Ch. 35 Victory

"Hey!"

Ruby appears on the rooftop overlooking them, Crescent Rose extended and ready for action at her side.

Both Roman and Sun look over to Ruby.

Roman turns to Ruby, ignoring Sun. He gives a brief and short wave. "Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?" His usual tone with all it's annoying condescendence appears again.

Penny walks up behind next to Ruby. "Ruby, are these people your friends?"

Ruby turns to Penny behind her. "Penny, get back!"

With Ruby not paying attention, Roman doesn't let this opportunity slip. Roman snarls and fires his cane at her, launching the young Huntress-in-training back from the explosion's force and sending her scythe flying away.

"Muwahahaha!" Roman gives the evil-villain-laugh.

Penny looks at Roman and narrows her eyes as Ruby lands just behind her. Her cheerful expression gone, and in its place is a serious and mad one.

Everyone in the area can feel a chill go down their spine after Ruby gets hit by the explosion. Everyone looks to see Alabast standing over a pile of collapsed White Fang. His black aura rolls off of him. His Wolf mask stands out against the darkness around him, his eyes glowing red as he murders Roman with his stare. Knights Fall atop a White Fang member to the side. His left arm at his side with its Bestia Fang in Knuckleduster form 2. "Ro-man~" Alabast calls out with a deep voice promising a cruel fate for the criminal.

The White Fang that were fighting him were a little intimidated and took a few steps away but didn't dare show Alabast their back. There were still lots of grunts that he had to go through.

Alabast's attacks were meant for fighting one opponent, or killing multiple Grimm. He's getting sick of holding back, especially when Ruby just got exploded.

Penny walks forward to where Ruby was just a moment ago.

Ruby tries to get up but isn't successful. "Penny, wait! Stop!"

"Don't worry Ruby" Penny says as she puts her arms at her waist with her elbows behind her. She glares down at Roman. "I'm combat ready!"

After saying that, the backpack on Penny's back mechanically opens up. Coming out of the backpack was a metal rectangle. It floats out and once above her head it unfolds itself into a blade. The cold was in the center, horizontally across the blade itself.

Seconds later the blade points to the ground behind Penny at an angle. As soon as the blade stops moving-

*Sching*

It multiplies into 10 blades.

Penny runs forward a few steps and then crouches down slightly and jumps into the air. Her swords still floating behind her as she soars high into the sky. She does an elegant front flip at the peak of her jump.

As Penny starts defending she throws three swords to knock out two White Fang members before she even lands.

The swords make their way back to Penny as she lands and they form a semicircle above her.

She lands in a superhero pose and quickly gets up. She sees White Famg members moving towards her so she commands her swords to move and take them all down in a tornado pattern with her hands.

Where she moves her hands, the swords follow. She quickly disposed of the first two grunts. And just as quickly as she defeats them two more charge at her.

One attempts to slice her left arm open. But Penny makes her swords spin in a circular shield motion.

His attack gets deflected, and his friend tries to jump kick the spinning sword shield. Both get sent back to the ground.

A third runs up to Penny, but she was ready. She jumps and does a barrel roll as she hit the attacker with the still spinning blades and sends him flying back.

She lands on the ground and keeps the momentum of her spin going with her right arm as she throws the circle of spinning blades at a group of at least twenty goons. The circular spinning blades knock the goons out like bowling pins.

Just then the 3 Bullheads take flight and rev their turrets up and begin firing on the dock towards anyone on the dock. But specifically at Alabast and Penny.

The first Bullhead to arrive goes to shot at Penny. Her spinning blades coming back to her spin faster to block the incoming bullets.

As she blocks the incoming fire, her backpack opens again to eject another sword.

It splits into two, both have a wire connected to the sides of Penny's hips. They get launched back and impale a wall. She grins as she is propelled backwards towards the storage hangers where the swords are impaled into.

Her swords follow her tactical retreat, and when she lands she points then to the Bullheads. They fold to reveal their energy gun form and they start spinning clockwise.

Faster and faster they spin as Penny holds both palms out. The faster the swords spin the stronger a white and green light gets at the center of their spin.

As the light begins to look unstable Penny lunges forward, pushing her hands forward. This causes the swords to slightly move forward as well and release all the energy the built up. The white and green light bursts forth in the direction Penny motioned with her hands.

Then the light splinters into many beams and cuts two bullheads out of the sky.

