Reading Ultraman Taro Remnants of Ultraman

by Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh

Commission for Ultrahero74. Penny, Ozpin and his Inner Circle, RWBY and JNPR are all brought to watch a possible future by a host who then leaves them in a possibly-erupting volcano, and they have to watch all the future before it actually blows up. Wait, what?

7. Chapter 7

Commission by Ultrahero74

"-Yang!" Mary concluded with a grin, looking at the three girls who seemed to have been caught off-guard by the other students' blatant betrayal.

"Actually, we-" Yang was cut off by Weiss, who dusted herself off (for no reason) and stared right at Mary. Blake chose not to say anything.

"I am still confused as to why this 'roasting'," she pronounced that word with contempt, "could be considered a learning experience for any of us. Especially considering that you're not a Huntress and thus it's unlikely you have any lesson for us."

Mary glanced at her. "That would be true… if this were to be strictly related to your career choice. But it's not. I'm talking about your personal flaws, which can and actually do get in your way. Often, if I may add."

"What, like my anger issues?" Yang asked, rolling her eyes. To be honest she was kinda sick of people calling her out on that. It wasn't like she'd hurt innocents anyway. And if she banged up some bad guys a little harsher than strictly necessarily, well, who was going to complain?

"Among many other things," Mary replied with a shrug before turning back to Weiss. "So, since you were the first to speak up against my… advice… I will start with you."

"What if I don't-"

"I take no feelings in consideration." The white-haired Faunus ignored Weiss's angry protests and continued. "Let's start with your most glaring flaw and the most likely to get yourself killed. Your over-reliance on your Semblance. You use it all the time to fight. True, your teammates use theirs very often as well, but you take the cake. Yours swordswomanship is remarkable, but you never use it without the aid of your Semblance. As much as I don't like your sister, you could take some pointers from her in that regard."

"However," she continued before she could reply, "another big flaw of yours is your arrogance, and yes you are arrogant. You may think you toned it down but arrogance is not just thinking your teammates as equal and everyone else as mediocre at best, a trait you've showcased several times. Sun and Jaune might know a thing or two about it." The mentioned blondes exchanged sheepish glances. Weiss had judged them before even knowing them, but it wasn't like she had been too far off in certain ways. "This arrogance of yours is worsened by your habit of judging people from first impressions. In fact, take Jaune for example. Ever since you've been dropped here, he hasn't flirted with you much, and has instead successfully predicted some parts of this world's viewings as well as given some interesting insights here and there. Yet, you spite him for no other reason than past grudges even your own team doesn't understand."

Ruby, Yang and Blake exchanged glances. That, at least, was the truth. None of them knew why Weiss was so hung up on disliking Jaune for courting habits the blonde didn't even have. Sure his flirting was horrifying and he ignored Weiss's obvious disdain for him, but he wasn't that bad. Plus he was fun to hang out with.

"He-"

"Your talking-back privileges have been revoked until further notice," Mary spoke over her with no regards for her opinion. "Anyway, between arrogance and first impressions, you kind of have a superiority complex, though one that seems to cover your team, not just yourself, leading to you considering Team RWBY above other teams. Now, that belief may be subtly shared by the other members of your team, but you are the most obvious about it with your social interactions outside of your team. I'm sure you will mellow out in time, perhaps near or after the Vytal Festival, but for now you have a stick up your ass." Mary ignored how Weiss seemed on the verge of blowing a fuse, and Winter was being physically held back by Ironwood's grip on her forearm. "Now, let's wrap this up and keep it short. I'll mention just one more of your flaws… your belief to be always in the right. Just like your superiority complex, this is something found in your whole team and, to be honest, in most teenagers. But you take the cake. It literally took a Professor calling you childish and immature to even consider the possibility that you were in the wrong. Hopefully having Ruby as your leader will soon help." Mary shooed her off with a hand. "I hope you will work on these. I'm not the one to give out straightforward lessons on proper behaviour, so you're on your own when it comes to fixing your flaws. I just pointed them out. Now shoo, I have to move onto Blake."

"Now wait a second!" Winter exploded angrily, unable to move forward but still capable of speaking. "Who do you think you are to up and insult my sister with no regards for her status or her achievements, and then act as if your words were to be pure gold she should be grateful for!? Weiss may have a lot of things she needs to work on, but your delivery of your so-called 'advice' was nothing short of calumny! You hide behind your self-proclaimed 'genius', and use that cover to insult others simply because of your personal dislikes. If you were really giving advice like you stated, then you would actually tell her how to improve, rather than point out flaws without giving answers."

Mary shot her an annoyed look. "What did I just say? I'm not one to just tell people how to improve. That's something I hate. If I were to tell her how she can improve and what she has to do to fix her faults, then how could she grow? She'd just become dependant on me or others to tell her what she is doing wrong and how to fix it. Like this, she can choose whether to fix her faults or not. The offence just adds a little bit of petty motivation. And adds some fun for me, of course."

The white-haired Faunus huffed and turned fully toward the Specialist. "But if you don't want to hear of it, then fine. I may not give a damn about people's opinions, but I'm no bully. I'm not going to go off on you if you don't want to, unless you actually deserve it. Good luck learning from your mistakes. Oh, wait, does that count as calumny too?"

"Can you continue?"

Mary turned back to the girls to find Blake stepping forward, a determined look on her face. "I may not have liked the way you attacked Weiss, and I'm sure facing this treatment myself will be even less pleasant. Even so, you do make a good point. We can't grow if we don't learn. And even though I'm sure the 'flaws' you are going to point out are already known to me, I don't see why I shouldn't give this a shot."

The scientist hummed and tapped her foot on the cave's floor. "You suddenly got wise, huh?" she commented before shrugging. "Alright. I'll continue with you, since you're the one who spoke up this time."

Blake mentally braced herself. "Aside from your reliance on your Semblance, which is still minor compared to other flaws, you are a hypocrite. You hate how humans discriminate against Faunus, yet you are willing to condone the Faunus's actions merely because they are the oppressed minority. As if that were to give them a free pass for crimes. Perhaps you are against killing, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't care if the White Fang were to be just robbing."

The cat Faunus wanted to snap back, but she decided to collect her thoughts first. An argument against an intelligence-type Semblance was hard on the best of cases, and downright impossible with hostile people like Mary. True, before trusting her team she had been more willing to trust Sun, a guy she didn't even know, over the people she'd known for weeks. But she had changed!

"But paired with that hypocrisy there is your pride. For some reason, you seem to believe you're the only one on the whole damn planet to give a damn about justice." Mary snorted. 'Though she's not too far off when it comes to certain people.' "You'd rather go out on your own and get yourself in huge trouble, than informing the authorities and letting them deal with the problem. All because you feel like, for some reason, you have to fight evil and return good or some other bullshit like that."

Blake gritted her teeth slightly. She didn't do that! Okay, fine, she'd done that with the White Fang, but that was different. For one, she thought she could convince them to turn on Torchwick. And after that… okay, she hadn't had a real plan, but it was going mostly well! Hadn't Sun been there, her Semblance could've dodged any hit. Not to put the blame on Sun, of course, but it was true – he was the vulnerable one. She was basically untouchable.

Mary then walked closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Not to mention your crimes. While you may have changed sides, what is done is done and can't be taken back. Instead of accepting the consequences of your actions, you sought to ignore them and pretend to be a saviour of mankind. All hiding under a lie. Do you even know how much time in jail you should legally receive? Terrorism, thefts, assault, accomplice to murder, destruction of private and public property, unlicensed use of weaponry, probably fake transcripts since you couldn't just say you were trained by the White Fang… I'd say a couple decades at the least. Yet you evade the law you technically swore to protect as a Huntress. What the hell were you thinking?"

Blake's eyes widened before she remembered that Mary was from a parallel universe and might've found out more about her than she'd first imagined. Then they narrowed. "Rotting in jail wouldn't solve anything. I've changed and I'm trying to prove it."

"By breaking the law again?"

"If that's what it takes to save lives, yes."

Mary rolled her eyes. "Sure. Save lives, that's all that matters. Because theft and terrorism and assault are negligible when you are trying to change into an actually decent person. Because as long as it's you and you want to change, then you can't be legally touched because it'd be unfair."

"What have you done to help, then?!"

"I could tell you, but why bother? I'm not a Huntress sworn to the law and I'm not the one preaching world salvation and equality all around." The inventor checked her nails in absolute disinterest. "But in your mind, I'm just the short mean woman who hasn't saved lives yet and thus has no right to speak up against someone as noble and righteous as you. Why did I even bother? Wise my ass, you just thought you were untouchable."

"I wasn't-"

"I don't have time to listen to your blabbering and show you why you're wrong." Mary looked at Yang, who glared right back at her. "I got someone else to insult right now."

Yang's glare became challenging. "Me, huh? Let me guess. You're gonna tell me I need to work on my anger issues."

'You do…' Qrow and Taiyang thought at the same time, rolling their eyes.

"That's what a lot of your issues branch off from, yes," Mary replied blandly. "I'm just going to bring up one single event that sums up what's wrong with your attitude. Junior's."

Taiyang hid a groan. Of course she'd mention that. That single accident had been so hard to fix without damaging Yang's future. It had taken his, Qrow's and Ozpin's influences all combined to sweep it under the rug.

"Okay, so, I beat them up. They attacked me and they were criminals, I was fully within my rights to defend myself," she retorted. "Not my fault the fight crashed the place. That's kind of what happens when Hunters fight."

"They may have attacked with weapons first, but you were the first to attack their boss – they just defended him. True, they also attacked to try and prove that you couldn't just waltz in there and boss them around, asking for drinks while underage and extorting information from their boss. You were the definition of a bully right there." Mary crossed her arms as her wickedly amused expression disappeared. "I'm not going to blame you alone for this though, that's an attitude your family should've curbed before teaching you how to fight giant monsters. Having all that power and no responsibility is just asking for disasters to happen."

"In our defence," Taiyang spoke up on his and Qrow's behalf. "Yang trained at Signal. We did what we could both as relatives and as teachers, but we weren't the only influence on her."

"True, and part of the blame relies on society for letting overpowered bullies into the world without even giving them a reality check and a good dose of humbleness." She accepted the excuse quite easily. After all, society did have the pressure from the Grimm. "However this does not excuse the fact you trashed the place, injured most of the staff, some of which severely, terrorized the other customers, all of which went completely unpunished as the event didn't even appear on the news."

'So much that now Junior is basically your little bitch for info, since he's seen even the law can't touch Hunters,' Mary thought with a snort. 'What a shitty society. Gives superpower to teenagers. Then lets them roar unbound. Then condones all their damages, even the intentional ones. That's just asking for Hunters to either wisen up after seeing the damage they caused to civilians… or stop caring entirely.'

"You have that 'I don't care about others or the law, I just do what I want' attitude that looks cool, but that if your ass is not covered by some higher-up, it's gonna land you either in jail or on someone's blacklist really quickly," she continued, meeting Yang's glare -that had now evened out in a tense stare- evenly. Almost in a deadpan. "How you fail to see that, I blame it on stupid schools that praised coolness over actual efficiency. You may think that as long as you kill the Grimm and get the job done, you're fine, but that's not it. Even not considering the fact that Hunters are examples and idols for lots of youngsters, you aren't Tarzan. You have to follow the rules."

Yang huffed and crossed her arms. Most of her anger had disappeared, but there was still a lot of irritation. "Of course," she drawled, rolling her eyes. She was working on it, okay? Okay, she wasn't trying really hard, but she was still trying, right?

Mary tore her eyes (or should it be goggles?) away from Yang and glanced at the three girls as a whole. "I see you haven't enjoyed having your flaws pointed out, did you? What do you have to say about it?"

"I'll keep it short," spat Weiss, voice brimming with restrained anger. "You know absolutely nothing about any of us. You've just insulted us because you find it funny, just like you find it funny to provoke General Ironwood. Having an opinion is okay, but you go beyond that. You force your opinions onto others, as absolute truths, not accepting anyone talking back and bringing your Semblance as the reason why you are always right, basically expecting everyone to simply accept your opinions as true regardless of whether or not you offered proof. And you expect me to take the words of a spite-driven, insult-spitting Faunus who can't even respect the law when she's right in front of its representatives? As if!"

Mary looked actually impressed with Weiss's response. "Mmh, you decided to elaborate as to why I was in the wrong. That's an improvement."

"I always elaborate!"

"No, you show why you're right, which is different. Elaborating an argument means also accepting that you may be wrong. Showing why you're right implies you fully believe to be in the right before even hearing the opposing argument." But they were linguistic semantics and she didn't hold it against her. To be completely honest there was no real way of knowing without talking to an expert linguist. "Now, back to your argument… I told you. I'm not the one to offer advice 'nicely'. I think it's stupid to offer advice on a gold tray to people who are theoretically expected to be fighting tooth and nail against the infinite forces of darkness within just a few years. You're Hunters, act like it. Free advice should make you suspicious, not be the norm. Instead, you should take insults in stride and analyse them. If they are just slander, wave them off, but if they aren't you should use them to improve yourself! This is a world of bloody evolution – you gotta keep improving to survive!"

Her little speech over with, Mary then shrugged. "I also much prefer to be offensive or sarcastic about stuff. Part of my personality. Sorry, that can't really be changed in a minute. Anything else?"

"I still don't agree with your methods," Weiss huffed, although shining a light on the educational part of the Faunus's… 'lecture'… seemed to have lessened her anger.

