The Power of the Old Ways

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of the Adventures of Team WA! This is a chapter I've really been looking forward too and hopefully, so have all of you! As always, I'd like to give a quick shout out to all of my fellow readers out there who've helped make this story better. And the short answer to DCDGojira's question would be this: They met shortly after Jen's family arrived in Blue Forge at a town meeting welcoming the new clan.

Atlas: Military Command Base

'Wow, now that's stuffy,' thought Wayne as he coughed a bit before walking out of the pneumatic tube. As expected, the ride up had been fast and more than a little rough. Not technically the hugest of surprises given that they were designed for transporting cargo and not people. The others were quick to follow after him, though his main focus was on the white-haired huntress who currently had a certain hammer girl by the ear.

"Ow, ow, ow, come on!" Exclaimed Nora as Weiss pulled on her ear, "that was a once in a lifetime experience-ow." The ex-heiress simply continued to cast a disapproving look at her friend but at least decided to show mercy and release her ear. Though the conversation was picked up as their last member arrived through the tube, looking more than a little dizzy.

"Once, good," said Blake with a bit of strain in her voice, "because I never, want to do that again." It had been a bit tricky when it came to the sending up the last person. Fortunately, Penny had been able to reprogram one of the robots to work the terminal in order to send up Blake when her turn finally arrived.

"Well, I'd best not mention the part about us having to go back down then," Wayne pointed out as they started walking. Blake gave out a groan at the thought as she followed behind them, stepping over some of the guards Weiss had encountered and taken her frustrations out on after her slightly unplanned arrival through the tube.

"Alright Robo-girl, you're up," said May as Penny stepped forward, "which way do we go next?" Penny didn't answer immediately as she seemed to be staring at the door, or rather through it. More than likely she was scanning and accessing whatever files she had about the layout of the base to determine the best route for them. A process which only took another few seconds as she quickly turned back to them.

"We'll cross the bridge first," said the new Winter Maiden, "then go left, straight, right, straight, left, up, up, right, straight, right, right, straight, left, left. And my name, is Penny."

"Good gosh I just realized how much I miss videogames," groaned Wayne. Ruby simply gave a quick 'heh' at May while the Happy Huntress rolled her eyes before casting her semblance, a large invisible bubble, around all of them. The group then proceeded quickly but quietly down the hallway, taking several of the turns that Penny had given them before stepping onto the elevator. It would prove to be something of an awkward ride as none of them were able to speak to pass the time.

Though the appearance of two soldiers stepping onto the lift complicated matters even more as the group had to step back with May manipulating her invisibility field backwards a bit so that they weren't discovered. It would prove to be a tense minute or two as the lift went down to its next destination. The two Atlesian soldiers didn't step off the lift when the doors opened next, but it was the floor Ruby's group needed to be on. Thus, they slowly crept around the unaware military personnel, with Nora mischievously hitting all the buttons on the way out, before stepping off into the hallway.

'I remember Ruby mentioning something like that happening to her once,' recalled Wayne as they stopped in front of a large metallic door, 'wonder if they'll be off in less than an hour?' Though that question was quickly put out of his mind as Penny held up her finger, the end of it flipping open to reveal a green data jack that she stuck into the terminal which ordinarily would require a handprint identification. "Welcome back, Doctor Polendina," said the terminal as the door opened up and admitted the invisible team in.

"You sure no one will notice your Father's credentials being used," asked Wayne, "it's quite possible they've flagged his access by now."

"I don't believe the General is fully aware of my Father allying with us as of yet," replied Penny, "otherwise, we'd have been locked out and triggered an alarm immediately."

"Now there's a happy thought," commented Blake as they approached the end of the hall.

"All right Penny, were to next," asked May.

"Right through central command!" Said Penny as she pointed in front of them, far too happily for Wayne's taste given the current situation as the room itself was packed with Atlas personnel hurrying in every which direction. And that wasn't including the numerous, massive screens with data readouts of all types being monitored by more personnel scattered around at least a dozen terminals.

"Of course we'd have to go through there," said Weiss with a 'go figure' gesture.

"I can't maneuver us through all of that," said May, "it'd be tricky even if it was only me."

