A/N: Sooooooo the last chapter was going to be my little montage-ish chapter, and then my editor was all, "Oh, so they've got a week before the alien base assault, huh? Guess you're going to do a montage chapter next, right?" And thus, this chapter was born. I kinda got a little carried away with it, but I like how it turned out. Hopefully you enjoy it as well.

Bradford let out a contented sigh as he savored the aroma of the coffee rising up from his mug and its flavor swirling around in his mouth. While it was very much against regulations, Bradford quietly turned a blind eye when van Doorn brought him back some Colombian dark roast from his latest op to Bogotá. Bradford assumed it was some small gesture of penance from the Field Commander for the 'courthouse incident,' and he certainly couldn't deny that it tasted far better than the mud that passed for coffee available in the lounge. He leaned back in his chair, kicked his feet up on his table, and watched the anthill's security feeds from the quiet comfort of his private office.

Word got around about his one week ultimatum for the two-pronged alien base assault gamble, and it pleased Bradford immensely to see that the news lit a fire under the ass of… just about everyone at HQ, now that he thought about it. All departments of Bradford's organization kicked into high gear yesterday, eager to do their part to make sure the aliens received the 'warmest' hospitality XCOM had to offer. Nobody wanted to be 'the guy' who shouldered the blame for a failed op, and everyone wanted to have a fair piece of the glory when Strike Red and Strike Blue beat the aliens into a bloody pulp.

And it all looked beautiful as he watched through the ever-vigilant eyes of his security system.

Well, all of it except for one part, if Bradford wanted to be perfectly honest with himself.

He leaned forward and pressed the button on his PA system mic, "This is Central Officer Bradford. The next person that tries to play 'The Mulan Song' over the base-wide intercom system will be earning themselves kitchen duty for a month. And no, Zhang, you are not exempt from this new rule. This is not 'the song of your people,' and my demands are non-negotiable. Similarly, songs like Eye of the Tiger, or the Montage Song are likewise banned. I mean really, people. Let's try to be professional about this. Bradford out."

"Feels kinda weird suiting up in these again, doesn't it?"

Blake glanced up as her partner, fully kitted in a MEC suit, stomped over from the entrance of the live fire hall. Despite her words, Blake noticed that Yang could not keep a grin off her face. This didn't surprise Blake in the slightest: bigger was always better when it came to Yang's taste in explosions explosions, and MECs were the undisputed kings of the biggest explosions.

"Less weird now that we have the option to not use them, but you've got a point. I always figured that if I ever had to get in one of these things again, it would be too soon." Blake answered.

The smile faltered on Yang's face, but only briefly, "Aw, c'mon Blake! We had some good times in the pilot's seat, and you know it! Those Jetboot Modules were absolutely bitchin', you have to admit, and the video of you soloing that Sectopod way back when was all anyone talked about around the anthill for weeks." Yang playfully punched Blake, though the groaning metal of Blake's suit seemed to go completely unnoticed by the cheerful blonde,"Besides, we're doing this for a good cause. These kids, they see us pull off all sorts of crazy stunts on the battlefield, and they think 'Yeah… I wanna do that. I wanna be just like them!' So now we have the opportunity to teach them how to do it right."

Blake rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics before walking towards the group of MEC troopers milling around in the center of the room.

"Welcome to day two of training." She began, and the soldiers immediately snapped to attention, "Glad to see that nobody decided to drop off after the first day. Now, you might notice a few changes to your suits from yesterday. With the help of a timely shipment of Remnant alloys from Ozpin, Lieutenant Rose pulled an all-nighter with Shen's engineers to install specialized metal guards each MEC platform."

"Since a big part of MEC'ing like a huntress is abusing the hell out of your suit," Yang interrupted, "These guards are designed to reduce the wear and tear engineering needs to fix after you're put through your paces."

Blake nodded, "Correct. Now, those of you who are volunteering for the mobile platform training will put this technology to use during your slides, rolls, and general evasive maneuvers. Those who agreed to defensive platform training will learn to capitalize on the improved strength of the material by specifically deflecting blows using those sections of your MEC. So far so good?"

"SIR." Six voices answered in unison.

"Excellent!" Yang said, giving a thumbs up to the operatives, "Now, since we only have six days to train, we're going to be breaking off into role-specific drills immediately. If you're part of Team Stronk, you're with me. Speed Junkies are heading out with Sergeant Belladonna. Let's go!"

Weiss hissed in frustration as the Dust in the container before her exploded in a massive plume of fire hot enough to start melting the inside of the glass window. While such an explosion could be useful as an 'annihilate everything' option against the aliens, Weiss wanted to develop an enhancement effect that could be reasonably controlled. Ever since Vahlen casually mentioned over lunch that she noticed an intriguing 'adaptive' characteristic in Elerium's chemical structure, Weiss went on a self-imposed crusade to find a way to apply the phenomenon to elemental Dust. If she could find a way to use Elerium to boost the properties of her Dust supplies, it could serve as a huge boon for the forces of XCOM.

More than that, it would secure her place in the history books of Remnant. Once this war came to a close and Weiss left for home, she could show her father this research and demonstrate its usefulness in everyday applications of Dust. There's no way her father could ignore such a massive technological advance in Dust science, and she could finally point to something and say, "I did this. Not my father, not my family. I did."