Where they were sliced open by the beams was a hot orange indicating the pure destructive properties of Penny's attack.

Penny, Sun, and Ruby watch as the Bullheads fall behind the storage facility of the docks.

But there is still one more.

Penny unfolds her weapon into swords again. Then she stabs them into the flying Bullhead. Wires attached to each sword. She walks backwards, pulling the Bullhead sideways through the sky like it's nothing. And then she smiles.

Ruby watches in awe. "Whoa…. How is she doing that?"

Penny quickly pulls the wires which causes the flying aircraft down in a sweeping angle which Penny guides into crates. This causes a massive explosion to occur.

Roman grimaces as he watches his Bullheads get taken down by a petite girl. He runs to one of the remaining Bullheads, since more have arrived in the chaos, and climbs into it for safety. "These kids just keep getting weirder..." Roman complains.

He uses his cane to close the doors, and the jet lifts off, flying away from the lost battle. Roman moves to the cockpit and sees a knocked out pilot in the copilot seat.

Roman quickly looks to the pilot seat to see a man wearing a wolf mask. The masks wearer says. "I know how to get off the ground, but my landing skills leave little to be desired"

Alabast lunges out of the pilot seat and moves to attack Roman.

Roman backs away and deflects a bladed Bestia Fang. Alabast doesn't let up, even as the Bullhead begins to fly unstably and rock side to side. Roman begins to panic as he uses his cane to deflect all of Alabast's swings with his Bestia Fangs. He wonders where Alabast hid his giant sword. But he can't afford to think about anything else as he is barely able to deflect the heavy blows of Alabast.

Roman is forced to continue walking backwards as Alabast applies more and more pressure.

But Alabast already planned for something like this.

Roman suddenly feels something wrap around his ankles. He can't look down but he has a sneaking suspicion the Alabast has something to do with it.

And he would be right. Alabast used his semblance to wrap his ankles and hold him in place.

But Alabast didn't expect Roman to be desperate enough to shoot the flooring of the Bullhead between them both.

The blast goes off but Alabast tanks it. His semblance let go of Roman. And in that moment the villain opens the door of the Bullhead.

Alabast didn't stop his charge and tackled Roman out of the now falling Bullhead.

Roman did anything he could to get Alabast to let go. But Alabast took the punches to the mask with ease. The beating from the cane to his back, mainly the kidneys since Roman likes hitting those to flinch his opponent.

"This damn mask!" Roman grabs the mask and pulls it off.

He see's Alabast's full face. He had seen it on occasion, but only glimpses. Nothing like the full view right now. It was definitely not what he expected.

"Remind me to thank those humans that did this to you when I escape!" Roman tosses the mask to the side and tries to poke out Alabast's eyes.

But Alabast grabs Roman's hand with his own easily.

"Good puppy?" Roman says, regretting his decision.

*Crack!* *Crack!* *Crack!* *Crack!* *Crack!*

"Aaahhhhhhh! Damn Mutt!" Roman screams out and bashes his cane against Alabast's temple.

They both land with a heavy thud. Alabast would have landed on Roman if he didn't get his brain smacked around right at the end. Both landed in a crater on the dock. "Son of a-!"

Alabast stands up and emerges from the smoke that resulted from their free dive. "Now, I have a few more blows to deal back in revenge of my friends"

Roman is still on the ground. His aura getting a little low for his liking. He clutches his right hand as his fingers are bent in unnatural directions. He glares at Alabast. "Don't fool yourself! You don't get to have friends Alabast!"

Not everyone is able to watch this happen. They had flown a distance away and are at the very end of the dock. And nobody knew that Alabast was in the Bullhead when it took off. He just disappeared from the scene to those who stayed behind.

Penny runs towards Roman but she's still far away.

The last Bullhead moves over the two men. The wind from it causes Alabast's hair to go back over his face and Roman's bowler hat to go flying.

As Alabast was about to step forward he has to jump back to avoid an explosion. He looks up at the Bullhead and sees a lady with pink and brown hair hanging out of it pointing her umbrella down at him.

"What? No villain monologue or introduction?!" Alabast taunts. "Oh wait! I forgot you can't speak!"

Alabast concentrates his semblance on the ground. Then he suddenly reaches up towards the Bullhead with his left arm.

From the ground emerges a huge hand that stretches into the sky towards the Bullhead. And when Alabast closes his hand the giant hand made of Darkness does the same around the Bullhead.

