Amity

Amity Communications Tower...

Pietro Polendina is putting the finishing touches on part of the Amity Communications Tower when he receives communication from Penny Polendina.

"Dad?" Penny asked, over comms.

"Penny?" Pietro asked.

Schnee Dust mine...

Penny is sitting in front of a bomb inside the Schnee Dust mine.

"This does not seem like a very good idea." Penny said, looking down at the bomb, and her sensors tell her that it is a danger.

"There is a difference between a good idea and our best idea. Sadly, we don't have time for much else." Pietro said, his voice over the comms.

Penny touches the bomb's interface, arming it.

Amity Colosseum...

Meanwhile, Pietro rides the elevating center floor of the Amity Colosseum downward.

"We have enough systems up and running to broadcast our message and keep Amity in atmospheric orbit. But our thrusters just aren't capable of reaching our target altitude on their own." Pietro said.

On the lowest level of the colosseum's arena, Maria Calavera is piloting a mech and using it to carry a large machine.

"Ha, fortunately, we're sitting on a couple hundred tons of thrust." Maria said, walking the mech to the center of the platform and putting the machine down.

"Once we passed into broadcast range, we'll activate stabilizers, re-establish global communications, and boost the message we've recorded out into the rest of the world. After that, we just have to pilot Amity away from all this mess." Pietro said.

Schnee Dust mine...

Penny arms another bomb in the mines and flies up to a tunnel where yet another bomb is sitting, "But what if no one is able to come and help Atlas? If I stay behind, I could maybe…"

Amity Colosseum...

"Penny, we are not having this conversation again. I'm your father and I'm telling you that you belong on Amity." Pietro said.

Pietro and Maria are riding the platform back up.

"Yes, sir." Penny said, disappointed.

"Don't you think Penny has had enough people telling her what to do?" Maria asked.

"Prepare for launch, please. I'm moving us into position." Pietro said, letting out a sigh.

Penny flies out of the Dust mine and up to Amity Tower. Once she arrives, she sits on the edge of the platform, while Pietro works on a computer projected by the machine that Maria placed.

"All systems are ready. Penny?" Pietro asked.

Penny looks at him and then gets up and walks over, "Amity is requesting launch access…now."

Penny looks at the screen, which says 'Connecting…' She looks down, waiting. Pietro and Maria look at Penny, and after a few moments, her eyes glow slightly. The tower's stabilizers activate, glowing purple, and Pietro and Maria celebrate.

"Oh yes, it worked!" Pietro said, happily.

Penny smiles, but then lowers her head. Pietro places his hand on her arm to comfort her, and she looks at him and smiles. He then begins typing on the computer again.

"Oh, I didn't have time to install seat belts, so I'd advise you to hang on." Pietro said, tapping a button on his walking chair, and parts of the chair's legs begin glowing purple.

Maria laughs and walks away. The bombs in the Dust mine begin counting down from thirty seconds, and Penny begins helping Maria get back inside the mech. The two are soon distracted by a loud thud, followed by a fireball flying up through the air. Penny flies over to the edge of the platform and looks down to see a huge hole where the fireball melted through from outside the colosseum. An airship levitates up from the smoke, and atop the airship stands Cinder Fall with flames coming from her hands.

"And where do you think you're going?" Cinder asked, excited.

Penny looks back at Pietro, who looks scared.

"Penny, no!" Pietro said, worried.

Against her father's wishes, Penny flies down and floats above the arena to face Cinder, drawing Floating Array. Cinder hops down from the airship with a grin, while Emerald Sustrai and Neopolitan exit the airship. The countdown on the bombs reaches zero, and the bombs explode, setting off a chain reaction of Dust eruptions. As the colorful explosions intensify, four jets on Amity Tower activate. The combined force causes the tower to begin flying into the air, which slams Penny into the floor. Cinder drops to one knee and steadies herself with her hands.

Atlas Academy...

James Ironwood, Vine Zeki, Marrow Amin, Elm Ederne and Harriet Bree are gathered around the table in Ironwood's office. A hologram screen is showing a map of Solitas, on which the locations of the Kingdom of Atlas, Amity Tower, and Monstra are marked. A new screen appears, displaying the words 'Sensory Alert', while an alarm plays. Yet another screen appears, showing footage of Amity Tower beginning its take-off.

