Chapter 12: Say Hello to GREN's newest addition!

Gaige sighed as she, Erica, and Nash were busy watching the sparring match between Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester. In Gaige's modest opinion, Jaune was completely and utterly fucked. He kept trying to whittle Cardin down with weak blows while not blocking or evading the heavy weight strikes that Cardin unleashed on the blonde. It was like watching a pyscho midget going against a super bad-ass goliath that was five levels above it; the only difference was that both were (hopefully) sane.

Jaune was on the last leg of his aura reserve, with Cardin with a healthy, almost untouched, reserve. Gaige wondered if Jaune had only faced off against Grimm; apparently he devised the strategy that ended the Deathstalker during JNPR's and RWBY's initiation. If so, it could explain was Jaune was fumbling about; he hadn't faced against someone who clearly sparred regularly. But then again, how would Jaune have gotten into Beacon if he didn't spar against other people that he surely would've had to have done in combat schools?

Gaige watched as Cardin finished the fight with an aura infused strike against Jaune, depleting Jaune down to 1/3 of his starting aura. Gaige ignored Glynda's commentary about the fight, seeing as how Gaige knew that Jaune should've been a bit more cautious and more aware of his aura reserve. But something was nagging Gaige's mind, and it was finally time to ask what was on her mind to her other teammates.

"Guys, where the hell is Robert?" Gaige asked. Both Nash and Erica shrugged.

"He isn't my partner, so I didn't pay much attention to where he was," Erica replied. "Though if I recall, he wasn't in our dorm when we woke up, was he?" Nash shook his head.

"Nope, in fact I don't recall Robert coming back to the dorm after classes yesterday," Nash said. "I don't know what Robert is up to; if I had to guess, he found some new hobby to pour his time into and simply forgot to go to bed and come to classes."

"Does he do that often?" Erica asked. Nash chuckled.

"Yeah, I remember him when he first got into modeling and he would spend hours at a time building his miniatures and his tanks, forgetting things like eating, sleeping, until someone made him remember what he was supposed to be doing."

"Really?"

"Really, I mean one time he was up for an entire week prepping, building, painting, applying a finish to a model of a cruiser that he made himself. Odd thing was that no one had bothered him during that week."

"No, I meant that he built models; really? Could he do something other than building plastic models? Seriously, does he have any idea about some more… modern forms of entertainment?" Erica asked. However, Nash rushed her, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Don't, whatever you do, don't get Robert back into online gaming!" Nash urged Erica. "He was the epitome of a raging gamer, constantly yelling and breaking shit due to the things that frequently occurred online. Anything you can think of is fine, just not that!"

Gaige sighed as her two other teammates got sidetracked from the task of figuring out where Robert was.

"Look, you guys can worry about Robert's hobby after we figure out where he is," Gaige interrupted Erica's and Nash's conversation, before she was promptly interrupted by her growling stomach. "Oookay, after we also eat lunch."

"Alright sum bitches, give me some good news!" Handsome Jack commanded. He, along with twenty other individuals, including Nisha (rocking her sheriff hats like a boss), Wilhelm (reviewing some technical data on his echo device), Roman (smoking a cigar as always), and Junior (who was listening to something one of his goons was reporting), were in a conference room inside a building outside the Vale docks that he quickly had Wilhelm, Nisha, and Junior's goons fortified to serve as Hyperion's FOB.

It wasn't much to look at on first glance, but if one paid close attention it was heavily reinforced. The men guarding the entrances to the building at a typical road block were actually supported by a couple of sentry turrets that would spring up from behind the concrete barriers at a moment's notice. The windows were actually bullet-proof, the doors were reinforced and secured by a 10 digit passcode that also scanned the person's fingerprint and matched their DNA signature to the databased held in the server room. On the roof was a battery of heavy automated missile and flak launchers that were currently hidden under the guise as roof vents. But at the moment, Jack wanted to know the progress Hyperion was making on Remnant, and for that he needed to hear the various reports from his subordinates.

