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Atlas Declassified:
Project Hen-House
To one with the presence of mind to notice and appreciate such things the office belonging to the head of Atlas Academy was a carefully crafted master-stroke of symbolism designed to intimidate that scarcely seemed possible of such a starkly utilitarian space.
General James Ironwood sat behind his finely crafted desk with his fingers pressed together as he regarded the man before him with eyes that held none of the warmth that the man attempted to convey in his public appearances; behind him and to his sides the near panoramic windows of the office allowed one to see not only the grounds of the academy but also a vast portion of the city of Atlas itself and the fleet which perpetually guarded it, giving the impression that in being summoned to this office one were marching into battle wherein the headmaster had the entirety of Atlas's military, financial and scientific might rallied behind him and at his total command.
A statement that was far closer to the truth than many were comfortable with.
"There's no need to look so nervous Doctor Shiroi" Ironwood's deep, smooth voice had a warm and friendly edge to its' conversational tone; something that may have worked well with infantrymen or students but to a man of science whose talents had led to many such conversations it was a clear indication of business commencing and had the air of an inquisition.
"Of course not" Doctor Shiroi replied tonelessly in a voice that was as frail as his body, which stood at an unimpressive height with a spindly and somewhat hunched build and flesh that was pale from avoiding what little sunlight the icy Kingdom received; the man was clad in a lab-coat with lightweight body armour beneath it to give some indication of the dangers involved in his work and a pair of thick robotic goggles which, whilst not replacing his eyes had augmented them greatly.
"I'm here to discuss progress on Doctor Polendina's work" Ironwood stated flatly, quietly inspecting the older mans' reaction
"In regards to artificial Hunters" Doctor Shiroi murmured "By means of Aura manipulation and robotics….I must admit that I found the work intriguing but I was transferred to another project before even a proof of concept could be produced" Shiroi fidgeted nervously, the uncertainty in what exactly the General was driving at keeping him off guard and glancing around sheepishly like a child caught misbehaving which was, almost certainly what Ironwood had intended.
"Indeed, and your work on the project was exemplary, truly Atlas is in your debt" Ironwood's tone softened before instantly becoming businesslike "What if I were to tell you that Doctor Polendina's work had yielded results?"
"I would be greatly impressed General" Ironwood gave a small smile at that before pressing a series of buttons on a control panel at his desk and a moment later circles of glowing, pale blue light in the centre of the offices' floor and ceiling came whirring into life and hologram and hard-light Dust projectors were activated, sculpting themselves into a three dimensional recreation of camera footage that had clearly been taken in one of the many classified and secret laboratories which Doctor Shiroi was well acquainted with.
"Salutations" a chirpy and pleasant, if oddly stilted voice announced and the scientist let out a gasp of surprise at the sight of his former colleague, now confined to a many-legged contraption of a chair was joined by a copper-haired and bright eyed girl whose origins were clear the moment Shiroi laid eyes on her.
"That's a machine?" he demanded incredulously "I-how? He actually…." his sputtering trailed off as the recreated scene dissolved and was replaced by another snippet; for several minutes Doctor Shiroi watched in stunned silence whilst his scientific mind raced with gleeful excitement as he watched Penny Polendina learn and develop with all the boundless curiosity of a real child, all whilst showcasing skills that put her on par with student Hunters and accelerating at a rate which made it clear that she would soon far outpace them.
"What do you think?" General Ironwood asked quietly as the footage finally ended, his tone surprisingly gentle as he added "She's quite something isn't she?"
"This work is incredible, it could revolutionise the way Hunters-"
"It certainly will, but perhaps not in the way you're thinking" Ironwood nodded sombrely "Which gets us to the topic of your new assignment"
"I'm listening sir" Doctor Shiroi beamed, all previous trepidation forgotten in the face of such boundless potential.
"Penny Polendina is and will be an incredible asset to Atlas, she will be departing for Vale to compete in the upcoming Vytal Tournament where she will be assigned to a team of students already earmarked for careers in the Specialist Branch; a field test in a controlled environment if you will….Also a public appearance, I can foresee a future where Penny becomes the public face of the Atlesian Military; something more palatable than occupation by a legion of Paladin battle-suits" Doctor Shiroi fought the urge to sneer at Mantle who were the clear target of the comment, Ironwood rose from his seat however and began to pace with his hands clasped behind his back as he continued
"The problem is however that Penny is made from a fragment of Pietro's soul and the Doctor is; much to Atlas's benefit and his own credit a fundamentally good soul….her initial docility and passiveness were programmed traits designed as a safety measure, but even as she grows beyond them Penny Polendina is for all intents and purposes a kind hearted girl who wants to help people" Ironwood made a noise that was somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh "This has its' uses of course but the fact of the matter is that we are at war against terrorist insurgents in the form of the White Fang and Doctor Polendina's work is too important to be applied in such a limited manner"
"I see" Doctor Shiroi nodded, he was being entirely honest as the reason for his being summoned had become glaringly obvious once General Ironwood revealed his intentions with his admissions
"You will have full access to Doctor Polendina's work and all footage pertaining to Penny's learning, training and behavioural studies….this is naturally to be kept confidential. You will be given funding, resources and assistance as you deem fit and will be suitably compensated for your efforts upon the completion of your work, which is naturally both the property of the Atlesian Military and classified above top secret"
"Naturally" Doctor Shiroi shrugged, having worked for Atlas for so long he had grown accustomed to the sting that came with having all ties to his own work severed "But let us be clear, you want me to take Polendina's work and weaponise it"
"Penny Polendina is already a weapon in her own right" Ironwood replied "I'm simply asking you refine the concept and make it more suitable for the task required….Atlas needs a version of Penny Polendina that Pietro, Brothers bless his soul, would never dare to make"
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Doctor Shiroi's laboratory on the edge of Atlas was kept dim, cold and sterile with a pervading sense of sinister foreboding that clung to the place which the scientist had heard several of the assistants provided to him by General Ironwood attribute to the indescribable wrongness of precisely what happened here; he had predictably dismissed each of these assistants shortly after hearing such comments, he was a man of science and had little tolerance for such superstitious and fanciful ideas clouding rational thought.
