Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.
A/N: OK, I worked slowly on this as beta's under the weather but said to continue without until they feel better and I slowly worked to stretch out the time until then.
REMEMBER TO VOTE IF YOU HAVEN'T!
Beta: ANUBIS the god king (Habit to put this up)
Chapter XLI.
Last Time.
"You know, you make the trip up to Atlas over and over, but you never get used to that view," Maria states before her prosthetic eyes start to act up again. "Oh, come on!"
Weiss leaned forward and had a nervous look on her face before Naruto grabbed her hand in his. "What's up?"
Everyone looks up, and notices above the city of Atlas many Atlas Airships. "The Atlas air fleet... I knew all of our ships were called back, but..."
"They're set up like they're expecting an attack…" Qrow states as they all look forward as suddenly, the radio turns on.
"Air Control Manta 5-1, welcome home…"
Salem's Hideout Land Of Darkness.
In the Land of Darkness, Mercury Black is seen looking out the window in the meeting room as Emerald then walks in. "Mercury, I wanted to…" Suddenly, she notices Mercury's face has an expression of horror as he looks out the window before Emerald looks to where he's looking. "What is she doing?"
Outside, a Beringel is crawling out of one of the black, tar-like pits, with Salem herself standing close by. She then uses her magic as Nevermore's wings suddenly sprout from the back of the Beringel. The Beringel gets used to its new appendages, before flying up to join many other Beringels also grafted with wings as Emerald and Mercury continue to watch in horror.
"There's an old saying."
The two notice Hazel enter the room and stand next to them. "If you want something done right... do it yourself."
Salem looks up to the army of Grimm she has gathered, before turning around and using her magic on the black pools again.
Now.
Outskirts Of Atlas.
Manta airships patrol the skies around the City of Atlas, communicating with each other over the radio. As Maria pilots the group's stolen Manta toward the city, they receive radio contact from a female officer. "Manta 5-1. Welcome home. Please continue your approach to Atlas docking bay Omega-12. A security team will meet you there. Over."
Ruby and the others aboard Manta 5-1 look around at the large military air fleet surrounding the kingdom's capital. "I don't understand. What's happening here?" Ruby asks from the front as she looks back.
"I don't know." row shrugs at his niece as Jaune steps forward.
"But we are here. We got the lamp to Atlas, so I guess we land and get some answers."
"I'm not so sure." Weiss muses. "I've never seen our forces deployed so aggressively before. If we land in a stolen ship, there's no way the security team will let us anywhere near Ironwood. They might even take me back to my father."
Blake gains a saddened look, while Ruby and Yang Long look at each other, uncertain of what to do. "So…"
Weiss, having gotten an idea, suddenly looks up. "Winter!" Weiss brings out her Scroll. "Put some distance between us and the fleet."
Maria nods at that. "You don't have to tell me twice."
As Weiss walks to the back of the ship, Maria steers the ship toward Mantle. As people wander the streets of Mantle, the group looks over the city through the Manta's windows. They fly past a giant screen on the side of a skyscraper. Ironwood's voice comes from the screen, catching Ruby and Yang's attention.
They see a video of James playing him now having unkempt hair and a beard.
"We cannot express our appreciation enough. Many describe these as uncertain times, and while that may be the case for the rest of the world, I can tell you what is certain. The Kingdom of Atlas will remain strong, and it will remain safe. That is my promise."
Ruby and Yang look saddened before the blonde speaks. "General Ironwood. He looks…"
"Tired."
Qrow sighs before speaking. "James, what have you been doing?"
They looked down and saw four Atlesian Knight-200s walking down a street in Mantle, while civilians around them complained about their presence.
Naruto looks back and sees a small drone floating along a sidewalk, while a pair of small children hide in an alley. One of the children picks up a rock and throws it at the drone, which spins around to look, prompting the children to hide against the wall. Weiss sadly stares out of Manta 5-1's window with her Scroll in her palm. Her Scroll is set to call Winter, who does not answer. "This isn't right. None of this is right."
