Chapter 20: Mind Tampering is Logical

Mountain Glenn

Outpost Kaon

September 20st, 80 AGW

0100 Hours

Two weeks had passed since the first day of class, more than enough time to place each student in their respective ranked positions based on combat scores, academics, personalities, and a few other factors.

Shockwave made sure that he could recite each teenagers' record verbatim as well as a list all relevant accomplishments and feats. It wasn't all that hard for him to do considering that it was merely reciting information. He could only wish that each individual was as useful as those at the top, but such chances were illogical not to mention his wishing. At the end of the day, there were those possessed talents he had need of and there were those that possessed nothing that he cared about.

Despite his opinion on the matter of the fledgling huntemen and huntresses, the former Decepticon made a habit of reviewing students on a weekly basis in order to ensure that he wasn't missing out on potential talent or skill. He would keep doing this for a time until he was more certain about what he could expect in the future based on established patterns and careful observation of behavior.

Not everything he was witnessing was logical or rational in a way that he could understand, but that was to be expected when dealing with teenagers who fancied themselves as elite fighters. They were arrogant and cocky in many ways, some of them without even realizing it. Couple that overinflated sense of importance with emotions that could shift from one extreme to the next and it was a Primus-damned miracle that no one appeared to be heading towards mentally dangerous grounds.

Shockwave would never pretend to understand any of this because he hadn't felt such things for so long. Once, he had been a brilliant, but otherwise normal Cybertronian. That was a long time ago and he gave it little thought these days because it served him no purpose. There was nothing much to feel about the past, not for him at least. As far as he was concerned, it was a past version of himself.

In other news, Project Predacon's DNA was fully synthesized. A master copy of the DNA sample was stored in a controlled environment that could preserve the genetic material indefinitely. A perfect copy was being used to actually grow and cultivate the specimen, a process that would take the rest of this semester at the very least assuming he worked at maximum efficiency and given his schedule.

This specimen was experiencing a lengthy cloning process due to the sheer complexity of its makeup. It was not merely its size that increased the workload. It was how its DNA worked and how it responded to the outside world. While it was not unlike his work with Predacons, there was something very unique about this creature, something that he had never seen before in any living being. It wasn't illogical, but it certainly was perplexing.

The scientist was referring to an unusual growth agent contained within the DNA, something that indicated that this creature was very much capable of regenerating very quickly, even from grievous wounds that would kill any other animal. The ability to recover so rapidly was one that he would have killed for in the War for Cybertron. To think that he would find it in an organic creature was unusual, but all tests confirmed that this was the real deal, as illogical as it sounded.

In light of all the work this sort of project entailed, it was becoming increasingly clear that he would need more involved assistance. He had taken on so many tasks that trying to accomplish all of his goals in a reasonable amount of time was unreasonable not to mention illogical. Between his duties at Beacon Academy, Project Predacon, his numerous research notes concerning Remnant, and other smaller jobs, he was spreading himself thin and that was not easy to do considering his brilliant mind.

Shockwave's main concern with seeking out help was the morality of all the people surrounding him. However powerful and useful the people around him were, they were simply not compatible with his logical mindset. He couldn't foresee any of them being able to embrace the laws that dictated the universe, only accepting what they wished to see. Whether it was delusional or otherwise, it was not logical, not to the degree that he sought. With that in mind, finding people that he trusted completely was a nigh-impossible mission.

But the former Con was not one to give up when faced with a problem not easily solved. If among his current network of contacts he couldn't find anyone suitable for his tasks, then he would find others that were capable and failing that, he could always make someone do as he pleased. It wouldn't be unheard of.

Speaking of mental manipulation, he had recently come upon an interesting theory that he wished to test and it had to do with his Cortical Psychic Patch. The device by itself was meant to pierce into the minds of other Cybertronians. Its primary purpose was to allow the transfer of memories, but the effort of connecting two minds had risks, especially if one mind had a will that was stronger than the other. A few tests in the early development of the patch had resulted in many broken minds, transforming everything into a mess of jumbled codes and unreadable nonsense. The scientist had never found himself concerned with these risks considering that his mind was unsurpassed and if there were to be a failure during a connection with him, he would not be experiencing any failure.

