to you for advice."
"Advice?" Neon asked her looking over at her.
Penny nodded, "I've never asked a boy out before… and I have no idea how to tell Jaune how I feel about him… but when you asked him out it seemed so easy and you were so confident I want to know how you do it, how can I do it?"
Neon gave her a tiny smile as they walked in front of a window displaying the academy spires bathed beautifully in moonlight. "I don't have any great secret Penny, I just asked him."
"That's it? You weren't scared of being rejected?" Penny asked her.
"Oh I was a little nervous, I've asked out like a dozen guys and it's always a little tough knowing they might say no. But what if they say yes? I'm like most girls Penny, I'm looking for love just like you, I just don't let my fear hold me back because I don't want to miss out on something wonderful."
"I was really hoping you had some kind of advice for me," Penny lamented.
Neon smiled at her, "Here I'll try my best for you." she told her, "here goes, I don't mean to sound vain but knowing I was a looker always made it easier and trust me you don't need to worry about your appearance you're beautiful. Guy's are flattered to be asked out so don't worry too much, yes or no he'll probably feel pretty good about himself just because you're interested in them. Don't wait for a perfect time make it or take it but waiting gets you nowhere. And don't worry about looking confident, being a nervous wreck isn't so bad, some guys like it, they find it cute, worry more about saying what you mean over sounding good. And if it ever seems too hard to confess just remember that nothing of value is ever easy."
"That is actually some really helpful advice," Penny told her, "you may not have any secret for talking to boys but you have given me some of the most practical advice so far."
Nean beamed with pride, "Well I'm happy to help, and for what it's worth thank you for giving me a fair shot with Jaune." A huge grin widened across Neon's face, "You know Jaune and the rest of Team JNPR have been training with us, you should join us next week."
Penny wasn't sure what to make of that smile, "Alright… but why?"
Neon smiled wider, "oh you'll see."
The white expanse of the vast tundra stretched out before them. Vasily pulled the truck onto the top of a snowy hill contented with the position. Bonnie sat next him in the passenger seat typing away at her laptop despite the lack of a tower signal out here in this frozen wasteland.
"This should do," he announced, putting his truck into park and looking into the back seat. Penelope was staring out the window examining every little detail of the terrain with childlike wonder.
"Are you prepared Bonnie?" He asked turning to his assassinstant as she kept her focus purely on her laptop. "Yes, all combat functions are ready and operational, we are prepared for testing."
"Excellent," Vasily said, opening the door to a blast of frigid wind. "Penelope get out!" he ordered. Calling it by a human name seemed silly but he supposed it hardly mattered, the android always seemed to respond best when called its given name.
"Yes master," the android said obediently stepping out. She was not dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. It wouldn't be wise to be seen driving out of Mantle with a naked woman sitting in the backseat of his truck. He had ordered her to pull her hood up to avoid being mistaken for her counterpart Penny, he didn't need her being recognized, not yet.
The wind pulled the hood away and let her mass of copper red hair flow in the wind. "You want to test my combat capabilities out here?" She asked looking at the empty expanse of ice and snow that surrounded them.
"Yes, there's grimm out here. They doubtlessly noticed my vehicle and I intend to make enough noise to attract as many as possible, kill them in whatever means seems fit to you."
Penelope nodded and looked over in the distance. "First target sighted," she informed him seeing black figures race across the white planes, "beowolfs," she announced, "eight of them."
To Vasily's humble fanus eyes they only looked like black dots at this distance. "Engane them when you're ready, defend our position. If Bonnie and I are made to intervene I will look at it a failure on your end."
"Understood," Penelope said. Her back compartment opened and a blade deployed. Much like her counterpart's Floating Array the blades separated into multiple black and red swords connected by razor thin strings. Iron Array Bonnie had bequeathed it designing them herself with the assistance of the stolen blueprints. A total of seven blades deployed from the original, unlike Floating Array it did not separate into fourteen different blades, Vasily had insisted on sturdier swords wanting something that would hold up to harsher punishment.
