She Tries To

A torrent of blades rained down on Penny, Floating Array, barely managing to keep their user safe while being slowed down by the Gravity Seed. With each blade that Penny deflected, the more the android girl felt herself being pushed downward. With the strength of her thrusters, the pushing was only ever so slightly, one that would be impossible to tell with the naked eye, but with how close Penny was to the freezing cold water underneath her, each blade that came down pushed her closer to defeat. Penny could only grit her teeth as she slowly inched herself away from the center of the Gravity Seed, moving at half an inch per second as she made her way out of the field of gravity. As she moved, she would need to adjust Floating Array's position so that it would still be able to protect her, which required her to be extremely cautious with her reduced speed. She would need to calculate the right angle to place her spinning blades and how fast she should move them in conjunction with her movements, which wasn't an issue in the slightest with Penny's mechanical mind.

Cold wind blowing against her body, Nu-13 stared down at her opponent from up in the sky. From underneath her cracked visor, Nu's cold, red eyes analyzed Penny's action. The Murakumo Unit could tell her opponent was attempting to leave the Gravity Seed; at the pace her opponent was going at, she'd escape without being harmed by her petals. She was an advanced machine; no matter what angle Nu positioned her rifts or how many she opened, the redhead would position her weapon in the right direction to deflect the attack. So, Nu would need a new plan of attack. Firing down a few more blades, the blue-clad girl darted downward, the sound barrier cracking from the speed of Nu's sudden movement.

Penny's eye had been honed on the rifts that were opening around her, but upon hearing a loud boom from above, her green eyes locked onto a blue and white blur coming down toward her. Normally, Penny would use Floating Array to swat her enemy away from her or use their gun form to shoot them down, but there were still rifts that were opened, a smaller amount than what Penny was previously dealing with—but the blade that came out of them still required Floating Array's attention. Thus, the Protector of Mantle was left weaponless against her enemy.

Like an arrow soaring through the air to pierce its target, Nu raced down at Penny at an impossible speed. A sadistic smile crept onto her usually deadpan face as she raised her arm up, the blade attached to her arm aimed directly at the android's forehead. Once the gap was closed, Nu-13 thrust her arm forward.

With her aura practically nonexistent at this point, Penny knew she wouldn't be able to tank the hit. Her only option was to dodge, but with her movements slowed down, would she even manage to be able to do that? The answer to that would be yes. Not having enough time to move her entire body out of the way of the attack, Penny only moved the part of her body that was being targeted, moving her head to the right, and narrowly avoided the blade.

For just a fraction within a fraction of a second, both girls were left momentarily stunned before coming back to their senses. Having shaken off her surprise, Nu attempted to pull her arm away, but it was intercepted by one of Penny's gloved hands, the redhead gripping on it hard enough to crack and break the blade holstered on the artificial human's outfit. Penny then reached another hand out and took hold of one of the large left blades that Nu wore over her leg, her fingers managing to dig their way through the metal. With Nu now in her hold, Penny let out a mighty grunt as she twisted her body around, quickly spinning herself around to face the ocean below and releasing her grasp on Nu, throwing her into the cold water below.

A large quantity of water splashed upward from the **** with which Penny had thrown her opponent into the water, the Gravity Seed fading away as Nu was plunged into the depth. Not wanting her aura to be shattered from being splashed with freezing cold water, Penny pointed her legs outward to the left of her, launching herself away from the danger. Once she got a comfortable distance away, Penny recalled Floating Array to a resting position behind her and directed her thrusters upward in order to make her way back up to the facility. She needed to get back inside; her opponent wasn't human, so she doubted that a dip in the ice-filled water of Solitas would be enough to stop her. So, Penny would continue with her original plan of fighting Nu in one of the hallways of the facility.

But Penny wouldn't manage to get up very high before a danger alert popped up in her eyes. The android girl's sensors had picked up movement from below her, only slightly behind where she was currently flying. A small, dark silhouette started to form in the ocean below, the silhouette growing bigger and more human-shaped the higher it moved up. With its form becoming more clear, the smaller silhouettes around it became more visible. Suddenly the smaller silhouettes shot upward, out of the water, and toward Penny, who spun her body to the right to avoid the projectiles. Though, while Penny managed to avoid a majority of them, two of the projectiles that had been fired out were on a course to meet up with where Penny had currently positioned herself. Though this didn't go unnoticed by the green-clad girl, whose eyes darted over to the projectiles racing toward her.

This was clearly an attack for Nu-13; that was already clear to Penny and made even more apparent by the use of blades, her opponent's specialty. Though rather than using those black and orange blades she had previously summoned, the Murakumo Unit instead opted to use the eight blades that floated behind her. Having fired them in a fan formation, Penny was now in the path of the two blades. Releasing one of the swords from Floating Array from its resting position, Penny swung it downward to knock one of the blades back into the water. Though that still left one last blade to fly toward her.

As Penny prepared to move another sword from Floating Array, the danger alert popped up once more, and at the same time, a loud splash came from underneath her. Penny didn't even need to look; she could tell Nu was right behind her, ready to attack. So, Penny turned off her thrusters, letting herself drop, allowing her to avoid a kick to the back of the head. The blade on Nu-13's legs clashed against the blue blade, sending it flying off to the right. After having been dunked into the water, Nu's spikey hair was now matted down, and her already tight bodysuit was now clinging to her body even closer. Additionally, frost had formed on certain areas of the artificial human's body and outfit.

Penny continued to fall downward before stopping her descent by activating her thrusters once more, blasting herself diagonally upward. Nu was doing everything to stop Penny from getting back inside, so that meant she'd be guarding the hole that had been created during their fight. So, instead of going toward that entryway, Penny decided to go to the hole that she created to enter the facility in the first place.

Penny flew up as high and as fast as she could; all around her, her rifts would open up, and black blades would come out of them. But Penny paid them no mind, since the angle they were being fired at was wrong. Instead, Penny just raced by them, the blades failing to hit their target as she continued to fly in a straight line upward. After a few more seconds, Penny would almost reach the opening. A smile began to form on the android girl's face; it seemed like there was a little bit of hope for her in this fight...Though that smile would soon vanish as soon as Nu suddenly appeared in front of her, having used Act Parcer once more. Before Penny could react, she would fly right into the open hands of Nu-13, who grabbed onto the sides of the android's head.

Penny struggled against Nu's grip of steel, the Murakumo unit applying more and more pressure to the sides of Penny's head, the sharp white nail on the outside of her outfit threatening to pierce Penny's aura. The blue blade returned to Nu's side, and, like the last time Nu had grabbed Penny, poised themselves to stab her. Thinking quickly, Penny kicked Nu in the center of her stomach, pushing the clone off of her while also accidentally burning a hole in the center of her body suit due to the heat from her thrusters. Though she managed to free herself from Nu's grasp, pushing herself off of the short girl with her thruster meant that she was now heading in the opposite direction of the facility.

Nu inspected the damage that had been done to her outfit and let out a cold, yet annoyed hum, being slightly frustrated that she's a bit more exposed now and that her opponent escaped from her again. The red dot in the center of Nu's visor focused in on Penny as she flew away, watching the redhead with ill intent.