Of course, it also meant that the SDC would need to negotiate some sort of trade contract with XCOM to secure a steady supply of Elerium (if such a thing was even possible), which also meant that Weiss would maybe-possibly have a legitimate reason for remaining in contact with Bradford, Vahlen, and all the other friends she made during her time on Earth.

But of course, all of that meant nothing if she couldn't get the damn Elerium to behave itself and do what she wanted.

"Back to square one." She sighed before beginning the process of cleaning out her test chamber.

"Begin."

As if that one word uttered by Zhang represented floodgates holding back the power of the Yangtze itself, Pyrrha launched herself at Jaune with a zeal the likes of which her partner had never seen. He had barely enough time to raise his shield to deflect her opening strike before Miló slammed into his defenses and sent him skidding backwards several feet. While he expected Pyrrha to go harder on him than she used to (more than that, he asked her to), he didn't realize exactly what he was getting himself into until she landed that first strike.

The fact that he saw two blurry bronze and crimson shapes that resembled Pyrrha instead of one when he looked over the top of his shield served as a pretty good indicator of how badly she intended to beat his face in.

Before he even had a chance to shake off the effects of the first swipe, Pyrrha was in Jaune's face with a deadly look in her eyes. Sparks flew as her sword struck the Aura emanating from his shield, and Jaune tried to assess the situation between the rapid-fire strikes Pyrrha continued to throw his way. Any time he tried to counterattack, she would push Crocea Mors aside with as much as ease if she was brushing away a fly. More than once, Jaune found himself knocked flat on his ass, and he only managed to roll back to his feet just in time to avoid suffering the full force of his partner's next blow.

"Pyrrha, what-?"

"Fight back, Jaune!" She interrupted angrily.

He winced as Miló came crashing down on his shield once more before Pyrrha spun around his defenses and jammed the pommel of her weapon into his ribs, "Pyrrha?"

"You give it your all against Zhang, don't you? Do you respect him more as an opponent than me? Fight back, Jaune."

His strength gave out trying to deflect Pyrrha's next attack, leaving his chest wide open for a heavy kick from Pyrrha. He felt the wind knocked out of his lungs as his back slammed into the concrete, and his vision exploded into stars.

"Nikos wins." Zhang said simply, giving Jaune's limp body a small kick, "We've got a long way to go."

"I heard that, Colonel." Bradford barked over the intercom.

Ruby stood against the brick wall at the back of the manufacturing floor and looked down at the hastily-assembled armor prototype strapped to her body. While the actual protective bits only covered her chest, shoulders, and thighs, a very light material weave covered everything else up to and including her fingers and toes. For the first time ever, she even wore a helmet so that absolutely nothing remained exposed. Ruby lifted a gloved hand in front of her face and wiggled her fingers a bit before turning to look over at Dr. Shen standing several yards away.

"I was expecting it to feel a little more uncomfortable." She said, her voice slightly distorted by the helmet, "I could probably get used to wearing something like this, actually."

Dr. Shen smiled in amusement, "That's the idea. I don't think I could expect our operatives to focus in the field when they're constantly distracted by a stuffy suit. How's the flexibility?"

"Good. Suit isn't interfering with my mobility whatsoever."

"Alright, then… time for the moment of truth." Shen made a few keystrokes on his tablet, and Ruby's suit began to shimmer. After a few seconds, the material weave began to fade out of existence, and Ruby became translucent.

Shen frowned, "Well, it's a start, I suppose. I'll have to talk to Vahlen about the Hyperwave simulations she ran and make sure she didn't miss anything." He watched as Ruby waved her arms to test the effects of motion on the suit's stealth technology, sighing as the action caused the weave to begin flashing various colors, "Alright, you can stop that now, Ruby. We'll try again in a day or two once I've had some time to work with Vahlen on the design some more. Why don't you spend some more time working on your weapon modifications? I believe you left Crescent Rose in its usual location at the back of my office."

Ruby took off her helmet and flashed a grin at Shen, "Sounds like a plan! Don't worry too much about the suit. I'm sure you'll get it working soon."

"Your optimism never ceases to amaze me, Miss Rose. I hope you never lose it." He said quietly as she skipped off towards the office.

"Shit, shit, fucking hell, shit, cock, ass!"

"MacAuley," Beagle said with a sigh, ducking as another Dust round whistled overhead, "I swear to whatever god is watching, if you don't shut the hell up this instant and start being useful, I will punch your ugly mug myself."

"That's fine and dandy for you to say," MacAuley whined, "You volunteered for this. And somehow, I managed to let you volunteer me as well."

With a bang to punctuate her arrival, Nora skidded into cover between the two operatives, "What's the holdup, guys? You were supposed to use the distraction to move up to the next barricade."

Beagle jerked a thumb at MacAuley, "Poor widdle Mac-Mac almost got some Dust up his nose from a lucky shot, and he's too scared to move."

Nora shrugged, "Dust sneezes kinda suck, so I can't really blame him. But we gotta move. Jaune's team is in position, and he needs us to move forward to help with the next phase of the plan."

"How are we supposed to do that?" MacAuley asked, nodding his head to indicate the far end of the field, "Lieutenant Rose has a solid lock on our position. We so much as stick our nose out of cover, and she'll shoot it off."

Beagle sighed, "Then let her shoot it off. You do realize we're using specially-modified Dust rounds that don't actually cause any lasting damage, right?"

"But they hurt like fuckin' hell!" MacAuley complained.

