For All the World to Hear

Too late for Christmas but just in time for New Year's! Hello everyone and first off, an apology for the delay as the holiday season afforded less time to write than one would think. But hopefully this chapter will have been worth the wait, so as always a quick shout out to all of you, my patient readers, for helping to make this story what it is now. And to DCDGojira: Not entirely, no, it's cannibalistic nature makes it an unreliable danger to unleash with a group unless there's a large food source. And even then, no guarantee it'll eat what she wants it to eat. Now then, onto the chapter and Happy New Year!

Amity Colosseum: Over the Abandoned Dust Mines

As far as most plans went for getting something off the ground and flying into the air, Wayne had honestly expected something a little more, scientific. But given the circumstances of this rushed launch perhaps setting a bunch of explosives up in a dust mine to help get the arena airborne was the best idea they had. And it was at least something he could help with as he'd learned a bit about setting charges during his time doing work with the Ace Ops. He couldn't do much else given that he lacked Pietro's scientific ingenuity and they were too strapped for time for Maria to teach him anything about piloting an Atlesian Paladin.

He'd also been forced to get some sleep when he arrived as he'd been going all night at that point, after fighting against the Ace Ops with his aura shadow. So now, here he was, in the same abandoned dust mine where they'd fought a Geist and the Alpha Centinel, with explosive charges set up all over the place. When he thought about it, perhaps his real nervousness came from the fact that he was in a mine full of unrefined and volatile dust, setting up devices whose specific purpose was to explode. Though as he stood next to Penny, who was kneeling on the floor in front of the main charge, he found he wasn't the only one having potential second thoughts.

"Dad," said Penny over her built-in communicator, "this does not seem like the best idea."

"Well there's a slight difference between a good idea and our best idea," replied Pietro, "sadly, this is the best idea we have that can be executed with the little time we have left." Penny nodded as she hit the button to arm the charge, which looked like high-tech dynamite, before standing up and beginning the walk back to the surface with Wayne right behind her. "We've got enough systems up and running to broadcast our message and keep Amity in atmospheric orbit, but the one thing we don't have at full capacity is our thrusters. Without some assistance, they won't get us to the target altitude on their own."

"Fortunately," laughed Maria over both their communicators, "we're sitting on a couple hundred tons of thrust!"

"I think I'll share your enthusiasm for that little fact once Penny and I are out of the area of said tons of thrust," quipped Wayne.

"Once we pass into broadcasting range," continued Pietro, "we can activate the stabilizers, reestablish global communications and send out the message we recorded into the rest of the world. And after all that's said and done, we just have to pilot Amity away from all this mess."

"After jettisoning me back to Mantle, of course," Wayne added, "not that I mind the current company up here, but I'll be more useful back on solid ground."

"But what if no one is able to come and help Atlas?" Questioned Penny as she went up a floor with her jet boots to set another charge while Wayne attended to one of his own. "If I stay behind, or go back in the escape pods with Wayne, maybe I could-."

"Penny," said Pietro in a tone that invited no argument, "we are not having this conversation again. As your father, I'm telling you that Amity is where you belong now."

"Yes sir," said Penny, disheartened by the latest denial to her staying. Fortunately, a sudden idea occurred to her huntsman companion that might work to cheer her up.

"Hey, quick question," said Wayne as he leapt up onto one of the supports and climbed onto Penny's level, "if we do reestablish global communication, wouldn't you be able to talk to Ruby and the others pretty much any time you wanted?"

"Technically speaking, it would be possible," said Penny, "so long as they had a good signal near one of the towers, and so long as the contact information on their scrolls doesn't change."

"Then that means once that hunk of stadium is orbital, you'll still be able to interact with everyone to at least a certain degree, right," said Wayne, "you might could be Holo-Penny if they're in the right place."

"I most certainly could," said Penny with a sigh, "thank you Wayne, for helping with this and for trying to cheer me up. It's just hard, not knowing when I might see my friends again, if ever."

"It's not just hard, it's painful," said Wayne with a hand on her shoulder, "Aegis and I felt something pretty similar when we left Blue Forge and headed to Mistral. We honestly didn't know what to expect or if we'd ever see our home and families again. But we pushed on through and not only saw our family and friends again, we even made it all the way here to see you. So try and think positive for now instead of thinking about all the ways it could go bad. After all, if this does work and we kick Salem out of the kingdom, you might be seeing Ruby again in no time at all."

"I should run some simulations on what to say the next time I see her if that's the case," said Penny before grabbing onto Wayne, "but first, we'd best get back up to Amity." She tossed the elder Ursario onto her back then before jetting out of the mine and upwards into the air where the floating stadium was currently hanging in the air.

