Chapter 37: The Sound Maiden
New Rushland, Vale.
In the Maroon apartment, Boris and Jane were setting up a pizza and drinks for when their guest arrived to celebrate her high school graduation. Soon enough, a knock on the door alerted Boris of his girlfriend's arrival. Cyan was huffing and puffing from exhaustion, still in her cap and gown from the ceremony with a backpack slung over her shoulder and an envelope in her hand. Jane offered her a cup of water to help her cool down.
"Geez, what'd you do? Run here?" The commissioner chuckled.
"No… just after… the mail truck…" Cyan spluttered, holding up the envelope. "I got… the results… from my admission test… today…"
"Alright, sweetie, just sit down and take a deep breath." Jane led the young woman over to the dining table and set up a plate of pizza for her. "Have a few slices of pizza and then we'll open the letter."
"Yeah…" Cyan took a moment to catch her breath. "Yeah… okay."
For the next few minutes, Cyan just sat, ate, and talked to Boris and Jane. Once she'd had a few slices of pizza, she anxiously picked up the envelope again. She took a deep breath and opened the envelope. "'... we are pleased to inform you that - pending background check - you have been accepted into the Bluharbor City Police Department's training program!'"
"Yes!" Boris hugged his girlfriend and kissed her, deeply.
"Oh, congratulations!" Jane cheered.
"I knew you'd get in, Cyan! I never had a doubt!" Boris happily congratulated Cyan and made his way to the kitchen. "I've got a surprise for you!"
Cyan grinned, giddy, as she took a seat at the kitchen counter and watched Boris pull a cake box out of the fridge. He set it down, opened it up, and her smile disappeared as she read the message written in frosting. "'Forget Bluharbor, you're too good for those jerks anyway'?"
"Oops, sorry. Wrong cake." Boris blushed from embarrassment and pulled another cake box out of the fridge. This time, it had a much better message.
"Aaaaw." Cyan smiled. "'Good job, I never doubted you for a second!' Never, huh?"
"Nope." Boris chuckled. "Seriously, I'm so proud of you, Cyan. I'm just a little sad that we're gonna be cities apart from now on. But I can set you up with a video-call account, and we can talk to each other every day, and-"
"Um, actually…" Cyan blushed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out another pamphlet. "There's a bunch of pretty good colleges in Bluharbor that offer computer science programs. So, I was kinda hoping… maybe you'd come with me?"
Boris blushed bright red; this was a huge step in their relationship.
"Well, hold on, kiddo." Jane interjected as she lit up her smoking pipe. "Before I give my son permission to transfer colleges when he's already two years into his own, I've got to ask; when are you planning on telling Svetlana and Mikhail that you're moving to Bluharbor?"
Cyan smiled, sheepishly. "I mean, I think they practically already know."
Jane furrowed her brow. "Cyan, they don't know that you applied to the Bluharbor Police Department's training program. They don't know that you spent an entire year saving up money from a part-time job to place a down payment on an apartment in Bluharbor. And they don't know that you've been spending extra time with me after Boris' tutoring sessions to help you study for that admission test!"
Cyan shrank in her seat. "Well… maybe not on any of those levels do they know."
"Cyan, I'm proud of you for all the hard work you've put into this." Jane crossed her arms, sternly. "But I respect your foster parents too much to hide this from them any longer. If you don't tell them by tomorrow, I will."
"Mom!" Boris snapped. "You can't threaten her like that!"
"Well, I'm sorry, Boris." Jane turned her gaze towards her son. "But I've been keeping so many things to myself, something is bound to slip out eventually."
Boris began to sweat, nervously, and backed off. "Ahem, uh, yeah, Cyan, you should tell them."
Cyan, despite not being sure what Jane and Boris were talking about, sighed in defeat. She knew the Commissioner was right, and she'd have to tell Mikhail and Svetlana about her decision to join the Bluharbor police. Not only because it was the right thing to do, but also because she still needed a guardian signature for her admittance form.
"Okay. I'll tell them." Cyan nodded and headed for the door. "Thanks for the pizza, Mrs. Maroon."
