Arclight Foundries

"Jaune!" Coco screamed, sounding relieved for a moment but then grunting as the Creep, small and bipedal but lacking any other limbs, leapt headlong into her and slammed her into the small fridge Penny and Ruby had installed in the break area. It caved under the force and the woman grit her teeth, slamming her knee up and into its jaw and then wrapping her arms around it to hurl the Grimm to the side into the dividing wall that separated the shop out. "Get down here! Hold off the other one while I deal with- F.u.c.k!"

The second leapt at her before she could finish, slamming her once again into the fridge, crushing it under the force of their weight and the impact. Her Aura sparked madly while it clawed at her, jaw snapping at her face and instead snapping around her forearm she was using as a shield.

Claws digging into the concrete, it spun and threw her towards its partner, slamming her into the wall she'd sent the Creep into hard enough to crack the concrete. She hit, limbs snapping straight against the wall, and then fell in a heap, recovering as fast as she could and rolling over. Just in time for the first Grimm to leap on her, a second jaw snapping around her right forearm and thrashing her like a wolf might, one hind leg anchoring them on the concrete while the other slammed into her stomach and clawed.

She screamed as her arm was wrenched down, sparks of brown Aura flecking away as the teeth sought purchase in soft skin, and he trundled towards her, arm pulled back for a clumsy punch.

"Jaune, on your left-"

Penny's warning came too late, the first Creep slamming into his side and throwing the boy onto his side. He swung his left arm clumsily at it, and the Grimm ducked under the blow, leaping onto the side of his c.h.e.s.t while his arm sailed high over it and sinking claws into the soft metal there. Undesigned for claws, the metal buckled under it easily enough, but the sheer thickness of the undersuit meant he only felt the tips of the claws through it brush against his skin even if it couldn't cut into it.

Which didn't stop him screaming like a particularly terrified baby, stuck at an angle to the floor due to the tanks on his back. Panicked, he swung his off arm clumsily into its side. Even terrified into the kind of stupid on fear, the force he could put behind the armored limb was enough to bat the Grimm off of him and to the side, into the middle of the room. It landed on its back, legs kicking in the air, and the rolled over and stood on shaky limbs.

"It's stunned, Best-Friend Jaune, but will not be so for long." Penny said quietly, the blonde rolling onto his hands and forcing his legs under him. Not an easy task in the clumsy armor, poorly weighted as it was. Even with the medicine suppressing it, he could feel his heart hammering, the adrenaline rushing through him making his body shake. "Please, hurry, it's-"

"My armor isn't designed for this!" He snapped in a sharp wheeze, fingers numbing from the adrenaline and his heart struggling to handle the strain, his medicine simultaneously fighting it. Slowing him down in a way he'd been too stupid to think it might. Coco screamed a swear, the Creep mauling her wrenching her arm to the side and pressing its leg into her stomach, trying to break her arm under the Aura with just pressure. "I-I can't get up, Penny! M-My body is numbed, I-I can't- I'm not strong enough!"

"The armor systems have enough power to compensate, they're not-"

"The systems can't compensate if I can't move to make them! That's how they're built!" He snapped back, looking past the Grimm at Coco. She kicked the Grimm away as strong as she could, scrambling away to try and get on her feet to defend herself but only getting an inch before it leapt on her back, snapping its jaw around her head this time and fighting to twist it against her Aura and strength. "Coco! Brothers damn it, I don't know what to do!"

The Grimm leapt back for him before the android could respond, bulldozing its bulbous, bone plated nose into the armor over his ribs with all the force of a cannon. It buckled with little resistance and he screamed when it did, the metal crushing and warping against his side uselessly. The Grimm pulled an inch away and then slammed into him again, throwing him onto his side with a heavy metal crash, trapping his right arm under his bulky form.

The metal plating itself was, he realized now, actually less use than the undersuit and lining inside the metal, that had been made to insulate him from the heat and smoke as well as the electrical systems throughout the armor. Luckily, the padding and insulation also kept the sharp, torn metal pieces along his side and the Grimm claws at bay well enough. At least for now.

But the repurposed Atlesian helmet, he knew for an absolute fact, wouldn't stand up to the Grimm snapping its jaws around his head. He made armor and weapons, and so knew exactly how much force a Creep's jaws could exert, and that was before the helmet had been stripped of some of its integrity to make room. Unbidden, his brain brought up the exact numbers for both, the jaw able to put in a pressure of two thousand pounds of force and the helmet now able to take about a third of that. He could barely move his arms and legs now, but his brain was working just fine right now.

