Dorms (5:00 p.m.)

Life seemed to plan on throwing as many problems in Natalie's way as possible, it was really hard to find the time to deal with everything in school let alone the half-dozen other things that had been going on, she'd been on a date with Ruby when she accidentally let slip that she and her team were going to do some investigating on the case with the White Fang. She told her team and now they were standing outside Team RWBY's door to join in, Johnny found himself rather upset about the whole thing, his sisters wouldn't even tell him, Natalie wasn't much better, or Nathan, the only one with any kind of indifferent mood was Alice, she had no involvement with any of the members of RWBY though, if Pyrrha was any kind of involved in these plans, she'd be fired up to try and win one over on her sister. Johnny knocked on the door and the team stepped in, Johnny asking, "are we interrupting on your super secret plans?"

Ruby jumped back in surprise, "what are you guys doing here!?"

Natalie chimed in, a bit miffed, "wishing that the people we care about would stop keeping so many secrets, I can understand though, it could be dangerous and you want to get as few people involved as possible, but I prefer to be treated as a person who can hold their own, not a personal driver,"

Ruby shrank down, "I'm sorry, you're right, but we just don't want other people involved in our own problems as a team,"

Nathan finally spoke up, "you know we were both there right? I'm a bit tired of being a shoulder to lean on, only to be treated like I barely exist,"
Weiss visibly deflated this time, "I know, but the White Fang don't generally involve any of you, mostly me and Blake, and Ruby would never leave us alone about it, and with Ruby comes Yang, I would prefer to keep you out of my problems,"

Alice was probably the brightest voice in the room, "well now you guys don't have to tackle it alone, and we can help make revisions to any plans you've already made, so what's the plan?"

A voice came from the window, "don't know, but what I do know, is that it now involves us," it was Sun, everyone jumped, but no one made a sound, "hey Sylvia, could you get them up here already, my tail's getting sore, and I think my legs are falling asleep,"

"Almost there, give me a couple seconds," Sylvia popped up on a white chain, with two others on chains as well, "alright so now that we've all arrived, I'll introduce you to Neptune and Regalia, say hello,"

A girl with green hair and a Mistralian combat school uniform spoke first, a blank emotionless voice, "hi, I'm Regalia, now can I be put down, preferably in the room?" the chain placed her on the floor, a blue haired boy spoke next, "Neptune, now I'd prefer not to mess up my clothes, thank you very much, put me down please," the chain tossed him into the room, he landed face first on the floor. The two teams stood in shock for a few seconds until Alice snapped them all out of it, "alright, that's all well and good, but what's the plan, I hope we aren't just winging this?"

Ruby shook her head and focused herself, "okay, here's the original plan, Blake was going to the White Fang recruitment event to try and get some information from there, Yang was going to a bar she knew of that had gunmen for hire, coincidentally the ones I fought before I got into Beacon, and me and Weiss were going to the CCT tower to make a call to Schnee company headquarters about recent shipment raids and official store robberies. How you guys are going to fit in is a question from there,"

Johnny thought for a moment, then presented addition to the plan, "how about we have Natalie and Sun go to the White Fang event with Blake, they're the only ones who could get into something like that, I'll go with Yang to the bar, I think I know which one it is, Neptune and Sylvia can be on fire support for Yang and I if things go south, Alice and Regalia can be on support for the White Fang event, and Nathan can go with Weiss and Ruby, if I remember correctly, his parents run a massive arms distribution and tech company around Remnant,"

Nathan chimed back in, "correct, 'Darkford Arms'. Not a creative name, but it works, the White Fang have to be getting their weapons from somewhere, so I'll call in and ask about any recent raids on any of the stores, labs, factories, or transport,"

Natalie was annoyed, "why does having dog ears have to come back and bite me in the ass? The one group I've been trying to avoid like the plague, who put me through so much shit that it isn't even funny, and I have to go right into one of their fancy little recruitment drives,"

Ruby put an arm around Natalie, "don't worry, you won't be alone, it'll be fine,"

"Thanks,"

Alice was the last one to speak for the planning, "alright, enough comments, let's just get this over with."