The Captain turned to Nora, a tired look on his face, "Valkyrie, can you just… y'know… do the thing?"

With a salute, Nora wrapped her arms around MacAuley's torso, and with a 'heave, ho!' chucked him clear of the barricade.

MacAuley yelped as Dust rounds pattered all around him while he raced for cover. A pair of bullets smacked into his stomach and shoulder, and the Engineer swore in pain while blindly spraying return fire with his rifle. Eventually, he found solace behind a pile of sandbags before he heard the sound of gunfire to the left. He watched as Jaune charged forward, giant tower shield at the ready, with Pyrrha and Ren crouched low behind him with their guns out and firing at the fortified position of Red Team.

"Nice work, MacAuley!" Jaune called out over the comms, "I knew you could do it."

MacAuley sighed. Maybe someday he'd be able to accept that sort of praise with a straight face. For now, though, all he felt was the guilt of knowing that Nora forced his hand.

He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see the huntress herself smiling brightly at him, "Hang in there, buddy. Stick with me, and I'll make a soldier out of you in no time."

Annette looked up as the door opened to the Psi Labs and saw Ruby poke her head in.

"Here for another session?" The Captain asked, "I've always got time for my favorite psionic buddy."

Ruby walked in and looked around curiously, "I asked Bradford where I could find you, and he said to check the Psi Labs. Do you just spend your free time down here for fun or something?"

Annette laughed, her eyes returning to the console in front of her, "No, nothing like that. I help Vahlen monitor the operatives undergoing psi testing so that she can focus on other matters. It started off as a favor I did for her once, and kinda snowballed into a part-time job that I help out with whenever I'm not on an op or mandated R&R. Since I'm the top psi op in the corps, it kinda makes sense that Vahlen asked me to help. So what's up, buttercup?"

"You had it right when you guessed about going for another session." Ruby admitted, "However, I wanted to know if Ren could join us. Vahlen mentioned a few times that psionics and Aura are closely related, and Ren's the best Aura user we have, so… figured he could help or something."

"What a silly question, of course he's welcome to join! I don't know if he'll be able to help or not, but it's certainly worth trying, no?"

Ruby let out a sigh of relief, "Well that's good, because I already asked him to meet us down here."

As if on cue, Ren poked his head in and gave a small wave, "Hello, Captain."

"Hello yourself, Sergeant!" Annette replied cheerfully, "We've never had much of a chance to get truly acquainted, so it'll be nice to spend some time with you if we're both helping Miss Rose get a better handle on her abilities. Shall we begin?"

"I'm ready if Ruby is." Ren said, stepping through the door and approaching the other two operatives, "I'm hoping that while you work on stabilizing her psionic potential, I can try to keep her Aura running smoothly and stop it from interfering with your work."

Annette raised a curious eyebrow, "Is that even possible? I didn't realize you hunters could apply your Aura to situations such as this."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say a similar thing to Ruby about psionics during your first attempt at adjusting her power?" Ren countered.

"Point taken. Well, no point beating around the bush. Let's get started."

The clangs of metal smashing against metal reverberated throughout the drill hall, and Yang held a metal hand out for her fallen sparring partner, "C'mon, Talos. Up and at 'em, big guy. Let's go for round three."

Talos took Yang's proffered hand and pulled himself up to a standing position, "Yes sir."

"And I don't care what Bradford says, hit it Clank."

As the PA started to blast 'Through Fire and Flames,' The two MECs tapped fists and dropped into their combat stances, Juggernaut plates locking into place. Yang smiled with satisfaction when Talos immediately raised his arms the way she instructed, which allowed him to make the most out of the Remnant alloys welded to his suit. With a little help from her Aura, Yang leapt high into the air and came down hard on her opponent. Talos staggered back from the blow, but maintained a proper posture all the same. Yang raised her fist for another strike, but her opponent jerked forward and smashed his frame into her chest with a surprise shoulder check.

Yang let the force of the blow throw her backward, which put some space between the two MECs, before raising her arms and charging back into the fight. A series of expertly-timed punches from the huntress, and Talos once again found himself flat on his back. A moment later, Yang's smiling face came into view.

"That was a pretty move, Talos. I liked it. Of course, it wasn't enough to take me down, but it's definitely a start. Keep in mind that shoulder checks are good if you need to clear some space, or if you've got the target wedged between you and a wall. Since neither of those applied here, I managed to take your initiative and work it to my advantage."

"Understood, sir."

"Alright, I'd like to return these MECs to Shen in one piece, so you're done for the day. When I'm done thrashing Freya and Clank, you can find me in the gym if you'd like to practice some more hand-to-hand. For now, though…" She turned to the other two MECs standing at attention, "Which one of you wants to get your daily Xaio Long Beatdown first?"

"Begin."

This time, Jaune braced himself for Pyrrha's onslaught. Without the element of surprise working against him, Jaune managed to survive his partner's initial flurry of blows without giving up too much ground. She still kept him on the defensive almost 100% of the time, but he didn't feel like he was drowning anymore. Jaune continued to deflect her sword strikes, waiting to find an opening he could exploit. Of course, with Pyrrha being the perfect fighter that she is, he quickly realized that he'd be waiting a very long time for her to give him something like that.