"You basically just said I have anger issues, in four different ways or something!" Yang complained. She hadn't expected much, but anything was better than just prodding her attitude. She had an attitude problem, alright? She admitted it, she was too rash and quick to anger at times!

"…" Blake chose not to say anything, instead simply staring piercingly at her fellow Faunus. She'd said she came from a parallel world or something, mentioning multiversal coordinates or vectors, so it was possible she had found out from the parallel Blake, but it didn't make her feel any better. She was trying to put her past behind her, and yet Mary had so casually slapped her in the face with it.

"Anyone else has anything to say?" Mary called out, looking around.

Winter was being restrained by Ironwood, but other than that, no one looked particularly upset by the 'lectures'. Half of them probably already knew of the girls' faults and the other half simply didn't care. Or well, cared about the girls, but didn't care about the lectures' offensive tone.

Jaune slowly raised his hand. "Are our IT lessons going to be like this?"

Mary just grinned and plopped down on the ground. "We should probably get started with the viewing."

"Hey, I-"

"Look, it's on!"

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun shined high in the sky and the sky as a all clear blue.

And currently we find our ultra hero simply leaning on a railing as he looked out at the vast ocean in front of him. Not to far off from him was Penny, the robot girl currently engaging herself in a game of arm wrestling. And effortlessly winning if the sound of cheering and dismay from everyone watching was anything to go by.

A few students plus Qrow snickered. Even Ironwood cracked a smile at the thought of normal humans trying to beat a gynoid at arm wrestling. Not only she was made of metal and had super strength, but the sheer innocence and ease she emanated during the matches was probably humiliating for the poor contenders.

Now your probably wondering why our heroes were currently on a boat. And where this boat was heading as well, right?

Well to know the answer to that we have to backtrack to earlier in the day.

"I'm not sure why it would be so surprising for them to be on a boat," Weiss huffed, rolling her eyes. She was still peeved about Mary's earlier 'lecture', so taking it out on a screen without feelings seemed like the best option.

Mary bit her lip to prevent herself from replying. The girl wasn't doing any harm to anyone, so she'd just let go of it. She didn't particularly like annoying people to the point of actually being a pest, even though she did like insulting those who deserved it, but prodding the awake, angry bear probably wasn't a good idea.

---

Earlier this morning.

---

Kotaro yawned as he sat down on a living room recliner, a fresh cup a cup in his hand. Which he more than eagerly sipped down, absently glancing over to his right when the sound of giggling reached his ears.

Not to far off from him was Penny, the gynoid was currently giggling along with Adrian as the two played game of patty-cake together. Which of course made him smile at the sight.

"Awww!" Any anger Weiss, Winter or Yang might've still held onto immediately disappeared as they, alongside Pyrrha and Amber, began squealing in awe at the tiny, adorable bundle of cuteness that was Adrian.

Jaune smiled at seeing his nephew play, although his smile did have a tinge of sadness in it, something Ren picked up on. "Is something wrong?"

The blond leader of JNPR lightly shook his head. "Nothing's wrong. It's just... Saph is my sister. My big sister, sure, but my sister. I grew up and she was part of my family and I of hers. She was always around. I miss her. And it hurts to see her with a family... that doesn't include me" His smile dimmed marginally before he brightened up. "But I'm happy too, because she's happy, and because now she's gotten a new family. And even though we rarely get to talk anymore, what's with school for me and work for her, sometimes we still manage a few messages here and there."

Ren nodded. He may not have had a blood family any longer, but he understood the blond's pain. He placed a hand on his shoulder while Nora reached over and squeezed his hand gently. "You are in her family, Jaune, even if you two can't talk as much as you did once. And I'm sure little Adrian loves having you as an uncle."

Jaune laughed slightly. "Don't worry guys, I'm not upset or anything. And yeah, I'm Adrian's favourite -and only- uncle!" he joked proudly, earning a giggle from Nora and a smile from Ren.

The two of the, were currently in the Arc household, which was owned by Saphron and her wife Terra Cotta-Arc.

Terra as it turned out worked at the Argus relay tower. When the Grimm and Kaiju attacked she and the staff were escorted to a different emergency shelter.

Ozpin smiled slightly. Equality between gender identities and sexual orientations was considered not just normal but basic now, but for someone who had seen people murdered for the simple sake of loving someone they 'shouldn't have', it was good to see how normal these couples were.

Then his smile disappeared. And yet, Faunus discrimination was as bad as ever, especially due to the White Fang's actions. Apparently in a world were Semblances could drastically change things, even appearances, your natural appearance could be a problem. He rubbed his forehead. Humanity was so idiotic at times. No wonder he hadn't been able to make any step toward the goal the Gods had given him. It was like trying to swim upwards, while tied to several million rocks!

A mug of coffee suddenly appeared beside him, with a tiny note. "Cheer up. Not ALL of humanity is like that. -K.E.V."

Ozpin gave a silent, brief nod in thanks and started sipping the coffee. It was Vacuan, thankfully, not that crap all caffeine and no flavour they made in Atlas. Because in Atlas, refined people drank tea or hot chocolate if they wanted to be lax, while coffee was just for the work-swamped employers who had to keep themselves awake for hours on end, thus negating the need for actual flavour.

Truly an offence to coffee.

When Saphron had brought him and Penny to her house Terra was already home, and needless to say she was greatly relieved when she found out her family was safe and sound and had embraced her wife and son lovingly soon after.

Saphron had introduced him and Penny soon after and sure enough she was happy to have the two over for the night as they all sat down for dinner.

While they were all eating Terra asked if they were visiting Argus and where they came from, to which Kotaro responded that they were a pair of freelance hunters that had decided to travel the world together. Helping out anyone that was in trouble wherever they went along the way.

"That's a terrible lie, no offence meant," Pyrrha spoke up, having recovered from cuteness overload. "While they certainly have the skill, neither of them has a license, which would make it suspicious. Especially since there are laws against vigilantism. While what he did against the Kaijus can easily be counted as emergency, admitting to similar actions is… well, against the law."

Mary wasn't surprised that the champion of Mistral knew about laws and how Taro got lucky Terra was an easygoing person most of the time. "Legally speaking, you are right. If someone were to have proof of their hypothetical past saves, it would be enough to warrant an arrest and a trial for vigilantism. Although in this case the trial would be easily won by Taro, since it was an emergency." She glanced at Ironwood. "That is, unless the trial is manipulated for some higher-up's secret goal, like getting their hands on Taro."

Ironwood replied to her glance with an annoyed one. True, he did want to try and use Taro for the greater good of Atlas, but he'd much rather approach him first and try to go for the friendlier way before forcing his hand.

Although arresting him to get him to stay still long enough for them to meet wasn't such a bad idea. Perhaps he could even start the meeting with the excuse of apologizing for the mishap. That would put him in Taro's blacklist at first, though, so it was a plan that would have to be shelved, for now.

And when she asked him about them having Hunter/Huntress licenses, his response was this...

"Why would you need a license to help people in need?"

"While that is correct and even allowed, remember that using Semblances or weapons in public without any life-threatening situation going on is a severe crime," Ozpin spoke up, mostly talking to his students. "I know it may sound nonsensical to you, but this is the law. It's not just to avoid unlicensed Hunters starting a fight, but also to prevent people with less skill than you have from getting themselves in harm's way or, worse yet, killed."

"It makes sense when you put it like that," Sun nodded, grimacing slightly as he remembered his fight with Torchwick at the docks. It didn't really go well, and if Ruby and -most importantly- Penny hadn't shown up, he'd probably be dead or hurt. "Though it sucks that skilled people can't do anything without a license just because less skilled people would otherwise throw themselves into dangerous situations."

The irony was not lost to him. For all his strength and skill, he had admittedly been one of those people. Torchwick was strong and his technique almost flawless. He hadn't managed to get a single hit in without Blake's help, although she too had had trouble with the criminal. Really, his surprise attack had been the only time he made contact.

Terra seemed to ponder that for a moment, and accepted his response in the end.

Penny played along with the lie as well. Which resulted in another hiccup, fortunately it wasn't anything noticeable.

Ironwood groaned softly.

Eventually though everyone had gone to sleep soon after dinner, unfortunately Kotaro and Penny had to sleep on the couch, but Kotaro reassured them that it wasn't that big of an issue and the two fell asleep soon after.

By next morning, everyone was currently relaxing as they began to wake up one after another.

And due to recent events from yesterday Terra was given the day off, said woman was currently sitting down on another chair near Kotaro munching on a piece of toast as she clicked away on the different channels on the T.V.

And not to far off in the kitchen was Saphron. The blonde Arc currently humming a tune as she cooked breakfast.

Jaune started humming the same tune, fondly recalling the days when Saphron was still in the Arc household full-time.

Surprisingly enough, Nora began humming the same tune, much to Jaune's own surprise. She didn't give any explanation and he didn't ask, but he did have to admit he was curious. Where had she learned that? Ren seemed to be unsurprised. Had he known already? Probably, he was their resident Nora expert anyway.

"So, you two sleep well?" Terra asked him before taking another bite of her toast.

"Yes actually," He confirmed "Though all things considered i should be asking you that considering what happened yesterday."

"Oh no don't worry I'm fine," Terra said reassuringly. "Grimm attacks aren't really anything new to be honest. Fortunately they don't happen that often around here in Argus."

"I see, well as long as you're alright then," Kotaro said as he leaned back into his chair. Pleased to see the woman was well after the whole ordeal that happened yesterday.

The Arcs were quite a lovely family honestly. And he had to admit it was rather lucky of him and Penny to have meet them. They were a rather colorful bunch with their own.

Like how Saphron had seven different siblings, six girls, and one boy.

Everyone turned around to stare at Jaune with their jaws on the ground. Even Ozpin was left momentarily shocked.

The boy in question let out a mix between a groan and a sigh of exasperation. "Yeah…"

"I think I'd die if I tried to have that many children…" Yang said, shivering.

"I think I'd die if I tried to have half as many children," replied Weiss. Fortunately she didn't plan on having any!

Jaune rolled his eyes. "You make it sound so bad. Sure, eight is a ridiculous number, but at least I had lots of friends within the family." He scratched his head in embarrassment. "Aaaand now it sounds lame."

"Did you ever get tricked into wearing make-up or play dress-up?" Blake asked with an amused grin.

The Arc scion didn't seem to share her amusement. "Yes. And little doll. And Daughter Number 8. And if anyone laughs, they're going to pay," he threatened with a pout.

Needless to say, quite a few people laughed. Qrow, Amber, Yang and Nora laughed outright, while Blake, Weiss and Winter had the decency of just giggling. Ruby, Sun and Pyrrha were covering their mouths to try and stifle their laughters, unsuccessfully.

The only ones not laughing were Ozpin, Taiyang, Ren, Ironwood, Raven and Goodwitch. They all just patiently (or in Raven's case annoyed-ly) waited until the chuckles subsided.

Mary, instead, was grinning for a different reason. Being unskilled wasn't Jaune Arc's only defining feature. Living with seven siblings (of any gender, really, it wasn't strictly related to females) had made him fairly stealthy and sometimes pettily vindictive.

By the time everyone had stopped laughing, Yang had a new hairstyle of one long ponytail and four little pigtails on each side. They were all hastily-done and very loose, since pulling too much would've immediately alerted the girl, who up until then had been laughing so much she had to close her eyes.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR?!"

Of course, in the chaos that followed, Yang's murderous bellow was what stood out the most.

Jaune didn't budge an inch, although he did seem kinda wary of what the outcome would be. "What my sisters taught me," he replied, successfully keeping his voice even. "I just thought that you would have to experience it, before laughing. You know the saying, don't knock it 'till you try it."

He wasn't exactly smug, but there was a satisfied look on his face of for once, at long last NOT being the butt of the joke. Yang was a friend, but damn if she liked to pick on him. And the others really didn't help since 'teasing' wasn't considered worth of being reprimanded. But when he was the one getting most of the meaner teasing, well one couldn't fault him for getting some revenge.

That, and being in full sight of the teachers, with his team, also did make him a lot braver. Not that he wasn't brave, but he knew it was stupid to get hurt for literally nothing.

"Besides, I can jus-urk!"

He was cut off when Yang pushed him aggressively, before forcefully grabbing him by the front of his shirt. "YOU MONSTER!" she screamed, winding up a punch.

"Yang, stop!" Ruby and Pyrrha shouted. The champion used her Polarity to stop her while Ruby pulled her away.

Then a purple aura enveloped her and both let go of her, knowing Goodwitch had it under control. Said Professor was also glaring daggers at the girl, anger and disappointment clear behind her eyes. "Stand down right now, Ms Xiao Long, and be assured that this unprovoked attack on a fellow student shall not go unpunished and will end up on your record."

"But- I-"

"Again, Yang?" The girl flinched hard at the sheer tired disappointment in her father's voice. The man looked exhausted as he stared at her. "All because he tied your hair, you wanted to injure him? And seriously, too?"

"I-"

Taiyang rubbed his eyes, and Yang's guilt multiplied. "Just… apologise to the poor lad, and hope he can actually forgive you."

Yang looked down before turning to the boy she'd just attacked, trying not to meet his eyes. "I'm… I'm sorry," she said meekly.

Jaune stared at her, a bit of fear still present, but that melted away soon. He knew that disappointing someone you loved was hard, really hard. He sighed. "I'm not angry, Yang." His Aura would've probably negated most of the pain and all of the damage anyway. "But you seriously need to get a better grip on your attitude."

Which still surprised him even now on how anyone would want or even be able to have that many kids.

