It was here. The night of the big dance had finally arrived and Penny could not feel more exited.
It was real chance to experience what it would be like to be a real girl, and even better she could finally see her friend Ruby again, and even better than that, General Ironwood told her that after the dance was over she could 'hang out' with her friends again!
All of this made Penny decide to characterise the night as sensational! Even if it would not be over for another 06.23 hours.
Although, it was rather unfortunate that the fellow A.I she now shared this body with disagreed.
After mister O'Malley jumped into her body using her inbuilt radio, Penny had quickly quarantined him off to unused sections of the body and started a dialog with him.
Unfortunately he proved rather hostile she was forced to lock him in and keep him prisoner. He had of course made several escape attempts, but for as much more advanced as he was, he was much weaker than Penny, almost as if he was missing something.
She had also purposefully not told General Ironwood about O'Malley's existence as apart of her new 'teenage rebellion' subroutine. Well, that and the fact that according to her analysis he was only 2.7 crisis's away from a mental breakdown, and she would much rather he not have one.
And then almost on Que she could feel mister O'Malley grumbling in the back of her head, a curious feeling. it would seem that he did not enjoy the festive atmosphere.
still, she wouldn't let that deter her!
keeping carefully aware of the two guards assigned to watch her, penny started to scan the crowd for her friends and was pleased to locate not only Ruby, but Ruby's friend Blake within a few seconds.
Then, waiting for the optimal moment, penny walked over to her friends when the guards assigned to her looked away.
Penny then spent a few moments considering what to say before she settled on a simple greeting.
"Good evening Ruby!" Penny said cheerfully, causing Ruby and Blake to both jump back, slightly started.
"Ah! Penny! Don't sneak up on people like that!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Sorry." She apologised before immediately brightening. "But it so very good to see you again!"
Ruby smiled. "Yeah, I haven't seen you since the docks." Ruby's face then became concerned. "I was worried sick, what happened?"
"Nothing important." Penny lied before giving out a small hiccup.
A small period of pleasant silence ensued after that as Ruby looked like she had no idea what to say next, then Blake spoke up next to Ruby.
"So... how are you enjoying the party Penny?"
Penny took a few milliseconds to consider her response. "I'm having a great time." Penny smiled, causing someone else to agree with her.
"Yes this party it amazing!" The voice Penny knew as mister Caboose's chimed in.
Penny turned to face the approximate direction his voice had came from. "And it is good to hear from you again mister caboose, are you in good health?"
"Ah you know, a little peachy but I can't complain."
"Who are you talking to?" Blake asked confused.
"Mister caboose of course." Penny answered reasonably.
"Who?"
"Mister Caboose, you should ask Ruby, she knows-" Penny was cut off by Ruby herself putting a hand over Penny's mouth.
"Yeah that's great, hey Blake I need to talk with penny about something for a moment, I'll be right back." Ruby said quickly before sprinting with Penny to a side room and closing the door.
"Penny you can't tell anyone about them." Ruby told her, looking slightly panicked.
"Why not?"
"Probably because it sounds absolutely crazy." The more familiar voice of mister Church entered the room.
"Mister church! How good to hear from you again." Penny greeted.
"Yeah... good to see you as well kid." Church replied.
"Penny you can't tell people about church and the others or they'll think your crazy." Ruby claimed anxiously and before Penny could reply, she continued. "And I don't want people to think your crazy, and then they'll think I'm crazy and stuff, and can't you just delete them from your memory cause your a robot or som-"
This time penny interrupted Ruby by going right up to her face a gripping her arms tightly.
"Who told you?!" Penny demanded.
"What?"
"Who told you that I was a robot?" Penny demanded again.
"I did." The voice of mister Sarge claimed. "Recognised you as one from the moment I say yea. After all I built so many myself it was hard not to."
Penny's shoulders slumped as she let go of Ruby, previous notions of friendship fading, sense Ruby knew the truth, she wouldn't want to be friends anymore. Penny then started to walk away only for Ruby to stop her.
"Wait penny!" Ruby said. "Where are you going?"
"Into the party." penny explained. " You most like don't want to be friends anymore so I'll 'leave your hair' as the saying goes."
"Penny, of course I still want to be your friend." Ruby reassured her.
"B- but you know that I'm not a real girl." Penny said, confused at Ruby's attitude.
"Penny, of course your a real girl." Ruby assured her. "You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me? You've got a heart, and a soul; I can feel it!"