"It's time." Ironwood said, walking away.

Amity Tower…

Emerald has been forced to the floor by the tower's ascent. She looks at Cinder, who is focused on Penny.

"I was hoping your friends would be here. But it looks like they left you to do all the work." Cinder said, while she begins spawning dozens of glowing hot glass swords on the floor around herself and she laughs at Penny. "You're just a tool to be used!"

"You do not know what you are talking about." Penny said.

The tower finishes ascending, and its jets turn off. Cinder grins and thrusts her hands forward, making the glass swords launch themselves at Penny. Quickly, Penny uses the jets in her feet to get up and move backward, then arranges her swords in a circle in front of her and spins them to deflect and shatter the glass swords. One of the glass swords manages to make it through, stabbing into the wall next to Penny's head and causing her to gasp. She becomes worried but continues spinning her swords. Piloting the mech, Maria hops in between Cinder and Penny, using the mech's arms to block the remaining glass swords. The mech stands tall and begins walking toward Cinder.

"Get away from her, you bi…" Maria said.

Cinder's airship suddenly slams into Maria's mech, knocking it away.

Cinder and Penny look at each other and then begin flying toward each other. However, Penny dodges Cinder and continues past Maria, who is wrestling with the airship. Cinder chases Penny out of the arena, and Emerald turns her attention to the battle between Maria in the mech and Neo in the ship.

"Stupid, clunky machine!" Maria said, angrily.

Maria manages to slam the airship down onto the floor, and Neo reverses the ship until it breaks free from the mech's grip and floats away. Maria looks around, only to find the airship seems to have disappeared. She then notices Emerald using her Semblance on her to hide the ship from her vision. The ship once again slams into the mech and keeps going until the mech is slammed into a wall. Neo parks the airship and gets out.

Maria opens the cockpit of the now damaged mech and begins climbing out, only to see Neo standing in front of her. In the distance, Emerald calls out to Neo.

"Let's go!" Emerald said, as she hurries out of the arena, but Neo only spares her a glance before looking back down at Maria.

"And what do you want?" Maria asked.

Neo leans down to Maria and uses her Semblance to make herself look identical to Ruby Rose. She then grabs Maria and tosses her out of the mech. Maria rolls and gets to her feet, sliding to a stop with a confident grin. On the platform above, Pietro watches as Maria begins dodging Neo's attacks. He hurries back to the computer to check on the tower's status.

"Please, please, please!" Pietro said.

The screen displays an image of Amity Tower above a green dotted line labeled 'Broadcast Range'. The top of the screen says 'Broadcast Signal Range Achieved'.

"Yes!" Pietro said, happily.

However, as the tower's stabilizers activate, the text on the screen changes to 'Warning! Stabilizer Fail', with a diagram and multiple windows appearing. The screen then changes again to display Amity Tower dipping below the now yellow dotted line. The top of the screen says 'Broadcast Signal Lost In -' with a countdown timer for three minutes. The hole that Cinder burned into the colosseum is directly next to one of the stabilizers, causing it to malfunction and struggle to remain active.

"We're…drifting?" Pietro asked, while he begins typing on the computer.

Penny flies around the outside of the colosseum. Cinder sends flame arcs at her, and Penny fires lasers in response. Cinder tries to slash at her with swords, but Penny blocks and flies up above the colosseum. There, Cinder sends more flame arcs at Penny, one of which makes contact. Penny uses one of her swords and its wire to swing herself around the roof of the colosseum. Cinder combines her swords into a bow, firing a few glass arrows. The arrows miss Penny, but they sink into the colosseum's roof and explode.

Concerned about the tower, Penny flies away. At first, Cinder gives chase, throwing fireballs and becoming frustrated when Penny continuously dodges them. However, she soon gets an idea and stops in her tracks. Noticing this, Penny looks back at her, using her eyes' zoom function to see what she is doing. Cinder smirks at her over her shoulder and then flies back to Amity Tower, and Penny flies after her.

