Ruby and Weiss leaned in closer to the screen as they examined the new players who had entered into the mix.
"Any idea who those people are?" Weiss asked her partner.
"I think the second gamertag is supposed to refer to something from Fate/stay night. I can't say anything about the first one though. It's a pretty common name on the message boards."
As Snoopy, Chuckie, and [MLP]2Psycho4U spawned back in the main lobby, the two girls continued down the narrow hallway, passing by a branch leading into the stairway along with a small courtyard to their left.
"Why do you think that one guy left?" asked Arslan.
"Who knows?" said Weiss.
"Maybe he had to take a potty break like Chuckie," Ruby replied, before turning to President Obama. "Say, do you know if there's anyone else who can join our team?"
"Perhaps," answered the turbaned man, "but I would prefer not to relieve our comrades from their current duties."
"What about Neo?"
"Nice try, Ruby," the heiress interjected, "but I don't think that silent buffoon is in any condition to be playing high stakes video games right now."
"I believe that can be arranged," said the Uzbek President.
Arslan and Weiss both turned to the man at once, "What?"
"This will only take a few minutes…"
In the meantime, the two girls, now being trailed by Snoopy and [MLP]2Psycho4U, entered into what appeared to be a large archive, with movable stacks arrayed to their left and right, and an opening peering down into the lower level surrounded by railings and wooden tables.
As soon as they all entered into the opening alcove, a grenade shot up from this hole and bounced towards the girls.
"GRENADE!" shouted Weiss.
Everyone that was currently present rushed to take cover behind one of the movable bookshelves or one of the side railings, though Twilight Sparkle wasn't so lucky. Ruby rushed forward to try to meet the threat head on, but then a series of beeps came from behind her as a sentry gun hidden in one of the aisles in the left stack.
Seconds after the screen recorded the kill, [MLG]MEEN_BEAN_MACHINE, whose voice resembled that of Gwonam, began speaking through all-chat. "Good evening children, and welcome to my whimsical world of fun and games! Did you think you could get past my tricks and traps so easily, hmmm? Well, I've got a special surprise for you! It's called GETTING OWNED! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The second Ignatius Mortimer Meen finished his statement, a blur of a figure rushed at both Weiss and Snoopy from behind one of the stacks and tackled them with a knife.
"Well isn't this just swell!" seethed Weiss.
Shortly after the kill-screen displayed on Weiss's side of the TV, Snoopy's whimper could be heard through team chat. Though, on a closer inspection, the one who had killed Weiss, Snoopy, and Twilight Sparkle had not been [MLG]MEEN_BEAN_MACHINE but instead [MLG]KUNG_FU_JESUS.
Pyrrha's video stream then came up on Ruby's side of the TV. "What's going on over there?"
"We're getting attacked by an insane pedophile!" replied the scythe-user.
The Spartan princess made an awkward grin. "I wish you luck with that endeavor. I haven't found anything on my end, so I'll just… Dammit! I've gotta go!"
Pyrrha's video screen then closed out.
"Okay, now what do we do now?" asked Ruby.
"I guess we keep pushing through that archive until we break through," said Weiss. "We've got unlimited lives, right?"
"I don't see anything wrong with that," replied Ruby, who was still staring at the screen.
"That sounds like a great idea!" said [MLP]2Psycho4U. "Maybe if we have enough time left, we can be study buddies together! Hehehe!"
"Remember girls, time is of the essence," Obama added.
"Say," said Weiss, "You think you can check to see if Chuckie's back yet?"
Ruby brought up the footage to Chuckie's computer. "Doesn't look like it."
"Okay then. Snoopy, uh… Twilight, you two stay here and keep watch in case someone tries to attack."
"Awww…" muttered Twilight Sparkle.
After Snoopy gave an affirmative grumble, the two girls began to head down the main hallway.
Adam Taurus wandered throughout Al Qaeda's deep underground laboratories, his eyes ever vigilant. Technically, the Elder Council had cameras hidden throughout the facility, along with machine gun turrets and battle droids, but it never hurt to have some actual men on the ground.
