Raven twisted her body as she flew in the air, her aura dented from the surprise shot, and landed on her feet with her sword held at the ready. She saw that Roman had fired two more shots at her and, with just as many swipes, Raven batted the shots away from her and let the excess energy from the shots blast against the pavement before she darted away behind a container to rejoin her team. Roman ran after her, his cane held in front of him just in case, but found the lane Raven had run down empty.

"Come on ninja girl, where are you?" Roman muttered to himself as he walked, only to be interrupted a second later when something landed on his head, pushing his hat down slightly over his eyes. Roman adjusted his hat back and grabbed the object that hit him, finding it to be a banana peel, and threw it to the side. He looked up in time to immediately regret it as he took a kick to the face courtesy of Sun, who jumped off of Roman as he was falling and did a quick flip into a handstand and then another onto his feet.

"Leave her alone," Sun said once he settled to a stop. Roman pushed himself to his feet just as an airship settled over the area, the blast of air pushing Sun's hair and unbuttoned shirt around as he tapped a foot against the pavement. The side doors of the ship opened and a couple squads of White Fang soldiers jumped out and moved to surround Sun.

"Perfect, another one," Roman muttered under his breath as he stood up and then, gesturing to the soldiers around him, said louder, "You're not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you?" Sun simply settled into a fighting stance and made a 'come get some' gesture at Roman with a small smirk. Roman rolled his eyes at that and waved the White Fang forward.

They charged in a staggered group and the first one to reach Sun was immediately knocked back by a backfist from him, which Sun used the momentum from to launch into a spin and hit another soldier with his tail and a kick to his head. Sun continued the spin and switched his footing to kick another in the chest, sending her back leaving her sword spinning to the ground as she flew away. More were starting to converge on Sun though, so he reached to his waist and pulled out his staff and unfolded it fully so it smacked into a soldier's face before he started doing proper crowd control.

While Sun was fighting a gunner squad of White Fang formed up to the side and aimed at him. "The second we get a clear shot, open fire," one of them said double checking that her SMG was loaded.

"Yes ma'am. But damn is he kicking ass," another replied flinching just a little when Sun slammed his staff into a soldier's crotch and lifted him over his head and launched him away.

"Focus up! Just keep your distance and we'll get him."

"R-right!" That affirmation was followed immediately by the squad being tossed in the air when something slammed down right in the middle of them. When they all landed and more or less settled they struggled to move and see what knocked them over, finding a tan teenager in a green tunic just slinging a large sword over his shoulder standing in a miniature crater where they had just been standing.

"What the fu-" one started to say and got a response from Yatsuhashi when he swung his sword at her, the flat of the blade hitting her chest and launching her into a container where she slumped over unconscious.

"Crap, open fire!" another shouted and started shooting at Yatsuhashi along with the ones who had managed to stand up. Yatsuhashi moved his sword and pushed as much of his Aura up as he could to shield himself from the bullets. He only needed to do this for a few second before he saw a brown blur hop from the top of some containers down onto the squad, failing to keep the small smile down as Velvet shouted and landed an axe kick on one of the soldier's heads.

"What the-!?" one of them started to shout on seeing his comrade's head get planted firmly in the pavement only to get his gun kicked into his face and his legs swept out from under him. One of his comrades tried to shoot Velvet, only for her to jump over the burst and wrap her legs around his neck before leaning back and throwing him backwards into a container. The last one tried to bash Velvet over the head with his gun, but Velvet dodged around it and grabbed his arm, drove her knee into his stomach, and adjusted her grip on his arm to more easily throw him at Yatsuhashi.

Yatsuhashi easily batted the soldier down with his sword, leaving him groaning in pain, and looked up at Velvet as she pointed at Sun as he was finishing with his fight. "Launch me!" Velvet shouted and ran at Yatsuhashi, who nodded and moved his sword behind him to grip it with both hands. Velvet jumped at him, bracing her hands against Yatsuhashi's shoulders as she flipped over him and landed on his sword, and braced herself as he swung the sword forward and jumped at the apex of the swing, launching herself forward.

Sun, for his part, finished up his fight by slamming his staff down on the ground creating a small shockwave that knocked down a few of the remaining soldiers, which were knocked out afterwards by Sun spinning his legs around in a circle before rolling onto his feet. The lone soldier who wasn't knocked down aimed his pistol at Sun only to immediately after get kicked in the chest by a high speed Velvet, which was followed by a hard roundhouse kick in the split second that Velvet hung in the air after impact that sent him spinning to the ground.

Velvet landed in a crouch and let out a breath just as Sun yelled out "Look out!" and jumped in front of Velvet spinning his staff to block a shot from Roman. She got back up to her feet and got into a fighting stance along with Sun while Torchwick continued to aim at them. "Not very sporting to shoot at someone's back!"

"Whatever it takes to win kid!" Roman replied lightly shrugging before hearing shouts and gunfire to his left.

"Run, she's coming!" one soldier shouted over the gunfire and stopped at the opening to the yard Roman was in.

"What are you mutts yelling about now!?" Roman shouted and squinted his eyes just as Coco rounded the corner, sauntering toward the White Fang like she was on a shopping trip rather than fighting. Roman rolled his eyes and aimed at Coco to fire a shot, which flew past the White Fang soldiers and was subsequently batted away by Coco with a quick swipe of her handbag. Roman raised an eyebrow while the soldiers looked at each other before aiming at Coco, who stopped, slid her sunglasses down, and let out a small 'Humph,' of laughter.

"Precious," she said and pushed her glasses back up before unfolding her handbag into a minigun and aiming it at the White Fang, who were all staring wide eyed and backing away slowly as Coco revved up her gun. Roman had the good sense to roll to his right before Coco opened fire, unlike the White Fang soldiers who barely managed to get out of the way as Coco rinsed the area with gunfire save one who got his Aura knocked out with just two bullets. Coco stopped firing and lowered her smoking gun before looking up at the containers. "Fox, you're up!"

Roman got to his feet in time to see a tanned redhead with bladed tonfa jumping down and engaging the White Fang, knocking out the one without Aura with a swift kick before moving on. He soon had his own problems when he heard a shout from his right and raised is cane in time to block a kick from Velvet. She kicked off of his cane and held both her arms out when she landed, which was followed by a bright blue light coming from behind her as Hard Light Dust copies of York and Soleil formed in her hands. She spun the dagger into a reverse hold and held the sword out toward Roman.

"…Ok," was Roman's response to that along with a raised eyebrow before he was forced on the defensive by a flurry of swipes from Velvet. He deflected a dagger strike and blocked one form the sword, which Velvet used to spin the dagger into a pistol and aim at Roman. He ducked and let the shot go over him before standing back up and taking a swing at Velvet, which she blocked and retaliated with pistol fire. This dance between the two of them continued with exchanged strikes and blocks and pistol shots from Velvet until she did an elaborate spin to stab at Roman, which he deflected easily with his cane and grabbed her rabbit ears with his free hand.