With that, she headed to the bus stop once again to hitch a ride back to the farm. During the ride, she pulled out a sketchbook from her backpack and went through her favorite designs. Despite having come up with the identity to honor her parents and culture, Cyan had recently felt as if she'd outgrown the name Azure. Once she'd settle down in Bluharbor, she was going to make herself a new costume and create a whole new persona. She'd been workshopping several new codenames, but the one she liked most was "Midnight."
At last, her bus arrived at the stop in the neighborhood right next to Svetlana and Mikhail's farm. Swallowing hard, she walked in through the front door just in time to see Mikhail exit the basement.
"There you are!" He exclaimed in relief. "Where have you been? You disappeared right after the ceremony."
"I, uh, just wanted to celebrate with Boris and Mrs. Maroon." Cyan took a deep breath. "Um, there's something I've been meaning to tell you-"
"Cyan?" Svetlana called out from downstairs. "We've got a mission, get down here and get dressed."
"Oh, uh, can it wait? I was in the middle of telling Mikhail something. No, it can't? Okay!"
Before Mikhail could question her odd behavior, Cyan slid down the stairs towards the cave and backflipped behind the changing screen to change into her Azure costume. Perhaps, she thought, for the very last time.
"What's up boss?" Azure called out once she had gotten her costume on.
"There's been a disturbance at a laboratory downtown," Krasnaya explained. "Magenta, Azure and I are heading to Silver Labs to investigate. We'll meet you there."
Azure suddenly gasped in realization. She was also going to have to tell Magenta that she was leaving. Although both side-kicks agreed to keep their relationship platonic, he was still her first crush and one of her best friends. She wondered how she was going to explain this to him.
Silver Labs. Vale.
One hour later, Krasnaya and Azure arrived at the laboratory with Magenta close behind on his own motorcycle. The laboratory appeared to be in complete disarray; smoking craters littered the front lawn, several windows had been shattered, and an entire wall had been almost completely demolished. Suddenly, an older man with graying black hair in a white lab coat rushed outside to greet the trio.
"Oh, thank the gods you got my distress call!" He exclaimed, shaking Krasnaya's hand. "Welcome, Krasnaya. Welcome to Silver Labs."
"Professor Silver, I presume?" Krasnaya asked.
"In the flesh. Please, do come in." The scientist led the trio inside, revealing even worse damage. Broken glass and disabled machinery lay everywhere. And even more disturbing, there were a few bodies lying around with drop sheets covering them. "Thank you so much for coming. As you can see, I'm facing a bit of a dilemma."
"What exactly caused all this?" Magenta asked.
"A weaponized robot." Prof. Silver explained, gravely. "This robot has taken away everything I cherish most in this world. My research. My lab. My team… my daughter."
The Titanic Trio fell deathly silent at the horrible revelation. Krasnaya's fists clenched in anger. Magenta cupped a hand over his mouth in shock. And Azure cupped both of her hands over her heart in sadness. The professor reached into his lab coat's pocket and pulled out a photo of himself and a teenage girl with golden hair and blue eyes playing a guitar.
"Her name was Melody." Prof. Silver carried on with a sad smile. "An appropriate name, considering her passion for music. She aspired to become a world-famous musician, but still took an interest in my work. Unfortunately… that's what led to her death. A former officer of Project Guardsman came to me a few years ago, wanting a weapon that could replace the maidens after their demise. I thought that sound waves would be an appropriate replacement for the elements. And I was even given the original blueprints for the P.E.N.N.Y. project model so all that was left to do was give it a mind of its own… and that's when things got complicated."
"What do you mean?" Azure asked.
"Well, without a maiden's soul to operate the machine, we tried to turn towards artificial intelligence like Jacques Schnee originally envisioned. Unfortunately, it turns out you can't fit enough data to properly mimic a human mind into a computer that small. Our funds were running out, and our backers were losing patience. So, regrettably, we decided to do something that wasn't exactly… ethical. We took a human mind and implanted it into the Sound Maiden."
"Wait, let me guess: the human mind in question was implanted without their consent and thus they reacted negatively to finding itself in an unfamiliar body, causing it to lash out at everyone around them." Magenta surmised.
