Chapter two: A test of strength

As the sun came up over the mansion the inhabitants of the home were all in various different states of sleep; Nora, the goddess of thunder, princess of Valkyrie and heir to the throne of the Realms was upside down with her head hanging off the bed and drool coming out of her mouth, wearing short shorts and a t-shirt with the word BOOP on it. She was fast asleep and dead to the world. Yang was in a similar position, but was squeezing her pillow as hard as she could and almost popped it on several occasions, she was wearing short shorts, the same make as Nora and a bright yellow tank top, she was snoring heavily and her hair was splayed all over the bed. Ruby was wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets and was wearing pyjama trousers and a pyjama top to try and keep her warm, she had a glass of milk and some cookies next to her bed on the table, well had a glass of milk and some cookies, as before she fell asleep she ate all of the cookies and drank the milk quickly. She wasn't making any noise, but she was face down in the pillows. Ren usually slept straight and with his hands folded over his chest and stomach wearing nothing but his pants, and tonight was no different, however he also woke up at certain times as well, and this was one of them, he had the tendency to rise with the sun, so that is what he did, and then he began to get dressed in light workout clothes as he normally did some exercise before he started work as an agent. So he put on a t-shirt and some trousers, leaving his normal combat outfit behind as he didn't need it for what he was going to be doing. Making his way out of his room he looked at all of the other doors and made a mental note of who slept where; Ruby was at the very end of the hall and had the biggest room, Yang was the door on the right next to her and Ren was exactly opposite Yang, with Nora right next to his room. Including all of their sleeping quarters there were eight rooms in total, which meant there was the possibility to add four more members to the team that could sleep in this wing.

Making his way down the hall Ren turned left down the main stairs and found himself in the entrance room, which was a massive room with lovely hanging chandelier and the STRQ industries logo on the floor. Ren also knew from the tour that if he went up back up the stairs and took the left instead of the right towards the rooms, he would make his way towards the gym and Ruby's personal laboratory where she developed her amour and other inventions. Ren however was looking for the kitchen as he wanted some tea before he started his morning routine.

Finding himself in the kitchen he noted that it had a massive table in the middle of it, perfect for sitting eight people around it with space to add more if they needed, and that it connected on to the living room, which had a large sofa, a couple of armchairs and a loveseat? Why would Ruby need that? As far as Ren knew she had never expressed any interest in anybody or anything outside of her work. But Ren spared it no more thought as he was exactly where he needed to be, and now he just had to find out where everything was.

"Good morning Agent Ren, how are you today? Functioning at optimal levels I hope?" Came the voice of Ruby's AI that she had introduced them to yesterday. It startled Ren a little bit, but he didn't show it as he had grown used to people trying to get a reaction out of him.

"Good morning Penny. You can just call me Ren, and I am well." He replied, unsure as to where to look so he just stared straight ahead.

"Sensational, let me know if you need anything Ren." Came the reply instantly.

"Actually where do you keep the tea bags?"

After Penny had given Ren the run-down of the kitchen, and Ren had finally managed to make his long sought after cup of tea, he proceeded to head outside for some fresh air and to also run through some of his martial arts katas, he hoped that if any of the others were to wake up then Penny would inform them of his where a bouts and what he was doing, as he was sure that the house's AI was keeping an eye on all of them as they did their things.

Surprisingly Yang was the next to wake up, giving a large stretch as she did so and yawning loudly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She looked around the room and sighed, it felt good to be in a safe place, a home. And she was back with her sister, what more could she want? She even met some new awesome friends, that ninja archer guy Ren was basically the strong silent type if she ever met one and Nora was like the polar opposite of him, expressive and wearing her heart on her sleeve, not to mention that hammer packed a punch! And if she was saying that then it must be true. They looked so cute together as well, the way she looked up at him with her big toothy grin, the way he was the only one who stopped her rambling, and who also looked like he was hanging on every word. Thinking about it a guy like that would probably have a bit of difficulty making friends so they were most likely his first real friends.

Yang was also in the same boat, before the accident most people looked at her like a ditzy blonde who leached off the smarter and more successful sister Ruby. While it was true that Ruby was a genius when it came to electronics and mechanics, Yang was actually far more interested in biology. She just happened to be the best looking biologist there was so of course nobody took her seriously, and to top it off she was blonde so she had to deal with all those jokes. Some admittedly were actually quite funny. Cancelling that train of thought, Yang decided breakfast was in order, so she set off on her quest to find the kitchen.

Once downstairs and in the kitchen she asked Penny similar questions to Ren, although when Penny greeted her with a good morning, Yang let out a very heroic scream and defiantly didn't put a hole in the wall. Finding out that Ren was outside and the other two were still asleep Yang decided to join her new teammate outside to see how he was doing.

She managed to spot him over near the trees doing what looked to be shadow boxing, but as she got closer it turns out he was just doing a martial arts kata, she knew that from her days of boxing training, as her trainer was also skilled in martial arts and often did katas as a warm up. Watching him for a few more seconds as he finished, Yang took note of how careful he was with his moves and how polished the whole kata looked, he truly was an exceptional fighter.

"Morning Yang." Said Ren; without turning to her and then sitting in a meditated position, the lotus position if her general knowledge was any good.

"Hey Ren, how are you doing today? Bruises cleared up?" Yang asked, both a little awkward and also concerned, he didn't have any powers like Her and Nora or an advanced amour like Ruby, so he was bound to feel the pain more than they were.

"They sting, but they will heal easily." He replied, his voice level. He seemed like he was being cold to Yang for some reason, maybe she should ask him.