The blades shifted into their laser gun forms and fired cutting down the eight charging grimm with eight perfectly precise shots.
Vasily leaned against the hood of his truck and crossed his arms watching as more and more grimm showed themselves in the distance only to be cut down by Iron Array's lasers. The android leapt into the air with and fired off her jet boots hovering in the air as she rained fire upon the charging grimm.
Beowolves, Sabyrs, and Ursai took little time to gather and assault their position. Her lasers were deadly and precise, no shots were wasted as each burned a lethal hole in their heads.
"Good," Vasily praised her, "but you will not be able to keep them at bay like that forever," he instructed her, "You will have to engage them directly sooner or later, and if they get too close I will have to intervene for my own safety."
"Yes master," Penelope said, swooping down low to the edge of the hill where the approaching grimm gathered. Her blades cut through them like a scythe through grass killing multiple grimm at one leaving behind bodies smouldering into black smoke.
He watched as she unleashed a flurry of blows on the monsters, slaying them with ease. They gathered around distracted by her as she cut their numbers down. She landed and focused on the thick of them, each blade moving independently as it engaged a grimm each. But as her eight blades cut down the grimm on her flanks she engaged the ones in front of her in hand to hand combat.
It was a rather amusing sight. Watching something that resembled a young girl shatter a grimms skull with her bare hands like it was glass. Her mechanical strength was easy to overlook, her strength was greater than that of anyone he had ever seen. Her deceptively looking fist was like a hammer as any grimm foolish enough to charge her directly was broken apart by her bare hands.
She shattered bones and twisted necks, she picked a beowulf up by its throat and threw it into the crown tearing its windpipe out as she struck back more with the dying creature.
A single sabyr circled around her to her rear and lunged. With a flash it slammed into a hardlight barrier projected from her internal dust dispenser, it shielded her from the blow and without even turning she decapitated the grimm with one of Iron Array's swords.
"Her hard light shields are functioning well," Bonnie reported to him, "the blades are a touch slower thanks to the increased weight and durability."
"How much slower?" Vasily asked her as he watched her cleave her way through the crowd of grimm like the machine she was.
"Only a fraction of a second," Bonnie reported to him stepping close, "it might not mean much for us but should she face her counterpart…"
"I do not think it will be a problem," Vasily told her, "she has a great many more tricks up her sleeve making her superior than Ironwood's doll, he was a fool to put this model into storage. Besides I other huntsmen will have little hope against her, and with that I can get close to Arc."
"Vasily…" Bonnie said to him carefully, "are you sure we should go after him?" she asked, drawing his eye.
"He beat me!" Vasily said to her dangerously.
"Did he?" She asked him tentatively, "You're alive, and so is he… no one won, he's not worth you attention."
In a flash Vasily turned on her and grabbed her by her hand pulling her to him. She cried in pain and he bared his teeth to her. "He stuck a blade in my gut and left me for dead!" he hissed to her, "He left me alive to spite me! Every step I take I feel him, every time I look in the mirror I'm reminded of this humiliation," he told her, running his fingers over the scar on his temple where Arc had first struck him with that damned blade.
"I underestimated him once, I didn't know about his heritage. He was the leader of his team at Beacon, he was partnered with Pyrrha Nikos, a champion fighter, he was clearly the superior of his team to be made a leader over her!"
"Ok ok," Bonnie whimpered to him, closing her eyes as she expected a blow from him. "But what about afterwards?" she asked him.
"What do you mean?" Vasily asked her. After? What kind of question was that? He would complete his work here and leave for fresh hunting grounds and more work that required his noble skills, more challenges to conquer.
"I mean… you have me, and enough funds to live lavishly. Couldn't we do more?" she asked him.
Vasily snarled but released her hair. "What more is there?" He asked her. She was probably misunderstanding their relationship again. Fucking her was likely a mistake, it confused her. She was his tool not his wife. Why would she think otherwise?
