Chapter 11

Artorias-This chapter should confirm who John is. And thank you for reviewing.

"Did you manage to trace the portal's designation?" Asked John as he and a group of heavily armed and armored troops were being flown to Beacon academy from an armored gunship.

"No, otherwise I would have reported it in." Said Xayah's irritated voice as she began to clean up the mess that the Mils had done to Jack's room. "They took the kid along with his scroll and that's all I know."

"Sir, if we're unable to discern the boy's designation, then we won't be able to safe him in time." Said one of the troopers.

"I know." Said John. "But we do have a way to find him." He then contacted someone. "Solaris filled you in, right?" The troops then looked at each other, hoping that John knew what he was doing. "Good. Can you trace the portal's designation." A few minutes passed before John got an answer. "Of course." John then went over to the cockpit and told the pilots where to go. As soon as they got the location, the gunship veered around and was making it's way to Mountain Glenn.

Mountain Glenn

"Yes, I understand." Said Noblesse Oblige as received his next orders from the Internecine. "Don't worry, I won't let my beliefs get in the way of what must be done." After a few orders, the Internecine disconnected, leaving Noblesse alone. The machine soon began to pace around. As it was doing so, Noblesse couldn't help feel a sense of unease, or at least something akin to it, for what needed to be done. Before he could contemplate on it, he heard a noise. Turning around, he sighed in annoyance at seeing two standard Mils picking up a crate that they clumsily dropped while another two were slacking off. He disliked the standard Mils. They were…unimpressive compared to even the native's robotic soldiers. They had a skeletal-like frame with similar looking arms and legs. Their oval-shaped heads were imbedded into their body, forcing them to turn completely around in order to see what's behind them. Overall, it was a poor design compared to the other Mils. Not to mention they were rather…incompetent. What he wouldn't give for actual competent troops as foot soldiers. Shaking his head, Noblesse walked off to where he needed to be now. But not before ordering two grunt Mils to be stationed outside to ensure no one would try and access the facility. The breach some time ago in the bunker nearby had Noblesse up the security to ensure that it doesn't happen here.

Later

The two Mils that Noblesse had ordered to stand guard over the entrance were standing still, waiting for something to happen. After a few minutes passed, one guard looked at his coworker before speaking.

"So, what are you doing tomorrow?" Asked the guard. The other just shrugged. "C'mon, anything?" Again, the guard shrugged. "Seriously?! Just talk!" The other guard just turned around. Before he could say anything, he was suddenly shot up with several feathers in the face, taking out his processor, essentially killing him. "What the?!" Before the other guard could do anything, he was suddenly grabbed from behind and, with seemingly no effort, had his head and body split in two, causing his wires to spark out and dark liquid to spill out everywhere. After kicking it out of the way, the one that did the deed turned visible, revealing it to be John, clad in his armor.

"Clear?" Asked John before several heavily armed troops appeared, uncloaking like him.

"Clear, sir." Said one of the troopers, his helmet devoid of expression. John just nodded his head before ordering a trooper to hack the facilities' network and to open the door. As the trooper was doing so, Xayah emerged from her hiding place and walked to john.

"You think that we'll be able to save that kid, John?" Asked Xayah as she crossed her arms.

"Hopefully." Said John as he and his men got ready for a fight. Xayah just sighed. She hated it when he was so vague. After sometime, the door opened and everyone cloaked. Soon, a group of the more unsophisticated Mils were marching outside. Upon seeing the bodies of their comrades, the Mils were about to radio this in when they were instantly opened fire upon by the cloaked group of soldiers. They all soon fell by the barrage of bullets and energy bolts. After taking down the last one, the group slowly marched down to the facility, careful for any traps or defense systems that may be waiting for them. After passing through a large hallway and a large room, the soldier that hacked the system from before was brought up a hologram of the facility, revealing just how small it was.

"Okay, we're here." Said the trooper as he pointed to the first floor of the holographic representation of the facility. "And the most likely place they'll be placing this Jack will be here." He then pointed to a layer that represented the third level of this seemingly five-layer facility. "If previous facilities are like this one, then that level will be the dissection and research level."