Inside the arena, Neo repeatedly swings her parasol at Maria, who laughs and blocks every attack with her cane. Neo hooks her parasol's handle on the cane and uses it to throw Maria. Much to Neo's surprise, Maria changes her cane into its sickle form, hooks it on the parasol's handle, and pulls herself forward to land a kick on Neo's head. Maria then hops off of Neo's head, and Neo begins to fall over but catches herself. Neo charges Maria and leaps at her, but Maria blocks the parasol with the top of her sickle and then folds the sickle's blade down to ram the head of it into Neo's face. She then unfolds the sickle to hook it onto the parasol and pull, knocking Neo down.

Cinder begins shooting flames at the metal beams supporting the communications platform, successfully melting three of them before she hears Penny calling out.

"No!" Penny said, worried.

Cinder smiles when she sees Penny flying toward her, dodges when Penny fires a laser at her, and sends a fireball in return. The two hover above the platform.

"Why are you doing this? Why serve someone like Salem?" Penny asked, looking at Cinder.

"I don't serve anyone. And you wouldn't either, if you were built that way." Cinder said, smiling.

"That is not…" Penny said, glancing at Pietro. "I choose to fight for people who care about me."

The melted beams begin to give out, causing the platform to slowly sag. Penny stabs her nine swords into the floor and uses the strings to pull the platform up. Using her Maiden powers, Penny begins shooting ice magic at two of the beams, attempting to cool the metal back down. She looks down at Pietro, then at Cinder, who flies over, wraps her legs around Penny's waist, and begins trying to grab her with her Grimm arm.

Penny grabs the Grimm arm's wrist and screams in terror, struggling against Cinder. The ice on one of the beams begins breaking off, and Penny shoots ice magic at it again. Cinder grabs the hand that Penny is using to hold her Grimm arm and applies intense heat that instantly causes Penny's hand to glow white hot. Penny loses her grip from the pain, and Cinder immediately grabs her face with her Grimm hand, which muffles Penny's screams. The Grimm arm begins glowing bright green.

Penny attempts to fly away but is still tethered to the platform by her swords. She swings herself and Cinder beneath the platform and continues struggling, while Emerald runs back into the arena. Penny creates eight jagged ice swords and uses them to push Cinder off of her, but Cinder's Grimm arm stretches and holds onto Penny's face. As Cinder moves back toward her, Penny puts her feet up in the way and uses her jets to kick off from her, sending Cinder flying backward to slam against a wall. The ice swords follow Cinder, and one pins her cape to the wall.

"Cinder!" Emerald said.

Penny lands on the floor of the arena, near Maria, distracting the latter. Cinder pulls the ice sword from her cape and then looks at Emerald, with the two exchanging a smile. Neo takes the opportunity to knock Maria down. She then walks toward Maria, drawing the sword from her parasol, only for Penny to shoot her with a large laser with all nine of her swords, slamming her into the airship hard enough to break her Aura.

Penny flies up into the air to once again face Cinder, who creates a glowing hot glass spear. Suddenly, Penny is surrounded by copies of Cinder, all wielding the same spear, thanks to Emerald inflicting her with hallucinations. Penny levitates her swords behind her and forms a storm cloud above herself. The Cinders point their spears at her and then charge her, while lightning strikes Penny's swords. Penny activates her vision system's heat signature mode, allowing her to identify which Cinder is real. She gathers her charged swords and uses them to fire a powerful laser at Cinder, destroying the spear and causing Cinder to scream out in pain.

Emerald rushes to Cinder's aid, "Cinder! No no no! No!"

Emerald kneels beside Cinder, who is lying unconscious on the floor. She rolls Cinder onto her back to check on her, while Penny levitates near them. Emerald turns and fires her gun toward Penny, but the bullet flies straight past Penny and hits the machine on the raised platform, barely missing Pietro. Penny watches the bullet, then turns to Emerald and points her swords at her, angered.

"I know I can't beat you." Emerald said, while the anger leaves Penny's face. The redhead's Maiden eye flares disappear, and she frowns. "But I can fill that thing full of holes before you take me down."

Emerald sheds a single tear. In response, Penny lowers her swords and relaxes her posture. The colosseum shakes and rumbles, and Penny looks around. She watches Emerald hurriedly carry Cinder away and then flies away.

Atlesian Airship...

Emerald gets into the airship, setting Cinder beside her, while Neo starts the ship. Emerald worriedly pets Cinder's head, then looks at Neo, who looks annoyed.