Velvet yelped in pain as Roman pulled on them and used them to slam her head down into his knee, her Aura flashing in response, and kicked her legs out from under her while still holding her ears to force her into a front flip and land on her back. The copied sword and dagger disappeared as Roman brought his cane down onto Velvet's stomach, knocking the air out of her, before being kicked away by Sun. Roman repositioned himself and blocked a blow from Sun's staff, though that was followed up by Sun splitting his staff in half which in turn transformed into two sets of shotgun nun-chucks that he started spinning. Roman started backing up as he blocked a shot from one set of nun-chucks and a blow from the other, over and over again until the shots formed a solid wall of red in between the two. Roman was so focused on blocking the gunfire that he didn't notice until it was too late when Sun managed to knock Roman's cane askew and jumped in a spin to land a double footed kick to Roman's chest sending him flying backwards.

Roman landed roughly on his back and coughed as pushed himself up and looked around the yard. He took in Sun still spinning one of his nun-chucks along with Coco and Fox just finishing up with the White Fang soldiers they were fighting along with Yatsuhashi coming into the yard and Velvet underneath a crane holding a shipping container before he made a tactical decision. He stood up with a small "Nope," and fired a shot at the crane, which knocked a line off the container and left the remaining lines groaning before they started snapping under the weight.

"Velvet!" Yatsuhashi shouted and started running to Velvet. Sun, on hearing this, looked back at Velvet and then up at the container and dropped his weapons before running at Velvet as she slowly got to her feet. He jumped and knocked her out of the way just as the container finally broke free and fell, crashing on the ground right where Velvet had been a second ago. Yatsuhashi stopped with a sigh of relief when he saw Velvet was safe while Coco glared after Roman as he started running away down a lane between some containers.

"I'm on him!" Fox said and took off after Roman, who saw Fox chase after him and fired a shot at a container, knocking it into the air and crashing into the lane behind him. Fox only avoided getting crushed thanks to the rapid beeping of his ADA unit in his earpiece alerting him and forcing him into a quick stopping slide as it crashed in front of him. Fox stood back up and walked to the container, banging a fist against the metal a couple of times and focusing on Roman's Aura that was already fading. "I'm losing him!"

"Damn," Coco cursed and started tapping her fingers against her weapons handle before nodding and looking at Velvet walking out from behind the fallen container with Sun carrying her on his shoulder. "Velvet, are you ok?" she shouted at Velvet, which she responded with a couple of coughs and a thumbs up. "Good, go help STRQ with their Grimm problem if you can! The rest of us will lock this place down and hunt down Torchwick!"

"Are you sure?" Velvet shouted back.

"Yes, just be safe! Come on Fox!" Coco hefted her weapon and took off in a run with Fox right behind her. Velvet nodded to herself before pulling away from Sun, giving him a smile, and patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks for the save," she said and took a deep breath before running at Yatsuhashi.

"Anytime," Sun shouted back and ran to collect his weapons and follow Coco and Fox. Velvet met Yatsuhashi's eyes as she ran and he positioned his sword so Velvet could land on it and, with a bit of heft on his part, use it as a springboard to get on top of the containers. She maybe went a little higher than she had intended but still landed in a roll on top of a container before getting back up into a run.

'With all this chaos the cops should be here soon,' Velvet wondered as she hopped from stack to stack, the distant roars of the Grimm guiding her path. 'Let's hope we can get this wrapped up before then.' One last jump to a stack and Velvet found herself overlooking the fight between STRQ and the Grimm, the latter swiftly alternating between using its tentacles to block shots from Qrow and fighting with Summer while Raven and Taiyang more or less did their best to keep it boxed in where it was. 'Yikes that thing is fast,' Velvet though backing up a few paces and hopping a little to ready herself, 'Well, here goes!'

Velvet charged and jumped off the stack, her eyes focused on the Grimm that had just pushed Summer back with sparks flying off her sword, and aimed a kick at its head. She landed it perfectly, its head jerking to the side when her boot connected with its cheek, and started spinning to land a follow up kick when one of the Grimm's tentacles shot up and wrapped around her leg. Velvet yelped and put up her Aura in time to block most of the damage when the Grimm swung her into a container before whipping her back the other way and throwing her at Taiyang, who barely had time to call out her name before she crashed into him and knocked him backwards.

"More rats!" Hierophant muttered before flinching at a strike from Summer. It turned and shot a tentacle at Summer, who deflected it with her sword before trying to counter with an overhead strike that was blocked by both of Hierophant's tentacles. Sparks flew between metal and Grimm scale as Hierophant slowly moved closer to Summer. "Answer me," it demanded angrily, "What did you call me?"

"Dead meat!" Summer replied putting as much of her strength and Aura into her arms so they wouldn't buckle under the General's strength. She couldn't have been more relieved when Raven jumped on Hierophant's back and stabbed her sword in the back of its neck with a yell. Hierophant stumbled a little until it narrowed its eyes at Summer and slackened its tentacles to throw Summer off balance before moving the sword to the side and spinning around once to land a kick to Summer's stomach.

The white cloaked Huntress went flying back, her Aura shining and barely missing Qrow, and tried to grab Raven only for her to brace a foot against the Grimm's head and yank the sword out of its neck, tearing it open in a spray of black blood. Raven jumped off it in a spin and swung her sword to deflect the two tentacles that shot toward her, the second one shattering the blade, and landed with the sword's handle already sheathed and replaced with a new blade. She glanced back at Qrow reloading his weapon and then back at Hierophant who turned to her with rage in every pore of its body and growled as the wound in its neck started closing up.

"Fucking annoying!" Raven growled and drew her sword, the blade blue with Ice dust, and held it in front of her as Hierophant walked to her and started to swing its tentacles at Raven. Raven parried the tentacles as they flew at her, her sharp eyes keeping an eye on where her sword hit them and how they reacted, until she found an opening and deflected a tentacle away from her and brought it down on it hard enough to break the blade and encase the tentacle in ice. Raven then sheathed her sword handle and drew an Electric Dust blade just as Hierophant stabbed at her with its unfrozen tentacle.

Raven deflected the tentacle down with her blade and stomped down on it, following up by spinning he sword and stabbing down into the tentacle. With a shout she dragged the blade up the arm, electricity crackling out of the wound, and finished with a jump as she ripped her sword out of it. The fabric of the kimono's arm tore under the blade and Raven caught a quick glimpse of the General glaring at her while she slashed at its chest and shoulders before kicking it and flipping back away from it. Raven landed and quickly brought her sword up to block a tentacle that Hierophant swung as she spun around, hitting the blade and breaking it before sending Raven flying backwards into Summer. Both girls rolled to their feet in time to see Hierophant break the ice covering the one tentacle and start advancing to them just as Taiyang jumped and pushed off a container behind it to deliver a kick to its head.

"Goddammit, this isn't working!" Qrow said slashing his weapon down angrily.

"You noticed too huh?" Raven asked looking down at her broken blade and forced it out of the handle before sheathing it again, "It's just like with Strength all those years ago."

"What do you mean?" Summer asked reloading Soleil now that she had the chance.

"When we fought her, we could hardly make a dent in the bitch," Raven said drawing a green blade, "It wasn't just that she was tough, but her wounds healed faster than we could make them." Raven gestured at the fight in front of them as Velvet and Taiyang danced around the General's tentacles. Velvet's back glowed briefly as she formed a Hard Light replica of Sun's staff and pushed on it with a few well-placed strikes to its legs and torso before having to dodge away from it as Hierophant kicked at her, the blade on her sandal passing inches away from Velvet as she flipped away. She landed on her feet and separated the staff into nun-chucks, using them to bat away a tentacle that shot at her and jumping on top of it in that instant.

