Chapter 19 – dial K for penny

He was awake this time. He was sure of it.

He could remember his actions the day before – trying to escape this infernal clinic, assaulting an orderly by mistake, feeling a needle being stuck into his neck. These were real memories, not just another stupid fever dream about boxing Ursai brought about by whatever anesthesia they'd flooded into his bloodstream. Adam was actually awake this time, sitting in his bed.

Just to be doubly sure, he pinched himself.


Adam woke up.

Brothers damn it all.

Okay, now he was awake. He pinched himself again, and nothing happened.

Just as in the dream that had faded less than a moment ago, he actually was in his bed in the hospital. Adam tried not to be overcome by the feeling of disgust that bubbled up in his throat. People often spoke of hospitals as though they were some clean, healthy place, when in reality they were the epicenters of disease and infection. Hordes of the ill and ailing, all congregated in one singular location? No thank you.

Distract yourself. Focus on something…the mission. K.

Adam flagged down a Faunus nurse and asked him how Ilia was doing.

"Not great, my friend. She's stable, but it doesn't look like she's going to get better anytime soon."

"She has aura."

"I know, but it's not going to be enough in this case. Her aura is being drained as fast as it replenishes. She was pronounced clinically dead for a brief period. Our staff were able to resuscitate her, but her brain activity nearly ceased. In most cases like hers, she would just come back only to succumb to her injuries and die a second time, but not your friend. She's a strong one, I'll give her that. That aura of hers is keeping her critical bodily functions going, like the heart, the lungs, and the brain, but it's continuously being used up to do so. Nothing is healing her wounds, and our doctors can only do so much. Without tissue regenerating and blood replenishing…I would've said she has no chance, but she pulled through her own heart stopping…with the aid of an AED…so maybe she's got another miracle in her."

"My other teammate, the girl who didn't get injured–"

"Little Miss Scythe? She's fine. In fact, I had better get someone to give her a call and let her know that you–"

"No!" Adam quieted his voice. "No. I mean the other girl who wasn't injured. Blake Belladonna. Cat Faunus, wears all black…can you call her instead?"

"I can also call Miss Blake, but it's policy to let a hunter team leader know when their squadmate is declared fit enough…and cooperative enough…to receive visitors. I'll have to let them both know."

"Fine." Adam closed his eye. "Could you at least call Blake first, and maybe wait a little while for Ruby?"

The Faunus seemed uncomfortable with the request, but he eventually relented.

I need to talk to Blake first – business before displeasure.


Fifteen minutes later, Blake burst through the door, rushed on top of Adam, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Oh, Adam! Thank the Brothers! I thought…I was so worried!"

"Blake!"

"You were conscious the first night, but then you didn't respond for three days to anything, and I though…but you're okay now!"

"Blake!"

"I'm just so glad to see you! To have someone to talk to!"

"Blake! Did you bring it?"

"Huh?"

"I had them ask you to bring–"

"Oh, right."

Blake reached into her pocket and took out a small bottle of hand sanitizer.

"The nectar of the gods," Adam said, greedily snatching the bottle and applying some to his hands, shoulders, elbows, and cheeks. "So good…"

"Well, I take it they couldn't cure you of your hypochondria."

"It's not hypochondria when it's justified. Did you know that antibiotic resistance germs run rife in these places?"

"Adam…"

"I know you may not care for your health, but at least let me worry about mine."

Blake's face fell, and Adam knew he'd said something wrong. Had she contracted some disease while he was out? Had his cautious nature finally revolted her? He had no idea.

"What's wrong?"

"Huh? Nothing's wrong."

"Blake, I can tell when you're upset. I can't tell why, but I can tell when. Are you worried about antibiotic resistant germs now that I mentioned them?"

"Whu–no! That's not it!"

"So there is an it."

"I – it's nothing."

"The sooner you spit it out, the sooner we can move on. Although please don't spit. My immune system must have its hands full right now."

"It's…survivor's guilt."

