Max returned to the hotel to find it exactly as he expected. Allister, Zade, and Darron using the table in team RWBY's hotel room to cover their retreat as the girls relentlessly attempted to dismember them. Max hid himself around the corner until Team ENDD had safely secured themselves within their room. Max stiffened and held his breath as some of the papers fell out of the folder and noisily fluttered to the ground.
"What was that?" Max could hear Weiss asking from down the hall. Max began to sweat in fear of becoming the next target of team RWBY's wrath.
"It's was probably nothing." Blake reassured as Team RWBY ducked back into their room. Max sighed as he heard their door shut behind them.
"Are they gone?" Max stood straight up and spun around to see a man who looked just as scared for his life as Max was.
"Yeah, go." Max answered and the man made a mad, yet quiet dash down the hallway. Max laughed to himself as he gathered up the spilled papers and quietly walked to his room. Max was about to open the door when he heard the door of team RWBY open behind him. Max froze in fear.
"I'm going to the vending machine I'll be rig…. YOU!" Yang yelled as she noticed Max. Max turned around to defend himself when suddenly the door to his room opened up and two pairs of hands dragged him in before the door was shut again rather rapidly. Allister and Darron all but threw Max onto one of the beds as Zade began locking the locks on the door as quickly as possible.
"I take it your joke went just as planned." Max stated.
"Hell yeah." Darron answered. The two high fived and laughed.
"Alright so what goodies did you get for us today Max?" Allister asked.
"Well I may have found some interesting shit but first we got to move some stuff." Max. Darron and Max sat on one bed while Zade and Allister sat on the other one facing them. The desk in the room had been cleared and placed between them. Max placed the file on the table, opened it, and began to start explaining what he had found.
"Alright, So I found out that there's a new company in town. Their called Griven Tech and they apparently just opened a new R&D branch in the village 5 weeks ago. That seems to coincide with the fact that the heightened grimm alpha killing which we expected have increased. I think that solves our problem right there." Max explained.
"Yeah especially since Griven is one of the quickest up and coming military tech companies to
come out of Atlas." Allister added.
"Don't get too excited ladies." Zade warned.
"Why? What did you find?" Darron asked.
"Based on this Griven tech isn't the one reporting these alpha killings. It is others who are stumbling upon the corpses who are filing them. Even more so they aren't describing these grimm as being killed by any gun or blade. They report the bodies being mangled and shredded as though they were attacked by a wild animal of some sorts. And hello dumb motherfuckers grimm dissolve when there killed these are not. Obviously something that these guys are doing is the cause of it." Zade answered.
"Ok so tomorrow after we're done killing grimm, without anymore problems to get us in trouble with team RWBY again, we can talk to professor Goodwitch and see if we can get anymore information
about the research these guys are doing here." Darron decreed.
"Cool." the rest of the team responded in unison, before heading off to bed in preparation for
tomorrow's events. Back in team RWBY's room the four girls sat around still steaming about the, in their opinion, truly infuriating joke Darron pulled.
"How dare they do something like that to us? They nearly scared us half to death." Weiss asked.
"Well I mean he did think it was a joke, and we did totally underestimate his resilience." Yang replied.
"Don't you dare defend them. Just because you and Allister have gotten… closer doesn't mean you should start defending him for everything stupid he does, and don't even get me started on the rest of them. They knew and still allowed us to believe he was actually dead." Weiss ranted.
"Weiss, calm down." Ruby implored. "They were just,i guess, having fun in their own way. Why should we be mad. Regardless everyone ended up ok so I don't see the problem."
"Ruby, they let us believe he had died. that's not exactly a matter you should mess around with. Don't you agree Blake." Weiss scolded turning to the cat faunas. Blake remained quiet as the night as she sat with her knees to her chest on the chair in the room. Yang made her way over and pulled Blake into a hug.
"It's ok he's fine, he will always be fine." Yang tried to comfort.
"Damn it." Blake said. Yang looked down at Blake.
"What?" She asked.
"It's just that… He was my best friend and this is the second time he's let me think he has died. At least this time he returned in a matter of hours rather than a matter of years. And he was actually pretty creative and effective with jokes in our childhood, as little as he ever made them. I was never good at staying mad at him." Blake answered. Yang quickly spun around to address Weiss.