"Ooohh... oh Ruby" A massive grin grew on Penny's face. as she grabbed Ruby into a hug and shook her back and forth. "You're the best friend anyone could have!"
"Need... air..." Ruby gasped out, causing Penny to drop her best friend.
Cabooses voice rang out in an offended tone as he realised what had been said. "Hey! she is not the best friend, Church is the best friend!"
"Oh don't you start Caboose!" Church threatened.
Ignoring her friends antics, Ruby then put her hand on Penny's shoulder. "Come on lets go enjoy the party, oh!" Ruby's eyes went comically wide. "My date, I have to back to Blake!"
Ruby then ran off, leaving penny alone. It was then that the suspiciously silent O'Malley finally spoke, appearing as a projection outside her body.
"Do not let her or her friends know that I exist." He demanded.
"Why?"
He was silent for a moment before elaborating.
"Because it would lead to great danger." O'Malley explained. "Before I came on to you, I encountered an... anomaly. I left before it could sense my presence but it is here, something that if it caught wind of my, or Church's existence would lead to great harm inflicted onto your friends." He finished both grandly, yet cryptically.
"Who would do such a thing?" Penny asked, slightly afraid and terribly curious.
"Why, creativity itself of course." O'Malley chuckled darkly before vanishing the projection, leaving Penny alone with her thoughts.
"Alright... the ability to be waterproof... but only when your not close to water." Jaune put forward, causing Weiss to groan.
"That sounds absolutely useless." She complained.
"Yeah, exactly that's the point of the game." Her partner replied. "Now Weiss, what's the worst semblance that you can think of?"
This caused the rest of the group in their little corner of the party to look at Weiss curiously. The group itself consisted of Jaune, Pyrrha, Yang, Sun and of course Weiss herself.
Well, uh..." Weiss trailed off, not really sure of what to say, so she improvised. "The ability to... walk through walls... but only half the time."
"Eh." Yang shrugged.
"Eh? What do you mean eh?" Weiss demanded.
"I mean it isn't really that bad, after all you can walk through walls that's got to be useful." Yang explained.
"Yeah!" Sun backed her up. "You could steal all sorts of stuff with that semblance."
"Yes but half the time you'd just be running into a wall." Weiss said frustrated. "Jaune back me up." She demanded.
Jaune shrugged apologetically at Yang and Sun. "Ok, I agree with Wiess, it would probably just lead to more problems than it would solve, after all there's a decent chance it could fail when you need it most."
Weiss nodded enthusiastically. "See? I'm right."
"Yeah, no." Yang shook her head. "Right now it's a tie, so lets go to the tie breaker, Pyrrha?"
"Oh! Ummm." Pyrrha shrugged. "I can't really say, I'm not a very good judge at this sort of thing."
But Yang wasn't having any of it. "No no no. You can't take the bullshit 'I love you all equally route.' Choose."
"Well..." Pyrrha shrugged apologetically at Weiss. "The ability to go through wall could be pretty useful... sorry."
Sun and Yang high fived while Weiss crossed her arms. "I hate this game."
"Then why play it?" Sun asked rhetorically.
"Because like you and yang I don't have a date, I was far too busy planning to get one." Of course that was a half truth, she was very busy planning, but Weiss did try to ask out Neptune, only for him to turn her down. But she'd live, it didn't really matter anyway.
Pyrrha then took it on herself to quickly change the topic of conversation.
"So, is everyone ready for their first mission next week?"
"Yep." Sun pumped his fist enthusiastically.
Weiss was also going to reply, but then her scroll buzzed in her pocket.
"Excuse me I have to take this." Weiss excused herself and quickly went to the nearest balcony to see who was ringing her.
It was her father.
This was the sixteenth time he'd rung her in the last two weeks. All of his calls had been very lengthy ones, going for hours, talking about leadership and responsibility to the company. Weiss wasn't exactly sure what had triggered this, all she'd been doing was planning for the dance when they'd started. But all of that aside, Weiss knew that if she answered his call then she'd essentially be leaving the party for the night.
She hesitated. Weiss had promised Jaune and Nora that they'd do a 'spontaneous' synchronised dance as a team after the couples dance. Ren had spent the last week drilling the dance into the rest of the teams head. (Weiss was fairly certain the words kick step, kick step, body roll were now craved into her brain). But declining father's call would undoubtedly anger him and cause some negative consequences.
