Hey everyone. Like I said before, things have been rough lately. Work has been kicking me in the teeth, but it's always good to be back here. To answer a dreadix's question, the reason I kept them as a team instead of having them partner up with their respective VIPs was because of my interpretation of how transfer students work in Remnant. All I had to go off of was the Vytal Tournament. The teams that came to Beacon were already established. On top of that, I wanted Penny to be a part of their team because I've been alluding that Ironwood's green light of Penny's creation had an ulterior motive. Also, at this point Ironwood is done doing things Ozpin's way. He's tired of Ozpin's inaction and so he wouldn't have bothered to tell him the true purpose why he sent them to Beacon. And it would be best for Ironwood if Ozpin knew less about them. If anyone found out what the boys really were it would be catastrophic. Ironwood's orders were for them to shadow as much as possible and get involved only when necessary.

Don't worry. The boys and Penny will have their own adventures and their own development, but at the same time they will be altering the course of events with their interactions with the main characters.

As always be sure to leave your thoughts in the reviews.

Mantle:

The looks on the faces of the women, two human and one faunus, before Robyn were ones of both shock and disbelief. The information she presented them was nothing short of groundbreaking. If she was to be believed, then the military of the Kingdom of Atlas was funneling countless amounts of precious Lien into shadow projects. Where the money was truly going was a complete mystery, but one thing was certain: the city of Mantle and its people were being neglected while the Kingdom of Atlas and its people were doing just fine. While Mantle dealt with constant Grimm attacks, Atlas was safe and sound. A fraction of that missing Lien would have paid for much-needed fortifications for Mantle; fortifications that would keep the Grimm far away.

"Robyn," said the sheep faunus, "I know you've been going through a lot with the death of your father and all but-"

"I think it'd be wise for you to consider your words carefully Fiona," replied Robyn with a look of anger.

The sheep faunus remained silent, not wanting to push the blonde's anger further.

"I don't think Fiona meant harm in what she was saying, Robyn," said a tall green-haired woman with tattoos on her face, "I think she and the rest of us are just concerned for you is all."

"I'm doing just fine, Joanna, thank you," replied Robyn with narrowed eyes.

"Are you really?"

Robyn's eye twitched.

"Yes May," she replied through gritted teeth, "I've never been better."

"I'm sorry Robyn," said Fiona, "we're just worried about you is all."

Robyn sighed.

"While I appreciate your concern," the blonde replied, "you should be concerned with the state of Mantle. Every day Huntsmen and Huntresses struggle to keep the Grimm at bay. While we struggle to survive down here, the Kingdom of Atlas thrives. Mantle needs us, it needs the Happy Huntresses, and I need you. So, I'm asking you all. Will you help me?"

May raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"How exactly do you expect us to make a difference? Are you planning for us to take on the entire military?"

Robyn shot May a glare. That comment stung a bit. Her father had tried to do just that, and he failed. That path cost him his life, the lives of his followers, and his relationship with his only daughter. She wouldn't go down the same path as her father. She would do things her way. The right way.

"No," replied Robyn, "I'm going to run for office and make sure that Mantle gets the resources it needs. On top of that, I'm going to make sure that General Ironwood answers for his crimes."

"How are we going to get you elected to the council?" Asked Fiona.

"The Happy Huntresses are going to be the Huntresses of the people. We're going to protect Mantle without charging for our services."

Her three friends looked at her skeptically. While Robyn's intentions were noble, there was a giant hole in her plan. Huntsmen and Huntresses needed to get paid too. They had bills to pay too.

"How are we supposed to survive without pay Robyn?" Asked Joanna.

Robyn said nothing. Instead, she retrieved a satchel from behind the couch she was sitting on and tossed it at the feet of Joanna who sat across from her. Joanna looked at the satchel before looking up at Robyn with a confused look. Without a word, the tall, tattooed woman opened the satchel. An audible gasp escaped her lips. The satchel was full of Lien.

"There's way more where that came from," said Robyn with a smirk on her beautiful face.

Fiona and May looked inside the satchel and gasped as well.

"Where did you get this?" Asked Fiona.

"It's my inheritance," Robyn said with a sad smile.

