AN: In no way am I connected to Rooster Teeth

Emerald didn't like the island the second she stepped on it.

She didn't know how long it had taken to get here, but they had gotten through two films and halfway through a third. She had no idea how fast the ship was travelling though, so she had no idea how far they had gone. Somehow, she didn't feel it was as far as she thought.

"Dr Oobleck…?" All Ruby was getting was static.

"No map," Mercury noted. "But the scroll's getting signal from somewhere. There must be something here, if not someone."

"So let's get going. I can only hear the sea on the other side of this rock wall, so that way it is." After a step, Ruby glanced back at Mercury. "Do you want to scout ahead?"

"I'd rather not tip my hand too soon if whoever is here doesn't know."

No shifting into Fluffy either then.

Only then did it occur to Emerald that it would be very difficult to dress up Fluffy as Mercury had shown he could use his Semblance in that form too. That was irritating.

"Same here," Emerald agreed.

This island was very eerie.

The ship behind them wasn't moving and no one was in the area. Emerald closed her eyes and focused, but she couldn't sense anything. Save for the four of them, there was no life. No Grimm, no plant and no human.

There were a lot of radio waves in the air.

Not like the Atlesian Knights, but not too different. Robots maybe?

Maidens couldn't directly sense robots but there were signs and Emerald was sure that's what these were. Port had said Merlot Industries worked with androids.

She opened her eyes. "Think they'll have androids here?"

"Wouldn't mind it," Mercury noted. "Something about this place feels very wrong."

"You've no idea."

No androids immediately jumped them. Only a few feet along the cliff, it began to level out enough to see a huge metal tower that was most likely a radio tower. That view made them stop and think a little more.

"If our calls are being jammed and it's not some miraculous bug, that's probably the problem." Mercury made no move forward though.

Yang wasn't too worried. "Easy enough to climb to see if it's the only one. If it is, we'll just smash it."

"And get sued for the damage if this does turn out to be legitimate? Not everyone takes millions of lien of damage like your friend Junior does."

What are they talking about?

"This hardly looks legitimate."

"We can't prove that yet."

"Let's have a closer look," Ruby decided. "Then we'll go from there."

There was still nothing dangerous around. The only thing they came across were gates that were easy to push open and those same crates and cages they had seen on the mainland. They were certainly in the right place and with no Grimm here, someone would need to capture them from elsewhere.

But why would anyone want to do that? How do the green spiked Grimm fit in?

On a console at the base of the tower, there was a box not unlike what was on the security nodes. The four shared a very confused look (who sabotages their own tower?) before Mercury raised an eyebrow and removed it with a sharp tug.

All four scrolls rang instantly.

Emerald checked hers. No user ID and no picture. All four had that. After two rings, three of the scrolls stopped. Ruby's kept ringing.

She answered, but not the video feed. "Umm…Hello?"

A completely new voice responded. "Much better. Thank you for that. I had almost forgotten that was there."

"You don't get many visitors, do you," Mercury stated.

"No. I would say you were in the first in…forever."

So no one knows you're here.

"Do we get a name? Or can we give you one?"

Emerald smiled a little at Yang's evil grin.

"Oh, where are my manners? I am Dr Merlot. Are you students?"

Mercury's scroll went off again. He checked it and shrugged. "Sure. Why not?" He pressed the screen. Of course, he put his on speaker too.

"What have you gotten into now Remedy?"

Ozpin.

Not who Emerald was expecting.

Who sounded more exasperated than angry or worried.

To be fair, it does tend to be us, doesn't it? This time, we weren't even looking for trouble. This must be what Harry constantly felt like.

"Ah. Beacon students. How exciting. How have you been these days Oz?" Dr Merlot sounded way too peppy.

Emerald couldn't wait to shut him up.

"Dr Merlot. It was thought you had perished in the Mountain Glenn disaster."

"Have a little more respect Oz. You of all people should know my capabilities."

"Are those weird Grimm because of you?" Mercury interrupted.

"Young man, did no one ever teach you it is bad manners to interrupt your elders? The adults are talking."

"It's my scroll data you're chatting on. I can just switch him off."

Dr Merlot chuckled. "Of course you wouldn't."

"He would," Ozpin confirmed. "I must say Dr Merlot, I am not surprised to find you are experimenting with Grimm. What I am curious of is how much of the Mountain Glenn disaster you were personally responsible for?"

Mercury and Emerald exchanged a look.

"I needed subjects with which to conduct my research. Where else was I supposed to get them?"

"I can think of somewhere," Mercury interrupted again. Emerald could think of a few, but Mountain Glenn was the main one that popped to mind. "How many human or Faunus staff do you have?"

An interesting question. They knew they were fighting Grimm. It was very likely he had androids, especially if he had few staff. But how many staff did he have?

"Quite the inquisitive child you have there Ozpin. He has potential. I can't wait to test how much."

