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Chapter 39: A New Reproach
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Opportunity, the city of dreams, the city that Hyperion owned and the city that Hyperion had brainwashed laid out in front of Team ATAK. They had arrived in the city center after driving for multiple miles away from Mantle and breaking through an outer defense wall. It had been a bumpy and uneventful ride. Adam Branwen called the rest of the team's attention to an Atlas airship leaving the vicinity of obscenity known as Helios post-haste. It would appear that the team of Huntsmen were too late. Whoever was aboard Helios had left with some Atlas officials. They were too late. Regardless, Team ATAK headed up the 37 or so flights of stairs into the lobby of Helios. They had driven this far and wanted some kind of reward.
Team ATAK found within the aforementioned 'Hall of Heroism' a strange buffet table laden with delicacies from Atlas and several abandoned 'Gift Baskets' most likely from Atlas as well. Some of the baskets beheld weapon parts, some other ones had some toiletries within them. There wasn't anyone of interest inside of the Hall of Heroism except a small Hyperion Clapper robot, which nobody had any interest in talking to at the moment. Hyperion Robots were barely literate and had the same level of intelligence as a fencepost. Regardless, Minstrel approached the small robot and asked what everyone was already thinking.
"So... Where's Jaune Arc?", Minstrel posed.
"Helloooo Traveler! You're a little late to the Welcoming Party! Handsome Jaune has already left. There are still party favors and food if you're feeling peckish!", the robot exclaimed in an overly happy tone.
"What's going on here?", Minstrel prodded.
"A Welcoming Party, duh! Welcome to Titania, stereotypical Huntsmen team and Wanted Terrorists: Alabaster 'The White Death' Blanche and Adam Taurus! Please make yourselves at home until our wonderful CEO Handsome Jaune returns from his meeting in Atlas!", the small robot noted.
"Well, they know who we are... Maybe we should just wait?", Jonk mused. Everyone just stared at the bizarre turn of events.
"I guess. There isn't anything else to do.", Minstrel concluded.
"Hap!", the colorful mute, Timmy, exclaimed.
Team ATAK and MRJJ simply took to wandering around the Hall of Heroism and taking in all the horrible propaganda that Jaune Arc had fabricated somehow within the last few hours. Jaune Arc had some kind of mental problem, as it was becoming more and more apparent.
X
Far outside in the snowy tundras beyond the perimeter of Mantle, a strange duo began to climb out of their ramshackle boat they had stolen from someone named 'Ahab', who had claimed to have seen sights of a Grimm Whale which had eaten his leg and forced him to replace it with a Hyperion prosthetic and thusly hold a grudge against the massive mythical beast.
"This Hyperion-owned prosthesis is what propels me! Thrust your harpoon in the sky! It's also a gun, by the way... Grimm Whale! Holy Grail!", the strange man, Ahab, had announced before he was unceremoniously thrown overboard by the duo which consisted of a Bull Faunus and some kind of woman-shaped monster.
"We have come to a precipice, my dear... We have reached Atlas.", the woman-shaped thingy noted.
"We are not in Atlas. We are in a snowy tundra. Atlas is miles away.", the Faunus corrected.
"It matters not, I am more human than human and more beast than the beasts of the tundra. I have lived and died, survived, and I am so much more than everything else. The Queen knows not what she wants. But I do... I know so much more...", the woman-shaped doohickey monologued.
"I'm sure you do. I'm only concerned about finding my traitorous brother. I will help you for now, Cinder... Thing.", the Faunus noted.
"As you should, my dear Fjord. There is a special place in the world I shall create just for you. Now, I've got a few bullets to put in that charlatan who calls himself 'Handsome'...", Cinder Thing mused.
Fjord Taurus just shrugged. It could be worse, and it would be a lot better if he didn't have this woman-shaped monster, half-grimm and half-human, twisted by pure spite and fueled by rage dragging him around.
