Ruby: C'mon, you stupid...!

Yang: Hey, Ruby! What's the hold up? This thing was supposed to have started YEARS ago!

Ruby: Not my fault those two idiots took so long! Come ooon! Work you stupid-AH!

*machine proceeds to blow up in Ruby's face and is KO'ed*

(Author 1 pokes head out the door) Oh come on! I was JUST about to fix that damn thing! Ugh, whatever! Let's start the damn chapter already!

Edan: *snickers* And it only took you two years to get off your lazy asses.

"If strength is justice, then is powerlessness a crime?" -Lelouch vi Britannia

RWBY: Black Rebellion

Roman wasn't sure when his night turned into an absolute shit-show.

At first he thought it must have been when those three kids ruined his whole recruitment drive. Well, not that he mind really. He already had to work with enough dumb animals. He didn't need to work with even stupider ones, especially ones that were likely to stab him in the back at the first sign of danger or when their backs were up against the wall. At least with the animals he had to work with, they were disciplined. Only good thing about them, really.

Then the master criminal thought his day just got worse when Red Riding Hood of all brats showed up. Seriously, what was that girl's problem? Did she just love showing up everywhere when it was convenient?! Was she some kind of stalker? Most days he would be flattered, but she was far too young for him and an obnoxious kid who seriously needed to learn where to not stick her nose in somebody else's business.

And then the Black FUCKING Fang showed up. And with their own goddamn mech to boot. Don't even get him started on the fact that said mech looked much more advanced than the one he currently piloted. He didn't recognize the design at all. If Atlas had made models like them, then he for sure didn't see any when they raided the place.

Either way, he was pissed as hell and wanted payback for the damn thing drop kicking him!

"Just how mobile is that thing, anyhow?!"

Growing more irritated, Roman fired off several missiles. The blue-and-gold mech fell into a crouch, then fired off two anchors from its hips. The anchors attached themselves to the highway above, then proceeded to pull the mech upward to evade the missiles. Most of the missiles exploded on the ground while a few strayed and struck a bit farther ahead. Team RWBY panicked and scrambled to get away while Penny stood her ground. She stared fearlessly at the missiles coming her way as she produced several blades from her backpack, then proceeded to swing her blades at the incoming projectiles, easily slicing through them and exploding them before they could reach her.

Edan grinned from within the cockpit as he reached the side of the highway before he disengaged the anchors, retracting them back into his Knightmare. As he fell towards to the ground, he whipped out the rifle slung to the back of his mech's shoulder and opened fire. Dark-green bolts of energy fired from the muzzle of the rifle.

Roman cursed as he pushed his machine to its limits to get away. He managed to avoid the first blast. But the second shot stripped the armor off the shoulder. He quickly pulled back to dodge the third blast from hitting him directly. The sudden jerk in movement caused his footing to stumble.

Edan capitalized on this moment of weakness and fired off his anchors again to attach them to the ground before the Paladin. They immediately reeled him in towards the lumbering mech. Once he got close, he swung the Diabolos's free arm and struck it dead center. The Paladin tumbled backward in a heap before hastily reorienting itself.

The Paladin fired off more missiles, a few of which even hit the the Diabolos. The explosion created on contact caused the Knightmare to recoil, but it otherwise seemed undamaged.

"How tough is that armor?" Weiss wondered. "It even has a weapon that can damage the Paladin... If the Black Fang have access to weapons like this, why haven't they used them before until now?!"

"It's likely they only just received such weaponry," Penny surmised. "I'm curious as to who the pilot is. They seem to be quite adept at controlling it."

"I'll say..." Yang nodded as they saw the Knightmare's fluid movements. "That thing's making the Paladin look like tortoise!"

Edan flipped a switch on his dashboards and deployed the machine's land spinners. The wheels on the back of the legs lowered and made contact on the ground, raising it slightly. The Diabolos crouched down with one hand on the ground as the wheels spun rapidly. Once they gathered enough speed, he shot off like a rocket. He pulled out the blade attached to his side. The blade was sleek and slightly curved like a katana. But the dull gray coloring shifted to a brilliant azure. He traced the tip along the ground as he skated across the ground, slicing through the concrete and kicking up sparks.