Still though he had to admit he would rather miss the family of three when they had to Admit he miss them when they would inevitably leave.

Another thing he noticed was what was all over every channel, himself.

Each and every channel that Terra clicked through was a different news report of him and the Kaiju he fought, and various discussions that came with the subject. Some saying the battle he had was a sign of the end of days, others saying he was some kind of huntsman with a powerful semblance of some kind, it all varied.

"The end of days?" Weiss deadpanned, disappointed in her kin. "Seriously?"

"You'd be surprised by how people react to crisis," Ironwood mumbled. People could be so dumb at times. The end of times wasn't even the worst he'd heard.

Not to mention the different theories people were spouting out about the Kaiju. But that's a different but similar subject all together to be honest.

Kotaro knew that this was going to happen at some point or later when he arrived on Remnant. He pretty much knew the moment he announced himself to the world, and with the Kaiju suddenly appearing, he'd be a big topic.

He'd just hope that the topic itself wouldn't lead to anything that would be problematic down the road.

"With all due respect, a fool's hope," Qrow stated bluntly.

Much to their shock, Mary nodded. "You're right. Without knowing much about this world and its culture, Taro severely underestimates the magnitude of what he did. This single event might remain one of Remnant's unsolved mysteries for decades if not centuries. People are bound to look into it and, as it always happens when people look into things they shouldn't, problems will surely arise. Not to mention Cyborg Ass over there will obviously try to get him to work for him or something."

Ironwood rolled his eyes. He didn't even bother trying to explain himself, since the girl was hellbent on not believing him or quite simply on considering him a monster of some sort. True, he had done questionable things before and would probably commit more in the future, but everything he did was to protect his people. If she couldn't see that, then it was pointless to even try.

He even prevented Winter from speaking up, knowing that Mary hated her just as much as she did him.

However, Kotaro soon snapped out of his thoughts when he suddenly noticed something on a passing tv channel. "Wait, go back for a second." said, making Terra confused for a second before she went back to the channel she passed. And as it turned out it was a breaking news broadcast.

"Hello, I'm Brock Bismuth of Daily-Report-News, and coming to you live with a news bulletin for any and all out there listening or watching right now." said a generic news reporter man on the tv as he continued to speak. "Earlier Today it was recently discovered that apparently mysterious upbringings have been happening on the Faunus island of Menagerie. Leaving Authorities baffled by what is happening on the island."

"Wait, what is happening on Menagerie?" Blake asked, perking up in interest.

Mary waved her off. "Nothing that has actually happened in your world yet."

It was then that a set of images appeared in the screen. And what everyone saw was shocking to say the least.

Faunus, but every single one of them looked like they were completely frozen by something, as a pale green glow came off each of them. Each of them having a look of fear, as if they only had a brief moment to scream before whatever did this to them attacked.

Mary narrowed her eyes. Just because she had already lived through it didn't mean she recalled it fondly.

"Are you okay?" Penny asked her.

She smiled brightly at the gynoid and reached over to pat her head. "Don't worry, dearie, I'm okay. I just find it unpleasant to watch."

The robot nodded, accepting her excuse, and went back to watching.

"So far there have been over seven victims of this mysterious affliction. And the authorities are still investigating the cause of these outcomes. More to come after these messages," the newsman said, before commercials began to play on the screen.

Penny, who was holding Adrian on her lap, looked over to Kotaro. And already taking notice of the stoic look that was on her friends face.

"Kotaro?" she started.

The man didn't say anything at first. Taking one last sip or coffee before placing the cup down and getting to his feet. And after a brief moment, the Ultra finally spoke up.

"Penny. We're going to Menagerie."

"Wait, is this something Kaiju-related?" Jaune wondered out loud. If it had been normal stuff, or as normal as frozen people could be, he was sure Taro wouldn't have gone all the way to Menagerie to check it out. Helping the still-recovering city of Argus to get over the devastating Grimm attack would've been a better choice, after all.

"It's not Kaiju-related, no," Mary replied, avoiding the question ever so slightly. "But it's fairly important, and since it's new he wanted to check out what was happening. He didn't know yet, but he knew that if it was something unusual for us, there was a chance it could be something he'd have to get involved into."

"That, and he's got a bleeding heart anyway," she added as an afterthought. "He probably started thinking what to do after landing on Menagerie. Fighting, that's fine. But he has a hard time turning down calls for help, unspoken or not."

---

Present Time

---

From there, they asked Saphron and Terra if there was a way to get to Menagerie from Argus. Fortunately as it turned out, there was a ship that was about to set sail to the Faunus kingdom today.

And after saying their goodbyes to the Arc family, and hoping that they will see each other again in the future.

And sure enough they managed to hitch a ride to Menagerie and where to arrive at the large island very soon.

"I call bullshit, it's far too convenient," Qrow grumbled, knowing fully well how difficult it was to move around sometimes.

Jaune shrugged. "I'm not sure what time it is there, but I know there's a ship that stops on Menagerie from there. Apparently the Captain has family there or something. I actually choose that ship whenever I go visit my sister but I don't want to go by plane."

"Motion sickness?" Ruby teased with a grin.

"It's not funny!" he protested with a pout, making her giggle at his expenses. "Also, I was nervous, okay? It didn't help my nerves! I'm not normally that sensible on airships!"

The managed to come aboard on it due to the lack of crew members. Essentially, the captain explained two of his crew members were incapacitated due to sickness, and he was in need of some extra hands onboard.

And after the two of them talked it over with him, the captain allowed them to take a ride to Menagerie with them. And in return they would make up for the work of those two sick crew mates.

"That's really unprofessional of him," Weiss harrumphed, irritated by the contract-less quick employment. "It's technically illegal."

"It's really not," Mary replied. "As long as they're not paid, it's not real work. Legally speaking they could pass it off as the Captain giving them a free ride, and them volunteering to help out aboard. They're legally okay."

And the rest of the journey from Argus to Menagerie was pretty quite and relaxing after that.

All the while though Kotaro was still thinking about what he saw on the news bulletin. The Kaiju appearing at Argus was one mystery to be solved on its own, but if he was right about what he was thinking right now then There was something just as dangerous hiding somewhere on Menagerie. Worse even.

He just hoped they would arrive on time before anything else could happen.

"So, does he know what it is, or not?" Blake asked, feeling worried for her hometown, her parents in particular.

"He has a few ideas but nothing concrete yet," Mary answered at the best of her abilities. "After all, there are many different explanations. For all he knows, it could just be a very strange and dangerous Semblance."

"Except that he fears it's something worse than two gigantic monsters that were about to destroy Argus," Weiss pointed out.

"It's probably a different kind of danger," Jaune reasoned, scratching his neck. "The Kaijus were super-strong, but maybe this new threat is resourceful or very tricky. It may be significantly weaker but almost impossible to catch, find or kill for good."

"Like trying to kill a spider by stepping on it!" Ruby added. Those little creepers were damn hard to kill. "They are harmless but they're really quick!"

"Kotaro?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Kotaro looked over to see Penny looking at him curiously.

"Oh Hello Penny" he said, and then he took notice of the bag in her hand, "so what's in the bag you got There?"

Smiling, Penny held up the bag to him and opened it up to reveal Its contents. And much to his surprise the entire bag was filled with lien!

"If you are wondering where i got this from, I obtained it after I finished partaking in that game the sailors called arm wrestling." she explained to him, "apparently they were all taking bets on who would win the most, and I managed to win every single round. and when It was over the winners of the betting wanted to thank me so they gave me all of this in return."

Kotaro was silent as he picked up one of the lien cards and examined it for a moment, "well I can't say I'm not surprised by this. But we defiantly needed the money so nice work Penny, you really helped us out here," he said with a smile as he patted her on the head. Earning a smile from the robot girl.

The students laughed at Penny's complete obliteration of whoever was unfortunate enough to challenge her at arm wrestling.

"Hey, Penny, later can we have a match?" Yang exclaimed grinning, dying to try her own Huntress-level strength against Penny's.

"We can do that now!" the gynoid replied cheerfully, laying down on the ground and holding out a hand. "I am aware of all the rules of this activity!"

"Sweet!"

Yang laid down in front of her and clasped her hand with her own. Ruby enthusiastically offered to be the countdown-er and as soon as the word 'go' left her lips, Yang put all her strength into her arm. Penny frowned as she too exerted herself to move Yang's hand, but they seemed to be at a stalemate.

Until she applied even more strength, and slowly brought Yang's hand down, although she had to admit that if she had been a real girl, she would've probably ended up with a bruised hand from Yang's strong grip.

The poor brawler shook her hand out as soon as the armlock was over. "Damn, you sure pack some muscles there, huh?"

Penny blinked, confused. "Are you angry because I won, Friend Yang?"

"Nah, just a little surprised, that's all."

With that said, the rest of the journey to the Faunus kingdom was calm like the start of the boat ride. But eventually though they finally began to see the island of Menagerie coming across the horizon.

"Penny, what exactly can you tell me about Menagerie?" Kotaro asked.

Taking a moment to search through historical information from her Database, Penny found what she was looking for. "The island of Menagerie was gifted to the Faunus people after the great war as a reward for helping end the war long ago. But unfortunately the island itself is mostly desert with very little habitable environments, and most of the uninhabitable areas are filled with violent predators." she explained.

Blake gritted her teeth, remembering how Faunus had to make do with the miserable scrap of land they had been given to basically shut them up.

The info, while informative, only just made the Ultra frown. From the sounds of it from what Penny explained, and from whatever books he's read back at Saphron's home, the Faunus really did seem to get the short end of the stick.

But at the same time, he rationalized that chances were that Menagerie was possibly the only available landmass that could have been given to the Faunus. So at the same time he somehow felt it was also just another example of bad luck as well.

"I fail to see how a purposeful decision such as that could be considered 'bad luck'," Blake couldn't help but say bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked. She knew of her friend's Faunus heritage, but for all she knew, Menagerie had been given to the Faunus as a reward of some kind.

The black-haired girl shook her head and sighed sadly. "Menagerie is mostly uninhabitable due to the large desert within. The island was given to the Faunus as part of the peace treaty, but most Faunus saw it as a slap to the face. For all their efforts and pain, they were given an island that humanity hadn't even bothered to inhabit. They made do and turned into a little oasis of peace and equality, but it doesn't change how even its name means 'a collection of captive animals'. A zoo of Faunus."

Ironwood rolled his eyes. While he personally didn't understand racism, some of his best men and women were Faunus after all, he also loathed when people complained about Menagerie's donation to Faunus. There were equality laws, and while he wasn't blind enough to ignore that people disregarded them, Faunus were allowed everywhere. On Menagerie, there had been more than a case of lynch mobs killing humans on sight. True, the killers had always been caught and imprisoned, but still.

Humans did not have any 'safe haven' or 'human-only place' where they could go. True, humans were also a majority, but if Faunus complained when they were amongst humans, and they complained when they were left alone, then there would be no satisfying them.

"As much as I hate to say this, what Cyborg Ass is not saying is true," Mary spoke up, having more or less guessed the reason for Ironwood's annoyance. As much as she despised the man, she knew he wasn't racist. "True, Menagerie is a terrible name that Faunus could change but never did, and it's also true that the island isn't very comfortable. But at least it's a place for Faunus and Faunus only. No humans are welcome on Menagerie, not for long anyway. They get overpriced, and often refused housing outright. Out of fear and resentment. While Faunus can easily travel wherever they want, and the equality laws ensure that if there are problems, they can be solved legally."

"It doesn't stop businesses from refusing to serve Faunus outright, though," Blake shot back. She was normally very laid-back, but if there was anything that made her pissed, was when the pain of the Faunus was unheeded. To hear such callous words from a fellow Faunus was infuriating.

"All businesses have the right to refuse service to their customers, regardless of anything," Mary replied. "They can't be legally touched. A lot of businesses refuse service to Hunters because of the high risk they carry wherever they go… Yang is a prime example."

The blond clenched her fists. She was never going to hear the end of it, was she?

"It doesn't excuse how a lot of humans purposefully inflict physical, social and psychological suffering on Faunus simply because of their race." Blake's amber eyes bore into Mary's deadpan. "Menagerie was given to them to shut them up. As a way of buying their silence."

Mary rolled her eyes. "You're so blinded by your own racial prejudices that you can't even see what's right in front of you," she snapped angrily, losing her patience. "There was no other land available on such a short notice, and throwing thousands out of their homes just to make room for the Faunus would end up with both sides resenting the others. And since your dear White Fang seems to make it clear that it's either Faunus supremacy or nothing, well I'm not surprised a lot of humanity hates us, because we sound like little bratty kids with guns shooting at anyone who doesn't give us candy!"

The hall was silent after her aggressive exclamation.

She took a single breath to calm herself, knowing that Blake was about to explode. "The White Fang's original idea was good. To protest and try to provide for the Faunus at the best they could. Then it became just hurting as many humans as they could in some twisted effort to make themselves feel better and 'superior'." She thought back at Adam Taurus and resisted the urge to spit. The man had started off well, and then had gone down the 'insane' path. "How many Faunus do you see trying to make a business to help other Faunus? The vast majority of the Faunus-friendly stores and businesses are owned by humans. And before you say anything, not in pity, but in a friendly offer of help."

"As if we would accept being helped by the very same who oppressed us for centuries!" Blake finally burst out, standing up in her rage and forgetting about her secret identity. "They've spilt so much Faunus blood without a second thought. Senseless violence that went unpunished for ages! How can we not resent their pity?! How can we not want equality?!"

