Chapter 14: Vacuo
~Third POV~
*BAM*
A large slamming sound was heard inside a private room office inside his military air carrier as the man in question is an important political and military leader of the Kingdom of Atlas…
General Ironwood…
Ironwood hailed from the region of Atlas, where he was the General of the Atlas Military and later became the Headmaster of Atlas Academy. Due to this, he had two seats on the Atlas Council, with two others being filled by Sleet and Camilla.
Ironwood had previous interactions with Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch dating back several years, as evidenced by the level of familiarity with which they addressed each other. He also knew Jacques Schnee, the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company who he originally thought of as an old friend.
At some point, he met Jacques's eldest daughter Winter Schnee who left the company to escape her father's abuse. After she graduated from Atlas Academy, she joined the Military and eventually became Ironwood's most trusted soldier.
At some point, Ozpin invited Ironwood into his group, involving him in his shadow war against Salem and her faction.
A man that will fight to protect what is right and will do at any lengths to get the job done. Everything by the books but…
"DAMN IT! FIND THIS MAN!"
*BAM*
*CRACK*
In the room office, he was inside his personal Military Office that the table of his was destroyed by his fist as he grits his teeth at what happened in clear rage, "Damn it! We can't have this Happy Man discover the contents of Penny! All forces find out all you can about this! Shit! Pietro is not going to like this –"
*Beep*
That was when a call appeared on the screen showed Ozpin's name Ironwood pales a bit at this as he spoke to himself before he answers in a regretful tone, "Damn it Ozpin… I can't let Ozpin know about Penny… I need to make sure to find this person as a secret operation for the Ops. We need Penny to one day save our world…"
With that Ironwood began to gather more of his forces as well as his trusted people to come to Vale as soon as possible to help get Penny back as a secret Ops mission. He can't let Ozpin know about Penny's existence or else he'll face the public questioning of why she was created…
After all, he was doing it all for, the benefit of Atlas.
But he does think to himself quietly and in quite a fearful tone as he thinks, 'But how the hell did this criminal Happy Man knew about Penny forethought knowledge of her being an android? Not even those close to other than a select few knew but… How did this man know…?'
As Ironwood began to find a way to search for this Happy Man secretly, he managed to cover up the news of only Sun's death and make Penny not mention it as he tampered with the evidence with his political power as Headmaster.
Unaware that Penny is already too late to save converted to Jae side…
…
…
~Jae POV~
Everything has been quite busy so far since the incidents happening with the White Fang victory and Blake getting the living shit scared and traumatized of me killing Sun Wukong for good.
But his semblance was certainly tasty to get and the abilities of his <Via Sun> but most of all I got the best part of this deal.
Penny Polendina.
After she had her aura completely absorbed along with the memories of Pietro Polendina to rebuild her was also good to know. Especially rewriting her with the program of making Penny my android slave has taken effect.
That was the whole plan for creating the Project Reform Penny.
The news had a field when one of the students named Sun Wukong died after being involved with the White Fang docks attack as the Headmaster called for most students to stay put until everything has been settled.
Guess my actions made him pull a serious move that's good. That means they will be busy in Vale and not Vacuo for the time being.
Till then any student is suspended and those in Beacon are to remain indoors till everything is safe so for now I'm currently stuck at Vale but I'm not complaining since I have time to update on an empty slate android like Penny thanks to Pietro memory guiding me.
As an android, Penny was significantly more resistant to fatal injuries. According to her father, Pietro, she could survive injuries and damage as severe as dismemberment and even decapitation, so long as her cores remained intact.
This is evident as her core survived her previous form's destruction and gruesome injuries unintentionally inflicted by Pyrrha in "PvP", an incident which led many to believe Penny was dead.
But since I had the time, I got everything pretty much good now including my hacking skills as I made sure to use a different program to use her weapons so that she can't be controlled. At least she can still function with her weapons.