Despite the fort's early Islamic trappings, the underground facilities looked more like the inside of a spaceship, seeing as it was built from scrap metal and decommissioned aircraft carriers. Weiss and her lot were using one of the guest rooms, while Gandhi and King Harkinian were doing work behind the scenes. Adam was planning on giving the Blue Meanie a visit to observe one of his experiments, which would probably be useful in case the Serbs planned on launching a surprise assault from the northwest.
How did I ever get into this mess?
Some time ago, the White Fang had been fighting for the advancement of Faunus rights. Now, they were simply trying to survive.
After General Ironwood defeated them in Vale, the White Fang was forced to flee east. The devastation of the Grrm at the hands of the Cataclysm helped to ease their journey, but when they had reached Mistral, things had gotten much worse. Soon, the White Fang was involved in more wars and border conflicts than anyone could imagine. The only reason they were even involved with Al Qaeda was due to the rise of the Turkish Sultanate, along with its ultra-nationalist Serbian rival, neither of whom were willing to work with Faunus folk.
There's nothing left of us at this point. We're just mercenaries without a cause.
Adam strolled down the metal-lined corridor, passing by one of the testing hangars.
At the far end of the hall, however, Adam spotted an Atlesian security droid passing through the T-shaped intersection.
That's definitely unusual.
Considering there were droid hatches hidden every few feet or so and deployment bays every so often, there wasn't any need for droids to be wandering the halls by themselves.
As soon as the robot passed, Adam began moving stealthily down the hall, leaning up against the walls. While most droids possessed proximity sensors that could detect incoming attacks, Adam was fairly confident that he could disarm the droid before it could do any damage, considering most droids lacked the protection aura provided.
Adam quietly drew out Wilt, and then rushed to strike the droid's arms off.
-CRACK!-
With one swift, fluid motion, the droid rotated around, struck both of Adam's hands with its hard, metallic arms, and knocked the sword out of his hands.
What the…
Before Adam could move into his next attack, the robot pivoted onto its right foot and roundhouse kicked Adam in the side, before running up to the Faunus as he slammed into the ground and then kicked him right in the jaw.
Adam tried reaching over to his gun-sheath in order to blast the robot at close range, but the Atlesian Knight grabbed onto the arm and then whipped him right into the wall. If it wasn't for his Aura, the White Fang captain would have dislocated his arm and would have received a serious concussion.
Since when did these things become so strong?
Before the robot could blast Adam in the chest, curled both his arms in and then threw his full weight forward as he tumbled into the ground, throwing the robot off balance as it tumbled into the ground with him.
While the droid futilely attempted to kick at his shins and sides, Adam had managed to gain enough time to pull out Blush and bring it right to his adversary's face.
Before the captain could fire it, however, the robot simply kicked its legs right into Adam's thighs, throwing Adam off his mark before his attack could connect.
-BOOM!-
The weapon's recoil sent Adam tumbling across the hard steel floor, at least forty feet away from the unusually adept droid.
Even then, the robot was rushing at him, pelting him with a spray of energy bullets.
Adam immediately sprinted out of the way, flipped open an emergency panel on the wall and pulled on the switch inside.
The corridor began glowing red as the local sirens started screaming "Intruder Alert!" over and over again.
As the rogue droid began examining its current situation, several panels began opening up along the walls, floor, and ceilings, revealing a number of security drones, Atlasian Knights, and machine gun turrets, all aiming their weapons at the rogue droid.
During this confusion, Adam swiftly moved to pick up Wilt and ran down the hallway to recuperate behind a corner. Even while moving, the lone android was making quick work of the base's security systems.
Since when could droids pull crap like that?
Adam had heard of a few robots capable of projecting their own aura, but usually those things had special weapons of their own.
This thing? It was just an ordinary android, yet it could fight and improvise like a trained hunter or even one of the great Kung Fu masters like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan.
Not to mention, this thing had somehow avoided triggering the facility's automatic surveillance systems along with Gandhi's oversight.
As Adam Taurus peeked down the hall once again, he could see the rogue droid sprinting down the hall as it took cover from behind one of the panels ripped off the walls.
We're gonna need backup for this.
Everyone looked up as the alarm system began ringing throughout the facility.
"Shit, what's going on?" asked Ruby.
