The Paladins were far from drowned, their tall legs holding most of their circuits out of the water. If they had enough Dust to power them, they would be able to walk across the street, perfectly capable of handling the current. Reaching them was now the main issue.
Thankfully, Ruby was able to find enough things hanging on the wall just inside the garage door for her to pull herself in, with Neo hanging on to her for dear life. Once they were in, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the current was almost nonexistent. Some of the water rushing by outside made its way in a little distance, swirled around in mild eddies, and then made its way back out again. They could see the shape of these currents and so they were much easier to avoid. Once Ruby had pulled them along the wall and reached the side of the Paladins, they were able to swim the rest of the way without worry.
At the back of the garage, there was a ladder leading up to a catwalk used for boarding the Paladins. Ruby grabbed the ladder and started up, leaving Neo to figure it out for herself. By the time they were both on the catwalk, wringing out their hair and surveying their prize, Penny was swimming into the garage to join them. Ruby checked the lines connecting the Paladins to the building behind them, finding that they were indeed active. Since the generator had been reactivated, Dust had been allowed to flow into their systems. Ruby went around to the front of one of the Paladins and climbed into its cockpit, sitting down and checking all of its systems. She found the power switch, and the whole thing hummed to life.
"This is good..." Ruby had been filled with enough optimism at just finding the Paladins that she was starting to feel like the universe was winding up to hit her with a sledge hammer. She didn't know what that would look like, but she was working on tempering her excitement so that it didn't hurt too much when it happened. Regardless, the tank was full, and all the Paladin's systems lit up green. "It's good. We're good to go."
Penny climbed up the ladder, pointing Neo to the Paladin before going to the back and severing all the connections. Neo climbed into the cockpit next to Ruby, who scooted back to give space to the person who could actually pilot the machine. Once Penny was finished, she climbed onto the Paladin's roof and pushed the cockpit canopy closed, tapping on it to tell them that she was ready to go. Neo settled into the seat, which was a little crowded with Ruby sitting behind her, and started her pre-'flight' check. Ruby, with little to do and not much to say, just wrapped her arms around Neo's middle and rested her head on Neo's shoulder. Neo took a moment to lean into her, letting the awkward nuzzle happen before continuing.
Then, without any warning, Neo pushed forward. The Paladin stepped forward, kicking up a huge spray of water. Neo adjusted a couple things, then went again. The second step didn't cause nearly as big of a splash, so she kept pushing forward, and they walked out of the garage under their own power. Ruby knew where she wanted them to go, but she resisted the urge to start tapping Neo's shoulder and pointing out the window. She didn't want to be annoying, so she just held on. It was only seven blocks away, and Penny was holding one of her blades up just over the cockpit canopy, emitting a green glow and pointing it in the direction of her father's vault. It reminded Ruby of a waypoint indicator from a video game, which was probably why Penny was doing it.
As they stomped across the street, over to an intersection, and down the next several blocks, Ruby found herself just waiting. Waiting wasn't one of Ruby's strengths, and it was making her mind wander. Not to anything helpful, really, it just caused her to start focusing on things that would distract her. Specifically, she was able to focus on the fact that she was getting hungry. Of course, when she focused on that, she began to realize that she was very hungry. She was about to vocalize her newfound hunger when something caught her eye.
Down one of the streets they were passing, she spotted something that was moving. It was big, with bright neon blue and purple. At first, she was worried that they had found another monster, but that worry started to fade when she saw the shape of the creature. It was a crab. It was roughly the same size as the Paladin, but it was just a crab. The neon colors told her it wasn't Grimm, and it didn't strike her as monstrous at all besides its size. When Neo spotted it, she turned the Paladin to square up with it, and the crab noticed. It waded a little closer, pinching the air with its bright purple claws, posturing and presenting, but when Neo took a step back, the crab did not advance. Wherever it came from, it was just being territorial.
"That's pretty wild..." Ruby mused. Neo shook her head and resumed her course. Now when Ruby returned to her thoughts of hunger, it felt even stronger. Not that she wanted crab, but she did need to eat. "Hey..." She nudged Neo from behind. "You think we could find something to eat?"