"Get us out of here. Hurry." Emerald said.

Neo's look of annoyance turns to one of anger, and she flies the ship out of the colosseum.

Amity Colosseum...

Penny flies back up to the platform, carrying Maria. She sets Maria down.

"Dad! Are you okay?" Penny asked, running over to Pietro and kneeling in front of him.

The computer screen says 'Broadcast Signal Lost'.

"The stabilizer was damaged. We've missed our window." Pietro said, as Penny gets up and runs over to the computer, typing on the keyboard. "At this rate, we're likely to drift until touching down just north of…"

The colosseum rumbles again.

"I can fix this." Penny said.

"What?" Maria asked.

"Our message is only a few minutes long." Penny said, turning to them and continuing talking with a smile. "I can try and hold Amity in place until…"

"Absolutely not!" Pietro said, and Penny frowns in disappointment. "You're in no condition to do something like this. Even just the temperature out there could…"

"It is our only option. And the Subwave Network was the only option for the Children of Time to contact the Doctor and Jared."

"She is right, Pietro. We have to remember the big picture…" Maria said.

Pietro becomes frustrated, interrupting Maria, "I don't care about the big picture! I care about my daughter!"

Pietro slams his fist down onto the arm of his chair.

Pietro lowers his head and takes off his hat as he speaks, "I lost you before. Are you asking me to go through that again? No. No. I want the chance to watch you live your life."

Penny walks over and gently lifts his head so he will look at her.

"But dad…I am trying to." Penny said.

He takes her hand into both of his and then takes a moment to emotionally gather himself, nodding.

"Right." Pietro said.

She gently kisses the top of his head. He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes, while Maria walks over to stand beside him, smiling at Penny. Maria puts her hand on his arm while he puts his glasses back on, and Penny flies outside through an opening in the roof. Penny takes a few moments to look down at Atlas, then up at a borealis in the sky, smiling to herself.

Penny flies down to the damaged stabilizer and begins pushing on it, using the jets in her feet. Pietro watches the computer screen as the image of Amity slowly rises up through the red dotted line representing the broadcast range.

"Come on, Penny." Pietro said.

Penny activates her Maiden powers, and the jet she is producing increases greatly in size and changes from green to cyan. The computer plays a noise as the tower reaches broadcast range, causing Pietro and Maria to celebrate.

"Yes! Atta girl!" Maria said, happily.

A window labeled 'User input needed to continue' appears on the screen, asking 'Initiate Broadcast Operational Sequence?' with buttons for 'Yes' and 'Cancel'. Pietro brings his fist down onto the keyboard.

Atlas military base...

All of the screens in the Atlas military base suddenly display a broadcast color pattern with the text 'Atlas Emergency Broadcast System' displayed across the top, emitting a long tone. A large screen on a building in Mantle flickers on, displaying the same image for a moment before switching to a pre-recorded video of Ruby, with Blake Belladonna and Jared Shay's voices coming from off-camera. Drunk Mann and Drinking Buddy look at the screen and then at each other.

"Okay, go ahead." Blake said.

"You can do this, Little Red. I believe in you." Jared said, happily. "You got this. No problem."

"Um, uh. Hi. My name is Ruby Rose. I'm a Huntress. And if we've done everything right, then I'm talking to all of Remnant right now. Maybe this message is able to be sent out to the Doctor's universe. I don't know. Dr. Polendina can explain more later, but right now you all need to know that the Kingdom of Atlas is under attack." Ruby said, on screen.

The video is broadcast to TVs and Scrolls all over Remnant, across the virtual worlds in the Seed, and all around the Earth. People in Mistral Central Station begin watching it, as do Saphron Cotta-Arc and Terra Cotta-Arc. Adrian Cotta-Arc grins and waves his hands at the image of Ruby. The SAO survivors are watching the video inside Kirito and Asuna's home on Floor 22 of New Aincrad.

"Things are dire, and we need help. But please, try not to panic. This isn't some new enemy or invading Kingdom. This is a force we've faced before, for centuries…Salem." Ruby said, on screen.