"I… I don't know," Bonnie told him, "I… I thought I might ask."
"You knew what I was when you begged me to spare you life," he told her simply, "you gave your life to me, don't expect anything different."
Bonnie nodded to him, "yes… of course." she told him composing herself and turning back to her laptop. Vasily turned back to the carnage, at the foot of the snowy hill grimm bodies littered the area turning into smoke. The brunt of the battle was already over, most of the grimm were dead with only wounded and stragglers but cresting a distant hill four goliaths charged their position. They were late to the fight having lumbered behind their smaller and swifter brethren but they tore across the ice like a snowplow.
Penelope leapt into the air and fired up her jet boots as she flew over the massive grimm extending her hands. From hidden barrels in her palms fired, dust shells hidden within her arms struck the creatures in their trunk like legs blasting them into a gory mess as her lasers focused on the other limbs sering them apart.
The hulking creatures tilted and fell to the ground with a crash kicking up a crowd of snow from their impact. With the grimm down and wounded she descended on her helpless prey. She cut into them with a flurry of blades, killing them in a thousand cuts.
With the largest grimm down and only stragglers remaining Iron Array folded back into a single blade and folded into the compartment in her back. A beowulf charged her and she decapitated it with a single punch, another one she tore out its windpipe and let it die slowly wheezing on the ground suffocating and gargling on it's own blood. Vasily had never watched grimm die from suffocation, his kills were always quick and clean but this was different.
With only wounded grimm and stragglers left her fighting style changed. It was no longer brutally efficient, it was simply brutal and slow. She shattered their limbs and watched their needlessly thrash in the snow helpless, she broke a spine and watched the paralized creature twitch. She studied the grimm, she tested her helpless prey. It was like watching a child burn ants with a magnifying glass or pull the wings off of flies, she was experimenting as she killed.
Vasily approached stepping down the hill. She was standing over a ursai who's limbs she tore off, any other creature would have already bled to death but grimm were more resilient than any normal animal.
"They break quite easily," Penelope observed aloud, eventually ending the ursai with a stop of her foot.
Vasily chuckled, "I suppose to you they would, but to many they are quite formidable. You are a weapon, you were made to kill and that is why this comes so naturally to you."
Penelope nodded and looked at his hip where his revolver rested in his holster, "I am a weapon… is that all I am?"
Vasily looked at the carnage around them. "Is there more you desire?" he asked her, drawing his weapon from it's holster inspecting it. "You are a weapon, you were made to be aimed and fired, you are simply more advanced than this revolver."
"Why were you made?" Penelope asked as a sabyr charged. She grabbed a paw and slammed it into the snow, she took hold of one massive fang and broke it off to impale into its throat. "Were you made to become a hunter?"
That made Vasily frown. Why was he answering these questions? "In a sense," Vasily answered her, "hunting is in my blood, my father was a huntsman as was my father before him. But I had different aspirations, I hunting grimm gave me little pleasure and no challenge, only the finest fighters were worthy to be my prey. This has often put me at odds with the authorities. You are now a weapon in my arsenal, and with you I shall elevate my own glory past what my humble ancestors achieved. This revolver has taken many lives, it has helped me achieve glory and it shares in my glory. You will too."
The android nodded at him. "I am a weapon, but I am not an average weapon." It wasn't a question, she understood him and her purpose.
"Exactly," Vasily told her, checking his watch, "there is a supply run being sent out here carrying supplies and guarded by huntsmen and huntresses, you will help me destroy it and those guarding it."
Penelope nodded in understanding.
Vasily smiled and holstered his revolver, "come along, there is hunting to be done."
I hope everyone enjoyed this week's chapter. As usual please review and leave your thoughts and comments. This current arc will only be a couple more chapters and we'll move onto the final arc or two, things are starting to reach a point in this story. I've really been enjoying this story and now I'm getting ready to do my next fic as well. I'd like to thank MidKnightMoonglow99, MajorBrony95, DrknssRules1, and Firefly25 for all being super helpful.