Shadow: sorry for not posting for so long. writers block and cool novels combined make a bad combo. anyways on with the show. Jack and Ruby are up to somthing, i really dont care.

Thrid Person POV

Aphophis let out a very angry hiss as he clenched his hand hard enough to cut his palm. "Anything elsssssss you want to report?" Aphophis asked with so much venom, his subordinates were surprised that actual venom wasn't dripping out his mouth.

For White Fang it has been nothing but a series of misfortune after misfortune. Supply runs that were supposed to be nice and simple, either a smash and grab or buying stuff with laundered money turned into battle to death or flat out slaughters.

Aphophis knew what's going on, just not who's doing it. He had also sent out groups to track down the perpetrators but his agents either died or found nothing. It infuriates him to no end, as with most things apparently.

The unfortunate grunt nodded, beads of sweat were slowly rolling down his face. "Yes, we have contact with several bases, mainly recruitment centers." The grunt said quickly.

Aphophis had an extremely hard time trying not kill the poor Fanus in front him. The Fanus in the room that had better hearing each swore they heard rattling.

"Consolidate our forces and make sure that security is at an all time high." The snake ordered. "I want who ever is doing this dead!"

The grunts nodded and left.

Aphophis then rubbed his face, tired of all the bull that was going on. He took a deep breath nd started to plan. But of course his plans were just not meant to be.

—-

In Luna's and Blake's room the duo of spies were very excited, well at least one of them was.

"How long does infiltration usually last?" Blake asked the wolf Fanus, who was humming a little tune while laying on her bed with her head hanging off the edge.

"Hm? Oh, it depends." Luna said, waving her hand a little absent mindedly. "If we need the group we are infiltrating could for years or a month if we are are going to dismantle it from the inside out."

"A month?" Blake asked a little confused.

"The best position that an operative can get is chef. Best access to food source and water source. Sprinkle in some slow acting poison and boom! The group is dead and we can move on. Of course that's if the group is just a small gathering." Luna explained, looking from her bed with her head upside down.

"White Fang on the other hand, is just unlucky. They got the attention of the big three, and in a bad way, which makes them a nice target. They won't lasts much longer." Luna stated confidently with a bit of a glint in her eyes and a slightly unsettling smile.

Blake didn't say anything for a moment. She could never really could understand the wolf Fanus. Not that she was saying that Luna insane, operatives do try to keep from toeing the edge, rather it was like how she could not understand Jack or honestly wanted to.

Jack may be the very symbol of death but, all Shattered Moon agents represent something that terrified her. The willingness to go to the extreme. Through out the time Blake has spent undercover, she learned what little a trusted friend of the blade and another agent was allowed.

She simply learned what they affected and what they have done. And she learned that few things were off the table for the operatives. What kept her from attacking Luna and possibly dragging Ruby away from Jack was that they left civilians alone and even prioritized getting civilians out of the area they are going mess up.

In particular, Luna had revered a time were Shattered moon called in a bomb threat, civilians evacuated and the target didn't believe the threat was real and that it was just an attempt for a group to try attack him. He learned quickly that while most of the bomb threats were false, the ones in his building were not only real but shaped charges that placed in which a way the his building not only collapsed but made sure he was killed.

Soon after, an officer of the law got a tip on a nearby terrorist group. It was promptly brought down and plans of the building and bomb making materials were found. As you can guess, an agent was blended into the group and the officer was also an agent.

Blake shook her head. She had to stop thinking about it, it's painful to think how ingrained Shattered Moon was in society, no use in thinking about it anyways for now. At least for now.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Blake asked a little impatient.

Luna held out 3 fingers. "Days." She said simply but very eagerly. Blake could have sown that the wolf Fanus giggled a little.

—

When the last Grimm faded Penny turned around and smiled. Scientists furiously made note on the change to Penny. More than one had little twitches in they're eyes.

Ironwood took the changes in stride and simply nodded. "Head back inside and meet with your mechanics." He ordered.

Penny nodded. "Okay." She said a little cheerfully.

After she skipped pass, Ironwood turned to the scientists and mechanics. "What are your thoughts?" He asked.

"Sir, the differences between the pervious version and the current version would be like analog VS digital, completely different." A scientist said, pushing they're glasses.

Ironwood nodded. "Okay, how are they different. Start with her body." He requested.

"Well, the synthetic skin layer is some kind of bio armor, underneath that is titanium alloy with some unknown mineral mixed in. The internal wiring is mostly the same as before, but major components have a cable made of a thin graphine wire surrounded by a rubber casing. The

artificial muscles are made up of a from of EAP, which is double the strength of normal human being without the biological limiters." He calmly listed. "That's are some of the major changes."

"Sir, If I may ask, who rebuilt Penny." The lead scientist asked.

James ignored him. "How is her programming?" He asked.