"Do you not like me?" Yang blurted out, she wasn't used to this whole dancing around feelings and how people felt about her, this needed to be done now and out in the open. Ren sighed and opened his eyes and turned to her and went in to a kneeling position.

"I never said that. And I don't dislike you, but I am warry of you. You destroyed most of downtown Atlas when you escaped their facility, and everywhere you go destruction seems to follow in your wake. I am worried how that will affect all of us here."

"So you don't trust me." Summed up Yang

"Not yet, however if Ruby trusts you, I will be willing to give it a shot at trusting you myself. She has a good head on her shoulders."

Yang gave a little smile at that "Yeah she does, where she got it from I have no idea. All she had was me growing up."

"I never said you didn't have a good head on your shoulders either."

"What can I do to earn your trust?" Asked Yang, she needed to get along with the people that were going to be on her team, and if she got Ren's trust and got him to be less cautious around her that would be for the best.

"Tell me something you haven't told someone else and I will do the same." Replied Ren looking deadly serious and motioning for Yang to sit with him.

"I only met my real mother once in my life and I hated her." Began Yang with her eyes closed and her head down as Ren's gaze bore down on her features. "She gave birth to me and then left, my dad could tell why, and when she did come back several years latter Ruby was already born, My mother talked looked at me and Ruby and then what we had done during the time she had been away. I was seven at the time and Ruby was five, and I had just come in from swimming and Ruby was playing with a robot she and dad were trying to build, and my mums first and last words to me were 'Why couldn't I have gotten the smart one.' And then she and my dad argued and then in the morning she was gone. Dad died when I was Ten, uncle Qrow when I was eight and Summer, who was Ruby's mum, died during her birth. My mum Raven hasn't been heard from in years, and if I'm being honest I don't want to know where she is or what she is doing." Finished Yang, tears streaming down her face, yet her voice held strong. As she wiped the tears away a hand fell on her shoulder and she noticed Ren was now next to her, just being there.

"When I was little, my village was attacked. It was the Grimm cult, they had come to Mistral to try and set up roots, my father managed to get me to safety and went back to fight them. I never saw him again. I joined the circus soon after that and picked up the knife throwing and archery spectacles, soon we came across another village and the Grimm cult attacked, I managed to fight back and I had one down on the ground at my feet and he just grinned at me and waited for me to shoot the arrow. But I couldn't. He deserved death, it would be perfect. His life for my fathers. But what would he think of me if he saw me do that? That wasn't justice, that was revenge and if I sought out to remember my father and honour him purely with revenge, then was I really honouring him? So I let him live and hunted down the others in the village, by the time the police got there I had captured them all, and that's when Director Ozpin took me in." When Ren finished Yang noticed he had on the same stare that most people got when talking about lost loved ones and wondering the big what if factors that could of lead them down a different path, all she did was place her hand on top of his and say.

"Please don't kiss me, we are not building up to that." This caused Ren to smile and then start to chuckle slightly and then to almost burst out laughing uncontrollably, Yang however went straight to explosive laughter and soon they were just sat there staring at the trees together enjoying the peace and-

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDD MORNING TEAMMATES!" Yelled Nora as loud as she could behind them, causing Yang to jump into the trees in shook and knock down some of them as she barrelled through them, meanwhile Ren just turned his head to her and nodded in greeting.

"I assume you were both out here because you have had breakfast while we were asleep, and that you were enjoying the fresh air and nothing else." Said Nora

"Yes." Replied Yang nervously as Nora was currently nose to nose with her and staring into her eyes, turquoise bearing right into lilac hoping to find out any lies.

"Gooooooooood. Because DIBS." Said Nora staring pointedly at Yang who just sighed in relief, completely confusing Ren, what did she call dibs on? Yang had already had breakfast.

"I will help you with that if you want, give you advice and an ear to talk to if needed." Offered Yang, had they already made plans? Did they know about an underground layer of villains and were arguing over who got to fight the strongest amongst them? Ren was lost.

"Greetings Ren, thunder thighs, and best girl. Ruby want to let you guys know she has found something that might interest the three of you." Informed Penny's disembodied voice, most likely coming from the wall that was near the area they were sitting in.

"Thunder thighs? Most women would hate to be called that." Said Yang to Nora, as Ren silently agreed, as he had heard several agents talking about female bodies at some point, it was rather concerning how they viewed the 'idea woman'. Ren didn't know if he had a certain 'type' as everyone called it, he just hadn't been interested and no one had ever shown interest in him ever, so it wasn't like he was losing anything.

"I am the goddess of thunder, and my thighs are a weapon, besides I'm awesome so what do I care?" asked Nora "My friends on Valkyrie would call me that all the time, and they would laugh about it, isn't it funny?"

Yang and Ren shared a look before Ren stepped forward and looked Nora right in the eyes and placed a hand on her shoulder, making sure he had her full undivided attention and nothing else.

"I don't have much experience with friends, but I know a thing or two about liars, and pretenders. I think you're 'friends' were just that, people trying to get close to a goddess and use her." Said Ren sadly, and he could see the wheels turning in Nora's head, she was thinking about every interaction she could between her and her 'friends'.

"No they wouldn't, I'll show you when I take you to Valkyrie." Said Nora shakenly.

"Okay, we'll believe you Nora, but for now let us go and see what Ruby has for us." Ren said slowly and carefully before offering his hand for Nora to hold as they walked back to the house. Yang smiled at the two as Nora took the hand and her mood picked up significantly because of that and together the three of them walked back inside and followed Penny's instructions and they managed to end up in a meeting room with a round table, the round table had a hologram of a mountain on it and Ruby was sat in one of the seats waiting for them while tapping away at her scroll.