Velvet started unloading Hard Light buck shot into the arm like Sun had done earlier and glanced up to see the second tentacle swing at her only to get grabbed by Taiyang. Hierophant struggled to pull its tentacles away from the Huntsman, with Velvet's weight and Taiyang's Semblance enhanced arms holding them in place, and growled when Taiyang smirked at it.

"Gotcha!" he shouted and charged at Hierophant, much to its surprise, and adjusted his grip so he was holding the base of the tentacle's tip and stabbed at its stomach with the tip with a shout. With his Semblance enhancing his strength, it pushed through Hierophant's stomach easily enough and out through its back, black blood shooting out both wounds and from under its mask. Taiyang then circled around the Grimm while it was reeling to its back and grabbed the tip again before pulling hard on it with a yell until it gave and pulled the tentacle about halfway through its stomach before he let go.

"Alright, I think we got it!" Taiyang cheered only for Velvet to be launched screaming onto a nearby stack and the tentacle that pierced through Hierophant started wiggling and receded through the hole as easily as it had went in. Hierophant turned to Taiyang with the wound already closing, black blood being replaced by white skin through the fabric of the kimono. "Oh crap, we don't got it!" Taiyang shouted again and took a fighting stance just as Qrow rushed past him with Harbinger raised and slashed at Hierophant's face.

"Case in point. It just heals too fast," Raven said, her voice filled with irritation.

"We're just wearing ourselves out if that's the case," Summer agreed drawing York, "I don't think even CFVY's firepower will be able to overpower it. The hell are we going to do?"

Raven didn't get a chance to answer the question once they saw Hierophant jumped over Taiyang and Qrow and charged at her and Summer. The two backpedaled while swinging their swords to counter the Grimm's tentacles as it swung at them until they had to dodge backwards to avoid a kick so it could focus on Taiyang and Qrow behind it. It stabbed a tentacle at Taiyang, who dodged to his left to avoid it, and followed up by sweeping it low to the ground. Taiyang got swept off his feet while Qrow got his legs wrapped up in the tentacle and was swung screaming at Raven and Summer.

Summer Blinked backwards to dodge Qrow, losing her footing and tripping backwards when she got out of it, while Raven simply ducked her brother. Qrow, thinking fast, unfolded Harbinger into a hook shape and stabbed the blade into a container as he swung near it, stopping the swing dead in its tracks even if he yelled from the pain of having his legs yanked. Raven stabbed the tentacle wrapped around Qrow's legs, which let him go, and pulled a trigger on her sword to detach the blade and dodge away from Hierophant as it swiped a tentacle at her. Qrow yanked his weapon out of the container, Taiyang jumped to his feet, and Raven replaced her sword with an Earth Dust blade while Hierophant smashed the Plant blade into the ground where it shattered and growled as the three Huntsman readied for another charge.

Summer got up to her feet and was about to rejoin her teammates when she felt someone grab her cloak from behind and pull her behind a container. Summer reacted by switching her grip on her sword into a reverse hold, slamming her would be attacker back into a container, and spinning around to put the sword's edge to their throat and Soleil's barrel right between their eyes. Then she realized who it was and was suitably confused. "Penny?"

"Salutations Summer!" Penny said happily waving her left hand at Summer as if she wasn't threatening her life. "What a coincidence meeting you here." Summer blinked at the girl and took a step away from her lowering both of her weapons away from her.

"Penny, what are you doing here?" Summer asked.

"I saw the explosions and came to help. Is that why you're here too?"

"What? No, not exactly. Look Penny, you need-"

"I'm really disappointed in you Summer," Penny said, her expression changing to show that. It was odd seeing it without the usual cheer or curiosity.

"H-huh?"

"Elbow Grease doesn't exist! You made that up so I wouldn't come along on your secret mission. If you didn't want me to come along you should have just said so!"

"Penny, I didn't-"

"You're lucky I did manage to find that Headlight Fluid that Raven was looking for. I got you two!" Penny added and held up a plastic shopping bag for Summer to see.

"…Excuse me?"

"See?" Penny asked reaching into the bag and pulling out a small plastic bottle and holding it out to Summer. Summer sheathed York and took the bottle to read the label aloud.

"'Gavvy McFree's Headlight Fluid. For when you need that extra bit of shine. For ages 18 and up, do not use on motorcycles.' This shit's real!? And why is it grape flavored?"

"I don't know, and that nice old Shopkeep that I bought it from didn't feel like explaining. He did explain the whole 'Elbow Grease' thing though. He has quite the way with words." Summer and Penny stared at each other for a moment until a crash from the next lane brought Summer back.

"Oh whatever!" Summer said and put the Headlight Fluid away in her pouch and pointed at Penny. "Look Penny, you need to leave now! This area's dangerous and my team is barely keeping a lid on everything!"

"Why?" Penny asked as gunfire erupted from the next lane and she shimmied over to look down the lane. There she saw Raven and Velvet dancing around Hierophant's tentacles while Qrow stopped firing at it so Taiyang could jump onto its back and try to choke it out. Penny's eyes widened when she saw the Grimm and dropped the plastic bag on the ground.

"It doesn't matter Penny! Just do what I say and get out of here!" Summer barked at Penny, only now noticing just how focused she was. "Penny?"

"Primary target identified," Penny said in the flattest tone Summer had heard from the girl.

"What?"

"Initiating Combat Mode." At that Penny's backpack, which Summer hadn't noticed before due to how well it blended into her dress, opened up and released a multitude of black and green swords that unfolded and hung in the air behind her.

"Penny, what is-?" Summer started to ask only to stop when Penny looked back at her with a comforting smile.

"Don't worry Summer," she said and gave Summer a salute, "I'm combat ready!" Penny then rounded the corner and dashed away, Summer following in time to see Penny run at Hierophant as it was holding up Taiyang with a tentacle around his neck with Raven and Qrow just getting back up to their feet.

"This was fun while it lasted, but I'm growing tired of this game," Hierophant said as it started choking Taiyang more, the blonde making gagging noises as he tried to pry the tentacle off of him. Hierophant leaned its face closer to Taiyang when one of Penny's swords impaled its neck, eliciting a sound of surprise form the Grimm and loosening the tentacle enough for Taiyang to breath and kick away from the Grimm, adding a bit of his Semblance to it for good measure. Hierophant slammed into a container denting the metal, while Taiyang was caught by Raven and Qrow and started coughing once he was settled. Hierophant turned to look at the new combatant and got impaled by five more swords for its trouble.

Penny darted past Hierophant and spun her body before making a motion with her hands, the swords reacting and moved to the motions dragging Hierophant along with them and slammed it into another container. Penny pulled towards her, her swords pulling out of Hierophant and leaving it to stumble forward in a daze, before she spun again and delivered a kick to the Grimm's chin that sent it skyward. With another motion Penny's swords formed a circle and started spinning like a buzz saw as they got sent up and started digging into Hierophant's chest. It stayed in the air for a moment, giving small grunts as the blades dug into it, before it started to fall and the swords retreated back to Penny. The redhead caught the Grimm by the neck before it hit the ground and reared a fist back and landing a solid punch to its face, sending it flying down an opening in the containers. Hierophant however landed on its feet, digging a trough in the pavement along the way, and shot a tentacle at Penny that wrapped around her midsection and dragged her along with her swords with a yelp of surprise.

