I'm back again after another lengthy period of time.

Sorry about that again.

I also uploaded a totally new story that's not RWBY related for once. We all have to leave our comfort zone sometime, and as much as I love the RWBY fanfic community, it gets to a point where you've seen the same scenes played out so many times that you wanna see something new. Not that I'm exempt from that of course, just that I wanted a change in pace.

It's a Pokemon story, if you're into that kind of thing, and it's a gijinka story so I didn't write about actual people from the games and such. If you want to see what characters I actually make up personalities for are like, rather than the already established characters like in RWBY, then go on and give it a read. If not, that's fine too, I'll still be writing this story as well.

With that out of the way, let's get back into it, shall we?


Pyrrha was having a lovely time right now.

Jaune and her had gone out to Vale together, the former saying that he needed to look into some supplies and dust. She was happy to come along, and he seemed happy for her to join.

She tried not to let that make her blush, but she failed.

At any rate, she and her partner were in a maintenance store at the moment. Unfortunately, while they had been having a nice time up until now, this was admittedly a lot less interesting than the rest of their day had been.

Especially after Goodwitch had almost caught all of them in her bloodrage. That was an event that would leave her with nightmares.

So compared to that, and then her and Jaune's previous stops for food or to avoid the paparazzi in Jaune's case, this was very slow.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called towards the back of the store. The blonde poked his head out from the end of the aisle.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I'm going to get a little air. I'll meet you outside!" she told him. He sent her a thumbs up and a wave and went back to looking at whatever it was he needed.

Pyrrha walked outside and sighed. Vale in the evening was beautiful. The skyline wasn't anything like it was in Argus, so seeing it was always nice for her. She leaned against the corner of the building they'd been in. She noted that they'd had to travel pretty far to get here since Jaune said he got recognized too often in the more busy areas of Vale.

As she was simply losing herself in her thoughts she overheard something in the alley behind her. It sounded sketchy, and while she didn't mean to eavesdrop, she did so inadvertently.

"Yeah man, you should see em! They're giant!"

"No way! I guess stealing that kind of stuff pays off, huh! When do we get to see it in action?"

"The rally two days from now. That's when the boss said we'd see what they could do. Really show the humans here in Vale that we mean business!"

Pyrrha knew when something sounded nefarious, and this sounded especially nefarious. She continued listening as they talked about whatever it was they'd stolen and perhaps even where it was.

She didn't learn where exactly they were hiding what they stole, but she did learn what they stole.

And it made her go pale.


The situation before him could only be described as 'the definite worst way he could've spent his lunch break' as well as other charming and colorful words that he dare not say aloud. Especially in front of his sister.

Weiss glared a little harder at Whitley as he continued to remain silent. It wasn't that he was avoiding her question, it was that he honestly and genuinely did not know how to respond to it appropriately.

"Are you dead, brother? I asked you a question," the short girl remarked snidely, ever present icy glare boring into him.

"I heard you sister, but quite frankly I don't think I am the one you should be asking," he said wearily. This was a minefield he was currently walking through, and he really didn't want to set one off.

With Weiss, it was not hard to do so.

"And who should I ask then, hm? As far as I'm concerned there's nothing to clear with anyone," she huffed.

"But you asked if you could join my team in searching the city for gang activity," he said after a short pause. She rolled her eyes.

"No, I said I was joining your team in your search for the White Fang. I asked if you were planning on doing this yourself, or if I had to drag you kicking and screaming out of a gunfight that you chose to start," she said matter-of-factly.

"I never said it was the White Fang," he mumbled. She rolled her eyes.

"One, do not mumble. Two, it wasn't like there were many other gang's that you'd take an active interest in seeing dispatched," she said casually.

He winced. That one may have been a little too on the nose then. Not his fault, if anything, he blamed Adam for most of the problems he currently had. As a matter of fact, he'd been essentially throwing the man under the bus for the entire conversation, and he didn't feel even a little bad about it. Maybe he'd feel worse if most of his blaming wasn't actually true.

Adam had a lot of problems to work out.

At any rate, it didn't make this situation any less awkward or any more simple to deal with. After all, how does one say 'I didn't want my sister getting involved in my fight against a terrorist organization, one of which would do unspeakable things to her' without sounding like he thought her to be inept?

"I didn't want you to worry," he said instead. Much more simple. Much less to pick at.

But if Weiss was amazing at anything, she was picky.

"I'm your sister, it's my job to worry," she stated.

He felt like he'd heard Ruby say that before to Yang. Granted, as much as he respected Weiss, unlike Ruby he'd never seen Weiss hold something as heavy as Savage Rose, let alone be able to wield it with such devastating efficiency. Where Weiss was scary even before you were able to see her fight, Ruby was particularly terrifying after you'd seen her in action.

A shiver went down his spine as he thought about the unfortunate soul who'd thought to comment on Yang's intelligence just as he was about to fight the reaper. He'd seen Ruby do some scary things, but sometimes he wondered if she secretly had a sadistic side hidden behind that shy exterior.

"Okay, maybe that wasn't my best excuse," he moaned, "but I really just thought... Well..."

"Out with it Whitley. I swear I taught you to speak with more confidence than that," she commanded.

She did. But Weiss also liked taking a person's confidence and grinding it into the ground. And then, just when they were getting back up, she'd come back and sweep their legs.

