Tip of the Iceberg

[thatguyinthestore]

A side story set in the Chronology Series.

Set shortly after the events of Point Zero...




Chapter One

"Wow, that's an awesome story, Blake!"

Four girls, all of which appeared to be in their mid to late teens, sat upright at a bar. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves, each with a bowl of curry sitting right at their waste. Blake Beladonna, the black-haired girl clad in a two-piece combat suit showed off her stomach, arms and legs, but at the same time wasn't too risque, rolled her eyes in response to her naive Team Leader's words.

"Ruby, I swear that I wasn't lying," The Faunus replied, though she couldn't help but smile towards Ruby, who had desperately been chowing down on her curry as she heard her teammate's story. It had been a while since they got to sit down like this, just the four of them. Saying that The Fall of Beacon had taken a toll on everyone was probably the understatement of the century right there. They were dealing with entire truckloads of Grimm, old ladies who were former amazing huntresses, magic genies, not to mention just Ozpin in general (or was it Oscpin?). And now, in Blake's case specifically, she was dealing with the impending threat of some multiversal witch, and her own team didn't even believe her. But, she digressed.

"I dunno, Blakey," The blonde haired brawler, Yang Xiao Long, spoke up from right beside Blake. Her usual confident smirk sat on her face as she chowed down on her curry as well, Yang in particular being hunched over her bowl. "I mean... I get it, we fight crazy beasts and monsters all the time but... c'mon. Ice Ninjas? Fat men that call themselves penguins? Literal cowboys and dudes shaped like blocks?" Yang would lean back on her stool and interlock her fingers, both hands forming a joint connection that she would then use to rest the back of her head against. Cocking her head to her left, she would look Blake in the eye, that smirk still ever-present. "Like... c'mon. This all sounds like something out of one of your novels that you keep with you."

"I agree with Ruby and Yang," Spoke the final member of Team RWBY, Weiss Schnee, who was sitting upright in her seat as she delicately eat each bite of her curry like that of an actual princess. Which, Weiss kind of was at one point, having been the former heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, before she was inevitably written out of it due to many, many factors, such as her emotionally abusive father. Who, in general, was the main reason why she was happy to not having to inherit her family's company. After slowly taking a bite of her curry and bringing her pale hand back down, she continued. "I mean, although the past few months have been... crazy, I suppose is the shortest way to put it, even that sounds the smallest bit far-fetched."

"I know how crazy it sounds, but..." Blake paused for a moment, her playful expression now gone. Like it or not, hell, reunited or not, Zant was an emergency. A threat. Possibly an even bigger one than Salem. And he was a threat that knew, KNEW Blake. He saw her face. And he had the power to travel here. And Salem was a threat, yes, but Zant wasn't just going to destroy her world... but every other world. She had to get her team to believe her. With every fiber of her being, she desperately NEEDED her friends to believe a single ounce of what she was saying. If she could just somehow--

"...Blake?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side. Blake noticed how long she had been quiet for and immediately cleared her throat out of embarrassment. All three other members of Team RWBY were giving her nervous glances, each of them worried about their mutual friend. Blake's eyes sheepishly darted around the area, then she looked back to her teammates. She closed her eyes and slowly inhaled through her mouth, before exhaling all the same. She looked back up, tucking her arms to her chest. She proceeded to shudder a bit, and though she wore a bow over her ears, her fellow teammates could tell they were curling downwards under it.

"I watched... all those people die..." Blake muttered under her breath, her entire body shaking as she spoke. Her arms were still curled under her chest as she spoke, and she didn't look up at any of her teammates as she did so. "Katrina... Leon... the little girl in the hat..." She shuttered and flinched a bit as their deaths replayed in their minds. A single tear ran down her cheek as she remembered them vividly... their screams... the way their bodies were just discarded like trash... like it was all a game. Ruby, Weiss and Yang were silent as they watched Blake, unsure of what to say. "And... the worst part was..." Blake grit her teeth and her fingers tightly gripped her arms. The crystal tears flowed from her cheeks and dripped down onto her knees like a leaky faucet. One by one, they stained her thighs.