Outside The CCT (5:30 p.m.)

Weiss, Nathan and Ruby were walking up to the tower while there was still plenty of daylight left, Ruby pulled out her scroll and took pictures of the place, only for Cardin to walk up and snatch the scroll out of Ruby's hand, who took to running after him, screaming, "Hey! That's mine!" only for him to shout back, "Is the little gay bitch mad!? Too bad your girlfriend isn't here to protect you!" Nathan and Weiss started chasing after him as well, until he slammed into someone in the way, Cardin looked up, boiling with anger, "Hey! Stay out of my way!" only to find the uncaring voice of a girl dressed in a tan and green get-up, "I will as soon as you give her scroll back. Now please return it to Ruby,"

Cardin was even more angry, "Why should I!? Little gay bitches don't deserve anything! I think I'll keep it!"

The girl wasn't moving, "please return the scroll to Ruby. It is hers. Or I will return it by force," Ruby had caught up with Cardin at this point, kicking him in the side, then the groin, leaving him writhing on the ground whilst picking up her scroll, turning and seeing the girl who stopped Cardin for her, "Penny! It's been ages!"

Penny looked up, confused, "as far as I remember, it has only been three weeks, are my memories incorrect?"

The others finally caught up, greeting Penny with the same surprise, Nathan speaking up after breathing a few seconds, "I haven't seen you around in a while, how've you been?"

Penny spoke to Nathan with a bit of joy in her voice, "I have been wonderful, I've seen so many new things around Vale! The changing seasons have interested me the most, it mostly either rains or snows in Atlas,"

Weiss chimed in, "believe me, we know, I like it here as well, far more than I ever liked Atlas,"

Ruby finally got over the fact that Penny finally got back and spoke again, "what have you been doing around here? All tourism or some special secret mission?"

Penny lowered her voice to a whisper, "I can't talk about it here, how about somewhere else?"

Ruby whispered back, "okay," then told the other two, "I'm going to catch up with Penny, meet you guys later?"

Nathan and Weiss spoke at the same time, "got it," Nathan then spoke quieter, mostly to himself, "time to make that call."

Vale Streets (5:45 p.m.)

Ruby and Penny walked down the street and ducked into an alleyway, Ruby finally spoke up, "so what have you been doing recently?"

Penny whispered to Ruby, "I've been working around Vale, mostly trying to stop a gang of criminals, what about you?"

"Eh, mostly school, but outside of that we've been doing something similar, we're trying to make an investigation,"

"Ooh, that sounds spectacular!"

A crowd cheered in the background, and a voice rang out over speakers, "now, we weren't able to bring this one out physically, but we have images to show off. Now let me present: The Atlesian Paladin!" Ruby looked around the corner to see a presentation from Atlas, a demonstration of the new defense technology, robots. Penny became visibly worried, telling Ruby, "we need to leave,"

Ruby, who was being confused by Penny's sudden fear, voiced as much, "why, what's wrong?"

A soldier looked over, noticing the two behind the wall, he started walking over when Penny grabbed Ruby by the wrist and started running. They sprinted through the alleyways, a foot soldier chasing close behind, they managed to round a corner and lose him. They ran for a bit longer until they managed to come across a dead end. The foot soldier was getting closer, and they had no way to get by without either being caught or taking damage, the dead end happened to be a wall, while not normally scalable, Ruby could clear it with her semblance, so she wrapped her arms under Penny's and jumped, using her semblance to hop over the wall. Relief was short lived though, as they both realized Ruby overshot and sent them too high, the landing was bound to be rough, until Penny twisted Ruby overtop of her and they crashed into the ground with a metallic clang. Ruby got up after a few seconds on the ground, seeing Penny already standing, but she looked off. Penny had a few scrapes on her, but unlike what one would expect, blood and raw skin, there was just grey, almost like metal, Penny was quick to try and hide the scrapes but Ruby was faster, moving her arms out of the way to get a better look, underneath the scrapes was metal, Penny looked down, but Ruby still asked, "are you…?"

