"Welcome home, Manta 5-1..." the operator greeted. "Please identify your reasons for entering Atlas airspace."
"What do we do guys? We can't just say we stole the ship!" Ruby panicked.
"Saying we have business with the general might just throw more suspicion onto us." Ren noted as the group was struggling to reach a decision.
"If you do not respond in the next 5 minutes, we will be forced to take action." the operator declared as tensions in the ship only seemed to be rising as Weiss, taking a deep breath took a step toward the front, looking towards Maria, who was flying.
"Steer off into Mantle. I have an idea."
"I hope you know what you're doing." Maria stated.
Outside the ship large projected screens on the buildings played a message from General Ironwood.
"We implore you to follow this curfew as it is for your own safety. A Grimm breach in the wall has forced us to clear out the streets so that our Atlesian Knight units and huntsmen may have an easier time clearing out the Grimm." the message explained.
Down on the streets, people were being dismissed from public places, much to their own annoyances as a few of them shoved the Atlesian Knights and soldiers back when they were being forced to move.
"This is... Terrible." Blake's ears folded down.
"He's only following protocol..." Ren spoke up. "He's doing it to save them..."
"But from here it looks more like oppression..." Jaune grit his teeth.
"We'll get in touch with my sister Winter, she'll know what we can do." Weiss assured Maria.
"Well I see she's right there." Ruby pointed to the next message that showed Winter on the screens.
"Please evacuate to the nearest shelters, we understand this is a lot to ask, but it is for your own safety." Winter explained in her deadpanned tone.
"Well since we're gonna land down there, we may as well pay my doctor a visit." Maria reasoned. "I'm sure you don't mind making your call from there, do you?"
"Well I guess her knowing where to pick us up wouldn't be bad." Weiss shrugged as Maria found a spot to park the ship.
"Manta 5-1 this is your final warn-" the radio cut off as the ship powered down.
Walking through the streets of Mantle, everyone saw first hand how things were being handled, with Atlesian Knights escorting people to shelters, kids throwing rocks at drones as they passed by and a rather angry faunus man yelling at a soldier who aimed his weapon at him.
"It's even worse up close." Nora admitted with a look of disdain as she reached for Ren's hand
"Atlas is supposed to be the greatest Kingdom, right guys?" Oscar asked, not getting a response.
A drone flying by stopped right in front of the group and snapped a picture that blinded Yang. "Oh that does it!" Yang slammed her left fist right into it, it took a heavy hit from a truck. "How much further?!"
"A few more blocks. Yeesh, will you calm down! I thought you kids didn't want to start a scene." Maria groaned as Blake put a hand on Yang's shoulder, calming her down.
As they continued walking, a man sitting by the entrance to a building noticed them. "H-Hey what are you kids doing out so late?" he slurred with a hiccup, the flask in his hand and the stench of alcohol was all the group needed to know to confirm who this guy was.
No response came as they kept walking before he angrily grabbed Ruby's shoulder. "Hey little girl I said what are you-" before he could even lay another finger on her Qrow shoved him back. "Hands off my niece dirtbag."
The man held his head. "Sorry. I just..." he hiccuped again. "I just hate how the general's damn dust embargo has left my family with nothing."
Weiss then took a step forward. "Nothing? Do you work for the SDC?"
"Well yeah..." The man sat down on the stairs of the building, taking another swig from his flask. "With the council seat election happening, I'm not really sure who to vote for... I mean Jacques Schnee does kind of have my job. But Robyn Hill's policies seem really good for keeping my family safe. It's too hard thinking on this stuff..." he took a long swig from his flask.
"Your father's running for a council seat?" Blake asked Weiss who turned to face her.
"Yeah, it was something he was well into working on before I left."
"Wait a second... Aren't you-" before the man could question Weiss more, Blake quickly pulled her along, knowing that anymore talking would only serve to create more of a scene.
"Now that you kids are done gawking at the scenery, I think it's about time we go in." Maria insisted now as the group watched a woman with bear ears and a prosthetic arm step out of the workshop.
Yang looked down at her arm. "Maybe I can get my arm looked at too..."
Entering the workshop, Maria Calavera took a seat right in front of the desk. "Hello Pietro." she greeted.