"We have had some success in integrating the Dust engines to various Hyperion Loaders to increase combat effectiveness by 15%. In addition, applying Dust to Hyperion's elemental attributors has allowed from additional effect," reported Dr. Krupp. Jack had acquired Dr. Krupp when the DR (majoring in applied engineering) lost the contract to build Atlas's newest Heavy Support Weapon System, with Atlas choosing Ironwood's Paladins over Dr. Krupp's Schwarze Templar. The Templar had better armor and was able to be configured for a wide range of missions than the Paladins, but sacrificed in mobility and sensors.

"Oh, such as?" Jack said. Dr. Krupp smiled.

"When applying burn crystals to Fire attributors, the resulting rounds act like a mix between napalm and thermite; sticking like napalm and burning through metal like thermite. Arc crystals and electricity create rounds that continue the current to nearby targets, and finally Corrosive attributors have been tested with aero crystals to create a lethal cloud that lingers while still being able to corrode armor away."

"Alright, now that's what I want to hear!" Jack whooped. "Alright, Ms. Wardin, how goes Project Lucifer?" Jack hated having someone he couldn't trust working on Project Lucifer, his top secret plan that he knew that if the Vault Hunters learned of, they would actively seek to sabotage it at any cost. And sadly he needed someone like Ms. Wardin, who had enough knowledge of the Grimm to fill several volumes, to work on the project.

"Project Lucifer is progressing, but nothing positive at the moment," Ms. Wardin replied, pushing her glasses up. "The Grimm you've acquired aren't responding to the slag treatments, and attempts to… recover subject D357R0Y3R have failed. The sixth clone managed to stay alive for eight minutes before dissolving into a pool of goo. However, your initial hypothesis about the Grimm might provide the solution to recovering D357R0Y3R."

"Ah damn it! How much longer Wardin?"

"Perhaps in a month, unless we have younger and better DNA sample to clone D357R03R and if we can unlock the Grimm's ability to be, simply put, unnatural and unrestrained by common physics."

"Fine, fine," Roman said. "Alright, Blake, how goes acquisitions of various companies?" Mr. Blake, while being a manipulative bastard that would work behind his back (such as when he warned Dr. Zed of Hyperion's plans to takeover Fyrestone), but Jack knew of no one that could better exploit capitalism to the fullest than Mr. Blake.

"We've have begun efforts to become majority shareholders in several companies, to include Winchester Arms, Messers and Junks Aero Company, and the mercenary group Waffen Soldat. But surprisingly, I was approached by Heinrich Schnee, CEO of the Schnee Dust Company, with a proposal."

Handsome Jack glanced at Roman, silently waiting for Roman to give his input. Jack hadn't been on Remnant long, but he knew the SDC was easily the most powerful in terms of wealth (and consequently had control of Atlas's government) and that any deal with Heinrich Schnee would mean dealing with someone who was similar to himself. So if this proposal went south, Jack would have to deal with someone who could manipulate a government with the largest standing army in Remnant to take out Jack's currently small (but rapidly rising) army. Jack watched as Roman nod, giving him the encouragement to listen to the proposal.

"What exactly is he proposing?" Jack asked.

"Currently, he wishes to have some Hyperion industrialist experts…'handle' his faunus worker's 'issues', as well as provide some new methods to extracting Dust from his various quarries, in exchange for a monthly shipment of several tons of dust and access to a couple of military prototypes that his engineers are working on…that are under the table and without any military oversight."

"Oh, have you seen what they are like?" Blake, instead of answering, motioned to Wilhelm to answer.

"I examined the designs, they fill a void that Hyperion hasn't been able to fill out adequately," Wilhelm explained. "If we can get the design into mass production, we can provide our ground troops with an unrelenting amount of aerial firepower that would make short work of any resistance we could encounter. Plus, it might make up for the fact we can't at this moment bring in the Helios station over Remnant."