"Finally!" exclaimed Ruby as she turned to them in her seat and looked at each of them "I was wandering where you all were."

"Just outside enjoying the fresh morning air, you would know if you woke up earlier." Retorted Yang coming to the seat next to Ruby and almost reaching out to ruffle her hair, but remembering her own strength and deciding to play it off in sticking her thumb up at her face, it looked ridicules and Nora couldn't help but let out a laugh while sitting down on Nora's other side with Ren choosing the seat next to her.

"Nah I'm good; however we have our first official mission." Ruby declared proudly; now this got Nora's attention the chance to break some stuff was always fun. And maybe they could do some more awesome teamwork together; like Ren and her doing some awesome stuff together and then her and Yang, then Ren again, it would be so cool.

"Mountain Glenn." Says Ren his eyes not leaving the hologram. "It's been abandoned for years ever since it was found to be unstable after the earthquake."

"Not as abandoned as you might think." Replies Ruby. Ren then shoots her a confused look to which she explains further.

"I've had Penny looking for any signal that my weapons give off, and it only works if they are fired, that how I have been able to locate tons of my weapons. The other has been gathering data on the people most likely in position and tracking their movements. Using the STRQ industries satellite, Penny managed to find that a weapon was fired in the forest around Mountain Glenn, looking further Penny also noted that there has been very slight seismic activity around the centre and a lot of energy is coming from the area, so I suspect that there is something going on that does not want to be discovered."

Ruby then looked around at her team; Ren had his hand on his chin and was looking like he was deep in thought trying to think of any information he could about Mountain Glenn in the BEACON files. Nora was copying Ren's look, but was admiring the mountains and despite being from another world working around the hologram model very well, expanding it and shrinking it where needed. Yang gave Ruby a smile full of confidence and placed both her hands on the table standing up to address the other two.

"Well I think we should give it a look, we need to strike first and not wait for problems to come up."

"I agree." Said Ren "However we need to go in with caution, there is the possibility that this might be a research lab sanctioned by the council."

"Either way they have my weapons, and I will be getting them back." Said Ruby, as she firmly crossed her arms over her chest.

"I will not argue with that, but we do not need to fight if they will hand over the weapons."

"Awww, I wanted to kick-butt." Cried Nora, slumping in her seat and pouting cutely.

"Then it's settled, suit up guys!" Ordered Ruby as they left the meeting room and the hologram turned off. Ruby headed to her lab to go and get suited up. She pressed her hand up to a panel next to the door and after a quick scan it let her walk through where she was met by her armour standing tall in the middle of the room. It quickly opened up and she stepped inside it and the amour then began to shut her in and power up, Ruby was testing out a new weapon for this mission and wanted to see how well it would hold up against whatever they would find in the mountains. After she was fully armoured up, she left the lab and headed outside to the bullhead to wait for the others, hopefully Yang had seen her gift.

Ren walked into his room and grabbed his usual combat uniform and changed out of his workout clothes into it. While he was changing he thought about his talk with Yang, what she told him was very personal and what he told her was something that he had only told Di- Ozpin and Goodwitch and the agent therapist after a particularly trying mission. If she could tell him something like that then he could trust her, and he doubted she would misuse that trust. Nora was something else, judging from the way she talked about her home she clearly loved it and it was a very special place in her heart. Ren however doubted that the 'friends' she had back on her planet were actually her 'friends', he had seen it before where people would try to get close to someone who was famous and well liked, just to say they knew them. Ren would do his best to make sure that Nora knew he could be trusted as a real friend, she deserved it and needed it.

Nora was thinking, and thinking extremely hard. She thought about what Ren and Yang said, and they had to be wrong. The people on Valkyrie were her friends, they had thought battles together all across the Realms, protected each other, almost died for each other and if that wasn't friendship then what was? True she didn't go to the learning hall that often with them, as her father would often send her to help in battles where ever he could; her brother on the other hand, managed to go the learning hall with all of their friends all the time. She would often find them together outside of the learning hall as well, mostly down at the market. Nora didn't get invited to come as she only saw them their when she was flying overhead and returning from a battle. However that little nagging voice in her head told her that maybe they liked her older brother and she was just the tag along, and if that was true; then was she really friends with these people?

Yang looked around her room trying to find something to wear for a fight, her clothes had been ruined during the battle with Cinder, burned from her and almost leaving her naked and she was not giving anyone a free show. That was when she saw it; sitting on her chair was a package with her name on it written in Ruby's chicken scratch. Opening it up she saw tan coloured jacket, black trousers, orange tank top and brown boots. Hopefully these would all be fire proof and comfortable.

As the three of them made their way outside Ruby noticed all of them heading towards the Bullhead, all dressed in their cool superhero outfits. It made Ruby feel a little giddy, finally she had some people to help her on her mission. And more importantly, she had some friends, even though they had only known each other for a day she could see the bonds beginning to form between her team. And they would only grow stronger.

"Alright then guys, let's get goi-" Ruby cut herself off because she noticed something, something quite big "Nora, where's your hammer?"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, I knew I was forgetting something." She said while slapping her hand to her forehead

"Would you like help to look for it?" asked Ren turning to look down at Nora, egger to show he cared about his friend.