It wasn't a lie. On top of the evidence of misappropriated military funds and the touching letter, her father also left her a sizeable inheritance in an account under her mother's name. She didn't know where the money came from, but she did know that it would be put to good use. She was going to use it to protect Mantle. She would change things for the better.

"So," said Robyn, "will you help me?"

Her three friends were silent for a moment. Robyn anxiously awaited their responses. Fiona stood up and smiled.

"I'm with you Robyn," she said.

May and Joanna glanced at each other before May stood up as well.

"Count me in," said May.

Robyn smiled at the two as she pulled them into an embrace. She looked at Joanna.

"Joanna?"

The tall woman sighed before she too stood up.

"Fine," she said with a smirk, "I guess I have no choice."

Joanna joined her friends and was welcomed in the embrace. Robyn felt happy, knowing that she wouldn't be going into this alone.

The Snowy Tundra of Solitas:

The roar of a Megoliath echoed across the tundra as it charged towards Elm. Megoliaths were already massive Grimm, but this one was larger than most, indicating that it was far older than its brethren. The older the Grimm usually meant the more powerful and durable it was. This Megoliath was nearly completely covered in bone armor, meaning that any attempt to hurt it would prove very difficult. The muscular woman's feet glowed as they anchored themselves to the ground. Elm readied her weapon, Timber, and prepared for impact with the massive Grimm. The Megoliath increased its speed as it closed the distance between the two. As the Grimm prepared to crush the human beneath its foot, Elm swung Timber with all of her strength, colliding with the Grimm head-on, and sending it flying backward. Timber immediately transformed into its rocket launcher form and Elm fired a volley of rocket-propelled explosives into the body of the massive Grimm. The Megoliath roared in what seemed to be pain as it slowly made its way to its feet. Before it had the chance to do anything, a bladed boomerang and a throwing star were thrown into each of its eye sockets. The Grimm howled in pain as it flailed about, unable to see.

"Nice shot!" Yelled Elm with a grin on her face.

"Thanks!" Came the simultaneous response from both Vine and Marrow.

A blur of blue and white covered in what appeared to be static electricity moved about beneath the flailing Megoliath. Harriet avoided the stomping feet of the Grimm as she tossed a few explosive charges to the underside of the Grimm. The speedster smirked as she sped away from the mammoth-like Grimm.

"It's all yours Clover!"

The leader of the Ace Ops smirked as he retrieved a detonator from his belt and pressed the button. The Grimm howled in pain as it was engulfed by the resulting explosion. The roars and howls died down as the smoke cleared and the Grimm disintegrated into dust.

"That was too easy," said Elm as she placed a hand on her hip while her free arm held up Timber. "Would it kill the general to give us something worth our time?"

The sound of Clover's lighthearted laughter permeated the air. Aside from that joint mission with Unit 117 to destroy that White Fang camp and that training exercise, the only action they saw was exterminating Grimm. While dealing with Grimm was certainly part of their job as Ace Operatives, they were usually reserved for dealing with the bigger Grimm threats. Not to say that the job they just finished wasn't important. They'd just eliminated a herd of Megoliaths that had attacked an SDC Dust shipment a few days ago. It would have taken two or three teams of seasoned Huntsmen to take down the Grimm, but the Ace Ops were more than just mere Huntsmen. They were Specialists. Specialists combined the very best in tactical military training and Huntsmen training. All graduates of Atlas Academy were licensed Huntsmen, but those who chose to join the military went on to receive additional Specialist training. The very best of those Specialists were eligible to try out for a spot on the Ace Ops team whenever a position opened up.

"Sorry Elm," he said, "things have been slow. Exterminating Grimm is the only consistent work at the moment."

Harriet looked at Clover with a bit of skepticism. Grimm were always an issue; that was true, but certainly, there had to be more that the Ace Ops could be used for other than simple Grimm extermination.

"What about the White Fang?" Asked the speedster. "That camp certainly wasn't the last stronghold."

"They've been working to find their other camps," replied Clover, "but according to Winter, they haven't had much luck."

"I'm willing to bet that the White Fang is trying to lay low as much as possible," said Marrow, "especially after how the Bad Batch left a mess of things."

"Marrow's got a point," said Elm.

Clover put a hand to his chin in thought.

