"Salutations!" The orange-haired girl accompanying the general greeted Clark with a wide smile. She had bright green eyes, freckles, and wore a bow in her hair. Her outfit consisted of a mostly gray blouse with overalls and black stockings.

Clark's eyes narrowed. Her footsteps on the grass were way too heavy for someone her size, and not just that. With a bit more focus, he realized that she wasn't breathing and didn't have a heartbeat either.

Clark extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Clark. And you are . . . ?"

"My name is Penny Polendina!" She shook his hand eagerly.

She was strong, Clark had to relax his arm so that he didn't automatically put up any resistance to her quick up-and-down motions.

"She's the one you want me to spar?" Clark asked General Ironwood.

The man nodded. He rested his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

Had Clark ever seen the taciturn man do that before?

"Yes," Ironwood said. "She's a very important member of my forces and it's always good for her to gain combat experience for a range of circumstances. She is an artificial person, a machine imbued with aura."

So that explained it. Clark did a quick check with X-ray vision. Yep, her internals consisted of wires and metal instead of bones and organs. A complete robot, not a cyborg like Victor had been. And according to the rules of this world, if she had aura, she had a soul.

Ironwood continued. "While she may not be able to keep up with your speed, it would be helpful if you would test her to the best of your other abilities. She needs to learn as much as she can in order to ease the burdens of many huntsmen and save lives."

"I understand." Clark didn't enjoy violence, and normally he wouldn't have agreed to this. Showing off his abilities would be suspicious. He might be able to pass off his abilities as aura and a Semblance for a while, but an extended match would be too much. The general had been clear that she wouldn't know about him, but that didn't do much to put Clark at ease.

Although . . . after what he'd learned last night about Rainem and Orved, he'd need to do what he could to help people defend themselves against Grimm. If this robot girl needed to fight him to learn, then fine. Even if Ironwood definitely had other reasons for arranging this spar.

"Good, do you have any questions?" said Ironwood.

"How do we decide who's won?" asked Clark. "When she runs out of aura?"

"That will likely be the criteria for your victory." Penny stated. "Otherwise, I believe the general will decide when the match ends."

"That is correct. I will be observing from a distance, as I expect this match will be rather . . . hectic. This will end the spar." Ironwood took out a remote. "It will emit a high-pitched tone from Penny when I press this button. Until I do so, or Penny's aura falls into the red, you two will continue sparring. Will you be comfortable with extended periods of combat?"

"How long exactly?" asked Clark.

"Perhaps half an hour at most."

"I'm fine with that," said the young man.

"Excellent." The general turned to the ginger girl. "Penny? Do you have anything you'd like to add?"

"Just that I am grateful to my opponent, Clark, for this opportunity." She answered with bright eyes.

Ironwood smiled. "Yes, well, set a timer for thirty seconds. When it goes off, the spar will begin."

The general started walking and seemingly out of nowhere, a sword flew out from behind Penny and split into ten. They were suspended by thin wires, and with X-ray vision, Clark saw that she'd kept them in a compartment in her back. Her smile was replaced with a focused expression.

"The match will start in ten. Nine. Eight." She counted down calmly. Meanwhile, Ironwood had distanced himself by about fifty yards, and behind some trees.

"Three. Two. One." Penny launched her swords at him. The sharp blades glinting in the sunlight.

Clark dashed to the side as he dodged them, and kept jumping around as they chased after him. How much speed should he use? Even if she was a robot, he doubted he could expect her to do anything against him if he was at full speed. If he wanted to, he could go fast enough that most cameras wouldn't even catch a glimpse of him.

But the point of this spar was to help her, not win.

It would be best to go at the speed he'd seen from the huntsmen at Ashbury. Maybe a little faster, to make Penny put in some real effort.

She switched tactics, probably realizing that she'd never hit him like this, and brought the swords back to her. The tips of the blades pointed outward and began spinning around her. She ran at him, her heavy footsteps plodding along the ground.

He dodged to the right from the first swipe of her swords. In half a second, she switched the direction of their rotation, and he had to move again to avoid them. This would never end if all he did was keep dodging. He needed to go on the offensive.