Ah. So that was why mentioning his own health set her off. "Ilia and I are both alive. Logically, you know that changing the past is impossible, and neither of us would want you to beat yourself up over this. We've all known the risks that came with this line of work." Adam carefully phrased his words so that any eavesdroppers would assume he referred to hunting as a career, as neither of them had whispered a code for classified discussions yet.

"Logically, sure. But logic isn't helping with the way I feel. I mean, I'm…trained. I understand the concept of survivor's guilt well enough to self-diagnose it, but that doesn't mean I can just make it disappear. Whether or not feeling like shit is pointless, I still feel like shit, because it was my fault. I made a bad call, and you guys paid for it. I was even counselled not to by Ruby."

Adam cringed. As much as he wanted to comfort Blake, the fact that Ruby's tactical planning was sounder than hers discomfited even him. Blake saw it and wilted.

"Blake. Push forward. Distract yourself with something more important until the pain numbs and the memory fades."

Blake raised an eyebrow, and her second set of ears leaned away from one another. "Ignoring my problems doesn't sound healthy."

"It's physical health that I obsess over, not mental health. You know me – I'm the walking advertisement for why people should go to therapy rather than internalize their problems."

Blake nodded. That was usually how things were done in K – don't fix a problem if you can cover it in tape and patch up the cracks and put a fresh coat of paint on it. Perhaps one day a reckoning would come for them not facing their demons, but it hadn't come yet.

And there were some things that they couldn't fix. How could Adam pour his heart out to a therapist about how much the minimal absence, rather, how much the absolute lack of shame over incarcerating fellow Faunus disturbed him when the entire operation against the White Fang was classified? And Blake couldn't just see a school counselor about why she felt the way she did without potentially compromising their ongoing assignment. Even if they did go and get help using cover stories, they would always have to stay on their guard and hold something back, distrusting everything and rendering the therapy worthless. At the end of the day, all K had was each other. For Adam, that was enough.

"If you need a task that can both distract you and absolve you of your guilt, try thinking of ways to help Ilia. The hospital staff tell me her aura had put her in a unique situation. Perhaps a huntress' point of view can prevail where a doctor's failed."

"I'll try. We also need to talk about what I've been up to while you were K…O'd."


The hospital wasn't secure. Blake couldn't find a way to surreptitiously sweep it for bugs, and with Adam bound to his cot, they couldn't move as they talked like they often did. Thus, for now, it was codewords and euphemisms only.

"Headmaster Ozpin had to debrief me over the events at the docks."

"Did he give you a hard time?"

"No. Goodwitch was pissed, but Ozpin was actually very helpful. He stuck his neck out for me on multiple occasions."

"Odd. Any idea why?"

"I'm not sure. Anyways, I've taken some free time to familiarize myself with the more interesting parts of campus. Did you know that the CCT has exactly 41 levels? Isn't that sweet?"

Adam would know that, and he would know that Blake knew it as well. There was no reason for her to repeat the obvious. Thus, he would hopefully pick up on the hint that the CCT had a secret level, or at least that the number of levels was significant in some way to their mission.

"Hmm," said Adam. "That is…sweet. Doesn't that mean it has more floors than the one in Atlas?"

"I think it does," said Blake. Atlas' tower also had exactly 41 floors, but most Valeans wouldn't know that, and they certainly wouldn't think much of overhearing a Faunus misquote architectural trivia. "It reminds me of that old house with the basement that we used to live in. The really big basement."

"That house, right, right. Hey, I can't remember – did my father leave his refrigerator down in that basement? You know, the one that was so big we used to could joke you could fit a body or two in there."

"I'm not sure, but I could find out easily enough if I checked. The only problem is that that basement had a padlock, and I can't remember the code."

A voice from the door interrupted. "Is there anyone you can ask?"