"Do not worry," said Penny as she turned around, "Ruby's semblance lets her travel at extreme velocities from one point to another by breaking herself down to her molecular components, thus negating her mass until she reassembles at her destination. Theoretically, this makes it possible for her to transport all of us in the same way as our own mass will no longer matter either."

"Hold up, hold up," said Wayne as he held up his hand, "if I just heard right, Ruby's basically gonna break us all apart into little particles and transport us like she's some kind of teleportation machine?"

"Not quite teleportation," replied Penny, "but it is along a similar principle."

"I'm still confused about the first part," said Ruby, "I can do what with my semblance?"

"You can use it on all of us," said Penny, being sure to dumb it down this time. Ruby simply blinked at this realization.

"Did Penny just figure out you could do that, before you did," quipped Blake from the back.

"Blake she figured out you were a Faunus before I did," said Ruby, "Up to this point I thought I could only carry one other person." A few other comments might've followed this until the base speaker system suddenly sounded.

"A security threat has been detected in the compound," said General Ironwood's voice over the intercom, "status alert level 3-red. Lockdown has been initiated and authorization is granted to handle any threats with lethal force."

"You've got to be joking," said Weiss as Penny seemed to be reading something in her computer brain. It seemed her confidence in her Father's credentials not being flagged had been, slightly misplaced.

"The pneumatic tubes have all been closed off," said Penny with a hint of concern in her voice.

"So we're trapped," surmised Blake as her ears drooped a bit.

"Not entirely," said May, "we passed a hangar on our way here. I can hijack an airship and get us off this floating rock."

"Wait," said Penny, "we still have a chance at succeeding. We can't stop now when we're so close."

"Well we're gonna need a way to get through Central Command unnoticed," said Wayne, "Ruby's semblance is pretty fast, so a simple distraction should work. Though I don't think me dancing around is gonna cut it this time. Any suggestions?"

"I might have an idea," said Nora with yet another mischievous smirk as she snapped her fingers. She quickly whispered her plan to everyone as they waited for the doors to open. It was a crude plan, but it would hopefully prove effective. And so, once the door opened again to allow another soldier to exit, the group quickly shuffled on in before stopping near one of the terminals.

It was there that May stuck her foot out, per Nora's instructions, and tripped up an unfortunate man with brown hair and glasses who was dressed in the blue uniform of the base staff. As he fell, the coffee he'd been carrying went flying and landed on both the terminal and lap of yet another unfortunate Atlesian operator in a grey uniform. Wayne had heard less pained screams from people with broken fingers as the tan-skinned man leapt up and yelled in agony. "Ah, read the sign, Bill, read the sign," said the Station Operator next to the unfortunate coffee victim as he indicated the 'No Food or Drink in Central Command, "why don't you ever just pay attention?"

He continued to lay into his co-worker, Bill, about his poor conduct while the Station Operator ran out the door yelling 'WHYYYYY?!' Wayne didn't feel great about the fact that they might've just gotten someone fired, but it did work to divert the rest of the staff's attention as they chatted away at the incident and gave Ruby the chance she needed to use her semblance. And it was a strange feeling.

One moment Wayne was solid and the next, his body felt lighter than air as it was swept up by a blurring red cape and rose petals. It lasted only a few moments as Ruby flew around the corner and up the stairs before depositing everyone back in one piece. Nora and Penny were understandably thrilled by the new experience while Weiss was impressed. As for Blake, who looked terrified and was breathing a little harder than usual, she summed her thoughts on the experience up in a few words. "Another thing I don't ever wanna do again," she said as she tried to stop the shaking in her legs.

"I just hope all my pieces are back where they're supposed to be," said Wayne as he turned sideways towards Weiss, "take at look at me from this angle, do I look like I've lost a few pounds?" The white-haired huntress simply giggled at his antics before the group turned and headed through the next set of doors. The room that lay beyond said doors had a long, wide catwalk with railing on both sides and a larger, circular area in the middle. Down below was an area that reminded Wayne of a skateboarder's halfpipe with what may have been a door on the back side.

As for their destination, it was at the other end of the catwalk where a door and terminal identical to the one they'd used to get into Central Command was waiting. Unlike the other doors, this one was protected by a powerful, yellow electrical forcefield. "Stand back please," said Penny as she once again used the jack in her finger and Pietro's credentials to open the door. The group all took hold of their weapons as the entrance opened to reveal a sparsely lit room.