"Alright fine, Blake, Wilhelm, make sure the deal with the SDC goes through. Junior, any word about Ms. Asimov's movement?"

"Still hiding behind that veritable fortress Beacon, so no, the plans to capture her haven't gotten underway," Junior answered. "If we have a way into Beacon, then perhaps we could try and capture her, but it's unlikely. The best chance we have of successfully capturing her is to wait until she leaves that place and ends up in Vale. Cops are easily bribed, so if needed we can bribe them to look the other way while we make the grab."

"Argh, fine, the capture of Ms. Asimov can wait. Is there anything else we need to discuss?" After a round of heads shaking Jack nodded. "Good, this meeting is adjourned; get back to your jobs, as at the next meeting I want even better results!"

While GEN were busy looking for him, Robert was in Red Alert status, running around Beacon's ground like his life depended on it. Why, oh, why did his latest attempts to fiddle-fart with his turret and his echo without consulting Gaige have to be this large of a disaster?! A glitch that caused his turret to jam, a malfunction that caused the turret to detonate after firing a salvo, anything would've been less severe than this disaster of a situation! And why or why did it have to take the form it did?! Couldn't life stop fucking with him!? If Nash saw 'it', Nash would never, ever let him live it down, never mind the fact he would use it to get even with him for letting Gaige throw him to Yang.

"Damn it, where the hell is it?!" Robert cursed. "It couldn't have gotten that far; it was only active for perhaps a hour or two, when I fell asleep. Curses, I shouldn't have stayed up and not wait for Gaige! I know I can fix the issue, but first I must find it!"

Robert sprinted down a hallway, only to reach a fork. He paused, debating which path would get him closer to finding 'it'. If he went left, it would lead to the dormitory and the cafeteria. While he could understand why 'it' would go that way, he had no reason to be concerned except that a shit ton of people would see his latest mistake, and he was certain that he would be massacred. However, if he went right, it would lead to Beacon's forges and eventually air terminal, where god only knows what could happen. Faced with two shitty situations, Robert scrunched his face before going left.

"Fuck it, better if it gets broken than if everyone sees it and tries to murder me; I don't need to be like Nash after Yang got to him." He shudders as he goes left, hoping like hell he went the right way.

"So this is Vale eh? I like it!" Clapton said excitedly, pumping his fist into the air. Next to him was Penny and their two bodyguards, aptly named Red and Blue for their respective uniform's highlight lines and visor colors. Penny would've been excited, had it not been for her 'brother'.

"Clapton, please don't do what it is that I think you are going to do," Penny urged him. "Please? I don't want to have to explain to father why you were throw into jail on our first day in Vale." Clapton looked at Penny, raising an eyebrow.

"What, why do you think I would be thrown into jail?" Clapton asked, raising his hands in a non-threatening manner. "And why on the first day?" Penny sighed, deciding to recount three short but sufficient events that would likely get Clapton sent to jail.

~Event Number One~

"Hey sexy, can I have your number?" Clapton asked a lab assistant. Penny cringed, knowing how her brother would react at getting rejected.

"No, because I don't date robots and because you're a pervert," the assistant replied. "Now, get out of my face, and quit staring at my chest you pervert!"

"Oh c'mon, you don't know that!" Clapton replied. "I'm not a pervert, a pervert wouldn't be able to talk to women and not be easily distracted by…round….supple…titties." Penny, noticing her 'brother's' slowing speech, looked at what he was looking at, only to face palm. Yes, because ogling the blonde assistant that frequently trailed Ironwood was totally proving the point.

~Event Number Duce~

"Seriously, it wasn't my fault that those people jumped in front of the car!" Clapton argued. Penny and Clapton, due to reasons as yet unknown to Penny, were given driving lessons via a VR simulator. Leading to this confrontation.

"You ran over four families!" yelled Dr. Freeman.

"They still jumped in front of the car, so not my fault!"

"They were on the sidewalk sitting on benches at the time of the collision!"

