Chapter 10: Secrets of the Past
Vale streets
8:00 am
A very tall, young girl wearing a red dress and hat was walking down the streets of the city, with a big brown bag slung over her shoulder. She was casually humming a simple tune, in which a group of 5 street thugs were following her as they saw her as prime prey for their vices. So she decided to take a short cut to whatever destination she had in mind, in which they ambushed her...
"You know, you're a pretty tall lady." The leader said.
"I'm surprised that you acknowledge that, most people are nervous to say that." She said.
"Well, we aren't so nervous." One of the thugs said.
"You lost, missy? Because this is our turf." A macho thug said.
"Really? I don't see your name anywhere." The girl said in a mocking tone.
"Don't need to put our names anywhere! The people here respect us and give us anything we want." Another thug boasted.
"You mean extortion." The girl said.
"Hey boss! Check it out." One of thugs shouted, lifting the girl's hair.
"HEY!" The girl exclaimed.
"She's got some tattoo on the back of her neck" The man said.
"I'd suggest you take your hand off or you will lose it." The girl said in a threatening tone.
"Ooh, she's feisty. Grab her." The leader said to his guys.
"Get your hands off me." The girl said as the thugs grabbed her arms.
"Now, we're going to have some fun with you." The leader said.
"Let's start with her boobs boss!" The macho thug said.
"Good idea!" The leader said in a humored tone.
"I warned you." The girl said in a serious tone.
"You didn't warn us about-WHOA!" A scraggly thug said as the girl raised her arms, picking the thugs off their feet.
The leader watched as the girl shook his men off her arms like they nothing, sending them to the ground on their butts. This scene left the leader shocked as he just saw the girl send his boys to the ground like they were nothing, in which he asked himself how strong was this girl?
"What the hell?" The macho thug said as he scrambled to his feet.
"Don't just stand there! Get her!" The leader shouted.
"Oh, this is going to be good." The girl thought.
Two of the thugs charged her from behind, but something hit them straight in the stomach and slicing across their chests. The other three thugs watched in horror as they saw that the girl had a massive tail that seemed to be covered in a series of metal points along the sides, with a large crescent-shaped, serrated one at the end. A bright red, monstrous eye on the tail looked straight at them, which made them tremble in fear...
"You know, it's not polite to jump a lady while she's trying to get somewhere important." The girl remarked, revealing that her eyes that had changed from her normal color, to black with Ruby red irises.
"What the hell is she?" The macho thug said.
"I don't care, cause I am getting the hell out of here!" The scraggly thug said.
"Umm, not really." The girl said.
As the scraggly thug attempted to flee, the girl's long, slender tail shot forward and impaled the man, killing him instantly. It then recoiled back with great speed, hurling the body of the thug into a dumpster behind her, while the macho thug pissed himself at the sight...
"Smells like someone set their terror level at code: yellow...and brown." The girl said.
"Screw this, I'm out!" The macho thug said.
"No, you're not." The girl said as her tail wrapped around his neck, snapping it, in she then tossed him into the dumpster.
"Why the hell are you doing this?" The leader asked in a frightened tone.
"Because I am a unique case, so I don't want to be dragged into the lime light." The girl said.
"I won't tell anybody! I swear." The leader said.
"I don't believe you." The girl said, impaling him with her tail.
She then threw his impaled body into the dumpster with the others with her tail, in which the top came down after the leader of the thugs' body landed in it. The other two thugs she downed with her tail laid there motionless, which displeased her as she had expected that she would get to have some fun with those two, so she tossed them into the dumpster with the others...
"Now that's taking out the trash." The girl said before her eyes reverted to normal.
She looked down at her dress, which had dark spots on it as it was the blood of the thugs that she had defeated. The spots began to vanish, as the blood began to mysteriously soak into the dress itself...
"I still find it creepy how I can do that." She said to herself.
She exited the alley, walking to a nearby café, where a young girl wearing a grey hoodie, black pants and boots, was sitting at one of the tables outside and drinking a glass of water...
"Aria, you're late." The girl said.
"Don't be so grumpy Brie, I tried that shortcut you recommended but ran into some pests along the way." Aria said.
"I could also tell you used your abilities." Brie remarked.
"Of course you can, you're my coordinator." Aria said.
"Yeah, because my own almost flared up!" Brie exclaimed.
"Hey, don't get snippy with me.' Aria said.
