"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Abyss Gate research labs, an area that few people had ever heard of, and even fewer still believed in. The labs were buried deep underground, protected by a number of natural defenses and kept hidden by Dust vein's that ran through the rock above. Dust in such high quality tended to scatter radar signals, making the underground facility one of the most hidden bases in the entire world. The facility housed over a hundred people, researchers, guards, families, and test subjects.
The purpose of the of the facility was unknown, even to most of those that worked within its walls. Each research team was only given specific instructions that pertained to their personal work, without anything else. If they needed something they were provided, and since the pay was good most of the scientists kept their heads down and did their work. Weapons were produced, theories were born or discarded, and things were normally quiet.
Except for those who 'broke'. It only happened every so often, but some days a researcher would suddenly snap and either attack others or try to kill themselves. None of the people knew exactly why it happened, but the scientists who did break were taken away by the guards and never heard from again. There was talk of course, but those who talked about such issues were taking aside by their supervisors and reminded that they were not brought into Abyss Gate to chat and to get back to work.
Despite the oddness day to day life was quiet. Or at least it usually was.
It had been two hours since the alarms had gone off and red light filled the facility. That was how it had started. Within minutes the facility had been flooded with Grimm, soulless monsters who sought out and murdered any creature that came even close to their teeth or claws. Behind the Grimm had been a small army of people, mixtures of both human and Faunus wearing black hoodies and plain black pants. Each carried some form of weapon with them, and if one looked under the hoods that had been pulled over their faces all they would see were plain white masks that covered every feature. They killed just as mercilessly as the Grimm, no hesitation, no mercy.
A single scientist in the weapons research lab had managed to hide himself under a desk as the Grimm had come in, slaughtering all of the people he worked with, the people he had come to know as friends. While the Grimm were busy tearing apart the corpses of the scientists one of the figures in black walked around, surveying the carnage with a rifle sitting on his back. The figure had seen the scientist but simply raised a single finger over the place where his mouth would be before walking out.
A few minutes later a number of gunshots rang out and the Grimm exploded in bursts of fire, reducing them to nothing but shadows. Once the Grimm had been cleared out a woman walked into the lab, a white robe covering most of her body, and a smoking gun in her hand. "Anyone still alive in here?" she called out.
The scientist gulped and crawled out from his hiding place, looking around and seeing the corpses of his fallen colleagues. The Grimm had ripped them apart, scattering body parts and chunks of meat everywhere. Everywhere he stepped there was a thick puddle of blood, his shoe making in imprint. The sight alone made him empty his stomach, not to mention the smell.
"Oh fun," the woman made her way toward some of the weapons they had been producing and began to attach them to belts under her own outfit. "When you are done vomiting grab a gun, we need to reach sublevel 15 and do a full file dump before any of these bastards manage to get everything we gathered."
The scientist looked up from the floor to stare at horror toward the woman. "You want to go deeper into the facility with Grimm running around?"
"Well yeah, that's what I just said isn't it?" she took out a gun that could only be accurately called a hand cannon and tossed it to him. "You guys ever get the recoil problem fixed?"
The man caught the gun, but nearly dropped it with his shaking hands. "I…yes the new design should reduce recoil to near nothing."
The woman nodded and walked over, putting a hand on his shoulder. "What's your name?"
"Mavic, Mavic Thorn ma'am." His words were shaky.
"Okay Mavic, my name is Summer Rose, I am one of the higher ups of the facility and I am going to tell you something, so I need you to listen very closely," she paused for a moment to make sure the man was listening. "If those guys in the hoodies make it to the sublevels and downloads the information we gathered people are going to die, it will make the loss of this base seem like a bad game of laser tag. So I am going to need you to be brave and help me."
Mavic looked down at the gun and then up to her. "I'm sorry." He brought the gun to his own head and fired, blowing his head off and leaving his body to drop to the floor.
Summer frowned but picked up the gun and turned away, walking out of the room with fiery determination in her eyes. "Coward," she muttered under her breath before walking into the hallway and walking down it, trying to ignore the mangled bodies and torn limbs lying on the floor.
She pulled the hood of her robe over her face and suddenly she disappeared from view, her cloak turning her invisible and allowing her to sneak past the Grimm and get into the elevator. Summer quickly hit the floor fifteen button.
"I'm sorry," a smooth female voice came out of the elevator's voice box. "The elevator shaft is currently blocked at floor thirteen, would you like to go there and use the stairs to access your floor?"