Once again, the stolen Manta receives contact over the radio. "Manta 5-1, we've noticed a detour in your route. You are to make your way to docking bay Omega 12 immediately. Do you copy? Over."
"We're kind of running out of time here, kids," Maria says as Yang looks back.
"We need to ditch the ship."
"Agreed. Get lost in Mantle and buy ourselves some time." Qrow says as Weiss looks over.
"I'm telling you, my sister can take us to Ironwood."
Blake, who has been staring out of a window, looks over her shoulder and speaks up. "Uh, Weiss?"
Weiss walks over to Blake's side and looks out the window with her as a familiar voice plays from a giant screen. "A reminder."
"Huh?" She blinked looking at her sister who was on the screens now.
"Failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense. If your sector is under lockdown…"
"Winter?" Weiss asked in shock.
"No offense, Weiss. I'm not sure that's a good idea anymore."
Weiss tenses her shoulders and turns to Qrow, fists clenched only to have a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Naruto before calming down and looked at Qrow. "There's something very wrong. If we can just talk to her, then we-"
"Look, I'm not even sure we should be talking to Ironwood until we know exactly what's going on with Mantle." Qrow interrupted her.
"But-"
"Everyone, calm down. (Sigh) I know someone who can help with both." Maria says stopping the conversation.
"Manta 5-1, you are to make your-" Maria shut off the radio, and gave an annoyed sigh.
"Geez, lady, take a hint!"
Later, after landing the stolen Manta in Mantle, Maria cautiously exits an alley by slowly shuffling along with her cane. When she sees the coast is clear, she picks up her cane and walks normally, and everyone else exits the alley with her. In the distance, a small group of Atlas soldiers run down a street in the direction that Maria and the others came from. "It landed over there, let's go!"
The group begins walking through Mantle together. Trucks drive past, and Atlesian Knight-200s stand on various sidewalks. Naruto sees a small child place a poster of a white-haired woman on a street lamp. Then, he sees a hologram board displaying news articles with the following headlines.
"Missing Journalist Found Slain"
"Election Imminent Mantle Hometown Hero vs Atlesian Tycoon"
"Embargo The Right Call? Pressure and Criticism Continues to Mount on Council"
"Outer Wall Damaged Resources Stalled"
The group walks past a garage with graffiti art reading "Show Your Teeth"
"Come on now, hurry! It shouldn't be much of a walk." Maria says as Jaune looks around.
"Is this many soldiers normal?"
"No." Weiss shakes her head. "At least, I didn't think so."
Naruto holds her hand as they continue to walk.
At the back of the group, Yang notices a whirring sound and stops to take a look. "Huh?"
There is a small drone hovering to her right. The camera part of the drone lifts focused on her. When Yang shrugs it off and resumes walking, the drone follows her. She stops again and looks at it in surprise and confusion. As she leans in to take a closer look, the drone takes a photograph of her face with a bright flash, which Yang recoils from. In response, Yang kicks the drone, knocking it out of the air and causing it to tumble into the street, where it is struck by a car.
"Ooh…" Yang turns to see everyone else in the group staring at her. She awkwardly shifts her posture with a sheepish smile. "Maybe we should pick up the pace."
"You have to remember, the Kingdom had just lost the Great War. The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas. After all, a home in the clouds is as bright as it gets." Maria says as they continue walking.
They look up at the City of Atlas, while the earlier broadcast from Winter plays once again nearby. A pair of trucks drive by with miners, covered in black material, sitting in the beds. Posters depicting a white-haired woman are plastered across one of the buildings that the trucks pass, with the text "PROTECT MANTLE" printed on them.
"We are here for your safety. Thank you for your cooperation."
The Winter video plays again as Blake and Nora watch the second truck as it drives by.
Nora crosses her arms and looks away. "Unless you're the one having to look up at it."
"This whole city, it just seems awful," Blake mutters before they hear a drunk male voice.
"Yeah?"
They see a drunk man stumbling down from a porch. "You don't like it here? There's plenty of space out in the tundra."
Blake sighs before speaking. "Sorry, I didn't mean to!"