"I... Thought you'd try and stop me, honestly," he finally said. It was the truth. There were no flowery words to try and soften the blow for that one.

Weiss's face said she was as unimpressed as she was pensive.

"I suppose that at least was a fair enough worry," she sighed.

Rarely, if ever, did Weiss concede. He knew he'd gotten to her a little bit now that he'd just been honest with her. Far be it from ashamed, she looked almost proud of the fact that he'd said such a thing.

"I considered locking you here and keeping you from going out and rushing into danger," she started, "but I realized that you would find a way to join your team anyways. Far be it from me to have you sneaking away after I tried to keep you out of danger, I figured I'd skip that step and just jump to the part where I help you fight some of you battles."

"Weiss, you really don't have to. Between Adam, Ruby, and Jaune there's hardly a force that could stop us aside from a city wide explosion," he claimed, then put a hand to his chin and hummed, "Actually, I think even then, Jaune would still be standing. That boy is unfathomably durable."

"Your relationship with Arc will be discussed later," she pointed a finger between his eyes, prodding forward a little, "I want to see him in action for myself."

"You could always just ask him to spar," he suggested.

"No. He would most definitely hold back against other students, especially against fighting styles like my own. I want to observe him while we're in the city."

"You want to stalk him?"

"I-It's not stalking!" she hissed, "I am collecting information! You got to see Penny do the same!"

He supposed that was fair enough. Penny was the kind of fighter that you just couldn't predict. Jaune was much the same, but where Penny surprised you with just how versatile she was, Jaune would continue to surprise you with how fast he could adapt to a situation.

"I digress," his sister cleared her throat, "I will be joining you when you go into the city."

"I—"

"No. No more dancing around it! You'd let Penny join you but not your own sister?" Weiss pressed.

"I hardly know Penny! Her joining us does nothing to my mentality!" he argued.

"Excuses! Penny definitely affects a person's mentality!" Weiss shouted.

"That's not what I—" he paused, hummed, and then conceded, "Okay, that is true, but still I—"

At this point Weiss stepped forward and pinched his cheek, dragging him down slightly so that he was level with her eyes.

"No buts!"

"Weiss I—"

"Silence!"

You can't just—"

Rather than shush him again, she just jostled him around by his pinched cheek, causing him to wince and flail. He was getting the feeling that Weiss had been talking to Ruby about getting people to listen. His ears never felt safe anymore when the threat of the reaper getting a vice grip on them was a very real possibility. This felt eerily similar.

"Okay! Okay! Just please let go of my face!" he whined. She did so and stood triumphantly.

"Huh, what do you know? I'll have to discuss these kinds of techniques with Ruby more often," Weiss hummed.

He knew it!

"Anyways, please keep me in the loop dearest brother," Weiss rubbed under his chin lightly, causing him to flush slightly. She had always done this to try and calm him down, and while it was embarrassing already, it was made even more embarrassing that it still actually worked.

"I... will," he slumped, accepting his defeat here. It wasn't like Weiss was a bad fighter at any rate. She could hold her own for sure, and at this point he couldn't deny that having more people on board wouldn't be a bad thing. Granted with people like Ren and Neon wearing his patience thin, having more people around could very well not be considered entirely productive either.

He suddenly found her hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at her quizzically. She had a warm smile on, one that very few people got to witness. It was rare even to him, so to see it always made it feel like a gift. She squeezed his shoulder affectionately.

"I just don't want you getting hurt unnecessarily when there are ways that I can help," she said softly. He flushed lightly but nodded, knowing that she wasn't wrong for wanting to keep him safe. After all, wasn't he technically trying to do the same for her?

"Good. Now then, let us enjoy the rest of this break, shall we? It's been quite some time since we were able to eat together. I hope your table manners haven't deteriorated in the presence of these animals," she huffed. He grimaced slightly and looked her way as they walked towards the mess hall.

"And by animals you mean...?" he reached. She rolled her eyes.

"That boy with the lack of volume control and the beast of a girl that is your leader, Whitley. It wasn't a racist remark," she jabbed his rib and he flinched back. He coughed into his fist and nodded.

"Of course sister. My apologies," here he was assuming his own sister still held something against the faunus.

"It's not your fault Whitley. I understand where your concern comes from. When I saw you were on a team with that Adam man, I feared you and him hated each other," she sighed.

"Adam is certainly... Abrasive. But he's also a man of conviction and willpower. As much as we disagree, I respect him greatly..." after a moment he added, "Never tell him I said that."

"Your secret's safe with me brother. I feel the same way about Neon."

"Truly?"

"Perhaps not the conviction part, but she's optimistic. Optimistic and hopeful. Not many faunus are as able to keep such spirit like her," Weiss smiled as she thought of how, even through her annoyances with the girl, Neon was a trusted friend of hers.

The two continued to talk as they arrived, finding their teams and friends and joining them. Pyrrha was telling her team about something, all of PAVL huddled around one end of the table.

"Ah, it looks like winter's come early," Flynt smirked as the two Schnees sat down. Both rolled their eyes in the exact same way, causing a round of chuckles from the table.

"What are they discussing exactly?" Whitley asked his partner. Yang shrugged and placed a finger to her chin.

"Dunno. They showed up and Pyrrha said she needed to tell them something. That's about all we know. Not really our business. At least I'm pretty sure it's not," the brawler claimed as she went back to her food.