The lead sighed. "She's been relatively untouched, outside of the massive upgrades to her anti malware programs. Her ability to process information has also been upgraded a lot, as well as her ability to store information, which is up to a staggering 4 Exabytes."

"How likely do you think that the incident with Ms. Nikos will happen again?" Ironwood asked, wincing inside about that big oversight.

One of the other scientists, a women, spoke up. "No, the group that redesigned Penny's body were extremely through in creating counter measures." She said, looking over a clipboard which had little notes scribbled onto it. Some them requested the R&D develop similar technology while others were just having a little freak out in written from.

Ironwood nodded again. He wasn't surprised, Nicolas even in childhood had been very cautious. Overly so at times.

"Any concerns that any of you have, or any else have mentioned?" Ironwood asked.

The lead scientist coughed. "Well, some have mentioned they would want a total reset of Penny to undo any.." he mentally tries to find a good word. "Changes to her programming that are outside of the improvements that were given."

"I'm aware of the concerns but there is need." James said calmly, thinking back to the moment he met with his brother.

Flashback

"Hello James." Cite answered tiredly but still had a slight smile.

James raised an eyebrow. "Your overworking yourself." He stated, knowing the mental strain Of Nicolas's semblance. He nearly put himself in a coma when they were children after trying cover a good part of the network.

Cite nodded. "Your ISA* guys are getting much better. But that also means that Blood Throne has some decent programmers in they're side as well." Cite explained with a slight glare. "Pay up."

James eyes widen in surprise before chuckled and picked out a stick worth a hundred Lien and handed it over. "I had forgotten that you made notes on our little bet."

Nicolas raised a tired eyebrow. "You think the network forgets? Anyways on to why we are here, a small warning first." He said jokingly at first before becoming serious.

"And that would be?" James asked, slightly curious.

Nicolas stepped a little closer. "As you know, a hard reset of Penny would result in her memories erased but due to how some of the code works that I put in, she would be reduced to one of your bots, in personality and skill level. She would become nothing more than a weapon." He explained quietly.

Playing along James also spoke queitly. "What has she become?"

"You guys made her with a soul. So I thought it only right to make her something that will be far more useful than just a weapon." Nicolas explained. "the project named for Penny's upgrade is History's keeper."

Flashback end

"If there any other concerns, send them to my scroll." Ironwood as a way of excusing himself.

Walking into the building that house the facilities to make, test, and program robots and the test ground of Androids like Penny.

Thinking of the android in question, he walked over to the observation deck.

As he watched Penny happily chat with her mechanics who were having a good laugh, he was brought back to his childhood.

Sometimes, James really hated when Nicolas was right.

—

Jet blue felt his blood pumping. Of course his blood was always pumping but it was pumping in such way that he nearly forgot, since he mostly chased after old books and various sources of knowledge.

It was the thrill of the hunt.

Amber had easily spotted the unsettling grin that was plastered widely on his face. "Is this what you were talking about earlier?" She questioned.

Jet's smile immediately dropped and rubbed in his neck with a little embarrassment. "Yeah, that's the Erebus in me." He said a little sheepishly.

"And this is going to be a regular occurrence with you?" Amber asked.

Jet shook his head. "No, it's just been a while since I was able to let lose. My brother was a whole lot worse than I am, a little more arrogant too. Well at least before he met Jack's mother."

"How bad?" Amber questioned, not expecting anything much.

Jet could only grin. "Let's just She did not take one of his comments very well, and the police were nearly called for homicide. Love at first lost."

"Wait what?" Amber couldn't help but ask. That was straight out of the blue for her.

Jet shrugged. "What can I say? We were always a bit odd, even among hunters." He said casually.

Amber stayed silent for a few moments. "Does that happen a lot with your family?" Amber asked incredulously.

Jet, remembering some of his family's journals and diaries, he didn't look Amber in the eyes. "My brother's romance is far from the strangest that has happened in my family."

Before the conversation could continue a growl emminated from the woods surrounding the duo.

Amber and Jet pulled out they're respective weapons, putting each other back to back.

Jet smirked. "Brothers, don't abandon me now!" He thought as his blades hummed to life. Peering out of the brush was Grimm with a deformed human face.

—

Sort quietly stared at the street below watching the people pass by. The small bit of humanity that clings to him aches as he watched a couple laugh at a joke unheard.

Death was one step to being a Meddler, the other was detachment. You had to stop caring about your loved ones and anything else you cared about. And Sort hated it at times.

But then again, he didn't have the worst of it. Even what's more so, Elders like Jun are slowly peeling that requirement. And once more Jun had it worse off, reaper of the entire multiverse and all.

Then Sort felt a very minute change. A door to the neither had opened and it wasn't to far away.

Sort started to leap several roof tops at once several times before reaching his destination. Sort pulled out a gun (no dust) and fired and Xorc.

Xorc dodged at the last moment (even villains have plot armor) and rolled to the side. Not wasting breath either.