In the brief lull, STRQ and Velvet could only stare at the opening they disappeared in before Raven shouted, "The fuck was that!?"

"An opening!" Summer shouted drawing York and running past them, "Catch your breath and follow when you can!" Summer then turned the corner to chase Penny and Hierophant, leaving her teammates and Velvet to sigh in frustration before Raven ran after her. She didn't have far to go to catch up with Summer, who had stopped at the corner of a container to watch Penny trading blows with Hierophant while occasionally sending a sword out to knock out a soldier in a White Fang squad that wandered onto the fight.

"Well she's a little ass kicker isn't she?" Raven asked tapping Summer on the shoulder, "And you didn't want her to come along."

"Shut it Raven," Summer said ejecting the magazine in Soleil to check the bullets, "how are you on blades?"

"I got plenty, don't worry." They looked back when they heard footsteps and saw Velvet run up to them with her camera in her hands.

"Forget what I had planned, I want that!" She practically squeed as she took pictures of Penny.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself," Raven said shaking her head at the Faunus.

"You only have one charge left right?" Summer asked.

"Yeah, but I think I can make this work. Oh that's a good one!" Velvet smiled widely as she fiddled with her camera before putting it away. "So what's the plan for this?"

"I've been trying to figure that out," Summer answered and looked at Penny's fight. "I think I got something, but I'm still missing a few-" Summer stopped when Hierophant managed to find an opening in the blades and landed a hit on Penny's arm, the fabric of her dress flying through the air as she flinched back and brought her swords back up in a defensive shield as the tentacle retreated.

"Penny!" Summer shouted in worry and charged out toward Hierophant, spinning Soleil back into a dagger as it looked at her. It wasn't able to get its guard up fast enough to block Summer as she Blinked toward it and stabbed York into its throat. It's tentacles waved wildly as Summer pulled Soleil out and stabbed into its eye over and over until it managed to get ahold of Summer and throw her off. As Summer flew Raven zoomed past to stab Hierophant in the stomach and pull it out wide to spit open its stomach, causing black blood to spray out just as Velvet landed a flying double kick that sent it flying into a nearby crane, its head smacking into the frame before crashing to the ground.

Summer, having landed roughly but still managed to roll to her feet, ran to Penny as she held the wound on her arm. "Penny, are you hurt!?" she yelled full of worry and tried to see Penny's arm, but she pulled away from Summer and hid it further.

"It's just a scratch," Penny said as Qrow and Taiyang joined them, the both of them taking fighting positions.

"Dammit, it's getting back up again!" Qrow growled and pointed Harbinger at the Hierophant that was just getting back to its feet. Summer joined him in firing at the Grimm, its tentacles waving to block the bullets as it started walking to them.

"It's damage resilience is much higher than anticipated," Penny said as her swords flicked around behind her.

"Yeah no shit!" Raven said in annoyance and turned to Summer, "we can't keep this up Sum."

"Agreed," Summer said shaking her head as she reloaded, "If we can't do that, then our best bet is to hit it with an attack big enough that it can't heal from it. All these containers are filled with Dust, so if we bring one down on it and blow it up it might do enough damage."

"What do you mean might!?"

"And isn't saving the Dust the whole point of us being here?" Taiyang asked.

"You got a better fucking idea, I'd like to hear it!" Summer shouted as she finished reloading and started firing again.

"I can do that," Penny stated.

"What?" Summer asked glancing at Penny as the gunfire stopped for a moment while Qrow reloaded. Thankfully Hierophant also stopped for a moment, apparently to get its bearings back.

"If you give me time and space to minimalize collateral damage, I can hit it with an attack strong enough to kill it," Penny explained further looking at Hierophant.

"How do you-?" Raven started to ask only to shake her head, "Fuck it, I don't care! If you can do it, then you can do it."

"What exactly do you need to do that?" Summer asked.

"About 45 seconds to a minute to charge and a wide open space in a straight line to not hit anything important," Penny answered.

"The main area of the dock is open," Velvet added pointing in that direction, "and if she puts her back to the warehouse I was on you should have nothing but clear skies. What exactly are you going to do?"

"Classified."

"Whatever, let's give it a shot," Summer said and pointed at Velvet, "Vel, take Penny where she needs to go. We'll work on kiting it over there and keeping it distracted. Whatever happens, that cannot find out what we're doing! Go!" Velvet and Penny nodded and started running away from the group while Taiyang, Qrow, and Raven moved to engage Hierophant, with Raven darting in fast enough to land a hit on it before pulling back and getting it to follow her.

Summer, for her part, thought for a second longer before nodding to herself. "All hands on deck I guess."


"I really don't like this guy," Coco muttered to herself as she turned another corner of a container stack, her minigun at the ready, and found Fox doing what she had been doing as well. He straightened up when he sensed Coco and she relaxed as well and asked, "Any luck finding him?"

"No, I don't have a good pin on him. His Aura is too broad for me to track," Fox answered telepathically and Coco scowled just as Sun hopped down next to them and slung his staff over his shoulders.

"No luck either huh?" he asked shaking his head, "how can someone dressed like that just vanish into thin air?"

"Who knows? Let's meet back up with Yatsuhashi and-"

"Everybody, change of plans!" Summer said through the comms suddenly, "Regroup at the middle of the docks! We have a plan to take down this Grimm, but we need to keep it pinned there!"

"What about Torchwick?" Coco asked already having an idea of what the answer would be.

"Forget him! We'll get him another time, but this Grimm is a priority now!"

"…Got it, we're on our way. You get that Yatsuhashi?"

"Already on my way," Yatsuhashi answered. Coco folded up her gun and nodded at Fox and Sun as all three of them started running and jumped onto a container stack to regroup, none of them noticing Roman poking his head around a corner and breathing a sigh of relief.

"Way too close. At least that monster is good for something," Roman muttered and looked at a nearby Dust container and up at one of the Bullheads that have been keeping overwatch from the air, "and depending on how this goes, I may have to bail. I won't go empty handed though."

Coco, Sun, and Fox hopped along on stacks, with Yatsuhashi running along with them on the other side of the yard, until they both came to a stop when they came up to the yard and saw Raven and Qrow dodging and deflecting the Grimm's attacks while Taiyang stayed behind it to push it away from the lane he was guarding. Coco's group came to a stop with Sun sinking into a crouch when Summer Blinked up to them, white petals dissipating as she stumbled towards them.

"Is this thing giving you that much trouble?" Coco asked pointing down at the Grimm.

"It can heal wounds," Summer explained quickly.

"Seriously!?" Fox exclaimed in irritation.

"We already have an idea to deal with that. Velvet is helping Penny set up for that, we just need to keep it there and distracted enough so it doesn't realize what we're doing."

"Penny? What is she doing here?" Coco asked.

"She just kind of wandered in here, but if she can help stop that thing then I won't say no. We just have to help her out."

"Easier said than done, right?" Coco asked sarcastically.

"Well, at the very least, it seems focused on people who attack it and it probably won't leave until it kills us all. So there's that."

"Fantastic. Ok then, I'll stand guard here. Sun, you go and hold down the next lane over."