This time, only a few swords were sent flying at him rather than all of them. Again, he dodged them, and dashed up to her. He threw a fist at her, and she tried to deflect it with her remaining swords. He'd put some actual strength behind the blow, so it pushed them aside. However, she back-flipped to avoid his fist, and Clark jumped away once he heard her blades slicing through the air behind him. She'd pulled back the ones she'd sent flying earlier.

He looked down at the arm he'd shoved into her swords. The fabric of his jacket from the elbow down had been torn to shreds. Clark frowned, he'd liked this jacket. Although considering that he'd agreed to a spar with one of the general's soldiers, maybe he should have expected it.

Clark turned his attention back to the fight. Penny charged at him once more, and he ran up to meet her. He dodged when he could, but without using superspeed, he couldn't avoid all the swords. He knocked some of them away into the trees, but was still hit by a few. They tore through his jacket, and he inwardly winced at the sound of tearing fabric. Thankfully, he wasn't wearing any clothes from home. The blows weren't soft, not nearly hard enough to hurt, but he had to focus to not be knocked off his feet.

He managed thanks to the footwork Ms. Goodwitch had instilled in him.

Clark hit away some of the swords, and got through Penny's defense. Preparing a fist to land a blow. He hadn't made up his mind exactly how hard to hit her. She was made of metal, and more resilient, but he didn't want to end up punching too hard and making a hole through her. Too light though, and it probably wouldn't even affect her. How hard? Maybe . . . twice what he'd done against miss Goodwitch in spars?

He aimed at her stomach, but his fist didn't land. She was pulled back, and he saw that she'd embedded two more swords into trees and reeled herself in with her wires.

"Nice trick." He admitted once Penny landed and pulled her swords out.

"Thank you." She nodded slightly. "If you'd like, you may increase your speed. The general has told me about your phenomenal capabilities. I think I will be able to handle a bit more."

"What? Am I not good enough right now to put up a challenge?" he asked jokingly.

She blinked. "Oh no, not at all! If I have offended you or implied you lack skills, I sincerely apologize."

He smiled. "It's fine. I'll admit, I'm not much of a fighter. If it weren't for my powers, I'd be no match for you. I'll kick it up a notch if you want."

"Thank you."

He leapt at her. Faster than before, but still at a somewhat reasonable speed. He'd see if she could handle it. If not, he'd slow down.

She reacted rather quickly, firing a single blade at him. This time though, instead of dodging. Clark caught it between his fingers.

Penny started to try and reel it in. He kept a tight grip, but damn, this girl was strong. The string went taut, and she put up some decent resistance against him. He planted his feet though, and pulled her in. She lurched towards him.

She tried embedding her swords into the ground and surrounding trees to stop herself, but with some more strength, even those were pulled free. If she hadn't been made of metal, Clark wouldn't have tried this. High acceleration still affected people, even if they had some kind of force field surrounding their body. Still, Clark checked with X-ray vision to make sure he wasn't hurting her.

He wondered if it would be overkill if he took her aura away in a single hit. He'd managed it a few times during Ms. Goodwitch's lessons. After all, if he ever came up against enemies with aura, reducing their aura to the red quickly was a reliable way to get them to surrender.

Before he could try that with Penny though, the swords around her started changing. Transforming into . . . guns? They spun around her and fired an enormous green blast.

It hit him in the chest. He lost grip of her sword and was thrown back through the trees. His back hit a tree trunk with a solid thunk, but he hadn't been knocked over though.

"Whoa." He said, looking around. Her aim hadn't been perfect, she'd seared through several trees and a few leaves were on fire. There was a curved line of scorched earth as well.

He looked down at his shirt. It had been ruined. The blast had been powerful, not too fast for him to react, but he'd thought he'd be able to take it. The fact that it had propelled him into the forest proved otherwise. It hadn't hurt though, not like Baern's blasts.

Still, he'd make a mental note to stay out of their way.

Penny jumped back, increasing the distance between them. Her weapons still in gun form. "You truly are resilient." She said. "Even with the general's instructions, I had misgivings about using such an intense blast, but you're not even scratched."

"Yep." He said. "And you can turn your swords into guns. Didn't really expect that."

