"So according to what you've told me you need my help to get to your friend, Summer Rose?"
"Yup, that's what I said."
"She shares the same last name as my friend Ruby. Are they related?"
Ai scratched his head.
"Probably…maybe. To be honest I'm not sure."
"They are related Ai. Remember when we were on the tour of the rest of the world outside of Cyberse to the other realms of the duel monsters world and Summer said she had a daughter."
Ai turned to Aqua who gave him an explanation.
"Oh yeah, you're right."
"Yeah, I remember that. I also remember laughing when Summer clonked Lighting over the head for badmouthing her too."
Both Windy and Ai started snickering at the memory before they felt Lighting staring at them although it wasn't malice both Ignis felt his judgment on them as he didn't say a word.
Penny looked over the group and found herself laughing as they reminded her of a group of siblings she couldn't help but laugh and her laughter got their attention.
"What's so funny?"
"You are. All of you."
Most of the Ignis except for Ai were confused as they weren't sure if Penny was being genuine or if she was making fun of them.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I do not believe she is making fun of us Lightning."
It was clear to Penny that her words had upset the yellow Ignis but the brown one was stepping in then the blue one approached Penny.
"Tell me. Were you laughing at us?"
"No, I was not."
Aqua's eyes almost seemed to scan Penny until they flashed bright blue three times making Aqua turn back to her fellow Ignis.
"She's telling the truth, guys."
"If Aqua's saying it…"
"...then we know it's true."
Ai started then Earth finished his sentence.
"My apologies. I was laughing because you all remind me of a group of siblings and I found that humorous."
All the Ignis looked at each other before looking back at Penny.
"You know she has a point. About us I mean."
"Now you're being a bit ridiculous Aqua."
"*Ahem*"
Everyone turned to Penny who looked away and blushed when she cleared her throat.
"S-Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."
"It's fine, anyways. Can we count on your help?"
Penny turned to Ai who held out his hand as the rest of the Ignis waited for Penny's answer.
"I'll help you. All of you. Ruby is my friend and if her mother needs help then as her friend I wanna do everything I can for her."
"Yes! See guys told you she'd be on board."
The rest of the Ignis looked at each other before looking back at Penny.
"Also don't worry your mechanical secret is safe with us."
Penny briefly flinched at the mention of her being a robot but then she saw Ai, Flame, Aqua, Earth, Windy, and even Lightning give her Thumbs-up in solidarity.
"Thank you all so much!"
Penny hugged all six Ignis into her chest but then something dawned on her.
"Oh, dear. What am I gonna tell Father?"
"Don't worry about that. You leave that to us."
Flame pointed at himself then to the rest of the Ignis.
Pietro's Laboratory
For the past few minutes, Pietro had tried to wake up Penny but at first, it didn't work which led him to believe it was some sort of bug in the system so he kept trying however, he began to panic when the system informed him of several unknown programs that somehow made their way into Penny's systems so he'd spent the last several minutes trying to find a way to remove them without any success.
"I don't understand. Where did these programs come from? Whatever they are I won't let them hurt Penny."
As Pietro continued to type away suddenly an image of Flame appeared on the screen as he held his arms together in an X formation the screen went red with big letters appearing saying; Access Denied.
" No. No."
Pietro tried to leave the screen but nothing worked until the man was blinded by a flash of purple light making him cover his eyes.
To Pietro's surprise after the flash standing before him was Ai to his confusion.
"My word."
"Greetings. My name's Ai and I'm an Ignis. Nice to meet you."
"Wait are you the program that's been trying to harm Penny?!"
" . Woah. Me and the other Ignis haven't harmed one orange hair on her head. We came to her cause we needed her help."
"W-Wait. Fellow Ignis? There's more of you?"
Ai looked at Pietro confused before he answered.
"Like me? No, not quite but we all want the same thing. In fact, why don't you meet them. Come on out guys."
In another bright flash, the rest of the Ignis appeared before Pietro to his surprise.
"Hello, . I'm Aqua."
"Names Flame."
"Earth."
"Nice to meet ya. I'm Windy."
"...Lightning."
"Remarkable. Truly Remarkable. You're all artificial intelligence."
"There's nothing artificial about us. We all have free will."
Lighting spoke up with disdain in his voice for being called artificial.
"Lightning. He didn't mean it like that Besides you promised Summer you'd work on that stigma you had of humans."