"Done," Sun nodded and took off.

"Fox, you and Yatsuhashi help STRQ as much as you can." Fox nodded and followed Summer down into the yard while Yatsuhashi got into position on his stack. Coco unfolded her weapon, more than likely running low on ammo by now, and pressed down on her earpiece to ask, "Velvet, are you and Penny in position yet?"

Near the warehouse that Velvet had originally been on top of, she and Penny had just come to a stop. Penny made a hand motion that caused four swords to shoot into the ground and the wall of the warehouse behind her. She then lowered her posture and held her hands in front of her while the rest of her swords moved into a circle in front of her, folding their shapes to look more like miniature rifles, and started spinning. Velvet watched all this go down before she answered Coco.

"Yes, we're here Coco. I have no idea what she's doing but… it's starting to glow," Velvet said as a green light started growing in the middle of the circling swords.

"Charging initiated. 5%," Penny said focusing intently on the Grimm.

"It may be a while."

"Just guard her! We'll keep the attention off you!" Summer said through the comms. Velvet looked out in time to see her and Fox charging at the Grimm just as Raven got knocked away. Summer jumped over her partner and Blinked at Hierophant, slashing York along its face, chipping off a piece of its mask, and flipping once to land and see it facing her, part of its teeth gritting in irritation as the wound closed. That distraction was enough for Fox to dash in and slash at Hierophant's stomach with his blades.

Hierophant looked at Fox and swung a tentacle at him only for him to duck under it and kick at the back of its knee, causing it to crumple down so Fox could dodge to its front and fire three shots into its chest. Hierophant recovered and moved to support itself on a tentacle and kicked at Fox, who just barely managed to dodge back enough that the blade on its sandal missed his eyes by inches.

"She's at twenty percent!" Velvet called out. Fox landed from the dodge and, after waiting a moment for Hierophant to get back on its feet, shot forward again to land a double punch to its stomach with a gunshot form both of his weapons providing an additional push to drive it backwards, Summer barely managing to dodge out of the way. Hierophant dug its feet into the pavement leaving troughs until it came to a stop and stood up straight. Its cat ears twitched as it heard a small grunt and dodged to the left to dodge a slash from Yatsuhashi, jumping to avoid the shockwave from his attack. It then heard another gunshot and glanced behind itself in time to see Qrow flying at it with his weapon unfolded completely into a scythe form and caught it in the blade, firing again to send them into a spin and fling it into the dock yard.

"Forty Five!" Velvet called.

Hierophant flew through the air and lashed a tentacle at the ground to control its spin and land on its feet with an irritated growl as Qrow and Yatsuhashi charged at it. Yatsuhashi swung at it twice horizontally, which Hierophant dodged away from and ducked under, jumping and spinning its body horizontally to avoid a double slash from both Qrow and Yatsuhashi. While in the air it saw Fox charging behind them and shot a tentacle out at him, wrapping around his leg and yanking him off balance as it landed.

Fox shouted at suddenly being knocked off balance and spun around to dig his blades into the pavement as Hierophant swung its tentacle and dragged him along the ground. Qrow jumped over the tentacle as it swung around itself, with Fox sending a trail of sparks along the way, until it made a complete circle and pulled its tentacle in enough to slam Fox into Yatsuhashi and the two of them into Qrow. It let go of Fox's leg and watched the trio go flying and crashing into a pile further down the dock.

"Sixty!"

Hierophant started walking toward the pile of boys until its head was knocked askew from a bullet hitting its head, the deep gunshot echoing throughout the yard. It looked to its right to see Coco standing with her minigun revved.

"God you're ugly," She said out loud and hefted her gun up higher. Hierophant rolled its eyes before lowering its stance and raising its arms into a guard just as Coco started firing. She pushed as much of her Semblance into the hail of bullets as she could, very much intent on not letting go of the trigger until she ran out of rounds.

"Eighty!" Velvet called out while Raven and Summer watched Coco from the sidelines, both breathing heavily from the exertion and the drained Aura.

"I hope she finishes whatever she's doing soon," Raven said leaning against a container to catch her breath, "we can't keep this up for much longer, I hate to admit."

"It doesn't matter if she's done soon, she won't be able to do anything if everyone's in the way," Summer replied looking between Hierophant and two Bullheads hanging in the air. Summer looked down at her pistol and ejected the magazine and pulled back on the slide to eject the bullet. She stashed the magazine and pulled out a new one while muttering, "Let's go with Ice," as she slipped it into place.

"What are you planning on doing?" Raven asked as Summer pulled back the slide to load the gun before she clicked a switch on Soleil to transform it into a dagger.

"Buying you time to get everyone out of the way. Have Sun help you too," Summer said and started to dig into her pouch. "I'll only be slightly mad if this stupid idea works."

"Huh?"

Coco was so focused on the Grimm that it was almost a shock to her when she finally ran dry of ammunition. She felt the drain from her Semblance and sagged a little with a couple deep breaths as she watched the Grimm. It stood up straight and lowered its arms, any bullets that hit them falling to the ground while any wounds it bore on its body closed and healed. Coco met the Grimm's eye and groaned when it smiled a toothy smile through its broken mask.

"Oh bullshit!" Coco lamented when Hierophant lashed out at her, managing to lift her gun in time to block the tentacle. Her Aura shimmered weakly and she was sent flying down a lane between containers and landed in a tumble across the pavement where her Aura finally broke.

"Coco!" Yatsuhashi shouted reaching a hand out to his leader, though that drew the attention of the Grimm that started to walk toward them. The three boys tried to get back to their feet, unsteady as they were, and saw Summer Blink into the yard behind them, her cloak covering almost all of her body aside from her left arm. She aimed her pistol at Hierophant and fired, the bullet hitting true on the Grimm's shoulder and causing it to look at her.

"Pick on someone your own size bitch!" Summer shouted and fired again, the bullet grazing the Grimm's black hair. It growled and started advancing on her, uncaring of Raven, Sun, and Taiyang jumping in to help the boys to their feet and away from the yard.

"95!" Velvet said as Summer started walking to the General, firing over and over again even though it was swatting the bullets with its tentacles, her eyes flitting briefly to see her group disappearing into a lane.

"Everyone's clear!" Taiyang called through the comms.

"98!" Summer finally clicked empty just as the General was on her and got her gun hit out of her hands and got a tentacle wrapped around her neck. She was lifted off the ground, her free hand trying to pry the tentacle off, and felt it squeeze enough to break her Aura. "Oh no, Summer!"

"Shit!" Raven said looking back and prepared to dash out if she was needed, though she was stopped by Sun putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned to glare at him only for him to shake his head, put away his staff, and put his hands together in some kind of sign. Raven barely quirked an eyebrow when he started glowing yellow.

"And so it ends," Hierophant said bringing Summer closer to her while the other tentacle reached up and took off its mask, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth that split her cheeks when she smiled. "I hope you enjoyed the dance Huntress. You'll make a fine meal for me."

"Quest…ion…" Summer managed to gag out while trying to suck in air.

"No, you don't get to choose how you die," Hierophant preemptively answered but loosened her grip on Summer's neck regardless.

"Wrong," Summer said gripping the tentacle harder and glaring right into the General's eyes. "Do you like grapes BITCH!?"