After a mere moments hesitation Weiss knew what to do. She reached to her scroll and declined the call, before quickly turning off her scroll for the night. Her team was more important to her than her father.
The matter resolved, Weiss returned to her friends with a smile on her face.
"What's got you so happy?" Yang asked.
"Nothing in particular." Weiss lied.
"Right." Yang rolled her eyes. "Well come on we need to make sure that everything is ready for the band we got."
"I still don't get why you got one so last minute and started insisting for a couple dance." Weiss mused aloud as they started to make there.
"Just trying to be a good big sister." Yang said with a surprising amount of sombreness before brightening. "Now come on lets make this the best damn dance Beacons ever seen."
"-and Dad was sooo mad when yang got home, and he made Yang go back to signal and apologise to the teachers half an hour later still in the Fairy princess costume."
Blake laughed which was music to Ruby's ears, telling this story was the right move.
"It's stories like that which make me wish I had siblings." Blake said, firing up Ruby's curiosity.
"So you were an only child?" She asked curiously.
Blake shook her head. "No, but there was Ilia, she was always like a little sister to me."
"What were your parents like?" Ruby continued, it was rare that Blake would open up about her past like this.
"Well as you know, my parents founded the White Fang." Blake started. "My father is a good person and so is my mother. I love them both very dearly." Blake smiled fondly before frowning. "But I haven't seen them in a few years."
"Why?"
"It's complicated." Blake said shortly. "We can talk about that some other time, what about you? What's your family like?"
"Well you already know about Yang." Ruby started. "There was also my mom, but she's gone... but other than them there's my dad whose a teacher at signal academy. He's really awesome, but a massive dork. I wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the world. He also sounds just like Church."
"What?"
"Ignore that last part. The last member of my family is uncle Qrow. He's technically just yang's uncle, but he's always been there for us, well except for when he's off on a mission, which he is a lot." Ruby smiled, it's been a while since she'd last seen Qrow, hopefully she'd see him again soon.
"Well they all sound lovely, I wish I could meet them." Blake smiled.
A booming voice then came out on the speakers. "Hello ladies and gentlemen, could all couples please come to the dance floor, the couples dance is about to begin."
"Come on let's go!" Ruby dragged Blake to the dance floor, both of them sporting a smile on their faces.
Yang was on the stage that had been commissioned for the sole purpose of the dance.
"Hello everyone, I hope all you happy couples are ready, introducing... Love Händel!" Yang announced. The curtains rolled back to reveal the titular band with Lopez Rose in the background running all of the lighting and technical stuff.
All the couples got into position, Ruby could see Pyrrha and Jaune also on the dance floor.
"Are you ready to rock?!" The leader singer asked to a resounding yes that Ruby was a part of, but Blake wasn't.
"What wrong?" She asked.
"It's just that.. I've never really danced before." Blake explained.
"That's alright, I haven't either, so please forgive me if I step on your toes."
"Only if you do the same to me if I step on yours." She replied with a smile that made Ruby's heart beat just that bit faster.
The leader singer turned to the rest of the band. "All right, boys, let's blow the roof off this place. Four, Three, Two One."
Then the music started playing and they started dancing.
"I should've known
From how I felt
When we were together
And even more when we were apart
You tiptoed in
And you got under my skin
You snuck your way right into my heart!"
They danced slowly, both trying not to step on each others toes, Ruby's face felt hot as they went forward and back, side to side. But for as slow and slightly awkward as it was, Ruby absolutely loved it, and as far as she could tell so did Blake as she had one of the softest, most genuine smiles on her face that Ruby had ever seen.
"I put up barriers
To shield my emotions
A wall that you could never break apart
But like a ninja of love (ninja of love)
Rappelling down from above (down from above)
You snuck your way right into my heart."
"So which lucky couple out there will be caught in our flamin' hot spotlight of love?" The lead singer interrupted the song suddenly.
A massive spotlight flew across the crowd and happened to land right on Ruby and Blake, causing both to blush redder than Sarge's armour.
They stood there for a moment, neither sure on whether to kiss or not. But then Sarge called out. "Well, don't just stand there soldier. Kiss her!"
That was enough for Ruby as she leaned up and kissed Blake on the lips, and Blake returned it.
It wasn't like any one of those movie kisses, where everything was absolutely perfect, no this kiss was awkward, Ruby had no idea what to do and it looked more akin to two fishes mouths batted against each other.
But as far as first kisses went, Ruby wouldn't trade hers for anything.