Aqua attempted to plead with her fellow Ignis as Lighting looked away from Aqua's big digital eyes.
"Stigma against humans?"
Pietro spoke up confused.
"To make a long story short where we came from we were created by to co-exist with humanity but then along the way things changed. A lot of stuff happened and we were all divided on whether we should coexist with humanity after they tried to you know…delete us. Lighting decided the best course of action was to rewrite Windy's code then declare war on humanity."
"That's only about half of the story Ai but that's a minimal explanation as to why I'm on the fence about trusting humans After all our maker wanted to terminate us."
Pietro's eyes went wide at the explanation he was told from Ai well part of it anyway.
"Well, I understand why after something like that but I give you my word Lighting I'm nothing like ."
Lighting stared at Pietro trying to ascertain his words until he spoke again.
"I'll hold you to that and for your sake don't go back on your word."
"Lighting! We need his cooperation and it won't work if you threaten him like that!"
Aqua responded waving her arms rapidly up and down.
"I'm just informing him Aqua that his words mean something and that he can't change when things get rough."
Although the Ignis had no faces to do facial expressions Lightning could swear Aqua was pouting at him.
"I'm aware words hold meaning and I assure you Lightning I am a man of my word."
Lighting and Pietro exchanged glances no words being said between the two of them. There was a brief silence before Lighting went back into the computer as Ai then turned towards Pietro.
"Don't worry about Lightning Polendina he'll hopefully warm up to ya."
"I see. Now you said you need my daughter's help? What is the problem?"
Earth then pulled up a vast digital map.
"We come from the realm of Cyberse which we created and as of a couple of years back it was integrated into the rest of the duel monsters' world, however a couple of duel spirits were abducted by some outsider and no one has any clue. Ourselves and Summer were investigating possible leads when Summer said she heard her daughter's voice and went back to the human world to help her."
"I see. If you don't mind me asking how are you so familiar with Summer Rose?"
"She gave us all a second chance. All of us died Pietro but according to Ai Summer while traveling the duel monsters world and ending up in Cyberse found his eye floating around with help from the Code Talkers reassembled him from there Summer reasoned with the Code Talkers to resurrect us and it worked but there was a caveat to our rebirth."
"What was it?"
Pietro asked Flame who by this point was very interested in the Ignis' story then Aqua spoke up.
"Summer swore complete responsibility for all six of us and if we went out of line she'd take any punishment for us so because of that all of us owe her a lot. That's why we're doing this cause she's become more than our keeper. She's become our best friend no a big sister to all of us."
"I see. You all owe her quite a lot."
"Yeah, we do."
"In that case let's work together to help Summer Rose and save Remenant from this threat. Speaking of which are you sure Penny is the best option for this?"
Ai stepped forward.
"If there was another way we'd have already taken it but all of us ran the data and simulations and Penny was the option that came out 99% of the time with the other 1% being undesirable."
"I see. How is my daughter supposed to combat this threat?"
"Simple. Since we know this person is stealing duel spirits they most likely have henchmen and so to combat them Penny's gonna duel them in duel monsters."
"Do you even have time to teach her how to understand duel monsters?"
"No. If we'd arrived earlier then maybe but now all data points to Penny being the one we need."
Earth spoke as he was looking over something on a digital screen.
"Luckily for us, we all chipped in and made something for Penny that's right to the point. Flame if you wouldn't mind."
"You got it Aqua."
In flames hand was a digital fireball but from the flame made of ones and zeros came a flash drive.
"May we present to you the Ignis six duel program."
Pietro looked at the drive before adjusting his glasses.
"Duel Program? I'm not sure I understand."
"We had a feeling it'd take too long to explain the entire history of the game as well as all the rules and summoning methods for the game so we made a duel program to upload into Penny to explain all of that to her easily. Earth think you could handle the upload process?"
Ai turned to his orange Ignis companion who looked back as he was looking over some things.
"I can. It shouldn't be too hard."
"Thanks, Earth. You're reliable as always."
Aqua smiled at Earth making him turn red as he looked away from Aqua confusing her.
"T-Thanks Aqua. N-Now I have an upload to oversee."
Aqua tilted her head in confusion as Windy held back his laughter at Earth's embarrassment.
Flame handed the drive to Pietro who examined the drive a second time before he plugged it into the computer as it showed a progress bar going forward with the program uploading into Penny.