"Yes, I'm a robot, I'm not human,"

"That wasn't what I was going to ask, but okay, so you're a robot, what's wrong with that?"

"What?"

"I mean, robots are cool. They have all these special features that a human or faunus could never have, I don't see why that's such a problem,"

"I'm not real, that is the problem,"

"Just because you're made of nuts and bolts instead of skin and bones doesn't make you any less real than me, you've still got a soul, I know it,"

"I guess, I do have an aura,"
"See! You're just as real as any of us!"

Then a voice came from above, "that's all well and good, but I've been trying to find you for a while now," the two turned to run but he shouted after them, "wait! I don't plan on doing anything drastic, I just want to talk,"

Ruby stopped and held Penny back, slowly turning around and asking, "what do you want with Penny?"

"I don't really 'want' anything, I'm just trying to do my job, and before you turn and run, I wanted to ask a few questions, now Penny, could you please stop trying to get away, your father had me looking all over for you,"

Penny was still tugging on Ruby's arm, "why would I trust you? I just want to explore Vale, is that so bad?"

The soldier spoke again, a lot calmer than before, "look, I get it, overprotective parents suck, but I'm getting paid to follow orders, so I follow them. Although we could go around exploring Vale together after all this, as friends?"

Penny was still rather apprehensive about the whole thing, "I do not trust you, I do not know who you are. I will not go with you, now we should get going Ruby,"

The soldier didn't move while Penny started dragging Ruby, but instead just spoke again, "Mikal Rook, that's my name, if it means anything. Can't say I expected to be doing this today, but if you won't comply, then I will be forced to take you by force, and your friend will be under arrest,"
Penny turned around, but Ruby spoke this time, "I don't know what's going on, but a name isn't going to help us trust you any,"

Mikal was starting to become more desperate, "look, I don't want to arrest a little girl today, can you two just trust me for one minute? You know what? Fine, I can't believe this," he took his weapon off of its holster and placed it on the ground, removing his helmet afterwards, then extended his arm, Penny let go of Ruby, who stood up properly and waited nervously while Penny was thinking, she slowly extended her arm and shook Mikal's hand, who breathed a sigh of relief, "okay, now, can we just go for a walk? Maybe get to know each other along the way?"

Ruby dropped her nervousness as quickly as it came, "sure, I guess we have time to kill," they started out of the alley with the sun set and the lights shining down on the streets, the people had gone home for the night, it was late, and the best time for exploration, Ruby whispering to herself, "I wish Natalie was here," when her scroll rang and a speeding car pulled up to the curb.

CCT (5:45 p.m.)

The main lobby was filled with people walking about, either making business calls or with tourists for the festival taking pictures, Weiss and Nathan were walking up to the elevator to go up to the communications deck when two guards stopped them, "identification?" they both raised their scrolls with the ID's and the guards moved out of the way, letting the two into the elevator, Nathan scanned his scroll on the screen for the elevator and pressed the button for the comms deck. Weiss was practicing a fake smile, but failing to get it right, so Nathan decided to try and cheer her up, "hey, I bet these guys are planning to start a Grimm situation," Weiss tried, but couldn't help but smile, "that was terrible… but thanks,"

"Well a smile a day keeps the pain away, am I right?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I do honestly wonder what their plan is. I get the feeling that it's probably something Dark,"

"Oh gods, that was awful, I think I need to Schneeze," the two were laughing at the terrible puns at this point, until the elevator stopped at the top floor, the pair silenced themselves but still had large smiles across their faces. A hologram appeared at the desk, "hello, where would you like to call?"

Nathan spoke first, "Darkford Household, Atlas,"

"Okay, booth 20,"
"Thank you,"

The hologram then 'spoke' to Weiss, "hello, where would you like to call?"

"Schnee Dust World Headquarters,"

"Okay, booth 12,"

"Thank you," Weiss sat down at the booth. The screen lit up, the face of the secretary appeared, "hello, how can I help- oh! Ms. Schnee, h-how can I help you?"

"I would like you to find some of these files for me, thank you,"

She sent the list to the secretary, who was confused, "some of these files are extremely sensitive, may I ask why you need them?"