Fine enough that he knew it would kill him, and Penny with him, and then join the other mauling Coco. Who was herself too hurt to fight off one properly, much less two of them and while unarmed. Eventually, her Aura would give out, and their teeth would sink into the soft flesh and muscle it had protected. And there wasn't anything he could do except watch the Grimm leap for him, maw gaping wide to crush his head in its powerful jaws.

"Jaune!" Coco screamed, more afraid for him even as her own Grimm wrestled with her head, intent on giving her a fate to match his. She rolled over, screaming in pain as her injured arm slammed into the Grimm holding her, "F.u.c.k off me! Jaune, no-"

His right arm snapped out, pushing his opposite shoulder into its jaw as he rose, the Grimm snarling and clamping its claws onto his waist as he rose. It kicked off him, but his left arm snapped out, grabbing a leg and turning, swinging it like a weapon overhead and then down. The ground cracked under the weight of the swing, and the Grimm fared no better, going limp as whisps of smoke spiraled into the air around its plating.

Seeing the death of its fellow, the second Grimm kicked off of Coco, the woman crying out as she slammed against the wall by the door. Hissing at him, it lowered its head to charge and his right arm flicked out, welding rod extending over his fist. The Grimm leapt and his arm snapped up, impaling the welding rod in its shoulder and drawing a pained, angry cry from it as he turned, punching forward with his right fist and slamming the Grimm against the fencing around his staircase.

It snarled in pain and the metal screeched before finally buckling, the armor taking a step forward to follow and pinning the writhing Grimm against the stairs, the metal fencing buckling and molding around it. Bringing its off hand back, the other welding rod extended and then it snapped forward, buried in the Grimm's eye. Silent, the armor held down the creature through its death throes and then, whe it fell lip, stepped back and turned to look down on Coco.

"The hell'd that come from, Jaune?" The woman grunted as she pulled herself up the door frame, like she was climbing it. She turned on the spot, hobbling on one leg to avoid pressure on the other and cradling her right arm against her side, and added in a tight voice, "I didn't know you could do that."

"I-I, uh, I… Didn't do it." He said quietly, shocked and out of breath still from the fight and what he, or his armor at least, had turned out to be capable of. Heart still fighting to hammer in his c.h.e.s.t, and arms sore from the forced motions wherever they weren't numb already from the medications. "I, uh… P-Penny?"

"Jaune, Penny's dead, we saw it on-"

"I am not dead, Miss Coco." The voice sparked from his helmet, sounding tinny and small but unmistakably Penny. The woman flinched, face a mask of surprise, pain from her injuries, and a gaping mouth about to ask for an explanation. Penny preempted her, though, explaining quickly and concisely, "I cannot get into it terribly, not right now, but I trust you saw my… Circuitry, when I was dismembered in the tournament."

"Yeah?" Coco was confused and injured, but she pushed off the wall and force herself to straighten in spite of her pain. Pressing her injured arm to her side and still favoring one leg over the other, she tilted her head to the side and asked gently, "So are you, like… A drone or something?"

"I am an Atlesian special experiment in the field of advanced, self-sentient artificial intelligences project designated code P-Three-N-N-Three." She answered quietly, tinny voice colored in that same anxiety she'd had when she'd told him about it. In that same voice, she added, "I am the first artificial being capable of generating and maintaining an Aura by myself, without infusions or exterior power sources for it."

"It was weird when I found out, too, but, I mean…She's still a-" He coughed suddenly and tried to raise his hand to his throat reflexively, straining against the armor and then stopping before Penny could realize what he was doing and try to move it the way he wanted. "This is all really, really weird, okay? But… She can generate her own Aura, and that makes her a person."

"Hey, I don't give a f.u.c.k about any 'o that." Coco said simply, shrugging and then wincing at the movements and squeezing out through gritted teeth. "Yeah, definitely a lot of rebreaks… Couple new ones, too, though that mother f.u.c.ker was gonna take my arm off. So, uh, thanks for that, Penny."

"Of course, Miss Coco, I- One moment, please." The mech - and Jaune with it, trapped observer that he was - turned abruptly at a crashing sound, the heavy machine turning and raising a fist as a third Creep, this one scorched and scr.a.p.ed along one side, leapt through the door at the goliath of metal.