By (accidental) mutual consensus, they stopped trying to play mind games with each other. Knowing at this point it was useless, no trying to convince the other to join or simply leave. It was a match to either one must escape or die.

Intent on repaying the rather rude interruption he drew his gun (no dust, again) and returned fire as he rushed forward, drawing his blood red blade.

The two clashed with little fanfare. There was no epic struggle or any kind of banter just a simple death match. However it did look like something you would see on some kind of anime, due jumps and dives. It was just because of a small part of being a meddler, the can jump much higher than a normal human without any training.

A quirk of fighting with Meddlers was always to keep an eye on a meddler and never blink, similar to monsters that are paralyzed by sight. However that's what makes Meddler far more dangerous than those monsters, since they can still act unlike the monsters. Making they're ability to go anywhere makes them very dangerous foes despite the precautions they're target can make.

Clashing blades once more, Sort was able to sneak in a shot but unfortunately Xorc was able lean away enough for it only to graze his clothes. However the leaning caused his footing to be unstable, which Sort was aiming for if the shot missed.

Taking the chance, Sort swung out with his leg and caught Xorc's leg and forced him to completely lose his balance. The Purely green eyed meddler then slammed the pommel of his sword into Xorc's stomach, depriving of him of air.

Landing on the hard cement below did not help Xorc's situation but he was still able to bring his sword to block Sort's swing. He slammed his foot on the ground, launching his lower half up and slipping out from underneath Sort's blade.

Landing on his feet like a cat Xorc lashes out with his sword, having been forced to drop his gun to take the full impact of the swing. Sort jumped back a little to get out of the range of the swing and fired his gun.

Despite Xorc's struggles to get out of the way, the bullet burrowed through Xorc's skin, muscles and bones before getting stuck in his bones. Crimson liquid scattered across the floor with Xorc staggering back.

Xorc held the wound tightly and glared at his nemesis. "I hope you get your eyes snatched!" He yelled anger clear as day in his voice. In that moment the signature hair that all Meddlers had lost its luster but only for a moment.

To normal people, this would be a strange insult but to a meddler, it was a grave insult. The Meddlers has a natural predator know as a a snatcher. Creatures with numerous eye sockets that steal other creatures eyes but absolutely covet Meddler eyes, doing anything they can to get them. To get they're eyes snatched, meant doom.

Sort responded with a hail of bullets only to have Xorc deflect a bullet into some power lines that loomed above causing sparks to fly and the severed cable to swing down. Sort made the mistake of blinking, letting Xorc get away.

Sort, in frustration, stabbed the ground. "Next time." He muttered quietly before wincing from a combination of cuts and bruises and the environment that looked like it went through a miniature war.

Salem's castle, Xorc's room

Xorc stumbled out of the neither, clutching the bullet wound. Cursing in all languages ever known, he scrambled about his room, pulling out gauze, a scalpel, and a small blue pill.

Cinder, who was passing by at that moment heard the commotion, opened the door a little a poked her head in. The room was a mass, and small pool of blood was forming.

Xorc was laying on his bed getting ready to perform self surgery, his blood dribbling off his body onto the floor and his bed sheets.

"What are you doing!" She yelled.

Xorc glanced at her. "What does it look like I'm doing? Doing the robot?" He asked sarcastically.

Cinder twitched a little, sighed and snatched the scalpel from Xorc's hand. She had some skill in surgery, thanks to some injuries some of the others sustained fighting with some odd hunters.

She quickly got to work, not asking how he got the injury, having an idea how it happened. She quickly found the bullet, and thanks to the stabilizer in her robotic arm was able to take out the bullet with little problem.

When Cinder was warping Xorc's wound he slipped in the little blue pill. When Cinder finished she heard a small pop.

"A special form of medicine." He said as a way of explaining before he shivered. "Damm, it's cold."

Cinder crooked an eyebrow before she shook her head and left. Xorc then laid his on his pillow, the medicine subduing the Meddlers usually unending energy

Xorc started to meditate before he started to sleep. There was a slight blue coming from underneath the bandages, and in a minute a blue gel seeped out from under the bandages.

Outside of Xroc's room Cinder walked in silence, quietly flexing her robotic hand, still having a hard time believe that Xorc got the arm for her. Besides the fact he can go and steal and no one but gods and fellow Meddlers could catch him.

However the worth of the arm into light when Cinder accidentally overheard a conversation between Salem and Xorc. In short the arm was manufactured by a company ran by the entity that nearly killed her and Xorc earlier on along with another similar entity.

In the end, despite his demeanor, Cinder felt slightly touched by his actions. They're was also his odd moments, where he didn't seem himself. More like a broken man more than anything else.

She stopped for a moment and shook her head once more. "In the next life." She quietly said before continuing on.

—-

Shadow: so, yeah. its proablly a bit of a info dump but thats just how it came out. hope you guys you enjoyed and ill see you guys in the light.