"Wha-?" Hierophant started to say just as Summer swung her cloak out to reveal a plastic bottle with the top cut off in her right hand that she swung at Hierophant, the liquid inside flying out and landing in its eyes. It dropped its mask, shut its eyes, and screamed in rage at the burning in its eyes that it let go of Summer, who grabbed the Grimm's ragged kimono and pulled herself closer to Hierophant and flipped the bottle around in her hand in order to continue dumping the contents onto its eyes. After a couple of seconds a tentacle wiggled between Summer and Hierophant and launched Summer away, who dropped the bottle in surprise as she flew.

That was when she felt someone grab her leg and start spinning her around. When she looked down she saw a golden image of Sun that let go of her leg and threw her pistol after her before vanishing into gold dust. Summer backflipped and felt her feet hit something, grabbing her gun out of the air as she was moved away by another Sun clone that disappeared after kicking her away. She watched Hierophant writhe and wipe away at its eyes for the seconds she was in the air before she was grabbed out of the air, again seeing the golden arms of Sun wrapped around he shoulders, and hit the ground. She skid past Penny and Velvet and hit the wall of the warehouse with the Sun clone taking the brunt of the impact and vanishing, finally letting Summer settle.

"Charging complete!" Penny shouted, the orb of green light completely filling the circle of swords, "Target locked!"

"FIRE!" Summer shouted pointing at Hierophant.

"Firing main cannon!" Penny shouted and clasped her hands into fists and pulled them back. This was when Hierophant managed to clear its eyes and open it in time to finally see the green light. It blinked and then sagged its body.

"Oh, son of a bi-" was all it could get out before Penny fired a massive green beam of light that flew toward it and engulfed the top half of its body completely. The blowback from the beam knocked Velvet back and forced Summer to cover her eyes from how bright the beam was. Penny held the beam for a second before extending her index fingers and spreading her arms up and to the sides, which caused the beam to separate into two smaller beams that aimed for the hovering Bullheads and sliced through them. The beams dissipated while the bullheads split open like eggs, depositing any White Fang that had been in them screaming down onto the dock, and slowly veered to crash in the ocean with a large splash and explosion.

Penny's swords stopped spinning and moved back behind her while Velvet and Summer started recovering while they, along with everyone else from their own places of cover, looked out to see what happened to the Creature of Grimm.

It took a few steps forward. Thankfully that was all it could do before its legs fell to the ground due to the entire top half of its body having been completely obliterated by Penny's attack. Everyone watched for a few agonizing seconds until the legs started vanishing into black smoke.

"Target eliminated," Penny said nodding and turning her head slightly to see Roman Torchwick on the far end of the pier. She clenched her fists a little more and started running to Roman.

"Wait, Penny!" Summer shouted and got to her feet to chase after Penny.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Roman muttered and started running to a Bullhead that landed near him. He jumped inside, cane in one hand and a case full of Dust in the other, and looked back at Penny and Summer before shaking his head. "Damn kids," he said and closed the door with his cane just as the ship took off and flew away from the docks, a second one trailing behind it with ultimately only the one case to show for all the effort.

Penny stopped at the edge of the pier to watch the airships, only looking back when Summer caught up out of breath and holding her knees. "They got away," she said almost sadly.

Summer shook her head and straightened up to say, "It's alright. We did what we could. People like him always show up again, we'll get him next time." Penny nodded in agreement and turned to fully face Summer while the swords folded up and stored themselves back in her backpack.

"Well, that was fun!" Penny said, her voice full of her previous cheer as she smiled at Summer.

"Sure Penny. Let me see your arm, I saw you get hurt," Summer replied and started walking to Penny, who suddenly backed away from Summer holding the wound on her arm.

"NO!" she shouted, her voice full of panic, "I told you it's just a scratch!"

"That's what they always say Penny, and then they get something far worse than a 'scratch'. Now let me see it."

"No, I'm not hurt!" Penny shouted and hiccupped. "It's not worth worrying about! *Hicc* I want to be alone! *Hicc*"

"Penny!" Summer shouted causing Penny to stop and stare as Summer lowered her hood and slowly moved closer. "I want to help. Let me see your arm." Summer didn't move any closer until Penny slowly nodded and let Summer grab her arm and move her hand away. "Thanks Penny. Wounds like this need to be treated or else they'll get infected and… and…" Summer stuttered and stopped as she stared wide eyed at the wound on Penny's arm.

Namely, the lack of blood and the bright silver of metal under the presumable artificial skin. Summer ran a thumb over the metal, brushing along some pieces of torn fabric along the way, and felt Penny shiver. She then looked into Penny's face, finally seeing just how terrified the girl looked.

"Summer…" She said, just as terrified as her face, and Summer stared for a moment before nodding and rolling her eyes. "I-"

"See what I mean? You're lucky it's not bleeding or worse," Summer said and let go of Penny's arm so she could draw Soleil and transform it into a dagger.

"H-huh? But I-"

"Shut it," Summer interrupted as she pulled up her cloak until she could cut a bit of the bottom hem with Soleil and tore a strip of fabric off that was long and wide enough to serve as makeshift bandage. Summer sheathed her dagger and grabbed Penny's arm again so she could pull her close enough to wrap the fabric around Penny's wound. She didn't stop until she couldn't see even a speck of metal and tied it off and pat it gently.

"There, good as new," Summer said as Penny stared at the white fabric and moved her arm gently. Penny looked back at Summer when she tapped her arm and added, "Maybe you should get a… well, someone qualified to look at that. Ok?"

"Y-yes, I know someone for this," Penny answered nodding quickly and looked down at her feet. "Um, Summer…" Penny started to say only to stop when Summer to throw herself at Penny and pulled her into a hug. "Huh?"

"Your secrets are your own Penny, and you don't have to share if you don't want to," Summer whispered in Penny's ear and hugged her tighter, "I'm just glad you were here Penny. You really saved us all."

The surprise on Penny's face was slowly replaced by sheer joy that Summer, her friend, said that and returned the hug while making sure she didn't crush Summer again. "You're welcome! I'd do anything to help you Summer. We're friends, right?" Summer gently pushed Penny away so she could face her and put a hand on her cheek.

"Absolutely," Summer answered with a smile, which got a large smile from Penny as she started bouncing happily.

"So…" a voice called out and both girls turned to Sun, just kind of awkwardly standing there, "I don't really mean to interrupt your touching moment, but the cops are here and want all of us in one place. They're also rounding up the White Fang, so our job there is more or less done. Also, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" Sun's shout along with his expression as he pointed at Penny was too much and both Summer and Penny were sent into hysterics, holding each other as they laughed while Sun stared for a moment before rolling his eyes.


"You can't be fucking serious," Raven said dumbfounded as she held the bottle of Headlight Fluid that Penny had just given her. She and the other student Huntsmen were huddled in a small group near the entrance to the docks while patrolman ran back and forth securing the area, the Dust, and moving the White Fang soldiers they had arrested onto transport trucks. More than a couple were gawking at the craters and troughs brought about from the fight. That was all work for the police now though, so the students focused on resting and finishing their late dinners for the ones who didn't get the chance to.