"Atlas is the greatest Kingdom in the world, all right?!"
Ruby steps forward to confront him. "Hey!"
Blake steps forward ahead of Ruby, speaking quietly to her. "We can't cause a scene."
The drunk man's equally drunk buddy speaks up. "The embargo... The embargo's got us in a rough patch. But it'll blow over, you'll see."
"We try and help the other Kingdoms, and this is what happens? I say let 'em rot!"
"I apologize. I didn't mean to insult you." Blake says to him.
The drunk man spits on the ground, glaring at Blake. "Stupid Faunus like you wouldn't under-!"
He looks down to unscrew his flask and pauses when he sees a black glyph beneath his feet. His glasses hover off his face as his eyes widen in surprise. The glyph flings him into the air, and he falls into a dumpster in the nearby alley, his glasses and flask accompanying him soon after. Yang, Nora, Blake, and Ruby stare at the dumpster, then turn to see Weiss pointing Myrtenaster where the man had been standing with Naruto reaching for his revolvers.
"It was worth it."
The group flees while a pair of Atlesian Knight-200s investigate. The man's drinking buddy hurries down from the porch and looks around in thought, before reaching out toward the girls. "Hey, wait! You're- That was-"
The drinking buddy trips and collapses to the sidewalk as Winter's broadcast is heard playing once again. "We are here for your safety. Thank you for your cooperation."
The group approaches a building with a glowing green plus symbol above its front door. The side door opens, and a Faunus with a prosthetic arm exits, waving cheerfully to the man who speaks to her from inside. "And no more heavy lifting, yah hear?"
"Ah, it's good to see you again, old friend," Maria said to an older man behind a desk, shuffling things around in a drawer. Maria clears her throat, startling him, and he lifts his head to look at her, shutting the drawer. Maria smiles at him.
He pushes papers aside revealing he has dark skin and short, balding white hair. He's wearing a green cap with oval-shaped glasses, a red vest over a cream shirt with a pink bowtie. His dark mustard pants and leather boots match his cap and red-brown belt.
"Ah, yes, yes. Have we met?"
"Well, this is off to a fantastic start." Ren muses as he walks in.
"Cybernetic optical implants." Maria deadpans as she points to her eyes. "You adjust them. Every ten years or so?"
He stares at her for a few moments before throwing his hands cheerfully into the air. "Maria!"
He comes around the desk revealing he's in a chair to aid himself with movement. This chair has four movable legs, and is white and green, with yellow accents.
"Yes, with the cybernetic optical implants! I adjust them every ten years or so." He offers his hand to her leads her to an examination table and laughs. "Oh wow, has it been that long already?"
"Ah, I know. I age like a fine wine. Would've been here sooner if I hadn't run into these jokers. At the time, I thought they might need my guidance while fighting a little old Sphinx."
"Oh, did they?"
"No, no. They had much more complicated issues." Maria replies before Qrow clears his throat.
"And this is?"
"So impatient. I didn't think I'd need to introduce one of Atlas' finest minds."
"Working in a place like this?" Yang asks crossing her arms under her bust as the building creaks and a ceiling tile falls to the floor.
"He likes to keep a low profile. Something I've come to realize none of you know anything about." Maria replies to her.
"You can call me Pietro." Pietro introduces himself.
"Finest heart, too. This pharmacy is just where he volunteers when he's not building the future of Atlas alongside Ironwood, up in the clouds." Maria explains to them.
"Oh, it's stuffy up there. Down here, I get to help the locals and have a little fun. I'm currently working on shoes that make you dance. Wanna try 'em on?"
"YES!"
Nora exclaimed jumping as Naruto held her down. She puffed her cheeks before Naruto gave her a chaste kiss. "Before we get to that, we were wondering if you could help us. We came to Atlas hoping to talk to General Ironwood, but um…" Yang trailed off as Blake looked up.
"What exactly has been happening here?"
"Well, the Fall of Beacon took a toll on all of us. James was no different. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was he saw there, but it changed him. He's…" Pietro trailed off as Qrow sighed.
"He's scared."
