"Where are we going, Shine?" Wally asked while they were leaving.

"I don't know, but I need some space from this team," Shine sounded mad.

"Yeah...okay that was awkward...and kind of mean," Wally said. "But are you sure we should be walking out? It feels like that's just going to make it more awkward."

"You could have backed me up," Shine turned her annoyance on him.

"With what?" Wally said.

"Excuse me? Yang was being a jerk!" Shine said. "What happened to that girl? I've never seen her treat someone that way who wasn't her mom."

"If she treats her mom that way that's kind of not great either," Wally winced. "My mom would kill me if I talked like that to her...but maybe she's just...upset? I mean, she's a kid, right?"

"She's 18."

"Well...but still."

"There are League members that young, Wally, or there have been. You weren't much older than that when you started. Would you treat people that way?"

"On purpose no, but I guess we do show our worst sides to people we don't have to be nice to," Wally said.

"You wouldn't do that," Shine said.

"I wouldn't...try to," Wally said. "I mean, I have lost my cool a bit with my team before."

"The worst you did was make a few sarcastic remarks or get annoyed at them for underestimating you," Shine said. "That's hardly the same thing...She's wrong. She does not get to treat us however she wants just because we don't have a license and a family pedigree to present them with."

"Still, it is a little sus that we aren't telling them who we are," Wally said. "I feel like we're being like Ozpin."

"Ozpin kept his own secrets, in many ways, our origins aren't just ours to explain," Shine said.

She slowed and looked around. "Wally, you do realize part of the reason I'm keeping it under wraps, right?"

"Uh...you don't trust them?" Wally said.

"You think that's it?" Shine looked hurt.

"I'm sure...you have a thought out reason," Wally tried to unbury himself. "I just haven't...well you know I can't read your mind," with a bit more warmth. "You could have told me."

"I...didn't think I needed to, I thought you'd see why, you have a secret identity."

"But this isn't being a superhero, I didn't think we'd need one," Wally argued. "If we did, you could have said so."

"I thought it was clear before when we talked about not going by code names that there were things not to tell them."

"I think we could have talked about this more," Wally said. "I mean, there is such a thing as a debriefing."

He so rarely took that tone with Shine that it stunned her.

Of course she was sarcastic all the time, but not usually with him.

Wally felt bad about 2 seconds after he said it.

"I should have said that differently..." he said quickly. "Sorry. I guess I could have asked sooner."

"You could have."

"Sorry, uh, it's just you're so on this all the time," Wally rubbed his head. "I mean it's been 2 days and you're already like 'let's raise someone from the dead' 'let's help Oscar not lose his soul' and I'm like: Cool fighting and freaky monsters!"

Shine snorted a laugh. "I don't think it's that simple."

"But you're a hard person to compete with," Wally said. "You're smart and you're never afraid of people. I don't know, even with my friends I don't get a lot of respect. And these kids are...tough...and kind of jumpy. It's like highschool all over again."

Shine looked serious and then stared at the wall.

"Well," she said, more somberly. "The truth is, I always have to move pretty fast, especially at first. People won't usually just accept that you can help them, until you prove it. You can't hesitate. You can't doubt yourself, not right off the bat. Even if you feel unsure, if you show that, then...what good are you? They're scared already. It's not that different from being a superhero. We can't flip out. I...suppose my first mission, I was a bit more unsure, but I kind of just went for it. After that, there wasn't much else to do but keep at it. I guess it worked okay, even if it was rough. I've never had to check in with someone else before. I've never not been on the same page, because there was only one page."

"Are you saying I'm slowing you down? Because that's really ironic."

"Oh...well, I don't know that I'd put it that way. I don't know that it's slower...but then again, perhaps I'm going too fast."

"I don't know, these people sure don't slow down much," Wally said. "Maybe you're right...but can you fill me in at least before you do stuff like start a fight? Or I don't know, give me some sign that you're going to?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, at least give me a warning look," Wally said. "I don't know which way to look when you start it out of nowhere and the others all wonder what's going on."

"I hope they don't look at you like 'why aren't you stopping her?'" Shine was heated. "I hate that. People used to look at my parents that way."