"I had the same reaction Rae. It's twin valiantly gave its life for the cause," Summer said, a tiny bit of false melancholy leaking into her voice, and took a bite of her sandwich. Summer, along with most of the rest of the group, laughed at the look Raven gave her before she set the bottle to the side and sank her face into her hands. Taiyang was at least gracious enough to pat Raven on the back reassuringly.

"That actually reminds me," Summer said after swallowing and looked at Team CFVY, Sun, and Penny. "We shouldn't talk about our… extra guest to anyone unless specifically asked about it."

"Don't want to cause needless panic, right?" Coco asked, getting a nod from Summer in answer. "Yeah, I can agree with that, right guys?" Coco asked as she looked at her team.

"It would be pointless, considering it's taken care of," Yatsuhashi answered from where he sat cross legged, "I'll keep quiet."

"I'm just happy to help," Sun said giving a thumbs up before stretching his arms and tail out.

Everyone else simply nodded, Penny a little more energetically then the others.

"Thanks," Summer nodded and smiled at them, "and you all did great tonight, no jokes or exaggerations."

"I could have gone without the sucker punch though," Coco said massaging one of her shoulders. "I think it tore my sweater too."

"You're still better off than the other guys," Fox said with a small chuckle.

"And you totally missed Penny's final attack!" Velvet cried hopping to her feet and gestured at Penny with her hands. "It was incredible! Like some climactic anime attack or something!"

"Aw, it was nothing," Penny answered while bashfully grinding her boot into the pavement, which got a laugh from Coco.

"Oh my god, you're adorable!" Coco said slapping a hand down on Penny's shoulder, "I've decided it, you've earned a permanent spot in my 'good people' list. Agreed?" Coco looked back at her team and got a chorus of agreements from them and Sun, which only made Penny more bashful.

"I got to send a quick text," Qrow said suddenly and stood up while taking out his scroll and hooking his free thumb in a pocket, "I'll be right back Sum."

"Sure thing Qrow," Summer answered with a nod as Qrow walked away from the group.

"Who's he texting?" Fox asked.

"Take a wild guess," Summer said gesturing in the general direction of Beacon.

"Ugh, debriefing," Raven said through her hands, "I totally forgot about that."

"What, are you more scared of talking to Professor Goodwitch than what we did tonight?" Velvet joked with a smile at Raven.

"Shut it."

While the group laughed and continued their small talk, Penny simply stood to the side listening and smiling until she noticed a black car pull up silently on the other side of the street. Penny recognized the car and very slowly started backing away from the group, her eyes landing on Summer specifically since she had also seen the car and looked over at Penny. The girls shared a look for a second until Summer nodded toward the car. Penny returned it and pulled away from the group and started running to the car as quietly as she could, taking a moment to wave at Summer before she opened the back door and sat inside. She shut the door and stared out the window at the group as the car started pulling away.

"You've had quite the night, haven't you Penny?" the driver asked in an almost small talk fashion as they drove. "You should know better than to cause trouble like that."

"Yes sir," Penny answered monotonously as they rounded a corner so the docks disappeared from view. Penny turned in her seat to the driver, her hand absentmindedly running over the bit of Summer's cloak still tied to her arm, and added, "I have a report to make sir."

"Let's worry about that later," the driver answered, his eyes flitting to the rearview mirror to look at Penny, "for now, let's just get you some rest. Your time will come soon enough."

Penny nodded silently and gripped her arm again, already trying to figure out what to say.


Far from the events in the city, Ozpin was winding down form another busy day as Headmaster. The paperwork of the day had been taken care of and he even had gotten a head start on some for tomorrow, which he figured was a good sign to call it a night. Which, naturally, was when the Vale Police Department alerted him to an incident involving some of his students. Ozpin was used to this kind of thing happening in his time as Headmaster though, so he simply started brewing another pot of coffee and took out his scroll to watch the news.

Just in time too since the news was showing a reporter interviewing two of the students that had been involved: Summer Rose (which didn't surprise Ozpin) and Coco Adel (which did, to some extent. He couldn't wait to hear that story.)

"So what led you and your teams to the docks tonight?" the reporter asked as a title appeared at the bottom saying 'Dust robbery halted by local Huntsman and Huntresses.'

"We just happened to be nearby when it happened. We did what any Huntress would do," Summer answered.

"Not that it wasn't hard to notice something was wrong, with the airships and all," Coco added crossing her arms, "they weren't trying to be subtle about it."

"Yeah, that was weird."

Ozpin's scroll beeped as a new message appeared, so Ozpin closed the news and pulled up the message and saw it was from Qrow.

'Trouble at the docks tonight. Hierophant's KIA (?). Queen has pawns.'

Ozpin reread the message couple of times so it could sink in. 'The Hierophant was here? And STRQ thinks they killed it? That doesn't make sense, why would it be here for a Dust robbery?' Ozpin lowered the scroll and looked out his office window at Shattered Moon hanging in the sky. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind as he stared at it, though one in particular stood out.

"What are you up to Salem?"


"Born an angel, heaven sent, falls from Grace are never elegant~!"

Far away from the civilization of the Kingdoms, General Weiss was performing her first actual song in years in the concert hall of Salem's castle. Her audience consisting only of Salem who was calmly listening with her eyes closed and her hands folded in her lap, Ruby leaning forward excitedly and drinking in every bit of Weiss' song, and Yang eating out of a large tub of popcorn while listening. Weiss would have been disgusted by her sister's manners in front of Salem, but she herself didn't seem to mind.

"Stars will drop out of the sky, the Moon will sadly watch the roses die, in Vain~!"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Weiss' thoughts went to her only absent sister General, though she was sure Blake was being her usual workaholic self somewhere in the world. If she was even halfway focused on the Dust shipment Weiss had told her about it should all be well in hand. Weiss focused back on her song and put her all in the words.

"Lost, no gain, but you're not taking me~!" Weiss lost herself in the song and couldn't help the occasional spin in her step as she moved her hands to focus. "You… can't have… my life! I'm not your Sacrifice! You can try, but I'm free! And you won't conquer me! I won't crawl, most of all, I won't fall… for… you~!"

Weiss took as quiet a breath as she could while her audience applauded, Salem politely and quietly while her sisters were louder in their approval with Ruby standing up. Weiss couldn't help the smile as she curtsied and waited for the clapping to end.

"I must congratulate you again on building this hall Generals," Salem said once Ruby had sat back down. "A bit of relaxation now and then never hurt anyone I suppose."

"We're honored again by your praise Queen," Ruby said putting her right hand on her chest in as close as she can get to a salute before looking at Weiss. "Do you have enough time for another song Weiss?"

"I could sing all day, but we should limit it to just the one," Weiss answered running a finger over her chin guard, "any requests Queen?" Salem shook her head no, so naturally that meant one thing.

"Sing 'One Week' Weiss!" Yang yelled out through a mouthful of popcorn before shoving even more of it in. This time Weiss very much shared her disapproval of her sister's horrible manners by glaring harshly at her for a few seconds before looking at Salem and Ruby, who were now simply watching Weiss waiting for her to begin. If Weiss didn't know any better, she would have been certain Salem had a ghost of an amused smile at her plight.

Nevertheless, Weiss was trapped and had no way out of this except to sing. So she took a breath, more an annoyed huff than anything, and started. "It's been-"

The doors suddenly crashed open, bringing Weiss' momentum to a halt and drawing everyone's attention to the doors. There they saw Blake slowly walk in, her tentacle arms dragging behind her and her kimono worn a little more roughshod than usual, and walked a fair ways into the hall until she could see Salem and her fellow Generals and stopped.