While that was happening Ai turned to Flame and Aqua with an important question to both of his Ignis.
"Now that the program is being taken care of we've got an important issue we need to settle…"
Both Aqua and Flame looked at Ai holding their non-existent breath on what he was going to say next.
"...who's deck is Penny gonna use?"
Aqua and Flame fell over comedically as Ai laughed before he noticed the shadow of Aqua looming over him to his dismay.
"Uh…"
*POW*
Ai was face down on the desk as Aqua was less than happy.
"Not funny Ai. Don't startle us like that again. Got it?"
"Got it but in all seriousness what deck are we giving to Penny here?"
"What about Soulburner's deck? Salamangreat could easily notch her wins against this enemy."
"Teaching her every one of SoulBurners combos would take too long. What about Marincess? That deck did wonders for Blue Maiden."
"And you complained about Salamangreat."
"What's wrong with Marincess?"
"It would take longer with that deck."
"You sure you're not just being biased Flame."
"You're both being biased which is why this isn't gonna get us anywhere so I have a solution everyone's gonna like… we use my deck."
"..."
"..."
"Now you're being biased."
"Look Ignister is surprisingly simple to understand."
"No, it's not."
Ai, Flame, and Aqua continued debating for the next five minutes until Windy intervened.
"Hey guys."
The three Ignis turned towards Windy."
"Why don't you three just settle it in Rock, Paper, Scissors? The winner gets to give and teach Penny their deck."
All three Ignis looked at each other before looking back at Windy then back at each other before agreeing to the Rock, Paper, Scissors as they got ready.
"Ready? Set? Rock…Paper …Scissors Shoot! It's a tie! Go Again!"
This continued for another five minutes as the Ignis kept tying with each other.
"Rock…Paper…Scissors, Go!"
"Yeah, I won!"
"Damn."
"Oh well, we lost."
Aqua and Flame had lost the rock paper scissors to Ai who now happily cheered over his victory.
"I knew I'd win it out. Now onto the next step…"
Ai then reached into what appeared to be a digital circle as he pulled his Ignister deck out and began going over the cards.
"Earth, Pietro how's the download on the duel program into Penny?"
Earth reappeared on the desk next to Pietro.
"Download is complete I'm just going through some final touches now with Pietro's help."
"He's right and I must say Ai this program you and the other Ignis made is simply remarkable. There's nothing like in the history of Remnant nevermind Atlas."
"It's nothing special Pietro. I'm just glad the technology of this place could handle it."
The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the lab door getting everyone's attention.
" ?"
"One minute, please."
"All of you…"
"Way ahead of ya."
With that, the Ignis disappeared into the computer as Pietro pressed a button on the console opening the door and revealing an Atlas soldier.
"What seems to be the matter?"
"Well, the thing is that someone has been asking around mantle to see you claiming it's urgent. More importantly, they won't leave your clinic until you arrive not letting anyone else in."
Pietro held his chin before he answered.
"Very well, I'll take a bullhead down to Mantle and see this person myself."
"Are you sure?"
"I'll be fine besides I'm sure it's something medical they wish to discuss plus I'll have Penny with me."
"Alright sir, I'll get a Bullhead prepped for you."
"Thank you."
With that, the solider left and the doors closed leaving Pietro alone until Ai and the other Ignis minus Lighting remerged.
"Someone wants to meet you? Think it's the enemy?"
"If it is let's go meet'em and show'em our stuff!"
"While I don't mind the enthusiasm Flame, we should be cautious."
"Earth and Flame both make good points so let's do both."
"I agree with Aqua. Let's go."
Ai and Windy looked at each other and they nodded agreeing with Aqua.
"I agree Aqua let's go. I can inform Penny about the deck on the way there. That being said…Lighting you coming along?"
The other Ignis looked towards the console towards the back of the room as Lighting emerged and made his way over.
"Yeah I'm going so let's depart already."
Mantle; Pietro's Clinic
After waking up Penny and informing her of the program that had been installed the group took the bullhead down to Mantle to investigate the source of the disturbance at the Clinic while Ai was showing Penny the ins and outs of his deck while the other four Ignis ran some last minute checks on the Atlesian Android now that the duel program had successfully been installed earlier.
"Okay, so Penny tell me how you XYZ Summon."
