Jaune and the Real Girl.

Chapter 32

This needed to end now.

Penny watched as the constant attacks drained her aura levels as well as her power. The storm of missiles and gunfire was taking its toll on her. This was just like Vasily, using all manner of traps and machines, wearing her down for the final kill. She wasn't going to play his game.

She dropped from the sky diving down to earth in a spiral corkscrewing herself to present a less easy target. The lights of Mantle sparkled below her as the defenses continued to fire their missiles and antiaircraft weapons. She evaded the tracers and eliminated the missiles with precision laser fire.

The flying drones pursued her from above firing down upon her. She speed towards the ground as fast as she could diving past the roof of the buildings before pulling up evading the ground to speed through the streets out of sight of the antiaircraft weapons. She turned in the air as she raced through the streets under the cover of the buildings. Spotting the drones above she fired as they tried pursuing her. They were not as maneuverable as she was, unable to navigate the confined  streets they followed her from above the roofs. From there they were easy targets for her, her blades and lasers quickly disabling them as she raced away from the edge of town, away from the outer defenses.

The crackle of signal interference cleared away only for her to be bombarded with all kinds of traffic and emergency signals. A dozen calls came her way, there was more happening here than a simple trap.

"Penny!" Ironwood said the minute she took his call.

"General what is happening?" she asked him zigging and zagging her way through the labyrinth of streets and alleys.

"Penelope you need to get to the Exalted hotel immediately," he explained to her, "there is a terrorist attack happening right now."

"Is it Vasily?" she asked him, "and do you know what happened to Jaune?"

"Vasily has not yet been spotted in the area, and I have not been able to establish contact with Mr. ARc," he explained to her, "but be on your guard for Vasily, we have reason to believe he is behind this attack."

"Who is there?" Penny asked, "how many terrorists and how well are they armed."

"There is only heavily armed terrorist and team with air support as well," he answered.

"One?" she asked, "against a team with air support? How heavily armed can they be?"

There was a long silence over the line. "General?" she asked, "how heavily armed is the terrorist?" she asked again, she could hear him breathing still but his pause made her apprehensive. Usually General Ironwood was firm and direct with her, he was confident and well spoken but there was something different tonight.

"General! What do you know about the terrorist?" she asked him firmly. "I need to know what to expect for this fight."

"Penny," Ironwood said to her, his voice gravely serious, "I need to explain a few things to you."

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Jaune felt like he was back at Beacon and he had just spent an extra long session in Glynda's class serving as a training dummy that Cardin had whaled on for a straight hour. The pain had throbbed to life as he awoke in the pitch black.

It took him a long moment to make sense of his surroundings, to remember what had happened. It was hard to think about anything when he had the headache of a lifetime.

It didn't take long for his memories to seep back. Penny, the hotel room, the imposter who attacked him, the soldiers who shoved him into a bullhead that was swiftly shot down. It all made sense now, he was still in the fuselage of the bullhead crash. That also explained why everything currently hurt.