A.N. (7/14/21) - I know this took a while, but I've been busy with summer school. Where did my summer break go T_T.

Argus (26) - Transmit

Rin stepped off the cable car and in front of her destination. While the transit system of Argus didn't exactly lead directly to the CCT Relay Tower, the base of the cliff below where the tower was located was a close enough drop.

Strengthening herself, Rin jumped and held out her palms before gripping onto the rocky texture of the cliffside before slowly climbing up. Leaping up onto small ledges every dozen or so seconds, she quickly found herself at the top of the cliff within minutes.

She cracked a smile. "Ignoring the other downsides of my life, just the ability to casually climb cliffs is pretty neat."

"I'll preach to that."

Rin blinked as she noticed a young man with blue hair standing a small distance away from her. He waved before gesturing for her to move in his direction. "The name's Jupiter Vasilias, from the long line of the Vasilias family. Nice to meet you."

She nodded. "You as well."

"Not sure if you've heard, but public access to the relay tower's been blocked." He gave her a curious look. "Although if you're looking to write a school report, the terminal at the public library should still be working."

From his tone, it seemed that he was trying to hint at her that she should leave.

She rolled her eyes. "Pietro sent me here."

"Huh," he gave her a curious look. "What for? You helping keep watch over these Allies of Humanity guys?"

"Something like that," she nodded. "What's going on? Where are the other huntsmen."

He snorted. "Sitting around doing nothing. They're all like don't you know, huntsmen can't get involved in local matters. Our job is to only fight the Grimm, not other people. Bunch of cowards if you ask me."

She frowned. "Are you not a huntsman?"

"Before anything, I'm a proud citizen of Argus." He pounded a fist against his chest. "I ain't gonna put up with what amounts to a group of terrorists invading my city. Not that the White Fang is making things easier."

She perked up at that. "The White Fang?"

"Yeah, haven't you heard?" He gave her a questioning look. "Several people reported that a couple of White Fang protesters were seen walking around the city. Spooked a bunch of huntsmen thinking that things might escalate into a fight when a bunch of humans started arguing with them."

Protesters, not soldiers. Rin gave out a sigh of relief as Jupiter made the distinction.

"I know Mistral isn't quite as open-minded as Vale about faunus, but this is the first time I've ever heard of any Mistrilian faunus group protesting."

Jupiter shrugged his shoulders. "People kinda look down on that kind of thing here. It's easy to say that a protest will stay peaceful, but it's even easier for tensions to run high. And big emotions like that can draw in a lot of Grimm. Even for Argus, our defenses aren't always going to keep them in line. Especially since we have quite a few dangerous Grimm infesting the waters nearby. That's why you don't see a lot of faunus banding together as a group to complain usually around here."

Rin thought about it and realized that he might have a point. Compared to Vale, the city of Argus had a lot more dangerous Grimm to worry about. Instead of Ursas and Nevermores, Argus had to worry about Manticores and Sphinx. Unlike the former, the latter could fly around shooting fireballs, so they were definitely a lot more dangerous.

Simply put, it was a bigger risk to allow peaceful protests in a city like Argus. Because on the off chance that it no longer stayed peaceful, the entire city would pay for the consequences.

"So the White Fang are organizing a protest? Should we be worried?"

"I hope not," Jupiter replied. "With how the Allies are escalating, I think everyone's holding their breaths for when the first fight ensues. All we can ask for is that neither side hopefully escalates."

Rin nodded. After all, the last thing everyone needed was for a full-blown conflict between the Allies and the White Fang.

"Well, I'm here to deliver some news. Doctor Pollendina's going to send us something to help us regain control of communications. Our job is to take back control of the tower."

Jupiter gave out a grin. "Sounds good to me."

And so, Rin began to explain the plan.

}-{

Clover folded his arms, his expression serious. It was silent as Qrow finished telling his story, with the grave expressions of the other huntresses adding in parts every now and then. The rest of the Ace-Ops listened in until Qrow finally finished speaking.

It was Winter who spoke first. "Clover, this can't be a coincidence."

He nodded. "It seems Miss Tohsaka might have missed something after all."

"Woah, hold on a minute." Qrow interrupted. "The hell are you guys talking about? Care to share with the rest of the class?"

The two glanced at each other, and Clover turned to face Qrow. "That's on a need-to-know basis, and only Atlas officials are permitted to it."

"Damn it," Qrow growled and slammed a fist against the trunk of a tree. "This isn't the time for any more of your Atlas secrets. We saw people being transformed into Grimm down there. This isn't just something you can keep from everyone, we need to know what we're going to be dealing with."

"He's right," Robyn said. "All of us saw what went down, you can't tell us that we aren't allowed to know what's going on."

The other three huntresses nodded.

"If I may interject," Vine added. "I believe it would be best if they learn what we know."

"Noted," Clover sighed. "Fine, listen up. This stays between just us for now. We'll figure out what to tell the rest of the soldiers."

He gestured towards Winter, and the white-haired woman began to speak. "Last night, we brought in a certain individual who caught the interest of Atlas during an incident about a week ago. We were ordered to treat her as a potential recruit for her skills that may be useful for an important military project led by Doctor Pollendina."