"Geez, rude..." Wally said. "But out of curiosity...why is it such a secret that we're...you know, DJs," he hissed.

"It's bad enough Ozpin knows, but I think he's too intimidated to say it," Shine said. "But if Ironwood knew? Or some of them...think about it. We have all this power, and they knew that already, but right now they don't trust it enough to abuse it. If they knew the full story, they might try to take advantage of it. They don't see us as people, we're just figureheads to them, of whatever they think this is. We know how they've used people like Pyrrha, and now Winter, it looks like. I can't hand that to them. And if Salem's forces heard about it? That'd be it, they'd come for this team to get to us."

"You think so?" 

"She hunts Silver Eyed warriors," Shine recalled. "Can you imagine if she heard there was someone who told a grimm to go, and it did."

Wally pictured it...not pretty.

"So...on top of that, if she knew we were...who we are, or if the other power crazed weirdos did, it's just too much of a target?"

"Until we can trust that they won't let it slip to anyone else," Shine said. "Which right now, we can't be sure of, I think it's best if only the people who we've connected with now know the truth. The walls have ears in this danged school anyway, we have to be careful what we say unless we're outside."

"I never thought about all of that," Wally cringed at how he'd missed that.

"And you've never had people ask you to use your gifts for things you know you shouldn't use them for either," Shine said soberly. "Many times. You won't enjoy it when it happens, trust me. It'll happen soon enough with them, once they get desperate enough."

"That is...amazingly cynical," Wally said.

"Why?" 

"No, you're right, it's just cynical," Wally rubbed his chin. "I mean, it's kind of sad that you have to think about it...and I guess I do now...You were right, this job is not easy."

"That is why we should be careful about showing off," Shine said. "We get all this enjoyment out of our gifts, as we should, but others may see it differently. Even your speed, it's still much faster than any of theirs, if they suspect how fast, there's no end to what they might expect you to do with it. Bad enough they'll expect us to bring anyone back from the dead now."

"It'd be nice if we could."

"Nice...but there is a time and place for that," Shine said. "God knows...one day everybody will be raised again. If some of them should be earlier, that is His call not ours. Pyrrha was an easy one to see...but suppose it was someone we didn't like? It still might be a kindness and wisdom to do it...or it might not be. There is no guarantee on our end. You want to have the fun of explaining that to someone? Especially Ironwood." [Foreshadowing?]

"Okay, I think I see why you were afraid of this." Wally said. "In technicolor, actually. I can think of so many ways that could backfire...Gee, makes you almost wish we told Oscar less. Poor kid...I mean there is Ozpin..."

"Yes, but he won't broadcast that we're better at this than him," Shine said. "Nor can he force us to do anything while Oscar is holding him back. I'm not that worried about him. I'm more worried about the others who might try to manipulate us."

"So are we helping Oscar because it keeps us safe from Ozpin? Or because we're helping him?" Wally said.

"I would help him either way," Shine said. "It doesn't matter...but by the grace of God, it helps us also. I consider that a bonus. But if, in the long run, this all still comes out, I'd still say we should help Oscar."

"Me too, so I'm glad we don't have to stop. But asking a teenaged kid to cover for us just isn't right."

"We don't have much of a choice, if he lets on that he knows more the others will be on him like wildcats, is that what we want?"

She was far more right than she knew, as the conversation that had just happened evidenced.

"Hey," Pyrrha finally caught them.

Considering how soon she'd gone after them, she should have found them sooner, but they'd kept moving and taken so many random turns that it took her a while to follow their footsteps.

"Oh hey," Wally turned. "What's up?"

"I was...worried you were upset," Pyrrha said. "I'm sorry...I don't know why the others came down on you like that, but please, don't leave."

"We're not leaving," Wally said, like it was a weird idea. "We were just taking a walk."

"Yeah, where could we go?" Shine asked.

"I...don't know," Pyrrha said. "Where did you come from? I guess you could go back...unless you're trapped here? Are you?"

"No, but let's say it's not our decision, we're waiting till we're told," Shine said.