In another moment, several lights came on in quick succession as those without night vision were now able to get a better look at the room inside. It had a number of metallic cylinders in the floor on either side of the room with a walkway down the middle. While some of the cylinders were in the floor itself, those that were up were taller and wider than a person and had their own computer terminals. But the one they'd come looking for was at the very back of the room where an even larger cylinder stood fixed to the wall with a computer screen and chair in front of it.

"Uh, where are all the people?" Asked Ruby, voicing the question on everyone's mind. Even Wayne could only pick up vague traces of people's scents from the room.

"This is a highly classified area," explained Penny as the door closed behind them. Wayne tried his best to ignore the nagging feeling that that might be a bad sign as he followed Ruby and Penny to the terminal. The rest of the group proceeded over to the corner where they sat among the other terminals, likely aware that it was up to Penny at this point. The android girl also seemed aware that a lot was riding on her shoulders as she sat down and took a deep breath.

"Hey Dad," she said while using her own built-in communicator, "I'm ready for you to begin." In another second after she said that, her eyes widened and turned yellow as Ruby and Wayne looked on with expressions of either confusion or mild concern. "Ahem," said Penny with Pietro's voice before turning to Ruby, "this process is a little complicated, so I'm remoting into Penny from Amity Colosseum."

"I, uh, see," said Ruby, not really getting how it all worked as the now remote-operated Penny got to typing and accessing the needed files on the terminal.

"You have the ability to control Penny remotely," observed Wayne, "not that that isn't neat and all, Doc, but I'm kinda wondering something. Are you the only one capable of doing that?"

"If you mean 'can someone else hack into Penny remotely'?" Replied Pietro through Penny, "they'd have to be able to bypass the most advanced cyber security Atlas has created to date. The only reason I have access is because I wrote the protocols for the remote access in the first place."

"I don't doubt it's secure against all known hackers on Atlas's watchlist, or whatever it is you put together for cyber criminals," said Wayne, "but weren't most of the secure protocols you put in there at the time going off the assumption that Arthur Watts was dead?"

"Arthur Watts is a brilliant man," replied Pietro, "but he'd have to get pretty creative to hack into my little girl, and that's assuming Ironwood is crazy enough to even let him near a computer after all he's done."

"Well, that's the problem Doc," said Wayne, "under any other circumstances, the General wouldn't even consider such an outlandish idea because he'd be thinking straight and figure that it'd probably backfire on him. But fear and desperation can push one to take some less than reputable actions. And with Penny being his only hope to open the vault-."

"I do understand your concern, Wayne," said Pietro as Penny continued to type away, "but trust me when I say, I have taken every precaution to keep my daughter safe. Now then, I just have to….there. Downloading the coded imprint now. When Penny gets to Amity, we'll run the launch sequence and when Amity's computer tries to connect to Ironwood's terminal, it'll get Penny instead." The android girl stuck her finger jack into the terminal then as her eyes flickered and returned to their normal green color.

"And after we've gotten Amity launched," said Penny happily, "I'll help you all finish the evacuation." Pietro's coughing on the other end of the line told her there was something he wanted to say on that matter.

"About that, Penny," said her Father, "we've been discussing it, and I think the safest thing for you to do is to stay on Amity with Maria and I when it goes up."

"But, my friends need me here," said Penny with a note of confusion in her voice, "don't you?"

"Well," said Ruby in a sad but matter of fact voice, "if you stay far out of Salem's reach, then she won't be able to open the vault and get to the relic. So…."

"Maybe it really is for the best," Weiss finished for Ruby. Penny turned her attention to Wayne for some reason, as if in hope that he'd have a convincing argument against the idea.

"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't," said Wayne, "either way, it'd be best if we actually got to launching Amity first before doing anything else."

"Guess we should probably head for the hangar then," said Blake. Penny didn't look all that happy at their responses, but got up and moved to the terminal where she once again used her finger jack on the door.

"I guess," said Penny, "we all have to do some things, we would rather not." Words that would turn out to be very true for all of them in that moment as the door opened to reveal some less than welcoming faces on the other side.