"...how did you know?"
"I've seen enough sci-fi movies to be familiar with this sort of plot." Magenta shrugged. "Besides, it sounds like whoever is inside the Sound Maiden is just doing what I would have likely done in that sort of situation."
"Who's mind was put into the Sound Maiden?" Azure asked.
"I never asked." Prof. Silver admitted. "At the time, it didn't seem important so long as we could finish the project. My hubris was my undoing."
"We'll worry about that later," Krasnaya remarked while taking charge of the situation. "Right now we should work on subduing the Sound Maiden: maybe there's a way to calm her down and clear up this whole mess."
"Uh, are you sure you don't want to just disable it?" the professor called out with a somewhat nervous tone in his voice. "I mean, it's just a machine, we can…"
"Regardless of her outer shell, there's a human brain inside of it crying out for help: I will not ignore those cries if I can help it…especially seeing how you admitted that this situation is similar to the P.E.N.N.Y. Project, and I refuse to have this story end in the same way as that debacle if I can help it," the Crimson Crusader declared in a tone that denied any further argument.
"The boss actually got to know the - ahem - spirit of Penelope. If she sounds familiar, she should: she was one of the siblings, for lack of a better term, of the original Penny who provided aid to the fighters back during the Menagerie War, so Krasnaya has something of a stigma against folks referring to the products of Project Guardsman, or any robotics project that seeks to emulate human intelligence like what we're currently seeing, as 'just a machine.'" Azure explained to Magenta in response to the concerned look he gained in response to Krasnaya's outburst.
"Ah," was Magenta's only reply, as he was honestly on the same page about not wanting to kill the human consciousness inside the Sound Maiden if they could help it.
"Well, so long as you're willing to help…" Prof. Silver made his way over to a console and typed a few buttons before a pair of scanners popped up. He grabbed them and handed them over to the vigilantes. "The Sound Maiden emits a unique frequency at all times. These will help you track it. If it's still in the facility."
Krasnaya nodded and accepted the trackers before handing one over to Azure and Magenta. "We'll cover more ground if we split up. But if you find anything, call me and wait. Understand?"
Azure huffed and begrudgingly took the tracker. "Yes, ma'am."
With that, Krasnaya used her sickle to grapple up into the rafters to begin the search while Azure and Magenta stayed on the ground level and went into the next room. The hallway was just as damaged as the laboratory; twisted metal and low hanging cables from the ceiling were everywhere.
"Hey, so, can I ask a hypothetical question?" Magenta whispered as they searched the area.
"Can't it wait?" Azure whispered back. "I'm trying to focus."
"I'm sorry, but… I just… my girlfriend got this great opportunity to go to another city and she asked me to come with her." Magenta explained, quietly. "The thing is, I'm already halfway through college and this is kind of a big step for us. What would you do if you were in my situation?"
"Huh. Actually, I… I kinda am." Azure admitted, interested in the coincidence. "I recently got a great opportunity to work in another city and asked my boyfriend to come with me."
"Wait, you're moving?" Magenta aimed his flashlight at her. "Does Krasnaya know about this?"
"I'm working my way up to it."
"Ugh, you sound just like my girlfriend," Magenta called out with a roll of his eyes. "I realize how much of a hypocrite I'll sound here, seeing how I'm still working up the courage to tell my girlfriend who I am, but why can't you just rip the bandaid off and just tell Krasnaya about what you're planning? You do know it'll hurt her more the longer you wait right? …and I am definitely telling my girlfriend my identity as soon as I can once we're done here."
"You seriously haven't already?" Azure arched an eyebrow. "Huh. Now I feel less guilty about not telling my boyfriend."
Suddenly, the two side-kicks came to a halt once they heard an alert from their device. The wavelengths of the frequency began to focus the further they went. Magenta - thinking that the Sound Maiden would detect their voices - tapped Azure's shoulder and pointed towards his comm-link to indicate he was going to signal Krasnaya. Azure nodded in understanding as she continued to monitor the frequency. Unfortunately, as they took another step, they both managed to simultaneously trip over a metal pipe, causing a loud echo throughout the facility.