Blake didn't jump up in surprise, and neither did Adam. The whole reason that they spoke in hidden messages was in the event that something like this happened. Whispering in one another's ear was suspicious, as was flinching when someone entered the room, but talking about dad's old fridge in the man cave? Completely normal. Ozpin himself could hear it and would suspect nothing.

"I do hope the hospital bills aren't too expensive, Friend Adam."

The intruder was none other than Penny Polendina, the chipper red-haired huntress who'd saved them all from the crocodile Faunus' murderous wrath. Blake supposed that it would be only natural for her to check in on the people she'd rescued. Adam's name could have easily been found out by asking the nurses.

Still, I need to keep an eye on her. She's an odd one.

"Why, I've heard that they can charge up to one thousand lien for a single night in a hospital bed. That's right, one thousand lien. One grand."

"Penny? What on Remnant are you talking about?"

Adam side-eyed Blake without taking his attention off Penny. "You know her?"

"She was the one who saved us that night."

"This little nuisance?" Adam shook his head. "I remember you, girl. You made a joke about monkeys liking bananas when a monkey Faunus ran by. I appreciate your assistance, but I'm afraid I do not wish for your company."

"That is okay, Friend Adam. It is not my company that I wish to offer you. It is my body."

Oh no the fuck you don't.

Blake instinctively reached for Gambol Shroud, only to remember that it was recently destroyed. Her Faunus trait was her ears, but she found herself desperately wishing for some cat claws to rip this little skank's eyes out. She herself wasn't interested in Adam at all, but no nerd was gonna go around putting the moves on her big brother in arms.

And a human, no less.

um.

Whoa. Where did THAT come from?

"Please calm down, Friend Blake. You seem to have misinterpreted my intentions. My goal is to offer my time, skills, and person to aid you in…locating father's fridge? Did I say that right?"

"Oh, the fridge isn't a big deal," backtracked Blake. "We don't really need help. But thank you, I guess."

"I believe you do…" Penny raised her index and middle fingers in a V-shaped peace sign. "…friends."

Blake looked at Adam. "You have any idea what she's talking about?" He shook his head. "Look, Penny, we're–"

Penny started walking towards Blake. Blake briefly stepped back as the young woman approached, but she quickly found herself at the back of the room.

"W-What–"

The serious look on Penny's face made Blake stutter and pause. She could easily fight back, but something about the suddenness of Penny's abrupt advance made her brain shut down.

Penny eventually finished her trek across the room and wrapped her arms around Blake. Still, even as she was gripped tightly and pulled into a hug by the orange haired girl, she still couldn't figure out how to respond.

"K," whispered Penny.


"Oh," said Blake.

"No," said Penny. "Not O. K."

"I see."

"No," said Penny. "Neither I nor C. K"

"H-How? Are you from Atlas? Did the general send you?"

Penny nodded. "I was made aware of K's existence upon my creation and added to your unit as behind the scenes supplemental support personnel. It was actually me who hacked into the Beacon database and added your profiles."

Adam had been wondering about that, but he hadn't pressed the issue. If James had wanted him to know, James would have let him know. And now, James had let him know…of this strange, simple, potentially racist human girl?

Why would the general send her to help us? Why not Wint– oh, right. I guess this means that he trusts her? But she's so young…

"Wait a second," Adam said. "Creation? Do you not mean to say enlistment?"

"I am Remnant's first synthetic aura-generating humanoid, developed by a team of Atlesian scientists led by my father. Here is proof – I am not speaking, but in fact moving my lips in sync with audio output built into the roof of my mouth." Penny opened her mouth but kept her lips and tongue still. Her voice continued to come out despite her mouth being stationary. "The general oversaw the project and thought that I might be able to assist you, following the unexpected death of Former Specialist Marrow Amin."

Suddenly, Adam became keenly aware of the fact that they were discussing extremely sensitive topics in their outdoor voices. "Perhaps we should talk elsewhere. This location isn't secure."

"Worry not, Friend Adam. I have scanned the room and surrounding walls for audio or video recording devices, with no positive results. Furthermore, my thermal sensors do not detect any life forms close enough to overhear."