"How many troops are there?" Asked another trooper.

"About around 150 standard Mils, not including air and ground units." Said the first trooper. "But the strange thing is I'm not detecting much, just a few models for research purposes and some standard and specialized military models. Not as much as there should be."

"There have been reports of things like this happening before." Said John. "Usually due to time. Whatever the reason is, it's good news for us. Lock and load troopers. We're getting that kid out of here." The troopers just nodded before they all decided on what route to take. As they were moving, Xayah walked up to John.

"What's the real reason there so few security models here?" Asked Xayah.

"I told you." Said John. "Time got to most of them. Either that or something went down or the Internecine had ordered most of them to be returned to the main base."

"For what?" Asked Xayah.

"I don't know." Said John. "And that's what worries me." Xayah just stayed silent as they made it to the third level. Upon arriving on the third floor, the group immediately detected movement coming from some distance away. After passing the seventh door, the group moved into breaching positions on the eighth door, where the movement was coming from. After placing some explosive charges on the door, John made some hand signals and everyone got ready. After collapsing his fist, he blew up the charges and several troopers threw grenades in the room. Once the grenades exploded, the group moved in, their helmets helping with the smoke. Some weapon fire had occurred, but no casualties from both sides were caused. After the smoke subsided, the group had forced the droids in the room to the ground. Seeing that the droids in the room were incapacitated, John had ordered two troopers to get some intel from any terminals that were still active. As they did so, John looked around the room. Raising an eyebrow in his helmet, he walked over to the middle of the room. In the middle of the room, he saw two capsules. Wondering why these were here, John began to hack one in order to see what was in it. After hacking the system and figuring out what the occupant was, he tightened his free hand into a fist in anger. Everyone grew a bit nervous at seeing this. John rarely got angry, but when he did, it was a force to be reckoned with. After calming down, he ordered his troops to detain the scientists and to take the two capsules with them. As they did this, Xayah walked up to John.

"What's wrong?" Asked Xayah.

"It's Jack." Said John. "They're turning him into one…" He then heard some gunfire from outside. Running outside, he saw the troops that were outside engaging the remaining security droids. Aside from the regular troops, there were some aerial combatants too. These Mils were extremely thin, nearly skeletal-like, similar to the standard one, but also having an aerodynamic design with wings that was also modular. Their hands were replaced with twin-barreled blaster with bayonet attachments. And they're feet were shaped similar to an eagle, with pronged talons for gripping opponents. They're heads were sleek with red glowing eyes. These Mils growled in a metallic voice before opening fire with their blaster arms. John's men began to fall back as the barrage intensified, returning fire as they did so, killing a few standard Mils along the way. Seeing his men were out of harm's way, John threw a grenade to the group of droids. Once the grenade went off, John ran out of the room and charged to the deactivated droids, who were now shut down due to the grenade. Closing the distance in under a second, John began to dispatch the Mils with ease, either through a burst from his rifle or his fists, which went through their frames. All done in under twenty seconds. After taking down the last one before it activated, John made his way back to his men. Upon seeing them getting ready to escort their prisoners and their cargo to safety, John went over to Xayah.

"Get back to Beacon academy." Said John. "Inform me of anything going wrong there."

"You got it." Said Xayah before disappearing in a plume of feathers. After she did so, John went over to a trooper downloading files from a terminal.

"Anything useful?" Asked John.

"Maybe, sir." Said the trooper. "In order to save time, I needed to just focus on downloading any files from this terminal instead of doing that along with translating the files. We'll have time back on the ship." John just nodded.

"Just get ready to leave. We're leaving in five." Said John. The trooper just nodded as he went back to work. John then went over to the troopers handling the capsules. "Anything wrong?"

"There is." Said a trooper, a female. "Sir, the grenades damaged some systems in these capsules. The other capsule is fine because no organic is in there, but the one containing the native is in danger. If we don't get him back to the ship soon, he'll die." Hearing the worry in her voice, John nodded his head.