Now if only his work would begin to show results so that he might assuage General Ironwood's concerns; which he was being reminded of in ever more belligerent terms.
"Damn it all" he growled under his breath; his ideas for the improvement of Pietro Polendina's work had been simple and intuitive yet had proven immensely difficult to put into practice. The mechanical side of thing had proven the most straightforward, as impressive as Penny Polendina was machinery could always be made more efficient and the androids' systems were no exception, the mechanical frame of a body was ready and waiting to have a synthetic epidermis grafted over it upon the completion of a core; which was where the problems had arisen. Penny Polendina bore a fragment of her creators' own Aura and yet had undeniably grown and evolved into her own being, a truly remarkable feat which Doctor Shiroi would be sure to congratulate his former colleague for but was simply not acceptable in his own work, such uncontrollable variables needed to accounted for and a suitable candidate for a 'donor' Aura had to be found.
Doctor Shiroi had deduced that he might achieve both goals at once.
He had sought to manipulate the functions of the Aura Transfer device which Doctor Polendina had created in such away that he could choose which parts of subjects' Aura, or their soul as loathe as he was to use the term, were extracted; following this revelation he had set about compiling a shortlist of several dozen individuals whose Aura and personal qualities would be suited to such an admittedly ghoulish process; most of them being Atlesian Specialists whose ruined bodies were kept in stasis on the verge of death until such a time as science could heal them, balanced carefully against serial killers and rogue soldiers on death row in an effort to create a chimeric Aura, pieced together to create the perfect blend of unwavering loyalty and the willpower to do whatever was required, all whilst blending in with criminals and terrorists without raising suspicion.
The last candidate was something else entirely.
General Ironwood had specifically requested that this android be Faunus in appearance and as such the arrival of the Scorpion Faunus who wore a black variant of the Specialist uniform, with long hair and fierce yellow eyes that combined with surgical scars and an unsettling smile had seemed like a boon to Doctor Shiroi, even as the Faunus caused the most base and primal part of his mind to scream in terror. Their clearances to know of the project had been impeccable even if all records pertaining to the man were either restricted, redacted or simply absent entirely, though Doctor Shiroi could make an educated guess and whilst not a Hunter or a Specialist himself he had spent enough time in the company of both to here whispered rumours of some spectral figures that delivered Atlas's justice to those who went rogue.
The Hunter-Killer would have a perfect component for his androids' composite Aura and psyche, if only he had survived the process.
"Damn it all" Shiroi repeated as he stared at the unmoving body which had been plucked from the Aura transfer machine and laid on a surgical slab; the mortality rate for his test subjects was unfortunately high and General Ironwood begrudgingly accepted that, this however felt like an entirely different proposition and as Shiroi looked to each of his four assistants in turn and saw the shocked expressions that they wore one of them managed to vocalise his concerns.
"Doctor this could have repercussions" they murmured, casting their eyes around as though suspecting some great conspiracy "This subject wasn't like the others….they were in active service, there could be political consequences….or worse"
"Agreed" Shiroi admitted which a frown, contemplating simply disposing of the body and scrubbing all records pertaining to this exercise before thinking better of it; he highly doubted such a crude deception would work and moreover whilst he was a man of science he was also a man of some principle, the body laying before him was that of somebody who had sacrificed themselves in the name of Atlas and science and Shiroi would not see his work reduced to that of a blood-soaked and ghoulish monster like Merlot.
"Put the body in storage, I'll contact the General in the morning….I'll make it clear that he approached us and was well aware of the risks and that we made every effort to save him, the truth is the ultimate defence after all"
"Yes doctor" the assistant who had spoken looked unconvinced, yet complied anyway and stepped towards the lifeless Faunus alongside another of the four, preparing to move him onto a waiting trolley.
Then the impossible happened.
Doctor Shiroi's mind could simply not comprehend what he was seeing as the Scorpion Faunus's tail lashed out and its' stinger burst from the back of the first assistant, blood spattering the doctors' cheek as it erupted from the wound to coat the walls and floor; he began to make sense of the impossibilities that were happening before him however as the seemingly resurrected corpse leapt to its' feet and landed in a crouch on the cold slab it had been laid on; letting out a terrifying scream that was somewhere between that of a tortured animal and a wrathful force of nature.
The resounding crack of the second assistants' neck breaking brought Shiroi to his senses.
"RUN!" he screamed to his remaining two aides, the first bolting out of the nearby door as fast as their legs could carry them whilst the second gave in to their fear the moment they felt the reanimated Faunus's gaze fall upon them and a moment later they had been caught and despatched, the subjects' Scorpion tail shooting forward to stab them in the gut before pinning them to the wall where the Faunus proceeded to shatter their skull with a flurry of wild blows whose power proved beyond doubt that whatever had been done to their Aura, its' tattered remains still functioned, all whilst continuing to let out their ear-splitting shrieks.
"GET BACK!" Doctor Shiroi took aim with the fire extinguisher he had grabbed to defend himself with and unleashed a jet of freezing mist into the face of the Faunus who turned to look at him with eyes that had morphed from their previous yellow to a shocking purple that almost glowed; he expected to die there and then but was spared as the test subject merely bolted, the doctors' relief being snuffed out a moment later as the sound of screaming revealed that the last remaining assistant had been caught in the path of the Faunus's rampaging escape.
Doctor Shiroi collapsed to the ground, a trembling and sobbing wreck but even as the numbness of shock washed over him his mind began to race; options and possibilities forming and coalescing in the blink of an eye, he had more information to work with now and he knew that his work needed to be completed, if not for Atlas then simply to save him from the wrath of the Kingdoms' fabled Hunter-Killers who would surely seek revenge for what had happened here.
He silently promised himself however, that once his current task was completed he would do whatever it took to find out what had been done to Tyrian Callows.
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"It's ready?" General Ironwood's voice was blunt and expectant, yet Doctor Shiroi could hear the heavily suppressed tremble of excitement in his words and where once he would have shared it, now he was merely sickened by what he had created.