"They are far more than anything you can throw at them," Ozpin replied firmly.

"What kind of test?" Yang asked rather eagerly. "We've been on this island for a whole ten minutes and we haven't had a welcoming committee."

"And if it doesn't at least match the fourteen mutated Alpha Beowolves I am going to be very disappointed," Mercury tagged on.

Emerald face palmed.

Ruby patted her shoulder with a gentle smile. [We're here to bail them out if they get into trouble.]

[Someone has to be sensible.] Even so, it was in jest. [Besides, they're losing.]

[They went for the big guys and not the cannon fodder. That's why we're beating them.]

Emerald shook her head with a smile.

They were still at the radio tower. Emerald focused, but she couldn't sense anything out of the ordinary. She moved away to a little beach and sat down. She closed her eyes and breathed. She could feel the others' eyes on her, but they gave her space.

"No need to worry about that," Dr Merlot assured. "I like to make my guests feel very welcome."

Emerald's dream last night…

"Well, it's late. You need to have them replaced." Yang tried to sound disappointed but was failing badly.

The dream had been a day in the life of someone else. A different Spring Maiden. She had been married; had two kids. The elder and younger had spent the entire morning playing football in the front garden of their house in their cul de sac.

"If you want, we can make a house visit," Mercury suggested.

Nothing important had happened in the dream. The kids played outside while Spring had had a morning with her husband. In the evening, they had visited a neighbours who was having a barbecue, including a younger cousin they were close to and babysat often. She put the children to bed and the husband read them a bedtime story. So…simple and unremarkable.

"Why, that would be lovely. My lab isn't far and I can give you a far more deserving welcome there. See you soon, students." He hung up.

Emerald ran the sand through her fingers, eyes still closed.

"Perhaps Remedy, you need more discussion on caution." Ozpin hadn't hung up yet. "Would it be wise for you to retreat? You have been fighting all day."

Hmm.

"We can handle it Professor," Ruby replied with conviction. "We've been careful and we're still raring to go."

The sand began to shift.

"Mercury?"

"I'm fine. No problems whatsoever and I've tried a few new things."

"Very well, if you're so sure. I'm still pinpointing exactly where you are but that won't take long. An airship will pick you up."

It was sunset now. It would be dark in half an hour.

"Stowing away on the ship is what took the time. I don't think the island's that big, so we won't be long."

"Even so, I would like you to keep the line open. Dr Merlot was once a common guest lecturer at Beacon before he returned to Mountain Glenn to continue his research full time. He is very dangerous."

The Spring Maiden before Krystal Umi had been her mother. Krystal had never known before her death. The mother, Sky, had died the year before Krystal started Haven. She had run away when she learned why Sky had died and had taken shelter in Raven Branwen's tribe. The brother was lost to the foster system and died in a Grimm attack. Krystal had begun to see the tribe as her home and Raven herself…

"We'll keep that in mind."

Emerald opened her eyes.

It looked beautiful. The wood had been buried deep; removed from the earth years ago. It had been easy to rejuvenate and shape. Glass, perhaps washed up from the sea in litter, had set within. There was no reason for the clay to be there, but it had been buried even deeper than the wood. The clay held it together, but was fractured and damaged. Sand and glass had filled those. Wood surrounded the clay, both outside and within.

The shape reminded Emerald of a bird wing or perhaps a tear drop.

[I don't know what that is.] Mercury sat down next to her, his hand over hers. [I recognise it's some sort of instrument and those are holes like in a flute, but I don't know what it is.]

Emerald wasn't sure either. [It's not done yet.]

But that was for another day.

Mercury frowned at her and looked back at it. He thought it looked finished.

"Let's go." Emerald picked it up and gave it to Mercury, who dutifully put it in his backpack. He had only brought it in case he needed to bring something back, which she was now grateful for. "Any idea which way?"

"We came from that way," he pointed. "And that way leads to the sea. That's the only way that heads inland."

"That way it is then."

As it happened, Mercury had put Ozpin on speaker, but he hadn't given him video feed. As such, with the man so quiet, it was very easy to forget he could hear most of the words if they spoke loud enough.

They didn't really care.

Mercury had climbed the tower and hadn't seen anything dangerous, so while they were ready for battle, they were quite relaxed.

Ruby started humming. It took Emerald a moment to place it and she immediately tried to shut it out. It was one of those tunes that you never got out of your head.

Mercury groaned. "Please don't get that stuck in my head."

"Well I can't help it."

Yang then started humming it.

Mercury closed his eyes painfully. Then he looked at Emerald. "Help?"

She chuckled, but did help him. Her Semblance reached out and made him deaf to the song. He gave her a very grateful smile. Emerald didn't blame him.

The four stopped in unison.

"That's goo. Bright. Blue. Goo."

There was nothing to add to Ruby's statement.

"Let's just go on the pipes and not touch it," Emerald stated simply. "We don't have anything to collect a sample in."

