Chapter 6: Oblivion
(Arcee)
I found Nimbus' report to be a little unrealistic, but then again, I haven't seen even a single Grimm roaming these halls. It didn't make sense as to why the Grimm he spoke of were still alive. Grimm die after a few days in captivity.
None of this made sense.
Let's not forget that Grimm will kill without hesitation. None of the people we found were dead, only severely wounded. Something about this Grimm was different.
There was a slight scuttling on the ground and I whirled around to see a small black creature scurrying across the room. A slinker. It was a rare breed of Grimm that resembles a ferret, or a mongoose, and never grew larger than their animal counterparts. It looked at me for a moment, then scuttled away down the hall.
I heard it squeaking down the hall then heard a human voice, "Is that all? Are you positive, Sly?" squeak, "Keep looking. You know what to do." A human, talking to a Grimm?! I whirled around the corner to see one of the ceiling tiles being placed again.
"Guys! Get everyone out of here ASAP! I don't think that The Grimm our our only concern", I radioed.
"Look, whatever that thing was, it's gone now. You saw the carnage outside", Yang pointed out.
"Alright", Ruby said, "I think that's everyone! How 'bout you Nimbus?"
"I just got the last one out of the testing chamber" he responded, "I'm heading back to there to investigate a little-WHOA!" A collection of roars, hisses and screeches came from his end.
"Nimbus?!" Val called.
"Lock up the lab right now! The Grimm have just busted free of their cages! All of them!"
"That Slink!" I realized, "It must have unlocked the cages!"
"No time to lose!" Blake commanded, "I'll go outside and protect the people! Everybody else, prepare for high levels of Grimm! Bring your A-game!"
"On my way!", I reached for my belt and tapped the button. My jet pack fired up and I zipped down the hallways, stopping when I heard banging from behind a giant metal door large enough to flay a bullhead through. With the power out, the door wouldn't open on its own, so that meant I would have to bust it down. I set my gloves to impact and the hands hid themselves inside the golve to reveal a metal, speaker shaped design. I wound up for the punch, but an arrow of energy shot at me through the door. Though it missed my shoulder, the door was completely torn away, smashing me against the wall and leaving my imprint lodged in the door itself. That was raw power!
"For Boreas!" a battle cry roared out and I heard the sound of Grimm being sliced and diced. I pushed the door away a little and picked up the entire thing. I could see Nimbus picking off Grimm one by one.
I screamed out a battle cry of my own and Nimbus looked my way. "Holy Spetz!" he gasped and ducked down the broken doorway. At the same time, I threw the entire door down the hall smashing through every single Grimm in its way! Nimbus was sitting back to the wall with his jaw dropping and his eyebrow twitching up a storm, "I...didn't hit you did I?"
"You did", I said as i flexed my joints, "That almost hurt."
"Almost?!" he stood up, "No human could survive that without a rebound semblance, and I know you don't have one!"
"That's...classified. Duck!" He complied as I zipped past him and uppercut an ursa into the ceiling. More Grimm charged down the corridors followed by the rest of the team.
The rest of the creatures were decimated in moments. "Alright!" Ruby and Yang cheered. I activated my semblance and scanned he halls.
"We're clear! I don't sense any other Grimm inside the facility! Wait...Blake! She's injured!" I gasped. We all dashed out of the corridor and ran until we saw Blake nursing a wound in her hip behind a pile of crates.
"Blake!" Val yelled as she leaped over to her like she was on the moon, "What happened?!"
"A sickler happened. I never knew that they could play dead", she groaned as we helped her up.
"Well, you remember what Port told us," Nimbus pointed out, "When in doubt, double tap."
"No one but you remembers what Port teaches", Weiss joked, "Regardless, you need to be more careful next time, Blake."
"Got it", she smiled weakly, "We're human after all. We make mistakes."
"That's right. You just made an even bigger one!" we all gasped as Yang bolted forward and sent Blake flying across the room!
"Yang! What are you doing?!" I yelled at her. Yang only walked over to Blake who had made a crater in the wall.
"Who are you and what have you done with Blake?!" Yang growled as her eyes turned red and her hair began to glow.
"What's your problem?!" Blake struggled to stand, "Why are you doing this?!"
"Because you aren't Blake. You said that we make mistakes because we're human. But the real Blake would have known that she was a Faunus!" Val Nimbus and I gasped.
In that instant, Blake stopped shaking and stood up perfectly fine. A sinister grin crossed her face. "Very perceptive my little sunflower", she spoke. but we heard two different voices, one was Blake's, the other was that of a guy, "Here I was thinking that brawn and brains couldn't fit under one roof. You proved me wrong."
"What's going on?!" Ruby shivered and jumped into Weiss' arms in terror.
"It's an Impostor semblance", I realized, "Those who have it can take on the body and voice of any person they see. Good eye, Yang!"
