Author's Note: Hey guys, I thought I'd start doing review responses, seems easier than the PMs I send since, well, seeing as no one ever responds to them anyway….oh well. Enjoy the chapter.

Combine117: No, not in this story, that would take decades to create such things, and plus Remnant can barely even get into orbit as is. On a further note, of the nations on Earth that went to space, who the fuck gave up after a failure. Atlas seemed to have given up completely after they found out dust didn't work in space and didn't bother to try something else. The plus side means that they probably still have the means to reproduce those rockets and a little bit of adjustments and they could probably just swap the fuel source out….so there's that.

WINTER TERROR: All in good time, also thanks, gives me more ideas on how to shape that later on.

Olav152: You know, you're not the first person to have drawn a comparison to those stories, Here We Go Again in particular. I appreciate it.

DragonflyGaming: The tactical advantage of having stuff in orbit is something that needs to be addressed. Due to Atlas's choices, they chose to rely on the CCT which, when shut off, crippled their entire military, as well as the rest of the world. Had they had an active constellation, they could have at least maintained Comms and GPS seeing as their satellites would be nigh untouchable without orbit capable rockets. I would also imagine that their missile technology is lacking as well, ICBMs (Inter-continental Ballistic Missile) alone need to get into orbit in order to function, cruise missiles rely on either inertial navigation or GPS for guidance. Both are things I don't think Remnant has progressed very far on, I don't know, maybe I am wrong, but evidence shows otherwise.

Scoutusa1: Thanks, always happy to see you.

Beta-read by Karaya 2.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.

Force Application

"Speak softly, and carry a big stick," Theodore Roosevelt.

"Hyah!" Yang growled as she brought up her fists in a cross, catching Robert's sabre in between her gauntlets.

Yang shoves him back and throws a right jab, Robert throws up his left arm and blocks the blow while lunging forward with his sword. Yang parries the blade and lands a quick blow into Robert's face knocking him loose, Robert retreats a few steps and ripostes. It was clear that the two had been at it for a little bit as Robert let out small, controlled pants while Yang bounced off of the balls of her feet.

"Come one soldier boy," Yang taunts, "Don't tell me that's all ya got."

Yang brings her guard back up as she beckons him one with her eyes. Robert slowly circles his opponent, probing her for openings as he glares at her through his tinted glasses.

"Fine," Yang huffs as she cracks her neck, "If you won't go…."

Yang fires off her gauntlets behind her, propelling herself forward, lunging at him with a right, overhead haymaker. Robert immediately drops down and springs off of his feet, charging into Yang. While still in motion, he blocks the oncoming blow with his left arm, quickly slashes Yang across her belly. Yang's forward momentum continues to carry her forward as Robert sidesteps and thrusts into her back as she passes him. She looks back and shoots him a glare before firing a blast at his feet and knocking his sword aside. Robert jumps back but catches a punch in the gut making him grunt and stumble slightly opening him up to a few more strikes from Yang.

On the third strike, Robert manages to parry before quickly bringing the blade back around for a slash aimed at Yang's neck. Yang moves her head to the side as the sword misses, she quickly grabs his sword arm stopping him from recovering. She raises her fist and throws a powerful strike which, to Yang's surprise, Robert catches without even flinching. In a surprising bout of strength, Robert not only manages to hold Yang, but he actually starts to slowly push her back. Acting quickly, Yang headbutts Robert several times until she felt his grip on her fist loosen. She violently shook the hand off of her and fired a powerful jab into his gut and finished it with an uppercut knocking Robert a few feet into the air before he came crashing down.

She watches in surprise as Robert slowly gets back up, she could barely make out his quiet pained grunts were now more pronounced. She glances at the board and sees that he didn't have a lot of aura left, but by the looks of Professor Goodwitch, he had just enough for her not to call the match, and so did she. She hears the clipping of a buckle coming from Robert's direction and turns to see him just as he pulls out his machine-pistol and immediately lets loose at full automatic. Yang darts to the side and rolls forward management to dodge a few of the rounds before she feels what seemed like several hard punches slam into her side before she heard the distinctive *click* of an empty gun. She grunts in frustration as she realizes that he had managed to land a good burst on her. She immediately leaps to her feet, loads a shell into each of her gauntlets and raises them at Robert.

