King: Big new chapter baby!

Knox: What took it so long?

King: Smash Ultimate happened.

Knox: Fair enough.

King: Alright. Let's go!

Knox: Hey, real quick...

King: What's up?

Knox: Why don't you say 'hope you enjoy' anymore?

King: What?

Knox: You haven't said 'hope you enjoy' in a while.

King: Huh... I guess when we started these opening skits, I stopped saying it as often. Well, hope you enjoy the chapter.

Inspiration: Metal Gear Solid

/\

After their party, everyone gathered in the theater again. A few among them took up new seating arrangements. Salem was now sitting behind Jaune and his team, now that she had family in the audience, kind of but close enough for her.

And so, the next world began as the screen came to life.

The scene opened to an old Atlassian military base, specifically the base nearby the city of Argus. Soldiers opened the gate for a military truck entering the base before slamming it shut again. The camera followed the truck until it stopped in front of the supply station. One of the soldiers walked up and opened the back, carrying a box inside.

"Okay." Yang leaned back, "Where is this going?"

When the soldier returned, one the boxes was on the ground instead of in the truck. This got him to pause long enough for a pair of hands to reach out from the truck and pull him inside. There was a muffled sound before a man in the soldier's uniform hopped out of the truck, his face obscured. His blonde hair pokes out from under the military cap.

Jaune blinked, "So… that's supposed to be me?"

"Most likely. But it wouldn't be the first trick if it isn't." Neptune crossed his arms.

As Jaune moved, a voice rang in his head, "Okay. The data is in the upper command room." The voice was that of Oscar, oddly. "The problem is getting there."

Oscar blinked. He was somewhat used to Ozpin being his head, but he never thought about what would happen later. Would he be the next voice in someone's head?

Jaune spoke to Oscar in silence. "So, you said there was a problem?"

"Very funny. But the point still stands. This is Atlas we're talking about. Not some two-bit, we'll-take-anyone group like the White Fang. This is the Atlas Military, the most disciplined and well-equipped fighting force on Remnant!"

Ironwood and Winter felt a real pride hearing that. Even if it wasn't actually them, it felt good that their military force was still the best of the best.

Jaune walked through the halls, avoiding people just enough to not arouse suspicion. "How about you stop sucking Ironwood's Irondick and transmat the floor plan to my eye."

Qrow broke out into laughter. Not because of the joke, he's made it too often to count, but because of Winter's reaction.

Oscar sighed. "Alright. Plans are on route."

Jaune tipped his hat up a bit, revealing his eyepatch-thing. However, this was actually a multi-use device designed to appear as such. Within the small frame was radar, thermal vison, motion sensors, and a telescopic lens.

Ruby geeked out a bit, "Woah! That's crazy! Can that actually be made?"

Jaune blinked, "How did they make it so small?" This got people to look toward him, confused. "One of my sisters has a knack for this kind of stuff. She made something similar, but she can't get it any smaller than a visor since she tends to add so much."

Salem leaned forward, "Marie?"

"Yep."

"Of course…"

It was easy to disguise as an eyepatch, but held so much. What it didn't hold was his communication system. That was via nano-machine technology planted into his mind. This allowed him to contact Oscar without speaking out loud.

Gira raised an eyebrow, "Well, that's pretty interesting. How would that work?"

Jaune shook his head, "I'm sure Marie could explain it, but good luck understanding her… I swear you need a 300 IQ just to talk to her."

The scene flipped to a series of monitors. Behind them all was Oscar, dressed rather shabbily and with a pair of glasses reflecting the screens. The reflection showed the soldiers finding their unconscious comrade on the truck. "They found your work."

The camera returned to Jaune as he ducked into a storage closet. When he came back out, he was dressed in a skin-tight grey suit. "Just means I can get to work my way." His suit turned himself completely invisible, unseen by the guards passing nearby.

Everyone was genuinely shocked, which was hard given their location. But seeing him, then not? That was rare.

The guards pass in a rush.

Oscar groaned on the other side of the codec system, "Get the drive to the console and get out of there."