A Few Minutes Later

"All systems are ready," said Pietro as he and Maria stood in front of the computer while Wayne was off to the side, keeping an eye out for anything unexpected. Penny had elected to sit on the stadium's edge for the moment, waiting to play her part in the launch sequence. "Penny?" That was the signal as the android girl reluctantly got up and approached the terminal where her father and Maria were at. "Amity is requesting launch access-now."

At first, nothing happened when Pietro hit the 'Enter' key. But after another moment, Penny's eyes suddenly lit up as the sound of the stabilizers coming to life could be heard resonating throughout the stadium. "Yes, it worked, it worked!" Cheered Pietro as Maria let out a triumphant laugh while Wayne gave a quick pump of his fist. Penny still had a downcast look on her face, but it vanished when her father put a comforting hand on her arm.

'We're finally on our way,' thought Wayne as he allowed a smile to cross his features. "Oh, I didn't have time to install seat belts," Pietro nearly forgot to mention as the mechanical legs on his chair glowed purple and anchored themselves to the floor magnetically, "so I'd advise you to hang on." Wayne nodded as Maria headed for the yellow-painted Paladin they'd managed to acquire at another production facility in Mantle. It wasn't technically a combat model, but it's armor plating and movement was still rated pretty high.

Which was something she was going to need right now as Wayne heard an all too familiar sound beneath them. "Shit," exclaimed the Half Bear Faunus as he donned his helmet and pulled out his weapons in response to a fireball flying right by the upraised platform they were on. Penny was quick to leap off the Paladin where she was helping Maria before landing next to Wayne as they looked at the source. The fireball turned out to be from a continuous stream of flame which had been used to melt a large hole in the stadium floor, large enough for one of Atlas's sting-ray like crafts to come floating up through.

And as Wayne suspected, the person standing on top of the craft was none other than Cinder Fall. "And where do you think you're running off too," said Cinder, her voice being picked up by both Wayne's enhanced hearing and Penny's auditory sensors. The android girl glanced back at her Father, already knowing what needed to be done.

"Penny, no," urged Pietro, even despite knowing there was no other choice. The android girl then grabbed Wayne's arm and flew the both of them down to the lower arena where Cinder's ship had come to rest, dropping off the huntsman as she readied her own blades. But it was also right about that time that the explosives in the dust mine went off. That, coupled with the thrusters on the stadium, created enough lift that everyone was dragged down to the floor.

Penny and two of Cinder's current helpers were yanked to the floor while Wayne, Cinder, and the pilot of the Atlesian craft all fell to their knees. This did little to deter the smile on the Fall Maiden's face as she spoke up. "I was hoping the rest of your friends would be here," said Cinder as she produced a number of molten blades on the ground around her, currently unable to lift them due to the stadium's upward momentum, "but it looks like they left you two to do all the work."

"I don't see why you'd hope for that," said Wayne, "are you really so eager to be humiliated again?"

"As if I'd be humiliated by some tool," Cinder shot back with an arrogant smirk.

"According to Aegis," said Penny, "you're far more of a tool than I am. You only act like you're in charge." Cinder grit her teeth in response to that as the thrusters suddenly ceased, allowing them to move once again. And it was the Fall Maiden who made the first move by sending all of her molten swords as well as creating even more in a barrage attack at Wayne and Penny.

Wayne was quick to join his weapons and twirl his blade staff in front of him, deflecting the ones sent his way. But the majority of the blades were sent at Penny who was pushed back to the wall of the stadium, gasping as one of the blades managed to get past her own spinning blades and imbedded itself in the wall next to her head. Wayne attempted to move in front of the barrage to take the brunt of it off her shoulders, but was stopped by green bullets landing near his feet. Fortunately, he wasn't the only one joining in this fight as the yellow paladin, piloted by Maria, landed in front of Penny.

Cinder's blades proved to be useless as they broke against the machine's armor, forcing her to cease the barrage as Maria charged forward. "Get away from her you bitch-GAAAAAH!" Maria's statement was interrupted by the stingray craft slamming into her paladin, locking the two into a struggle as the retired huntress tried pushing the ship away with the Paladin's hands. "Why not try craft to craft," quipped Exo from inside of the ship as he fought the joystick to stay in control.

It was all the opening Cinder needed to fly after Penny with jets of flames coming from her hands and feet. Fortunately, Penny was also an adept flyer and dodged around her adversary before speeding towards the stadium entrance with Cinder following close behind. 'She's trying to limit damage to the stadium,' Wayne quickly realized as he swatted away a sickle on a chain then dodged a kick aimed at the back of his head, retreating slightly to get a better look at his familiar opponents. "Heya, Emerald, Neo, love the new outfits. Not to sound pretentious, but was the white jacket possibly inspired by me?"

Wayne deflected a green bullet as Emerald gave her response to that. "Don't flatter yourself," she spat, "the only time I think of you these days is when I'm thinking of people I want dead."