"Impressive", the impostor's form flickered to that of a tall boy in black clothes with long black hair and a Grimm mask over his eyes. That slink scurried to him and jumped onto his shoulders.
"I don't want to waste your time any longer so I'd best be going. My intentions have nothing to do with you." He turned to walk to the corridor to his right.
"Hold it mister!" Weiss drew her sword and everybody's weapons sprang out, including the real Blake who now stood twenty feet behind the guy.
"Who are you?" Blake snarled, "Are you with the White Fang?"
The boy cast glances at all of us individually, then frowned, "I have no official name, if that's what you want, Schnee. And I do not side with the White Fang. But if you must refer to me in some way, then you will address me as Oblivion, nothing more and nothing less. Do not get in my way." He spoke calmly, but with the Aural authority of an army commander. he silently walked down the hall to his right while the rest of us stood there overwhelmed. As soon as he left our field of vision, we all snapped out of it and chased after him. But by the time we rounded the corner, we saw that the hall was a dead end and the newly named Oblivion had vanished into thin air. "He must have taken to the rafters!" I sighed as I put my gauntlets into public mode and they began to compact a little.
"We have to go after him!" Nimbus said. but was stopped by Val. "No, our mission was to eliminate all Grimm and save the scientists. We're done here.
It was only a few minutes later that the medics arrived to provide emergency care. There were no fatalities, but everyone, especially the ones in the chamber Nimbus found, were severely wounded. A Vale Bullhead came in to pick up my team mates.
"I can't wait to tell the others!" Ruby squealed as they boarded.
"We have to report to Ozpin first, you dunce!" Weiss corrected, then she turned to me as I took my seat beside them. They all just stared at me silently.
"Is...something wrong?" I questioned.
"Don't you think you might have gotten on the wrong Bullhead?" Blake asked, "This one's going to Beacon Academy."
"Then nothing's wrong", I tilted my head and smiled, "I guess you didn't get the memo. My dad is enrolling me at Beacon. I'm your newest classmate!"
Nimbus and Valentine looked to each other and back to me. Val stood up and shook my hand, "Then that means that you are officially the third member of me and Nimbus' team."Welcome!"
As I became acquainted with my new team, something stirred in the back of my mind. Oblivion. I scanned the area with my semblance to search for him. What was he doing there? There was no possible way that he was the one who destroyed the compound, he was an unarmed human. and despite the fact that he wore a Grimm mask, the people said that the destruction was caused by a Grimm. So I scoured the land as we passed in search of a monster who could have possibly done this.
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(Oblivion)
Good riddance. If only those people had actually stuck the puzzle pieces together. That "Yang" had one heck of a right hook. But my Impostor Semblance was flawless, it was my acting skills that I needed to work on. I had almost left unnoticed, that accursed Lab. Not many knew what really happened within the confines of the laboratory that night. Everybody thinks they know Marcus Maze. Everyone thinks they know what he was concocting behind those walls.
I knew better, and I should know because...I was there.
Nimbus was very right with his assumption, a lab test gone wrong. That was partially Marcus' handiwork. His work was on the teetering edge of the grey zone, in terms of human and Faunus morality. But I was both, a half-breed. Search closely beneath my hair and you'll see a pair of insect antennae that I can raise or hide on a moment's notice.
Marcus did mean for his tests to bring a better future for mankind, he really did. The means he used to achieving that goal were in that grey area I mentioned. Marcus had a hatred for the Grimm stronger than that of any man. I had a very different point of view.
That's because I was one of his test subjects. Scratch that. I was the test subject. The one of present interest. There was no full Grimm who had decimated the labs of Marcus Maze. It was the work of a Half-Breed turned Tri-Breed.
As the remaining forces departed and the lab was abandoned, I looked at myself, my real self, in the reflection of a pond lit up by the full moon.
I understood why Blake first assumed that I was a White Fang associate. The Grimm mask I wore, kind of portrayed that message falsely. I thought back on what really happened earlier tonight.
(Beginning Flashback)
My eyes opened and I saw that I was in a test tube, full of a slightly blue, transparent liquid. All I wore was a pair of green waterproof pants.
I was scared. What would happen to me?
Men in white lab coats wandered the room, taking notes of me and the monsters inside of the cages. Grimm, dozens of them, no two were of the same species. I didn't understand how these Grimm could still be alive in captivity. No human can keep a Grimm alive like this. I could faintly hear voices of the humans, and Faunus that crowded the room.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" one asked.
"Trust me, it is."
I had been raised here ever since I was orphaned as a child. But I never imagined that this was what they wanted. I tried to struggle against my bonds, but they only tightened. The leader, Marcus, turned to his colleagues and spoke.