"I couldn't save them... I was too weak."

Weak.

Powerless.

AFRAID.

She felt trapped. Like she did with Adam. Like there was nothing she could do but run away. Run away from it all. She watched hopelessly as Zant took the lives of so many, and then escaped before he could face judgement. Just like Adam. Zant was ruthless and showed now mercy. Just like Adam. Her heart beat faster as pained memories she thought she had buried with that bastard's death came flooding back to her. Everything he had done to her, everything that she had spent years fighting to get out of her damn brain, had been ruthlessly and mercilessly thrust back into her thanks to him. She tried to act strong in the end of it all... in front of all those strangers she'd just met. But the truth was, Blake was scared. A scared little girl, a scared hopeless little girl. In that moment, that's all she was. Their deaths were on her hands. Sure, she prevented Lin and Ren from being crushed under that pillar, and yeah she helped weaken Zant... but they still died. And just like Adam, Zant ran. He ran, and unlike Adam, Blake wasn't even sure if he would pay for his crimes. So what was the point of it all? What purpose did her even telling them serve? She couldn't even protect HERSELF. So what was the point if she couldn't even--

"?!"

Suddenly, Blake felt as if she couldn't even breathe. Her vision went a bit dark as she felt a comforting warmth surround her. It took her a moment, but it eventually became clear to her what was happening.

And suddenly, as her team embraced her in a damn sincere hug, Blake almost instantly calmed down. And, like clockwork, the answers to all those questions became clear to her in that moment. With her Team and friends, she was POWERFUL. She was STRONG. With their help, she had overcome so much. Her fear of letting others know what she was, The Fall of Beacon, her abandonment issues, and of course, Adam. She knew that those deaths happened, and she couldn't protect them... and in that regard, even though it wasn't the case, she still felt as if she failed. But, if she had her Team by her side, and the even the allies she had made during the Tesseract Incident? Well, then Zant could be damn sure that Blake would avenge those who had fallen.

"Blake..." Ruby began with a sincere smile in her soft, soothing voice.

"Tell us what happened." Weiss continued with a smile on her face as well, and a nod to affirm what she had just said.

"From the beginning this time." Finally, said Yang, who was smiling with the rest of her team.

A smile found its way onto Blake's face as well as she sniffled, drying those stray tears with her arm. And, just as she was asked, Blake proceeded to wrap her arms around her teammates and tell them everything that had happened.

Everything.




"Ach! Bloody hell!" A voice suddenly hissed out as it stood up. A British accent, slick and rough, to be exact. It definitely sounded more Cockney than anything else. A tall, slim figure emerged from an alleyway, tumbling over trashcans, knocking a few over particular ones over. Black trash bags lined with thin plastic spilled out of the metal tins, though the figure didn't really care to pick any of them up. Instead, he stumbled out onto the streets like a lost drunk man, attempted to regain his footing after such a tumble. As he looked onto the streets around him, he seemed a bit... disoriented, to say the least. His eyes darted to each street corner, each one heavily guarded with guardsman clad in pure white suits, save for their blue visors that covered their eyes and the black gloves that obscured their hands. After a bit more walking around the populated streets, the man finally realized where he was thanks to a billboard that stood adjacent to his own position.

Atlas.

What in Bloody Mary's arse was an Atlas?

Eventually, the man brought a hand up to stroke his chin in confusion, or more accurately just outright rub it with his palm. Though, as he did so, he felt something... weird. And prickly. Since when did he have a beard? He looked down at his own body and his eyes widened, not in horror, but just pure shock. Since when did he get so tall? And lose so much weight, to boost. He blinked a few times to see if he was dreaming, which is when he realized another detail. Like even his eyes were lacking something. It took him a moment, but he finally remembered exactly what it was.

Where was his fucking monocle?

