A/N: Apologies for the week delay. Work called and I had no room to write. But I'm still here, and I'm still writing. Anyway, NEW CHAPTER!
Chapter 10: Consequence of Action
The Vault Hunters emerged from the chamber, Axton taking the lead with Winter still in his arms. The soldiers all rushed to him, but he brushed them off.
"Out of my way! And get me a medic!" Axton barked as he set her down on the clearest table. Two soldiers turned and booked it for the entrance while Arthur went to his side. He put two fingers to her neck and checked his watch, which left the two in silence. After a minute he pulled his hand away and sighed.
"She's still alive. So there's that. Guessing those massive tremors weren't simply scientific experimentation?" Arthur questioned as he looked over the Vault Hunters, seeing that all of them were a bit on edge. From what he could guess, within that chamber was some massive being, probably a specialized Guardian that was very good at bringing things down.
"Depends. Does taking down a Guardian the size of a small building count as experimentation?"
"Not unless you brought me some samples to work with."
"Down in the chamber. Go nuts, nerd."
"Oh please," Arthur said with a roll of his eye. "I have people for that." Inclining to the chamber with a twitch of his head, a pair of scientists gathered some tools and descended into the lower chambers, right as some techs came in from topside with some independent lighting. "Moving on to something more pressing, you," he said looking at Zer0. "What are you hiding?" he asked aloud, the guards on edge flicking the safeties off their weapons.
Zer0 looked around at the other Vault Hunters, until Axton sighed and nodded. There was no way they were going to be able to keep the lid on the key fragment, especially when someone was already pointing them out. Zer0 holstered his revolver and pulled out the square third of the key. Arthur moved towards it, but Maya and Gaige proceeded to step between him in a very protective manner.
"No offense, but we aren't exactly keen on handing this over." Gaige pointed out as she noticed the soldiers start to hold their weapons like them, low ready. Arthur looked to the soldiers and waved his hand down, signaling them to relax.
"Ladies, gentlemen, no need for violence. For all we know their extraterrestrial weapons would punch through your armor like wet tissue paper," he said to the guards who looked to one another nervously, before reluctantly lowering their weapons. "I have no intention of repossessing it at this juncture, I only wish to examine it for scientific purposes. Is that amenable?"
"Should be fine." Gaige stated as she took the key piece from Zer0. She followed Arthur over to a table that was covered in scanners, viewing lights and papers. She placed the key piece under a scanner as Arthur started hitting buttons on it. She looked up at Arthur, wondering exactly how he figured out they had a key piece until she noticed the sleek porcelain-like color of his eyes. "So you have scanners in those prostheses?" she asked, pointing at his eyes, which lacked any of the blood vessels you'd see if you looked close-enough.
"Ah, how perceptive of you," Arthur hummed appreciatively. "They're relatively new, but you'd be surprised how-easy it is to hide them behind a pair of spectacles," he said removing his glasses now that the jig was up. A moment later the computers started compiling, pages of data piling up. "If I might be so bold to ask about your prosthetic?" he asked, since there wasn't much for him to actually do until the scans were completed.
"What, this old thing? Made it myself. Integrated a control rod for my bestie, Deathtrap." Gaige answered as she looked at her old beat up arm. This arm had been through hell and back with her, at least half of it made with replacement scrap she'd scrounged up back on Pandora
"Self-design? Impressive. A little crude, no offense intended, but still impressive," he said as the reds of his eyes glowed, taking the structure in. "Guessing your surgeon did great work if it's still working after looking like that."
"Also me. Had to cut my arm off in my dad's shed before working the prosthetic on."
"Well, that was either insanely genius or insanely stupid. Seeing as you're still here, I'll be going with genius."
"Amazing how those two always intersect." Gaige chuckled as she saw the two soldiers and a medic running down and over to Winter on the table. She looked back over to the scanner, seeing the energy signature of the key. She added "You know, the other key we have naturally charges itself every two hundred years, or can be charged using eridium and a catalyst."
"A catalyst you say? Any idea what kind?" Arthur questioned as he pulled the fragment out and put it under a microscope. It seemed like it was the same material as the walls around them, so there were many questions to be had about the capabilities of eridium. Perhaps they could be harnessed to work like microchips or processors.
"A woman called a Siren. Some have the ability to charge artifacts like the keys. Only six exist in the universe."
"Interesting." Arthur hummed as he continued to analyze the key. That is when Axton walked over and yanked the key out from underneath it.
"Show and tell is over. Winter is cleared to fly back and we're leaving." Axton announced as he stored the key away. Arthur shot up and seemed like he was about to murder Axton before taking a deep breath. He let it out, figuring it wouldn't behoove him to just kill the man getting in the way of scientific research and advancement.
"Sir, I really can't just let you walk away with, what might possibly be, the next great advancement in technology!" Arthur tried to argue. Axton simply rolled his eyes as he turned around and started heading for the airship.