Mary just raised an eyebrow at her, speaking immediately to try and keep Blake's attention on her, rather than on the shocked looks she was getting from the others. "An equality brought in blood is doomed to die in blood," she stated darkly. A few of the students shivered slightly at the coldness in her voice. "And it's people like you who bother me the most. You've done nothing useful to help the Faunus, and yet you're here, screaming all holier-than-thou, at me, someone who actually stayed amongst Faunus to try and help them, and turned down an offer from General Ironwood himself, an offer that would've made me filthy rich. A richness I could've then used to help my people."

"But who stayed true to their belief and remained to help Faunus in need, instead of running off on some harebrained plan to save the world with empty words and skintight outfits?" Mary snorted. "Not me, that's for sure. When I met Taro, I was still there, working my ass off to get what I wanted, instead of running away with my tail between my legs and the stupid idea that if you became a Huntress you could somehow help Faunus… despite the fact that there are next to no Grimm near Kuo Koana."

Blake was shaking in anger. "You- How-"

"I think that's enough from the both of you." Mary had rarely heard Ozpin speak like that, but she knew she had to stand down whenever he did. That wasn't Ozpin, the friendly headmaster of the school. That was Ozma the Wizard, an ancient entity that had been through more than she could even imagine. "Ms Aaron, please refrain from psychologically provoking and aggravating my student. Ms Belladonna, please contain yourself and your emotions."

The Beacon student froze and looked around, meeting dozens of surprised eyes. She cast her gaze around to try and find a way out, but there seemed to be none.

"So… you're a Faunus?" Nora asked curiously, as if the heated argument had never happened in the first place.

"Nora!" Ren hissed, although it lacked the scolding tone he used whenever she had actually done something wrong. He too was staring at Blake in question.

Blake sighed and then, tensely, removed her bow, letting her cat ears out in the open.

Jaune facepalmed. "How did I not notice those!?"

"You weren't the only one," Pyrrha reassured him, also feeling disappointed in herself for not noticing.

Blake's eyes went to Ironwood and Winter, both of whom just staring at her, unfazed, and her body went slack with relief. She collapsed down on her knees, avoiding everyone's gazes, but not before throwing one last glare at the unimpressed fox Faunus.

Still though, that didn't mean it didn't made him somewhat disappointed that even though it was mite than likely just bad luck as it was, the Faunus were still mistreated all the same just for having animal features.

Which is just disappointing to him due to how idiotic it was to treat normal people badly just for that.

After all, you would think people would understand that such treatment others is pointless when there are more important things to deal with. Namely things such as the Grimm, which is one example.

Not to mention when you compare the Faunus to the Hunters or Huntresses, who are people who use superpowers and their own souls as shields to fight monsters made of darkness with transforming weapons.

So yeah in that retrospect, the Faunus looked downright normal in comparison.

Everyone in the room couldn't help but agree.

They really couldn't understand why people would discriminate over… anything, really.

"Well regardless of what ends met what, we still need to get to the island regardless." he said as he stared at Menagerie in the distance as it drew closer and closer.

"Kotaro" Penny spoke up again as she noticed the hardened stoic look on the man's face, "I've been meaning to ask you. Do you know what is causing all those people on Menagerie to freeze?"

Kotaro didn't say anything to Penny's question for a solid minute. He only kept staring at the island in the distance not uttering a single sound. But then finally, "Yes, I do. but i hope I'm wrong."

"And let me guess, he's not going to be wrong, is he?" Weiss commented, rolling her eyes.

"Probably not." Surprisingly, this time it was Pyrrha, not Ruby or Jaune, to come to his defence. "After all, he is more knowledgeable than any of us in a lot of things, especially when it comes to his world. He has been trained harder than any of us. It's very likely for him to already know what happened simply because he has encountered similar situations before."

"I guess that does make sense, Pyrrha."

Jaune and Ruby shared a glance, and rolled their eyes. When it was them, she called them comics fanatics or something. When it was Pyrrha, she graciously accepted her answer. So very Weiss-like.

And like that the only sound that could be heard for the two of them were the waves against the ship, the two remaining quite as the sound of waves splashed against the ship down below.

"Kotaro." Said Penny after some minutes of silence.

"Yes Penny?"

"I hope you don't mind but, do you think you can tell me more about your parents?" She asked as Kotaro turned to look at her as she held her head together and looked down shyly, "it's just that, well, I'd just like to learn more about you and your people is all"

"Yeah, finally we learn something more about Taro's parents!" Nora cheered.

"Didn't we learn about them already?" Ren questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but not nearly enough to satisfy Nora's curiosity," smiled their leader as the team shared a brief chuckle.

The man regarded what she said for a moment, before smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Sure Penny. What would you like to know?" He asked.

Penny perked up and smiled from his response and asked, "well, could you tell me about what you're parents are like please?"

Smiling, Kotaro tapped his chin with a pondering look adorning his face.

"Hmmm. Where to start."

And so Kotaro started by telling her about his father first. Practically everyone knew him by "Father of Ultra", but his actual name was Ultraman Ken.

"'Father of Ultra', huh?" Ironwood repeated to himself. If there could be a way to turn that to their favour…

If his theory was correct, then Taro would be some sort of Prince of Ultra or something, which made him even more valuable.

In the past, long before he became the supreme commander of the Space Garrison, Ken at the time an aspirin Ultraman who, much like Taro, came from a long Family line of great heroes. As proof of his heritage Ken, much like his father before him and so on, had a set of horns on his head called Ultra Horns.

Kotaro explained that Ultras who have certain traits obtain those traits due to their bloodlines and heritages. For his family, on his fathers side, it was his horns, which allow him to absorb a limitless amount of power.

Yang whistled. "Limitless power? I'm guessing it's not really true, but sure sounds cool."

Mary shrugged. It was impossible to measure if something was truly limitless – after all, how can you measure infinity?

"So your horns are part proof of your heritage as well?" She asked.

"Yup." Kotaro nodded in response, "my father taught me everything I know now. He and my mother trained me since I was young and long before I was trained by King."

"Wow..." the gynoid whispered, cataloging the information into her memory. She then looked back to him "so, how powerful is your father then?" She asked, interested to know the difference in power between the two.

"if he punched the planet it would explode." Kotaro said flatly.

"Wait, what?!"

At that, Penny's eyes widened in shock from that bit of info. especially with what Kotaro said next.

"And no it wouldn't be because of any powers my people naturally have. It would explode simply because of his sheer brute strength alone." He explained.

"HIS DAD CAN DO WHAT?!" Yang shrieked, eyes wide in disbelief.

"PUNCH A PLANET!?" Weiss followed up, no less loudly.

"THAT'S INSANE!" yelled Sun, gripping his hair with both hands.

"HE CAN DESTROY A PLANET?!" Jaune exclaimed before frowning. "…that's actually kind of cool."

"WHAT THE HELL EVEN IS HIS DAD?!" Qrow shouted, having more than a little trouble believing anyone could be that strong.

Raven sat slack, not fully believing it either. 'If there's any chance Taro might have even close to that level of power… I have to obtain it for my tribe! I cannot let Ozpin snatch him up and use him against me! I have to keep my tribe the strongest!'

Ironwood's reasoning wasn't much different, to be honest. 'Punch… a… planet… Even I think that's excessive. Perhaps it would be for the best to have Taro sire children with Atlasians instead of trying to have him use his own powers. The union with humans should lower his powers enough to be manageable by us… but still, such incredible power… I wonder what kind of training he had to undergo in order to reach that amount of power…'

Ozpin's mug didn't fall only because he had rested it on the ground at the moment, still reeling from the knowledge Taro's father could destroy a planet. To know that he could do so by strength alone… it was terrifying. 'Salem would stop at nothing to get him on her side,' he realized. 'He might even be able to go up against the Gods, one day… It's… It's impossible…'

Mary grimaced slightly at the reminder of her friend's overpowered parents. To be honest, she was glad they weren't overprotective, or things would go very poorly for a lot of people and monsters in the future. Especially Ironwood.

"Wow..."was the only response the gynoid could get out.

"Yup." Kotaro nodded, "next to Ultraman King himself, my father is regarded as one of the most powerful Ultramen of all. And I'm supposed to take his place as supreme commander one day believe it or not."

"Really?" Penny asked in surprise.

"That surely puts a lot of things into perspective," Ironwood mumbled.

"Mmhmm" Kotaro hummed as he nodded in conformation. "He told that when my training with him is finished, I wouldn't just be a Ultraman, I would be a Super Ultraman."

"A Super Ultraman?"

"Yup."

"I'm going to ask, even though I know I shouldn't, but didn't you say Taro was around Level 5 or whatever?" Qrow asked, frowning. "He's got a long way to go if he really wants to do anything."

Mary nodded. "Taro right now is a little pathetic weakling compared to the power he is expected to earn," she admitted without shame. "So you shouldn't worry about Taro punching your planet out of existence. He has other ways of doing that anyway."

"…"

"Wow, if that's the case then it's no wonder why your father became the Supreme Commander." she said.

"Yeah. But truthfully, his power wasn't just why he was nominated as the Supreme Commander though to be honest" Kotaro said.

"Really? Then why else then." Penny asked.

Suddenly though, no sooner did she asked that question, Penny would then take notice of the serious expression that took over her friend/mentors face.

"What, did someone die and free the position?" Sun asked tactlessly. He then covered his mouth. "Agh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I swear!"

"I guess we can only wait and see," replied Goodwitch, although the glare she sent him did warn him about keeping respect in mind the next time he opened his mouth.

"Kotaro?" she said, getting a bit concerned by his expression.

A few moments of silence past between them, the Ultra not saying anything at first. But just as he turned to her to tell her something, a sudden beep came over the intercom.

"Attention all crew and passengers alike. We will be arriving at Menagerie soon so do be prepared for when we arrive. That is all."

At that, Kotaro just huffed before looking back to Penny, "looks like story time will have to wait for now. But I'll tell you later when we handle things in Menagerie ok?"

"Okay!" Penny replied, giving off her trademark gigawatt smile.

And from there the two just stood in silence and looked beyond the horizon As the isle of Menagerie drew ever closer.

"Oh come on!" shouted Yang. "No fair!"

Jaune shrugged. "I was expecting him to be cut off," he commented lightly. "I'm used to cliffhangers."

Weiss developed a tick mark. "This is not one of your comics, you dunce!"

"Of course not, it's more similar to my cartoons anyway."

---

Later on Mangerie

---

"Thank you again for your help, I can't begin to start on how much you helped us out on our journey here." said the captain.

Sure enough the two had finally arrived on the Faunus island, and the two of them made their way off the ship, but not before running into the captain again on the way off.

Unfortunately though due to how the incidents were happening at the docks as of late, the ship they were riding on had to arrive at a different location. Fortunately it was nearby the place they were intending to go to so it wasn't that big of a deal.

"It's not a problem captain, and thank you for getting us here," Kotaro said as he shook the Captains hand. Penny nodding in agreed beside him.

"That's weird, I thought Menagerie only had one town," Jaune spoke up, surprised. Once he realized both Blake and Mary were looking at him with raised eyebrows, he hurried to explain. "Sorry, it's just that Kuo Koana is the only city on the maps, and to be honest it's not exactly big, so I don't see the point in having several small villages. Makes it harder to protect from the Grimm. I just assumed Kuo Koana was the only settlement and thus the only docking place."

Mary nodded. "Not a bad reasoning but a flawed one nonetheless. While what you said is true, Grimm are very rare near the Menageriean coast and people prefer not to live packed together like sardines. Plus, more towns means you have to have multiple local businesses in those towns. So instead of having one big supermarket in a large city, for their economy it's better to have several smaller stores in several villages. It keeps enough job positions open so that people don't leave to get a better life somewhere else."

"I didn't think that," admitted the blonde.

"Not many do and it's not exactly hard to see why," continued the Faunus, waving off his reply. "For one, you'd need to be knowledgeable or at least interested in economy to even think about looking at it from that angle. And second, it's hard to guess the reason when you've never been there in person."

"Ah it was no issue lad," the captain reassured "you two take care now, I gotta go check up on the cargo."

"We will sir, goodbye!" Penny replied as she waved the elderly captain goodbye.

Sure enough though the three said their goodbyes to one another and went their separate ways.

"Okay, now from what I remember The incidents were all happening at a settlement called Kuo Kuana." Kotaro said as the two trekked down a dirt road, "Penny can you pull up any information on it and where it is?"

Taking a moment to search through her data-banks, Penny soon found what she was looking for, "Kuo Kuana is the largest settlement in Menagerie. Though Menagerie is a large landmass, because of the fact that it comprises mostly desert, most of the Faunus that live here tend to congregate on smaller areas resulting in the dense settlement of Kuo Kuana." She explained "and if my calculations and my auto-map is correct, it should be due north of here and we will arrive in half an hour."

"Wait, so you have maps of the entire world?" Ruby asked her friend.

Penny shook her head. "No. I can however access the net whenever I desire, as long as I can connect that is. My father wanted to build a miniaturized CCT device in me but the Council vetoed it on the grounds that I would be too easily recognizable whenever accessing the net. Regardless of that, I can download data from the net and store it in my database, which can contain up to several thousands Terabytes. Around ninety-nine percent of it is taken up by my base programming and personality software, but I still have over fifty Terabytes of free memory." Finished with her technical explanation, she went on, dropping the tech jargon. "I likely downloaded maps and information about Menagerie back in Argus, in preparation for the trip!"