Whitley Schnee is watching sadly from Jacques Schnee's office, resting his arms on the desk with his chin in his arms. He tenses and lowers his gaze when Ruby states that they need help. Inside Mikazuki Villa, the family consists of Iroha Tamaki, Yachiyo Nanami, Tsuruno Yui, Sana Futaba, and Felicia Mitsuki watching what is going on through their smartphones. In the Mantle crater, refugees and Fiona's uncle are gathered together, watching.

Vacuo…

Neptune Vasilias and Sun Wukong are watching on their Scrolls, and they look at each other.

"Dude." Neptune said.

"The White Fang, Atlesian drones, even the Grimm themselves have all been controlled and manipulated by her, in order to tear down the Huntsman Academies. And I have a feeling the Master and the Silence have been working with Salem. There could be more enemies we don't know yet that does know about Salem." Ruby said, on screen.

Menagerie…

Ilia Amitola is sitting on a roof, watching on her Scroll, when Ghira Belladonna calls her.

Mantle/ S.O.N.G headquarters...

Joanna Greenleaf watches among citizens in Mantle, standing behind Drunk Mann and Drinking Buddy. Inside the headquarters of the Symphogear wielders, Hibiki Tachibana, Miku Kohinata, Tsubasa Kazanari, Chris Yukine, Shirabe Tsukuyomi, Maria Cadenzavna Eve, and Kirika Akatsuki are watching what is going on using the giant monitor in the control room.

Amity Colosseum…

Penny turns and presses her back to the stabilizer, using her hands to produce two more jets and continue pushing on the colosseum.

"I know the idea of the Maidens and Relics seems…well…crazy, but I promise Professor Goodwitch of Beacon and Headmaster Theodore of Shade can verify all of this." Ruby said, on screen.

Vale...

Shopkeep is standing in From Dust Till Dawn, and he looks over at Glynda, who happens to be in his shop. She looks stunned.

"They might even be able to help organize a way to fight back. But sadly, General Ironwood can no longer be trusted." Ruby said, on screen.

Atlas Academy...

Ironwood and the Ace Operatives are watching from Pietro's Atlas laboratory, and Harriet quickly mutes the TV when Ruby says that Ironwood cannot be trusted. Marrow was smiling until the TV was muted. Ironwood walks over to the desk where Arthur Watts has dismantled part of Penny's sword and is working away at the inside.

"It seems Polendina's proxy trick worked." Ironwood said.

"And that's good news for us." Watts said, using tweezers to remove a chip that has Penny's emblem on it. "Penny's blades operate on the same principle as Amity in the launch terminal. In order for her to control them all, they need to communicate with one another. And I have a feeling that the amulet Jared Shay wears uses the principles Penny's blades are made out of too. And for Jared to use the magic equipped with it too, for him to summon weapons and to fuse them."

The throne room inside Monstra…

Tyrian Callows is sitting beside the throne, watching the broadcast on his Scroll with a scowl. Salem places her hand on his head with a smile, and he smiles and looks at her.

"We didn't have time to prepare for Salem. But now you do! Just because she can't be destroyed, doesn't mean she can't be beaten. If she really was unstoppable, she wouldn't have acted with such caution until now." Ruby said, on screen.

Weiss' bedroom...

Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Jared Shay are sitting against the bed in Weiss' bedroom, watching the broadcast on Blake's Scroll while Nora Valkyrie lay unconscious in the bed, covered in bandages.

"This is gonna work." Jared said, placing his head on top of Ruby's. "I know it will."

"She knows we're a threat. So even if we...even if Atlas falls, you can't give up." Ruby said, on screen.

Atlas Academy...

Watts uses tweezers to pick up a chip with his emblem on it and shows it to Ironwood, who nods. He then places the chip into Penny's sword, and the lighting inside the sword changes from green to red.

Amity Colosseum / Weiss' bedroom...

Penny gasps as her eyes and Jared's music note amulet flickers red for a moment.

Penny then cries out and grips her head.

"Master. Something is taking over my functions." Aqours said, in Jared's head.

"How?!" Jared exclaimed, in his head.

Penny's jets stop working, and she falls for a few seconds, before activating her jets again and flying back up to push on the stabilizer.

"Someone's interfering…" Aqours said, in Jared's head.

"Penny! What's going on out there?" Pietro asked.

"I…" Penny said, grunting. "I do not know!"

Patch...

Taiyang Xiao Long is watching the broadcast from his living room in Patch.