"Oof!" Jaune grunted as his back slammed into the concrete. Before he even opened his eyes, Jaune reflexively rolled back. A rush of air and a clang of steel against the ground told him that he made the right choice. He scrambled to his feet just in time to get an elbow to the face. Then a boot to the gut, followed by a pommel to the knee. Pain began to rapidly pile up as Jaune felt his partner land more blows on him. Though his Semblance armor absorbed a fair share of the damage (and was likely the sole reason he hadn't withered under Pyrrha's assault yet), Jaune knew he needed to come up with something fast.

'It's a longshot, but what the hell. I'd be letting Pyrrha down if I don't try something.'

Even as Akoúo̱ collided with his face, Jaune ignored the sharp ache in his skull and drove his fist into Pyrrha's gut. Without missing a beat, she quickly deflected Crocea Mors with Miló, leaving him exposed for a knee to the ribs. Grunting through the pain, he used the momentum from her deflection to spin around and try for another strike. She blocked it easily, but didn't expect him to follow through with a headbutt to the face. His victory was short-lived, however, when she countered with her own headbutt, which proved much more forceful than his. Jaune's stamina finally reached its breaking point, and his vision exploded with stars once more, followed by the familiar feeling of Pyrrha's boot on his chest.

"Well would you look at that," Zhang commented, "Sergeant Arc has a backbone after all. You have ten minutes before we begin again."

Jaune nodded an affirmative, not even bothering to open his eyes.

Another explosion, another failed experiment that added to Weiss's frustrations. The huntress-turned-researcher growled in annoyance as the smoke began to clear within her chamber, and she checked the data readouts populating the screen at her workstation.

"Still 250% more yield than I want." She sighed, "How does Vahlen stay sane after failing to achieve results time and again?"

"By remember that if science was easy, anyone could do it." The Chief Scientist answered, walking up behind Weiss, cup of coffee in hand, "What's the problem? Still stuck on the Elerium problem?"

"I know there's a way to use it to amplify the effects of Dust, but nothing I'm trying is working."

Vahlen shrugged, "I won't insult you by suggesting obvious methods that I'm sure you've already tried, but there is something that might help."

"I'm all ears, Doc."

"As I'm sure you know, I keep very strict records of all my experiments and have them carefully sorted and indexed in a secure database. I've performed so many tests, I can't possibly remember the details of each one, but I may have made a note of some interesting phenomenon that could be beneficial to your efforts."

Vahlen, too busy pulling up the database on her tablet, missed Weiss's incredulous look, "Vahlen, I have less than a week to get this done before the base assault, and you want me to spend my time reading?"

"The mark of a good scientist is to know when to forge their own path and when to follow the trail blazed by their predecessors." Vahlen answered chidingly, "We stand on the shoulders of giants, my friend. It would be foolish of us to ignore the work of everyone who has come before us."

Weiss sighed, "Point taken. Can you forward your research on Elerium to my workstation? I may as well get started."

"Already done. I'll be looking through them myself whenever I need a break from my Grimm research." Vahlen said as she walked back to her section of the lab.

"How's that going, by the way?"

"Don't want to talk about it."

Blake sprinted down the live fire hall and towards a section arranged as a mock urban combat setting. She smiled to herself as she heard three sets of mechanical legs pound the concrete as her students chased after her. She reached the city, turned a corner and encountered a low wall. Blake easily vaulted over it without breaking stride. Behind her, she heard one… two… three MECs follow suit.

"Excellent work." She praised over the comms, "But it only gets harder from here."

Blake led the pilots on a merry chase through the city ruins. She dropped into a power slide to dodge the broken bridge inches above her frame before pivoting around a sharp turn and bounding up a ramp to vault up to the rooftops. From there, she bounded from building to building as she heard the MECs struggle to give chase. Well, two of them struggled while one seemed to have little trouble staying several paces behind Blake.

Gizmo.

Gizmo, as Blake quickly realized, was Strike One's Pathfinder for a reason. No matter what acrobatic feat Blake demanded of her pursuers, Gizmo found a way to overcome it. Her performance wasn't always as elegant as Blake's graceful movements (Blake heard her crash through one barrier rather than vault over it), but Gizmo never stumbled like the other two. Blake skidded around a corner and dahsed along the top edge of a narrow wall, only to hear Gizmo keep pace behind her. As the huntress passed by a weakened section of wall holding up some debris, she smashed it with one hand and felt the structure give out and drop its concrete payload.

Blake risked a glance back at her handiwork and saw slabs of concrete and pieces of rebar tumble to the ground amid a cloud of dust. Her eyebrows shot up as the sleek profile of Gizmo's MEC burst through the trap and continued to chase Blake. After five minutes of running rings around the live fire hall, Blake came to a halt against the back wall. The Pathfinder joined her ten seconds later, eyes locked onto Blake's while silently waiting for more orders. Half a minute later, the other two operatives caught up with their instructor.

"Not bad, soldiers." Blake commented, "It looks like I'm going to have to find a way to provide more of a challenge for Gizmo, seeing as she had no difficulty keeping up through that course. Take five, everyone. I have some prep work that needs getting done for the next exercise."

"Hammer Team, go!"

MacAuley gripped his gun and rushed out after Nora and Beagle. Dust rounds lit up the dirt all around them as the unseen operatives of Red Team tried to tag the soldiers of Blue. Judicious use of cover scattered across the field, along with Nora's ability to straight-up soak multiple hits, helped MacAuley avoid the high-caliber rounds of Lieutenant Rose the All-Seeing. The trio slid into safety behind a wall so that Beagle and MacAuley could catch their breath while Nora called out to Jaune's Team, Shield, to take their turn leapfrogging forward.