"Yeah I used to think that about you too until, yesterday actually," said Wayne as he split his staff back into sickles, "funny what you realize when possessed by your own negative emotions."

"Save it," said Emerald, "like you said last time we met, 'you're not worth wasting my breath on anymore'." She charged then, striking high and low simultaneously with her dual weapons which Wayne parried and dodged before blocking a kick from Neo who then hooked his arm with her umbrella, making Wayne a target for Emerald's next strike. But Wayne had a trick up his sleeve as he released his right weapon with the wire on it and dodged out of the way of Emerald's attack, her blade rebounding off of the semblance charged wire before he yanked Neo towards him. His opponent was ready, however, and wrapped herself up in the wire before her body shattered into numerous glass shards.

Wayne was just able to reel his weapon back to his hand in time to block a flurry of tandem attacks from both Emerald and Neo before receiving a double kick that knocked him back. He rolled to avoid falling and wound up in a half-kneeling position. As his opponent's attempted to capitalize on the opening, the elder Ursario quickly called on the aura shadow before knocking Neo's attempted stab with her umbrella up into the air then following up with an elbow to her midsection. The counter came quicker than the parasol girl expected and she was knocked back as Emerald attempted an attack of her own with both weapons, only for Wayne to block both with his weapons and kick her in the side with a left roundhouse kick.

The green-haired girl tumbled to the side as Wayne shifted his weapons to SMG mode with lightning dust added into the mix. Neo blocked with her open umbrella, but was still forced back by the electrical barrage while Emerald ran for a moment before returning fire with her own weapons. Wayne was forced to end his own barrage as he leapt into the air and used his semblance to unleash multiple, boomerang-like energy slashes that curved in multiple directions to make them harder to dodge. Despite this, both girls managed to elegantly evade out of the way as the impacts created a fair amount of dust and smoke, obscuring the two as Wayne landed back on the ground.

"Well, this just got a bit more difficult," The Crescent Fang Wielder said as the smoke cleared to reveal both of his opponents gone, or to be more precise, they only appeared to be gone. 'I doubt I can so easily use the bag of powder trick I used last time,' mused Wayne, 'and I need to save the aura shadow for Cinder if I can.' The sudden appearance of Neo attempting to attack on his blindside, told him that might not be possible.

As for Maria, she had her hands literally full trying to keep the ray-shaped Atlesian craft from knocking her over. "Stupid, clumsly machine," cursed Calavera before managing to shove the nose of the craft downward into the stadium floor.

"In hindsight," said Exo as he hit the reverse button and pulled the ship up and out of the Paladin's grasp, "probably not a good idea to trash our ride." He quickly keyed in the ship's auto-landing feature before opening the ship's canopy and tossing a throwing knife at the paladin. Expectedly, it bounced off of the cockpit window and flipped into the air.

"What in the world was that-huh," Maria was quickly cut off as Exo suddenly appeared where the knife was and landed on the back of the machine.

"It's a good robot," said Exo as he jammed his sword into one of the panels, "but it's still got weak spots." The Wolf Faunus then started working and straining to pry the panel off the back. Maria, realizing his intentions, attempted to get him off by running around and shaking the paladin erratically while also attempting to grab at the mercenary. She thought the succeeded at one point when she backed into the stadium wall and forced him to jump off.

But as she charged at him, he teleported to the top of the paladin yet again. 'Good thing I marked this spot just in case,' thought Exo as he resumed jamming his sword into the panel. "Will you get off already you annoying prick!" Exclaimed Maria as she had the upper body of the machine start spinning at high speed.

"If you insist," said Exo as he succeeded in opening the panel and throwing a device into the the paladin before leaping off. Maria started stomping towards him then when a sudden jolt of electricity surged through the paladin as numerous system failure notifications popped up on her screen. The unbalanced machine powered down with the shorting out of its systems before falling backwards onto the ground. "Well I'll be, that little piece of tech actually worked," he hopped onto the mech near the cockpit as he said this, "I guess Watts is more adept at messing up tech than making it after all, even if it's his own."

The cockpit of the mech opened then to reveal an elderly woman in a blue dress with an electronic visor. "And what do you want exactly," said Maria as she looked up at the mercenary.

"At the moment, Ursario dead and his friends after that," said Exo, "though I'll give you a pass if you stay put. Not really a lot to be gained by killing an old lady." He turned and was about to hop off of the paladin when two feet came flying for his face. The mercenary instinctively reacted with a raised elbow as the force of the blow sent him flying off the mecha before he flipped and landed in a crouch.

"I may be old," said Maria as she landed on the ground and held her skull-headed cane at the ready, "but I've still got enough spring in my step for the likes of you!"

"And here I was trying to be nice," said Exo as he pulled out one of his throwing knives and chucked it at the retired huntress. Maria leapt over it with the agility of a woman a third of her age before striking out with her cane. Exo was just quick enough to block it with another throwing knife as the two began exchanging blows.