"I see," Pyrrha said. "Well...Are you okay?"

"I guess so," Wally said. "I mean, that wasn't fun, but it's not a big deal. I guess they were blowing off some steam...mostly."

"I suppose I said what I wanted to say already," Shine said. "Not that it doesn't annoy me, but what can you do?"

"I...don't think you have done anything to deserve their suspicion," Pyrrha said. "I suppose, we're in the same boat, however."

"Actually, I'm glad you're here, we need to talk," Shine said.

Oscar came stumbling around the corner right then.

"Is this our secret club now?" Wally joked.

The two kids didn't laugh.

"Geez..." he said.

"They'll get there," Shine said. "Listen you two, we've just been talking...have either of you told your friends what you figured out about us and where we're from?"

"Not yet," Pyrrha said.

"No," Oscar said. "Wasn't sure I should."

"Brilliant, Oscar, you're a genius," Shine said, in relief. 

"You too," Wally gave Pyrrha a thumbs up.👍

"Is there a problem?" Pyrrha asked.

"We probably should have said this yesterday, but we don't want everyone to know who we are yet," Shine said.

"I gathered, but why did you tell us?" Pyrrha said.

"Well, you figured it out, and Oscar...well, it seemed like he needed to know," Shine said. "I'm not crazy about Ozpin knowing, but it can't be helped. And he'd better shut up about it."

She cast Opzin a look.

"The thing is, we realized that you guys have lots of enemies who might not like it if they knew about this," Wally said. "And you have enough problems. If your friends knew what we are, and they try to...you know, use us in some way, it won't be pretty."

"You think they would?" Pyrrha said.

"Pyrrha, Qrow and Ironwood alone already used you," Shine said. "And Ozpin. Ironwood is set up to use Winter. Do we need to add another powerful person to dangle in front of them so they can come up with nasty ideas of how to get ahead in this stupid race for those dumb objects?"

Rather rudely but poignantly put.

"I didn't think of that," Oscar rubbed his head. "I just thought it would make the others even more afraid if they knew you were...you know..."

"That too," Shine said. "But I'm not sure I care about that. I just think it's not safe to tempt people like that. It's best if as few people as possible know about Pyrrha and you getting our help at all, unless your team is more ready to accept it. And that might take a while. As for your enemies, if they ever need to know, it's not while all of you are at such a vulnerable point. It's one thing to tell your friends, but if they let it slip...well the more of them know, the more likely it is to happen."

"I feel like we're doing what Ozpin did," Oscar said.

"But for a different reasons," Shine said. "He was protecting himself and his stupid questions. Believe me when I say, this won't matter for us very much in the long run. We're visitors, but you have to live here. If the world was to learn about us, and that you knew us...you'd never hear the end of it. And you'd be left to deal with the mess once we go home, and make no mistake, we will go home, sooner or later. So for your safety, only tell people we say it's okay to tell. I usually get a sense of when someone is ready to hear it, it's never steered me wrong before."

"Okay," Oscar agreed.

"I don't like it," Pyrrha said, honestly. "But I see what you mean. And I suppose, it is not really like Ozpin, after all...we know. And...it's not like you're hiding some threat from them either...are you?"

"Honey, the biggest threats to any world are always already in it. Nothing we bring with us could be worse," Shine said. "And we don't bring any threats, except that, things like grimm and people who are like grimm, hate us on sight, and will hate you too, if you're around us. But you already have that problem, so how could we make it worse?"

"True," Pyrrha finally laughed. "In that case, the others don't really need to know. It's your business."

"As long as they aren't in more danger because of the secret, I think it's all right," Oscar agreed. "Guess some secrets are okay...I just don't know about the ones we're keeping ourselves..."

"Yes, those are a bit more of a problem," Shine said. "But your friends trying to say we should tell them, when they won't even do that, was laughable."

"I guess they think it's different for us because we hold all these secrets already," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, that sounds like a cult, Pyrrha," Shine said bluntly. "And I don't care if Ozpin hears me."

"You're on point, Ozpin and Salem once started their own following," Oscar said resentfully.

"Not surprising, somehow." Shine said.