But when the giant hand would grab the Bullhead, the space around it cracks.

Alabast feels a burning sensation through his stomach. It started from his back and went to his front.

He looks behind him and sees the pink and brown haired woman holding a rapier that isn't like her umbrella. He can feel the blade get pulled back out. "You're going to regret not killing me with this one chance Neo"

The girl narrows her eyes but Alabast jumps forwards. He dodged her strike and lands on Roman's left knee.

*CRACK*

Roman wasn't even able to dodge Alabast's stomp. But he was able to aim his cane at his back as he did a front roll on the ground. Even through the immense pain.

Alabast was hit by the explosion and sent forward. He felt his aura protect him from the explosion, but only barely. He doesn't understand how the rapier was able to break through his aura. It was low, but not breaking low at that point. He had gotten too careless it seems. Aura is always so fickle and random.

Neo grabs Roman and the rope connected to the Bullhead.

Alabast grabs his stomach and can only watch as they get away. He isn't able to pull another 'giant arm from the ground' attack at the moment.

He stays kneeling on the ground. He watches as Roman's left leg dangles and blows in the wind. He'd definitely need to be using that cane in the future.

Alabast spits out the first bit of blood that gets into his mouth. "That's not so great". He stands up as Penny finally reaches him. "Can you get them from here?" He asks.

Penny looks at the fleeing figures. Her eyes slightly dilate and then go back to normal. She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Enemy has gotten out of my current range"

Alabast looks towards where the cops are now arriving. "Thought so"

Penny looks at Alabast's wound. "You need immediate medical attention!" She says as she goes to a more cheerful yet serious tone of voice.

Alabast begins walking. "My aura can heal this in time. Let's get going, friend"

Penny smiles widely. "Make sure you do not die, second friend!" She runs up to Alabast's side as the swords around her fold and go into her backpack.

Alabast wonders if that's what gave him a weird feeling. There's something about Penny that messes with his advanced senses. She doesn't exactly smell like a human or a Faunus. She seems like….

He decided to leave that for later. It's unimportant. She has aura, which means she has a soul. It's not like he exactly cares what she is either. As long as she doesn't hurt his friends he doesn't mind.

He stumbles a bit but walks normal again after. Apparently his aura is lower than he initially thought. He should have gotten more serious earlier on.

He and Penny get back to the others.

Ruby, Blake, and Sun were standing together getting questioned by police officers.

"We have arrived!" Penny states as she and Alabast get close enough. Alabast just shakes his head at Penny's attitude, it's better than not talking at all... right?

"Ashy!" "You're hurt!"

Ruby and Blake shout and run to him.

The officers don't stop the girls, but instead call over one of the on-site medics.

"I'm fine!" Penny says to the group of people.

"How did you get hurt?" Ruby says as she looks at the blood on his shirt and jacket of his combat uniform.

"You see… I followed Roman into the Bullhead and fought him over yander" He points with his thumb towards where he came from. "And then a new opponent arrived and stabbed me"

Blake pulls the shirt up and they see the hole in the left side of his abdomen. It looked to already begin healing but blood was still coming out from the front and back of the wound. Blake pulls the shirt down and balls it up on either side of the stab wound.

Alabast flinches. "Just because it will heal soon doesn't mean it doesn't hurt" He complains.

Ruby checks his body for other injuries. "You must apply pressure to wounds that will bleed a lot" She says like it's an obvious thing.

"I know, she's just being rough with it" Alabast says. "Any casualties?"

Blake looks up at Alabast. "Minimal, all things considered"

"That's good" Alabast honestly doesn't feel like he's lost a lot of blood. And it's a weird feeling having your aura heal your wound closed. Especially when it's through your torso.

Sun is left to answer the questions while Alabast, Ruby, Blake, and Penny are left alone as Alabast gets bandaged by the on-site medics. And Blake is given something to wipe his blood off her hands.

"I was very concerned when you fell from the Bullhead. I am glad that that didn't leave you with any permanent injuries" Penny states.

"You what?!" Ruby shouts.

Alabast explains what happened on the Bullhead. A police officer writes down Alabast's statement of the events that happened. Then the others were asked to give their own and answer any questions they had.

After an hour of being questioned they are told they can just wait for a representative from Beacon to get them.