Back with Wayne's fight, the elder Ursario was dodging and rolling out of the way of attacks coming out of nowhere. A chained sickle on his right, a bladed umbrella on his left while retaliating with the occasional burst of electrified gunfire. 'I can't hear Penny and Cinder fighting anymore,' he thought as he backed away from another strike that nearly caught his leg, 'she's probably trying to minimize damage to the colosseum. Though if Cinder figures that out, she'll be right back here.' He leapt over another chain sickle strike before nearly taking a hit to his side from Neo's umbrella.

'Emerald's also managed to spread the smell of extra-thick gunpowder all over the arena, so now I can't easily locate them by scent anymore.' His decision was pretty much made for him as he blocked a suddenly appearing kick from Neo before a green sickle scraped his helmet. 'Guess I really don't have time to be using it in short bursts right now.' The elder Ursario took a deep breath then before speaking.

"You two have both improved," said Wayne, "Ordinarily I would've figured out at least one of you by now." Silence was the answer he received, meaning Emerald had better learned how to keep quiet when using this particular tactic. "So I guess upping the ante is all I got left." The aura shadow flared out from his body then, the flame-like mist boosting his abilities and semblance as he now strained his senses to locate his foes.

He turned and swatted away a chain sickle before lashing out with a kick on his blindside, impacting the midsection of a surprised parasol girl before blocking a number of green bullets as he quickly closed the distance and managed to land a hit on Emerald's arm, the electrified blade causing her illusion to break and reveal the two. Wayne capitalized on this opening with a few more swipes of his sickles which broke through her guard and succeeded in landing a hit on Emerald's left side, knocking her over. Neo intervened, however, before Wayne could deliever a finishing blow with a kick aimed at the huntsman's head which he blocked with his arm before backing away to avoid another series of kicks and jabs from the petite girl before she put both hands on her umbrella and tried striking him in the throat with its body.

Wayne was too quick, though, and managed to lower his head enough to impact the blow with his helmet, breaking Neo's rhythm and allowing him to counterattack with a headbutt and a front kick that sent the girl falling onto her back next to Emerald. The two disappeared again after that with Emerald having managed to regain her footing and casting her illusion again. "You'll have to do a bit better than that now," said Wayne as he blocked an umbrella stab from the front and a green sickle from the back with his own weapons before they disappeared again. He began charging and shaping his semblance then as he blocked and dodged a few more attacks, waiting for his moment before unleashing a blue ring of energy from his body.

It wasn't terribly strong due to the short amount of time he spent charging it up, but it succeeded in revealing his opponents yet again as they were both knocked back before rolling to their feet again. "I really can't say I get it," commented Wayne, "what reason do you have to keep coming after us?"

"I'll always be loyal to Cinder," said Emerald, "I won't let someone take her from me again!"

"You misunderstand," said Wayne, "I wasn't asking you, I was asking Neo. I already told you how Torchwick got himself killed. What do you have to gain by fighting us now?" The Neapolitan girl's response to that was for her body to be enveloped in pink energy for a moment as she shifted to the form of Ruby Rose. "Ah, should've figured. Well hate to disappoint you but I got no idea where they might be right now."

A frown crossed Neo's face as she shifted back to her true appearance before a sudden multitude of both her and Emerald appeared to surround the huntsman. "It's too late to play dumb," said the many Emeralds, "Salem already managed to snatch one of your friends. She'll find the rest of you easily enough. And I know she'll have something cooked up special for you, that annoying hood girl and your family."

"What did you just say," spoke Wayne as his semblance began charging again, "who has Salem captured?"

"That little kid walking around with Ozpin's cane if you must know," said Emerald, "but like I said, you'll all be joining him soon enough." The multitude of illusions charged towards Wayne then as he steadied his breathing, trying not to flinch as one image after another harmlessly passed through him.

"At some point Emerald," said Wayne as he waited for the real attacks to come, "you've got to stop lying to yourself." He spun around then and aimed his hands where his blindsides once were before unleashing the orbs of Scattering Moonlight. His surprised opponents were both blasted back and landed somewhat hard a few feet away from him, groaning in pain as Wayne ended the aura shadow for the moment, his breathing a bit labored from the effort of keeping it up.

"Ugh, how," grunted Emerald as she and Neo tried struggling to their feet, "I even worked to disguise our scents this time. How'd you know where we were?"

"You'd say I was trying to be poetic or sappy if I actually told you," replied Wayne, "but what I can tell you is that if you keep going down this road, the only person who will get what they want is Salem." The truth was, he wasn't relying on smell but rather his hearing. It was only with the aura shadow enhancing his senses that it was possible, but he was listening to one of the few things in a person's body that couldn't be quieted easily, the heart. True, Emerald could create sounds in his mind, but she never needed to replicate the sound of a heartbeat before or hide it.