"So it's gonna be like that, huh?" she grunts.

Robert glances to his right and sees his sword laying thereafter it had been knocked loose by that mighty uppercut. For the first time since before the match, she finally heard Robert speak.

In a raspy, tired voice, he smiles and says "I can do this all day."

She fires and he rolls to the side and tosses something at her. She pauses as she feels it strike her feet, she widened in shock when she looks down and sees a grenade without its spoon. She lets out a choked scream as the grenade blows and covers her in thick, white smoke. She wearily looks around her searching for any sign of her opponent. As she searched for him, she failed to hear the light footsteps rush up from behind her. Out from the shadows came the silhouette of Robert who lands a good strike with his sword, down her back. Yang stumbles forward cursing, she snaps her fist up as she continues searching for her target.

She pauses for a moment and slows her breathing as she listens to his steps. She inhales sharply as she once again, hears his steps coming from her left and brings her gauntlet up and deflects the strike before ducking down, narrowly avoiding a horizontal slice and diving forward. She immediately about-faces and fires off a couple shells in his direction. She smirks as he manages to dodge them before turning back to face her. She was about to make another taunt before she stopped to notice something floating in the air, something gold colored,….something very familiar. At this point, Robert had stopped and his mouth dropped as they both came to realize what it was.

"My hair…." she breathes. She looks to Robert as her lilac eyes get red, her breathing quickened as anger begins bubbling up. "MY HAIR!" she roars.

"Shit," Robert hisses.

He pales as Yang, instead of charging, loads a couple of unknown shells into her gauntlets before doing a wicked smile. Robert didn't want to admit it, but he was scared now. Robert transforms his Sabre, Hussar, into its MPX form and snaps it up, training it onto the angry blonde and fires.

Yang decides to take a page out of Rboert's book and fires her gauntlets which she had loaded each with water and fire dust into the ground creating a smoke screen which she retreated into. Robert advanced after firing at her retreating form before stopping right at the edge of the smoke. He pauses as he takes a good hard look into the cloud, he quickly realizes that she is no longer there and immediately spins the smg around only for Yang to have snuck right up to him and caught the SMG with her arms. The two were once again locked into a struggle as he fires off smg into the air before she wrenches the gun from his grasp and clubs him in the side of the head, knocking his glasses loose along with bringing him to the ground.

She once again, watches as he slowly gets up to face her. She stops and her breath hits as she gazes upon her opponent's shelf eyes. For the first time, she was seeing Robert without his glasses, through the smoke, she could make out a pair of glowing yellow balls with thin black slits in the center.

"Snake eyes," she murmurs in surprise.

He sneers at her as he loads another magazine into his pistol and pulls out a Kabar knife from the sheathe on his vest. He brings them both up and takes a few deep breaths as he waits for her. Yang nods and accepts the final duel as she brings her fists up as well, a solid second passes before they both charge at each other.

"And then Goodwitch ended it!" Yang announces.

She glances around at the blank faces of the table in front of her, they all turn to Robert who was casually eating next to Yang. He pauses for a moment to give Yang's tale some thought.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," he comments between bites.

"So who won?" Weiss questions.

"If it were an actual match, she did by a good handful of points," Robert answers, "But since we aren't and instead we are in just a sparring match, Good Witch left it at a draw due to our aura's being low enough that it could have gone either way."

"What did she say?" asks a perplexed Nathanial.

"Well….to cut out a bunch of bull shit-" Yang began.

"She needs to learn anger management and I gotta learn how to take a punch," Robert finishes.

Yang jerks her thumb at him and nods in agreement.

"Speaking of punches," she turns back to Robert and asks, "What in the world did you do to those bullets? Those were some of the hardest hits I've ever felt."

"They were some specialty rounds I got called +P Hollow Points," Robert shrugs.

Yang stares blankly, "You're gonna have to explain that one to me. I'm not Ruby, remember?"

"Well, you know what hollow points are right?" he asks.

Yang nodded, "Yeah, they like, expand on impact."