"Neither did I expect physical strength to such a degree." Her swords started glowing. "I will not underestimate you again."

This time, her gun fired smaller blasts. He was still wary and dodged them, but after a while he intentionally let one hit him in the hand. It dissipated when it struck. Whatever it was made of, it had less force behind them than some bullets he'd caught.

She hardly used her weapons as swords again. Which made sense, since she'd seen how easily he'd plucked one out of the air. But that gave him an advantage, it would take time to shift them into swords to protect herself or reel away. Time which he used to get in closer, and land his first hit on her.

He avoided her blasts and got in close, but Penny was skilled in hand to hand as well. Much better than him. When he put his hands up to block a punch, she took advantage of a blind spot to kick him in the side. She got a few more hits in, and it really wasn't a good showing for him. The most combat experience he'd received were some basic lessons from Qrow and Ms. Goodwitch, and what little he could remember from Jor-El's brainwashing a couple of years back.

Luckily for him, even though he didn't move out of the way of her blows, they didn't affect him. He was impressed by the blunt force behind them, but they didn't move him an inch. Allowing him to tank them, brute force his way through her defense, and punch her in the stomach.

He'd put enough force into it to throw her back, but in mid-air she somersaulted and landed on her feet.

"How's your aura?" he asked her.

Penny blinked a couple times before answering. "It is . . . at sixty-three-point-two percent."

Clark tilted his head at her somewhat distracted expression. "You alright?"

She focused on him again. "Yes, I am fine. It is just that I've never had my aura reduced by such an extent by a single blow."

"Fifteen percent is when we stop, right?"

She nodded. Her weapons again started to glow as they charged up.

Clark dashed from side to side to avoid the blasts. Right a few steps, then left, then right again. She caught on quickly though, and he skid to a stop to avoid a blast by mere inches. She was getting pretty good at predicting his movements.

Penny went for a low, wide blast. Forcing him to jump or get the bottom half of his pants singed. He avoided that, but she'd been prepared, and used several guns instead of all of them at once to shoot him. It pushed him back, but only a fraction as much as the large blast before had. She didn't let the opportunity go to waste, focusing blasts from all her guns to fire bursts of energy continuously.

He covered his face. Damn. Each individual shot hardly feels like anything, but being pelted by this many at once is annoying. He jumped back, taking cover in the forest. The trees didn't stand up nearly as well to the energy blasts, but they'd last long enough.

Clark wrapped his arms around a sizable tree and lifted. He uprooted it, the roots shaking dirt all around. Then, he threw it in the direction of the robot. From what he'd seen earlier, she might be strong enough to catch it.

The trunk flew at Penny oriented completely horizontally, the branches scraping across the dirt and grass. She jumped up to dodge it, and succeeded. But Clark had followed closely behind the tree, ready to attack when she came back down. Her guns transformed, probably to use the swords to pull herself away. But they weren't fast enough. She brought her arms up to block, which he purposefully aimed for.

He hit hard, more than a bit harder than he had before. Enough to make her aura flare up and become easily visible. He felt a little pushback from it, but he remained upright. The same couldn't be said for Penny, her landing wasn't soft, and she rolled backwards a few times before getting back up.

Surprisingly, her cheerful smile returned. "That was sensational! My aura was reduced to thirteen-point-three percent."

". . . You're happy about that?" he asked. He hadn't expected this kind of reaction.

"Well, I had wished to leave you no alternative but to use the immense speed I was informed of, but I've still learned much from this spar. I would very much like to do so again." Penny gasped, which was a bit strange because she shouldn't need to breathe as a robot. "I have a great idea! Would you be my friend?"

"Umm . . . sure."

"Sensational! Oh, here comes the general." She waved at Ironwood who was walking up to them. "I can't wait to tell him that I've made a new friend."

Ironwood came up to Penny and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked pretty roughed up compared to her earlier neat appearance. Parts of her clothes were covered in dirt, and her synthetic hair was ruffled. "Are you alright? He didn't hurt you, did he?" he asked.

Penny shook her head. "No sir, my aura is still well within safe thresholds. More importantly, I am glad to say that Clark has agreed to be my friend."