Roman's eyes widened and immediately unloaded every long-range weapon the Paladin had, firing off every bullet and every missile he could. He had no idea what this thing could do with a blade, and he didn't want to risk losing a Paladin. Sure, they had a ton more back at the hideout, but he wasn't too keen on losing some valuable merchandise. Who knows what use this thing could have once everything was said and done? How many would sell an arm or leg just to get their hands on equipment like this?

Sprays of bullets and hoards of rockets came racing down upon the Diabolos, yet Edan was weaving through it all with fluid movements, making it seem as though the Knightmare was dancing. And the few projectiles that he was unable to avoid, to the amazement of those watching, were cleanly sliced to pieces with swift, fluid strokes from his sword. The weapon cut through the bullets and missiles like a hot knife through butter. Its lethal capabilities made more evident by the skill it was wielded.

In mere moments, it stood before the Paladin, sword poised for one final strike.

"Don't you fucking-!"

The next second, the Paladin was separated from its lower legs. The upper half hovered in the air for a few seconds before it came crashing down. Roman jostled in the cockpit, his bowler hat nearly knocked off in the process. The Knightmare placed its foot on the back of the Paladin, swore poised to skewer it.

[So, Roman my man, care to surrender?] Edan asked over the comm system, grinning inside his mech. This had been a hell of a test drive. All those hours in the simulation really payed off and he couldn't wait to see what else this thing could do. [I mean, you could try and put up a fight before I kill you, but I'd recommend against that. Zero wants to have a nice long chat with you regarding your employment with Cinder.]

Roman sighed. "God dammit." Seriously, was being allied with that chick a hazard or something? 'If I had known this was going to happen, I never would have accepted that nutty woman's offer.' As Roman pondered what to do, something on his monitor caught his eye; a familiar hair of white-and-pink hair with mismatched eyes holding an umbrella. A smile formed across his face and made his reply to Edan. "You know, that sounds like a lovely offer, but I think I'm going to have to pass. I mean, don't get me wrong, that boss of yours really is something and I'd love to have a chat with them, buuut I'm a man of my word. And that is one woman I don't wanna piss off anytime soon. So, if you'd kindly let me go and just forget about all of this..."

[Yeah, no dice.]

The door to his cockpit opened up. The fact that Edan hadn't skewered him meant he was already under Neo's thrall. He quickly got out of the mech, greeted by a smiling Neo. Roman glanced over and saw that those five annoying girls were also under Neo's Semblance, which made things easier. Last thing he needed was more goddamn trouble. This night really was the worst!

The Knightmare skewered the Paladin's cockpit right as Roman heard the sound of glass shattering to pieces. Suddenly, Team RWBY and Penny were aware that something wasn't right when they saw Roman standing with Neo. Edan frowned as his Knightmare turned its head, factspheres opening up and glaring down at the two.

"Now, this has been a lovely evening, but I'm afraid we've got other plans for tonight," Roman tipped his hat. "Thanks for the entertainment, Red. Though I do wish you'd stop showing up everywhere."

"Like hell we're going to let you go!"

Idiots didn't understand that they were already under Neo's illusions again. By the time they rushed at him on the ground. They were already up in the air. By the time a fist smashed where they saw the illusion, it shattered to pieces and the two were off to safety.

"What the?!"

Edan clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes on Roman's little helper. "I'm guessing that's Neo, then." he surmised. "That's a hell of a Semblance. And a real pain in the ass, too."

"Indeed." Zero's voice crackled over the communicator. "No wonder the police have been tearing their hair out trying to capture him."

"So what now, boss man?" Edan asked as he tapped his fingers along the dashboard.

"Want me to go after them?"

"No, head back to base for now."

The blue-haired Faunus glanced down at Team RWBY. The girls plus Penny, after failing to capture a fleeing Roman Torchwick, turned their attention to him as he removed his blade from the decommissioned Paladin. Rouge's sis looked as though she wanted to geek out and tinker with his mech while Yang's eyes were narrowed. Blake looked worried, and for good reason as both Weiss and Penny brandished their weapons. It made sense; even if they were the "good guys" so to speak, they were still criminals. No doubt Ironwood deemed the Black Fang a danger and told Penny to spare no expense in capturing them, while Weiss was just a goody-two-shoes who would follow the law down to the letter. If a criminal stood in front of her, she would do her duty as a Huntsman and bring them to justice.