Adam was going to tell the human off for calling him friend so casually, but he found himself lacking the usual indignation. Perhaps it was overexposure to Rose, perhaps it was the fact that this Penny girl wasn't actually a human, or perhaps it was James' willingness to extend his trust to her, but he just wasn't incensed by her chatter. This bedrest is making me go soft.

"Fine. State your capabilities and your orders."

Penny nodded, took a step back, and then saluted. "Private First Class Penny Polendina, reporting. Aura unlocked, semblance unconfirmed. I am capable of detecting sounds as low as 5 decibels, interpreting electromagnetic radiation from microwave to X-ray, retrieving digital information up to CCT Access Level 13, and independent flight supporting loads of up to 2400 pounds. My memory stores up to 2.999 petabytes, of which 0.01% is currently filled. I am 2 years old, rounding up. My birthday is–"

"Weapons?" asked Blake.

"Floating Array – the swords I used three nights ago."

"I'm afraid I was in no position to be making observations around that time," asked Adam. "Please refresh my memory, Private."

She turned around. A hatch in her back opened up, filling Adam with no small amount of bodily horror. Dust, she really is a machine. And she has aura? Atlas has truly outdone itself with this one.

A small golden cylinder flew out of the back, with a power-button symbol engraved in green on it. Piece by piece, a curved metal sword unfolded out of one side. The sword hissed, and it suddenly split apart into ten identical copies, each floating in the air.

"They are held by a functionalized graphene tube." Penny plucked one of the tubes like a guitar string. "And I can fire sustained laser blasts after a brief period of charging."

"How brief?"

"Three to five seconds depending on intensity. Furthermore, according to shared Atlesian and Valean Firearm Codes, my chassis itself can be classified as a lethal weapon."

Adam scoffed. Whoever built this clearly was proud of it if they gave it this much of an ego.

"My orders are to make contact with Task Force K9 of–"

"Don't fucking call it that," Adam said with a roll of his eye. "Don't remind me what– look, it's K. We're K."

"Oh, I am fully aware. I have been dropping hidden messages including your codename for the past several days at is actually rather embarrassing for you that none of you caught them. Worry not, friends; I shall not let your obvious incompetence color my opinion of you."

Adam ran over every interaction he could think of that included this diminutive human. No hidden messages came to mind. She helped Ilia to her feet, called the monkey rude, then babbled about…

"Fuck me." Adam leaned back against his pillow and closed his eye. "Bananas. You said they're rich in potassium. K."

"I also signaled Friend Blake by squeezing her with my sword strings in Morse Code. Long short long – K."

Blake's eyes widened in realization. "So that was what that was."

"Also, upon entering the room, I actually–"

"Yeah, yeah, I see it now. Hospital beds cost one thousand lien – one K." Now that he knew what to look for, the Private's secret message were quite obvious. Basically, any time she did something weird, just look for the letter.

"And the peace sign – it's Atlesian Sign Language for K," said Blake. Oh, she was good; Adam hadn't even caught that one. "Penny, these hidden messages were a little too well hidden."

"Is that not the point of a hidden message?"

"Well, we're not usually expecting random strangers to drop hard K's on us and then run off," said Adam. "Let's move on. It's in the past, now. You said you were sent to help us, recruit?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"You couldn't have come at a better time. Two Faunus are immobile, and we need manpower now more than ever. I'm sure Blake can use the extra pair of hands, or sensor, in this case."

"Hold on a second, Adam. Penny, what's your cover?"

"I am an Atlesian transfer student here for the Vytal Festival Tournament."

"But how is that going to explain why you're hanging around me? Ruby's going to…" Blake froze in the middle of her sentence, then shook herself out of it. "Ruby's eventually going to ask who you are and why you're here."

"Officially, I checked in on you after rescuing your team, then befriended you over our shared love of quasi-homoerotic literature."