"Keep him stabilized. I'm not letting him die." Said John. The trooper just nodded her head before ordering her coworker to help her stabilize the kid. Just before he could leave, he was contacted by someone. Picking up the call, John overheard what they had to say. Staying silent as panic set in on the voice, John told them that he'll be on his way before disconnecting. Ordering everyone to hurry up, John watched as his men began to speed up their work. Eventually, everyone was done and ready for transport. Seeing that everyone was ready, John contacted someone and soon everyone was gone in a bright light.

Later

Somewhere in Vale

Noblesse couldn't help but be pissed as he watched the carnage that was happening as a result of Cinder's grand speech of the supposed hypocrisy of Ozpin and the leaders of the kingdoms. To add to this, Cinder had told him that his men weren't needed now and to hold them in reserve, annoying him. Upon her finishing her little speech, alarms went off as Grimm invaded the city, taking everyone one by surprise. Franky, it annoyed him to no end that she was lying and manipulating the people to get her goals. But he couldn't deny the effectiveness of her plan. Grimm, the creatures native to this world were converging on Beacon academy in droves and were overwhelming any defenses and attempts to drive them away. As he watched this happen, he couldn't help, but feel some pity for these people, as most were just teenagers still-in-training and they were out fighting this battle that could decide the fate of this academy. Still, he was impressed by their resolve and respected them for it. Eventually, he grew sick of seeing this and decided to join Cinder and her lackies. Flying off the building he was in, he spotted Cinder making her way to the tower of Beacon academy. Landing beside her, he began to talk with her.

"I assume you know where you're going?" Asked Noblesse as they walked to an elevator.

"Indeed." Said Cinder, not bothered at seeing Noblesse or even caring. "You can come along if you like, just so long as you keep away from the power I seek."

"And what is this power?" Asked Noblesse, genuinely curious. Cinder just smirked.

"You'll see." Said Cinder as the elevator finally stopped. It opened to reveal a massive, long room with a pair of capsules. Both held two females and one was screaming in pain while the other was barely alive, according to his scanners, while a white-haired adult and blond hair, male adolescent was watching this happen. Before he could do anything or speak, Cinder suddenly made a bow out of glass and fired at the barely alive female, piercing the capsule and scoring a hit at her heart. As her life lines flat-lined, Noblesse some sort of energy coming out of her and going to Cinder, who accepted it with opened-arms. Chuckling in arrogance, Cinder smiled in satisfaction as she looked at the remaining occupants of the room. The boy tried to fight, but the white-haired adult pulled him back as the female from the other capsule, a red-haired adolescent, went over to them with her weapons, a javelin-like weapon and a shield. The adult ordered them to leave and get help while he held the two off. As the two were about to leave, Noblesse was about to get in their way when the adult suddenly appeared before him and kicked him in the optic, surprising him with the man's speed and power. Though his shields protected him, the attack still surprised Noblesse enough for the adolescents to get into the elevator. Cinder looked impressed at this and engaged the adult. After regaining his sight, Noblesse watched as the elevator door closed with the adolescents inside. Growling in annoyance, Noblesse began to peruse them when the adult came again and swung his cane at Noblesse, hitting him in the head again.

Intrigue rather than annoyed, Noblesse grabbed the cane and head-butted the man with such force that his aura broke along with his nose, forcing the man to let go. Amazed at seeing the man still alive, Noblesse held the cane as Cinder made her move, firing a blast of energy at the man, who simply shifted out of the way, leaving after images behind. Cinder looked surprised at seeing the man still moving so fast, despite seeing his aura break when Noblesse hit him, before attacking him, knowing that one hit from her and it's all over. As the fight went on, Noblesse inspected the cane, feeling some power in it. It's power…it was almost like a...

He was about to scan it, when he heard a massive explosion followed by Cinder laughing. Looking back at the fight, he saw the man suddenly turning to ashes as Cinder laughed in satisfaction.

"I take it you won?" Asked Noblesse as he held the cane.