"Your kid sis and her team, plus that weirdo Penny, might not make that easy for me," he told the revolutionary. "I don't suppose we got a smokescreen installed in this thing?"

"No, but we have Goe."

"Okay, so what's the plan here?" Yang asked cautiously. "We ask whoever's inside to come out nicely, or we drag him out kicking and screaming?"

"Depends if we can catch up to him and hold him down." Weiss said analytically as she ran through plans in her head. "You saw how fast that thing is. And it's destructive capabilities are no joke."

"I know!" Ruby squealed, stars in her eyes. "It's just so cool!"

"Ruby! Focus!"

Blake glanced at her team and then at Penny, unsure of what to do. She knew Edan was piloting that thing, but right now she wasn't Blake Belladonna of the Black Fang. Right now she was Blake Belladonna of Team RWBY. And given the situation, she was either going to be forced to fight him. The situation wasn't so bad that she didn't want to fight Edan. On the contrary, they all made it clear that, given Blake's current status, they would not hold anything against her and trusted her judgment if she found herself in the situation she was currently in now.

The problem wasn't that she was being forced into a situation where she had to fight Edan. The problem was that Yang and Blake, Rouge's sisters, were also present.

Rouge made it explicitly clear that he didn't want to get either one of them involved if they could help it. Quite frankly, Blake was in agreement. She didn't want her friends to eventually learn that their brother was the leader of one of Remnant's biggest terrorist groups. Ideally, the best idea was to convince the group to pull out. Unfortunately for her, it would seem that plan wasn't possible at the moment - not one half of her team seemed intent on capturing Edan.

Yang took a step forward, cocking her Ember Celica. Nervously, Blake wrapped her hand around her Gambol Shroud. "Hey, bug guy! We got a few questions we wanna ask! How 'bout you jump out of that kickass tin-can your riding and we talk?!"

'Well, at least Yang's trying to be diplomatic,' Blake thought with some relief.

Edan snickered. [Yeeeaaah, no thanks. I'm gonna assume the alternative is me being into a big ol' fight with you ladies and possibly escorted to a nice, cold jail cell in the rat's ass end of Atlas and say 'no thank you.']

"I'm afraid that is not possible, Black Fang Member!" Penny unfurled her blades and stepped closer to Yang. "Please come with us quietly, or we shall use force!"

[Yeah, as fun as that sounds... I'll pass.]

Yang's eyes turned red. Weiss frowned and readied Myrtenaster as a glyph danced beneath her feet. Ruby seemed conflicted, but followed through with the rest of her team's actions and reluctantly whipped out Crescent Rose. Blake silently cursed and prayed the situation didn't escalate and prepared to engage.

Thankfully for her, it seemed backup arrived. The sound of metal striking concrete registered in her ears right as the surrounding area became filled with smoke. Blake found herself choking and coughing, the smoke burning her eyes and finding it hard to breathe.

"What the hell?" Yang coughed as she tried to swat the smoke away. "What is this?!"

"Where did the smoke screen come from?!" Weiss demanded as she tried to use her Glyphs and wind dust to try and disperse it.

"MY EYES!" Ruby yelled, trying to rub the sting out.

[And that's my cue, ladies. Would love to stay, chat, and possibly fight you in my giant mech, but I gotta head out. Laters!] Edan's voice boomed from the obscurity.

"Wait!" Penny cried out as she tried to track down the retreating mech.

Penny vanished into the smoke. "W-wait!" Blake attempted to give chase, but found it impossible to see through the smoke. "H-how can she move through this stuff?"

"M-my throat's on fire..." Yang hacked. "W-we gotta get out of here!"

"W-what about Penny" Ruby asked.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think we can find her in this!" Blake coughed. Inwardly, she wondered how Rouge managed to find this type of gas. It really hurt!

Edan grimaced as he sped along the highway, dodging any and all incoming traffic he came across. He would have thought Torchwick's actions earlier would have had the police or the Atlesian military lock down the highway, but obviously that wasn't happening. As for the reason why he was grimacing, he had an unexpected fan chasing after him.

"We did use tear gas, right?" he asked over the intercoms. "So how the hell was she able to find me? Moreover, how the hell is she keeping up?!"