"Fuck," Summer said under her breath. "Just my luck to get floor thirteen." Despite her complaints she tapped the button and pulled down her hood, letting free her mid-length black hair and showing her pale skin. She quickly reloaded her weapons and checking over her supplies. Three Burn grenades, three pistols with extra clips, and automatic weapons each with explosive Dust tipped rounds.
The door opened and a few of the Grimm in the hallway turned toward her, growling and starting to move toward her.
Summer was faster. She opened fire with the precision that only years of practice could give someone. Every bullet that was fired hit a vital area on the Grimm, sending them down hard. Of course the more pressing issue were the figured in the black hoodies, each of which raised their weapons and opened fire. Summer ran forward and dodged behind a Beowolf, sending a bullet into its brain and using the body to protect from the bullets as she got closer to them. Despite her small size and non-muscular physic the women could easily carry the Grimm as a shield in front of her, tossing what hadn't faded of the creature at the masked figures and opening fire with her gun, chewing their bodies to pieces as the explosive rounds sent chunks of the masked people against the walls and floor.
The sound of her gunfire drew more Grimm into the area, which were greeted by one of the grenades from her belt. A massive explosion ensured that not a single beast survived as she quickly made her way down the hallway, opening fire whenever one of the creatures came into view. "Not as good as my main, but you guys did good work." As she walked through the hallways she began to notice things that sent her heart racing. The walls had numerous burn marks, and it appeared some of the bodies had been untouched by the Grimm. Instead they had been pinned to the walls with bits of sharp metal and cut open, entrails and organs spilling out of their open chest cavities. All forms of bodily fluids still dripped from the bodies, showing the kills had been fresh.
"He's here." She whispered to herself, reaching down to clutch the silver rose pendent she kept on her person at all times. Summer's speed increased as she finally found the stairwell, moving down to the fourteenth floor. From there she would have to enter into another stairway that would directly lead to the bottom of the base. From there she could complete her mission. That was all that mattered.
Summer pushed open the door to the next floor and what she saw made her heart sink in her chest. No Grimm, no hooded figures, just people on the walls like the previous room. The only difference was that these people were alive, their organs and other bits attached to each other, like a massive chain of bodies. They were silent, but their eyes followed her as she made a slow trail toward her next exit.
All at once they finally spoke. "He comes, the End, the Master, the King, the Omega, he comes for this world, comes to bring oblivion." The men and women attached to the walls continued their mad chant, voices slowly rising until it almost reached a scream.
Summer looked at the damned souls and took out her second grenade, removing the limiter cap and tossing it down the hallway as she made her way down. The resulting explosion would most likely free those who were suffering from their pain.
Despite all of the darkness Summer had seen in her life she knew this was not a sight she would easily get out of her head. All the same she powered through and reached the final door, taking the stairs five at a time and descending. She reached the final door and brought her hand to the holopad so it could confirm it was her. "Voice code needed." The machine told her.
"Ruby Rose," Summer's voice was quiet and low, speaking the name of the one thing in this world that she held dear above all else. The door opened and she entered into the room, which contained a number of large servers, each flowing with information. However she wasn't alone, a being in a red hoodie and black pants stood on the other end of the room, hands casually in the pockets.
"Summer Rose, it seems you have finally arrived." The voice was deep and sounded off, as if he had trouble drawing in air.
"Redlight, here I thought I had killed you the last time," Summer tossed away the automatic weapon and fell back on dual wielding the hand cannons from the earlier office. "Do you have any words for me before I fix my mistake?"
"My Master has deemed you worthy of entering the void, today you will die," the entire area suddenly burst into flames, metal melting and electric sparks filling the area as data servers were shorted out due to the heat. "Be ready to taste the flames of my Masters wrath." Redlight sent a large stream of fire toward Summer.
Summer quickly dodged to the side and began firing her explosive tipped bullets at Redlight, watching as each one struck the man's body and exploded. His Aura glowed a sickly shade of blue, forcing the worst of the effects away from him. "Still running on borrowed time I see, you damned zombie." She dodged to the side of a small fireball and ran toward him, jumping up and landing a kick on his neck. After she delivered the kick Summer disappeared again, leaving Redlight searching around for the woman. Before he could find her through he noticed a beeping noise coming from his hoodie pocket, and when he reached in he felt the shape of a grenade. He barely had a second to harden his Aura before the explosion threw him back.
"The correct term is Reverent actually," Redlight coughed out before making an upward motion with his fingers and summoned a pillar of fire underneath Summer, which she barely managed to dodge out of the way of. "Learn your place you insect!"