Looking around the room, Ruby took note of the decorations about on the shelves and wall, including a whale figurine, several books on mechanical engineering, and a chalkboard that said "Days since the last nonsense: 0" Weiss could probably relate to that one.
As for what Weiss was currently doing, she was dialing for her sister Winter, but unfortunately couldn't get any response. "Come on!" she hit the redial button.
"Ah Miss Calavera, how are you doing?! Here to have your eyes checked on?" the doctor asked.
"You know it!" she nodded. "Oh, these kids tagged along with me. They needed someone to guide them. Though it turned out I still had something to learn from them."
"Hello there." Yang greeted with a wave of her prosthetic as Pietro moved forward, his chair wasn't an ordinary wheelchair, it had legs that walked around for him.
"That's... You painted it?!" he pulled Yang's arm down now. "What the hell did you go through to do this much damage?!"
"Oh you know... Blunt force..." Yang shrugged awkwardly as she was released. "My sister Ruby made some fast repairs so it could work again." she explained as her sister took a step forward.
"Uh, hi!" she greeted. "I'm Ruby!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you all.' he tipped his hat up slightly as he sat up from his chair.
"Do you know anything about what's going on out there?" Jaune inquired.
Pietro looked to Maria, then the group of young huntsmen. "The General's let his paranoia get the better of him, I'm afraid. Ever since the fall of Beacon things have gotten a lot worse than you're seeing outside. Honestly tonight's one of the better nights we've seen in recent days."
"Well, the people here know that Atlas wasn't responsible for what happened at Beacon, right?" Weiss asked.
"Oh we're fully aware... But we're still trying to wrap our heads around who could have compromised all of our systems. The general believes that we might have been compromised by someone from the inside, or someone with an intensive knowledge on our security systems. I fear it may be both." Looking at the teams a little closely, Pietro's eyes went wide and he moved back slightly. "Wait... You're all... Team RWBY!"
"You know us?" Ruby was surprised.
"He probably knows me for that incident with Mercury." Yang shrugged with her arms crossed.
"Oh, I'm aware of that, but my daughter just won't shut up about you guys!" he smiled.
"Your... Daughter?" Ruby crossed her arms, before an alarm would cut any answer short.
"That alarm... Grimm!" Nora rushed out the door first.
"Nora, wait!" Ren followed after her, prompting Jaune to follow in suit.
Team RWBY, Oscar and Qrow were fast to follow them out. "W-Wait!" Pietro beckoned to them while Maria sat back in her chair.
"You get used to it after a while."
Nora was the first onto the scene as the alarms were blaring and the streets were now empty, just as several sabyr Grimm rounded the corner, snarling and now fixated on her before the others followed her out, weapons drawn.
They charged for Nora immediately, only to get cut down by gunfire from Ruby, Ren, Qrow, and Yang's one working gauntlet.
Grimm started to emerge from the other alleyways, and it was clear the suppressing fire wasn't going to work anymore.
Slamming her hammer into the head of a sabyr that got too close, Nora was the first to start this initial assault.
Ruby dodged a lunge from one that leaped at her from an alleyway, then caught one that tried to bite at her with her weapon, spinning it around to knock it off before Qrow charged in and sliced it's body in half, kicking at another one that jumped from a roof.
Oscar ducked and evaded a pair of sabyrs that were close to him, clearly looking at the relic that was clipped to his belt now.
Several more sabyrs were starting to climb a building, slamming their limbs into the shuttered up windows, and rearing themselves up to pounce at Oscar who had managed to knock one of the two Sabyrs attacking him to the side..
"They're going after the buildings too!" Weiss now fired icicles at the climbing sabyrs before one that jumped for her got stabbed into the throat by Crocea Mors.
"I have an idea." Jaune pulled his sword out of a sabyr's body. "We need to give someone a boost!" he explained as Ren was firing at the sabyrs that were still trying to enter the building.
Smirking at this suggestion, Weiss focused herself and created a gravity well glyph under several charging sabyrs, launching them into the air. Ren saw this and jumped at the sabyrs, slicing at all of them with stormflower's knives before finally stabbing them into the back of a wall mounted sabyr, before continuing his assault on the other ones now. The sabyrs Weiss boosted into the air fell apart.
Blake was by Yang's side, providing suppressive fire with what was left of Gambol Shroud.