He had visuals on his pursuer. Penny was actually skidding across the ground at fast speeds after him. She had modified her blades to act as propulsion boosters on her back to allow her to keep up. Her face was set in fierce determination to catch up to him.

"We did. As for her, I have no idea how she was able to withstand and follow you through it."

"Is this girl even normal? It was like she just ignored the gas!"

"We can worry about that later," Hue told him irrately. "Just focus on losing her! And remember, you can't use your weaponry on her!"

"Tch, make my job harder why don'tcha?" Despite that, Edan couldn't help but smirk a little.

He always did like a challenge.

'So, how do I get rid of my stalker?'

Currently he was rushing through the streets, using the Knightmare's impressive maneuverability to avoid pedestrians and vehicles. On his tail was a bizarre, duty-driven teenage girl with floating blades that could shoot lasers.

Fun times.

He was forbidden from blasting her with his rifle, as a single direct hit can burn through a person's Aura and likely kill them. He still had his sword though.

And no one said he couldn't conduct a little relatively harmless collateral damage. Using his sword, he cut up sections of the road, making it harder for the girl to move around on, and upturned pieces of rubble and parked cars to obstruct her path.

Penny was startled by the sudden increase of obstacles, but she didn't appear to be deterred. She moved her way through each obstacle, dancing around the flying pieces of debris and vaulting over the cars in her way. At one point, she used her blades in a manner similar to his Knightmare's slash harkens and fastened herself to a nearby building, swinging to the adjacent highway and resumed her pursuit.

Edan leaped off the highway and down into the street below him, startling everyone nearby before he took off in a burst. He just rounded the corner when his monitor picked up Penny coming closer. A quick look at his monitor showed her taking to the rooftops and using her blades as makeshift thrusters for increased speed.

"Seriously. What's up with this girl?" Edan wondered as he quickly devised another method of losing her.

"Edan, we've got a problem!" Goe shouted at him. "It's the Atlesian Army! They've started to mobilize!"

"Seriously?!" the blue-haired Faunus groaned. "Ugh, can this day get any worse?"

THUNK! THUNK!

"...me and my fucking mouth."

Looking through the monitor, he saw that two of the swords stabbed into the Knightmare's back. While they didn't penetrate all the way through the torso and cockpit, they were deep enough to remain stationary. Attached to the blades were near invisible strings that were connected to Penny's backpack, allowing her to hitch a ride and gradually close the distance between them.

"Clever girl. But no hitchhikers!"

With a swift motion from his sword, he cut through the threads. Penny's eyes widened as her link to the Knightmare was cut off, landing on the ground shoulder-first and rolling into a crouch. Edan quickly made his escape and fired his slash harkens on the nearest highway, pulling the machine up and onto the road. Once he was on the highway, he pushed the mech as far as he could push it. He made it a few miles in before his IFF radar pinged several new hostiles. A glance at the monitors showed several Atlesian Knights taking up position across various rooftops. In the middle of the highway was a hastily-made blockade with a woman standing in front of it, garbed in a white military uniform with dual sabers, hair snow-white.

He recognizing the woman instantly. "...hey, Zero? Is Winter Schnee supposed to be here?!"

"Member of the Black Fang!" the Atlesian Specialist demanded, voice full of steel and authority as a glyph formed beneath her feet. The white shimmering armor of a knight slowly rose up behind her, sword in hand. "Cease your actions and surrender immediately! Any further act will be deemed as hostile, and we will attack with deadly force! I repeat, surrender and disembark your mech immediately or we will attack you with full force!"

Edan grimaced. Getting rid of a hitch-hiker was one thing, but fighting a Specialist plus a full batalion of Atlesian troops? Even he wasn't confident he could take them, Knightmare or no Knightmare. It would be one thing if it was just either or, but together? He might as well have surrendered. But there was no way he was going to be captured here. If he did, then he'd never hear the end of it from Piece. Plus, knowing Atlas, they would no doubt interrogate and/or torture him for information, and he'd die before he tell them anything.

When faced with such odds, he did the next best thing.

He quickly veered left, crashed through the wall, and jumped off of the highway road. The moment he did, every Atlesian Knight with rifles trained on him opened fire. Good new for him though. The Knightmare's armor was extremely durable, allowing him to tank the shots as he descended to the ground below. He quickly fired off his slash harkens at descending roads to swing himself down and avoid going splat from inside the cockpit from the resulting impact.