Cinder had been turned to Grimm by her own curse, shot with the power of a Silver Eyed Warrior and un-Grimmed, shot repeatedly by some idiot in a mask shaped like his own face, and reborn out of sheer spite. Only her face was still recognizable as what she had been called long ago, Cinder Fall. Her body was twisted, still in its Grimm form with claws and back-bent knee joints, but where the bony plates and black flesh had been, it had been replaced with blood-red exposed human tendons, bone seemed to stick out in places. With all intents and purposes, Cinder shouldn't have even been alive, but out of sheer rage and spite, had powered through and defeated even death itself and had become something far worse. No longer a Maiden, not a Grimm and definitely not human anymore, what remained was driven by a force that was nearly unstoppable. Fjord Taurus was scared for the first time in his life.
"I can taste the suffering, Fjord. I powers me... I want it so bad. It feels so good... We must feed, Fjord. I can sense them...", Cinder Thing gasped. Her voice was raw and raspy, inhuman and twisted like her form.
Fjord just nodded and began to follow. The poor people of Mantle would never see the jaws of the beast before it swallowed them whole.
X
High in the skies above Mantle, an airship soared through the air towards its shining destination. The cabin was loud and raucous, the many similar Huntsmen on board talked about their troubles and how the lifestyle had changed them over the years. There were eight newly licensed Huntsmen, four elite Huntsmen from Atlas itself, a very confused farm boy, a very drunken crow and the odd man out, Rhames Greyblood.
The airship itself was piloted by a well renown rebel named Hanz Ohlo, an Atlas native and so-called smuggler. Him alongside his massive hairy dog, piloted the ramshackle aircraft towards the Atlas Academy, a shining beacon and flying sanctuary for the upper class. The airship, known as the Centennial Eagle, seemingly struggled with the weight of its passengers moving around constantly. Hanz Ohlo had been pardoned recently, as he had been looking at several years in the Atlas gulag for 'smuggling' various supplies out of Atlas and through their barricade. Atlas hadn't anticipated the clever pilot to fly north, over the topside of the world and around the globe to the southern hemisphere. The infamous pilot had been officially pardoned and made an honorary citizen of Atlas following his actions during the Battle of Haven, Captain Reynolds of the Tranquility had also been made a citizen as well, although that is another story.
"Hey, kids! Ya gotta stop moving around so much! I can barely fly here!", Ohlo shouted from the cockpit. Nobody seemed to hear him. He sighed long and hard. "Shh. It's okay, Bitey. They're just like that haul of cattle we carried last week."
Bitey, the large hairy dog of unknown breed, just let out a growl of annoyance and resumed assisting Hanz Ohlo pilot the ship. It wasn't entirely clear how Bitey managed to help fly the ship. Bitey, was in all appearances, a normal hairy dog and not some kind of Faunus despite the fact that he walked on two legs like a human and wore clothing. It didn't really matter to Hanz Ohlo, he was a Faunus Activist despite being a full-blooded human male; he supported the treatment of all with a vengeance.
In the rear passenger compartment of the aforementioned airship, Handsome Jaune was showing off his skills again; predicting the 'future' and being a charismatic asshole as usual. Qrow and Ozcar distanced themselves from the rabble and sat alone.
"This is a strange circumstance, Qrow. The children are all over the place. Jaune is a major concern. His sanity slippage was noted upon his enrollment to Beacon and has finally come to a head.", Ozcar posed.
"Ehh, the kid's always been a little off, Oz. We can just add patricide to his record. At least Pyrrha seems to be in control. The kid won't disobey her for whatever reason. I dunno. Maybe it's the booze talking.", Qrow mused drunkenly.
"Yes, we can, however, the children seem to be more apprehensive to my master plan. Things seemed to change abruptly after the Battle of Haven. I'm not sure if we an trust them anymore. Perhaps I will have to reveal myself to James; I was hoping not to. Perhaps he will be trusting of our plan.", Ozcar stated.
"Oh, James will be on board with whatever you have, Oz. I can almost bet he's been stressing out about all of this if he was willing to set up an embargo. He'll be on our side the moment we meet him.", Qrow noted.
"I can only hope that you're right, Qrow.", Ozcar Pin concluded.