So loud, in fact, that up in the higher levels, Krasnaya facepalmed in annoyance.
The two side-kicks helped each other back up and scanned the area. The scanner began to show an abnormal wavelength approaching them at a rapid pace.
"... maybe it's a mouse?" Magenta gulped, hopefully.
Just then, a nearby wall was blasted to pieces, followed by loud, metallic footsteps.
The Sound Maiden appeared to be an almost exact replica of Penny Polendina. However, her dress was black with blue and gray highlights, her black hair was done up in a pixie cut, and her eyes were a piercing blue. She lifted both hands at the vigilantes and her palms split apart to reveal speakers built in. Suddenly, a piercing noise blasted from the speakers, creating a devastating sonic attack.
Thankfully, Krasnaya swooped in just in time and pulled her two wards out of harm's way.
"Everyone okay?" She asked.
"...WHAT!?" Azure and Magenta shouted.
"...right, Sound Maiden: should have seen this coming." Krasnaya remarked before grappling away so as to attempt to put some distance between them and the Sound Maiden so as to have time to come up with a better plan of attack.
Unfortunately, now that the Sound Maiden had seen her targets and heard their voices, she easily locked on to their position and fired another sonic blast up into the rafters. Krasnaya pushed her allies out of the way and dove for cover. After throwing down a smoke pellet for cover, she fired a round of fire dust at the robot, prompting Azure and Magenta to follow suit.
However, the Sound Maiden placed her palms on the ground and released another sonic blast that blew away the smokescreen.
"Okay let's try this then," Krasnaya called out before using her gun to take out the lights before using a flash bang to try and disorient the Sound Maiden. The robot shielded her optic sensors with her arms. And just as she'd activated built-in tinted lenses, her prey had escaped once again. She reactivated her sonic blasters and continued to stalk the halls of the demolished lab.
Meanwhile, Krasnaya had grabbed Azure and Magenta and hastily retreated to a soundproof chamber where they locked the door behind them.
"Now are you okay?" Krasnaya asked once her partners were showing signs of recovering.
"I think so, though I think it's safe to say that a frontal assault won't work here." Magenta remarked.
"No kidding." Azure nodded, digging some wax out of her ears. "Be honest with me boss: you got a taste of what the true Maidens were like back during the Menagerie War, right? If so, do you suppose that the jerks who made the Sound Maiden at least got the power scaling right?"
"Yes, and unfortunately yes," Krasnaya said with a reluctant nod as she answered Azure's questions - all while silently acknowledging that the Sound Maiden was indeed on par with Cinder, Raven, and all incarnations she'd seen of Penny based on what she had seen as far back as Beacon and leading up to the events of the Menagerie War - in order before giving a sigh. "Simply put, Magenta is correct in that a frontal assault isn't going to work here: we'll need to try a different approach."
"Well, I'm open to suggestions." Azure remarked, with Magenta nodding in agreement.
In response, Krasnaya took out her sickle and converted it into a remote computer. "If we can record enough of her sonic attacks and analyze what frequency she's using, we might be able to develop a counter-frequency to neutralize her weaponry."
"Which means we'll need to go out there to perform some frontal assaults again," Magenta called out with a tone that made it clear he did not like where this was going.
"Do you have a better idea of how to collect the data we need here?" Azure crossed her arms.
"No but that doesn't mean that I have to like the plan we have." Magenta admitted with a sigh.
"...touche." Azure declared with a shrug before she suddenly smirked and touched her nose. "Not it!"
"Aw, you suck!"
Regardless, two minutes later when the Sound Maiden made her way into the grand hall, Krasnaya dropped down from the rafters and fired a round of fire dust directly into her face. But before the Sound Maiden could retaliate, Azure swung through the air and kicked her aside before flipping behind cover. Magenta used his built-in slings to fire an explosive polymer at her, earning her attention.
"Hey! Sound Maiden!" Magenta shouted, drawing the robotic being's attention. "Uh… your CPU is so weak, it can't even run Python! And your motherboard was a whore!"