"No silly, it will come to me." And Nora then held out her arm over her head and opened her hand

"What?" asked Yang raising an eyebrow, and then they all heard a swooshing sound and a large object flew toward where they were stood. It was Nora's hammer. Landing in her hand Nora smiled a big toothy grin and placed it over her shoulders and laughed to herself as she skipped on to the Bullhead.

"She's-" began Yang in complete disbelief

"-Incredible." Finished Ren wide eyed and completely amazed by what he just saw. They quickly followed her on to the Bullhead and took seats in the cockpit.

"Okay so as you all know we are going to Mountain Glenn, I suggest we come up with a plan." Said Ruby and Yang shot her hand up in the air.

"Ohh, oh oh, I got one." She began and Ruby motioned for her to speak.

"Okay so we get there." She started and Nora leaned forward and nodded, completely enraptured by the story that Yang was going to tell.

"We jump out the Bullhead."

"Yes"

"We crash into the ground showing everyone how awesome we are."

"YEs."

"We demand to see around the super-secret enemy base."

"YES"

"Anyone disagrees we kick their butt and get back in time for a couple of strawberry sunrises."

"YES!"

Ren sighed and shook his head; they needed a different plan, preferably one with less crashing and butt kicking.

"How about you three stay on the Bullhead and I fly down to meet them." Says Ruby in a diplomatic counter argument to a plan they were not doing.

"Boooooo that's boring!" cried Nora, while Yang sat back and crossed her arm's while pouting and muttering "Nora liked my plan."

"Hear me out; if they attack me while I am down there, that is when you two drop down and start to destroy stuff to get their attention, meanwhile Ren sneaks in and gathers as much intel as he can and then we find a way to blow up whatever they are hiding there."

"That's assuming there is something there worth hiding." Pipes up Ren.

"Ohh there will be, Penny is the most advanced system on the planet, she is never wrong and I am willing to bet good money on there being at least one giant robot." Says Ruby

"I'll take that action and raise you fifty giant robots!" Shouts Yang

"One hundred!" chimes in Nora

"That would be a tad bit excessive, but why not." Beeping from the control panel signalled that they had finally reached their destination on what felt like a very short flight. When they looked out of the window to view the area below them they saw abandon buildings and streets with wildlife growing through the cracks in the ground and several trees coming through the centre of most of the buildings. And that was when Ren saw it before Penny managed to pick it up on the sensors, one of the buildings was moving very slightly and turning up towards where they were coming in and part of it seemed to be extending towards the Bullhead.

"HARD RIGHT!" Ren yelled at Penny who managed to dodge to the side as a missile flew past the Bullhead and exploded in the air. The explosion shook the team and knocked some of them over and that was when they realised that they might need to change their plan slightly.

"Okay; new plan." Said Ruby, as she opened up the side of the Bullhead and let the wind come in "ATTACK."

"WE NEED MORE OF A PLAN THAN THAT." Ren yelled back at her

"FINE, WE DO YANGS PLAN AND THEN WORK FROM THERE, NORA, YANG SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS." Ruby shouted back at her teammates and then they both grinned at each other and Yang leapt out of the Bullhead and dived for the ground, rocketing through a building and turning it in to rubble the moment she impacted it. Nora jumped out and hefted her hammer over her head and brought it down as hard as she could on the missile launcher destroying it in one fell strike. Once the two recovered from the impact; Yang threw the rubble off of her and Nora managed to pull her hammer out of the now destroyed missile launcher, they then that the two noticed they were surrounded by a group of people all wearing dark uniforms and with helmets covering their heads and advanced weapons in their hands, all of which were pointed at them. This might not seem like good luck to many, but to our two heroines, it was a great day as the enemy was focused on them and not their friends, and they got to fight; win-win.

They circled the two women, but none of them moved in to attack them and instead they actually backed off a little bit, but still remained in sight of the two. Leaving the two Heroes more than a little confused, until they heard it; a mechanical clanking was coming right for them, down the street. As the sound got closer they saw that it was a bunch of-

"Beowulfs!" exclaimed Nora happily.

"What?" asked Yang "You've seen these things before?"

"Oh yeah, they used to be everywhere on Remnant years ago, now the only place that I know they are is Hel. But I don't go there that often, only when I need to visit my Grandma, she's so cool."

"Aw well, time to smash." And with that the two women launched themselves towards the (not giant) robots, intent on turning them to scrap and knocking the soldiers into next week.

Meanwhile, back up in the sky Penny had taken the Bullhead to new heights and was going to wait for the signal for when she would be needed to get the team out of Mountain Glenn. Ruby watched the team's heavy hitters dive down towards the ground and looked to Ren and then realised something, how were they going to communicate with each other, yell loudly. No Ruby had a solution to that so she handed Ren a homemade communication device, able to transmit to anywhere in Remnant via the STRQ industries satellite. Nodding in thanks, he accepted the device without question.

"While those two get the attention of the main group, we'll see if we can find where all these guys are coming from." Ruby no longer needed to yell to be heard as Ren would be able to hear her over the communication device perfectly.

"Sounds good, can I have a lift?"

"Sure thing, don't tense Legolas." And with that remark they blasted off out the Bullhead and down towards the battle; they could very clearly see Nora and Yang hard at work, turning what looked to be large (but not giant) robot werewolves into scrap metal and occasionally smacking around several human people as well. Ren could see even from the distance that they were at, the dark outfits and the helmets and visors and he was certain that he knew exactly what kind of people wore those clothes, but the name was escaping him right now. However he was sure that he would be able to find out what they were actually called if he could find one still conscious at the end of the fight.

