41

The infiltration went off without a hitch. Ilia received some suspicious looks but after showing her scales, the front guards have left her alone. Blake's and Sun's animal features are very visible so nobody gave them a second glance. Except a deer girl who was unashamedly staring at Sun's abs so much that even the mask didn't help it.

"Ilia, do you see anything?" Blake whispered.

"Three people here are dangerous, the rest are fodder." Ilia replied, her semblance scrying through the warehouse and the surrounding area. She nodded towards the large man with a full face mask who was setting up the platform. "He is one. One is on the roof and the last one is behind the curtain."

"Do you recognize the one in the back or above?" Blake already knew Adam's favorite lieutenant. Or bootlicker. It would be a much more appropriate title.

Suddenly, the light went off. A second later two projectors lit up and illuminated the podium.

Ugh… What a farce. What kind of clown did Adam put in charge of the recruiting? Blake thought as she watched the curtain slowly separate.

"Ladies and gentleman!" A voice rang out and a familiar figure emerged into the light.

No fucking way!

-BBW-

"This was a waste of time." Yang grumbel before sipping on her drink. At least she got compensation.

Junior knew jack. Frankly, she knew more about what Torchwick was up to than he did. And now with their 'mission' invalidated she had to wait for others to report so they can figure out what to do next.

And keep an eye on the idiot… I won't hear the end of it if the twins put him down in some alley. Or their bedroom.

/

Well, let's get the show going.

Weiss pressed the call button and waited for the video-call to connect. After five seconds the image of an average receptionist appeared on the screen.

"Good afternoon, how can I- Miss Schnee?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "I apologize but Mr. Schnee is currently in a meeting. I can take a message if you wish."

"That would be unnecessary." She said evenly, hiding the relief that she wouldn't have to deal with her father. "I need a report on everything that was reported as stolen from the SDC within the last…year." Whatever was happening was much larger than some petty theft or individual acts of terrorism. She needed to get a bigger picture.

"I'm not sure if that would be ap-" The receptionist seemed unsure about completing her request. Ivory didn't give her the choice.

"Excuse me but at what company do you work?" Ivory calmly asked while directing an intense stare at the fidgeting receptionist.

"S-...SD-"

"Schnee Dust Company. Now please, tell me who I am?"

"Can you stop being such a terrible person to 99% of people we meet?"

She is an employee of our company. I expect her to do her job properly.

"The heiress…"

"Yes." Ivory connected her scroll to the terminal. "Now send me the requested documents."

"Of course." She started the transfer. A short time later, she looked back at the heiress, a small amount of fear in her eyes. "I'm sorry but some of the documents are classified under the military law. I can't access those."

Weiss frowned after she took control, lest Ivory scared the poor woman into quitting. "Can you at least see when the incidents occurred and which subdivision reported on it?"

She started typing again. "Yes, one was almost a year ago from the RnD and the other one was two months ago from the heavy industry."

"Send me everything you can access on the second one. The first is illerewant."

A lot of stolen high-end tech… do you think the same?

"Eh, probably. At least she is putting it to good use."

You mean to use it for you.

"...maybe."

/

"Penny! Wait!" Ruby shouted as she chased after her fleeing friend.

How the hell can she move so fast through this crowd?!

Ruby jumped to a first floor balcony and looked down on the people that had gathered to watch the little show put up by the Atlesian army. She found Penny soon enough but it now seemed that running away from her wasn't a priority. Instead she anxiously watched as two soldiers pointed at her and started walking towards her.

Penny ran into the smaller streets. Ruby was already ignoring the rules by using her semblance with civilians around so she might have gone all the way as well. Bursting into a cloud of red petals she went for the roofs.

At least it was easy to keep her eyes on Penny. Her ginger hair really did stand out.

"Penny!" Ruby jumped down in front of her as soon as she emerged from a dark alleyway into a larger street. "Please! Tell me what's wrong!"