Floating Array were multiple gray-colored blades with a luminous green power symbol at the center of the bronze-colored hilt, and a green line running parallel to one side. The blades could fold into a more compact gun-like shape, which could be stored within a mechanical pack.
The blades could be deployed as a single blade from the back and could further separate. Penny was shown to be able to manipulate the blades through thin, string-like cables attached to the blades. Penny could also relocate rapidly using these cables, by embedding the blades into an immovable object and then reeling the connecting cables in to pull herself towards them.
The blades could be brought together to form a circular ring that was spun to fire a powerful green laser that was capable of splitting into many smaller beams. This attack was powerful enough to slice through metal with ease and was seen to take down two attacking aircraft by cutting them apart.
The blades could also form several smaller rings that could also shoot several smaller laser beams. Penny also used these smaller ring configurations as thrusters to maneuver herself around the battlefield. She could also form all of them into mini-rifles and shoot individual beams.
But the best part is hacking the girl is very simple since she has no aura to help defend herself against my skills now.
As revealed in "Amity", Penny's swords possessed complex circuits within them that were particularly designed to directly connect Penny to her swords. Arthur Watts stated that Penny herself constantly "communicated" with each of her blades to control and command them in battle.
He would later exploit this to remotely reprogram Penny's A. I overwrite her will to force her to the Atlas Vault.
What I'm doing is doing the same as Watts was doing and reprograming Penny's A. I overwrite her core to follow me as I have been waiting for the last 3 days for it to happen. I have to admit how Pietro created her was brilliant but now vulnerable disabling the tracking chips in her she was becoming a great follower.
When the program was done rewriting everything about Penny, I began to use my soul to transfer to it using the core residing inside Penny I felt my aura is being tugged by the core as I continue to let Penny absorb my aura.
Although the amount is taking is very few to my reserves, I gave it more to be sure Penny is awake stronger than ever before. With the black-market materials, I got from my time robbing the rich with Roman and Neo I managed to make the repairs to Penny with jet boot thrusters to her.
Paying crime truly does pay a penny and with Pietro's memories of his time with Penny, I can create some tech to use and upgrade Penny with. Have to thank the good doctor for that one but I digress.
*Beep*
That was when I gave Penny enough aura to finally jump start as her eyes began to change from yellow to green as she looked up at me and smiled, "Hello Master how shall I Penny Green be of service to you my master."
Yes!
It worked!
IT WORKED!
AHAHAHAH!!!
Calming myself down from the sudden excitement of this I began to talk to Penny my new loyal ally as I talked to her, "Nope. What I need is your eternal servitude Penny. But since I have you created I need your assistance with something and need to make a few calls."
She nodded her head at my little android as I began to call Roman on my scroll as the talk is hidden as I talked to the guy, "Yo! Roman, I need you to cash me in the favor of helping you out. I need a ride to Vacuo somewhere near the outside of the city of Vacuo. More specifically at the abandoned Mistral Trading Company refinery."
Hearing on the other end of my scroll he began to ask me another question with some confusion on his side as he spoke to me from the other end, "Eh… sure thing little green but what's the reason for? Also need anything else for this favor?"
Grinning wickedly at this and with Roman assistance getting a ride undetected I began to reply to him about what I needed for him to do, "Yeah… I just need a ride back when I call back to you again. That's all I need so how soon can you get me to Vacuo? Also, I'm bringing a guest with me, and don't worry she's good."
…
…
~Third POV~
Vacuo is one of the four Kingdoms of Remnant, located on the western end of the continent of Sanus, to the west of Vale.
Like the rest of the Kingdoms, Vacuo is nominally governed by a council representing its people and their interests. However, the formal government's influence is marginal. The Huntsman Academy of Vacuo, Shade, is the only true source of law and order in the Kingdom.
The notable city of the Kingdom is its capital, Vacuo.
Vacuo is located in the center of the vast and harsh desert on the western end of the continent of Sanus. Although once at the site of a hospitable oasis, many years of unchecked Human activity have changed its climate into a barren wasteland indistinguishable from the desert surrounding it.