"Fair enough, I suppose," Whitley didn't push further.

"Weiss! How did your siblingly talk go!? Did you come to a loving and bonded agreement?" Penny asked. Everyone stared at the ginger for a moment before Weiss just shook her head and answered.

"Everything is well, Penny, thank you," Weiss told the awkward girl.

"What!?" Ren suddenly jumped up from his place in team PAVL's circle.

"Ren!" Nora chastised.

"But how—!? Can we even do anything about that!?" he asked, looking quite confused.

"It's not impossible," Jaune said, though he looked pensive as well.

"Care to share with the class?" Yang asked with a raised brow. Pyrrha sighed and sent a look back at her team, who all looked at least a little apologetic in some way.

"I suppose it's not really a private matter between us," Pyrrha started, trying to find a way to word what she had to say, "Actually, if anything it's definitely helpful for you guys to hear! It's just..."

"Just what?" Adam asked, looking annoyed with all the beating around the bush.

"Well, it's probably not something we should say...' Pyrrha waved a hand around, gesturing to the space around them.

"Ooooh, it's about them," Neon realized. Pyrrha nodded which caused most of the table to tense slightly.

Most of them, but for one.

"About what?" Penny asked, oblivious to social cues, "What are we talking about?"

"You know," Neon made a scratching motion with a growl.

"Lions?" Penny asked with a tilted head.

"Just..." Weiss made a motion that said she really wanted to strangle the girl who was unfortunately her partner, "Let's go somewhere private."

"O-Kay!" Penny saluted, standing and grabbing Weiss, who protested on deaf ears, before exploding out of the cafeteria.

"Someone's gotta explain how she does stuff like that," Yang sighed as they all stood and followed the path of destruction that Penny left behind her.


Raven regarded the man before her as she always did. With no small amount of skepticism and a healthy amount of disinterest.

"I feel as though you haven't been paying attention," Ozpin said with a sigh.

"I haven't," she replied without missing a beat.

"Right then," Ozpin leaned back, "Allow me to just summarize then."

"About time you learned about brevity," Raven snorted.

"Yes yes, whatever you say," he blew her off, "Onto more pressing matters. There's been an increase in activity in Vale as of late."

"Do you mean from our furry-to-fury friends, or our 'allies' with the seventy ton warships floating above the residential and shopping districts?" Raven asked with a flat face.

"I'm afraid it's all of column A and a little of column B," he replied.

"Spare me the details on Jimmy's part, I don't care," she said, attempting to avoid having to deal with Ironwood for as long as possible. She and him never got along, and she never planned to try at this point.

"Unfortunately they're intertwined."

"How so?"

"According to James, they've reported several missing prototype technologies that were supposed to have arrived with the armada," Ozpin explained.

"And by several we mean...?"

"Does several ever mean less than a baker's dozen in any of these meetings?"

"Son of a bitch Oz," Raven pinched her temples.

"The situation is made worse by what exactly went missing," he added.

"Do I want to know?"

"Considering I want you looking into it, you should."

"Of course," Raven grunted, "let's get on with it then. What'd they get their hands on that you want me scrounging around for? A supercomputer? A big gun?"

"Not... Quite," Ozpin prepared himself for rage that would exude from the woman when he delivered the next part.


"THE WHITE FANG STOLE WHAT!?" Adam raged, nearly stabbing his sword through the nearest wall in his fit. By this point everyone present knew that was the 'gang' that they'd been planning on fighting. It took all his will to both not give himself away to the four Atlesian students in the room by storming off and finding the faunus responsible right then and there.

"It's as I said," Pyrrha sighed, "I caught wind that the White Fang apparently stole a giant war suit from the Atlas military."

"Pyrrha," Ruby looked at the girl in shock, "how on Remnant did you find this out!?"

"Yesterday, after classes, Jaune and I went into Vale to find dust for his shield. While Jaune was in the store I left to get some air. There was an alleyway nearby and I overheard two people talking about a rally of some kind and, to quote, 'a big ass robot suit from Atlas' that they'd be showing off tomorrow night. I can't say for sure that they were faunus but who else do we know to be flaunting stolen goods from Atlas?" the redhead retold.

"Impossible!" Weiss cried, "General Ironwood would never let such a thing happen!"

"But he'd also never tell the public if something got stolen. Not only would it hurt his pride as a leader, it'd make people go crazy," Flynt groaned. Neon nodded and crossed her arms.

"My god. I didn't even know we had that kind of tech in Atlas! And now a bunch of murder-happy fanatics have it!?" the girl ranted, her tail twitching to and fro.

"That they'd talk about it like that so publicly must mean something as well," Nora mused quietly.

"What do you mean?" Yang asked, confused on how that meant anything.

"Think about it," the warrior started, "if they're confident enough to talk about having stolen something like that in public then surely they feel like nobody can do anything about it, right?"

"She's not wrong," Ruby winced, "that means that they don't just plan on keeping it out of Atlas's hands, but they intend to use it themselves for their own purposes."

"Shit," Adam mumbled to himself. Whatever it was the Fang was planning, it clearly was bigger than just a raid or a kidnapping. What else could they need a machine of war for other than destruction? It was clear that they had waited long enough, they had to do something now.

"I see that look in your eyes," Whitley groaned, "What exactly do you think it is we can do against a machine made for the express purpose of exterminating massive amounts of grimm? And even then, where would we find it? Pyrrha may have overheard the details of what they stole but where they're keeping it."