During her momentary distraction, Ruby's character once again wandered into a hidden sentry gun's line of fire.
"It has begun," grumbled Obama ibn Hassad, his eyes closed and his arms crossed.
"What do you mean?"
"The enemy has begun to infiltrate our facility with viruses of their own, though I'm not sure what form they will take. You girls would best continue with the task at hand while we do our job."
After standing up and sipping from his bottle of orange juice, Arslan walked up behind Obama's screen.
"Let me fight them."
"I'm afraid this isn't an enemy you can fight hand-to-hand. But there is another way you can help."
While typing away at the computer, the Uzbek president pulled out a spare laptop from a nearby drawer, and handed it to the Parsian prince.
"The power cord and network cable should be in the bottom two drawers. Read the tutorial for operating the defense override system before diving into the program itself. This is expensive military hardware you're dealing with, so I don't want you blowing anything up on your first run."
Arslan bowed. "Thank you."
As the prince set up his new computer and the sirens wailed in the halls outside, Ruby and Weiss continued their tedious assault through Mr. Meen's archive. For every sentry they managed to bypass, the insane old geezer would set up another one to deter their journey further, transforming the library into an ever shifting labyrinth. Not even once did they ever see the man's in-game model.
"Where the hell is Gwonam when you need him?" lamented Ruby.
"His phone didn't pick up when I tried contacting him," Obama replied, "though I can try calling him again… Currently unavailable."
"Well, The King did say he was going off to rescue Princess Zelda," Weiss replied. "I wonder what Pyrrha's up to."
Ruby brought up the video chat for Pyrrha, only to be greeted by a high pitched shriek and the face of Jeff the Killer.
"HOLY SHIT!" cried Ruby.
"Wha-EGAHHH!" Arslan screamed, "What in the world is that?"
The video screen flickered with static as the image flashed to footage of Pyrrha bound and gagged to her chair, with her eyes gouged out and numerous stab wounds all over her body. Furthermore, a strange circular symbol was carved on Pyrrha's forehead, featuring the Triforce of Wisdom in the center.
All the Spartan princess could do was let out a whimpered cry for help.
"Pyrrha!" screamed both Ruby and Weiss.
"How did this happen…?" muttered Ruby.
Weiss stuttered in disbelief. "I… I didn't expect anyone would die in this game." The former Schnee heiress then switched her headset to all-chat. "NORA, YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
"What are you talking about, Weiss?" Nora replied. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STOLE MY PRECIOUS FUCKING PANCAKES! Not to mention, you keep torturing all the cute little sloth babies!"
"Wha… Why in the name of Dust would I do something like that? I don't even give a crap about your stupid sloth friends!"
"Then why do all the sloths keep dying off? Hmmm?"
"That still doesn't justify what you've done to Pyrrha!"
"Pyrrha? Why would I ever want to do anything to Pyrrha? She's my BFF for life, except for Renny of course. You know, now that you mention it, maybe I should try asking Pyrrha myself to see if she wants to join my team once we're done with this game. Maybe I can try asking Jaune over too so we can all have one big happy reunion!"
"Jaune's dead, you air-headed dolt!"
"Oh…" All-chat went silent for a few moments. "When did this happen?"
"I don't know. It was a few days ago! That stupid fat witch of yours threw him down a bottomless pit when she attacked us at the temple!"
"You mean Beato? Huh, well I guess she would do something like that. I'll just try and tell her not to do stuff like that when I get the chance to talk to her. I mean, I know I'm supposed to be the main bad guy, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person or anything like that. I just want to make you pay for stealing my pancakes.
"Also, I don't really know what you mean about Pyrrha, cause she looks fine on my screen."
As Nora finished saying this, a new player, [DC]IAMTHEBATMAN, joined the game on Weiss's team, spawning as a Red Pyro.
"OHMYGOD! It's the real Batman!" Nora shouted.
Ruby leaned over to Weiss and whispered, "I think that's supposed to be Neo."
"But how?" Weiss whispered back.
Before Ruby could respond back, Nora continued fangirling over Neo's gamertag, "DAYYUM Weiss, you're so lucky! Now that means I just have to own you harder so I can have the real Batman on my team! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Seconds later, Weiss turned to her partner and asked, "Do you think it's over now?"