"Alright, I'm sorry. But you really need to be more careful." Brie said.
"Alright." Aria said.
"By the way, I got some intelligence on that special favor you asked of me..." Brie said.
"Really?" Aria asked.
"Yes, Now I wasn't able to find Summer herself, but I did find something interesting." Brie explained.
"What did you find?" Aria asked in a determined tone.
"I found out that she was married, and has a daughter that is here in the kingdom." Brie said.
"She has a kid?" Aria asked.
"Yep, here's what you need to know about her." Brie said, handing her a manila envelope.
Aria looked at the info that was just handed to her, in which she saw a photograph of Ruby inside with a paper that had some information on her...
"Are you planning to approach her?" Brie asked.
"When the time is right, I will." Aria said.
"You're practically her aunt, you have every right to let her know you exist." Brie said.
"What am I going to say to her? Hi, I'm your mother's long presumed dead, giant baby sister so I am your aunt." Aria explained.
"Well, when you put it like that..." Brie said.
"Besides, I think it would be better to ease my way towards her." Aria said.
"What does that even mean?" Brie asked in a confused tone.
"I think her husband should be aware of my existence first, it would be the better choice." Aria said.
"Well, Ruby Rose has a half sister as well." Brie said.
"That's interesting." Aria said.
"Her name is Yang Xiao Long, but she is currently on the move." Brie said.
"I see. But what of their father?" Aria asked.
"His name is Taiyang Xiao Long, he's a certified huntsman and a teacher at Signal Academy here in Vale." Brie explained.
"That's good to know." Aria said.
"So what are you going to do now?" Brie asked.
"Haven't you been informed of any assignments I need to do?" Aria asked.
"Oh, let me check my scroll." Brie said, pulling her scroll out.
Aria waited patiently as Brie checked her scroll, which was personally linked into the private communications network that all agents of the Alliance used, the Vanguard Network. The Vanguard was reverse engineered from the technology developed Atlas that lead to the creation of the CCT.
"Looks like there was an update, you get to trash a pro-human militant compound that is housing a large munitions stockpile." Brie said.
"Reason why?" Aria asked as she slung her bag over her shoulder.
"They are planning to organize death squads to eliminate all Faunus in Vale." Brie said.
"Well we can't have that, can we?" Aria said jokingly.
"Have Fun." Brie said.
Aria left to carry out her assignment, while Brie left to go to work on something for her as well. Aria walked down the street, but she had minor feelings of guilt forming, as she was withholding some information from Brie...
"I'm sorry Brie, I feel that our search for my sister is going to be hopeless, so I am sorry if I am leading you on a dead end trail." Aria thought.
While the duo went to work on their assignments, Blake and her allies were about to go to work...
Western Anima
10:32 am
Outskirts of abandoned research facility of the Oberon Initiative
Blake and Team DAHK were positioned outside an abandoned research facility in Western Anima, which was crawling with White Fang operators and soldiers. Blake was curious to the reason why the facility existed in the first place, and what was inside that had the White Fang so interested in it?
"Why is this place even here?" Blake asked.
"Believe it or not, this place was part of the Oberon Initiative." Duncan said.
"What's the Oberon initiative?" Blake asked.
"It was an old military program back in Anima's prime days. It was originally their way of attempting to improve National defenses from Grimm attacks or foreign invasion by hostile forces." Katie said.
"However, funding began to run dry and the eggheads in Atlas were starting to throw fits and accuse anima of attempting to undermine Mantle's advanced defenses." Aiden said.
"So the project was abandoned, but not before they made some pretty interesting toys." Katie said.
"Sounds like a gold mine for The White Fang to try and get their hands on." Blake said.
"That's why we're going to break this operation up." Duncan said.
But something caught Duncan's attention, his senses then began to pick up someone was coming up behind them...
"Whoever you are, come out, now!" Duncan said, drawing his katana/gun Imperial Dragon.
"Don't shoot!" The individual said.
The group turned around to see a man in a uniform that was usually reserved for the members of the 107th bombing wing in the Anima Air force. He looked to be in his mid-20's, with a scar on his left cheek...
"Who are you?" Blake asked.
"Eric Foster. Mistral Air Defense Forces, retired." He said.
"Retired?" Hera said.
"It was after that accident I was blamed for." Eric explained.
"So why is a retired Air Defense Force pilot trying to sneak into an abandoned facility that radical terrorist forces are trying to breach?" Aiden asked.