"Already on it." Jaune moved, invisible to the world, through the base. The only way the audience saw him was the occasional flicker. After a while, he reached the console room. He lightly opened the door and peaked inside to see two guards sitting at the station. He growled under his breath before slowly crawling over to the console to minimize his presence. Once he arrived, he plugged in a small drive. "Hurry up and download it."

"Oh please. I'm already done. Just need to decrypt. Shouldn't be more than a few seconds." The scene changed to Oscar typing on his system.

Nora groaned, "This is boring…"

Ren shrugged, "I like it. Like a spy thriller."

"But nothing's happened!"

Oscar bit into a cookie when he saw a certain file, nearly choking on his snack. He slammed the communication line to Jaune, "Snake! The Atlas Project is a Metal Gear!"

"Snake?" Neptune half-smiled with a raised brow.

"Likely a codename." Weiss determined. "More importantly, what's a Metal Gear?"

"Yeah…" The scene changed to Jaune standing over the unconscious guards, a massive robotic frame outside the window looking in on him. "I've noticed."

Nora paused, blinked, then grinned, "Woah! Giant robots!"

RWBY wasn't all that impressed. They fought a giant mech before, right?

Oh, how naïve they are~

The mech leaned to place its Gatling gun on the window before opening fire into the room. Jaune was able to avoid the bullets and leapt from a nearby side window. Jaune looked up to the mech, easily 13 meters tall.

Eyes turned to Velvet. "A bit over 42 feet."

Yang recoiled a bit, "Well… Glad we didn't have to fight that…"

The mech stomped forward and looked down toward the intruder.

Jaune ducked behind a large chunk of the base for cover, "Oscar! Do those plans tell you how to stop this thing?"

"I'm looking! But it'll take time! Wait a second…"

The mech roared and a pod on the side opened.

"Snake! That thing's packing nukes!"

Chills ran up all but Jaune's spines.

Blake shook in her chair. "Nukes?"

Jaune was out of the loop, so he had to ask, "What's a nuke?"

"It's…" Pyrrha stalled, "It was a type of explosive we saw you create in another world. A single bomb fell onto a city and destroyed it, completely destroying the area."

"That's… that's possible?"

"We don't know yet. We kind of hope it isn't in our world."

Jaune looked up at the mech, "No shit, Sherlock. That's what a Metal Gear was designed for." Jaune pulled a small pin and caused the canister to unleash green smoke. "Let's bring this thing down." He tossed the canister under the mech's legs. It looked toward the smoke and then to the skies. A small drone flew over and dropped a small bomb on the Gear. Nowhere near powerful enough to stop it, but enough to distract it as it dropped a package for Jaune nearby. Jaune picked up the materials from his position. The mech watched the drone and started to lock onto the aircraft. Before it could fire, Jaune rolled out from the cover with a rocket launcher over his shoulders. He fired the RPG toward the mech and knocked it off balance.

Jaune ducked back behind cover as the mech's miniguns roared again. "Oscar! Intel! Now!"

"I'm working on it! Okay! Metal Gear Titan. The frame is a repurposed Rex model with better armor and weapons. Twin miniguns, rocket pods, anti-personnel flamethrowers, and three intercontinental nuclear missles. It uses one of those Knight bots as a pilot. And before you ask, it's off the main connections. It only responds to specific verbal orders. You'll need to be more direct."

"Care to send me something to break that armor then?"

"On its way."

Ironwood's eyes narrowed. He didn't like this. Ever since he saw the nuclear bomb, he hated the implications that could come. But knowing an alternate version of his own military created something for the purpose of launching one of those… things? That pissed him off. He was actually rooting for Arc to beat Atlas's new monster.

Jaune dove to avoid more gunfire as the miniguns ripped through his concrete haven. He loaded another rocket and fired into the side of the mech's leg, knocking it down onto one knee. There was no lasting damage, but it slowed down long enough for Jaune to duck behind a new piece of cover.

"Jaune. I got you a little something." The drone from before appeared and dropped a crate next to Jaune.

He opened the crate to find a sniper rifle and a set of three small grenades. "Oscar…"

"Just trust me. Take that thing down!"