The Sound Maiden aimed both hands at him and fired her sonic blasts. While Krasnaya analyzed the frequencies, Magenta did his best to dodge the incoming assault of his mechanical opponent. Once Krasnaya had gathered all of the data she needed, she threw down several more smoke bombs and flashbangs to give Magenta enough time to take cover with Azure. While the Sound Maiden was once again disoriented and her wards were safely hidden away, Krasnaya used her grappling hook to rise back up into the rafters.
Meanwhile, Azure and Magenta hid behind a wall while the Sound Maiden searched for them.
"'Your motherboard was a whore?' Seriously?" Azure asked, flatly. "Not even Yang Xiao Long would make that pun."
"Pfft, it worked, didn't it?" Magenta shrugged.
Up in the rafters, Krasnaya tapped the comm-link piece in her cowl to call her husband.
"Cat Burglar, I need you to analyze the frequency samples I've recorded from the Sound Maiden's sonic attacks. We might be able to find a counter-frequency for it. I'm sending the samples… now…" Krasnaya cut herself off when she noticed something odd about the frequency samples. Curious, she used her own instruments to rearrange the samples until it formed a message in morse code. The Crimson Crusader's eyes widened in shock as she deciphered the message. "Oh, my gods…"
"...do you still need me to analyze those frequency samples?" Cat Burglar felt the need to ask, already guessing that his wife had found something that had changed something in how she'd be going about things here.
"Now more than ever," Krasnaya remarked, knowing that being able to counter that frequency was likely the best chance she currently had of finding an opening to save the poor girl who was currently trapped inside of the Sound Maiden's body…as well as stopping the one who caused this whole mess in the first place as it was becoming increasingly clear that the true villain of this tale, the one who created the Sound Maiden in the first place, had yet to show their full hand.
"...I'll get on it right away." Cat Burglar responded with an audible nod, noting the seriousness in his wife's voice as she did.
At the same time, Azure and Magenta were still trying to avoid detection as the Sound Maiden stalked the halls. The duo hastily ducked into the remains of the mess hall just as the robot marched past them. Once the sound of mechanized footsteps disappeared into the distance, Azure allowed herself to sigh in relief. But as she turned her head to see a smoldering corpse in a burnt lab coat, she almost screamed were it not for Magenta quickly cupping a hand over her mouth.
After he quietly shushed her and she nodded in understanding, they inspected the lab coat to find that he was one of the scientists involved in creating the Sound Maiden.
"How much do you want to bet that the person responsible for this mess is still in the building and that the Sound Maiden is still angry at that person?" Magenta whispered, sardonically.
"Yeah, sorry: I'm not one for dealing with sucker bets." Azure replied, cracking her knuckles.
"...fair point."
The Sound Maiden had focused her pulse blaster into a fine laser, cutting a hole through another wall before slowly marching towards her prey.
Magenta fired his grappling line towards Azure, who caught it and attached it to her escrima before electrifying it. The duo rushed towards the robot and wrapped her up in the electrified cable. The Sound Maiden spasmed as if it were about to drop to the ground and shut down, only for her to grab the cable with both hands and send the electricity right back at them.
Magenta disconnected the cable, saving himself and Azure from the attack, but freeing the Sound Maiden from their trap. The robot blasted another pulse towards Azure to knock her away before lunging at Magenta and strangling him with both hands.
Magenta struggled with all of his might to pull the Sound Maiden's hands off of his neck. Azure reacted without thinking, taking out her electrified escrima sticks, jumping onto the Sound Maiden's back, and stabbing them into the Maiden's eyes. The Maiden nodded her head backwards, striking Azure's nose and causing her domino mask to fall off, while her hands flew upwards, snagging her thumb on Magenta's mask. While the robot spasmed and flailed about from its malfunction, Azure and Magenta recovered and accidentally locked eyes with each other in shock.
"Boris?!"
"Cyan?!"
Magenta shook his head to focus on the task at hand. While the Sound Maiden was still malfunctioning, he activated the dust-launcher built into his glove and shot one of the suspension cables above it to swing a crate directly at it. The crate crashed into the Sound Maiden and smashed it into a nearby wall. With an opportunity to recover their masks, Azure put her own on first and glared as Magenta pulled his back over his head and straightened it out.