Penny was obviously starting to panic. "I'm sorry!" Her eyes were darting between looking at Ruby and looking behind her, back into the alley. "Everything is *hic* fine!"

"No it's not!" Ruby grabbed her by the wrist and started dragging her away. She was clearly running away from the soldiers and there was no way in hell she would let her friend get into trouble! If only Penny would stop digging in her heels. She was really hard to pull…

"Look out!" Penny shouted out and pushed Ruby down.

Oh right… we ARE in the middle of the street. In hindsight she should have been more focused on her surroundings, not only Penny and looking out for any people running after them.

*Crash*

Penny was standing in front of her, arms outstretched to block a truck. Ruby wasn't that worried about Penny. She saw Yang, Pyrrha and even Weiss take harder hits. The driver also looked fine. Definitely freaked out but that was mostly due to him almost running somebody over.

What was a bit strange was that she didn't notice Penny's aura. At all. Stopping a truck with one's aura one wasn't that hard. Without… either Penny packed much more than she looked and her hands were most definitely broken or there was something weird. Hell, there should have been at least some ripples on her aura.

"Penny, are you alright?" Ruby carefully asked after picking herself up. Penny let go of the truck and was now tightly clutching her hands.

Damn it, she totally hurt herself…

"Let me help!" Ruby reached out to her, only for Penny to flush away.

"I'm fine! *hic*" Penny continued to take unsure steps away from her.

"Over here! She went this way." A distant voice came from the same alleyway Penny ran through.

This was all wrong… She left Weiss alone so that she would be able to help Penny and yet…

They couldn't even talk to each other. Chased by some soldiers. Causing an accident.

Enough.

Ruby dashed toward her and grabbed her by shoulders. When Penny turned to face her, Ruby gave a wide reassuring smile.

When the two pursuers finally arrived on the street they could only see a one crashed truck and bright red and green petals floating in the air.

-BBW-

I'm somewhat glad that father stepped down, at least he didn't stay in the Fang long enough to see it become…this.

Blake watched with mounting horror as Roman Torchwick, a human and one of Vale's most notorious criminals was giving a speech- no, this was hardly a speech, the bastard was behaving like a circus announcer, pronouncing around the podium and spewing bullshit.

And her people loved every second of it…

How bad could it be for faunus in Vale if this is something they took as an alternative?

At least they've got some valuable information out of it. White Fang was much more armed and militarized than any of them could have ever thought. And it wasn't some self-made stuff put together in a basement. Military grade rifles, insane amounts of dust and a giant freaking mech.

The show reached its conclusion with Torchwick presenting their trump card in the form of a stolen Paladin and grunts started ushering newcomers toward the backroom so they could get properly inducted and then sent to whatever facility they had in the south. They would need to look through the map later. With the amount of resources and people they would either need a large string of bases or one very large place. Those couldn't be that hard to find.

"Shit!" Ilia quietly cursed, causing both Blake and Sun to turn to her. "The one on top is moving in. We need to leave. Now!"

Blake skeptically looked around. There were a lot of people and most of them were pushing towards the registry. Then she looked at Roman.

Who was looking straight at her with a smirk stretched across his face.

"We were found. Plan B it is." Blake quickly said to her partners in crime.

Torchwick was the main problem but they had something very important over him. They could see in the dark.

/

"Booooring…"

"Nora!" Both Ren and Pyrrha frowned at the shorter girl. "Do you want us to get caught?"

Wouldn't put it past her… It would give her a reason to cut loose. Both of them thought.

"It's a good thing that it's quiet. It means that everything went according to plan." Ren tried to reason with her while Pyrrha continued to watch the warehouse through her scope. They were on the very edge of the yard but they decided not to get closer in fear that faunus might notice them.

Suddenly, a muffled gunshot rang out from the direction of the building they were watching. Distant screaming started and a second later three familiar figures emerged from one of the windows.

"Get ready, we will cover-"

Before Pyrrha could finish, the wall exploded and an enormous robot rushed out of the warehouse and gave chase after the three faunus.