"Well then, I must sadly admit I did lose control…"

"Bullshit! We got footage from inside the cabin of you; what was it you said? Oh right, ahem, 'Booya Mutha Fucker, familicide combo. That baby was worth a times five multiplier!'"

Clapton remained silent for a moment, before stating his final argument.

"Are you sure that was me, or did your tapes mysteriously and might I say quite conveniently got overwritten by twenty four hours of girl on girl action?"

Penny still had the image in her mind of Clapton sailing through the roof by Freeman's uppercut.

~Event Number Drei~

Shortly after the driver simulator, Penny and Clapton were informed that they would be heading to Vale shortly. As such, the two were given a break from learning social standards, which while Clapton seemed to get the gist of it better than her, she wasn't, as Ironwood once said, 'the worse combination of a hormonal teenager, manipulator, and pervert'.

However, she couldn't relax, having some feeling that somewhere, somehow, Clapton was up to no innocent fun. She made sure to lock the door to her room, as she wanted to ensure she was not in anyway in the cross fire. She had only manage to close the door, lock the deadbolt, and push her dresser in the door before the booming voice of a highly irritated General Ironwood was heard.

"CLAPTON! YOU'VE FUCKED UP NOW!" Ironwood roared. Penny wondered what had Ironwood so mad. She would shortly find out.

"I'm sorry Mr. Ironwood, I didn't expect anything to come of publishing and sending your diary to Ms. Goodwitch would result in any complications; I thought I was helping you out mate, HONEST!" Clapton shrieked. Penny winced as she heard what she suspected was a desk colliding into a wall.

"YOU ruined any future I might've had with Glynda, you perverted amateurish PRICK! There's a reason diaries are personal; they contain shit the writer doesn't want to get out to the public but needs to get out of their head. I will find you and I will wring the ever living shit out of you!"

Penny sighed; Clapton needed to know where the boundaries lied. Alas, as his next statement would prove, Clapton doesn't know, nay, couldn't comprehend the meaning of boundaries.

"Mr. Ironwood, I didn't think Ms. Glynda would oppose your idea of having her being a dominatrix while you were bound and gagged! I thought she would've been turned on and came after you!" Penny heard a couple of the lab's staff members gasp, followed shortly thereafter by a thunderous roar.

"CLAPTON!"

~Back to the present~

"C'mon, I've gotten better," Clapton retorted. "I've learned not to go snooping around other people's private affairs. And I did get better at driving." Penny shook her head.

"Clapton, first off, you're not allowed to drive except under extreme circumstances where mine or the being of other people is immediately in danger, and second, everyone at the lab has updated their security software to stop you from getting onto their computers." Clapton rubbed his chin.

"Huh, that must explain why when I tried to log onto the computer today I had to wait ten minutes before it loaded up," Clapton said. "Note to self, must work around safety protocols to access the internet. But anyway Penny, where to first?"

Penny shrugged. While unexpected, Penny's interaction with Clapton made her, according to Dr. Freeman, 'more human' and wasn't as awkward as she was when she was first brought online. She however was more machine than man, and instead of going for a note in say her pocket, she instead began scrolling her internal databanks for her pergorative.

"Well, Dr. Freeman and Dr. Clemens have ordered us to explore Vale prior to the Vytal Festival, although no conditions were set other than to keep our nature a secret and for you to wait until Ironwood has given you the all clear to meet up with Ms. Asimov."

"Wait, does that mean we don't have to be together?" Clapton asked. Penny, not realizing what doom she was about to unleash, nodded.

"Yeah, nothing states that we have to travel together, why do you…" Penny turned back to where Clapton had been, only to see a piece of paper drifting down to the ground. Wondering what it was, Penny grimaced as she read the note.

Because you said we didn't have to go everywhere together, I decided to explore the human interactions at a club, to better understand what humans do while under the influence of various substences. See ya later!

-Clapton.

PS: Don't tell either doctors or the General, it will ruin the nature of the obersavation.

