Here's chapter six! I'd like to quickly answer the reviews.

merendinoemiliano: Thank you!

Mash-Potatoes1: Glad you like it!

Guest: Why Ironwood didn't use every orphan in Mantle will be answered eventually. You might be surprised how it all went down.

dreadix: You'll see eventually why it's only those three.

Francis charron: The idea of Ironwood creating sanctioning an unethical super soldier project came to me from watching James' fight with Arthur Watts in Volume 7.

Moises Garcia Jimenez and ItsNamedShip5: Thank you! I appreciate it.

Naked. If there was one word that the three Guardians could describe how they felt during the last few days of not wearing their armor, that was it. They complied with the general's order and surrendered their suits to the armory. Even after a week of not wearing the Wraith armor, they still had yet to fully adjust. Instead of their armor they now wore their standard-issued white-colored combat uniforms. Considering she did not own an Atlesian military uniform, Penny continued to wear her usual outfit. Their sanitized combat uniforms lacked nametags, ranks, or symbols, further evidence of the fact they didn't exist. The feeling of nakedness wasn't the only uncomfortable thing they experienced during their first week of preparation. The entire premise of socialization classes was something they were not prepared for. They walked into their designated classroom and sat down, waiting for their instructor.

Penny proved to be quite the little ball of positive energy. The Bad Batch was certainly not used to having someone like her around. She showed a lot of improvement in her training sessions. After their training sessions, Penny would pry them with personal questions. They resisted her attempts to learn about them initially. They would either dodge her questions or simply answer with improvised stories. She learned of their hobbies, which consisted of training. She found it a bit odd that they did nothing else but train. She at least took comfort knowing that Rahm would read aerospace magazines in his spare time.

It would be a lie to say that they never began to warm up to Penny. Her politeness and positive energy made it difficult for them to dislike her. Moreover, even though she was a robot they couldn't help but realize how similar she was to them. All four of them had zero experience interacting with regular people and all four of them were the result of experimentation. Slowly, but surely, they began to accept her as the Bad Batch's fourth member.

Flashback:

"Again!"

Penny picked herself up from the floor of the Bad Batch's exclusive sparring room. The ginger-haired robot girl looked up at the source of the voice to see Rahm staring at her with his arms crossed. Terre stood off to the side of him, watching her closely. Before her stood Jai, who remained unmoving and emotionless. If Penny was actually capable of sweating, then she probably would be doing so right about now. When her father first activated her, she was told that she possessed speed and strength that far eclipsed normal humans or faunus. She found herself caught by complete surprise when she stepped into the ring with Jai in order for them to better understand her fighting style. Jai wasn't as strong or as fast as her, but he was far, far faster and stronger than any human or faunus; that much was clear. And apparently, Rahm and Terre were just like him. Just how they managed to achieve what appeared to be superhuman speed and strength was beyond her understanding. But still, she was stronger and faster. How was it that she kept finding herself losing each round to Jai? She looked at her opponent and examined him, trying to find a weakness or anything.

She didn't find anything.

Penny settled back into her stance, ready to try again. Before she or Jai could do anything, they were interrupted.

"Stop!"

Penny looked up to see that it was Terre who had called her this time.

"Penny, you are a skilled fighter; that much is certain. You have strength and speed, but it's clear that you lack experience fighting another opponent."

Penny looked down at the ground in embarrassment. Terre wasn't wrong. The bulk of her experience was with combat simulations. She had never sparred with another opponent, nor had she ever gone on an actual mission. From what General Ironwood told her, her new teammates were as experienced as they came.

Rahm spoke up. "Penny! You need to formulate a strategy to have a better chance against Jai."

Of course! That's how Jai was continually besting her. Every round they fought he had a strategy in mind. His eyes held a focus that did not seem natural for a human being. Every move he made was calculated, none of his energy was foolishly wasted. He knew he wouldn't be able to match her strength or her speed, but he could outmaneuver her and that's why she kept losing.

Penny rose again, this time emulating Jai's focused expression. If Jai could make those kinds of calculations, then her advanced mind could make those ten times over.

"Again!" Terre stated.