"Because I don't want them to get their hands on the Nightprowler." Eric said.
"Nightprowler?" Katie asked.
"An advanced stealth ship that was designed for covert deployment in the field and long distances." Eric said.
"It's probably a fuel guzzler." Hera said.
"Believe it or not, it's pretty fuel efficient." Eric said.
"Duncan, this Nightprowler sounds like something that we can use in our primary goal." Aiden said.
"True." Duncan said.
"Now that brings me to my questions, Who are you five and why do you look like you want to attack those White Fang members?" Eric asked.
"We are former White Fang members ourselves, but now we're trying to take down the radical terrorist cells within the organization." Duncan said.
"Wow." Eric said.
"So we just spilled the beans to a complete stranger." Blake said.
"A stranger who wants in." Eric said.
"What?" All five of them said.
"You guys actually have a goal that sounds pretty good, and the radical terrorist cells within the White Fang are present in all kingdoms." Eric said.
"So, you want to help?" Blake asked.
"Think about it, having a someone who knows how to fly an advanced stealth ship that can fly across great distances can be pretty useful." Eric explained.
"He's got a point." Aiden stated.
"Alright, but leave the heavy fighting to us." Blake said.
"Yes, ma'am." Eric said as he drew a shotgun from behind him.
"Where did you have that?" Duncan asked.
" I had it hidden under my jacket." Eric said casually.
The group then proceeded to approach the facility from the shadows and out of the sight of the White Fang soldiers. Hera and Katie lured two White fang soldiers away from their allies, in which Duncan and Blake neutralized them before the group made their move towards the building in order to eliminate the Fang presence in the facility.
"Hera, get the two on the right! Katie, hold the left!" Duncan shouted.
"Got it!" Katie said.
"Coming right up!" Hera said.
The two girls defeated their opponents with great speed, in which they arrived outside a set of massive steel doors that the Fang were trying to hack into in order to try access what was on the other side...
"So, where's this Nightprowler, Foster?" Duncan asked.
"Fun Fact, the Fang was about to breach the hangar bay." Eric said as he tapped into the console.
"So it's on the other side of these doors?" Blake asked.
"Yeah, and knowing that time is a cruel mistress, she'll probably need a little check up." Eric said as he unlocked the doors.
The group watched as the doors opened up to reveal a massive airship, which was jet black but rusted in some areas. It had two large engines on its sides, a rounded body, and two smaller engines towards the rear...
"It's certainly ugly." Duncan remarked.
"It probably flies like a brick." Hera said.
"It flies like a graceful brick, so don't tempt me. Well...shit." Eric said as he went over to a console and looked at it.
"Hey, Language." Duncan said.
"Sorry, but it looks like she's gonna need some fine tuning before she can fly." Eric said.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"I mean that the Chameleon circuit board has been taken out, the fuel reserves are at zero, one of the engines' processing cells is busted, and some of the reflector panels are rusted out." Eric explained.
"That's quite a list." Aiden said.
"Well, can we get the parts here?" Duncan asked.
"Probably, they always made sure that the parts would stay in well enough condition, and plus I can see about firing up some of the security bots to help out." Eric said.
"Do you think that the security defenses are intact?" Katie asked.
"They built them to last." Eric said.
"Okay, where do we find the materials we need?" Blake asked.
"The circuit board is over in the tech labs, it's connected to this building. There's a still intact fuel container over in hangar 2, which is two buildings down from us across the way." Eric said while looking at the console.
"Hera, you find a way to get the fuel container over here, Blake, you go get the circuit board." Duncan ordered.
"You got it." Blake said.
"How am I going to move a massive fuel tank by myself?" Hera asked.
" The fuel tank is another name for the very large power cell that is required to power the ship and its systems." Eric said.
"Great." Hera said, sounding annoyed.
"Relax, find a loader skeleton and you can carry it like it's made of paper Mache." Eric said.
"I'll be right back, what does the board look like?" Blake said.
"Like the most misshapen puzzle piece you will ever see with a bright, red light in the left upper corner." Eric explained.
"Got it." Blake said.
"Aiden, I want you to try and locate those replacement panels but don't try to grab them yourself, we'll get them together." Duncan said.
"You got it, boss." Aiden said.
"Katie, find that processing cell and see about bringing it back here so Eric can install it." Duncan ordered.
