Tsuruya took a moment to watch as Penny produced a dozen sword blades from the pack on her back. All she could think was that this girl was obviously secretly a piece of tech and not flesh and blood. She wasn't about to tell Penny that she'd figured it out, because her experience in anime and movies had told her that sometimes robots don't know they're robots, and when they find out they go crazy.

She opted for the simpler approach. She pointed at Penny as the girl (she'd decided that, robot or not, Penny was a girl and a person) dispatched another Beowolf, and shouted above the sounds of battle. "That's awesome!"

Penny clasped her hands together. "Thank you! My father gave it to me."

Tsuruya smirked. She even talked like a robot.

May jumped over Tsuruya's head, bicycle kicking a small Nevermore out of the air. She landed the bladed stock of her rifle on the evil bird, killing it, then flipped her rifle around and fired one shot into the Boarbatusk that had been bent on crushing her and Tsuruya, stopping it dead in its tracks only a few inches from the end of her barrel. Tsuruya dashed around May, slicing through an approaching Beowolf.

Doctor Oobleck appeared briefly. "Good work, girls! We're almost at the intersection!" Then he disappeared again in a blur of Huntsman.

The three girls looked ahead to the aforementioned intersection just in time to see a pack of Beowolves round the corner, charging straight for them. Penny collected up her swords, mastering them like a puppeteer, and launched them at the pack. Each sword hit its mark, seven killing the Beowolves instantly. Five more kept coming regardless. Penny pulled back, and the Beowolves went flying through the air to where they all crashed into a brick wall.

May opened fire, picking off as many as she could before the pack hit them. Seeing that her team had it covered, Tsuruya started looking around for something else to do. She could see the whirlwind that was Oobleck through the windows of the building next to her. He was clearing out each building as they went, ensuring that nothing came up behind them.

Something crawled into view on top of the building. It was definitely Grimm, but she hadn't seen it before. Its head looked like some American horror movie monster. Its six legs dug into the brick, allowing it to crawl down the side of the building, and its scorpion-like tail looked like it could shoot something. She wasn't keen to find out what.

Glancing over, she saw that the Beowolves were all dead. She tapped May on the shoulder and pointed at the strange new Grimm. "What is, uh… that thing?"

May looked up and went pale. "Scorpamander?" It sounded like a question, so Tsuruya guessed that she didn't know either.

Tsuruya suggested, "We should kill it, then."

May nodded. "Oh yeah."

Penny saluted dutifully, despite the fact that neither of them were looking her way. "Let's do it to it!"

The Scorpamander fired a red beam from its tail. Penny jumped forward, deflecting the attack with one of her swords. May and Tsuruya jumped back. May opened fire, peppering the Grimm's hide with shots that seemed to do little damage. Tsuruya ran around Penny and dashed up the wall. She knew it wasn't really a thing normal Humans did, but she figured she could because she was on Remnant and had an aura.

Dashing past the Scorpamander, she severed all three legs on its right side. It lost its footing, crashing down to the ground and smashing the sidewalk. Penny sent four of her blades into it, and it went still. Tsuruya landed on the edge of the building's roof, looking down at her victory.

May sighed, looking at her weapon. "Damn. I think that thing has a high resistance to bullets. I wasted a full clip, and you guys killed it with swords."

Penny nodded. "The important thing is that we beat it! Now, on to the intersection!"

"Can you not yell, maybe?"

Penny's gaze fell to the ground and she backed away timidly. "Sorry. I was just so excited about getting to do battle and make friends."

Tsuruya landed beside them, beaming at her ability to jump off of buildings without a care. She placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Sounds like a great idea! Let's go make friends with some Ursa!"

Penny brightened up. "Yes, let's!"

Three Ursa, as well as an Ursa Major, came running through the intersection. The three girls turned to face them, readying their weapons. May opened fire, her shots slowing down one of the Ursa enough that the Ursa Major overtook it. Penny threw her swords at the Ursa Major, spearing it in its legs and dropping it to the ground. Tsuruya ran ahead, aiming for one of the other Ursa. She skidded to a stop in front of it, turning to a back-flip. At the end of the flip, landing on her feet again, she drove her sword up into the Ursa's head.

Penny drew back her swords and ran toward the Ursa Major. Five of her swords gathered around her hand, forming a star-shaped array that began spinning rapidly. The rest of the blades returned to the pack on her back. She ran along beside the Ursa Major as it was trying to stand up. The array, practically a rotary saw, sliced the monstrous Grimm's belly. It fell down again, splitting open.

Tsuruya ran around the final Ursa, as May's target died, attacking from the far side. She jumped up and kneed it in the face, knocking it onto its side. It pushed itself up just in time for Tsuruya to remove the top of its head with her sword.

They stood among the evaporating bodies of the Grimm.

Doctor Oobleck appeared again. "Excellent! Most excellent indeed! Tell me, what are your respective kill counts?"

Tsuruya and May exchanged a confused look. May shrugged. "I forgot to keep count."

Tsuruya nodded. "I lost count after the first two or three. I might be around twelve by now."

Penny raised her hand. "I'm on twenty-eight and a half! I decided to divide the Scorpamander between myself and Miss Tsuruya!"