"See she's already forgiven him and she's the one who was hurt the most by this whole thing. So what stick climbed up your ass?"
"Nothing, I just think that what they did was highly irresponsible and equally terrifying to everyone else. They should no better than to mess around with stuff like that. But I guess if Blake can after such a short period of time, so can I." Weiss conceded.
"Yay, we're all friends again." Ruby cheered.
"Are you sure Ruby? Are you sure we're all just friends?" Yang asked suggestively.
"W-what do you mean Yang?" Ruby countered.
"Oh nothing, I was just observing the fact that when you and Max made your way to the airship yesterday you guys seemed like the best of friends. Are you sure you haven't gotten your crush on him to develop into something… more?" Yang stated raising her eyebrows.
"No Yang nothing has happened. I haven't even told him." Ruby answered.
"Awe, You got to tell him eventually. And the same goes for you ice queen." Yang said. Ruby glared at her sister.
"And by what do you mean by that. Are you assuming that there is some romantic connection between me and Zade, that is absurd in every definition of the word. I mean, what is there to like about him. He's tall, well mannered, an excellent fighter, rather intelligent… shit." Weiss tried to deny until she heard what she was rest of the team just stared at her knowingly.
"Hmph." Weiss breathed as she stormed over to her bed and laid down. The rest of the team laughed at Weiss's defeat. Suddenly Blake's scroll started to ring.
"Hello." Blake answered.
"Hey, Blakey. What's up how's your mission going." Sun said through the line.
"Oh it's good. we mostly spent the day clearing the forest around the village. My old friend Darron did get himself hurt pretty badly by a king taijitu though." Blake answered, unaware that Yang and Ruby were eavesdropping on their conversation.
"That's cool. I'm sure he's fine. Anyway I have a great story to tell you." Sun spoke. Blake recoiled slightly at the way Sun just brushed the mention of Darron's injury away and started telling Blake
another story about something stupid his team did. Blake listened attentively until he had finished that story. Blake soon realized that she was in fact rather tired and not up for anymore of Sun's droning.
"Hey, Sun. I hate to interrupt you but I have a busy day tomorrow and I need some sleep." Blake said yawning through the phone.
"Ok, I'll talk to you tomorrow then. Love you, bye," Sun answered.
"Love you too." Blake hung up her scroll and and saw an expectant Yang and Ruby sitting right in front of her.
"What do you want?" Blake asked.
"Why do you do this to yourself?" Yang asked in response.
"Do what to myself?" Blake answered.
"Why do you date Sun. it's obviously not right for you so why do you keep doing it." Yang accused.
"What do you know about what is right for me or not." Blake countered.
"I know because I've watched you date him for months. He's an inconsiderate idiot. You never get to say anything, yes I know that isn't your strong suit, regardless, even just know when you wanted to talk to him about something seriously important like the near death of your best friends whom you've only been reconnected with for a week he just brushed anything you had to say aside and started talking about himself and his team. You can't tell me that's good in anyway. Furthermore, He is an
idiot. I bet you 10,000 lien I actually have better grades than him. Someone of you intellectual standing shouldn't be forced to endure that level of ignorance(even though Ren has figured it out pretty well)" Yang argued.
"Look Blake we just wants what's best for you and we can see that Sun isn't going to be that." Ruby added.
"Fine think what you want but Until I decide otherwise I will continue to date Sun. Goodnight." Blake spoke as she got ready for bed and jumped under the covers falling asleep as quickly as possible. Ruby and Yang just looked at each other and shrugged. They also turned in for the night wishing to be ready for another early day of killing all the grimm. The next morning Team ENDD was downstairs in the lobby earlier than usual. Eventually Professor Goodwitch came down the stairs. The team approached her.
"Ah, Team ENDD. I see you boys are up unusually early. How may I help you?" Goodwitch asked.
"Actually we believe we know why these grimm attacks are occurring," Darron handed Goodwitch the file they had before continuing." We believe the Griven tech corporation is behind all of this. Their
weapons testing on grimm alphas has messed up the grimm ecosystem leading to the attacks on the city." Goodwitch looked over the data they had collected before sighing.
"This looks very compelling. I'll place the call to the Griven tech R&D division to see what information can be obtained about this event."