"I hope Amity Tower will help bring us all together. Because in the end, that's how we'll win…" Ruby said, smiling hopefully on screen.

The broadcast is suddenly cut off, and the screen reverts to the Atlas Emergency Broadcast System screen.

Tai reaches out for a moment, "No! No, come back!"

Tai lowers his head into his hands, and Zwei whimpers, lays down, and rests his head on Tai's leg.

Amity Colosseum / Weiss' bedroom...

"Penny, you've done enough, sweetheart. Get back inside! We can ride out on Amity together." Pietro said.

Penny struggles, her eyes flickering between red and their normal green color. Jared's pendant is flicking between green and it's normal green hue too.

"No! I...I have to go! The vault! No!" Penny said, panicking. "Dad!"

Jared took out his iPhone X and immediately called Pietro and Penny, joining the voice call over there with his AirPods Max over his ears, "Pietro, Penny, something is wrong with Aqours…"

Penny looks up at the tower, and her eyes become dull and lifeless. Her body goes limp, and she begins falling.

"I know. Whatever is affecting your super suit is affecting me too. It all uses the same tech." Penny said, sadly.

"Penny! What is happening!?" Pietro exclaimed.

As she falls through the atmosphere, Penny becomes engulfed in flames.

"Please, baby, say something." Pietro said.

After a moment, the light returns to Penny's eyes, and she then closes them.

"I love you, Dad." Penny said. "And Jared, I'm sorry."

The radio communications between Penny, Pietro, and Jared fill with static.

"Penny!" Pietro and Jared said, at the same time.

Pietro coughs and lowers his head into his hands, crying. Maria rests her hand on his back, trying to comfort him.

Jared ended the call, putting his phone into his pocket and ran over to Weiss for a hug, "Why? I'm sick of losing people."

"Penny." Pietro said, sadly.

"Why?" Jared asked, letting out some tears. "Why did she do that?"

Atlas Academy…

"Global comms just went back down." Harriet said.

Ironwood is looking at his Scroll, with which he attempted to call Penny. The screen says that it could not complete the call.

"And Penny isn't responding." Ironwood said, turning to Watts. "What did you do?"

Watts plays with Penny's sword as he speaks, before turning to Ironwood, "Exactly what you asked. It's possible Penny's systems and Jared's amulet are merely rebooting. As for the tower, well, perhaps Pietro isn't the genius you thought…"

Ironwood angrily throws his Scroll at Watts, who swats it away. The Scroll, now broken, lands on the desk.

"We're not waiting. You're going to find her." Ironwood said, letting out a sigh.

Ironwood turns to address Winter Schnee who has approached the desk, "Winter."

Winter stares at Penny's sword, giving Ironwood a delayed response.

"Sir?" Winter asked, looking at Ironwood.

"Until Penny either responds or is standing in front of that Vault, we can not assume her status. Take the Ace Ops. I want constant updates." Ironwood said.

Winter, Marrow, Elm and Vine salute him and then begin leaving the room. Watts picks up his tool kit and then begins rolling his chair along the desk, turning off the monitors.

Ironwood heads for the exit while addressing Harriet, "Get him back to his cell."

"With pleasure." Harriet said.

Watts picks up Ironwood's broken Scroll and holds it behind his back as he stands up and faces Harriet.

Tundra outpost…

Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren and Jaune Arc are looking at their Scrolls.

"That was the broadcast. Why did we lose signal?" Yang asked.

They hear a loud noise in the distance and are soon after running through the snow in pursuit of rumbling sounds.

"There's another one. I think it's just up ahead." Jaune said.

They suddenly stop and stare at something with wide eyes.

"What…is this?" Ren asked.

The ground has broken open, and black liquid is flowing inside the crack. The ground rumbles, and Yang takes a step forward. A piece of dirt with a small bush on it breaks off beneath her foot, and Jaune reaches out in case she falls. The dirt and bush fall into the liquid and instantly dissolve. Soon after, a Sabyr head floats to the surface.

"It's Grimm. A river of Grimm…" Yang said, while she, Jaune and Ren look where the liquid is heading, while Monstra hovers in the distance in the opposite direction. They see that the river is snaking its way across the tundra toward Mantle. "...heading straight for the Kingdom."