By listening to the sounds of their beating hearts, he was able to keep up with their locations and could even anticipate attacks to a mild degree by the increase in their pulses. It was a trick he'd developed in case his sense of smell was ever disabled or being fooled and it was paying off pretty well so far.

"What do you know?!" Emerald shot back, "Salem made Cinder her vessel for the maiden powers and even despite her failures she still accepted her back once she proved her loyalty!"

"She only did that because Cinder brought back the relic of knowledge," said Wayne, "the same relic we used to learn the truth about her. All that immortal hag wants is to die and she doesn't care if she takes the whole world with her. Which is exactly what'll happen if she brings all of the relics together right now."

"You're lying," said Emerald, "Salem promised us a new world order."

"Are we really going over this again," said Wayne as he shook his head, "come on Emerald, I was never once able to fool you with a lie because I suck at lying, and I don't make promises I don't intend to keep. But the mistress of the Grimm, well, lying is as easy as breathing for her and she'll promise anything so long as she gets what she wants. If you don't believe me then ask Oscar, if you really have him, he'll say the same thing. Salem wants only the destruction of this world to end the curse put on her by the gods, and she'll do whatever she must to get it."

Emerald wanted to shout back at him, tell him that he was full of it. But when she glanced at Neo, she was surprised to see an expression of unsureness on her face. The parasol girl turned in her direction, her irises turning white to indicate, was it fear? Before any more could be said, however, Wayne glanced up to see that Cinder had returned at the upper platform where Dr. Polendina was with Penny close behind her. "Guess we're out of time," said Wayne as he formed his blade staff and unleashed a large, buzzsaw like blast with a few extra crescent blades shooting out from it.

Emerald and Neo moved quickly to dodge out of the way of it, just managing to avoid the sharp energy blades before noticing that they're opponent was fleeing towards the stairs. "Maria," said Wayne as he approached her and Exo's battle.

"Get going Ursario," said Maria as she dodged out of the way of Exo's now drawn sword before opening up the sickle blade on her walking stick and striking at the mercenary's feet tripping him and forcing him to retreat a few steps, "I can handle this disrespectful pup." Wayne nodded in understanding as he leapt onto the stadium stairs and hurried upwards.

"You'd really like to think so, wouldn't you," said Exo as he parried a couple of Maria's strikes before backing up even further and tossing one of his knives at Neo who easily managed to snatch it out of the air before continuing after her current target with Emerald. Wayne had fortunately managed to give himself a good headstart with his semblance use and calling upon the aura shadow. Before long, he was emerging on the circular catwalk above the smaller, suspended stadium. And it was none too soon by the looks of it as Cinder had intentionally melted a few of the metallic supports holding that part of the stadium in the air, forcing Penny to freeze them while also using all of her wired blades to grab onto the stadium floor itself to keep it from collapsing.

This was of course what Cinder was hoping for as she flew forward and latched onto the android girl, attempting to grab her face with her Grimm arm. Penny was only able to fight back with one hand while using the other to continue freezing one of the collapsing supports. Cinder forced her remaining hand away by burning it with her human hand, causing Penny to let go and grab onto her face to begin siphoning off the Winter Maiden's power. 'No you don't!' Thought Wayne as he leapt down and sliced through her Grimm arm with an electrified blade, eliciting a scream of agony from the fall Maiden while Penny used this reprieve to form a number of ice blades to force Cinder back and pin her to the stadium wall several feet away where the seating was.

"Cinder!" exclaimed Emerald as she emerged onto that particular section of the stadium. As for Neo, she attempted to attack Penny from behind, only to be quickly rebuffed by Wayne swatting her blade away.

"I'll handle things up here," said Wayne as he stood back to back with Penny, "Emerald's semblance affects a person's mind to create illusions, so watch out for that and her revolvers. I'll be down as soon as I can."

"You'd best hurry then," said Penny with some actual malice in her voice, "I intend to finish this now."

"Noted," said Wayne as they split off from each other. Cinder had freed herself from the wall by this point, but Wayne's primary concern was Neo as the two began exchanging blows. The lightning dust in the huntsman's blades had shut off by this point, leaving him with his regular blades as he decided to save the fire dust in case he still had to face Cinder. Instead, he relied on his aura shadow again while Neo pulled her handle blade out of her parasol and resorted to using the umbrella itself like a shield. She also was using her semblance on overdrive as her form shattered whenever Wayne managed to get a hit on her.

But Wayne's enhanced senses allowed him to anticipate her attacks on his blindsides as he spun around to ward off another bout of strikes from the petite girl. As the fight progressed, the huntsman always kept in mind to stay in between Neo and the professor, fairly certain she'd attempt to use him as a hostage if things started going south. That and his desire to go help Penny spurred his next decision. 'Gonna have to finish this in a few well placed strikes,' surmised Wayne as he blocked the latest assault and kicked the parasol with enough force to send his opponent flipping away, 'just have to wait until she actually shows herself again.' It wouldn't be a long wait as Neo appeared behind him again attempting to jab him in the spine.