Like the one before, she caught it around the throat, this time grabbing the top of its snapping and letting it drop, catching the bottom with her other hand and then quietly pulling the two pieces apart. It kicked and snarled, the sound wet without its jaw to shape the noise right, but after a few seconds a dull, moist pop echoed from it and the bottom jaw ripped away. The Grimm fell limp and she hurled each piece behind her uncaringly, the ruined body misting into the air like the others slowly.

"I am sorry, what were we talking about?" She asked innocently, dusting off her hands to rid the metal of saliva probably on habit alone. "Whatever it was, we do need to leave. Best-friend Jaune is in here, and fighting in this armor is… Difficult."

"Gods on the f.u.c.k.i.n.g moon, you're metal as hell… What happened to the cute little girl? Don't answer that, rhetorical." She grunted the words as much as said them, face pinche in pain, and leaned against the door edge to look out at the shop. "Place is wrecked, Dust is spilt, probably why that last bastard was burnt up like that. Seen it a few times at Beacon, people play with it and… Whatever, doesn't matter. Jaune, hop outta there and let's get out of here."

"Yeah, that's… Probably smart. Penny, I can't move, can you… Release by remote?" She didn't answer but, a second later, he felt the front of the armor shift and pull away. Or try, at least, the mechanisms of his right opening enough to feel a breeze but the plating on his left just barely muting a quiet, mechanical w.h.i.n.e from under the armor plates before it finally gave up and collapsed back down over him. "Uh, Penny?"

"I can't get it to open." She turned, and he went with her, stuck in the armor as he was, and lifted their arm into the air. Or her arm, he guessed now, since he was inside of her. Which was not something he would be saying to Coco. Or anywhere near her, assuming they got out of here. "Miss Coco, do you see any damage? It is possible, from the design, that the plating is warped and can no longer open properly. You should be able to tell, however."

"Well," she started dryly, waving her good arm at his side and grimacing at what she saw, or the movement maybe, "it looks like Yatsuhashi took a sledgehammer to it. About twelve times. And he had a bad day."

"So I-I can't get out…" The spike of fear broke his voice, a little, making his words crack near the end. Taking a deep breath, he tried to make himself calm down, before his heart got worse than he already knew it was. Coco was going to kill him now, he knew that much, but now that he didn't need to fight himself... "Okay, so, what do we do now? I need to get to the shelter because I dosed on my emergency meds, and Coco is-"

"-F.u.c.k.e.d harder than I want you to do me when you're especially charming." She chipped in helpfully, trying, he knew, to deflate the fear and anxiety in the room. Seeing her joke flop, she sighed, "Ribs are broken again, shoulders a little dislocated and I don't trust that," she jerked her head at the armor, "to put it back in, and the damn Grimm broke my favorite pair of glasses. Other 'n that, scr.a.p.es n' bruises. F.u.c.k you mean you dosed?"

"I, uh, took two so I could fight and not die."

"You stupid son of a- Ah!" She shouted, forgetting her injuries for a moment and taking a threatening step towards him on the wrong leg. She almost fell and Penny lashed out with a hand, managing to get it between her and the floor and holding her up until she could stand. "F.u.c.kin'- Aura, do your damn job. The hell are you thinking, dosing like that?"

"That I had a few blocks to run, and that I'd probably be getting attacked while I did. It's an emergency thing, my doctor told me about it, kind of like the shelters but, you know, for people like me and-" He cut off at the muted pop pop of nearby Dust weaponry firing, low caliber and probably suppressed inside the city-Kingdom's populated sectors. "Those are Atlesian rifles, semi-automatic from the fire rate… Standard drone service weapon, I think."

"Are you sure?"

"I made four for my licensing tests, Coco, so…" She made a face caught between a pained grimace and an awkward smile, but nodded acceptingly regardless. Even if he could tell just by looking at her she was pissed, at least now that he wasn't panicking and struggling to fight he could feel his fingers a little bit. "They should help us, right, Penny?"

"Probably, though they may be on a directive mission and so be unable to help us beyond directions." She hesitated for a moment and then added in a quiet voice, "Odd."

"What is?"

"The droids with them are not responding to my hails, Miss Coco…" She turned, lumbering towards the injured woman and offering an armored hand. The woman took it and, apparently rushing, winced when Penny pulled her upright and turned to lumber towards the door. "We must leave at once, and quickly, before they reach us."