Still, it would be better if Shockwave could possess the ability to tamper with minds actively rather than a change being simply a chance side effect, so he had been searching for a way to be able to interface with a mind and he believed he was close to a breakthrough. With aura, there were many numerous factors he had to account for as well as reconfiguring the cortical psychic patch to work with organic minds.

His latest update to his mind-connecting technology had recently been implemented and he was looking to do a test. Test subjects were going to be hard to find due to the restrictions of his workplace as well as the laws in place thanks to the Council of Vale. As much as criminals were looked down upon, he couldn't very well requisition people and conduct experimentation on them. It wouldn't sit well with anyone.

If only the Decepticon cared about what others thought. Rules and regulations or not, he intended to see his work yield results, otherwise it would be wasted effort and any form of waste was illogical.

This led to the next question: who would be used?

Making use of prisoners and convicts was all well and good, but an epiphany came to mind, one that would serve his purposes and corner Ozpin in a way that would let him escape any sort of criminal prosecution under these times of duress. The headmaster did say that he was willing to bend some rules in order to make sure his side was the winning side. Certainly, what happened to enemy combatants wasn't any cause for alarm. After all, war entail death and violence and grey morality of all kinds.

And what better way to kill two birds with one stone than to take out the most obvious enemies and use them as the first subjects?

Shockwave mentally pulled up some files within his internal systems. The faces of the individuals that had tried to kill Amber had been made known, but so far, there had been little to no trace of them as far as the huntsman academies could see. That made no logical sense when a bit of thought was given to the matter. Surely the most powerful warrior institutions in the world had access to even military secrets seeing as they produced a much-needed service only a few could do. The fact that they couldn't seem to locate three individuals whose faces weren't secret to anyone involved with Ozpin was too good to be true.

Because the whereabouts of these three had yet to be discovered, that could only mean one of two things: either their enemies were extremely cunning or there was a traitor in their midst, perhaps both.

Not surprisingly, it was more so the latter than the former. It was easy to spot a traitor within this enigmatic group when looking at everyone involved in this shadow war.

Ozpin wasn't the traitor; he had too many personal stakes in it, that much could be discerned easily.

James Ironwood was definitely not a traitor. At his core, he was a soldier and all soldiers lived and died by loyalty and honor.

There was no point in even thinking about the headmaster of Shade Academy. Vacuo was not a strategically sound place to harbor sleeper agents.

That left one prime suspect and the most likely candidate to be providing the three would-be assassins safe passage in what should have been an environment with no safe havens.

Leonardo Lionheart.

RWBY - - - Transformers

Kingdom of Mistral

Haven Academy

September 21st, 80 AGW

2300 Hours

Cinder Fall walked a fine line between life and death being who she was. She served the most dangerous being that had ever lived on Remnant and with her occupation came many sacrifices. Her life was dedicated solely to the master that she served all for two reasons: she wanted power and she wanted to be feared.

Everything she did for her master was ultimately to gain these two things and in all honesty, it should have been the easiest thing in the world. After all, Ozpin was nothing but an arrogant and desperate fool if his actions were any indicator. He held so fast to a false sense of peace that it was funny. He truly believed that people were so good and pure to their core when the truth was far from that pretty image.

It should have been easy to take the Fall Maiden's power. The woman was skilled and talented, that much was clear, but she was inexperienced as well. That meant she hadn't been exposed to some of the more grey areas of combat, the places where rules and training needed were either bent or discarded in favor or what would win the battle. It was a perfect plan to ambush her like they did. Between her fighting prowess, Emerald's semblance, and Mercury's ruthlessness, it should have been easy to bag the woman.