Deep within Ozcar's head, though, a farm boy knew that this was probably a bad idea. He wanted to cry out and take control, but couldn't. Ozpin had reinforced the mental cage imprisoning him and had thrown away the proverbial key.
X
It was a few more minutes before the airship had landed on the main docking platform in Atlas. The massive Atlas Academy stood proudly in the distance. As the two teams of licensed Huntsmen disembarked from the airship, a booming voice filled their ears.
"Oh! Friend Ruby! You're here in Atlas! Welcome to Atlas, Friend Ruby! It is so good to see you again!", the voice boomed seemingly coming from everywhere.
"Hello?", Ruby asked. The voice was deep and electronic.
"Oh, Ruby! It's me, Penny. It seems that I have been uploaded into Atlas itself. I am so much more than what I was before. I am an entire city! I'm so glad you could finally visit me!", Pennyopolis announced.
"Ohh! Penny! I missed you! How are you? How did you get to Atlas?", Ruby beamed.
"I don't really know, Ruby. One moment I was meeting the wife of a nice blacksmith, then I was flying back here to Atlas! After a long rest, suddenly I was an entire city! It's so cool, Ruby! I can feel all of you walking all over me like tiny cute caterpillars!", Pennyopolis stated.
Ruby simply stood still for a moment and thought for a moment. A long time ago, back in Patch, the group had begrudginly dragged Penny along with them to Mistral. They'd arrived in a small town and bravely and defended it against Grimm. They'd also managed to burn down half of the forest outside of it as well. At some point around this time, they had left and forgotten about Penny completely. Jaune had actually made the suggestion, which wasn't wrong at the time. Something bizarre had happened if Penny had gotten all the way to Atlas itself and was subsequently uploaded to Atlas' mainframe. Somehow she knew that Jaune and Jaune's secret-agent Uncle had something to do with this, but couldn't prove it.
"Holy shit! Penny!? You're Atlas? Patlas? Pennyopolis!?", Yang exclaimed.
"Yes! I help General Ironwood run the city! It's so cool, there are so many things I can do now. I may not be a girl anymore, but I like being a city! It's a little sad, though, we won't be able to hang out and have fun like we used to.", Pennyopolis stated.
"Penny! We have business with General Ironwood. Please inform him of our arrival immediately. You will have time to speak to your friends when we are finished.", Clover announced.
"Yessir, Operative Clover! I will inform General Ironwood at once. It was good to see you again, Friend Ruby!", Pennyopolis concluded.
Everyone was in a very weird place right now. Strange things had apparently happened during Team RWBYJNPRR's adventures in Argus, Mistral, and Haven. Blake and Weiss idly wondered what else they were missing out on. Only time would tell.
X
It had been a strange few minutes, but Penny had indeed informed Ironwood of their arrival and none other than Winter Schnee had come down to see to them. The other Ice-Princess of the Schnee Dust company seemed her usual cold self, but seemed to warm up slightly when she laid eyes upon her wayward sister, Weiss.
"Weiss. Believe it or not, but Father has been worried about you. You disappeared in the middle of the night, nothing but a broken window and an empty room. We feared the worst. Even little Shitley was worried about you. However, as worried as he was, once Father found out you'd escaped to Mistral, he became furious. You were the one chosen to succeed him and you threw all of that away. What were you thinking!?", Winter snapped.
"Winter, I'm aware of the fact I abandoned the company. I don't care. I'm not becoming the mascot for a ruthless Faunus-enslaving Dust company! I'm a Huntress now. I don't need Father's money or anything else from him. I'm finally free.", Weiss informed.
Winter stood aback for a moment. She hadn't considered Weiss having actual reasons for leaving. She honestly thought her sister was just acting out, as teenagers usually did and would come to her senses eventually.
"You... You're a Huntress!? You've thrown away everything to become a hired gun for the next rebellion!? You... Weiss... I...", Winter stuttered.
"I am. And I do. I don't need Schnee Dust anymore. I don't need Father. I need no one but my Team and my best friends. In fact, I'm not even considering myself a Schnee anymore. I'm taking the surname of Bastards born in Mantle. You can call me Weiss Niveus now, Winter."