Nora glanced over at her two allies, "How're you guys holding up?"

"I'll live." Beagle answered.

"Fine." MacAuley wheezed out.

"Hammer, you're up again." What seemed like seconds to MacAuley must've been a lot longer, and his limbs complained when he forced them to get moving once more. The stretch of battlefield ahead of them had very little in the way of cover, so MacAuley popped a smoke grenade off of his hip and tossed it over Nora's head. The device puffed into a pink cloud of smoke just as the team caught up to it, and the three soldiers ran through the relative safety of MacAuley's cover. Once the team passed through the far side, they heard a familiar whistle coming from the end of the hall. MacAuley looked up and froze for a moment in shock.

"… Explosives? Since… since when did they use explosives?"

"MOVE, YOU LITTLE SHIT." Beagle yelled, slamming into the dazed Irishman and driving him to the safety of sandbag barricades as dust exploded all around them.

"Everything alright, Hammer?"

"Yeah." Nora answered, "Just caught off-guard by Yang's little surprise."

"Guess Ruby's raising the stakes. Keep it up."

MacAuley groaned.

"Alright, Rubes. Zen thoughts. Yeah… Zen thoughts. You can do this."

"Relax, Ruby." Ren laughed, "Getting yourself worked up is counter-productive, you know."

Ruby stiffly nodded, "Right." Still she tried to take Ren's advice. The feeling of Annette's psionic link contacting her mind took Ruby slightly by surprise (as it always did), but she closed her eyes and let it freely move through her psyche. After the success of their first 'session,' Annette began to tackle some of the tricker scars left behind by the Ethereal's attack on Ruby's mind. Where the superficial surgery was relatively painless, the subsequent ones started to hurt. Even though Ruby told Annette that she wanted Ren present to try and balance her Aura and Psionics, she secretly hoped that he would be able to do something about the pain as well.

A warm pair of hands gripped her shoulders, and Ruby felt the comforting sensation of Aura flow through her body. She opened her eyes, and a hazy visage of Ren swam into view. With a little bit of concentration, Ruby could see that he was even smiling.

"You're doing fine, though your Aura seems to be pretty annoyed at Captain Durand's intrusion. If you don't mind, I'm going to keep holding onto you and help keep that energy from flaring up and disrupting Annette's work."

Ruby nodded wordlessly, then winced as something sent a spike of pain through her head. Annette clicked her tongue in annoyance from behind her, "I'm sorry, Ruby. I stumbled upon some latent energy left behind by the Ethereal, and it lashed out at me. Are you feeling better?"

"It… passed." Ruby said, "I'm fine. Head feels a little light, though."

"I'm not surprised. I'll try and tread more cautiously to avoid a repeat incident." Annette answered.

"And I'll lend you some of my own Aura to help heal any damage or pain you experience." Ren added.

Ruby smiled and gave them a thumbs up. With the two of them looking out for her Ruby knew she couldn't possibly be in safer hands, "Just keep doing your thing, guys. I can put up with a little bit of pain."

"Begin."

Rather than wait for Pyrrha's assault, Jaune took the initiative and launched himself at his opponent the moment Zhang spoke. His shield clashed against hers, and for a brief moment, Jaune thought he might have the upper hand. Of course, a solid strike to his back as Pyrrha spun around his side put that hope to rest. Still, such a small setback didn't put a damper on his momentum, and Jaune continued to press the action. Sparks flew as swords clashed, and Jaune worked to remember all of Pyrrha's training. When they weren't sparring for Zhang, the duo spent countless hours like they used to, with Pyrrha teaching rather than assaulting. Thanks to Jaune's bolstered confidence and the pressure of a deadline, the lessons sunk in much faster than they used to.

Half a step back to feint followed by driving forward hard with shield up; predicting Pyrrha's next strike and parrying accordingly; immediately capitalizing on an opening made by his shield bash by driving his heel into her leg… Jaune almost surprised himself with how right his technique looked. Of course, despite all of his strikes, blocks, and similar victories, Pyrrha continued to outclass him. She shrugged off his blows like they were nothing while managing to still slip several attacks of her own past his defenses. As the fight wore on, he could feel his strength flagging and his Aura faltering.

Knowing that he couldn't keep this up much longer, Jaune decided to go for one final push and drove his shield hard into Pyrrha. He immediately followed up by dropping to one knee and sweeping Crocea Mors in a wide arc. Once Pyrrha landed on her feet after dodging the attack, Jaune drove his lead shoulder forward and upwards into her gut. A smile crossed his face as he felt Pyrrha get the wind knocked out of her, but a hilt bash to the temple quickly floored him thereafter.

Despite getting knocked flat on his back for the thirtieth time in four days, the smile didn't leave Jaune's lips as he felt Pyrrha level Miló with his throat.

For the first time in thirty bouts, Jaune could hear the faint sounds panting coming from his partner.

"Alright, Ruby, let's try this again."

Once more, XCOM's youngest Lieutenant stood against a brick wall clad in Dr. Shen's prototype Shadow Armor. She flipped a small toggle on her hip, and the suit's experimental technology came to life. The fabric weave on her arms and legs briefly glowed a light neon blue before vanishing completely, followed by her chest and face shortly thereafter. After a few seconds of standing perfectly still, Ruby tried waving her arms. The weave shimmered from the motion, but the effects didn't devolve into a light show like the first attempt. Shen realized he was still holding his breath.