Summer gave a grin before disappeared from view, only to appear in front of Redlight, both guns holstered under her robe. "I think it's time you learned yours!" she slammed ten fingers into Redlight's chest, each finger covered in silvery strands of her Aura. Each finger sent a small explosion through Redlight's body, causing the man to cough up a small stream of blood over her shoulder as the bones in his chest shattered like glass under the assault. She pulled back her fist and grinned wolfishly. "And for the grand finale!" she struck hard, covering her entire arm with Aura as she readied the finishing blow. Before it could land however Redlight disappeared, leaving her striking a wall and making a massive dent in the hard stone.
A sudden chill came over the area, as if someone had sucked all the heat from the room and left only a deathly cold in its wake. Summer slowly turned around and saw the creature she had been preparing to face for so long, and terror ran through her heart.
The creature stood at seven or eight feet tall, maybe more. Its limbs were long and unnaturally thin, giving the impression of unnatural gauntness to its being. Over its body it wore a suit of purest midnight without even the hint of space between flesh and suit. Any revealed skin was pale white, the same one might find on a body that had each hair removed before draining away all of the blood from within it. Its face…it didn't have one. Where there should have been features there was simply nothingness, a void of empty white flesh. Images danced along where the creatures face should be. Horrors and atrocities. One moment it flashed the images of war and destruction, the next murder and rape. A never-ending cycle of pain and death. All energy in the room flowed to the creature. It was darkness incarnate, a being of void.
Summer raised both of her pistols and opened fire on the creature, but the bullets simply stopped a foot in front of him, hanging uselessly in the air before falling harmlessly. "Well, crap," she took a deep breath and looked toward the ceiling. "Administrator access Summer Rose, Code: Chariot set for ten minutes!"
"Understood, thank you for your service Summer Rose, detonation of Dust vein in progress." A new alarm began to ring out through the base, a dull hum that was almost piercing.
The creature waved an arm and Redlight appeared once more in a ball of flames. "What did you do?" Redlight asked, a sneer on his face and blood leaking from his mouth.
"Ever hear of going down with the ship?" Summer tossed the useless guns to the side and drew in a few deep breaths.
The monster placed a single hand on Redlight's head, and the man's eyes turned dark black. "Slave to life, I have come to free you, how it is done matters not."
"You didn't let me finish," Summer smiled. "I don't really believe in that saying." Behind her a blood red portal opened, and out from it stepped a woman with long black hair and wearing a Grimm mask. "Took your sweet time Raven."
"You, traitor of the Void, you dare come here?" the creature spoke once more through Redlight and the entire building began to shake and the room filled with black fire.
The masked woman brought a hand up to a number of beads around her neck and finally spoke. "Wandering souls damned into darkness, grant peace over nothingness." The fires began to lower, but the beast simply tilted its head and the flames renewed in strength.
"Magic stuff later, running time now." Summer grabbed the woman she had called Raven and quickly pulled her through the still open red portal. It closed shortly after they entered it.
The beast stood impassively and turned its head toward Redlight.
"I understand my Master, but there will be other days. She cannot hide the Star Children from us forever." Redlight bowed his head and the creature he called Master disappeared. "I accept my punishment." The alarm stopped all at once as the entire underground area was bathed in destructive fire. Any that weren't dead before had their lives ended quickly.
The red portal deposited both Summer and Raven onto a step cliff face overlooking the ocean.
"Did they get anything?" Raven finally asked after having stood in silence for a good few minutes.
"No, Yang and Ruby are safe for now. The Omega can't detect them, and I doubt any of the Revenants under its command would think us stupid enough to put all our eggs into a single basket like that." Summer laughed bitterly and kicked a rock into the waiting ocean bellow.
"We should go to Ozpin, our method just managed to kill about a thousand people," Raven put a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "Not only that but… your daughter misses you."
Summer's smile disappeared and a deep frown came over her face. "We can't Raven, their power is just too much right now. Seeking them out on this plane is just going to get them killed."
Raven sighed and turned away, pulling free her blade. "Get in contact when you have some clue about what our next step is."
"Right, until then." Raven disappeared, leaving Summer standing alone on the cliff face. "Until then…"
I know I know. Another story? Am I crazy? Don't I have enough on my plate?
Probably. This idea just came to me and well… I have never been good at telling my imagination no. If you guys want to see more of this series consider dropping reviews, favorites, or follows to let me know. Till next time.