"This story gets worse every new thing I hear about it," Wally said.

"The others will not like us keeping secrets from them," Pyrrha said soberly, looking behind them.

Jaune found them right about then.

"Oh...hey guys..." he said. "Everything okay?"

"Is everyone just going to come after us?" Wally asked.

The rest of the group appeared.

"I guess that was a yes," Shine muttered.

"You didn't leave?" Ruby said.

"No..." Shine said. "Why would we?"

"Those were some strong words you said back there," Qrow said.

"I like strong words," Shine stuck her chin out. "I like to show I mean what I say, and I'm not easily swayed. Got a problem with that?"

"I don't think you'd care if I did," Qrow said.

"You're right," Shine said. "So...did you all have more to say?"

"I guess not," Ruby said. "I was just thinking you'd been gone a while. You know, we were thinking we could explore the school while we were waiting for our weapons."

"I think I'd prefer to explore Mantle," Shine said.

"Why would you want to go back down there?" Qrow said snarkily. "Didn't you notice it's a mess?"

"Yeah, so go where the trouble is," Shine said. "Anyway, you think we're going to find anything interesting up here in the pristine, polished Atlas?"

"What exactly are you looking for?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

'"Maybe all of you have nothing better to do for your mission than wait around and get weapons and then go play fight, but we have to use every day wisely," Shine said that like it wasn't an insult...but it was.

"You're calling training a waste of time?" Blake said.

"Pretty much, yeah," Wally said. "I mean, not exactly, but wherever there's like...a bunch of crazy baddies on the loose, it does kind of feel like there's something else we could be doing."

"Yeah, training will make us stronger," Yang said.

"Not in the right way," Shine said, turning around. "We'll catch you guys later, anyway I'm sick of the guards around here watching us so closely. At least the robot cams don't have guns."

"Do you want anyone to come with you?" Pyrrha said.

"No one, sweetie, but especially not you," Shine said. "Too recognizable."

"Oh...right," Pyrrha said.

"Why don't you come train with us?" Nora urged. "You haven't kicked our butts in ages. It'll be fun. Maybe we'll even give you more of a challenge."

"That sounds fun," Pyrrha said, without her old enthusiasm for it.

Perhaps because she could sense that they all didn't see it as fun as much as necessary nowadays.

* * *

The school was so big it was doubtful they even went over all of it.

Certain actually, because Penny wouldn't have taken them to the most top secret rooms.

Pyrrha didn't feel like her position in the team was any better since she'd made such a point of disagreeing with them...this was so unlike anything before.

Oscar probably felt just as awkward.

Meanwhile, Shine and Wally wandered around Mantle.

It was freezing still, only a little better in the day time.

Shine was not quite as cold as she expected to be, however. It seemed almost as if the aura people generated acted as insulation, she wondered if that meant they were also generating aura.

It was unlikely they'd develop semblances, but if the laws of the world were that everyone had an aura that could manifest itself outwardly, it wasn't out of the question.

Neither of them had a clue how to activate it to find out.

"I gotta say this place is pretty bleak," Wally said. "I guess a lockdown will do that to you." [Obligatory Covid joke]

"Apparently, this is not considered martial law because they haven't completely forbidden people to be off the streets yet," Shine said.

There were other people out...most of them looked homeless.

"I feel bad for all this," Wally said. "I mean...the people we're working with--sort of--are all set to fight monsters, but there's plenty of stuff you could do right here to help too. I guess training is all right, but isn't being a hero more about this?"

Shine took his hand. "I love you."

Wally smiled.

"On that note, there has to be somebody here we could help," Shine mused. "What do we have to work with?"

"Well, we still have some portable food supplies," Wally said. "And...our talents...that's about it. Being broke sucks."

"I suppose there's not much chance of being able to work here," Shine said.

They had wandered into what seemed like a worse part of the already bad part of town that was Mantle.

Turned out trouble really wasn't that far off, they heard scuffling and yelling.

There were also some people huddled by heat vents.

"Fight?" Wally said.

"Stragglers," Shine said.

"Go," Wally said.

He dashed away towards the sound.