"The system appears to be functional." He said, moreso to himself than to Ruby, "And the phasing technology is stable. Lieutenant, if you could try running with the cloak active…?"

The moment Ruby took off running, the illusion started to fall apart. With its surroundings changing at such a rapid rate, the phasing technology struggled to keep up and maintain the cloak. Whenever Ruby stopped running, however, the suit would briefly shimmer before returning once more to its hard-to-see state.

"Hmmm…" Shen mused, "The tech doesn't seem to behave as well when it's in motion. The quantum mechanics disrupt the phasing, and the suit struggles to maintain a positional lock. I'll have to show these metrics to Vahlen and see if there's any tweaks to the theory she can develop to mitigate the issue."

He looked up and tried to find Ruby once more, only to discover that she wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Ruby…?"

His vision went dark as a pair of gloved hands covered his face, "I wish you were a little shorter, Ray. I'm standing on my tippy toes over here."

Dr. Shen laughed, "I'm terribly sorry that my height has inconvenienced your little prank. Would you mind letting go and accompanying me to Vahlen's lab?"

"The Lair of the She-Witch…" Ruby whispered in a dramatic voice, "You'll need my adorable charm if you want to have any hope for survival."

"You do realize that your partner is best friends with her, right?" Shen asked, rolling his eyes.

"That only further proves my point."

Yang hefted the Particle Cannon and grinned at the fully-armored Talos. Since he performed the best in the brawling sessions, he earned the honor of being the first to suit up in Yang's old MEC. It also meant that he earned the honor of being first to get shot at repeatedly by Yang's very large gun.

"Gun's locked and loaded. Ready to defend, soldier?"

"Juggernaut Protocol is fully operational." Talos countered, "Hit me with your best shot."

Yang took aim at her target and fired. The cannon hummed before discharging high-density its payload with a kick. Talos, arm raised to soak the blow, recoiled from the force of the attack before immediately resuming his defensive stance. Yang fired again, her shot striking Talos's second arm. Before his assailant could fire again, Talos cycled his Juggernaut plating. While it still protected his vital functions, its new configuration provided fresh surfaces that the pilot could use to deflect more oncoming blows. Shot after shot erupted from Yang's Particle Cannon, and Talos continued to cycle through defensive positions to ensure that no single piece of armor took more than a single blow.

When Yang's gun ran dry, she mag-locked it to her back before charging in with fists clenched. Talos traded his heavier armor for agility, retracting the Juggernaut plating while Yang closed to engage. The pilot met Yang's opening punch with a deflective block that attempted to re-direct the huntress past him. He met her follow-up punch by bringing up his leg to block the blow from striking his vitals. She continued to assault him with strike after strike, and Talos flowed from one counter to the next. Whenever possible, he tried to simply shift Yang's direction so that she punched empty air, only soaking the blow when absolutely necessary.

Eventually, Yang backed off and powered up the grenade launcher mounted to her back. As her on-board battle computer acquired a trajectory lock, Talos rapidly deployed the blast shield stowed on his forearm. The launcher fired, Talos ducked behind the planted shield, and the fiery blast blew past him. The two MECs stood perfectly still, their respective pilots locked in a staring contest. Eventually, Yang grinned and folded her arms across her chest.

"Not bad, not bad at all. You get a gold star for the day, and a trip down to the repair bay so Shen's boys can get my Devastator repaired for the next victim."

Talos gave Yang a salute before marching off towards the elevator.

"Hammer, we need backup!"

MacAuley nodded at Nora, then ran out from the safety of cover to assist the beleaguered Shield team while Nora and Beagle pressed on ahead. He fired off a small burst from his rifle to try and take some of the heat off of Shield before continuing his mad dash to their position. Sure enough, bullet ricocheted off the concrete around him, and the Engineer dodged and weaved through the debris on the field to help offer him some protection while he moved to support his allies. There, huddled behind a rapidly crumbling sandbag wall, MacAuley saw Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren.

"Smoke's out!" He shouted, tossing the small canister at their position. The smoke plumed into a heavy cloud, and MacAuley joined his squadmates on their dash to the next piece of cover. Overhead, he heard the whistling sound that meant Xaio Long was once again not playing fair.

"Hey, we gotta move!" Explosive blasts erupted around the four operatives and MacAuley heard Beagle and Nora trying to draw the attention of Red Team onto them while Shield ran across no-man's-land. The Engineer pulled another explosive off his hip, primed it, and chucked it as far as he could. The distinct lack of gunfire following the bright flash and piff of his flashbang told MacAuley that he got lucky with his toss. He saw the next piece of cover twenty meters ahead and put on a burst of speed to reach safety before his attackers recovered from their brief disorientation.

Crack.

MacAuley fell to the ground with a yelp, pain searing his right thigh. Of course the Lieutenant would recover from his little surprise fast enough to put a Dust round through his leg, and of course she would pick the weakest link of the squad to drag the rest down with him.

"Fuck!" MacAuley cursed, angry that he let his team down, as usual. He sat there, letting the pain of his leg wound wash over him, when a pair of hands gripped him under the shoulder and lifted him to his feet.

Jaune flashed a grin at the Irishman, "C'mon, Mack. It's not over till it's over. We're almost there, buddy."