"Hello, kids," said Harriet as she stood in a military line formation with Vine, Elm and Marrow, "time to come home, Penny." The former Beacon student's weapons were out in the blink of an eye as Weiss spoke up.

"So your first time losing to us wasn't enough?" Weiss actually quipped.

"We were holding back," defended Marrow, though he seemed to be referring to himself more than the others.

"We have all said some things we regret," said Vine as he stepped forward, "but please hear me out. I know you thought you were doing the right thing when you left with the maiden power-."

"That's the thing, though, isn't it," said Wayne, "she actually 'thought' about the implications of her actions. How much thought have any of you put into whether or not you're actually been doing the right thing?"

"I don't want to hear that from-," Harriet started to say before she was silenced by Vine raising his hand.

"Please," he said, "Salem is here now. Things have changed, drastically."

"I'm sorry," said Penny with a note of determination in her voice, "but if General Ironwood still plans to leave Mantle behind, then nothing has changed, including my decision."

"I thought you were supposed to protect the people," said Vine with a sigh, "not hurt them."

"I would never hurt anyone," Penny replied before Elm cut in.

"Well Winter's in critical condition," said Elm, "because of you."

"And you repaid her by stealing the power-," Harriet started to say before Wayne stepped forward with an irritated glare directed at all of them.

"If it weren't for Penny, Cinder and by extension, Salem, would have the maiden powers right now!" Exclaimed Wayne as he put his hand on his side, "my father, a practical fire elemental, has a fresh burn scar on his side from helping Winter hold her at bay and is probably one of the reasons she's even still breathing! What's more, your intel is way off. I know Penny didn't steal the power because I was there, with my family, fighting a maiden while the rest of you were, where again? Oh right, getting your asses kicked by my friends who you were only fighting because General 'lost his shit' Ironwood suddenly forgot about his brass balls!"

"What do you know?!" Exclaimed Harriet as she stepped up next to Vine, "The right thing to do is staring you in the face and if you keep refusing to do it, then people in both Atlas and Mantle are going to die-."

"People in Mantle are going to die anyway if she does what the General wants," said Weiss.

"But you can save far more people if you just open the vault and give us the relic," said Marrow, "it'll save Atlas at the very least-."

"But it won't really be saving Atlas," said Ruby, "Salem will find her way to the relic no matter where you take it. The moment Ironwood opens the vault, the relic is as good as-."

"One more word from you," said Harriet as if she was scolding a child, "and I'm throwing you in jail next to your Uncle."

"As if you could," said Wayne with a bit of actual laughter in his voice, "the last time you made a threat like that, you ran face first into an ice wall if what I heard was correct." Harriet grit her teeth at the smug look on his face as Penny stepped forward.

"And I can make one of those very easily," said Penny, "so you'd best leave my friends alone-CLICK." The door slid shut behind the android girl and Half Faunus as the two looked back, noting the forcefield had also reactivated.

"Well, I suppose I'll applaud you all for being cautious," said Wayne, his body now coursing with a little bit of fear and excitement that he did his best to hide as he placed his helmet on his head and turned around slowly, "though in a way it seems a bit, cowardly too. Not feeling so great about your chances if your lucky leader isn't around? Come to think of it, where is he anyway? This seems like something important enough to warrant his-."

"SHUT UP!" Yelled Harriet as she sped forward with a punch aimed straight for Wayne's head. The Half-Faunus reacted quickly, however, as a familiar black mist enveloped his body long enough for him to direct the Ace Ops member's punch to the side with his left arm before jabbing her in the stomach with two of his fingers and firing off energy from his semblance. The blast hit Harriet like one of Yang's punches and sent her flying back a few feet before she hit the ground and rolled back up to her feet.

"Was it something I said?" Questioned Wayne with a tilt of his head.

"CLOVER IS DEAD!" Yelled Harriet as Elm put a hand on her shoulder to hold her back, "and that girl's damn Uncle is the one who murdered him!"

"Qrow did….," Wayne started to say before another thought occurred to him, "No, Qrow couldn't have killed him. Weren't they transporting Tyrian back to Atlas? How do you know he didn't do it?"

"Clover's blood was on his weapon," explained Vine, "we arrested him there at the scene. He was kneeling in front of Clover's dead body along with Robyn Hill."