Shine walked up to the people by the vent, who eyed her warily.

"I know it's not much, but," she pulled out some of the packaged food and held it out.

"Go away lady," one guy said roughly. "What are you trying to pull?"

Shine raised an eyebrow🤨. "Do people not help out here?"

"Help? You look a sight too fancy to be interested in helping us," the guy scoffed. "You Atlas types are all the same. Looking down on us."

"Actually, I'm one step way from being in your position," Shine shrugged. "And have been before. Other people helped me then, I wanted to pass it on. Take it or not, I'll just leave it here then, I'm sure someone will have use of it."

She tossed it onto the sidewalk.

The other fellow, who didn't seem quite so nasty, nodded at her, perhaps in thanks.

Shine walked away, wondering how bad it was if an act of simple kindness was met with such suspicion. Apparently, it was not just team RWBY/JNPR who had this problem.

Wally had found something a bit more disturbing when he'd found the sources of the noise.

Some drunk punks were kicking around someone who appeared to be a Faunus with deer antlers.

It didn't seem anyone around was interested in stopping this.

"Hey, knock it off," Wally said.

The punks turned to look at him loopily.

"Aw, buzz off, bozo!" One slurred. "Mind your own d--- business, or we'll---" the rest of what he said really was too vulgar to repeat.

Wally had been cussed out plenty of times by punks and wasn't really fazed by it, but he was still surprised to find this was over something this stupid. Central City would have been quite scandalized by a scene like this.

"I'm only going to say this nicely once," he said. "Leave him alone. Go home."

"You go home," one of them threw something at him.

Wally dodged it with ease, barely even registering it. "Last warning," he said.

"This joker thinks he's slick," said one who seemed slightly less hammered. "Let's teach him a lesson."

Of course from there it was all over.

Wally punched them all like one time and they went down.

Then they got up and ran for it.

Of course, one of those creepy bot cameras flew past, Wally was so fast however that by the time it got a picture, he was just standing there. Not much to incriminate anyone by. [Mr. Incredible: They got you on tape and you still got away with it? Whoa!]

The faunus got up and looked at him weirdly. "What do you want?" he said.

"Nothing, are you okay?" Wally said. "Those guys were something else, you know some people can just not handle liquor. Makes them really mean."

"I doubt it was the liquor," the faunus grumbled.

He started to shuffle away.

"Are you hurt? Do you need help? Maybe a doctor?" Wally called, following him.

"Look, I don't want any trouble with the law, so can you just leave me alone?" the guy said. "Are you a hunstman?"

"Uh...no, I was trying to help, that's all," Wally said.

"I've gotta go." The faunus hurried away even faster.

Wally was puzzled.

"Good way to get yourself arrested, Slugger," someone said.

Wally turned around and saw a couple of women standing there.

One looked kind of like a sheep, which was the first thing he noticed.

The other was taller, blonde, and actually dressed for the weather, for a wonder (Team RWBY still seemed pretty underdressed to him.)

"So what? You can't help a brother out?" Wally said.

"Not in this city you can't, not without a license," the woman said, with a slight smile of annoyance. "A stupid part of this new rule of that General Ironwood's. Still, if it wasn't for the fact that it's appallingly illegal, I'd say that was impressive."

Her sarcasm about the illegal part was pretty evident.

The sheep girl snickered.

"Oh well, uh...thanks?" Wally hoped she wasn't hitting on him, Shine wouldn't like that--and it was awkward too.

"Am I too late?" Shine came around the corner right then. "Did I miss the fun? Ah..."

"They were pushovers," Wally said. "Apparently, I'm not allowed to end street fights...more like street bullying. This city just keeps getting more and more fun."

"You must be new to Mantle," the woman said, amused. "Where you from, Vacuo?"

"Outside the kingdoms," Shine said.

The woman snorted. "Boy are you in for a rude awakening. You'd better watch your step in Atlas."

"Are you part of the police?" Shine asked. "Military?"

"No...I'm more of a rogue Huntress, if you want to call it that," The woman gestured nonchalantly away from her shoulder. "The name's Robyn Hill. You might have noticed I'm running for the council."