"Paranoid would be the more appropriate term. You have to understand, that it wasn't just the Grimm. Someone completely dismantled Atlas security code, made it their play-thing, and made us look like traitors to some and buffoons to everyone else. Whoever managed to do that is either a genius or one of our own. I fear the answer may be both, and so does the general." Pietro explained to them as Ren put a hand to his chin.
"Maybe Atlas isn't as safe as we thought."
"After we came all this way, we can't just leave, can we?" Oscar asks them as Pyrrha takes a step forward.
"No, people are counting on us!"
"That's my Pyrrha!"
The redhead blushed at Naruto's words as Weiss stepped up.
"How does the council feel about all of this? Or Winter Schnee? Do you know anything about her?"
"Well, the council's so scared, they'll agree to whatever he wants. Though, some representatives from Mantle… Wait, you're… You're Weiss Schnee!"
Weiss gasps and steps back, with her friends looking nervous.
"Wait, what was it that you were trying to say about Mantle?"
"You're Team RWBY!" Pietro exclaims as Ruby blinks.
"You know us?!"
"Oh, my girl, I do. I most certainly do. And I feel like such a dunce for not recognizing you sooner. My daughter's told me so much about you."
"Your… daughter?"
AWWOOO!
Their conversation is interrupted by the sound of an alarm and people screaming. Outside, civilians are running, and the lights from the street lamps have turned red.
"Ah, trouble," Jaune says as the others readied their weapons and ran outside.
The group runs outside. "Wait!"
Everyone in the group draws their weapons. Upon drawing her katana, Blake looks at the broken blade, exhaling sharply before folding the blade down to wield it as a gun. "I guess the city defenses aren't doing much," Oscar says as Nora glances back.
"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."
Down the road from them, growling is heard, and an Atlesian Knight-200 is thrown against a lamp post. Another robot is thrown, and three more back up into view, shooting at Sabyrs, who tackle and destroy them one by one. "Well, we didn't come this far to fail now!"
Ruby changes Crescent Rose into scythe form and aims the sniper barrel toward the Sabyrs, which finish destroying the Atlesian Knight-200s and charge toward her and her friends. Everyone readies their weapons. Yang charges forth using the recoil from her gauntlets, followed by Ren launching himself forward.
"Hey!"
Getting an idea, Nora looks at Jaune, who looks startled. She uses Magnhild to pole vault toward Jaune, who puts up his shield in response, allowing her to land on it. She then kicks off from his shield, launching herself. After Yang uppercuts a Sabyr, Ren lands on another one's back, stabbing his gun's blades into it, and it leaps into the air to knock him off, only for Nora to slam it to the ground with her hammer. Jaune beheads a Sabyr, and when a second one leaps at him, he blocks with his shield and stabs it just above its collarbone.
Qrow slices two Sabyrs in half and leans back to dodge a third as it attempts to tackle him. He transforms Harbinger into scythe mode and uses it to hook the Grimm as it makes another attempt to tackle him. As he finishes spinning his scythe, he plants its blade into the ground and punches another Sabyr in the head, then uppercuts it into the air. He then kicks Harbinger upward, catches it, straightens the blade, impales the Sabyr, and slices another one that leaps at him from behind the deceased Sabyr's smoke.
"Are we gonna let them have all the fun?" Naruto asks pulling Fox Bolt out and changing it to his trident form.
"Why not use those jujitsu's?"
Naruto's eyebrow twitched at Natsu who readied his gauntlets. "Jutsu… I still don't know which ones, if any would be effective on Grimm… Or if they need a certain one to take them down. Weapons are proven to work."
His team ran forward and attacked while Qrow shot at more Sabyrs, and another one turned its attention to Oscar. It charges him, and he leaps into the air and stabs at its skull with Ozpin's cane. While he watches it die, another one leaps at him from behind, only to be sniped by Ruby, who smiles and nods to Oscar.
Ruby transforms her rifle back into scythe mode and runs forward. As a Sabyr leaps at her, she does a flip and slices it in half. She continues running, fires Crescent Rose, and begins using her Semblance to speed down the street, before appearing to split into three blurs of red that go around a Sabyr, which splits apart with a roar.