"And we can't just search all of Vale and hope to stumble across it," Jaune noted as he closed his eyes in thought.

"The time for action has come," Adam said, gripping the hilt of his sword, "I won't wait any longer while the White Fang makes a mockery of the faunus people like this. By this stage any amount of movement on our part is better than letting them continue with their agenda."

"I can't say I disagree," Nora sighed, drawing a few looks her way, "as much as I don't like just charging in, we know that letting something like this atrophy will only cost us down the line."

"So what do we do?" Neon asked.

Everyone was silent as they thought. Any plan would be nice, but there was too much to consider on such short notice that every idea seemed like it wouldn't work.

"I have an idea."

Everyone turned towards Penny, who had been silent up until now.

"We have two faunus present, do we not?" she asked.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with this?" Neon asked.

"Well, Pyrrha said the two people she overheard mentioned a rally, right? Wouldn't that mean they're looking for participants?" the girl asked.

"... And you're suggesting that since Adam and Neon are faunus they'd be able to sneak into a rally like that with no problem," Nora finished, earning a nod and a satisfied smile from Penny.

"But we'd have to find out where they'd host a rally for something like that," Whitley pointed out.

"Actually," Weiss's eyes lit up as she thought on it, "it makes it easier to figure where they'll be."

"Huh?" Ren turned his body in confusion.

"They'd need a big enough space to hide this suit, and even more floor space to hold a rally to show it off!" Flynt hummed as he rubbed his chin.

"Exactly," Weiss smirked, "that just leaves finding any abandoned property that fits the bill. They obviously couldn't rent a place for this legally."

"Then it's settled," Adam growled, "we split up and search for any abandoned warehouses in Vale today. With our numbers we'll be able to cover any location quickly."

"And everyone's gotta be sure to let the others know when they find something! No going alone!" Yang told the room. Nobody needed to charge in by themselves and get killed.

"When we find the place, Adam and Neon will need to go there tomorrow night to infiltrate the rally and we'll all have to be on standby to assist if..." Whitley shook his head as he stared at Adam, "When things go wrong."

"You guys really know how to chart out a warpath, you know that?" Flynt laughed.

"I've found that wanton destruction is one of the specialties here in Vale!" Penny said excitedly.

"Then we begin today people," Yang pointed up, "we've got no time to waste!"

"Aren't there still classes left in the day?" Weiss asked.

"Class schedules are just suggestions! This is way more important!" the brawler grinned.

"Crude," Whitley sneered but it lacked malice, "but she's not wrong. This can't wait if the situation is as dire as it seems."

"And Ozpin already said he wouldn't be stepping in. He's leaving this to the police," Ruby nodded, "they wouldn't stand a chance against the Fang if they really do have a mech. That's if they ever find out where they're hiding out!"

They shuddered at that thought. The police weren't exactly on par with hunters, not by a long shot, and while there were officers who had aura and some amount of control with it, there were many who were just as unprotected as civilians. Against whatever it was that this Atlesian technology was capable of, the result would be gruesome. Especially if the White Fang here was as aggressive as they had been showing.

"Ruby's right," Yang's face said she'd been thinking about the unfortunate odds stacked against the citizens of Vale, "the amount of damage this thing could do to people, let alone the city itself is way too big of a risk for us not to do something."

"Then we should move now," Pyrrha suggested, Jaune nodding by her side.

"Everyone stay in contact and be on your guard. If we do find the place the last thing we need is them raising the alarms after one of us gets caught," Flynt warned. Everyone agreed and left to prepare before they left for Vale.

Time was of the essence here. The longer this war suit stayed hidden, the worse the aftermath of it's reveal would be.


Raven was quite unhappy.

As a matter of fact, unhappy was too light of a word. Raven was feeling quite stabby. Stabby and unmerciful. Brothers bless any unfortunate soul that would cross her path because she exuded a feeling of overwhelming hatred unlike any other right now.

A goddamn Atlesian war mech. No, that was oversimplifying it.

Several Atlesian war mechs. As in more than one. A whole damn shipment full of them actually.

Needless to say, she had a call she needed to make to someone who claimed they 'weren't the bad guys'.

The scroll rang twice before the person on the other end picked up.

"Have you already fulfilled your end of the bargain?" Cinder's voice rang out without so much as a hello.

"No. Haven't even started," Raven held no mercy in her voice, and though she couldn't see it, she could tell Cinder hadn't appreciated her bluntness.

"Are you like this with all the people you work with?" Cinder asked. A brief thought to the conversation that had happened in Ozpin's office not even ten full minutes ago was proof enough that she absolutely talked to everyone she worked with like that.

"We need to have words," Raven spat.

"Are we not already?"

"Are you aware of the White Fang's presence in Vale lately?" Raven growled.

"I am. You need not worry about them. I have an associate keeping them in check so that they don't push their agenda on my plans," Cinder assured.

"Then you're aware they stole a set of multi-ton, fully armed war machines from an Atlas shipment not too long ago and have them set up somewhere in Vale?" Raven asked dryly.

There was nothing but the static of the call for a moment. No sly remarks or coy words. Not even a hum from the woman on the other end of the line.

"They. Did. What?" Cinder seethed, and Raven swore she could almost feel the heat radiating through the scroll.

"I didn't stutter."