"That's a logical explanation. In any case," the leader of the Ace Ops said with a shrug of his shoulders, "until we can locate more of their bases, we'll have to focus our efforts elsewhere."

Clover took the silence from his teammates as their understanding.

"Shall I radio in for extraction?"

"Please do so Vine," said Clover.

Haven Academy, Kingdom of Mistral:

Cinder was currently sitting on her bed as she held her scroll. Across from her were her two subordinates, a green-haired teenaged girl with red eyes and a gray-haired teenaged boy with gray eyes.

"Did you examine the photo I sent you?" Asked Cinder as she spoke into the scroll.

"Yes," came a sophisticated-sounding voice from the other end of the scroll call.

"Were you able to find out anything?"

"No," replied the voice, "I worked on all sorts of projects for Atlas and nothing about that photo rings a bell."

Cinder scoffed in disappointment.

"Is something wrong little Cinder?" The sarcasm in the voice was unbearable to the raven-haired beauty.

"I would have thought that the 'Great' Arthur Watts would know something about this."

"Forgive me if I can't decipher a design off of a silhouette obscured by smoke and darkness and forgive me if the only additional information is based on the superstitious beliefs of a radical faunus extremist."

Arthur had a point. Adam didn't have much information to give. He was certain that Atlas was behind those monsters hunting down the White Fang, but at the end of the day, it was just his word without any hard evidence. Cinder needed Adam and his White Fang forces to make her plans for Beacon work. She needed to figure out what was setting Adam and his forces back, and, if need be, put a stop to it herself.

"Fair enough Arthur," she replied, "but is there anything you know of that could potentially be related to this?"

"I'm afraid not. The only top-secret project that Ironwood was funding was Pietro's little science project. His proposal was chosen over mine and the others."

"Did anyone propose anything that resembled this?" She asked.

"No," he replied, "most of the proposals were for advanced airships and tanks. My design called for large, advanced mech-suits. The silhouette in the photo you sent me does not match anything that I designed. If this is truly of Atlas, then I do not know about it."

Cinder pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed.

"Fine," she said, "do you know of anyone, aside from General Ironwood, who would know something about this? Would Polendina know about this?"

"Hmm," Arthur mused, "I highly doubt Pietro would know. He was quite adamant about making his little Penny project his only priority. The only other person I can think of would be my former colleague, Cassandra Haze. She's the current chief scientist for the Atlas military."

A dark smile etched itself onto Cinder's face.

"Do you think she'd be willing to answer a few questions for us?"

The sound of Watts laughing could be heard over the scroll call.

"As much as I would love to see that," replied Arthur, "I'm afraid that would be unwise at the moment. She's highly protected by the general. It would be impossible for us to get to her without him knowing. Don't forget that Salem has ordered us to avoid unwanted attention."

Cinder frowned.

"What am I to do to solve this problem if we can't ask dear Cassandra any questions?"

"From what you've told me it sounds as though Adam has already taken the proper precautions. His forces have been free of attacks for over a month now. I think you should have a little faith in him."

Cinder pondered the arrogant scientist's words for a moment. That technically was true. Adam had taken it upon himself to disperse his forces throughout Vale to make it harder for them to be detected. Maybe Arthur had a point? Maybe she should leave it to Adam for the time being? After all, she had so much else to do.

"I suppose you're right Arthur. We'll attack this at a later date."

"Agreed," replied the former Atlas scientist.

The scroll call ended, and the raven-haired beauty turned her attention to her two underlings.

"So," said the silver-haired youth in a nonchalant manner, "what now?"

"For now," replied Cinder, "we continue as originally planned."

"I figured that much," he said, "but I was hoping for something interesting while we wait to go to Beacon for the Vytal Tournament. I was hoping these Harbingers or whatever you called them could provide some entertainment."

The green-haired girl shot the boy a glare before she turned her attention to Cinder.

"Are you sure that Adam wasn't making this whole thing up?" She asked. "He wasn't exactly thrilled to join us."

"I can tell when people are lying," replied Cinder with a smirk, "it's a skill I've developed over the years. If these things are as dangerous as he says, then they could potentially get in the way of the plan, and I won't let that happen."

Her two underlings merely nodded, indicating that they understood.