Penny moved back and avoided a kick from Jai. Penny began formulating a strategy while she continued to evade Jai and keep her distance. With her superior speed, she was able to do so without difficulty. Jai's eyes never moved away from her, always keeping the girl well within his line of sight. Penny summoned her swords once more and directed them towards the super soldier. Jai ducked and weaved out of harm's way, occasionally deflecting one of her swords with his own weapon, a sword that doubled as an assault rifle. Jai backflipped to avoid a downward slice from one of Penny's swords before he settled back into his stance, ready to engage again.

Penny took the moment while Jai was distanced from her to use her speed to her advantage. She moved so that she was behind Jai and threw a kick to his head. Jai wasn't fast enough to dodge, but he did manage to bring his arm up to defend. However, Penny's kick packed a lot of power in it and sent him flying into the other end of the room into the wall.

Penny didn't celebrate her successful attack. Instead, she looked worried that she had accidentally hurt her teammate. Before she could call out to Jai to see if he was ok, the super soldier in question walked out of the hole in the wall, dusting himself off.

"Not bad Penny," Jai said. "Much better than before. I want you to come at me with that same intensity. Keep formulating strategies and keep me guessing what your next move will be."

Penny nodded. She vowed to do just as he said. If she was going to save the world then she would need to learn as much as possible.

End Flashback:

The door to the room opened.

"Good morning class," said a blue-eyed brunette woman dressed in civilian attire. She stood relatively tall for a woman, even in heels. She appeared to be in her late twenties, and she wore a red blouse with a black skirt that reached her knees. On her left hand, she wore a gold ring and a diamond-studded ring on her ring finger, signifying she was married.

"I have the results of your exams and I'm pleased to say that you all did better than last time."

She began to hand them back their exams on social interaction. She smiled as she handed Penny her exam back.

"Good work Penny! You did the best again."

"Thank you, Doctor Lockhart," she replied.

Penny looked down to see that she had scored a 90% on the exam. Compared to her teammates, Penny proved to be a sponge when it came to learning about interacting with others. Her other three teammates were a little behind in that regard. Dr. Lockhart handed Rahm his exam back.

"You got the second-highest score in the class, Rahm," she said with a smile.

"Thank you, ma'am."

Rahm looked down at the exam and was surprised to see that he had scored a 75%. That was significantly better than last time when he scored a 60%. Lockhart proceeded to hand Jai and Terre their exams back too.

"You both did better than last time. However, it's clear you're both struggling with this, but don't worry. We'll get it right."

"Yes ma'am," they both replied. Terre and Jai looked down at their exams. Terre had scored a 56% and Jai scored a 67%. She wasn't wrong when she said they had improved. On the last exam, Terre scored a 34% while Jai scored a 50%.

Although she was born and raised in Atlas, Dr. Sienna Lockhart got her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Mistral. The Atlesian military had hired her a few months ago to be the head of the mental health section. The previous section head had retired, and she was lucky enough to land such a high-paying job to cover her student loans. She was a bit surprised when she was asked by Dr. Haze herself to help these four kids with social interaction. She found it a bit strange, but when she asked for more details about the assignment Dr. Haze merely told her that it was classified. She agreed to the assignment, obviously. One simply didn't turn down a request from Dr. Cassandra Haze. She requested the medical and psychological records belonging to the four of them. The medical records she was given merely showed generic information such as their respective height, weight, blood type, eye color, etc.

The psychological records, however, were blank.

She found that interesting. Very interesting indeed. On the first day, she had given each of them a few psychological evaluations. Penny's evaluation went smoothly. Aside from being overly cheery, the girl was normal. Terre, Rahm, and Jai, however, were a different story. What she found in their evaluations was a bit disturbing. The three, thankfully, weren't psychopaths and they weren't even full-blown sociopaths, but they were certainly far from normal. She had the three take every cognitive and personality test she could think of so that she could gain a better understanding of what she was working with.

What she found was that Terre, Rahm, and Jai exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies such as significant difficulty with socialization and empathizing with others. Those were the obvious clues. Some of the less obvious clues included the fact that they did not generate the normal emotional or mental reactions when presented with unpleasant images from war zones. While normal youths would become uncomfortable, they were unaffected. She initially suspected that they were trying to project a shield of superiority, but she quickly realized that wasn't the case. They were far from narcissistic, but there was something about them that seemed almost inhuman. She couldn't describe it exactly. The boys were extremely difficult to read. When she spoke to them, they were effectively emotionless. She noted that Rahm was noticeably easier to engage in a verbal dialogue with than Terre and Jai. Despite his more outgoing nature, Rahm was still far from the norm.