"Ren, interference! Nora, hit it!" Pyrrha barked out as they all took off after them. "I'm calling-"

Once again she was interrupted. This time by her scroll coming to life.

-BBW-

Penny stumbled and fell down on her behind. It was much shorter this time but Ruby's semblance was as disorienting as before.

"Don't worry, they won't be able to get you here!" Ruby spoke with a reassuring smile, sure that nobody would be looking for them at the rooftops. At least not anytime soon. "Now let me take a look at your hands. I have a first aid kit with me. And well… It was kinda my fault. I should have been looking around mooooore…" Ruby froze as she took Penny's hand and saw the petal under her torn…skin?

Before Ruby could recover, Penny jerked her hand back and started to inch away from Ruby as fast as her current state allowed.

"Okay… I do have a screwdriver but- Penny, what's wrong? I can fix that! I think." Seeing that it had no effect on the girl, Ruby pressed on. "Penny… What's wrong? Actually, why have you run away? We are friends!"

"We are…" Penny slowly murmured before jumping up and placing herself right in front of Ruby. "We are friends, right?! You promise, you are my friend?"

"I promise."

Penny took a step back and nodded to herself. She looked Ruby straight in the eyes and with a strained expression she admitted. "I'm not a real girl."

…

"Oh…" It took a while for Ruby to process it but once she was done… "Wait, I thought those were just prosthetics from some bad accident."

Penny's analyzing procedure needed to perform a full reboot.

How the hell didn't I come up with the same excuse myself!?

Oh well, what's done is done, and she really wanted to trust Ruby with this. Jaune already knew but Ruby was just more fun to hang out with.

Did it make her a bad partner when she doubted his mechanical and smithing skills? Which she knew he had none.

"So… what does it mean then? The whole not being real thing?" Ruby asked her, seeing her space out for a while. And she really wanted to get some better understanding on the subject.

"Most people are born but I was made." Penny explained. "I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an aura. I'm not real…"

Ruby saw Penny slowly start being depressed at the admission. "Why wouldn't you be? You are like… a third sentient race! There are humans, faunus and now there is you! A synthetic person. Isn't there a word for it?" She stepped closer to Penny. "It doesn't matter that you have nuts and bolts instead of blood and all that stuff. What matters is what's here," She poked her in the forehead. "And here." she poked her at the chest. Sure Penny didn't have a heart but it was the thought that counted.

"I don't- hmm." Penny's eyes narrowed. "You are taking this extraordinarily well."

Ruby gave her a wide smile and stepped away. "Well, I can do this." Her body started to slowly fall apart, until there was only a levitating cloud of petals with Ruby's head poking out of it. "Does it make me less of a person? You have a heart and a soul. You being made… If you want, we can simply call it a full-body prosthetics!"

"Oh Ruby!" Penny rushed at her to hug her friend, forgetting that her body was currently intangible and ended up falling right through the red cloud.

Ruby had helped her get up and got glomped anyway. She didn't mind. Yang was usually more delicate but strength-wise they were about the same level of 'I can't breathe'.

"What was it with running away from soldiers?" Ruby asked her after Penny had calmed down a bit.

"Oh, that. I may have decided to explore the city on my own… Jaune has been training for the most time we have been here and I got somewhat bored in our dorms. General told me to not get in trouble but I think I'm still following it…" Penny explained. "What about you? You've been going to the CCT with Weiss, haven't you?"

"Yeah… we've been looking for some information on Torchwick and White Fang. Weiss thought that SDC might have something in ti's records." Ruby sighed. "Nothing came up yet… Do you know anything? You know Atlasian black ops and stuff. Heard anything?"