Neo rolled her eyes, sighing resignedly. She stopped the Paladin next to a low-hanging branch that looked to be sporting a bunch of yellowy orange fruits. The pushed open the cockpit canopy and moved a step closer, allowing the branch to stick into the cockpit right in front of them. Penny just sat and watched as they each took one of the fruits from the branch. They took a moment just staring at the fruit, trying to determine if they thought they could trust it. Ruby reached up and put hers against the cockpit canopy's bottom edge, pressing on it and breaking the skin. With that, she was able to pry it open and inspect the insides. It looked fine, and the juices were not hurting her skin. She sniffed it, finding that it smelled okay.
"Kind of like a mango? What do you think?"
Neo shrugged and bit into hers. She immediately spat it out and threw the whole thing out of the cockpit. "Gross."
Amused, Ruby started eating hers. She'd expected the next thing to happen would be very bad, but the strange fruit somehow restoring Neo's ability to speak was definitely a positive. She wasn't going to say anything about it, though, content to just eat her food. She spat it out again and threw it into the water. "Yup. That's nasty."
Neo sat quietly for a moment, then looked over her shoulder at Ruby. "I can talk again, can't I?"
"Mhm." Ruby nodded.
"Weird." Neo turned back around and started eyeing the branch that was now taunting them with disgusting fruit. She grabbed it and wrangled it out of the cockpit, closing canopy and moving on. "Stupid gross fake mangos."
The rest of the walk was quiet, with Neo still trying to figure out what to talk about now that she could talk. For some reason, now that she had someone she could talk to again, Ruby was much more content not to talk. Her mind wandered back to Weiss and Raven. She hoped they were okay, but she was able to console herself with the fact that the portal Raven opened led directly to Summer. Ruby's mom was out there somewhere, still alive. That was encouraging, even if it was some kind of other parallel universe version of her. Ruby was fine with that. Just knowing that there was a Summer Rose out there was a comfort.
There was a sound from the roof of the Paladin, and Ruby looked up to see Penny had stopped pointing her arrow for them. There was a brief second of alarm, a thought that something had attacked her, but that went away the moment Neo popped the canopy open. They were next to a building, and Penny jumped off the Paladin onto the building. She beckoned for them to join her, so Ruby got the idea that they had arrived. Without incident, they climbed out of the Paladin and onto the building. The sunlight was still bright, filtering down through the high tree canopy. The air still smelled fresh. Everything was still just fine.
Except for Penny. She was still fiddling with her voice synthesizer, annoyed that it was fizzing out. She needed the spare parts in her father's vault.
"Okay, we're here." Ruby looked around the roof. "There's no way inside. Do we climb in through a window?" Penny nodded, leading them to the edge of the roof. She swung over without missing a beat, crashing through the window below them. Ruby shrugged. "Oh. I guess we could break things."
Once Ruby and Neo had followed Penny in through the window, carefully making their way through the shattered glass, they stepped out into the upstairs hallway. The room they'd broken into looked like an office, and there were two other doors on the second floor. Opening one of them, Ruby saw what she could only describe as an old man's bedroom. Nothing was interesting in there. She went to open the next door, to see what was in there, when Penny rushed over, stepping in the way. Ruby got the message. It was Penny's room, and she either didn't want anyone to see it or she wanted to show it to them when she actually looked like a teenage girl, rather than a rusted old robot.
"Fine, fine, we'll just go to the vault and..." Ruby turned around, meaning to go downstairs, and found herself staring at a flooded staircase. "This could be a problem."
Penny disappeared into the office, then came back with a pencil and some paper. She quickly wrote down a bunch of words and handed it over to Ruby.
Taking the paper, Ruby read it out loud for Neo to hear. "Now that there's power, the elevator will seal closed before descending. You'll have to hold your breath until it opens again and drains. I'm not happy about all the water that will get into the vault, but it shouldn't be enough to cause serious trouble." Ruby lowered the paper, letting her mind do the calculations.
Neo took the paper, reading it over for herself. "So we have to hold our breath, swim to the elevator, get in, seal it, wait for it to reach the bottom and open again, and then we'll be able to breath. What if the elevator breaks down?"
Penny took the paper and wrote down a bit more, handing it back to Ruby, who read it. "It won't. I don't want to bring two elevators full of water into the vault, so we should all go together." She looked to Penny, then sighed. "Okay, we'll do it."
"Really?" Neo was understandably skeptical. "We're talking about an enclosed space, sealed, full of water."