She initially believed that the boys' emotional states stemmed from a sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, but she quickly determined that was not the case. They did not exhibit fear, negative emotions, or accelerated heart rates. In fact, their heart rates were freakishly slow. A normal resting heart rate was anywhere from 60 to 100 beats per minute, but in their case, they were below 20 beats per minute. She didn't understand how that was possible.

The cognitive and personality tests of the boys demonstrated IQs of over 190. Rahm scored the highest with an IQ of 209, Terre scored the next highest with 207, and Jai scored a 204. Their mathematical reasoning, mental processing, working memory, and perceptual reasoning were nothing short of amazing. Their personality tests, however, showed that they had little to no understanding of basic social concepts. She'd worked with brilliant children who lacked social intelligence, but those children still seemed to understand the basics of humanity. The boys, however, did not.

Penny was the near-complete opposite in terms of personality. She was full of energy and was incredibly cheery. She scored even higher than Rahm in terms of IQ, being able to answer the test questions far faster than anyone she had ever seen, but despite such gifted intelligence she still struggled in a few areas of social intelligence. For example, she still didn't understand when it was appropriate to hug someone.

Dr. Lockhart brought her attention back to the task at hand. She walked back to the front of the room before turning her attention back to the four of them.

"Now that that's out of the way, today you will begin learning basic forms of dancing for social galas. To help with that, we've brought in some dance instructors."

The door opened to reveal three females and one male. They were dressed in loose-fitting clothing that looked easy to move in. They all looked to be in their mid-40s, but they looked as though they were in great shape. The male instructor spoke up.

"Who's ready to learn how to dance?"

Penny looked visibly excited. The same couldn't be said about her teammates, however. The facial expressions of the three remained emotionless. It didn't look like they were super excited about this next lesson.

Terre had experienced things that would have certainly killed any normal individual ten times over. But this? This was something else entirely. He could accomplish what would take an army to accomplish. He was a weapon in every sense of the word but learning how to be human was something else entirely. He knew he wasn't the only one having these thoughts. He was currently in his room, seated on the edge of his bed. His room was spartan, to say the least. There weren't any posters or decorations on the walls and there wasn't a television. All it had was a bed that was made according to military regulations, a desk with a computer terminal, a closet, and a bathroom with a shower. No more, no less. With the exception of Penny, the rooms of his teammates were just like his. When Penny moved in there were a few soldiers who arrived, delivering her personal belongings to her room, which was located about twenty feet down the hall next to Rahm's room. Speaking of Penny, the robot girl was currently with her father, Dr. Pietro Polendina, getting a diagnostic on her systems. A knock at his door caught his attention.

"Come in," he said loudly, knowing who it was.

The door opened and in entered Rahm and Jai. Terre merely nodded at them and they nodded in return. Rahm took a seat at Terre's desk while Jai leaned against the wall. Rahm glanced over at Terre as he spoke.

"I see you've been enjoying these socialization classes too." Rahm wasn't very skilled in the use of sarcasm, but Terre was able to pick it up easily enough.

"I just never saw us being in a situation like this. We're Guardians, super soldiers, weapons. We don't socialize."

Jai nodded in agreement. "Is there a reason the general wanted us for this assignment? Why not the Ace Ops or literally anyone else?"

Terre looked at Jai before he replied. "General Ironwood said our age was the biggest factor. We were the only ones who were of a believable age to attend Beacon without anyone asking questions."

Rahm propped his feet up on the desk. "What do you guys think of Penny?"

"She's green, but she has an ocean of potential," replied Jai.

Both Terre and Rahm nodded in agreement.

"I have to say that she is a bit too talkative at times," said Terre.

"True. But at least she is very polite," replied Rahm.

"That she is," said Terre.

There was a brief silence among them until Jai spoke up.

"Have you guys learned anything new about our VIPs?"

"Aside from what I found in the file the general gave me, there wasn't much else to Ms. Rose's background. Ozpin waived Beacon's age requirement for her, allowing her to effectively skip the last two years she had at Signal Academy."