She would make damn well sure enough that nothing came between her and her goals. She clawed her way to where she was from the absolute bottom. If a stranger met her in public, no one would have ever guessed that she was once a slave. She knew what it was like to be powerless and now she would soon have the power she so rightfully deserved. These 'Harvesters' hadn't troubled her, but they did make things for her White Fang pawns difficult. For now, she needed to trust that Adam could keep his forces hidden until the time to strike at Beacon came. Once she had the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers, she'd be able to shift her focus.

Atlas Academy:

"What's the status on the requisitioned Paladins?" The general asked without looking up from his work.

General Ironwood was busily typing away at his computer terminal. The beginning of the academic year was always among the busiest times for him as Headmaster. Dealing with all the initial chaos that came with the start of the school year never failed in giving him a migraine. The reacquisition of the Paladin mech suits couldn't have come at a worse time honestly. It was days like this that he was thankful for Winter. She wasn't just as skilled as they came when it came to Specialists, but she was just as efficient in organization skills.

Winter sat across from the general as she too typed away at her portable computer.

"The forms have been resubmitted to the SDC, sir," she replied, "I spoke with the head of contracting for the SDC and he assured me that they'll have the prototype Paladins shipped back to the main factory and that the next ones will be built to the specifications you set."

"That's good to hear. Thank you for handling this, Winter. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"It's part of the job sir," she replied.

"Well, you're the damn best at it."

The Schnee couldn't help but smile at the praise. Being the daughter of Jacques Schnee came with little praise. In all honesty, though, she and her siblings could have turned out a lot worse given the parenting skills of their father. Their mother's alcoholism didn't exactly help things either.

"Thank you, sir."

The two resumed their work. An hour of silence passed before it was interrupted by a knock on the door to the general's office.

"Come in," said James without looking up from his computer.

The door opened, allowing the Ace Ops to enter.

"How'd it go Clover?" The general didn't look up from his typing

"No issues sir," replied Clover.

"Good," the general said with a nod. "Winter could you find them another mission?"

Winter nodded. Before she could move to do as the general requested, Harriet spoke.

"Actually, sir," she said, "if I may?"

"Go ahead Harriet," he replied, his full attention was on her now.

"Is there any word on the White Fang?"

"Getting tired of the Grimm?" The general asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Harriet's eyes widened in surprise. Her teammates also looked a bit surprised at the general's question.

James let out a good-natured laugh. Before any of them could ask how he knew, the general spoke.

"I think I know my Specialists," he said, "I'm sorry for the recent stagnation of your missions, but they're all that's available at the moment. We've been trying to locate the other White Fang camps, but they've proven to be quite elusive, and we've exhausted all useful information out of Lacertilia."

The White Fang had indeed proven themselves difficult to track. There was a trend during the last three years of them becoming increasingly more difficult to locate. How they managed to find the last camp was nothing short of an intelligence miracle. The general knew that the White Fang weren't stupid. They knew that in order to survive they needed to hide or else they'd find themselves slaughtered by his Guardians. While it gave him a small sense of victory that they feared his Guardians, he needed to find Taurus or Sienna Kahn. He needed to know how much they knew about Salem's plans. In all honesty, there was a good possibility that they knew nothing and that the White Fang was merely being used by Salem to further her goals. All he could do was keep searching. He had hoped that Lacertilia could point them towards other White Fang bases, but it was clear he didn't know.

Clover stepped forward and spoke up.

"You don't need to apologize, sir. We understand the situation."

The general couldn't help but laugh. It was a laugh born out of irony. They thought they understood the situation. There was so much more to this than they could possibly understand. Everything was all part of the shadow war against Salem. So many secrets were kept in order to keep the order of things. That's what Ozpin always told him. The world could never know about Salem or chaos would ensue, and with that chaos, there'd be negativity, which would only bring about more Grimm. In his opinion, it would have been better in the long run for humanity to know what the true threat was. He didn't think this secret war was sustainable. But then again, what did he know? Yes, he was a great military commander and understood warfare, but he was still mortal. Ozpin had lived for countless eons and had yet to defeat her. Maybe Ozpin did know what he was doing by keeping the rest of humanity ignorant about the fight against Salem? James wasn't entirely sure. What he did know, was that he had something Ozpin or Salem didn't. He had the greatest warriors to ever exist at his command. While victory against Salem had been eluded for thousands upon thousands of years, he was certain that his Guardians would become the instruments of victory. He couldn't wait for that day of victory.