"That's not entirely true," Mercury replied. "I've got some bottles of water, but I'm not sure I want to try it with that."

"It's not bubbling," Ruby pointed out.

"Doesn't mean anything."

Yang tossed a rock into it. It began to dissolve. "It's bubbling now."

"Okay," Ruby almost sang. "Go around."

Over the pipes was the only planned way down. There wasn't a path to the front door of what obviously was a huge shutter door. The ground was soil, but had craters and holes that suggested constant damage.

"I'm still waiting on this welcoming committee," Emerald stated, crossing her arms. The lack of life was bothering her greatly and she wanted to vent that on something. There wasn't even a blade of grass.

Mercury put an arm around her and gently tugged her closer. Yang stepped to her a little and rubbed her back slowly. Emerald didn't know if they knew what was bothering her, but she was grateful for the attention all the same.

Ruby smiled at her. She then turned and leapt into one of the craters, scythe raised and ready for action.

Nothing happened.

Ruby groaned. "Oh, come on!"

Yang sniggered. "Well, how do we want to do it? Knock or smash it down?"

It was at that point the shutter began to raise.

Mercury rolled his eyes. "Of course." Then his smile grew. "But at least we have company."

That was the best news Emerald had heard all day.

There weren't any mutated Grimm. That disappointed her, but at least they didn't have to be careful of the thing exploding in an inconvenient place. Another disappointment was that the most powerful Grimm was an Ursa, not even an Ursa Major. There were thirty, maybe forty of them.

However, there were humanoid robots. The white ones didn't look too different from the Atlesian Knights General Ironwood brought to Vale, except they were bulkier. They were almost too similar. The red ones were very different; they were far sleeker and their armour appeared less thick.

"Not sure this is good enough," Yang commented.

"Easy there Artemis," Mercury chuckled. "We don't know what the androids can do. That's a long spear and that gun looks interesting. Let's smash them before we review them."

"I'm okay with that, but I warn you: I'm a harsh critic."

"Especially when it comes to bikes," Emerald tagged on.

"Exactly." Yang leapt down just under the little shelf they were standing on. She then glanced at Mercury as he joined her. "Seen any good models recently?"

"No." He straightened and stretched before waiting for the Beowulf out front to meet him. "The newer ones are great for speed, but have no stabilisation and burn through the engine far too fast. And don't get me started on the quality of tires people put on those things."

"Let me guess…" Yang smashed an Ursa back with a punch. "They come for a tire problem and are surprised to learn how easy it is to burn rubber?"

"And it's only when they return the third time in a month that they realise how expensive it is."

"Idiots."

Emerald sighed with a soft smile. She studied the area, but no one required help. Mercury and Yang got too close for the android to use its long spear, but it was far faster than Emerald had thought. Ruby had been drawn to the Grimm and years of experience were evident there. The white androids though…

Those had been programmed well. They had guns and were staying at a distance. They used grenade launchers when the enemy was almost alone and a kind of machine gun/shotgun when they had allies near them.

Emerald pounced.

She landed right behind them and aimed for the closest one's neck. The sickle caught in the wires. It took a second swing to decapitate it.

That's quite impressive actually. The Atlesian Knights aren't that strong.

The second one turned around swiftly to meet her. To her surprise, it aimed the gun at the ground but it was easy to guess what was going to happen. She backflipped back, quickly figuring out where it was going to land before striking.

As far as she could tell, it had taken no damage from a point blank grenade to the ground. There was a hole, but certainly not a crater like the ones scattered around.

That's some grenade. What is in those things?

No doubt Quicksilver would steal one if they could.

Interestingly enough, the one next to the one she aimed for had also grenade pounded the ground and was a good few feet away.

So get too close and it'll bounce back while dealing you damage. That might be trouble if we encounter many more of them.

For the moment though, there was plenty of room. As such, there were few problems.

The white androids had scattered and were a little more of a problem, but they were easier to deal with than the red ones. They were ridiculously fast, didn't get stunned even for a moment and their range was quite a bit farther than obvious physics suggested.

The Grimm weren't worth commenting on, save for being good shields.

Naturally, unlike the Grimm, the androids didn't vanish once they were defeated.

"They were pretty well built," Ruby grinned.

Emerald caught her hood just before her Semblance got away from her. "No dissembling killer robots."

Ruby pouted at her. "But Em-"

"No. You want an assassin, you've got a perfectly good one over there and he would even get rid of the body for you, all free of charge. We have enough spare parts in the garage. No excuses."

"But Em! Please?"

"No."

The wonderful thing about Emerald's Semblance was that she could use it on herself to avoid looking at Ruby's puppy eyes. She very quickly extended that to Yang and Mercury, as they had as little resistance as her.

Just as well as Ruby immediately spun to them.

""No.""

Her shoulders slumped. "Big bunch of meanies."

Emerald hardened her heart, trying not to laugh or give in.