Once the Diabolos' feet were on the ground he resumed his stride to freedom, unheeding the rain of bullets on his mech.

"Are they on my tail still?" Edan asked.

"We're highlighting your escape route," Hue told him. "If you can reach the rendezvous point, we'll be able to help you give them the slip."

"Roger that, Sly Cooper."

"Okay, look pal, just 'cause I'm a racoon Faunus does not mean-!"

Edan cursed and darted to the side, jumping up and wall-running along the side of the buildings nearby as he evaded a stream of ice erupting all over the street. "Son of a-! Okay, that is such bullshit! How can she make that much ice?! I know I make jokes about the Schnees being a bunch of icy bastards, but this is ridiculous!"

"Quit yer bitching and get out of there!"

"Target B-1 is on Dalson Street. Squads A, B, D, E and H are in pursuit. Specialist Schnee is trying to minimize his movements by freezing the highway."

Ironwood watched the chase progress on the holo-screen displayed in the command room aboard his flagship. He stared hard at the unknown mech and its design, unsure what to make of it. It certainly looked more advanced than the Paladins, and its weapons were certainly eye-catching. One screen showed the unit firing bolts of energy while another screen showed it cutting through the Paladin stolen by Roman Torchwick with terrifying ease. All this footage made possible thanks to Penny and her 'unique' capabilities.

"What do we have on this mech?"

"We can't identify its make," a Specialist off to the side told him. "It doesn't appear to be a modified Atlesian Paladin, however. Whatever it is, it's custom-made."

"And the identity of the pilot?"

"Unknown. All we can confirm is that they are affiliated with the Black Fang."

"I see." Ironwood frowned. To realize that the Black Fang was armed with mechs like these was a troubling thought. If they had a whole squadron of them, they would likely overwhelm Atlesian ground forces should they attack based on their armaments.

But it did beg the question. Just where did the Black Fang acquire them? The mechs definitely were not of Atlesian make. Who else was able to create such devices and weapons?

'Something to ask the pilot when we apprehend him, I suppose.' Ironwood shrugged and spoke into his earpiece. "All units, coordinate with Specialist Schnee and Operative Polendina and continue the pursuit. Capture Target B-1 at all costs, priority two."

As he shut off his earpiece, someone came up to him while holding a tablet. "Sir, we found a group of girls near the highway. They're students from Beacon Academy."

"Beacon?" Ironwood's eyes widened slightly. "What are they doing out in Vale?"

"According to Operative Polendina, they were investigating Roman Torchwick and discovered him in the midst of a recruitment drive. We checked their records. It's Team RWBY; Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long."

'A bunch of students chasing after Roman?' the general frowned deeply in thought. 'Moreover, how did they discover Roman's activities?' It was surprising to hear that Winter's younger sister was among their number as well. No doubt that, when Winter learned of this, she was going to have words with her. 'Still, Belladonna... Why does that name sound so familiar?'

"Dammit, she is not letting up!" The Diabolos launched itself up onto the roofs of a nearby building in an attempt to evade another wave of ice. He jumped over to the next building, but found the Knightmare once again being stabbed by Penny's blades as she attempted to yank him out of the air and back on to the ground. "How much farther until the rendezvous point?! These girls are really starting to test my patience!"

"You're nearly there!" someone, Edan didn't know who, shouted in concern. "We're already en route! Just try and shake 'em off a little longer!"

"Easier said than-WHOA!"

Edan had to nearly rip the controls from the dashboard to pull his Knightmare out of the skid and prevent its collapse. It was then he realized that the Diabolos now stood on a solid sheet of ice, courtesy of Winter Schnee.

"One of these days lady..." The blue haired teen seethed as he activated the Knightmare's built in tread feature. The wheels were swapped out for a pair that had a spiked grip to enable maneuverability on low friction surfaces. While he saved himself from an icy crash, he needed to take care of the two Atlesians before he reached the rendezvous.

He stabbed his sword into the ground. The high speed rotations along the edge easily cut through the ice. He swung upwards to launch icy rubble at his pursuers. Penny simply cut them down with her swords while Winter summoned a series of Glyphs to deflect them.