"That only proves so much," said Wayne as he tossed his left weapon over to Penny, "if you guys don't have Tyrian in custody right now, then isn't there a high possibility he got a hold of Qrow's weapon and used it to kill Clover? Saying Qrow did it just because you found blood on his weapon is like saying I killed someone just because you found blood on my weapon. Perhaps Penny took them and killed-."

"Do you think you're being cute or something?" Questioned Harriet, "I know you're just trying to stall for time, hoping that your friends can break through that door eventually. But it's not happening, not with a forcefield that secure. So quit acting like you care about what happened!"

"I'm surprised you seem to care so much," said Wayne as he accepted his weapon back before tilting his head to the side again, "If I recall correctly, you said something about only ever keeping him around because you counted on him to help keep you all alive. He was just a part of what helped you do your job and nothing more, right?"

"Vine," said Harriet, her voice lower and full of venom, "I think we're done talking here." The monk-like Ace Ops member nodded his head as they all took their own fighting positions. As for Wayne and Penny, the energy of the aura shadow began radiating from the huntsman's body while the green glow of the maiden powers lit up in Penny's eyes. A somewhat chilly wind began to whip up around the Winter Maiden, then, picking up speed and force as she directed it towards the Ace Ops.

'Good thing she reviewed all those vids of Fria using her powers over the years,' thought Wayne as he began charging his semblance and waiting for his moment as Penny unleashed an even more powerful gale of wind at their current opponents, blowing them all backwards on the catwalk. Not so surprisingly, they recovered quickly as Elm used her semblance to root her feet in place with aura and swung her hammer out for the currently airborne Marrow to grab onto while Harriet began using her speed semblance to run in place against the wind. Vine grabbed onto the railing with his own, aura semblance hands, but before he could do much else, Wayne acted. "Scattering Moonlight," he said as he released four blue orbs that went circling in the windstorm towards the Ace Ops.

Vine managed to use his semblance through his feet, generating aura stilts of a sort to send him in the air, avoiding the orb while also getting him out of the wind. Harriet, merely moved to the side, but her eyes widened as a white blur trailing black, flame-like energy went sliding past her as well. His target, Elm and Marrow as the orbs impacted against the unmoving giant of a woman and the dog Faunus. Elm managed to stand her ground, but still grunted in pain from the impact while Marrow was sent flying backwards as the wind caught him. This would turn out to be the least of his problems as Wayne leapt up and slammed his feet into his midsection with a double drop kick, accelerating his momentum until he slammed into the door on the other side.

Wayne landed lightly as the wind died down somewhat, no doubt due to Vine and Harriet now engaging Penny in close quarters. But they weren't the main threat, which was why the elder Ursario brother charged at the still unbalanced Marrow with his sickles bared. "Oh shi-," the Dog Faunus was about to say as he just managed to pull his buzzsaw boomerang, Fetch, up in time to block Wayne's first couple of initial slashes. But with no room to move back and reposition himself, he's quickly caught in the chest by a kick from Wayne which sends him into the door yet again.

His training takes over then as he rolls to the side to avoid Wayne's next sickle attack, which scratches said door, before trying to counter with a downward strike from his weapon. But the supposed, aura shadow beast he was expecting to deal with fluidly countered by blocking with his right weapon before knocking the boomerang aside with his left and bashing Marrow in the nose with the bottom of his right weapon. By this point, the exchange had only lasted a few seconds, long enough for Elm to approach with a high hammer swing aimed at the Silent Fury's helmet. But he moved even quicker and more strategically than the vids she'd seen as he maneuvered around behind Marrow, putting his arm and head in a lock before spinning him towards Elm's hammer.

The Ace Ops member managed to stop her blow just short of her teammate's face before retracting her hammer, giving Wayne the opening to release Marrow and blast him forward with a quick burst of his semblance. Elm was quick to redirect the obstacle known as Marrow behind her, where he tripped and fell over, before jabbing the head of her hammer forward towards Wayne. He didn't have quite enough time to dodge, but he did manage to cross his arms in front of him, grunting in mild pain as he just managed to stop the blow by planting his feet. "Marrow, Harriet," called Vine as Wayne counterattacked with a semblance powered kick that sent Elm's hammer upward and would've caused her to stumble if not for quick activation of her semblance.