Then that interloper had to get in the way and ruin everything. Now she only possessed a tiny portion of the Fall Maiden power. It was enough power for her to sense Amber Autumn, but far from enough to make her untouchable in combat. To make matters worse, the rest of the maidens scattered throughout the world had caught on to what happened and had disappeared more or less. The entire plan was potentially at risk thanks to the intervention of one man and that made her furious.

Cinder would kill him, there was no mistaking that. She would make sure to take her time with his death as well. He would suffer through every single moment of her wrath. She was so close to obtaining power second only to Salem and now it was being denied by her. Her destiny was being denied to her and she would not stand for it. She was to become something much greater than Mankind itself and yet to have it taken away from her by a lowly Faunus, it was simply unacceptable.

But before she could have her revenge, she first had to meet with Leonardo Lionheart. The headmaster of Haven Academy had called her recently and formally requested a face-to-face meeting with her. Apparently, there was something that was far too sensitive to be discussed on a scroll, something that could not be risked.

The raven-haired woman held no respect for Lionheart, but the man was anything but a joking type, so she heeded his words seriously and arranged for a speedy flight to Mistral. Thankfully, she, Emerald, and Mercury were relatively unhindered in the kingdom of culture and art. The cowardly lion made sure of that. Even better yet, they wouldn't be interrupted by any of the other teams.

The only illumination on Haven Academy grounds were some lamp posts that gave off just enough light for any late-night walkers to see where they were going, but the light was far from obnoxious or bothersome to the eye. There were only a few other students present and casually saying hi to any of them was fine. After all, the three of them were official students of this school. Their sight wasn't unusual in the least to any of their fellow students.

A short walk through the main hall and into the headmaster's office, they all gathered to witness the sight of the Lionheart looking more down than usual.

"You're here." Leonardo didn't waste any time. "Good. We should move to the vault. What I'm about to discuss cannot be heard by anyone."

"Whatever could be so important?" Cinder narrowed her eyes. "Is it from our master?"

"No, but it's something that will benefit you immensely." Lionheart replied to her, casting her a sideways look. "With regards to the Fall Maiden."

Cinder heard enough. "Then lead the way and be quick about it."

The frantic pace at which the man rushed seemed to indicate that whatever he had to tell them was urgent, but there felt like something else he wasn't telling. Well, that was to be expected from a man who would sell out Ozpin if it meant saving his own skin, even if only for a little while longer.

Their journey down into the underground vault was a silent affair as the four of them kept to themselves. The atmosphere could be described in a mix of words: uncertain, tense, hostile, and unpleasant.

Once they reached the bottom, they all walked towards the entrance to the chamber where the Relic of Knowledge hid behind. It could only be accessed by the Spring Maiden, but that would come later. Right now, the Fall Maiden and the Relic of Choice was what mattered right now.

Leonardo stopped when he was within five meters from the entrance to the chamber and stopped, then turned to face his three guests. "There's been a change in plan."

"Explain yourself." Cinder didn't like how this conversation was beginning. "Does this come from our master or is it because of you?"

"Neither." Lionheart spoke gravely. "We've been compromised."

"What?!" Cinder's tone was soft, yet also angry.

Her fixation on the conversation was a mistake because from behind, the headmaster of Haven Academy was abruptly forced to the side as three streaks of purple came from nowhere. All three of the infiltrators had no time to react let alone take any sort of defensive or evasive action as they were downed. Cinder was thrown flat on her back, Emerald collapsed on her left side, and Mercury fell flat on his stomach.

The woman with ash-colored hair struggled to get up all the while assessing her status. Just one single shot to all of them and they had already been reduced to such a sorry state. Her own aura was halfway depleted and no doubt her minions were no better off.

"Lionheart!" Cinder growled while forcing herself to at least take a knee. "Traitor!"

"As I said, the plan has changed." Leonardo sounded soft, yet severe. "I had no choice in the matter."

"You would run back to Ozpin after everything you know?" Cinder gritted as she spoke, doubling over in pain. "You will pay! I swear that you will!"

She was finally able to raise her head, temporarily forgetting the pain in her abdomen to stare up, but instead of just one man, there were two now. The second one looked at her with an expression that she could only say was a masterful poker face.