He was ready, fortunately, and managed to dodge to the left while also hooking her parasol with his left sickle. She attempted a throat stab in an attempt to make him let go, but Wayne blocked it with the flat of his weapon before releasing a burst of his semblance. The blast sent Neo rolling back several feet until she was near the edge of the stadium. The huntsman pressed this opening as he charged straight towards her, flipping his blades around to reverse grip as he readied another semblance attack.

Neo only had enough time to get up and raise her arms to block the dual fist strike, but couldn't do anything about the follow up semblance attack which was multiple rings resembling a sonic attack. The blast sent her plummeting off of the stadium and falling several feet where she impacted against the floor outside of the main stadium, the force of the landing dissipating the rest of her pink aura. "Neo," said Exo before avoiding another attack from Maria by teleporting where he'd dropped one of his knives, finally scoring a hit with a nasty kick in her back. But the sound of Cinder screaming told him things were not going favorably as he looked over to see the Fall Maiden being blasted against the wall by green energy from the Winter Maiden.

'So much for plan B,' thought Exo as he glanced at his opponent, 'time for plan C.' As he thought this, Penny ended her attack on Cinder, allowing the maiden vessel to fall to the floor where Emerald rushed to her side, fearing the worst. Her attempt at using her illusions to trick Penny had failed, likely due to the android's infrared or other built-in sensors. "Move, or you shall be caught in the next attack," warned Penny as she hovered closer with her blades ready to deliever the final blow.

"I wouldn't," said Exo loudly, drawing the android girl's attention to the fact that he now had Maria in a chokehold with a knife to her throat, "this old gal might not have long to live, but I doubt you want her dying today." A look of anger crossed Penny's features as she directed her blades towards him. "Remember I'm a teleporter," he reminded her, "whatever precise attack you throw at me, it had better be faster than I can perceive. If not, I'll simply move her in the way and teleport to somewhere else, maybe the Doctor up there."

Penny grit her teeth but relented as her blades came to hover near her sides. "What do you want?" She asked.

"Well it's obvious you've won this round," said Exo, "so all I want right now is for me and my friends to live to fight another day. Neo, can you stand?" The parasol shook her head a bit as she stood up but nodded before heading over to the parked Atlesian ship and jumping into the pilot's seat, saying that she was still okay to fly as well. "Emerald, throw the boss in and get out of here, I'll be right behind you."

The green-haired girl complied as she hefted her mistress onto her shoulder and carried her down the stairs. She was quick to leap into the back seat, doing what she could to secure Cinder before Exo gave her the go ahead. The ship lifted off from the ground then and sped away out of the hole from whence it came. "Enjoy this little victory while you can," said Exo, "it may be the last one you ever get."

He teleported away then, popping up in the passenger seat of the airship where Neo had laid his throwing knife. He'd removed his mark from the ship in preparation for combat so that all of his knives would be useable with his semblance and in case he needed to mark anywhere around the stadium. He'd hoped Neo would be able to drop the knife near the Professor, but she'd never gotten the chance thanks to Ursario. This, plus other issues nagged at the Neapolitan girl's mind which contributed to the angered look on her face.

"Don't worry too much about it," said Exo, "little red is still running around somewhere down there. With an entire two cities in danger, she'll show up eventually." This didn't really serve to cheer Neo up, but her expression did soften to a frown. As for Exo, he went ahead and typed in a report on his scroll, letting Salem know that Amity was still operational.

At least, operational to a point. At the same time they were escaping, Penny attempted to go after them before reading a warning notification she'd been ignoring up to this point. "Oh no," she said before flying down to grab Maria and carry her up to the stadium where the terminal was. "Dad, Wayne, are you both okay?"

"We're both in one piece," said Wayne, "which is more than I can say for Amity." Penny looked to her father while checking him over for any injuries.

"One of the stabilizers was damaged when Cinder showed up," explained Pietro, "we've drifted out of alignment and missed our window." He indicated the screen which read 'Broadcast Signal Lost'. Penny moved to the terminal and started pulling up the diagnostics while her father continued to explain. "At the rate we're going, we'll keep on drifting until touching down just north."

"Is there any way we can reroute power from some of the other systems," questioned Wayne, doing his best to stay calm and think of a possible solution, "maybe fire one of the thrusters? We just need to be a little higher to broadcast, right?"

"We used up all our current fuel reserves getting up here," replied Pietro, "if we use any more, we won't be able land safely. And the systems on the stabilizer itself are too damaged that rerouting power might just as easily overload what little of them are still functioning."

"But there is a way I can fix this," said Penny as she turned away from the terminal.