All these questions ran through his head like bullets, each one piercing his skull and leaving him more and more disoriented than the last. He eventually stumbled back a bit and leaned up against the wall, before taking in a sharp breath. He paused for a moment and thought. The last thing he remembered... was fuzzy. He certainly wasn't here, but where was he? Where... where... wh--

"Hey,"

The sudden voice caught the man by surprise and he looked up in a sudden bit of surprise. The man's gaze was met by a much younger looking teen, one who was clad in what looked like knight's armor, and had the hair of Prince Charming of all things.

"Are you alright?"

Concern was evident in the boy's voice. The tall Brit wiped his face with his palm and struggled to regain his composure once more. Not wanting to cause a scene in public, especially not with this many guards around, he nodded slowly.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine." He replied, though his exhausted tone really didn't make him sound like it.

"Are you sure?" The blonde replied. "I can take you to a hospital if need be."

"No, no.." He said again, shaking his head and waving his arm a bit. "No hospitals necessary, lad. I just had a bit of a moment there, is all."

"Okay then..." He said again, his voice trailing off slightly. Eventually, he looked back up and continued. "Do you... have a name?"

"A... name?" The man thought for a moment, still a bit disoriented. Name... name... oh! He did have a name. And he remembered that name well. His name was one that was meant to be feared. Respected. He was one of the most feared and respected mob bosses in the world! The memories came flooding back to him, one by one. The most recent ones were a bit fuzzy, but he sure as hell remembered who he was and what was expected of him. The discombobulated frown soon curled upwards into a smirk, as the man nodded and gave a seemingly polite, yet somehow smug bow.

"My name is Oswald Cobblepot. But you, my blonde friend, can just call me Oz."

END OF CHAPTER​

 

[thatguyinthestore]

Chapter Two
"Thorns"



EIGHT MONTHS LATER

"Get me another bloody drink!"

The Penguin, otherwise known as Oswald Cobblepot, sat in his office. It was another typical day in Atlas, really. Ever since he had arrived in this cursed land, without any memory of how he got here, things had gone from bad, to better, to much better. The Atlas military was.... surprisingly easy to work around. For all that high tech that they apparently had at their disposal, they never even managed to catch wind of Cobblepot's underground operations. Back in Gotham, he was the king. He sold arms to about every unsuspecting worm that wanted to rob some local convenience store. But here? In this place?

Well, let's just say that there were so many more options in the weapons business alone.

The process of selling it was simple, really. He already had numerous moles inside the Atlas Military's little group supplying him with tons and tons of shipment, all of which he would then sell on the black market to the scum who didn't have a license to carry such a fragile product. In all honesty, Oswald didn't really understand how dust even worked. But people wanted it. And when people want things, they'll do just about anything to get it. Of course, there was the matter of keeping that stubborn bloke James Ironwood off his back, but that was easier done than said. The man was paranoid... even more so than good 'ole James Gordon was. Hell, he could give the Batman himself a run for his money if he wasn't so damn oblivious. It was just so easy to throw him off his trail. A little bit of spilled dust here, some unrecognizable dead bodies there... and the man had yet to put the pieces together!

Yes, life was certainly playing cards in The Penguin's favor.

One of his various men did eventually bring him his drink, while he was still reminiscing. Oz gave the man a nod, dismissing him, and the man in question promptly walked off out of the room. And in the meantime, Penguin sat there, sipping on the glass of Scotch he held in his hand. He looked down at said glass, his usual cocky smirk stretched out on his lips. Once again, he was on top. Once again, he had been the one.

Once again, Oswald Cobblepot was the king.

But even Kings had pesky loose ends to tie up, didn't they?