"So when were you gonna tell me? The honeymoon?" Azure snarked, angrily.
Magenta pushed her to the ground just in time before a concentrated sonic blast could strike them. "Can we talk about this later?!"
"Right, still in danger: my bad," Azure called out with a somewhat sheepish expression.
Thankfully, Krasnaya once again came to the rescue by firing an adhesive at the speakers built into the Sound Maiden's hands. While it struggled to pry it off, the Crimson Crusader knelt down with her side-kicks.
"Alright, here's the plan; Azure, you-"
"Hold on!" Azure interrupted. "Did you know that Magenta was Boris?!"
"Really?" Krasnaya glared at Magenta. "You chose now of all times to tell her?"
"You told her before you told me?!"
"I did not tell her! She figured it out! Wait, hold on, if you're Cyan, then that means that…" Magenta couldn't help but call out before looking in Krasnaya's direction as she pieced together some information in his mind. "...so do you intend to employ every child you know into your war on crime, Svetlana, or were Cyan and I just special?"
"...there's no right way to answer that question, is there?" the Crimson Crusader couldn't help but ask with a neutral expression on her face.
"Not really." Magenta shook his head.
A loud blast interrupted their conversation. "Look we can hash out all of this later, but right now, I think we can all agree that we have bigger things to worry about," Krasnaya remarked.
"...fair point, but don't think we won't be discussing this later," Azure called out with a reluctant nod.
Another sonic blast nearly demolished their cover before Krasnaya activated her own transmitter to broadcast the counter-frequency. The Sound Maiden's limbs began to freeze up and the sonic blast halted. Taking advantage of the distraction, Krasnaya grappled up to the ceiling once more while Azure and Magenta split up.
But just as the Sound Maiden was about to blast them again, a grappling hook snared the pulse cannon and pulled it up towards the ceiling just as it fired. Krasnaya dropped in front of the Sound Maiden and fired another grappling hook through her other arm and into the ceiling. With the robot temporarily incapacitated, Krasnaya converted her sickle into its data-pad function and began hacking into the Sound Maiden's central processor. But instead of shutting the deadly machine down like Azure and Magenta were expecting, Krasnaya delved into the lesser functions of the processor.
"What're you doing-?" Magenta tried to ask, only for Krasnaya to hold up a finger telling him to be silent.
At last, after what felt like an eternity, the Sound Maiden stopped thrashing against the restraints and calmed down. Krasnaya cut the cables loose and let her fall to her knees. Then, the two side-kicks could have sworn they heard the robot beginning to cry.
"It's stopped…" The Sound Maiden whimpered in a soft voice. "The noise… it's gone…"
"Is that…?" Azure pointed towards the Sound Maiden as she looked towards her mentor.
"The person whose brain was used to operate the Maiden, yes." Krasnaya held up her data-pad to show the message she'd deciphered earlier. "It was very clever of you to ask for help by sending out low-frequency signals in your attacks. Otherwise, we never would have realized that you were being forced to attack us."
"Thank you… thank you, so much! Oh, gods, I was so scared!" The Sound Maiden looked like she wanted to cry, but her automated body was incapable of doing so.
Azure felt a pang of sympathy in her chest as she knelt down to help the robotic being. "Who are you?"
Suddenly, a blinding light flooded the area. The vigilante's shielded their eyes as they looked to see the professor standing on a floating platform, surrounded by several floating attack drones. "Her name is Melody Silver." He said with a smile. "Thank you, Krasnaya, for bringing my daughter home."
"I am not your daughter!" Melody growled out even as she got back to her feet. "Not after what you did."
"I understand you're upset, but this is all for the greater good."
"Wait, what are they talking about?" Azure couldn't help but ask.
"Oh my gods," Magenta called out with a look of horror and nausea appearing on his face as the answer came to him. "Remember how I said that I would have likely done the same thing as the Sound Maiden if I were in their shoes? Yeah, I take it back: I'd definitely do the same thing in their shoes. I mean, why wouldn't I lash out if I found out my own father had tried to kill me for the sake of his own stupid experiment?"