"What, how?" Questioned Maria as they all turned their attention to the Winter Maiden.

"We only need to hold Amity in place for a few minutes," explained Penny, "the message isn't very long, so if I go out and act as a temporary stabili-."

"Absolutely not!" Exclaimed Pietro, immediately against anything that might put Penny in danger, "you're in no condition to attempt something like that. Just the temperature out there alone would-."

"It's our only option if we're going to get the message out," said Penny.

"She's right Pietro," said Calavera, "we don't have time for anything else. Think about the bigger picture."

"I don't care about the bigger picture!" Yelled the Doctor as he slammed his fist on his chair, "I care about my daughter! I lost you once already, are you asking me to go through that again? No, no I want you to have a chance at living your life."

"And if we don't let her do this," said Wayne as he put a firm grip on the man's shoulder, "she'll lose that chance forever."

"Please Dad," said Penny as she put her hands on his, "living my life, is exactly what I'm trying to do. So let me protect the ones that have helped me live it." Pietro shakily grasped Penny's hand as he tried to dry the tears in his eyes while Wayne stepped back to give the two a moment.

"I…understand," said Pietro, "just know that…I'm so very proud of you." Penny smiled before kissing her father on the top of the head. She backed up then and gave a quick smile to Wayne and Maria, who returned the gesture before she looked up and took off into the air. The group of three then gathered around the terminal as they felt a sudden lurch from colisseum.

Penny was pushing against the damaged stabilizer with all of her might, including using her maiden powers to increase the thrust in her jets as the rumbling of Amity indicated that she was succeeding in moving the massive structure. "Come on Penny," said Pietro as they watched the height of the stadium slowly increasing on the screen. It would take another minute which felt like an eternity before a window finally popped up with an affirmative message that they were at broadcast height and the broadcast was ready.

"Atta girl!" Cheered Maria as Pietro quickly punched in the command for the broadcast to begin. And with that simple press of the button, screens all over the world were suddenly receiving a signal. From the most massive of monitors to the smallest of screens. Be it a TV, a terminal, or even a scroll, practically everyone who had access to a viewing device was seeing the broadcast.

It started out with the usual colored screen one would see during an emergency broadcast, but then it was replaced by a young girl with silver eyes and a red hood who was accompanied by a boy standing almost a head taller than her wearing a white, customized Atlas coat with a wolf helmet under his arm. "Okay, go ahead," said the voice of Joanna in the background.

"Um, uh," said the girl as she rubbed the back of her head nervously before waving at the camera, "hi. My name is Ruby Rose, I'm a huntress." She managed to compose herself while the boy spoke next.

"And my name is Wayne Ursario," said Wayne, "a half Faunus and also a huntsman. But that's not what's important right now."

"Assuming we've done everything right," continued Ruby, "we're talking to all of Remnant right now. Dr. Polendina can explain more of this message later, but right now, you all need to know that the kingdom of Atlas is under attack. Things are dire, and we need help."

"Jen," said Tobias, calling his wife away from working the Manta's radio, "take a look, they did it." The Bear Faunus woman pulled out her own scroll, smiling at the sight of her son and his friend having succeeded in their mission.

"But don't be alarmed or panic," said Wayne, "the threat we face now isn't a new enemy or a kingdom attempting to invade. This is the same force we've been facing for centuries."

"Her name is Salem," said Ruby, "The White Fang, the hacking of the Atlesian drones, even the Grimm themselves have all been controlled and manipulated by her in order to tear down the huntsman academies."

"Drake," said May Zedong as she stuck her head out the window with her scroll waving in the air, "are you seeing this?!"

"I am," said the Panther Faunus as he leapt down from the roof with Ilia right behind him, "we need to speak with Ghira Belladonna immediately."

"It sounds farfetched," continued Wayne, "especially when you throw in things like magical maidens and relics with tremendous power. But Professor Goodwitch of Beacon and Headmaster Theodore of Shade can verify all of this, even organize a possible strategy to fight back. I wish I could say the same for General Ironwood, but sadly, the man can no longer be trusted."

"We didn't have time to prepare for Salem," said Ruby, "but now you do! She might not be able to be destroyed, but she can be beaten! Why else would she act with such caution if she really was as unstoppable as she wanted us to think? She knows we're a threat, even if we-," she stuttered for a moment, but Wayne put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she spoke again, "even if Atlas falls, we can't give up, you can't give up!"

"Hey boss," said a vacuoan security guard as he came bursting into the room, "are you seeing this right now?"

"Been watching it the whole time," said a Wolf Faunus with somewhat greying hair as he reoriented his chair towards his employee, "keep your ears open. I feel like we might be about to get a call or two from the Academy." He, like many, felt a good bit of change was about to happen again with this message.