"YOU!" Cinder rose to her feet.

It was the interloper. She had only seen him briefly, but she knew that face. It wasn't everyday that she saw a person with prosthetics of any kind.

"This is Shockwave." Leonardo introduced. "And he has… made an offer that I cannot refuse."

"It is illogical for you to speak to them." The man named Shockwave stared down the lion faunus. "They will not remember this encounter."

Time slowed for the Cinder as she willed herself into combat. She summoned her blades and went on the offensive. She was going to commit bloody murder here and now. All she could see now was red. Logic was beginning to lose any form in her mind, but there was enough for her to calculate her strikes.

But she had still miscalculated as he intercepted her strikes, catching her right wrist with a grip of steel. Before she had a chance to counter, he headbutted her, throwing her back and temporarily blinding her. She then heard the sound of another shot and she could do nothing as she was hit again, her aura disappearing, leaving her completely vulnerable to injury.

"CINDER!" Emerald regained some strength and tried to reach for her savior.

The mint-haired thief wasn't able to go more than three steps before she was instantly downed by a shot, nearly draining her of aura, but not completely. This prompted the girl to unleash her semblance on their enemy, trying to feed him a false image to keep him busy. Instead of appearing dazed or confused, he merely shot her again. This time, her aura was stripped and she felt something warm against her side as she collapsed in pain.

Mercury was next up, but he seemed to understand the situation perfectly. If neither Cinder nor Emerald were capable of getting to this guy, then his chances weren't great either. Still the assassin launched himself forward. He sent a flurry of kicks towards Shockwave, who was either dodging or evading.

"DIE, DIE DIE!" Mercury tried to put on a tough act.

Instead of making a dent in his enemy, all he did was cause his own downfall faster by means of his right leg being grabbed and then him being slammed into the ground faster than he could cry uncle.

Transformers - - - RWBY

Mountain Glenn

Outpost Kaon

September 22nd, 80 AGW

1900 Hours

Subduing them all child's play for Shockwave. Certainly all of them were experienced and varied in their own ways, but they were little more than children in his eyes. A few years or even a decade of training and experience was nothing compared to millions of years of training and experience.

Even if he was unable to take them down with his fighting abilities alone, which was a highly unlikely outcome, he had numerous other ways to subdue them. His Hyperflux Cannon wasn't just able to fire energy that could rival black holes in destructive capabilities. It could also be altered with shots meant for more precise effects.

There were also the numerous traps lining the relic chamber that were prepared beforehand. Energy nets, hard light cages, and dust reactants were just a few of them. It didn't matter that there were so many; the outcome would have been the same even if his first plan of attack failed.

What was paramount was that he now had subjects from which to test out his additions to the cortical psychic patch. He would start with Cinder Fall seeing as she was the one who led this group. Breaking her down to her most fundamental components would help with speeding up the experimental process concerning the remaining two.

With a little help from Leonardo Lionheart, he had all the relevant information regarding the type of person she was, her semblance, her aura capabilities, and all other pertinent information. Just like her chances of beating him in single combat were near-zero, so too were her chances of escaping confinement.

Shockwave took stock of his tools and did a final check to make sure that nothing was malfunctioning. The lighting from above served to perfectly illuminate the entire laboratory. It was looking more full these days with all the necessary components being installed and ready for use and there could be more coming in soon.

In the center of the room, Cinder was restrained to a surface with both arms and legs unable to move. She was not even capable of moving her head forward or back, just turning left and right. She was awake now and some of her aura had recovered, but she had quickly discovered that any attempt to use aura was met with a painful shock delivered to her systems. She had tried seven distinct times to break free only to be met with systematic failure each and every time.

But even with her physical body confined, she was determined to place a look of determination on her face and act as if she was not afraid of the situation that was currently in. The former Decepticon was not the least bit convinced of her "bravery."

"You will NEVER get away with this!" Cinder threatened him. "I promise you that much! I will make it so!"

