This needed to end now.
Penny watched as the constant attacks drained her aura levels as well as her power. The storm of missiles and gunfire was taking its toll on her. This was just like Vasily, using all manner of traps and machines, wearing her down for the final kill. She wasn't going to play his game.
She dropped from the sky diving down to earth in a spiral corkscrewing herself to present a less easy target. The lights of Mantle sparkled below her as the defenses continued to fire their missiles and antiaircraft weapons. She evaded the tracers and eliminated the missiles with precision laser fire.
The flying drones pursued her from above firing down upon her. She speed towards the ground as fast as she could diving past the roof of the buildings before pulling up evading the ground to speed through the streets out of sight of the antiaircraft weapons. She turned in the air as she raced through the streets under the cover of the buildings. Spotting the drones above she fired as they tried pursuing her. They were not as maneuverable as she was, unable to navigate the confined streets they followed her from above the roofs. From there they were easy targets for her, her blades and lasers quickly disabling them as she raced away from the edge of town, away from the outer defenses.
The crackle of signal interference cleared away only for her to be bombarded with all kinds of traffic and emergency signals. A dozen calls came her way, there was more happening here than a simple trap.
"Penny!" Ironwood said the minute she took his call.
"General what is happening?" she asked him zigging and zagging her way through the labyrinth of streets and alleys.
"Penny you need to get to the Exalted hotel immediately," he explained to her, "there is a terrorist attack happening right now."
"Is it Vasily?" she asked him, "and do you know what happened to Jaune?"
"Vasily has not yet been spotted in the area, and I have not been able to establish contact with Mr. ARc," he explained to her, "but be on your guard for Vasily, we have reason to believe he is behind this attack."
"Who is there?" Penny asked, "how many terrorists and how well are they armed."
"There is only heavily armed terrorist and team with air support as well," he answered.
"One?" she asked, "against a team with air support? How heavily armed can they be?"
There was a long silence over the line. "General?" she asked, "how heavily armed is the terrorist?" she asked again, she could hear him breathing still but his pause made her apprehensive. Usually General Ironwood was firm and direct with her, he was confident and well spoken but there was something different tonight.
"General! What do you know about the terrorist?" she asked him firmly. "I need to know what to expect for this fight."
"Penny," Ironwood said to her, his voice gravely serious, "I need to explain a few things to you."
Jaune felt like he was back at Beacon and he had just spent an extra long session in Glynda's class serving as a training dummy that Cardin had whaled on for a straight hour. The pain had throbbed to life as he awoke in the pitch black.
It took him a long moment to make sense of his surroundings, to remember what had happened. It was hard to think about anything when he had the headache of a lifetime.
It didn't take long for his memories to seep back. Penny, the hotel room, the imposter who attacked him, the soldiers who shoved him into a bullhead that was swiftly shot down. It all made sense now, he was still in the fuselage of the bullhead crash. That also explained why everything currently hurt.
He spat the blood he tasted in his mouth. It splattered on his own face, it seemed he was facing directly up. It couldn't have been very long since the crash considering he was still here in the wreck alone. He tried moving in the dark, he was still in the bullhead seat strapped in with the harness.
He tried fumbling for the release for the harness when he heard muffled voices outside.
"He could be dead in there!" He heard someone outside yelling. "He better still be alive."
He wondered if it was rescuers outside.
He heard something thunk on the metal hull above him and the scrape of steel against steel. Hopefully it was the rescue team cutting their way in to help him.
The scrape of steel being shredded only lasted for a moment before tears formed in the hull above him. Light flooded in from the cuts through the steel, three long parallel gashes seeping in light from outside. Spots formed from the sudden light that shattered the pitch black his eyes had tried adjusting too.
As his vision cleared he stared up at the gashes in the metal spotting a single glowing red eye observing him from. Panicking he looked away from the metallic eye and around the wreckage of the bullhead. He spotted Crocea Mors lying several feet to his left.
He reached for his weapon as the sound of tearing steel echoed through the cabin trying to reach the hilt of his swords despite his pain and all the restraints around him. He fumbled with his harness with one hand awkwardly operating the mechanism and only giving a single look upward to the mechanical hunting dog that was clawing its way inside. He almost wanted to tell himself it was another nightmare.
He managed to activate the release and the buckles clicked away releasing him from the harness. He grabbed his weapon as the robotic beast hunched itself down upon the opening it had dug for itself. The barrel of a machine gun mounted between its shoulder blade appearing before firing upon him.
His shield unfolded, it's white and gold surface deflecting the hail of gunfire that poured into it. The quadopedal drone leapt in through the opening it had tore through the hull, it crashed against his shield and he slammed it away into the floor and silenced it with a thrust of Crocea Mors.
More gunfire poured in from above as another dog drone tried crawling, Jaune raised his shield to block the attack and thrust upwards sending the tip of his blade straight through the drone's steel jaw. It fell limp blocking the entrance and Jaune took a long deep breath as he tried recovering his wits.
Kaboom!