"It isn't stupid!" the professor called out with a growl. "It's the opening act of the next stage of human evolution: the ultimate merging of mankind and machine. With an experiment of this magnitude, sacrifices must be made!"
"So you'd sacrifice your own daughter!?" Azure snarled, furiously.
"She should be thanking me." Silver arrogantly declared. "She is now the ultimate powerhouse of Remnant!"
"And you're a deranged psychopath." Magenta muttered.
"Doesn't matter what you think of me, you vigilante scum," the professor called out with a dismissive scoff. "Now that you know the truth, I can't let you leave this place alive."
"Wow, if I had a lien for every time I showed up at a laboratory to help out the owners only to find out that the owners were actually the ones who needed to go to jail, I'd have two lien, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice, right?" Krasnaya couldn't help but remark in a deliberate reference to what happened at Rush Corp during Dr. Dust's first appearance in New Rushland even as she and her allies got ready to defend themselves against the forces surrounding them.
With her free will restored, Melody instinctively hid behind a damaged computer console while the vigilantes sprung into action. Magenta used the grappling hooks built into his gloves to grab two orbs and smash them together, Azure activated the electrified features and shorted out their systems, and Krasnaya sliced and smashed them with both sickle and hammer.
As she watched the chaos unfold, Melody could see that the drones were beginning to overwhelm the heroes. Realizing that she couldn't stand by and do nothing if she ever wanted to be free from her father, she focused on reactivating the sonic cannons in her palms. Once they were activated, she aimed her hands at the drones and emitted a high-frequency blast that shorted out all of their circuitry, causing them to drop to the ground, along with Professor Silver's floating platform, knocking him to the ground as a result.
"Uh, thanks for the save but why did you…?" Magenta began.
"Hey, my deadbeat Dad put all this high tech weaponry into this body I'm currently inhabiting and so I figured that I might as well use it to aid the people who actually care about me as a person," Melody called out with a shrug.
"Well you won't get any complaints from me."
Professor Silver groaned in pain as he tried to get back on his feet, but Azure quickly picked him up by the coat collar and slammed him against the damaged computer console.
"Change her back!" Azure ordered, pointing her escrima at the mad scientist. "Now!"
"He can't, Azure." Melody replied, sadly. "My body was cremated after the operation. This is as close to human as I'll ever get."
Upon hearing that, Azure's eyes flared with rage and she pressed a button on her escrima, activating its electrified feature.
"No, please NO!" Professor Silver cried out with his eyes shut tight in fear as Azure jabbed her escrima in his direction…only for his fear to turn to confusion when, instead of the surge of pain he was expecting, he instead heard something break behind him. The professor cautiously yet reluctantly opened his eyes to see that Azure's escrima had been stabbed directly into the computer next to his head.
"You tried to kill your own daughter." Azure sneered at Professor Silver. "Live with that."
One hour later, the NRPD arrived on the scene. After Krasnaya explained the situation, Detective Cash arrested the mad scientist and pushed him into the back of her cruiser before driving him away.
"What's going to happen to her?" Krasnaya couldn't help but ask as she watched Melody being interviewed by some of the other cops.
"I'll be honest with you: I'm not entirely certain at this point," Jane couldn't help but admit with a sigh. "What I am certain of is that we'll do everything we can to help her: you have my word."
"Your word is more than enough, old friend," Krasnaya said with a grin. But her smile wavered once she spotted her side-kicks arguing atop a nearby building. "Now, if you'll excuse me; I have another situation to deescalate."
The Crimson Crusade grappled up to the building just as Azure and Magenta's argument reached its peak.
"How could you not tell me you were Magenta?!" Cyan scolded as she ripped her domino mask off of her face.
Boris removed his own mask and irritably crossed his arms. "You weren't exactly honest with me, either!"
"Oh, but you told her!" Cyan pointed towards Krasnaya, accusingly.
"She already knew!" Boris admitted. "She's known since I first tried to prove Ivy's innocence!"
Cyan's mouth went slack in shock, realizing that meant her own foster mother knew about her boyfriend's secret from day one. She turned towards the Crimson Crusader with anger in her eyes. "What?"