"C-Can we do something else?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. General's orders. Speaking of which…"

Penny leaned her head back, then opened her mouth. Again, she did the trick of speaking without moving. This time, though, a different voice came out.

"K."

"J-James?" Adam asked incredulously.

"Private Polendina can instantly transmit a secure audio stream directly from Atlas Academy, provided the connection is held for no longer than five minutes. Now, I've been led to believe that you've suffered some casualties. Please update me on…"

James stopped speaking. Adam opened his mouth to ask if something was wrong, but Penny simply held up a finger to shush him. After about fifteen seconds, she spoke.

"Sorry, Friends. A patient's family member passed within earshot. General?"

The voice switched. It was rather eerie to hear James' gruff voice come from this baby-faced teenager, especially when there was virtually no pause or other indicative signal of the changeover.

"Please update me on the incident, and the progress of your missions."

Adam spoke of the tracker turning back on, of the docks, of Barney's Ficksits and what they'd learned there. He offered up detailed descriptions of Torchwick's thieving operation, the Dust jagger, and the crocodile Faunus, who he was fairly certain had been named as Lady Tock. He described Ilia's condition (there had been a loud clanging on the other end that Adam assumed was James slamming his fist into some unassuming piece of furniture) and why they weren't expecting recovery any time soon.

At the end of it all, James didn't speak for a few minutes. Adam couldn't tell if he was contemplating their circumstances in silence, shocked into silence, or accidentally on mute.

"Blake," he said at last.

"Sir, I take full–"

"No. Please, just don't. I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to make things worse for you by heaping on insults or chidings that you've no doubt heard already. Learn from this mistake, and never make it again. Take it from a man who's made his own fair share of poor judgement calls. Now, the missions?"

"Amin's killer has been narrowed down to Weiss Schnee, Glynda Goodwitch, or Pyrrha Nikos."

"Or Russel Thrush," Adam added, remembering Ilia's suspicions. Blake looked at him in confusion but carried on.

"Regarding the aura transfer device, I believe I've placed its location at somewhere beneath the CCT tower. The elevator used to access the restricted areas has a secondary code. I haven't cracked it, but I believe it should be the primary focus of our investigation hereafter."

"You've already…that's excellent news! Good work, Blake. I'm proud of you." Adam was pleased to see the cat Faunus beam at the complement. The general never proffered empty praise, which made what he did give all the more valuable to them. Brothers knew she needed a pick me up with everything else around them was nosediving all of a sudden.

"Keep at it. Penny's enhanced surveillance abilities should be useful to pinpoint the precise area in which it's held. Once you've done so, we can discuss transport of the aura transfer device."

Penny's mouth closed, and her own voice returned. "We're approaching the time limit, General."

"Thank you, Private. Before I go…Ilia. You two have a better read on her situation. Do you think she needs extraction?"

Blake's ears drooped, and she looked at Adam deferentially. "I don't want to make another choice for her – we all saw how things go when I decide. You should make the call, Adam."

Adam considered the pros.

In Atlas, she could get state of the art treatment. If there was a cure in Atlas, James would've put it forward already, so that ruled out that. Still, if they could build a walking, talking robot huntress, they could probably monitor her vitals better and make her more comfortable than at Vale General. She'd be safer as well; there were no vengeful crocodiles nor Faunus-killing maniacs back home. James could monitor her in person, Blake wouldn't have to be reminded of her fallen comrade, and the reorganized K wouldn't be burdened with a defenseless team member.

Adam considered the cons.

K would be split up.

"No, sir. She stays with us."


Omake

Penny: *hugs Blake*

Blake: Who are you? What's going on?

Penny: *whispering into Blake's ear* Hail Hydra.


Omake 2

Penny: K.

Blake: Oh.

Penny: No. Not O. K

Blake: I see.

Penny: No. Neither I nor C. K.

Blake: Why you!

Penny: Not Y or U either. K.

Blake: Are you an ally?

Penny: Not R, not U, not N, not L, not I. K.