The general let a tired sigh escape.

"Winter," he said, gaining her undivided attention.

"Yes sir?"

"Take the rest of the day off," the general turned his attention to the Ace Ops, "that goes for you all too. I'll try and find you a new mission in the meantime. You're all dismissed. No need to report out."

The six Specialists looked at each other with a bit of confusion for a moment until Clover broke the silence.

"Thank you, sir," he said.

Clover proceeded to head towards the exit with the rest of the Ace Ops and Winter following behind him. Winter was the last to exit. She spared a quick glance to the general who was quickly getting back to work. Winter ensured the door was closed before she turned around and found Marrow standing inches away from her.

"Dinner?"

She smirked.

"I'd love to."

Cassandra paced back and forth in her private lab. The brilliant scientist was writing in a notepad as she stole glances at a holographic display of what appeared to be schematics for a metallic skeleton. She'd been working nearly nonstop for the past few days trying to improve Pietro's design. Improving on Penny's hardware wasn't that challenging for her. The challenging part was trying to improve upon her AI. Cassandra had run a few simulations against a copy of Penny's AI and found that she was vulnerable to hacking. Granted, the risk of hacking was extremely low. There were only two people on the planet who were smart enough to hack Penny's systems: herself and Pietro. Despite the risk of hacking being extremely low, she didn't like such a blatant weakness. She made several adjustments to the copy in hopes of making it impervious to hacking, but no matter what she did she couldn't make it work. That was the inherent weakness in artificial intelligence. Software could always be hacked. Atlas had made strides in AI technology over the years, but Pietro's work proved to be the next step. Penny's AI was by far the most advanced, but even then, it was still vulnerable. She needed to figure out a way around this weakness. Penny's AI was developed from raw code, which meant that it would always be vulnerable. She could place additional safety measures to protect the AI, but it didn't solve the root cause.

"Damn it," she muttered softly.

She'd read a scientific dissertation that proposed developing AI from cloned human brain tissue. The dissertation argued that AI developed from such a method could produce digital replicas of humans. Such an advancement hadn't been made, but it certainly gave her ideas. What if she could transfer someone's actual mind into an artificial body? These were ideas she'd have to develop. In the meantime, she needed to deliver a working prototype to the general. She knew it would still have the unresolved hacking weakness, but that didn't matter. She'd solve that problem later down the road.

The Forests of Vale:

Adam had met plenty of individuals from all walks of life during his time with the White Fang. From high society folks to the lowest scum of the criminal underworld. When it came to criminals, he usually had a general idea of what to expect but never before had he met anyone like these two. Across from him sat the most colorful character of a criminal he'd ever met. The man wore a red-lined white suit with long black pants and black shoes and held a cane in his right hand. He also wore a small gray scarf, black gloves with buckled sleeves, and a black bowler hat with a small feather tucked into its red band. The man had his feet propped up on the table as he leaned back in his chair while smoking a cigar. Adam's nostrils twitched in irritation from the cigar smoke. Normally, Adam wouldn't have tolerated such disrespect in his camp, but according to Cinder, he needed to work with this guy, Roman Torchwick.

Beside him, there stood a very short girl, Neopolitan. If he thought that Roman was flashy, then this girl was something else. She wore a white cropped, broad-tailed jacket with a pink interior with large pink cuffs, and she wore brown pants. Half of her hair was pink while the other half was brown. What stood out the most, however, were her mismatching eyes. One was pink and the other was brow. If he remembered the term correctly it was called heterochromia iridum.

"I love what you've done with the place," Roman said as he admired the interior of Adam's tent. The tent's walls were decorated with White Fang propaganda posters as well as a few exotic weapons from different parts of the world. "Though I can't say I'm a fan of wilderness living. I'm more of a city boy."

Adam didn't say anything. He simply stared at Roman from his side of the table. Was Cinder serious about this guy? There had to be a mistake, or there had to be something he wasn't seeing. Roman took notice of Adam's scrutinizing gaze. The master thief smirked.

"Not much of a talker, are you?"

"No, I'm just confused as to why Cinder would choose to work with someone like you."

