Mountain Glenn. A dense sprawl of concrete and steel that once housed millions. Now, it stood as a crumbling monument, a relic forever resigned to the pages of Remnant's blood-stained history.

Until today.

The thin, business suit-wearing White Fang lieutenant gazed across the bustling courtyard-turned-base of operations. His light brown rabbit ears twitched quickly as the cool afternoon air washed across the rooftop, its soothing sensation doing nothing to calm his nerves. When his superior, the legendary and infamous Adam Taurus, assigned him to Mountain Glenn, he assumed that it would be another by-the-books planning and organization job.

It was anything but.

Normally, the White Fang would send him to "improve efficiency" in their various cells, and the numbers showed why he was their go-to planner. One of his more exemplary career achievements was a particularly successful bombing in which seven Schnee Dust Company executives were turned into red mist on live television. Since his departure from his dead-end job with a Faunus labor union, the hare Faunus had prided himself on completing any job, no matter how complicated or difficult it may have seemed.

But this? This was insane, even by White Fang standards.

A strong gust of air carried a wave of brick dust across the roof as a group of three Bullhead transports descended from the skies above the outpost. Two of the aircraft were outfitted for combat escort, their metal hulls dotted with various defensive weapons and countermeasures, while the last dropship was devoid of any attachments except for a single unassuming shipping container.

The Faunus professional moved toward the stairwell as he brushed a few specks of dust off of his shoulders and straightened his coat in preparation to meet the delivery crew. The package had arrived, and the pieces on the board were all in position.

All he needed to do now was give the word.

"Hey, Professor? What're you up to?"

Professor Rosenthal grunted in irritation as he lifted his welding mask. "Aaron, I'm in the middle of a project. Can you perhaps leave and go play with your lady friends for a while before you break something important?"

"But I've already done enough 'playing' today," I replied as I pulled the gauze away from my nose and examined the brown stains of dried blood. "It didn't go very well."

"I can see that," he chuckled. "Regardless, if you don't want to be involved with my work, please leave. Idle chat does not help me focus in the slightest."

I saw a golden opportunity here.

"Wait, who said I wasn't interested?" I asked, excited by the possibility of gaining an internship under an honest-to-God mad scientist.

The professor paused. "You want to assist in my work?"

"Hell yes!" I exclaimed. "I was taking and really loving an engineering class in school, but this runs circles around that stuff."

"I see. Well, then. Come along."

"Is it ready?" The hare Faunus asked, his eyes focused on the operator of the strange device that had been set up in the middle of the courtyard. The area was now nearly empty after a hasty packing of all vital material, leaving only a handful of men and a very spacious staging area.

"Nearly. We only need a little more time."

"Good. Activate the device as soon as your preparations are complete."

"Will do."

"Yo, Professor? I've been meaning to ask you something since I got here," I said as I looked down at the disassembled Dust power cell on my workstation. While Remnant circuitry didn't seem to be very different from Earth's, it was a helluva lot more complicated to work with for the first time, and my amateur-level skills were really showing as a result.

"What is your question, Aaron?" Rosenthal replied, his eyes locked on the dissected specimen littering my desk as he took a puff from his cigar.

"If you were a physicist on Earth, how come you have so much knowledge on building stuff?"

"Think about it. This is a world where millions, perhaps even billions of bloodthirsty monsters could lurk around every corner," he said, his thin finger thrusted toward his eyepatch. "You adapt, or you die. It's simple, really."

"Point taken."

I stood up from the workstation and stretched. Sitting in one place for long periods, while very comfortable, could get old after too long. I let out a deep yawn as the hours of physical and mental activity caught up with me, and contemplated taking a nap. The relative peace of the lab was perfect for unhealthy sleeping habits at this moment, which made me quite happy.

Suddenly, however, the silence was broken by a sinister beeping sound, an alarm of some sort. My gaze shot to the source of the disturbance, a computer in the corner. The screen was flashing red, and a tangled mess of readouts and data ran down the UI like a waterfall.

Something told me that this wasn't a good thing.

"That is...strange," Rosenthal said in a concerned tone as he approached the terminal.

"What's strange?" I asked, my voice growing slightly louder.

The professor read the data feed for a few moments and froze suddenly. "A malfunction, perhaps? No..."

"What's going on? Talk to me, Professor!"

Without so much as a single response, the German shot over to his whiteboard and started to work a convoluted and incomprehensible equation of some kind. As he approached the end, he stopped and sketched a rudimentary drawing of Earth.

A nameless fear awoke in my heart as he drew a circle around the North American continent. After a few more tense moments, he drew an X on the upper corner of the continental U.S.

"Seattle? No, that cannot be correct."

He double-checked his math, reworking the equation to confirm whatever his findings were.

Same result.

"Dammit, Professor! What the hell is happening?" I yelled.

Rosenthal paused, took a deep breath, and said something that sent an icy chill through my spine.

"Aaron, somebody replicated the portal to Earth."

"What?! Do we have any locations or anything yet?"

"According to my sensor data, the entry point is within Mountain Glenn's borders. The exit point is somewhere in the vicinity of Seattle. I am afraid that we have no additional information beyond that."

A sinking feeling emerged in my gut as I thought over what had just been said. A defenseless city of more than 650,000 people was about to be overrun with ravenous Grimm. The death toll would be enormous if someone didn't stop the attack in time.

We couldn't let this happen.

I couldn't let this happen.

I knew what I had to do.

A/N: Well, things are starting to get intense. As always, feel free to review and leave your thoughts and critiques if you so desire.

See you next chapter!