"How would that stop that thing?" Yang glanced toward Ruby for an answer.

Ruby, however, just shrugged, "Not sure. The rifle is high power, but unless it comes with heavy piercing ammo, which it wouldn't at that size, it won't be able to puncture the frame. At best, it would break through thinner plating and metals."

Jaune looked to the grenades and the rifle and back again. "That might work…"

"What might?"

Jaune tossed a grenade under the mech's leg. When it burst, however, it wasn't an explosion but a pulse wave. This was a localized EMP capable of knocking out most tech.

Ruby blinked in surprise, "That's a thing?"

Weiss nodded, "Yeah. They're not used very often since most people don't use too much tech in actual fights. At best, you'd only be able to keep someone from shifting their weapon's form."

The mech was well designed and required prolonged wave exposure. Which was why Oscar gave him three. Two more bursts brought the mech down for a reboot. Thus, began the endgame. The canopy opened up to reveal the mechanical pilot inside. The Rex frame would be its undoing. Oscar had deliberately programmed the Metal Gear with that flaw, forcing the pilot to be seen at all times.

Oscar's breathing paused. He designed one of those things? He created a walking nuke launcher?

Jaune leveled his rifle toward the pilot and fired the bullet strait for the exposed bot. The world went into slow motion, following the bullet as it flew into the robot's head. The head flew back and the canopy slammed shut.

Tai blinked at the scene. It was a cool shot, but something had to be asked, "Did it work?"

Oscar had the same question. "Well? Is it offline?"

"Oscar… be honest… is it ever that easy?"

The mech let out a giant burst of steam before beginning to stand up again. It roared and three missiles appeared from within the frame.

"What's it doing?"

"I'm looking into it. There was nothing else but the obvious specs in the Titan file. I'm looking at the others as they… what the hell?" After a moment, Oscar screamed, "Snake! That thing has a doomsday program! If it loses connection with Atlas, it'll fire it's nukes at preprogramed targets!"

Winter groaned, "A dead man's switch…" The principle was simple. If the person let's go of the switch, a reaction would follow. Trains use them to brake and avoid runaways.

Jaune growled. "How long until launch?!"

"Five minutes!"

The missiles don't arm until they're airborne to avoid a premature explosion on site. All he has to do is keep them from launching. Thankfully, the Titan had to remain still to calibrate the launch. He climbed up the mech and onto the jawline. He hit an emergency switch on the side and forced the cockpit back open. He cut the ties to the Knight and tossed it onto the ground below.

Penny would find the series of events rather disturbing, but knew the Knights were less robot and more tool with a rudimentary AI. There was also the fact that Jaune was trying to prevent a nuclear attack! Screw that mechanical asshat! Go Jaune!

He hopped into the seat and looked at the console. It was almost identical to the Rex model. "Didn't think Atlas was that dedicated to recycling." He started to work through the launch sequences and tried to shut it down. After a while, he slammed his fist onto the console. "Locked down…" He growled and swung back onto the outer frame, climbing up to the top of the mech. If he could remove the missiles from the mech, he could prevent the launch, but it would risk setting something off. Best option he had right now. He ran over to the missiles and started to get to work.

Everyone was silently watching, hoping he'd succeed in stopping the launch. All but one, but Cinder was always a strange one like that.

He was able to break the link between two of the rockets before the third started to launch, fire roaring out from it's back. It started to push forward on its stand.

Breaths were held. Would they have to see another explosion like that?

Jaune shot the stand with the rifle from before and knocked the stand to the side, causing the missile to crash into the fortress. The missile was grounded while still unarmed. Unable to reach the appropriate altitude for attack, the missile remained docile.

Cheers erupted around the room for Jaune's success.

Jaune let out a breath before sitting on top of the mech. He pulled out a cigarette and just enjoyed the peace with a smoke.

Jaune didn't like the idea of smoking, so this was an odd sight.

A few eyes turned to Roman, expecting a reaction or something, but he just rolled his eyes.

Jaune let out a puff of smoke. "Mission Complete."