Rahm and Jai listened intently.

"Her mother was Summer Rose, who was teammates with Qrow Branwen, who is her adoptive uncle, Raven Branwen, and Taiyang Xiao Long, who is her father. She also possessed silver eyes. Ms. Rose has modeled her weapon after her uncle's."

"Anything else?" Asked Jai.

"That's pretty much it," Terre said before he looked over to Rahm. "What about you Rahm?"

"Ms. Schnee's records indicate she's highly skilled in the use of Dust, but her hand-to-hand combat skills are lacking," Rahm said with a shrug of his shoulders. "What about you Jai?"

"Ms. Nikos is effectively a celebrity. She's has made quite the name for herself by winning the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row."

Rahm answered back. "Sounds like you've got the target you have to babysit the least."

"Let's just hope that none of them need our protection," replied Jai.

Terre glanced at his watch. The leader of the Bad Batch stood up from the edge of the bed and addressed his brothers.

"Dinner?"

Rahm and Jai didn't say anything. Instead, they followed him out towards the dining facility.

It was now nearing the end of the second week and they found themselves seated in class again. Penny was clearly the only one who enjoyed the social interaction classes they attended. She loved learning about pop culture and teenage norms. Terre, Rahm, and Jai were visibly bored by the content. These classes and this assignment were both things they never imagined themselves doing. They were super soldiers who were indoctrinated to do one thing, and yet here they were learning about the different music that teenagers their age listened to. This didn't mean they ignored the lessons, however. They took their jobs very seriously and they had definitely learned a lot about the world outside of the military. Dr. Lockhart had them perform mock social interactions with different people and had them watch movies and tv shows in order to help them learn.

When they weren't in class, learning how to be normal teenagers, they were training with Penny, who quickly proved to be a formidable opponent. Being an advanced artificial human, she was faster and stronger than they were and that was something they were not used to. Initially, it proved challenging to incorporate her style into their existing team dynamic, but they found a way to make it work.

The sound of automatic gunfire filled the training room. Penny dove behind a short steel wall that provided her cover from the hail of bullets. The layout of the training room was constantly shifting. One minute there would be steel walls spaced out and then the next minute there were large pillars that would spring up from the floor. Sometimes there wouldn't be anything to use to take cover, just an open area. Penny was grateful that she had cover right now. Her scanners alerted her to movement at her 9'o'clock position. She looked over just in time to spot Rahm fire a rocket from his polearm's rocket launcher attachment. Penny leaped away to avoid getting caught in the explosion, but she unwillingly exposed herself to automatic gunfire, courtesy of Jai from his vantage point. Luckily, her aura was able to protect her. Penny flipped in the air to dodge the incoming bullets before she summoned her swords. She sent three of them straight at Jai. She wasn't really hoping to hit him, but rather get him to stop shooting at her. Her plan succeeded as Jai ceased fire to avoid the incoming swords. Penny twirled her body in midair in such a way to avoid a downward strike from Terre's staff. Though Terre was stealthy and fast, Penny's sensors alerted her in time to avoid getting hit. When Penny landed, she found herself effectively surrounded by her three teammates. Jai had just finished inserting a new magazine into his assault rifle before he pulled back on the charging handle, loading a fresh round into the chamber. Jai aimed and fired. Penny ran towards Jai, ducking and weaving to avoid getting hit as she summoned her swords again and began to charge her ion cannon. Penny leaped up high and fired the powerful beam at Jai, who jumped to safety to avoid getting caught in the blast. Rahm took this opportunity to fire off another rocket at Penny, who narrowly dodged it by twirling at the last second. Penny still found herself partially caught in the explosion's radius, knocking her down to the ground. Penny analyzed her aura levels. She was currently at sixty-five percent.

Terre rushed her, spinning his staff above him before bringing it down in a strike. Penny raised her arms in defense and blocked the strike. Using the underside of her arm to wrap around the staff, Penny used her free hand to deliver an open palm strike to Terre's solar plexus before finishing with an uppercut to his jaw, stunning him briefly. Terre still held onto the staff and using his free hand, he activated his gauntlet, which brought forth a hard-light sword and swung it at Penny who ducked to avoid getting hit, but by doing so she let go of the staff. Penny jumped backward to put some distance between her and Terre. Penny's sensors alerted her to danger approaching from behind. She ducked to avoid a flying kick from Rahm, who righted himself before landing and rushing her, aiming to keep pressure on her. Rahm threw a plethora of punches, kicks, knees, and elbows but Penny managed to duck or block most of the strikes. Only a few managed to land but she was able to shake those off with relative ease.