While a normal person might've seen the dangers poised by someone who was in essence a 21 year old highly hormonal male going to a club, Penny, being naïve as she was, didn't.

"Huh, that seems odd, but makes sense. Perhaps I should round it out by visiting places where humans don't fall under the influence, perhaps the boardwalk would be a good place to start," Penny said, blissfully unaware of the hell she had unleashed.

"Fuck, it isn't in here it seems," Robert muttered. "Oh well, better try the…"

"Oi Robert, the hell mate!?" Nash said, surprising the ever living shit out of Robert. "Where the hell have you been? Gaige, Erica, and I have been looking for you, only to see you in the cafeteria. So what gives?"

"Oh, er, nothing in particular, just needed to grab a bite to eat before I-" Robert had been hoping to flush out an excuse, except unfortunately for him, Gaige got up in his face.

"Robert, you missed out on Glynda's combat class, and we haven't seen you in a while, so don't try and bullshit me, or else I will let Erica try out Cleansing Flame on your beloved turrets," Gaige threaten. Robert nearly jumped out of his skin at the mention of his turrets, but he managed to keep it to a mere muscle twitch in his smile.

"Oh, okay, look, I was working on… upgrading my turrets outside of your ECHO device, and I forgot the time," Robert said, withholding the whole truth. He wasn't stupid enough to tell the whole truth, that would mean a summary firing squad, and they would look to prolong the inevitable. They being the entire female body of Beacon.

"I see, but seriously, why did you have to miss class, and why didn't you respond to any of our messages?" Gaige continued. Robert shrugged.

"Well, I generally turn off all forms of communications when I work on my turrets, so I probably just forgot to turn my scroll and echo back on, as for class, well, I ended up power napping, so I was in a rush to finish my turret." He saw the other nod in understanding, letting him to mentally breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe it won't end so badly for me, Robert thought to himself. Such a poor thought to have for anyone in the business of 'life-or-death affairs'.

"So, let's hang out with RWBY and JNPR for lunch," Gaige said. "I wonder what they are up to."

"Who knows, probably talking to Jaune about his performance in class," Erica replied. "I felt that the fight was heavily in favor of Cardin."

"It was, even though Jaune should've had the advantage considering a sword and shield combo should've outperformed a pure mace build. Maces are quite strike heavy and not suited for engagements where the opponent is more mobile and fast striking," Nash supplied. GREN arrived at JNPR's and RWBY's table, to see the nature of the conversation; Jaune's torture at the hand of Cardin.

"C'mon guys, name one time he has bullied me," Jaune stated. GREN's member couldn't help but think of a couple of instances they saw that they were pretty sure the others weren't stating.

Robert thought of the instance were Cardin had put a slow drying superglue onto Jaune's sword Croce Mors. When Jaune had gripped the hilt, Cardin 'offered' Jaune a helping hand with getting rid of the 'mysterious substance' only to hit Jaune's hands with a superglue activator. Jaune then went to the bathroom, needing to 'take care of business'. The screams of male anguish caused all the men in the school (save team CRDL) to wince in utter sympathy.

Erica and Nash meanwhile remembered when Cardin had somehow manage to find a toilet paper brand laced with poison ivy and placed the roll in JNPR's bathroom. Somehow, much to Erica's and Nash's surprise, only Jaune managed to get the affected toilet paper. As such, for a couple of weeks, it wasn't uncommon for Jaune to see walking around ass puckered trying to not get the urge to itch.

Gaige was going to recall the incident involving the school's forge when Jaune, having enough of his team and RWBY pointing out Cardin's behavior, decided to unleash a rather sad trump card.

"Look, I'm not the only one he bullies!" Jaune pointed out, indicating to GREN, RWBY, and JNPR team CRDL abusing Velvet Scarlatina, a second year Faunus student, making fun of her heritage and pulling on her ears.

"How disgusting of them," Blake said. Gaige cracked her knuckles, as did Yang and Nora.