"As far as we can tell" he answered in a measured and deliberate voice "This is still the initial activation process, we won't know until we try.
"Then let's get on with it" the General and the doctor were in a large open laboratory that was not Shiroi's own, the culmination of his work having been collected by the Atlesian military the moment Ironwood had learned of its' completion and now the two of them stood surrounded by doctors and engineers who were in turn flanked by a heavily armed and armoured robot of a variety Shiroi was unfamiliar with which stood at silent attention with their weapons at the ready under the command of Specialist Winter Schnee who had not been formally introduced to Doctor Shiroi but whose fame and renown made it unnecessary, all of them gathered around the central focus of the room; a single large cylinder filled with a slightly translucent and viscous pale orange coloured liquid, a chemical which served as bonding agent to ensure that the synthetic flesh grafted to the android floating within took to the mechanical frame without simply rotting and sloughing away over time; the android itself could only be distinguished as a faint, blurry outline through the murky outline though Shiroi and his team knew what lay within.
The doctor felt his chest clench and seize with fear and for the briefest moment considered defying the order before realising that it would be fruitless, he had come too far to pretend that he had a conscience and balk at his work now and with a single silent nod his aides began their work, entering a series of commands into various control panels that would bring the android, Penny Polendina's spiritual successor and the second of her kind online.
Countless computerised chimes and alerts informed all present that the activation procedure was underway and that they would come face to face with the fruits of their labour and mere moments later the viscous liquid filling the tube began to drain away, first revealing a plethora of thick, armoured cables from which the android was suspended.
Then the tube exploded outwards as a piercing scream split the air; orange liquid and bulletproof glass flying as all directions as the android ripped the cables free of its' own back; landing in a crouch as they continued to scream in a way that left Doctor Shiroi rooted to the spot and ashamed of the whimper that escaped him as images which had haunted his nightmares were recreated in front of his eyes.
The screams died down and out of the corner of his eye Doctor Shiroi saw General Ironwood motion for Winter to stand down; he kept his attention primarily focused on the android however watching as their chest heaved despite them having no need to breathe and they glanced at their surroundings with wild eyes and a maelstrom of raw emotion playing across their face; confusion, fury and no small amount of fear giving her the appearance of a cornered animal
"Where am I?….What-Who am I?" her first words had been oddly modulated and synthetic although as she spoke her voice became something much more human.
The android stood at a little more than five and a half feet tall, taller than Penny Polendina by perhaps a few inches and with a build that noticeably more athletic and slightly more mature; designed to emulate someone in their early to mid twenties rather than a teenage student and with skin that was somehow even paler, making Doctor Shiroi concerned for the briefest moment that the artificial flesh hadn't taken. Where Penny Polendina had freckles this android was a Snake Faunus and as such had small scatterings of iridescent black scales which shone under the lights dusting her shoulders and collarbones, with larger scales running along the length of her spine and finally down to a long, powerful serpentine tail which uncoiled and lashed dangerously behind her; the inclusion of a prehensile tail had been an obvious decision to make when instructed to create a Faunus android but Doctor Shiroi couldn't help but wonder if his choice had been the right one as saw the appendage which made up fully half of the androids' mass flexing in warning. Her face sent chills down his spine more than anything else however, thin and lean with hollowed cheeks and hair that was closer to bloody crimson than orange plastered to her as it hung lank about her shoulders whilst she stared at assembled crowd with mismatched eyes; Doctor Shiroi had learned from Geppetto Polendina's notes that Penny's eyes had remained blank and colourless until the core containing part of his own Aura at which point they had become brilliant emerald green and now he could only wonder what it meant that out of all of the various Aura's that had been blended together to create her this new androids' left eye was a vivid purple and her right was a fierce yellow; the exact same colours as Tyrian Callows before and after his apparent death.
The android stared at the scientists and General Ironwood who merely stared back, the atmosphere between them immeasurably tense until Ironwood finally slipped his coat from his shoulders and gave it to one of the aides and simply nodded for them to put it on the android, something Doctor Shiroi could appreciate as being the result of the Generals' own injuries; he'd been stared at by enough scientists to resent the feeling. The aide crossed the room and with trembling hands draped the coat over her shoulders, it dwarfed the android to thoroughly that nobody saw the jagged fragment of glass clutched in her hand until she'd already began to lash out; scoring three deep slashes into the aides' face which sent them to the floor howling in pain with blood leaking from between their fingers as they clutched at the wound; the android made to pounce only for a Glyph from Winter Schnee to manifest in the space between them and the sound of weapons being readied suddenly filling the air
"STAND DOWN!" Ironwood barked before making a show of drawing both of his pistols and setting them on the ground before walking slowly towards the android with his hands outstretched as if to show that he meant no harm.
"That was unfortunate, mistakes happen and we learn from them" his tone was gentle and reassuring "They meant you no harm, I should have made sure you understood that before telling them to touch you….what's your name?"
"I….I don't know" the android admitted, voice faltering as she skulked around the General, slowly rising from her crouched position as her tail slithered around him, ready to attack from behind at a moments' notice though Ironwood steadfastly refused to acknowledge it's presence.
"What do you know about what you are?" looking on at the scene Doctor Shiroi managed to convince himself that he could hear the whine of systems starting up in earnest, so intent was the androids' gaze as she contemplated the question
"That I am in infiltration and covert operations unit; property of the Atlesian Military, frame variant Shiroi forty-four….all other information redacted" the answer seemed to visibly unsettle several of the scientists, not least of all because the information she had recited had been nowhere in her programming, meaning that she had remotely accessed it somehow which Ironwood seemed to realise if the slight widening of his eyes was any indication.