A shot thundered and the floor beneath Jaune's feet. A massive hole burst open only inches from Jaune's foot. He looked up to see that the shot had penetrated the ceiling as well, going straight through.
Kaboom!
Another hole blasted straight through both ends of the bullhead. That sound of the rifle, it's distinct report echoing as if it had been pulled from his nightmares. He stared dumbly at the sparking corpse of the drone, he had seen this model before. He didn't want to think it was possible, it couldn't be possible, he was supposed to be dead.
Twin green lasers seared through the hull like butter cutting straight through it. The floor fell away from Jaune and he fell with it as the cleaved half of the fuselage tumbled down. It crashed down on the concrete ground. Jaune was smashed against the back and fell on his front as the half of the fuselage rolled around a bit.
He looked up trying to reorient himself. Through the sheared open half glowing with heat he saw him.
He walked closer calmly and controlled flanked by two of his robotic hunting dogs. He opened the chamber of his express rifle expelling the massive smoking casing letting them clink upon the floor.
"You could have killed him!" Vasily snarled at Penelope as he slid two shells into the chambers and closed the massive rifle.
"You!" Jaune said, staring at the assassin and pulling himself up off the floor of the shattered bullhead. He glanced up seeing the other half of the bullhead lodged headfirst into the side of a building.
"Hello Mr. Arc," he said, giving him a smile. His greeting sent a chill down Jaune's spine, he greeted him like he was some old acquaintance, almost like he was an old friend. He was speechless, he wanted to run, to spring away but he was trapped.
"What are you doing here?" Jaune asked thinking that talking was probably the only thing he could do with any chance of success.
The assassin's face twisted into a sneer at her. "You really have to ask that Mr. Arc? After setting this all up for you, you need to ask?"
It seemed that now he was actually getting his name right. "I wasn't really sure if I was worth all this trouble," Jaune told him.
The hunter smirked, "I am afraid this is all thanks to Penelope's blunt attempt at improvisation," he explained, "though I admit I cannot say I am completely displeased with the results," he said leveling his rifle right at him, "like shooting fish in a barrel."
Kaboom!
The round struck his shield, it sounded like a church bell ringing when it hit. The force of the blow knocked Jaune back into the rear wall of the bullhead.
Kaboom!
The second shot hammered hit and slammed him against the wall once more. Jaune peeked over the rim of his shield spotting the assassin as he ejected the spent shells. Jaune pushed off the wall and sprinted for the assassin.
He was reloading, this was probably his only chance to get out of the proverbial barrel and fight. Not that it would be much of a fight, a fish out of the barrel could only fight like a fish after all. But he wasn't about to be easy prey for Vasily or the mysterious Penelope.
Vasily was fast on the reload sliding the shells into his rifle and closing it with smooth practiced efficiently. Before he could even raise the rifle and draw a bead on him Jaune hurled Crocea Mors right at him. It was pathetically desperate and cheap, and it was just the trick Jaune needed.
Vasily knocked the sword out of the air with the butt of his rifle, his ancestral sword clattered on the asphalt as Jaune closed the distance between him and Vasily. Penelope swung one of her blades at him and he blocked it with his shield. Vasily tried to smack Jaune with his rifle stock, Jaune tried to dodge the strike, the blow awkwardly grazing the side of his chin.
Jaune gracelessly crashed into the assassin breaking his balance. They both tumbled to the ground together falling onto the pavement. Jaune tried rolling with the fall moving for Crocea Mors, much to his luck he hadn't lost most of his momentum and grasped the blade ready to use it.
Vasily recovered from the tackle as well rising to one knee and shouldered his rifle.
Kaboom!
Another slug smashed against the surface of his ancestral shield giving it another dent. The strike stumbled Jaune off his weak stance and he fell back into a store window cracking it.
Kaboom!
The second round roared over Jaune's head shattering the glass everywhere as he ducked and rolled for Vasily thrusting Crocea Mors right at him. Vasily parried his sword thrust away with his rifle and deployed the bayonet stabbing right at him for Jaune to deflect with his shield.
Vasily stepped away from him weidling his rifle again like a short spear as his free hand moved for his belt. A grey steel sword unfolded in his hand revealing one of Floating Array's blades in his hands.
"Remember this Arc?" he asked him, "how you left this in me and left me to die!"
Jaune stared at the small thin bladed sword in his hand. He couldn't exactly say that he was familiar with the sword, it looked like any one of Floating Array's many identical blades but he recalled the faint memory of grasping the hilt and pulling it from the snow to give a desperate swing at Vasily followed by thrust through his abdomen.
"I should have gutted you with it," Jaune said to him pressing his attack.
Steel clashed against steel, blades and bayonet and rifle stock moving together in a rhythm, a flurry of blocks and attacks and counterattacks. It felt familiar, but different.
Jaune felt like he had two left feet last time he fought Vasily. Last time he had spent an entire day with no food or water trekking across frozen tundra dodging constant attacks from his pack of drones, he had been exhausted before.
But it was more than just that, he had been quite an aggressive fighter before but right now Jaune felt like he was the one on the offensive. Was Vasily being cautious fighting him?