"School project, history of a chosen company,"

"Alright, but be careful with these. Would you like to speak with your father?"

"No thank you," she shut her screen off.

Nathan was sitting at the booth, a bit giddy. He hadn't spoken to his family since he arrived in Vale. The screen lit up, a familiar face appeared, "look who finally decided to call. How've you been?"

"I've actually been doing quite well Ben, although I unfortunately didn't call to catch up. I need to find some files from the archives, can you help me?"

"Sure, why not? What files?"

"I'll send the list," Nathan sent him the list of files he needed,

"Whoa, what on earth are you doing with these?"
"I'm committing an investigation with some friends. Trying to find leads for now,"

"Ooookaay, can't say I've never done things like that before. Hell I was helping some friends take down a gang when I was in Beacon-"

"Please, save the stories for later, I don't have much time to waste,"
"Alright, I got the files, sending them now,"
"Thanks, tell Winter I said hi,"

"I will, call me later?"

"You got it," Nathan shut down the terminal, standing up and turning to see that Weiss was staring over his shoulder. She looked confused, asking, "who was that?"

"That was my brother, Ben, why?"

"He said something about someone named Winter, right?"

"Yeah, she's his wife,"

"I used to know someone named Winter, they ran away a long time ago though. We were sisters, but she ran off when Father found out about someone she was dating. I've never heard from her since,"

"Oh, I… alright, we should get going," Nathan didn't seem to know how to react, it was strange hearing about his sister-in-law's past, she never divulged much about herself. The two took the elevator down, silent the whole way. They stepped out of the building and just looked around, there was no one there to get them, Natalie had dropped them off at the CCT and left, saying she'd return when they were done with the White Fang. Weiss was the one to speak up first, "so what are we going to do?"

"Why don't we look around? I imagine there has to be someplace we haven't seen before,"

"Alright," the pair walked off into the city.

Vale Streets (9:00 p.m.)

Nathan and Weiss were walking down the road looking at the decorations, even finding a fairground, they agreed they should bring their teams to the place later. The streets were calm as they walked, not a soul other than the two. Both of their scrolls rang.

Junior's Nightclub (8:00 p.m.)

The siblings pulled up to the bar on a moonlit street, the night was young, but it was late enough to give them the cover of darkness. The two bikes were stopped, and four people got off: Johnny and Neptune on one, with Yang and Sylvia on another. They walked into the hall leading to the place, it was more of a nightclub before, but the profits seemed to have dropped after Yang nearly burned the place to the ground while Johnny was trying to get himself a drink for the night. The doors were shut and muffled voices were heard, "they're here! Hold it down!" Yang burst the door open and shouted to the building, "guess who's back~!" Johnny just walked by and down through the crowd of thugs pointing their weapons at the entrance, grabbing the owner by the collar and dragging him over to the counter, letting him ask, "what the hell do you guys want? I'm gonna go broke if you blast the place like last time,"

Johnny spoke in a calm manner, "you may want to call your guys off then, she might start a bit of a ruckus soon if that issue isn't taken care of," the man nodded to one of his goons, and they all backed down, letting Yang walk over to the counter, the owner asked again, "what do you want?"

Johnny smiled, "I want you to pour me a Jack with Cola and answer my questions,"

He looked at him, jumped over the counter, grabbing a bottle and can with a glass, "alright, shoot,"
Have you ever met a man named Roman Torchwick?" Johnny pulled out a picture with Torchwick's face on it,
"Yeah, he hired some of my men a while ago, why?"

"What happened to those men?"

"They didn't come back,"

"Okay, so dead, any info on him?"

"I don't have anything on Roman, look, I want to know what's relevant about this?"

"I'm looking for him, if you've got nothing, I'm gonna leave. See you later," he placed some lien on the table and started walking away,

"Wait! There was something else, he came with someone else. A girl named Neo kicked the shit out of some of my guys when they threatened Roman. I hope that helps,"

"I hope so too. Yang, it's time to go," looking over to the blonde, who had been currently beating down most of the men in the bar, she looked over, nodded, and followed him out. The pair got on their bikes and were about to leave when all four of the group's scrolls rang.