"... it wasn't my place to tell you." Krasnaya explained, gently.
"But it was your place to put him in danger?!"
"No one put me in danger!" Boris spluttered. "I volunteered!"
"You only think you did! You don't know her like I do!" Cyan got in Krasnaya's face as she ranted and raved. "She manipulates! Pulls strings! Does whatever she has to to get what she wants!"
"That's not what happened and you know it, or did you forget that you did the exact same thing when you asked about being my partner in crime fighting right after you learned of my identity?" Krasnaya asked with a flat look.
"Okay, you have me there," Cyan called out with a shrug before going back to glaring at her foster mother. "Still, that doesn't take away from the fact that this isn't the first time you've made decisions for me without my input since we've started this partnership and quite frankly I'm sick of it!"
Krasnaya felt hurt. "I thought we had an understanding."
"Things change!" Cyan snapped. "I've changed! I'm sick of you keeping secrets like this from me! And I'm sick of you treating me like a kid! I…! I just-!"
Cyan didn't say another word. She just threw her mask on the ground and got on her motorcycle to head back to the cave. Boris quickly mounted his own motorcycle and followed after her. Svetlana removed her cowl and stared as her ward raced off into the distance, processing her words. At last, she made her way back to the warthog to head home.
New Rushland. Vale.
By the time Svetlana arrived back at the farm, Boris was sitting on the front porch. His head hung in grief as his mentor approached the steps. "We broke up…" He whimpered, sadly. Wiping his eyes, he got up and headed for the bus stop. "Call me when you need me… I gotta… I gotta go home."
Svetlana stopped just outside the door as she saw Cyan talking to Mikhail. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but it seemed to be going smoothly. At last, Cyan hugged Mikhail and kissed his cheek. Mikhail smiled and patted her head before heading outside. He motioned for his wife to go inside as he left to give them privacy. Without a word, Svetlana approached her foster daughter at the dinner table and noticed two things; an application on the table, and a backpack slung over the chair Cyan sat in.
Cyan took a deep breath and spoke calmly. "I want you to know… everything that I am and ever will be is because of you. You took me in, you trained me, you taught me the skills I need to protect myself. And I am so grateful for that. But I can't live in your shadow for the rest of my life. I've accepted a job offer in Bluharbor as part of their police force. And I'm going to make my own identity to protect the people there. Just like how you protect people here in New Rushland. It's what I want, Svetlana…"
An image of a twelve-year-old Cyan flashed through Svetlana's mind as she processed her words. At last, she took a deep breath of her own. "If that's what you want and it makes you happy… then fine." She picked up the pen and signed the guardian waiver portion of the application. "Go with my blessing."
She cracked a small smile and spread her arms out for a hug. But instead, Cyan shook her hand and slung the backpack over her shoulder. "Thanks. I'll call when I get settled."
With that, Svetlana watched Cyan make her way outside and got on her motorcycle to head off to Bluharbor.
Six Years Ago…
A twelve year old Cyan Robyn anxiously sat next to Mikhail in the courtroom while Svetlana spoke to the judge. This was the trial that would determine whether or not the Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy's could legally adopt her.
"Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy…" The judge began. "You're a highly successful captain of industry, an advisor to political leaders across Remnant, and a hero of the Menagerie War. Why would you want to adopt a child?"
"Because, your honor, when I saw Cyan mourning her parents, it reminded me how I felt when I lost my own parents years ago. And now, I just want to give her what Mr. Tukson and General Ironwood gave me; a home." Svetlana smiled.
"And you're certain you're prepared to take on the responsibility of raising a prepubescent girl?"
Svetlana chuckled. "With all due respect, how hard could it be?"
Present.
Half an hour after Cyan left, Mikhail noticed that Svetlana was still sitting outside. He filled a pair of glasses with fire dust vodka and went outside to comfort her.
"Are you okay?" Mikhail asked, gently.
"It's so stupid…" Svetlana muttered as she hung her head to hide her tears. "We adopted her when she was twelve… so why does it feel like she grew up too fast?"
Mikhail shed his own tears as he brought her into a hug. "That's how every mother feels when her daughter moves away."
To Be Continued