Though there was one change that wasn't so welcome occurring up at Amity. Penny suddenly started yelling in pain before losing altitude for a brief moment, then flying back up to keep the stabilizer in place. "Penny, what's going on out there?!" Exclaimed Pietro over her communicator.

"I….I do not know," grunted Penny as she tried her best to stay airborne while fighting the feeling of her own body being forcibly controlled by an outside source.

"I hope Amity Tower will help bring us all together," continued Ruby as the broadcast kept going, "because in the end, that's how we'll win-." And then, the broadcast cut off abruptly.

"What in the world just happened?!" Exclaimed an old Bear Faunus woman as she slammed her hand on a nearby table, cracking it. She and an elderly man with a specialized crossbow on his back had been taking part in one of the more frequently occurring town meetings of Blue Forge when their scrolls had all lit up. They'd wasted no time in getting it up on the large screen in the main room of the town hall as even more people piled in. The most excited group had been a mix of humans and bear Faunus who all took up their own section.

It was hardly surprising, given that a member of their own family was on that screen. "The transmission just cut out," explained a man wearing engineer's goggles as he examined the signal from the screen, "something must've interrupted it."

"Well bring it back already before-," the Bear Faunus woman started to say before the man with the crossbow put a hand on her shoulder.

"How old is that message?" He asked, a slight hope rising in his chest.

"The message itself was recorded," explained another engineer, a woman with a ponytail and her own pair of engineer goggles, "but the broadcast itself was being transmitted real time until just a minute ago. I gotta say, I'd always hoped Wayne and Aegis would be declaring their status as huntsmen here."

"We all did," said another member of the Ursario family, a bearded bear Faunus with a shield on his back, "hey, what are you doing over there?" His attention was being drawn to one of the members of the De Wolfe family, a woman with short dark hair and brown eyes.

"Just checking on a few things," she said while adjusting a chained blade that hung from her hip, "and calling on an old friend or two. Now might be a good time for a reunion." And a reunion is what they'd get, which was more than Doctor Polendina could say at that moment.

"Penny, sweetheart," he pleaded as she continued to push against the stabilizer outside of the stadium, "you've done enough. Please, get back inside and we can ride out on Amity together."

"But I-I have t-to go," said Penny as her voice sounded like she was straining against more than just the colisseum, "the vault…..grrrr…..no….Dad." Her voice cut out then as the rumbling of Amity's structure suddenly ceased.

"No," said Wayne as he hurried down the nearest exit close to the stabilizers. He pulled his right Crescent Fang out and attached his wire to it just as he made it outside onto the platform situated above his intended destination. The Doctor hadn't been kidding, the outside temperature was like running into a lake filled to the brim with ice. He was chilled to the bone even with his aura activated and the cold threatened to freeze his hand to his weapon as he forcibly opened his fingers and tossed it towards one of the many metal poles that encircled the colisseum.

He located Penny then just as she was starting to fall before diving off the edge and pulling out his other weapon and attaching his wrist wire to it. As soon as he reached the end of the line, he threw out his left Crescent Fang, praying that it was long enough to reach his friend as it sailed towards her falling form. And when it reached her, the blade passed just by her left hand, practically caressing her fingers as it did so before her body became engulfed in fire as she continued her meteor-like descent back towards Remnant. Wayne could only hold out his own hand helplessly as her form continued to shrink into the distance.

"Dad, everyone," she said suddenly over their communicators, "I love you all."

About the Same Time: Abandoned Atlesian Outpost

"Bro, bro!" exclaimed Aegis to his scroll, somehow hoping the worry in his voice would make the signal work again, "come on answer me man, are you up there?!"

"I don't get it," said Yang as she looked at her own scroll, "that was the broadcast just now, why'd we suddenly lose signal?" Jaune was about to name one or two possibilities until the sound of the earth cracking was suddenly heard. The group wasted no time in hurrying outside as it was followed by one, then another, all of them being relatively close by.

"It sounds like it's coming from right around-," Jaune halted his sentence as the group came to a dead stop upon finding the source of the noise.

"What-is this?" Asked Ren as they stared down at a river that was as black as ink with splotches of the occasional red running through it. Neitehr Aegis nor Ren had spotted it on their way to the outpost yesterday, so it clearly wasn't a natural formation. Adding to this fact was another mild tremor that caused a small tree to fall into the liquid where it quickly dissolved.

It also disturbed something that floated to the surface for a moment, the head of a sabyr Grimm. "It's a river made entirely….of Grimm," said Yang in realization. And the next realization was even worse as they looked upriver to see where it was headed. Straight to the kingdom.

And with one victory comes yet another obstacle as our heroes are confronted with the true depth of Salem's plans. And again, sorry about getting this out so late, busy holiday and all that. Hopefully it was still satisfactory, so as always feel free to let me know what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as we learn a bit more about what the antagonists are up too. 'Til then and Happy New Year.