"(ROAR!)"
The blurs converge and transform back into Ruby, who stabs the tip of her scythe into the asphalt, swinging forward on it and landing on the ground. She fires Crescent Rose and lets go of it, sending it spinning through a Sabyr and into the air. She leaps onto and kicks off another Sabyr, spinning and catching her scythe.
She fires Crescent Rose to keep up the momentum and slams the blade into the ground, sending out a shockwave that takes out two more Sabyrs. After Weiss slices through a Sabyr, four more come running toward her from another street. She casts four black glyphs, using them to levitate the Grimm.
As they flail helplessly in the air, Ren leaps from Sabyr to Sabyr, cutting each of them in half as Pyrrha throws her shield to bounce off between several and then back to her hand. She threw it again then used her spear's rifle form to shoot at more before catching her shield and turning to slam it into a Sabyr as Haru dropped down and sliced its head off.
Meanwhile, another Sabyr attempts to run up behind Yang while she finishes one off, only to be shot by Blake, who smiles and nods to Yang. Suddenly, another Sabyr leaps into the air behind Blake, who gasps and turns to face it. Before she can fight back, a green laser fires from the sky, cutting the Grimm in half.
More lasers shoot from above, striking down the remaining Grimm. The alarms throughout the city stop and the street lamps change back to their normal color. Everyone watches as a figure with long hair flies into view, with green jets coming from her feet. She twirls in the air and slowly descends. Pietro and Maria walk outside to join the group, while Ruby stares at the girl before gasping and gaining a look of recognition.
"Penny!"
Penny's hair is significantly longer and curled inwards at the tips and she has on a black fabric bow under a pink metal bow that had a golden outlined green power symbol, but the ahoge remained and was more prominent. Penny also has on an olive green German-styled dress with a black hem that was striped with emerald green.
The abdominal region is black with four golden buttons with matching buckles on her shoulder straps. She also has an off-white blouse with puffy shoulders, frilled flared cuffs, and vertical black lining down the front center. Her collar piece did away with the green accents and was instead finished with a black ribbon, and black metal leg pieces that ran up to her thighs, both having a green stripe that ran down the sides, with a large green circle at the top and a small one at the bottom, both outlined with gold.
The knee pieces of her legs are heavily defined to look separate from the rest of the leg pieces. She has a trio of jets in the lower rear part of her legs and a pair of black low-heeled metal boots with the tops hidden by the lower part of her leg pieces.
In addition, she also wore a pair of black lacy cuffed gloves with golden stud detailing on the knuckles. She also retained her silver backpack on her back carrying Floating Array.
"Darling, why don't you say hello to your friends?"
Penny turns to look in the direction her father's voice came from. Upon seeing Ruby, she gasps and her eyes shine with joy. Ruby smiles and puts her weapon away as Penny leans forward a little. "Sal…"
"Huh?" Ruby blinks in confusion.
Penny lowers to one knee as a high-pitched charging noise is heard. "U…"
"Uh…?"
Penny begins gleefully sprinting toward Ruby at high speed. "TATIONS!" Penny leaps and activates her jets, rocketing forward and tackling Ruby, who flails her hands around in front of her and screams, eyes wide. Upon crashing to the ground, Ruby groans in pain. Everyone else puts their weapons away and approaches the pair. Penny pops back up onto her feet, while Ruby slowly rises with her hand on her head. "It is such a pleasure to see you all again!"
"Penny, I… I-I thought you…"
"Died?" Pietro asks riding his chair over to Penny's side. "I guess she did. But we were able to recover her core from Amity Arena once it had made its way back to Atlas. It took me some time, but…"
"I'm as good as new! Better, even! And now I'm the official protector of the city!"
"That's my girl. We're not going to let a little ripping to shreds stop us, are we?" Pietro asks with a laugh then coughs.
"No sir!" Penny smiles knocking on her head with a clanking sound.
"This is…" Weiss trails as Blake looks over.
"Strangely wholesome."
"Sounds like Penny to me."