He did manage to spot a location where the majority of the group appeared to be coming from, this gave Ren reason to believe that was where the new troops were coming from, however at the rate that they were coming out and the force they were bringing with them, Nora and Yang would be overwhelmed by the time he turned eighty. Perhaps they were simply stalling for a chance to escape with whatever they were hiding down in their lair.

That was when the ground opened up where the troops were coming from. It opened up exactly like a trap door and out came a giant metal scorpion, followed by a giant gorilla. Taking a moment to make sure Ren wasn't still asleep he pinched himself. Turns out he was awake and he was just living out a nightmare, however he considered himself fortunate that while the secret enemy base had giant death machines capable of mass destruction, he had two people also capable of mass destruction on his side. He watched as they turned to each other and watched the giant robots charge towards them, they seemed to point at which one they wanted to fight and then Yang jumped up on Nora's hammer and she swung her towards the gorilla as hard as she could sending Yang slamming into his chest and knocking them both over and into another building as it collapsed on top of them. Nora flew up in to the air a little and dropped down as a lightning strike hit her, sending out an arc of electricity towards the werewolves that had surrounded her, short circuiting them and then running towards the giant robot scorpion. That was something he never thought he would have to think to himself in his life.

"Ruby get us over to where those thing came from." Ren said into his communication device

"Good thinking." Replied Ruby's voice in his ear, and then she flew them over to the entrance. They were met with a hail of gunfire, all of which hit Ruby's amour and most of it bounced off. From looking around at the weapons Ruby noticed that most of them were STRQ industries and quite an old model as well. They didn't have the explosive rounds like the bandits had managed to get, they didn't have the electric arcs, but they still fired at a fast rate and had the ability to change between burst, semi and full auto, and the bullets came out a lot faster than most models did. Ruby was luck that she was bullet proof, Ren however was not; so Ruby did the smart thing and dropped him behind cover.

Ren didn't cry out in shock as he was thrown across the room, no matter what Ruby would show in the video latter on. As he hit the ground he turned it into a roll and shot two arrows up into the air, setting of a flash bang that blinded the enemies and then Ren manage to maneuverer his way over to a door that a guard was coming out of, Ren shot an arrow that turned into a net and trapped the guard up against the wall, and then charged through the door as all of the troops in the room were focused on the Iron Reaper.

Speaking of the Iron Reaper she had landed and was now dashing around the place blasting enemies back with controlled energy from her repulsors, filling the hanger with silver light. As she was dashing around she saw that one of the troops lifted up a rocket launcher and fired at her. This caused her to take off into the air and evade it that way, but it turns out it was a heat seeking rocket that would follow her. She wasn't going to leave the hanger otherwise it would send the troops heading to where Ren was going, so she blasted the rocket when it was the furthest away from the guards so that they wouldn't be affected by the blast.

Landing again this time behind the rocket launcher trooper she kicked him with full force sending him flying towards two others who were aiming guns at her taking down three more, subconsciously adding that to her score. It wasn't a completion or anything between them as they hadn't mentioned it before, Ruby just wanted the right to brag latter about how awesome she was. She did wonder how Yang and Nora were doing outside with the giant robots. Just as she thought about the giant robot she felt the ground shake a little bit more and flew up into the air to get a better look at the situation, more sections of the destroyed and abandoned town were opening up and more giant robots were coming out of them, they all seemed to be in the design of a scorpion, Yang might have destroyed the only gorilla robot they had.

Outside with Nora and Yang they had finished with the giant robots almost as soon as when they had come out, when Nora threw Yang she actually went through the chest of the robot and out of the other side, destroying the power source and making the robot useless. Nora hand also finished with hers almost as quickly, she dodged the stab form the tail and smashed the stinger off of it with one swing and then she had ripped the pincer off of the left of the robot and impaled it through the back of the robot while bringing down her hammer and shattering the thing. All in all, they were a little disappointed with the robots and the people that were attacking them, the bullets didn't do much against them except annoy them and any Beowulfs were very quickly destroyed. They had in fact got in to a little completion of who could throw the Beowulf the furthest and the highest. Yang was currently in the lead with the highest and the furthest, but Nora had then hit one up with her hammer and it hadn't come down yet. Yang said that it didn't count as she didn't have a magic hammer, so instead they turned to kicking the robots up into the air and Nora was winning, curtesy of her 'thunder thighs'.

It was then that they noticed the horde of giant robot scorpions charging towards them, grinning at each other Yang jumped up in the air and brought both her hands down as hard as she could on the first one, just as Nora threw her hammer at the one next to Yang turning it into spare parts. They both knew that these robots wouldn't stop them, or even harm them so what was the leader thinking about sending them out to fight them? It was just a waste, and a pretty stupid move.

Ren thought that the leader of this organisation must be quite intelligent, they had managed to distract Ruby by using her own weapons against her, and from what he had seen as he was making his way through the halls they were dragging out every single STRQ industries weapon that they could get their hands on, this would keep Ruby's focus on the destruction of her weapons and away from hacking into their systems and learning what they are up to. With Nora and Yang, it was obvious that they were throwing out wave after wave of fighters to keep them from tearing through the base, and so long as they kept it interesting they would have their attention, as they were both to headstrong to refuse a good fight. Ren knew that he had a job, to find out what he could about this place and nothing was going to stop him from achieving that, no distractions for him.

As he watched a trio of people exit a room he pinned them all to the wall with well-placed arrows, ensuring that they wouldn't be a bother to anyone, Ren might not have superpowers like Nora and Yang or a high tech amour like Ruby, but he doubted that they could make shots like he could, after all his accuracy was one of the few things he brought to the team. There was a reason the BEACON basketball team was undefeated among the government teams, although he suspected he might be banned from the team since he was now with The Hunters.