But while they were preoccupied with the ice, they failed to notice the incoming laser blasts until it was too late. Both had to maneuver away at the last minute to avoid direct hits. But it was enough to knock them away with advantage of this momentary reprieve, Edan once again pushed forward. Sweat was pouring down his face as he rushed to reach the rendezvous point. Upon reaching it, he slid to a stop and spun around. The factspheres of the Knightmare opened up and gave him an image of Penny and Winter catching up in no time at all. Several pings went off on the radar, but in contrast to the red dots gathering in front of him, these were fewer in number and colored yellow. He smiled upon seeing this and breathed a small sigh of relief before turning his attention to the gathering Atlesian forces.

'You know, looking at this now, I feel more annoyed than nervous. Only two flesh-and-blood soldiers, and all the rest are nothing but rust buckets that can't hold out against a horde of Grimm,' he thought. 'And chances are, every last one of these robots is connected to the CCT network, meaning if Cinder gets control of the system, they'll be turning their guns on the populace instead of Grimm and White Fang grunts.'

He couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. Ironwood worked so hard to remove the loss of human lives on the battlefield by replacing them with machines. But he ended up providing the true enemy even greater numbers to harm civilians.

All the more reason to stop Cinder before she tried anything, he supposed.

"We're in position," a Black Fang member told him via intercoms. "Just give the signal."

"Not yet," Edan said, wanting to draw this out a little. An idea popped into his head, one that made him grin impishly.

Winter stared down the unknown mech before her, blades in hand. Next to her, Penny looked on warily while her eyes took in every feature, every nick, every part of the mech's body. She was gathering as much intelligence as she could. Looking at it now, Winter realized how intimidating it was up close. It almost looked like some sort of iron devil, and its blade was nothing less than imposing. She imagined that, once they captured the Black Fang member piloting it, the R&D department was going to have a field day tearing it apart to understand how it all worked.

"It appears to have stopped," Penny noted how the mech had gone still after it arrived at this destination. She glanced around the area, realizing it was an industrial zone of some kind. The surrounding buildings looked to be abandoned for the most part, some even defiled by grafitti and vulgar spray paintings. "If I am correct, we are near the outskirts of the Warren district."

Winter narrowed her eyes. "Is he waiting for back-up?" she muttered under her breath. She gave the matter some thought for a moment, but eventually she shook her head. While she was aware that the Warren was a haven for all sorts of illicit criminal activity, the idea that the Black Fang would situate themselves someplace so obvious wasn't feasible. Perhaps his plan was to lead them into the Warren and kick-up the hornet's nest, stir the criminals in hiding and draw them into the conflict.

Unfortunately for the pilot, as much as she loved massive gang busts and taking down criminals, this was top priority.

She took a step forward, her Glyph already forming. The knight at her side stepped forward and brandished its blade threateningly as though challenging the mech to a duel.

"Exit the mech at once! If you come quietly, I promise you'll be treated fairly and be given a proper trial! However, if you resist..." She left her threat unfinished, though she knew the pilot wouldn't take it. For some reason, they almost always preferred fighting back instead of giving up.

The pilot chuckled over the mech's speaker system. [No offense, missy, but do you really expect me to turn myself over to a bunch of self-righteous pricks? I mean, really. If I was dealing with, say, Mistral or Vacuo, I might have considered. But, you guys? Not so much.]

"Self-righteous?" Winter gritted her teeth. "Is that what you think?"

The pilot paused for a moment. [...okay, not ALL of you Atlas pricks are stuck up and self-righteous. But you all have a bad habit of showing off just how gigantic your stupidity is. Bringing so many soldiers here in a peaceful kingdom?]

"It is for their protection!" Penny argued. "To defend the people of Vale!"

[From what? Themselves? The Grimm? Please, the police and local Huntsman do their jobs just fine, and your little tin-cans wouldn't last very long against Grimm knocking on your doors, Paladins or no Paladins. Not to mention you're so short-sighted.] Winter swore she could hear the grin in the pilot's voice. [I mean, you don't even realize that somebody's pulling Roman's strings, or that Beacon's been compromised.]

Winter gasped. "W-what did you say?"