"So you're just a walking computer that can simulate human behaviour?" Raven spoke up for the first time in a while. 'Her usefulness just increased even further. It's hard to get connection back at the camp, but if she can store that much data, she could always keep notes on the nearby towns and their defences, so that our raids could be easier.'

Penny frowned and shook her head. "No, my father gave me a soul. Like Friend Ruby told me, I am made of nuts and bolts but I'm a girl as real as any other." Thanks to her programming, she could get away with a truth she didn't fully believe as only objective lies were 'hiccuped'.

The gynoid wasn't one to stop and sulk about her situation as a robot. To be honest, she was glad she'd been built in the first place! She had experienced so many things and even made friends! And if she was just a stupid computer with someone else's soul trapped within… well, at least she'd have lived her life happily. That was all she asked.

Raven didn't change expression. "So a computer that runs on Aura."

"And you're a bitch that runs on tongue-fucking her own ass," Mary commented flatly, earning herself a glare from the black-haired bandit queen. "It would explain why you're always spitting shit."

Yang covered her mouth to try and smother her snorts of laughter, while Qrow and Amber just laughed freely. Taiyang wasn't sure how to react. Sure, Raven had left him and it wasn't like he would want her back anyway… but he had been married to her! He'd had a child with her! Which implied he had performed certain activities with her! He couldn't laugh… right?

"Good, then let's go. The sooner we get there the better."

And so with their destination set, our two heroes finally making their way into the largest settlement of the Faunus capital of Remnant.

---

Later At Kuo Kuana

---

Sure enough Kotaro and Penny arrived at Kuo Kuana. And Kotaro had to admit, it was in fact a very nice settlement the people here had developed.

From what he could make out of it as they both walked along through the streets, the settlement itself was a bustling town with packed residential areas and expansive markets.

Remembering what Mary had said earlier, Jaune raised his hand before remembering he wasn't in class at the moment – though Goodwitch looked weirdly smug when she saw his raised hand. Possibly because she had successfully imprinted the action onto him by fear factor alone. "Yes, Jaune?"

"I got a question for Mary, though if anyone else knows the answer they can say it," he spoke up, lowering his arm before pointing at the city onscreen with the other. "You spoke about economy. How exactly do they handle things over there? Those market stands look like the ones you see at the one-day markets they sometimes do to promote local products, and I don't see any store or supermarket there. That really doesn't seem very… efficient?"

Goodwitch nodded, inwardly slightly surprised by the boy's curiosity. Perhaps he just needed to have his interest piqued by something resembling one of his comics. It wasn't something she could add to the lessons but it was nice to know that at least there were some things he was interested in learning about. "It's not. Even though it favours local businesses, it does prevent a lot of products from being on the market. Food is prevalent and without a supermarket's technological storing area, that food will go bad very soon. However, considering the architecture of the houses, it's likely they do not have the money nor the resources to build a modern supermarket and have to rely on the singular sellers of the market." She pushed her glasses up her nose and sighed. "Kuo Koana may be the biggest Faunus settlement in Menagerie but even then it's below the poverty threshold of most kingdoms, except for maybe country Vacuo."

Ozpin took over the explanation. "When Faunus first went to Menagerie, they were fresh out of the war. Barely educated. And thus they couldn't form any kind of official organisation to educate their children, which is why even now an estimated ten percent of Menagerie's inhabitants is illiterate." He shook his head in bitter sadness. "Unfortunately, the lack of proper education due to the system's failure to provide it and the parents' own ignorance, led to the children being minimally educated. Even when, years afterwards, schools were built and Faunus teachers from all over the world were called to help, few did. Most feared losing their well-paying job and refused to help."

"Which, by the way, isn't exactly something you can hold against them," Taiyang added when she saw some students begin to frown. "Some of them had family to maintain and still it was a huge risk. Most likely it would backfire and end up with them unemployed and with little money, unable to go back to a stable life outside Menagerie and thus leading to them being stuck there."

"Since there are no universities on Menagerie, the Faunus who wished for a higher level of education travelled to the kingdoms and usually found employment there after graduation, leading to most of them never returning to their hometown to share their knowledge," Ozpin picked off from where Taiyang left off. To be honest, Mary was pretty impressed by the three teachers' coordination. "Without people who knew how to do the more complicated jobs, Menagerie was left with little money or resources and low-paying job positions. The government couldn't afford to have universities built, or even just a supermarket as you pointed out. Not because they lacked the money, which wasn't completely true, but simply because it'd be pointless, if not harmful."

"Harmful?" Nora repeated, confused. "How can a supermarket be harmful? They're super useful!"

Blake shook her head, remembering when her own parents had thought about building one. The thought of her parents sent a pang of guilty sorrow through her heart, but she pushed it down with practised ease. "Because it'd push all those sellers you see out of a job, and it'd open very few job positions in comparison. And it couldn't buy the products from those sellers because it would not respect certain laws on it. Packages and all the rest."

Mary nodded, finishing off the explanation. "So it would need to import everything from the kingdoms, which would mean at least doubling its price for both the market's purchases and its customers'. That would eventually drain the people's pockets and, considering most of the market's money would end up into some Valean or Mistalian producer's pockets, the city as a whole would become poorer and poorer." She sighed. "The only thing that are up to date in Menagerie are the docks, because they need to be to house modern ships like the one Taro and Penny arrived in. And considering a lot of Faunus from all around the world go there for vacations, to see the Faunus Paradise of Menagerie, doing all that's possible to keep the routes open is absolutely necessary. But the rest of the city… is in less than good conditions."

No one said anything after the explanation was over. Even Raven actually felt a little bad for the Faunus. Not enough to act on it or even comment, of course, but she did understand what it felt to struggle to hold onto the tiniest bit of anything.

Blake clenched her fists. While she didn't condone the White Fang's actions any more, that was the reason why she hated how humans 'donated' Menagerie to the Faunus. It wasn't a paradise. It was a prison they would slowly die in, without even realizing.

Because they had accepted the gift, and slowly they would be forced to leave the island a family at a time, finding an easier life in the kingdoms. And thus the humans would say 'we gave you an island, you accepted, and now you're whining at our doorsteps that you want more?' and blame it all on the Faunus. And by then, they would be right, because the Faunus shouldn't have accepted that 'reward' in the first place!

That was why she would become a Huntress. To change the world and restore real equality. So that humans would stop hating on Faunus and they would stop forcing desperate Faunus into taking extreme actions, such as most of the White Fang. Even Adam had been created and forged into hatred by the humans' cruelty. The Faunus just wanted equality, not superiority. But humanity seemed to disagree.

She missed the irony of her words.

The main street runs from the port to the Chieftain's house and is lined with market stalls and houses. The houses come in many different shapes and sizes accommodating a variety of different Faunus that live there.

The city has a district called "The shallow sea" was dedicated to Faunus with aquatic features. It is comprised of a number of wooden stilt houses situated over shallow water. The water is shallow enough for Faunus to walk in, but also deep enough for more aquatic Faunus to swim in. Boardwalks are connected with wooden rope bridges and are populated by booths selling food and drinks. The water features a submerged market area for Faunus with aquatic features enabling them to convene with the rest of the public.

"No offence to anyone, but that looks so weird," Ruby said as she stared at the underwater market.

"I agree," Weiss nodded. "I mean, it's so different from what we're used to that it's hard to think it's actually a normal thing for them."

"Although I do wonder how often do they have to replace the wood, if it is constantly underwater, and what kind of stuff they sell," Qrow spoke up, scratching his cheek. "I mean, lots of food go bad if kept in the water. Seafood lasts a little longer, so I suppose that's what the majority of them sells. Especially considering most foods would be ruined by the salt water."

"They don't actually sell food aside from some fish," Blake answered his unspoken question. She actually often bought fish from them back when she lived there, because it tasted the best. She was almost drooling at the mere thought of it. "They make very little money, but they do it also to show some support for the Faunus who prefer to stay in the water, although there has never been a Faunus who couldn't live on land at all."

Another section of the town has a residential area with houses more evenly spaced apart, which in turn makes room for alleys.

Separated from the cramped houses is what Kotaro could make out as a multilevel home of sorts, spaced away with a large, paved courtyard.

In all honesty it was actually a really nice community that the people who live here have developed.

Now if only they would stop giving the two of them looks.

Indeed, ever since they've arrived they have been receiving an assortment of looks from the various residents that spotted them. From what Kotaro understood, humans rarely came to Menagerie and those who did arrive where normally ambassadors from the other kingdoms. And even then their stays were normally short as they would soon leave after they done what they came to do.

So he could understand why a couple of normal looking people like he and Penny would be an oddity in the Faunus kingdom

Ozpin nodded. "More often than not, even the ambassadors are Faunus."

"Let me guess, to avoid causing trouble?" Yang hypothesised.

Blake frowned slightly. Bringing humans on Menagerie was a horrible idea and anyone who suggested it had to be an idiot to not know that, so it sending Faunus ambassadors was the obvious choice. They would be much more well-received by the community.

"Indirectly, but yes," replied the headmaster, placing his mug -by now empty- on the ground beside him and watching with slight interest as it vanished from sight. "Although Faunus ambassadors aren't always trustworthy – regardless of their race, their job is to look out for their kingdom, not strike deals to the benefit of Menagerie."

"Well, it's not like Menagerie would refuse a good deal or two," Sun pointed out, jerking a thumb at the screen. "Beggars can't be choosers, but they surely can try to go for a miracle from time to time."

Ozpin shook his head. "If that were to be the end of it, I wouldn't see any problem with that. True, it wouldn't be completely fair or sometimes even legal, but the kingdoms can handle a loss or two and Menagerie does need all the resources it can get. However, these unfair bias often lead to Menagerie -and the Faunus as a whole- to be seen as cheaters, and for those ambassadors to be fired and replaced by human ones, much less welcome on the island."

Blake's frown turned into a scowl. It wasn't their fault if the humans liked to generalize Faunus as a race instead of a group of individuals, blaming everything on Faunuskind as a whole instead of looking for the responsibles.

Mary, having guessed what was going through the girl's head, just rolled her eyes. Blake would learn, eventually, but she honestly doubted that day was coming soon. The girl was just too stubborn and blinded, just like Yang would need a serious wake-up call before she could understand that her attitude and short temper were grave issues that had to be addressed immediately and possibly by a professional therapist, lest they actually became problems in the future.

At the very least though, it would seem the stares were more out of curiosity than anything else. Which makes sense as he rationalized that any human that came to Menagerie would be more akin to ambassadors or something along those lines.

Two ordinary looking people on the other hand... not so much. Still, they were here now so they might as well get onto business.

"So Penny, any idea where the docks might be?"

Thinking about it for a moments, Penny looked to him with a smile "yes actually, it should be pass the Belladonna household. The left turn should take us to it."

"Belladonna household?" He asked.

"Belladonna household?" everyone but the adults repeated, not having expected the name.

Blake sighed. "Yes, Menagerie is my hometown and my parents are fairly wealthy," she explained wearily. The topic of her parents hurt a lot more than she wanted to admit, so she would've much preferred if they could just ignore the issue entirely and move on.

Ironwood of all people seemed to notice and urged the others to continue, "Ms Belladonna is a Faunus. There is nothing surprising in finding out she comes from Menagerie. I suggest we keep watching – after all, we still don't know what is really happening in Kuo Koana."

"Yes, it's home to the leaders of Menagerie, Ghira and Kali Belladonna," Penny explained. "Ghira Belladonna was actually the leader of the White Fang for some time until he decided to step down and become chieftain of Kuo Kanna. And he left the current leader of the White Fang Sienna Khan in charge in his place."

"Which in turn led to the White Fang becoming violent and a terrorist organization..." Kotaro muttered as he processed this information.

"What-"

Mary cut Blake off before she could go on a spiel or something. "Wait for him to explain before you blow a gasket. No point in yelling at someone whose reasoning you are not even aware of," she scolded, all the while keeping her bored-of-life expression on her face.

Another reason was also that she was starting to get annoyed at the black-haired Faunus. True, Taro was on Menagerie, her hometown, at the moment but that didn't mean Blake had the right to just up and call everything racist just because she found it didn't align perfectly with her own reasoning. Mary was sick of having to shut up the girl, especially since while she tried to always get as much proof for her arguments as possible, Blake's was always just that prejudice she had gained through 'pain of discrimination' or whatever, something Mary found hard to believe considering she was basically Menagerie's Princess, rich and without a care in the world, and literally away from any kind of human and thus possible discrimination.

Also, Mary had met Kali and Ghira, and neither was even remotely as judgemental or prejudiced as their daughter was. She supposed that she'd first joined the White Fang because it was peaceful, then she'd met the cool badass bad boy Adam and followed him, and then she couldn't find a way out until she quite literally up and left without a word.

During his time on Remnant while living with the Arcs, he had heard and read about the White Fang organization. While he originally approved of the peaceful approach they had before he sure as Hell didn't approve of their change in approach for equality.

Violence was never an actual answer unless it was completely and absolutely necessary. But other than that though it should never be an answer for anything else. Granted yes his people used violence but that was only because they had to. And there are other times when conflicts that they solve rather peacefully and without bloodshed.

Which really only proved his point to be honest.

From what's he's learned is that the current leader Sienna Khan, Sienna stated that she believed in violence for some time prior to radicalization, which in turn led to much more hostile actions in the White Fang in their attempts for equality.

And because of this, a lot of the newer members were more violent because they wanted humans to fear them. Simply, as he rationalizes, in order to get payback on mankind.

Which really made him believe that they were a bunch of complete idiots.