"So... it appears that a little bird has appeared in this universe..." The Usurper King himself, Zant, muttered as he gazed upon Cobblepot's operations silently from his own world. The wind in the Twilight Realm, though practically non-existent, did somehow manage to make his cloak rustle ever so slightly with its push. He stared behind the emotionless mask he wore, pondering. Or, more accurately, planning. The events of the Tesseract Incident had left him weakened, to be sure. The weapon that Cobblepot had made, combined with the various efforts from the group who had attacked him, left him severely wounded. But the power that his god had oh-so-graciously bestowed upon him had allowed him to reconstruct himself, as it were.

And not only that, but already his tampering had begun to show its effects. While his master dealt with that oaf Bowser, Zant had watched over the Gravity Falls incident quite nicely. It didn't take much tampering at all, really. The being known as Bill Cipher had never even come into contact with him, after all. But some.... minor adjustments to Stanford's Pines' portal from afar seemed to provide them with the edge that he needed to cause more discourse across the Multiverse itself. Not a single thing that had happened went unnoticed by Zant or Ganondorf.

That is, until now.

Zant could not explain it, and neither could his master. Just how the Penguin managed to cheat death and end up in another realm entirely was beyond his comprehension. Sure, there were differences in his appearance now, and some pretty major ones at that. He was much taller and less overweight, and bore some kind of beard now as well. But, there was no mistake to be made. This was Oswald Cobblepot. And, like other loose ends, Zant planned to deal with this one properly. Surely, his master would be pleased by such--

"Patience, Zant."

Zant turned to face the source of the sudden deep words, voiced by none other than Ganondorf himself.

"My liege!" He exclaimed suddenly as he turned around, kneeling before the voice. Of course, Ganondorf was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't fully regained his form yet. But there was no mistake to be made. The voice of his wonderful, glorious, merciful master could be heard! Zant wanted to begin rejoicing right then and there, but he subsided for now. After all, this was a very trying time for the both of them. The chuckling of his master could be heard in response to Zant's eagerness, and underneath the mask, he smiled at the acknowledgement at his devotion.

"We mustn't act too hastily."

"But sire!" Zant retorted as he stood up, visibly shaken by Ganon's hesitance. Not angered, though he was certainly... trifled by his judgement on this matter. "This is a matter we should take seriously, is it not? Oswald Cobblepot is the one who gave those.... insignificant RATS the power to defeat me before, should we not be the least bit worried?" He asked, clearly troubled by this turn of events.

Though, despite this, Ganondorf only chuckled once more.

"Such ingenuity and eagerness to please, Zant," Ganondorf mused allowed. "Though... do not worry about Cobblepot. It will only be a matter of time before he receives my message."

"...Message?" Zant asked, tilting his head to the side curiously. Though, no reply was given.




DINK!.... DINK!

"AAAGH!!"

The sudden loud noise from across the dark office had caused Cobblepot to nearly fall out of his chair in surprise. He looked around for a moment, confused as to what had happened. He had apparently fallen asleep in his office after his last drink, only to be woken up by.... something. He wasn't sure what, though. As he looked around, he only saw empty chairs, a desk, a carpet, and various other furnishings. Granted, he had just woken up, and his vision was a bit blurry, but still.... he could have sworn he heard something.

"Must have been another bloody rat..." He eventually muttered to himself as he slowly crawled back up to his feet, rubbing the side of his skull with his palm. He winced slightly, a bit dazed from the sudden fall. After a bit of gazing around the office, Oswald suddenly stretched out and let out a yawn. "Well... might as well head off to a right and proper bed, I suppose..." He muttered to himself quietly, smacking his dry lips together as he began to make his way out of the room. He had almost forgotten the sudden noise that had awoken him in the first place, until, about halfway out the door, he felt his foot nudge against an... object of some sort. Oz rose a brow at this, before nudging it again. Was this what the noise was? Some glass ball?

As Oz reached down to get a feel for it, he suddenly felt it in his hand. Smiling, he picked it up to get a good look at it.

It was... odd looking. Some glass ball with a moving purple substance inside of it, almost akin to a lava lamp. He smirked, though, thinking it would make for a neat little trinket to add to his collection. However, as he began to put it in his pocket...