"That's a good start" he nodded catching himself and allowing a small small to tug at his lips "You are the culmination of years of research, the pinnacle of Atlesian ingenuity; a weapon designed to safeguard the Kingdom by striking down our enemies before they can move against us"
"I'm combat ready" the phrase made Doctor Shiroi, General Ironwood and even Winter Schnee pause, all of them having heard the words come from the mouth of Penny Polendina, yet this android had none of her bubbly self-assuredness, only a cold malice that radiated out from her
"Excellent" Ironwood nodded in satisfaction "More specifically you are a key component of Atlas's plans to take down the terrorist organisation known as the White Fang; Operation Hen-House" the android cocked her head as she clearly continued to access files, though her next words shocked all present who had expected her have quickly researched the Faunus militants and promise their demises
"Hen-House….But I'm not a Fox Faunus?" Ironwood gave a deep, booming laugh at this comment and initially made to clap her shoulder before quickly thinking better of it
"She learns quickly Doctor Shiroi" he noted over his shoulder, indeed idioms and social cues were things which her predecessor seemed to struggle with, this android was made with with the goal of remaining incognito in mind.
"So you want me to kill people?" the android noted and Doctor Shiroi found himself mentally screaming at the General to take the smile that formed on her face as a sign that this abomination should be deactivated, a sentiment which was silently echoed by Winter Schnee whose calm and detached facade began to crumble.
"I want you to help keep Atlas safe….unfortunately that will most likely be part of it" General Ironwood answered with a solemn nod.
"Playing the hero is gonna be fun" the android answered with a twisted leer and whilst the words were once again something that could easily have been said by Penny, their delivery made them ominous; Ironwood however had clearly committed himself to staying the course
"I'm glad we understand each other" he held out a hand "May I have the piece of glass you used to….defend yourself" the android paused for a moment before relinquishing the bloody shard
"Good" he continued, his tone that of someone speaking to a child "Now, I'll be leaving Atlas soon; which means that you'll be dealing with a friend of mine; Specialist Winter Schnee….she'll be able to tell you more about how you're going to help us keep Atlas safe. In the meantime, how about we find you a name-"
"Tsuki" the android answered suddenly "I was researching names and their meanings since you asked for mine….my name is Tsuki" the explanation was shocking, not least because it revealed that the android could entertain an entirely separate train of thought whilst in conversation; Ironwood nodded
"Tsuki it is" he quickly looked over his shoulder and added "Doctor Shiroi, would you care to honour the tradition and allow her to use your last name" the doctor felt bile rise in his throat at the mere suggestion and vehemently spat his answer
"Absolutely not"
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"LET'S GO! LET'S GO!" the harsh and ragged snarl that snapped orders out belonged to a monstrously large and powerfully built Bear Faunus whose shaggy hair the colour of cigarette soke had fallen in front of the bone coloured mask that hid their face and was stylized to resemble a creature of Grimm. They were known simply as 'Blue' to the underlings that scurried about them in a panicked frenzy of activity as it became clear that whilst each of their followers was an experienced criminal in their own right they were far from the cohesive and disciplined fighting unit that Blue had wanted.
Not that he expected much out of the dregs that the Mantle Branch of the White Fang were able to recruit these days.
The current target of the White Fangs' ire was a warehouse belonging to a small factory located towards the edge of Mantle, within sight of the edge of the crater that the under-city resided in that manufactured, amongst other things ammunition for Atlesian Hunters who were not supplied by the military and those few civilians who had managed to acquire the ever harder to come by licenses affording them the right to ensure their own safety when the Grimm launched their next inevitable assault on Mantle's walls which had been left in a state of disrepair for months.
Under normal circumstances Blue would never have attacked this place, it may have been owned by humans residing in Atlas who profited from Mantle's misery but he was a practical man and this factory did essential work; however with the steadily increasing scale and regularity of attacks from White Fang cells, most notably Adam Taurus's Vale Chapter and those who mimicked him, including factions within the Mantle Chapter who discussed in hushed whispers exactly what lay beneath the firebrands' mask, the factory had chosen to summarily fire all of its' Faunus workers and withhold their final pay-cheques with the laughably flimsy reasoning of protecting Atlas and Mantle's security by ensuring that no militants could steal ammunition from the factory under the guise of employees.
As always the law had been weighted against the Faunus and those who had been wronged found themselves with no legal recourse; which was where Blue had stepped in, eager to prove justice was an inevitability and the only thing humanity could choose was the manner in which they received it.
"They've hit an alarm! We've gotta move!" the warning was shouted to Blue by a feminine voice and as he whipped around he saw Tsuki holding one security guard overhead, her tail tightening around their throat as they steadily went blue in the face whilst she proceeded to kick a second guard in the face with heavy, armoured boots long after they had fallen unconscious, blood flecking her white uniform and mask with each sickening crunch of an impact.
Tsuki had been, in Blue's humble opinion one of the best things to happen to the Mantle Chapter in recent years; cunning, ruthless, intelligent and a remarkable fighter who had been part of one of the last successful large scale recruitment drives within the under-city and had quickly climbed the ranks of the organisation, progressing from a lookout on a street corner working with a small cell of drug dealers and car thieves to a front line soldier and Blue's right hand.
"Shit!" Blue spat, he had hoped they might have more time but quickly he barked out orders to the dozen or so masked insurgents working alongside him "Get what we came for! Just the bear necessities!" the group, comprised primarily of younger and less experienced members of the White Fang rushed to comply only for the air to be split by the sound of sirens.
"THIS IS THE POLICE COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"
Blue ripped an almost comically oversized shotgun from a holster on his back and snarled
"Well now, that's pretty big talk little britches" yet before he could march out to what be his certain demise he felt Tsuki's hand on his shoulder
"They don't have us surrounded, they're bluffing….underestimated us again" the Snake Faunus assured him "Hunters might be inbound but if you go out the back you've got a clear getaway….I'll distract 'em"
"And how're you gonna get yourself out?" Blue asked, beneath his mask he raised an eyebrow in concern for his young accomplice
"Reptilian" Tsuki answered simply "Police love using thermal sensors….I can turn my body heat off pretty much at will. Now go!" without waiting for an answer Tsuki snatched the shotgun from his hand and readied her own firearm, a high calibre machine gun and burst out of the entrance of the factory; ploughing through the waiting police and opening fire with utterly ruthless precision and gory results before leaping over the police barricade and sprinting away from the scene as fast as her Aura would allow, those police officers who were not dead or dying quickly piling back into their cars to give chase, the heist at the factory momentarily forgotten.
Tsuki was having fun.