The gang went over to a pile of boxes and take a seat. Ruby and Blake on either side of Alabast, holding onto him like he would leave again if they let him go.

"Hey Alabast, how did you get stabbed if your aura didn't break. I've heard of scratches and minor injuries getting through aura, but not an actual impalement" Sun asks. This is the first time he's seen this happen.

The others are also curious about how it happened.

Alabast thinks about it. "My aura was low when I got stabbed, and I was sneak attacked because of an illusion semblance. So it could have been many things. Most likely due to my overconfidence or something"

"Mr. Overconfidence over here. I came out of this unscathed" Sun pops his collar as he tries to lighten the mood with some jokes.

"And how many did you fight?" Alabast says while he folds his arms.

"Quite a bit" Sun says, pretty proud of himself. "You?"

Alabast points towards the mounds of White Fang that he defeated. "Quite a bit" He mocks.

The others look at the White Fang that Alabast defeated and are shocked. They weren't strong. But there were at least a hundred of them. They didn't realize it before for some reason.

Police officers and various other people were trying to get the unconscious or heavily hurt Faunus off of eachother and sort through them.

"So….. Are we going to pretend like it's natural for you to have two girls fawning over you? Did I miss something? I thought you were dating Blake?" Sun asks.

"He is Ruby's 'boyfriend'!" Penny cheerfully says.

Penny and Sun look at eachother for a few seconds.

"As far as I am aware, one is only supposed to have one partner?" Penny states after she thought for a few seconds.

Sun points at Alabast. "How dare you cheat on Blake! And you had the gall to act so high and mighty!"

""It isn't like that!"" Blake and Ruby shout together.

Ruby is the first speak. "We are both dating Alabast knowingly!"

"From the beginning 'we' agreed to share him" Blake says with an emphasis on 'we'.

Sun's eyes go white and his jaw drops before he falls backwards on his box he was sitting on.

Penny doesn't move or talk for a few seconds. "I don't understand, but Congratulations!" She gives a thumbs up.

Ruby smiles shyly "Thanks Penny… and where did you learn to fight like that?! You were all like: whooosh, swoosh, hawah!" Ruby mimics the way Penny maneuvered her blades through the air with her hands.

Everyone looks at Penny.

The girl smiles at them. "I am combat ready!" She shouts.

They move on past that. Alabast makes sure that Ruby and Blake weren't hurt either. He got really pissed when he saw Ruby get shot, and then he heard about Roman smacking Blake around. Even with their training they weren't fully ready.

"Where's Nights Fall?" Ruby asks. She realizes not everyone knows what that is. "His sword"

After everyone hears this they look to Alabast and don't see the massive sword he had.

"I'm letting my aura heal me before I take it back. I also lost my mask…." Alabast says, he is a bit worried about leaving that wherever it was flung to.

"Is that this?" Penny holds out a small black rectangular object in her hand.

"That's the thing you….dropped…. a while back…." Ruby says, realization hits her and Blake.

Blake looks at Alabast. "Why would you have that still?"

Alabast sighs and takes it from Penny. "Thank you Penny" He holds it in his palm and looks at it. "I keep it because…. Even if I don't like it, I did terrible things for the White Fang. And I spent my entire life with them. It was all that I was, I had nothing else besides this mask. Nothing to show that I actually lived in this world…."

"Ashy…." Ruby puts her hands on his forearm.

Blake grabs his other hand. She knew that it was hard to leave the White Fang for her, she can't imagine what it was like for Alabast. He didn't even want to be there for part of it. And yet he had nothing besides it.

"But now it's different!" Penny states with her usual blunt cheerfulness. "You now have friends!"

Alabast closes his hand around his mask in its compact form. He slightly smiles. "You're right Penny, I do have friends now. But I can't just forget about the past either"

"We may not be able to change what we did in the past" Penny states. "But we can change how we act and what we do while we keep moving forwards towards the future. A better future. Even if we have to make that future with our bare hands"

Everyone looks at Penny. Even Sun, his body still lays down but his head is up.

"That is what my father told me and I believe that it is true" Penny says while looking at Alabast.

Alabast nods.

After this Ruby asks about where Blake and Alabast had been for the past two days. They explain, a bit embarrassed with the way things happened. But they don't shy away and face the consequences.

"I'm just glad everything worked out in the end" Ruby says and clings to Alabast's side.

"Thanks Little Red" Alabast says and wraps his tail around her.