"I guess?" Ruby replied, "I'm just going to see if Chuckie's still alright."
When the video stream flipped to Chuckie's camera, the red-headed child came bolting into the room, barricading the door with anything he could find and carry. Strange, mesmerizing noises whistled and chanted from outside of the room, coupled with several loud knocks on the door.
"Chuckie, are you alright?"
The boy turned to face the camera. "The monsters… I don't know what to do…"
"What happened?"
"The big scary monsters got Pyrrha, and now they want to eat me. I'm scared…"
Chuckie's head jerked around the room as the eerie, almost angelic calls grew louder and louder.
Ruby turned to the back of the room, "President Hassad, can't we do anything about this?"
The Uzbek president simply sighed, continuing on with his current task. "I'm afraid you ask too much of me."
The voice of a small child began to echo throughout Chuckie's room, corrupted with a demonic taint. "Teeheehee! Come out and play with me, Chuckie!"
"G-GO AWAY!" screamed Chuckie, shaking his head.
"It's me, Kimi! Just open the door, silly! Teeheeheehee!"
"No! Get away from me! You're not Kimmy! You're just a big, mean…"
Low, demonic laughter filled the small gaming room they were in, and the video stream suddenly flashed to a pile of mangled corpses before turning to static.
Ruby's controller slipped out of her hands as her stand receded back inside her.
"Chuckie…"
Everyone in the room stood in silence as the wailing of sirens could be heard in the hallway.
After about a minute, Weiss finally noticed a message appear on the in-game chat system.
[DC]IAmTheBatman had written, "Why are you all standing around like a bunch of damn school-kids who don't even know how to tie their own shoelaces?
"I've been standing around here for a good three minutes waiting for you to stop circle-jerking to your goddamn effigies of Shrek.
"We've got a mission to take care of, so lets get it over with."
Weiss turned to her partner. "Does she…"
"But Pyrrha and Chuckie just got attacked!" interrupted Ruby.
Seconds later, Neo's response came on the screen, "Well ain't that a sight for sore eyes? Shit, now we've lost one of the greatest Kung Fu masters of all time, even though that red-headed brat has been nothing but useless so far on this journey. I bet I know who did it too."
"Then who did it? They're going to pay!"
"Who do you think, Red? Who else has been systematically murdering each and every one of our allies from day one?"
The whole room was filled with awkward silence as the two girls glanced at each other, partly because the hallway alarms had inexplicably gone quiet.
"Well, let's get a move on, shall we?" As Neo's response flickered on screen, her character model began entering the hall into the archive.
President Frank Underwood and his staff looked on in utter bafflement as a man, who inexplicably looked just like the President himself, showed up in an in-game Doritos advertisement.
The president turned over for a small aside, "I don't remember ever making a contract with the guys over at Frito-Lay, though I must say I am quite a fan of their products. Now, I'm a man who's done some research on his family history, and I can say with absolute confidence that I do not have any identical twin brothers. Unless I've missed something important, I'd say we're looking at androids here, and damn realistic ones at that. And considering the folks at Frito-Lay seem so intent on using my young handsome face, maybe I should get a cut of the proceeds."
Frank returned back to the screen to watch as Weiss and her friends continued trying to get through Mr. Meen's labyrinth. There were certain advantages to being the host of the game, in particular being able to access any of the other players' screens at any given time along with their chat systems. Ruby Rose seemed to be using some sort of mod that allowed her to access other players' screens, though luckily everyone on the counter-terrorist team had a built in firewall system that prevented such access without explicit approval.
The accounts of [UU]](͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and [FSN]ColchisPrincess, on the other hand, were a bit more difficult to access, considering that he couldn't track their character models except by looking at other players' screens. Though, based on what he was able to glean from Ruby, Chuckie, and Pyrrha's screens, it was clear that these two were Jeff the Killer and Kimi Watanabe Finster respectively, though Frank had no idea why they had chosen to use those gamertags in particular.