Yang simply smirked to her and kept firing on the Sabyrs that were climbing, while Blake kept the ones on street level off of her.
Yang suddenly found herself tackled to the ground when she accidentally tried to shoot with her prosthetic arm and Blake was in the middle of reloading her weapon.
She held the sabyr's gnawing mouth from her face with her prosthetic while Blake tried to shoot at it, only to panic when she found her weapon to be jammed. "Yang!" she screamed, taking out Gambol Shroud's sheath and starting to run at it, when a green laser cut through the head of the one that was on Yang, the laser was precise and the shot didn't also hit Yang, instead hitting another Grimm that was behind her as well.
Sitting up on the ground Yang looked up at who was helping them with surprise in her eyes.
More lasers fired out, blasting through each Grimm that was climbing the walls, was on street level, and even the ones that were starting to circle around Oscar.
A new, yet familiar figure floated in the air above everyone, spinning around in front of the moon with her swords orbiting her and firing more lasers that cut through the remainder of the Grimm. Penny Polendina touched down on the ground, alive and well as her swords receded into her back when she turned to face the group of young huntsman. She looked different, her hair was back length, her dress was longer and with darker colors, she wore a pair of gloves over her hands, and her legs looked like they had some kind of jets in them that allowed her to fly.
Ruby's mouth hung open in surprise as her eyes notably started to water from forming tears. "P-Penny..."
Yang put a hand on her sister's shoulder and smiled just as Pietro and Maria finally stepped outside as the Grimm alarm had cleared.
"H-How is she-" before Qrow could ask any further Pietro cut him off.
"Alive? Well... We were able to recover her core out of Amity Arena of course." Pietro's chair stopped next to his daughter who held his hand and smiled. "We aren't about to let a little dismemberment stop us, right?" he returned his daughter's smile.
"No sir!" Penny then looked towards team RWBY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow who were all approaching her.
"We're glad to see you're okay, Penny." Weiss nodded.
"It's weird to think about, but to be fair... It seems pretty par for the course with you..." Yang shook her head.
"Sounds like Penny alright." Blake agreed.
"Penny... Y-You're okay..." Ruby stammered out as Penny walked over before getting taken aback when Ruby pulled her into a hug. "I thought you were gone." tears were still streaming down the girl's face as Penny wasn't sure how to respond.
She just smiled and hugged Ruby back, making sure not to hug her friend too tightly. "Salutations, Ruby."
"I have no clue what's going on." Maria commented.
"A lot of us are in that boat, granny." Nora remarked, earning her a glare.
"S-So you remember everything?" Ruby asked her.
"Everything up till I got dismantled back in Amity Arena." Penny nodded as Jaune notably seemed forlorn at that mention, remembering exactly what had happened there and who had been made to do it.
"Penny, listen. There's a lot we have to catch up on." Ruby wiped her tears from her eyes.
"I'd be happy to catch up with you!" Penny beamed before suddenly more Grimm alarms across the city sounded. "Oh but I have to go back to work. I'm Mantle's official protector!" she explained with a salute while she floated up. "I'llbesuretocatchupwithyouandstuffwhenyougettothegeneralinAtlas,kbye!" with that she was gone, leaving everyone perplexed and Ruby feeling relieved.
As she flew off Penny looked back to where they were. "I feel like I forgot to remind them of something... Oh! The Ace Operatives!" she was about to ready herself to turn around when she saw a mother and a small child cornered by a couple of Grimm. "I hope Ruby won't be mad at me for that..." she flew off towards the people in need.
Making their walk back towards Pietro's workshop/office, Ren suddenly stopped when he sensed something. He immediately shoved Weiss forward as a pair of gravity bolas wrapped around his arms. Blake shoved Yang aside, landing right on top of her now.
Qrow blocked the ones that flew at him with his scythe while grabbing Ruby. Oscar, Jaune and Nora weren't as lucky, however. They were on the ground and the relic detached from Oscar's belt, cluttering right to the feet of a group of huntsmen, of which one picked it up and looked at it. The man wore a white and blue uniform with a red inlay. "Detain them now!" the man ordered, drawing out his weapon as Qrow charged straight for him, clashing his sword with the man's fishing rod and glaring at him.