"A robot?"
Shiki appeared beside Penny pointing at her arm as Penny blinked
"Yep!" Penny excitedly grabs Ruby's shoulders. "We have so many things to catch up about. I cannot wait!"
AAAWOOO!
Just as Penny finishes her sentence with a grin, the city's alarms begin blaring again. "It seems we will have to wait." Penny bounces backward and salutes. As she charges her jets and then rockets off into the sky, she continues speaking quickly to Ruby even as she takes off. "Let's talk more later! I can't wait to hear about all of your adventures and tell you how I have been and I am just very excited about the whole experience!"
"I can't tell if I completely understand what's going on or have, like, a million questions." Nora walked up as Pyrrha sighed.
"Feel better?" Naruto asks placing a hand on her shoulder.
"A little yes."
Smiling, Naruto kisses the top of her head as he pulls her close.
"Let's get out of this weather first," Pietro says as Maria nods.
"I have absolutely no idea who that child was. Is she important somehow?"
"That was unexpected," Jaune says as Ren looks over.
"Never a dull moment."
"But I wouldn't say unwelcome. I was honestly expecting things to go a lot rougher." Qrow mutters as the group begins following Maria and Pietro.
However, as they walk, Ren senses something behind them. Before anyone can react, several bolases wrap around Nora, Oscar, Jaune, and Ren, the spheres at the ends of the ropes locking into place with Gravity Dust. Blake turns to look back at the commotion, just in time for all of Team RWBY and SHNN to be caught.
As Ruby lands, the Relic of Knowledge comes unhooked from her belt and clatters to the ground. Qrow draws his sword and looks for their unseen enemy before being captured himself. Five uniform-clad people come out of hiding and surround the group.
"Good work, team."
A man with short brown hair and teal-green eyes said. He's wearing a sleeveless Atlesian Specialist uniform that consisted of a white sleeveless double-breasted coat with red and blue accents with ornate detailing shaped to the form of wishbones, a broad tail with red lining and a four-leaf clover pin on the lapel. His belt has a rabbit's foot key chain hanging off it. White pants and covered his hands with brown fingerless gloves. He also has blue calf high boots with four dark blue straps and silver steel toe plating.
"Hey! What's going on?!" Oscar says as Qrow glared.
"Hey, pal! I'm a licensed Huntsman! Just helped save everyone?"
The man looks down at Qrow, twirling a horseshoe on his finger. He puts the horseshoe away and picks up Qrow's weapon. The other uniformed operatives begin gathering everyone else's weapons, while Atlesian Knight-200s approach, and the operatives hand the confiscated weapons to the robots. He then approaches Ruby, picks up the Relic, and looks at it.
"Hm. Let's get them loaded into the next transport."
"Please! We were just trying to help!" Ruby pleads as Pietro comes over.
"What is the meaning of this? (Cough!) What are the Ace-Ops even doing down here in Mantle?"
"Ruby Ace-Ops?" Ruby blinks as the man looks at Pietro.
"Doctor, good to see you. Well, we heard a report of an unauthorized ship making an unauthorized landing, followed by an unauthorized use of weapons by unlicensed Huntsmen."
Maria turns and walks away as Pietro speaks. "If we could just talk this out!"
The man tossed the Relic from one hand to the other. "They'll be able to talk this out once they get to Atlas. Let's move out!"
The Ace-Ops split up and left the area. Team RWBY, Team SHNN, Team JNPR, Oscar, and Qrow are forced into the back of a secure van with their wrists bound.
"Hey, you motherfu-!" Naruto was silenced as the doors slammed shut on him and the others.
To Be Continued.
A/N: Thanks for reading and let me know of any mistakes.
Beta: ANUBIS the god king (Habit to put this up)
OK, I worked slowly on this as beta's under the weather but said to continue without until they feel better and I slowly worked to stretch out the time until then.
REMEMBER TO VOTE IF YOU HAVEN'T!
Next to be updated will be A Fox In Middleton tomorrow or the next day!
Nothing else to say.
Talk To You Later,
Lone Wolf Out.🐺