Robert continues "+P just stands for overpressure. Internal pressure of the cartridge is higher than normal giving the round a higher muzzle velocity. Higher velocity means a deeper penetration and much more energy delivered upon impact."

Weiss blanches as Yang quirks an eyebrow.

"That's allowed?" Yang asks.

"We're not allowed to use FMJ rounds," Robert shrugs, "International arena rules make rounds like it illegal since they have the tendency to over penetrate their victims. The League would prefer it if we didn't put the audience at risk of collateral damage."

"Wait, so long as it doesn't over penetrate, it's allowed?" Yang inquires.

"Yep," Pyrrah chimes in, "And it's a rather vague rule that people are able to exploit. I once had a guy use High Explosive rounds in a fight with me."

"Don't worry, we'll just wait until someone dies, then in the roles of civil suits," Alex darkly jokes.

"Ain't that the truth," Robert sighs to himself as he removes his glasses and cleans the lenses.

"Hey Robert?" Yang asks.

"Hm?" he responds, looking over to her.

"What kind of faunus are you?"

"I am actually curious about that as well," Adam joins in.

"Like," Yang adds, "You're a snake aren't you?"

"Yes, Anaconda specifically," he replies happily.

"Oh, so those aren't tattoos,"Pyrrah asks curiously.

"Are you cold-blooded?" Ruby chatters excitedly..

"Why do you wear your glasses?" asks Adam.

"In that order?" Robert asks bemused before replying, "No, no, and because my eyes can be rather distracting."

"Distracting?" Yang quirks an eyebrow.

"Same reason why Blake wears a bow," he jerks his thumb at her, "I need people to focus on what I'm saying rather than how I look…."

Adam disagreed with that statement, but he understood the idea.

"Plus I get to do this…." Robert lowers his lenses and glasses in the group.

The group all had different reactions, but it all boiled to the general consensus that his glare can be quite intimidating.

"That explains the strength," Blake muses from behind her book. "How else is he able to hold back one of your punches in his skinny frame."

"It also explains how he can shove so much food down his gullet," Alex jokes.

"You should see him when he sheds," Nathanial taunts.

Robert just smiles and throws him the bird before turning back to his meal.

"Aww, Robby, don't be that way," Yang laughs.

"Please don't call me that," Robert sighs, "And I already know you are trying to come up with a bunch of crappy snake puns, so I am asking please don't."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Yang smiles innocently, "Besides, I just might slither through your expectations."

This led everyone to collectively groan.

Robert deadpans and comments "Even for you, that was weak."

Before Yang could retort, they were joined by more people.

"Salutations, everyone!" Penny chortles as she, along with Nora and Ren pull up to the table.

She places her tray onto the table, and seats herself next Nathanial.

"How's it going?" Nathaniel greets.

"Friend Nora here was just telling me about this dream she had," Nora chips.

As if on cue, Nora plops down next to her and Ren pinches the bridge of his nose.

"So!" she began dramatically, "There we were, in the middle of the night…"

"It was day," Ren translated.

At this point, Blake was buried into her book, and Yang and Penny hung on her every word. Grant and Nathanial were filling out some paperwork and Evan was on a phone call. Alex and Weiss listened, entertained by Nora's absurdity….well, Alex was entertained, Weiss was more confused. The rest continued conversing among themselves.

"We were surrounded by Ursai…" Nora dramatically leans forward while Penny and Yang lean in as well.

"They were Beowolves," Ren comments while sipping a cup of coffee.

"Dozens of them!"

Robert forks in some mashed potatoes while absently listening to the story.

"Two of 'em."

Robert pauses mid chew and glances over at them. He was surprised by the night and day difference between the two versions. Meanwhile, a concerned Pyrrah and Ruby look over to a distant Jaune.

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

"If only it worked that way," Nathnail snorts as he props his head up with his arm. He glances over at Ren and comments "Your girl's got quite the imagination."

Brushing off the double meaning of Nathnial's words, he sighs and replies "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

"Jaune? Are you okay?" Pyrrah finally asks.

Quickly snapping out of his daze, he reflexive response "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?"