"Then you have two choices. Accept that we're leaving or come with us." Axton stated as he raised his hand up and waved him off. He wasn't sure what the nerd was going to choose, but he heard him start to move.
"Fine, fine. My work at this site was starting to stagnate anyway," the boy genius sighed. "You there, get a hover-gurney down here and box up my work station, I'm heading off to Vale," he said to one of his technicians. It was obvious the Vault Hunters weren't going to wait around for him to pack all his stuff, but he trusted his team to do what was asked, so-only worried about retrieving his data drives, his tech-rifle, and his toiletries; Ironwood would provide everything else
It took a little bit longer than expected, but the Vault Hunters along with an unconscious Winter and their new nerdy addition were up in the air and headed back to Vale. The ride was mostly quiet, other than Arthur and Gaige talking shop about their prosthetics, at least until Winter finally came around. She groaned as she put a hand to her head and looked around, seeing that she was on the airship.
"What… happened?" She groaned as she moved her seat up.
"You went overboard taking out that Guardian. You were standing for a few seconds before you collapsed into my arms." Axton explained as he stayed leaned back in his chair.
"Well… thank you for at least bringing me up." Winter grumbled as she relaxed, feeling the ache in her muscles start to set in from sitting for so long. She didn't expect to exert so much energy, but she had the feeling that if she didn't, that thing was going to bury all of them alive. She chuckled "If I must be honest, I would have expected you to simply leave me there from what I've heard about you."
"Give us a bit of credit. We may be your equivalent of mercenaries, but we aren't monsters. Besides, you're way too pretty to leave to rot in a Guardian tomb." Axton updated, and then chuckled. Sure, they could have just let her lie there, but that wouldn't have exactly been a good look to leave a member of the Atlesian Military to die in a hole. Winter simply chuckled as she leaned her chair back to relax until they arrived at Beacon. It was night before they arrived, Axton setting up a meeting with Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood. Axton kept Maya, Winter and Arthur, having everyone else head back to their room for a good night's rest.
They rode the elevator up, finding the two in the office, almost as if they never left the place.
"You got a bed somewhere I can't see?" Axton chuckled as he walked up, pulling the fragment out of his inventory. He took a seat at the desk and set the piece down on it, letting the two leaders get a good look at the eridian tech. He sighed as he got serious "We pulled this from that chamber you couldn't open."
"Amazing. How did you open it?" Ironwood questioned as he looked at his two people. They had been working that chamber for so long, so how did these alien mercenaries manage to do it within a day.
"I did. I… put my hand on the door and it opened." Maya answered. Since she was the one to open the door, even if it was on accident, she figured she would have to be the one to come up. Plus there was her… vision. She went on "But when I did… I had a vision."
"A vision of what?" Ozpin questioned. This was incredibly odd circumstances, an alien ruin that was sealed tight, only to be opened by a woman who never set foot on the planet and hold a piece of something inside.
"Vale, and it was on fire, with a hand reaching out to crush it."
"Plus the thing guarding the piece was screaming about some… Heretic." Axton added. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on the desk. He went on "Gentlemen, whatever is in this Vault… is bad news. Like we should take this key and launch it into a lake bad."
"Please don't," Arthur sighed quietly.
"Your caution is duly noted." Ironwood replied as he looked to his people. As much as Ozpin trusted these Vault Hunters, he still saw them as mercenaries; loyal to a paycheck. He questioned "What do you two have to say?"
"He's right about the Guardian. The beast attempted to bring the entire cavern down around us to keep us from getting that piece." Winter reported. The last thing she wanted to do was lie to her commanding officer, but she didn't think that she or Arthur needed to back them up on their story.
"Arthur, what do you have to say about the piece, or about Maya opening up the door?"
"The piece seems to contain more energy than any of the other artifacts we have unearthed. If, say, the artifacts were batteries, what we recovered before would be AA's and this key would be a generator that powers a city block. In more technical terms, this 'Vault Key Fragment', is some kind of processor infinitely more-powerful than anything we've recovered to date, and in conjunction with its remaining pieces could easily open a Precursor cache," Arthur responded. He had been looking at the notes and readings he had gotten showed that this fragment was beyond what they had found before, and he had just ran a few preliminary tests on it. He wanted to study it more and more, unlock every secret that key could have possibly had on it. He went on "As for the visions and Maya opening up the door… it could be there was a biological scanner on the door that was set to only respond to the presence of a 'Siren'. I speculate the Precursors, or 'Eridians', created the Sirens as caretakers for the tech they left behind, though the exact means of transmission between subjects isn't something I can presently speculate on."
"Noted. Any suggestions?"