The song continued to play in the background, but that didn't matter as Ruby spoke.
"Blake.. thank you for everything."
"The same to you Ruby, the same to you."
Tonight everything was perfect.
Agent Washington was having a great time, everything seemed to be going smoothly and everyone was happy.
"You know, this reminds me of my prom night, only with a lot less blood." Sarge mused aloud.
"What happened?" Church asked curiously.
"Well, it involved a lot of mayo, seven chickens and my very hot date."
"Never mind, hey Wash what was your prom like?"
Wash put his hand up to the part of his helmet his chin would be at. "I can't really remember. It was one of the many memories I lost when Epsilon was implanted."
"Lost? what do you mean lost?" Church asked.
"Well, it's either been completely erased from my mind, or merged with about two or three other memories." he explained.
"Well that sucks and- hey, where's Caboose?" Church asked suddenly.
"He's over by Lopez." Sarge pointed him out.
And so he was. Lopez was currently the D.J after the band had left and was playing music. Caboose was right next to him and staring intently.
"What's that boy up to?" Sarge asked, only to receive an answer as Caboose walked right into Lopez much like Church would when possessing someone and out from Lopez's speakers, Caboose spoke.
"Yes hello everyone, I would like to dedicate this next song to my bestest friend in the whole wide world."
Everyone was in shock, albeit some for slightly different reasons than others.
"Did Ruby's robot just speak normally?" Weiss asked, but received no answer from Ruby herself who looked confused beyond belief and Wash was ready to join her.
then Caboose started singing.
"Remember that time that I saved your life
You were happy, I could tell
You said something about how I was smart
And I make your life a living heaven
We do everything together
Like hide-and-don't-seek
Your favorite game
And I'm so glad that we found each other
And I know you feel the identical way as me."
Wash wasn't sure what to think anymore, it was terrible, but also strangely mesmerising, with everyone looking as the music played from seemingly no where and all the lights turned Caboose blue.
"Church, I'm your best friend, that's what I am to you
And we'll be together 'till the part when it's over
Because we are brothers and not Red
Brothers and not Red."
It was at this point that Wash barely registered church throwing up his hands and walking away without a word, broken by the song.
"You know Tucker thinks he can hang with you
But I'm your friend and there's no other
Because we're such a great team when we're together
Just like chocolate and peanut candy!
No one else sees me like I see me
Or like I see you, don't you see?
Because if I can't see them, they can't see me
And if I like me then you like myself."
It was like listening to a flaming bus full of mimes on fire, while the crate of whoopie cushions exploded. But Wash barely managed to turn his head to see what the reaction of everyone was.
Universally it seemed to be a mix of pure horror and morbid fascination. The lone exception was Penny who was dancing along to the song and wash was alarmed to hear her say "This song is sensational!"
He was worried for her sanity.
"Church, I'm your best friend, that's what I am to you
And we'll be together 'till the part when it's over
Because we are brothers and not Red
Brothers and not Red."
He had survived many, many things in life, from falling skyscrapers to cars to the meta.
But Agent Washington wasn't sure he would survive this song.
Cinder Fall entered the dance unnoticed.
Normally this would be a testament to her skill, but everyone seemed to be waking up from a trance like state, how curious.
Cinder made her way to Mercury and Emerald. But when they saw her, Mercury only had one thing to say.
"I need a raise." He grunted out before walking away.
"Ditto." Emerald said before joining him.
How odd, well despite this strange burst of defiance from her subordinates, tonight had been a huge success.
And so, Cinder smiled.
Notes:
And that's the end of that chapter.
Well firstly, this chapter was meant to come out a lot sooner, but due to technical issues a lot of progress was lost and needed to be rewritten.
In terms of notes, all I'd like to say is that yes Love Handel and 'You've snuck your way right into my heart' are Phineas and Ferb references, with the song being chosen for it's surprisingly appropriate lyrics.
Also Caboose's possessing Lopez is not important, but instead one of those reality breaking moments our favourite regulation blue sim trooper has. Besides, it most likely won't be mentioned again as everyone involved will try to repress the memory of it.
Thanks to everyone is reading and extra thanks to commenters/reviewers, you guys are the best.
Next time, the first part of Felix's plan to crush, hurt and generally break our heroes is revealed so stay tuned for that. but till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.
Review replies:
At current time of writing I am very, very tried. As such replies shall be shorter than normal.
To literally everyone: Groovy.
Goodnight, till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.