"My dear friends, Faunus and human alike, we face a time of struggle in Remnant. The Grimm are becoming more numerous, more destructive, more difficult to control. The schools have done their part in giving us the start we all needed", he began flipping switches at the control panel, "But it's time to usher in a new era of Huntsmen. I'm sure you all know about the projects we've developed over the years. What we have here", he gestured to me, "will undoubtedly be our first surviving, and successful specimen." My back stung suddenly as the first needles pierced my shoulder blades. I screamed in pain.
"This conflict has led us to a difficult, but unavoidable conclusion: in order to eliminate the Grimm, we must use a Grimm." The needles delivered their cargo and removed themselves from me. Another hit my lower spine, and one hit each of my limbs. Blood began to ooze into the tank, forming ribbon-like formations in the liquid.
"And for this instance, we chose the strongest Grimm we have in our kennels: a record breaking Sickler, a Deathstalker, and a little something extra: the human factor."
No sooner had hose words reached my ears, I felt the pain. The places pierced by the needles ached tremendously and the bonds holding me released to permit growth. I dared not look. That growing pain I felt in my back turned into a tearing pain for a moment and I tried to scream. After two minutes, it was all over. The leader spoke on about this "project" but I had heard enough to understand. I was nothing more than a science project to them. No, I was lower to them. I was merely an expendable variable.
"That is why we must take this path. With this new technology we can customize our Huntsmen down to the semblance they bear."
I looked at myself. My skin had turned black in patches around the puncture marks. Around the center of each, perfectly placed, were bonelike structures resembling the mask of a Grimm. At my wrist, sprouting out just beneath my human hands, was a pair of black mantis claws with translucent blades. Growing out of my lower spine was a long segmented tail with a small golden tip. The tail of a Deathstalker. It was seven feet long. I shivered and my tail wrapped around me. But the next change was behind my back. I could feel a shell. It split open to reveal a pair of insect wings the size of my arms. I shut them tight and held myself in the embrace of my own tail. I felt like a kid holding his blanket. I then felt my face and I grasped a mask, now completely fused over my eyes. I looked to the leader, Marcus. I had trusted this man for years. "How can you people do this to me?" I muttered, crying quietly. I could feel a dark hunger boiling deep inside of me. These Faunus and humans, my own species, had turned me into this monster. Not Grimm, Faunus, nor human. I was nothing more than a freak.
"This model here is the first of our lineup, a Velocion!" My anger flared and I lashed out with a single claw, causing cracks to form in the tube. This rage was inhuman! Then again I wasn't a human or Faunus anymore, was I? I backed up against the other side of the tube and I pushed off, crashing into the broken side. The tube shattered and the liquid poured out, carrying me with it.
"You monster!" I growled as everyone backed off. I dashed forward, slicing four of my captors at their chests. "I refuse! You will suffer at my hands!" The next five minutes were too gruesome to describe. But by the time I had finished, every single person in the room was left barely alive. But Marcus had escaped somehow. I roared in frustration that my target had gotten away from me. That roar, the ferocious scream of a monster. The Grimm in the other cages trembled, backing as far from me as possible. I passed them by. The pain returned briefly as my new features disappeared, like they never existed. I ran through the compound and gathered my clothes. I needed to get out of here. But I made a note to myself. No human, or Faunus could be trusted now. All who crossed me would feel my wrath.
(Ending flashback)
I looked at my moonlit pond reflection. I wrapped my tail around myself for a brief moment. My wings emerged from beneath my jacket through a special design that Marcus designed. Okay, I'll admit that the design was sleek and well engineered. My sickler claws came into existence. They were still coated in the blood of the scientists I attacked. These same claws had destroyed those airships, and the lab. My rage, the rage of an untamed Grimm, had caused so much pain. But I had acted in whatever way would protect me. But I held back enough to spare their lives.
But Marcus was near the bottom of my list of concerns for now. I could disappear into any nation and never be found again if I wanted to. But I had a tragic history to address. Before I could even think about living a normal life, I would settle the score with an entity that caused me pain years ago. Running into Weiss Schnee tonight reminded me of that all too well.
(End of Chapter 6)
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HAHAHA! Beowulf has returned!
It's finally ready! My forth and final OC has hit the pages: the mysterious Oblivion, (Just to annoy him I'll call him Obi).
As I said during the last several chapters, each of my four OC's will represent the racial powers of Remnant. Nimbus is Faunus, Valentine is Human, and Arcee is machine (synthian). It may or may not have been obvious to you what was left. Obi, the final OC, holds the place of the creatures of Grimm themselves!
But also note that each of the characters represent their races at the highest of levels. For example: Nimbus as a legendary Faunus breed. Valentine is royalty. Arcee is mechanical engineering at a super-sentient level. And Oblivion rises above all other Grimm because he has a Human mind, and a soul. yet he has the strength of a Grimm. ( I actually noticed all of this not long before I finished this chapter.)
But now a question remains. Who will he side with? We'll all see what the future holds in the next chapter!
Peace out!