"You are in no position to be doing anything more than speaking empty words." Shockwave rebutted her. "Furthermore, anything from your mouth amounts to nothing more than illogical prattling."

She really was trying to play mind games with him and maybe she did have some potential in that field, but as the former chief scientist for the Decepicons, torture and interrogation were things that he had learned, refined, and perfected over course of the War for Cybertron. Again, a few years against a few million years is what it came down to.

But before he could begin any physical experimentation, he first needed to extract whatever information he could regarding this woman and who she worked for as well as all her associates not including the ones in his custody.

He attached one end of the cortical psychic patch to the back of his skull before grabbing the other end and facing his subject. She seemed to grasp swiftly what was about to happen and she kept her face as fearsome as she could, but in the face of a being who had long since abandoned his fear, she may as well be trying to intimidate a stone wall.

"Whatever you want from me, I will not give it to you." Cinder appeared ready to resist him. "Do your worst. I can handle it."

"Trust me." Shockwave gave her a blank stare. "You, in fact, cannot."

Without any grace or care for gentleness, he violently turned her head and shoved the path into the back of her head. She could only grunt before her eyes began to widen. It looked like she was experiencing someone invading her mind for the first time. It was a sensation that very few had ever known.

Her initial mental fortitude was surprising, but it was hardly unexpected. He had seen Autobots with wills far stronger than hers and he had beaten them handily. Not a single time had he ever lost a battle of wills with anyone.

Cinder was quick to lose steam once he went through her barriers. From there, he was quick to pry into the darker parts of her mind for the information that she needed.

Salem.

Hazel Reinhart.

Tyrian Callows.

Arthur Watts.

The Grand Plan.

Extracting all of this took less than five seconds and as soon as he was done, he then began to dive deeper into her psychology. At this point, her feeble attempts to lash out against him were so insignificant that he let her do so, knowing that at best, she could maybe cause him a temporary delay.

Many of her memories prior to meeting Salem were that of a lost, scared, and confused child that knew nothing but abuse, misery, poverty, a life filled with nothing but the instinct to survive by any means necessary with a will that would not accept surrender. All the while, she came to despise those that lived in peaceful bliss and ignorance.

It was a case of severe developmental problems. Without a proper parental figure to guide her, Cinder was forced to learn by herself and in the process, she had come to far too many illogical conclusions about herself and about the world. To her, violence and death were merely a means to give herself false delusions of grandeur about her self-worth, which was to say that she had very little value in herself to begin with. She was only attempting to convince herself that with everything she was doing now, she would eventually be so important that she could no longer be ignored.

An uninspiring story.

Shockwave began to separate every single thought that he came upon, categorizing what he needed and what he did not need. The human mind was far from an advanced supercomputer, but having experiences with sentient minds, the fundamentals were easy enough for him to grasp.

All thoughts were made of electro-chemical reactions, connected by 100 billion nerve cells and many trillions of synapses. In order for him to actively be able to gain authority over a mind as well as mold it to his specifications, he needed to be able to make sense of these numerous components working rapidly and connected to many other processes. For any normal person, it would have been more fiction than reality.

But the former Deception had arguably the most brilliant mind in all of Cybertron, so taking apart an organic brain amounted to another menial chore.

A part of his processes was able to pick up on the fact that the more he broke her down mentally, the less her resistance became. When her mind was whole, she was able to connect her reasons for fighting with her survival instinct, but now all of her thoughts, conscious and otherwise were isolated from each other and even if she could understand these things consciously, being able to act was another story.

All she could do now was scream and howl and cry out in agony. All of this wasn't even to beg for mercy or to spare herself further dissemination. This was all the work of a more primitive state of mind combined with a crucial pillar of the universe.

Chaos.

At this point, it would be accurate to say that she no longer had control of anything. Ideas, thoughts, memories, sensations, comprehension, these and many more things achieved by the brain were now separate pieces shut off from each other, unable to reconnect without outside assistance.

Still she screamed.