Ren's keen eyes managed to make out a sign down the hall that read control room, in old Mistralian. Luckily he had read so many texts on the ancient stories to do with the monks in the mountains that managed to achieve such a mastery over their emotions they could also affect the emotions of those around them with a touch. It was a good read, he highly recommended it. Heading in the direction of the control room Ren peeked around the door and noticed four very large men surrounding one woman who was leant over the main computer, and appeared to be downloading information to her scroll.

This confirmed what Ren had already suspected; the leader was stalling the heavy hitters and tech wiz so that they wouldn't get this information and they could escape to a different base, what they had not counted on was him, a person who was very focused on the objective, skilled enough to complete it, and practically immune to distractions all due to his circus and BEACON training as well as the martial arts he devoted his time to.

"Shit, those women are tearing through our machines like there paper." Said the closest guard too Ren; who then made his way into the control room as quickly and quietly as possible.

"They've managed to take down loads of our troops as well, and that's not counting what the Iron Reaper is doing in the hanger." Noted a second.

"We don't need to beat them here." Stated the unknown woman, as she was still leaning over the computer. Ren took a good look at her and noticed that her hair was completely green, a mint colour to be specific, she had a slender build and dark skin. Ren couldn't see her face, but judging from the way that she held herself and the fact that her clothes were made up of white skin tight trousers and a white crop top with two gun holsters on her back, she must have been confident in her appearance and there for have an attractive face.

"We just need to hold them off for a little longer and then we can get out of here." She continued.

Ren wasn't going to wait for that to happen; okay five hostiles, all unaware of his position, one high profile target, this should be fairly simple. His first move was to draw two separate shock arrows and shoot the two on the outside of the line, the high voltage enough to render even the strongest of people unconscious and these people were no different, after crying out in pain they dropped to the floor, but before they could even fall Ren had vaulted over the line of computers he was originally hiding behind and used it as a spring board to drop kick a third guard, who hit his head against the computer the woman was up against and was knocked out cold. The last guard tried to draw his gun on Ren only to have his arms knocked to the side and then Ren punched him across the helmet with a left cross and struck the stomach with a right body shot, and since his hips were in a perfect position he struck with a left round house kick to the head, exactly where he had already struck with the punch, the lack of balance on the guards half meant he was sent crashing over the line of computers and sprawling on to the ground, out for the count. Ren then turned to the woman who was still not facing him even after that display of his combat prowess, or maybe the lack of her guards shamed her so much.

"All that tech and they're useless against a flipping bow and arrow." She muttered, but it was loud enough for Ren to hear it.

"In their defence, they're very bad." He replied.

"Well against the best agent from BEACON they were doomed to fail, I guess. But at least it's not the others. They would have done it even easier." She said offhandedly, finally turning around to face him, Ren found that he was right she was attractive; as seemed to be the theme with evil women. She had blood red eyes that looked right through him and didn't seem to be impressed with whatever she was looking at. She also seemed to know about his past with BEACON, so clearly this organisation was a lot more dangerous than he was lead to believe. And that was when she said the classic line that everyone said to Ren when they first met him.

"I thought you would be taller." Yeah he got it, he was short for a man, but he was still taller than most of the women that he met and this one was no exception. Yet he wasn't as tall as most of his fellow agents back when he was at BEACON, it had never really bothered him until it was brought up by people.

"And you are under arrest."

"You don't have the authority to do that, you left BEACON."

"Citizen's arrest." Ren quipped back with a smirk on his face

"Your funeral." She said as she was quick to draw her pistol and fire off a shot; however Ren had sidestepped and pushed her hand away from him. She used her other hand to draw her second weapon and try to fir off a shot with that one, yet she was met with the same response, Ren was able to manoeuvre himself around where she aimed. She then kicked Ren in the chest forcing them away from each other and opened fire on him as he back-flipped over a table and avoided the shots, while he managed to let off an arrow of his own and knock a gun out of her hands. His second arrow he shot at her when he dived away from the table to try and get a different angle on her, was caught inches away from her shoulder, as it would have injured her greatly, she sent him a coy smile, almost mocking him for his failed effort. Ren noticed this and only had one thing to say in reply.

"Tick, tick, boom."

And that is when the arrow, flashed red once and the woman caught on and threw the arrow across the room, as it flashed red again and then exploded in a blinding light. That if any closer would have blinded and disorientated her massively, but as she threw it away it only shocked her for a fraction of a second, right before she was smacked across the face with Ren's bow, knocking her sideways and sending her stumbling into a wall. She recovered very quickly and was able to duck under his second swing of the bow and come up with a rising elbow to his chin, knocking his head back and forcing them to separate again. The woman was quick to fire her remaining gun at Ren, but he dived behind a table and the shots flied past him. Nocking an arrow he shot towards the wall and managed to ricochet the arrow to disarm the woman's other weapon.

Now that she was disarmed she had no ranged options, this meant that Ren could shoot her without having to duck behind cover, what he didn't count on was her being able to catch both of the arrows. Ren was impressed, the only other person that had managed to catch his arrows was Cinder, and she was one of the most powerful people on the planet, so far this woman had no enhanced abilities but was able to catch the arrows anyway.

"Given the speed you took down my men, I thought you would put up more of a fight."