Twin beams of light struck him, his semblance activated shielding him from harm as the blast from Penelope knocked him away. Jaune rolled up and faced her as twin blades from the imitation Floating Array fired his way. He parried them away with shield and sword and rolled away as another blast of her eyes melted the asphalt where he had been.
The dog drones lept for him, snapping at him with their steel jaws. He tried slamming the machine with the edge of his shield only for the mechanical creature to catch in it's mouth and bite down trying to wrench it away from him as he parried Penelope's blades.
The other drone tried attacking him as Jaune played tug-o-war with the drone and his shield. Jaune raised his sword ready for it to try pouncing on him but instead the weapon upon it's back deployed.
A jet of flames erupted from the back of the drone. Jaune released his shield letting the drone have it as he rolled away from the hot steam of fire. He hadn't been expecting to face a flamethrower.
More of Penelope's swords lashed out. Several struck as he tried to parry them, he stared at his shield still clutched in the steel jaws of the other drone.
Jaune panicked as he tried keeping up with the flurry of blades. Vasily and his drones were hard enough but this Penelope was a completely different problem entirely. She almost looked bored as she sent her floating swords his direction. He tried thinking about what he could possibly do about her.
What would he do if he had to fight Penny?
He'd give up. At least that is what he had jokingly told her after a training session right before she kissed him at that jazz club. Right now he wished he had taken the possibility a lot more servious. Her blades were slower and easier to predict but it hardly made this easier and they hit harder.
Vasily slung his rifle over his shoulder as he drew his revolver from his hip leveling at him and firing right at him. Jaune rolled away letting the shots crumble pieces of the street. Without his shield it was like fighting with his hand tied behind his back.
As he rolled away from the revolver fire and more of Penelope's swords the robotic dogs lept for him or sprayed fire through the street.
From the shadows of the alleys and from the rooftops more of his canine drones appeared. Jaune gripped his blade with both hands feeling a little silly now that he hadn't bothered to train for the losing his shield.
Running wasn't an option, Penelope and the drones were all faster than him. Fighting wasn't going to get him anywhere. So far his only viable option seem to be to endure, to hold out long enough for more soldiers or someone to relieve him, and even that seemed flimsy considering how easily Penelope had destroyed those soldiers.
"Still letting machines do all the real work Vasily?" he taunted the assassin as he reloaded his revolver. He wasn't sure if goading the assassin was exactly wise but it seemed to be one of the only cards he had left to play.
Vasily chuckled at him closing the cylinder and pulling back the hammer as he pointed it. "I could have said the same of you in our last fight," he said squeezing off a shot. Jaune tried to stay moving, there was no point in being an easy target.
"What do you mean?" Jaune said as a drone leapt for him, he dodged it's claws and decapitated the creature. He kept a cautious eye on Penelope waiting for more attacks, she looked bored as it waiting for a chance to make a half hearted attack.
"Wearing me down with your little sex doll in our last encounter," he said, "don't pretend like we're any different Mr. Arc, we both understand how to use the tools in our arsenal, though I admit you found uses for that little gynoid I never would have considered," he cackled, "you don't seem to be so tough without her to wear me down.
A hot flash of anger surged through Jaune. A tool? Was that all that Vasily saw in Penny? Did he really think he was so shallow? He took a deep shaky breath to calm himself before he tried anything rash like he did fighting Cinder. It also didn't make sense, Penny had been his target before, he hadn't hid behind her she had simply been the tougher fighter and his target. Did this assassin remember their fight differently than him?
"If I'm not so tough then come on!" Jaune yelled at him, "put Penny's sword right through me!"
Vasily sneered and leveled the revolver at him once more, "Oh I will Mr. Arc, just not yet!" he fired and motioned for the drones to attack.
Jaune rolled away from his gunfire as a dozen of the metal hunting dogs leapt for him. He raised his humble blade to face them.
Beams of light seared through the mechanical creatures cutting their metal bodies into a dozen pieces. Precision blasts raining down from the sky to smite down the unfeeling machines. Jaune looked up and saw her.
Penny swept low down the street, Floating Array's swords cutting down the rest of the mechanized beasts. Vasily parried away several attacks aimed at his direction.
Penelope's own swords shot out to meet the blades parrying them. Penny landed on the ground slashing at the drone that held Jaune's shield in it's mouth. She wrenched it out of its steel jaw and tossed it to Jaune. He caught it and raised it at the ready for the next attack as Penny floated down the street to stand by his side.
She stared at Penelope as her own blades floated ready for her.
"Hello sister," Penny greeted her.
Hope you enjoyed this week's chapter. It was going to be longer and get more into Penny and Penelope's confrontation but I unexpectedly found myself able to go on a vacation to the coast for labor day and get a much needed change of scenery. I hope everyone else has enjoyed their labor day weekend. As usual please review to leave me with your thoughts and opinions and I will see you all next week. As usual I would like to thank MidKnightMoonglow99, MajorBrony95, Firefly25, and DrknssRules1 for all their help on this story.