FLASH!!

"GAH!!!"

Oswald suddenly dropped the mysterious ball and began to stumble back, crashing into a nearby bookshelf, which caused numerous books to fall down in its wake. He gripped his head tightly, wincing as he felt a pulsating sensation suddenly invade his mind. He grit his teeth and slammed his eyes shut, almost falling over from the pain. He did hunch forward, though, unable to fathom whatever the hell was going on here. Hell, he didn't even have time to process being confused at all due to the random bursts of pain he was receiving. He began to shake violently as the pain only grew more and more unbearable, finally collapsing from it all. He hadn't even noticed the ball disappear, and the substance that had been inside of it slowly make its way around the room like a strange mist.

After what felt like hours of unbearable, agonizing pain, as well as generally writhing around on the floor... it finally had stopped. Just, suddenly, it stopped. There was no buildup, no rhyme or reason, it just stopped. Cobblepot rose a brow at this, confused, as he slowly began to make his way back up to his feet. Though, as he did, his brows furrowed, and almost instinctively, he began to ball up his fists and flare his nostrils. As he looked around, he began to finally see things as they were supposed to. Whatever that ball was, it finally opened his eyes back up to the truth.

Oswald Cobblepot remembered everything.

TO BE CONCLUDED​

 

[thatguyinthestore]

Final Chapter
"Cold"

Sneaking onto Atlas was no easy feat. But for Kuai Liang, it might as well have been mere child's play.

Back in what many had dubbed "The Tesseract Incident", and some had dubbed "Point Zero", Kuai Liang was one of the many unfortunate victims The Penguin's schemes. Many had been taken from their homes, and blindly forced to work for a mad man. But, after a series of events, many returned to their homes, while others joined the mysterious group who had aided them, who were simply known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, they went under a different name. That name is the Multiverse Protection Foundation. In the end of the ordeal, Kuai Liang promised Nick Fury and The Avengers that he would return if they ever needed him. Specifically, he promised a young, fierce warrior, known as Blake Belladonna, that he would be at her aid if she ever required it.

Now was that time.

The two met in a dark alleyway, away from the Atlesian forces that made up the floating city's military. Blake had already been there by the time Kuai Liang arrived through the portal, curtesy of the Multiverse Protection Foundation, who sent him in only on the grounds that he was a trusted ally.

"You're here..." Blake said quietly, crossing her arms. Her expression was easily readable, especially to the Lin Kuei Grandmaster. Worry, fear, anxiety. All common emotions, ones which Sub-Zero knew too well from the young Cassie Cage. He saw many of the traits in her that he saw in Blake all those months prior.

"You sound as if you feared I would not show," Kuai replied as he stepped forward and out of the glowing portal behind him. It closed soon after, leaving the two standing in the dark alleyway. "I am a man of my word, Miss Belladonna."

"I know," Blake replied quietly with a nod of her own. Although the Faunus didn't show it, she found comfort in that. Comfort in knowing that Kuai was here for her. Here to help her. The rest of her Team was down in Vale.... Blake didn't want to involve them in this. Especially not when it was more than likely her fault that any of this was happening at all. She turned, gazing into Kuai's eyes before speaking again. "I... needed someone I could trust for this one. So... thank you."

"Do not thank me yet," The grandmaster replied, shaking his head. He continued to step forward, ice trailing behind each step of his feet. "After all, I do not even know why it is I was summoned." He responded, and it was true. Sub-Zero was spared the finer details of this particular mission. While it was true that his ties to the M.P.F. were auxiliary at best, he had made a promise to Blake specifically that he would aid her in her time of need... if she so needed it. All she had to do was use the talisman he provided her.