"Oh?" Shine said. "Lovely."

"You don't care?" Robyn Hill said.

"Not particularly, the politics of this city matter very little to me," Shine said.

A few other women stepped into view from the street corners.

"You sound like an Atlas Elite," one said.

"I take it that's not a compliment," Shine noted wryly. "Sorry to disappoint you, but it's just really none of my business. I don't live here."

"You'd do well to care about it, even if you don't live here. What Atlas does affects all the kingdoms," Robyn said.

"Perhaps, but what good do you think my support would do you?" Shine asked.

"Not much perhaps, but it's smarter to keep informed," Robyn said.

"At least someone thinks so," Wally said.

"So if you're not huntsmen, what are you doing here?" Robyn shuffled a little. "Getting into street fights?"

"I just wanted to help out," Wally said. "Other than that, we were sight seeing I guess."

"In Mantle?" One woman snorted.

"Perhaps we don't sightsee the same way as you," Shine shrugged. "Shall we be on our way now, hon?"

"Yeah, it's cold out here if you just stand still," Wally said. "And if you move, but that's a little better. Too bad we're broke, we could get some hot coffee somewhere."

"I just saw you give food to some lowlifes, and you're broke?" said one tough looking woman. "Smart."

"I didn't know you were watching," Shine said. "But if you were, I didn't do it to impress your idea of intelligence." She was getting a little sick of this condescending treatment from everyone in Atlas.

"She's fiery," the woman said.

"I like fiery," Robyn said, raising an eyebrow. "It's almost a shame, I could use people like you in my campaign. You're not the only ones who think this place has gone to the dogs."

"More like the grimm and the robots," Shine said.

"Oh, that's funny," Wally said. "Not really a pun though."

"I'm more of a quip person anyway," Shine shrugged.

"The thing is, Mantle is closed," Robyn said. Suddenly, with an odd smile. "And no one from outside Atlas is being allowed through the borders. So you two newcomers really aren't supposed to be here, are you?"

The other women tensed a little, like they thought that might incite a fight.

"I see," Shine said. "But you're not with the law are you? So what do you intend to do with this information?"

"Nothing, but I am curious about how you got in," Robyn said, folding her arms. "I'm not a big fan of the ban myself, or the embargo, or any of what Ironwood has been doing. But I'm curious how anyone managed to slip past him."

"It's not as hard as you think," Shine said.

"I guess not," Robyn said. "Well, I'm sure it's quite a story. Where are you staying?"

"Here and there," Shine said.

"Talk about the 3rd degree," Wally said. "Lady, you're pretty nosy. What's your game?  How about we ask you some questions?"

"I'd be happy to answer them," Robyn said. "I'm an open book."

"I think the book is genderbent Robin Hood," Shine whispered to Wally.

He choked on a laugh.

"Technically, we're on patrol right now anyway," Robyn said. "You two care to join us? Everyone will assume you're huntsmen if you're with us. Besides, I'm popular in Mantle."

"I'm sorry, but we can't participate in any huntsmen activities," Shine said. "We're happy to help if we see someone needs it, but to go out of our way to do something illegal? That's another story. I don't think we're anything like in favor enough with the law here to pull that off yet. And if you get away with it, I must say, you have some big bargaining chips with the city. I doubt that goes to us."

"Clever," Robyn said. "A diplomatic answer. But I get the feeling there's a little more to you two than you're letting on...Well if you don't want to patrol, how about a coffee break? On me."

Shine glanced at Wally.

"I wouldn't say no to that," Wally said. "Anyway, how bad could she be? She's wearing a scarf."

"What does that have to do with it?" Shine said.

"Evil people never wear scarves in movies," Wally said. "It's too...I don't know, homey, I guess."

[Can you name a villain who wears a full on knit scarf? Go on, I'll wait.]

"Is he serious?" the sheep girl whispered.

"I doubt it," Robyn said.

"Well, I guess that settles it," Shine said. "Sure, let's get coffee."

https://youtu.be/UB3QfHzO-ho

[Lapis Lazuli-- The Oh Hellos]