75

Chapter 75 Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Ruby I do not think this is an effective use of our respective abilities- while I am largely capable of firing from a moving platform, and am capable of using multiple laser arrays at once… the smaller arrays are much smaller, and thus much weaker, which would cause too much beam diffusion over time to be of any real use past approximately thirty meters," Penny stated idly, watching Ruby scribble on a whiteboard of all of the team attacks she had come up with in the last few months- not that any of the freshman teams really needed to display that level of team cohesion until second year when they started drilling for them more extensively, but still. It was Ruby Rose. Penny had never seen a more driven leader in her life, and she'd trained extensively under General Ironwood's supervision. 

The current team attack, which Ruby had called "Nevergreen" as a reference to the form she would take, plus Penny's personal color of forest green (it used to be her favorite, but now her favorite was blood red), involved Ruby turning into a Nevermore and letting Penny ride on her back while they rained devastation upon their foes with total aerial supremacy. Which… was a good idea in theory… except for the fact that Penny was a better shot when grounded, and Ruby could turn into a Nevermore the size of an Atlesian capital ship with corresponding feather bullets to match. 

The plans for the "Frozen Steel", "Double Bow", and "Sunsteel" were altogether more realistic to any actual combat scenario, given that Frozen Steel involved Weiss adding Dust elements to Penny's beam attack, Double Bow was a high speed whirl of swords and clones to disorient an enemy, and Sunsteel involved Penny setting her beam on its concussive force mode and using it to both power up Yang and send her flying towards an enemy to completely obliterate them. 

With all of that in mind, plus the other two and three person combos that Ruby had been making (especially for Weiss, Blake, and Yang now that they were properly together) it was… a little annoying that Penny and Ruby couldn't really do any truly effective team combinations with Ruby's grimm abilities other than what the red Huntress called "Wolfbyte", which involved just her and Penny firing their heaviest attacks at a single target as fast and as hard as possible until complete and total annihilation had been achieved.

It was still fun to do so, but she really preferred the simplicity of their main combination of Nuts and Dolts (which, in this case, had been named by Weiss in a fit of annoyance) combination, which involved ricocheting an enemy between the two of them (up to the size of an Alpha Beringel) until annihilation via bullets, sword slashes, scythe gouges, and just pure brute trauma.

"I know, but it'd be super cool! Plus I'm working really hard on my computer science and robotics textbooks so hopefully I'll be able to help you with Floating Array soon! I know you said it's proprietary Atlas tech and it's super beyond what I can do now, but I swear there's a bunch of stuff I'll be able to do soon! I know it! I had some ideas about adding quick release mechanisms to your swords and the cables so you don't have to worry about tangles if there's too much force on a sword that you don't want… um… that's like the most basic thing. Plus I've been working on something and…" Ruby paused, clearing her throat as she paused in front of her whiteboard, the hand drawn spreadsheet upon the glossy surface covered in scribbles and reworks of attacks with the most common issues- like Weiss and Blake's Monochrome, which involved Weiss using her Time Dilation Glyphs to increase Blake's speed so she could attack with a massive flurry of sword beams. That one had a lot of issues with, ironically enough, the timing of attacks due to the short duration of the glyph and Blake's instincts to run around and dodge instead of staying inside of said glyph's range. 

Ruby huffed, shaking her head. "It's kind of a super secret thing cuz it's super weird and freaky and it'd totally make a lot of people even more scared of me than they already are, but I learned how to grimmify a weapon by filling it with… uh. Grimm…stuff. Is there an actual term for it? I don't think I've ever seen one."

"Grimmstuff is the colloquially used term, though I believe some scientists call it Amorphous Annihilation Matter due to its corrosive and toxic properties in liquid form," Penny answered, leaning in closer and planting a kiss on Ruby's cheek- both to knock her out of her sudden bout of nervousness, and because Penny just felt like it. She giggled, tilting her head slightly. "As it may be, I do think you would be my second, if not first choice to modify Floating Array. It is quite a close tie between you and the engineers that built my Floating Array in the first place. I believe that you have more skill overall, but the engineering team has much more collective experience and equipment… I still think I would prefer you, actually."