"I see." The general said, and turned to the young man. He actually gave Clark a small smile. "Thank you for agreeing to that."

"No problem?" Clark answered. He'd thought this spar would be more of a one time thing. He hadn't expected that she'd directly ask him for his friendship right after, even if it was obvious that she wasn't the most socially adept.

Clark looked down at his clothing. Surprisingly enough, his pants were mostly fine. Even though a few shots had definitely gotten him in the legs. His jacket was ruined, and his undershirt wasn't in good condition either. His chest and stomach were bare.

"Anyway, I'll be going now." Clark said to them. "I need to change."

"Wait!" Penny said. "Before you leave, may I see an example of you at your top speed? I am curious about how the fight would have differed if you'd used it."

Clark flashed to about twenty feet behind them. Not at his top speed, but he still went fast enough to catch most bullets.

"Is that good enough?" He asked.

Ironwood tensed when Clark spoke and quickly turned around to face him. Penny, on the other hand, had a calmer reaction. "Yes, that was exceptional."

"Okay, bye." He raised a hand before speeding back to Beacon. Normally, he'd walk, but it would bring too much attention if he walked into the school with burnt and torn clothing.

\\

Ironwood and Penny waited as Clark disappeared again. It always put the general on edge when the alien did that. Speed of that degree was almost impossible to counter.

"Did you see him?" he asked Penny. Perhaps she'd fared better with her enhancements.

"Reviewing the footage, I am able to catch a few blurred frames of him in motion." She answered.

"You didn't see him as he moved?"

Penny shook his head. "He is fast. Faster than I can process."

Ironwood scowled. Even after the work Dr. Polendina had put in, it hadn't been possible. "Was your spar successful at least? What did you learn from it?"

She reported what she could. Firstly, Clark's strength. He'd overpowered her handily, which was a feat in and of itself. Penny had the strength to reel in a Bullhead, and according to her Clark hadn't even seemed to strain himself when he pulled her in. Her attempts at hand to hand hadn't been successful either. None of her blows had even made him flinch. Next, she explained the results of her energy blasts. They'd pushed him away, but even their high temperature hadn't even seemed to affect the alien's invulnerable skin. In addition, she'd noticed his perceptiveness. Penny specifically mentioned an instance when he'd dodged her swords coming at him from behind. Without even looking.

"Sir . . . what is Clark?" She asked uncertainly.

Ironwood had told her about Clark's powers, but not the alien's nature. Nonetheless, it had been obvious that no human could have fought like Clark had. Even with aura, shaking off blows and energy blasts like they were nothing wasn't possible. Still, if Ironwood had told Penny, then he doubted she'd have been able to hide that she knew. He couldn't risk earning the alien's ire by sharing knowledge of his nature.

"You should ask him that when you next meet," said Ironwood. "Now, did you notice any weaknesses from him?"

"He seemed to be very inexperienced in hand to hand combat during our spar." She said, before reevaluating her statement. "Although his speed and durability render that irrelevant. Otherwise . . . I am sorry sir, but I saw none." Her chin fell as she looked down.

"That's alright," reassured Ironwood. "I'd expected as much. What do you think of him? Will it be a problem for you to form a friendship with him?" If she was unsettled by Clark, then it would be pointless to have her get closer to him. She didn't have the qualities of a spy.

"No, Clark seems to be a nice person," answered Penny. "He showed signs of concern when he struck me, and agreed much more readily to be my friend than most others I've requested."

Ironwood smiled at her innocence. Whether it was an act or not, Clark was rather polite. He'd most likely agreed out of confusion and to spare her feelings. Ironwood would have been a fool not to use that, and had encouraged Penny to ask the alien for friendship almost immediately. Even if she would have likely done so on her own.

"Well, good work." Ironwood praised her. "I'll get you his scroll number later so you can talk to him again. For now, you may have some free time. Although Ciel will be supervising you."

"Yes sir!" She saluted with a wide grin.

\\

"That was quite the commotion in the Emerald Forest this morning," said Glynda.

"Yes." Ozpin agreed. They'd both seen the footage from the cameras placed in the forest. The battle between James' soldier and Clark had been . . . interesting. "Although I would have preferred it if James had informed me of this beforehand."