There was a sound like someone slamming the scroll onto whatever flat surface they could before there was stomping and Raven could hear Cinder more distantly.

"THOSE DAMN FOOLISH ANIMALS STOLE AN ATLAS WAR SUIT!" Cinder's voice echoed.

"Oh for fucks sake!" Mercury's voice could be heard from even further away.

There were more stomps and then more shuffling as Cinder picked the scroll back up.

"Thank you for informing me of this Raven. I'll have my associates handle this," Cinder claimed calmly.

"Oh? The same associate that was 'handling' them before?" Raven smirked, happy to irritate the woman. The hiss from the other end said she had succeeded.

"Him and a few others," Cinder swore.

"Tell them to expect me then. The old man's got me investigating and it'd be pretty suspicious if I suddenly had a handle on the situation without actually going anywhere," Raven warned. Cinder grunted to confirm that she'd heard the older woman and ended the call without cadence.

"Some fuckin people..." Raven grumbled as she took off to begin her search for the stolen weaponry.

It was going to be a long day.


"What do you mean they stole a giant war mech!?" Neo cried, hovering around Roman's scroll. Cinder had called them randomly, which was always a bad sign, and dropped this absolute bombshell on them.

"An associate just told me that our fanatical friends have decided to make some moves of their own without telling me. I'll be having words with the leader of their group after this, but you two and my own personal companions will be going and dealing with this now," Cinder explained through gritted teeth.

"Well we didn't tell them to do that!" Neo huffed. Roman just sat back and let the girl do the talking. She was pretty much nailing everything he wanted her to say anyways.

"I didn't think you did. Which makes this even more annoying since I can't just kill you two and be done with this mess. Instead I have to deal with a horse of idealistic terrorists and their obsessive boss who can't keep herself from leaping at every bad opportunity she gets," Cinder had clearly been keeping that one in for a while. Whoever the boss of the Vale cell of the White Fang was right now, they seemed like a real handful.

"So what do we do? Give the mechs back and say 'Sorry! We only meant to steal dust, not your prototype death machines!' and expect them to just let us go?" Neo snarked.

"No. We're past the point of no return in that regard. The best bet here is to destroy the damn things and be done with it."

"And you think those furry bastards will just let us?" Neo raised an eyebrow at Roman, who shook his head.

"No. But that's where my new associate comes in. She'll be searching for the warehouse they're storing these things in. Even if they aren't keeping all of them together, which is likely, getting rid of any of them will be a victory. I need you and my two friends to lead her to the right place without painting yourselves as enemies to the Fang," Cinder laid out the plan in one fell swoop.

"Why? Shouldn't we just do away with the rat bastards now? It's more of a liability having them on board here!" Neo whined.

"If all else fails, at this point they'll make an excellent scapegoat for us to throw under the bus. So it's important that they still trust us to be on their side, even if we never were," Cinder explained, "but even still... One warehouse of them being killed won't harm us in the long run. Plus it'll send the message to the others not to tattle on little old us."

"Fine! Ugh, you owe us lady," Neo hung up, turning to Roman.

The man brought up a map with several circles. Two circles in particular were circled multiple times, and had arrows pointing to them. Those were the two designated warehouses they'd set the White Fang up in.

"Yeah I know, I know, those are the best bets. How do we know who her 'friends' are that she said she'd send though?" Neo asked.

There was a knock at the window, which seemed like a good enough answer to her question. Roman walked over and opened it, and two people around Neo's age stepped in.

"Wow, Cinder said you guys made the inside of this place look better than the outside, but this is honestly just impressive," Emerald commented as she and Mercury looked around.

"Enough of that though," Mercury looked between the two thieves, "Has Cinder caught you up on our situation?"

"You mean how a group of practically untrained and unprofessional faunus committed a war crime without any of us knowing? Then yes we know," Neo looked unamused.

"Right then," Mercury smirked, "then where are we headed to make our eyes in the sky's job as easy as possible?"

"Eyes in the sky?" Neo asked, unimpressed with the name for this third, new contender in Cinder's group.

"Don't worry about that," Emerald cut in, "how about we meet you both here. We'll send her a signal on her scroll so she can find all of us."

"Do I want this person knowing where I am?" Neo grimaced.

"Nope!" Mercury laughed as he climbed back out the window. Emerald looked apologetic, but it didn't quite reach her eyes as she too followed out the window.

"What a brief and incredibly annoying interaction those two provided us with," Neo slouched. Roman clapped her back and strolled towards the door. She looked skeptical as she followed.

"You aren't worried at all?"

He shook his head and made a gesture like this was the jackpot or something.

"How's this a good thing? Last I checked, the city getting wrecked by missiles and lasers was bad for business," she grumbled.

He made another gesture, pantomiming ears on top of his head, and then drawing a finger across his neck.

"All of this is the Fang's fault. But why's that so good?"

He covered one eye and scowled.

"Cinder is upset at them and won't be asking us to do anything for a while!" Neo finally realized, Roman shooting her a thumbs up.

That was something to be happy for!

That and she got to finally crack some of those zealots skulls? And a fight against a big ass robot?

Maybe it wouldn't be such a boring day after all!


Adam and Ruby walked the streets of Vale side by side, one laser focused on the task at hand, and the other focused very heavily on something else. Said something else was that Ruby couldn't help but blush at their current positions.

