"Uhn… What happened?"
Her vision returning, Penny lurched forward in her seat. Looking around, she found herself sitting outside on the balcony under the night sky. What was she doing out here? She was just inside a second ago getting bandages for Yang. The last thing she remembered was touching the closet door when-
"Gah-!"
As a breeze blew threw her hair, she felt that strange sensation come over her again, this time from inside her. She gripped her chest, the source of her power and aura, when she heard a voice coming from seemingly nowhere.
"Do not worry," the voice rasped, laughing to itself, "I am only finishing up the symbiosis, so don't try to resist. If you do, then I'll gladly increase the pain you are feeling by tenfold! Mwah-ha-ha!"
"I don't understand…" Penny felt herself being forced back into a reclining position. Unable to control her own movements, "What is… What's going on?!" Clenching her hands on the chair, she tried to call out for Ruby, for somebody to help her. Her parasite would have none of it, and locked the servos of her mouth.
"None of that now, sweet child," Virulet soothed, "Your friends don't need to know about this yet. Be thankful I brought those bandages to Xiao Long as you promised to and didn't eviscerate her on the spot. Their response of kindness for my action was sickening! Though, I must savor cheerful personality is quite difficult to replicate. A whole day of being stuck in it… The urge to break character and start the slaughter was a most tempting action!"
Wincing, Penny could feel the A.I probing her mind, invading every thought and feeling saved within. Virulet viewed them all and memorized them in nearly an instant; if there was one thing he was grateful of Salem for, it was giving him such powerful processing capabilities.
"Ah, I see it all now," Virulet said as finished hacking Penny's intelligence, "You care about these flesh-bags living here quite a bit. Especially… Ruby Rose."
Virulet felt the girl trying to move again out of fear for her friend's safety, and tightened the lock on her body even more.
"Oh don't worry. I will gladly kill her first, and spare her the pain of watching the rest of her allies fall one by one. I was programmed with some prior information regarding her and three other individuals. She referred to them as the Latent 4 I must be cautious of in case Ozpin lowers the barrier locking their semblances within them. Their abilities could bring much harm to me… or, to put more correctly, my host body."
When Penny tried to examine the A.I's thoughts that had been fused with her own, she felt herself being kicked out and restrained, as if he was putting some sort of firewall around her own free will. Who were the other three living here besides Ruby he was wary of?
"I want you to know that there is no need to be afraid. By the time that time comes when I must dispose of you all, I may not even need your body anymore. You resist me too much, and I cannot have that occurring during a time as vital as the day of the slaughter. As long as it is metal and electronic like you, I can possess it! Even a pile of scrap would be more useful than yourself! Mwah-ha-ha! Yes! Cower in fear as I, Lord Sir Virulet the 13th, take over your entire life!"
Feeling her will to resist begin to shut down, all Penny could see from her open eyes was an endless stream of purple lines of code clouding her vision as the A.I took over her eyes and everything else just:
Vanished.
"Oh, my dear Penny Polendina," Virulet soothed as he finished his complete takeover of the girl, "I want you to know, as you fall into a most unpleasant sleep, that it is in their happiest moment - during the time that your comrades are at their most joyful - that I will bring upon them a most glorious demise… So with that, I bid you sweet dreams."
With full control now his, Virulet stood from the chair and stretched out his host's arms, realizing he may have tightened them a bit too much. For now, he would have to wait until the time to strike was right before he could have any fun of his own. "Hm, yes. That was quite the dastardly monologue... I must prepare more like it! But first…"
Virulet cleared his digital throat, adjusting the tone of his voice. "Check, check! One-two!" he said in Penny's voice, making sure his own drastically different vocals wouldn't be projected from the host's internal speakers, "Excellent! Those fools will never suspect that I am amidst their ranks! Mwah-ha-ha! This plan is so diabolical I can feel a pounding in my audio receptors! Yes, it is- Wait a minute. Why is it getting louder?And why is there- AGH!"
He covered Penny's ears as the sound began to disorient his host's sensory centers, which also caused him pain in turn. Realizing that the source of the pounding wasn't from the intensity of his scheme, Virulet turned to the house where the sound of guitars and harsh vocals was echoing from the halls.
"What in the name of scat-covered Hell is that infernal noise?!"
"MERCURY! TURN THAT DOWN!"
The moment she had stepped out of the shower and turned the water off, Weiss was greeted to the sound of heavy metal blaring in the hall. Not being a very big fan of the genre, she dressed herself quickly and ran to stop the source of the noise. Pounding on the door to Black's room, Weiss covered her ears once more when the 5-Star Man poked his head out and the rock music only increased in loudness.
"YOU WANT SOMETHING, PRINCESS?"
"TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN! IT IS TOO LATE AT NIGHT FOR-
"SORRY! CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF THIS KILLER NEW ALBUM I PIRATED!"
"I SAID TURN IT-
Before Weiss could finish, the door slammed shut in her face as Merc turned the music up even louder than before. Yelling to the sky in frustration, Weiss stomped down the hall and saw someone else was not appreciating the late-night jam session. "I take it you can't sleep either, Emerald?"
"Not just me," Sustrai said, "A lot of us are downstairs trying to find somewhere quiet to rest, but we can still hear it all. Arc and Nikos can't even get back in the room to get their stuff. Merc locked them out apparently so he could listen to it in peace."