'The way they're going about things is essentially like trying to wash blood off with more blood. A fools errand' Kotaro thought to himself. 'The people won't respect Faunus if they're being terrorized, that'll simply lead to mass genocide. Just what the hell is wrong with those idiots? You'd have to be the stupidest person on the planet or a complete psychopath for even thinking that terrorizing people will get you what you want.'

Blake's fists clenched. Taro may not have meant to insult her, but he had, even though unconsciously so. Unconsciously, but directly. Because even though she hadn't liked it, she had believed it was working. Even now, she did believe it worked – she just didn't want for it to happen any more.

Mary stared at her, waiting for the inevitable rant, and she was not disappointed.

"He speaks of things he doesn't even understand," she stated bitterly and angrily, clenching her fists as she glared at the screen. Everyone turned to her when she spoke up, but Mary could see that Ironwood, Ozpin and Qrow all had knowingness in their eyes, being the best at reading people and thus having known it would happen eventually. "He condemns the White Fang, as do I, but demeans them and belittles their reasoning to the point of making them sound like spoiled children wanting a toy. He has no knowledge of what it is to be hated for something you couldn't change. To be hated for your appearance in a world where transformation Semblances exist with no repercussions!"

"Ms Belladonna, please calm down," Goodwitch requested, not even getting up from where she was sitting, cross-legged, on the floor. "Getting upset at what is likely nothing more than a movie with strange twists is pointless."

"Except that she has met Taro, and General Ironwood has apparently met our version of her," Blake hissed before forcefully controlling her anger. It wouldn't end well for her if she lashed out at her Deputy Headmistress. That didn't stop her from glaring at Mary, though. "Which probably means Taro does exist in our world, and most likely shares the same, racist view of the Faunus!"

"That's ENOUGH!"

Everyone was surprised when Mary roared out the last word. They'd seen her be angry and mocking, calm and reassuring (to some extent). But they'd never seen her yell. Even when she was being yelled at, she didn't lose her cool.

Yet, now she was angry. Very angry.

"You are so wrapped up in your ideals of perceived pain and paradisical retribution that you can't even see what's right in front of you! You, the Princess of Menagerie for lack of a better term, the fucking little bitch who had only ever heard of racism on TV or from squalidly bitter assholes who had nothing better to do than teach a little girl how to hate people without even thinking about it! Even after you joined the White Fang, you've seen Faunus who had been discriminated against psychically and psychologically, but you've always been shielded from most of it. You haven't suffered a single day of being discriminated against in your whole fucking life!"

"You have taken part to protests and manifestations thinking yourself all high-and-mighty, a self-righteous little spoiled brat who needed more spanking than she had hair on her head and, considering just how pathetic your decision-making skills are, more than a few lessons on real discrimination! You may have been in the White Fang but you joined for the childish, romantic goal of riding off into the sunset with your beloved idol, after having saved Faunuskind and freed them from the oppression of humans, a race you had barely even seen before, much less interacted with. But you were justified in your hatred, weren't you? After all, other Faunus were discriminated against, so you had to have the right to bitch on about something you never even faced yourself!"

"Not to mention the fact Faunus can be an awful bunch too!" Mary grabbed her coat and made to tug it off before apparently thinking better of it. "The White Fang does not only murder people who had done absolutely nothing to get on their bad side, except being there at the wrong time, or being employed by the Schnee Dust Company. The White Fang stole, destroyed, hurt, maimed, killed, terrorized, and for what? Nothing. Just a bunch of 'do as we want or else…' threats that would eventually solve nothing."

"None of that Dust you stole ever saw use to help Faunus, if not to fuel the weapons of the White Fang. Schnee Dust fuelling the White Fang. It wasn't sent to Menagerie to be used for household appliances or whatever. It wasn't sold on the black market and the money given to the poorer Faunus families. No. It was used exclusively for more violence." Mary's voice slowly but steadily dropped from angry shouting to something far worse, a freezing cold seething that made the students' skin crawl. "Yes, the Faunus are mistreated. Believe me, I've been there. I've seen it. But do you want to talk about the White Fang's actions? Even against their own kind?"

Blake shook herself out of the shock Mary's explosion induced, and attempted to scowl at the girl, but she wasn't very successful. Mary's dark expression all but drained away her defiance. She still wished to argue, however, to prove her point. "The White Fang has done a lot of things I don't condone," she retorted bitterly. "But it has never brought harm to the Faunus."

"Aside from the fact that discrimination has gone up by over seventy-eight percent since the White Fang turned violent?" Mary asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the girl's naivety. "Just because they don't grab random Faunus and gut them out of the blue doesn't mean they don't hurt Faunus."

"Plus they have killed Faunus too, you know?" Blake fell silent when the girl continued, having a hard time believing what she was hearing. "I won't go into full detail. There was a tiny settlement, mixed humans and Faunus. I was passing by and decided to stop for a while. At the time, I liked travelling around a lot. Then the White Fang came, led by dear old Adam Taurus, and tried to recruit those Faunus. Some of the younger adults decided to try, and you know what they were asked to do to 'prove their loyalty'?"

She didn't wait for anyone to offer an answer, because she knew they'd either not get it, or exaggerate it. "They would need to physically hurt one of the humans they had grown up with. Not kill – Taurus wasn't dumb enough to think that he could convince the Faunus to kill the humans out of the blue. Not so soon, at least. However, they refused, and that's when Taurus's psychopathic side came out."

"His speech was as grand and powerful as it was vile. But he always had a way with words, especially when dealing with blind fools who thought they were doing the right thing no matter what they actually did. He painted the Faunus of that community as traitors to their race, consorting with the enemy, and led a group of his most loyal followers to kill a great deal of them. Then, as soon as he'd gotten their blood off of him, he accused the humans of doing it, and the White Fang was in uproar."

"Taurus wasn't dumb. He used that hatred to recruit as many hate-blinded Faunus and left, mentioning police and whatnot, to fill his soldiers with an unsatisfied need for revenge they would take out on all other humans. The community didn't survive long afterwards, and all that's left is a bunch of empty buildings."

Mary finished her sinister tale without as much as a single emotion in her voice. She stared at Blake with dead eyes before they narrowed and anger lit them up again. "So shut up. I know better than anyone that the White Fang's actions are not right. I don't care how they were born, what they're doing is wrong. Even if they were just desperate wretches, it still wouldn't be enough to placate my ire at them. And as for Taro, he's fought against people like the White Fang's most extremist members before, and he's fought the other side of the coin, racist extremists. He knows exactly what he's talking about. So sit down, child, and take your own advice – stop talking about things you know nothing about!"

Penny meanwhile took notice of Kotaro's deep thoughtful look and said "Kotaro is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, no Penny I'm just thinking about something is all" he replied to her.

"Oh, alright." She said.

With that said the two continued their way to the docks as they planned. Both of them hoping to end the current issues revolving around what was going on there.

However unaware to both of them though, a figure watched them from the shadows as they went. And said figure could only look at them with analyzing eyes.

"Who's that?" Ruby asked timidly, mindful of the tense mood left behind by Mary's outburst.

"Guess," was all the white-haired girl said, thought she was taking deep breaths to calm herself.

---

Kuo Kuana Docks

---

After a bit of time moving through the city, our heroes finally arrived to their destination.

Both of them stood before a large cargo hanger labeled "Hanger 17". From what they've learned before they arrived the incidents that have been happening all revolve around here. But due to not being able to find any evidence on what was going on the local authorities had told the local population to stay away from the area for the time being.

"That doesn't look like it fits the rest of the town," Jaune commented before slapping a hand over his mouth, fearing retribution for his careless comment.

Goodwitch took pity in his fear and decided to answer. "Like we mentioned earlier, the docks of Menagerie are far more advanced than the rest of the city due to their importance."

"And let's not forget that while old-fashioned, Menagerie has recently made some additions to the city." Ozpin briefly recalled hearing about Ghira and Kali Belladonna's project to turn Menagerie into a city befitting the century they were in. It was hard, especially when they had taken away the funding of the original White Fang to do it, but it was slowly working. It probably wouldn't be finished this decade, but perhaps the next generation would be born into a completely new city. Ozpin himself certainly had had no qualms about supporting the operation when asked about it. "Chieftain Belladonna seems to be a fairly good leader, even though I've rarely ever heard of him leaving the island even for political purposes."

Sun nodded. As a Faunus, he was kind-of up-to-date with stuff regarding Menagerie. He actually wanted to move there once he graduated as a Huntsman. "Yeah, my guess is that he doesn't want to leave the island unguarded with those White Fang nutjobs around."

"Mr Wukong is right, unfortunately," Mary threw in her own two cents, rinsing off the last vestiges of anger from her persona. Not that she wasn't angry any more, but she was good enough at hiding it and pushing it aside. "Without Chieftain Ghira and Chiefess Kali on the island, Sienna Khan, the current leader of the White Fang, might try to perform actions such as recruitment meetings that normally would be vetoed by the leaders of Menagerie."

If anyone noticed her overly stiff manner of speaking, they didn't comment on it.

Fortunately though, that also made it easier for the two as it meant nobody would be around or in risk of getting potentially hurt.

"Alright we're here," Kotaro said as he brandished the same gun he used on the Grimm when he and Penny helped saved Argus. "Remember Penny, what I believe is in there is dangerous. So don't let your guard down once we're inside."

"Don't worry Kotaro, I'm combat ready!" Penny Said with a smile, but you can tell she was still being serious about the situation.

Smiling, Kotaro nodded in approval. He then cocked his gun while Penny brought out some of her swords. And then they opened the door and walked inside, shutting it behind them all the while.

Once inside the large cargo hanger the two had begun to search around. So far though the only thing that seemed to be inside was various cargo and silence.

The two however still remained tense for whatever might be potentially lurking around though. And so they went on. Deeper and deeper into the hanger, searching for what might lurk within.

But after 10 minutes, Penny finally decided to break the silence.

"Kotaro?" She said quietly, but just loud enough to get his attention. "You never really told me what exactly we're looking for in here. Do you think you can now?"

Even though she'd never admit it, Raven was marginally impressed with Penny. She had managed to keep her voice down despite her normally exuberant personality and she seemed to be fairly competent in a possible-fight situation.

Even though she had discarded the thought of needing her in tribe as soon as she'd seen Taro fight the Kaijus, she still wouldn't have minded adding her to her forces. However, that act might anger Ironwood enough to actually do something about her little tribe of bandits, and even the all-powerful Spring Maiden couldn't do much against a carpet bombing from one of Ironwood's warships.

Kotaro didn't say anything as he stopped and calmly looked around. "Well. Since we're already in this deep I might as well. It only seems fair," he said as he turned to look at her. "You see Penny, what we're looking for in here is called a-."

However whatever Kotaro was going to say next stopped in his throat when he stopped dead in his tracks and looked down. And what he say was what appeared to be a watchman's hat underneath his foot.

Bending down he picked it up to examine it. And quickly took notice on how it still felt warm.

"We're close. Penny be ready because-" however whatever Kotaro was going to say to her next died in his throat. Because he suddenly took notice of the look of horror that was on Penny's face as she looked ahead of her.

"Penny? What's wr-"

"For some reason, I really don't feel like what's about to happen is good," Nora spoke up, trusting her gut. And her gut was telling her to get the fuck out of there because she did not want to see what was coming next.

Jaune and Ruby exchanged a glance. Weiss might've teased them a lot, but their love for comics did pay out a lot. People called them stupid but the truth was that ever since the Academies were built, a lot of comic artists had begun to make their works a lot more realistic to help the students learn how certain situations would go. Sure, the two leaders also indulged in the more pointless and simply entertaining comics, but they read an abundance of educational ones.

It wasn't hard to guess that whatever had shocked Penny into stillness, it wouldn't be good at all.

*slurp*

That singular sound alone made the Ultra stop talking practically immediately. Slowly but surly he turned his gaze over to where exactly Penny was look towards at, and soon found out why she had suddenly become so quiet all of a sudden.

"What's that?" Ruby asked, trying to look at the screen closely, as if she could somehow see more than it showed.

"We're about to find out," replied Blake, shrinking slightly on herself. She was aware that Ruby was hard to scare due to Yang's love for horror movies back when they were younger, but she had never understood how the girl could be so calm with eerie settings such as abandoned warehouses.

For there, in the middle of a large space, was nothing short of a monster.

Blake whimpered too quietly for anyone to hear and tried to hide her face in her hands, but Yang just chuckled and pried them off. "Come on, Blake, it can't be that scary, right?"

Its appearance was in the form of some kind of bipedal anthropoid, with a dark exoskeleton covering its body. From what could be made out with its back turned to them, Its head was crowned by two sharp points. And in place of hands were two large pincer claws.

However it what was in those claws that made Kotaro understand Penny's sense of horror.

For there, tightly being held in the creatures grip, was the lifeless corpse of a Faunus. But the truly horrific part of the scene was the fact that jammed down the corpses mouth was a long thin proboscis. And if the sounds were anything to go by, the creature was actually sucking out its victims blood and insides.

Yang was immediately forced to eat her own words.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!" she shrieked, crawling back on the ground and trampling Weiss while doing so – not that the heiress noticed, anyway, as she too was too busy staring horrified at the monster on the screen to actually care about the violent contact.

Blake whimpered again and curled in on herself. That was why she didn't watch horror movies, like, ever! Call her a scaredy cat, and she would tell you she preferred being a scaredy cat rather than a brave corpse! And also she could call you racist, but that was beside the point.