"Why, Penny?" He asked, unable to stop the machine from moving around him and taking his limbs with it, and not even really trying trapped as he was. It was much stronger than him, and his own body would give way before hydraulics and metal did. "Even if they're not going to help us, there's no rush, right? I mean, I-I don't think they'd confuse us for Grimm or anything."

"Atlesian drones respond to commands based on authorization codes built into the signal transmitted. Mine is coded into my, well, coding directly. I am a tier one special asset, and even if somehow that command code isn't being transmitted by the helmet itself, the helmet would broadcast its own user identification and the droids would respond to it if only to request identification." She paused to reach up, plucking Twin Mors from the wall over his counter and drawing the shining blade from its sheath, turning to Coco to offer the shield. "It is too small a grip for me to hold like this, but you may be able to at least use it for cover."

"Yeah, against guns maybe…" Coco took it though, expanding it with a flick of her good wrist and turning the point so it faced aay, whistling, "Could stab a motherf.u.c.ker with this end, too. Good design, balanced, utilitarian… Not my style, but I like."

"I am going to try something, Best-Friend Jaune, please alert me if you feel any pain." Penny warned, laying the n.a.k.e.d sword on the counter before her and standing straighter, bringing her hands together almost like she was praying. "But I need to try, because I need to protect you inside of me. And Miss Coco can't stand in combat without me at my fullest. So please, forgive me if this hurts at all. Even if I don't know what this will do..."

He opened his mouth to ask what she was going to be trying that could hurt him inside the armor and then felt… Static. That was the only way to explain it, static electricity crawling across his skin, emanating from outside the armor. It started at his toes and climbed up his legs, the soreness therein and the numbing vanishing as it went up, barely leaving echoes of the problems behind along with an odd tingling. It reached his stomach and he felt the soothing power wash across his bruised side and continue on, finally reaching his c.h.e.s.t and stealing his breath.

And then invigorating him, beyond anything he'd ever felt before, when he brought a new breath in. As though simply breathing had drawn the strange, numbing, comforting power with it, tasting of copper and metal like he'd bitten his lip. It finally covered his head, cascading down his arms, and he gasped in shock at the sensations of it. The intoxicating power suffusing him, spiking his heart rate on the monitor in his HUD for a moment before it steadied at a little higher than normal.

"Best-Friend Jaune, I can feel you in there… You have a cracked rib, I think." Penny finally said, the armor relaxing - if a suit of stiff metal could relax at all - visibly, arms drooping at its sides. Raising her - their - hands, she added, "This is a fascinating sensation…"

"What did you just do?" Coco asked, leaning against the counter and watching them and the door in turns, wary of one but curious of the other. "I saw the glow- Was that your Aura? Did you just activate your Aura with Jaune inside you?"

"Yes. I need it to defend you, and he is trapped inside of, well, me now I suppose. A stray claw could disembowel him without it, and there'd be nothing we could do except run for help and pray he doesn't die." Speaking to him, she asked, "Are you alright?"

"I feel great!" And he did too, he felt stronger than he ever had before in his entire life. He couldn't help but smile in spite of everything, just giddy from the feeling of the power flush through him. "Do you guys feel like this all the time?"

"Your heart rate is climbing." She pointed out instead of answering, worry laced through her voice like her Aura through his body. "Be careful."

"It's fine." He dismissed, glancing to his monitor on the HUD and grinning. "Just a bit high, which is… Fine, really, given everything that happened-" He cut off as the popping sound echoed nearby again, suddenly concerned in the back of his mind. The emotion felt like the numbness in his fingers and toes, though. Distant and echoing, but there enough. "That's a bit closer..."

"We must leave." Penny acknowledged, retrieving the sword from the counter and testing its weight in her armor hand. Held like that, in the mighty metal fist, it looked less like a broadsword style weapon and more like a particularly long knife, but she seemed pleased and said, "Now I can feel it, the sword is balanced enough… It will do for combat purposes. Are you ready, Miss Coco?"

"As I'll ever be, yeah." She nodded, stretching out her injured arm through a pained snarl, lips pulled back to b.a.r.e her teeth in a hiss of pain. "Hurts like a bitch, but I can fight if I need to. You got more Aura than I do now, though, so you go first tall, metal and not quite dead anymore."

"I will do so. Please, keep space around me, as I intend to attract the attention of any Grimm nearby." Coco nodded simply, bouncing the shield on her arm a couple times to get a feel for the weight, golding it in reverse so the pointed edge could be used to bludgeon. Turning, Penny quietly assured them both, "We will get to the nearest shelter, get you both medical attention, and I will protect you during both. I promise."