Yang reached out and ruffled her sister's hair. "Nice try Ruby."

Ruby was still playing up the wounded puppy act.

Mercury tried his luck. "You know Athena, if the Alpha Beowolves were on the mainland and obviously considered successes, wouldn't there be more powerful Grimm waiting for us in there?"

That was something Emerald had been deliberately avoiding thinking about, but he probably wasn't wrong.

The thought did cheer Ruby up immensely. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Ruby's scroll rang. She groaned. "Oh, come on!"

That got a chuckle out of all three of them.

Good manners won out and Ruby answered. "Hello?"

"Welcome students. How did you find this welcoming party?"

"Disappointing," Mercury replied. "The robots were better than expected, though to be honest that's not saying much."

"A pity you feel that way. Come on inside. It is a great opportunity for you to experience a working lab in prime condition. Merlot Industries has long held advancement of androids as a priority and their advancement is an excellent boon for-"

Mercury reached over and pressed the end button.

Yang and Emerald suppressed a laugh.

Ruby gave him a look.

"What? He talked too much. We would have needed to wait until the end of his speech to get anything interesting and his company's years old. We might have been here hours."

More likely five minutes, but evidently Mercury hadn't been willing to wait that long.

"Well." They all jumped as Merlot's voice came over a speaker. "That was very rude."

Mercury threw a knife in an arc. It sliced off a camera and boomeranged back to him. "Why not just use the tannoy from the beginning?"

"What happened to no property damage?" Yang asked with folded arms.

"That was before the witness testimony of Grimm coming out of a research facility with the facility's androids. I'm pretty sure Oobleck would have told us if Merlot Industries had a license for working with Grimm."

"That's a thing?" Emerald asked.

"Sure it is."

"That's fourth year material Mercury," Ozpin explained. "Merlot Industries has no such license. No current company does."

"Well. That makes my essay easier."

"I do not count as a reliable source on this topic Mercury as I officially only have papers of companies in Vale and only then if they give them to me."

"Well damn."

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him.

"That's just rude."

"Your students have no manners at all Oz." Dr Merlot was beginning to sound like a petulant child. They couldn't see another speaker.

"I run a Combat School Dr Merlot, not a grammar school." At least Ozpin didn't seem annoyed by them. But then Mercury would just switch him off too. "After someone sends something to kill them, no matter how ineffective, they do have every right to be less than gracious towards that individual."

Yang shrugged as if to say 'that's a fair point'.

"If you think this is us being rude…" Emerald pushed her hands in her pockets. "Then you have no idea what you're getting into if we get mad at you."

Mercury smirked at that. He then ignored the adults. "Well fearless leader? Back or forth?"

"Forth," Ruby replied as if scandalised. "Duh!" She then spun around and trotted inside, knowing full well her family would follow.

The lab was exactly what Emerald was expecting: mostly white, very organised and not anything interesting in sight.

Then again, there weren't any androids or Grimm either.

"Hey, Merlot," Mercury called to the air. "Don't suppose you're going to give your visitors a map?"

That was obviously something that Ruby and Yang hadn't thought about. To be fair, it hadn't occurred to Emerald either until she saw the four doors scattered around the walls.

One of the doors opened. "This way please."

The four glanced at each other. Ruby's eyes rested a little longer on Mercury, who tilted his head almost imperceptivity. They would play along while he would carefully search for other options should they need them.

Emerald was sure they would.

However, without a map of the facility and no way of really getting one, they didn't have much choice to follow Merlot's plans. He was unlikely to lead them directly to him, but it was expected that he wanted test subjects for his guinea pigs.

Given the fact his mutated Beowolves were casually wandering around on the mainland, Merlot almost certainly had things more powerful.

Emerald found herself looking forward to it.

They followed wide and thin hallways to rooms to more hallways to more rooms.

Eventually, they came to a halt, ignoring the room in the far end. To try and get their attention again, the door kept opening and closing. None of them moved towards it.

Yang groaned. "How long is this going to take?"

"Almost there," Merlot replied. "My apologies that there isn't a more direct route but that is for security reasons."

"That's fine," Mercury replied. He had wandered over to a console and had connected his scroll to it but was standing so the camera wouldn't see. "We're in no rush and we've been going all day. Mind if we take a break?"

"Well…I suppose there's no harm. We wouldn't want you to hurt yourselves now, would we?"

Mercury needed time and it would be wise to make sure Merlot didn't focus on him. This was one of those times Emerald was regretting the fact her Semblance didn't work on cameras.

"I'll take a water Mercury," Emerald called.

Mercury threw the bag at her.

"That's no way to treat a lady."

She got a scoff as a response.

She opened the bag and caught sight of the runes just below the stitching. Wondering if he had finally managed to make the bag weightless and also bottomless, she lifted it up and down a little. She barely felt it, but that didn't mean much. There wasn't much in there.