"I noticed you aren't going into any specifics," Robyn said dryly. "No names or anything."

"That's not important," Winter bit back. "During her questioning, we've learned that this asset had apparently experimented with Grimm biology in the past. Specifically, proof on M'Luna's theory of fundamental substance in the field of Grimm Physiology."

Qrow blinked. "Err, what?"

"Oh, I know this one." Everyone turned to Fiona as she said that. "It's used a lot in sci-fi stories. Basically, all Grimm are made of a fundamental essence that can be traced to some kind of source material. Most stories base the idea that all Grimm are made of this oil-like substance that can be gathered and utilized to do some crazy stuff. Like making new Grimm by mixing two species into a hybrid or mutating some kind of animal into a weird Grimm monster." Her smile faded. "It's heavily frowned upon by the faunus community though due to its connotation of faunus being humans who were turned into animal-like monsters."

"The idea may have spread due to the influence of popular culture," Winter continued. "But the theory was something that many scientists looked into before. Several scientists have theorized that this supposed 'Grimm Essence' was the key to understanding how the Grimm worked and how best to finally get rid of them. Some of the more outlandish theories, however, claimed that it could do the opposite. That it would ruin us all if we studied it, that it would also turn us into Grimm if we did not handle it properly."

"Downstairs," Robyn said. "Are you saying…"

"We may be dealing with such a scenario."

Qrow swore. "For fuck's sake, are you saying that this 'asset' of yours somehow found a way to create Grimm people?"

"She claimed to have destroyed all traces of her research when several malicious parties expressed interest in it."

"Well obviously, she was wrong!"

Robyn frowned. "But this brings up a thought. If the Allies have someone capable of turning people into Grimm, why haven't we heard about them until now."

"Doctor Merlot," Winter replied. "Was a renowned Valean scientist who had an obsessive interest in the Grimm. In the past, his experiments usually involved implanting cybernetic prosthetics into several captured Grimm to supposedly 'perfect' them."

"Was?"

Clover began to explain. "Many believed that he perished during the events of Mountain Glenn, but with recent events, it may be best to assume that he's still alive."

"When we rescued a shipment of faunus," Vine interrupted. "The logo on the cages was that of Merlot Industries."

Qrow snorted. "So he's the mastermind behind the Allies?"

"Possibly," Clover said. "Or maybe he's just a backer, or a leader of a certain branch of the Allies. Either way, it looks like you all discovered the reason why the Allies are kidnapping faunus."

Fiona growled. "To experiment on them… that bastard!"

"What now?" Robyn asked. "We can't stay back any longer, this is too important to just leave alone. How are your communications with Argus base?"

Clover frowned. "They haven't responded, and I'm beginning to think that there might be something wrong back in the city."

"Well," Qrow raised an eyebrow. "So what? Are you worried that the Allies attacked while their defenses are at an all-time low? Oh wow, who could have seen that coming."

"This isn't a joke!" Winter yelled. "Argus may be under attack this very instant, and we wouldn't know."

"Or it might just be a technical error," Qrow argued back. "But we have a problem that we have to decide how to deal with right here and now. Are you just going to abandon the people down there and run back to the city?"

The two began to argue, and everyone else began taking sides. The other Ace-Ops were arguing in Winter's favor about returning to base while the Happy Huntresses were agreeing with Qrow on staying here to save the faunus.

"Enough!" It was Clover who stopped them. Turning to Qrow, his face grimaced. "If we choose to rescue the faunus first, there's no way we'll be able to return to the city in time. Not if there truly is an emergency that they can't handle without the majority of the Atlas military."

"Wha—"

He turned to Winter. "But we also have to trust that Specialist Cordovin can handle things until we return. Again, it might be that this is all just due to a communications error and we're just kicking a fuss over nothing. Because of that, I believe that it would be best if we take care of the situation here first before returning."

Winter frowned. "But what about the political ramifications—"

"We'll deal with that later," Clover interrupted. "Right now, there are people we have to save."

Qrow rolled his eyes. "Finally, somebody said something that makes sense."

"I have to ask," Clover turned to him. "You weren't able to scout the entire headquarters, right? That means that there's the possibility that we might encounter resistance if we head further in."

"Right," Qrow nodded. "We thought it was best to tell everyone what was going down there first."

"Then I'll have our men prepare ourselves for a raid."

As everyone began splitting up, Winter caught up to Clover and spoke in a quiet voice. "Are you sure about this?"

Clover smirked. "While everything I said earlier is true, there's another important reason that I think we should stay behind."

"And what's that?"

"Our original mission," he answered. "Was to raid the Allies of Humanity's headquarters and to take them out. And if we happen to find Merlot somewhere in this mess, this will hopefully be the first step to taking out their organization before they grow into someone big."

She frowned. "But what of Argus? For all we know, the White Fang themselves could be attacking the city at this very moment."

"I'm sure that's not the case," he replied. "After all, the White Fang has never escalated to such levels in the past. No, they're probably just looking for other bases of the Allies like we are."