Ruby grabbed her hood and forced it down on her face, shaking her head. "Nope, that doesn't exist."

Nora and Ren, who had both been subjected to the horror of the Nuckelavee at a young age, merely looked away, disgusted, but Pyrrha had to actually force herself not to gag or throw up, having never actually seen any gore. Even Grimm, she studied them, but she'd never seen what they do to people.

Ironically Jaune, the least trained, was also the least affected. He merely flinched a little. Thanks to modern technology, horror movies were super realistic and even though he didn't particularly like the genre, he'd still seen tons of them. Plus his favourite comics had horrible monsters in them too. The fact that that monster was supposedly real in some other reality did register, but it was minor. Like, in the back of his head.

Funnily enough, Sun and Amber had similar reactions for similar reasons. For the former, being on an all-male team meant that movie nights were either action or horror (which was stereotypical, but any other genre wouldn't be 'cool' for Neptune), while Amber just plain liked horror movies. They helped her come to terms with all the bullshit about Salem and everything else.

More used to gore, the adults had different reactions.

Ironwood and Winter, tried and true soldiers who had seen more than a person torn to shreds by Grimm, were both trying to see if it had any sort of obvious weak point. Of course the dark setting made it far more difficult, but eventually anything had weak points. In that monster's case, perhaps the joints were the answer – creatures with armour usually didn't have very tough skin, so aiming for the places the armour couldn't protect might give them the advantage. "Specialist Schnee, start taking notes on this possible threat."

Ozpin frowned as he sipped his coffee. Monster or not, he'd seen more Grimm than anyone else on the planet, except for Salem of course, and many of them were far more terrible than this creature. "While it may look like something straight out of a horror movie, we should not lose our heads," he reprimanded his students. "Beowolves can easily kill civilians, and they are barely a warm-up for most of you. This monster may appear horrifying, but eventually we have no idea of its true capabilities in a fight."

"He's right," Qrow piped up, ignoring how Goodwitch rolled her eyes at his interruption. "If you freeze up at something like this, as bloody as it may be, then you're dead meat on the field."

Raven ignored all of them, focusing on the monster. While, like everyone else, she did feel a shiver at its appearance, she was sure it wouldn't be particularly powerful, or Taro wouldn't have allowed Penny to investigate. True, he hadn't known what exactly that monster was, but she was sure he wouldn't have allowed her to come hadn't he thought she could handle anything inside. And if Penny could handle it, then so could she and her tribe.

It then suddenly perked up, and slowlyturned to look at them. Revealing facial features that resembled a cicada. With two, orange, bug like, menacingly glowing, soulless eyes.

The silence that was created by the stare-down was thick enough to cut as neither party made a move.

But then the cicada like creatures proboscis slowly slivered it's way out of the dead Faunus' throat, before with a wet squelch it slid out of the victims insides and retreated into the creatures mouth. Or whatever the hell counted for a mouth anyway.

The students gagged, with the exception of the aforementioned two blondes and one Maiden. Sun winced, looking away, and Jaune frowned, having never really liked the gory parts of horror, but Amber was completely unaffected.

The adults winced slightly. As war-worn as they were, none of them could ever take any kind of pleasure in seeing death, so none of them had really watched horror movies in recent times. Unfortunately, that meant their experience with it came from other, much darker sources, like battle experience.

Suddenly in one swift motion the thing suddenly tossed its victim right at Kotaro and Penny, forcing the two to quickly move out of the way as the body flew past them and slammed into a cargo holder with the force of a speeding car.

The two wasted no time as they righted themselves and pointed their weapons at the creatures. But much to their surprise, the monster was gone!

The two then rushed into the clearing and began looking around. Searching for any signs of the thing in the hanger.

"W-where did it go?!" Penny asked with a shake and quiver in her tone. The poor girl clearly disturbed by the sight she had just witnessed not two moments ago, not that she could be blamed for that to be honest.

"Bad mistake!" Everyone jumped at Amber's sudden yell. "Never let the monster out of your sight! The only thing that's worse is splitting up!"

Qrow rubbed his tired eyes and glared at the young Maiden. "What she is trying to say," or at least he really hoped she was trying to say that, because otherwise she'd get detent… shit he wasn't a teacher any more, he couldn't give her detention for the bad timing! "…is that it's best if you do not let your opponent out of your sight during a fight, especially if you are not aware of their abilities."

But before the Ultra could answer her, a haunting and eerie laugh came from up above them. Both of them whipped their gaze upwards and Penny's eyes widened while Kotaro's narrowed. For the sight before them was the creature floating above looking down at them.

Only this time, there were now a DOZEN others of the monster hovering around it. Each given off the same haunting and eerie laugh as they circled the one in the middle.

"W-w-What are they?! Are they Kaiju?!" Penny said as she stared at the things hovering above them.

"No, not Kaiju! Alien!" Kotaro spoke up glaring at the creatures, "Alien Baltan!"

For a second time, the audience shivered at the horrifying 'laugh', if it could even be called that, of the monster they now knew was called an 'Alien Baltan'.

However… there was the tiny matter of the sudden increase in numbers of the creature.

"Holy fuck, now there's a dozen of them!" Yang, ever the more vocal one, yelled out. She could admit she was kinda scared by the monsters. True they didn't look particularly tough compared to some older Grimm, but they were scary as hell!

"Where did they come from?" Blake wondered out loud, narrowing her eyes at the creatures.

Mary shrugged. "You'll see."

---

Alien Analyzer

Space Ninja Alien Baltan

Tier: Mid-Ttier 2

The origins of this mysterious race of creatures is unknown to many in the universe and beyond.

Some say they're a race that were originally members of the Cicada Humans, but for some reason mutated into the Baltans. others say they are a race of Aliens that had destroyed their own planet from nuclear testing, forcing them to travel the universe for a new home. Others even say they may be from a different galaxy entirely.

Whatever their origin may be though it is without a doubt that Baltans can be a huge threat.

Baltans are notaries as enemies for two distinctive reasons.

First being their agility, Strength, and unique powers which allows them to overwhelm most of their victims. As they are able to move at high speeds and have powerful striking power to back up their agility as well.

And secondly, their intelligence and cunning. Baltans are known for their high levels of intelligence which they use for a lot of different reasons. Most races in the universe can only dream about the things the Baltans can use their high intellect for.

But this also makes them extremely dangerous as their cunning enough to outsmart an opponent if they can't simply overpower them.

With all this in mind it's no wonder why they're nicknamed "Space Ninjas".

"Sooo… damn fucking holy fuck?" Yang tried to joke, but it came out as a groan instead.

"Ms Xiao Long, please watch your language." A couple of students subtly rolled their eyes at Goodwitch's reprimand. Was that really the time?

"I think damn fucking holy fuck is pretty much an appropriate reaction," Qrow admitted, ignoring Goodwitch's and Winter's twin glares. "That's gonna be tough to deal with. Especially considering they're in the same Tier as those two Kaijus, and the Kaijus were about to wipe Argus off the map."

"Don't remind me," Jaune and Pyrrha mumbled at the same time, exchanging a worried glance. They both had family there and they'd much rather not think about it being destroyed.

---

Before Kotaro could explain any further on what a Baltan was though, the cicada like creatures suddenly dived down and quickly surrounded the two of them.

Kotaro and Penny immediately got back to back with each other. Weapons raised and ready as the Baltans circled the two like a school of hungry sharks in a feeding frenzy. "We're surrounded! How did we not notice all of them when we came in here?" Penny asked.

"Actually there's only just one here" Said Kotaro.

"Either he can't count to save his life, or there's something more to what we are seeing," Weiss correctly guessed. "Perhaps it can create illusions of itself."

"You got it right," Mary confirmed, nodding her head. "Though the illusions are very real and can very easily kill you, so it's more like copies of itself."

"Well, fuck, now we know why it's a Tier 2," Amber said, one hand clenching slightly as she resisted the urge to use her Maiden's Powers.

"What?" Penny asked as she glanced back at him, confused by what he meant by that.

"Baltans all have a unique ability to make copies of themselves on the fly. Essentially all of the ones you see here are only clones, illusions created by the original which is hiding amongst them," he explained.

"Meaning only one of them is actually real...!" Penny realized.

"Yes but be carful! For while they may just be illusions, they can still kill you!" Kotaro warned.

And no sooner did he finish saying that did the Baltans all pounce at them!

"I wonder how many copies they can make," Ren pondered, rubbing his chin ever so slightly. When he realized what he was doing, he immediately stopped. "I doubt it can just create infinite copies, or this world would be facing more problems than just a few attacks. Perhaps since they are copies, they need to be commanded by the original one, which means that it can get overwhelmed if too many copies happen to be in too many different zones, overloading his senses. Or perhaps it's limited or a certain number."

The two were quick to move out of the way of the first Baltans that got close to them. Just barely dodging the pincer claws that tried to snap them and quickly getting their bearings as they began to fight off the cicada aliens off.

Kotaro was first to shoot off a burst shot of rounds from his weapon as he charged. A trio of the Baltans dashed towards him, with one of them getting hit by the shots as the other two dodged.

But once the two got close to him he was forced to quickly duck and weave through a parry of snapping claws. But Kotaro was quick to go on the defensive as he closed the distance and punched on of the two clear In the face sending it flying. And then he delivered a roundhouse kick to it's partner straight to the neck, sending it spiraling to the floor with a loud thud.

"Yeah, go Taro!" Nora cheered, having somehow gotten popcorns to throw all over the place out of nowhere. "Kick those ugly insect aliens' butts!"

Though no sooner did the three Aliens go down, did each of them suddenly vanish soon afterwards.

Nora stopped cheering, pouting. "That takes all the fun out of it…"

"Nora, fun isn't something you should consider while fighting murderous aliens," Weiss reminded her before adding, "Or anything else, for that matter."

'Well that rules those out,' Kotaro thought.

However a sudden bang got his attention and making him swivel his attention over to the sudden sound. And sure enough he saw Penny fighting some of the other Baltans as they ganged up on her. The Gynoid having her swords from into their second transformation, which were essentially laser guns that she used to try and shoot the cicada-like aliens down.

"That's really cool, Penny!" Ruby gushed out, reminding everyone that the gynoid was actually in the room with them. "I haven't gotten a good look at your swords before, but they're super powerful!"

Mary frowned in displeasure. "Yeah, super powerful," she drawled, glaring at Ironwood. "Way more powerful than it was needed, even though I'm glad she faired well against those things."

Ironwood tried very hard not to roll his eyes. He loved Penny like she were his niece, but of course he'd want her fully armed. In fact, the familial love led to him wanting to be sure she could protect herself.

Winter did not have the same self-restrain. After being silenced for the whole viewing, she finally growled out, "You have no right to speak about Atlas's choices, especially when it comes to our people, or our military secrets, and Penny is both. We gave her a powerful arsenal to ensure her safety."

"And you just so happened to send her over to Vale to let her participate in the Vytal Festival because it'd be fun for a newly born girl to fight against other people. I suppose it was meant to give her experience and desensitise her to it." Mary scowled back at Winter. "Instead of keeping her in Atlas, letting her live a normal life. You gave her strength because you wanted her to be your…" She seemed to have trouble with the words for a second before she spat, "…your war machine. That's all you wanted her to be. Sure, you may care about her but that doesn't change what her role was meant to be. So fuck off."

Then she turned towards Penny with an apologetic look in her eyes. "You can choose your own path, girl. You don't have to be a war machine. Sorry about that."

The Gynoid was admittedly holding out against them fair enough. After trying to shoot them, two Baltans came charging at her at both sides, but Penny was quick to jump up and did split kick on both of them knocking them back. Then she took her guns and turned them back into swords and formed them into a spinning circle and launched it straight at the bug-like Aliens.

However the Baltans proved too fast and were quick to dodge the spinning swords before scattering around her. But just as Penny was about to launch herself for another attack though-!

"PENNY LOOK OUT!"

Kotaro suddenly tackled her down, and for good reason to as a powerful blast of energy suddenly shot right where the Ginger haired girl had been and blasted a shipping container to pieces upon impact.

"So the freaky thing can also shoot laser blasts, now?" Sun asked, grimacing. "Great, just perfect."

"You said it," mumbled Blake, although it was low enough to be unheard by everyone. She really didn't want the attention on herself after Mary's rant earlier.

The two looked over and saw where the blast of energy came from. And saw one of the Baltans with a claw stretched out towards them and smoke emitting from the opened pincer.

Penny didn't have time to think about how the creatures they were fighting had a range attack, because they quickly had to dodge more shots from the other ones as well. Forcing the two to duck and weave out of the way from the scorching hot plasma.

However as Kotaro manage to get a chance to shoot at one of the Baltans again.

"Question, what's the difference between plasma and laser?" Jaune asked.

"Laser is an array of photons, or concentrated light, if you would, while in this case plasma is used to mean energy with a high density, otherwise described as concentrated energy," Winter explained. She may not have known the boy aside from his name, but she felt immensely grateful for the distraction from Mary and her disrespectful and offensive arrogance.

"Uh- T-Thanks," Jaune stammered slightly, not used to talking to high-ranking officers (or any officer, for that matter), especially one who looked like an even prettier Weiss. He really hoped the heiress herself couldn't see his blush because he knew she would kill him if she did.

But when he did, he noticed that the one he aimed at dodged with more personality than the others.

'There you are!', he thought as he turned to Penny and called out to her "Penny! The real one is over there! Shoot at it quick!"