"Give that back buddy! You don't know what you're messing with there!" Qrow commanded him before getting shoved away by a blur of electricity.
"H-Hey now stop this!" Dr. Polendina tried to command, but it was too late as the fighting had already begun.
Still on top of Yang, Blake blushed slightly before getting off and unsheathing her weapon, glaring notably at the lack of blade it had before grabbing the bladed sheath off her back. Yang stood herself up, just as flustered as Yang was but focusing on the fight at hand. The two enemies that stood before them didn't look like they'd be an easy fight, one of them was a bulky woman with a large hammer in hand, and the other was a clean shaven man with his hands folded behind his back, he had some markings on his forehead, yet they both seemed to be wearing some kind of uniform that matched the man with the fishing rod weapon's.
Weiss boosted Ruby into the air with a glyph, to give her a better vantage point on a roof. Weiss was about to ready a summon to aid her in this fight when suddenly she felt as though she was slowed down again, but she hadn't messed up a time dilation glyph just now...
A dark skinned faunus with a dog tail, wearing a similar uniform to the others stood before her, his weapon seemed to be some kind of large boomerang and he was just pointing at her. A pair of bolas wrapped around the heiress's arms as she fell to the ground, now struggling against her restraints, and completely confused as to what had happened.
Ruby looked down the scope of her weapon to try and get a clear shot at any enemies but was met by a woman standing right in front of her line of sight, which made her stand up from her perch and slash at her.
The woman now stood behind her with a smirk as Ruby again, attempted to hit her, but missed again. She now stood several feet ahead of Ruby and her eyes sparked with electricity as she readied herself for a run. Holding her weapon behind her, Ruby readied herself for this woman's attack.
Nodding to each other, Blake and Yang ran for their two opponents respectively, but were caught off guard when the man held his hand out, an arm made of aura extended out and grasped onto Blake, slamming her onto the ground. "Blake!" Yang glared and she instinctively again attempted to fire a shot from her right arm, only for it to jam on her again due to it's state of disrepair. "Oh..." she groaned miserably before she was slammed to the ground by a hammer and promptly restrained with gravity bolas.
Ruby charged at the woman who promptly charged right back at her, electricity and rose petals left in their wake. Ruby swung out, but was confused as her target had gone again, only for her to be tackled to the ground from behind and restrained with gravity bolas.
Deflecting the man's attacks as he threw out his fishing rod, Qrow seemed to be the only one among the group who was competently holding himself.
"I'm usually able to get the drop on people faster." the man glared as Qrow held him in a lock of their weapons.
"Well I guess today just ain't your lucky day." he noticed the four leaf clover pin on the man's vest and chuckled a bit before the blur of electricity separated the two again and he saw that he was surrounded.
The man simply smirked. "You were saying?"
Letting out a groan, Qrow held his arms up in surrender, dropping his weapon.
"H-Hey wait, you can't do this!" Pietro tried to argue while the bulky woman looked to Maria. "Do you know these miscreants ma'am?"
"Nope, never heard of em!" Maria feigned.
"Oh come on!" Yang groaned. "I swear she knows us!"
"We need to speak to general Ironwood!" Ruby pleaded as she saw the clean shaven man looking at the relic.
The man with the fishing rod put a finger to his ear. "Yes, General. This is Ebi here. I've got the group. Let's see... Illegal entry, stolen property, and unlicensed use of weaponry. To your office? Sir... Are you certain? This could be a trap- Understood." he ended his call with the general and looked to the group, more specifically at Qrow who was sitting on the ground with his wrists restrained.
As he was shoved into the back of a prison transport with the rest of the group as well as some other prisoner, Qrow let out a sigh. "This was more or less what I was expecting our greeting to be."
Commentary: Here we go! The start for Volume 7. I will just say, I intend to keep myself to a 1 upload a week schedule and with 22 planned out chapters we're gonna be here for a while.
Now getting into the nitty gritty of this chapter... Drunk guy isn't a boring racist caricature, also the Ace Ops do actually get into a little bit of a fight with the team here, just to really show how outclassed they are against them at the start of the Volume. There's also the whole fact they were not at all expecting their abilities. Qrow as the only that really was able to hold his own at least till the team ganged up on him.
Next chapter we see how things are faring with the good General.