116

Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_Jolyne

Chapter 116

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"There's someone in the CCT Tower," Ruby murmured softly, frowning as she and Penny stood outside of the main ballroom on one of the second floor balconies, staring off into the night as she sensed someone moving around where they really shouldn't have been- the CCT Tower was off limits at the moment unless one had valid credentials, and with the fact that she could sense unconscious guards out there… that didn't paint a good picture. "Penny, I think someone's up to no good! I can sense a lot of unconscious guards and someone's riding the elevator up to the higher levels! I think they're going up to the terminal rooms!"

"Then we must do something! I am sending an alert now!" Penny answered immediately, leaping over the edge of the railing as her eyes flashed brighter, a ping being sent to the rest of the team as Penny fell to the ground below and began running straight towards the campus CCT Tower. "Ruby! There is no time to waste!"

"Right!" Ruby nodded, having jumped after Penny immediately and activated the hardlight blades that made up Stiletto Runway's primary combat function- digging tiny holes into the paving stones with every step as she accelerated. As they ran towards the tower, she threw Penny a spare pack of Floating Array swords- it wasn't a full pack of twelve, but even six was better than running in unarmed- and allowed the Dust imbuement in Stiletto Runway to activate fully as she prepared for combat. "The intruder is heading for the higher levels, I can't tell where the elevator is gonna stop!"

"I can! Accessing tower records now- they're headed to the seventh floor!" Penny cried out as their shoes pounded against the pavement, wind whistling in their ears and buildings blurring past on the way to the tower that made up an entire portion of Beacon's central tower. She grimaced, noting that the camera feeds in the building weren't working correctly- none of them had any record of an intruder, which meant that either they were an expert at avoiding the sightlines or they had somehow removed all traces of their presence from the network.

She couldn't tell which from where she was now, but she might be able to access the records more fully once they got to the actual tower itself.

"Got it! Penny, get on! We're going up the fast way" Ruby held out her hand, rose petals surging around them as Penny reached out and took Ruby's arm in a secure grasp- going so far as to lock her finger servos to make sure she wouldn't get dislodged as Ruby threw herself up into the air with a violently powerful jump and flashed into her Petal Burst at the apex of their arc, flying up to the side of the tower and continuing at full speed while Penny clung to Ruby's back and thanked every god that may or may not exist that her body was not built with a nausea response.

It was the work of moments to reach the right floor and crash through window on the seventh floor, which caused the person standing by the terminals to flinch backwards and throw themselves away from the active terminal- leaving their scroll behind and still plugged in as the intruder flipped into a combat position and drew a pair of throwing knives from the depths of their pitch black robe.

"Get the scroll! I'll handle this!" Ruby called, prompting Penny to launch herself at the terminal while Ruby went on the offensive and clashed her heel blade against the intruder's knives with a shout of effort- sparks flying and Dust effects going off in the form of flames pouring out of the knives and adding extra lethality to their edges. The intruder grunted from the effort of trying to hold back Ruby's arcing, deadly, bladed kick, and in that moment was rendered helpless as Penny swiftly began to identify just what the person was doing.

And it was-

"Ruby, they're trying to hack the tower!" Penny called out, not taking her eyes off the screen as her fingers began flying across the keyboard, data flashing in her eyes as she made wireless data calls towards the tower's central processing hub- essentially attacking the virus on both sides as it steadily wormed its way through the servers and brute forced through the security measures present.

Meanwhile, Ruby knocked the intruder's blades aside in only a few solid kicks once she actually applied her strength, flipping back and deactivating Stiletto Runway in favor of simply reaching out and grabbing hold of the assailant's arms and legs with shadowy, skeletal arms bursting from her chest. They lashed out in an instant once her opponent's guard was broken by that overwhelming flurry, immobilizing them while another pair of arms removed their hood and-

"I got her! It's Gwen Darcy! From Team NDGO! The uh… kinda mean one!" Ruby answered promptly, holding onto the struggling huntress in training with minimal effort and frowning in confusion as she brought the struggling purple haired girl over to Penny and looked over her shoulder as the gynoid swiftly and efficiently repelled the attack… though not without deleting the entire cache and history records of the tower.

Good thing those were meant to be purged every few days for security, privacy, and storage efficiency purposes… whoops.