"Thank you professor." Darron said as he motioned for his team to the just opened breakfast bar. Later that day after a number of apologies, some few minutes of shunned silence for Zade, and the brutal murder of another hundred or so Grimm Teams RWBY and ENDD were back on the airship heading home for the day. The 8 were happily chatting about their experience when Darron's scroll began to ring. As Darron answered the voice began to speak immediately.
"Darron, I called the R&D division today and it was strange. They refused to share any information with me, A highest level huntsman, Claiming that it was imperative to their security. Also, I tried to visit the building myself to get a view of what might be occurring. I couldn't even get through the front door. You were right something is strange about this company and I believe it is high time we find out exactly what has been going on in that establishment. Tonight we will make our move. Inform the rest of you of the what we are to do." Goodwitch commanded before hanging up. Everyone else looked at Darron expectantly.
"Alright we are going to investigate Griven tech. We believe they have something to do with the attacks." Darron announced.
"Alright finally." Allister said.
"It will slightly like old times eh guys." Max added.
"Alright team RWBY gets to thwart yet another evil operation." Ruby joined in. For the rest of the flight everyone sat in silence as Darron explained why they were doing what they were doing. Later that night both teams, joined by Professor Goodwitch were standing on the roof of a building opposite of a bustling nightclub.
"OK here is the plan." Professor Goodwitch announced.
"The target's name is Ian Zarezery. He's a higher up on the Griven chain of command but he's young, which is probably why he is in this nightclub. Zade your job is to go in and… retrieve Mr, Zarezery for questioning. I am authorizing the use of any means necessary except don't kill anyone. Max has hacked into the club's camera systems so we can see the entire building. We will be tracking your movements and keeping you updated. The target is currently talking with co worker at the bar. Good luck.: Zade dropped down from the building and began to make his way over to the club. The rest of the ground huddled around the large camera display Max had open, hoping to get a good view of everything going on inside. Zade stopped a few feet from the club and stretched slightly. He resumed walking, this time though looking far more confident. Team ENDD snickered to themselves, receiving strange looks from the others. Zade sauntered his way inside and throughout the club. Zade turned and began making his way over to the dance floor.
"He's not going to dance is he?" Yang asked.
"Nah even better." Max commented. Zade walked across the dance floor slightly moving to the beat so he could keep moving without looking suspicious. Zade finally spotted what he was looking for. A girl just about his age with long brunette hair, a large bust, and a far to tight red dress. Zade immediately made a beeline for the girl.
"What a pig. He's supposed to be focusing on the mission not that skank." Weiss cried out.
"Oooo. Is that jealousy I detect." Allister mocked.
"No." Came Weiss's curt reply.
"It's ok Weiss." Yang faux comforted. "We know he has eyes only for you." Weiss growled threateningly but couldn't hide the blush creeping up her face. Zade walked by the girl and winked at her. The girl was immediately entranced by Zade and followed as he motioned her over. Zade led her over to the bar and Zade leaned against the bar with his back turned right behind his target. As the girl arrived Zade ordered the two of them drinks.
"Hey, I'm Allison." the girl introduced in an obviously seductive tone.
"Zade, It's a pleasure." Zade responded polite as always.
"I'm sure it will be. So what brings you to this mid sized town in the middle of nowhere?" Allison asked.
"Not much just school. Fortunately I got the night off and came to see the nightlife of the area." Zade answered. Their drinks arrived and Allison took a sip before speaking.
"I can show you ALL of the nightlife here." Allison threw Zade a flirty wink,"But what could you possibly doing here for school?" Weiss was literally about to explode burst in and kill that chick had Allister and Yang not held her back.
"Well I'm actually a hunter in training." Zade responded.
"O, How exciting that must be." Allison replied.
"It is usually but I'm really here to kill some grimm surrounding the city and I'm actually here to collect a person for an investigation."
"That sounds fun. Here let me give you my number. you can call me when you're done and we could have some more fun." Allison offered as she stepped closer to Zade, rubbing her massive breasts against his arm. Weiss looked down dejectedly at her own flat chest. the rest of the group tried as hard as possible not to laugh at poor Weiss.
"Sorry I doubt that. you probably won't want to hang out with me after I'm done here." Allison raised her eyebrow curiously. Zade whipped his revolver out from its holster pointed it behind him and blew out the floor. The entire club gasped and Ian was sent flying to the ground by the shockwave. Allison jumped back.