"Then get on it, Robot Girl." Coco grunted, smirking and waving a hand at the door. "Right behind ya."

Nodding, Penny did just that, heavy metal footsteps carrying her to the door with the smaller, injured woman behind her and the Aura-infused man trapped within. Gripping the door frame, or rather gripping the concrete under it as the wood gave way and Penny didn't seem to care, and stuck her head out the door.

"Jaune," she started quietly after several quiet seconds passed, "please turn your head. I can't do so, and I need to see in order to check if it is safe to go out." Quietly, mostly out of embarrassment, he did as she asked and turned his head first right, where the streets were empty.

Well, empty aside from broken robots scattered throughout, surrounded by dead and dissolving Grimm of all kinds. Or all the small kinds, at least, since nothing bigger than Ursai seemed to be around out there. Scattered, ruined cars filled in the rest of the void that way and, in the distance, he could make out smoke far enough away that he was willing to wager it was at the docks. Distanly, he could see a few white figures moving, and hear the popping rifles as they went towards the docks, a black figure the size of a bear leaping and then falling aside as its momentum carried it away. A second black thing leapt out from behind a car as one passed and the droids began buffeting it down uncaringly.

"The droids are wandering off that way in pursuit of Grimm, or whatever else." Penny said quietly, lumbering forward while Jaune turned to look to the left.

Just in time for a Beowolf to leap up at him from the ground, claws reaching for him to get a grip on his arm and sink his massive fangs into metal and flesh. Penny, fast as lightning, snapped her left hand out to grab the closest clawed hand and spun. The Grimm snarled as she did, the girl heaving it over her shoulder and then slamming it down onto the hard concrete, following with a boot that crushed its head into an indent in the concrete that when she stepped over it left a very large boot flecked in Grimm plating behind.

A second followed it and she pivoted, right arm flashing by in a swing fast enough if stung him a bit to have to go along with it, Twin Mors singing its first song as it cleaved through the Grimm's jaw and separated the top half of its head from the rest. A third clambered over its fellow and she caught it on the backswing of the sword, stepping forward with her left leg and shoving the Grimm to the side while its head fell the opposite way. Seeing no more, Jaune let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and smiled.

Twin Mors was doing its job, and that filled him with pride.

"Let's go." Penny said quietly, thudding out into the street while Jaune slowly turned his - their he amended again - head to keep an eye out. Coco followed just behind, and to her Penny asked, "Keep an eye out, Miss Coco, as my sight lines are not in my-"

"Gods take me and f.u.c.k my ass…" She interrupted, Penny turning bodily to face her beyond them and then following her eyes to a ruined car, recessed into a building where it had landed. The driver was still visible, the door laying next to him, and both covered in claw marks. Nodding at his shirt, she sighed, "Recognize that from the pizza place down the road… Don't know who it was though."

"Steve… That's Steve, I recognize the haircut." Jaune filled in, feeling bad that he couldn't add his surname. He didn't know it, even if he recognized what was left of his face. "He owned it… Gave everyone else the day off for Vytal, and I guess he was on his way home when… Yeah."

"There is nothing we can do, except notify soldiers at the shelter. He will be recovered once the disaster has been averted." Penny said solemnly, turning and trundling up the road quietly with Coco trailing behind. "Though, I do hope those Beowolves and the Grimm that attacked him are one and the same."

"Me too." Jaune and Coco said at the same time, marching ahead quietly and awaiting the next attack.

They didn't have to wait long, a foursome of lithe Creeps rounding a corner out of an alley, one dripping blood from its fangs at the head of the pack. Spotting them, they snarled their little snarls and rushed towards them, one matching the pace of the pack leader and both leaping in tandem at them with their long, muscled legs stretching out to grip them. The right one, the one dripping blood, Penny impaled with a thrust of her sword, stepping forward and slamming her shoulder through its partners skull, swinging the arm up powerfully to slug the third and send it flying. Yanking her sword free, cleaving through the first, dead Grimm and into the air, she brought the silver steel down on the snout of the last. The blade cut through it from snout to left hip before coming free of the Grimm flesh, and Penny stood to move on unceremoniously from there.

And then cried out in pain as a tinny pop sounded a few feet away, shearing through the light armor of her shoulder and nearly hitting him as well. She turned toward the next threat, and Jaune felt the breeze on his arm from it.