"Got it." Katie said.
Each member of the team went to work on their assignments, in which Blake ran across the way to the building next door in order to try and find that circuit board and found something else when she noticed the directions to the tech lab on a map...
"What the?" Blake said, looking at the map before pulling out her scroll and calling up Duncan.
"Blake, what is it?" Duncan asked.
"Did Foster know that this facility preformed Adaptoid research?" Blake asked.
"Adaptoids? I thought that was an old Atlas project, but it was shut down because it couldn't get anywhere." Duncan responded.
"Well, if they succeeded where Atlas failed, maybe there could be one still online?" Blake said.
"Getting the chameleon circuit board is top priority, Blake" Duncan asked.
"I know, but there is a laboratory next to where the circuit board is." Blake pointed out.
"See you back here." Duncan said before hanging up.
"How rude." Blake said to herself.
She walked down to the tech laboratory and found the circuit board that was buried underneath some rotted ceiling tiles, in which she began to hear a loud beeping coming from the Adaptoid science lab next door...
"What the?" Blake thought.
She walked into the room with the circuit board in hand, and saw a large container of silvery, liquefied metal polyalloy that was hooked up to a whole bunch of other machines. She saw that one of the consoles next to it was blinking, so she walked over and wiped the dust and dirt that had piled onto the screen, in which she saw in big bright letters...
"COMMENCE ADAPTIVE AUTOMATON ACTIVATION? Y/N?"
Blake was confused, in which she wanted to talk to Duncan about this, but she knew that they needed the Chameleon circuit in order to fix the Nightprowler. She decided to hit the "y" button on the keyboard, in which a robotic arm lowered from the ceiling and electrocuted the alloy, while a second arm came down and dropped a large metal ball into the alloy as it began to take the shape of a person. After the alloy took shape, it immediately started to climb out of the container, absorbing both the excess alloy from both the broken tanks and even the droplets that came off it, then looked at Blake...
"Umm, Hello?" Blake asked.
"Greetings." The Adaptoid said.
"Well, what can you do? Adaptoid?" Blake asked in a nervous tone.
"Please don't call me Adaptoid all the time, my name is Caius." The Adaptoid said.
"Wait, you can talk like a normal person?" Blake said in a shocked tone.
"Yes, and I can make myself look more presentable." Caius said, transforming his appearance into a young teen in a black, leather trench coat.
"Well then, You wanna follow me?" Blake asked.
"I'm not some servant that you can boss around, but I think this place is more terrible." Caius remarked.
"Well, then." Blake said.
The duo left the Adaptoid labs, and regrouped with the others in the hangar with the Nightprowler as they were installing the Fuel processing cell that Katie had recovered while Hera arrived with the fuel...
"Hey guys, got the circuit board." Blake said.
"Blake, what took you so-Who is this?" Duncan asked.
"Oh, allow me to introduce you to Caius, an advanced Adaptoid." Blake said.
"Nice to meet you." Caius said.
"You activated a highly advanced robot like it was nothing?" Hera said.
"Hey, I have feelings." Caius said.
"Oh, so he's sentient too." Eric said.
"I may be made of liquified metal polyalloy, but I can still hear you. So you are working on trying to get the NCS-237 Nightprowler operational?" Caius said.
"You know about this machine?" Eric asked.
"Of course, I downloaded the schematics into my personal data core." Caius said.
"So you know how to fix this?" Duncan said.
"I also have built in combat and infiltration protocols for operations in the field." Caius explained.
"That could be useful." Aiden said.
"My polyalloy also contains nanoparticles that can tap into technology and give me control." Caius added.
"Alright, you're in." Duncan said.
"Next up, we have to get the reflector panels installed." Eric said.
"I can secure the panels when they're installed." Caius said.
"Alright, Hera, Katie, and Blake, see if you can get those panels over here." Duncan said.
"You got it." Blake said.
As the girls left the room, Eric decided to ask Caius a question about the Oberon Initiative if he knew some things about it...
"Hey, tin man?" Eric asked.
"Please don't call me that." Caius said.
"All right, I'm sorry. I'm just wondering if the initiative was producing stuff like this Nightprowler here, and you of course, why did it get shut down after a few complaints from Atlas?" Eric asked.
"It didn't shut down because of complaints from Atlas." Caius said.
"What?" Eric said.