"Aww, you're sweet," Ruby giggled, smiling as she leaned against Penny and nuzzled into her neck with a happy little purr of contentment. "Mmm… I love you~"

"I love you as well, Ruby," Penny answered, wrapping her arms around Ruby's waist as the two of them simply stood there in Ruby's new workspace, swaying back and forth gently as they luxuriated in each other's presence- Ruby burying her face into Penny's neck and peppering gentle kisses there while Penny shuddered and squeezed Ruby's waist, planting soft, chaste kisses between her girlfriend's fluffy wolf ears and nuzzling against that soft, spiky, fluffy, hair that smelled of strawberries and gunpowder. "Even if you cannot modify Floating Array, I will still appreciate anything and everything you do for me with all of my heart. Even though I do not have a heart in the traditional sense."

"Aww… That makes me wanna work even harder, Penny," Ruby chuckled, planting another soft, sweet kiss against the curve of Penny's shoulder, breathing in softly before shaking her head. "Um… I do actually need to show you that new technique I was talking about… because it is pretty cool and I figured out that it uh… makes weapons like… ridiculously way more powerful and deadly, somehow. For… for me at least. I dunno if it works for anyone else."

"Considering that grimm matter proves itself to be an abnormally strong, deadly material, I have no doubt that if you were to grimmify any weapon of ours, it would become astronomically stronger, though possibly astronomically more difficult to wield in the case of something like Ember Celica or Talaria," Penny surmised, smiling into Ruby's hair as they murmured softly to each other, Ruby's arms around her ribs while Penny continued to hug Ruby's waist. "Actually, if you were to grimmify Floating Array, that may be the key to allowing us to use some of the more optimistic attacks together- depending on the power boost…"

She paused, pulling away from Ruby ever so reluctantly before looking down at Crescent Rose. "Show me."

"Hmm?" Ruby blinked slightly muzzily, having been lulled into a state of comfortable sleepiness from Penny's warmth and soothing voice. She shook her head a bit to clear her mind, then tilted her head at Penny in realization as she pulled Crescent Rose from her back and twirled it into its rifle form. "Show- oh! Right! I don't know what to call it yet, but I think that if I do this as a regular thing, I should come up with like a cool, edgy name for this technique, right? I don't think grimmify is… really a great name, honestly."

"I think grimmify is a perfectly valid name, Ruby. It's very cute- just like you!" Penny retorted, holding up a finger as if giving a lecture as some kind of stuffy professor before breaking down and giggling as she bumped her shoulder against Ruby's. "What kind of name were you thinking of?"

"Ashfs- Penny don't just- weh- you're gonna make me blush…" Ruby, true to her words, flushed bright red and slapped her cheeks, shaking her head and making a number of incoherent noises to help deal with her flood of emotions whilst wiggling in place. "Bwehhh!"

"I like it when you blush," Penny hummed out, patting Ruby's head before stepping back. "So, what name were you thinking of?"

"Ah uh… it's silly…" Ruby continued blushing, now out of embarrassment as her ears and tail flicked gently, toeing the tile floor with her boot as she looked to the side. "I uh… the only thing I came up with was um… something like… Blackening? So um… I'd say something really cool and like… um… like…"

She paused, struggling to come up with something cool enough before just spinning Crescent Rose out into full scythe mode, holding it straight up and down before her face whilst posing dramatically. Her eyes glowed with silver and gold light, cape fluttering behind her as grimm veins spread from the corners of her eyes and the mask in her hair suddenly came to life- sprouting jawbones as it lunged forward and bit down onto Crescent Rose's shaft.

And sank in.

"Fall into Darkness! Black Rose!"

In an instant, Crescent Rose flooded with grimm flesh, the entire structure shrieking and groaning as it became corrupted and profane, bone shearing through metal as it sprung from the rapidly darkening shaft, the blade itself becoming a mass of branching grimm tendrils wrapped around bone plates full of eyes and teeth and searing hatred, while the butt spike became the wicked golden stinger of a Deathstalker wrapped in yet more tendrils.The room darkened, a chill wind blew, and Crescent Rose became the Black Rose, wicked and deadly and fierce and utterly evil .

And then Ruby straightened up and held out her newly profaned weapon out to Penny with a cheery smile, completely ruining the gravitas of the moment in an instant.

"Tadaaaa~!"

"Wooooowww!" Penny applauded politely, smiling just as wide as she gently took the profaned Black Rose from Ruby and gently swished it around. "Amazing! That was so cool!"

"I know right!? I'm gonna practice it with some of my other weapons too! Oh it's gonna be great! Penny we're gonna kill so many grimm!"

"Indeed we will, wishing star!"

[Oh hey, the scythe isn't a spoiler anymore]