"Um, Adam? D-do we have to hold hands like this?" she asked, hiding herself deeper in her hood. They were indeed holding hands, much like a couple, with Adam leading her around the district they'd agreed to search. Adam himself also had a hood on, though his was black, likely to make sure that if they were spotted by any members of the White Fang they wouldn't recognize horns.

"It wasn't my idea, Ruby. Your sister said that we had to appear as unassuming as possible. The Fang know my face, and they know that I'm in Vale and likely searching for them. This is a matter of subterfuge," Adam explained.

For some reason the way he had been staunchly repeating that this was in no way romantic stung her pride just as much as being forced to hold his hand. And that thought made her blush more, not the man noticed at all.

They continued looking around, Adam checking every wall to every alley they came across. He had told everyone on their team and team PAVL to do that, and Yang had passed the message along to the Atlesian students so as not to point any signs towards Adam being an ex member. Ruby had asked him then why the Fang would do such a thing and he stated that they had a way of marking these things so that other members knew how to find them.

That begged another question.

"Wouldn't they have changed it so that you or other defectors couldn't track them?" she questioned. He shook his head before replying.

"It'd take too long and too many of the veteran members that they have wouldn't likely be able to change tactics like that in such a short time frame," he explained before feeling around a corner.

He felt three distinctive notches and his eyes narrowed. Ruby noticed and felt his hand drop her own as it settled on his sword.

"Adam," she said with a warning tone.

"There nearby," he ground out. She placed a hand on his shoulder, any embarrassment from earlier gone in face of the serious situation before them.

"We said we'd go about this without running in," she told him, "let's notify the others that we found the place."

"... Fine," he bit out. She was proud that he was at least able to keep himself in check here.

She sent a message to everyone with their location and the two walked down the street in case any scouts saw them lurking around. When they got a message back, Ruby checked it first.

The contents made her gasp slightly.

"Um, Adam?" Ruby grabbed his attention.

"That's always a reassuring tone," he groaned.

"There's multiple locations," she told him, as she re-read her sister's message.

He hissed and whipped out his scroll, checking and seeing that there was, in fact, another location. Which meant that what they were looking for might now be here.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered, ignoring Ruby's pointed look.

"Change of plans," he stated suddenly, and Ruby prepared to have to hold him down if he tried to run in then and there, "split our group in half and have both groups converge on the two locations. We move tonight instead of tomorrow. If the original plan was that Neon and I would infiltrate, then it'll be too dangerous if we have to split up and go in alone. Get whoever's closest and have them rally here."

She nodded and sent out a message with the new plan. Everyone's locations flooded in a moment later.

"Penny, Weiss, Ren, and Nora are closest to us," she told him, "they're headed here now."

"And the rest are going to Yang's location?" he asked. She nodded and he sighed, leaning on the wall.

"Then I suppose we wait for our temporary team to arrive before we move in," he thought aloud. She leaned against the wall in the spot right next to him.

She looked up. The sky had turned cloudy and a few arrant rain drops had fallen. Judging by the color and mass, there was about to be a downpour. She groaned at that thought. Just one more issue they had, fighting in pouring rain.

"Let's hide in there," Adam suggested, pointing towards a building across the street. It looked like it had once been a bakery, but the front street side window had been smashed in and the door was chained. It looked like it had been abandoned for a few years.

"Alright," she agreed. Better to stay dry for now then stand in the rain and get soaked and waterlogged before they had to fight.

The two crossed the street quickly and quietly as they stepped through the window and ducked into the shadows of the storefront. Ruby peeked over the broken windowsill and looked around. Adam checked everyone else's location and noted that Ren and Nora were approaching now.

Ruby spotted them down the street and sent them a message to go through the window of the storefront. The two joined them quickly, Nora nodding to the two of them as they ducked down beside them.

"There you two are!" Ren whisper yelled, "When do we get to destroying!?"

"When Penny and Weiss get here," Ruby answered. Nora and Adam remained silent as they scanned the street for any suspicious figures.

"There they are," Nora notified everyone, pointing down the opposite end of the street that she and Ren had come down.

After a similar interaction, the six of them were all hiding in the abandoned bakery.

"So how exactly do we go about this?" Weiss asked, checking the cylinder on Myrtenaster to make sure she had all her dust.

"I've been looking around," Penny said as she gazed out the window unflinchingly, despite the now heavy rain that was falling, "there are multiple across points to the roofs around the target area. It should be possible to get in from above."

"Wouldn't they have most of their guards on the roof though? They'd have better sights on everyone below," Ruby pointed out.

"Then we go through them!" Ren suggested.

"For once I have no qualms with one of your ideas," Adam stood slowly, ready to move, "Where's the nearest roof access Penny?"

"From what I can see, there is a fire escape that has been left unattended over there," Penny pointed across the street and to their left, "I cannot see any guards from here though."

"We'll deal with that when it happens," Ruby stated as they all moved towards their way up.

As Penny had stated, there was a fire escape that had been left uncaged. Unfortunately it wasn't down, so they needed a way up.

"Here," Weiss summoned a set of stone pillars using her glyphs, "let's go."

They ascended and Adam peered above the rooftop before they all climbed up.

"Just like you suspected Ruby," he said, "three guards stationed around. It'll be a pain to simply try and make a run for the warehouse's roof with them surveying the area."