"Indeed." Said Cinder as she summoned a fireball, examining it. "Now it's time to get that relic." Knowing what she was talking about, Noblesse slowly reached for a weapon when Cinder spoke again. "But first, I need to marvel in what I did." With that Cinder began to walk over to the elevator shaft. She destroyed the doors effortlessly before she blasted herself up, using her powers to do so. Sighing at her vanity. Noblesse contacted the Internecine and told him of what was going on and about the cane.

"I'm sure." Said Noblesse as he held the cane. "This thing has similar properties as them…Yes sir. I'll bring it over to you as soon as possible, but what about the fragment here?" The Internecine then told him. "Understood." He then disconnected the connection. "Well it appears you'll remain alive for now, Cinder." After making the cane disappear, he walked to the destroyed elevator shaft before using his thrusters to get back up. As he did, he saw the elevator going up, despite a hole going through it. Shrugging it off, Noblesse made it to the ground level and was walking away when he noticed a white-haired adolescent fighting the Grimm before conjuring a white circle for another adolescent with black hair with a red tint to it. The latter used the circle to go up the tower and, presumably kept going, as Noblesse didn't see her fall to the ground. Going back to the white-haired one, he saw a Grimm charged at her, who was too distracted to see it coming. Shaking his head, Noblesse summoned his rifles before engaging the Grimm and the others surrounding the girl. In under five seconds, all the Grimm were dead with the girl only noticing when the first energy bolt discharged from Noblesse's rifle. Looking over her surroundings, the girl looked to see Noblesse standing in front of the tower with his weapons on standby. Upon seeing him, the girl got into a fighting stance before zipping toward him with amazing speed. For this world at least. Using his side thrusters, Noblesse got out of the way, making the girl go directly to the elevator shaft. Surprised at this, the girl changed course, avoiding the elevator and instead hitting a wall. As she recovered, Noblesse inspected the girl. He immediately identified her as Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust company, a large energy corporation in this world. Before he could do anything with this information, the girl was back at him again and threw some stabs and slashes at him, all absorbed by his shields. Unwilling to kill the heiress of a large corporation, Noblesse grabbed the arm that held her rapier and twisted it in an angle that a human arm shouldn't be bent to, forcing her to drop her rapier due to the pain. Upon seeing her let go, Noblesse released her and watched as she held her arm. Before she could fully recover, Noblesse grabbed her rapier and threw it somewhere. As she watched this happen, the girl gritted her teeth in anger before getting up and punching the machine in the chest. This action caused her to yelp in pain as she held her hand, which was the hand that belonged to the arm that Noblesse had bent prior to this.

Blinking in amusement, Noblesse watched as the heiress glared at him before getting into a fighting stance. Amused at this, Noblesse just dodged her feeble attacks as she threw punches at him. Obviously, she wasn't trained in hand-to-hand combat. After the seventh punch, Noblesse bent down before grabbing Weiss's waist, making her squeak. He then placed her over his shoulder, his hand holding her in place.

"Put me down this instance!" Yelled Weiss as she slammed her fists at Noblesse's shoulders, uncaring that she was only hurting her hands. Shaking his head at her persistence, Noblesse was about to tell her to stop when he detected a massive energy spike. Rushing out the tower, Noblesse watched as he saw a strange bright, white light appeared from the top of the tower. It was too bright that Noblesse's optics were having a hard time at filtering it all out so he can see what was going on. Eventually the light died out to reveal the massive Grimm wyvern that had appeared from Mountain Glenn was now stone. Shocked at this, Noblesse didn't notice someone coming at him and firing at him. Shocked at this, Noblesse turned around to see a humanoid in power armor, a rifle pointed at him. With him was a female Faunus holding several feathers as daggers. Scanning them, he was a bit surprised to see a big unknown appearing for the both of them. Curious, Noblesse summoned a rifle and pointed it at them. He was about to fire when the one wearing power armor suddenly disappeared and reappeared before him. He then punched him in the arm joints, actually causing damage there, breaking through his shields. Shocked at this, Noblesse dropped his gun before he was suddenly hit in the optic by the female Faunus, who threw her daggers at it. Surprised at this, he let go of Weiss, who was caught by the man in power armor. Seeing he was damaged and needed to report this to the Internecine, Noblesse quickly flew up and got out of there. As he did so, he ordered his hidden troops to retreat to base. After doing so, his thoughts went back to those two, wondering who they were.