Emerald took out one bottle of water and chugged down half of it. She found she was quite thirsty.

She tossed another to Ruby, who began to gulp hers down.

She deliberately threw Yang's at her head.

Yang caught it when it bounced off, but she turned to give Emerald a blank look. "Oh, so that's how it's going to be?" She knew what Emerald was doing, but even if she didn't she would have played along.

Emerald shrugged and took another sip. "You should have been paying attention."

"Really."

"She has a point Yang," Ruby stirred as she took another gulp herself. She knew full well where this was likely to go and Emerald could easily see the mischief in her eyes.

Yang was going to respond to that somehow, probably with Ruby first as she was closest. But what would she do?

In the corner of her eye, Mercury was being very still and trying not to draw attention to himself.

Yang poured the rest of her water bottle over Ruby's head.

Emerald fought back a chuckle while Ruby spluttered. She wasn't very successful and a full blown laugh escaped when Ruby jumped on her sister's shoulders and returned the favour.

Of course, since Emerald started it, something was heading her way.

However, Yang only chose to steal Emerald's water bottle and managed to finish it in three seconds. Emerald had thought that the bottle itself made that impossible, but she wasn't going to question that now.

"Give that back Yang." She didn't want it back, but nothing attracted attention like a fight. It wasn't as if Merlot would notice the bottle was empty.

Yang stuck her tongue out. "Neh, neh-neh, neh-neh, neh!"

Emerald jumped for her.

Ruby hopped off Yang's shoulders and made a show at trying to hold Emerald back.

This very quickly descended into a cat and mouse game combined with the occasional tug of war. There was a small part of Emerald that knew how childish this was, but she didn't care.

"Well, if you are feeling better, would you like to continue?" Merlot asked as the door continued to open and close.

"Merlot. Don't go there." Mercury. He was leaning with his back to the console, arms and legs crossed. Whatever he was doing needed time, but obviously not attention.

"I am merely concerned with their welfare."

"Well, I'm concerned about mine and getting involved in a sister scuffle never ends well for me. Regardless of whether I was the one who interrupted it or not."

He did have a point there.

For a few minutes, Emerald nearly forgot that this started because they were buying time. It was just a game they played at home and Ruby and Yang were going to lose if Emerald had anything to say about it.

After a while, Mercury turned back to the console, shaking his head.

Three seconds later, a door on the opposite wall opened.

As if a button had been pressed, the girls stopped fighting.

"What have you done?" Merlot growled, shock evident in his voice.

Mercury flicked a few screens on his scroll before he put it back on his belt. "Relax, would you? We're just going to take a little detour, that's all. For the record, your security is horrendous."

Looked like Mercury had managed to hook his scroll up to the laboratory itself. He obviously had schematics and some control over the security system, at the least. The second wasn't a big thing with his Semblance being a nice bypass, but the map was essential.

"You're not authorised to be in there!"

Merlot couldn't have made a better line to advertise that to us if he tried.

Naturally, the four headed in there.

So that's where the test tubes were.

They fluoresced in the same way the goo outside did, but instead of blue they were green. A very familiar green and were indeed guarded by a great many mutated Creeps and Beowolves. There were a huge number of androids too. What was inside the test tubes couldn't be seen. Over to the side were canisters of the same colour.

"That is my improved serum, the pinnacle of years of dedicated research."

"We'll see about that," Yang commented.

Mercury held up a hand. The other three waited a little impatiently. "Say Ozpin…On a scale of one to ten, how intact do you need this lab?"

Ozpin hummed as if he was thinking. "Preferably a zero."

Ruby let out an evil cackle. "Destroy! Everything!"

That was precisely what they did.

Yang even picked a playlist from her scroll's music library to fit the battle.

The room was easy the size of a football pitch so there was always plenty of room to run around. The androids might have armour that protected them from their own grenades, but the mutated Grimm had no such protection and were easy to get in the crossfire. The Grimm also didn't know the word 'teamwork', so it was remarkably simply to use their collateral damage to hit something else.

Then a love song came on.

You have got to be kidding me!

Mercury caught the android's spear. "By all that is dark and evil Yang, do you seriously listen to that?"

"No!" Yang sounded just as horrified as Emerald felt. "I didn't put this on there!"

"Switch it!" For once, that sounded like an order from Ruby.

Yang disengaged from the battle for a good five minutes to search through her scroll for any other unwelcome hits. By the second song she found and deleted, Nora had done it.

Soon enough, the good tunes were back on again.

So the fight continued.

The biggest difficulty was destroying the test tubes. Not only did the mutated Grimm not move away from them no matter what they did, whatever the thing was made of was resistant to quite a bit of brute force. Yang had eventually had enough and shattered it with a point blank Dust round; an action quickly adopted by the other three.

The fight wasn't exactly difficult, but Emerald got very sick of it very soon.