"Negative. And even if I knew, it would probably be classified." She answered with a slight frown. She sharply turned her head to Ruby. "My status is also classified! Please, don't tell-"

Ruby waved her off. "Sure. it's your secret to tell. But I'm sure that if you tell them everything will be fine." Yang wouldn't care. Weiss and Ivory wouldn't either. Wait! What if Penny helps me build a second body and we put Weiss or Ivory into it! They wouldn't have to deal with the whole sharing thing! Okay, so I need a body, a way to transfer soul… how the hell would I do that? Well, Penny was somehow given auro so…- Focus! Penny, White Fang, Torchwick now! Soul-splitting later! Hmm… maybe we should leave the roof already. Although the view is nice.

Ruby's scroll blared to life. A call from Blake. A group one. Oh! So the infiltration must be over.

She immediately accepted the call and was greeted by Blake's face covered in sweat and with a rather panicked expression. "We need help, the-."

"Giant robot!" Sun screamed from somewhere out of the camera's vision. A moment later A large frame appeared behind Blake only to be hit by a grenade.

Ruby quickly checked the participants. Good. Everyone was in so they would be able to swarm in.

"Sorry but I have a mission to finish." Ruby gave Penny an apologetic smile and got ready to take off.

"I'll help!" Penny called out. "It was an Atlesian paladin, my father worked on those so I know a few things about it."

Ruby looked at her skeptically. "You don't even have weapons with you…"

Penny beamed at her. "I'm combat ready!" she announced as her back opened up and her swords shot out. Ten of them stuck to Penny's back and formed something akin to wings and a low hum of a jet engine filled the air.

Ruby nodded, face set in determination and the two girls took off. Penny kept Ruby's scroll in her hands so that she could track Blake's location.

"Nevermore inco-oh. Friend Weiss at eight o'clock." I have to figure out a way to differentiate between grimm and Schnee summons. I'll have to ask Specialist Schnee when her mission is over.

"If Glynda gives me crap about flying over the city, I'm throwing you under the bus." Weiss 'greeted' after they joined her on the back of the large white crystal-like nevermore. "What's the plan?"

Ruby took a look down. Paladin had chased Blake and co. onto one of the city's highways and was now causing havoc. Her friends were still able to stay ahead but the traffic was sent flying. There was also a familiar yellow bike speeding after the rogue machine.

"Yang." She called her sister.

"Hm?" Yang nonchalantly answered in complete opposition to the horrified screaming that was coming from Neptune.

"We need to get this thing out of the road."

"Sure, gimme two boosts."

/

Go to the Vytal tournament, everything will be fine, they said… Shit! He ducked under a flying piece of concrete.

And now she is on fire… what's that abo-dammit!

Neptune barely kept a hold on the bike as it swerved to the side after a strong impact to Yang's right shoulder.

It got slightly warmer.

A moment later, another bullet hit Yang's left shoulder.

It was getting hot.

"Rubes, tell Blake that she owes me a new bike." Yang quipped to her sister. "Listen up deadweight. I'm going for a swing. You have about five seconds to come up with a landing strategy." She revved up the engine and shot forward. Using a slightly broken up piece of support structure as a launching pad she closed the distance with the paladin.

"Good luck." She gave Neptune a last look and jumped off.

*BOOM*

Shoulder plates on paladin's left side were either blown off or completely bent out off shape. The momentum of Yang's punch sent the mech over the side of the highway. Three seconds later everyone heard it land.

-BBW-

"Is everyone alright?" Pyrrha asked as she, Ren and Nora finally caught up. She was a bit surprised to see Penny there but she appreciated the extra muscle. That laser of hers could be really useful. After Blake, Ilia and Sun convinced them that they were unharmed, she turned to Ruby. "What now?"

Ruby looked down at the fallen mech. It was still moving and was slowly picking itself up. She then looked towards the destruction, already hearing the sirens closing in.

"Blake, take your team with Sun and Neptune and go help people. The rest goes down. We are getting Torchwick out of that thing and taking him to Beacon."

"Beacon?" Sun questioned her.

Ruby nodded. "He is a terrorist with combat training and unlocked aura. He is above their jurisdiction."