"Kick its ass!" shouted Ren, taking everyone by surprise. He then just blankly looked around, as if surprised by their surprise. "I have feelings, you know?"

"Yeah, and I think you just hurt them!" Nora added in a jokingly scolding voice.

The others were still too surprised to react. Nora could tease and joke, and Ren actually had emotions? That was new.

"Right!" The Gynoid called back as she mecha-shifted Floating Array back into guns and fired straight at the Baltan Kotaro pointed out.

The cicada alien immediately began to bolt just as Penny took the first shots at him, running at impressive speed as the Gynoid attempted to hit the fleeing alien as it moved across the room at impossible speed and agility.

But then Penny changed the trajectory of her weapons and took three of her blades together and fired a single powerful stream in front of where the Baltan was running and creating a powerful explosion just as the creature landed on his feet.

Unprepared, the Baltan went flying back from the force of the blast and went flying through the wall of the storage shed.

And no sooner did it do that, did all the other Baltans suddenly vanish as well.

"Yeah!" Jaune cheered. "Penny one, Baltan blegh," he moved his hand across his neck and pretended to be dead for a second. "Cheers for Penny!"

"Cheers!"

Penny smiled happily, glad to know that her battle knowledge wouldn't go to waste and that her friends were happy for her. Although, now that she thought about it, they should've been praising her father – he was the one who 'taught' her what to do in a fight, by programming her, so technically it was his work's that eventually did that.

"That was very smart, Penny," Ironwood praised with a smile. Penny's smile just got bigger at Uncle Ironwood's praise.

"That'd be useful to do against fast opponents," Jaune noted, glaring at Ruby. As fellow leaders, she'd often dragged him off to spar for the fun of it and he always found her speed to be more annoying that either her skill or her weapon.

"Yes, but it would require a lot of skill to pull off," Winter explained, inwardly smirking slightly at the young man's embarrassment. She may not be a tease, but it was always funny to see boys get embarrassed by talking to her. Some of her younger officers did that every time. She actually spoke to them on purpose sometimes, just to embarrass them. "Adjusting the aim is something that requires concentration. While easy outside of a fight, adjusting it mid-battle can be very hard."

Mary just glanced at the two and suppressed a groan. Of course Jaune had to get a crush on Ironwood's lap dog. 'Why, Gods, why do you do this to me?' she grouched bitterly. The boy could be a true idiot sometimes.

Although if, by some miracle, they did get together, maybe getting some Arc meat in her would help Winter loosen up a bit. She cackled at her own innuendo.

It has to be said that she was completely not sorry for her thought process.

"Nice shot! Now come on, we can't late him escape!" Kotaro said as he quickly ran after the alien and out the hole. With Penny nodding in agreement and quickly following close behind the ultra to outside.

When they got out they were quick to spot the alien darting around a corner and followed after him.

But just as they turned the corner, the alien was nowhere in sight. The only thing around were more shipping containers and a crane for loading and unloading.

"Keep your guard up. He could be anywhere." Kotaro warned as he made his advance. Penny nodded and pulled out more of her swords.

"Damn, I hate when they just up and disappear!" exclaimed Yang, crossing her arms.

"So you hate Ruby?" Weiss teased with a slight grin, happy to have caught the taller girl off-guard.

"Of course not!"

The two carefully made there approach as they looked around the area for the alien. Yet so far there didn't seem to be any signs of the cicada-like creature. But that didn't mean they were going to let their guard down any time soon.

However what neither of the two noticed, was that watching them from the control seat of the crane, their quarry was watching them.

And he then pressed a certain button on the crane that turned on a certain part of it.

Everyone exchanged glances, except for Mary. Had it dropped a crate on them?

Back down below, our heroes were still keeping an eye out for the alien with weapons at the ready.

But then Penny's eyes widen when she suddenly felt a powerful force beginning to pull her up.

Kotaro meanwhile was unaware of his friends dilemma. That is until...

*CLANG!*

Eyes widening, Kotaro twisted around to see Penny was gone. And then he looked up, and he was quick to find her, "Penny!" he called out with and for good reason too.

Because up above was his partner, who was currently stuck on the large magnet on the crane!

"So you are vulnerable to magnetism, because of your metallic parts, huh?" Pyrrha asked, frowning slightly as she realized that in a fight against Penny, she could literally manipulate her and move her like a puppet in a puppeteer's hands. Either that, or rip her apart in case Penny tried to resist too hard. She shuddered at the thought.

Penny nodded. "My metallic components are not particularly magnetic, but the large quantity of them does make me an easy target for magnetic and electromagnetic attacks." She chose not to mention the fact she had recently gotten stuck with a magnet attached to her head and had had to wear a hat for the entire day to hide it.

Penny struggled from where she was, but even with her incredible strength she couldn't move an inch, even her swords were immobilized by the magnet.

"Kotaro help! I can't move!" She called out to him.

"Hang on, I'll get you down fro-!"

However before he could even take a step closer, he was forced to move out of the way as a powerful blast of energy hit the spot he had been a few seconds ago.

Looking up, Kotaro saw the culprit to be none other than the Baltan. The cicada creature quickly hopping off from on top of the crane and landing in front of him.

The Baltan let out a haunting laugh at the Ultra, and before Kotaro could fire at the alien it suddenly split into to copies of itself.

"Double the fuckers, double the fun," Yang stated with a vicious grin that promised violence. Very prejudiced violence against Baltans.

"Language, Ms Xiao Long." Even Goodwitch seemed to not have the heart to actually mean her reprimand. Everyone in the room wanted to see those Baltans defeated, to put it nicely.

And then four, then eight, and then finally twelve of the creature stood around him. All of them laughing as they began to slowly approach him like a pack of wolves. Claws snapping in a menacing fashion as they approached.

Kotaro raised his gun up and prepared himself for anything the alien could throw at him.

But before either of the two could make a move-

"HEY! BUG FACE!"

"Wait a second, is that-"

-the two opponents looked over suddenly when a voice called out from nowhere. And the Baltan had just enough time to look over, only to have what looked like a flaming capsule slam into him and explode!

The alien went flying once again and slammed into another shipping crate. And this time it had a much more difficult time getting up.

And as a result from the attack, the clones of the Alien all disappeared as well.

Kotaro was quick to whirl over to see who had helped him, and soon spotted his unknown ally.

There, not to far away from him, was a short (like, super short) girl with short white hair and a pair of goggles on, covering her eyes. She also had fox ears peeking out of her hair and a bushy tail that could be seen behind her, partially hidden by a long white lab coat that made her look like a mad scientist, especially when paired with the goggles.

"It's Mary?!" Yang exclaimed, shocked, turning to face the woman.

Said Faunus shrugged. "I told you I knew Taro," was all she replied with.

"So you fought the Baltans?" Ironwood asked.

Mary's only response was to show him the bird. And no, it wasn't Qrow nor Raven.

"You must be pretty strong," Jaune praised her, to which she rolled her eyes.

"No, it just was a badass entrance," she scoffed, adjusting her goggles. "I can't hold a candle against Taro and that Baltan would've fucked me up big time on my own. That's not to say I can't hold my own in a fight, but against Kaijus or Aliens, I might've as well be a little child."

And in her hand was what appeared to be a gun or some sorts. Its appearance was something akin to a grenade launcher with a lever on the side of it, and it was currently smoking.

Kotaro could only stare dumbfounded for a moment as he looked at this mysterious Faunus, that is until she looked over and yelled at him.

"What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?! Shoot the damn thing now while it's injured!" She cried out as she grabbed the lever on her weapon and adjusted it. And then she quickly fired more rounds in a more rapid pace at the alien

Snapping out of his surprise, Kotaro was quick to do just that as the two quickly began firing away at the Alien.

The barrage of fire went on for a solid minute as their shots kicked up smoke. But eventually the two stopped firing when the smoke covered their target from sight.

"I'm betting it's gonna escape," Jaune sighed bitterly, shaking his head.

"Yeah, they always run away when there's a smokescreen of some sort," Ruby agreed, nodding. The educational Hunter comics they both read at Beacon made it quite clear – it was easier to escape unseen if the opponents were distracted. If the Baltan was really as smart as that Alien Analyser had stated, then it would've obviously escaped. It did seem pretty durable, after all.

Everything went tense as the two carefully watched the smoke cloud dissipate. Until finally when it cleared up...

"Dammit! The slippery S.O.B. got away!" The Fox Faunus barked out when the cloud cleared up and revealed that the Baltan was in fact gone. "Ugh, great! Now I gotta look for that thing all over again while it knows it's being searched for, just great..." she sighed out.

Kotaro meanwhile just looked at her for a moment, before he coughed and got her attention.

"Excuse me but, who are you exactly?" He asked carefully.

"Huh? Oh, right." She said as she straightened out her coat and extended a hand towards him, "sorry about the shock and all. Just didn't want that guy to get away, but anyways my name's Mary. Mary Aaron's"

"Kotaro Higashi, nice to meet you," He said as he shook her hand.

"Uhm, I wouldn't want to be rude," Penny spoke up, slightly embarrassed. "But did you two actually forget about me?"

Mary had the decency to blush slightly. "Yeah, for a second we did," she chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry. We were distracted."

"Um, excuse me."

At that, the two snapped their attention upwards towards Penny. Said Gynoid still being stuck on the magnet that held her in place.

"If you don't mind I would like to get down now." She said, with a bit of a blush on her face.

"Case and point," Sun snickered.

"Oh, right! Sorry Penny," Kotaro said as he began to head over to the crane, "just hold on for a second and I'll get you-."

However before he could do anything, Mary suddenly took aim with her weapon and fired a shot out. Said shot surprised the Ultra and went sailing into the control council of the crane. And in the process, caused the magnet to turn off.

Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. "Yeah, I felt guilty for destroying the crane's controls, but the police was coming and we had to get out of there really quickly. I didn't know how fast Taro was, so I just went for the quickest option."

"While that does make sense, Ms Aarons, please avoid destroying anything else unless strictly necessary," Ozpin reprimanded her, feeling a bit sorry. Menagerie was poor and a crane was not easy to replace. "Either that, or ensure that you fix what you've ruined."

Mary nodded. She already knew that, but considering she had done harm to the community with that, she felt like she deserved the added lecture.

Penny, while unprepared for the sudden lack of magnetic grip, quickly righted herself as she fell and gracefully landed on her feet.

The Gyniod straightened herself out and let out a sigh as she retracted her blades into her backpack. She then looked at Mary and gave her a smile, "thank you miss Aaron's!" She said with a slight bow.

"Don't mention it," the Fox Faunus replied, "now, I know you both have questions and all that usual bunk but I recommend we do it somewhere else. Anywhere but here specifically considered what just transpired."

"Good point. I'd rather we not stick around while that thing is still lurking about" Kotaro agreed, seeing the reasoning behind her words.

"That. And also because all the noise we've made has alerted the authorities. Which will be here in about 4 minutes and 32 seconds." Mary pointed out. And as if on cue, the sound of sirens could be heard coming quickly towards the dock. "Case in point."

"You have cars?" Sun asked, frowning. He hadn't seen any earlier.

Blake rolled her eyes. "Technically, yes we do. But there are parts of Menagerie, especially Kuo Koana, where it's much easier to go on foot and so cars are never used." She bit back a grin. "Also, those could've also been sirens mounted on bikes. With all the people going on foot, using a car actually slows you down a lot, so if you are really in a hurry, you normally go by bike."

"Are we just going to ignore the fact she was right down to the seconds?" Amber asked, but was promptly ignored. "I guess we are, then…"

"What do we do? They'll be here any minute," Penny said, a bit of concern in her voice.

"I'll tell you what you'll do, get yourself in gear and follow me, double time!" Mary said as she quickly turned and headed off.

The two looked at each other for a moment, before they quickly ran and catched up with the short fox girl. When they caught up to her though, Kotaro looked to her and said "not sure I understand your motives right now but I expect some answers when we're not at risk being arrested!"

"Did you ever give those answers, or did you simply avoid the question?" Qrow grinned teasingly. It would be hard to explain why she was there and why she hadn't helped them earlier. True, she probably hadn't been there earlier, but with Taro suspicious it wasn't hard to think the explanation would have to be good. Taro didn't look like an idiot.

"I'm not afraid of explaining myself," Mary snorted in amusement. "Unlike some people…" she added in a whisper, staring at Ozpin, who frowned at the sudden feeling of being watched.

"Fair enough. Now shut it and run!" She replied as she put more speed in her sprint.

Sure enough, the three were running out of the docks. And before long the sounds of sirens left from earshot as they ran.

But even so, this was only just the beginning of the troubles our heroes will face. On the Faunus Kingdom of Menagerie.

"But Menagerie isn't a Kingdom…" Penny pointed out, confused. She knew a lot of History and Geography and neither included Menagerie in the list of Kingdoms. It was recognized as a different country and continent but never given the title of kingdom.

Although calling the others 'kingdoms' was actually grammatically wrong, as there were no kings. The Councils decided everything, and even though there was a Head of the Council for each of them, they were far from being kings or queens.

"It's just to call Menagerie something nice, for a change," Mary explained. "Although if you do look at it, Menagerie is more of a kingdom than the others, since unlike the others it's not governed by a Council but instead by a Chieftain and Chieftess, currently Ghira and Kali Belladonna, which-"

"You're rambling," Weiss pointed out flatly.

The white-haired Faunus didn't seem to mind the obvious annoyance. "That happens, sometimes."

"Well, the projector's turned off," Jaune commented, stretching his slightly sore limbs. "I, for one, am going to take a break."