"If that is what fine looks like, then I would hate to see what "not fine" looks like, Arc," Grant comments without looking up from his forms.

"He's right Jaune," Ruby joins in, "You're definitely not fine."

Pyrrah nods in affirmation as everyone stopped their actions and turned to the now aware team leader.

Jaune tried to brush it off and put on a happy face, saying ""Guys, I'm fine. Seriously! Look!"

He holds up a thumbs up and gives off a nervous laugh. He stops as his attention is drawn to Team CRDL who were sat on a table across from them. Robert quickly notices this and his eyes narrow as he focuses onto the team as they pick on a girl with brown hair and bunny ears.

Pyrrah, quickly cutting to the chase, flat out says "Jaune, we know Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school!"

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!" Jaune laughs, but the hurt in his eyes said otherwise.

"He is a bully," Ruby corrected.

"Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' me?" Jaune scoffs.

"Those times in the hallway when he's knocked your books to the floor," Ruby listed off.

"Those were just an accident," Jaune replies confidently. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"That time you were walking through a narrow corridor and he activated your shield and got you stuck," Pyrrah ads.

"Um….also an accident," Jaune counters, a little less confidently. "You know how finicky my shield is."

"Well look at all this fresh meat," a voice jokes drawing everyone's attention. "Hi Evan," the girl greeted.

"Hi Coco," he smiles politely.

Everyone watches as a rather fashionably dressed brunette in a beret and sunglasses walks up to their resident viking.

"Evan, who is that?" Ruby eyes suspiciously.

"Oh, everyone," he announces to the table, "This is Coco, she's a second year I met, Coco, these are my friends."

"Nice meeting you all," Coco smiles politely, "Evan has told me a lot about you, I'm sure you have some interesting stories of him as well."

"Boy do we," Nathaniel chuckles, prompting Evan to lightly punch him in the shoulder.

Coco, notices Jaune and Pyrrah and asks "So what's all this?"

"Jaune's being bullied by Winchester-"

"I am NOT!" he angrily snaps.

"He's also in denial," Evan quickly adds, "His partner is compiling some rather damning evidence against him."

"Winchester…." Coco ponders for a bit, "Tall guy with a mace?"

Pyrrah nods.

"Did you tell him about the locker?" she asks.

Jaune quickly counters "I didn't even land that far!"

"Oh, he really is in denial," Coco sighs before sternly replying "Jaune, I lead the team that was sent to retrieve you."

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask," Pyrrah tells him comfortingly.

"Oooh!" Nora stands up and presents her diabolical plan, "We'll break his legs!" she nodded enthusiastically.

"Jaune, right now, you are in what we call the victim mentality," Grant finally looks up from his paperwork, "I am telling you, I have seen this all the time with patients suffering from abuse, they will often try and deny the obvious and even go as far as defend the actions of their abusers."

Jaune swallowed a lump in his throat as he grew silent.

"Your team is throwing you an olive branch, the sooner you accept their help, the better," Grant tells him honestly. "Oh, you can learn the hard way, let the issue fester before you implode and have a nervous breakdown."

"He's right," Coco agreed, "This school has a strict anti-bullying policy, all we need is for you to come forward."

"Guys I swear, I'm fine,' Jaune says, quieter this time, his gaze moves back to Cardin, "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone."

Coco looks over and her eyes widen.

"Ow! That hurts!"

"Velvet," she gasps.

"I guess they really do let in the lowest bitter these days," Adam sneers.

Blake and Pyrrah send glares at the unsuspecting table.

"We should do something, Grant," Weiss protested.

"He silently nods to Robert.

At her boiling point, Coco started to march over before she felt tug on her arm. It was Robert, without a word, he shook his head and walked past her.

As Team CRDL laughed at their victim, they failed to notice Roboert silently making his way to them.

"I would strongly advise against your current activities," Robert warns in an eerily soft, monotone voice.

They all stop and look at him.

Russell snickers to his team "Hey look, it's one those wannabe soldiers."

Cardin arrogantly smiles back.

"Oh yeah, and why's that?" he challenges.

"It is unbecoming of your character," Robert replies, "Or it would be if you had any good character to begin with."

Cardin snorts and jeers to his team "This guy."