The chase was exciting and she used everything in her path to her advantage to stay one step ahead of the police cars that tried to trap her, a map of the city with traffic information that updated in real time and various other titbits of useful information being plucked from Atlas's CCT whilst her Aura, a composite and abominable thing made from the finest killers Atlas had ever produced allowed her to weave around bullets that were fired from behind her in a blur of preternatural movement. She found herself sprinting down an alleyway, launching herself up a rickety and rusting fire-escape in a single bound and barrelling through the door it led to before rushing through a hallway of an apartment block and firing indiscriminately through the walls for no other reason than to create more chaos before reaching the opposite end of the hallway and leaping out a window and dropping her empty weapons. Seeing a multi-story garage in the distance she outstretched an arm and deployed one of her hidden weapons; she was aware of the existence of her predecessor since Penny Polendina had revealed her existence in her own campaign against the White Fang and found herself more than a little annoyed that the older android had been fitted with such a powerful weapon system that Tsuki lacked, what she did have however was a grappling hook mounted in each forearm with would double as a melee weapon in a pinch.
She fired one of her grappling hooks and landed in a crouch in the, thankfully empty parking lot before immediately collapsing and giving into a fit of utterly delighted laughter
"Let's do that again" she cackled, clapping to herself before springing to her feet and skipping playfully through the concrete building as she contemplated whether she should rejoin the White Fang cell that she had been charged with infiltrating or double back and have some more fun with the police first.
She never even saw the black SUV that skidded into a wide turn as it hit her, sending her flying through the air and crashing into a thick pillar before being dragged from the ground and unceremoniously stuffed into the back seat of the vehicle which quickly sped off, its' tires smoking and screeching as it went.
"And hello to you too, how is Vale this time of year….I assume it's nice or you wouldn't be wearing sunglasses" Nickel sneered at her kidnapper "Oh and the wig is terrible, worse than that dye job on your eyebrows"
"Enough!" the stern faced woman sat beside her snapped, removing the sunglasses and auburn wig that had disguised her identity for the split second that they had been outside of the SUV; revealing herself to be Winter Schnee.
The former heiress's eye twitched dangerously as she regarded the android she been given the task of overseeing and her words were hissed out in barely contained fury
"What are you doing?"
"Running from the police….getting arrested might help the authenticity but I can't infiltrate the White Fang from a cell; besides it would get awkward when they tried to run my DNA and then I'd have to kill some people-"
"YOU'VE ALREADY KILLED PEOPLE!" Winter screamed "Police officers, security guards; a shopkeeper last week and members of Humanity First the week before that you sadistic wretch!" Tsuki's expression darkened, the bright smile slipping from her face to be revealed by a scowl as her mismatched eyes narrowed and lost what little light they naturally held; Winter desperately tried to keep the sudden spike of fear that shot through her from showing on her face and met the stare with one of her own until the android Faunus finally answered her, her serpentine tail coiling on her lap as she spoke.
"And besides the police they were all acceptable casualties, Atlas prevails" the last words were delivered in a sneering mockery of the propaganda posters that lined the streets "If you want me to take out the White Fang from the inside then I need to make it look convincing….besides, the 'Humanity First' cretins deserved it; they pointed at my tail and called me a handbag" Winter struggled to keep her expression neutral and betray nothing of her own feelings as she quickly brushed passed the comment
"And have you learned anything useful?" she demanded icily "Anything that might justify the costs of your actions"
"Robyn Hill's Happy Huntresses have no ties to the Mantle Chapter of the White Fang"
"You're certain?" Winter arched an eyebrow at that, the information disarranging several assumptions that Atlas had been operating under
"They have a twenty thousand lien bounty on Joanna Greenleaf….they upped the bounty on Fiona Thyme since she used her Semblance to steal several getaway cars and ranking members of the Chapters' personal cars" Winter allowed herself a small snort of amusement at that, it seemed that whatever their disagreements with the Kingdom and its' Council were Robyn and her group of malcontents could still be considered loyal to an extent; the thought was reassuring as Winter had always respected Hill and had found Thyme's antics to be hilarious despite the disdain she had always publicly shown them.
Though at the moment there were more important matters at hand
"Have you identified the leader of the Mantle Chapter of the White Fang?"
"I literally just left him, his name's Blue. No last name" Tsuki griped "If you hadn't gone to Vale for a vacation I could have handed him over to you today….in one piece or several"
"Does he have the support of the entire Chapter?"
"Most of it. Two thirds roughly….there's infighting within the Fang; the rest are followers of Adam Taurus. The more peaceful members of the White Fang have been quietly exiting the organisation and selling secrets to Robyn Hill for protection; she's promising the change they wanted to see"
"I understand" Winter murmured "If we take out the current leader of the White Fang then we may simply create a power vacuum for a more dangerous individual to fill, we need to cripple the majority of the faction in one blow"
"Finally" Tsuki breathed out
"It's time to move into phase three of Operation Hen-House" Winter nodded
"I still think that name's stupid" the Snake Faunus grumbled before accepting the folder Winter thrust into her hands; the first phase had been Tsuki's own creation, the second phase had been infiltration and the third, which the android had been waiting for was elimination.
"Read this, memorise it and burn it. It contains all mission parameters" the Specialist ordered bluntly "We move out in four days, give them no time to prepare" at a subtle gesture the SUV came screeching to a halt and Winter's expression alone made it clear that the conversation was over, Tsuki silently slipped out of the car; looking suitably dishevelled after being hit by it and seemed to melt into the shadows as she departed to rejoin the White Fang at one of their many safe houses.
A moment later the SUV was in motion again
"Did we really have to plough into her like that?" the driver asked
"No but it was satisfying" Winter admitted; whilst she may have given the answer with a small smile internally she was screaming in frustration.
General Ironwood would likely see this as yet another success in the operation and Winter couldn't help but wonder if this dogged pursuit of victory at all costs was worth the reward, certainly the White Fang were a menace but too argue that Tsuki was somehow the lesser of two evils seemed absurd. Privately Winter was left regretting every doubt that she had ever harboured regarding Penny Polendina, whilst the first android may have had questionable personality quirks that made her occasionally difficult to work with the simple, underlying fact was that she was a good person who was determined to help those in need, Tsuki on the other hand used her orders as a license to inflict as much carnage, cruelty and mayhem on the world around her as physically possible all whilst staying within the very edge of the limits of what would be accepted; clearly relishing being able to get away with her acts of violence as much as the violence itself.