Meanwhile, John and Xayah were watching the machine leave.

"That's a Raven?" Asked Xayah before scoffing. "Went down like a coward."

"Don't underestimate any Raven, Xayah. We only managed to get him because we took him by surprise." Said John as he placed Weiss down gently. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"Yes, thank you." Said Weiss as she looked at the two, shocked to see Xayah. Having been told that she wasn't an Atlas operative, Weiss was immediately suspicious of her and her friend. She was still grateful though. "Who are you two?" John just stayed silent before getting up and ordering Xayah to be ready to go.

"It's 117." Said John before leaving.

"Just call him the Master Chief." Said Xayah before taking off with him, leaving Weiss to be confused at the name.

Later

Meanwhile

Unknown location

Noblesse was currently waiting as the Internecine was inspecting the cane. After coming back from his mission, Noblesse immediately went to the internecine and gave him the cane, who inspected it with eagerness. After a few more minutes, the Internecine gave Noblesse back the cane.

"It's not like them." Said the Internecine. "Similar properties, but it's not as powerful nor as useful as them."

"I see." Said Noblesse. "What shall I do with it?"

"Throw it away." Said the Internecine. "It's worthless to us." Noblesse just nodded before making the cane disappear. "Now, Noblesse, I read your report on these two beings. What can you tell me more about them?"

"Extremely powerful." Said Noblesse as he held his damaged optic. "They were able to breach my shields and damage me. They should be a top priority."

"Agreed." Said the Internecine. "We'll deal with them in time. I should also inform you of a situation that occurred after you left the facility in mountain Glenn. It appears that the two from your report were there as well." Hearing this, shocked Noblesse. "The organic was taken along with some of our files and some of our scientists. This needs to be rectified. For now, though, I have a new assignment for you and it involves the Schnee dust company." Crossing his arms, Noblesse listened to the Internecine as he gave him his instructions. After he heard the last of them, Noblesse bowed.

"I will do this, sir." Said Noblesse before leaving.

Few days later

Schnee manor

Weiss was silently looking outside, thinking about Beacon, her friends, and Xayah and her friend. Despite all their efforts, Beacon still fell and she was forced to go back to Atlas with her father. She wondered what her friends were doing right now and if they were alright. Sighing again, she walked out of her room to get some fresh air. As she was walking, she saw her mother walking with a robotic guard. But one that she had never seen before. This machine wasn't the new Atlesian knights. No, rather it was a completely new model with a different design. It was painted mostly white with hints of steel and black. It was bulky but seemed elegant in a way. It had a short protrusion on its chest that ended in a point. It had a single slit visor that glowed red and had a horn on its forehead. Lastly, it had extensions on its shoulders that were shaped to look like wings. Seeing her daughter, Mrs. Schnee walked over to her. Though they rarely ever spent time with each other, on account of Weiss's mother being an alcoholic and being distant from Weiss, Weiss did love her and wanted to spend time with her mother.

"How are you doing, Weiss." Said Mrs. Schnee as she smiled at her daughter. Smiling a bit at seeing her mother sober, Weiss bowed a bit before speaking.

"I'm fine, mother." Said Weiss. "How are you?"

"Good, for now." Said Mrs. Schnee. "Your father won't be home for another few hours. Thank god." Nodding her head at that, knowing how much her mother disliked her father, Weiss then looked at the robot.

"What is that?" Asked Weiss.

"This?" Said Mrs. Schnee as she looked at the machine before her. "This is a prototype Atlas machine commissioned by the council to guard high-ranking officials. This is the first model and the council decided to place it under our care, to protect us." The machine nodded and bowed at Weiss. "It's actually fully sentient, Weiss." Widening her eyes at this, Weiss looked at her mother.