Without even waiting for any protest from MacAuley, Jaune ducked under the Engineer's arm and supported him for the final stretch to cover. Several more shots rang out from Crescent Rose, and MacAuley heard Jaune grunt more than once as a bullet found its mark. Still, the hunter never faltered, and the two of them made it to the debris wall where Pyrrha and Ren were waiting.

"Thanks." MacAuley muttered while Ren tended to his wound.

"We're a team, Mack, which means we're supposed to support each other. Just as your smoke gave us the opportunity to make a break for a better position, pulling you out of harm's way was a no-brainer. It's impossible to survive on your own in the field, and so it's up to each of us to ensure that all of us return safely." Jaune gave MacAuley a light punch on the shoulder, "Don't sell yourself short, buddy. You do more for this team than you realize."

MacAuley nodded, "Yeah… yeah, okay. Thanks, boss."

Weiss carefully stared at the small particles floating in the liquid chamber before her. With practiced ease, she slowly lowered a gold wire into the box and waited for the water to settle before coaxing a small portion of her soul's energy to flow through the material. She watched as her Aura energized the Dust within the fluid and rapidly crystallize the solution. Within seconds, well over half of the water had turned to ice.

"Hmmm…" She muttered.

"Found something interesting?" Vahlen asked from across the room.

"I think I finally found a good balance of Elerium Dust that lets it enhance the effects of whatever element I combine it with instead of replacing it with a high-energy explosion." Weiss answered, her eyes still glued to the container, "This quantity of Ice Dust usually only freezes twenty percent of the chamber's liquid, but the amount of solid water in there now is about three times greater."

Vahlen put down her tools and walked over to better appreciate Weiss's success, "Well done! Did my notes on Elerium help at all?"

Weiss nodded, "Very much so. Your list of various catalysts and their effects on Elerium helped me develop a proper mixture for the controlled amplification of the Dust compound. I've only tested the solution on Ice Dust so far, since I figured I should start with what I know best. It's possible that the proper balance varies from element to element, but at least I know now that I'm not chasing an unreachable goal. Give me some time, and I'm sure I'll find the correct combination for each." The two of them shared a celebratory fist bump (a concept introduced to Vahlen by Yang), before Vahlen helped Weiss empty out the container and prepare for the next experiment.

A buzzer rang out, and Blake watched Gizmo make a run for the course. Rather than just play chase through the urban rubble and come up with obstacles as she went, Blake carefully designed the gauntlet Gizmo currently faced. She watched as the MEC approached the first obstacle, Jetboot Module hot and ready to fire at a moment's notice. Gizmo skidded under the low-hanging bridge before coming back up to her feet in time to leap at the wall in front of her. She pushed off, twisted, and gripped the ledge directly behind the first jumping point. With practiced ease, Gizmo pulled herself onto the roof before grabbing the holorifle off her back. She strafed along her high ground while tagging several targets down below, never once stopping to line up a shot.

Gizmo's head snapped left as the sound of a rocket drew her attention. Her Jetboots flared, and the Pathfinder kicked off of the building moments before an explosion engulfed the structure. Dropping back down to the ground floor, Gizmo took off running for the next challenge. She warmed up her Kinetic Strike Module and punched her way through into a small arena where several targets began to instantly pop up.

"Time to play with your fancy sword, Gizmo." Blake called through the training hall's PA system.

The second her rifle finished shifting into a sword, Gizmo took off for the first target and handily sliced it in half. With the Jetboots helping her cover ground at breakneck speeds, the pilot pierced the second target, punched the third, and reversed herself into the fourth. Blake watched as the Pathfinder gracefully danced around the arena, cutting down targets as quickly as they popped up. Her style was vastly different from Blake's own, of course, but the huntress found beauty in the elegance as Gizmo fell into her own tempo.

Ten minutes later, Gizmo punched her way out of the final trial before coming face-to-face with a smiling Blake, "For someone who has no Aura to fall back on, you fight with an impressive amount of grace and flair, Gizmo. It took some time, but I honestly can't think of a better candidate for piloting the Vanguard. Well done."

Ruby sat cross-legged on the floor of the Psi Labs, her focus entirely on Ren. She could feel Annette working in the back of her mind, but that didn't matter to Ruby. All she had to do was focus on Ren and concentrate on keeping her Aura regulated. Every time she felt a small spike of pain from the psychic surgery, she let the pain pass over her and leave. Rather than fear the consequences of what might happen if Annette made a mistake, Ruby focused on doing her part to make sure that didn't happen. 'Fear is the mind killer,' she remembered reading from a book that Blake left on her bed a few days ago. She was embarrassed to admit that she didn't read very far into it before giving up, but that phrase stuck with her.

The two hunters sat in absolute silence, encased in their respective Auras while they concentrated on exerting control over their powers, on being masters of their own fate. Ruby did her best to follow Ren's suggestion, to look 'inward' and see the ebb and flow of her Aura within her soul. She didn't know how she was supposed to look at her Aura, but she could feel the energy radiating from her core. She felt a bit silly trying to take this whole Zen thing seriously, but if Ren was taking the time to help her in the best way he knew how, then the least she could do was to put forth an equal effort and not let her self-conscious feelings get in the way.

"All done." Annette said quietly, "How do you feel, Ruby? What do you see?"

