RWBY Through Worlds

70: Let Me In

Winter had a mind to just finally go to bed herself, but just when she was up, she heard Shine give a yelp of surprise.

She rushed out of the room. Qrow and Raven both followed her--in fact nearly crashing into each other, to mutual annoyance.

Pietro was in the front hall also, with Maria. Penny had let him know she was coming to the school.

Shine had yelped not, in fact, because Penny had just come in with a stranger, but because both of them were flying and had caught her completely off guard coming around a corner.

She was recovered now, and Penny was cheerfully introducing her new "friend" to her father and the two women.

"This is Kip," she said. "He's like me, sort of, but not completely."

"Fascinating." Pietro was examining him. "I didn't know there were any more people like Penny in the whole world."

"But he's not totally a robot," Penny said. "He's 70% robot."

"Give or take," Kip said nervously. "Uh, I'm not really sure I should be here. My mother gets anxious if I'm out too long. I just wanted to meet Professor Polendina."

"That's Dr. Polendina now," Pietro said easily. "But why the big hurry? You just got here... I'd love to do a scan of those robotic body parts."

Winter stopped short and stared.

Kip looked at her and then yelped and jumped back--into the air.

"What the h--- is that?" Qrow was right behind her.

Raven said nothing, but she stared in disbelief.

"So many people..." Kip squealed, and probably didn't realize he said it out loud. [As a homeschooler, yes, I relate... That's a joke.]

"Well, this can't be good," Maria muttered knowingly.

"It is a little odd." Shine rubbed her chin. "I'm sure the show--but never mind that. Wally is missing this."

She pulled out her scroll to call him.

"I was literally in the kitchen." Wally appeared. "Really, Shine, you couldn't just call me with your voice? Let's not act like grandparents."

"That would be acting like grandparents," Shine said. "I didn't want to wake anyone else up again. Though the walls are so thick here..."

"Whoa..." Wally looked Kip up and down. "Icarus much?"

Shine blinked at him. "Like the myth?"

"Yeah," Wally said

Shine's eyes widened. "That was so hot."

"Don't be crass." Winter was disgusted with her.

"Was it really?" Wally ignored Winter. "I'm, like, 90% sure I only know that because of Batman. He loves explaining myths to people at random."

"Still hot," Shine assured him.

"Oh, really?" Wally made a mental note to learn more myths.

[And this is as good a time as any to explain that Kip really is a reference to Icarus, but he's also a reference to Frankenstein's monster. Victoria's name is a reference to Victor Von Frankenstein. She's also a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but that doesn't come up til later. Their last name means wings in Hebrew--Kanap. Both characters were conceived of by my sister and named by her, and their designs were by her also. But she wanted me to use them in the story--yes, I pay her for this. I'm not a monster... I don't get paid for this, but you know, them's the brakes.]