Robert turns to a nervous Velvet and says "Miss, I'd like to invite you over to our table." He glares at Team CRDL, "I assure you that the company is much more pleasant."

Velvet slowly nods and stands up.

Before she leaves, Robert leans over and whispers to her "You see that table straight ahead, the ones with the two gingers?"

She nods, she also saw her team leader Coco among the group..

"Walk straight there, do not look back," he whispers.

"What a freak," he heard Russel jeer in the background.

"Way to be a party pooper, Baby Killer," Cardin cackles, he grins and corrects himself, "No wait, you aren't a Baby Killer….you're just a wannabe "Future Soldier"!"

Robert turns to them and leers at them through his tinted glasses.

"I would strongly advise against your current actions against other students, Winchester," he replied calmly.

"Oh I see, so you're an animal lover huh?" Cardin taunts, "It was nothing," he replied innocently, "We were just having some fun."

"Oh is that what that was?" Robert asks sarcastically. "Looks more like bullying to me."

Cardin shrugs and counters with "So what if it is?" He stands up and walks right up to Robert, attempting to use his height as intimidation as he stared Robert down. "If these cowards really had it in them, they would have stood up for themselves and not have to turn to sissies like you to fight their battles for them."

Cardin firmly pokes Robert in the chest before saying "If you're so upset, why don't you do something about it?"

Then out of nowhere, Cardin threw a sucker-punch at Robert's head. In an instant, Robert's arm shot up like an attacking rattle-snake and caught the first just centimeters from his face. Cardin's face quickly changed from confident to confused as Robert held back against him.

"No, no, no," Robert grunts.

He then became shocked as Robert grits his teeth and slowly twisted the fist away from him before throwing it down. He then firmly plants his palm onto Cardin's breastplate and forcefully shoves him back onto the table.

"Don't be fucking stupid," he snarls.

As Cardin stood back up, his team jumped up alongside him. At the same time, everyone from Robert's table stood up to face them as well turning the confrontation into a stand-off. Robert simply gives them the "Hold Position" hand signal before turning back to Cardin and walking right up to him.

"Go ahead, throw that punch," he beckons with a smile. "I won't lift a finger."

Cardin narrows his eyes as he knew Robert was hiding something.

"What are you getting at?" he mumbles.

"It is simple…." Robert smirks, "There are two possible outcomes to this. One: you throw that punch and I can have you and your team thrown out of this school with just one phone call-"

"Bullshit," Cardin cuts in.

"Come one Cardin, get him!" Sky cries. "Kick his ass!"

"Yeah!" Dove agreed, "No one's going to do anything, you've seen it yourself."

"I'll add a final note," Robert rolls his eyes before replying "Look at it this way: if you hit me, and I hit you, that is called a fight. If you hit me, and I don't hit back, that is called assault, and I think you know what that means." Robert pauses to let that fact sink in, "And we have an entire room full of witnesses, I think at least one person is willing to testify, don't you?"

A few seconds go by with the two groups eyeing up each other before Cardin tells his team to back off resulting in Robert's table to sit back down.

"What if you're bluffing?" Cardin asks.

Robert, with a straight face, responds simply "Then nothing happens, I walk away….maybe somewhere down the line, someone else will stand up and do something different. The question is….." Robert's smile grows wider "Are you willing to take that risk?"

Cadin pauses and ponders for a bit. He turns to his team and motions for them to back down, to which they reluctantly agree. On the other side, Grant turns to everyone and motions them to relax. Robert lets out a huff as glances around at the students as they now appear to have all eyes on the two.

"I don't think you realize how lucky you and your team have been," Robert scoffs.

He looks around at the faces of the fellow students as the stand-off carries on.

"As your teammate so graciously pointed out, this school appears to suffer from a rather large case of "the bystander effect,"" he turns back to Cardin, "Meaning, they can't be bothered to intervene thinking that it's simply not their problem," he shrugs, "It's no wonder you've lasted as long as you have, doing what you do." He then growls "Because people around just can't seem to compel themselves to just do the right thing."

Robert steps up to Cardin, to the point where their faces are almost touching.