The drone was damaged, badly, c.h.e.s.t riddled with small bullet holes and missing an arm, holding its rifle with the remaining one. That damage was probably why it had missed, Jaune realized as Penny charged heavily towards it, the drone leveling the weapon at center mass again. This time it was too close to miss, and Penny knew that, free hand grabbing the weapon before it could aim properly and yanking it towards her and to the side harder than the damaged mech could even try to resist.

"The drones have been hacked, then." She said quietly, pulling Twin Mors from the armored c.h.e.s.t with a muted scr.a.p.e. "I need to alter-"

Coco cried out and Penny spun, bringing up her sword as the woman crashed into her c.h.e.s.t. The mechanized armor only gave a bit, Penny stepping back and to the side so Coco could hit the ground and roll beyond while she dealt with the threat at hand. The great, spike-covered bear roared loudly, rearing back and baring bloodied fangs, and Penny shifted. Turning her left to it, she brought the sword down and back, to thrust up if it charged.

"That's an Ursa Major!" Jaune choked out, scared for himself and worried for Coco both.

"I know, Jaune." Penny answered quietly, the Grimm landing heavily in front of her and rumbling a growl low in its c.h.e.s.t. "Please be quiet, I need to concentrate on it or it will crush us both. And then Miss Coco as well."

He didn't speak again, partially because of what Penny had said and how, but mostly because it took that moment to charge. Ducking low, it slammed its shoulder up in an effort to impale them on its shoulder. The spikes sparked off Aura and Penny staggered back under the force, planting her right foot and then stepping in with a lunge, burying Twin Mors up to the handle in its shoulder beside its head.

The Grimm bellowed and yanked up, Penny losing the weapon as it did, and slammed its paw into her side, Penny blocking as much as she could with their left arm. The metal crumpled, and then Jaune's arm crumpled under it, the boy screaming in pain as he was lifted and hurled bodily to the side. They landed only a couple inches away, and Penny managed to at least land them on their side when they hit the ground. Then she rolled onto their stomach, trying to rise but only making it halfway before a second swipe crushed against her good side and hurled her out into the street, away from the sidewalk and this time going a solid foot now the beast knew how hard it needed to hit.

Coco, shrieking a battlecry, rushed at its flank with the shield raised and it turned, catching the bash of the pointed end on its head before batting her the opposite way with a growl. Penny took the distraction to rise while Jaune s.u.c.k.e.d in air through his teeth, trying to ignore the pain in his very broken arm, and the Ursa Major turned back to them. She got a leg between her and the floor before it reached them, a paw slamming into the armored c.h.e.s.t and almost playfully shoving them onto their back, sitting at an angle once again on the cold concrete.

Lumbering around them, it reared over their head and Penny tried to bring the damaged left arm up defensively, desperate for anything to ward off the attack.

The Grimm made it halfway down before something leapt over the downed machine, slamming into it like a cannonball. The man, wearing white and black and as tall as Yatsuhashi, grabbed the sword hilt in the black mound that was its shoulder, slamming a fist into its head and then yanking down as hard as he could. The sword cut down several inches and the Grimm roared in pain as the man freed the blade and stabbed up, into its maw up to the hilt with the blade protruding from its skull.

Yanking it free, the man turned and looked down on them, white bone mask betraying nothing until he asked loudly enough for Coco to hear, staggering toward the White Fang warrior with a hard scowl, "Are you Arc?"

"Y-Yes." He gasped, the beast of a man nodding curtly and offering a hand.

"I'm Banesaw." The goliath said, kneeling and lifting the mech bodily before setting it on its feet. Turning, he looked at the wounded Coco and rumbled the next, "Is she with you?"

"She is, yes." Penny asked, the masked man snapping to look at the armored unit in concern. "Our situation is complicated. But you are White Fang, aren't you?" The masked warrior nodded curtly, and she asked, "So why help us? We're all Human."

"Whatever the hell Adam is thinking pulling this," he gestured at the surrounding carnage and snarled the name as he said it, "the White Fang don't stage massacres. Nor do we punish those who are kind to our species. I and others are helping whoever we can who is friendly to our people, now that we see that bastard for what he is. That includes you, according to a… Mutual acquaintance of ours."