It would seem that out of all of the various Auras that had been stitched together to create her patchwork soul the most prominent traits were those taken from Specialist Callows, former member of Team HXCD.
Penny Polendina was a Huntress whilst Tsuki was simply a monster.
She couldn't help it, it was her nature.
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"This is the place?" Blue's voice came as a hushed murmur, quiet enough that none of their accomplices could clearly hear it; the Bear Faunus knowing that with the strife of internal politics more rampant than ever within the White Fang he could not afford to be seen as anything less than completely in command of the situation.
"This is the spot, dead ahead" Tsuki assured him, tail lashing in excitement as she spoke "I know it's short notice but it had to be, it's all getting moved out soon; this is a temporary holding area" Blue nodded in understanding and silently motioned for the assembled White Fang members behind them to pick up the pace, a little less than fifty individuals; a number which represented a sizeable chunk of the Mantle Chapters' strength in the wake several defectors giving information to Robyn Hill and several dozen fighters being summoned to Vale to take part in whatever insanity Adam Taurus was planning; privately Blue hoped that they all managed to get themselves blown up so that he wouldn't have to worry about their lunacy spreading.
At the moment however he had something far more important to concern himself with.
Within days of their raid of the ammunition factory which had been moderately successful despite the way it had ended, with Blue counting the police officers Tsuki had dealt with as a definite victory on the White Fangs' part; the Snake Faunus had proven herself invaluable again when she came bursting into Blue's safe house with news of a score so audacious that it simply could not be ignored.
Tsuki claimed that she'd heard talk from a Faunus soldier drowning their sorrows in a Mantle bar; many Faunus found their way into the Atlesian Military where they hoped that there would be some truth in the claims that the battlefield was the great equaliser and that there was no bigotry to be found, only to learn that the superior senses Faunus were gifted with was used as a justification for them to be sent into the most dangerous situations with very little cover or support and given demeaning grunt work when not actively deployed.
This particular soldier had lamented being paid a pittance for guarding something so valuable and stated their intention, once properly intoxicated, to abandon their post upon receiving their next wages and simply leave the Kingdom; upon being questioned about what they could be guarding the soldier had apparently informed Tsuki that a long since abandoned depot at the very edge of Mantle was in fact a military warehouse and that several dozen of the latest model of Atlesian Paladin had been placed there prior to being shipped elsewhere.
This was a heist even bigger than what Taurus had managed with the help of the human Dust thief and pulling it off would take the limelight away from his fanatical cul of personality; so naturally Blue had gathered as many people as possible and hastily prepared for an extremely dangerous and ambitious robbery; now however he couldn't help but feel a little concerned at the apparent lack of security and the dissenting mutters from behind him as his followers began to share those concerns.
"You're sure?" he repeated again, more insistently this time.
"Through these doors" Tsuki assured him as she pointed straight ahead to a pair of large metal shutters which Blue quickly made his towards and unlocked with a pair of bolt cutters before readying his new shotgun. He and Tsuki made their way inside, followed closely by the rest of the White Fang and let out a low whistle and soft chuckle at the rows of gleaming metal that greeted them.
Then he realised a very big problem.
"Blue these aren't Atlesian Paladins, they're Atlesian Knights….the tin-cans!" one of the grunts milling about behind him announced, stating the obvious as Blue leaned down to inspect the closest of the dormant automatons with a muttered curse escaping him
"Tsuki, I think you're contact was dumb as hell! They told you the wrong model!" he snapped
"Maybe" the Snake Faunus let out chilling laugh that made Blue whirl around and the sight of the truly evil smile that stretched across her face made his stomach plummet and he seemed to know what her next words would be before she delivered them in the most smug and gloating tone imaginable.
"Or this could all be an elaborate set up that I've working on for a while now"
As if at her command the rows of Atlesian Knights were activated and promptly trained their weapons on the White Fang.
"Everyone drop your weapons, get on your knees and put your hands behind your head" a cool and measured voice demanded, a moment later Winter Schnee stepped out of the gloom in the darkest recesses of the warehouse floor where even Faunus eyes couldn't see, her sabre at the ready.
"You bitch!" Blue growled
"She gave you an order Blue" Tsuki taunted in a singsong voice, tail coiling an uncoiling as she spoke "Go ahead, give me a reason to enforce it" time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Bear Faunus tried to find an option other than death or surrender, which considering the justice they would face was frankly no choice at all; he quickly realised that there was none and began to slowly lower his weapon and prepared to allow himself to be taken into custody.
Then one of the grunts shot Tsuki in the back of the head.
Beneath her mask her mismatched eyes narrowed in something akin to annoyance as her Aura rippled around her, a swirling mixture of colours unlike anything Blue had ever seen before and then she launched her counter-attack; her tail wrapping around the throat of her assailant and crushing their neck with a wet snapping sound before hurling their body into the rest of the group, the Bear Faunus watched on in horrified shock as her forearms opened up to reveal mechanical components within and a pair of grappling hooks were fired into the White Fang, killing another member outright as the hook burst through their skull and dragging another towards her, kicking and screaming as Tsuki's grappling hooks reconfigured themselves into a pair of blades and the Faunus android began to eviscerate anyone within range of her weapons, an ear-splitting cacophony of demented laughter spilling from her as she went.
Blue grabbing his shotgun from the ground and aimed, yet before he could fire he caught sight of a glowing shape in the corner of his eye and was swiftly knocked from his feet and sent rolling and skidding to a stop several dozen feet away. Dragging himself to his feet again he saw Winter Schnee's summoned Beowolf construct vanish into thin air before Winter her self launched herself at him.