"Since the Vault Hunters have made Beacon their home base and are insistent on keeping it within eyeshot, something they made abundantly clear on the flight over, I would like to request permission to make an FOB on Beacon grounds," Arthur began. "If the 'Vault' is truly some sort of alien prison for a mega-criminal, even if we commit to not opening it, it would still be preferable to control the door. To that end, a dedicated laboratory would be necessary not only to examine the Fragment, but to also construct some sort of scanner to collect the remaining pieces."
"And what makes you think this piece of technology isn't enough to open the Vault by itself?" Ironwood questioned.
"To put it in layman's terms, this 'key' doesn't have enough 'teeth' to level-out all the 'tumblers'," Arthur answered. "It's obvious-enough that this piece of E-Tech is meant to work in conjunction with others, and in the case of a master key to a jail cell, it only makes sense that the key itself would be split into fragments."
"General, you're not seriously considering looking for the other pieces. After everything we've told you?" Axton questioned as he stood up. He couldn't understand what the General could be thinking. He went on "The Eridians didn't do stuff like this for shits and giggles. There's a reason this piece was guarded by something willing to bring down a mountain. We should not be screwing with this."
"Your concerns have been noted, but like Dr. Asimov said-"
"Doctor?" Maya gawped openly.
"Yes, I have doctorates. I didn't earn those PhDs for fun you know."
"You didn't tell us to call you 'doctor'."
"That's because imbeciles always think I'm a medical doctor and ask me to look at whatever horrible rash is crawling across their epidermal layer," he said with a flat stare.
"As, I, was saying," Ironwood said getting the conversation back on hand. "Even if we don't open the door, it would still be preferable to control it, before someone less scrupulous tries to do so beneath our notice. That is assuming, what you were saying was correct," he said looking Maya's way.
"You calling her a liar?" Axton asked brusquely.
"I don't know how things work on your 'homeworld', but here, we don't rely on testimony based on dreams, visions, and hallucinations," Ironwood said in a condescending tone. "We rely on hard, irrefutable evidence, and until you have something more substantial to back up Maya's claims, we'll continue our work, with or without you," he said bringing his fist down on the table, making it echo in the large room.
Axton in turn leaned forward, hand on the fragment. He looked around the room, seeing the escape routes and possible cover in the event of a firefight.
"Gentlemen, please. Dr. Asimov-"
"No 'Doctor'. I don't want anyone here asking me to look at something oozing disgusting bodily fluids," Arthur to cut in.
"Mr. Asimov," Ozpin amended. "I will see what vacant facilities we can offer you, but for the time being, any talk of tracking the Vault Key signature is to be shelved." He saw the look Axton had, as well as Maya. It was similar to how a predator looked when it was backed into a corner. Whatever Maya saw, and whatever happened in that chamber, they were willing to fight and die to prevent it from going further. He went on "I'd like Ms. Schnee here to remain to supervise. The Vault Hunters will maintain possession of the fragment until we figure out our next step."
"Ozpin, I can't allow this." Ironwood growled, still maintaining eye contact with the so called 'Commando'.
"You can and you will. James, this is not a situation that needs to escalate. The Vault Hunters are the ones with the fullest experience on this manner. We have just scratched the surface and I shall defer judgement to them. We willcooperate with one another, or I'll take Mr. Axton's advice and… launch it into a lake. Mr. Axton and Ms. Maya, you may leave."
Axton had a smug look of satisfaction as Ironwood simply glared. Axton picked the key up and stored it as they left, leaving Headmaster Ozpin alone with the Atlas personnel. It was painfully silent in the room until Winter questioned "So, what shall we do now?"
"I will have the two of you assigned rooms. Mr. Asimov will have a lab in one of our decommissioned dorms. A Vault Hunter and Ms. Schnee will be with him whenever he does any work on the fragment. Do these conditions sound acceptable?" Ozpin questioned as he turned towards General Ironwood. The General looked like he was about to blow a gasket before he finally relaxed.
"Your trust in these mercenaries is going to backfire." Ironwood stated plainly.
"They aren't mercenaries, they're Vault Hunters." Winter corrected. She had seen them in action, and they were much more than just guns for hire. They had every opportunity to get the upper hand on them and run off with who knows how much in tech, both military and alien. Yet they went out of their way to help her, to remain calm in a situation that could have easily turned against them.
"My point remains."
"And until they do something to lose my trust, I shall continue to do so." Ozpin stated as he leaned back in his chair. He was still cautious of the Vault Hunters, but he had seen their integrity and their passion. Whatever this Heretic was, it sounded like it was something that needed to remain locked away. He went on "For now, we will continue the analysis of the alien technology and language. If this Heretic does require such warnings and protections, then there must be something written about him."
A/N: And there we have it! The piece is in play, and the questions remain. Who is this Heretic? What will the key reveal? Will Atlas and the Vault Hunters continue butting heads? Only time will tell. As usual, PM or review for any thoughts, comments or concerns. Until next time!