The computer beeped signalling that the download to the scroll was complete; this alerted the both of them to the screen and caused them to lunge towards. Ren managed to grab the woman's hand before she snatched the scroll up. She retaliated with a strong punch which slammed into his cheek and made him release his hold on her wrist, allowing her to grab the scroll. As she turned to leave the room an arrow stabbed through her hand and made her drop the scroll, a second arrow then shattered the scroll, much to her anger.

"NO!" she yelled and then turned to Ren with fury in her eyes. "You idiot, you don't know what information that had on it!"

"You're right I don't." replied Ren

"Useless, the Iron Reaper would have realised the genius in keeping the scroll intact."

Then the woman's body glowed green for a second and then there were two of her, the second one that had just appeared charged towards Ren, but he wasn't worried about that one and shot an arrow at the woman still standing still. The arrow went straight through her and pinged into the wall, this meant the second woman was the real one. Since she had managed to make her way to Ren without being shot at she had momentum and surprise on her side and she utilized them with expert ability. Performing a flying kick knocking Ren to the ground so hard that his vision blurred; this woman was very strong and her appearance greatly deceived that.

Grabbing one of Ren's pistols from his side while he was dazed on the floor, she aimed it at his head and placed her foot on his back to keep him down.

"Killed by your own gun, shows just how useless you are."

Switching off the safety she was ready to pull the trigger, a blast of silver energy knocked her off of Ren's back and into the wall where she was stood before, dropping the pistol and slumping down to the ground, seemingly out for the count.

"What is good in the hood." Said Ruby as she walked more into the room and looked around at the unconscious guards and bullet holes all over the place.

"Huh, had your own private party, Ren. That's cool." Holding out a hand to him as he was still on the ground she helped him up and back on to his feet. Ren in turn rubbed the side of his head where the woman had kicked him.

"Less of a party. She is stronger than you would think."

"No worries, I've got my amour, I'd like to see her beat me. And you together now."

They both turned back to look at the woman, but she wasn't there and the opened door that then swung closed could only mean that she had managed to escape while Ruby was helping Ren. Ren then made his way over to the scroll he had destroyed and looked down at the parts of it, yes it would have been better to learn from it, but at least it wasn't in enemy hands.

"They managed to get all of their information onto this scroll, but I broke it during the fight. I sup-"

"Perfect!" cried Ruby as she picked up one of the small pieces of the scroll "The main storage part is still intact, this means we will still be able to decode any information that is on the scroll."

"Handy." Said Ren

"BEACON are on their way for clean-up and taking all of the prisoners, and Yang and Nora are almost done outside."

As Ren and Ruby head back outside they notice the sheer destruction of all of the robots that Nora and Yang had thought, not a single one had managed to survive the combined force of the two working together. Currently they were throwing the gorilla head between them waiting for the BEACON agents to show up, they had also managed to gather up all of the troops they had knocked out and left them in a massive pile in the middle of the street. Ren then had an idea that maybe he could integrate one of them in to telling them who their leader. But thought that was best left to the professionals, as his expert area was infiltration.

As the BEACON bullheads came into view Nora and Yang stopped throwing the robot head between them and waited for them to land, loads of BEACON agents got out and immediately started to place hand cuffs on the troops and also start to place them on the ships in groups. Meanwhile Goodwitch walked over to where The Hunters were stood.

"Miss Rose, Nora, MR Ren and … Miss Xaio-Long." Ren didn't miss the way that his name was said with a Mr instead of an agent at the start, it was both relieving and also heart breaking to hear.

"I have to say, this really was the last place I would have expected to find a secret organisation… you handled the situation." And then Goodwich simple walked away from the group and went to go and deal with gathering information from the base and seeing what they could get out of the troops that the woman had left behind to get captured.

"That's a strange way to say thank you." Said Yang breaking the silence over the group

"She never was one to give praise for much, but it is better than when she would just not talk to you after you had done something." Explained Ren as he was the one who knew her the best.

"She reminds me of my mum." Said Nora "In fact I wonder if she is my mum, and has just decided to come to Remnant to keep an eye on me. Ohhhh, Ren you're a spy, lets spy on her and find out, I'll know if she is my mum when we see her take her clothes off, my mum has this birth mark rig-"

"Nora I am confident that she is not your mother, I have known her for a very long time."

"Okay, I'll believe you but I still think it would be a good idea." Said Nora pouting for a second before a big smile took over her face as though she just remembered something.

"SOOOOOOOOOO, looks like there were a lot of GIANT robots. Maybe more than a hundred." Said Nora

"Dammit, there were a lot of giant robot." Agreed Yang.

"So I guess that means I win this so called money; what is it?" asked Nora

"We'll talk about it back at base." Says Ruby as she taps her forearm, and the Bullhead pulls in over their heads. The side door that they all jumped out of opens up and Nora, Yang and Ruby all take this as a cue to either fly up into the Bullhead or jump up into the Bullhead. Ren just waits for a second for them to realise that they have left him on the ground, but it doesn't look like they are going to notice, so he takes out a rope arrow and shoots it up and manages to get it to stab into the side of the Bullhead, he then uses this to pull himself up at a high speed and swings into the Bullhead as the three, girls all look at him with various different expressions; Nora with amazement, Ruby with embarrassment and Yang apologetically.

"Just remember, I can't do what you guys can." Says Ren calmly, even though on the inside he is anything but calm. True he has trained for hard missions, pushing his body to the limits and making sure that he was in tip top condition, but compared to these girls and compared to what he is going to face out there with them, he was almost dead weight. Almost everything he brought to the team someone else brought more, true his accuracy was unmatched and he doubted that even Ruby's amour could compare. But that was it, earlier when he had spotted the missile coming in to the Bullhead, the explosion would have only affected him the others would have survived. When he met up with the woman in the control room, he had to engage like that, the others would have had a much easier time than he did.