White Fang Hideout (8:30 p.m.)

"This sucks," Natalie was blunt in her hatred of the White Fang and having to do this,

"Shut up and wear the mask, the faster we get this done, the faster you can go see Ruby, got it?" Blake was getting fairly annoyed with the dog faunus at this point, partly because of the dog part of dog faunus, and partly because she wouldn't stop complaining.

Sun was stuck in the middle of the bickering pair, "What is with these masks anyway? They look like Grimm,"
Natalie was the one to answer, "people think of them as monsters, so they take on the look of monsters. Their all just feral animals to me,"

"We're going in, shut up," Blake was getting angry while the group walked into the meeting. The floor was crowded with faunus, most wearing the uniform, but the new recruits wore their street clothes, the three faunus on infiltration stood out the most, especially with Sun refusing to close his shirt and cover his front. There was a man on stage who started speaking to the crowd, "good evening all, I understand the constant fight for equality has been increasingly difficult as of late, but that is why we have a recent partner. Let me introduce you to Roman Torchwick!" another man walked across the stage, he was human. The crowd started booing him, he started speaking, "whoa! Hostile much!? I'm pretty sure I hate humanity just as much, if not more than you do. It's not often I get to work with such distinguished individuals as the White Fang, and I hope to continue to work with you all. Now why would I, a human, have such a hatred for humanity? Simple, they took everything from me, my career, my home, my friends, my life, all of it gone, so I hope you can understand me when I say that humanity needs to pay, and I believe I have just the equipment and skills you need to make them," the crowd started cheering him on, he continued, "now, I think you guys may or may not have seen this at the recent Atlesian technology presentation, but I managed to raid a Darkford Arms transport and get my hands on THIS!" the curtain behind Roman dropped, revealing a massive mech, as well as another person, she had pink and brown hair, and she was looking right at the disguised trio. Blake didn't even blink when she turned and shot the junction box, the girl knew exactly who they were. They jumped out of the window, landing on a nearby rooftop. Whilst running across Natalie started splitting off, garnering questions from Blake, "what the hell are you doing!?"

"I'll catch up! I've got transport!" Natalie jumped off the roof while Sun called everyone on his scroll, "we need backup, we've got a massive robot on our asses!"

Vale (9:00 p.m.)

Johnny and Yang started up the bikes immediately when the call ended, but the massive stomping sound stopped them in their tracks temporarily, seeing two people running from the new Atlesian Paladin. After that they started moving even faster than they arrived.

Nathan and Weiss were strolling the streets of Vale when they got the call, the roaring of bikes a few seconds later told them exactly where the bot was. Nathan turned to Weiss, "I've got this," he proceeded to pick up Weiss and use his stand to launch into the air. They were flying and saw the freeway up ahead where the bot was, and there were two bikes and a muscle car chasing it.

"What's the landing strategy?" Weiss was finding it harder to speak at such high altitudes and speed,

"Oh, that's up to you, I only really planned for us getting into the air and over there,"

"WHAT!?"

The car pulled up to the curb Penny, Ruby, and Mikal were walking on. The window rolled down and Natalie called out, "get in!" the group got into the car and drove off towards the mech.

AN: I spent a good while writing this chapter, and it's a long one (for me anyways). I hope you enjoy the setup for the robot near the beginning of Volume 2. I didn't like a lot of stuff between the opening food fight and the city investigation, not much else will be cut though, more changed instead. I personally like to write Roman with a more tragic backstory, him and Neo both. It helps it make more sense if I decide to redeem one or the other, and yes, I decided to somewhat introduce Neo beforehand, I didn't like how such a lethal force just popped into the story out of nowhere, so I decided to give off some hints about her combat capability before she shows up, if you couldn't tell, Neo is one of my favourite characters in RWBY. She's number 2, below Weiss but above Pyrrha(or Jaune, I have a hard time deciding). Alright, I'll stop rambling, Raz3r out!