"He considers that noise peaceful?" Weiss rolled her eyes, "And I guess he locked Taurus out too?"
"I don't know where he is, and I don't really care to know either."
Weiss sighed, folding her arms. "I refuse to let him get away with this. He needs to learn about respect for others."
"Yeah, right," Emerald snorted, "All that jerkoff cares about is himself, money, and sex. I bet he'd shut it off completely if some bimbo came to seduce him."
Weiss looked over Emerald and the tight-fitting tank she was wearing. "Maybe you could try and-
"No. Never. Wouldn't work anyways. He knows I hate his guts. Me trying to seduce him would just make him laugh until he pisses his pants."
"Well, I'm certainly not going to do it," Weiss said, "We just need to find someone who will."
"Good luck with that. No girl here would be willing to put themselves in a position like that just for the sake of others. Except maybe Ruby or Penny, but I doubt they'd even understand what to do."
Going through a list of girls living here in her head, Schnee landed on one she thought might just be selfless enough to perform such a degrading act. "I wouldn't speak like that so soon, Emerald…"
"A-And you're sure this will work, Weiss?" Velvet stuttered, holding her robe tightly around her body as Weiss finished fastening the Faunus' heels. To say Velvet was uncomfortable was an understatement, but what she was going to do was for the sake of everyone. She had been left at this house on a whim with no warning, and needed to do something to make up for her sudden intrusion into their lives, no matter how scantily clad she had to be while doing so.
"If Mercury is as predictable as we think he is, then yes," Schnee responded, standing up and patting Velvet on the shoulder, "Just follow the plan, and you should be out of there without him even laying a hand on you."
"But I'm not worried about that at all! He might be rough around the edges, but he is kinda cute…"
"Ew. Just ew," Emerald gagged, handing Velvet her contribution to the plan, "Use this if he tries his system on you."
"What system?"
"You don't want to know, trust me. He told me once just so I wouldn't want to talk to him for a week."
"Okay then," Velvet tightened her robe even more, "I'll do my best, guys…"
With Weiss and Em giving her thumbs up as she approached Mercury's room, Velvet breathed in and knocked on the door. After knocking much harder a second time, Merc answered and eyed her curiously. Sensing an opportunity of sexual nature, he used his speaker remote to turn his music down a bit. He needed her to at least hear his words of seduction, or this might result in yet another failure.
"Ah, the new girl," Black grinned, "Velvet, right?"
"Y-Yes… My name is Velvet."
"What a beautiful name. So, can I help you with something?"
"Well, I… um…" Nervously tugging at the edges of her robe, Velvet couldn't help but blush as she gave Black a peek at what she was wearing underneath (or what little she was wearing, to be exact). "I was hoping we could… get to know each other… a bit more personally?"
Score. Mercury grinned from ear to ear at the thoughts of getting this girl under his covers. However, he wouldn't be a 5-Star Man if he couldn't get her to reveal just a bit more to him before they began.
"Sorry, Velvet," Merc said slyly, stroking his chin, "But I didn't quite catch that bit of outfit you showed me under that obstructing robe of yours. Why don't you just take it off for me before we start?"
"Uh…!" That caught her off guard. Velvet looked down the hall at Weiss and Em for guidance. While the former just shrugged, the latter pointed at her hip to suggest using the item Velvet had received from her. Guess she had no choice… "O-Okay, then."
Undoing the robe completely, Merc's jaw dropped as he gazed upon Velvet's body, clad in a one-piece bunny swimsuit complete with fishnets stockings from the Lieutenant's wardrobe (who was happy to have lent them to the girls for this scheme). Her face a beat red, she saw Black's hand's reaching out to touch her as the 5 Star-Man skipped all the way to the 3rd step of the MERC System: Reach Around. Not wanting to be groped, she took Emerald's advice and drew her weapon.
"I'M SORRY!" Velvet apologized as she whacked Mercury across the face with a kitchen spatula. Knocking the douche to the ground, she hopped over him into the room and ran to his speakers. She popped his MP3 player from the speaker jack and made a run for it, covering her indecency as she fled to somewhere she could hide her half-naked body.
A grill mark on his cheek, Merc rubbed his bruise and stood to his feet. "Ngh… Well, we've got a feisty one on our hands. Those are the fun ones…"
"Even in defeat, he's still an ass," Emerald groaned.
"Look on the bright side," Weiss said, "At least the house is quiet again."
"Rejoice!" the voice of Nora hollered from downstairs, as others began cheering, "Rejoice as the quiet time returns upon us!"
Weiss and Em shared a glance to acknowledge the irony of Valkyrie's praise before heading to join them, both pleased by the lack of guitar riffs pounding in their brains. As Merc shut the door to his room, he noticed some shuffling coming from one of the beds. Adam's head soon poked out from underneath the covers, and the White Fang leader rubbed his tired eyes.
"Where has the music gone?" Adam yawned, "It was quite a soothing tune."
"…How long have you been under there?"
"A few hours, I believe."
"Did you see anything?"
"I was sleeping. What do you think?"
"Okay. Because I totally wasn't playing air guitar this whole time. At all. Just going to stress that fact."
"Why would you even say that if it didn't happen?"
"…Just go the fuck to sleep Adam."
A few hours later, from a closed bathroom door:
"Hello? Anyone there? Its Velvet… C-Can anyone hear me? I need some clothes here… I'm pretty cold in here… Weiss? Emerald? Anyone?!"