Tsuruya gasped in surprise. "Wha- I won't be beaten by a robot!" She stopped when she realized that she'd said that out loud.

Penny was taken aback. "A robot? I am not a robot. Do you even know what the word 'robot' means?"

"Um…"

"It means 'slave'. Do I look like a slave to you?" She immediately answered her own question. "Not at all. I look like a girl. And I am one. I'm just… a mechanical girl."

Oobleck looked on silently, drinking from his weapon. When it looked like it was over, he spoke again. "Nevertheless, I am glad to see that you are all feeling competitive about this. Come now! There's always more Grimm!" He zipped away.

Tsuruya rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry. Blame it on English not being my first language, but I did not know 'robot' meant 'slave'. I thought it was just a word for a mechanical thing that moves on its own."

Penny cocked her head to the side. "Perhaps the word you were looking for is 'android'. It could be a good way to describe what I am." She narrowed her eyes. "And I'm also a Huntress."

Tsuruya shook her head. "I don't think I like the idea of being beaten by an android either. How about… friend?"

Penny's eyes went wide. "Friend?!"

Tsuruya grinned awkwardly. "Sure. We could be friends, and I'm fine with losing to a friend."

Penny gasped. "I've never had a friend before!"

May, who had been quietly watching, waiting to see how it ended, was surprised by this revelation. "What? For real?"

Penny looked starstruck, gazing at Tsuruya through her fingers as her hands were on her face. "Yes."

"And you want to be her friend?"

"I do."

"And you're okay with competing against her being the first thing you do together?"

"Yes, bring it on."

May shrugged, letting out a long sigh. She reached up and pulled off her beanie. "Well, okay. Me too. I'll be your friend too."

After a few moments passed, Tsuruya stepped forward and waved her hand in front of Penny's face. "And… she's gone. Too much friendship all at once. Error, error. Penny exe is shutting down. Initiate reboot."

May grimaced. "This is not the time or place for this. Pick her up and let's go."

Tsuruya fixed her with a glare. "You carry her. She was going to be able to cope with one friend, but you had to go and double the shock. Plus, she's made of metal. She probably weighs several tonnes."

Penny snapped back to reality. "Excuse me? I weigh only one third of a tonne! I'll have you know I've been on a strict diet recently!"

"Diet?" Tsuruya looked Penny up and down. "Do you eat anything at all?"

"Um…" Penny looked away nervously. "Oh look, more Grimm."

May lifted her rifle. "Creeps. This won't be so hard."

Just as they were running across the intersection, the horde of Creeps was suddenly wiped out as a giant Grimm fell out of the sky and crushed them. One Creep had managed to escape the destruction, and kept running towards the girls. May blasted it in the face, knocking it onto its back. They all looked up at the mass of the giant Grimm. It wasn't moving.

"I think it's dead." Tsuruya started laughing. "That was awesome!"

The four members of team NDGO appeared, climbing off of the body of the Raivern. Dew waved to Tsuruya, who waved back. They ran over, keeping their eyes on the sky.

Dew stopped in front of Tsuruya. "Well, we made it this far. Want to go together for a bit?"

Penny thrust her fist into the air. "Yeah! Girl power!"

Dew introduced her team. "By the way, this is Gwen and Octavia. They put the 'GO' in NDGO. Literally. Like, their names are why there is a G and an O in the team name."

Nebula hefted her crossbow. "You're not going to introduce me?"

"Nah. We got to get moving."

Tsuruya waved to the two girls who had been introduced. "So… do you guys get any lines?"

Dew turned and rushed away, back to the disintegrating Raivern. Nebula, Penny, and May quickly followed. Octavia just shrugged in response to Tsuruya's question, then left after them.

Gwen watched her go, then turned back to Tsuruya. "She did that on purpose."

Tsuruya sheathed her sword and clapped her hands. "Yup. We're practically magical girls. This is so cool."

"I think…" Gwen shook her head. "Aura and semblance is a very well-documented scientific phenomenon. Nothing magical about it."

"That's not the point. We're a bunch of girls with cool powers fighting monsters to save the whole of humanity."

Gwen thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Fair enough." She turned around. "Ah… where'd they all go?"

They were quiet for a moment, listening for the sounds of battle nearby. There was nothing. Everything had gone completely silent.

Tsuruya took her sword out again. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Five Huntresses together in a group, actively hunting Grimm? I doubt something got them."

"I'm more concerned about the two Huntresses."

Gwen pulled six knives out of the armored sides of her dress, holding three between her fingers in each hand. "You're right. That's something to be worried about."

"By the way. What do you call a big ugly gorilla Grimm?"

Gwen made a face. "Ugh. Those are called Beringel, I think."

"Well, that's fitting. Cause it's bearing down on us right now."

Gwen turned to find the gorilla Grimm charging madly. It roared, shattering the silence as it leaped in the air and beat its chest. It landed right in front of Gwen and punched her solidly in the chest, sending her bouncing along the ground and into an old wrecked car. It went after Tsuruya next.

Tsuruya slashed at the Beringel with her sword, but the blade seemed to do next to nothing against its thick skin. It wrapped its hands around her and lifted her into the air, roaring in rage at her.

Author's Notes: Penny action! She is actually not concerned about her weight. She was trying to make a joke. It fell through. Anyways... dicks out for Harambe.