}-{

"Sienna, we found them."

The faunus leader turned to face her subordinate with a frown on her face. "Well, where are they?"

"We just received some radio chatter from some huntsmen patrolling the city. Apparently, the entire military base has been taken over by their group. Right now, Argus Base is under their control."

Sienna couldn't help the snort that came out of her mouth. "Trust Atlas to mess up this badly when involved in something like this."

"What should we do?"

"Hm," she slowly began to grin. "The White Fang has been meaning to make a statement recently. I believe that this may be an opportunity right for our cause."

"Ma'am?"

"Call in all our troops," Sienna said. "Tell them that we're headed to battle."

}-{

"I must thank you for your assistance, Miss Cotta."

"Not at all." Her face flushed at the praise. "It's you who's doing most of the work."

"Well, you apparently cut down my estimated time of finishing the program by a good forty percent." Pietro laughed as his fingers flew across the keyboard. "I say, I'm tempted to recruit you into my team as another programmer. I didn't know CCT Technicians were this skilled in coding."

"Ah," she gave an awkward laugh. "I've always been good at that kind of thing."

The sound of something beeping interrupted them, making both of them turn to face the terminal.

"It's done." Pietro smiled. "Now we just need to send the program over to one of the huntsmen patrolling the tower. I'll ring them up and inform them how to activate the application."

The sound of Pietro calling someone rang through the room for a few seconds before somebody picked it up. "Yes?"

"Miss Tohsaka, can you hear us?"

Terra turned and finally saw Rin's surprised face on the screen staring back at them. "Oh, you're finished?"

"Yes. What about your end, did you manage to inform the huntsmen about what's happening."

"Even better." The screen shifted so that the view was that of a room with several other men moving about. "We've already infiltrated the tower and taken out most of the guards. Right now, the rest of the huntsmen are securing the place."

Pietro's eyes widened. "Excellent, that means that you can implement the program right now?"

"Well, about that…"

Terra blinked. "What's wrong?"

"Is that Terra? Wait, never mind. The problem is that none of the terminals will allow us access. We can't plug in our Scrolls to any of them because of that."

"Right," Terra nodded. "All terminals are locked so that only employee issued Scrolls can access them."

Pietro sighed. "Can't you swipe one of the Scrolls of any of the other employees?"

"Already thought of that," Rin replied, the screen shifting so that her face could be seen again. "But apparently, the Allies rounded up the employees and knocked them out before throwing them together in a room and locking them. While they did that, apparently they collected all of their Scrolls and smashed them so that nobody else would mess with communications."

The older man frowned. "Ugh, to think they would have a precaution like that."

"Wait," Terra exclaimed. "I still have my Scroll here, we can use that to unlock one of the terminals."

"That's perfect," Rin said. "Can you deliver it to us? It might be faster than finding an unbroken company Scroll for us to use."

Pietro frowned. "Is it really a good idea to send Miss Cotta alone to deliver it though? Maybe we should send a huntsman instead."

That was right, the Allies were still running around the city. And with the faunus protests growing, it might not be safe to walk out on the streets at this time.

"Most of the professors have already left to patrol the rest of the city," Terra replied. "The only ones left are here to protect us and the children." She frowned as she tried to figure out how they would do this.

"Erm… excuse me…"

Pietro and Terra blinked as they heard someone speak up from behind them. Turning around, they saw a red-haired girl staring at the two in shock.

"I was told by Professor Burnett to tell you that it was time to eat. B-But I couldn't help but overhear your conversation."

"Pyrrha?" Rin's voice echoed from behind them. "Is that you?"

The girl continued to speak. "If you need someone to deliver it, I can go instead. As a huntress-in-training, I'm confident in my ability to protect myself and deliver something promptly."

"That's perfect," Pietro exclaimed. "You can deliver it to Miss Tohsaka, and she can activate the application to fix communications with Atlas."

"W-Wait, what?" For some reason, Rin looked surprised at what was happening. "Are you serious?"

"Alright then." Terra removed her Scroll connected to the terminal, where it has been downloading the program while they talked for the past few minutes. Passing it over to Pyrrha, she smiled. "We're counting on you to take this to Rin, don't let us down."

The other girl gave a firm nod. "I won't."

Turning around, the red-haired girl took off in a sprint as she ran out of the room. Satisfied with how things went, Terra turned back to face Rin only for her to blink in surprise.

Rin had her face buried in her hands. Her groan was one of pain and suffering, a sound that Terra had attributed to whenever Rin was being self-deprecating or believing that she had suffered a grave injustice.

"What is with my luck…?"

Not gonna lie, I don't really like this chapter. But since it was stuck on my Google Drive this entire week, I said 'screw it' and just decided to post it so that I didn't have to deal with it anymore.

Yeah, I'm having the White Fang attack the Allies. And the Atlas army attack the Allies. And Rin's already attacking the Allies. Basically, everyone's finally had enough of their crap and decided to take out the Allies.

I'm trying to write it so that things will reach the climax of the story. So expect this to take maybe about another 7-9 chapters to finish if I'm going off my outline (subject to change).