"I think we should teach them a lesson," Gaige said. Nora meanwhile smiled like the quiet psychopath she was.

"We can break their legs!" Nora exclaimed. Jaune would've told Nora not to do that, and Robert would've tried to get Gaige to back down, but something prevented this. That something was none other than a massive explosion.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Cardin Winchester, Beacon's resident douchebag, yelled out, being flung along with the rest of his team into the opposite wall. Velvet only managed to avoid the explosion as she had perceived the incoming threat before anyone did and got the hell out of dodge. Everyone in the cafeteria began looking around, looking for the assailant when another smashing barrage came in.

"OKAY, SERIOUSLY, THAT FUCKING HURTS!" Cardin screamed, his body being flung this time into the ceiling. "WHO THE FUCK DARES TO ATTACK ME?!"

Robert, very correctly, began to shiver, fearing for his life. He prayed to all the gods in the Remnant pantheon for what he unleashed to not…

"That would be me, the mighty USS Nebraska, at your service!"

…God damn it to all hell, Robert thought, turning his head, as did everyone else, to the owner of the voice. Standing proudly at the entrance of the cafeteria was a tall and slim blonde girl with sapphire blue eyes wearing a white tank top and daisy duke shorts, which might've looked inappropriate, if it wasn't overshadowed by the four massive battleship-like turrets that seemed to come from her back, with a number of smaller turrets of multiple barrel weapons on what seemed to be the hull of a warship coming to wrap around her. To finish off her look was a massive tower that seemed to be the command superstrurce of a battleship.

"Holy hell, how is she walking around with all that guns?" Yang asked, awestricken by the sheer amount of firepower the girl had. It was then that Jaune, Ruby, and Gaige seemed to come to a common conclusion.

"Wait, doesn't Robert have a turret system as a weapon?" posed Ruby.

"Yeah he does," Jaune answered. Gaige made the connection the other two were getting at, turning to glare at Robert.

"Hey Robert what exactly were you doing with your turrets?" Gaige asked. Robert began to sweat, which only got worse by what Nebraska then said.

"Oh Admiral Moran, I've found you!" Nebraska said, before rushing over. However, before she could proceed to hug (ahem, crush) her creator, she was seemingly stopped by a purple chain. To Robert's dismay, Glynda was coming.

"Mr. Moran, I hope you have a completely responsible, respectable, and honest answer as to why…Ms. Nebraska here is walking around and assaulting a fellow team?"

Robert began crying a trail of tears; the end was nigh for him.

Author's Note: God damn it, I hate having the ability to push myself to write. I don't want to write shit, but I also want to get new content to you guys out. It's a shitty cycle that happens enough that it gets on my nerve. Anyway onto some points.

Yes, because it clearly is a reference to Kantai Collection, I must state this point; I don't own Kantai collection, for if I did it would readily be available in the US and abroad. That said, this was where I was going with Robert's turrets. His name is actually from my own family, one of my great-great(great?) uncles, whose name was Robert Moran, owned the Moran Brothers Shipbuilding Company along with his three other brothers and they did build a number of warships for the US navy, including BB-14 USS Nebraska, a Virgina class battleship. So this was always the plan was for Robert to make his turrets into a person. However, Nebraska isn't capable of producing Aura, so getting that out of the way.

In addition, most of this chapter was to cover a lot of uncovered ground. Where and what Claptrap was up to Jack's plans. Not much else to say, so onto some reviews.

Xbox432: Thanks for the compliments, but as to your question about shipping, I decided on someone, because of who they would remind Gaige of a lot; Angel. Someone who isn't in complete control of her actions, who is being manipulated by those that she should be able to trust. If you can piece that together, please keep quiet for those that don't want spoilers.

Slack101: Yes, Yang was in her birthday suit, behold the glory, one that is brighter than the sun!

Anyway, that's all for now. Look forward to more craziness coming in the future, including classic Claptrap! As always, please read, follow, favorite, and review. Until next time.