"I could take them down easy but Savage Rose doesn't exactly handle silent takedown from a distance too well," Ruby winced.

"I too could take them down, but my weapons tend to make a lot of noise when they move!" Penny added.

"Ren," Nora said without batting an eye, "go time."

"Aye aye Codename Thunder Thighs!" Ren said in a pseudo covert ops tone. Nora flushed at the nickname but didn't comment. Not now at least.

"Codename Horny, Big Red, Snow Ho, and Puppeteer, are you ready for silent takedown?" Ren asked, still in character.

"You better hope to all that is holy that I'm not Codename Snow Ho," Weiss said with a scathing look.

"Horny!?" Adam growled.

"Go time!" Ren said instead, crouching down low. Everyone save Nora looked at him in confusion.

Then he flew upwards with an incredible vertical leap.

While in the air he turned slightly and notched an arrow with a small pouch on it. He drew back and let loose, the arrow soaring and impacting the White Fang member in the face with a burst of blue powder.

He spun gracefully, letting loose two more arrows into the other two snipers before landing perfectly on the railing of the fire escape, even performing a bow afterwards.

Nora gave him a small golf clap while the others all stared in shock. For such a rambunctious guy, he was much more elegant with his movements than one would think.

"All handled!" he chanted.

They all stood and looked. The snipers had all fallen down, and looked to be completely still.

"Ren... What did you hit them with?" Ruby asked.

"Oh! That's just one of the little surprises I add to my arrows! That one was a special blend of Mistralian Bloodroot, scorpion venom, and Atlesian peonies that completely paralyzes the nervous and muscle system, leaving anyone who inhales it completely immobile and stiff!" he said proudly.

They all turned to Nora, who in turn simply shrugged.

"I tried to stop him years ago," she said as if that was all there was to it. With Ren, it may as well have been.

"Right," Adam noted not to let Ren ever hit him with an arrow, "let's get a move on then."

The six began their dash along the rooftops, leaping and landing on the warehouse roof and looking down into the large open space through the broken skylight.

Sitting in the middle of the room was something covered by a large tarp. While there was no guarantee what it was, the outline of what was very clearly a chain gun and a mounted cannon was enough of a tell for them.

"I wonder how the others are doing," Ruby said aloud, "I hope they're being as careful as us."

"Worry not Ruby," Weiss said as they all began slowly descending into the warehouse, "I'm sure that they're taking care to keep their presence as masked as possi—"

BOOM!

An extremely loud explosion from the other side of the district could be heard, a giant plume of smoke trailing after it in no time at all. The noise echoed throughout the streets and alleys, and all of them flinched on the catwalk they had landed on within the warehouse.

"I'm sure that was nothing," Adam said, doing his best to reassure everyone.

His best still needed a little work. Ruby and Weiss both looked like they'd be talking to their siblings about subtlety.

"Well at least they haven't noticed us," Nora pointed out.

Down below, they could hear a walkie talkie go off and someone yelling through it.

"Secure your area! We're under attack in both other locations! Make sure you're not being attacked too!"

Several guns could be heard being cocked and safety being turned off.

"THEY'RE ABOVE US!"

"Alright let's just all be quiet from now on," Nora sighed deeply.

With that the six descended.


Five minutes earlier, the other side of the district

Yang and Whitley had been joined by Flynt, Neon, Jaune, and Pyrrha moments ago. The six were looking at the large building before them, debating on how to get in.

"There aren't any rooftops that are close enough for us to climb from," Jaune pointed out, adjusting his shield and lance.

"Not to mention how many of them are hanging around outside the doors and windows," Pyrrha noted afterwards.

"We could always just bust the wall down. It's abandoned anyways, right?" Yang suggested.

"Yang, please, just because something is abandoned doesn't mean we can just destroy it," Whitley groaned.

"Well dispatching them quietly is out of the picture too, they're all way too close together for that," Neon frowned as she checked again. Nope, they all remained at their stations.

"None of us have what you'd call quiet weapons either," Flynt pointed out, wiggling his trumpet for emphasis.

"Just saying," Yang sang, "Blowing the wall!"

"No you buffoon!" Whitley chastised, "we'll never get to the damn thing before they get it up and running that way!"

"All in favor of going through the wall, say I!" the brawler said right after.

"Wait, there's really no other way—" Flynt was cut off by Jaune standing up and leveling his lance at the building.

The tip shrank back and revealed his weapons cannon form.

Seconds later, nearly a third of the wall was decimated in a giant explosion from one shot of his aura cannon.

"I," Jaune said, running forward towards the now scrambling and confused White Fang.

"Jaune! We're totally talking about this later!" Pyrrha shouted as she chased her partner, her shield raised before her to deflect any of the bullets flying their way.

Whitley let out a shout of indignation before taking aim and letting loose a rain of fiery bullets, setting parts of the parking lot on fire.

Weiss was totally going to chew him out for this.


Five minutes earlier, the OTHER other side of the district

Roman and Neo strolled up to the edge of the roof casually. Emerald was standing at the edge, looking down at a building. Mercury was lazing casually against the lip of the building, kicking his legs up and down as he waited.

"Bout time," he smirked. Neo stuck her tongue out at him and Roman shrugged.

"Are we ready or what? I don't got all night," Neo cocked her hip to the side and placed her hands on her hips.

"We're waiting for someone," Mercury claimed.