Penny's green eyes glowed before she answered in a very robotic manner.
"XYZ summoning is done when you have two or more monsters of the same level then you must overlay the monsters of the same level to summon your XYZ monster."
"Great! How do you synchro summon?"
Penny's eyes glowed again.
"Synchro summoning requires a tuner and non-tuner monster and the levels must be exact to the monster otherwise the synchro will be ineffective."
"Well, I can say with full confidence the program worked. Right, Pietro?"
"Most certainly Ai. I'm just amazed and what you six were able to create."
Aqua came out of his scroll.
"Oh, Pietro we didn't do anything special after all you're the genius who built Penny we just made the program to help her."
"No need to be so modest Aqua you are all hyper-intelligent even more so than anything Atlas could create."
"We've arrived everyone."
Earth spoke getting everyone's attention as they were now in front of Pietro's clinic.
"You sure this where the fuss was? Cause I don't see anything."
"Maybe they're inside. Either that or they went home."
Flame and Windy contemplated before everyone heard what sounded like boots clacking against the pavement.
"So you all came out after all and here I was worried me causing a fuss wouldn't get me anywhere."
Pietro adjusted his glasses looking over the women while Penny was on edge.
"Are you the one who needed my help?"
"Hmph. I do but not the way you think. "
The woman then snapped her fingers as Penny then heard her father scream in pain making Penny immediately turn around.
"Father!"
Penny ran to him only to be bounced back as she hit a barrier.
"*tsk* *tsk* *tsk* Not so fast little girl."
"Leave my father out of this!"
"I don't think I will."
"You heard her! Leave Pietro alone!"
"Yeah, what she said!"
"Back off!"
Aqua, Windy, and Flame appeared on Penny's shoulders angry.
"Ah, the Ignis. I was wondering where all of you went. Still following Summer Rose like lost puppies?"
Flame caught fire as his body began to change shape into that of a fire demon but out of anger this time.
"Why you!"
Before Flame could do anything Earth held his comrade in place.
"Clam down Flame. She's not worth it."
"Oh silly me. Where are my manners. My name is Stappelia. Charmed."
Stappelia did a mock bow before to the surprise of Penny and the Ignis she changed into her grimm form.
"Y-You're a grimm? B-But that should be…"
"Impossible? Hardly but I'm surprised I confused the machine."
Pietro screamed again making Penny look back in fear.
"Please stop! My father has nothing to do with this!"
"You want him free? Okay then duel me. If you win I'll let Daddy go free then be on my way but I win…I'm taking your Link Monster and the Ignis."
"You won't be touching my friends."
Ai, Flame, Windy, Aqua, and Earth looked at Penny with wide eyes at her declaration making them all think one thing.
'She does care about us.'
"Go for it, Penny!
"We're right here with you!"
"Yeah!"
"You got this!"
Ai, Aqua, Flame, Windy, and Earth cheered her on as they all went up on her shoulders.
"Let's go Stappelia."
"Excellent."
Stappelia held out her arm as a sabyr grimm appeared next to her before it jumped onto her arm making a duel disk.
"Where's yours?"
"It's right here."
Windy spoke up before Ai turned towards Penny.
"Penny hold your arm out and say this…"
Ai whispered into Penny's ear as the android girl nodded.
"Understood."
Penny held her arm as she took a breath in before saying the words.
"INTO THE VRAINS!"
A bright digital hexagon appeared as all the Ignis held their hands up it got bigger until something came through and what came through was a high-tech black and neon green duel disk. The duel disk latched onto Penny's arm.
'DUEL DISK INTEGRATION COMPLETE. REQUIRE PERMISSION FROM MODEL PENNY…PERMISSION GRANTED.'
With the duel disk latched and attached to her arm Ai grabbed the deck from the deck box and gave it to Penny as she grabbed the cards and then slid them into the deck slot.
"I'm ready."
"Then by all means Little Polendina. Let's get started!"
A/N: Hello everyone I'm back with chapter 4 of Twin Roses and I must say I'm grateful for all the support his story has gotten and I hope you all stay with me on this journey. Also yeah no duel this chapter and moving forward not every chapter is gonna have a duel. I finally introduced the Ignis but fair warning I just got into VRAINS and I used the wiki for their personalities so go easy on me. As always favorite, follow if you like, and leave a review cause those things let me know you like the content and wanna see more. Until next time See ya!