Blake, on the other hand, merely closed her eyes and took in a sharp inhale through her nose. "Pengun's back..." She said. To anyone else, the ridiculous name would sound like a complete joke. A mockery, even. But Blake and Kuai Liang knew the name all too well. He was the man who had roped them all into that unfortunate situation all those months ago. Hell, for some it was probably years, considering how time worked across the vast reaches of the Multiverse. Kuai's arms were crossed as he pondered her words in his head, brooding silently while listening. "He's somehow taken control of the Atlas military..." Blake continued as she began to pace around quietly with her arms crossed, held tightly up against her chest. "I don't... know how... it all happened so quickly. First, Ironwood went missing, and then the soldiers started bearing penguin insignias, and then finally that... that bastard announced his presence as the new head of Atlas." Blake spoke, her tone a mix of a low hiss and choked up tears. For the first time in a long time, since she could remember, Blake was truly scared.

"Hmm... I see..." Sub-Zero replied as he closed his eyes, quietly stepping forward, his eyes closed for the faintest of moments as he thought of what to say. He was not particularly surprised by this, spirits rising from the dead was common back in his home universe were common, after all. But Blake was clearly upset. And feelings such as fear and dread, while natural, would cloud her judgment in the battle to come. Sub-Zero knew it all too well. He stopped walking when he was close enough to her to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Even though his hand palm was cold as ice, Blake managed to feel comfort in it as she glanced back up at him. "Do not fret, Miss Belladonna..."

***



Hours later, the duo found themselves in one of the hallways of Cobblepot's tower. He was held up in Ironwood's former stronghold, which made sense after he'd taken the general prisoner. The Atlesian military was mostly replaced by androids, Blake found. It made sense that no one wanted to conform under Cobblepot's iron fist. Currently, Blake was sprinting down the hallway alone, and Kuai Liang was nowhere in sight. She had her gambol shroud held high in her hand. It was in its sheathed form, and she was blocking a large number of bullets that came her way with it. They each bounced off of the sheathed katana readily as she closed in, leaping up into the air once she was close enough.

It was then that, in a cloud of smoke, Kuai Liang appeared behind the set of robots, freezing them all in place. In one quick move, Blake unsheathed the katana and slashed them in half with a single quick, clean slice, and they fell lifelessly onto the ground. Blake landed on the ground and nodded to Kuai Liang. She nodded to him, and he nodded back, as numerous robots began surrounding them from all corners. Within moments, the pair went to work.

Kuai Liang was freezing the mechanical goons left and right thanks to his abilities, and shattering them mere moments later with cleverly placed punches or kicks. He shot a ball of ice towards one robot, freezing it entirely. He then brought up an entire wall made of... well, ice, to impale the bot. it fell into pieces instantly. Sub-Zero proceeded to disappear and reappear mid-air, kicking one of the mechanical severed heads over to a robot that began shooting at him, disorienting it. His eyes glowed a bright blue as he came back down, a sword made of pure ice appearing in his hands. He slashed it clean in half, before landing right down on the ground, slamming the edge of the sword into the floor as he did so.

Blake, meanwhile, was holding her own against the glorified robots as well. Her gambol shroud had extended out into its kusarigama form. The robots charged her, sure, but they were no match for Blake. The black, strong ribbon extended outward and wrapped around several robots, curling over them and back towards Blake. With a tug, she pulled them all down to the ground, and they landed on their fronts. The ribbon of her weapon came back towards her as she caught the other end, and with a slight tug, Gambol Shroud formed a double-edged katana.

She retracted down onto one knee as more bots began storming her. Not uttering a single word, Blake sprinted forward and began slashing through each robot like they were nothing but target practice. Each robot came down in rapid succession, one after the other, with each skilled swing from her sword. They fell onto the ground like a set of dominos, and within mere minutes, they had all been toppled by the huntress-in-training. Kuai stood to the side, watching quietly with a dark hum as Blake stood back up to her feet. The two nodded to each other, exchanging no words. Instead, they merely made their way into the large double doors in the middle of the hall.

The doors swung open, and the duo entered the office that once belonged to General Ironwood. It was empty, save for a tall, slim figure standing at the end of the office, staring out the window. He was smoking a large cigar, which Blake and Kuai could tell just by the smoke that rose up from in front of him, and the smell, of course.