"Well you can stop waiting," a voice said from behind Roman and Neo, causing all four of them to jump.

"Let's get this over with. I still have words for your boss," Raven growled as she stepped between and past Roman and Neo.

"Who the hell are you!?" Neo asked, not too happy being snuck up on like that.

"Raven. Don't remember it, you're not worth my time," Raven said coldly. She sent a pointed look towards Emerald and Mercury, gesturing towards the warehouse before them.

"Whatever you say," Emerald shrugged. The girl then rolled up her sleeves, which up until this point had always hung past her hands. The sight wasn't quite what Raven was expecting but she hid her reaction well.

Beneath her sleeves were a pair of steel arms, looking like they were powered by pistons or something of the like. They went from just under her elbows down to her fingers. Within them there seemed to be both a gun mechanism, and a winch of some kind.

"Woah!" Neo laughed, "What happened to you? Get drunk one night and get a little too... Handsy?"

Mercury barked out a laugh and Emerald flipped them both off before taking aim at the warehouse nearby with her left arm. The hand then shot out and embedded itself in the large roof, a steel chord connecting all the way back to Emerald herself. That would be the winch, Raven noted mentally.

"See you over there," she said, looking back over her shoulder before the chord retracted and she was pulled over to the other rooftop.

"Ugh," Mercury rolled his eyes, shifting into a more ready position, "hate when she does that."

The boy then grabbed two disks off either side of his waist and flicked his arms out to the sides. The disks shifted, revealing themselves to be triple edged blades of some kind. He clicked something and they spun rapidly in circles. He held one above himself and took off, flying after his partner.

"Man what the hell!?" Neo watched as he flew off with his two glorified mini helicopter blades, "How does that even work!? Don't tell me this new mystery woman's got some special way of getting—"

Neo was cut off when Roman tapped her and gestured to where Raven was once standing. Once being the keyword as there was nobody there now while they'd been distracted by the hovering assassin. All they could see was a bird flying off towards the warehouse.

"Do... Do we have anything that can do that?" she asked with a pleading tone.

Roman sent her an apologetic look and she growled.

"Well at least I don't have to just walk and jump over there alone—"

She watched as the hook of a cane flew off towards the warehouse rooftop. Roman sent her a salute with his index and middle finger before he too was pulled to the other roof.

Neo really hated the people of the underground.


Elsewhere, a remote location just outside of Vale

She wasn't too happy with what she was hearing right now. She had worked very, very hard to obtain those new toys from Atlas. She had practically done the whole damn operation herself.

She'd even gone and set up that third warehouse under the nose of her new 'employer'. She figured that whatever she didn't know wouldn't hurt her in the long run, and since the woman seemed so intent on being in control, then it was only a precaution to have their own ace in the whole should things go awry.

But no. Not one, hell, not even the two warehouses that Fall and that bastard Torchwick knew about, but all three warehouses, including their secret one, were under siege.

She hissed and stabbed a small dagger into the table before her.

"Do not let them destroy my efforts here. Even if you need to use those new prototypes early, do it. I don't care if it's huntsman, students again, or even Ozpin or Ironwood themselves doing this, I want them gone," she said into the radio.

"Yes ma'am!" all three commanders she had in the city said back before all went silent in the tent.

There was a shuffling behind her as someone entered the tent. They placed something on the table and cleared their throat.

"I've brought you some tea," a girl's voice said.

"Thank you, Ilia," she grunted, offering no more. She turned, eyeing the girl through her mask.

"Do you want me to go into the city?" Ilia asked, clearly ready to do so if she was required to.

"No. With those suits they should be able to take whoever's stupid enough to attack down. Even if they don't, at least they'll send a message that we're not just some 'spunky group of freedom fighters', we mean war," she growled.

"Of course, Blake, as you command," Ilia bowed slightly and left the tent.

Blake glared towards Vale through the slits of her mask, sneering and gritting her teeth.

"Soon Adam, you'll see what we really can accomplish when we do things my way. And when that happens..." Blake turned and regarded the one plan Cinder had that she was actually in agreement with.

A blueprint for a train, a bomb, and an outline of Mountain Glenn.

"... When that happens the world will finally respect us the way we deserve."


Oh noooooo. A cliffhanger.

Boo on me.

Anyways, the next chapter is gonna be full of action from three different places happening at the same time, so be ready for that.

Again, if you like my writing at all, consider giving my new story a read. It's a bit of a pipe dream of mine (provided you read any of my author's notes you'll see why I call it that) and I'd love to see what people think of it.

Make sure you stay safe and healthy out there!

And have a wonderful time!


Omake: Hands on learning experience

"Man, I really gotta hand it to you, this isn't too bad after all!"

She hated this.

"I mean, if I could finger exactly why this was so great, I don't know if I could!"

Like, really, really hated this.

"Maybe it's the palm trees!"

Bad.

"Or just how much elbow grease they put into everything they do around here!"

Even worse. Especially since it was Vacuo, and they didn't put effort into anything here.

"Or how impressive the army is here!"

They didn't even have an army in Vacuo!

"But it's just great. Especially since you're just so handy when it comes to putting these little trips togeth—"

A metal fist collided with Mercury's face and he flew across the street. Emerald retracted her hand and let it click into place. She rolled her eyes at the assassin, who pulled himself out of a fruit stand slowly.

"Worth it!" Mercury called. Emerald groaned.

How obnoxious.