Before she could demand answers, arcs of smoke came flying everywhere, soaring through the air before hitting the ground right in front of her. It took a second for her to realize what hit the ground, and another second for the smoke grenades to explode and cloud the whole area. Winter choked and coughed, her throat on fire and her eyes tearing up. Penny and the Atlesian Knights were unaffected by the gas and made a move to attack the mech before it could escape. She barely made it a step forward before she suddenly recoiled, something hitting her straight in the forehead and sent straight to the ground.

She tried to get up, but whatever struck her unleashed a series of wires that wrapped around her frame and immobilized her. She tried to cut through them and apprehend the suspect, but she was too slow in doing so. All they heard was the sound of a whirring engine and screeching tires before everything fell silent.

"A-after them...!" Winter wheezed and ordered her troops to march.

By the time the smoke cleared, she saw nothing but the empty streets that led into the Warren and a feeling of indignation and failure.

General Ironwood was not going to be happy about this.

Edan let out a sigh as he disembarked the Knightmare, stepping out from the cockpit and unto the catwalk next to his unit. "Ugh, god that sucked..." he muttered while scratching the back of his head. "I really hate stubborn women like that. On the one hand, this was a hell of a test drive, buuut on the other hand Roman got away."

"Torchwick's escape is inconsequential at the moment," a familiar synthesized voice called out. Edan craned his head to the side and saw Zero approaching him, blade at his hip. "Yours and the Diabolos' safety was a higher priority."

Edan grimaced. "Even so, boss man..."

"Relax. At the very least, his recruitment drive is now up in smoke since it was compromised. Now, what of your 'hint'?"

The blue-haired Faunus grinned. "Dropped Cinder's name in front of Team RWBY and their tag-along. I also took a gamble and told that Specialist that Beacon's got somebody who doesn't belong in their house. Whether or not Ironwood is gonna investigate, though, I got no idea."

"Given how much of a cautious, if overly so, person he is, I have no doubt he would. Even if a little...excessive means on his end."

"Fair point. And with that hotel hijacking a while back, wouldn't be surprised if he was always on high alert. So, where do we go from here? On the off-chance Ironwood doesn't launch an investigation, how are we going to play this?" Edan frowned. "Also, isn't this move kinda risky, what with you being at Beacon and all? Last thing we need is for you to get busted."

Zero chuckled. "Don't worry, I've taken some precautions. But, your concerns are valid, Edan. Which is why I'll be asking a favor from you." At this, Edan raised a brow. "How well do you know Chloris of Team ABRN?"

"Who, Reese? I know her pretty well. We both went to the same Combat Academy before, well..." He gestured to his forehead. "Why are you asking?" Zero just stared at him expectantly. It took him a few minutes to realize what the masked Rose sibling was saying and promptly appeared gobsmacked. "Are you shitting me? When was this?!"

"Admittedly, founding a branch in Mistral is harder than it sounds." Zero sounded rather smug. "She's an excellent hacker. I dare say she's on par with Goe. As for when I scouted her for her talents, that is a story for another time. I'd like for you to work with her and spread some bread crumbs. Lead Ironwood by the nose. Even if he and Ozpin don't pursue Cinder, we can at least lead them to Leonardo's treachery."

"Son of a bitch. It's always your and your surprises man." He ran a hand through his hair. "But you know what? That's what makes things fun. So I'm in."

When Ironwood called, Ozpin always found himself tense and wondered whether or not this was going to be the conversation he dreaded having with him. To his relief, it was not that dreadful conversation, but it was no less tense and worrisome.

"Compromised?"

Ironwood looked as though he had swallowed a lemon. "That's what they claimed. They also claimed that Roman Torchwick is taking orders from someone, something Team RWBY attested to. Someone by the name of Cinder Fall. Whether or not this information can be trusted, well, that's up for debate considering the source."

"What were those girls even doing there in the first place?"

James gave his old friend a look. "...you do realize that they are more or less Team STRQ, I hope?"

"Well, considering the relation of two of them, I'd say the apples don't call far from the tree." Ozpin replied.

"Oz, this is no laughing matter." Ironwood frowned. "Those girls ventured out in the field against dangerous criminals and terrorists without approval. They were at risk of getting killed, not to mention placing civilians in danger. Need I explain what took place on the highway? Cars were thrown off the road! We're still trying to run damage control."