"Who-"

"Not telling, s'how it works." Banesaw cut off Coco, and the woman grimaced but nodded. "Now, I'm going to get you to the nearest shelter through a safe route. One my men cleared out personally and then we go our separate ways. I can tell you're f.u.c.k.e.d up with that arm and the dent in your c.h.e.s.t, Arc, and… Whoever else is in there or whatever, but doctors will be there to deal with it. So push through it and you should live. Understood?"

"I understand." Penny said quietly, the soldier flipping the sword over and handing it to her. Waving it ahead of them, she said quietly, "Please, lead the way."

"And hurry." Jaune coughed, feeling the numbness spreading up his arms and legs, "I-I don't feel so good."

"And hurry." Jaune coughed, feeling the numbness spreading up his arms and legs, "I-I don't feel so good."

"Your heart rate is plummeting- He has a heart condition, Banesaw, and I believe he is going into a slow cardiac arrest. I have no time to explain why or how, but my Aura can maintain him for some time, but we-"

"Then we better f.u.c.kin' go." He snapped sharply, striding past them in a hurry and stooping to pluck a massive, silver chainsaw from the concrete. No doubt dropped in his charge against the Grimm, to let him get there in time before they were crushed. Fishing a small, black box out of his jacket, he clicked a button and snarled into it, "Tell the Atlesians protectin' the shelter we got someone comin' in who's havin' a heart attack."

The damaged machine and the wounded woman hobbled and jogged as fast as they dared, heading through winding alleyways and passing by trios of beleaguered looking White Fang, holding the large walkways against whatever might come. Barely five minutes passed before Banesaw shoulder through a fence, forcing the gate open, and turned to them, gesturing behind him with a jerk of his head.

"Get in there, and don't f.u.c.k.i.n.g die, Arc." He clapped a heavy hand on his good shoulder and stepped by, back into the wide alleyway they'd come down. "They'll take care of you in there, I got shit to cut into little f.u.c.kin' bits. And then a bull to de-horn, if I have anything to say about it."

"Code one-five-seven, authorization pee-three-en-en-three." Penny rattled out as they pushed past the Atlesian guards, wearing blue armor and looking shocked as well as exhausted and battle worn. Jaune barely noticed, head beginning to loll on her armor shoulder. "Message the medical section, cardiac arrest, no active Aura, pre-existing medical conditions, and he is trapped in this armor. We'll need metal cutters and computers, with hardwired memory."

"But we-"

"I am ordering you to prepare what is needed. Do not think to disobey me, private." Penny snapped, harsher than either could have ever imagined. Though Jaune could barely consider it, he was so tired now, eyes beginning to droop behind his visor. "Priority one, under Atlesian Specialist mandate. You will get soldiers hardlining computers and you will get an engineer to extract him from the-"

Jaune finally passed out, glad to sleep for once in his life.

XxX----XxX----XxX

Jaune coughed, cracking an eye open against the bright light set in the ceiling, and raised a hand to ward it off with a murmur of, "Ouch…" Then he coughed again, and hissed, c.h.e.s.t aching hollowly. His hands reached up to touch the soreness there, set into the center of his c.h.e.s.t, and small hands grabbed each of his before he could. Confused, they were too small to be Coco's and he remember she was somewhere around when he fell asleep, he asked, "W-What-"

"You are recovering from surgery, Best-Friend Jaune." Penny said quietly, the blonde blinking and looking to his side, the little android a girl once more and sitting beside him with a small smile. "You suffered extreme cardiac arrest from your medicine, the strain of your battle with the Grimm, me moving you around like I had to, and the Aura that suffused you exacting a toll on your body."

"What kind of surgery?" He asked quietly, already panicking at the idea of paying for it and looking around. The room was small, stark white, and empty save his bed and equipment at one end, and a man standing at the window with his arms clasped behind his back. "A-And hi, uh, you there?"

"My name," the large man said, turning and offering a small and genuine, if tired, smile, "is General James Ironwood, of the Atlesian Navy and Council."

"G-General?!" He blinked, looking to Penny who nodded curtly in confirmation. .Sitting up straighter and wincing as his c.h.e.s.t throbbed he asked, "To, uh, to what do I owe the honor of your, uh, your visit?"

"You know what Penny is and, more importantly, accepted her and kept it the secret I, and Atlas at large, need it to be." The man answered, taking long strides to stand at the foot of his bed. Leaning on the railing there, he smiled and nodded his head meaningfully, "That alone would earn my thanks, if it was all you did. But it isn't, is it? You saved her life as well."