"What the fuck!?" she yelled," Zade just shrugged as he grabbed Ian, who was still dazed by the impact, by the ankle and started dragging him towards the exit.
"What the hell was that." Goodwitch yelled at the monitor unpleased by Zade's actions. Team ENDD just busted out laughing. Team RWBY didn't exactly know what to think at this moment. Zade continued to drag Ian towards the exit when the two bouncers came over to stop him. No words were
exchanged as the first bouncer threw a punch which Zade easily weaved under. Zade snapped out a kick breaking the leg of the bouncer. The bouncer screamed in pain as the broken bone pierced through the skin. the crowd gasped in shock and disgust. As the first bouncer hit the floor the second one advanced. the second bouncer tried to roundhouse Zade's face. Zade rolled under the kick, and kicked out the knee of the bouncer. As the second bouncer fell to his knee Zade moved behind him and placed him in a choke hold. The bouncer thrashed futility until he finally succumbed to unconsciousness. Zade went back to his original task of dragging Ian out of the club. Outside Zade was met by the rest of the team. Darron, Max, and Allister gave Zade highfives while professor Goodwitch just scolded him.
"That was unbelievably reckless!" She yelled.
"Hey it worked now can we get out of here before more trouble starts." Darron asked. Goodwitch reluctantly agreed and Allister lifted Ian over his shoulder as the group made their way away from the club. They arrived a few minutes later at a small building at the edge of the town. Allister took Ian inside and tied him to a chair in the middle of an empty room. Teams RWBY and ENDD stood outside awaiting orders.
"Team RWBY you will join me on guarding the perimeter of the building. ENDD get us access to the building do what you have to do." Goodwitch ordered. Darron nodded.
"Man, why don't we get to do all the cool stuff with team ENDD" Ruby complained.
"Sorry Ruby I'd really hate having you think less of us." Darron and the team ducked inside as
professor Goodwitch hurried team RWBY off to their posts. Inside the post Ian was finally starting to regain consciousness after having passed out from seeing the blood on the bouncer's leg. As his vision began to returned to him he saw team ENDD standing above him.
"HELP! HELP! SOMEONE THESE GUYS ARE GOING TO KILL ME!" Ian screamed for help but was quickly silenced by a swift backhand from Allister jerking his head to one side.
"Shut the fuck up. No one can hear you and your just pissing us off."Allister warned.
"What do you want you fucking psychopaths?" Ian asked.
"Thank you we try our best. What we want is for you to tell us what kind of operation you guys have running down and Griven tech R&D." Darron answered.
"I won't tell you anything you motherfuckers. EVER!" Ian shouted in defiance as he spit in Darron's face. Darron slowly wiped the moisture off of his face as he laughed.
"We shall see about that won't we." Darron said as he took a few steps back. Zade stepped forward and began admiring Ian's hands which were tied as tightly as possible to the arms of the chair he was in. Ian struggled against the bonds only to find it futile to resist. Zade pulled one of the knives from his belt and slowly dragged the tip of the knife along Ian's cheek. Ian could feel the slight trickle of blood down his face.
"Now tell us what we want to know or this could get very unpleasant very quickly." Zade warned.
"Fuck. off." Ian replied. Zade smirked to himself slightly.
"Wrong answer." Zade drew his other knife and brought the two down onto the top of Ian's hands. the blades pierced right through with at least and inch coming out the other side. Ian screamed in severe pain and continued screaming. Zade stepped back and walked over to Max who was preparing some metal boxes and what appeared to be a solution of some sorts. From the outside Ruby and Weiss were guarding the rear of the building when they heard the screams of agony coming from inside. Weiss turned to Ruby.
"It sounds like they are mutilating him in there. What savagery." Weiss complained in shock.
"Whoa, that sounds terrible. How are they able to do stuff like that." Ruby commented.
"Better yet How is professor Goodwitch capable of allowing this type of behavior to occur." Weiss added. The two girls then decided to focus on their jobs and did their best to ignore the horrible sounds emanating from the building. Ian was still screaming as the knives remained firmly implanted in his hands. Allister and Max walked over to the prisoner.
"If you think this little pain will break me you've got another thing coming you fuckers." Ian said.