"Weiss... We can talk about all of this after... After we speak with the General.", Winter submitted.
Winter didn't say anything else, she simply motioned for the colorful team of misfits to follow her through the oblique and formal halls of the Atlas Academy. The group would get a formal tour at a later time, presumably from Pennyopolis. Right now, they needed to get to General Ironwood's office. The honorable General was expecting them and they were looking forwards to seeing him and informing him of what was going on.
X
Far above in the towers of the Atlas Academy, General Ironwood paced around his office. He was trying not to be nervous. He still remembered those messages from the Violet Crown. Something was going on. He didn't know. He hoped that the two teams from Beacon had something that could explain what had happened. He also hoped that his best friend and mentor, Ozpin was with them. He had so much to discuss.
A few moments earlier, before his constant pacing, Penny had politely informed him of the latter's arrival. He had also heard various rumors that the Mad King himself had been seen wandering the streets of Mantle a few hours earlier. One or the other would eventually find him. He just hoped it was the group of teenage kids instead of the King of the Mad.
A few tense moments later, General Ironwood's doorbell rang. He had wanted Penny to inform him of who was outside via camera feeds, but decided not to; the inherent upload of the robo-girl to the Mainframe was probably a mistake, it was obvious that Penny was still in Alpha-stages of testing and he really didn't need to deal with her overly happy tone right now. The iron-man himself walked to the door and opened it slowly, there wasn't anyone there. He looked around the hall and still didn't see anyone. Perhaps it was his nerves getting to him.
"I'm afraid you're out of luck…", the cold voice said from behind him, in the office, strangely enough.
Ironwood froze for a moment. He knew that voice. He was standing under the full moon of uncertainty right now.
"How! How did you get in here?", Ironwood exclaimed in surprise.
"Ah, I would worry not about such trivial things, General… The winds of change are blowing over your kingdom. Did you get my messages? I surely hope that you took them to heart… For yours shall be lost if you do not heed my warning…", Arden Greyblood, the Mad King noted.
"I did. I got the scribbles of a madman. You're here now, why don't you explain what you meant before I call my guard!", Ironwood commanded.
"How touching. Does the General fear what he cannot perceive? Or what he cannot control? Those that feed on carrion shall feast for a fortnight upon the remains of a king of a frozen throne. I suggest you be wary…", Arden rambled.
Ironwood turned away for a moment in an attempt to grab his Scroll. When he'd turned back around, Arden Greyblood was gone. A red-eyed black vulture stared at him from outside his office's window. It hissed at him before flying off into the night sky. Ironwood just shook his head. Had the Mad King actually been in the room with him or was his paranoia starting to affect his eyes as well as his mind? His eyes wandered to a single black feather on his desk. It was crisp and fresh. James Ironwood nearly jumped out of his uniform as his office's doorbell was rung.
"Who's there!?", Ironwood shouted.
"General!? It's Winter Schnee, I've brought Team RWBY and Team JNPR along with Qrow Branwen and his nephew Oscar and a Huntsman named Rhames like you've asked. Is everything alright in there?", Winter said.
Ironwood breathed a heavy sigh. He was surely going mad right now. He quietly adjusted his uniform and wiped his brow.
"Come in. It's nothing. I was just thinking."
The sleek metal door of Ironwood's office slid open. A group of colorful teenage Huntsmen and three adults stood outside. They calmly entered the room and spread out in a semi-circle around the imposing General.
"Ah, I see. Ruby Rose and her teammates and… Handsome Jaune and his teammates. Qrow and your nephew… Oscar? I don't believe I've met this one yet… Rhames… I'm not sure I've been introduced. Welcome to Atlas. There is much to discuss.", Ironwood stated as calmly as he could. The little group that's always been and always will until the end simply stood at attention in front of him. The winds of change continued to blow upon Ironwood's frozen throne.
Chapter End. Enjoy. More to come. Ta ta for now.
-J. A. Barnesley