The Creeps stayed in the spot they had chosen and always exploded when they were killed, so it was very easy to learn their blast range and behaviour just before the boom. They were mostly used as bombs against the others.

The Beowolves were fast but predictable. Their issue was the insane amount of damage they could take. Their 'spike out of the ground' move was very helpful against the androids.

The white androids didn't stay in place for more than a minute (less if someone got too close) and their armour was quite effective at long range shots. Mercury wound up killing most of them with that red and grey grenade-like Dust blast.

The red androids were by far the most annoying. Ruby was the first to have enough after one too many jabs from a distance she had been sure they couldn't reach. She switched to yellow Dust rounds. That obviously hadn't been taken into account in their design and they went down fast.

If they used their full abilities they could have finished the fight far sooner.

However, with cameras recording and them having no idea where that footage would end up, they were playing it cautious.

That and their points game would be very skewed if they didn't have restrictions.

"Hmm. A minor setback but I must say you have great combat ability." A large door on the far wall opened. "This way please."

Okay. That's not good.

Emerald glanced at Mercury, who had checked his scroll. He caught her eye and nodded once. She started forward carefully and the others followed. Yang switched off her scroll's music for now.

"So…We break his stuff and he's not even mad?" Ruby asked, her excitement from before almost gone.

"Never a good sign Ruby," Mercury replied. "Especially as this must have cost millions of lien, if not more. I will give it a ten out of ten for stability though. All those explosions and not one scorch mark on the walls or floor."

"It didn't crush us, so I'm not going to complain," Emerald shrugged. "So where are we going?"

"To an arena is my guess. Those not up for a harder fight; speak now or forever hold you peace."

Yang snorted. "Where's that even from anyway?"

"You think I would know?"

"I would have preferred you not to spoil the surprise," Merlot sighed. "But I supposed it can't be helped. Fortunately I have already perfected the formula for my serum, but there are some subjects that have yet to be tested. You'll do nicely."

"If you're talking about the Beowolves and Creeps, I could write a paper on why they're not perfect," Mercury answered, not a care in the world. He then scoffed. "In fact, I could write one on why the originals are superior."

Now that I think about it, why are the Grimm suddenly attacking him now when they didn't at Mountain Glenn? What's changed?

"But why Grimm?" Ruby asked. "I mean, you have all these resources and time…Why not use your androids in place of Huntsmen or find a way to grow enough food for when trade isn't possible? Why try to make Grimm more deadly?"

Mercury rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything. He was faced away so Ruby couldn't see.

To him, the answer was obvious. It took a moment for Emerald to try understand the repercussions, but the point was that he had no interest in helping other people. Greed. Pure and simple.

For once, Merlot didn't answer. "Not far now students."

"Fear tactics Ruby." Mercury had changed his mind. "Grimm are thought to be uncontrollable and are the sole thing that can make any people who loathe each other cooperate. If someone were shown to control them, there would be chaos and terror spread everywhere. The power of the Grimm is not necessarily in their strength, but their numbers. When one attacks a village, the emotions of that village will continue to bring more until its defenders fall. If the Grimm are tougher to kill, villages that have stood for years could fall. If someone was shown to create and control them, demands could be made and would probably be met."

Emerald glanced at him, but he didn't continue. There was more to it; he had left out Cinder and those she worked with. Cinder could control Grimm, but she hadn't gone that route. Mercury knew all this.

There was more. There had to be.

But Mercury didn't say it.

Ruby frowned a little as she worked through that. Yang was also quiet.

Mercury's eyes went to Ruby.

He wants her to figure out the rest. But what is it he wants us to figure out?

Yang stopped for a moment. When she continued, there was a slight smile there.

Emerald was definitely missing something.

Ruby didn't get it either.

"You are certainly an intelligent one."

The four ignored the man.

After a while, the catwalk just literally stopped. Below was a circular area not unlike an ancient arena. The roof was so high Emerald could barely see it. Again, the area was huge but this time there were no obstacles down there. It was plain and flat.

Flying possibly. Nevermores sometimes live in Emerald Forest.

"Professor Ozpin?"

"Yes Ruby?"

"I think we'll be ready to leave soon. Could you send that airship soon please?"

"Certainly. I do ask that you don't do something stupid, though I trust you to be far better than that."

"Depends on the mood," Mercury replied.

"Indeed."

"Wish we brought Zwei," Yang muttered wistfully. "And Talaria too. They'd have had a great time."

"Glad you came then?" Mercury asked with a smile.

"Oh yeah. Who knows what you would have got up to if you had gone alone?"

"I would be back by now."

"Yeah right."

"Guys." Ruby pointed to the arena. "Dad's making cookies for us when we get back. I want to get home as soon as possible."

Emerald thought about that for less than a second. "What kind?"

"He said all of them and then some."

Instantly, all four jumped into the arena.

Ozpin spoke then. "Am I to assume you want the airship to drop you off at home rather than return to Beacon?"