This left her vulnerable, however, as Wayne quickly shifted his weapons to SMG form and aimed at his opponent. In the split second he was about to fire, though, Harriet came speeding in with an uppercut aimed for Wayne's chin. The Silent Fury could practically feel the buzzing electricity from his new opponent's fist as he managed to lean his head back just enough to avoid the strike before rolling and jumping back slightly to gain a little bit of distance, switching his weapons back to sickles in the process. But Harriet had no intention of giving him any breathing room as she sped forward again and unleashed a combination of punches and kicks against him.

Wayne blocked and parried the first couple of punches with his sickles, grunted in pain when a kick managed to get under his guard and hit his side, then dodged to the left to avoid the next punch aimed at his head before wrapping his arms around Harriet's head and right arm. He then proceeded to knee her in the chest multiple times before releasing her and slashing her across the face with his left weapon. It was only thanks to her aura that Harriet didn't have a nasty scar as she backflipped a couple of times then leapt over Elm, who'd just converted her hammer into its twin rocket launcher form and fired both rockets at Wayne. The Half-Faunus managed to bend backwards just enough to avoid the projectiles but still had to stop himself from falling to the ground with his left arm.

When Harriet again tried to take advantage of an apparent opening, Wayne was already prepared as he shifted his right weapon to SMG form, firing at both her and Elm, forcing them to back off a bit as Wayne charged his semblance again. By this point, Penny had altered the weather in the room again, producing a low, dark cloud that began to rain hail. This gave Wayne a quick flash of inspiration as he released some built up energy from his back side, catapulting himself into the air and within the cloud. While airborne, Wayne joined his weapons into their staff form and charged his semblance once more.

At the apex of his jump, and with some added wind assistance from Penny who'd caught onto his idea, Wayne unleashed several crescent blades downwards towards the catwalk, his enhanced hearing allowing him to easily pick out the sounds of the other Ace Op members while avoiding Penny by listening for the mechanical noise of her blades. From the perspective of the Ace Ops, it seemed like the cloud had begun raining hail and crescent blades. Marrow couldn't use his semblance while being pelted by both hail and energy blades, especially not when a few managed to nick him. Vine attempted to protect himself with his large aura hands, but the force of numerous powerful blows raining down on him eventually unbalanced him before a couple more blades struck his body and sent him falling off the catwalk.

He was only able to save himself by stretching out his aura hand again to grab the railing. Harriet managed to dodge the majority of Wayne's attacks with her speed, but she wound up focusing so hard on dodging them that she forgot about Penny until the android girl slammed her blades into her face before kicking her up into the air where she was struck by the last couple of crescent blades. She wound up landing next to Elm who, being the least mobile, had attempted to block the attacks with her hammer. This wound up being a mistake as she could only block so many at a time, resulting in her taking more hits from the energy blades than anyone else.

By the end of it, the Ace Ops were in disarray as the storm of hail and blades suddenly ended. When Marrow looked up in an attempt to regroup, his eyes widened at the sight of a shadow falling towards him at high speed. "Ah, sta-GAAAAAAAHHH!" He was too slow to activate his semblance as Wayne once again double dropkicked him, only this time he landed on his face with enough force to break his remaining aura before doing a quick side flip to land next to Penny with his blade staff held in both hands.

"Grrr," growled Harriet as she rose to her feet, "you damn-AAAAAHHH!" She was quickly silenced by Penny forming and firing one of her laser turrets. It wasn't that powerful since she didn't charge it for long, but it was enough to knock Harriet back down and shut her up.

"That," said Penny with a no-nonsense expression on her face, "was for threatening my friend." By this point, Vine had pulled himself back up onto the catwalk and landed in front of Marrow with his shuriken-like weapon, Thorn, at the ready.

"So," said Wayne as he relaxed his posture slightly and rested his joined weapon on his shoulder, "it looks like things aren't really going your way right now. If you care to try talking things out again, we're all ears."

"You've made it perfectly clear you have no intention of listening to anything we have to say," said Vine, "It'd be a waste of time at this point."