The Headmaster of Beacon sighed, running a hand down his face. "I am well aware, and the girls will face suitable punishment for it. That being said, while I do agree with you that they did not act without authorization, you cannot deny what they've accomplished. Crashing a White Fang recruitment drive is worth some praise." And the fact that Roman was working with the White Fang was also worth concern. While they were aware of this fact due to the incident on the docks, the recruitment drive was more worrisome. At first Ozpin believed Roman was working with the White Fang for his robbery spree. The fact that he was in charge of recruiting new members disproved that.

The White Fang was cooperating with Roman Torchwick, something that realistically shouldn't be possible. Sienna Khan was many things, and while Ozpin only met the woman once, she made it blatantly clear that she would never work with a human.

"If someone is pulling Roman's strings, then it's clear they possess some incredible resources," Ironwood's expression was steely. "Enough that they're able to force the White Fang into working with Roman. The question is, where does this all lead? Why steal so much Dust?"

"That answer may lie with the identity of Roman's apparent superior." Ozpin folded his hands neatly. "Do we know who this 'Cinder Fall' is?"

"Not yet. I'm having one of my analysists run that name through the database. With any luck, we'll find something. What worries me more is what that Black Fang pilot said. Oz, if Beacon is compromised-"

He raised a hand. "I am fully aware. If there is someone in my school who with malicious intent, they will regret setting foot here."

Ironwood didn't look entirely convinced, but if his defeated sigh was of any indication he knew better than to continue. "Fine. But let me know if you find anything of concern." The general was about to end the call when something occurred to him. "By the way, regarding Ruby Rose..."

Ozpin raised a brow. "If this is in regards to her age, I can assure you, she is-"

"It isn't that, Oz." Ironwood cut him off. "If the recordings I saw are of any indication, she's more than earned her place at the academy. Something about her family caught my attention, her mother aside. I understand she is a brother?"

"Yes, a boy by the name of Rouge. He's a rather brilliant young man. I've been meaning to find suitable teammates for him, but I haven't had much luck on that front." Either the students he thought would be a good match for Rouge refused out of personal reasons or simply preferred being on their own. "Why do you ask?"

Ironwood's expression concerned him, as did his next words.

"I was under the impression Summer Rose gave birth to only one child."

The Great Escape and the Bread Trail...END

"The trick of real combat is that everyone is human" -Lelouch vi Britannia

So, quick thing to tell you guys before I end this chapter. Yes, me and Daemon finally got back to a series some of you have been wanting to see updated, but as there's good news, there's also some bad news to go with it.

I...have been thinking of rewriting RWBY: Black Rebellion.

Here are two reasons why:

1. Rouge's inclusion in Beacon didn't amount to much until the very end of ACT I. We mostly had him go along with Team RWBY and JNPR's antics, and he never did anything really noteworthy up until the end of ACT I where he recruited Blake and revealed Adam was a double agent. Looking back at it now, I feel like we could have done a lot with Rouge and explore the "what ifs" in the setting proper.

2. Rouge going solo and in Beacon. Needless to say, this is a piece of criticism a LOT of people writing RWBY fanfics get flak over. On the one hand, it gives characters a chance to interact with the teams, but on the other hand, there's a good chance the characters will just go along with the plot, reacting to stuff we already know is happening and doesn't offer much in the way of changes, at least not until a certain point. I've gotten a lot of flak myself for these same criticisms, especially by having Rouge fly solo.

Now, in regards to what would change if I decide to rewrite Black Rebellion...not a whole lot, to be perfectly honest. We would still be follow Rouge, Adam would still be a double-agent, Roman and Neo would defect at some point, etc. The only things that would change is the entirety of ACT I and the early parts of ACT II.

However, as Daemon of Wrath, my best friend on FFnet and co-writer for many of my stories here pointed out, rebooting Black Rebellion would also mean we would lose a LOT of hard work put into ACT I and early ACT II, not to mention we would be doing purely original content instead of having Rouge follow canon and offer his own two cents with small little changes.

I put up a poll asking everyone if Black Rebellion should be rebooted. This is mainly to see how you all will react if (and possibly when) Black Rebellion is rebooted. The poll will be up until the end of July and will close on August 2nd.

That will be all for now. I hope everyone is doing well, and let it be known that everyone in the US are fucking morons. Seriously, how hard is it to stay indoors, stay six feet away and wear masks?! I swear, it's like USA is asking to die of the plague!