Rio Skyron- don't worry about the Cardin thing. I'm not one to bully characters very much. As for the cinder-madara thing, I've always thought Raven was a closer parallel. Putting aside the appearances, they both prioritize strength and power of everything else, denouncing the weak and acknowledging the strong. That's my take on it.

Guest- well, Wicasta Lovelace once said "You can always judge a man not by his friends, but by the quality of his enemies. A good man will never have enemies who are anything but petty and childish. A bad man will have enemies that are legion. He who dislikes a man reveals much about the man himself." Besides, if you can think of a way to make the story more interesting, I'm all ears.

Chapter 11

Unknown Location

"Uh, Mr. Torchwick, there's someone on the phone for you. Someone named… uh… ashes?" a henchmen in black said, handing a Scroll to the orange haired criminal. As the henchman left, Roman rolled his eyes and put the Scroll to his ear.

"Oh good grief, what do they want now?" he complained, having nowhere near the courage to say it aloud. "Y'ello, it's me," he greeted his caller.

"Roman, forget about the next robbery." the woman on the other end, Cinder Fall, commanded. "We have a new objective for you."

"Really? I uh, I had everything set up already though. It wouldn't take too long to sweep the place clean out-"

"This takes precedence. You will oversee a large shipment of dust from the White Fang in Vale, to one of our locations. Make sure nothing goes wrong, and make sure those animals stay in their places. You have permission to do whatever you have to, but try to not cause any unnecessary commotion that would alert the authorities." and with that last order, there was a high pitched beep, signifying that the connection had been terminated.

Putting down the Scroll, and placing both of his black gloved hands on the table in front of him, Roman sighed heavily. "Always ordering me around." he growled lightly. "Oh well, I'm alive, and can do whatever I want most of the time. Besides, things won't be this way forever."

Roman held up his Scroll and turned it on. The criminal then began watching a video that he had recorded on it: footage of a certain black haired boy, tearing apart Grimm, small and large, with ease. "That kid… those skills… I could use someone like that." he smirked, "Let's head out of here, before we get into any more trouble."

Almost completely invisible in the shadows,, someone behind Torchwick nodded silently, before vanishing with a gleeful smile on their face.

Team RWBY room

"Hmm…" Ruby hummed, switching between skimming through her history textbook and staring blankly at her history homework. "Hey, Weiss, why did General Steele attack uh… Brigg's Fortress?"

"What?!" Weiss barked. "Ruby, I'm not going to tell you. You need to read it yourself. It's in the third reading section."

"I've looked through every single word. None of the chapter says anything about this guy!" Ruby countered, leaping down from her bed to present her evidence to Weiss, who was sitting at her desk. "Take a look for yourself."

Weiss, surprised that Ruby actually had her book open, decided to take the time to aid her team leader. Unfortunately, her analytical gaze quickly turned to one of disappointment. The white haired girl sighed heavily, before deadpanning as she looked at the her junior.

"Ruby… you're in the wrong chapter. This is chapter three, the homework you're doing is for chapter two." Weiss said in a flat tone.

"Wait what?!" Ruby exclaimed, prompting a snicker from her blonde sister from across the room. "No way! I asked Blake during class to check that it these were the right pages. Oh man I read more than I needed to!" she complained, turning her head to the cat-like teammate. "Blake, you gave me the wrong pages."

"Oh, my bad." she replied in passing, not even turning her head to Ruby.

"Sounds like you're a bit off your game there." Yang commented.

"I'm a bit preoccupied right now." Blake excused herself coldly, causing the air within the room to fall still.

"Blake, you've been pretty distant lately. Is there something going on?" Ruby asked. "You know you can talk to us. We're your teammates."

"Thanks, but this is something I have to do alone." Blake declined, putting away her book and standing up. "I'm going out for a while… later." Blake walked to the room door, opening it as she passed through and closing it behind her. With her no longer present, the three remaining girls looked at one another and spoke quietly.

"Well that was weird, even for Blake." Yang said, sitting up on her bed. "It's like… I don't know how to explain it." Yang said, scratching her head.

"Yeah, she's definitely hiding something important from us, but I doubt she'd tell us." Weiss mentioned.

"Let's ask Madara then." Ruby suggested. "He knows everything… and I mean everything."

"That sounds a bit exaggeration. I mean, he's good, but not even he could read minds." Weiss remarked doubtfully.

"Might as well try," Yang shrugged. "Madara has a talent for figuring things out faster than anyone else. Heck, if I had something like that, maybe I'd be able to fi-" suddenly, the blonde stopped talking. She literally froze, prompting Ruby and Weiss to look concerned. "A-anyways, let's go check with him. He probably also noticed." as if on cue, there was a buzzing sound coming from beneath Yang's blanket. It wasn't some obscure device not suitable for children though, luckily. Upon moving the sheets, the blonde teenager found her Scroll with a new message.

"What's it say, who's it from?" Ruby asked.

"Uh… anonymous, and it says 9 30 N Hbr" Yang read aloud. "Oh wait, I know that kind of messaging. Looks like Madara wants us at the North Harbor at 9:30… I wonder why… well, we'll find out soon enough I guess." with a shrug, Yang put away her Scroll

"Is it really the smartest thing to do, to just sit and wait? This seems pretty suspicious. This may be related to Blake. The sooner we find her the better." Weiss pointed out skeptically.

"Of course we're not gonna just laze around." Yang answered. "He should know that Ruby and I never really listen to him by now." she laughed. "But we have a few hours before anything would be happening. So for now, we might as well do whatever. Ruby?" she asked, looking at her little sister.