"Given that this fight is over, you're probably right about that," said Wayne with a shrug, noting the sound of flickering electricity, before turning to Penny, "we should probably move." Vine attempted to use their moment of distraction to lash out at them with one of his aura arms. Fortunately, the Winter Maiden and Silent Fury hadn't let their guards down and quickly jumped to either side of the door, which suddenly exploded with enough force to send the door flying into the other Ace Ops. Vine's eyes widened as he wasn't fast enough to dodge the sudden barrage of large projectiles as he, and the rest of his team were knocked back and almost buried under the debris from the door.

"That," said Nora, whose body was now scarred with numerous red, vein-like lines while her hair was pointing straight up, "was pretty awesome." Her eyes rolled into the back of her head then as she fell over, her aura disappearing from the overuse of her semblance. Penny quickly ran to her side as the rest of team RWBY moved forward with their weapons at the ready.

Military Command Central Control Room:

"DAMN IT!" exclaimed Ironwood as he watched the battle progress on his scroll, "that was our one chance!" He'd underestimated the newly named Silent Fury. Alone, the Ace Ops would've been able to take down Penny, but when she had help from someone who was now moving in an almost completely different way from the vids they'd seen of the Aura Shadow. It proved to be too much for just their team. A possibility he'd planned for, however, as he put his scroll away and put two fingers to his ear and radioed Central Command. "I need all available squads to converge-."

"I'd wait a moment before doing that," said a somewhat snide voice as a familiar man in a grey suit swiveled around in the chair he'd been seated in, Dr. Watts. Indeed, fear had led the General to make some less-than-ideal decisions. Judging by the black eye on Watt's face, the man had clearly been intimidated into trying to hack into Penny. Ironically, the 'good' doctor didn't need all that much motivation when it came to his hatred of Pietro's android daughter. In fact, he'd gotten a number of nasty ideas while attempting to break into the new Winter Maiden's software, one of which he was about to share now. "I have a message for your operatives," he said while barely hiding a malicious grin.

Catwalk to the Restricted Terminal

At about the same time this was happening, Penny had given Nora to Blake before flying up into the air and conjuring another thunder cloud. Wayne and the others stood ready with their own weapons out, with the elder Ursario standing in front of Blake and Nora protectively, his Aura Shadow now off given the sudden shifting of the odds. The Ace Ops themselves had managed to push the debris from the door off of themselves and were taking their own fighting stances, that is until they received a transmission. "What," said Harriet, clearly not happy with the order, "but General, we can still-."

"Understood sir," said Marrow, for once cutting Harriet off. The battle renewed then as Penny charged in, sending all of her blades after Vine who managed to roll out of the way and send his aura arms swinging towards Ruby and the others. Weiss was quick to summon a glyph to repel the arms while Ruby quickly sped towards Marrow and slashed at him with her scythe, forcing the currently aura-less fighter back.

At the same time, Penny had just begun calling her blades back to her before Harriet suddenly leapt up and grabbed a hold of one of them. Elm was quick to reach out with her hammer, allowing the speedster to latch onto it as they both pulled with all of their might. Penny was turned around backwards as she increased the thrust in her foot jets to keep from being yanked to the ground. The result was her durable wire broke free from its housing within her pack, surprising the android girl as she spun forward in the air a bit before righting herself.

"Let's go," grunted Elm once she saw Harriet had Penny's sword. The other Ace Ops disengaged from their own fights and leapt over the railing down to the door below, with Marrow taking one last, unsure glance at them before jumping down himself.

"Uh, that was," Weiss tried to think of a good way to phrase it. Blake beat her to it.

"Very, very suspicious," said Blake as she lifted up Nora and slung her arm over her shoulder.

"Nora," said Penny as she flew down to check on the still unconscious hammer girl. She flinched a little upon contact with the huntress's hammer, the electrical charge in it still somewhat present from the use of Nora's semblance. But with a little assistance, Penny gathered Nora up in her arms with Wayne slinging Magnhild on his back in its grenade launcher form before the group fled to the hangar.

A Few Minutes Later

Thanks to Ruby's semblance, the journey back down and to the hangar didn't take terribly long at all. But a slight feeling of dismay settled over the group as the automatic doors to the hangar opened to reveal what seemed to be a completely empty bay. "May," said Wayne as he caught her scent, "please tell me there's a ship in here."

"Step on over and find out," said May's seemingly disembodied voice with a whistle. That was all the signal the group needed to head forward until they passed through the invisible field of the Happy Huntress's semblance. "We're already to-what happened?"