"Yes," was the unanimous response.

"I will tell the driver."

"Welcome to the Testing Grounds, students." Merlot sounded like an announcer at a sports match. "As you have proven more than a match for my common subjects, I will just skip that and test my new creations."

"I think there's a bit of plagiarism in there," Mercury responded with folded arms. "And you need to fire your marketer. 'Testing Grounds' certainly explains the purpose, but there's no spark there. No originality."

There was a notable pause before Merlot continued. From the slight growl at the beginning of his speech, Mercury was really annoying him.

"I have quite a bit of data on previous experiments and I thank you for more. You have highlighted and exploited weaknesses I had not thought of. However, I think you will find this next ground far superior to what you fought before. I will be fair and provide you with one each. We both gain nothing from you dying so soon."

"Five lien on Nevermores," Emerald stated.

"I'll call. I pick Ursa." Only when Mercury said it did Emerald realise they had yet to see one. It had been Ursa Major. She groaned and accepted she was going to lose.

"I'm with Emerald," Ruby added. "Nevermore. Zebrina had to fight one in Initiation. Yang?"

That's some bad luck, considering that Jaune provoked that Death Stalker and the Beringal had been saved for us.

"I think he's going to go big first. Death Stalker."

That…wasn't a bad bet actually.

But the wall seemed to ripple and it was mutated Ursa that charged through. Save for the head, there was very little white on them. It had been replaced by green, but rather than the spikes the Beowolves had, it was a completely round and smooth surface. There were four of them, as he had said. There were almost certainly more in the wings.

Five lien to Mercury so far.

"I honestly expected them to be bigger," Mercury commented.

"As long as they're stronger, they can be the size of a mouse for all I care," Yang responded.

Honestly, Emerald thought she would have more trouble with something that was the size of a mouse.

The four immediately split and spread out. The size of the arena made it possible for four individual matches.

It was fun actually. Ursa were the first, Nevermore was next, Boarbatusk then, Death Stalker came after, followed by King Taijitu and the last group were Griffons. All mutated and all different.

Creeps exploded. Beowolves created a line of spikes. Ursa could create spheres of that green stuff with black something inside that was probably Grimm flesh or something that exploded on contact. Boarbatusk could spin sideways as well their normal way and could send projectiles in all directions. Nevermore had homing green feathers when it fired them at the ground and could create whirlwinds. The Death Stalker had a good amount of tricks, mostly firing some kind of projectile in different directions and causing a minor earthquake when its stinger was driven into the ground. King Taijitu had four heads and two tails which allowed them to fly. A Griffon's roar was a dangerous attack in of itself that could easily knock someone off their feet, they could detach their claws to fire like a missile, only to regrow them again and the green shapes manifested as tentacles that seemed to have a mind of their own as they wormed around weapons.

It was fun.

Absolutely dangerous and had many close calls, but fun.

These Grimm evidently had no idea how to cooperate, so it was merely four fights running simultaneously. Oddly enough, the area was large enough that they didn't have to worry about collateral damage or interfering with each other.

But there was no time between each one.

By the time the Death Stalker appeared, Emerald had been running on autopilot and was fighting the Maiden power that wanted to fight for her. She didn't mind showing it if she needed it or for cheap tricks that could have a thousand explanations, but she wasn't using it for this. She would use it against people because they were the real dangers, but not against Grimm that became predictable after a few minutes observing.

Even so, some things happened. A whirlwind that lost its power a millisecond before it hit her or became more powerful so she could get a lift to her enemy's face. The stinger not making an earthquake once it pierced the ground. A slight gust of wind that knocked a long range projectile off course.

That Emerald didn't bother to resist. It was as if the power had a mind of its own, but did exactly what Emerald would have done if she planned to use it.

The second thing Amber had taught her was how to prevent the eye glow through a lot of willpower. That was a sign that 'I'm a Maiden', but it turned out it was optional. Amber had originally thought Emerald and Mercury were two kids down on their luck that were stealing to survive, so had tried to scare them away. If Emerald hadn't been so loyal to Cinder, it would have worked on her. Cinder had wanted people to fear her so had never hidden those abilities.

Using the power didn't cause the eye glow unless the Maiden did that, by accident or not. Before she was shown, Emerald had done so because she hadn't known any better. Now she managed to instinctively prevent it.

Her use of it was far more subtle than the majority of her predecessors.

It didn't change the fact Emerald was absolutely exhausted after the Griffon.

She wasn't the only one. Ruby was leaning heavily on Crescent Rose, but a very satisfied smile was on her face. Yang was panting hard and also had a very happy grin on her face. Both looked ready to collapse. Emerald wasn't feeling much better.

Mercury alone was unaffected. He was standing tall, arms crossed and finger idly tapping his arm. He looked bored.

You have no idea how much I hate you right now Mercury.