Glynda sighed. "You know how close-lipped he can be. He won't tell us anything even if we confront him directly. Not unless he wants to. Thankfully, it's not difficult to see what his objective was."

Ozpin nodded. It was prudent to gather information on a possible threat, but not when it was done so overtly. Miss Rose had been rather descriptive of Penny Polendina's capabilities, especially her energy blasts and their effect on Bullheads. The Atlesian hadn't held back against Clark, considering the state of the surrounding forest, but she'd managed little against him. That was useful information, but it had been obtained with extreme risk.

"I do believe it would still be prudent to discuss this incident with James." Ozpin said. He needed to ascertain the general's goals, and perhaps he could dissuade his friend from making any further unnecessary risks. Although he doubted it.

\\

Clark leapt down into the Emerald Forest, it was rather late at night, and he'd decided that he'd had enough crimefighting for the day. He needed some time to unwind, to think, and he felt too cooped up in his room.

The robot girl, Penny, had called him from his scroll earlier. He'd groaned at the thought of another person having his scroll number, and it didn't take the sharpest tool in the shed to realize who'd given it to her. General Ironwood was really starting to get on his nerves.

Clark sighed. He was being unfair. Penny seemed nice enough, even if she was rather talkative and lacked social awareness. He'd tried to hint that he was busy, but eventually he'd had to outright say that he couldn't talk with her. She'd taken it in stride and hung up cheerfully.

He actually had been busy this whole day. Clark had read up on the documents that Professor Oobleck had sent him. Inside were more detailed notes on the behavior observed on the attacks on Orved and Rainem, such as how intelligent Grimm interacted with types different from their own or their movement patterns. Along with more thorough accounts from autopsies of the few tortured bodies that had been left intact from the bombing.

Once he'd had enough of that, he'd reviewed the day's worldwide news for any sign of the phantom. Which was starting to feel more and more useless. He'd slogged through it though, reading through hundreds of thousands of words for anything suspicious. Three weeks, and he still hadn't found the phantom.

Then, once he'd gotten sick of that, he'd gone into Vale to deal with crime. It had taken his mind off the phantom and the fallen towns, but did little to improve his mood.

Clark sighed, and looked up at the stars. It was too close to the city, and light pollution drowned out many of them. Telescopic vision was helpful here, picking out stars that would have been hidden otherwise, but they made wholly unfamiliar patterns. He'd always used to feel somewhat at peace when looking up at the night sky, thinking that he'd belonged somewhere out there, but now the sky was even more alien to him than the people of this world.

He continued walking on. He'd come out to the forest tonight to do more than stargaze. He took out he Kryptonian crystal and traced the symbol with his finger.

If incapacitating the Grimm wouldn't work, there might still be another alternative besides killing them. After a few minutes, Clark had the opportunity to test it. He came up to a lone Ursa, still eight feet tall even on all fours.

It roared and ran at him, while he held up the crystal. Using it against Zod had sent him back to the phantom zone and kept the body he'd possessed on Earth. However, his followers' bracelet had been able to send physical bodies to the zone. The crystal should be able to do the same.

The device made contact with the Grimm's fur.

And nothing happened. No portal, no bright light, no vortex appeared. Just a loud thud as the creature slammed into the crystal. Clark didn't even move. He was capable of stopping cars going at highway speeds. If he didn't want to be, this Grimm wouldn't move him.

He smacked the Grimm away.

"Damn it!" He punched through a nearby tree. Bark exploded and exited from the other side of the hole he'd made as the trunk fell over. The crystal hadn't worked.

"Can't you see I'm trying to find another way?" He demanded of the stupid bear. It just snarled and rushed at him again.

Clark felt a familiar heat in his eyes. He hadn't meant to activate his heat vision, even if he hadn't fired anything yet. He was just frustrated. Why couldn't it just back off like any reasonable animal would, why did they have to hunt people specifically?

There were so many ways he could do it. Burn its head off, rip it apart, freeze it, and leave the body to fade away. Why not? It would just hunt people otherwise, no matter what Clark did to it.

Instead, he dashed off. Going back up to his damn room.