"I am going to make this very clear," Robert takes off his glasses and Team CRDL's eyes widen as a pair of reptilian eyes stare back. "We don't need people like you at this academy, so if I ever catch you bullying another student, I guarantee that you….." he motions to all of them, "And your team will never see the light of day inside this academy again. When the time comes, I'll be there to personally escort you off the campus."

Cardin swallows a lump as he saw that Robert was dead serious.

"Maybe you can try your luck in another academy….." he muses, "But I know for a fact that these academies talk to one another. Atlas won't take you, they reject people better than you all the time. Haven is a maybe and Shade…." he chuckles quietly, "Well they'll take you, they take anyone, but I know you won't last behind those gates."

Without another word, Roibert did an about-face and walked off the scene leaving behind a nervous Team CRDL and the dead silent auditorium slowly went back to their own business.

At the same time, back at the table….

"Man, he really did a number on you," Coco sighs as she looked over Velvet's ears, "When I get my hands on him!"

Velvet let out a few whimpers as her partner checked her over, Cardin's handiness had left her ears bruised and Coco was trying to help her manage the pain as Grant searched through his bag.

"Got it," Grant announces as he pulls out a bottle of Tiger Balm from within the bag. He scoots over to Velvet and asks "Alright here, let me see."

Coco looks at Velvet who gives her the okay before she nods as well. She holds out the ear as Grant unscrews the cap.

"Okay, miss?" he calls out, "This is going to hurt a little, but I am going to need you to try and stay still alright?"

"Okay," she whimpers. "I-I'll try."

"Just let me know if I'm too rough," he responds. He looks over to Coco and says "Ready?"

Coco shoots him the thumbs up and he scoops some of the goo out of the bottle and begins to slowly massage it into her ears. Velvet wasn't use to this feeling and began to squirm and wince as the hands went over her bruises.

"Shh, easy, easy," Coco breaths as she caresses the side of her head , "I know it hurts."

After a few moments, Grant moved onto the other ear and repeated the process.

"Alright, all done," Grant places a comforting hand onto her shoulder and says "The pain should go away in 10 to 20 minutes." He turns to Coco, "This should last for the rest of the day, if it starts to hurt again, just apply another coat." He hands her the bottle, "Here take this, I got plenty back at the office."

"Thank you," Coco murmurs quietly and then the two left.

Grant nods as he places the med kit back into his bag. The group watched silently as Robert and Cardin spoke and then to their surprise, they simply walked away from each other.

"Well I'll be," Blake murmurs.

"He actually managed to talk them down," Yang whistles.

"Darn it, I was really hoping to break their legs," Nora grumbled, disappointed by the lack of escalation.

"Your partner has quite the way with words," Adam comments as he observes the confrontation, coupled with Robert's interaction with Ruby on the first day of class.

"That he does," Maxim says quietly.

Weiss glances at her watch before announcing "Oh, lunch is over, we better get going."

With that, everyone backs up their trays and leaves for their next classes.

Author's Note: On an important note, at some point, check back with the character profiles in the previous chapters. I just remembered that they would probably be wearing something different rather than their full battle rattle during sparring, especially when there aren't live rounds being used. If I havn't already changed them, then I will at some point.

When sparring they are allowed to use lethal rounds but they are only hollow-point, fragmentation rounds that police use, or those mushroom rounds that hunters use. Sure they cause a lot more damage to an unarmored target when compared to an FMJ round, but it's a lot less likely to over penetrate the target. Plus, even if they are lethal, ideally the referee would have stopped the match before their aura got that low, but accidents do happen. I always thought there should be more injuries in the show anyway considering what they are doing, but I dunno.

I was considering not even having this section in the story at all, but I needed set up for the next couple of chapters as well as a chance to set up Robert's character even more. Most people either go through with putting the Cardin scene in and having their character beat him up, they just redo the scene, or they on occasion leave it out all together and I didn't want to do that. So far, he just seems like a Drill Sergeant, but like all my other characters, I am working to try and humanize him more.

I hope you liked this chapter and I hope to see you guys soon. Please leave reviews, they let me know how I am progressing. Remember, Big Brother is watching…..always.