While this occurred, Jai approached from behind and swept Penny's feet out from under her, sending her to the floor. Penny performed a combat roll to avoid Jai's subsequent strikes before she got back to her feet. She was met with the sight of Jai, Terre, and Rahm all pointing their weapons at her, ready to fire. Penny had found herself right in the middle of them with nowhere to go. Furthermore, her aura level had dropped further. She was still fine, but she wouldn't last too much longer. Her teammates seemed to be aware of this as they refrained from attacking her. Instead, they put their weapons away. Rahm spoke up.

"Excellent work Penny. You put up quite the fight."

Penny frowned slightly.

"Thank you, Rahm, but I do not feel as though I improved."

"That's because you can't see yourself from our position. You lasted far longer this time against the three of us. Your progress during the last several days has been nothing short of outstanding."

"And yet I still cannot defeat a single one of you." Penny had a slightly pouty look on her face. She was disappointed in herself. She wanted to prove herself a worthy teammate.

This time it was Jai who spoke up.

"Penny," he said, "it will take time before you will be able to beat any of us. It seems you forgot that we have far more experience than you do."

He wasn't wrong. Penny was green, she was still a novice by all accounts. She still had so much to learn. Jai continued.

"Whether you realize it or not Penny, you are already at a high level of skill and ability."

Terre nodded in agreement.

"He's right Penny," Terre spoke with a firmness in his voice.

Penny smiled.

"Do you really think so?"

Rahm answered her.

"Yes. You're ready to face Ironwood's tests."

Penny perked up, regaining her cheery, energetic demeanor.

The four members of Special Mission Unit 117 stood at attention in General Ironwood's office. The general sat with his elbows on his desk and his chin resting in his hands. Next to him stood Specialist Winter Schnee, who stood at the position of parade rest. Ironwood was currently listening to Terre tell him about Penny's progression during the past two weeks. He was pleased with what he was hearing. He didn't expect Penny to be able to defeat a Guardian anytime soon, but he was surprised to know that she was able to fight three simultaneously for an extended period of time.

"…and she has also demonstrated exemplary progress in the formation of strategy. For these reasons, sir, we can say that Penny is ready for the tests."

Ironwood exchanged glances with Winter briefly before he turned his attention back to the four.

"Thank you for your evaluation, Terre."

Ironwood turned his attention to Penny.

"Penny," he said.

Penny looked at the general with quizzical eyes.

"Your teammates hold your abilities in high regard. They certainly feel that you are ready. But I want to know something."

"Yes sir?" She asked.

"Do you feel as though you are ready?"

Penny looked up at her teammates. The three of them looked resolute in their decision to support her. Penny looked back at the general and smiled.

"I am combat ready sir!"

General Ironwood smiled.

"Then in that case I look forward to seeing how you perform in this test."

"Thank you, sir! I-" she looked up at her teammates before she corrected herself, "WE...will not let you down!"

Ironwood nodded approvingly.

"Then in that case you are all dismissed. You will receive details of this exercise later today."

"Yes sir!" The four stated in unison.

They saluted the general before they exited his office, leaving the general and Specialist Schnee alone.

The former heiress addressed her commander.

"Sir," she said.

"Yes, Winter?" He replied.

"I just wanted to thank you for including Weiss under their protection."

When she had gotten Lacertilia to reveal what he knew there was a lingering sensation of worry in the back of her mind. If the White Fang had been recruited to assist in some sort of revolution in Vale, which would ultimately involve Beacon in some form, then Weiss would potentially be at risk. It would only be a matter of time before Weiss' presence at Beacon Academy was discovered by the White Fang, and they would not hesitate to get their hands on a Schnee if given the chance. They'd done so once, and they would love nothing more than to finish the job. Winter felt shivers run down her spine as those unpleasant memories resurfaced.

The general shot Winter a warm smile.

"Think nothing of it, Winter. It'd be foolish not to."

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. See you all next time.