Roman laughed, earning another angry glare from Adam.

"I guess she didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"You're looking at the world's greatest thief."

Adam stared incredulously at the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Thief." He had to have missed a memo or something. There was no way this guy was serious.

"I highly doubt that," replied Adam.

Roman shrugged.

"Believe what you want, but according to Cinder my job is to steal all the major Dust stores in Vale, and you and your men are to be my extra muscle in this little operation."

Adam scoffed at such a ridiculous notion.

"If you think for a second that I'm going to take orders from you then you're sadly mistaken."

Roman smirked.

"I don't think anything. I know you will because if your meeting with Cinder went anything like mine did, you'd know that disobeying her is a bad idea."

Adam felt the sting of those words. He was right. If he had his way, he wouldn't be in this situation. He'd dealt with dangerous people before, but Cinder was something else entirely. What made things even trickier was that apparently, Cinder worked for someone even more powerful. He just hoped that Cinder kept her end of the deal. All he wanted was for the faunus to take their rightful place in the world.

"Fine," Adam relented, "let's get to work then."

"I think you'll be needing this," from underneath his chair Roman retrieved a familiar red sword.

Adam immediately glanced down to his waist to see that his sword wasn't there. The bull faunus stood up and glared angrily at the thief. He didn't even notice it was missing. But how?

"I told you I was the world's greatest thief, didn't I?" Roman tossed the sword over to Adam, who caught it with ease. Adam immediately pulled the sword from its sheath and pointed it at Roman threateningly.

Neo stepped forward with her hands on her umbrella, ready to fight the bull faunus if necessary.

"You think you're funny, don't you?"

"Funny?" Roman couldn't contain his laughter. "I'm hilarious."

Roman's laughter didn't help calm the White Fang leader down.

"Oh, come on Adam, lighten up. We're partners now, which means we've got to learn to take jokes here and there."

Adam's gaze was fixated on Neo. Though she was physically unintimidating, Adam recognized the look in her eyes. Those were the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. She was definitely a seasoned fighter from the way she carried herself. While he always enjoyed testing his abilities against new opponents, he wasn't particularly in the mood to make a mess of the camp. With a tired exhale, Adam sheathed his sword.

"Don't ever fuck with me like that again or I promise that you won't like what you see."

Roman gave a mischievous grin.

"Sure thing. Whatever you say, pal."

Mantle:

Dinner went well enough. Marrow took her to her favorite Vacuoan restaurant in Mantle. It was good to sit down and catch up. They didn't get many of those opportunities considering how busy they were. Marrow was pleased to know that Winter got to visit her younger sister before she took off for Beacon. After dinner, they went to their favorite bar, named The Drifter. It was a nice, quiet bar in downtown Mantle. It had good music that wasn't too loud to where you couldn't have a conversation with someone. It was a Wednesday night which meant that it wasn't crowded, and that was nice. Winter hated crowded places. She preferred it quiet. Marrow and Winter sat at the bar with their drinks before them. Marrow was drinking a whiskey sour while Winter was having a vodka martini. Marrow was dressed in a light blue, open dress shirt with jeans and brown shoes. Winter wore a purple blouse with a light grey pencil skirt and heels. Marrow was finding himself lost in the moment. Not only was he enjoying the long-overdue night together, but he just couldn't take his eyes off her. She was so beautiful. There weren't many people in the bar, but he'd caught a few guys looking at him with envy.

"I'm surprised you wanted to go out instead of finding a more exciting mission to go on," Winter smirked mischievously at him.

Marrow laughed.

"Hey now, it was Harriet who said it; not me. And if I recall, it was I who was pushing for us to have a night out together."

Winter couldn't help but laugh as well.

"I know," she replied, "work has been quite the grind lately. I'm glad the general let us off work early."

She felt his hand touch hers. Her ocean-blue eyes looked down to see their hands intertwined. She looked up and smiled.

"Then why don't we forget about work then?"

Her free hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into a deep kiss. They enjoyed every second of it until they separated. Winter's eyes slowly opened to see Marrow's blue eyes gazing back at her. She moved forward and planted a kiss on the faunus' cheek.

"Let's get out of here," she whispered in his ear.

Marrow smirked.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Can't wait to see you all next time.

-Dude64