The Bear Faunus snapped off three shots in quick succession but found them all quickly deflected as his opponent closed the distance between them and retaliated with surgical precision; Blue let out a roar of pain and felt his weapon fall from his grasp as Winter's sabre tore through the flesh of his upper arm and hung limp beside him, landing behind him she ejected her dagger from the pommel of the larger sword and ducked into a spinning crouch as she slashed at her opponents hamstring before finally leaping upwards and driving her elbow into his skull as he fell. Winter crouched beside him and quickly set about cuffing his hands behind his back and ensuring that he was still breathing before turning her attention to where Tsuki and the Atlesian Knights were attending to the rest of the terrorists.
What she saw sickened her.
Whilst the androids had been clinical and methodical in the approach to combat; taking aim and firing at the centre of a targets mass Tsuki was a frenzied maelstrom of sadistic blood-lust and where several Faunus and robots had fallen with bullet holes riddling their chests or in some cases through blunt force trauma to a mechanical cranium each of the androids' kills was clearly identifiable.
She had mutilated them all.
The floor of the abandoned warehouse Winter had staged the operation in had been transformed into a crimson pool of gore, strewn with severed limbs and more than one decapitated head and bodies whose bellies had been opened, necks twisted into unnatural angles and in on case that Winter forced herself not to vomit at the sight of a victim had been simply ripped in half through brute inhuman strength.
A series of wet thuds caused the Specialist to focus on Tsuki herself and upon doing so Winter realised two things, firstly that the demented android was straddling the body of a Faunus who had clearly already expired and stabbing them in the face repeatedly with what she realised was a broken shard of her own White Fang mask. Secondly Winter realised that despite the carnage she had wrought and blood and viscera dripping from her clothes, skin and hair Tsuki had not escaped the fight unharmed; through sheer weight of numbers and suicidal determination the Faunus militants had managed to rip away her grappling hooks, her left hand having been twisted and damaged in the process and a sizeable portion of the synthetic flesh covering her face had been ripped away whilst it was clear from the scorched and smoking remains of part of her clothing and blackened, smouldering flesh and visible endoskeleton beneath it that one of the terrorists had managed to acquire a flamethrower from somewhere and had put it to good use.
The sound of unhinged laughter and the tearing of flesh continued to fill the air as Winter stood, frozen and rooted to the spot by sheer, immeasurable disgust until the sight of how damaged Tsuki was gave her an idea that demanded to be put into practice. With her mind racing and yet somehow without consciously thinking at all Winter strode across the warehouse floor, the blood Tsuki had spilled splashing underfoot.
"Well, we got 'em" Tsuki giggled as she turned to face winter, her voice becoming an excited jabbering as words poured out of her "Where's next? Send me to another branch, we can do this over and over and over until there's no White Fang and then we can start on somebody else who's a problem, it'll be-"
Winter's sword flashed out faster than the eye could see and Tsuki's body collapsed to the ground, her severed head rolling away whilst coolant and other fluids spilled from the gap.
Winter Schnee was a Huntress, she was a slayer of monsters; she couldn't change her nature.
"General Ironwood sir" Winter voice was clipped and toneless as she spoke into the untraceable Scroll that she produced "Operation Hen-House is complete; the Mantle Chapter of the White Fang will be unable to recover from this….Tsuki was destroyed….unrecoverable sir" a moment later she collapsed the device and sheathed her own weapon before looking around and picking up the largest calibre weapon she could see and aiming directly at where she new the androids' core which contained her monstrous makeshift Aura to be and opened fire.
Tyrian Callows might be able to cheat death but Winter would ensure that this abomination didn't.
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Authors Notes:
Okay so this is part one of three in my "Atlas: Declassified" series that will update periodically.
I initially had four different ideas for other secret projects that Atlas has, because there's no way that Penny and the Aura Transfer machines are the only dirty little secrets they had pre Vol.7; the stories were initially going to be completely unconnected but once I realised that I could use canon characters in place of OCs in certain places a loose narrative took shape between three of the stories, the one that didn't fit was ironically the first of my four original ideas that I had, although I'll probably write it just not as part of this series.
I feel like this is conceptual than my usual work which I've told is more character driven….and God I feel like a hipster just writing that.
I said in Part One of this trilogy, Hex-Code that I'd sown some seeds for parts two and three and as you can see whilst I never mentioned any kind of second android program the hints to something were there in the form of references to what exactly happened to Tyrian Callows to send him over the edge.
Part Three is a longer story than parts one and two and will circle back to the present; it'll follow Yuma and get into which Aesop's Fable he's an allusion to in my headcanon….However because I've got two ongoing projects to write I'm not sure when I'll actually get around to it.
But anyway let's summarise:
Let's be real the layout and design of Ironwood's office is definitely a power play to psyche people out.
Doctor Shiroi and Tsuki's names both fit the colour naming rule, they're in Japanese.
Atlas scientists augmenting themselves with cybernetic parts to work more effectively seems like something they'd definitely do.
So Doctor Shiroi was one of the people working alongside Geppetto, if you want to imagine him as being Watt's predecessor before he was transferred to another project then go for it.
Yay for early Penny footage….it all gets much less wholesome from here.
Okay the comment about Penny being intended to be the public face of Mantle….I mean we all thought she was built to be a Maiden but Ironwood gave the job to Winter, so the real question is "What was Penny made for" and in my head this answers the question, Penny was the prototype for something far more sinister.
This is all pre Fall of Beacon so whilst Ironwood knows about Salem his current concern is obviously the White Fang.
"A version of Penny Polendina that Pietro would never dare to make"….Am I wrong?
So rather than just taking one Aura the mad doc decided to take pieces of several different Auras and graft them together to a) make the resulting android more powerful and b) manipulate which personality traits they developed by controlling the different Auras.
I said in Hex-Code that Tyrian was one of the members of Team HXCD who was addicted to surgeries and experimentation that might make them even stronger, even before he want rogue he was crazy enough to see what having part of his soul broken off and ripped out would do.
So Shiroi has some morals, not much but some….Also, is it weird to think of Tyrian as being one of "Atlas's finest" at any point.
If you read Hex-Code then you know exactly why Tyrian got back up.
Also, the whole back from the dead with purple eyes….may or may not be based on Terrorcons from Transformers Prime.