Not wishing to hear her wailing for even a second longer, Shockwave adjusted his audio receptors to filter out any sound related to Cinder. He could now regard her face as it twisted and contorted and warped into every single known expression associated with suffering.

Shockwave felt nothing.

RWBY - - - Transformers

2100 Hours

Emerald and Mercury could hear their boss clearly. Every time they heard her, they could only listen helplessly and wonder what would become of them. If Cinder Fall, the woman who was a devil incarnate, was so easily dwarfed by this guy, then neither of them had any hope of making it out.

Neither of them spoke a word, but looking each other in the eye was more than enough to convey the sense of dread that both them now had. This was all they could do seeing as their captor saw fit to make sure that they were unable to escape. Their restraints would not budge no matter what either of them tried and they both knew lots of ways to escape from imprisonment given their lives before all of this.

The minutes crawled by as the screaming seemed to only intensify. Neither of them could plug their ears and even if they were able to, it was unlikely to help them block out the screams. To that end, the two of them did whatever they could to distract themselves. Emerald shut her eyes tight and tried to fall back on Cinder's instructions regarding capture and potential interrogation. Mercury's thoughts wandered to his bastard of a father, helping him to focus on something other than certain impending doom.

With some effort, the two of them were able to temporarily forget that they were in the dragon's lair so to speak.

Then the screaming stopped completely. One moment, they were so loud that it could probably tear through walls of metal. Now it was as silent as a graveyard.

"Emerald." Mercury called out to his partner.

"Shut up." Emerald didn't want to talk.

They waited another minute for the crying to resume, but time ticked by without even so much as a single breeze of wind sounding off. It was far too quiet for either of their likings. Numerous ideas came to mind for both of them.

But they were hard-pressed to believe in any of them, however foolish it was. This was Cinder Fall they were talking about. The woman was anything but weak and they were sure that she had an ace up her sleeve. She always did.

The door to their makeshift cell opened and in came the towering presence of their jailor. The room was lit dimly, which seemed to only accentuate his blood-red eye and optic. The way he looked at the two of them was like him deciding if they were insects worth crushing.

Another detail that the two of them noted that his form was immaculate. There didn't appear to be any blood or signs of a struggle on his clothing, indicating that whatever Cinder had endured was completely psychological. That made things infinitely much worse. It was easy to brutalize a person, but to destroy them from the inside without harming a hair on their enemy's body?

That was the mark of a man who was not to be trifled with.

The man known only as Shockwave looked at Mercury and transformed his prosthetic arm into that massive cannon.

"You are of no use to me."

A single shot rang out.

Emerald saw the grey-haired assassin receive a gaping hole in a chest before slumping his head back, never to move again. Then her eyes saw the man with prosthetics and her blood froze solid, rendering her immobile.

"I am your master now."

She whimpered.

I have an announcement that will be news to some of you while others not so much if you read my other stories. I have made the decision to enlist in the United States Army. If you want the details regarding my enlistment, see my profile page. Until I get more news regarding exact details as to when things willl happen, story updates will continue at a normal pace.

With that said, back to the story. This is probably the first time that I've depicted Shockwave in a very immoral way, but given his nature and given his dedication to results above all else, this was to be expected and this is far from the last time that he will be portrayed this way. If anything, this is just scratching the surface of his true nature. Hell, what I just did was kind of tame compared to what he could have done or what he will do.

And I rewatched V7 and I found a LOT of issues that I see. To sum them up, they are the AceOps being owned by a bunch of teenagers that just got promoted to official huntsman/huntress status, Ironwood being unusually incompetent not to mention highly emotional (something that an officer of his rank should not be), Jacque Schnee being nothing more than a one-note character and Whitley being pushed to the side, and Team RWBY and Team JPR acting like they're the only form of moral authority and that their way is the only way.

In short, I will make sure that Shockwave either makes people go on the logical path or I will have him... deal with them appropriately.

But enough about that. Thoughts about this chapter? Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

"The differene between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."

Unknown