Truth be told Ren wasn't really sure if he did belong on this team, as far as he was concerned he was ordinary, and when you compare that to the others, he was just going to slow them down. He already had to be saved by Ruby once in this battle, and in the fight against Cinder, he was certain that the others saved him a lot of times when they could have been more focused on her. Ren should just go back to BEACON, at least there he wouldn't hold anyone back.

Nora skipped over to him and sat down next to him and began to tell him all about the fighting outside, about how she managed to destroy so many robot, how her and Yang had performed some awesome team moves, while he was being the super sneaky spy, and how they had a little competition of who could throw the robot the furthest or highest. Ren listens to it all and tells her his version of events; how he got past everyone because they were all focused on the big threats you guys had, how he took down a total of eight guys and barely held his own against the leader, needing to be saved by Ruby.

After hearing all of this and thinking about it for the whole trip, Ruby waited until they had landed in the mansion and everyone had got off of the Bullhead, Ren was leading the group back to the door when Ruby called out to him.

"Wait." This caused everyone to turn towards her, and she forced her amour mask to retract from her head so that she could look him in the eye when she said the next bit.

"Ren, I think you might be too hard on yourself." Said Ruby slowly and making sure to look in his eyes, something she always had trouble doing.

Ren sighed. He should have known they would try to make him feel better, they were good people after all.

"You don't have to do this Ruby… I'm not at your level… I should have known." Said Ren softly, almost a whisper.

"NOPE." Replied Ruby with unwavering confidence.

"Nope?" questioned Ren as he was now extremely confused by what she was getting at.

"You stayed true to the mission! While we were all focused on breaking robots or destroying weapons, you went and got the information we needed!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.

"You got there to save me, you would have got the information as well. Probably without destroying it."

"No I wouldn't, she would have been long gone by the time I got there if you hadn't fought her. Then we wouldn't have anything. You were the only one who had the mission on their mind, the only one who was thinking of the team, as far as I am concerned you are the reason that we won. And not just this fight, if you didn't distract Cinder and put her off with your arrows and bullets and cool tricks, then she would have worn us down and the world would be in ruins because of her."

"Yeah you were arrow-right, in that fight. Really on target. So you took a couple of nocks, and got strung along a bit. Don't be cross-bow."

"Ignore everything that Yang just said, she does not speak for us."

"I thought they were good." Yang muttered as it was clear she was the only comedic genius between the four of them.

"Yeah Ren you were awesome, and who cares if you don't have any powers like us, or are 'ordinary', my mum once read me a story of a normal man who gave everything that he had and used it to take from those who were so selfish and give that to those who had nothing, he was a hero of the people and he didn't have any powers. Just a bow and arrow, and that is when she told me the best quote ever 'The true heroes are not those who are already extraordinary; Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.' And that is you, you are a hero Ren. Whether you like it or not.

"And I am still the strongest person on Remnant because I threw the robot head the highest!" finished Nora and placing her hands on her hips, adopting a smug look and nodding slightly as though to a beat of a crowd chanting, clearly this was all going on inside her head and it made Ren crack a small smile, this woman- not this goddess was truly something… different, and different in a very good way.

"NO YOU DIDN'T!" shouts Yang her eyes turning red for a second "You cheated and used your hammer!"

"Wanna rematch 'Best Girl'" mocked Nora, and if she knew how to use air quotations, that would have been the perfect time, sadly however she didn't.

"Bring it on 'thunder thighs'" Yang on the other hand did know how to use air quotations.

They then both charged inside, most likely to find a table as they had demanded at some point to arm wrestle each other and this would be the perfect time to do so. Ruby's eyes widened comically and then she sprinted after them shouting about how they needed to be careful of her furniture and not break anything. This left Ren outside to think on what they said.

They were right, he was the only one who was focused on the mission, and If Ruby did get there, then the woman would have already been long gone and the information would have been lost to them. They were also correct about the fight with Cinder; they did need her to be distracted for a couple of moments as she was so strong a fighter that eventually she would have worn them down and defeated them, and the little that he did do in the fight was obviously enough to change the outcome significantly.

Yang despite her terrible puns and poor comedy, clearly meant it and considered him to be valuable, even though she could have said it better than some random jokes about archery. But what had really pick up his mood had been Nora; the story that she told was one that his mother and father had often told to him, and Ren often believed it to be his father the story was about, because he was the best hunter the village had, always able to hit the animals in the right place to kill them without having them suffer. He provided for everyone and helps those less fortunate, he was Ren's hero. He was someone who made themselves extraordinary instead of just being ordinary. Just like the man in Nora's story, perhaps when she first saw him using the bow and arrow against Cinder she thought that he was the man she had heard about. But he couldn't be that man, that was a legend and he wasn't going to be the second legend, he was going to be the first of his own making. He was going to make himself extra ordinary and he had just the people to help him do that. He just hoped that his parents would be proud of him and what he was going to do.

Ren ran after his team, a small smile on his face.

But in doing so he didn't notice that in the small pond next to the entrance, two beautiful lotus flowers had moved a lot closer together, finally at peace.

And that's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed, there will be more to come, sadly there won't be much of an update schedule, as I am currently putting them out when I finish. I have however written down how I want the story to go, so don't worry about me losing the plot.

pardon the pun (Just kidding I love puns)

next chapter brings in several new characters and you can guess who they are.