"It shut down by one of the primary financiers of the initiative, who did to prevent one branch of the initiative from accelerating what they were working on." Caius explained.
"Wait, they shut it down because of a branch accelerating too fast?" Eric said in a tone of disbelief.
"No, the financier shut it down because one of the initiative branches was performing illegal biological research." Caius said.
"Wait, you mean?" Eric asked.
"It was developing bio organic weapons that they thought could be used in defense." Caius said.
"Son of a-, and after all that trouble with the Lowell Institute All those years ago." Eric said.
"They were also receiving funds from an outside source, and forwarding the results of their experiments to an unspecified party through encrypted channels." Caius explained.
"Sounds pretty shady." Eric said.
"The primary Financier that gave the shutdown order also seemed a bit shady as well, he didn't even use his real name, just hid it behind some persona." Caius said.
"Who was the primary financier?" Eric asked.
"Some guy who called himself "The Cardinal".Caius said.
"Funny, sounds like he belonged in a church." Eric remarked.
"Apparently, he belonged to some wealthy organization that didn't even give its name." Caius explained.
"Hmm, sounds like we got something to think about for the trip." Eric said.
While the group went to work on repairing the worn down stealth airship, Taiyang was about to make a discovery of his own...
Rose/Xiao Long residence.
Island of Patch, Southern Vale coast.
At his home on the island of Patch, Taiyang Xiao Long was doing some tidying around the house, sweeping the floor and wiping the dust off things while moving things around. He was cleaning his own bedroom when he stumbled upon a box of things that belonged to Summer...
"Hmm, I must have forgot to move this to the attic after..." Tai said, unable to finish his sentence.
He picked up the box so he could move it to the attic, when something occured as a small book fell out of the box and a slip of paper slid out...
"What's this?" He said to himself as he put the box down.
He unfolded the paper to see it was a photo of Summer as she was standing next to a girl with long brunette hair, but she was taller than Summer as the young Summer was on her shoulders...
"Who is that? An old friend of yours?" Taiyang thought, turning his attention to the book.
"Huh? Search Notes?" Taiyang said to himself.
He sat down on the bed and opened the book up, and detailed pages of how Summer was looking for someone that was closely related to her. He quickly turned his attention to the first page...
"My search for Aria has made some progress, but my parents are getting too damn curious. It's only been a year since my sister had run away from home, and I hope that she'll come home. My parents mistreated her because she had gigantism, and idolized me more than her in which that was irritating for the both of us. I just hope she is still alive, Remnant is a cruel place for a girl like her to be on her own. She was apparently recruited by a woman with red hair that had a white streak going down the left side of her hair and a curved scar on her right cheek. Also, she seemed to have been in the military due to her uniform, but had a silver rosary around her neck that had a bright, blue gem in the enter. I'm going to end this page here as I have to get ready to go off to Beacon." The journal page said.
Tai then scrolled through the pages of the journal, seeing photos of a very tall girl being spotted among large crowds of people in different kingdoms. After looking through the journal, he closed it up and thought to himself...
"Well, I just something new about someone who I had a kid with." Taiyang thought.
But his thought was quickly derailed by the sound of a knock at the door...
Sorry that this chapter took so long, but it is finally here. It introduces another one of the many characters that I had made the mistake of leaving out of the original version of this story. I decided to spice up the drama but throwing in the fact that in this AU, Summer Rose has a sister who also has the abilities of the silver eyed warriors, but was born with Gigantism and was completely ignored by her parents as a result. Another hint towards the faction mentioned in the World of Remnant style story that came before this, was when Caius explained to Eric that the Oberon Initiative was shut down by one of the primary financiers after one of the branches was performing illegal biological research and development of biological weapons and sending the research results of their experiments to an unspecified party through encrypted channels. There was also a hint towards the other faction I plan to introduce as the Primary Financier who gave the shutdown order was named "The Cardinal" who is the unnamed leader of the second faction. After this story, I am going to release two more World of Remnant style stories, each will explain the faction that I will introduce in the sequel and the group that the young girl who was testing the warrior named Athena in the previous chapters is affiliated with. The next chapter picks up with the introduction of a unseen threat that attacks one of Cinder's allies, Taiyang answering the door after hearing the knock, and you will get to see how Ruby has settled into life at Beacon Academy following the incident that happened to her, while Weiss and her friends do everything they can to help her recover from the ordeal...
WAIT AND SEE..