"Nora's in bad shape," explained Blake as May caught sight of the injured huntress in Penny's arms, "we need to get her out of here and somewhere safe." May simply nodded in understanding as she opened the manta ray-like ship's large windows. Everyone quickly piled in and, after a quick preflight check, they were on their way out of the hangar and flying away from Atlas.

Now, it was an impressive craft that their Happy Huntress companion had procured, and its speed and maneuverability were top notch. But the seating capacity had clearly been set up for a maximum of five people, resulting in Weiss sitting in Wayne's lap. Under any other circumstances, it would've been considered amusing, however, with Nora laying in the floor injured, no one commented on the sight.

"I'm, so, so sorry," said Penny, "If I hadn't let my frustration get the better of me, we all could've fought together, and Nora-."

"It's alright Penny," said Ruby as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "We all should've seen that coming. But we're out of there now, and with some time and rest, Nora should be able to pull through just fine."

"Yes, time," said Penny, "and now that we're out of there, it is time for me to go, isn't it?"

"We'll see each other again really soon," said Ruby as she hugged her friend close to her, "I promise." Penny nodded before returning the hug.

"I'm going too," said Wayne suddenly, "you can carry one person on your back, right?"

"What, Wayne!" Said Weiss as she stood up, "what do you mean you're going too?"

"It's like you both said earlier," explained the Half-Bear Faunus, "the Ace Ops taking off like that, very suspicious. As long as the possibility exists that someone could interfere with the launch, it might be best if Pietro had an extra hand up there, especially if Salem decides to make a move on Amity."

"But the colosseum will be launching straight up into the atmosphere," said Blake, "if you're on it when it launches, it'll be pretty much a one-way trip."

"Not necessarily," said Wayne as he pulled out his scroll and flipped through a few files on Amity. He'd figured a while back that it might be a good idea to have at least a rough idea of the project and how it worked. This particular file he'd come across when the question crossed his mind of what Amity would do if it started to crash. "Part of the additions they'd made to Amity colosseum in preparation for it being sent up was the installation of escape pods, and especially durable ones at that."

"Wayne is correct," said Penny as she quickly accessed the same files in her memory banks, "had the launch proceeded as planned, a team of technicians and maintenance workers would've been on board the tower to keep it functioning and to fix any unforeseen problems. While androids had been suggested, the lack of knowledge on how such a high altitude might affect them ultimately led to the decision of having a flesh and blood crew. Of course, there was always the possibility that the tower might malfunction and crash. So, in order to ensure the crew's safety, escape pods similar to huntsmen academy weapon lockers were installed."

"They're rated for high impact landings," Wayne picked up for her as he put his scroll away, "once we get high enough in the launch, I can rocket back down to Mantle, and you guys can swing by and give me a ride."

"But Penny's a maiden," said Weiss, "between her and Maria, she should be-." Weiss was silenced by Wayne putting a finger to her lips.

"I know you don't want me to go," said Wayne, "honestly, I'm gonna miss you while I'm up there. But like Ruby said, we'll see each other again soon. For now, get back to Mantle. The people are gonna need all the help they can get, and should the need arise, and I have to use my Aura Shadow, it'll be safer if I used it at the colosseum." Weiss looked away for a moment, pouting because she wanted to argue further but couldn't think of anything to say.

Finally, she let out a sigh before pulling Wayne into passionate kiss. The huntsman hesitated only for a moment before putting his hands on her back and pulling her closer. "You remember what you told me once," said Weiss after they separated, "that you always keep your word. Give me your word now, that you'll do everything you can to come back to us."

"You have my word," said Wayne with a single nod of his head, determination burning in his eyes. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to be enough for Weiss as she gave Wayne one last kiss before he stood up and grabbed onto Penny. May opened the cockpit windows then as the Maiden and Silent Fury gave one last salute and flew off into the distance. And they would meet again, though the circumstances would be even less ideal then.

Whew, a fair bit happening this chapter and now, our heroes have split up even more to make sure their goals are accomplished. Will this turn out to be a wise decision, or a rather big mistake? Well, while we're waiting to find that out, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as Aegis's group runs into a few unexpected obstacles in their pursuit of the hound. 'Til then.