Emerald closed her eyes and controlled her breathing. She sensed energy from around and guided it towards herself. Forcing it didn't work. Guiding it normally did. She didn't get much because there was nothing living to generate that life energy so there was little nature could give her. That unnerved feeling grew, but she no longer felt like she was going to collapse at any minute.

"This isn't possible. You should have been ripped apart. You cannot still be alive." The man didn't sound angry. He sounded in complete and utter disbelief.

"Just so you know Merlot: we're second years." Mercury didn't even sound winded.

Emerald would have told Mercury not to provoke him, but she trusted him. She knew what would happen next.

Just as she predicted, Merlot sent every Grimm he had at them.

Just as she knew he would, Mercury protected them.

The Guardian Form appeared. It wrapped around all them of them and carefully nudged them together, something they were very glad of. They just relaxed and caught their breath again.

But Mercury didn't attack with the aura Grimm dragon.

He used the aura blade.

He hadn't used the weapon at all before when he battled his gauntlet. He stuck solely to his greaves and fighting style. At no point was Dust or a blade used. That was in the spirit of their competition.

Now it was extermination, not a game.

Mercury knew precisely where to aim.

The body/tail lowered and lay next to another layer so the girls could see. He avoided a later scolding by doing that.

It was interesting actually. Logically, Emerald knew he must at least have the same amount of aura than that wrong Grimm aura dragon that Cinder had ripped out of him. That had destroyed a lot of villages with strong defenders. His aura recharge had always been very swift. She had just never seen him use it.

One swipe of the blade and whatever he had been aiming for was killed instantly. The sky was no obstacle as he had always been able to jump that high with his prosthetics combined with aura and, the very rare time it wasn't enough, he bounced off the wall. He was killing the things with no effort quicker than Merlot could release the others to replace them.

"Awesome," Ruby murmured breathlessly.

This wasn't a game. It was business.

But to Emerald, it was also a show.

Mercury was saying that he was ready to go out on his own. He was much more powerful than he had ever been before and he knew how to use it. He knew there was a time for games and a time to be serious. He was saying he wasn't someone they needed to worry about.

He's going to leave. Very soon.

I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

Within three minutes, there were no more replacements. None of the Grimm had gotten anywhere near the girls.

Mercury looked back as the blade vanished. He held Emerald's eyes; silently asking if she understood.

Emerald swallowed. With a long breath, she nodded once.

I'll manage.

He smiled. His shoulders relaxed a little.

Yang gave him a nod of approval as well. She had understood his message too.

Another few seconds passed.

Yang looked up with a grin. "What's wrong Dr Merlot? Run out of experiments?"

…

"What are you?"

Merlot had gone far past disbelief at this point. His tone was completely flat and might as well have been a robot.

"Done with this place honestly," was Mercury's casual response. "Is it a big red button?"

The Guardian Form snarled a little and flapped its wings once. It was gone through the ceiling. Not a second later, red lights were flashing and sirens were blaring.

"The self-destruct system has been activated. This building will detonate in five minutes. This sequence cannot be aborted."

Why is that voice so chirpy? At least it's not on repeat.

"The airship will be there momentarily," Ozpin said. Emerald had almost forgotten he was on the scroll. "Find a way outside or to a window and it will pick you up."

"Got it." With a press of a button on Mercury's scroll, all the doors opened. "This way." He headed towards one particular hallway, which Emerald could see opened up for air travel.

"Next time, tell us the way out before you blow up the building," Yang scolded, but she didn't sound too upset.

"Where's the fun in that?" A rather predictable response.

The airship began to fly through the gap in the hangar then, careful not to damage a wing at the awkward angle but also careful to be quick. It didn't land properly but hovered a little above the ground with the side facing them opened.

Emerald hopped up first, immediately turning around to check on the others. Ruby and Yang were obviously tired but got on with little problems. Mercury waited until last before joining them.

The door instantly came down and began to cautiously make its way out again.

"Anyone injured?" The pilot questioned, not taking his eyes off the controls.

"No," Ruby replied happily. "Mission's done. Yippee!"

"That's what we like to hear."

Emerald's head hit the wall. The sturdy structure felt good against her back. "Yeah. Job well done."

"And our reward is cookies," Ruby nodded firmly.

"Sounds good," Mercury chuckled. Then he stretched out. "I counted 374, not including the last ones."

Yang was next. "319."

Ruby piped up. "479."

Emerald tagged hers on. "421."

Ruby punched the air. "Yes!" Then she collapsed back down again.

Mercury smiled softly. "So girls…Any plans for tomorrow?"

"I'm not thinking past those cookies personally," Emerald groaned out. "But I am not getting up before midday."

Yang shrugged. "Meh. Maybe I'll go driving."

Still…

Despite her muscles complaining about her choice of combat, Emerald felt better than she had in a long while.

Now she just needed to figure out a good way to get back at Mercury as dressing up Fluffy wasn't looking possible.