"Sounds good." Ruby replied. "Actually, since we have time, can we get something to eat? I'm really hungry." she said, pointing to her rumbling stomach.

"How in the world do these siblings function? My family is nothing like this. It's like they barely care… no, that's not it. It's something else. Wait, does that mean that mine is the weird one?" Weiss wondered, before shaking her head of the thought. "No, absolutely not. They are definitely the abnormal ones."

City Sidewalk

"What should I do now?" the raven haired boy thought as he walked down the sidewalk. For the past hour or so, he had been exploring and cataloging as much of the city as possible, greatly assisted by the use of his shadow clones. Arguably, it was the most useful jutsu created by Tobirama Senju, not just for combat, but also reconnaissance. "Hmm, maybe I should intercept the White Fang before they can reach their meeting point… but they would become far more cautious. I will just have to wait until things actually start. I guess I will return to my r-"

Madara's train of thought, along with his movement, was suddenly halted as a girl passed him. Or at least, a "girl" is what it appeared to be on the outside. Her hair was bright orange, like Nora's, but with a pink hair bow. She wore a white blouse under short gray feminine overalls, and a pair of black stockings, each with a single green line running vertically down the sides. All things considered, she appeared like a normal person, for citizens of Vale that is, but her appearance wasn't what put him off.

Every human being, whether they realized it or not, gave off an aura. This wasn't the physical manifestation of a huntsmen's soul. This was a metaphysical aura, a manifestation created from the array of emotions every human has. Most can't see the aura of another person, but can see what it's made of by interacting with that person. However, some people, through training, can see this intangible substance. Madara, having lived an entire life of combat and trained to analyze every aspect of a battle, was one such person. This girl beside him, had no such aura. The smile on her face was empty, as if it was just pasted on like a sticker. Her eyes were blank as possible.

"What… is she?" Madara thought to himself, staring blankly at the "girl".

"Umm… may I help you?" the girl asked in a, surprisingly, normal voice and tone.

Realizing that he was staring awkwardly, Madara quickly shook his head, before recomposing himself. "Excuse me, there was just something I was distracted with." he said calmly.

"Oh! I see then. Is there any way that I can be of assistance?" she asked with a curious look.

"...tell me your name."

"My name?" she repeated, pointing to herself, and Madara nodded. "My name is Penny Polendina. I'm a student at Atlas Academy. It is a pleasure to meet you!" Penny introduced herself, extending her hand out to the boy. He returned the gesture, and the two irregulars shook hands. "What might your name be?"

"Madara Uchiha, Beacon Academy." Madara replied. "You're from Atlas huh? Then what are you doing in Vale?" he asked.

"I am here to explore the kingdom, as well as prepare for the Vytal Festival. My father wants to be sure that I am ready for combat. Unfortunately, he will not believe me when i say it. What about you, Madara?"

"I… don't know at the moment. You could say that I'm waiting for something to happen, but that won't be true until a later time." he wasn't lying, he was waiting for Blake to take action, but she wouldn't be able to until the White Fang operation actually started. In the meantime, he had absolutely nothing to do. "Penny, would you mind if I were to accompany you? I would like to learn about you." he asked, wanting an opportunity to study this anomaly in front of him.

"A~bsolutely!… wait a minute. Does this make us... friends?" Penny asked, as if she had never used the word before in her life.

"I suppose it could." he guessed. "If that's what you would like to call it, then we're friends now."

"Fantastic!" Penny cheered, raising her arms into the air. "I've never had a friend before. This would make you my first friend ever." Madara chuckled at the girl's declaration, though she didn't know why. Her statement wasn't too unlike Madara himself, in fact. Excluding his new family, the first and last friend he had was from decades ago.

"Well, Penny, lead the way." he offered. Penny nodded, and continued on her path back the way he came. Shrugging, Madara followed close behind.

After about two minutes, Madara had determined something for certain. There was something very off about her movements, only noticeable now after actually paying attention to her. The way she moved her arms and walked was all too perfect. There was no excess energy being used as she moved. They were fluid, like a technique practiced countless times, or like a wielder of the Straight Tomoe Mangekyou. Her eyes were very clearly green, and she didn't look like a martial artist.

With her back turned, and nobody else paying attention to him, Madara was in the clear. He closed his obsidian black colored eyes for a second, and reopened them as sharingan.

"Incredible." was all the black haired boy could think as he scanned her body. The pathways in which her aura flowed from her core to the rest of her body was far too organized to be human. They appeared like wiring used for electrical transfer in machinery. The aura itself, seemed to not be coming from her heart, but the center of her chest. "A machine with a human soul, advanced enough to appear completely human. Were I a normal civilian, I would have passed it off with no more than a glance. Whoever created it must have access to massive amounts of resources. Given her previous statement, it was created for combat. I look forward to being the first to witness." Madara mused, smiling with interest.

"Excuse me, Madara?" Penny turned her head to the side, looking at Madara while still walking straight. "You said you were waiting for an event. In return, may I join you as well?"

Madara looked off into space for a minute, trying to decide whether bringing her would be the best idea. On one hand, it would be a good chance to observe a new development. On the other hand, however, if she truly isn't prepared for combat, she could be put in serious danger. Weighing the options in both hands, Madara made his his decision.

"Do as you wish, just don't get in the way." He answered. "Though, I look forward to seeing your potential, Penny."

END