"Ow," was all she said before falling face first to the floor.

"Blake!" Ruby shouted and shot out of her seat to Blake, Yang right behind her dropping her popcorn and Weiss hopping over to her with a glyph. They huddled around Blake and started helping her to her feet while Salem stood up to watch Yang and Ruby set her down on the chair Yang had been on. "Are you ok Blake?"

"I just fell face first onto the floor and I'm here. Do you think I'm ok?" Blake asked massaging her head with a tentacle.

"Well your attitude is certainly ok," Weiss said rolling her eyes, "I thought you were supposed to be in Vale tending to that Dust."

"I was, until we got ambushed by Huntsmen and I took a giant laser to the face. I even had to burn a Herald just to be there in person. That one's gone for good now."

"So your mission in Vale was a failure," Salem summed up, her usual cold tone barely hiding disappointment.

"I wouldn't say that Queen. The Dust may be lost and in its 'proper' place, but the trove of information I got should more than make up for it."

"Wait, hold on a minute," Ruby said holding a hand up, "You were ambushed by Huntsmen, and they actually beat you? How did that happen?"

"They caught me off guard and being there through a Herald made me more sluggish than I should have been, but my defeat isn't important." Blake stood up, a little more steady then she was before. "The Huntsmen were Academy teams, and your White Cloaked Huntress was there Ruby."

"She was?" Ruby asked surprised and crossed her arms. "Again?"

"Ha, Blake got wrecked by a Huntress that could only run from Ruby!" Yang said laughing and holding her face in her Grimm hand, "That's fantastic!"

"I think your twins were there as well Yang," Blake added and smiled under her mask as Yang stopped laughing and slowly lowered her hand to stare at Blake.

"What?"

"You know, those twin bandits you let live a few years ago. Remind me again what weapons they used."

"The girl, Raven, used a katana and her brother used a scythe," Yang answered crossing her arms.

"A scythe? You never mentioned that before Yang," Ruby chided and Yang simply shrugged in response.

"I always figured they died that night, but I suppose not. What a weird quirk of fate, huh?"

"Quirk indeed," Blake said and pointed at Ruby, "because if I'm not mistaken, your Huntress called me 'Hierophant'." That caused the remaining Generals to look at each other wide eyed.

"But… that's Ozpin's codename for you, isn't it?" Weiss asked.

"It is, and I'm also sure that Yang's girl said 'Strength' as well in reference to her. You made quite the impression Yang."

"Interesting," Salem said mostly to herself.

"But… doesn't that mean…?" Yang started.

"The White Cloaked Huntress and her team work for Ozpin," Ruby finished and squeezed her left arm roughly, "and he trusts them enough to tell them about us."

"That's not good," Weiss said crossing her arms as well, "if Ozpin finds out we've been getting so close to Beacon, he will act. We have to assume he already knows about Ruby from the beginning of the school year."

"Undoubtedly he does," Ruby agreed, "and after this, he won't take chances. He may lock down Beacon entirely, and then-"

"Enough," Salem spoke up, cutting any discussion between the generals. She moved closer to them and tucked a hand under Ruby's chin as she continued, "I've already told you Ruby, there is no Huntress or team that could stop us, no matter how skilled they are."

"But if they're on the lookout for anyone working for us, they'll-"

"Ozpin will not lock Beacon down, not with the Vytal Festival looming. The Vale Council will never let him. Cinder still has a way into the academy, no matter how vigilant Ozpin is." Salem let go of Ruby and moved closer to the stage in thought. "Still, this new variable may be a thorn we may need to account for."

"You have a plan Queen?" Weiss asked.

"I've played this game with Ozpin for longer than you've known him. When your opponent sends units against you, you send your own to deal with it. And given the importance of this step…" Salem turned to her Generals, looking them all over, and finished, "I want the four of you to go to Vale."

The General's eyes widened and they looked at each other with Yang being the first to speak with, "A-all of us?"

"Did I stutter?"

"N-no, of course not!" Yang hastily added and looked away from Salem, "it's just… isn't that a little overkill?"

"No. You all will assist Cinder as necessary and adjust the plan as you see fit. But do not fail me."

"We won't Queen," Ruby answered, her face set in determination, "it'll take some planning to make it work, but we will make it work."

"I'll leave the particulars to you. Don't disappoint me." The Generals saluted Salem as she left, their eyes following her until she left and the dropped the salute.

"This is new," Yang said planting a hand on her hip, "Queen hasn't had all of us in one place since the Great War. She must really want this to happen."

"Of course she does," Blake said shaking her head, " and White Fang operations have undoubtedly been outed in Vale, so it will be difficult for me to get close now. Even using a herald would be difficult."

"Not even mentioning that you and I can't use Glamour like Ruby and Yang," Weiss added and started rubbing her chin in thought. "How can we both be there?"

"Yup, sucks to be you," Yang said, not bothering to hide her smirk, "so I guess you'll have to think of some other way to get in. If only it was Halloween, then you could just walk right in."

"You're not helping Yang," Ruby said.

"I got it!" Weiss said suddenly with a snap of her fingers, "Our dolls!"

"Our… dolls?" Blake asked.

"Ruby and Yang could go there in person using their Glamour while we can be there by proxy using our dolls. With four people they can make an academy team and blend right in for the Vytal Festival."

"That could work," Ruby nodded in agreement.

"Easier said than done," Blake disagreed shaking her head, "Belladonna is stubborn and resists my influence every time I try to exert it. The amount of scars on her arms is innumerable from her attempts to stop it."

"You focus too much on force Blake," Weiss said moving closer to Blake and placed a hand on her cheek, "sometimes you need to be willing to use a carrot rather than a stick. My question to you is really simple: What do dolls want more than anything?"

"What?"

"I'll explain in full on the way to the Pools." Weiss pulled her hand away and turned to Ruby and Yang. "Our dolls will be in Vale, we'll make sure of that."

"We'll take good care of them," Ruby said and looked at Yang, "We should get going if we want to make good time."

"Fine with me," Yang nodded and crossed her arms behind her head, "Vale is supposed to be great this time of year."

"Then let's get to it." Weiss, Blake, and Yang nodded again and the four of them exited the concert hall. Weiss and Blake went off on their own while Ruby and Yang started going to the airship pads. It'd be too risky to use a flying Grimm to get to Vale after all.

"So Ruby, what do you want to look like while we're in Vale?" Yang asked turning slightly to Ruby. "I already got a couple of ideas."

"No need, I already know what I want to look like." Ruby looked at Yang and smiled widely. " A blast from the past, if you will."

"Oh…" Yang said once she got what Ruby meant and smiled to match, "Evil. I like it. I can't wait."


And with that, 'Volume 1' is done. I'll start updating this again when most of 'Volume 2' is written so updates will be steady, save for maybe the occasional intermission and one shot chapter in between now and then.

Before I leave on that, I just wanted to thank everyone for reading and reviewing. I read every review and take every one to heart, and it really does mean a lot that people have been enjoying this.

That's pretty much it for now, so I'll see you again when 'Volume 2' is ready to go.