Penguin didn't even seem to notice either of them, which was good. They made their way forward quietly, sneaking past his desk. The room was deadly silent... almost eerily so. Blake and Kuai didn't ponder on it, though. They kept their guard up, of course, but as far as they were concerned, their target was in front of them. Once they were close enough, though, Kuai began to make his way forward without warning. Blake's eyes and ears perked up at this, watching in surprise as she watched Sub-Zero form a large, sharp icicle in his hand.

"WAIT--"

Blake's sudden shouting alerted Cobblepot and he turned around quickly in surprise, but it was already too late. Before he could even fully process the sight before him, Sub-Zero shoved the icicle into his throat. Blood began to spurt out the wound once Kuai yanked out the piece of ice and dematerialized it. Weakly, Penguin reached out to grab Kuai Liang's clothes with shaky hands. Blood covered his hands and Kuai Liang's outfit, as the latter coldly watched Cobblepot sink to his knees with a series of grunts and gurgles. Seconds later, he fell to the ground, and his body went limp a few moments later.

Blake stared down at Penguin's dead body, her ears folding forward as she let the sight of the now-deceased man sink in. She'd seen dead bodies before, but that didn't make the sight any less disturbing, especially after the body in question suffered such a gruesome fate. Slowly, her gaze shifted towards Kuai Liang. "Y-You didn't have to--"

"Do not give your enemy the opportunity to strike, and do not show them mercy." Sub-Zero replied in a much darker, careless tone as he turned away from Cobblepot's body and began to walk towards the door. Unbeknownst to him, Cobblepot's body began to disappear in an all too familiar mass of blackness. Blake recognized it immediately as Twilight. Her eyes widened again and she instinctively reached for her Gambol Shroud. As she opened her mouth to speak, though, another voice beat her to it. A familiar, British accent.

"I couldn't agree more, my cold-hearted friend!"

Sub-Zero turned around and found none other than Cobblepot standing behind him, a smug grin curled upon his face. Much like Penguin mere moments ago, Kuai Liang did not even have a chance to fully process what was going on, before he was impaled by a spear made entirely of Twilight. A loud, pained grunt escaped his lips behind the mask as it passed directly through his midsection, and Penguin began to effortlessly lift him up into the air. He grinned a toothy grin, revealing his pearly whites, as he pulled Kuai Lang close to him. With his free hand, he ripped the mask from his face, revealing the older man beneath. Penguin didn't say anything, though, merely smirking as the spear disappeared and Kuai's body fell onto the ground, lifeless.

"You really thought you could pull one over on me, eh?" Penguin shouted as he added insult to injury by kicking Kuai-Lang directly in the jaw, despite him already being dead. Penguin's eyes began to glow a dark black as a familiar, dark mass began to envelop his body. "Well, it looks like you were plain bloody wrong, weren't ya?" He asked, following his words with a loud, bird-like laugh. By the time his little laughing fit was over, he turned back around to face Blake. "Now... where were we, kitty cat?' He asked, before turning around, only to find that Blake was gone. That smug confidence quickly turned to anger as he began to search around his office for her, but she was nowhere to be found. "Where the hell did you go!? Don't tell me you saw a shiny red dot and decided to chase it, Lass!" He exclaimed, though there wasn't a sign of Blake remained. He balled up his fist and slammed it down into the desk hard enough to cause a crack in the wood it was made of, screaming loudly.

"I'll find you! I swear it on me mum's bloody grave! I'll kill you, then the rest of your bloody team, and then those blokes at the MPF, and then Zant! You're ALL gonna bloody pay for screwin' with the KING of Atlas!"

Penguin's words echoed throughout the halls of his new base, and even Blake, who was outside the building evading various guards and robots, could hear his screams for miles.

Nowhere to turn, nowhere to go, Blake could do nothing but run.



​