Ruby focused on her mind, on the energies she felt swirling within. Using the exercises Annette and Ren worked to help her develop, she teased a tendril of her mind's power down into her core. From below, her Aura rose up to meet the energy, and Ruby winced at the shock that accompanied their initial 'contact.' She maintained her focus with the help of her companions, and soon the two energies slid past one another without friction. She looked down at her hand, and saw purple streaks begin to lace themselves with the usual red color of her Aura.

Ruby looked up at Ren and smiled, "I feel powerful."

"Begin."

Swords clashed as Pyrrha and Jaune began their latest bout under the critical eye of Colonel Zhang. Ever step and pivot Jaune made carried the confidence of a warrior who believed in his own skill. He met every blow that connected with his face with zealous reprisal. Though Jaune still had yet to best Pyrrha in one-on-one combat, the sheer power and fearlessness emanating from Jaune's being resulted in some of the operatives nicknaming him 'Jaune the Lionheart.' His Aura pulsed to the rhythm of the battle, and the two combatants threw themselves at each other time and again.

Every time they locked swords, Jaune caught a glimpse of Pyrrha's face. He saw concentration written all over it, of course, but he saw something else just beneath the surface. At first, he couldn't quite figured out where he recognized it from, or what it meant, but every glance he stole seemed to be filling in another piece of the puzzle, or wiping away another little cobweb from his memory. Finally, it clicked. He remembered the same look on her face when the two of them talked after Pyrrha found out about his involvement in Vahlen's Aura breakthrough. Through the exterior rage, hurt, and confusion at why he chose to keep it hidden from her, Jaune also remembered another emotion.

Pride.

Jaune's Aura flared at the memory and realization, and he threw himself at Pyrrha with renewed vigor. Though she landed far more hits on him than he did on her, his Semblance allowed him to carry on as if he had little more than a couple of scratches. With each block and deflection Pyrrha made, Jaune could see the fatigue begin to catch up with her. Back and forth they carried on, sheer determination keeping both of them fighting with the entirety of their hearts and souls. When Jaune though he'd just end up fighting Pyrrha down to a stalemate, Jaune spotted a miracle: Pyrrha made a mistake.

It was a small thing, just a simple footing error, but Jaune recognized it and leapt on the opportunity immediately. He pressed forward with his shield, forcing Pyrrha to block and pull herself even more out of position. A quick step placed his foot behind hers, and Jaune followed up with a mighty shove. Pyrrha went tumbling to the floor, and Jaune abandoned his armaments to dive on top of her. He gripped her sword wrist on one hand and pinned her shield arm with the other, his face inches away from hers to ensure she couldn't reach up with her legs and pull him off.

A slow clap echoed through the room, and Jaune looked up to see Zhang applauding, "After one-hundred and twenty-four failures, you finally come out on top. Well done, Master Arc. Well done indeed."

Bradford swept his gaze across the assembly of literally everyone working at XCOM standing before him. Behind the Central Officer sat two Skyrangers, fueled and ready to take his strike teams to the outskirts of London and Lagos so that they may commence with the systematic removal of the final alien strongholds on Earth.

"We are on the cusp of a turning point in this war, my friends. This past week, I have had the pleasure of observing you all put forth your best efforts towards ensuring the events of today will fall in our favor, and it's an honor knowing that the XCOM Project is staffed with the finest specimens of mankind that Earth, and Remnant, has to offer. All of you faced different hurdles and challenges this past week, and all of you overcame them with skill and determination. I couldn't have asked for a finer team than the one I'm looking at right now."

"In a matter of hours, these two Skyrangers will be dusting off with full squads to take care of some final bit of business before we tackle the Ethereal collective head-on. Because of your efforts, I believe that our operatives are equipped to not only defeat the alien threats they will face, but to eradicate them so completely that our guests will wish they never bothered to attack us at all."

"Both of these operations are equally important towards accomplishing our goal of a unified front against the aliens, so it would be a mistake for me to designate the Strike teams by number and imply that one is superior to the other. Red Team will by flying out to England, and the squad will include the huntresses of RWBY, SHIV operative Polendina, and three highly-trained MECs who have been instructed by Sergeant Xaio Long herself. Colonel Zhang will be accompanying them on this mission, though he will not be the commanding officer. That honor falls to Captain Rose."

Bradford grinned at the stunned Ruby, but didn't stop to explain to her how the decision came about. There would be time before the flight, and besides…

"Blue Team will have the honor of liberating Nigeria, and the squad will be composed of JNPR, several handpicked members of Strike Five, and of course, Sergeant Belladonna's cadre of MECs. While Captain Beagle instantly agreed to join JNPR on this mission, he suggested that Lieutenant Arc act as commanding officer. After the events of this past week, I have to agree."

Jaune choked on his morning coffee, followed by Beagle giving him a hard whack on the back to help clear his friend's airway. Bradford, however, still had some more to say.

"With that out of the way, I thought I'd leave you all with a few suggestions. While I have absolute faith that today's operations will both be unmitigated successes, I've never heard of such a thing as too much advice."

As the members of both teams stepped forward from the assembly and stood at attention, Bradford cracked a smile, "My words are thus: You must be swift as the coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon." He watched the members of the assembly, their confusion quickly shifting to snickering as Bradford finished, "With all the strength of a raging fire-"

A resounding chorus of everyone in the room drowned out Bradford's voice, "MYSTERIOUS AS THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON!"