Vacuo has very few permanent settlements. Most villages are nomadic and are named after the tribe that originally settled them. When the tribe moves out, they take the settlement's name with them to reuse at their new location.
A lack of formal governance for most of their history has given Vacuans a disregard for laws and order. However, they live by the philosophy that anyone who can survive the harsh conditions of Vacuo is welcome to live among them, though there is a limit to this.
This acceptance may also extend to Faunus, which could indicate that there is less racial discrimination in Vacuo compared to the other Kingdoms. Additionally, Vacuans often form settlements and nomadic tribes, to avoid Grimm.
The Huntsman Academy of Vacuo, Shade, is the only true source of law and order in the Kingdom, due to the lack of recognition of the government's authority.
Students from Shade Academy do not appear to have a standard uniform like the schools of the other three kingdoms. Before being dispatched to their missions from an assembly at Beacon, they appeared in different assortments of casual clothes.
Despite the conditions of living in the area, Jae went to that place that most rational citizens of the other Kingdoms of Mistral, Vale, and Atlas won't go towards because there is a certain group of people, he wants to hunt adding his semblances than his parents, <Aura Manipulation>, <Aura Amp>, and <Via Sun>…
Surprisingly enough though there exists one group that happens to collect powerful semblance users within the area of Vacuo… this group is called The Crown.
The Crown was a group in Remnant formerly operating in the Kingdom of Vacuo. They acted as the main antagonists of RWBY: After the Fall and RWBY: Before the Dawn. Their goal consisted of restoring the collapsed Vacuan monarchy of the Kingdom by constructing an army of powerful Semblance wielders. It was led by twins Jax Asturias and Gillian Asturias.
The group had two designated headquarters: The Mirage and the Crown Bunker. Mind-controlled members of The Crown referred to as the Crownsmen, could be distinguished by the silver armbands on their right arms. The group's creed was "Fight for your Kingdom and Crown".
The Crown had two goals, the first was to restore Vacuo's monarchy by using rogue Huntsmen centered around Vacuo to secretly kidnap people with powerful Semblances to acquire an unstoppable army.
To do so, the group made use of two hideouts: The Mirage and The Crown bunker. The Mirage would serve as a fight club hotspot so that they could identify new members to add to their ranks, and The Crown's bunker remained hidden away in which Gillian used her Semblance to build up a super-powered army.
Using this army, they would decimate any resistance in Vacuo, toppling Shade Academy as the ruling authority to place the Asturias twins as a new king and queen and restoring Vacuo to its former glory like that of 1,000 years ago.
Jax alludes to the fact they could potentially later turn their eyes to the world beyond. The group looked down on using Dust because they saw it as one of the reasons that Vacuo lost many of its valuable resources to the other Kingdoms.
But with Jae's meta knowledge he began to get excited at the prospect of getting just the semblance needed from the RWBY world as he couldn't contain the chance to get the Jax Asturias Semblance <Mind Control>.
<Mind Control> allows Jax to dominate the wills of others he makes physical contact with. This is typically achieved by telepathically influencing their minds in the form of pushing a subconscious suggestion to them.
Jax can use his Semblance on multiple people at a time, with its effects lasting for extended periods, lasting from weeks to even months. When used on others, their Auras take on a nearly identical appearance to his own.
But if Jae gets the chance to get this <Mind Control> semblance as well as combine it with <Aura Amp> the effects of the <Mind Control> will increase dramatically securing Jae's chance to get powerful manipulating the characters needed to play for their roles….
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A/N: Thanks for reacting the brief reaction to what Ironwood is planning as well as bringing more men and droids for his secret Ops mission of collecting Penny. Doing this will make him bring more bots during volume 3. Still, though I do wonder why Ironwood never mention Penny to Ozpin as he looked surprised to see Penny as an android if they were allies?
A/N Extra: Just so you know how the MC got Pietro's memory of how he created Penny his original Semblance <Aura Manipulation> is becoming stronger as he grows...