"Isn't that dangerous, mother?" Asked Weiss, recalling some protest about sentient AIs when the new Atlesian knights were being produced.

"It is, but the council assured me that it has numerous inhibitors to prevent it from attacking or killing us. It does what your father and I tell it to do and to ensure that we're all happy." Explained Mrs. Schnee. "I'll explain it more later. Just know that it won't hurt you Weiss." Nodding her head at that, Weiss looked at the machine suspiciously, who seemed to ignore the stare. Soon, it looked at Mrs. Schnee.

"Miss Willow, I advise that we go back to your room, there are some paperwork that needs to be done." Said the machine in a gentleman-like voice. Sighing in annoyance, Willow nodded curtly to the robot before allowing it to escort her to her office. As it did so, it looked at Weiss, who was a bit disturbed at seeing it's soulless visor looking at her. As they walked back to her office, Willow spoke.

"May I ask why you're inclined to spend time with my family so much, machine? To the point that you're living in my home?" Asked Willow as they entered her office.

"Merely as a precaution, miss Willow." Said the machine as he prepared some tea for her as Willow began to get to work. "The White Fang may attack your family in their own home. I'm here as insurance. I assure you that I won't be a big bother to you and your family. I swear it." He then bowed in respect to Willow, who huffed in amusement at this. "And please ma'am." He then gave her the tea he had made. "My designation is Noblesse Oblige." Willow sipped some of the tea, relishing in the taste, before speaking.

"I'll call you what I like." Said Willow. "And I'll call you a machine until otherwise." Noblesse just bowed his head in understanding before standing guard over the door in case anything happened. As he watched Willow work, Noblesse wondered about what the Internecine had ordered him to do and if he can do his orders.

Meanwhile

"Are you sure about this sir?" Asked a human doctor as he and other doctor of other-worldly beings were working on the capsules and their occupants. "Would he be willing to do this sort of thing on himself?"

"Must I wish to avoid doing this, I'm afraid it's the only way to save him." Said John. "And my hands are tied. The admiral ordered this to happen." Xayah, who was in the room with them, just scowled at the mention of the admiral. "Just do this, doctor. We have no choice." The doctor just sighed before telling his colleagues to proceed with the procedure. With that, John walked away with Xayah in tow.

"You okay with this, sir?" Asked Xayah, a hint of worry in her voice.

"No, I'm not." Said John. "Admiral Zorah is really getting on my nerves. What I wouldn't give for Hood or Hackett to be giving us orders."

"You're not alone in that." Said Xayah. "What do we do now? Beacon is gone and the kingdom of Vale's huntresses and huntsmen are struggling to take back the academy."

"For now, just keep an eye on team RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, CFVY, and that specialist, Winter Schnee. You told me that Jack told her about what really happened, correct?" Seeing her nod, he continued. "Then that case, I'm having our group split up. You'll take care of the ones going to Menagerie. Ahri will accompany you. I'll send Solaris to take care of CFVY. Irelia and Zed will take care of SSSN and Winter Schnee."

"And for RWBY and JNPR?" Asked Xayah.

"Based on reports, RWBY has split off and all over the place. The leader, Ruby Rose, is traveling with the remnants of JNPR to Mistral, Yang Xiao Long is in her home land of Patch, Blake Belladonna is traveling to Menagerie with that leader of SSSN, and Miss Schnee is in her home land of Atlas with her parents. Wolf will take of Miss Xiao Long, and you already know who is taking care of Blake. Miss Schnee will have Zare."

"And for Miss Rose and JNPR?" Asked Xayah.

"…I'll do it with my son." John, making Xayah look surprised at this.

"About time that you actually work together with him that isn't forced on you." Said Xayah. "What took so long for you to do so?"

"I feel he's ready now." Said John, making Xayah smirk.

"Did Solaris force this on you, chief?" Asked Xayah. John just stayed silent as he walked away, making Xayah smirk again in satisfaction.

"Seems Solaris has a big grip on the supposed legendary spartan." Said Xayah as she called him out. "Huh, Master Chief?" John just ignored her as he went through a door.