At any rate, there seemed to be some dissension amongst Nora's ranks. Apparently, Nora's lackeys weren't telling her everything, if one were to take the conversation between Weiss and Nora at face value. Even during his brief visit to the company, President Underwood could tell many of the rank-and-file soldiers were thinking of open revolt. On top of that, General Swain was probably thinking of becoming the top dog himself, based on what Frank had read on him.
Nora's company was just one big house of cards waiting to come falling down.
President Underwood turned to his chief of staff, "Stamper."
Doug rose up from his slouched position. "Yes, sir?"
"See if you can set up a private channel with Weiss Schnee."
"Understood."
As his chief of staff began setting up the necessary tools for running a secure, private chat, the American President turned to his audience once more, "I don't know why I didn't think of doing this sooner rather than later. Maybe the grass I've been smoking all day has finally cleared my senses. So far, this game has been nothing but one big war of attrition, but if I can convince Weiss Schnee to come over to our side, then I'll be able to end this whole darn charade in one fell swoop."
Indeed, Frank Underwood was more than confident that he could use this situation to his advantage. With his troops already in place, he could use Weiss's feud against Nora to take control of the city for American democracy, with support from the malcontents already there. Furthermore, Weiss would also make a useful puppet should he decide to reinstate her as the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Of course, he would have to deal with Winter, especially considering she was a tougher cookie than most. But if he could bring down someone like Zoey Barnes, why would Winter be any different?
And of course, if worse comes to worse, he could always return Weiss directly to the Valkyrie girl.
"It always pays to have your options open."
As Doug Stamper finished loading up the necessary programs, a feed going directly to Weiss's camera opened up in a new window.
The president adjusted the mike on his headset, "Good Evening, Ms. Schnee. My name is Frank Underwood. As you may recognize, I am President to the United States of America, one of the greatest God-given nations on this planet. Now, I would like to make a proposition…."
Almost everyone in the room sat in shock as the President of the United States outlined the details of his offer, which would include not only safe haven in the States and protection from Nora's minions, but also guaranteed meals, free healthcare coverage, high-speed Internet, college education, and a chance to star in their own Hollywood movie.
"This sounds almost too good to be true…" muttered Weiss.
"I dunno," said Arslan. "Can we trust him?"
"This man cannot be trusted," Obama replied almost instantly. "The American President is nothing more than a conniving snake."
"Yeah, plus he's one of Nora's goons," Ruby added.
"I know that, but still, it sounds a lot better that the shit we've had to deal with so far," replied the Heiress. "Plus if that dolt tries double-crossing us or something like that, we can just fight back and capture the President himself!"
"Hmmm… that is an interesting way of putting things," said the Uzbek president. "Perhaps I have spoken too soon."
"Besides, you've got that whole arsenal under the base and that Eva-mech in case anything goes wrong."
"But…" said Ruby, "we have to beat the President of the United States in a game of Call of Duty because that's how…"
"I dunno," said Arslan. "I'm starting to think this is a better idea."
Gandhi's voice suddenly came booming out of the intercom. "Hello boys and girls! I am sure you are having a most wonderful time this evening! But, forgive me for eavesdropping on your little negotiations, but were you kiddies actually thinking about cooperating with the American President?"
A number of well-camouflaged panels strewn about the room opened up to reveal an equal number of gun turrets, now aimed at the four individuals in the room. Furthermore, both Obama and Arslan's computer screens turned bright red as the facility's mainframe took over.
"Now," Gandhi continued, "why don't the four of you continue on with your game of Call of Duty? This is a mission of the utmost importance, you know."
A/N: I'm not sure, but I might have rushed this chapter out a bit too early. This chapter wasn't quite what I had originally planned, as I kinda discovered a course of events that seemed to follow the characters' interests a bit better, given the context of the situation. Something similar had happened while writing the battle against Stannis, as Yang originally wasn't supposed to die in that chapter. These sorts of sudden, in-the-moment changes in circumstances is part of why I find writing interesting, especially for plot-lines as convoluted as this fic. I just hope I won't mess up any crucial details and whatnot.
Also, seeing some of the more recent episodes of the main show has given me a couple of ideas of how to integrate Qrow into the main story and its Shrek-laden backstory. The only question is when I should introduce him.
Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this chapter and be sure to leave comments and stuff.