"I believe all of Team NDGO is referred to as 'the mean one', wishing star," Penny pointed out, unplugging Gwen's scroll from the dock and shutting it down before handing it to Ruby, who swallowed it into her mass without question. "The local school forum seems to suggest that they have made a number of disparaging verbal remarks about Beacon, as well as claiming that Shade Academy in Vacuo is much superior. What is odd is that she is acting quite strangely, given that she is also on video record as having a knack for heckling opponents during fights."

"Well… I mean, this is a stealth mission for her, right? And… also I didn't really fight her. I just kinda picked her up and stopped her from moving," Ruby pointed out, awkwardly moving Gwen's body around as the girl continued silently struggling in her bonds until she had the intruder bound in cuffs of grimm material and sitting on the floor. "Her emotions are kinda wonky too… weird… it's like she's all numb and stuff- no anger or anything… Just… determination? And… like… it's a weird cloud, I think. Gods, that's… is that her Semblance or something? I know Ren's does something similar, right? Cuz he's the only one I've ever seen who can sneak up on me, especially since I'm not super great at Aura sensing…"

"It might be, though we may also be forced to admit that something is going on here that we do not understand," Penny pointed out, also frowning a bit as she looked down at Gwen's silent, glaring form. "It is odd that she has not said anything, nor vocalized anything beyond the sound of her breathing…"

"Yeah… That's-"

Whatever Ruby was about to say was immediately cut off by the sound of the elevators opening and a bunch of soldiers charging into the room at once.

"Freeze! Hands in the air!"

"General Ironwood!" Penny called out, both her and Ruby stopping and holding their hands up as they took a step away from Gwen, who was still on the ground… and was now groaning quietly as though nauseous. "We have successfully apprehended the intruder!"

"And set off no less than twelve security breaches in the process," Ironwood responded dryly as he strode fully into the room, waving off the soldiers with one hand as he nodded at Penny in return. "At ease, men. Penny. Miss Rose. Next time you realize something is amiss on campus, please inform the authorities instead of charging in and breaking a window yourselves- I'll overlook it this time, but the damage you've caused could have done massive damage to the CCT network. As it is, we'll have to temporarily throttle services for at least an entire day to make sure whatever happened here hasn't caused any deleterious effects."

"Understood, sir!" Penny saluted, then paused as she nudged Ruby into action with her elbow.

"Oh, right! We found a scroll and Gwen here! I'm not sure what's going on with her because she seems really confused right now and not at all in the way of like 'oh no how did I get caught' but more in the way of like 'what's going on and how did I get here?' y'know?" Ruby rambled, withdrawing the scroll from her sleeve and handing it off to Ironwood with just a moment's hesitation because she didn't really trust the guy but like… Penny kinda did… so… eh? 

"There is a particularly potent virus on that scroll. I did not have time to trace where it came from, but I managed to stop it before it did any harm to the CCT Tower itself," Penny continued, then looked down at Gwen, who was peering up at them in open confusion as she looked around as though in a daze. At some point, the girl's robe had been disturbed thanks to her own struggling, revealing the prom dress beneath.

Odd.

"I don't think she did this by herself," Ruby pointed out somewhat belatedly, rubbing her chin awkwardly as she continued reading Gwen's emotions. "Her emotional spectrum is way weird- I think something was happening with her mind? I dunno, it was like her emotions were all hazy and not there for a bit, but now they're back. Dunno what's up with that."

"... What's… going on? Why am I- where am I?" Gwen spoke up, clearing her throat a little bit as she tugged at her cuffs again. "... And… why am I in cuffs?"

"... I think we're going to need to take you three in for further questioning. Miss Rose, Penny, thank you for your rapid response and the retrieval of the scroll containing the virus. I'll have my men look at it," Ironwood cleared his throat, then turned as he motioned for everyone to follow. He paused, then frowned as he looked at Penny and Ruby again, both of them still in their prom-wear and shuffling somewhat awkwardly. 

"... I'll try not to keep you away from the party too long."

Penny grinned, grabbing hold of Ruby and hugging her with one arm as she saluted the general with the other. "Thank you sir!"

Ruby coughed awkwardly, looking to the side. "Uh- yeah, thanks."

Notes:

To clear up confusion before it starts: Someone's got a mind control semblance