"Thanks to your armor, I uploaded into a dozen hard-drives and managed to stay together until Father got to the shelter, after the battle." Penny filled in for him, smiling politely all the while. Then, looking sheepish, she went on, "You were… Catatonic still, and likely to die. Father would not tolerate that, and so he rebuilt a specialized implant he built for you, after I told him about you."

"I-Implant?!" He grabbed his shirt and the sheets, pulled them up and then swallowed at what he saw. A thin scar left behind now, right down the center of his c.h.e.s.t. "I-I have an implant? But I can't afford-"

"I have covered the costs personally, Mister Arc. The implant is top of the line, highly advanced, and based on Penny's heart design. Which means that your Aura fuels it, and it doesn't have any risk of infection or rejection, since your very soul constitutes its mechanisms" Ironwood said simply, standing and returning to his cool, military stance. His smile vanished, and he added in a quiet voice, "And in case you missed it, your Aura had to be active for the implantation."

"I have an Aura?" He asked, raising his hands and looking at the pale skin there. As though he could see it if he stared at the work scars and calluses long enough. Quietly, almost reverently, he added, "I never thought I'd be able to have my own Aura…"

"And now you have it, and quite a bit of it as well, I feel the need to add." The man chuckled, shaking his head slowly, and added, "Gods, would you make an excellent Specialist with that amount of Aura… But that isn't important. Penny, would you like to tell him?"

"Oh yes!" She bounced in her seat, turning and beaming a bright smile at him on the bed. "Due to my survival, and my attempt to initially enter my extra body aboard the flagship, I was infected with the same virus that controlled the droids!"

"What?! Are you okay?"

"What she means to say," Ironwood added with a tired, good natured sigh, like a father dealing with rowdy kids might, "is that due to that, we were able to prove that Atlas did not attack Vale. She had the code left, and that was presented to the Valean Council, who have cleared Atlas of all wrongdoing. Messengers are carrying this judgment to Mistral, Vacuo and Atlas proper. Which means that you, young man, may have facilitated what prevented a worldwide conflict."

"I didn't even do anything like that, though…" He argued, shocked at the news. "I-I just made a suit of armor to work in."

"A suit of armor, I am told, that was able to easily fend off Grimm. Something I'd like to talk to you about licensing, once you are recovered. But that isn't important right now. You have my thanks for your assistance, and need not worry about a cent of the fees for your surgery." The General grunted, turning to look at Penny and saying simply, "I believe it's time that I leave. And don't you and your father need to get to your new home and get everything set up?"

"Oh yes!" Penny hopped up, pushing the chair back a bit, and looking at Jaune excitedly. "Father will be staying in Vale, while Atlas oversees repairs of Beacon and I attend there. Girlfriend Ruby is helping us move in! I am happy to see you awake, but…" She gestured at the door and smiled, silently asking for permission, and Jaune rolled his eyes.

"Go see her." He laughed when she squealed and turned, walking as quickly as she could out the door and leaving the two men alone. Quietly, Jaune asked, "How's she doing, after what happened?"

"You nearly died and your concern is for another?" The man chuckled, shaking his head and lumbering towards the door, hesitating for a moment and turning to look at him. "You would have made a wonderful Specialist, Mister Arc. And Penny is just fine, though I fear you won't be…"

"Why…?" He asked carefully, wary of the man suddenly levying a threat against him for something. The man said nothing, instead opening the door wider and holding it, a bandaged Coco, arm hanging in a sling now and leg in a solid cast, storming in as best she could and turning a glare on him. "Oh… Shit."

"You-You son-of-a-f.u.c.k.i.n.g Grimm!" She snapped, shuffling towards him while Ironwood wisely ducked out of the room and pulling the door shut behind him. Crawling up onto the bed with her good knee, injured leg hanging at an odd angle, she grabbed his shirt and forced a rough, harsh kiss on him. She pulled away after a second and snarled, "If you ever pull that kinda shit again, I will bite your d.i.c.k off! You understand?"

"Y-Yes, Ma'am!"

"Good." She grunted, taking a gentle seat in the chair Penny had occupied and then smiling like a cat with a canary. "Now once you get better, you better be ready, 'cause I already bought a new bed for you."

"Why…?"

"Guess who can get laid now, without having a heart attack?" She asked in answer, eyebrows climbing into her hair and grin stretching even wider. "And after what you did when the Fall of Beacon went down? I'm going to bring 'breaking the new bed in' a whole new motherf.u.c.k.i.n.g meaning."