"It won't be that long. We'll be fine." Ruby reassured her. Really, Ruby had no idea, but Penny seemed to think they'd be fine, and that was enough for Ruby. "Let's get this over and done with."
Penny nodded, suddenly diving into the staircase and disappearing into the first floor. After a second, Ruby saw a flash of green light, showing which direction she had gone. It was time to go. She jumped in and dove under the surface. She was briefly aware of Neo joining in right behind her. They followed Penny's flashing green lights to the back of the house. It was a good thing the water seemed to be quite clean, allowing them to not only see Penny through the murk, but even just to be able to open their eyes without it hurting. If not for the backdrop of confusion and terror, this whole city felt quite nice right now, and Ruby hoped it would stay this way.
Penny got into the elevator, a small round room with a glass door in the back corner. She started pressing buttons even as Ruby and Neo were just reaching it. She waited until they were both in before pressing the last button, and the door slid closed, sealing them all inside. Then the elevator began to move down. It was moving slower than any of them would have liked, but once it was below the floor, they were already able to see through the door and into the basement. The elevator stopped, and the door opened, allowing the water and the girls to spill out and cover the floor.
Gasping for breath, Neo pushed herself up and started looking around. There wasn't anything that looked especially like spare parts. "Where... this is the vault?"
Ruby sat up, shaking her head, causing her hair to whip around, sending water flying everywhere. She blinked the water out of her eyes, looking up at Neo. "What? No, this isn't the vault." She looked directly across from the elevator, then pointed. "That's the vault."
In front of them was a large round door lit up with neon green lights. Penny walked over to it, quickly opening a small panel in the center of the door and typing in a few numbers. The door let out a heavy click, then a hiss. Several clamps around the outside of the door popped off of its surface, and the entire door fell away into the floor. Penny stepped through the doorway, heading towards something off to the side where Ruby and Neo couldn't see. They followed her in, their guard up just in case there was a monster hiding down here.
Penny stepped up to a pod that was resting at an angle against the wall, sitting open. Next to it was another pod, though it was closed. Penny turned and leaned back, resting in the open pod. Her eyes, and all the lights running across her body, winked out. The pod next to her began to hum excitedly, and after a few seconds it all stopped. Then the second pod opened, steam coming from the breaking seal. After the cloud of white steam dissipated, Penny stepped out. She was fully repaired. In fact, Ruby realized, she had simply been transferred over to a new body.
A soft, squishy, freckled, very naked body.
"Ahh, Penny." Ruby coughed. "Do you... have clothes down here?"
Penny shook her head. "No. The first time, my clothes were a module that could be swapped out, and the second time, my clothes were mostly normal with a few parts being actual parts of my body. My father wanted to give me the ability to change completely between one outfit and another. I... may have pestered him about seeing cute underwear in a store window."
"So your father was going to just put you in a new naked body?" Neo asked dryly.
"This new body is supposed to function completely like a real girl. My father designed this so that I would be able to switch back and forth at will, transferring my consciousness and Aura between this one and the combat ready one." Penny explained, glancing at the decrepit rusty body she'd left behind. "I don't think I'll be able to go back into that one, though. But that's okay. Anyway, the plan was that I would bring down my choice of clothes before switching over the first time. But that never happened."
"So..." Ruby looked up and down Penny's new body, then stopped looking it over and focused on her face. "Right, so you were supposed to bring clothes so you could take care of this all on your own."
"Exactly. But, since there's all that water up there, any clothes we brought down would be soaking wet now, so I didn't."
"So you're naked." Neo commented.
"Yes." Penny confirmed. "I am naked."
"..." Neo looked to Ruby, then back to Penny. "And you're okay with this?"
"I don't see why not." Penny said. "Hey, hey, Ruby, over here." She waved them over to the back corner. "This may hurt a bit, but if you put your metal arm in here, it will replace it with a much better, lighter arm. It will connect to all your nerve endings, and it's made of flexible, soft materials that feel and function just like a real arm. It'll even have a circulatory system for your blood to go through. Just stick your arm in and let it do the repairs."
"Right... You're gonna have to give me a moment to prepare for that." Ruby said, grimacing at the weird little glass box with a hole in one end and a bunch of little robot arms inside. "I'm up for it, just... in a bit."
"No rush." Penny conceded. "I'm perfectly content to wait." She stood with her hands on her hips, proudly displaying... everything.
Neo groaned. "Oh my god, just do it already."