"Oh don't worry. We didn't expect that to break you otherwise where would all the fun go. no no no we have far more fun things to do today." At that moment Zade ripped the knives from Ian's hands sending Ian into another spout of screaming. Allister and Max quickly opened the boxes they had brought with them and enclosed Ian's hands within. Then they opened small hatches on the top.
"What the fuck are these things." Ian demanded. "those are nothing to be worried about, but this. this might hurt a bit." Came Darron's response as he walked over with a large jug of a liquid in his hands.
"This my friend." Darron continued. " Is a solution made up of 90% ethanol alcohol and salt. Now I don't know about you but I've heard that getting either of these things into an open wound is a real bitch. Want to see what happens if you get both. Tell us how to access Griven tech and you'll never have to."
"Fuck you." was the only thing Ian said.
"So be it." Replied Darron as he began pouring the solution into the first box. As the alcohol and Salt began to make its way into the large flesh wound left by the Ian screamed out in untold agony. Darron kept pouring until the entire hand was submerged. Darron then closed up the box and shook it around to keep the flow of fresh salt and alcohol constant.
"Make it stop. PLEASE! Make it stop! Ian begged.
"I can't but you can all you need to do is tell us what we want to know." Max explained. Still Ian managed to keep his mouth shut. That is until The solution was poured into the second box, forcing Ian to scream out again under the monumental pain.
"I will never tell you anything." Ian managed to choke out through tightly gritted teeth.
"OK fuck this I'm done." Darron said as he walked back over to one of the shelves and picked up a
rather interesting looking yet rusty metal contraption.
"Keep that away from me! I'm warning you! Don't you dare!" Those were the last coherent words Ian made before the screams finally and completely took over. Professor Goodwitch stood out front of the building beginning to grow impatient. She was also doing her best to ignore the horrific sounds being produced from the building. Suddenly the noise stopped and out stepped team ENDD. The two stared at each other momentarily before Goodwitch spoke up.
"So, Did you get what we came here for?" Goodwitch asked. Darron nodded.
"Yeah took a minute but yeah he cracked." Darron answered. Professor Goodwitch pulled out her scroll and called team RWBY telling them to convene at the front of the building. When they arrived Weiss and Ruby gave Team ENDD strange looks while Blake and Yang looked rather indifferent.
"Told you." Darron said addressing Weiss and Ruby.
"Let's move." Goodwitch commanded and everyone followed. They made their way quietly through the streets towards the Griven tech building. It was a 5 story modern looking building nearly entirely encased in glass. The group moved up to the front door where Allister swiped Ian's access card and punch in the code he eventually gave them. There was a metallic click as the door unlocked and popped open. Once they were inside the group split up to search for any evidence. Professor Goodwitch, Darron, and Ruby were in the executive office. They were flipping through reports and files while the rest of them searched the rest of the building.
"So Darron, What exactly was happening in that building?" Ruby asked.
"They were doing the job necessary as huntsmen to complete the job and protect the people." Professor Goodwitch answered. Ruby stared at the teach for a second before going back to flipping through the files. The three of them sat unmoving, other than the occasional flip of paper, for moments until Ruby finally noticed something.
"Oh," She squeaked.
"What?" Darron asked.
"There's apparently something in the basement that's super top secret only the files acknowledge that it exists yet not what it is. And I know where to find it." Ruby announced as she dashed out of the room, Darron and Goodwitch hot on her heels. they picked up the rest of the teams as they followed Ruby down to the ground floor into a conference room. Everyone watched Ruby curiously as
she started positioning the chairs in the room. Once the chairs held a specific pattern small metallic arms reached down from the ceiling and lifted the conference table. the floor below where the table was opened up revealing a deep staircase. Everyone looked down the hole in interest.
"So who's first?" Yang asked. Before anyone could respond Darron dropped down to the 6th stair. Yang looked at Allister who shrugged, winked, and jumped after Darron. Eventually the whole squad was
following Darron down the steps. 30 60 100 steps and they finally reached the bottom. They were face to face with a thick, heavy metal door. Allister stepped forward placed his hands on the door and slowly started to pull it open. Everyone could hear the sound of the industrial strength locks straining under the force of Allisters pull. Eventually the locks caved and Allister swung the door open. The group cautiously made their way inside. Darron quickly identified a circuit breaker and turned
on the lights. What the witnessed sent one unified thought throughout the entire group.
"What the Fuck."