Writing Ironwood in this was interesting; because he wasn't as off the deep end as he went towards the end of Vol.7, but the hints of his character have always been there….add that to the fact that in Vol.2 and Vol.3 we only saw what Ironwood wanted to portray because he was in Ozpin's Kingdom rather than his own and that will definitely have changed his behaviour at least a little.
Winter has probably been Ironwood's right hand for a while and this part of the story is likely happening around Vol.1 early Vol.2 so it makes sense for her to still be his shadow here.
Serious question, what is Penny's skin made of? Because it has to look and feel realistic….I'm assuming she's like a Terminator?
I feel like Doctor Shiroi's opinion on his work the moment Tyrian woke back up.
Tsuki coming online was, as is probably obvious based on Mewtwo waking up in Pokemon the First Movie; except its' from the perspective of the people outside of the tank.
She's a Snake Faunus, because of course she is….Although I've been on a bit of Kamen Rider flex lately so I honestly considered making her a Grasshopper android Faunus and calling her "Shadow Moon" just to see who caught the joke; I'll find another use for that idea though.
Since eyes are so massively important in RWBY I like the idea that Penny's eyes didn't have any colour until she had a soul.
….And jumping off of that, you knew exactly where this was going when you heard purple and yellow eyes.
The thing with Ironwood is that he does still have those human moments that throw you off guard and this is one of them, Tsuki is a young woman being stared at by a room full of doctors, Ironwood has the most cybernetics of anyone we've seen; he knows what it's like to be stared at like an experiment or a slab of meat.
Good save Winter.
Another good Ironwood moment, say what you want about him but he's good with kids and it shows with his interactions with Oscar….Yes he's trying to manipulate them into doing what he wants, but he does it by appearing approachable rather than using his authority.
The murder-bot has Wi-Fi….I'm assuming that Penny has some sort of connection to Atlas's systems; or was at least intended to prior to Vol.3.
Ironwood lets the mask fall off though, he's called both Penny and Tsuki weapons instead of people.
I had to throw in the "I'm combat ready".
Operation Hen-House, because Atlas is definitely the sort of place to make borderline racist jokes about Faunus hunting in the names of their military operations.
But also….Yeah she got the joke, she's more socially aware than Penny because she has to blend in with people more than Penny.
Nope, not Tsuki Shiroi; just Tsuki.
Okay I' sure you got the reference before I made the joke but Blue is based on Baloo from the Jungle Book; since Ghira and Sienna are Bagheera and Shere Khan it made sense.
Okay this is just a little headcanon of mine but here me out; Adam is from Mantle, that's the only place where the SDC could have gotten away with branding his face like that, but even in the Adam short we never see him work with the Mantle Chapter of the White Fang, he's running jobs in Vale….which makes me think that there's a reason that he doesn't work with his local chapter and that's most likely because the leadership there thinks he's more trouble than he's worth and shipped off to someone else as soon as possible; except now the trouble he's causing there is biting people in the arse as well.
Also, I make it a point to show the kind of corrupt system that the White Fang were formed in response to.
Tsuki just made herself at home.
"Just the bear necessities!" is the obvious Baloo quote but "Well now, that's pretty big talk little britches" is one as well.
I could have made the chase scene longer but honestly it wouldn't have achieved anything; I conveyed that Tsuki is a vicious little monster who kills civilians just to create a distraction and that's all you needed to know about her personality.
Winter was in the back seat, which means she specifically asked her driver to plough that SUV into Tsuki on purpose.
Okay so this is set in Vol.3, after Winter came back to Atlas (And could be seen as a reason for the sudden departure) and is basically happening in the days before the Fall of Beacon.
Also Winter in a wig and sunglasses made me chuckle for some reason….And yes, Tsuki called out Winter's black eyebrows.
Atlas definitely thought Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses were connected to the White Fang, at least for a while.
"Fiona Thyme since she used her Semblance to steal several getaway cars and ranking members of the Chapters' personal cars" enjoy the mental image of Fiona just yoinking the White Fang's cars and walking off.
Under all that stone-faced persona Winter really does think that the Happy Huntresses are great.
Having to deal with Tsuki made Winter appreciate Penny so much that she adopted her as a new sister.
So everyone in Team HXCD was based on one of Aesop's Fables in keeping with them being a precursor to Ace-Ops; Tyrian and therefore Tsuki was the Scorpion from "The Scorpion and the frog".
And that's why we never saw the White Fang in Mantle; a lot of them joined Adam, a lot of them were arrested by Robyn and the rest got themselves killed here.
Okay so the story Tsuki gave them was obviously a lie, but the fact that nobody questioned it should be an indication of how believable it is and therefore how often things like that happen in the Atlesian military.
The Paladins are brilliant bait, not just because they're useful but because it feeds into the dick-measuring contest Blue and Adam obviously have going on.
And there it is.
Tsuki's Aura is technicolour because of her soul being what it is.
And now she's started; this is the Batman rampage from Titan Season 1 + Tyrian + The machines in the Animatrix + Florida Man.
You might be unsatisfied by how quick the fight between Winter and Blue was but come on, Atlesian Specialist Vs literally just some guy.
Yeah, she got grisly….this is what happens when you mix Tyrian's mind with a bunch of other serial killers.
The whole stabbing someone in the face with a shard of her own White Fang mask was meant to be a callback to the aide she stabbed in the face and also Tyrian in Vol.4 killing the Beringrel.
It was 50 people, they got some good hits in.
That last line from Tsuki was an interesting one, because as well as being a sadistic monster….she's just as dedicated to her job as Penny is; Ironwood wanted a killing machine and her got one.
So, Winter will ignore some orders if they're utterly repellent….Vol.8 Winter, take note.
Thank you to SumoSnipe, DapperCat420, Ferrous, Merendinoemiliano and Martin Hooper1 for their replies on part one.
All I'll say in response to the various questions regarding Yuma is "Part 03"
Of course the body-bags have a zip on the inside, how else do students play pranks on each other.
Oh Atlas has plenty of secrets.
Thank you to everyone who reads and a special thanks to those of you who follow, favourite and subscribe.