/

"Proposal. Let's try not to damage it too much. We might be able to learn something from the black box and on-board hard-drives." Penny spoke when they got on the small platform where the mech landed.

"Sure." Ruby agreed. This mission was information gathering anyway. "Weiss, Penny, keep an eye on the skies. I'll hold down the thing. Pyrrha, try going inside and mess up the mobility. Yang, when it's down, pull him out."

A series of nods followed.

They could have tried to beat it down. Slice it up. Have Weiss summon a dozen Ursas on top of it so it wouldn't get up. But this mission was already going on for too long…

O fable come to life.

Pyrrha had a sudden bout of nausea as petals around Ruby swelled. She felt… defeated. As if she was standing in front of a storm. What was she against a force of nature… Regardless she needed to focus. Of course. Yang could do something weird so why wouldn't Ruby do the same… at least it wasn't as terrifying.

Let the wolves howl, let the petals dance.

"Alert: Aura shielding efficiency: 82%"

That made no sense. Penny's aura was at 97%. Further analysis required. She had her orders to watch out for reinforcements. Besides, she saw large crimson tendrils reach out and ensnare the struggling machine. She could always ask later.

/

What the hell is this thing!? Roman raged while trying to get his newest toy out of the red tentacles. Then the tall redhead raised her hand and his screen exploded with pop-up alerts.

Stupid, experimental piece of shit! Okay… what now? The piece of junk he was piloting suddenly decided that it would be a great moment for every single thing inside the mech to jam at once. So he was held down by tentacles, internal skeleton was jammed and the oh so familiar blondie was leisurely walking towards him. The ginger one shouted something at her and blondie climbed right in front of the cockpit.

Does she think she can get through?

First punch shot out. The place was rattled and he was pretty sure that his aura was the only thing that saved him from ear damage.

Second punch and the main screen exploded, a large dent behind it. Roman blinked in surprise and started to frantically remove safety belts.

Third punch came in and Torchwick got a good look at the girl's knuckles. Her second arm also came and she grabbed opposite sides of the small hole. Roman reached out for his cane.

When Yang ripped the mech apart she was greeted by a nervous Torchwick. With his cane aimed right at her.

Okay, that's one. He breathed out after pulling the trigger. At point blank, the brat would definitely be out if not dead. Where the hell is back up?! Before the smoke could dissipate from the hole in the mech, a hand reached in and grabbed him by the collar.

Roman loudly swallowed when he was greeted by the bright red slitted and very annoyed eyes staring into his own. The only evidence of his previous attempt at defense was a bit of soot on her chest.

"Incoming!" Penny shouted out and her gun-swords opened fire into the sky. Weiss had also summoned several small nevermores, gave each a bit of ice dust and set them flying. Yang threw Roman towards Ruby, who immediately put him into a cocoon of petals.

Already discovered, the sidedoors on the bullhead opened and the platform was covered in gunfire. The priority was to get Torchwick secured. They would be able to hold out until the actual army would show up.

Ruby kept a good grip on Roman, while also creating a small umbrella of petals above the others. She would make one above Yang but it was obvious that she didn't really care.

A black and red streak fell down from above, right in the middle of the tendril connecting Ruby to the cocoon.

In a red flash of light the tentacle was severed in one strike.

/

"Can you keep some extra muscle around?" Torchwick asked him before the rally.

"Why?"

"Our little fellowship has stepped on some wrong toes. Cindy is already in Beacon so I can't tell her to deal with it."

"...I will see what I can do."

Adam had to reevaluate his opinion on the thief. He wanted to string him up for wasting their resources during his screw up at the docks but now, seeing the skill of his adversaries, he might have been too harsh. His job was to gather resources and people. Adam's on the other hand…

A team with a Schnee…

And only a couple of young girls between him and his target.

One red in front of him and a yellow one behind.

He could leave Torchwick to his little friend.

She would only get in the way.

Truly a joyous night.

/